Some Questions Concerning the Presidential Race

1. Who do you want to win?
2. Who do you think will win?
3. How confident are you that this will happen? (Express as a percentage)
4. How intense is your interest in this election? (Express as a percentage)
5. How intense do you think the interest of the typical USF student is in this election? (Express as a percentage)
6. Which of the issues discussed by the candidates this election cycle matters most to you? (No more than three)
7. What are your primary news sources about the election? (No more than three)






Things to discuss:

Horse-race versus issue-based coverage of elections

False equivalence

The role of the press in a democracy

The news silo and bias confirmation

(Don't forget to look at HuffPost and Drudge)

Poll chasing & the wisdom of crowds

The Schedule for the Rest of the F16 Semester

Week 11 - 10.31
* Continue discussion of crime stories
* Discuss your mini-beat

Week 12 -11.7
* No class Wednesday
* First weekly big story report due 11.9
* Beat memo due 11.11

Week 13 -11.14
* Videolicious week - working multimedia
* Second weekly big story report due 11.16

Week 14 -11.21
* No class Wednesday
* Big story due 11.23

Week 15 -11.28
* First mini-beat story due December 2

Week 16 -12.5
* Second mini-beat story due December 9

Final exam Monday 12/12 10 a.m. - noon

Foreward to Book on Robert's Rules of Order for Elementary School Children

1876 cover of Robert's Rules of Order , a book containing rules of order intended to be adopted for use by a deliberative assembly. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Much of society is dysfunctional. It no longer works. Every special interest group uses bullying tactics to make others submit to their agenda. It leaves many people with no voice.

To have an effective society, we need effective organizations. To have equality for all, we need to hear everyone's voice, and not just those who scream the loudest, or have the most money, or control the information flow. No one should be allowed to speak over others, hog the floor, or not allow all sides to be heard. Democracy is for everyone, including children.

Children should be taught the fundamental rules of order in the democratic process. This guide is designed specifically to teach children from Kindergarten through 5th Grade how to conduct orderly meetings where everyone gets a chance to speak.

Interviewing Ethics and Interviewing Technique

Watch this interview from around 2:30 to around 5:30. In the comments section, tell me what you think of the interviewer's approach. Those who comment later can comment on earlier comments!

Why Knowing AP Style is Ever More Useful

Copy editors being fired at local news group, which means:

This is going to place a new level of responsibility on reporters and, especially, assigning editors. Many of the ways in which the desk bails us out — often without us noticing — will disappear.

Checklist for on-campus interview

The Interview (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* place of birth
* education
* year came to USF
* why came to USF
* best, worst things about USF
* family
* age
* familiarity with ASUSF resolution on micro-aggressions
* thoughts on micro-aggressions generally and on resolution specifically
* salary
* how contact if need confirm anything
* anything we haven't covered you'd like to bring up

News Conference Background 2.11.16

You are a Foghorn reporter. Your editor summons you to this press conference, telling you that all morning she has been hearing vague but disturbing rumors about a closed meeting last night of the USF Executive Council - which consists of all the top University administrators - at which administrator Dr. Russ Winters gave a presentation. Winters has agreed to come to an informal news conference for campus media to clarify what was said. The Foghorn editor whispers to you that she got him to agree to come by implying implied she knows exactly what went on at the meeting, though she doesn’t, only that it upset some faculty and administration a great deal. She wants this story up online no later than 4 p.m. today so she expects you to have it done by 3:45 p.m.

Basic fact sheet from the university: Winters was appointed University Director of Institutional Advancement two months ago. He has a B.A. from the University of Scranton and an M.A. and a Ph.D., both in Public Relations, from the University of Georgia. He is 36. For the last ten years he has been Director of Media Relations for John Deere Tractor Company in Belleville, Illinois.

Some Not-So-Terrible Fire Leads

Late Night with David Letterman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Terrible Fire

1) In a late-night rescue, Castro Valley fireman Norman Young dragged a local resident from his burning home earlier today, reviving him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

According to authorities, the rescued man, Albert Lofton, 53, and his wife, Barbara Lofton, 26, who suffered a sprained ankle jumping from an upstairs window, were treated at a local hospital and are in satisfactory condition.

The fire was the apparently caused by Lofton falling asleep on his living room sofa while smoking a cigarette. According to authorities, Lofton said he had started a fire in the home in the same way two years ago. 99 words

 (could go chronological at this point)

The Lofton’s house, which is located at 1413 Napa St. in Castro Valley, suffered $150,000 in damages, fire officials said.

(or you could add the damage information and go chronological)

2) (Maybe this works. Certainly exciting and consistent with the facts)

After the wife of a Castro Valley man was driven back by flames and chose to save herself by jumping from a second-story window of their burning home, suffering a sprained ankle, late last night a local fireman entered the house and rescued the unconscious husband she had failed to reach.

According to authorities, fireman Norman Young revived Albert Lofton, 53, using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after dragging Lofton from his living room. Lofton later told authorities he had apparently set his sofa on fire when he fell asleep while watching David Letterman, cigarette in hand.

Lofton and wife Barbara, 26, were taken to Kaiser Hospital in Leandro. Mrs. Lofton has been released. Mr. Lofton is in satisfactory condition but remains hospitalized, hospital officials said. 123 words

3) Albert Lofton, 56, certainly isn't the first person to fall asleep while watching the "Late Show with David Letterman.”  He is, however, the second Castro Valley resident in the last two years to set his house aflame after dozing off on the sofa with a lit cigarette in his hand, according to authorities.

The first perpetrator: also Albert Lofton.

Around 24 months ago, Lofton fell asleep while smoking a cigarette, which caused $15,000 in damages to his home.

Last night Lofton kindled yet another fire in just the same way, said the Castro Valley Fire Department, one of whose firefighters dragged Lofton unconscious from his burning home and revived him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. 113 words

This time damages were $150,000, authorities said.

Out of Class Exercise for Thursday, Feburary 11, 2016

 * Find a Super Bowl story whose lead you like that can be linked to online
* Tweet a link to that story using #usfreports
* If you need to, employ the Google url shortener

A Speech Exercise

Some thoughts on journalism ethics

Facebook Instant Articles and Hyperlocal News

Illustration of Facebook mobile interface (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's all about money and survival.

Related articles

• The Tab Raises $3M For Its Hyperlocal News Site Written By Unpaid Student Journalists
• The Little-Known Local Marketing Tactic Your Competitors Aren't Using (Yet)
• Investigative local reporting has a future - but it won't look like the past

I'd Call This a Nice Job of Reporting

From FiveThirtyEight

Last Friday, Washington, D.C.’s blizzard began sometime after the anti-abortion March for Life began, but before protesters reached the Supreme Court. The snow couldn’t stop a Franciscan friar, though. He kept on walking, barefoot, down the streets, singing hymns with other marchers. A long column of students, all in yellow, chanted a few choruses of “Pro-choice, that’s a lie! Babies never choose to die!” and then started up a call-and-response rosary with a bullhorn.

Not far away, I was cracking ice off of the tips of my touch-screen gloves and surveying protesters, trying to learn who had come to the march and what kind of post-post-Roe v. Wade world they wanted to build. I approached every fifth marcher I saw and interviewed 60 people over the four-hour event.¹ It’s not a sample I’d publish in an academic journal or anything, but it let me learn more about the movement than I could from staid news reports of how many people showed up.

Related articles

• Leader of abortion group admits "2016 could really be the year we say goodbye to Roe v. Wade"
• What we pro-choicers said would happen
• Pro-choice supporters can still be forgiven
• Pro-choice arguments open the door to anti-abortion advocates.

Overcoming Phone Fears

Particularly a problem for Millenials?

For a generation who spent the hours after school Instant Messaging, calling can feel foreign — and presumptuous. "They don't want to wing it," complains writer Sandy Hingston in Philadelphia Magazine.

Related articles

• Why millennials are scared of talking on the phone - and how to get over it

An Animated Cartoon Makes Things Clear

April 31, 2015

Last thoughts on Adrienne Samen



* But first: What is Criminal Mischief?

* People Magazine's version

* Oh no Adrienne

* But things got better

* I hope this isn't her

* Facebook?


Who is Demian Bulwa? Questions?

Related articles

• Worst wedding disasters

Drones and Wearables

 from Digiday

At CES this January, we saw opportunity flying through the air with the advancement of drone technology.

Having had the chance to get my hands on the Iris+ from 3D Robotics, I was instantly energized by the potential this had for our team and for the industry at large. The “Follow Me” option (directing the drone to follow the user) and flight-planning capabilities (which allow users to set a shot pattern) give journalists the opportunity to plan shots ahead, something critical when you also need to be focused on what is happening, not just on flying your camera.

With its GoPro compatibility, it helps make entry into drone media much more accessible and attainable for the regular reporter and user, many of whom already incorporate GoPros into their storytelling. Other companies like Parrot with its Bebop Drone are also making drones much more user-friendly by integrating controls into a mobile application – meaning a remote control is one less thing to lug to a reporting site.

So using drones for reporting is obviously a “fun idea,” but is it feasible and is it important?

The FAA’s recent political decision-making around the commercial use of drones has made this a real possibility for reporting purposes. From using drones to investigate factory farms to monitoring police abuse during protests, journalists have already started adding these relatively low-cost devices to their news-gathering arsenals. On the “citizen journalism” side, we are seeing independent users creating incredible, sweeping shots – bringing viewers literally to new heights.

Although some argue they are restrictive to big idea concepts, these new rules will see an estimated 7,000-plus businesses obtain commercial aviation drone permits in the next three years. A number of them will be reporters and photojournalists. The FAA has even specifically engaged with the media community via university research programs to test the possibilities.

The time when drones will be in our news is not only imminent; it’s here.

Wearables
From the sky to our wrist, hot new consumer technologies will change the way users are obtaining news and, therefore, the way we produce it.

Though not the first in its category, Apple Watch shows huge potential to present news in a quick, digestible way. Just as Twitter limited social media users to 140 characters to get their point across, the Apple Watch challenges media to carry across the news within a 42 millimeter space.

At Salon, when designing our application for the Apple Watch, we encountered a problem we’re familiar with just from creating content every day: How do we meet the demand for “right now” updates while still providing the long-form content that our users appreciate? For us, the solution was integrating with the iPhone app — making the wearable and the phone work as a unified storytelling experience.

While wearables emerge beyond this, extending to embedded microchips to digitized contact lenses and even clothing, we will likely continue to see the survival of the slightly larger screen for deeper content engagement.

Virtual reality
At Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, big developments in virtual reality news and entertainment emerged.

While HBO and Fox Searchlight made some amazing announcements and accomplishments at the event, it was Vice that stole the show, from a media perspective. Presenting a 360-degree experience of the Millions March in New York City, a critical moment in the social justice movement sweeping across the U.S., Vice’s Chris Milk and Spike Jonze revealed what this technology can mean for news and storytelling. Given the technology, anyone today or even years in the future can experience a part of that powerful event.

From a hardware perspective, low-price options, like Google’s cardboard headset and phone integrated options like Samsung’s Gear VR, broaden access to these technologies and have the potential to open virtual reality media experiences to a wider audience.

These technologies are no longer sci-fi fantasies or Jetson flying car dreams. These products exist.

Media consumption leans toward frequent check-ins and a desire for a first-person narrative. Technologies like wearables, drones and virtual reality offer us a natural extension for our storytelling while delivering on the instant gratification and unique vantage point that users are looking for. I, for one, welcome the new wave of innovation and am excited by the opportunities it presents to the world of media.

Assignment for Monday April 27, 2015

In this example, x 1 =2 and the tentative assignment x 2 =1 is considered. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 A 300-word tentative beginning for your Big Story based on your reporting to that point. Take a look at the examples I have sent you. Note how I love anecdotes that lead into your thesis.

This is only a draft.

From Muck Rack

Lithograph of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. From left to right: Henry Rathbone, Clara Harris, Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, and John Wilkes Booth. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"The AP's report of the Lincoln assassination. Took 76 words to get to the point. Where's the inverted pyramid, buddy?" wonders

 Josh Katzowitz

 with CBS Sports, after reading the original AP report of Abraham Lincoln's death

 150 years after it was filed (which has gotten 2,500+ shares

 as of last count). "Whatever the opposite of inverted pyramid is, this is it," agrees

 Steve Contorno

 with the Tampa Bay Times. "I may use this--the original news story on lincoln's assassination--in class as an example of burying the lede," admits

 Gerry Doyle

 with the International New York Times. "I'm never letting an @AP

 editor give me guff again about anecdotal ledes," announces

 AP's Nicholas Riccardi

. While we're on the subject, the Washington Post thoughtfully collected several samplings of how newspapers covered the assassination

 a century and a half ago (1,600+ shares

). Plus, meet the little girl who told Abe  to grow a beard

 (1,200+

). Smart lass!

Text of Email I Just Sent the Class

An optical illusion. Square A is exactly the same shade of grey as square B. See demonstration. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Attached is a sample Big Story. At the end is an outline. On the outline is a statement of theme. For Tuesday I want you give me a paragraph stating the theme of your Big Story *based on what you now know*. Preface it with, "At the moment I anticipate that this will be the theme of my story."

Of course, like a scientist, in your reporting you will explore all those things that contradict your possible theme. At the end of the reporting process, you will almost certainly have to rewrite your theme.

From the livescience blog:

The basic idea of a hypothesis is that there is no pre-determined outcome. For a hypothesis to be termed a scientific hypothesis, it has to be something that can be supported or refuted through carefully crafted experimentation or observation. This is called falsifiability and testability, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Your Big Story will not be a scientific hypothesis in the narrow sense. But it can be a way of focusing your reporting and, perhaps, of discovering if you have a bias regarding your story that might distort your reporting.

Poking around on the web looking for definitions of hypothesis, I found one of particular interest. One possible definition of hypothesis is:

Educated Guess

Vox Links to the Collapse of the Rolling Stone UVA Rape Story

American Palladianism: The Rotunda at the University of Virginia, designed in the Palladian manner by Thomas Jefferson. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

link to commentary

take by a conservative lawyer on the threatened lawsuit

Why it matters:

Erdely and her editors had hoped their investigation would sound an alarm about campus sexual assault and would challenge Virginia and other universities to do better. Instead, the magazine's failure may have spread the idea that many women invent rape allegations. (Social scientists analyzing crime records report that the rate of false rape allegations is 2 to 8 percent.) At the University of Virginia, "It's going to be more difficult now to engage some people … because they have a preconceived notion that women lie about sexual assault," said Alex Pinkleton, a UVA student and rape survivor who was one of Erdely's sources.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/a-rape-on-campus-what-went-wrong-20150405#ixzz3WdmcLRpO
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