The crux of this class is two-pronged: there will be testing your proficiency at various aspects of practical journalism (ability to use multiple mediums, job-hunting skills, etc.), and there will be creating content diving deeply into a trend or issue.
For example, in the spring of 2017 JRN 400 was given the topic of, who are we? That was the trend and issue to explore; what modern demographics, habits and fads say about who we are as a people today. All stories related back to that overarching theme.
Then, the stories were uploaded to the Spartan Newsroom site for public review. Here's the link:
Please carefully review several of these stories and get a sense of what that group was trying to accomplish, and how they did it.
Today, you will be asked to come up with your individual topic for this summer class.
For example, one area of exploration in that spring assignment looked into what the state of our health today says about who we are; are we sicker or healthier than in the past, and why? What are we more or less prone to, and why? What do we do and who do we trust when it comes to our health, and why?
Here are some examples; please carefully read each to get a sense of direction and depth of reporting:
Please note mediums used here. The first three are traditional written stories; the fourth is a video story; the fifth an alternative story form, and the sixth a Q-and-A format. We want you to experiment with different forms and NOT lock into just one form of storytelling.
During the course of the semester, you should expect to do at least 5 or 6 of these stories in roughly this form, along with an extra so-called digital story package, which should be your most deeply-reported story within your subtopic, done in multiple mediums.
Think of it this way: the regular stories are like weekly stories were in JRN 300, and the digital story package is like the JRN 300 final project.
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