Syllabus

JOURNALISM 395P: Politics, Journalism & The Web, Fall 2008

Instructor: Steve Fox

How to contact Mr. Fox:
E-Mail: stevejfox@gmail.com. Phone: 545-5923 (office); (301) 524-3006 (cell); (413) 253-4656 — no calls after 8 p.m., please.

Classes: Tuesday, Thursday 11:15-12:30 p.m., Herter Hall, room 217.

Office Hours: 1:30-5:30, Monday and Wednesday. After class. By appointment.

GOALS:

The 2008 presidential campaign is one of the more critical races in recent history and has had a number of historical moments already. In this class we will examine the role of journalists in the campaign, both in conventional mediums and the Web. We will look at the role of citizen journalists and bloggers and whether they have supplanted the roles traditionally held by talk radio hosts and participants.

This is NOT a political science class, it is a journalism class. I hope and expect lively debates, yet all discussions should be rooted in journalistic analysis, not political activism.

A large portion of this class will be devoted to analyzing how the media is covering the Iraq War as a campaign issues and how the candidates themselves handle the War issue. The reporting part of the class will involve developing and using social networking and other online tools to find sources willing to talk about the War as a campaign issue. Reporting teams will post stories to the class Web site, Amherst Wire, and will continue to follow their stories and their sources through ongoing conversations in the Web site’s forums area. We will talk more about this.

Given the nature of the subject matter – politics – the ebb and flow of the class will likely change, depending on news events. So, there is a good chance the goals and assignments on the syllabus will change. So, it’s imperative that you log on and check the class blog every day for any changes that arise.

CLASS BREAKDOWN:

* Assignments/Quizzes/presentations: (20 percent of your grade). You will have several written assignments, as well as current event quizzes and class presentations.

* Midterm (20 percent)

* Team Projects on Iraq/Afghanistan Wars (50 percent) – You will have two major Iraq packages this semester. The first is due on Nov. 4 and accounts for 20 percent of your grade, the second project will serve as your final and will account for 30 percent of your grade and is due on Dec. 4. The last week of the semester will be spent having each team doing presentations on their final projects.

We will replicate a real newsroom environment by dividing the class into teams (probably six teams of five members). Each team will designate one editor who will be in charge of coordination and one editor as a copy editor. The other three members will act as reporters. Each team will be required to submit a two-piece package –- each package must include a written text piece, as well as any combination of audio, photos and/or video. Each member of the team will receive a grade for their individual piece as well as for the overall package presentation. Team members’ anonymous evaluations of each other will factor into individual grades.

Each team will storyboard their ideas and talk through possible story ideas. The first package should attempt to answer the question: How is the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan influencing your vote?

The second package should look at the future and attempt to answer the question: Given the results of the election, how do people view the futures of Iraq and Afghanistan and the wars there?

Before doing anything, editors and reporting teams should look at what is on amherstwire.com, so as not to duplicate efforts. I would like teams to find ways to use Facebook and other social networking tools as ways to develop and cultivate sources. Event coverage should be a stepping stone to larger features – in other words, don’t just go and cover a protest – talk to people and develop sources.

I will build in time for teams to develop drafts that they can submit to me. But, it is up to each team to get drafts to me in time to return them with substantial comments.

More details TK.

* Class participation (10 percent). Class attendance is mandatory. Students will be expected to do assigned readings in order to take part in class and blog discussions. There will be at least one class discussion per week on the class blog which you will be required to take part in. Your blog entry period runs from Sunday at 12:01 a.m. and runs until Saturday at 11:59 p.m. If you do not participate in the blog discssion by deadline Saturday, you will lose points.

TEXTS/READINGS*:

(*All listed readings are to be done for the week listed.)

REQUIRED:

* “Blog Wars: The New Political Battleground,” by David D. Perlmutter. This may take a week of so to show up in the student bookstore, but you can order through Amazon as well.

* “Cameras, Action and Accountability: Politics and the New Media,” Nieman Reports, Summer 2008 issue.

If you’re unfamiliar with multimedia, don’t worry. There are tutorials for all editing software we use in the department. And I can provide guidance on shooting photos and video and capturing audio. Almost all software questions can be answered by reading the tutorials.

* Online Readings: This syllabus links to various required online reading assignments under the class schedule. In addition, you will be expected to follow news from the campaign daily, checking in on the coverage from both the mainstream media and blogs.

EQUIPMENT:

* The Journalism Department has purchased Mac laptops, video cameras, audio recorders and digital cameras. We will use that equipment in class, but if you have your own equipment, let me know –- that will help. When you use department equipment, you will sign out for it and be responsible for it. I had one student last semester lose an audio recorder and she had to replace it, so be careful with the equipment.

GRADING:

Each assignment will be graded for:

* Accuracy – Misspelled names and factual errors will result in a letter-grade deduction. Video and audio that give an inaccurate sense of time and place will also be graded down.

* Meeting of deadlines — Missed deadlines will result in letter-grade deductions.

* Substance — Assignments and packages should be well-written, well-researched and well thought out.

* Organization — Regardless of the format, stories should be organized coherently.

* Quality – Should improve over the course of the semester.

* Creativity — is welcome, but it has to work. Multimedia journalism is exciting because if offers so many opportunities for experimentation. But, remember, we’re doing journalism here. There are very well-defined boundaries.

* Reporting –The more reporting you do both in both research and interviews, the better your projects will be.

* Writing — Don’t forget, good writing drives all.

* Time Management — You won’t be graded on this directly, but managing your time will matter. Remember, team packages take time. I know you all have lots of demands on your time, so plan accordingly. Storyboarding is important in this class. When working in teams, lay out ahead of time who is going to do what, when. And, make sure you have a backup plan. Interviews fall through.

TO RECAP:

* Associated Press print stylebook rules and rules of grammar should be followed on every assignment.

* Factual errors will result in full-letter grade deductions.

* No excuses, other than the hospitalization of the student or the death of a member of the student’s immediate family, will be accepted for late assignments.

* A full letter grade will be deducted for each day an assignment is late, except for the final project, which will receive an F if turned in after deadline.

MORE ON DEADLINES:

Answers.com gives some interesting definitions/background on deadlines:

Deadline: Due date, latest time for the completion of a negotiation, project, service, or product. The failure to meet a deadline has negative consequences, such as loss of business, lack of credibility, and penalty charges.

It began as a real line, drawn in the dirt or marked by a fence or rail, restricting prisoners in Civil War camps. They were warned, “If you cross this line, you’re dead.” To make dead sure this important boundary was not overlooked, guards and prisoners soon were calling it by its own bluntly descriptive name, the dead line. An 1864 congressional report explains the usage in one camp: “A railing around the inside of the stockade, and about twenty feet from it, constitutes the ‘dead line,’ beyond which the prisoners are not allowed to pass.” Nothing could be more emphatic than dead line to designate a limit, so we Americans happily applied the term to other situations with strict boundaries. For example, the storyteller O. Henry wrote in 1909 about crossing “the dead line of good behavior.” But it was the newspaper business that made deadline more than just a historical curiosity. To have the latest news and still get a newspaper printed and distributed on time requires strict time limits for those who write it. Yet many are the excuses for writers to go beyond their allotted time: writers’ block, writers’ perfectionism, or just plain procrastination. (Perhaps the writer is a deadbeat (1863)–another dead word invented by Americans during the Civil War.) Seeking the strongest possible language to counter these temptations, editors set deadlines, with the implication that “Your story is dead–You are dead–if you go beyond this time to finish it.”

Our urgent twentieth century has made such deadlines essential not just for reporters and other writers but in every kind of activity; there are deadlines for finishing a job or assignment, for entering a contest, for ransoming hostages, or for buying a product at the special sale price.
Fascinating!

For our purposes, All deadlines are hard deadlines.

If you miss a deadline, you lose one full letter grade.

Late assignments will be reduced by one full letter grade for each day late.

Unless otherwise specified, please follow Associated Press style for all assignments.

CLASS RULES:

1. Grades. Don’t negotiate your grade. In an ideal world, there would be no grades. In this world, I don’t negotiate grades. Everyone starts at 0; everyone can finish with an ‘A.’ Your grade is what you earn. I don’t want to hear why you need a B or an A. I don’t want you to tell me why you deserve a higher grade. And, I know you all compare grades, but I don’t want questions about why Bill or Sally received a higher grade.

2. Stay in touch. If you need to get in touch with me, email me. If it’s an emergency and you need an immediate response, call me. Or – you can come to my office! Conversations in the hallway, brief 5-minute visits will help, trust me. When you email me, use common sense. E-mails may not count as part of your grade, but they count as part of your overall personality. Remember that inappropriately informal and/or unprofessional emails leave indelible marks.

3. Class Behavior. Don’t IM, Gchat, text, ping, friend or update your Facebook page during class. We are all adults. Please do not make me ask why your keyboard is clicking when a guest speaker is talking. The first time, you lose points. The second time, I’ll ask you to leave class and come back the next week.

4. Electronics. When you enter class, turn off your cell phone and all electronic accessories. No rings. No exceptions. Every semester I have to ask someone to leave class for electronic abuse. Don’t be that student.

5. Assignments. Don’t ask to make up missed assignments. If you know you’ll miss a class with an announced assignment, you may be able to do the assignment early. Otherwise, if you miss class, you miss the assignment. You can e-mail me assignments, but it’s your responsibility to make sure I receive your email. If you email your assignment to another Steve Fox and miss deadline, that counts as a missed assignment.

6. Don’t ask for an extension. Deadlines are non-negotiable. If I have to adjust a due date, I will let you know (and any adjustment would be to your advantage). Otherwise, you know exactly when an assignment is due. If you get sick the weekend before your package is due, or if your best friend is having a crisis, the deadlines do not change, and if you miss one, you lose the points specified. Aside from your hospitalization or a death in your immediate family, there are no exceptions. Plan ahead.

7. Duh. Don’t ever, ever, ever make the argument that you actually would have had a higher grade if you had not have lost so many points for misspelled words or factual errors. I hope this is self-explanatory.

8. Attendance. Attendance is mandatory. You have a financial investment in this class and I should not have take attendance at this point in your academic careers, but I will. After two unexcused absences, you will lose 5 percent of the points in your final grade; after four unexcused absences, 10 percent; after six unexcused absences, 20 percent, after eight unexcused absences, 40 percent.

Standards, Ethics and Academic Integrity:

The University of Massachusetts has an Academic Honesty Policy, which we follow in this class.

Journalism students are expected to adhere to the strictest journalistic and academic standards.

For this class, you must do all work yourself, without collaboration with classmates or others, except for the team projects. Along with certain rights, students also have the responsibility to behave honorably in an academic environment.

Academic dishonesty, including cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty and plagiarism (including use of unauthorized photos, graphics or text from the Web) will not be tolerated. Mindy McAdams provides a good outline at her Against Plagiarism in Journalism Web site.

Any abridgement of academic integrity standards will be referred directly to the department director.

If you have a question about plagiarism, ask.