Writing for Electronic Media (JOU 5)

JOU 5—Writing for Electronic Media

Tuesday/Thursday 2-3:20
Humanities Journalism Lab 205
3 credits
Prerequisite: JOU 4

 

Instructor:
Sandra Mardenfeld/Sandramardenfeld.com
Email: smardenfeld@juno.com/sandra.mardenfeld@liu.edu
Phone: 299-3846 or 516-884-6477
Office Hours: T/Th-12:20-2 and by appointment in HUM001

Course Description:

This course will focus on reporting and writing for electronic media, including radio and television broadcast, and Internet. Students will practice their writing on a weekly basis as they work on article and script assignments, and will be exposed to “good” writing as we workshop samples of others’ work. Additionally, we will analyze news programs.

 

Course Objectives:

  1. To strive for the brevity and clarity necessary in this medium.
  2. To understand the role of tone/voice in electronic news writing.
  3. To be able to assess the work of others.
  4. To conceptualize news stories and find pertinent sources.
  5. To understand what makes writing good.
  6. To learn how to write and produce journalistic pieces for radio, TV and the Web.
  7. To understand basic podcasting techniques.

 

Text: Better Broadcast Writing, Better Broadcast News. Dobbs, Greg. Allyn and Bacon, 2005. ISBN-10: 0205359949

You will also need the following:

  • You will need a subscription to the Sunday New York Times. You may read this online, but several sections you are tested on (Arts & Leisure, Style, Book Review, Sports, Travel) the first page only so having a print edition will be the only way you can tell what articles are on the first page. You are responsible to get the Times every week—no exceptions.
  • You will need access to a digital camera.
  • It is recommended that you purchase a quality digital recorder with a microphone and have access to a stopwatch (often available on cell phone apps or online).

This course meets the NYSED requirements of at least 45 hours of class instruction and 90 hours of homework (reading, writing, editing, and/or research) as assigned in the syllabus.

Course Requirements:

  1. Regular attendance. Three class absences are permitted, but it is the student’s responsibility to make up all work by the next class. Additional absences will cause failure in the class. Extenuating circumstances, with documentation only, will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the professor. Three lates equal an absence. Once I start the class, you are considered late.Active participation in classroom discussions. This class is part seminar and dependent on class input. Class participation counts as part of your grade.
  2. The completion of all assignments. There are NO extensions on assignments. Assignments should be complete when you come into class. This means a printed copy, not on disk.
  3. All deadlines must be met on the day they are due.  If you miss a deadline you will be given a zero for that assignment. If you cannot make it to class that day, you have 24-hours to email me that assignment. Please send all word files in 2003 format.
  4. Students cannot request extra credit. It is not given to boost a grade. However, occasionally extra credit contests will be done in class. If you are absent, these cannot be made up.

Academic Honesty:

Students are expected to meet the highest standards of academic integrity. Students must adhere to the norms of a serious intellectual community. A student’s responsibilities include:

  • 1. a duty to respect the efforts of others by submitting his or her own work;
  • 2. a duty to acknowledge properly the efforts of others.

Students are required to submit their own work. Ideas, data, direct quotations, paraphrasing, or any other incorporation of the work of others must be clearly referenced. To do otherwise constitutes plagiarism. Examples of plagiarism:

  • 1. direct quotation or paraphrasing from published sources that are not properly acknowledged.
  • 2. the use of other persons or services to prepare work that is submitted as one’s own.

Cheating is unacceptable. Examples of cheating include:

  • 1. any communication, written or oral, among students during an examination;
  • 2. providing or receiving information about the content of an examination.

Students who cheat or plagiarize will receive an F on the examination or paper submitted. If the behavior continues, the student will fail the course.

Academic Courtesy:

Some simple rules (based on common courtesy) are important to maintaining an effective learning environment for all students:

  • 1. The class will start on time. If you must be late, enter quietly and take a seat near the door
  • 2. The class will end on time. Do not interrupt the class by leaving before its conclusion. If you must depart early for a bona fide reason, coordinate with me before the class
  • 3. The classroom is not a social hour. Do not converse with other students during lectures
  • 4. No active electronic devices in the classroom (pager, phone, iPod, computer game etc.). It is permissible to record a class lecture.

 

Attendance and Participation: Excessive lates and absences an cause your grade to drop or rise up to half a letter grade, dependent entirely on the jurisdiction of the professor. Additionally, 25% of your grade is based on an attendance/participation/homework readiness rubric

 

Grading Policy: Assignments—25%

Attendance/Participation/Homework; 25%

Quizzes: 25%

Final project: 25%

Please note: Assignments will be given on a week-to-week basis. If you are absent, you still need to be prepared for the day’s task.

Every Tuesday there will be current event quizzes, and either articles/projects or homework due.

 

Grading Breakdown

A+=97 or higher

A=94-96

A-=90-93

B+=87-89

B=84-86

B-=80-83

C+=77-79

C=74-76

C-=70-73

D=69-65

F= 64 and lower

 

Semester Schedule:

January 22nd—Course introduction; handout of syllabus. Critique radio broadcasts. Practice writing and recording.

January 24th—Read Chapter 1. Writing WCWP cast. Practice writing and recording.

January 29th—Reading due: chapters 2 and 3. Critique practice. Writing WCWP cast.

January 31st—Writing and recording WCWP cast.

February 5th— Reading due: chapters 4 and 5. Writing and recording WCWP cast.

February 7th— Critique. Writing and recording WCWP cast.

February 12th— Reading due: chapters 6 and 7. Writing and recording WCWP cast.

February 14th— Critique.

No class Feb. 19th

February 21st— Reading due: chapters 8 and 9. Writing and recording NPR cast.

February 26th— Writing and recording NPR cast.

February 28th—Reading due: chapters 10 and 11. Writing and recording NPR cast.

March 5th— Writing and recording NPR cast.

March 7th— Reading due: chapters 12 and 13. Critique NPR.

Break: March 11-15

March 19th— Doing Twitter, audio slide shows, telling stories through multiple platforms.

March 21st—Reading due: chapters 16 and 17. Group work.

March 26th— Group work

March 28th—Group work

April 2nd—Reading due: Chapter 18. Practice presentations. Creating the e-portfolio.

April 4th— Practice presentations. Incorporating Storify and Pinterest into your multi-media package.

April 9th— Multi-platform project due. Mandatory presentations. Reading due: chapters 14 and 15

April 11th— Mandatory presentations. Creating an original project for your e-portfolio.

April 16th—Reading due: chapter 19. Original project roundtable.

April 18th—Project work day.

April 23rd —E-Portfolio preparation.

April 25th— E-Portfolio preparation.

April 30th—Presentations.

Final exam—TBA, May 3-9—Finish presentations.

Please note: There are no make-ups on the final exam. You must be present. Missing the final will also count as an absence.