Spring 2007 Syllabus

McDaniel College Budapest
ENG 1103 Introduction to Journalism
Spring 2007

Instructor: Jacob Doyle
Email: Jacob@bbj.hu
Mobile: 06 30 233 5318

About the Instructor: Jacob Doyle has been active in the field of journalism for more than 20 years. He has written for company newsletters, student newspapers, academic journals, newsweeklies, trade journals, a literary journal and blogs. He is currently the energy sector columnist for the Budapest Business Journal where he is also director of commercial intelligence.

Course Overview: The goal of this course is to acquire and refine the tools needed to produce captivating, revealing and thought-provoking works of journalism. Participants in this course will “learn by doing,” as the class will be organized to approximate the environment and functions of a news organization (henceforth referred to as the news-team). The news-team will publish an online news product, a “newsblog” that will consist of articles produced by the team. This ongoing process will be accompanied by lectures, reading assignments and discussions, all aimed at strengthening one’s journalistic competence.

In the third week of the semester, each participant will choose or be assigned to perform a role within the news team, either as a reporter or as an editor. These roles will rotate among the participants as the semester progresses. Each reporter will choose or be assigned a sector (“beat”) to cover. This beat may or may not change, depending on the needs and interests of the individual and the team. In addition to reporter, other assignments will include: managing editor, copy editor and layout editor. The class instructor will be the full-time editor-in-chief. Apart from the editor-in-chief, all assignments will rotate. This means that whoever is assigned to be managing editor one week will be a reporter another week and that a reporter one week may find herself as an editor two weeks later, and so on.

Articles produced by the news-team will appear on the collaborative newsblog that will resemble an online newspaper. Articles will be submitted at deadline to the editors who will then edit the copy and communicate with the reporters about corrections, addenda, etc.

All participants in the class are required to read the articles and post comments. Comments may address any aspect of the article: content, style, structure, word usage, veracity, objectivity, etc.

The newsblog will be updated weekly. The deadlines faced by individual reporters will depend on their assignments.

Assignment Type Description Deadline
News Brief Short, 1-2 paragraph stories. Typically re current events and drawn from online sources. E.g. Gas Prices Rise 1 week.
News story 500-800 word stories most often based around a single topic that is of current significance to readers. Quotes from 1-3 sources, based on interviews and online research. E.g. Prime Minister Rejects MP’s Cost-Cutting Bid 2 weeks
Feature story Typically upwards of 1200 words. Derives from multiple sources. Occasionally in 2 or more parts. In-depth exploration of a theme. E.g. Rise of the Wonderbread Ghetto: Politics Transform As The World’s White Population Declines 3-4 weeks

Beginning with the third week of classes, participants will receive their newsteam assignments at each Wednesday meeting of the class. On the following Monday meeting, each participant who is working that week as a reporter should report to class with an “angle” (a short, structured approach) on the story. The story assignments given to each reporter will fit with the reporter’s beat. Stories will be proposed, “pitched” to the editors – with input from the other reporters – at a story meeting held at the beginning of each Wednesday class. Story meetings will be the forum to discuss and decide the themes and topics for each week’s issue of the news blog and to finalize assignments.

In addition to story meetings, class sessions will consist of lectures and discussions on different aspects of newsgathering, writing and delivery. These will accompany reading assignments from the main course textbook, Writing and Reporting News (WRN). Other reading assignments will be distributed on an ad-hoc basis throughout the semester.

Required texts:
• Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method by Carol Rich
• Various handouts, web-based reading assignments

Assignments and Grading

The articles you produce as a member of the news-team will account for 60% of your grade. You will be required to deliver approximately 5000 words of articles through the course of the semester. This will typically mean a combination of news briefs, news stories and feature stories. You will also be asked at different times throughout the course to edit articles for the newsblog, which will also count as part of this portion of your grade.

Comments on each of the articles posted to the newsblog are required and will count for 10% of your final grade.

An exam will be given at mid-term, reviewing the topics covered in course lectures until then. It will count for 20% of your final grade.

Class attendance and participation is required and counts for 10% of your final grade. You are highly encouraged to come to class on time, for your own benefit and that of the news-team. Latecomers will not be admitted more than 10 minutes after the start of class.

Class Schedule

Class Date Topic Accompanied Reading
29-Jan Exploring the Undiscovered Country
31-Jan Building a story WRN, Ch. 3
5-Feb Writing a Headline Handout
7-Feb Choosing a sector WRN, ch. 18
12-Feb Pitches and Angles WRN, ch. 5
14-Feb Prospecting, tapping and keeping your sources WRN, ch. 6
19-Feb The fine art of interviewing WRN, ch. 7
21-Feb Regarding an assignment Handout
26-Feb Media Convergence WRN, ch.2
5-Mar Feature Writing WRN, ch. 11
7-Mar Collaborating Handout
12-Mar Using what’s out there to write what’s not Handout
14-Mar Covering sensitive issues WRN, ch. 17
19-Mar Midterm Test
21-Mar Factual errors – and how to avoid them WRN, ch. 15
26-Mar Defining your style Handout
28-Mar Covering Media Events WRN, ch. 20
11-Apr Covering the IT sector Guest Lecturer
16-Apr Covering the Energy Sector Wed-based reading assignment
18-Apr Scandal Reporting Guest Lecturer
23-Apr Combat Photography Guest Lecturer
25-Apr Clandestine Reporting Handout
30-Apr Travel Journalism Handout
2-May Establishing an online identity Wed-based reading assignment
7-May Conflicts (and marriages) of interest
9-May Obituaries WRN, ch. 19
14-May Weddings & Circumcisions Handout
16-May How to get published – and paid WRN, ch. 26