Read these three stories, then consider how they reported, written and organized differently.
Do you think one or the other is more effective at presenting this topic for the reader's consideration?
Why?
New York Times "Missouri school board boots football and the students shrug"
The Huffington Post, "Is (High School) Football Too Dangerous?"
Grantland, "The Death of Evan Murray"
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Friday, September 25, 2015
Current Events Activity 1.3
To get to the Austin American-Statesman - click the link and then put in the user name and password - you might as well bookmark the link.
The user name is MAC-J
The password is Knight1!
1. To answer Question No. 1, please see "Pope urges U.S.: Heal globe’s ‘open wounds’" on the top right of page A1.
What was the central message of the speech that Pope Francis delivered yesterday? To whom was the speech delivered? How does the story illustrate the huge interest for his address? How was the speech historic? Who invited him to come?
2. T0 answer Question No. 2, please see "Facts behind attack on referee remain elusive" on the bottom right of page A1.
3. To answer Question No. 3, please see "Students hold 2nd ‘leveling’ protest" on the right side of B1.
What legal opinion has state senator John Whitmire, D-Houston, asked from the attorney general? When does the law he is asked about take effect? How does Whitmire interpret the law? What alternative interpretation is possible? How long does the attorney general have to answer Whitmire's question and why might it not matter anyway?
5. To answer Question No. 5, pick any story that catches your interest. Summarize the story in a sentence of two and express an opinion about the topic or how well the story covers it.
1. To answer Question No. 1, please see "Pope urges U.S.: Heal globe’s ‘open wounds’" on the top right of page A1.
What was the central message of the speech that Pope Francis delivered yesterday? To whom was the speech delivered? How does the story illustrate the huge interest for his address? How was the speech historic? Who invited him to come?
2. T0 answer Question No. 2, please see "Facts behind attack on referee remain elusive" on the bottom right of page A1.
What broad difference of opinion exists about the incident that was at the heart of Thursday's UIL state executive committee hearing? What is the likelihood that John Jay assistant football coach Mack Breed and players Michael Moreno and Victor Rojas will return to the school? What most frustrated Mike Motheral, the chairman of the committee about yesterday's hearing?
3. To answer Question No. 3, please see "Students hold 2nd ‘leveling’ protest" on the right side of B1.
What action caused more than five dozen parents and students to assemble outside of East Austin’s Maplewood Elementary School on Thursday morning? What caused the school district to take this action and how has it hurt the sixth grade at Maplewood? What was the outcome of a similiar protest at Bryker Woods Elementary School in Central Austin?
4. To answer Question No. 4, please see "Clarification sought on gun carry near schools" on the middle left of page B3.
What legal opinion has state senator John Whitmire, D-Houston, asked from the attorney general? When does the law he is asked about take effect? How does Whitmire interpret the law? What alternative interpretation is possible? How long does the attorney general have to answer Whitmire's question and why might it not matter anyway?
5. To answer Question No. 5, pick any story that catches your interest. Summarize the story in a sentence of two and express an opinion about the topic or how well the story covers it.
EXTENDED REPONSE:
Yogi Berra died on Tuesday. He's one of those sports personalities who transcends sports, so I think we all should read his obituary that appeared in Wednesday's The New York Times. I think you will enjoy reading about him if you don't know much about him. After you read the story, consider the type of article this is: an obituary. They appear in newspapers every day.
What elements make up an obituary? (There are obituaries on page B4 of today's Statesman if you want to look at more examples to support your answer). What kind of information
is available? What thing would you expect to read in an obituary that you
rarely find in one (see if you can deduce this one on your own)? Did you know
that many new reporters first assignments are to write obituaries? What would
you think about having to write one of these?
CORRECTION: This version of the post corrects an earlier version which misidentified the affected Maplewood class as the fourth-grade class. The AISD action has affected the sixth grade at Maplewood. The journalism teacher regrets the error.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Observation Practice and Writing Assignment
OBSERVATION
Observation is a reporter's best friend and an essential tool for writing stories that are vivid, specific and interesting.
PRACTICING OBSERVATION (Minor Grade)
Select an event to observe continuously for at least 15
minutes. As you observe, write notes of
your observation (try to access multiple senses not just sight). Following the observation and note taking, transcribe your
observations by creating at least five sentences that describe the scene. Make sure that the sentences describe only what you observe with your senses, no opinions or interpretations are valid for this activity (yes, Jack, even you).
Post your five sentences to your blog with the heading OBSERVATION PRACTICE.
OBSERVATION ASSIGNMENT (Major Grade)
Due date: Tuesday, Sept. 29
Word count :
400 (please stick to it; it’s a
purposeful number)
Attend an event that you can observe. Suitable options for observation include: a live sporting event at school or in the
community; a meeting of any club or organization at school; a lecture class or
guest speaker; a pep rally or other schoolwide activity; band, drama, dance team
or debate rehearsal; another event approved by your adviser (anything will work so long as there is a lot of activity).
You do not have to remain in one place –
although you may if you wish.
Take notes or begin writing a description of what you see.
Then weave your notes into a 400-word, third-person feature that conveys to
someone who is not there what the scene looks and feels like at that specific
time and place.
Do not interview anyone, but you may incorporate things you
hear into your piece.
Do not interpret or judge what you observe, merely record
what your senses take in.
Remember to SHOW, not TELL.
You should write your piece as soon as possible after
leaving the scene that you have observed.
The visual and aural scene must be taken in quickly and selectively
described.
Consider the simplicity of the sentences and details in W.C.
Heinz’s “Death of Racehorse.” In that
piece as in most pieces like this, less is more.
Post your response to your blog with the heading, OBSERVATION ASSIGNMENT. Please post by Sept. 29 for full credit.
Note check on FRIDAY 9/25 -- Unit Test on Thursday OCT. 1
J-1 stalwarts:
Friendly reminder that there is a note check on Friday, so please have everything in order for a 100 percent grade (this will be a MINOR grade).
Once you have your notes in order, then you can start studying for our first test (about news gathering), which will be on Thursday, Oct. 1.
For the note check, you should have these note-taking sheets filled out. If you are missing any of them, I have provided the links below, plus the Power Points you can use to fill them out if you need them.
Note-taking sheets:
Interviewing vocabulary terms
Interviewing Notes Outline
Research vocabulary terms
News values vocabulary terms
Related PowerPoints:
News Gathering Vocabulary
Defining News Values
Research
Introduction
How to Write Great Interview Questions
Friendly reminder that there is a note check on Friday, so please have everything in order for a 100 percent grade (this will be a MINOR grade).
Once you have your notes in order, then you can start studying for our first test (about news gathering), which will be on Thursday, Oct. 1.
For the note check, you should have these note-taking sheets filled out. If you are missing any of them, I have provided the links below, plus the Power Points you can use to fill them out if you need them.
Note-taking sheets:
Interviewing vocabulary terms
Interviewing Notes Outline
Research vocabulary terms
News values vocabulary terms
Related PowerPoints:
News Gathering Vocabulary
Defining News Values
Research
Introduction
How to Write Great Interview Questions
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Current Event Quiz 1.2
To get to the Austin American-Statesman - click the link and then put in the user name and password - you might as well bookmark the link.
The user name is MAC-J
The password is Knight1!
Choose either 1A or 1B and respond to one.
See story at the top of A1.
1A. What decision has Mike Perrin known about since Labor Day? Why was this decision made? What specific changes have so many folks at UT unhappy? Why are they so happy about Perrin's new job placement?
See story beneath the debate photo on A1
1B. How was yesterday's presidential debate formatted to help longshot candidates? How was Donald Trump on center stage even when he was not yet on center stage?
See story to the left of the debate picture on A1.
2. Why was the CIA director on the UT campus yesterday? What larger trend in government led to yesterday's announcement at the Bass Lecture Hall? How can the public access the documents mentioned in the story? What is a PDB and why is it such an important document?
See story and sidebar story on the top of A2
3. What did Hungarian security forces do Wednesday that has human rights groups outraged? What alternate routes are their targets forced to consider and why are those routes also not good options (don't forget to take a look at the sidebar story)?
See story on the right side of page B1
4. Why was a 14-year-old McCarthur High School student detained and handcuffed yesterday? What actions did school officials take on Monday and how did they defend their actions? What was the response of half a million people and President Obama? Why do some in Irving fear that this action is connected to a city council resolution passed last spring?
ESSAY QUESTION
Today's essay question deals with the situation in Irving. The story and how it has played out made me think of two larger issues in journalism. First of all, like a lot of people, I first encountered the story through social media when one of my former students post this video to her Facebook feed. The Twitter feed was amazing in itself. Props to cartoonist Mike Luckovich for his editorial cartoon on the subject, which I think is excellent.
The whole thing had me wondering about the role a print newspaper plays in a story that goes viral before the print edition comes out.
How did you first learn of this story? Do you think the social media coverage of the story is as reliable and a fair to all parties as the story in the traditional newspaper? Explain your answer.
The other thing that surprised me was where the story ran in the paper. On B1, a secondary story placement on the local news page.
Based on the news value of the story, do you agree with this placement why or why not? If you were the managing editor or the news editor, where would you have placed the story? Why?
EXTRA CREDIT
We spent a bit of time talking about the controversial photo of a man falling from the World Trade Center towers that was first published in the 9/12/01 New York Times and elsewhere. I was talking about the photo with a colleague at Bowie High School yesterday, and he shared with me that there has been a great deal written about that photo and how it has changed people's lives.
You may not want to learn about it. That's cool if you don't, but if you would like to know the whole story (and earn some extra credit), read the two stories below and then write post a separate response to your blog.
Once you click the link, you will have to put in your email address for access to the story. Please use the email address you used to create your blog. This is a long story, but I think it is a worthwhile read.
http://classics.esquire.com/the-falling-man/
If you want to read more, there are a couple of follow up stories on the one from above. Here are the links:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a10891/the-falling-man-10-years-later-6406030/http://www.mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/144-fall-2012/3998654-case-ten-years-of-watching-falling-man
Choose either 1A or 1B and respond to one.
See story at the top of A1.
1A. What decision has Mike Perrin known about since Labor Day? Why was this decision made? What specific changes have so many folks at UT unhappy? Why are they so happy about Perrin's new job placement?
See story beneath the debate photo on A1
1B. How was yesterday's presidential debate formatted to help longshot candidates? How was Donald Trump on center stage even when he was not yet on center stage?
2. Why was the CIA director on the UT campus yesterday? What larger trend in government led to yesterday's announcement at the Bass Lecture Hall? How can the public access the documents mentioned in the story? What is a PDB and why is it such an important document?
See story and sidebar story on the top of A2
3. What did Hungarian security forces do Wednesday that has human rights groups outraged? What alternate routes are their targets forced to consider and why are those routes also not good options (don't forget to take a look at the sidebar story)?
See story on the right side of page B1
4. Why was a 14-year-old McCarthur High School student detained and handcuffed yesterday? What actions did school officials take on Monday and how did they defend their actions? What was the response of half a million people and President Obama? Why do some in Irving fear that this action is connected to a city council resolution passed last spring?
ESSAY QUESTION
Today's essay question deals with the situation in Irving. The story and how it has played out made me think of two larger issues in journalism. First of all, like a lot of people, I first encountered the story through social media when one of my former students post this video to her Facebook feed. The Twitter feed was amazing in itself. Props to cartoonist Mike Luckovich for his editorial cartoon on the subject, which I think is excellent.
The whole thing had me wondering about the role a print newspaper plays in a story that goes viral before the print edition comes out.
How did you first learn of this story? Do you think the social media coverage of the story is as reliable and a fair to all parties as the story in the traditional newspaper? Explain your answer.
The other thing that surprised me was where the story ran in the paper. On B1, a secondary story placement on the local news page.
Based on the news value of the story, do you agree with this placement why or why not? If you were the managing editor or the news editor, where would you have placed the story? Why?
EXTRA CREDIT
We spent a bit of time talking about the controversial photo of a man falling from the World Trade Center towers that was first published in the 9/12/01 New York Times and elsewhere. I was talking about the photo with a colleague at Bowie High School yesterday, and he shared with me that there has been a great deal written about that photo and how it has changed people's lives.
You may not want to learn about it. That's cool if you don't, but if you would like to know the whole story (and earn some extra credit), read the two stories below and then write post a separate response to your blog.
Once you click the link, you will have to put in your email address for access to the story. Please use the email address you used to create your blog. This is a long story, but I think it is a worthwhile read.
http://classics.esquire.com/the-falling-man/
If you want to read more, there are a couple of follow up stories on the one from above. Here are the links:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a10891/the-falling-man-10-years-later-6406030/http://www.mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/144-fall-2012/3998654-case-ten-years-of-watching-falling-man
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Current Event Quiz 1
Once a week we will have a currents events quiz. At my old school, I used to require that my students read the paper on their own time and come to class ready for a traditional quiz. I suppose I might do that at some point, but most of the time, I will give you the questions and some class time to read the paper until you find the answers. The goal is not to zap you for wrong answers, but rather for you to read the paper so you can learn some current events and also internalize the way that journalists write.
Don't forget that the biggest portion of the quiz is the short
essay question at the end - it is a free response, and it's your OPINION so it should be
easy to write at least three paragraphs about the topic.
To get to the Austin American-Statesman - click the link and then put in the user name and password - you might as well bookmark the link.
To get to the Austin American-Statesman - click the link and then put in the user name and password - you might as well bookmark the link.
The user name is MAC-J
The password is Knight1!
Here is today's quiz, the first one of the year. Woo hoo! Post your answers to your blog. You have 25-30 minutes.
SPECIFIC STORY QUESTIONS:
1. Why is the University of Texas under fire for hiring two student graduate assistants back in 2012? Why do university officials say they can't explain the hiring publicly? Do you think the university knew the whole story before they hired these two men? Why or why not? (see story at the bottom of page A1)
2. What deal did the city of Baltimore make on Tuesday? Why did the mayor support the deal? What related trial is still pending? (see page A2)
3.What did Vice Chancellor Sig-mar Gabriel of Germany announce yesterday? Why have some observers criticized the policy that he announced? How did German leaders respond to the criticism? What is the larger crisis that led to Germany's actions? How has Germany led the way in responding to it? (see page A3 for story)
4. Who did Texas Sen. Ted Cruz invite to his anti-Iran nuclear deal rally? How is Cruz unlike other Republican presidential candidates in extending this invitation? Why did he say that he extended the invitation? Why is his invited guest NOT one of Cruz's "standard targets"? (see page A9 for story)
5. What did Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton apologize for on Tuesday? What likely action by two Republicans in Congress makes it seem this issue will continue to be in the news? What does co-mingling mean and what two things in this story were co-mingled? What earlier "mistake" was Clinton also slow to admit was a mistake? (see page A4 for story)
6. Why are two John Jay high school student athletes suspended from school after Friday night's football game? Why has an assistant coach of the team also been suspended? What allegedly prompted the two players' controversial actions? (see page C1 for story)
6. Why are two John Jay high school student athletes suspended from school after Friday night's football game? Why has an assistant coach of the team also been suspended? What allegedly prompted the two players' controversial actions? (see page C1 for story)
SHORT FREE-RESPONSE ESSAY:
REMINDER - A single sentence isn't enough. I expect you to expand
upon your writing. If you think you have written enough, you haven't, write
more. Be sure to answer WHY you think something.
Pick any story in the paper that appeals to you and write a one paragraph summary of the article, then write a paragraph in which consider which of the eight news values make the story significant enough to be included in the newspaper. Then consider how the story is reported. What types of sources did the reporter include? Finally, conclude whether or not the reporter did the topic justice. Was it a good, well-reported, well-written story or just a good topic that could have been handled better?
Pick any story in the paper that appeals to you and write a one paragraph summary of the article, then write a paragraph in which consider which of the eight news values make the story significant enough to be included in the newspaper. Then consider how the story is reported. What types of sources did the reporter include? Finally, conclude whether or not the reporter did the topic justice. Was it a good, well-reported, well-written story or just a good topic that could have been handled better?
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
An example of journalistic research at work
Scenario
You are a senior at an urban high school, and
you hear word from parents that freshman biology students have been assigned a
PowerPoint presentation that appears to support creationism. Some parents and students have complained to the school that the lesson was inappropriate for a science class at a public high school. When you try to interview the teacher of the class, he declines to comment saying only that he was not teaching creationism and that he
downloaded the PowerPoint presentation from the district website of approved
lesson plans.
PART ONE -- How would you try to research and report this story if it were assigned to you?
Using what you know about the various types of journalistic research, think about how you might gain background information and reliable information to report the story. Write a paragraph (5-6 sentences) explaining how you might research this story. What types of sources would be most helpful? Who would you try to interview? What primary sources (people and or documents) would you try to obtain and include? Are there any secondary sources that might be helpful?
Post the paragraph explaining your research plan to your blog (use the header RESEARCH SCENARIO, PART 1)
PART TWO -- Evaluate how one student reporter did when they reported this story.
Read the story you'll find at this link: http://thesoutherneronline.com/frontpage/?p=57108
Note the sources found throughout the article. Use
your list of the types of journalistic research to consider which types are included
in the article, then consider whether or not you think the reporter did a good
job of covering the story. What sources in the article do
you find the most valid/reliable? Explain why.
Post your response (a
well-developed paragraph) to your blog (use the header RESEARCH SCENARIO, PART 2).
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Journalistic Research Presentation and Vocab Notes
I archived yesterday's presentation and guided notes worksheet here in case you wanted to review the presentation or you need to print and fill out the guided notes.
Journalistic Research PowerPoint
Journalism Research Vocabulary Notes Worksheet
Journalistic Research PowerPoint
Journalism Research Vocabulary Notes Worksheet
Evaluating the presence of news values in two articles
Read the two article below and then fill out the attached sheet. Rate each of the eight news values in each story on a scale of 0-5 with zero being completely unimportant and 5 being most important.
Ex-Broadcaster Kills 2 on Air in Virginia Shooting; Takes Own Life
Court to take up case of UT Confederate statue
News Judgment Analysis Sheet
Ex-Broadcaster Kills 2 on Air in Virginia Shooting; Takes Own Life
Court to take up case of UT Confederate statue
News Judgment Analysis Sheet
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