Monday, January 25, 2010

January 25, 2010

Today in class we discussed the elements of news and ethics in writing. Both are important in order to write credible and informative pieces of writing for any medium. We also analyzed a Washington Post article for signs of the news elements and ethical concerns.

The basic elements of news include:
  • Impact: things that will have an affect on people's lives are considered newsworthy
  • Timeliness: an event must have happened recently
  • Prominence: important people make the news
  • Proximity: things that happen close to home are more newsworthy
  • Bizarre or Unusual: weird events are considered news because they are interesting
Ethics are always questioned in the journalism world, but there are a few concrete guidelines to follow:
  • Don't plagiarize
  • Always find another source
  • Don't sell stories
  • Don't accept anything from a source
Generally, just use common sense. If unsure it would be good to familiarize yourself with press rights and the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics, both of which were handed out in class.

Homework due Thursday, Jan 28: Exercise 4.2 News Values 1, p. 94. Read the three stories and answer the questions that follow. Bring your answers to class. Read kcnn.org module on Interviewing. Read these two chapters on Interviewing: Interviewing Tools and Types of Interviews and take notes
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. Chris LawrenceJanuary 27, 2010 at 7:25 AM

    Carrie: Very good job summarizing the class discussion. I like your sentence "Generally, just use common sense." We need more of that in life. We also need to remember that photographs often have more impact than the written word. Photo editors need to consider the "Cheerios test."

    ReplyDelete
  2. GeoffreyJanuary 27, 2010 at 8:24 AM

    "Don't accept anything from a source"
    I can accept information, right? (just kidding)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)