Syllabus for Tadjer’s Journalism Class at SUNY New Paltz

SUNY New Paltz Professor Rivka Tadjer

Course Outline Fall 2008

Office: CSB 27; phone 257-3460; email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Office hours: Th. 12:30-1:30

JOURNALISM 1

Journalism 1 is an introduction to newsgathering, news evaluation, and news writing. In this class, you will learn the 4 elements of being a journalist: thinking in terms of news and making judgments, research and retrieving information, reporting, and writing clear and compelling news stories. The goal is to prepare you for a career in print journalism, broadcast (TV, radio and podcasting), Internet journalism, or public relations.

THINKING LIKE A JOURNALIST

The 7-Sense Sequence of a Journalistic Approach: Feeling / Seeing / Listening / Thinking / Asking / Empathizing / Analyzing

Before you write a word, you must develop the disposition of a journalist. Everyone has this ability. It's like an undeveloped muscle. We will do exercises in and out of class to build strength and tone this journalistic disposition, a mix of a fine-tuned intuition and a methodical approach to investigation. You must have the disposition before you can do the heavy lifting work of a journalist.

The word intuition may seem strange, but a journalistic disposition is not just an intellectual exercise. Some journalists approach it solely from an intellectual point of view, but not the great ones. If you don't have the disposition, you will likely end up feeding the machine of fear, alienation, and sensationalism.

Aside from being prepared to pursue a journalistic career, tapping into this disposition will affect other aspects of your life. You will learn to date better, be less self-conscious, be better able to get what you want, find out secrets, be more convincing, and open up your world for more possibilities. You can quote me on that.

RESEARCH/READING/RETRIEVING ASSIGNMENTS

Your textbook for this class is Melvin Mencher's News Reporting and Writing. I will refer to individual chapters when it's applicable to what we do in class and for our fieldwork. We will discuss whether it's a good book or not, and we will analyze what Mencher says. There are lots of introductory Journalism textbooks. I urge you to compare what Mencher says by skimming at least one other textbook. No need to buy other ones. Just take a good look in the bookstore, see what you determine about the differences. Mencher is only one source. You don't have to agree with anything in any text, but you do have to understand it.

Associated Press Style Book. Read it. Read it again. Memorize it. Keep it on your desk within arm's reach, in your backpack, on your person, until you do. It's the gold standard for style no matter what sort of story you're writing, whether you write for newspapers, magazines, blogs, TV, radio. Eventually, the style should be as automatic as stepping on the gas or break in your car. You don't think about it, you just know it. I will quiz you on it, as it's part of the journalistic disposition.

Walter Cronkite's autiobiography, A Reporter's Life. The man is almost 100 years old, and his book is about one person's journey through an entire century as a true blue journalist. Great anecdotes, lots of heart, smart, and hilarious. When it comes to having a journalistic disposition, Cronkite is the quintessential example. I highly recommend this book, but do not require it.

You will need to read The New York Times, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the L.A. Times, USAToday, The Onion, and alter.net every day. Skim them all for headlines and read anything that interests you. All are available online. Also watch CNN or MSNBC for 10 minutes daily and listen to NPR twice a week. Watch Jon Stewart's The Daily Show once a week. Sounds like a lot, but it's really just forming a habit. You'll be surprised how quickly the habit forms and how fast you'll get at skimming news. The first step to journalistic thought, and ultimately knowing how to write and sell your stories (and your opinion), is to read as many diverse sources as possible.

REPORTING ASSIGNMENTS

There are no stupid questions. You are not born knowing everything, and anyone who makes you feel stupid for asking things is either hiding something, feels stupid himself and is trying to feel superior, or something else not worth your time. Ask a lot of questions. Ask whatever comes to mind. Ask people, ask the Internet, ask yourself.

You will learn how to ask questions, interview people, report a story, and conduct research online. The assignments will be in class and in field work

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

One rule of thumb for great journalistic writing: Never sit down to write until you know exactly what you want to say. Writing is not something you do while reporting. It is done after everything has gelled.

You will learn to find your voice, write a solid lead and a news story. You will learn to write a news story and a news feature for print, online, and broadcast media because a good narrative is a good narrative. When you have the voice, you can tailor a story for any audience pretty easily.

You will complete these 5 writing assignments, among others:

1. Don't Bury the Lead. The lead is the first paragraph of any story, and the most important. It crystallizes the entire story and it must lure the reader in or they won't read on. We will do many lead-writing exercises. Sometimes you'll be given facts and asked to write a lead, sometimes the lead will come from fieldwork exercises.
2. A financial story about SUNY New Paltz. Benjamin Franklin had a saying: Follow the money trail. (He also said "Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.") Follow the money trail and you will understand how the world works. You will write a story about the University's financial condition this school year and what it means for students. . It will be the equivalent of your final exam. Details will follow.
3. You're Famous and You're Dead. You will write an obituary about yourself as if you were a famous person who just died. Then you will interview one of your classmates, and write an obituary about them as a famous person who just died.
4. Rivka Tadjer feature. This will be your news feature story. We will work on it throughout the semester, applying interviewing and research techniques
5. Breaking news. You will learn to write a responsible breaking news story in a short amount of time. You will be given a set of facts and asked to write a story, get corroboration, and check the facts.
6. Portfolio. On the day scheduled for the final examination, Dec. 18, 2008 at 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., you will need to hand in a portfolio that includes all articles and assignments for the semester. I will need this to assess your final grade, which will be based in large part on journalistic effort and improvement. I will explain how to present the portfolio during the semester.

RULES OF CONDUCT AND GRADING: The laws of the classroom, which are all based on standard journalistic ethics and expectations, will be discussed on Sept. 4th.

Information about Rivka Tadjer: She is a journalist and author who for 20 years has specialized in the sociological implications of our techno-centric era-how our behavior is changing. She has devoted a lot of ink to the issues of privacy, security and identity. She has written for newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal Interactive (as a columnist), The New York Times (breaking news), The Los Angeles Times OpEd page (opinion). She has also written for many magazines, blogs, online media outlets, TV news and radio. In 1999, she authored a non-fiction book called Smart Business Solutions for Financial Management, about how the little guy can compete with big business using the Internet.

She has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland, 1988. Tadjer has also done PR work for telecommunications companies, with a special interest in identity theft. She serves as Secretary of the Board of Trustees for Woodstock Day School. She recently published her first novel, a satiric thriller called Two Weeks Under, about our obsession with weight, shame, and visual perfection.