Syllabus - Investigative Journalism - Spring 2009

Welcome to Investigative Journalism JRN-4600-001 for Spring 2009.

Congratulations! You are nearing the end of your academic degree program. This is the capstone learning experience in the Journalism track of the Mass Communication Dept.

In Investigative Journalism we explore the watchdog role of journalists in American society. A crucial duty of journalists is to serve the public interest by acting as a watchdog on government, business, education, health, environment, safety and other institutions. That duty is particularly important where agencies and institutions restrict the flow of information.
(Source: Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc.)

The tradition of investigative reporters, who uncover facts and write articles that expose waste, wrongdoing, mismanagement, fraud, conflict of interest and abuse of authority, and promote change and reform, has a long and proud history that stands alongside more conventional journalistic practices. In this course, we will examine the tradition by learning the reporting techniques that allow stories to be told and by understanding the societal factors that shape their content and impact.
(Source: Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc.)

Investigative Journalism is "The reporting, through one's own initiative and work product, of matters of importance to readers, viewers or listeners. In many cases, the subjects of the reporting wish the matters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed."
(Textbook: Houston et al., p. viii)

Investigative Journalism is digging "beneath the surface so we can help readers understand what's going on in an increasingly complex world." Gene Roberts, Editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times
(Textbook: Houston et al., p. viii)

"The reporter took the initiative, pulled together information from documents and human sources and eventually revealed a practice that affects everybody, directly or indirectly…"
(Textbook: Houston et al., p. viii)

Where is it?
The products of Investigative Journalism today can be found in traditional media – newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and their web pages – and in New Media including blogs, wikis, still and motion images in Flickr and YouTube streams, and Twitter tweets.

This course is about all that!
________________________________
Dr. Tony Curtis
Professor
Department of Mass Communication
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Office: 247 Old Main
Email: acurtis@uncp.edu
Phone: 910-521-6616
Faculty website
Space Today Online
UNCP in SL
Second Edition Blog
SL Wiki
Stone's Point Park
_____________________________________________________________

The rest of the syllabus:

Investigative Journalism JRN-4600-001 Spring 2009	Anthony R. Curtis, Ph.D. MWF 11:30 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. Old Main 237
Professor’s office hours for assistance with this course: Tuesday: 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 1:30-2:30 p.m. Wednesday and Friday: 10:30-11:30 a.m. In addition, Dr. Curtis frequently can be found in his office at 247 Old Main at other times during weekdays	Notable dates this semester: First Class: January 5 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday: January 19 Spring Break: March 2-7 Good Friday: April 10 Last Class: April 24 Final Exam: May 1 8:00 a.m. (o_O)

Course description:

Practical experience in researching and writing nonfiction articles suitable for publication. Prerequisite: JRN 3400 and MCM 4360. This is the capstone experience for seniors in Journalism.

Course goals:

This capstone experience for journalism students is an advanced course in tools and techniques of contemporary in-depth reporting. It is a hands-on course reflecting the values and experiences of the contemporary professional newsroom. You will be exposed to sophisticated investigation techniques and you will practice working both as an individual reporter and as part of a newsgathering team.

This course emphasizes:

Strategies for gathering and analyzing information, and developing background. You will be introduced to the research and analysis techniques of in-depth research and reporting, and investigative journalism.
Competence in the different narration techniques used in in-depth news writing and reporting.

Course outcomes:

This course is intended to be extremely practical, while at the same time causing you to think deeply about the stories you write and why you write them.

This practical course will show you how to do investigative and in-depth reporting, including how to:

Go beyond the day-to-day journalism done at most newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets.
Gather information by using documents and databases, by interviewing more effectively, and by getting out into the field.
Use primary and secondary sources - people sources, paper sources, electronic documents and databases, both online and offline.
Organize your research materials and then write a compelling story that covers not only the who, what, when and where, but also the why, the how and the "so what?"

After successfully completing this course, you should be capable of producing in-depth investigative journalism articles.

Class format:

The course will combine class sessions with extensive field experience. Class sessions will include lectures and discussions of the journalistic, legal and social aspects of investigative journalism. The experiences will involve investigative reporting by individual students and by teams. Whenever possible, team meetings will be held during regular class hours.

This course will show you how to do in-depth investigative reporting. You will be immersed in the theory and practice of watchdog journalism as applied to a variety of institutions in order to:

Provide and explain examples of good investigative reporting.
Explain and illustrate key skills and techniques appropriate to launching investigations.
Provide and explain examples of good investigative skills.
Provide high-level conceptual understanding of contemporary media practice.
Enable students to conceptualize, research and carry out research and writing projects.

We will use the advanced reporting methods of collecting evidence – public records, database searches, interviewing and other techniques – to investigate real-world concerns.

Texts:

Houston, Brant, and Len Bruzzese, Steve Weinberg. The Investigative Reporter's Handbook – A Guide to Documents, Databases and Techniques. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.

Goldstein, Norm, Ed. The AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (With Internet Guide and Glossary). New York: The Associated Press, [latest edition].

Supplementary texts:

You may find these optional, non-required books to be useful resources when working on assignments:

Interviewing:

Stewart, Charles J. and William B. Cash Jr. Interviewing Principles and Practices. 10th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Survey Research:

Alreck, Pamela L. and Robert B. Settle. The Survey Research Handbook. 3rd Ed. Chicago: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2004. Writing Feature Stories:

Friedlander, Edward Jay and John Lee. Feature Writing for Newspapers and Magazines. 5th Ed. New York: Longman, 2004. Photojournalism:

Horton, Brian. Associated Press Guide to Photojournalism - 2nd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001. Online Journalism:

Research Methods:

Literature Review:

Historiography:

Barzun, Jacques. The Modern Researcher. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2003. Readings

Please read the textbook chapters straight through on your own schedule. Read the supplementary texts as needed.

Your professor reserves the right to proceed through the course materials at an appropriate pace, as needed, depending on work accomplished in class meetings and the needs of students enrolled in the course. As we proceed through the semester, the timing of activities may change as more or less time may be required to complete certain topics.

Personal preparation for writing:

Not only in this course, but also during your academic degree program and in your professional career later, you will find it essential to stay up-to-date on current events, which change constantly. In fact, a running knowledge of current events will be important to your success in this course. To remain up-to-date, you should read a major newspaper every day in addition to watching broadcast or cable news operations and websites. For instance, you might choose to read the Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News & Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal or USA Today. You also should read a weekly newsmagazine such as Time or Newsweek. All of these print media have affiliated websites.

As a media professional, how will you know and understand trends in newsgathering and dissemination? To stay on top of your field, you should read the professional weekly business journals such as Editor & Publisher (newspapers), Folio (magazines), Broadcasting & Cable (radio and television), or Advertising Age (advertising). These publications are in the UNCP library and all have affiliated websites.

Attendance:

Attendance is very important. Classroom communication is a process of sharing. Your observations, insights and analyses are valuable to the whole class. Much of the work in this course is a team effort. You will be expected to keep up with the class and finish all assigned work on time with your teammates. Your participation will be reflected in a concrete way in your semester grade.

The Department of Mass Communications has a mandatory attendance policy. This course is an important element of your preparation for a career in professional journalism, where you will be expected to understand and meet deadlines.

Class attendance will be recorded in every class period where you will sign the roster sheet and will be used in determining the course grade. Unexcused absences will affect your grade adversely. For instance, attendance records will be used to determine the grade of any student who is on the borderline between two grades. If such a student has one or no unexcused absences, he or she may be eligible receive the higher of the two grades, assuming all other circumstances are appropriate.

Students with 4-5 unexcused absences will be penalized one letter grade.

Students with 6-7 unexcused absences will be penalized two letter grades.

Students with 8 or more unexcused absences will receive the grade of F for the semester.
There will be no option of doing an extra assignment to reduce or remove a penalty.

Athletes must discuss their game schedule for the full season with the professor at the beginning of the semester. If they plan to miss class for a game, they must notify the professor again before each absence to receive an excused absence. Athletes will not be excused from a class that ends more than hour before the bus leaves.

Students who plan to miss class for such activities as work, job interviews, job fairs, weddings, vacations, completing work for other courses, etc., must use their unexcused-absence cuts for those purposes. If you have problems attending class, you are encouraged to change your arrangements elsewhere that will enable you to participate fully here.

The following are excusable absences:

Illness or serious injury, with a note from a doctor
death in the immediate family, with a newspaper obituary clipping
required appearance in a court of law, with a note from the clerk of courts
catastrophic emergency, with appropriate documentation or official police report
representing the college in an official extracurricular activity, with a note from the faculty or administrative adviser of the activity, or head coach, and the prior approval of the professor of this course because some extracurricular activities do not justify an excused absence.

Late arrival in class:

Students who arrive late for a class session should check with the professor at the end of that class to be certain that their attendance has been recorded. Students who arrive excessively late to a class period, or who leave class early, will receive either partial credit or no credit for their attendance that day. Students who are continually late to class, or make it a practice to leave early, will begin receiving no credit for their attendance on days they are late.

Late assignments:

Deadlines are extremely important in journalism. Please have your assignments completed at the beginning of class on the assigned day.

Much of the work in this course is a team effort. You will be expected to keep up with the class and finish all assigned work on time with your teammates.

Late individual assignments will be penalized. Late assignments or makeup work generally is not accepted unless there was a prior arrangement with your professor. You may not be permitted to make up any missing individual, non-team work unless it is for an excused absence as listed above. The professor may refuse to revisit material a student missed due to an absence. No late work will be accepted without prior arrangements with your professor who retains the discretion of whether to accept any of such work.

Course Assignments:

Assignments include in-depth discussions with your colleagues in the classroom, news writing and production in and out of class for various media, and presentations to the class. There may be other types of assignments, if needed to meet course goals.

Your writings, presentations and participation in response to assignments will be judged subjectively by the professor on value of content, quality of submission, sophistication of contribution, professional workmanship, originality and uniqueness, craftsmanship, organization, creativity, communicative value, and technical aspects.

Evaluation of Written Submissions:

Generally, there are no right or wrong responses to assignments. Rather, the professor measures all submissions on three concurrent spectra – content, organization and mechanics. These parallel tracks range from weak to strong.

Many assignments will be submitted as Web pages of various formats. Writing assignments that you submit as printouts must reach the assigned length and content. If printed, written matter must be typewritten on one side of sheets of paper with appropriate formatting. The appropriate AP style must be followed. Appropriate professional editing must be used. Be sure your name is on your work along with any page headers and footers as assigned by the professor.

Evaluation of Web/Internet pages and written work will be based on appropriateness of content, clarity of purpose, clear and concise writing style, efficient use of words, grammar, spelling, mechanics, organization, preparation, proper use of appropriate journalistic style, and attention to deadline.

Evaluation of Class Presentations:

Presentations may focus on your ongoing class project work or you may be assigned to present separate descriptions of relevant course content. In addition to projecting Web pages, you are encouraged to use a variety of audio-visual aids that may be appropriate to your presentations. Presentations must reach the assigned length of time. Evaluation of your presentation will be based on clarity of purpose, organization, preparation, clear delivery, grammar, efficient use of words and audio-visual aids.

This is a 400-level upper-division course. Attention to deadlines is extremely important. You must deliver your presentation on the assigned date. Any presentation paperwork required for submission to the professor must be printed on one side of sheets of paper. Be sure to hand the presentation paperwork to the professor before delivering a presentation. Please make sure your name is on it.

Evaluation of Participation:

Attendance and cooperation with your classmates are very important. Classroom communication is a process of sharing. Your observations, insights and analyses are valuable to the whole class. Your participation in class and in teamwork projects will be reflected in a concrete way in your semester grade.

In-class discussions are vital to new learning in this course. Your discussion contributions will be judged subjectively by the professor on quality of content, value of submission, sophistication of contribution, originality and uniqueness, and communicative strength.

The success of the seminar discussion style of this course relies on your full participation. Just as you must submit assignments or make your presentation on an assigned day, it is equally important for you to view your classmates’ work and presentations. Please respect your colleagues and attend all in-class viewings and presentations. Non-attendance for viewing the work or presentations of others in the class will be penalized.

How to Succeed in this course:

A successful approach in this course is to be self-motivated, self-directed, and self-disciplined. Gather the needed technology skills and approach the course with a desire to learn. Manage your time well.
Contribute spontaneously and richly to course discussions and team activities. Listen to the comments of others and respond respectfully. Respect the ideas of others and their right to express them.
Assume a leadership role. Be a guide or coach for others in the class if and when such a contribution would be desirable. Voluntarily help other students, but remember that doing work for someone else to submit is inappropriate.
Other important considerations include:
- perfection of written and other kinds of materials submitted
- punctuality on assignments
- participation in class activities
- attendance at class meetings

Grading Considerations:

Professional standard

Growth

Evaluation Criteria for Letter Grades:

Excellent or A
Professional quality work. An insightful, relevant, newsworthy subject. Written articles and various web presentations involve the reader/listener/viewer in their drama, humor, ethos or pathos. Technique is flawless with perfect content, organization and mechanics. Information supporting the article/presentation is complete and accurate. Wording is precise. The writings and illustrations explore the story at different levels and do not simply make the same point from different perspectives. Publishable and distinguished work.
Good or B
Competent, functional investigating and reporting. Journeyman journalism. Publishable. Clean copy that makes a significant point efficiently in support of the story and presentation. Appropriate expression of active, believable description of moments that reveal a key person, place or event. Details are thorough and accurate. Writing, illustration and presentation mechanics and organizational techniques are of a high order. The story and presentation are balanced.
Acceptable or C
Average, run-of-the-mill story-telling and presentation. Probably publishable, but undistinguished and minimally acceptable. Properly written, but the content is average quality. The article or presentation offers little insight into why the subject is newsworthy. Content is adequate to identify the subject, but poorly organized and/or illustrated. Mechanics are good.
Poor or D
Unacceptable and unpublishable work. Below average work. A combination of flaws in conceptualizing, researching, organizing, writing, illustrating and presenting render the work unsatisfactory. This is work, which with better planning and extra effort, might have been publishable.
Unacceptable or F
Completely unacceptable work on the assignment.Not publishable. Decidedly unprofessional. Weaknesses in journalistic thinking, writing technique, illustration and professionalism have resulted in a failure on this assignment. Inaccuracies and other content errors, poor mechanics, unpublishable organization, and/or missed deadlines have reduced the assignment to failure. Not publishable.

Final Grade:

You will be graded on these work elements this semester – an individual backgrounder, a major investigative journalism work, and attendance and participation. These will be graded subjectively by the professor on comprehensiveness of investigative research; quality of writing, illustration and production; presentations to and collaboration with the class; in-depth discussions with your colleagues in the classroom; and other aspects of attendance and participation, and indication of your growth of understanding of the elements of investigative journalism.

Your final semester grade will be based on the professor’s evaluation of all of the work you complete and submit during the course. Attendance and enthusiastic participation form a significant portion of the semester grade, as described above.

Very important considerations for success include:

perfection of written materials
success of presentations
punctuality on assignments
participation in class discussions
cooperation on class activities
attendance at class meetings

The grading scale used for this course is:
100-90%=A to A-; 89-80%=B+ to B-; 79-70%=C+ to C-; 69-60%=D+ to D-; 59% and below=F.

Student Academic Honor Code: You have the responsibility to know and observe the UNCP Academic Honor Code which forbids cheating, plagiarism, abuse of academic materials, fabrication, falsification of information, and complicity in academic dishonesty.

Special Assistance: Please see the professor as soon as possible if you have questions or difficulty. Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments is requested to speak directly to Disability Support Services and the professor, as early in the semester as possible, preferably within the first week. All discussions will remain confidential. Please contact Mary Helen Walker, Disability Support Services, DF Lowry Building, 521-6695.

Writing assignments:

Backgrounding piece.
You will choose a public figure, with approval of the professor, and background that person using techniques and documents discussed in class and in the textbook. The project will have two parts – a two-page outline document explaining why the person is important and detailing your strategy for finding information, a written 5-10 page carefully organized report or story memo that reflects the results of that strategy, and finally a feature article on the subject. The story memo will include exactly what information you found, how you found the information, specifically where you found it (e.g. website locations, court documents, land records, names of human sources, etc.), any dead-ends you encountered, and a strategy for discovering more about the person. Your final story should describe fully, in compelling literary and hard-hitting story form, the results of your investigation and why those results are important to your readers. These criteria include techniques, sources, thoroughness, resourcefulness and effective writing of the investigative profile.

Major investigative piece.
As Gene Roberts, editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times, might suggest, dig beneath the surface of a subject to help readers understand what's going on in our increasingly complex world. Before you begin the project, the topic must be selected after your careful consideration and approved by the professor. We will discuss each project thoroughly in class before, during and afterward. Remember, this is the journalism capstone course. Only your very best work should be submitted!

Blackboard log-in page — Professor's courses — Professor's home page