Jay Rochlin
Border Beat
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| Syllabus-490d |
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(ver:12-24-09) Online Journalism: Welcome As a member of Journalism 490d or 590d, “Border Beat ,” you will create and produce Borderbeat.net, an online publication that covers U.S. Mexico border people, issues, and ideas. This will be a fast-paced, stimulating class, for journalism students who are energetic, love exploring new worlds, have an entrepreneurial spirit, are in touch with the possibilities of the web, have the highest possible personal and journalistic standards, and thrive on hard work, deadlines, and personal responsibility. I will conduct the course as if we were a professional online news team whose charge is to produce a dynamic, readable, and credible online publication. The class focuses on the border. I define the border broadly. We are going to produce Borderbeat.net through that lens. Our goal is to make our online publication a national resource for stories about the border for general readers and an information center for other reporters, writers, and photographers who also cover the border. Course Purpose The University of Arizona School of Journalism requires that every graduating senior and graduate student with a professional/applied journalism emphasis complete a media/publication course. Successful completion of Journalism 490d/590d meets that requirement. Additional purposes include:
Borderbeat.net's mission is:
By the end of the semester you should
Course Requirements In addition to those items mentioned above, you are required to:
Content You are required to:
It is a given that all content assignments must be absolutely factual and meet agreed on deadlines. In the professional world, there are no excuses. An editor needs the story, report, or recommendation accurately and by deadline or it is useless. Therefore, assignments that are not turned in by deadline will receive no credit. A missed assignment or missed deadline could earn an or zero credit. Your Blogs The blog you create will be on a single topic that you select with my approval. The topic should relate to a border issue or idea. Think broadly. Your blog can be serious or it can be fun or light. As the semester goes on you will provide more and more useful information to readers of your blog and will use text, links, still photography, audio, and video, to bring it to life and make visiting your blog a richer experience for your readers. I will grade blogs every Tuesday morning and will give credit for one blog per week. Please don't get behind. By the last three weeks of class, you have posted only three blogs, the most you could get credit for would be six total. You can't catch up at the end of the semester. Here are some links to get you started as you prepare for class: For blogging, we recommend but will not require WordPress. Right now, it seems to offer the most flexibility for creating a professional site that allows you to take full advantage of multimedia. There are many other blogging sites. For example, Blogger is Google's free blog posting website: These are resources that can also help you get going: G-cast is a free podcasting website: Here are two links to get you started as you prepare for class:
Audacity is an audio editing program that will allow you to create narrated slide shows with Soundslides. As we get into the semester, you will develop interests and the publication will develop needs. I encourage you to develop and complete two special projects that will be more in-depth and time consuming than the daily and weekly contributions you will already be doing. We will discuss this in class and individually.
You are responsible for creating or updating one or more "resource pages." These pages are intended to be resources for other reporters or students who have an interest in border topics. You may take over an existing page and update it and improve it or create a new one.
Although much of the actual “hands-on” work for producing the online publication will take place outside of class hours, attendance and full participation every session is essential. Every absence will be noted and will likely, according to department policy (below) result in lowering of a final grade or an individual being dropped from the course. Grading procedures and standards An important part of a journalism senior of graduate media production course is to experience, to the extent possible, a “real life” news environment. There are no tests or academic papers in this course. Therefore, most of the grade you earn will be based on your contribution to the final online product. The grading process in a class like this is necessarily subjective. I need to see evidence that you are engaged, professional, and are making a positive contribution to the product. In short, if Border Beat becomes “part of your life” this semester, if you do consistent and excellent work, actively participate in class, and help others do well, there is a good chance you will earn an A. If you do good professional work and generally pitch in, you will likely earn a B. If you are a good team player and do what you are assigned, well and on time, you’ll probably earn a C. And if you don't, then you won't. More officially: To earn an A or B, you must make significant contributions to the publication every week. This contribution will vary from student to student depending on personal strengths or interests . Ways to contribute include the creation and production of content in text, photo, and video formats. Copy editing, planning, and, leadership are important components. Just as will be the case with a supervisor in a professional situation, I won’t know the full extent of your efforts and contributions on a day-to-day basis. So, I invite you to submit to me, in hard copy, a memo several times during the semester, detailing your contributions to the online product including a list of the stories you have completed and online and stories you have edited for other people. That will help me know the good things you are doing, that I might have missed. No later than May 3, 2010 you will prepare a detailed memo in which you list all of the stories you have produced and include and list the separate elements that each of those stories contain. Final grades will be derived from these categories and with the following points distribution: 500 points – Stories and content published on Border Beat. This area will necessarily be highly individualized depending on your individual goals, strengths and interests. Your stories will be evaluated on the basis of both quality and quantity. You will be assigned a final number of points for this category at the end of the semester based on your body of published work. To receive full credit, 500 points, in this category you must have published online stories that in total contain at least 25 elements. Regardless of the number of points you receive in this category, to receive an A for the course, you must have published stories that contain at least 25 elements total. 20 for a B, 15 for a C and 10 for a D and under that, you will not receive for the course. 200 points – Personal blog on a specific topic, updated at least weekly (20 points possible for each of 10 weeks). 100 points - Editing. Everybody will have editing responsibilities for at least one other person. Even though this category does not count for a large number of points, it is extremely important. 50 points – 25 points for each of 2 (at least 10-minute) presentations to the class about an article or Web site you found that relates to online journalism and that the class could learn from or use. 50 points - Resource page, deadline April 8, 2010. 50 points - Live blogging or tweeting from an event or meeting that is newsworthy and relates to Border issues. 50 points - Attitude, engagement, professionalism, helping classmates be as good as they can.
Grades will be based on 1000 possible points for the semester.
Required out-of-class activities:
Special materials needed for course:
Additional Requirements for students taking the course as 590D for graduate credit: Arrangements made through graduate study contract with each individual student and filed with the School's academic adviser and Graduate Program Director.School's Attendance policy Attendance in journalism classes is mandatory. Students who don't attend class miss a lot. Our class is taught without textbooks and is highly experiential in nature, making it difficult to make up later. Unexcused absences will have a major impact on your grade. Examples of unexcused absences include events such as long-planned family reunions/weddings, plane reservations for semester breaks, concert tickets, or plans to attend a non-school related conference. Please plan your semester accordingly. Excused absences are granted only for valid, documented reasons and only if the reason makes your presence at the scheduled time impossible. By university policy, acceptable excuses are limited to four: serious illness, jury duty, religious observance, and military reserve obligation. If you have a reason for missing class that you think is legitimate, it is your responsibility to ask your instructor ahead of time if at all possible. This is expected even if you are ill. Absence excuses are subject to verification. Presenting a false excuse will be considered cheating, a violation of the academic integrity rules. In Journalism 490d/590d: Three excused absences will be allowed although assignments will still need to be turned in and other commitments met on time. Four excused absences may result in an administrative drop. After the deadline, four excused absenses could result in an "E" for the course. Three unexcused absences will result in a 100 point penalty (your grade being lowered by a point, A to B, or B to C, etc.). Four unexcused absences could result in an E for the course. Religious observances All holidays or special events observed by organized religions will be honored for those students who show affiliation with that particular religion. Makeup work policy Assignments must be completed on deadline. A missed deadline for either a written assignment or oral presentation will result in an E for that assignment or presentation. Extra credit policy There are no opportunities for extra credit in this course. Plagiarism The rule about plagiarism is simple: NEVER! Not even once. Not even barely. And not because you didn’t know what plagiarism is. As a journalism senior and an about-to-be professional journalist, your plagiarism radar should be so finely tuned that when you smell it, it should feel like someone just took a hammer to your hard drive, that you never bothered to back up. Plagiarism is bad for journalism, for the school and university, for the press generally and for you. This department does not tolerate plagiarism or fabrication of facts (or, in simple English, stealing or lying). Plagiarism and/or fabrication will earn an automatic E for the class and possible expulsion. There is absolutely no excuse for stealing someone else’s work or making up quotes or “facts.” If you are unsure about what you might see as a grey area, ask before you turn the assignment in. We are here to help you get this right. At the same time, this department and no legitimate magazine, newspaper, broadcast outlet, or web site, has any tolerance for plagiarism for fabrication of quotes or information. Indiana University prepared a very brief tutorial and online quiz that will help you clear up any misunderstandings you might have about plagiarism. Please take a few moments, go to the site, read their material, take the quiz, and if you still have questions, bring them up. Use of music and photos that are protected by copyright Assume that a selection of music or a photograph that you find online is protected by copyright unless it says that it isn't. We cannot allow any copyrighted material on our site (or blogs) unless we have permission from the owner of the material. We will talk about exceptions such as when you are writing music or movie reviews. If you want to use background music on your blog or in a video package, there are hundreds of sites that offer free music. Use them. Discrimination policy University of Arizona and journalism school policy prohibits faculty, staff, and students from discriminating against any person on the basis or age, ethnicity, gender, disability, color, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Accommodation for students with disabilities The school is very willing to make any reasonable accommodation to assist all disabled students to succeed in our classes. To be eligible, your special needs must be confirmed by the Disability Resource Center and you must report them privately to me at the beginning of the semester. Students who might require special accommodations are also urged to visit with Professor Susan Knight before the semester begins. Professionalism Journalism demands a high level of professionalism. Because the department’s professionally oriented undergraduate program is nationally accredited, each faculty member has a special obligation to ensure that students understand and engage in professional behavior. The behavior required in the classroom will be expected in the newsroom. To encourage the development of professional behavior, faculty members make professionalism a component of the evaluation of every student’s success in class. It will count for as a component "contribution to the product" grade in this class. Professionalism includes the following: • Being responsible. Being punctual and attending all classes. Being prepared for class and participating actively. Avoiding disruptive behavior. Approaching your assignments with resourcefulness, and with the goal of completing them as thoroughly as possible. Doing your share when working on group projects. Requesting help from the course instructor when you need it, just as you would request assistance from an editor in the newsroom. • Being respectful. Recognizing that you need to be as respectful of the opinions of others as you would have them be of yours. Being courteous in class and on assignments. Being sensitive to the needs of news sources. • Being accountable. Remembering that when you are on assignment, your behavior, attitude and dress reflect not only on you, but also on the department and the university. People have long memories, and your actions can influence your reputation – and ours – for years to come. Academic integrity and the code of conduct Every instance of verified cheating will be penalized, generally with a failing grade for the course. The journalism school subscribes to the University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity. Prohibited conduct covers all forms of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, fabrication and facilitating academic dishonesty by others. The university's Code of Conduct prohibits such behavior as threatening fellow students or faculty, false identification or documents, false alarms, forgery or misuse of documents or records, stalking or discrimination against individuals or groups. Complete details are covered by the department's Academic Integrity Handbook, which you are required to read. Possible sanctions for violations of the Code include a warning, a reduction in grade for the assignment or the class involved, a failing grade for the class, or a recommendation of suspension or expulsion from the university. The Code provides procedures to assure the integrity of academic work while protecting the rights of any parties involved in matters arising under the Code. It is your responsibility to be familiar with the University of Arizona's Code of Academic Integrity. Possible offensive content Journalism is a vital part of the democratic process. We deal every day with what happens in the world, both good and bad. That means you may hear discussions about news coverage that could be offensive to you, such as ugly crimes, political controversies or conflicting religious beliefs. If you have particular concerns about a subject, you are welcome to discuss them with me. Computer security rules
Student accountability The journalism school goes to great lengths to inform students of its policies and procedures. This information comes to you through class syllabi, your instructors, the school Listserv, our bulletin boards and the advisors. We make a special effort to put the most important instructions in writing. Because of these multiple communication channels, we feel it is only reasonable to assume that students are fully aware of the information and will act on it accordingly. For that reason, "I didn't know..." is not considered a valid excuse. |