February 2008 Archives

Read these articles. Create separate agenda items for any two that interest you.

• Revitalizing Community Journalism
• Cultivating Online Community Takes Time, Skill
• What Makes Local News Really Local?
• Community Journalism: Nowhere to HIde
  

Daniella Choynowski
Stormy Knight
Evan Reynolds
Leslie Rodriguez
Michelle Polly
Christopher Ulicne

Recent activity on the blogs of all members of this course. This page will update regularly, though it will often lag a few hours behind. To force an update, post a comment anywhere on this website or the NMJ website.

50 Recent Peer Entries

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Full details TBA. In general, this exercise (2-3 pages) asks you to set personal goals for your growth as a student journalist during this semester. If you have taken EL200 before, multiple times, what can you do to make this class  -- intended to give you practical skills and leadership training -- worthwhile to the long-term good of The Setonian, and meaningful for you?

Be realistic, specific, and creative.

Use the Google News Elections page to find two different news stories covering the same event.

Write a blog entry that links to both versions, examining the differences.

1. How does each author show creativity, within the framework of news reporting? 
   
2. Use these stories to demonstrate your knowledge of some area of journalism -- accuracy, objectivity, clarity -- where the reporters differ. If possible, incorporate reader reaction to the articles.

Later tonight, Dr. Rosen will be giving a speech sponsored by the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education. I encourage you to attend.

What have been the various kinds of literary responses?

How have literary responses to the Holocaust changed from the time of the war to the present day?

How do the different languages of this literature shape the response to the Holocaust?

 These questions and others will be addressed in Dr. Rosen's presentation. Dr. Rosen lectures in Holocaust Literature at Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Authority. He has also taught at universities, colleges, and middle schools in Israel and in the United States, as well as written a number of books on the subject, including Sounds of Defiance: The Holocaust, Multilingualism and the Problem of English.

I have invited Dr. Rosen to our class, so that you can have the experience of writing a local story (400 words, due as part of Portfolio 1) that uses Dr. Rosen as a source.  Don't think of your article simply as promotion for Dr. Rosen's speech -- by the time you publish your article, the speech will be over.  What angle can you come up with that will take advantage of Dr. Rosen's presence, in order to make a good news story on a topic of interest to our local community?

An obvious source for information is our own National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education.

The announcement about Dr. Rosen's speech came in the same press release that mentioned a related event:

 "A Taste of Judaism," a special three-part series for non-Jewish friends, unaffiliated Jews or interfaith couples will be offered at Congregation Emanu-El Israel, Main Street, Greensburg on February 10, 17 and 24, 2008 from 7-8:30 p.m. Rabbi Sara Rae Perman will teach the sessions which are sponsored by Reform Congregations of Greater Pittsburgh and the Unio of Reform Judaism. Admission is free and space is limited. For information or to register, contact TasteInGreensburg@urj.org or 412-373-1273.

I'm not requiring you to work this event into your story, but you might look up Rabbi Perman (you could use the Lexis-Nexis database at Reeves Library in order to search news sources within the past few years), see what sorts of things she typically talks to the media about, and try to contact her yourself.

On a day when we are likely to need something for our own circulation (brrrr!), we will venture to the neighborhood around the forthcoming performing arts center to start circulating the latest issue of The Setonian.

Meet at 1pm Friday, on the circle in Admin. Stormy and I will drive. (If you want to make your own arrangements or you want to go down earlier, please feel free -- just let me know so people won't be waiting for you.)

Class is canceled on Monday, but note that the usual post-issue portfolio is still due that day.

Rather than leave huge stacks for the general public, our idea is to leave a small handful for employees and decision-makers.  Our goal is to publicize our work so that members of the community (including potential news sources, readers, and advertisers) will be exposed to it.  (Later we can go back and ask whether the site would like us to deliver a stack for customers to pick up.)

A good strategy might be to ask who the boss or owner is, and who is responsible for advertising or public relations.  Politely ask whether an employee will put a copy of the paper in the boxes of these decision-makers. 

Don't push to make a sale or try to conduct an interview for a story -- today we are just introducing ourselves. (If someone wants to talk, get their contact information and we'll pass it on to someone.)

Below I've linked to the Google Maps view of the street just in front of where the new performing arts center will be. There aren't street views available for every street where people are likely to walk if they're coming to and going from the new center, but the map might be useful in planning.

View Larger Map


I think the easiest thing to do will be to meet in the circle outside of Admin, and Stormy and I will be available to drive folks down. 

We have arranged this for Feb 15, and accordingly, class today is canceled.

The portfolio assignment is still due as usual.

In a single file, upload to Turnitin.com:

1) A Lab Report (a 400-word news article) (50%)

• Cover your contributions to the production of The Setonian (other than writing or photography) with special attention to your personal goals (from Ex 1)
  
• Include direct quotes from three sources, including editors and co-workers
• Write it in the third person, following all the principles of good journalism. (Thus, on first reference you are "Firstname Lastname, a freshman at Seton Hill University," and on subsequent references you are "Lastname.")

2) Three story ideas for the Summer Setonian, spanning at least two different sections (News, Sports, A&E) (10%)

• The main audiences for the Summer Setonian:
• Incoming freshmen
• Parents of incoming freshmen
• Potential local advertisers (particularly businesses near the Performing Arts building)
• Pitch stories that will have a long shelf life.
• The issue is scheduled for July 11, and stories will need to last until late August.
• "Fourth of July Picnic Tips" will be pointless by then, but "Summer Fun" will last longer.
  
• Consider stories about recent grads, commuters, non-traditional-aged students, grad students...
• Consider localized versions of stories about "helicopter parents," "millennials," plagiarism, online privacy, digital rights and file-sharing, campus security, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, etc.
• Really, look in any issue of Time magazine or look in the Education section of a major newspaper.
• Plan to contact experts who are not at SHU. Rather than quoting from an academic study (as students should do), plan to seek an interview with the author. (You should, of course, also seek quotes from SHU sources, but your story will look better in your writing portfolio if you demonstrate a willingness to go off the hill for your sources.)
  

3) Group Term Project "action item" (20%)

• Propose a group term project that meets an existing need.
• Interview your fellow Setonian staff members -- especially those who aren't taking this class, or who have never taken it.
• Find out what work needs to be done for The Setonian.
• Very briefly, sketch out where you feel you should be by the time you write your next portfolio.

4) Field Trip Report (20%)

• This can be informal, but keep it informative. What were the business you visited? What route did you take? How did people respond? What suggestions do you have about how to publicize issue #2?
  

The local story (600 words) that includes material you learned from Dr. Alan Rosen's visit to class. Note that I am not asking you simply to write a news story about his visit to our classroom.

Instead, interview other local sources to generate a local story in which Dr. Rosen's expertise plays a role. (I'd be happy to listen to your ideas.)

This assignment was initially listed as the field trip report, but I changed it once I learned of Dr. Rosen's availability. (You won't need to write anything more about the field trip, other than what you wrote in Portfolio 1.)

Closer to the due date I will select an ongoing story that I'd like you to follow via the online coverage.  We will take a look at how the local coverage differs from the national (or, depending on the story, perhaps international) coverage.

The current event: An arrest of a St. Peter's College (Jersey City, N.J.) student. The campus went into lockdown mode after a threatening note surfaced.  Look up the coverage of this event (which has developed since it first broke on Wednesday).  Use Google News (news.google.com) or the library's Lexis-Nexis database in order to find recent news articles. 

1. One "breaking news" version of the story.
2. One local story (written with an angle that focuses on the region and its inhabitants).
3. One national story (written with an angle that focuses on recent campus incidents, or on the recent media coverage of such  incidents).
   

On your blog, post a brief informal analysis that quotes from and links to all three articles. Conclude your analysis with a brief statement about The Setonian's possible role in dealing with an emergency event on campus.