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MCCNM 445 Reporting Public Affairs Class meets: 11-12:20 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in A/M 152 Instructor: Richard A. Joyce, Associate Professor, AM-114, 549-2872, richard.joyce@colostate-pueblo.edu Office Hours: 10-11 M-F; or by appointment Textbook: "The Associated Press Stylebook" by The Associated Press, latest edition; various other documents. Prerequisites: MCCNM 201 AND 202; typing and basic word processing ability. Desktop publishing experience and reporting experience on the Today are highly recommended. Disability Statement Course Outline: This course is designed to give advanced news-editorial students more experience with in-depth reporting, interviewing and research. Particular discussion emphasis is placed on the evolving nature of public affairs reporting and journalism ethics.. Supplement: Throughout the semester, the class will work on a special in-depth news project to be published as a 24-page or larger supplement to the Today -- without advertising. The topic will be chosen by the class, subject to my approval. Previous classes have written about the Moral Majority, nuclear war, the reorganization of USC, student health issues, the Drug War, homelessness, the Internet, ADD/ADHD, UFOs, violence in America, high-tech surveillance and privacy, and methamphetamine addiction. Many of those supplements won top awards in regional student journalism competition, and one of them took a third-place award for in-depth reporting in SPJ national competition. This year's publication deadline is April 15. Missing that deadline will result in a grade not higher (but possibly lower) than "C" for every member of the class, now known as the Today RPA team, regardless of any other work, grades, test scores, etc. Attendance: Mandatory EXCEPT for illness or other special circumstances made known to me in advance of the missed class session. This is a small class, and participation is a key element. Others on this team will be relying on your input/feedback and performance. There are 30 class periods, including the final, and there may be special "production" periods that you will need to attend on days other than those on which this class is scheduled, particularly on weekends. Each missed class will reduce your final point total by 20. Each missed production period will reduce your final point total by enough points to equal one letter grade. For the same reason, lateness to class beyond 10 minutes but not beyond 30 minutes will reduce your final point total by 5 points. Being 30 minutes or more late for class will count as an absence. Lateness to a production period beyond 20 minutes but not beyond 60 minutes will reduce your final point total by 20. Being 60 minutes late for a production period will count as an absence for that production period, even if you subsequently show up. A production period absence will reduce your final point total by 20 points per hour of the period's entire duration. If you know now that you cannot, because of job or other circumstance beyond your control, attend weekend production sessions, let me know within the first week of class. if you find out as the class proceeds that you will not be able to attend weekend production periods, let me know ASAP. Weekend production periods will not occur until after Spring Break. In any case, absence from class will not excuse you from any tests or assignments, and it is YOUR responsibility to know when tests are scheduled, what the writing assignments are and when they are due, what your editing assignments are and when they must be completed. Tests: There will be a mid-term and a final exam in this course. The mid-term will test your ability to apply the SPJ Code of ethics to practical situations, and the final will consist of determining a group point total for the Today supplement via a critique of that product. You must attend the final exam. Failure to do so will result in a one letter grade reduction in your final grade. In addition, during the final you also may be required to grade your peers' performance in producing the supplement. If so, that grading will be confidential so you can be honest in your evaluation. Under no circumstances may a student earn a higher grade for working on the supplement than the group grade for that product, which essentially is the grade the product merits according to the standards of correct English and professional journalism. However, if individual evaluations are done, a student may earn a lower grade than the group grade because the average of the individual evaluations, itself, will be averaged with the group grade to arrive at a final grade for each student for working on the supplement. Grades: Eighty percent of your final grade will come from your work on the supplement. In addition to the final group points, you will earn points for amount of work, quality of work, making deadlines and behaving professionally. The mid-term exam will count for 20 percent of your final grade. NOTE: THERE WILL BE NO MAKE-UPS FOR MISSED ASSIGNMENTS OR A MISSED FINAL.Your final grade will be calculated by adding the number of points you have earned and dividing that total by the total number of points possible. That average will then be matched to the new + and - grading scale, which I will use in this course, except that I will not assign any "-" grades. Deadlines: Each writing/editing/graphics/production assignment will have a deadline. You will automatically lose one letter grade (10 points on the scale I use below) if you miss the deadline by one minute. After that, you will lose a letter grade for each hour the assignment is late. Assignments not completed at all will, of course, earn zero points. NOTE: I have in past years withdrawn students from this class for non-performance, and I will not hesitate to do so again if, in my judgment, your performance is such that it is jeopardizing the project this class must complete by April 15 because you are not carrying your share of the reporting/editing/design/production workload. I expect and demand professional-level work in this course, and I have no tolerance for anything less from you. So, if you can't handle the challenge here, please leave now and seriously consider changing your emphasis area within mass communications or changing your major. If you participate in this process with the right attitude and are willing to work at producing an outstanding piece of journalism, you will completely enjoy this course. If not, you won't. Final Grade Computation: At the end of the course your point total will be divided by the total points possible. The resulting number will be converted to a letter grade as follows. 88-100 = A = 4.0 grade points per credit 84-87 = B+ = 3.33 grade points per credit 78-83 = B = 3.0 grade points per credit 74-77 = C+ = 2.33 grade points per credit 68-73 = C = 2.0 grade points per credit 64-67 = D+ = 1.33 grade points per credit 58-63 = D = 1.0 grade points per credit 00-57 = F = 0 grade points per credit Academic dishonesty |