Extra Credit Assignment 8

Due: Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010 (Worth 3 to 5 points)

Exam Prep - Using your book or class notes, answer these questions.

1. What are the parts that go into producing a broadcast story? List as many as you can think of. Define 3 of the parts.

2. What principles should you follow when writing stories for the Web?

3. Name three ways public relations, journalism and advertising differ.

BONUS - Worth 2 points.

Name a couple things you have learned about writing and about journalism this semester. (What basic principles are necessary to write a good story?) Hopefully you see some benefits to what you have learned. How might you implement journalistic principles in your future writing?

Extra Credit Assignment 7

Due: Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010 (Worth 9 points)

Part 1: News Feature

1. What’s your focus?

2. How can you begin your story creatively?

3. Who’s your “face?” In broadcast, we are told to always find a face for our stories. That means, find a relatable, human face who embodies the issue(s) in your story. In journalism, you’ve got to have regular, real people, not just the experts. Who is your face? What’s so interesting about this person?

Part 2: Journalist Interview Prep

**For the journalist interview you don't have to write it like a regular news story. You can just do a Q&A. (It's probably easier.) If you don't know how to format it, let me know.

1. Look up an interesting journalist or two. (Could be an editor, blogger, columnist, etc.) Try to pick people you think you could interview. (Preferably in-person, if not, then by phone.)

2. What is the journalist's name? Indicate where this person works and what type of journalist he or she is. (E.g. Television reporter for WGN in Chicago, Illinois) (Try not to pick journalists in the Champaign area!)

3. Give me three interesting pieces of background information on this person.

4. If you were to do a story (Q&A or regular) what would the focus be? Try to think of an original idea. For example, don't make your focus: how this person became a journalist, etc. Make it relevant and interesting to your reader.

Part 3: Style

1. How are you supposed to attribute a student? For example, "Do you attribute like this?" Brittney Henton, said. (What two things do you include in a student's title?)

2. If someone doesn't use grammar (tense, subject-verb agreement, etc.) correctly or leaves out a word, how do you fix it in the quote? (Fix this quote. Hint: you have to use parentheses.)

"When people talk, sometimes they jibber on about things, you know, don't think about whether she's saying the sentence correctly," Henton said.

3. How would you use an ellipsis in the previous sentence to leave out the "you know"?

Extra Credit Assignment 6

Due Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010 (Worth 6 points)

Next week, I am assigning the final feature story. Sooo, it's not too early to start thinking of ideas.

Part 1

Go to this Web site: http://www.newscollege.ca/p18.htm Pick three places where you can shop for stories.

1. List three specific places that can be used for a local angle.

2. Come up with one story idea for each specific place. What would your nut graf be?

3. List two primary sources you could use for each one: one person and one document

Part 2

1. If you could blog about anything in the world, what would it be? (What interests you, or what would you

like to know more about?)

2. List an idea for the first three stories you would write. What would your nut grafs be for each story.

3. List two primary sources for each one: one person and one document

**Hopefully these exercises will give you an idea of a story you could write for your final feature!

Extra Credit Assignment 5

Due Wednesday, Oct. 27 at 10 p.m. Worth 9 points.

Nut grafs

1. Without peeking at the back of the book, do exercise 5 on page 63. Record your nut graf here.

News feature

2. Let's say you're assigned to do a LOCAL story about the Nov. 2 elections. Here are a few links you can check out:

The sample ballot for those living in Champaign County:

http://champaigncountyclerk.com/elections/docs/2010/11_02_2010_Full_Specimen.pdf

More election information:

http://champaigncountyclerk.com/elections/2010_Election_Information.html

Even more:

http://www.uselections.com/il/il.htm

So, either going off these links, using a different angle from a local story or localizing a national story:

What kind of local news feature story could you do about the election? What's your news peg? What information would be your nut graf? (Be as specific as possible.)

Broadcast

3. Read pgs. 166 to 167. (Especially points 1, 2, 4, 5 , 6 and 10. These pages compare and contrast print and broadcast - this could be a big help for you to read for your own stories!) Then read the first two grafs of this NY Times story:

Cruises have long been popular with honeymooners looking for a romantic getaway after the wedding. Now, a growing number of brides and grooms are tying the knot on cruise ships and sailing off into the sunset with their entire wedding party in tow.

Cruise weddings have increased 60 percent in the last decade, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, which represents major North American cruise lines and associated travel agencies. Carnival Cruise Lines alone expects some 2,200 couples will marry aboard its ships this year paying anywhere from $1,195 for a basic civil ceremony to $1,795 for a deluxe romance package with a one-and-a-half-hour reception and a celebratory ice carving.

a. How would you rewrite these first two paragraphs for broadcast? Be creative. Write simply.
b. What B-roll would you begin with? (Make sure your writing and b-roll match.)

Extra Credit Assignment 4

Ethics Wrap up. (Worth 6 points) Due Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010

Last week we talked about diversity in journalism and SPJ's Code of Ethics. For the first part of this exercise, I want you to think critically about and discuss your own biases. For the second part, I want you to read and discuss a story about former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Part 1

1. What personal biases do you have that might make you reluctant to approach certain story topics? (Could be religious, political, etc.) What specific topics might be hard for you to cover objectively?
2. If you had to do a story involving an issue you didn't agree with or have a strong bias against (e.g. a story on abortion and you're pro-life) what would you do? (Would you cover it? Why or not? How would you cover it, if you chose to do it? If you had a choice and you chose not to, why wouldn't you cover it?) (Use your own specific biases to answer this one.)
3. Do you think the media are biased? Why or why not? What can be done by journalists or by you to remedy any bias you detect?

Part 2

Read this story about the speech former Gov. Rod Blagojevich gave in March. Kind of ironic, no?

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/03/blagojevics-ethics-lecture-full-of-laughs----for-audience.html

1. Do you think the Tribune covered this story fairly? Why or why not?
2. If you were doing the same story, what ethical considerations might you to take into account (according to the SPJ Code of Ethics in your book)? Which ethical tenets might conflict and how? Is there a potential for libel?
3. How would you have done this story? Would you have done it the same way that it ran or would you have written it differently and how? Why do you think the Tribune ran the story this way?

Extra Credit Assignment 3

Due Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010 (Worth 6 points if fully completed, 2 points for half)

Using correct grammar, style and punctuation, answer the following:

1. Next time you have a conversation over breakfast, lunch or dinner, either jot down or make mental notes of the topics discussed. (If you don't see or talk to anyone during meals, just use any conversation.)

a. List the topics.

b. Answer this: How could what you discussed be expanded or turned into an explanatory story for campus or Champaign-Urbana? (You might have to think "outside the box.") Who would you talk to?

c. And this: Describe what your lede could be. (Avoid using a summary lede.)

d. Finally this: What would be your nutgraf?


2. Read a national news story or watch or listen to a national television or radio newscast.

a. Briefly describe the story and post the link.

b. Again, how could this story be localized and turned into an explanatory story? Who would you talk to?

c. Describe a possible lede that's not the same type of lede you described above or a summary lede.

d. What would be your nutgraf?

Public Student blogs

Here's the list of those who've gone "public" so far:

Monshay
http://monshay-jour200.blogspot.com/

Andrew Gibson
http://andrewgibsonjournalism.blogspot.com/

Ameya
http://pictoart.blogspot.com/