Subject Area - Course Number: JOURNLSM 237 Cross-Listing

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Curriculum Proposal Form #3

New Course

Effective Term:

Subject Area - Course Number: JOURNLSM 237 Cross-listing:

(See Note #1 below)

Course Title: (Limited to 65 characters) Reporting for News Media

25-Character Abbreviation: Reporting for News Media

Sponsor(s): James Kates

Department(s): Communication

College(s):

Consultation took place: NA Yes (list departments and attach consultation sheet)

Departments:

Programs Affected: Broadcast/Print/Web Journalism; International Journalism

Is paperwork complete for those programs? (Use "Form 2" for Catalog & Academic Report updates)

NA Yes will be at future meeting

Prerequisites: JOURNLSM 227

Grade Basis: Conventional Letter S/NC or Pass/Fail

Course will be offered: Part of Load Above Load

On Campus Off Campus - Location

College: Dept/Area(s): Communication

Instructor: James Kates

Note: If the course is dual-listed, instructor must be a member of Grad Faculty.

Check if the Course is to Meet Any of the Following:

Technological Literacy Requirement Writing Requirement

Diversity General Education Option:

Note: For the Gen Ed option, the proposal should address how this course relates to specific core courses, meets the goals of General Education in providing breadth, and incorporates scholarship in the appropriate field relating to women and gender.

Credit/Contact Hours: (per semester)

Total lab hours: 0 Total lecture hours: 48

Number of credits: 3 Total contact hours: 48

Can course be taken more than once for credit? (Repeatability)

No Yes If "Yes", answer the following questions:

No of times in major: No of credits in major:

No of times in degree: No of credits in degree:

Revised 10/02 1 of 8

Proposal Information: (Procedures for form #3)

Course justification:

This new course is an element of the Communication Department’s revised Journalism curriculum. It reflects the combining of the department’s print and broadcast journalism sequences into a single program. The class is modeled after the existing JOURNLSM 244, News Gathering. It will emphasize journalistic reporting and writing, just as that class does now, but it also will allow students to work “across platforms” to deliver content in a variety of forms – text, audio, video, still photography, and other digital formats. The reporting methods taught in this new class will help students enter a world of “convergent journalism” and encourage them to explore the evolving modes of information delivery in the digital age.

Relationship to program assessment objectives:

This will be a required course in the Journalism sequence. As in JOURNLSM 227, Writing for News Media, writing will again be a central part of this class, making it a “Writing Intensive” offering as identified in the LEAP objectives. It offers a LEAP High-Impact Practice of “experiential learning,” as students in this class take their skills to the field to gather news. The course is deliberately structured to provide high levels of community engagement. Students are required to leave the campus and interact with community members in Whitewater and beyond. As such, they will get “direct experience with issues they are studying in the curriculum,” to use the LEAP terminology. News reports produced in this class will illuminate community issues and will be accessible to people beyond the campus borders via digital technology. This will further the university’s mission to serve as “a regional cultural and economic resource center.”

Budgetary impact:

This class will be taught by current faculty. Classroom space requirements will be equivalent to present resources. The existing course JOURNLSM 244, News Gathering, will be deleted, and resources from that class will be reallocated to the new course.

Course description: (50 word limit)

An introduction to reporting for the news media. Students will learn interviewing and research skills, develop news and feature stories, and work with basic digital equipment to create content for print and online news operations. Stories will be told through text and through audio, video and other digital formats.

If dual listed, list graduate level requirements for the following:

1. Content (e.g., What are additional presentation/project requirements?)

2. Intensity (e.g., How are the processes and standards of evaluation different for graduates and undergraduates? )

3. Self-Directed (e.g., How are research expectations differ for graduates and undergraduates?)

Course objectives and tentative course syllabus:

Upon completion of this course, students should:

· Possess basic knowledge of interviewing and research techniques for reporting news stories.

· Be able to present the news in standard written form for print or online text, with emphasis on grammar, spelling, clear and concise writing, inverted-pyramid story form and Associated Press style.

· Be able to gather, edit and present news across digital platforms including audio, video and blogging.

· Be familiar with the contours of the online journalism revolution, including audience fragmentation, hyperlocal sites, citizen journalism and the ongoing effort to monetize high-quality reporting on the Web.

Bibliography: (Key or essential references only. Normally the bibliography should be no more than one or two pages in length.)

Briggs, Mark. Journalism Next: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2009.

Doctor, Ken. Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2010.

Foust, James C. Online Journalism: Principles and Practices of News for the Web, second edition. Scottsdale, Ariz.: Holcomb Hathaway, 2009.

Fuller, Jack. What Is Happening to News: The Information Explosion and the Crisis in Journalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Gillmor, Dan. Mediactive. Lulu com, 2010.

Gillmor, Dan. We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly Media, 2004.

Huffington, Arianna, et al. The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.

Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2008.

Kern, Jonathan. Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Kovach, Bill, and Tom Rosenstiel. The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007.

Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. State of the News Media 2010. Online at www.stateofthemedia.org/2010.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is dedicated to a safe, supportive and non-discriminatory learning environment. It is the responsibility of all undergraduate and graduate students to familiarize themselves with University policies regarding Special Accommodations, Academic Misconduct, Religious Beliefs Accommodation, Discrimination and Absence for University Sponsored Events (for details please refer to the Schedule of Classes; the “Rights and Responsibilities” section of the Undergraduate Catalog; the Academic Requirements and Policies and the Facilities and Services sections of the Graduate Catalog; and the “Student Academic Disciplinary Procedures (UWS Chapter 14); and the “Student Nonacademic Disciplinary Procedures" (UWS Chapter 17).

Course Objectives and tentative course syllabus with mandatory information (paste syllabus below):

Journalism 237

Reporting for News Media

Instructor: Dr. James Kates

Office: 2230 Andersen Library

Phone and e-mail: 472-5034;

Office hours:

Course hours:

Location:

Course description: An introduction to reporting for the news media. Students will learn interviewing and research skills, develop news and feature stories, and work with basic digital equipment to create content for print and online news operations. Stories will be told through text and through audio, video and other digital formats.

Course objectives: Upon completion of this course, students should:

· Possess basic knowledge of interviewing and research techniques for reporting news stories.

· Be able to gather, edit and present news across digital platforms including audio, video and blogging.

Required texts: Thom Lieb, All the News: Writing and Reporting for Convergent Media. Boston: Pearson, 2009 (rental at UWW bookstore); Associated Press Stylebook (purchase at UWW bookstore).

Articles about the media business will be made available in electronic form. Students should save these to disk or print them out, as they will be covered in quizzes and exams.

Course Attendance and Grading Policy

Attendance: Attendance will be taken at every class, and along with participation will count for 20 percent of your grade. Each student will be allowed two excused absences, no questions asked. Beyond that, there will be no excused absences without a note from a medical doctor, a police officer, a funeral director or a UWW faculty member. I suggest you save your excused absences for times when you really need them.

“Participation” means (1) doing the assigned reading before the class for which that reading is assigned; (2) engaging in classroom discussion; (3) completing all in-class assignments; (4) doing your fair share of the work in group assignments; (5) devoting your full attention to lectures and class discussions; (6) devoting your full attention to readings of other students’ in-class work; (7) participating fully and thoughtfully in critiques and analyses of other students’ in-class work; and (8) treating classmates courteously by not interfering with their ability to hear or concentrate on lectures, class discussions, and sharing of in-class work.

Based on the total 1,000 points available, the grade calculation will break down like this:

930 to 1,000 points = A

900 to 929 points = A-

870 to 899 points = B+

830 to 869 points = B

800 to 829 points = B-

770 to 799 points = C+

730 to 769 points = C

700 to 729 points = C-

670 to 699 points = D+

630 to 669 points = D

600 to 629 points = D-

Below 600 points = F

Policy on tardy assignments: Assignments must be turned in at the beginning of the class period in which they are due. Late assignments will be penalized 10 percent of possible points for each day they are late. Computer problems are not an acceptable excuse for late work. Please back up your work and print it out periodically. When doing audio and video projects, you must anticipate glitches (see “Murphy’s Law”) and allot adequate time to deal with them.

Assignments

There will be 10 story assignments worth 50 points apiece. Students will be graded on mechanics (grammar, spelling, style, editing of audio and video presentations, etc.) as well as on content and execution of stories.

Quizzes / Tests

We will have 10 quizzes worth 10 points apiece. Some of these will cover Associated Press style, and some will cover the text and lecture material. Topics of the quizzes will be announced in advance. Quizzes must be taken in class; there will be no make-up quizzes.

There will be a midterm and a final exam. The tests will consist of multiple-choice/fill-in questions and short answers, based on readings and lecture materials. I will make a study guide available on D2L in advance of each exam.

Publication bonus

Any student who publishes a class assignment in a student news medium (Royal Purple or its Web site; student radio or TV) will receive a 25-point bonus. Any student who publishes a class assignment in a professional news medium will receive a 50-point bonus. These bonuses may total no more than 50 points.

Blogging

Each student will set up a blog on the UWW WordPress site, blogs.uww.edu. You will post projects and reflections there. Design and maintenance of your blog will be factored into your participation grade.

Academic misconduct

Plagiarism on assignments will result in an automatic grade of 0 (zero points) for the assignment and possible additional penalties as determined by the instructor. We will be discussing plagiarism and how to avoid it.

Grade components

Quizzes (10 @ 10 points each): 100 points

Assignments (10 @ 50 points each): 500 points

Midterm exam: 100 points

Final exam: 100 points

Attendance / class participation: 200 points

Electronic devices

Please turn off cell phones and pagers in class. Notebook computers should be used only for class purposes (e.g., note-taking).

Weather policy

If the weather is crummy (snow, tornado, hurricane, plague of locusts, 500-year flood), check the university Web site to see if classes are canceled. If not, you can assume that we will have class unless I send you an e-mail stating otherwise. I will not respond to individual e-mails asking whether class is canceled. If you would be risking your safety by coming to campus, stay home, and your absence will be excused.

Administrative Statement

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is dedicated to a safe, supportive and non-discriminatory learning environment. It is the responsibility of all undergraduate and graduate students to familiarize themselves with University policies regarding Special Accommodations, Academic Misconduct, Religious Beliefs Accommodation, Discrimination and Absence for University Sponsored Events. (For details please refer to the Schedule of Classes; the “Rights and Responsibilities” section of the Undergraduate Catalog; the Academic Requirements and Policies and the Facilities and Services sections of the Graduate Catalog; and the “Student Academic and Disciplinary Procedures” [UWS Chapter 14]; and the “Student Nonacademic Disciplinary Procedures” [UWS Chapter 17].)

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE (hypothetical for MW, Spring 2011)

Week Dates Topic Readings, etc.

1 Jan 19 Course introduction

2 Jan 24 The digital revolution ATN Ch 1, 2

Jan 26 Writing the news Assignment 1:

Newswriting

3 Jan 31 Research for reporting ATN Ch 3

Feb 2 The art of interviewing Assignment 2:

Interview

4 Feb 7 Story forms for text ATN Ch 4, 5