LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Through the posting of frequent news update articles (at least eight throughout the course of the exercise) on the team’s blog and the completion of at least one summary news article and one “sidebar” article relating the major events of the exercise (which will also be posted to the team’s blog within +/- 10 minutes of the end of the exercise), and through a record of team discussions about key decisions during the exercise, students will demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of journalistic skills, including appropriate use of inverted pyramid style, narrative voice, news judgment, ethics, interviewing, synthesis, and clarity.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR TEAMS
1. Two weeks before the exercise: Form groups of no less than three and no more than five students. Based on each student’s individual skill sets, select roles for each student and e-mail the instructor a team roster. All of the following roles must be filled by at least one student, but multiple students can fill multiple roles:
-writer (constructs timely news articles)
-copy editor (ensures copy is free of factual and grammatical errors
-interviewer (participates in interview with shadow player, if applicable)
-note keeper (maintains notes on group discussions throughout exercise)
-managing editor (chief group decision maker)
2. One week before the exercise: Prepare a simple blog that can be quickly and easily updated. Ensure that all members of your group have authorship privileges. A tutorial for building a blog on Blogger can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnploFsS_tY
3. Three days before the exercise: Submit your blog’s url to your instructor.
4. 30 minutes before the exercise: Either in person or via the online communications method of your choosing, gather with your team to discuss strategies for responding to breaking news.
5. At the designated starting time, log onto the exercise homepage at: http://breakingnewsexercise.blogspot.com
6. Check back in at the exercise homepage frequently. Throughout the exercise, you will receive a stream of updates, tips, suggestions and reports on a breaking news event happening in your community. It is your team’s job to respond to these events with timely and appropriate news articles, published to your team’s blog, using what you’ve learned in your journalism class to guide your decisions.
7. Throughout the exercise, maintain a constant discussion with fellow team members about the appropriate journalistic response. Maintain a running record of these discussions to present to your instructor at the completion of the exercise. The record should show consideration of news judgment, ethics and narrative approach.
8. If you want information that is not provided to you on the exercise homepage, your team may contact a “shadow player” by sending an e-mail to an address designated by your instructor.
- An example of a shadow player might be the town mayor or a victim’s family member.
- The e-mail should state clearly the title/position/relationship of the person (i.e. “I would like to speak to the mayor”) who you wish to contact and ask no more than three very specific questions.
- Your instructor, playing the role of the person with whom you wish to speak, can choose to respond to the request in an e-mail, ignore the request completely, or contact you to set up a phone conversation, in which you will be able to exercise your live interview skills.
- You will receive a designated number of shadow player requests. Use these requests wisely.
