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Carleton University School of Journalism and Communication JOURNALISM 2201B: FUNDAMENTALS
OF RPEORTING Rm 306 St. Pat's Instructor: David McKie 1-613-288-6523 (office) 1-613-290-7380 (cell) Course Description: The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the basic skills required to gather and present information as a journalist. These skills are the cornerstone of journalism in any medium, be it print, radio, television, the web. Particular emphasis will be placed on three important requirements in all journalistic work: precision, clarity and connection with the audience. It will also be important for us understand why and how. Course work will include analyzing examples of other people's journalism and completing writing and reporting assignments during and outside of class. Students who successfully complete this course should be able to: " identify and focus news story ideas; "think critically about the stories we read, hear and see. Texts and Equipment: It is essential that you keep up with the news and consume lots of good, solid journalism. So consider the news media your most important required text. Read at least one newspaper every day (the Globe & Mail and/or National Post for Canadian and international news, and the Ottawa Citizen or the Ottawa Sun for local news), listen to CBC Radio News (World Report at the top of the hour between 6-9 a.m. local news at the bottom of the house during the same time period, and The World at Six from 6:00-6:30 p.m.), and watch CBC-TV's The National, The CTV National News or Global National in the evening. Use the web (the home of breaking news) to view how news outlets across the country and abroad portray the news and how it's presented by new media types. Also required are the second edition of The Canadian Reporter: News
Writing and Reporting by Catherine McKercher and Carman Cumming (Harcourt
Brace, Toronto; 1998) and The Canadian Press Stylebook (the 14th
or 15th editions) and CP Caps and Spelling (preferably the 18th edition).
You should also carry (and use!) a pocket dictionary, such as the mini-Oxford.
A big dictionary such as The Canadian Oxford Dictionary is also extremely
valuable to a writer. I'll also be recommending other books that aren't
required reading but may be worth buying, borrowing from the library,
or adding to your wish-list for birthdays or other loot-collecting opportunities
in the near or distant future. Professionals are expected to be familiar
with the literature of their field, so now is a good time to begin building
your library. Sept. 14 The basics of reporting: The roles of news and journalists in the community; "news values" and how to recognize a story. The readings discussed in class: Canadian Reporter pages 1-43; Digging Deeper chapter 2; Computer-Assisted Reporting chapter 9 Sept. 21 Style points and and an introduction to the interview: The importance of disciplined obedience to style rules; a CP style refresher; and story length. An intro to interviewing. [Reading : Canadian Reporter (2nd edition), pg. 1-43] Readings: CP style points. Don Gibb is a writing coach. His column, Writer's Toolbox, appears in the Canadian Association of Journalists Media magazine. In the Winter 2008 edition, he wrote an excellent piece on story ideas and how to develop them. He also has an interesting piece on the use of quotes which you'll find by clicking on the first pdf link entitled "Pages 1-10 PDF" of the Winter 2005 ,and then scrolling down to page eight to the article entitled Quotes should be real, engaging and meaningful. Sept. 28 Asking questions: Knowing the questions to ask! Ethical considerations to keep in mind when asking questions. Interviewing as the foundation of reporting. [Reading: CR, pg. 77-102, 179-197] Additional reading: Chapter 8 of Digging Deeper A good example of story telling: Esquire magazine's story on a dead American soldier called The Things That Carried Him. And interview with the writer about the story and it's narrative structure. Oct. 5 We research and then tell stories: Story and storytelling "Focusing" the story, deciding on its proper tone and format, crafting its lead and then writing it! [Reading: CR, Chapter 5] For tips on evaluating Web sites, please click here Readings for class discussion Defiant and deadly driver sent back to prison Read the write-up of reporter who broke the story Readings to help for the assignment due Oct 12: For information about storytelling, read chapter 5 of Canadian Reporter. You should also use chapter 9 of Computer -Assisted Reporting (the pdf for the chapter is located above under the Sept. 14 section) as a refresher. For information about some of the research techniques we discussed in class, use chapter 2 of Computer-Assisted Reporting as a step-by-step guide for the online records you should be searching. But remember, think offline before going online. Oct. 12 Thanksgiving - a day off! Oct. 19 Legwork online and offline: Doing your homework.
Identifying information Oct. 26 An introduction to Statistics Canada. Census immigration data. Making people see the story: Gather (and write) pictures! Using careful observation, personal experience and note-taking to collect detail, and weaving these details into your writing to make the audience "see" your story. Please click here to read The New York Times story on cancer. [Reading: CR, pg. 129-154] Don Gibb's writing column for Media magazine's Fall 2009 edition Chapter 12 Digging Deeper Chapter nine Computer-Assisted Reporting Nov. 2 Make it fit: Tight writing and ruthless editing. How to pare down your writing without sacrificing storytelling. [Reading: CR, pg. 395-417] Mental Exercises: in-class exercise Putting your writing on a diet. Don Gibb Media magazine column Use those periods. Don Gibb Media magazine column Nov. 9 Getting used to numbers: They can mislead and even lie. Journalists must be as comfortable with numbers are they are reporting on anything else In order to prepare you for the assignment due next week, we'll continue to talk about numbers: specifically, ratios, which can be percents, percent differences, rates of values per person. For a more detailed discussion of rate, please see page 81 of chapter four of Computer-Assisted Reporting. A rate is one of the common forms of ratio. The rate allows you do determine the frequency with which something occurs. Rates are used to determine the frequency of diseases or illnesses such as H1N1. Rates are also used as a way to examine crime statistics. For instance, the Ottawa police force's crime rate is calculated per 100,000 population. Let's look at some police statistics, an area where it's more appropriate to examine the rates, which allow for comparisons between wards or cities that have different populations. Population estimates by sub-area and the city of Ottawa Population estimates by ward Ottawa's crime statistics PDF cracking software: PDF Text Reader Reading: CR, pg. 330-331 For more information on numeracy, please see the Numeracy Skills section of the main syllabus. Chapter three of Computer-Assisted Reporting Nov. 16 Telling the story: Putting it all together. Narrative line and the synthesis of detail in feature writing. Reading for class: New York Times story on Nidal Malik Hasan Readings: Review chapter five of CR. and chapter nine of Computer-Assisted Reporting Additional reference: We'll be using many references from a book by Carl Sessions Stepp called Writing as Craft and Magic. Nov. 23 Using bankcrupty statistics, we'll learn now to mine data online to get stories. Please click here for the Globe and Mail story. You'll find the newsworthy number in the Globe story on the site of the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada. Writing for clarity. Please click here. Covering meetings: [Reading: CR, pg. 199-241] Nov. 30 Discussion of reseach techniques we can use to find stories. Globe and Mail story on stimulus spending Source of the story: MPs demands for written questions can be found on the Parliamentary website Let's talk: A roundtable on lessons learned from our features and reporting throughout the term -- techniques to try (and ones to avoid!) Dec. 7. Postmortem -- the final one! A quick tutorial on pivot tables using data from the Immigration and Refugee Board. Click here for my version. What goes into being a reporter? Shapes a journalistic career
can take; where and how to start applying for summer work; tips for job
interviews; a summing up of the term and course evaluation. [Reading:
CR, pg. 157-177] Evaluation This course does NOT involve exams. Your grade for this term of JOUR 2201 will be based on the assignments outlined below. Your FINAL grade for JOUR 2201 will be equal, at least, to the average of your numeric grade points for the Fall and Winter terms. A passing grade for this course is a C. There will be no supplemental exam in either term of the course or for the course as a whole. Standing in a course is determined by the course instructors subject to the approval of the Faculty Dean. This means that grades submitted by an instructor may be subject to revision. No grades are final until they have been approved by the Dean. Grading Procedures: This is a professional school and students will be held to professional standards in both assignments and conduct. Journalistic work will be graded based on its focus, newsworthiness, originality, clarity, precision, and ability to connect with the audience. Rules for copy layout and writing style are to be strictly followed; deviations from proper layout and style will be considered equivalent to errors of fact and marked accordingly. Grades for journalistic writing will combine two considerations: Reporting and Presentation. Marks for reporting will be awarded based on the strength of the story idea, difficulties overcome in gathering the information, and the precise accuracy of all details in the story. Marks for presentation will be awarded for strict adherence to style and format, clarity and effectiveness of the storytelling, proper and clear attribution, and creative use of description and quotation. Where the relative quality of reporting and presentation vary significantly, I'll give you a separate grade for each and your final grade for the assignment will be an average of the two. To earn an A range grade, journalistic work must be newsworthy, complete, well-written, original and precise in both fact and style, ready to go to an audience with little or no editing. Good journalistic writing captures both the facts of a story and a sense of the setting and people involved. Creativity is no substitute for accuracy or completeness - but creative, sensitive writing can elevate routine news to a kind of art form. An F will go to assignments that miss deadlines (see below), contain significant errors of fact, misspell names of a people or places, don't address the assignment as given, or seriously violate the School's Ethics and Professional Standards (see handout). A request to have the grade for an assignment reviewed must be made within two weeks of you getting the assignment back. The Undergraduate Calendar's section on Academic Regulations of the University also outlines the procedure for formal appeals on assignment or course grades. Please note: When a maximum and minimum length is specified for an assignment, the writing MUST be double-spaced with page margins that are one inch on all four sides, and the type size used must be 12pt. Variations are not acceptable. I require that assignments are emailed as Word documents. I will be edit them electronically, and return them as Word files. Deadlines, Extensions, Exemptions, Accommodations and Offences: All journalism is based on deadlines. Miss one once you are a working reporter and you'll let down your audience, hurt your employer's credibility, embarrass yourself…and maybe even lose your job! Here, you'll lose marks. You are to email assignments before class. A late assignment gets an F. There will be NO extensions on deadlines. In the case of genuine and extreme personal or family emergencies, you may be exempted from an assignment but you should contact me about the emergency BEFORE the deadline unless absolutely impossible. If illness or injury makes it difficult for you to work, you should see a doctor. Bring me a doctor's note and we can rearrange workload as required. A problem that will affect more than one assignment must be discussed with the undergraduate supervisor, Klaus Pohle. Learning Accommodation: Students with disabilities requiring academic accommodations in this course must register with the Paul Menton Centre (PMC) for Students with Disabilities for a formal evaluation of disability-related needs. Registered PMC students are required to contact the centre, 623-520-6608, every term to ensure they have a letter of accommodation for instructors. After registering with the PMC, discuss your needs with me in order to make the necessary arrangements as early in the term as possible. Other Academic Accommodation: You may need special arrangements to meet your academic obligations during the term because of disability, pregnancy or religious obligations. Please review the course outline promptly and write to me with any requests for academic accommodation during the first two weeks of class, or as soon as possible after the need for accommodation is known to exist. It takes time to review and consider each request, and to arrange for accommodations where appropriate. Please make sure you respect these timelines, particularly for in-class tests and due dates. You can visit the Equity Services website to view the policies and to obtain more detailed information on academic accommodation at: http://carleton.ca/equity/accommodation PLEASE NOTE: Students who fake any part of their stories or research,
plagiarize anyone else's work, or otherwise cheat on their assignments
will get MORE than just a failing grade. They will be dealt with according
to the university's rules for Academic Integrity. Please see the Undergraduate
Calendar's section on Academic Regulations of the University for an explanation
of what this means. (http://www.carleton.ca/cuuc/)
Biography David McKie David McKie is an Ottawa-based, award-winning journalist and an author who has been with the CBC for 19 years. In researching topics such as health and safety, he has become increasingly dependent on computer-assisted investigative reporting techniques, using the Internet to find sources, background material, and using spreadsheets and database managers to organize information and to produce story ideas. David is now with the CBC's investigative unit. To get an idea of the investigative stories he has researched, written and broadcast, please go to the following links: Faint Warning , Prescribed to Death , Dying for a Job and Out of Synch, Beaten Down: Fear and Violence in Canada's Nursing Homes and Off-Limits. Faint Warning was a finalist for the 2004 Michener award, winner of the 2004 RTNDA award for best investigative report, and winner the Canadian Association of Journalists' 2004 computer-assisted reporting (CAR) award and the overall CAJ award for best investigative series. Faint Warning won the Service Journalism category for the 2004 Online News Association. The follow-up series, Prescribed to Death, that ran in 2005 was also a big award winner. The series won the CAJ's 2006 CAR award, the Open Radio News Award and, for the second year in a row, the overall award. The series also won the 2006 CNA ( Canadian Nurses Association ) & CMA ( Canadian Medical Association ) Media Awards for Excellence in Health Reporting and the American-based IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors) award in the radio category. Dying for a Job won the 2007 Excellence in Health Reporting from the Canadian Medical Associationa and the Canadian Nurses' Association. In, Beaten Down: Fear and violence in Canada's Nursing Homes, David examined the national problem of violence in Canadian long-term care facilities. That was followed that up with Off-Limits, an investigation into doctors who continue to prescribe atypical anti-psychotics to seniors despite Health Canada warnings about increased risk of heart attack, stroke -- and death. He's working with The Canadian Press and The Toronto Star on Tasers and food safety , respectively. And for the taser series, David and Jim Bronskill were part of the large team that earned the 2008 Michener Award. David edits a magazine for the Canadian Association of Journalists called Media, which you can find at: Media magazine And he maintains a website that keeps track of access-to-information requests that are made to federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations. The CAIRS site, which used to be maintained by professor Alasdair Roberts, has become a valuable tool for journalists. As you'll see from the syllabus to which we'll frequently refer, David teaches a research methods class to masters students at Carleton. David obtained a Master of Journalism degree from Carleton University in the summer of 2001. One of the areas he researched was the evolution of computer-assisted, investigative reporting in Canada and the United States. And he is a co-author of Digging Deeper, a Canadian textbook on investigative research techniques.You can order it by visiting Amazon.ca. He also co-authored a second textbook, Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Comprehensive Primer. |
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