Assignment for Monday

We’ll do a conference call interview on Monday with Scott Kraft, a senior correspondent and former national editor for the Los Angeles Times. See the attached bio for more detail.

Among other things, Scott is one of the nation’s best feature story writers. That’s what we’ll talk to him about.

Before class, please read the attached story by Scott about the life of a Haitian street kid after the earthquake. (I handed out copies early in the semester, but I doubt that you still have them.)

Here’s the link if you’d rather read it online:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-haiti-boy31-2010jan31,0,5017595.story

The street kid piece is a classic immersion story. Read it ahead of time and see if you can identify the live-action scenes. (I counted more than five.), the historical scenes recreated from interviews, the billboard section and any other blocks of material, such as biographical detail.

We’ll include a couple questions about Scott and the story in our Final Quiz.

During the interview, I’ll ask you to come up with one question to ask Scott.

Wednesday Class Optional

Due to popular demand, Wednesday’s class will be optional. I’ll be there for anyone who wants to drop by and discuss stories or other issues. For those of you who weren’t in Monday’s class, I will have your marked-up Scene 3s and Scene 4s with me. The same goes for those of you who submitted scenes after the deadline.

Warren

Extra Credit Opportunity

NOTE: Please e-mail your analyses directly to me.
Warren.

I’ll give 10 bonus points of extra credit to anyone who attends both the Jason Riley presentation at 1:30 Monday and the Dan Stein presentation at 5:30 and then writes a 250-word analysis of which speaker seemed the most persuasive.

Both sessions will be held in the Gaylord Auditorium, Room 1140.

Please send me a message if you’d like to take me up on this.

Warren

MONDAY CLASS

Monday’s class will be held in the Gaylord Auditorium (Room 1140). It is the presentation by Wall Street Journal senior editorial writer Jason Riley as part of the “Immigration in the Heartland” conference. The first couple of rows will be reserved for the professional journalists attending the event; otherwise you may sit anywhere. Attendance will be taken.

Here is some biographical information on Riley:

JASON RILEY is a member of the editorial board at the Wall Street

Required Photos

You must turn in at least one digital photo to go with your Trend Story, and at least one with  your Immersion Story. They must be submitted with the final drafts of those stories.

See me or Darcy if you need to check out a Gaylord camera, unless you already have Cage privileges.

Assignments Update

Here are the deadlines you are currently facing:

Sunday, April 11
Immersion Scene 4

Wednesday, April 14
Trend Story first draft

Sunday, April 18
Revised and BOLDFACED Immersion Scene 2

Sunday, April 25
Full Immersion Story first draft
(this will include Revised and BOLDFACED Scenes 3 & 4)

Sunday, May 2
Trend story final draft and PHOTO

Sunday, May 9
Full Immersion Story final draft and PHOTO

Warren

Schedule Revisions

The Schedule page has been updated.

Trend Story Billboard Assignment

03/22/10
TREND BILLBOARD—Write the billboard paragraph or paragraphs for your trend story. The objective is to take your best shot at conveying the main point and significance of your story as you presently envision it. You should be able to take these sentences and insert them into your final story as you have written them, unless subsequent reporting causes your main point to change.
For bonus points, attach a killer quote to the end of your billboard.
File your billboard in the Trend Story Billboard dropbox of D2L by midnight Sunday, March 28.

More Profiles

“Haitian singer and his guitar fight urge to weep”

“Arkansas’s senator in middle, hit on all sides”

More Trend Stories

“Long lines at theme parks are for jobs”

“High-tech industry is powering up again”

“Safety is issue as budget cuts free prisoners”

“Rash of scandals tests Democrats at sensitive time”

“Plus-size furniture grows with America’s girth”

“This music is sponsored by…”

“Going to the mat over money”

“Fee hikes OK for some anti-tax govs”

Trend Story Assignment

TrendAssign
03/03/10

TREND STORY—Report and write a minimum 750-word feature providing specific, anecdotal examples of a broader topic with inherent news value. The objective is to find one or more colorful and informative microcosms that help readers better understand an important trend, event, study, statistic or other notable phenomenon in the news. The story will require a combination of authoritative and anecdotal source material. Your finished story must contain original, current reporting and quotes from a minimum of five interviews. It must be suitable for publication with all sources fully identified.

Deadlines:
•    Sunday, March 7: Submit at least two ideas for possible trend story subjects. File your ideas in the Trend Story Idea dropbox in D2L.
•    Sunday, March 14: File your final Trend Story idea.
•    Sunday, April 4: First draft.
•    Sunday, April 18: Final draft.

Stories must contain:
•    original, current reporting.
•    quotes from a minimum of five interviews (a mix of experts who can discuss the trend and ordinary people who illustrate it).
•    supporting facts, statistics and historical information, as needed.

Stories must not contain:
•    anecdotal examples using roommates, friends or relatives (unless approved in advance and disclosed in story).
•    quotes from any of the above.
•    quotes taken from other stories (unless approved in advance and fully attributed).
•    information attributed to other news media that you could have reported yourself.

Grading criteria:
•    -Idea  (originality, scope, difficulty).
•    -Reporting  (effort, resourcefulness, difficulty).
•    -Writing  (creativity, structure, style, errors).

#  #  #

One-Sentence Summaries

Kelsey Witten:
1.    Immersion: Thousands will run marathons this year, but a smaller group of dedicated people will take on the physical and psychological challenges in an effort to save the lives of loved ones and strangers alike.
2.    Profile:

Profile Examples

“A Piece of Me Is Buried With Him,” Warren Vieth

“He’ll Take Your Job and Ship It,” Warren Vieth

“Taking Mind,” Tiara Etheridge

“A Child of Cairo’s Streets, with a Child of her Own,” Jeffrey Fleisman

“Depression Survivors Remember Hope,” P.J. Huffstutter

“A 90-year-old Foot in the Door,” Kim Murphy

“Greg Scallan: Poker Ace,” M. Scott Carter

“The Last Outlaw,” Kurt Marcus

Billboard Search Assignment

02/24/10
BILLBOARD SEARCH—Find a long, well-written feature story with some kind of “billboard” paragraph or paragraphs containing a summary of the story’s main point and an allusion to its broader significance. The article can be a profile, a trend story or a narrative feature, just as long as it doesn’t start with a traditional inverted-pyramid summary lead. Print out the story, draw a box around the summary and significance material, and write “Billboard” in the margin. For extra credit, draw boxes around other identifiable sections of text, such as scenes or supporting statistics, and label them, too. Turn in your autopsy report before leaving today (Wednesday, Feb. 24) or bring it with you to class on Monday (March 1).

Denise Gamino

CLICK HERE to see an online bio of Denise.

CLICK HERE to read “The Road Home.”

CLICK HERE to read “The Final Roll Call.”

Assignments & Deadlines

The Schedule and Assignments pages have been revised. Click on tabs above to see them.

Wednesday Class Optional

Features Class:

We won’t have a regular class session on Wednesday, Feb. 17. I will be in the classroom, so if anyone wants to talk to me individually about story assignments, feel free to drop by. Otherwise, you can use the time to work on your stories.

I’ll see you Monday.

Warren

Scene Idea Assignment

By midnight Sunday, Feb. 14, turn in a list of at least five scenes you envision for your Immersion Story. File your ideas in the 5 Proposed Scenes dropbox in D2L.

Also due Sunday, Feb. 14: Revised profile idea.

WV Conference Schedule

Here’s the schedule. It’s also listed on the “WV Conferences” page above.

WV CONFERENCES
01/31/10

Wednesday, Feb. 3
•    3:00 p.m.  Laura Hampton

Immersion Story Assignment

IMMERSION STORY ASSIGNMENT
01/26/10

Pick a person, group, organization, project or process you can track for the remainder of the semester.

Revised Class Schedule

I revised and expanded the class schedule and the deadline table in the syllabus. Click on the Schedule or Syllabus tabs above to see the revised versions.

Welcome to Feature Writing!

This is the official website for students enrolled in JMC 3023 Feature Writing for the spring semester of 2010. Previous posts on this blog are the legacy of earlier classes. Please check this blog frequently for assignment updates and schedule changes.

-Warren Vieth

Virus Video

This NPR animation shows how a virus uses your body to multiply:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114075029&sc=nl&cc=es-20091129

Media Monday Powerpoints

Copyediting

Multimedia

Slideshow

Media Monday Six-Word Stories

Six-Word Stories

“The Job of Finding a New Job”

Once again, we ponder the question:

Is this journalism?

The Job of Finding a New Job

“Uncovered”

Check out this New York Times multimedia package containing vignettes of people who have no health insurance:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/02/health/INSURANCE_VOICES.html?th&emc=th

Final Story Assignments

Tuned Out Chapter 1

Click here to download Chapter 1 of Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News. (It’s also posted on the Readings page.)

Leopold’s Cafe

Check out this panoramic photo of the site of a terrorist bombing in Mumbai, India.

Gimme A Word…

The New York Times asks readers for one word to describe how they feel one year after Obama’s elections. Here’s what they are saying.

Final Cut Tool Palette

You will need to know some of Final Cut Pro’s tool palette’s functions.

To learn what the functions are or to learn shortcuts, click here.

NYT: “Runaways” video & story

Here’s the video/slideshow: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/10/25/us/1247465360380/when-no-ones-looking.html?th&emc=th

Here’s the text story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/us/26runaway.html?_r=1

“Finding a new model for news reporting”

This op-ed was published Monday by the Washington Post. It was written by Leonard Downie, the author of our “News About The News” textbook:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/18/AR2009101801461.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&sid=ST2009101802019

Here’s an initial critique of Downie’s proposal:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=123&aid=171902

“Two Weeks in Forever”

Here’s another good audio slideshow about U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/14/magazine/afghan-audioss/index.html?th&emc=th

“Cut In Half”

Check out this New York Times slideshow. It contains a simple audio track with minimal editing: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/14/business/economy/20091014_INCOME_AUDSLIDESHOW/index.html

Hyperlocal Journalism

My Ballard, an online website focusing on one Seattle neighborhood, and the Gotham Gazette, which covers only New York City  just won first place awards in the Online News Association’s annual competition for the best Internet news sites. Check them out:

http://www.myballard.com/

http://gothamgazette.com/

Project Ideas

10/05/09

Click here to see them all

Flu Central

http://www.flu.gov/

25 Basic Styles of Blogging

http://freshpeel.posterous.com/the-25-basic-styles-of-blogging

Attention TV Journalists

This story about multimedia vs. traditional television news job descriptions is worth reading: http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2009/09/26/media_technology/inside_media/doc4abd164eab540966373861.txt

Iran Nuke Plant Graphic

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/09/29/world/middleeast/iran-nuclear-facility.html?th&emc=th

“Swine Flu Surge Closes Schools, Tests Hospitals”

Read the Washington Post story here.

“Mastering Multimedia”

This American Journalism Review article might give you some ideas for your presentations (particularly this week’s).

Bob Dotson Visit

From:  Julie Jones
To:  Everyone

As you might have heard, we have Bob Dotson coming to Gaylord on Thursday, Sept. 24.  Bob has the distinction of being “America’s storyteller,” and for good reasons.  He is one of the elite – if not THE elite – storytellers of our time. 

NYT: “Financial Crisis, One Year Later”

This is a big, elaborate multimedia package appearing on the New York Times website:  “Financial Crisis, One Year Later”

“Watch Out, Swine Flu”

Great video. But is it journalism?

“Watch Out, Swine Flu”

Stuck for story ideas?

Here’s another good resource. You can sign up for regular email alerts:

“Five Consumer-Related Story Ideas You Can Localize”

Nose itch? Think twice before touching…

This New York Times swine flu story is full of interesting statistics…

“A Cleaning That Can Stave Off The Flu”

FactCheck & Romanesko

I added links under “Resources” in the right column for FactCheck, a respected University of Maryland truth squad site geared to journalists, and Romanesko, a widely read Poynter Institute blog focusing on media industry issues.