Journalism 260- News Literacy in a Digital Age-Spring 2014
Tuesday/Thursday 11:30-12:45 a.m.
Instructor: Sissel McCarthy
Phone: 404 721-8457 (office) 404 909-3222 (cell)
E-mail: swmccar@emory.edu
Office hours: Tues/Th 1–2 p.m. or by appt.
“The function of good journalism is to take information and add value to it.” (John Chancellor, NBC News anchor)
Objective:
This course will teach you to become a more discriminating consumer of news by fostering an appreciation for the history of a free press in our country and its role in our future as news is increasingly delivered via the Internet. We will look at the First Amendment and the underpinnings of an independent press. We will also examine the role of the press in wartime and the consequences of censorship. The evolution of the press as a watchdog and guardian of democratic ideals will be a theme running throughout this course. The power of information and the evolution of how this information is delivered from people who have it to people who need it to be free and self-governing in this digital age will include discussions on the difference between news and opinion, bias and fairness, and assertion versus verification. By learning the basics of good journalism, you will be able to distinguish whether a source is credible or a lead is well written. Through readings, class discussions and numerous written assignments, you will learn how to apply your critical thinking skills to evaluate the credibility of news across all platforms: radio, television, social media, and the web. Each of you will also create your own website and establish a digital identity and personal cyber-infrastructure where you will publish your essays, classwork and evolving thoughts on news literacy. Designing your own domain will prepare you for digital citizenship and teach you about the best practices for digital publication. We will also have a class website and our own Twitter hashtag, which will help turn this course into an open, networked community dedicated to news literacy.
Required Texts:
“The Elements of Journalism” by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel
“Dispatches from the Edge” by Anderson Cooper
“Media Debates: Great Issues for the Digital Age” by Everette Dennis and John Merrill
Readings on e-reserve:
One chapter from David Halberstam’s “The Powers that Be” on The Washington Post and The Pentagon Papers
One chapter from “Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America” by John Avlon
Selected chapters from “How to Watch Television News” by Neil Postman and Steve Powers
Online subscriptions to The New York Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Other Media: You are required to monitor daily a variety of broadcast and online news. You will also select a news site as your home page for the duration of the semester and sign up for news alerts from this site.
Assignments:
Reading: To facilitate class discussions, reading assignments must be completed by the date that they appear on the schedule. You are also required to read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York Times each day to stay on top of current events. Both newspapers are available for free in the library and at Cox Hall. Special student subscriptions are also available. There will be weekly pop quizzes on current events and reading assignments.
Writing: This course features frequent and extensive multimedia writing assignments designed to help you analyze and synthesize information learned in class and improve your writing skills. You will have five essay assignments on topics covered in class. You will also have one major writing assignment, which will be edited and graded and then rewritten by you to help you improve your writing skills. All written work must be posted on your website and printed out for my edits. Please double space all your work and include your name, date and assignment heading in the upper left-hand corner. Deadlines are taken seriously in this course and late assignments will lose10 points per day if turned in after the start of class (11:30 a.m.) except in the case of a documented serious illness or personal/family emergency.
Grading:
Essays: 25 percent
You will be assigned five essays during the semester. Each should be between 500-600 words except the first one, which will be 700-800. These assignments are designed to help you craft compelling, shorter-form essays that offer a thesis, evidence and conclusion. You will be assessed on how well you articulate and apply news literacy concepts and express your own ideas as well as how you present the multimedia elements of these essays online on your website. You will be graded on your ability to write with clarity and logic as well as the highest standards of correctness in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and usage. Your website version should include multimedia elements like links to stories cited in your essay, photos, graphics, interactive comments, related podcasts and/or videos to support your insights. You will be expected to analyze relevant news stories, make judgments and consider the implications of your conclusions. You may (and should) do additional research, but you may not exceed 600 words. Each multimedia essay will be reviewed, edited, graded and then given back to you to be rewritten and improved. Your two grades will be averaged for each assignment.
“A Domain of One’s Own”: 20 percent
You will be creating your own website as part of this course and judged on the architecture, presentation, accessibility and content of your domain.
News Quizzes/Homework: 15 percent
This grade will be made up of frequent pop quizzes on current events and reading assignments and homework assignments.
Midterm Exam: 10 percent
This exam will assess your understanding of all the material covered in class through March 4.
Final Writing Assignment: 30 percent
This 1,000-1,200 word paper will be your capstone work pulling together all that you have learned in this course. This final writing assignment will be a position paper written after a month-long pursuit of reliable information on a single topic or question that interests you and is currently in the news. This topic will need to be approved by me. You will be expected to research this topic across multiple news sources and use the news literacy tools and principles we study in class to reach a conclusion or make a judgment about this issue. You will be expected to not only describe your conclusion, but how and why you reached that conclusion, what news sources and specific articles/videos you turned to, what information you rejected, as well as what information you identified as reliable and “actionable”. The point of this assignment is to answer your question in an essay that demonstrates how news literacy skills and concepts helped you arrive at your conclusion. This essay is not meant to be a critique of the media, but you are expected to note deficiencies in news sources available to you, highlighting excellence and noting when evidence or sourcing is questionable or false. For this assignment, you will post the multimedia version of your essay with links to all your sources on your website and submit a hard copy rough draft to me by the start of class on April 3. Your work will be critiqued and graded and you will be required to meet individually to discuss how to revise it. You will then rewrite it, post it and all your multimedia elements on your website and submit a hard copy final draft on the last day of class. The two grades will be averaged.
Final Note on Grading:
Your final grade in the course is not necessarily a strict mathematical average. I reserve the right to move your grade up or down based on your class participation and attendance. Participation in class discussions is expected. Exceptional engagement and participation will improve your final grade while a lack of participation will hurt your final grade. On-time attendance at every class is also expected, so habitual tardiness will lower your grade. Students are allowed two absences, but any unexcused absences beyond those two will damage your grade. Absences for illness or personal emergencies need to be documented in writing. Any in-class assignment including news quizzes cannot be made up, but I offer at least one extra credit assignment to replace your lowest quiz grade. Any factual error, including misspellings of any names and proper nouns, will result in your grade being lowered 10 points on the first offense. Any subsequent error will result in an F on that assignment. This is a journalism program policy, which reflects the belief that accuracy is the cornerstone of good journalism and that such errors cannot be tolerated.
Plagiarism:
Integrity and credibility are the two pillars of journalism. Any student presenting the work of someone else whether from another student, another publication or off the Internet will receive an F. The incident will also be reported to the director of the Journalism Program and the Emory Honor Council. Please read the attached Journalism Program Plagiarism Statement carefully.
The Emory Writing Center:
The Emory Writing Center staff includes talented and welcoming undergraduate and graduate students from a range of disciplines. They are eager to work with all writers at all stages of the composing process. Whether you are exploring ideas, revising a draft, or polishing a final version of a project, the Writing Center is the place for you. The Center offers discussion-based tutorials for individuals and groups that enable writers to approach their work with fresh eyes and to practice strategies for writing, revising, and editing. Tutors can talk with you about the purpose, organization, and audience of your work, your design choices, or how you engage other texts. They can also work with you on sentence-level concerns, including grammar, syntax, and word choice; however, they will not proofread for you. Instead, they will discuss strategies and resources you can use to become a better editor of your own work.
The Writing Center is located in Callaway N212. Regular appointments are 45 minutes long. You should bring a copy of your assignment, any relevant writing (notes, a draft, the URL for your website, etc.) and a plan for what you want to work on. If you have a laptop, we encourage you to bring it. In addition to our regular appointments, we also offer walk-in visits, a good resource when you have a quick question or can’t get an appointment. To view our hours, make an appointment, and get more information, go to writingcenter.emory.edu.
The entire Writing Center staff has been specifically trained to support Domain of One’s Own students. By talking with a tutor, you can more critically consider the purpose, design, and usability of your digital texts. You can also work with a tutor to troubleshoot technical matters; however, you should consult the Domain student resource pages first. In most cases, you will be able to solve tech troubles on your own, reserving your Writing Center appointments for discussions about how your technical choices—along with other choices—affect your larger aims.
Tentative Schedule:
Week 1: Introductions and What is News, The First Amendment and the Mission of the American Free Press
Tuesday, January 14: Class orientation, review of syllabus, and plagiarism statement. Essay #1 on your 48-hour news blackout.
Thursday, January 16: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapter 1.
Week 2: The First Amendment and the Mission of the American Free Press continued and Website Design and Essay Writing Workshop
Tuesday, January 21: Media Debates, chapters 1-2. Guest Speaker on the First Amendment: Tom Clyde, First Amendment Attorney, Kilpatrick Townsend. Essay #1 due. Essay #2 on news values.
Thursday, January 23: Website design and Essay Writing Workshop.
Week 3: Information Neighborhoods and Who Decides What is News?
Tuesday, January 28: Information Neighborhoods. Essay #2 due.
Thursday, January 30: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapter 3. Essay #3 on comparing and contrasting editorial decisions at three news organizations.
Week 4: Guest Speaker on Editorial Decisions, Newsroom Tour and The American Press in Wartime and Issues of Censorship
Tuesday, February 4: Media Debates, chapters 4,10. Guest Speaker on editorial decisions: Amy Napier Viteri, WSB reporter. Website due. Minimum requirements: home page/introduction with photo, essays #1-3 with multimedia elements, your Twitter feed and our class # feed.
Tuesday, February 4: Mandatory Field Trip to WSB News. Meet outside White Hall at 4:15. Return by 7 p.m.
Thursday, February 6: Halberstam, pages 563-586; Media Debates, chapter 6, 16. Essay #3 due. Homework: Divide into teams of prosecution and defense for presentation of Operation Swift case 2/11.
Week 5: The American Press in Wartime continued and Truth and Verification: How Journalists Get and Verify Information
Tuesday, February 11: Case Study: Operation Swift and the NYT.
Thursday, February 13: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapters 2, 4. Essay #2 redo due. The verification process. Essay #4 on Katrina Body Count story.
Week 6: Truth and Verification: How Journalists Get and Verify Information and Case Studies: The Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina
Tuesday, February 18: Cooper, pages 1-121. Essay #4 due. Verification workshop.
Thursday, February 20: Cooper, pages 121-222. Essay #3 redo due. Case Study: Anderson Cooper’s reporting on the Tsunami and Katrina.
Week 7: Case Studies: The Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina and Guest Speaker on the Truth and Verification Process
Tuesday, February 25: More Case Studies. Review for midterm exam.
Thursday, February 27: Guest Speaker: Eric Stirgus, Reporter, PolitiFact Georgia.
Week 8: Midterm Exam
Tuesday, March 4: Midterm Exam. Essay #4 redo due.
Thursday, March 6: NO CLASS
Week 9: Spring Break
Tuesday, March 11: NO CLASS
Thursday, March 13: NO CLASS
Week 10: News vs. Opinion and The Myth of Objectivity
Tuesday, March 18: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapters 8-9. Media Debates, chapter 12; Go over final assignment. Rough draft due 4/3. Sign up for writing tutorials 4/8 and 4/10. Essay #5 on how the same issue is handled in a news story and editorial.
Thursday, March 20: Objectivity and Bias, Avlon, pages 108-143. Media Debates, chapter 7. Bias test.
Week 11: Deconstructing Print News Stories
Tuesday, March 26: Essay #5 due. Deconstructing print stories in class. Homework: deconstructing a print story.
Thursday, March 28: Essay #4 redo due. In-class practice deconstructing news stories.
Week 12: Deconstructing TV News
Tuesday, April 1: Postman, chapters 1-3, 8. Homework: Deconstruct the Kelli Arena story on campus guns and answer questions on handout.
Thursday, April 3: Deconstructing news stories on TV. First draft of final writing assignment due. Rewrites due 4/24.
Week 13: More Deconstructing TV News and Media Ethics Guest Speaker and CNN Tour
Tuesday, April 8: Essay #5 redo due. In-class TV news deconstruction. Individual Writing Tutorials.
Thursday, April 10: Media Debates, chapter 11. Field Trip to CNN for tour with Richard Griffiths, Editorial Director, CNN. Individual Writing Tutorials. Depart/Return Info: TBA
Week 14: “Shattered Glass”
Tuesday, April 15: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapters 5,10. “Shattered Glass” viewing.
Thursday, April 17: Finish “Shattered Glass”. In-class exercises. Extra Credit Homework: Remaining Shattered Glass exercises.
Week 15: Guest Speaker on New Media in a Digital Age and Showtime and Class Party!
Tuesday, April 22: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapter 11. Guest Speaker: Lila King, Senior Director of Social News, CNN
Thursday, April 24: Share your domain and class party! Final Writing Assignment due.
JOURNALISM PROGRAM PLAGIARISM STATEMENT
Integrity and credibility are the journalist’s most important assets. If you plagiarize, you have compromised the two most important tools a journalist has. Journalism demands originality in writing, sourcing of information that is not common knowledge, attribution of others’ ideas and statements, and accurate representation of points of view. Plagiarism is professional theft. The Emory College Plagiarism Statement says: “Any person who uses a writer’s ideas or phraseology without giving due credit is guilty of plagiarism.”
Plagiarism has ended many journalism careers. The journalist who plagiarizes others’ work violates the very purpose of the profession and destroys his or her reputation. Any student found plagiarizing in a course or internship will be subject to investigation by the Honor Council. If the Honor Council determines that a student has plagiarized, the Council has the prerogative of assigning any of the following penalties:
• F on the assignment;
• F for the course;
• Suspension;
• Dismissal;
• Written notation on the student performance record.
A journalistic article differs from a research paper. Information in a research paper is credited in footnotes or other kinds of documentation. The Emory College Plagiarism Statement does not require documentation for information that is readily available through several sources and/or is considered common knowledge.
In journalism, source citations are included in the body of the story. The credit should include the name of the person or source, a person’s affiliation, and any other information that provides necessary context. The journalist provides attribution for all direct and indirect quotes and paraphrased information and statements. Quotation marks are used even if only a word or phrase of a statement is used. Journalists attribute to specific individuals, organizations or sources and do not create composite sources.
Both direct quotations and paraphrases require attribution. A good paraphrase expresses the ideas found in the source (for which credit is always given) but not in the same words. It preserves the sense, but not the form, of the original. It does not retain the sentence patterns and merely substitute synonyms for the original words, nor does it retain the original words and merely alter the sentence patterns. It is a genuine restatement. It is briefer than its source. (Floyd D. Watkins and William B. Dillingham, Practical English Handbook, 9th ed. (Boston, 1992), pp. 357-358.)
The principles of attribution apply equally to all forms of newsgathering. Information acquired from other news sources, whether print, broadcast or the Internet, should be attributed. Use of graphics, images, and audio or video material from the Internet or other sources requires full credit.
Plagiarism is a breach of public trust.
The Journalism Program expects students will comply with the policy as outlined above. If you have questions regarding documentation, citation or plagiarism, please contact your instructor or the director of the Journalism Program.
Paraphrase: Write it in Your Own Words http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/619/
A paraphrase is... - your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by someone else, presented in a new form.
- one legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation) to borrow from a source.
- a more detailed restatement than a summary, which focuses concisely on a single main idea.
Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because... -it is better than quoting information from an undistinguished passage.
-it helps you control the temptation to quote too much.
-the mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to grasp the full meaning of the original.
Six Steps to Effective Paraphrasing -Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
-Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.
-Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
-Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all
the essential information in a new form.
-Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source.
-Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it easily if you
decide to incorporate the material into your paper.
Some examples to compare the original passage: Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of
source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976):
46-47.
A legitimate paraphrase: In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a
desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).
An acceptable summary: Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the
amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).
A plagiarized version: Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.
For more information on paraphrasing, as well as other ways to integrate sources into your stories, see the Purdue OWL handout Quoting Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
Tuesday/Thursday 11:30-12:45 a.m.
Instructor: Sissel McCarthy
Phone: 404 721-8457 (office) 404 909-3222 (cell)
E-mail: swmccar@emory.edu
Office hours: Tues/Th 1–2 p.m. or by appt.
“The function of good journalism is to take information and add value to it.” (John Chancellor, NBC News anchor)
Objective:
This course will teach you to become a more discriminating consumer of news by fostering an appreciation for the history of a free press in our country and its role in our future as news is increasingly delivered via the Internet. We will look at the First Amendment and the underpinnings of an independent press. We will also examine the role of the press in wartime and the consequences of censorship. The evolution of the press as a watchdog and guardian of democratic ideals will be a theme running throughout this course. The power of information and the evolution of how this information is delivered from people who have it to people who need it to be free and self-governing in this digital age will include discussions on the difference between news and opinion, bias and fairness, and assertion versus verification. By learning the basics of good journalism, you will be able to distinguish whether a source is credible or a lead is well written. Through readings, class discussions and numerous written assignments, you will learn how to apply your critical thinking skills to evaluate the credibility of news across all platforms: radio, television, social media, and the web. Each of you will also create your own website and establish a digital identity and personal cyber-infrastructure where you will publish your essays, classwork and evolving thoughts on news literacy. Designing your own domain will prepare you for digital citizenship and teach you about the best practices for digital publication. We will also have a class website and our own Twitter hashtag, which will help turn this course into an open, networked community dedicated to news literacy.
Required Texts:
“The Elements of Journalism” by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel
“Dispatches from the Edge” by Anderson Cooper
“Media Debates: Great Issues for the Digital Age” by Everette Dennis and John Merrill
Readings on e-reserve:
One chapter from David Halberstam’s “The Powers that Be” on The Washington Post and The Pentagon Papers
One chapter from “Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America” by John Avlon
Selected chapters from “How to Watch Television News” by Neil Postman and Steve Powers
Online subscriptions to The New York Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Other Media: You are required to monitor daily a variety of broadcast and online news. You will also select a news site as your home page for the duration of the semester and sign up for news alerts from this site.
Assignments:
Reading: To facilitate class discussions, reading assignments must be completed by the date that they appear on the schedule. You are also required to read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York Times each day to stay on top of current events. Both newspapers are available for free in the library and at Cox Hall. Special student subscriptions are also available. There will be weekly pop quizzes on current events and reading assignments.
Writing: This course features frequent and extensive multimedia writing assignments designed to help you analyze and synthesize information learned in class and improve your writing skills. You will have five essay assignments on topics covered in class. You will also have one major writing assignment, which will be edited and graded and then rewritten by you to help you improve your writing skills. All written work must be posted on your website and printed out for my edits. Please double space all your work and include your name, date and assignment heading in the upper left-hand corner. Deadlines are taken seriously in this course and late assignments will lose10 points per day if turned in after the start of class (11:30 a.m.) except in the case of a documented serious illness or personal/family emergency.
Grading:
Essays: 25 percent
You will be assigned five essays during the semester. Each should be between 500-600 words except the first one, which will be 700-800. These assignments are designed to help you craft compelling, shorter-form essays that offer a thesis, evidence and conclusion. You will be assessed on how well you articulate and apply news literacy concepts and express your own ideas as well as how you present the multimedia elements of these essays online on your website. You will be graded on your ability to write with clarity and logic as well as the highest standards of correctness in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and usage. Your website version should include multimedia elements like links to stories cited in your essay, photos, graphics, interactive comments, related podcasts and/or videos to support your insights. You will be expected to analyze relevant news stories, make judgments and consider the implications of your conclusions. You may (and should) do additional research, but you may not exceed 600 words. Each multimedia essay will be reviewed, edited, graded and then given back to you to be rewritten and improved. Your two grades will be averaged for each assignment.
“A Domain of One’s Own”: 20 percent
You will be creating your own website as part of this course and judged on the architecture, presentation, accessibility and content of your domain.
News Quizzes/Homework: 15 percent
This grade will be made up of frequent pop quizzes on current events and reading assignments and homework assignments.
Midterm Exam: 10 percent
This exam will assess your understanding of all the material covered in class through March 4.
Final Writing Assignment: 30 percent
This 1,000-1,200 word paper will be your capstone work pulling together all that you have learned in this course. This final writing assignment will be a position paper written after a month-long pursuit of reliable information on a single topic or question that interests you and is currently in the news. This topic will need to be approved by me. You will be expected to research this topic across multiple news sources and use the news literacy tools and principles we study in class to reach a conclusion or make a judgment about this issue. You will be expected to not only describe your conclusion, but how and why you reached that conclusion, what news sources and specific articles/videos you turned to, what information you rejected, as well as what information you identified as reliable and “actionable”. The point of this assignment is to answer your question in an essay that demonstrates how news literacy skills and concepts helped you arrive at your conclusion. This essay is not meant to be a critique of the media, but you are expected to note deficiencies in news sources available to you, highlighting excellence and noting when evidence or sourcing is questionable or false. For this assignment, you will post the multimedia version of your essay with links to all your sources on your website and submit a hard copy rough draft to me by the start of class on April 3. Your work will be critiqued and graded and you will be required to meet individually to discuss how to revise it. You will then rewrite it, post it and all your multimedia elements on your website and submit a hard copy final draft on the last day of class. The two grades will be averaged.
Final Note on Grading:
Your final grade in the course is not necessarily a strict mathematical average. I reserve the right to move your grade up or down based on your class participation and attendance. Participation in class discussions is expected. Exceptional engagement and participation will improve your final grade while a lack of participation will hurt your final grade. On-time attendance at every class is also expected, so habitual tardiness will lower your grade. Students are allowed two absences, but any unexcused absences beyond those two will damage your grade. Absences for illness or personal emergencies need to be documented in writing. Any in-class assignment including news quizzes cannot be made up, but I offer at least one extra credit assignment to replace your lowest quiz grade. Any factual error, including misspellings of any names and proper nouns, will result in your grade being lowered 10 points on the first offense. Any subsequent error will result in an F on that assignment. This is a journalism program policy, which reflects the belief that accuracy is the cornerstone of good journalism and that such errors cannot be tolerated.
Plagiarism:
Integrity and credibility are the two pillars of journalism. Any student presenting the work of someone else whether from another student, another publication or off the Internet will receive an F. The incident will also be reported to the director of the Journalism Program and the Emory Honor Council. Please read the attached Journalism Program Plagiarism Statement carefully.
The Emory Writing Center:
The Emory Writing Center staff includes talented and welcoming undergraduate and graduate students from a range of disciplines. They are eager to work with all writers at all stages of the composing process. Whether you are exploring ideas, revising a draft, or polishing a final version of a project, the Writing Center is the place for you. The Center offers discussion-based tutorials for individuals and groups that enable writers to approach their work with fresh eyes and to practice strategies for writing, revising, and editing. Tutors can talk with you about the purpose, organization, and audience of your work, your design choices, or how you engage other texts. They can also work with you on sentence-level concerns, including grammar, syntax, and word choice; however, they will not proofread for you. Instead, they will discuss strategies and resources you can use to become a better editor of your own work.
The Writing Center is located in Callaway N212. Regular appointments are 45 minutes long. You should bring a copy of your assignment, any relevant writing (notes, a draft, the URL for your website, etc.) and a plan for what you want to work on. If you have a laptop, we encourage you to bring it. In addition to our regular appointments, we also offer walk-in visits, a good resource when you have a quick question or can’t get an appointment. To view our hours, make an appointment, and get more information, go to writingcenter.emory.edu.
The entire Writing Center staff has been specifically trained to support Domain of One’s Own students. By talking with a tutor, you can more critically consider the purpose, design, and usability of your digital texts. You can also work with a tutor to troubleshoot technical matters; however, you should consult the Domain student resource pages first. In most cases, you will be able to solve tech troubles on your own, reserving your Writing Center appointments for discussions about how your technical choices—along with other choices—affect your larger aims.
Tentative Schedule:
Week 1: Introductions and What is News, The First Amendment and the Mission of the American Free Press
Tuesday, January 14: Class orientation, review of syllabus, and plagiarism statement. Essay #1 on your 48-hour news blackout.
Thursday, January 16: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapter 1.
Week 2: The First Amendment and the Mission of the American Free Press continued and Website Design and Essay Writing Workshop
Tuesday, January 21: Media Debates, chapters 1-2. Guest Speaker on the First Amendment: Tom Clyde, First Amendment Attorney, Kilpatrick Townsend. Essay #1 due. Essay #2 on news values.
Thursday, January 23: Website design and Essay Writing Workshop.
Week 3: Information Neighborhoods and Who Decides What is News?
Tuesday, January 28: Information Neighborhoods. Essay #2 due.
Thursday, January 30: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapter 3. Essay #3 on comparing and contrasting editorial decisions at three news organizations.
Week 4: Guest Speaker on Editorial Decisions, Newsroom Tour and The American Press in Wartime and Issues of Censorship
Tuesday, February 4: Media Debates, chapters 4,10. Guest Speaker on editorial decisions: Amy Napier Viteri, WSB reporter. Website due. Minimum requirements: home page/introduction with photo, essays #1-3 with multimedia elements, your Twitter feed and our class # feed.
Tuesday, February 4: Mandatory Field Trip to WSB News. Meet outside White Hall at 4:15. Return by 7 p.m.
Thursday, February 6: Halberstam, pages 563-586; Media Debates, chapter 6, 16. Essay #3 due. Homework: Divide into teams of prosecution and defense for presentation of Operation Swift case 2/11.
Week 5: The American Press in Wartime continued and Truth and Verification: How Journalists Get and Verify Information
Tuesday, February 11: Case Study: Operation Swift and the NYT.
Thursday, February 13: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapters 2, 4. Essay #2 redo due. The verification process. Essay #4 on Katrina Body Count story.
Week 6: Truth and Verification: How Journalists Get and Verify Information and Case Studies: The Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina
Tuesday, February 18: Cooper, pages 1-121. Essay #4 due. Verification workshop.
Thursday, February 20: Cooper, pages 121-222. Essay #3 redo due. Case Study: Anderson Cooper’s reporting on the Tsunami and Katrina.
Week 7: Case Studies: The Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina and Guest Speaker on the Truth and Verification Process
Tuesday, February 25: More Case Studies. Review for midterm exam.
Thursday, February 27: Guest Speaker: Eric Stirgus, Reporter, PolitiFact Georgia.
Week 8: Midterm Exam
Tuesday, March 4: Midterm Exam. Essay #4 redo due.
Thursday, March 6: NO CLASS
Week 9: Spring Break
Tuesday, March 11: NO CLASS
Thursday, March 13: NO CLASS
Week 10: News vs. Opinion and The Myth of Objectivity
Tuesday, March 18: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapters 8-9. Media Debates, chapter 12; Go over final assignment. Rough draft due 4/3. Sign up for writing tutorials 4/8 and 4/10. Essay #5 on how the same issue is handled in a news story and editorial.
Thursday, March 20: Objectivity and Bias, Avlon, pages 108-143. Media Debates, chapter 7. Bias test.
Week 11: Deconstructing Print News Stories
Tuesday, March 26: Essay #5 due. Deconstructing print stories in class. Homework: deconstructing a print story.
Thursday, March 28: Essay #4 redo due. In-class practice deconstructing news stories.
Week 12: Deconstructing TV News
Tuesday, April 1: Postman, chapters 1-3, 8. Homework: Deconstruct the Kelli Arena story on campus guns and answer questions on handout.
Thursday, April 3: Deconstructing news stories on TV. First draft of final writing assignment due. Rewrites due 4/24.
Week 13: More Deconstructing TV News and Media Ethics Guest Speaker and CNN Tour
Tuesday, April 8: Essay #5 redo due. In-class TV news deconstruction. Individual Writing Tutorials.
Thursday, April 10: Media Debates, chapter 11. Field Trip to CNN for tour with Richard Griffiths, Editorial Director, CNN. Individual Writing Tutorials. Depart/Return Info: TBA
Week 14: “Shattered Glass”
Tuesday, April 15: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapters 5,10. “Shattered Glass” viewing.
Thursday, April 17: Finish “Shattered Glass”. In-class exercises. Extra Credit Homework: Remaining Shattered Glass exercises.
Week 15: Guest Speaker on New Media in a Digital Age and Showtime and Class Party!
Tuesday, April 22: Kovach and Rosenstiel, chapter 11. Guest Speaker: Lila King, Senior Director of Social News, CNN
Thursday, April 24: Share your domain and class party! Final Writing Assignment due.
JOURNALISM PROGRAM PLAGIARISM STATEMENT
Integrity and credibility are the journalist’s most important assets. If you plagiarize, you have compromised the two most important tools a journalist has. Journalism demands originality in writing, sourcing of information that is not common knowledge, attribution of others’ ideas and statements, and accurate representation of points of view. Plagiarism is professional theft. The Emory College Plagiarism Statement says: “Any person who uses a writer’s ideas or phraseology without giving due credit is guilty of plagiarism.”
Plagiarism has ended many journalism careers. The journalist who plagiarizes others’ work violates the very purpose of the profession and destroys his or her reputation. Any student found plagiarizing in a course or internship will be subject to investigation by the Honor Council. If the Honor Council determines that a student has plagiarized, the Council has the prerogative of assigning any of the following penalties:
• F on the assignment;
• F for the course;
• Suspension;
• Dismissal;
• Written notation on the student performance record.
A journalistic article differs from a research paper. Information in a research paper is credited in footnotes or other kinds of documentation. The Emory College Plagiarism Statement does not require documentation for information that is readily available through several sources and/or is considered common knowledge.
In journalism, source citations are included in the body of the story. The credit should include the name of the person or source, a person’s affiliation, and any other information that provides necessary context. The journalist provides attribution for all direct and indirect quotes and paraphrased information and statements. Quotation marks are used even if only a word or phrase of a statement is used. Journalists attribute to specific individuals, organizations or sources and do not create composite sources.
Both direct quotations and paraphrases require attribution. A good paraphrase expresses the ideas found in the source (for which credit is always given) but not in the same words. It preserves the sense, but not the form, of the original. It does not retain the sentence patterns and merely substitute synonyms for the original words, nor does it retain the original words and merely alter the sentence patterns. It is a genuine restatement. It is briefer than its source. (Floyd D. Watkins and William B. Dillingham, Practical English Handbook, 9th ed. (Boston, 1992), pp. 357-358.)
The principles of attribution apply equally to all forms of newsgathering. Information acquired from other news sources, whether print, broadcast or the Internet, should be attributed. Use of graphics, images, and audio or video material from the Internet or other sources requires full credit.
Plagiarism is a breach of public trust.
The Journalism Program expects students will comply with the policy as outlined above. If you have questions regarding documentation, citation or plagiarism, please contact your instructor or the director of the Journalism Program.
Paraphrase: Write it in Your Own Words http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/619/
A paraphrase is... - your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by someone else, presented in a new form.
- one legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation) to borrow from a source.
- a more detailed restatement than a summary, which focuses concisely on a single main idea.
Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because... -it is better than quoting information from an undistinguished passage.
-it helps you control the temptation to quote too much.
-the mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to grasp the full meaning of the original.
Six Steps to Effective Paraphrasing -Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
-Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.
-Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
-Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all
the essential information in a new form.
-Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source.
-Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it easily if you
decide to incorporate the material into your paper.
Some examples to compare the original passage: Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of
source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976):
46-47.
A legitimate paraphrase: In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a
desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).
An acceptable summary: Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the
amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).
A plagiarized version: Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.
For more information on paraphrasing, as well as other ways to integrate sources into your stories, see the Purdue OWL handout Quoting Paraphrasing, and Summarizing