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JOUR232 Course Syllabus
Reporting for Mass Media II
Fall 2014
Department of English and Journalism
Western Illinois University
Simpkins Hall Room 309
Section 021
Tuesdays and Thursdays
12:30 p.m.-1:45 p.m.
Instructor:
Yong Tang, Ph.D.
Assistant professor of journalism and media law
Office location:
SI 226G
Office telephone:
309-298-1948
Office hours:
Tuesdays
3:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
Wednesdays
3:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
Thursdays
3:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
Or by appointment
Electronic mail:
Y-Tang@wiu.edu
Snail mail:
Simpkins Hall Mailroom 122
Course Description:
This is a two hundred level undergraduate course intended for students who want to
become professional reporters. Students are required to take JOUR231 (Reporting for
Mass Media II) before taking this course. Those who register for this course without
taking JOUR231 previously should drop immediately.
This course will examine various kinds of advanced reporting and writing techniques for
the various kinds of stories a general assignment reporter on any newspaper, magazine,
television or radio station, or website will be expected to master before he or she can
advance in the profession. In addition to discussing these techniques in class, the course
will require you to apply these techniques to do a lot of reporting outside the classroom.
You are expected to cover some ACTUAL news events and write publishable stories like
real journalists. It is the focus of the course. Finally this is a course that recognizes the
value of peer learning. All students will be expected to critique works of their fellow
class members. So students are expected to engage in thoughtful and energetic
discussions in class.
Goals and Course Objectives:
1) Think critically, creatively and independently.
2) Conduct online research and evaluate information by methods appropriate to
journalism.
3) Critically evaluate your own work and that of others for accuracy and fairness, clarity,
appropriate style and grammatical correctness.
4) Cover local government meetings, speeches and other news events.
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5) Demonstrate basic knowledge of government and political process.
6) Write stories about people and places in the news.
7) Apply basic numerical and statistical concept.
Textbooks and Other Teaching Materials:
1) The Associated Press Stylebook (2013 edition or older version) (required)
2) News Reporting and Writing by the Missouri Group (10th edition) (required)
You may rent the digital copy of the book from the following site. It is much
cheaper than buying a brand new physical copy. The rental expires after 180
days of use.
http://www.coursesmart.com/IR/4389151/9780312618117?__hdv=6.8
(required)
3) Elements of Style by Strunk & White (4th edition) (required)
Assignments:
End-of-Month Quizzes
During the semester, you will have four announced quizzes to test your knowledge of
current events, AP style and/or your command of assigned reading materials. The quizzes
will be conducted at the end of each month. In order to be successful in those quizzes,
you need to complete all required reading materials, keep up with what is going on in the
world and have some basic knowledge of AP style. You may follow local, national and
world news by regularly reading the New York Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune or
other major newspapers or magazines. You may use your AP Stylebook for the quizzes.
Movie Quiz
During the semester, you will watch one or two journalistic movies. After watching the
movie(s), you need to write a one-page short essay, telling me what you have learned
from the movie(s).
“Man-on-the-Street” Story
You will write a “man-on-the-street” story based on your interviews with ordinary people
in your community. You could choose whatever topic you feel interested in, for example:
tuition costs, WIU campus safety issue, budget crisis facing higher education, abortion,
college binge drinking and legalization of same-sex marriage in Illinois. The number of
people interviewed and quoted by you should be no less than five.
Number Story
You are required to write a number story based on statistics or surveys to identify a trend.
The story should compare and contrast at numerical data and answer the question “why”
such trend may be arising. Be sure to quote at least three people including one expert to
answer “why.” Human sources are always important and interesting! People like to read
about people. And editors like number stories because they are stories based on facts. For
example, by examining statistics released by the Department of Labor, reporters could
identify the trend of unemployment rate in the last 10 years. This could lead to a series of
interviews with people who have and don’t have jobs—and why.
Q & A Story
You will prepare for and write a Q & A story. Q & A story is an interview in question
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and answer format. Doing a Q & A story is a reader-friendly way of revealing the
personalities and beliefs of people. The success of your story boils down to whom you
interview, and most importantly what questions you ask. Weak or poor questions lead to
weak or poor stories. Here’s a chance for you to be creative, provocative and imaginative.
Speech Story
You are required to write a story on any speech on or off the WIU campus and submit the
story to Western Online by midnight of the day when the speech was made. You may
visit the following website frequently to check out what new lectures and speeches will
be given on the WIU campus in the fall 2014 semester: http://www.wiu.edu/news/.
Profile Story
You are required to choose anyone you have interest and do a profile story on him/her
(interviewing your immediate family members is discouraged!). Your story should adopt
a narrative approach, perhaps using opening paragraphs as scene-setting narrative hooks
instead of the delivery of the most important facts. Your story should contain some
interesting anecdotes.
Local Government Meeting Story
You will be required to cover one meeting of the Macomb City Council (MCC) or any
other government entities and submit a publishable story by midnight of the day when the
meeting is held. MCC meetings for 2014 usually begin on the first and third Mondays of
each month at 7 p.m. in Macomb City Hall, 232 E. Jackson Street, Macomb, Illinois,
61455. Macomb Committee of the Whole Meetings for 2014 usually begin at 5 p.m. on
Mondays in Macomb City Hall. You may visit the official website of the Macomb city
government http://www.cityofmacomb.com/meetingschedules.html or
http://www.cityofmacomb.com/documents/council-docs/index.html to check out what
city council meetings will be held during the fall 2014 semester. You are highly
recommended to attend a local council meeting for warming-up purpose and then write
on another meeting. It helps you familiarize yourself with the meeting environment. In
order to cover the meeting well, you must attend in person, take thorough notes and
interview a few officials and members of the audience.
In-Depth Final Story
You need to produce an in-depth investigative enterprise story as your final project for
the class. The story should focus on a controversial issue of common interest in the
Western Illinois University or Macomb community. You should NOT just give me a
simple news story that reports on a single event. Instead, you are expected to behave just
like real investigative journalists. You should dig beneath the surface of a subject. You
should do a lot of research, contact a lot of sources and conduct many interviews. The
final story should contain quotes from at least six different people.
Reporting Team
You may work individually for the above-mentioned story assignments. However, given
the number of stories you are going to cover, you are highly encouraged to work with up
to two classmates (“reporting team”). It is up to you to decide with whom you are going
to work. It is also up to you to decide how to cooperate with your reporting teammates.
The bottom line is that every member of your reporting team should contribute to each
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story in some meaningful way (e.g. generating a story idea, arranging an interview,
reporting on the scene, writing the story, editing and polishing).
University Writing Center:
If you encounter bottlenecks in writing, you may consult The University Writing Center.
The Center is available to assist you with general and specific questions on writing
assigned in any discipline and at any academic level. The one-on-one assistance
available at the Writing Center is valuable for generating ideas, talking about global-level
issues such as organization, and even working through grammatical problems. The
University Writing Center is located in Malpass Writing Center (3rd Floor, West Side).
Call for an appointment (298-2138) and be sure to bring a copy of your assignment.
Assignment Points and Due Dates:
Assignments
End-of-Month
Quizzes
Points
100 (25 points for
each quiz)
Date Assigned
9/30; 10/30; 11/20;
12/16
Date and Time Due
In Class
Movie(s) Quiz
50
10/30 midnight
Government
Meeting Story
100
Watch movie on
10/28
10/14
Man-on-the-Street
Story
100
10/23
Q & A Story
Number Story
Speech Story
100
100
100
10/16
10/21
10/14
Profile Story
In-Depth Final
Story
Attendance
100
150
10/02
10/07
In-Class Exercises
and Participation
Overall
50
Midnight of the day
when the meeting is
held
11/30 Midnight
11/30 Midnight
11/30 Midnight
Midnight of the day
when the speech is
delivered
11/30 Midnight
11/30 Midnight
50
1000
Assignment Guidelines:
Written assignments should follow the following guidelines:
1) All written assignments should follow AP Style.
2) All written assignments must be typed and double-spaced and have a header with
your full name, date, course number, story assignment and word count. Please use
Times New Roman 12-point font.
3) All written assignments should be submitted electronically. Submit the assignments
as attached Word files in the Desire2Learn drop box created for the specific
assignments.
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4) Assignments should be submitted on time. Meeting deadlines are crucial. You will
lose 10 points for each day your assignment is late.
5) In order to guarantee that students ACTUALLY did the interviews, students should
be prepared to produce at the end of the semester a list of the names and contact
information of all sources interviewed and quoted for the out-of-class reporting
assignments. The instructor may randomly verify the authenticity of sources if
necessary.
6) Keep a paper copy of all assignments you hand in. This will protect both you and me
if something is lost. Also keep a portfolio of all your work so you can better monitor
your own progress and have a nice record of what you accomplished during the class.
7) People you interview may ask you which news organization you represent. Tell all
sources that you are a journalism student at Western Illinois University and your
assignment is for a class. Do not promise anyone your stories will not be published as
it is possible they could appear on some websites or any other publications. You may
not use anonymous sources.
8) This class has many reporting and writing assignments. In order to compensate, I
cancel some classes and allow you to use the time to work on your story assignments.
The cancelled class is marked as “field day” on this syllabus. Doing so will also
provide time for me to work with you individually on your stories and questions.
Grading Standards:
Grades will be calculated based on a total of 1000 points. Your final grade will be based
on your total points divided by 1000.
Writing assignments will be graded on the basis of how much editing and rewriting
would be necessary if the story was written for a local newspaper such as the Western
Courier or the Chicago Tribune. The criteria used to evaluate assignments are:
A: First-rate lead; effective structure; no major mechanical or AP style errors; thoroughly
reported; excellent writing; no factual errors.
B: Good lead; good structure; few mechanical or AP style errors; thoroughly reported;
good writing; no factual errors.
C: Acceptable lead; acceptable structure; few mechanical or AP style errors; adequately
reported; acceptable writing; factual errors.
D: Poor lead; poor structure; major mechanical or AP style errors; inadequately reported;
poor writing; factual errors.
F: Unacceptable lead; unacceptable structure; major reporting omissions; unacceptable
writing; factual errors.
Because accuracy is so important for journalism, each major factual error will result in
a loss of 10 points. Major factual errors include, but not limited to: Misspelled names;
incorrect locations; incorrect titles (of books, movies, songs, etc.); incorrect organization
names; inaccurate reporting of votes, verdicts, fatalities, etc.
Grading Scale:
920-1,000
A
890-919
A870-889
B+
830-869
B
800-829
B5
6
770-799
730-769
700-729
670-699
630-669
600-629
0-599
C+
C
CD+
D
DF
Extra Credit:
You might be given some extra credit opportunities whenever such opportunities crop up.
You are encouraged to publish your stories. If you publish any news stories or
commentaries in any publications such as the Western Courier and the Chicago Tribune
from the first day of the semester through the final day of university classes (before
finals), you may submit them to Western Online for up to 50 points extra credit.
Course Schedule: *
Part I: Fundamentals of Journalism
Week One
8/26 Instructor and classmate introduction. Course syllabus discussion and assignment
clarification
8/28 Instructor and classmate introduction. Course syllabus discussion and assignment
clarification
Week Two
9/02 Is journalism dead? What is news? What are news values?
Read Chapter 1, 2 and 3 in News Reporting and Writing
9/04 AP Style
Read AP Stylebook (p.1, 4, 7, 55, 366, 81, 102, 370, 6, 190, 201, 215, 223, 236,
266, 276, 74, 312)
Week Three
9/09 Interviewing
Read Chapter 4 in News Reporting and Writing
9/11
Quotations and attributions
Read Chapter 5 in News Reporting and Writing
Week Four
9/16 News story structure and style (part I)
Read Chapter 9, 10 and 11 in News Reporting and Writing
9/18
News story structure and style (part II)
Read Chapter 9, 10 and 11 in News Reporting and Writing
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Week Five
9/23 Reporting with sources (part I)
Read Chapter 6, 7, 17 and 19 (p. 110-127, p.132-143, p.374-386, p.414-420) in
News Reporting and Writing
9/25
Reporting with sources (part II)
Read Chapter 6, 7, 17 and 19 (p. 110-127, p.132-143, p.374-386, p.414-420) in
News Reporting and Writing
Week Six
9/30
First end-of-month quiz
Part II: Different Beats and Different Stories
Week Six
10/02 Profile story
Week Seven
10/07 In-depth final story
Chapter 14 and 19 in News Reporting and Writing
10/09 TBA
Week Eight
10/14 Government meeting story and speech story
Read Chapter 15 in News Reporting and Writing
10/16 Q and A Story
Week Nine
10/21 Number story
Read Chapter 8 in News Reporting and Writing
10/23 Man-on-the-street story
Part III: Field Days
(During field days, regular class sessions are cancelled except otherwise indicated.
You may use field days to work on your story assignments. Since this class does not
allow story rewrite, you are encouraged to come to my office on Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. to show me your work in progress. I will
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give you timely feedback so that you could make corrections to get a higher grade
for your story assignments.)
Week Ten
10/28 Movie and movie quiz
10/30 Second end-of-month quiz
Week Eleven
11/04 Field day/No class
11/06 Field day/No class
Week Twelve
11/11 Field day/No class
11/13 Field day/No class
Week Thirteen
11/18 Field day/No class
11/20 Third end-of-month quiz
Week Fourteen
11/25 Thanksgiving break
Part IV: Story Review
Week Fourteen
11/27 Thanksgiving break
Week Fifteen
12/02 Story review
12/04 Story review
Week
12/09
12/11
12/16
Sixteen
Story review
Story review
Story review and fourth end-of-month quiz (1pm)
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* Note: The schedule is subject to changes, and will be updated if needed during the
course of the semester.
Attendance:
Your classroom is your newsroom. Attendance in this class, as in the workplace, is
required. You must attend all classes and show up on time with the only exception that
you have a reasonable excuse prior to class for absence. Legitimate and unavoidable
reasons for absence are those such as illness, injury, family emergency or religious
observance. If you are going to be absent you should notify me of your absence and your
excuse in advance either by you in person, by email or by telephone. However, you have
to bear in mind that some reporting and writing exercises are actual news stories and it
will be hard for you to make them up by doing something else.
Students who do not take class attendance seriously can expect to see this reflected on
their grades. Each unexcused absence after the first three will cost you five points. If
you have to miss a class, it is up to you to get notes, assignments and other information
from that missed class from your classmates.
Academic Integrity:
Western Illinois University, like all communities, functions best when its members treat
one another with honesty, fairness, respect, and trust. Plagiarism, cheating, and other
forms of academic dishonesty constitute a serious violation of University conduct
regulations. Students who engage in dishonesty in any form shall be charged with
academic dishonesty. Any student with a question about academic integrity or plagiarism
is encouraged to discuss it with his or her instructor. For details on WIU’s Academic
Integrity Policy, see www.wiu.edu/policies/acintegrity.php.
Under absolutely no circumstances should you ever make up facts or quotes. This is a
grievous offense-on part with plagiarism. It will be treated seriously, including possibly
contacting the head of the English and Journalism Department or associate dean for
undergraduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences for further action. You
should conduct your OWN interviews, do your OWN reporting, gather your OWN
information and go to ORIGINAL sources. Internet “clip jobs” are unacceptable.
Only in rare cases will I grant permission for taking quotes and facts from other
publications even if they are fully attributed. I expect you to be a professional reporter,
not a lazy writer.
Student Rights and Note to Students with Disabilities:
As a WIU student, you have your rights and responsibilities, see
http://www.wiu.edu/provost/students.php. In accordance with University policy and the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), academic accommodations may be made for any
student who notifies the instructor of the need for an accommodation. For the instructor
to provide the proper accommodation(s) you must obtain documentation of the need for
an accommodation through Disability Resource Center (DRC) and provide it to the
instructor. It is imperative that you take the initiative to bring such needs to the
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instructor's attention, as he/she is not legally permitted to inquire about such particular
needs of students. Students who may require special assistance in emergency evacuations
(i.e. fire, tornado, etc.) should contact the instructor as to the most appropriate procedures
to follow in such an emergency. Contact Disability Resource Center (DRC) at 298-2512
for additional services.
Personal Communication Devices:
Personal computers must be turned off when class begins and must not be used again
unless it is for an assignment. Use of cell phones, pagers, IPods, or any other personal
communication devices or programs in the classroom during class time is strictly
prohibited. You will be asked to leave for the day if you engage in such practices.
Repeated offenses will affect your final grades. Make sure these devices are turned off
prior to entering the classroom. You should not log onto or use lab computers unless I tell
you to do so.
Miscellaneous:
If you have a question about any of the readings, assignments, or anything course related,
it is up to you to approach or contact me in due time. I cannot read your mind and it is
much better to be overly safe than sorry later: No question or concern is stupid except the
ones that remain unexplored.
About the Instructor:
Before joining academia, Dr. Yong Tang worked for nearly 15 years as an award-winning
editor and reporter for the People’s Daily, the largest and most politically influential
newspaper in the People’s Republic of China. From 2004 to 2007, he was a Washington,
D.C.-based correspondent of the People’s Daily. Drawing upon his unique reporting and
writing experiences as a foreign correspondent in the world capital of news, Tang
published in 2014 a four-volume book America in the Eyes of Yong Tang with a
reputable publishing house in Beijing.
Yong Tang is a recipient of WIU Professional Achievement Award (2014). He was named
as Faces of Penn State (2013) (http://faces.psu.edu/faces/yong-tang/). He was on the list
of Top 50 Journalism Professors (2012) (http://journalismdegree.org/top-professors/).
Tang's list of additional honors and awards includes the top faculty paper award from the
Law and Policy Division, AEJMC (the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication) (2012); AEJMC's Best Research Scholar-to-Scholar Presentation Award
(2011); Gene and Fran Goodwin Journalism Scholarship at Penn State (2010); University
Graduate Fellowship at Penn State (2009); Freeman Fellowship at George Washington
University (2007); and the China Journalism Award (2004).
Yong Tang holds a doctoral degree in mass communications law and policy from The
Pennsylvania State University and another Ph.D. in international journalism from The
Communication University of China in Beijing. He studied at the George Washington
University Elliott School of International Affairs and earned a master’s degree in
international policy and practice. Yong Tang received his undergraduate education in
China, where he received his bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from
Sichuan International Studies University and another undergraduate degree in English
news reporting and editing from China School of Journalism. For more information about
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the
instructor,
see
Tang’s
faculty
http://www.wiu.edu/cas/english_and_journalism/directory/show.php?y-tang.
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page: