JOUR
385: Beg. TV Reporting and Production
Fall
2007
Time:
Friday, 9:00-11:50 a.m.
Location:
Marshall Building, Room 350 (Pulliam lab), and 360 (Video lab)
Professor Celeste
González de Bustamante, Ph.D.
Phone: (520) 621-3189
Email: celesteg@email.arizona.edu
Office Hours: Wed. 11-12
p.m.; Thurs. 9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.; and by appointment
Course Goals: Welcome to J385! This very “hands-on” course has
three fundamental goals: 1. to introduce you to and develop your television reporting
and production skills; 2. to strengthen solid writing, reporting, and ethical
decision-making skills acquired in other journalism courses; 3. to develop the reporting
and production skills necessary for success in J480/Arizona Cat’s Eye
In this class you will
learn how to become a VJ (video journalist) by:
· producing various types of video news reports;
i.e. VOs, VO/SOTs, PKGs
· conducting on camera interviews
· reporting in the field
· shooting video news
· writing video news
· editing video news
Class Design
The class will be divided
primarily among lectures, labs, and out-of-class reporting assignments. Lectures will cover a combination of
material in the required texts as well as additional content related to the course. Lectures will also provide students with
opportunities to participate in discussions. Quizzes covering broadcast style, current events, and
ethical questions will also make up our class time. During labs, you will be: learning
how to use Final Cut Pro, the editing software; reporting; shooting; developing
and setting up stories. It will
be up to you to make
good use of your lab time. Occasionally,
guest speakers will be brought in to complement issues covered in the course.
Finally, an attempt will be made to give you as much experience as possible to
use and become familiar with media platforms.
Class Assignments and
Requirements
Grading
Your final grade will be based
on 100 total possible points to equal 100% of your total grade.
Seven Reporting Assignments
= 70 pts. (70% of total grade, 10 pts. possible per reporting assignment) Criteria
for reporting assignment grades include: accuracy, grammar, story structure,
writing style, reporting (i.e., ability to find the story, select most
important facts, and present facts in a balanced form), ability to write to
video and sound, adherence to time constraints, video editing skills, and
creativity.
Professionalism/Participation
= 20 pts. (20% of total grade)
(Professionalism in J385
adheres to the policy reflected in the UA journalism department’s Reporter’s
Handbook, which states, “This
conduct in the classroom includes participating in discussions, treating other
students with respect and following the rules established by the department and
your instructor. Your behavior is
especially important outside of class.
While you are working on assignments, you are perceived as representing
the journalism department and the university.”)
Quizzes = 10 pts.
(10% of total grade)
100-90 points= A
89-80 points= B
79-70 points= C
69-60 points= D
59-0 points = E
The “Auto-E.”
Grades of “E” will be given for each instance of a factual error, misspelled
name, or misspelled proper noun. Reporting
assignments that contain one or more factual errors (including misspelled names
and misspelled proper nouns) will receive “Auto Es.”
NO late assignments:
No assignments will be accepted after the deadline. This includes quizzes or any other work. In the real world, a journalist lives
by deadlines, and most other careers have some sort of deadlines. Your ability to meet them will be
valuable in this class and beyond. Please do not ask the professor to accept
late work. Because of this strict
policy, the professor will drop the lowest grade among your reporting
assignments and average your grade.
In other words, you will get one chance to miss an assignment and not be
penalized.
Assignments must be
typed: All work must be typed, unless indicated otherwise. Handwritten assignments will not be
accepted.
Quizzes: Quizzes usually
will be handed out at the beginning of class. Sometimes questions will be based on material viewed or
covered at the beginning of class. If you miss a quiz because of tardiness or
absence, you will not be allowed to make up quizzes under any circumstances.
Attendance and Other
Class Policies
You are expected to
attend every class. Because
this class only meets once a week, only two unexcused absences will be
permitted. Three unexcused absences will result in the student being dropped
from the class. If the drop
deadline has passed, the third unexcused absence will result in the student
receiving a failing grade. If you miss a class, whether or not your absence is
excused, you are responsible for obtaining and completing the missed
assignment.
Story ideas and
attendance: At the beginning of each class, you will be asked to hand in a
story idea for the week. These
must be real story ideas that you are planning to cover, not something that you
have merely pulled from the front page of a local newspaper. Story ideas will be used to check
attendance, ergo, no story idea, no credit for attendance.
Required Viewing/Listening
and Texts
Recommended Viewings
and Readings
Webster’s Instant Word
Guide. Massachusetts:
Merriam-Webster, 1995.
Good Night and Good
Luck
NPR (National Public Radio); found locally at, 89.1
F.M., or kuaz.org, reports and newscasts also online at npr.org)
The Los Angeles Times
The New York Times
CCJ (Committee of
Concerned Journalists) http://www.concernedjournalists.org/
Poynter Institute http://www.poynter.org/
RTNDA (Radio and
Television News Directors Association)
SPJ (Society of
Professional Journalists) http://www.spj.org/
Autobiographies written
by broadcast journalists
Laboratory Rules and
Security
No food or drinks
are allowed inside the editing suites or sound booth.
You may only sign
up for editing time that is blocked out for 385 students. The other times are for students
enrolled in 498C/Arizona Cat’s Eye.
To ensure the highest level
of security in the lab, DO NOT:
1. let students who are
not enrolled in the course enter the lab
2. leave doors propped
open or ajar to allow other students inside
3. open other students’
projects
DO lock the door
to the lab and other doors inside the lab before you leave.
These measures will help
to ensure your personal safety and reduce the risk of theft.
Disregarding any of these
rules may result in the revocation of lab privileges and/or hurt your grade in
the course.
Academic Integrity and
Student Conduct
You
are required to abide by the University of Arizona Code of Academic
Integrity. All provisions of the
Code are incorporated into this syllabus.
It is strongly recommended that you read the Code to understand the
rights and responsibilities of all members of the university community.
The Code
states, in part, “Conduct prohibited by the Code consists of all forms of
academic dishonesty, including, but not limited to: cheating, fabrication,
facilitating academic dishonesty, and plagiarism as set out and defined in the
Code of Conduct, ABOR Policy 5-308-E.10 and F.1; submitting an item of academic
work that has previously been submitted without fair citation of the original
work or authorization by the faculty member supervising the work; modifying any
academic work to obtain additional credit in the same class unless approved in
advance by the faculty member; failure to observe rules of academic integrity
established by a faculty member for a particular course; and attempting to commit
an act prohibited by this Code.
Any attempt to commit an act prohibited by these rules shall be subject
to sanctions to the same extent as completed acts.”
Under
Arizona Board of Regents policy, “fabrication” means falsification or invention
of any information or citation. “Plagiarism”
means representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own. The following are some examples of code violations, as they would
apply to journalism classes: making up sources for a story; making up quotes
for a story; copying sentences or paragraphs from another person’s story and
submitting them as one’s own work; submitting the same story to fulfill
assignments in two different classes, without obtaining prior permission from
the instructor of the second class in which the work would be submitted.
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 in matters arising under the code.
The
Code of Academic Integrity is online at:
http://w3.arizona.edu/~studpubs/policies/cacint.htm
The
Student Code of Conduct is online at:
http://info-center.ccit.arizona.edu/~studpubs/policies/studcofc.htm
The
Student Disruptive Behavior Guidelines are online at:
http://info-center.ccit.arizona.edu/~dos/Assets/pdffiles/disrupbehav.pdf
Disruptive Behavior:
(from: Guidelines for University of Arizona Faculty and Staff) As defined by
the University of Arizona Student Code of Conduct, disruptive behavior,
“interferes with university or university-sponsored activities, including but
not limited to classroom related activities, studying, teaching, research,
intellectual or creative endeavors, administration, service or the provision of
communication, computing or emergency services. Examples of minimally disruptive behavior are: being late to
class; beepers and cell phones going off during class; reading the newspaper
(except as part of an in-class assignment); packing up and leaving early.”
For the record, text
messaging in class is my pet peeve.
A final note: Material presented and assignments you work on in
this course should challenge you and force you to go beyond your “comfort
level.” In the process, I hope that you will grow both as a person and as an
aspiring journalist.
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