Syllabus

Course Objectives

Course Outline

Grading Policies

Required Reading 

Extensive reading is a prerequisite for good writing. Students should be reading content of their choice, including social networks, media outlets and new publications, from a journalistic perspective.  What do I mean by a journalistic perspective? If we are talking about objectivity, then look for signs of objectivity in what you consume. If we are practicing writing ledes, then look at the ways the writers of your choice produce ledes.  

Description of Assignments: 

This course will develop your writing and reporting skills through weekly quizzes, homework exercises and polished, audience-ready content production, including reporting on Butte College events and people and stories in the surrounding communities.  

You will learn the basics of broadcast journalism, including writing radio and television copy and recording, shooting, and editing audio and video. Your final requires both a text story and a video story.  

You will have to decide on the topic of most of your work. While creative freedom can be liberating, there is a dark side of choice—paralysis, or writer’s block. To help you overcome writer’s block, most assignments offer an option to complete an assigned topic. 

Team Learning. Occasionally you will work with other students to evaluate and suggest improvements in the first  

Assignments will be graded on accuracy, grammar, spelling, AP style, clarity, deadlines, conciseness, structure, proper punctuation, quality of interviews/reporting and use of quotes (if applicable), use/number/quality of sources, attribution, research, objectivity, production value, etc. You must abide by the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics (http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.aspLinks to an external site.), NPPA (https://nppa.org/resources/ethicsLinks to an external site.), SND (https://snd.org/events-training/code-of-conduct/Links to an external site.) and the RTNDA Code of Ethics (https://www.rtdna.org/ethics#.VTNMjItAwUULinks to an external site.). 

Assignment submission policy: 

Most work will be submitted as a file upload. Canvas accepts docs and pdfs. If you work in Google, please download your work as a file and then upload it onto Canvas. 

Why???? This class is designed to teach professional habits. Producing work a document (as opposed to simply typing into the submission window) provides greater access to editing tools, allows you to maintain a copy in case Canvas glitches, and teaches basic organizational strategies for archiving your work. 

• How do I download a file in Google Docs?
• How do I upload a file into Canvas?
• What are file storage best practices? 
  • Consistent naming strategy (J2 HW W2) or (J2 Lede HW)
  • Folders  (Try using Microsoft’s One Drive as part of the free tools provided to all students by Butte College.)

Grading Scales: 

Homework is evaluated according to the following standards-based scale: 

• Exceeds Expectations: Submission demonstrates thorough understanding of assignment purpose and requirements. Works is moving beyond an exercise and towards authentic content.
• Meets Expectations: Submission demonstrates adequate understanding of assignment purpose and requirements. As an exercise, this work is helping you to think through and learn the intended strategy, technique or concept.
• Approaching Expectations: Submission demonstrates partial understanding but does not fully meet the requirements or purpose of the assignment. If possible, please revise and resubmit this assignment so you can learn the intended information.
• Needs Improvement/Revision Required: Submission demonstrates confusion about the purpose and/or requirements for this exercise. Please review this week’s lecture content and assignment description. Checking in with me over email or during office hours may clarify the purpose and expectations of this exercise.  

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Audience-ready content:

Articles and other forms of audience-ready content (videos, etc.) will be judged first on the accuracy, fairness, and objectivity of your stories. You will then be evaluated for news writing or broadcast style, editing, production value, originality and the ability to meet deadlines. 

• “A” stories are accurate, clear, comprehensive stories that are professionally written and require only minor copyediting (i.e., they would be aired or published). Video work must also be shot and edited creatively, be well paced, and include good sound bites and natural sound that add flavor, color, or emotion to the story.  
• “B” stories require more than minor editing and have a few style or spelling errors or one significant error of omission. For video, there may be minor flaws in the composition of some shots or in the editing. Good use of available sound bites is required.  
• “C” stories need considerable editing or rewriting and/or have many spelling, style or omission errors. Camera work and editing techniques in video stories are mediocre or unimaginative, but passable. Sound bites add little or no color – only information that could be better told in the reporter’s narration.
• “D” stories require excessive rewriting, have numerous errors and should not have been submitted. Camera work is unsatisfactory or fails to show important elements.
• “F” stories have failed to meet the major criteria of the assignment, are late, have numerous errors or both. Your copy should not contain any errors in spelling, style, grammar and facts. Any misspelled or mispronounced proper noun will result in an automatic “F” on that assignment. Any factual error will also result in an automatic “F” on the assignment. Accuracy is the first law of journalism.

The following are some other circumstances that would warrant a grade of “F” and potential Butte College disciplinary action:  

• • Fabricating a story or making up quotes or information.
  • Plagiarizing a script/article, part of a script/article or information from any source, including Ai (copying Ai generated text and presenting the text as something you created is considered plagiarizing from a source)
  • Staging video or telling interview subjects what to say.
  • Using video shot by someone else or Ai and presenting it as original work.
  • Shooting video in one location and presenting it as another location.
  • Using the camcorder to intentionally intimidate, provoke or incite a person or a group of people to elicit more “dramatic” video.
  • Promising, paying or giving someone something in exchange for doing an interview either on or off camera.

Late Work Policy

Homework: a 2.5% penalty will be deducted for every day past the due date, unless otherwise stated.

Audience-ready content: a 5% penalty will be deducted for every day past the due date, unless otherwise stated

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Policy 

Artificial Intelligence tools are fundamental to the production, reception, and distribution of information, especially in the journalism industry. At the same time, Ai tools are disrupting the industry, including challenging trust and definitions of what constitutes news.  

This class is a learning environment where we are free to play with and examine Ai tools. Freedom comes with responsibility. We will also be transparent with how and why we use those tools so we can have conversations about where this semester’s production team draws boundaries around Ai-generated and/or revised content.  

We have two guiding principles for our work together: 

1. As ethical content creators, we are transparent and honest about our use of Ai tools because we are determining guidelines for the future of humanity; therefore, we must have honest communication around effective and ethical use of these tools. 

2. We do not waste our readers’ or each other’s time with copied and pasted content.

If for some reason a student chooses not to abide by these principles, administrative action may be taken.

Transparency statements are required. 

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Butte Academic Policies

Attendance Guidelines – California Education Code requires attendance must be taken for the first two weeks of regular classes for census. Faculty need to have clear policies describing their withdrawal procedures.

Academic Integrity – Students are encouraged to discuss homework problems with others but need to produce assignments that are a result of their own independent effort.

Academic Accommodations and DSPS – Students will have academic adjustments, auxiliary aids, services and/or instruction provided through a DSPS approved academic accommodation plan.  If you believe that you may need an accommodation in this course because of a disability, please contact DSPS.=

Student rights and privileges   — As members of a democracy, we must assume that all perspectives have value, even if we choose to resist those perspectives. I assume we will all listen to and respect the sacred practice of freedom of speech.

My job is to teach each of you how to most effectively express your opinions; it is not my job to dictate those opinions.

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Student Resources

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Butte College Drop Policies, Processes and Dates

Participation and Attendance:

Federal law requires active participation if a student is to continue to receive financial aid. I define active participation as the submission of one assignment each week. Students who miss the requirement two weeks in a row without contacting the instructor may be dropped. See the Butte College Attendance and Academic Integrity page for more information on attendance, grades, drop and withdrawal deadlines, and so forth.