Our goals in this class are to assess the current state of journalism in the United States, to learn "classic" copy editing skills (grammar, headline writing, content editing), to be introduced to basic layout and design concepts and to study the philosophy of ethics in editing. The course will prepare you to be an informed reader of the news, as well as equip you with some basic copy editing skills. More broadly, but no less importantly, the course aims to stimulate thinking about the roles of journalism in sustaining an informed public and in sustaining democracy. Class Policies: Scroll to the page bottom. Texts: • Journalism Ethics: A Philosophical Approach, ed. Christopher Meyers • The Associated Press Stylebook, ed. Norman Goldstein (you can use any edition including and since the 2004 edition) • Modern News Editing, 5th edition, Mark D. Ludwig and Gene Gilmore • The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again, Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols • online readings as assigned • The New York Times and/or The Washington Post—in print one issue per week, minimum. Requirements EVERYONE READS: •You are expected to read newspapers and blogs daily and be versed on the big stories of the day, local, state and national. All typed work is set in 12 point New Courier, double-spaced All hand-written work in blue or black ink, on one side only —50%—Weekly in-class and/or take-home essays on reading due in class and/or current news stories Brief essays (250-500 words) that critically examine specific topics, to include unannounced in-class writing on the reading due that day in class and take-home assignments in which you apply what we learn in class to a current news story (stories). You will critique, analyze and apply theoretical and practical ethics, regarding the practice of journalism. 25%—Midterm exam: Ethics Case Study Using the tools studied in class, write a thesis-driven essay that effectively—even persuasively—analyzes the ethics of a controversial news story, which will be provided. 25%—Final Exam: Comprehensive • Two essays (there will be a limited choice of topics)—500-words each • Short-answer, copyediting symbols, AP style, term definition and grammar —All class assignments work must be turned in by last day of class to receive a passing grade. RECOMMENDED FOR BROWSING DAILY: • Poynter Institute, a journalism powerhouse that responds daily to the news of the world, helping journalists to understand and report the news. Read it as you have time and interest. • The Newseum's "Today's Front Pages" • Online newspapers from around the world: Onlinenewspapers.com Online study aids / resources: • Grammar & Usage Instruction and Inateractive Quizzes: http://grammar.uoregon.edu/toc.html • American Press Institute: http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/content/3696.cfm • Copydesk.org—a range of topic-driven copyediting tests: http://www.copydesk.org/quizzes.htm • New York Times' "CyberNavigator": http://tech.nytimes.com/top/news/technology/cybertimesnavigator/index.html/ • Columbia Journalism resources: http://journalismjobs.com/style.cfm • Journalism.org / Pew Trust News Media Study: http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/ Week 1 8/24 * Introduction—overviews and previews • The Death and Life of American Journalism, McChesney & Nichols—"Preface," "Introduction" and Chapter 1, "American Crisis; American Opportunity" (ix-56) • Discussion: Jon Stewart; outsourcing copyediting; Afghanistan war WikiLeak; government support for the press; failures of news organizations and audience; Week 2 8/31 * Ethics • Ludwig, Modern News Editing Chapter 14, "Editing & Ethics" • Meyers, Journalism Ethics, Part 1, "Ethics Theory & Decision Making" (pp. 3-8) • Meyers, Journalism Ethics, Chapter 1, "An Explanation and a Method for the Ethics of Journalism" • The New York Times or The Washington Post. Bring the entire paper to class. Bring a fresh hard copy of a Times or Post to every class. • Analysis for this week. Bring this assignment to class today: Buy a paper copy of either The New York Times or The Washington Post. Read through the issue. Take note of the stories that serve the values of "autonomy" and of "community building," as defined by Elliott and Ozar (in Meyers, 9-24). Using Meyer's terms, analyze the functions and effectiveness of one substantive story that serves "autonomy" and one substantive story that serves "community building." A polished, thesis-driven essay. Print out a copy to hand in. (250-500 words) • Jack Kelley (USA Today; March 19, 2004): Online story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-03-18-2004-03-18_kelleymain_x.htm Print edition: k.pdf ; k2.pdf • Jayson Blair New York Times Editor's Note on Blair (May 11, 2003): Blai rEditor'sNote.html. • The New York Times on its coverage of build up to war on Iraq: http://nytimes.com/ref/international/middleeast/20040526CRITIQUE.html http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E7DC1E3EF933A05756C0A9629C8B63 • New York Times Code of Ethics • The Washington Post on its coverage of build up to war on Iraq: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58127-2004Aug11.html • Daily Press mug shots •Discussion: autonomy, desires vs. needs, matters of safety, abuses of power—need for information Week 3 9/7 * Ethics & National Security & Leaks • Meyers, Chapter 19 (283), "The Ethical Obligations of News Consumers," Wendy Wyatt • Meyers, Chapter 2 (25), "Moral Development & Journalism," Renita Coleman •Discussion: WMD & Iraq War; SWIFT & patriotism; Shirley Sherrod; fear and the ends justifying the means; Obama and news leaks; WikiLeak's Assange Week 4 9/14 Web logs—news blogs • McChesney & Nichols, Chapter 2, "Flawed Choices, False Hopes" • Meyers, Chapter 3, "Press Freedom & Responsibility," Stephanie Craft • "The People Formerly Known as the Audience," Jay Rosen • Huff Post's Get Off the Bus • ProPublica • MinnPost • Voice of San Diego Talking Points Memo, Josh Micah Marshall "Bloggers Sans Pajamas" NYTimes The Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga Politico The Daily Caller The Huffington Post Techmeme Biggovernment, Andrew Breitbart   • Discussion: formerly known as the audience; anyone can be a reporter; biggovernment.com; talkingpointsmemo.com; importance of the blogosphere; loss of the physical newspaper; the public good; "externalities" Week 5 9/21 Online Journalism / A Free and Open Press • Meyers, Chapter 7, "Who is a Journalist?" * McChesney & Nichols, Chapter 3, "Why the State" * "Bloggers vs. Journalists Is Over," Jay Rosen * "How Realistic is NewAssignment.Net?" Jay Rosen * "The Wayward Press: Amateur Hour," Nicholas Lemann * "NuJournalism," Mitch Ratcliffe * Backfence.com (WPost on its creation) • Discussion: people formerly known as audience; web reporter burnout; Clinton / Lewinsky in 1998; algorithms or human editors Week 6 9/28 The Story—Creditability & Harm • Meyers, Chapter 20, "The Ethos of Getting the Story," Patrick Lee Plaisance • Ludwig, Chapters 1 & 2, "Editing in the Age of Convergence" and "Deciding What's News" • Bring to class a recent hard copy of complete edition of the New York Times or Washington Post. • WYDaily Week 7 10/5 • The Newsroom and Objectivity? • Ludwig, Chapters 3 & 4, "Editing in the Newsroom" and "Editors as Managers" • Meyers, Chapter 9, "Inventing Objectivity: New Philosophical Foundations," Stephen Ward • Meyers, Chapter 10, "Is Objective News Possible?" Carri Figdor • "State cuts time spent in foster care system" Week 8 10/12 • Working with Stories •Ludwig, Chapter 5, "Working With Stories" • Headline writing • Grammar study guide & practice • "Baltimore Priest"   Week 9 10/19 •Copy editing / wordsmithing •Ludwig, Chapters 6 & 7, "Wording Watching" and "Writing Headlines" • Grammar / AP style study guide—view Week 10 10/26 • Mid-term exam: Ethics case study • Hand out for exam next week. Case Study: "Orphans of Addiction," Los Angeles Times, Sonia Nazario The midterm is an essay exam. You will be given a prompt to write an essay concerning the ethics of writing and publishing Nazario's "Orphans of Addiction." To prepare for the exam, review your Meyers and Ludwig readings on ethics and do some research online, using Google, as well as the library's databases (i.e, Ebsco, Newsbank, Proquest). (You will not be editing this L.A. Times story.) Print out the story and research: Mark them up and bring them to class, along with your notes from our ethics texts. You cannot get online for research during the exam. You will have the entire class period to write the exam. Be prepared to support your analysis of the story. Type the exam in class and email it to me with the subject heading "Exam." (25% of course grade) Week 11 11/2 • Layout & design • Newspapering as it used to be done (DVD) • Ludwig, Chapter 8, "Editors and Design" • Bring a ruler and a pencil with eraser to class. • Dummy sheet Week 12 11/9 • Photographs & Visual Ethics •Ludwig, Chapter 9, "Editing Photos and Graphics" • Meyers, Chapter 22, "Visual Ethics," Newton and Williams • 1) Reverse engineer a newsy page from your newspaper, following Tim Harrower's model for making a page dummy. 2) Redesign the page, using some or all of the elements on the page. 3) Clip and bring 12 news photos to class—hard copies from a print or online newspaper or news magazine. • Reuters image from Beirut • Brian Walski's Basra civilians • Martha Stewart on Newsweek • Clarence Williams' photographs ("Orphans of Addiction")   Week 13 11/16 • Creative layout, design and editing • Ludwig, Chapters 11 & 12, "Imagination in News Editing" and "When News Breaks" • Analysis—bring to class, typed, to turn in. Due in class today. Find and clip / print out one story for each of the following. Analyze each story. (500 words) —A story that challenges power —A story that either campaigns against prejudice or challenges stereotypes —A story that reports news without relying on the voice of officialdom   • Jack Rosenthal: What Belongs on the Front Page of the NY Times • Ad & News pressures at the New York Times • Why the New York Times redesigned • How the Daily Press analyzes its design • Boston Herald remake • Newseum front pages • College Front Page • NYTimes Web portal pages • Future of Journalism • Media Storm Workshop: • Skim the web for news stories, features and photos that you would use on your own, ideal page one for November 16, 2011. • Into an email to me, copy & paste headlines & first grafs of the stories. Copy & paste the photos and captions. • In the same email, do the following analysis: Using what you have learned about journalism ethics and news judgment, analyze and justify your selections for your New York Times OR Washington Post page one. What do you think readers should know (vegetables) and want to know (candy)? What balance between the two will you strike? How will you play stories on the page (show in dummy)? For one slot on your page one, discuss what you would run as part of a series of "creative assignments," stories that you decide, as editor, that need to be reported / investigated. Cite Meyers' authors, Ludwig and Rosenthal as appropriate (no page numbers required.)   Week 14 11/23 • Thanksgiving Week 15 11/30 • Ludwig, Chapter 13, "Editing and the Law" • Final exam review • Newt, Newt 1 • Grammar / A.P. Style quiz • Lt. James J Cathey and his wife, Katherine Thursday, 12/8—Final exam / Comprehensive assessment 8-10:30 p.m. General Course Policies Cell phones Cell phones must be turned off and out of sight at all times in class. Laptop computers Laptops may not be used in class without the instructor's permission. Leaving the Classroom during Class Leaving the classroom, then returning, during class is distracting and disruptive—and is prohibited. Office hours My door is always open, and I am happy to see you during my office hours, as well as other times that I'm in my office—drop by or call or e-mail to see if I'm in. You are welcome anytime to come by and talk about your class work in general, or about a specific reading or essay draft on which you are working. Learning Disabilities If you believe that you have a disability, you should make an appointment to see me to discuss your needs. In order to receive an accommodation, your disability must be on record in the Dean of Students Office, 3rd Floor David Student Union/DSU (telephone 594-7160) CNU Success Policy We want you to succeed at CNU; therefore I may notify the Academic Advising Center if you seem to be having problems with this course. Someone may contact you to help you determine what help you need to succeed. You will be sent a copy of the referral form. I invite you to see me at any time that I can be of assistance in helping your with the course material. E-MAIL Feel free to check in with questions about any aspect of the class. Dr. Terry Lee   Phone My office phone: 594-7686. (In most cases, you can reach me faster by e-mail.) Attendance Not Attending Class Can Result in Failure of Course You may miss one week of class without any penalty or consequence. You are responsible for the material covered, of course, and I draw my exam questions from material covered in class, class discussion and lecture, as well as from our texts. Additional absences will result in reduction of your final course grade. That means that a "B" in all of your coursework can become a "C," if you have excessive absences. It also means that a passing grade for the course can become a failing grade for the course. In the case of an emergency, contact me as soon as possible. Emergency absences can be excused, and I may ask for documentation. In general, let me know what's up if you're not in class. Tardiness Tardiness counts as absence, as does leaving class early. If you have specific reason for arriving late or leaving early, please check with me. If this will be a recurring problem, please see me at the beginning of the semester.    Late Work I will not accept late work in this class.  Complete All Work You must complete all work by the last day of class to receive a passing grade. Incompletes Given only in extraordinary circumstances. Plan to complete work by last day of class. Not completing the work results in an "F," not an "I." If you are assigned a grade of "Incomplete," it is your responsibility to complete work in a timely manner in accordance with regulations in the Undergraduate catalog.