Spring 1997
Course Objectives
- Reporting II is intended to introduce students to public
affairs beat reporting, the most likely entry-level job for beginning
reporters. This class requires students to advance from basic
newswriting, the focus of Reporting I, to the beginnings of professional
newsgathering skills.
- Students will spend most of the quarter gathering news
from three three-week beat assignments (emergency services, municipal
government, and courts) that will require them to develop strategies
for covering public affairs; to evaluate and to present information
in terms of the audiences that will use it, and to explore a variety
of newsgathering methods and techniques.
- To successfully put together news stories from these beat
assignments will require identifying news, contacting sources,
conducting interviews, attending various kinds of community meetings,
examining public records, and asking many, many questions.
Course Format
- Class meetings will be devoted primarily to discussion
and group review of assignments; discussion of reporting techniques;
issues of reporting, and guest speakers. Students are expected
to conduct themselves professionally by attending class, meeting
deadlines, and turning in timely, fair and accurate stories. There
will be occasional quizzes during the term on local public affairs,
and students will also be evaluated on class participation.
- Deadlines: Breaking or spot news stories are due in my
mailbox in 201 Allen at 9 a.m. on the day after the incident or
meeting. Non-breaking news or feature stories are due by 5 p.m.
on Fridays the week of the assignment, unless otherwise specified.
The Paper Trail assignment is due by 5 p.m., Friday, May 2. The
enterprise profile is due by 5 p.m., Friday, June 6. There will
be no final examination.
- IMPORTANT: Late stories will be penalized by 20 percent
(2 of 10 points). A typewritten explanation for the lateness should
be attached. Stories more than one week late will not be accepted.
Grades
- Grades on individual stories will be on a 10-point scale
(9-10 an A; 8-9 a B; 7-8 a C, 5-7 a D, and below 5, an F. Stories
that contain name or factual errors will receive an F.
- Professional plagiarism -- the submission of work other
than your own that is not attributed clearly -- will result in
an automatic F for the course. This includes information lifted
from local newspapers without credit.
- Assignments graded below 8 (except those with factual or
name errors) may be rewritten with the opportunity to raise the
grade up to an 8. Rewrites must be submitted within one week after
the original story was returned by the instructor.
The Paper Trail
Instructions
- You will be assigned the name and a brief description of
a public official or community leader in the Eugene-Springfield
area. You are to find out as much as possible about that person
using primarily public records sources.
- A full description of the assignment and the categories
of information sought will be described in a separate file.
- The project is due in my mail slot by 5 p.m., on Friday,
May 2.
Enterprise Story
Instructions
- You will be required to develop an extended news feature
based on public affairs issue that emerges from one of your beat
assignments.
- Written proposals are due in class on Monday, May 5, and
the finished story is due at 5 p.m. on Friday, June 6.
Extra-credit stories
Instructions
Up to three extra-credit stories will be accepted
over the course of the term, with 1-3 points awarded for each
story. Extra- credit stories should be drawn from the current
beat assignments.
Grading Summary
- Nine beat assignments/extra-credit stories 60 percent
- Paper Trail 10 percent
- Enterprise Story 10 percent
- Quizzes 10 percent
- Class participation, individual progress 10 percent
Required Readings
- Henry H. Schulte and Marcel P. Dufresne, Getting the
Story: An Advanced Reporting Guide to Beats, Records and Sources
(New York: Macmillan, 1994).
- The AP Libel Handbook and Style Manual.
- The Eugene Register-Guard daily.
- Strongly recommended: A dictionary and thesaurus.
General Advisories
Story Format
All stories must be typewritten, standard-size type,
double or triple space, and contain the following information
in the upper left-hand corner: your name, the slugline of story,
date, and target audience. A list of principal sources and their
daytime phone numbers must appear at the end of each story. The
instructor will check these sources periodically to verify information.
Professional Standards
Students in this course have taken Writing for Media
and Reporting I or its equivalent. Therefore, they are expected
to have mastered the basics: to write grammatically, to spell
and punctuate correctly, to attribute properly and to follow accepted
Associated Press style. Those who have not shouldn't expect a
grade higher than a C.
Weekly Schedule
Subject to Change by Announcement in Class
- Introduction. Orientation and assignment of
three-week beats. Read: Textbook, Chapters 1-2.
- Beat assignments begin. Discuss local government
coverage. Read: Chapters 4-5. Begin Paper Trail assignment.
- Discuss judicial process, law enforcement.
Read: Chapters 9, 11.
Oregon Bench-Bar-Press Guidelines
- Discuss covering the courts. Read: Chapters
10, 12. First beat assignments end. Debriefing and discussion.
- Begin second beat assignments. New techniques
of information gathering. Read: Chapter 3. The Paper Trail assignment
is due Friday, May 2.
- Discuss legislative coverage. Read: Chapters
6-8. Midterm individual evaluations.
- Discuss ethics, responsibility and legal issues.
Read: Chapters 19, 20. Second beat assignments end. Debriefing
and discussion.
Guest Speaker Wednesday, May 14: Byron Acohido,
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Seattle Times
Boeing 737 Safety Stories.
TWA Explosion Story.
- Discuss political reporting. Guest speaker
on Wednesday, May 21: Debra Gwartney, editor of Eugene Weekly.
Read: Chapter 14. Switch to final beats.
- NO CLASS MONDAY, MAY 26. Discuss specialized
reporting. Read: Chapter 13, 15-18.
- Critique beat experience. Enterprise story
due Friday, June 6. No final examination.
Beat Assignments
General Requirements
On each of the beat assignments, you will be required to write
one story each week for three weeks. Each beat has individual
directions for the types of stories required, which will be specified
in a separate handout. You may also submit one or more stories
for extra credit.
Related Reading
Before starting your assigned beat, you are expected to
read the appropriate chapters in the textbook and also additional
readings specific to that particular beat. Those readings will
be explained on the separate handouts that will supplement the
partial summary on this syllabus.
Assignment Descriptions
Civil and Criminal Courts
This beat assignment focuses on the Lane County court
system. You will be required to develop one story on the filing
of a civil action; one story based on a one-to-two-hour segment
of a criminal court trial, and a third story based on some issue
or development in the judicial system.
Emergency Services
This beat assignment focuses on the Eugene Department
of Public Safety, which includes both the police and fire departments.
You will be expected to write one fire-related spot news story;
one police-related spot news story, and a feature story based
on interviews with one or more officials or staff members in the
Department of Public Safety.
Local Government
This beat assignment focuses on the City of Eugene
and Lane County government. You will be expected to develop one
story from a City Council meeting; one story from a Lane County
Commission meeting, and an enterprise story about an issue in
either city or county government.
Net Resources
Bryan Acohido Wins Pulitzer
Local Reporting Links
Online News Publications
Journalism Associations and Publications
Newsgathering Resources