JEM 200 - Introduction to News Writing

Weekly lecture schedule

Instructor:
Jim Stovall
School of Journalism and Electronic Media
333 Communications UEB
974-5109
stovall@utk.edu

Web site: http://jem200.com

Spring 2010: Thursday, 5:05 to 6:20 p.m., 416 Dougherty Engineering Building

This weekly lecture section supplements the instruction and practice in news writing that you will receive in your lab section. The lecture will give you information that you will need to be successful in your writing lab.

Unless you have had professional experience of some kind, the kind of writing that you will learn and practice in this course is different from anything that you have been asked to do before. Media writing means writing in a professional environment and with professional standards. It means writing for an audience. It means meeting deadlines. We will explain many of these requirements and concepts in the lecture, and you will be expected to apply them in your work in your writing sections.

In order to be successful in this course, you will need to have consistent online access. In addition, you should have access to a digital audio recorder and a digital camera, and you should be comfortable and confident in taking pictures from the camera and uploading them to web sites or servers.

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Introduction to JEM 200 from Jim Stovall on Vimeo.

This is a video introduction to JEM 200 Introduction to media writing, a journalism course at the University of Tennessee. The video tells a little about what is covered in the course and what instructors try to teach.

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Grades

Thirty percent of the grade for JEM200 will come from this lecture section. (The other 70 percent will come from your work in your writing section.) We will usually begin the lecture with a news quiz, which helps us record your attendance and which will contribute to the 30 percent of your grade. There will be two exams covering the lecture and text material during the semester. Each will count about 10 percent of the grade.

Attendance

You are expected to attend all lectures, and you are expected to be on time. (Those who arrive after the news quiz will not be counted as present; those who leave the lecture early will not be counted as present and will be penalized for academic dishonesty.)

More on the JEM 200 attendance policy.

Individual section instructors will set attendance policies for their labs. In general, however, they will adhere to the following principle: attendance in this course is mandatory, not optional.

Academic honesty

University policies regarding honesty can be found in Hilltopics, the official student handbook. You can download this handbook as a PDF file at this page. Your rights and responsibilities are explained in detail. In all JEM 200 labs plagiarism, misrepresentation or any form of cheating is a serious offense. In the lecture section, a minimum penalty would be a failing grade on a quiz. Each lab instructor will explain lab rules.

CCI Diversity Statement
(College of Communication and Information Bylaws, Section II-C)

The College of Communication and Information recognizes that a college diverse in its people, curricula, scholarship, research, and creative activities expands opportunities for intellectual inquiry and engagement, helps students develop critical thinking skills, and prepares students for social and civic responsibilities. All members of the College benefit from diversity and the quality of learning, research, scholarship and creative activities is enhanced by a climate of inclusion, understanding and appreciation of differences and the full range of human experience. As a result, the College is committed to diversity and equal opportunity and it recognizes that it must represent the diversity inherent in American society. The College is acutely aware that diversity and fairness are foundations that unite the College's faculty, staff, students, and the larger communication and information community (see http://www.cci.utk.edu/diversity-statement for CCI's full Diversity Statement).

Texts

James Glen Stovall, Writing for the Mass Media (Seventh edition), 2009.
AP Stylebook and Libel Manual

How things work

Each section of JEM 200 operates under the direction of the section instructor. Jim Stovall, the instructor for the lecture section, is the coordinator for the course. As such, he helps assure that all sections of the course are following the same track and that all students are getting basically the same experience. He is not a czar, however. Section instructors have the final word on policies and grading for their sections.

Schedule (tentative)

We will follow the schedule below as a general outline for the course but will also remain flexible about the topics we cover. Occasionally, there will be a guest speaker who may not talk directly about the topic on the schedule. Students are responsible for lecture notes for each week. News quiz questions can usually be found at the end of each set of lecture notes.

Week 11 (March 31) - Writing for sound: Audio journalism

Week 12 (April 7) - Writing, recording and editing sound

Week 13 (April 14) - Audio slide shows; introduction to video

Week 14 (April 21) – Building your audience; The writer and the law

Week 15 (April 28) - Test 2

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Week 11 (March 31) - Writing for sound: Audio journalism

Week 12 (April 7) - Writing, recording and editing sound

Week 13 (April 14) - Audio slide shows; introduction to video

Week 14 (April 21) – Building your audience; The writer and the law

Week 15 (April 28) - Test 2