Model curricula for journalism education for developing countries ...

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Week 7
Lecture: Anatomy of a feature story and more on storytelling techniques
Discussion: Students will share stories they wrote on their classmates and work
through the process of analysis, examining leads, summation graphs, transitions
and quotes. Professor then should turn to the news stories they wrote and work
through the same process.
Lecture: Writing strategies that work. Students will practice using these strategies.
Assignment for Week 8: Work through the steps of a handout on “How to write a
personality profile,” using someone in your family or neighborhood.
Reading for Week 8: “Writing the Newspaper Feature Story” and “The Specialized
Feature Story,” by Edward Friedlander and John Lee.
Week 8
Lecture: Similarities and differences in newspaper and magazine feature stories
Exercise: analyze two magazine feature stories, using process of analysis. Part 2 of
the exercise: Share interviews/stories they wrote on family or neighbors.
Assignment for Week 9: Report and write a personality profile on a newsworthy
subject on campus or in the community. The professor must sign off students’
choice.
Reading for Week 9: Review Mencher, Chapter 12 and 15.
Week 9
Lecture: Digging for Information and initiating newsgathering
Discuss personality profiles: strengths, weaknesses, what they would have done
differently. This is an opportunity to review the basic definition of news.
Small group exercise: Mapping/outlining a complex story. Students list the most
important stories on campus/community. They then break into group and choose
one to map out.
Assignment for week 10: Select a story idea off the list the class created, then begin
the research/reporting on this topic. This is preparation for issue story assignment.
Reading for Week 10: Mencher, Chapters 11 and 14.
Week 10
Lecture: Building and using background information and finding sources
Small group exercise: Brainstorm topics for issue story assignment.
Assignment for Week 11: Work on the preliminary stages of issue story.
Reading for Week 11: Mencher Chapters 18, 20, and 21.
Week 11
Lecture: Covering the community on a day to day basis
Exercise and discussion: Students will write an accident report, obituary and story