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| Class Calendar If a box is this color, we've finished that week |
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Week 1 |
Tuesday we intro the class, each other, share a group hug. I explain plans for the semester so those of you who want to flee can do so now. There's a lot of outside work in neighborhoods and government and real people. First assignment. Go to Gradyjournal. Down on the right you'll see a tag cloud (what we're talking about). Click on the Neighborhoods tag and look at the various stories done by a previous class on neighborhoods. Some are stories, some multimedia stuff. This'll give you an idea of what you face because I expect you to do much better. For next Thursday, come up with two possible neighborhoods we might do and why. Also for next Thursday, come up with a couple of mom & pop businesses and why they'd be worth doing. On mom & pops, try to avoid bars and restaurants and all downtown. Get out in town and actually walk and talk! Thursday, for those who foolishly did not drop, read the Introduction of the Parks text and this article. Bring in a local news article about local government (not from R&B or ABH, use online to find 'em) that you think fails and write a few sentences on why you think it fails. Have a copy of the article and you're brief analysis. |
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| Week 2 8/24-8/28 |
Tuesday read Parks text, chapters 1-3. Bring to class (already typed, printed) #2 from p. 30. We may even write some in class. Also, read this post about the Seven Laws of Journalism -- this semester. Thursday read Parks text chapters 4-5. Bring in two possible neighborhoods and mom & pops (mentioned above). Be prepared to discuss. Show you've done a little homework on the neighborhoods and businesses. Give this to me in a brief, 1-page, printed summary. Sell your neighborhood! Also, The end of beats? |
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Week 3
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Tuesday read Parks chapters 6-7. Oh, and talk a bit about dealing with readers of your stuff. One piece here. And here. Thursday Chapter 8-9 of Parks. Narrow down teams for neighborhood immersion (chosen by me), and approval of mom & pop topics. Talk about stories you wrote the other day, write another one in class. |
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Week 4
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Tuesday. Read Introduction from Clark (the green writing book) and chapters 1-3. Using especially Chapter 3, find a public affairs news story from any source and rewrite. Turn both the original and rewrite Tuesday morning. Underline or highlight on the original the sections that required particular repair. Thursday. Visit by Melissa Hanna, the new executive editor of the Athens Banner-Herald/OnlineAthens.com |
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Week 5 |
Tuesday. Read Chapter 12 of Parks. We'll discuss, especially in relation to your mom & pop assignment. Also, 4-6 of Clark. Thursday, Read chapters 14 and 15 of Parks. Also, I'll tell you the four neighborhoods we're doing and which team you're on. Assignment: based on chapters 14 and 15, identify a "new media" kinda story and tell me in a few sentences why it works or doesn't work. Make sure you give me the URL so I can look at it myself. Do NOT use R&B or ABH. |
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Week 6
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Tuesday. Chapters 7-15 of Clark. Bring to class an example of a news story you found that either (1) uses one of the tools in these chapters or (2) failed to use one of these tools and could be improved by doing so. As an aside, the chapter that talks about getting the name of the dog -- my favorite. Thursday. No class. Work on mom and pops, etc. |
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Week 7 The NYT
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Tuesday, Chapters 16-20 of Clark. Mom and Pop story due. Bring hard copy of story to me. Hold on to any other material (photos). I want to read the stories first, edit, give back, have you fix any issues and then upload it all to gradyjournal. By that time we'll have IDs set up for you. We'll talk about the Clark chapters briefly, then I'll put on the projector a few of your stories to, ahem, discuss. Thursday: I return your mom&pop stories, talk a bit about uploading 'em to gradyjournal. Read chapters 21-25 of Clark. Bring in an article that fits one of the tools mentioned in chapters 16 thru 25. If it's a story that fails at some tool, rewrite and attach. If it's a story that does a good job of doing what a tool discusses, even better. We'll talk about 'em, also set aside time for teams to meet on neighborhood stories. Clark's 25 suggestions on writing short |
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Week 8 Agenda of ACC meeting
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Tuesday. Chapters 26-30 of Clark. We'll also talk about meeting agendas and covering them since you have to cover two by the end of the semester. By the beginning of class you should have uploaded your mom & pop stories to Gradyjournal. You also should have sent me a photo or two via email to go with your story (as we discussed in class last week). Directions on first changing your gradyjournal password and then uploading stories are here, just a few minutes of video to make your life simpler. Thursday. Chapters 31-35 of Clark. We'll talk about the chapters for a bit then I'll do some stuff on computer-assisted reporting. We'll play with UGA parking ticket data (to be uploaded soon). |
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Week 9 |
Tuesday: Guest: Robert M. Williams Jr., publisher of SouthFire Newspapers Group (Blackshear Times, Alma Times, Charlton County Herald, Monroe County Reporter, Telfair Enterprise, and Three Rivers Gazette). These community newspapers have won a number of awards along the way. Thursday: Chapters 36-45 of Clark. Talk briefly, then turn to neighborhood project meetings. Perhaps a bit of writing. Not sure yet. |
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Week 10 paid bloggers
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Tuesday: Chapters 46-50 of Clark. Read a couple of stories for discussion. Also, discuss neighborhood project stuff. Thursday: More writing, perhaps briefly discuss neighborhood project stuff. Gigantic report on future of journalism |
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| Week 11 10/26-10/30 |
Tuesday: In class, read this story. Also we'll do some CAR stuff, looking for stories in fire data and then some higher math on murders. Thursday: No class. Do whatever it is when you're not in class, but get out-of-class stuff done. See below. |
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Week 12 |
Tuesday: Writing Takeways due from the Clark book by class today. Hard copies only, at the beginning of class only, otherwise I do not want it. In the "takeaway" you are to come up with about five concept areas from the text that you found useful in your own writing, and tell me why. It may be that three or four chapters fall together in one area (for example, verbs (chp 3), adverbs (chp 5) and -ing words (chp 6) all come together for you as a single concept area of improving your writing. So you'll have about five Concept Areas, each of which may be more than a single chapter, though a couple may be only a single chapter depending on how you do them. Tell me how these areas work for you, and why, with examples. In other words, write about your writing. If you have weaknesses the chapters address, that's great, get into that. We'll talk about 'em a bit in class. Thursday: stuff Journalism's future? Or another future? Or a return to something else in the future? Or will narrative remain? |
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Week 13 |
By now, some of your neighborhood immersion stories should be ready and uploaded to gradyjournal (photos, any other related stuff, emailed to me). We will devote most of Tuesday to team meetings on stories, approaches, strategies, and other miiltary-sounding tactics. Thursday: tba |
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Week 14 |
By now, all of your neighborhood immersion stories should be ready. Deadline Friday, 5 p.m. timestamp on uploaded stories and digital stuff to me via email. Some hyper-local citizen "journalism." And an interesting youtube twist working with NPR and others. Tuesday, we talk about covering political campaigns. |
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| Week 15 11/23-11/27 |
Thanksgiving Break. |
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Week 16
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Thursday - Last day of class for us. Course Evals. Go Here! |
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| Week 17 12/7- |
No class, but deadline for all meeting stories is 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 16. |
old links of stuff I may or may not use
How to tell a story differently.
Another story told kinda like the one above.
Quick and dirty CAR example using UGA data.
Fresh off
the Net
sweet tea in Virginia
Chase street elementary, neighborhood school.
Do people really like diverse communities?
Story on new news sites. Read it.
Here is a fact sheet. The password is grady. Write a meeting advance based on the info. You will not use all of the info provided. Story is due by Friday, 5 p.m., via email. If late, don't bother sending it in. Note: this was posted here on Tuesday of this week. You were reminded Thursday.
Thursday, guest speaker ... Wil Haygood of The Washington Post. Here's one story. Here's another.
UGA majors
Fun with Google
part of my continuing messing with data for stories
And we'll read two short stories in class as examples of concrete writing: Rampaging Rooster and Pin Boys
A great court story
Tuesday, read chapters 46-50 of Clark. Watch the two tutorials on how to use GradyJournal. The tutorials are here, the journal itself here. We'll work through easy CAR data examples. First is "crony" and the other is "sewers and another is "skultrip." Pword for each file is grady. Story examples using CAR to the left.
Thursday: more CAR, heavy data lifting. I'll teach you how to do pivot tables and such with Excel. The data you'll need: crime, drugs, and exxon. I'll hand out directions. All pwords grady.
Tuesday: CAR, learning "Access." Data to play with: PrezRace, Natlarts, Hunting.
Thursday: Neighborhood stories, CAR, etc.
Tuesday. See this. And the rest of the time, discussing neighborhood stories and such. The earlier you get in some stuff, the better. Also, read this.