February 25, 2008 Archives

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.