Co-Instructors: Stephanie Martin and Erin Malone
Instructor Email: s7martin@weber.ucsd.edu; emalone@weber.ucsd.edu
Prerequisites: At least one English composition class, as well as some previous scholastic exposure to American history and principles of American government. Students must also have keyboarding skills.

Course Description: In this course, we propose to give students the opportunity to be exposed to the various tenets of journalism, including the opportunity to write journalistic prose. This, in turn, will help students to make connections between clear thinking and clear writing, enabling them to tackle all sorts of written projects with enhanced skill and confidence. As part of this effort, students will learn the foundations of journalism and the craft's two main components: reporting and writing the news. The course will also seek to allow students to confront the role of the press in a democratic society, explore sensitive ethical issues in the media, and consider their own (possible) future roles in the communication industry.

Course Objectives: At the completion of the three week course, students should have had the opportunity to develop proficiency in each of the following areas:

• Fundamentals of journalism – accuracy, newsworthiness, deadlines, objectivity and fairness.
• Basic news writing skills – spelling, grammar, journalistic style, attribution, the inverted pyramid structure for story telling, single-sentence paragraphs, crisp and compelling news leads, and the use of quotations.
• Basic reporting techniques – rudimentary interviewing skills and the use of commercial databases (primarily Lexis-Nexis, as would be demonstrated using the on campus library), the Internet and other sources to gather background material for stories and find news documents.
• Basic reporting and writing of short (300-word) news stories, which might include news story “staples” like obituaries, accidents, speeches/meetings and crimes.

This course seeks to expose students not only to the nuts and bolts of news coverage, however, but also to highlight some of the daily professional and ethical dilemmas that real journalists face. Students will be encouraged to think critically about approaches to news and will be given the opportunity to make tough (if hypothetical) decisions about what kinds of stories to pursue and publish. Students will also be exposed to some ideas about the role of the press in a democratic system like the United States, and will receive some exposure to communications law.

Students will also learn about active writing styles and storytelling approaches. At the end of the three-week course, most students will see considerable improvement in their writing abilities, as well as have acquired newly honed skills in prioritizing information while meeting hard-and-fast deadlines that are common in all types of newsrooms.

As was the case with last year's class, students will have the ability to publish their work, if only for their parents and friends to read. Most likely, this will take the form of a class Web site. This Internet page will exist long after the class ends, so that students can continue to access their work and find ways to contact one another. To see a sample of some of last yearís student work, please visit the following link:

http://tritontimes.wikidot.com/

Finally, students will have the opportunity to experience the "real life" of a journalist, through field trips and guest lectures. The class will include at least one field trip to see the "insides" of local media, perhaps including an excursion to the San Diego Union Tribune, a local television newsroom or the local NPR affiliate at San Diego State. As with last year, students will also have the opportunity to meet communication industry professionals in fields like public relations, advertising, and documentary filmmaking.

Course Outline:

This course has a strong hands-on component: Students will write and create nearly every day, and will receive continual help and feedback from both course instructors. Mock news events will "happen" for students to cover.

Week 1: Classroom: Foundations of Journalism.

Labs: Introductory exercises in news writing, classmate profile writing, interviewing essentials.

Week 2: Classroom: Elements of News, News Decision-Making, Ethical Considerations in news rooms.

Labs: Covering community events, celebrity obituaries, headline writing, disaster stories.

Week 3: Classroom: Legal Issues and Diversity in the News. Understanding "newsworthiness."

Labs: Covering the crime beat, digital and photojournalism, writing the opinion piece.

The capstone of this course is the final written piece, where students choose their own topic and explicate and build an opinion or position with regard to it, seeking to persuade the reader to his or her point of view.