General guidelines

The staff of the TennesseeJournalist.com (TNJN.com) is glad that you are considering working with the web site for your JEM 275 project. We want this to be a good experience for you, and we want you to make a solid contribution to the web site.

To complete this project successfully, you will need to write o 10 news stories for the site during the semester – or do the equivalent of that in other work, such as selling advertising. These newswriting assignments must be completed as they are assigned throughout the semester. You cannot wait until the end of the semester and try to catch up.

If you are interested in signing up for this project, you should go to the TNJN application page to fill out and submit your application to the staff.

Once you have submitted the application, you will receive additional information about joining the TNJN staff and getting started with the JEM 275 project.


Working for TNJN - the basics

You will begin your project by writing two news stories. These stories will be preview stories that you will need to come up with on your own. See the preview story handout (PDF handout).

All of the stories that you will write will be those for which you have gathered the information yourself. In other words, you will become a reporter for TNJN.com, and as such, you need to keep the following things in mind:

• Your first duty is to gather accurate information. This includes making sure the names you use (and everything else) are spelled correctly.
  
  
• When you are talking with people to gather the information you need, make sure they know that you are working as a journalist for the web site and that what they say might be included in a story and posted on the site. Never lie to a source under any circumstances. Never promise anonymity for the source. It is much better to lose a story than to get yourself into trouble with these practices. Ask the editor you are working with or the faculty adviser to the site if you have questions about any reporting practices.
  
  
• Model your stories on the examples that have been given to you. Read the examples (preview story and speech story PDF files) and the analysis of them carefully before you try to write anything. These are standard news story forms – things you will be learning (or have learned) in JEM 200. The general story form we are using is called the inverted pyramid. If you want to know more about the inverted pyramid form, take a look at these JEM 200 lecture notes or download this inverted pyramid analysis (PDF file).
  
  
• Stay in touch with the editors with whom you are working. Let them know what you are doing, and ask if they have assignments.
  
  
• Meet you deadlines. Journalists often work on short deadlines, and you will need to get used to this. The most common way of doing badly on this project is missing deadlines.
  
  

Your training assignments

For your first assignment, you should complete a preview story like the one in this PDF file. You will need to find for yourself the event you want to preview, talk with the appropriate person or persons, write the story, and enter it into the TNJN system.

Here are the instructions for entering your story on the TNJN server. You can download these instructions as a PDF file. Read these instructions carefully and follow them closely. (Again, entering it does not mean you are posting it on the web site; we will take care of that. It simply means you are putting it on our server so our editors can get at it.) After looking at the handout, start thinking about what story you would like to do.

Your deadline for completing this story will be assigned.

Once you have completed this first assignment, we will be making a second assignment for you to work on. These training assignments count as part of the overall number of assignments you are expected to complete.

After the second assignment training assignment, you will be ready to be assigned to a section editor, and you will be asked what section you want to be in. Generally, those requests are granted. After that, it will be your responsibility to stay in touch with the editor and try to complete the assignments that he or she gives to you.

Sometime during the middle of the semester, you will be asked to report on what you have completed for the project and describe in general how things are going for you with TNJN. You should respond to that request as soon as you get it. Toward the end of the semester, you will be asked to make a more complete report and assessment.

Problems or difficulties should be taken up first with the editor for whom you are working. If they continue, they should be brought to attention of the TNJN assistant faculty adviser, Allyson DeVito, who can be reached at adevito at utk.edu, or the faculty adviser Jim Stovall, who can be reached at jgstovall at gmail.com.

A couple of additional things

If you have already made contact with a TNJN editor and are working with that person for training and assignments, continue to do that. You are not required to go through the training process described here. But you do need to let Allyson DeVito know that you are doing this

Finally, the TNJN staff has regular staff meetings on Thursdays evenings at 6:30 p.m. (the location will be announced). These meetings usually last from 30 minutes to an hour but no longer. As a JEM 275 student you are strongly encouraged you to attend these meetings. We will keep a record of how often you attend. You will get to know the editors and others involved with TNJN and be able to participate more fully in the staff if you do so.

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