Communication 359: Reporting Public Affairs

COM359:
Reporting Public Affairs

Fall 2005

Check out COM359 Online, your source for local public affairs news

Course Introduction

Professor: Jane Gibson Natt	Class: T and TH, 9:00 to 10:15
Office: BRNG 2164	Location: BRNG 2273
Office phone: 494-3322	Office hours: MW, 8:30 to 9:30; T, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Home phone: 746-1180	E-mail: jnatt@cla.purdue.edu

Course Introduction:
COM359 is designed to apply those skills learned in introductory writing and editing classes to the coverage of public affairs and to introduce you to new skills needed in covering a public affairs beat. Public affairs reporting can include almost anything that deals with the appropriation, distribution, handling or expenditure of public funds. It includes all public and quasi-public agencies, organizations and institutions. It also includes the community organizations affected by public institutions.

During this class, you will choose a governmental beat you might be assigned at a real newspaper. Through hands-on experiences, readings, discussions and classroom activities, students will learn reporting techniques that show how government works and how it affects the lives of citizens.

The Beats:
Students will be required to choose one of five listed governmental beats, which will be used to generate outside stories:

West Lafayette city government	Purdue University
West Lafayette city schools	Indiana Department of Agriculture

Beats will be meted out on Thursday. No more than four students may cover a single beat. At least two students will be assigned to each beat. Students should check their own schedules to avoid conflicts with regularly scheduled meetings on their beats and give me their preferences on Thursday. Please have a top choice and two alternative choices ready.

Course Assignments:

Beat report: A detailed report that outlines a specific beat, its chief officials and newsmakers, elected or appointed bodies; details how to contact each; governing bodies that meet and when; tells of current issues facing such officials or bodies; speculates on the likely news stories that will break during the semester; and details possible story sources. You should also include your plans on keeping up with your beat. To complete this assignment, students may rely on handouts (news releases), calendars, interviews, Internet sources, directories, phone calls, archived news stories, etc. The beat report is to include the results of one phone call to a beat source, i.e. the mayor's spokesman or spokeswoman. The name, phone number, time of call/meeting, and duration of meeting must be included. Spot checks will be made to see if the contact indeed occurred.

Monthly beat reports: These reports will summarize the activity on your beat during the previous month, and how you kept up with the activity. Monthly reports should include a summation of stories from your beat you read, the hot issue, phone calls you made, meetings you attended, news releases you received, etc. You are expected to have checked in at least once a month with your source. You will be graded on the efforts you made to keep up with your beat. Please note there is more to a government beat than just the City Council meeting. There is more to an education beat than the school board meeting. Meetings of government bodies do not equal coverage of a beat.

Beat stories: The following beat stories will be required of all students:

One spot story covering a news event on the beat, such as a meeting, news conference or speech by a top official. Remember, meeting stories do not simply focus on what happened. They also include background material about the issue; in many cases, comments from witnesses/participants/; a check to see if both sides are represented; what happens next.
Spot story or enterprise story involving the use of documents in the reporting and/or analysis of data – numbers crunching. Examples are a story on government finances or a government report of general interest, an analysis of census data or education figures or scores. You must turn in your data analysis with this project. You must have obtained the original data document yourself and done the numbers crunching yourself.
News feature that focuses on a current trend or issue on your beat. This story must include the opinions of citizens. In general, the story should include: A summary of the issue and why it's currently in the news. Some history or background. If any previous attempts to deal with the problem. Proposed approaches to settling the issue. Discussion of major players, including a rundown of various interest groups involved and their positions. Some views of ordinary citizens. Details about the cost of the problem and cost of solutions.

Paper Trail: You will be given the name of a local resident and asked to find out as much information as possible about that person without contacting the information. You will use only "paper" information.

Daily Assignments: Include simple writing exercises, CAR exercises, various beat-related exercises, and yes, AP style quizzes :)

Course Objectives:
Successfully putting together news stories from these beat assignments will require identifying news, contacting sources, conducting interviews, attending various kinds of community meetings, examining public records, and asking the right questions.

By the end of the semester you should be able to:

develop strategies for covering public affairs;
evaluate and present information in terms of the audiences that will use it;
explore a variety of newsgathering methods and techniques

Course Materials:

1. Required Texts.

Norm Goldstein, ed., The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual
Online readings

2. Computer Supplies.

You will have access to your H-drive in the computer lab. If you would like to save your work to take home, bring a flash drive or floppy disk.

3. Newspapers

I expect you to read The Exponent as well as the local daily, the Journal and Courier, each day. Monitoring the local papers will be necessary to keep up with your beat. You should also make it a practice to read different newspapers, such as The New York Times, Washington Post, and Indianapolis Star, each day. It is vitally important for communications professionals to be aware of what is happening locally, nationally and abroad to be effective. Reading a national or regional story from another area might provide you with a story idea to pursue locally. Reading examples of veteran beat professionals also is an excellent learning tool.

Course Requirements:

1. Attendance:

This course simulates professional standards. You are allowed only one excused absence because of the nature of the class (the mucho time off given to work on your outside stories). If you know you will miss a class because of illness or another verifiable circumstance, you must notify me, preferably beforehand, by e-mail or phone, and make arrangements to get your assignment. In order to make up missed assignments or to avoid a zero factored in to your in-class grade, I must be contacted no later than 5 p.m. on the day of the missed class as to why you were absent. All make-up work must be completed by the following class. A zero will be recorded for each class period that a student has an unexcused absence (failed to contact me or went above the one-absence limit). That zero will be factored in to the in-class portion of your grade. Any absences after one also will result in a 3-point deduction off your final grade total for each absence. Tardiness also will not be tolerated. My class starts at 9 a.m., not 9:05 or 9:10. Two tardies will equal one absence.

2. The Computers:

Nothing is to appear on your computer screen that is not directly related to that day's work. My syllabus, class notes and appropriate research for this class are all that is allowed. No e-mail. No fun Web sites. No research for other classes. This includes time prior to class. This is a private lab, not a PUCC lab. Any student found using a computer for any reason other than related to COM359 will receive a 0 for the day's work. There will be no warnings.

There is to be no printing for any reason to the lab printers. All work to be turned in must be printed at a PUCC lab or on your home printer. Any student printing to the lab printer will receive a 0 for that day's work.

3. Academic Honesty.

Each of you will be expected to abide by the college’s Honor Code in all assignments. All work submitted by you should be your original effort for this class only. No recycled stories from previous classes, previous internships or assignments at the Exponent will be accepted. Plagiarism of any kind will result in an automatic fail.

Plagiarism consists of such things as: taking quotes or other material from another published source (news release, newspaper article) without attribution; failing to include exact wording from such sources in quotation marks; using notes from another student, without permission; having another person conduct your interviews or write your stories. Cases may arise in which you may share notes or documents with fellow students. In these instances, you must disclose in your source list the fact that you did not gather the material yourself, and you will be held responsible for any errors the shared material contains. Please note that this definition of plagiarism does not prevent your showing your stories to another person for comment and reaction prior to turning them in.

Need a refresher: Journalistic plagiarism and Let's be clear

Based on recent reports of an outbreak of fabrications, I will warn you that if you make up a source, event, quote, story, or other material and I catch you, you will flunk this class.

4. Story Guidelines.

All writing assignments must be typed or printed by a computer, double-spaced, copyedited and turned in on time. You will write most of your copy as if you are writing for a fictional local newspaper, The West Lafayette Herald. As you have learned, keeping the audience in mind when you write can determine the structure and emphasis of a story. Meeting deadlines is a mandatory task of professional journalists. No late papers will be accepted unless the student and I agree before the assignment is due that a delay is justified. A student must be present in class to turn in an assignment. No assignments will be accepted from a student who was absent.

Sources and sourcing: No story should depend on just one source. Even stories about speeches, or congressional testimony, should be balanced by indicating conflicting opinions or including reaction. Stories should reflect the sense that public policy issues are multi-faceted; journalists do this by including sources whose positions, background, knowledge and interests give them reason to know and understand how public policy in a particular area is developing and the impact of policy decisions. You are expected to do sufficient reporting to understand the viewpoints of the principal actors and to include the range of positions in your stories.

All stories must include at least three identified human sources. Of course, this does not mean you stop at three always. If a story needs more sources, you should have more. Relatives, friends and classmates are NOT acceptable sources. Phone numbers and/or e-mails for each source, and the date and time of the interview must be included at the end of each story. Failure to do this will result in a one-letter-grade reduction. You should not be surprised if I call these sources to verify the accuracy of the information you report. In addition, most stories should include material from at least one public document.

You may quote another newspaper or newsmagazine or news release, and lift quotes or other information from another newspaper or newsmagazine or news release IF:

· You tried several times but failed to reach the source yourself;
· You could not find another source that could provide you the same information;
· You could not reach a spokesman or spokeswoman for the person;
· You could not obtain the source document yourself, despite repeated attempts;
· You fully credit the material to the original publication;
· You outline to me in a separate note the steps you took to reach the person or obtain the document that failed.

Please note that turning in a story to me in which most of the information was gleaned from a news release or a story in the Journal and Courier, etc., is tantamount to getting a D on the assignment.

Grading:

This is the way your grade will be computed:
15 percent: All in-class writing assignments; quizzes; attendance
10 percent: Beat report
10 percent: Monthly beat reports
15 percent: Paper Trail
10 percent: Beat story #1 -- meeting or speech
20 percent: Beat story #2 -- numbers story
20 percent: Beat story #4 -- issues story

I will consider each assignment as a professional editor would, applying the same professional standards in accepting or rejecting stories from reporters. Grades will reflect your performance as a reporter, writer and editor. In evaluating the reporting, I will consider news judgment in gathering and selecting information used in the story, accuracy, choice and use of sources, thoroughness, etc. In evaluating the writing, I will consider the quality of the lead, organization, use of quotes, clarity and effectiveness, ability to translate information to the average reader, among other factors. In evaluating editing, I will consider spelling, grammar, punctuation, correct use of AP style and accuracy. The expectation of quality of work in COM359 is far above the level set in 252.

Factual errors: Any major factual error, such as misquoting a source or misspelling a name, will receive a mandatory 25-point deduction. AP style errors and any spelling or grammar errors will be a 1-point deduction for each error. Again, COM359 strives to simulate realistic journalistic experience. News professionals must be able to produce accurate and mechanically clean stories. Major factual errors are generally not tolerated in the real-world setting and can have major implications for you as a reporter and for the publication you work for. Spelling and style errors reflect poorly on you and the reputation of your publication.

If you need a refresher: Guide to AP style

Rewrites: You may rewrite one of your stories during the quarter to improve your grade. Rewriting is one of the most effective ways to improve copy. Rewrites are due one week from the time your original paper was handed back. You can recoup half the points you missed with a rewrite (i.e. you received a 70 on the assignment, that is minus 30 points, you can recoup up to 15 of those, and improve from a C- to a B, with a rewrite). But be forewarned, I will be expecting a rewrite -- more research, additional interviewing, etc. Simply moving a few paragraphs around and answering one problem does not constitute a rewrite.

You also may correct AP style and grammar on two of your three stories.

Rewriting -- Getting it right

Grading Scale:

A = 90 and above. Publishable work. The story is clear, interesting and well-written. It has good organization, effective quotes, smooth transitions and is not weighed down by spelling, grammar, style or accuracy errors.
B = 80 and above. Publishable with some editing. It may have some minor spelling or grammatical errors. The lead is mostly effective. The body is mostly cohesive and well organized.
C = 70 and above. Requires extensive editing to publish. Several sections must be rewritten. The lead may be buried or may fail to focus on the most important aspects of the story. The body of the story is disorganized and contains minor errors.
D = 60 and above. Needs a complete rewrite to be published. Story contains an unacceptable number of spelling, grammar, style and accuracy errors.
F = below 60. Needs a complete rewrite to be published and contains major factual errors.

Week by Week Guide
Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12
Week 13	Week 14	Week 15	Week 16

Week # 1

Aug. 23 -- INTRODUCTION

Plagiarism refresher and 2005 Plagiarism Round-up

Just for fun: trunk monkeys and google moon

Aug. 25– COVERING A BEAT: THE GOVERNMENTAL HIERARCHY, EDUCATION

Online reading: What does it take to be a great beat reporter? and Living on a beat and First Day on the Education Beat and Turn the Beat Around and Beat Reporting: Government and Keeping up with Schools

Keeping up with your beat: RSS feeds like Feed Demon and WebSite-Watcher or news crawlers like Topix and Copernic or News Google's alert

Excellent Education CAR example and another on charter schools

Local education Web sites:

West Lafayette School Corp.

Purdue University and Purdue News Digest

This would be a big help

Other sites:
Learning Curve and Education Week

In-class:

Interviewing students

Purdue Budget and Fiscal Planning

Some examples:

Pay raise
Accountability rule
Drug test
School tax
Driving safety
Spanish school

Local government Web sites:

City of Lafayette

Tippecanoe County government

City of West Lafayette

What form of government?

Other sites:

National Association of Counties National League of Cities

National Conference of Mayors

In-class

Bond rating
Bond issue
Parttimers
Mayor greeting
Redistricting

Agriculture beat:

Indiana Department of Agriculture

Purdue Cooperative Extension

Other sites:
USDA

Assignment: Build an electronic beat system. Save and organize Internet sites you have discovered that will be helpful to your beat by bookmarking them as favorites and organize the bookmarks into files by topics. Please create this file in Microsoft Word with live hyperlinks.

Professor Natt's Pile of Web Resources and Journalist's Toolbox and Power Reporting and Refdesk and IRE's beat source guide

Week #2

Aug. 30 – meetings and news conferences

In class:

Open meetings

Tapping Officials Secrets (Indiana open or closed?)

Meeting stories

The jargon you have to make clear and relevant

The first Monday of the month:
Juvenile commission
Benton school chief
Custard stand
Fire chief
Salary Ordinance
Works board
Alcohol Commission
Redevelopment Tax

WLFI gets in on meetings

Let's look at Parking Fines from the J&C and Exponent and here's why it's important. Here's also what happens in those "other" meetings that affect council sessions

Purdue board:

From the JC: Ag Hall and Arts Building and Campus Projects

From the Exponent: Trustees

Don't forget previews:

Bond issue and result

In class assignment: Write a simple meeting story from notes

Sept. 1 – GUEST SPEAKER

Erin Smith, public schools beat reporter from Journal & Courier

Due: Electronic beat and beat notebook

Week #3

Sept. 6 -- PUBLIC RECORDS and the PAPER TRAIL

Readings: The Fight over Public Information

Due: Prep for meeting

Neil Reisner's records page

Remember to start here for electronic records guidelines for Indiana

A good place to start: Zabasearch

Journalist's Toolbox public records and free public records directory (let's try a few from the Journalist's Toolbox, like Pretrieve

Also Public record finder or electronic access or Skipease public records finder. Accurint best of pay services

Who is John Doe?

Where to search in Tippecanoe County

Example page:

Vitalrec

Tippecanoe County Historical Association (marriage licenses :)

Freedom of Information Act -- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and SPJ

FOI news and famous persons listing

Sample FOIA letter and sample letter for state and local government requests

Tapping officials secrets

Assignment: A report on what kinds of record are kept by your organization and what portions of those are available to the public. How accessible are those records? Are e-mail transmissions by public officials considered public records (hint, check tapping official's secrets here)? Your report should include the name and phone number of anyone you talked to, links to reports available on the Web, and specific information about what kinds of records your organization keeps track of.

Your paper trail assignment

Sept. 8 -- CAR

Online readings: A guide to computer-assisted reporting and Two days to story

In-class:

The Reporter's Cookbook

Databases newspapers are putting online: check out Des Moines Register site and even our local J&C databases and Florida Today's investigative site

Reporter's cookbook and Exploring Data

Daily CAR

CAR on the education beat and ISTEP scores

Gas prices and AP loan and Seat belt solution

Investigative Reporters and Editors and NICAR and the JFile at VCU

News releases can clue you in

Don't forget about the Invisible Web

CAR can even be used on the sports beat

Finding data: Indiana Kids Count, farm stats and more farm stats and Purdue's ag economics, education stats , state health facts and Resource shelf and IPUMS and crime stats . Don't forget the census (Indiana quick link) and the Census' public school data and FARS and Indiana stats and mortality data

Let's import from the EEOC and Voter Turnout

Need help? Exceltip.com

Week #4

Sept. 13 – CHOOSING SOURCES and STORY IDEAS

Online reading: Idea Generators, Creativity for Journalists and e-mail interview advice and 21 Ways to Find Story Ideas

In-class:

Back to looters vs. finders

50 stories you can do

Don't forget private records

Guidelines for evaluating sources

Podcasting

Sniper Probe

UTK President

In-class assignment: Source assessment and source brainstorming

Public affairs story ideas from news releases at FYPI and Story Ideas Galore and using Profnet and Docuticker

Sept. 15– NUMBERS

Online reading: Tips for writing better budget stories

In-class:

Budget checklist and Local government numbers

Tippecanoe County 2006 budget and budget requests

Influencing the budget

Purdue Data Digest and Purdue budget

Math quiz and math crib sheet

Budget preview and budget meeting

Assignment: A brief report on the budget of your organization. This should include where the money comes from, how it is spent, who decides how it is spent, what the budget year cycle is.

Week #5

Sept. 20 -- MORE NUMBERS

Statistical analysis at your fingertips

With just numbers: Katrina/Rita analysis

Census news releases on latest demographic, economic and cultural changes and trends. For example, the latest Education numbers . Using the census: Sept. 11 Birthdays and Driving to Work

Propety taxes

Using self-constructed databases: Grade inflation and High School Sports

Enrollment and minority enrollment

In class assignment: Analyze this. Enrollment numbers

Sept. 22 -- NO CLASS

Work on records and budget assignments and Paper Trail assignment

Week #6

Sept. 27– Polls, Studies and Reports

Due: Records and budget assignments and Paper Trail

In class:

Here's why you have to be careful

Purdue student satisfaction survey

20 Questions a reporter should ask about poll results

Polls powerpoint

How questions can influence results

Look at a Gallup day

The news release and the story

Reports: School science labs

Local survey

Child Care

Raw copy of teacher violence

Ratings study
Biracial survey
Voting survey
Bush poll and poll data

Our own poll designer

Polls can identify trends for you

So, can you use this?

Your first stop: Poll data on the Internet

Sources of polls: Gallup, Pollingreport.com, Zogby , EPI, Roper Center for Public Opinion

Poll story notes

Sept. 29 – WEBLOGS, TECHNOLOGY ON THE BEAT/CATCHUP

Due: Beat monthly report #1

Online readings: The Basic Weblog and Weblogs: Put Them to Use in your Newsroom and Online journalists and the Katrina and Katrina and technology and Newspaper Readers Use Blogs Cautiously and Podcasating goes from indie to mainstream overnight

Blogs range: Technorati, the niche's top search engine so far, says it indexes 17.1 million sites spanning about 1.5 billion links.

Cleveland Plain Dealer's Breaking News blog

Check out the News Record staff blog and the Katrina media blog and the News&Observer staff blogs and Dayton News education reporter blog and student journalist blogs and USA Today blogs

Reporting with Campaign for the Court blog and when TV is banned, try a blog, like Sniper Trial

Using blogs for PR purposes

Citizen journalists blogs

Journalists' blogs and Google's blog search

A use: "Blog readers learn what I think is the most interesting, useful or weird health story of the day. Then they can go and read the research on the Web themselves. There's never enough newsprint to adequately cover all the health research and policy questions. The blog gives more to those readers who want more." Carla Johnson, Spokane Spokesman-Review

Other interesting media blogs: First Draft by Tim Porter; Living in Media World by Ralph Hanson

Interesting seminar to watch: Doing Weblogs for newspapers and local news sites

Even Gallup has a blog

Blogger.com

Week #7

Oct. 4 – BEAT STORY #2

Due: A story proposal. Bring two copies of this to class. To include: A story idea, i.e. "I am going to do a story on the increasing number of black cats in West Lafayette"; why you think it is a story; the names of sources you plan to contact (including documents); and the math you intend to do.

Oct. 6 -- NO CLASS. WORK ON BEAT STORY #2

Week #8

Oct. 11 – FALL BREAK

Oct. 13– NO CLASS. WORK ON BEAT STORY #2

Week #9

Oct. 18 -- NO CLASS. WORK ON BEAT STORY #2

Oct. 20 -- BEAT STORY #2

Due: Beat story #2

Peer evaluation of final story

Week #10

Oct. 25 – LOCALIZING STATE AND NATIONAL STORIES

In-class:

Why you read the news

Daypop

Don't forget national publications: Education Week

Don't forget organization's like Education Writer's Association or Al's Monday Meeting type sites

Don't forget blogs

Recent example: Bankruptcy

Checks in the mail
Tuition increase
Vaccine shortage
Job limits

In-class Assignment: Find three contemporary national stories (or news release) and write a short summary of each. Then write a paragraph explaining how each story could be localized for your beat. Due posted to your blog at the end of class.

Oct. 27– State and Federal Government

Online reading: State of the American Newspaper: Capital News

In-class:

"I'm only a bill"

State:
State government notes

State government fundamentals

Indiana governor's Web site and Indiana General Assembly

Access Indiana or find another state at www.state.??.us

Stateline.org: A nonprofit, nonpartisan e-zine covering news from 50 states; Council of State Governments ; and National Conference of State Legislatures

Capitolbeat: Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors

Federal:

Interesting CAR story on congressional relatives and lobbying firms

Maplight.org

U.S. Government news releases and CapitalNews.org

Congressional vote database

Fast Facts for Congress

Web controversy

Indiana Congressional districts

Indiana Congressional Districts profiles

Famous federal documents

U.S. House proceedings and Senate roll call

Federal Register and example

Tax statistics

Lobbying database and top firms and top companies

Even staff salaries

Using news releases:
DWI money and release
Auditor and auditor release
Dollars for Scholars and release

Stories:
Sidebar
Special session
Corn checkoff

Week #11

Nov. 1 – POLICE

Readings: The following Washington Post article: Maturity's Reward
Crime story resources
Tips for covering cops

In-class notes:

From the list serve: Naming arrested persons and responses

Criminal justice flow chart

Compare Cops Disciplined from J&C and Exponent

Police reports online and Example briefing room

Crime stats and latest FBI crime report and Justice Research Statistics Association

BJS crime stats and National Archive of Criminal Justice Data

Backgrounding makes the story

www.usacops.com

Police beat no-nos

Hammer confession and affidavit

The Criminal Process

Purdue crime facts

Noelle Bush

Examples:

Five shootings
Police training
Domestic fight

In class: FBI crime stats

Nov. 3 – ELECTIONS AND POLITICS

Online readings: Campaign Lite and Places journalists should go for politics and Covering Political Speeches

In-class:

Nice CAR example on Sarasota undervote

Online Internet facing same restrictions

FactCheck and checking candidates backgrounds

The need to verify

Election officials from Yahoo
Republican and Democratic national Web sites

Washington Post's Election coverage

"As Congressional Quarterly gets set to launch a daily e-mail newsletter Nov. 3 called CQ Politics Daily, The Wall Street Journal's Editorial Page and OpinionJournal.com are launching Political Diary, a subscription-based e-mail newsletter offering commentary and analysis on the 2004 election season for $3.95 per month"

Election 2004 from journalist's toolbox

Good ideas that work for covering elections and that old electoral college

The Impact of Participatory Media on the 2004 elections

Local league of women voters

Tippecanoe Election results

Indiana election info and voter information

Questions to ask a candidate

The Green Papers--Indiana

The 2004 Election results

Electoral college

538

In-class examples: