JOUR3410
Intro to
News Reporting
Dr. Barry Hollander
Room 229 Journalism
barry@uga.edu
706.542.5027
My Honors Section
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In JOUR3410 we focus on three skills: recognizing what is news, learning how to gather it, then finding the best way to tell true stories. Journalism is storytelling with a purpose.
This is a lecture-lab format. I run the lecture and teach a lab; others also teach labs. Two-thirds of your grade comes from the lab, one-third from the lecture. Lectures are largely about reporting, how to find information or interview people, labs are about writing, but expect a lot of overlap. Many of you are PR students but remember this is a newswriting class, so deal.
I compute the final grades. And no, I never negotiate test questions or a grade. Ever.
Lecture: 9:05 to 9:55 a.m. in some room of the SLC. No, I don't choose the time of the class.
TEXTS
* Carole Rich's Writing and Reporting News, 6th Edition. Buy it now. Make sure you get the right edition.
* An Associated Press stylebook. You will need it in later classes in journalism AND public relations. Get the latest version.
Your lab instructor may require you bring both to lab. Assume this unless told otherwise.
For you obsessive-compulsive types, the tentative weights in the lecture are as follows: 45% from Exam 1, 45% from Exam 2, and 10% derived from other stuff. Stuff may be quizzes, may be exercises, may be almost anything. I reserve the right to quiz you on chapters you should have read for that week, so when I have on the calendar that you should read the text, I mean it. By Monday. If we fail to have enough "stuff" in the semester, I'll shift weight back to the exams and make them something else, like 49.655%. Or the square root of Pi. Math is fun.
What's an overall A? 93 and up. 90-92 is A-. 87-89 is B+. 83-86 is B. And so on. UGA doesn't have an F- but, dammit, it ought to.
You may make up an exam only if you arrange for it in advance. Let me say this again but use all my various typographic options to make it stand out -- only in advance. If you miss an exam and don't communicate with me -- either by email or my office phone before the end of the class period in which the exam is given -- you may NOT take a makeup. All approved make ups are essay exams. Yes, essays, as in 5-10 questions that require long, profound answers. Feel profound? Here's your chance.
My advice? Be there on test day and don't come with any sad stories. Just drop.
DO NOT at the end of the semester email me whining about your grade. This is not high school or a private school where you can intimidate an underpaid teacher into changing a grade because mumsy and dadsy paid loads of money for overindulged BMW-driving yuppie larvae to hang out with other overindulged BMW-driving yuppie larvae. I am indifferent to your plight when it comes to grades. I get paid regardless.
Policies
The web page is the syllabus. Check here often for changes, random thoughts, schedules, and updates. Here are a few important rules to remember: No cheating, no stealing, no spitting or public scratching, no calling me at home, no begging, no bribes, and no mentioning Hope Scholarship.
When class begins, cell phones are NOT to be visible. No checking messages, no texting, no receiving calls. Try to survive 50 whole minutes without that little box ruling your life.
You get three free misses in lecture. That's 10 percent of the course. That's a week-and-a-half of class. On the fourth miss it's a drop of a letter grade. There are no excused absences, no unexcused misses. I don't want to hear why you did not attend class. Do not email or ask about absences unless you have something extraordinary, like Ebola. On your fifth miss, another letter grade drop, and so it goes until you make an F for the lecture. Unfortunately I can't go any lower than that (don't think I haven't tried!).
Here's some advice: save up your absences for that sudden illness or unexpected family death or family trip and spend them wisely. Attendance is expected; a lack of attendance hurts your grade. If tardiness becomes an issue, such as people walking in late, I will use the Tardy Roll in which each tardy counts as a half-absence. And you may also get to wear the dreaded Tardy Sorting Hat during class -- it spends most of class time insulting the wearer.
Never ever ask me if I did a roll the previous class or how many classes you have missed ... we don't compute this until the end of the semester. Save your absences for emergencies, illnesses, or those lousy Monday mornings where it's raining and you can't get out of bed. Do the counting of misses yourself. C'mon, you're in college. And yes, 9:05 a.m. is early, but it's not THAT early. Jeez.
Boilerplate Stuff: Read It! Live it!
* All academic work must meet the standards contained in "A Culture of Honesty." Each student is responsible for reading these lengthy, verbose, carefully crafted standards. Basically, know the rules and follow them -- or else.
* The syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary. That's a fancy way of saying the instructor reserves the right to change things whenever he damn well pleases. He's that kind of guy. The web page trumps the syllabus, either in a game of Spades, Rook, or in real life. Check here often. Make it your home page. Tell your friends.
* Cheating may be harmful to your health. Hollander ignores the official university process for cheaters and dreams up his own awful things to do to those he catches. Do not tempt his imagination. He is a sick man.
* Cell phones will be turned off before class starts, put away where they cannot be seen. Hollander has been known to confiscate phones and do terrible things to them behind the podium. Do you really want to stick that thing near your ear afterward? Ugh.
Don't break the rules because we write them. You can't win. We own you.
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