Your JRN 400 Topic: An Assignment

What we do in JRN 400 classes is pick a general topic and then drill into it thoroughly. 

For example, in the spring of 2017 the JRN 400 class topic was, Who are we? We may be Americans, Michiganders and Spartans — but what does that really mean? The Spartan Newsroom special projects team took a look at some of the characteristics that shape our community and make us who we are. To view, click on link here.

The stories focuses on anecdotes, statistics, trends, issues and happenings that said something about who we are today as individuals and as a society: sicker or healthier, richer or poorer, liberal or conservative, etc.

Many stories used anecdotal examples to humanize the trend; data to show how the trend is unfolding; and experts to help analyze and make sense of the trend. 

From the spring 2017 group, here is an example. And here is another one. One more is here.

For this class, we will NOT have a group topic. Rather, each of us will need to come up with our own overarching topic, and then all the stories we do this summer will be related to that topic: who is affected by this topic; who is in charge of the topic; who is expert at this topic; what are the pros and cons of this topic; who is it affecting and how and why; what does your topic mean for greater society, etc.

As far as story forms, we want you primarily using your preferred medium: if it's writing, then written stories; if it's video, then video stories. But we would like everyone to try a mix of story forms: writing, video, alternative story forms, etc. Soon we will get into those different forms and how to do those.

But for now, I need your topic. Please write up a short summary of what you propose your topic should be, why it's a good topic for you to explore, and what some potential story ideas under that topic umbrella could be, and then email that to me at omars@msu.edu. Your deadline for this will be no later than 9 a.m. Thursday, May 17.

Questions? Email me at omars@msu,edu or call or text at 702-271-7983. The sooner the better; as we get closer to deadline our options and my availability will become more limited.

These are the types of stories we want you chasing for our summer topic. We'll get into detail on how we'll do that in a little bit, but I wanted you to start thinking now about things in general.