Journalism Activity - EXTRA CREDIT

Hey guys!

As you know, we do not publish a hard copy (paper) of our newspaper. Part of that is because of our budget - or lack thereof. We would love to do some advertising on our site to promote our program. This assignment, in addition to being worth up to 50 bonus points, will help us get an idea of how to go about advertising our paper.

Tasks:


1. Write a 200-word description of how much discretionary money that you spend in a month. Think of everything -clothes, going out to eat, entertainment, etc. - and describe how you spend it.

2. Read the following article:
http://www.ecrm-online.com/Expose/V4_10/Hittting.htm
Write a 200-word response to the article and how it relates to your discretionary spending habits.

3. Find five businesses that could advertise in the school newspaper that would interest the teenage market at our high school and write a paragraph explaining why each business would want to advertise at our school.

4. Design an ad for one of the businesses (on paper, cardboard, computer) you have listed that would entice a teen to go to that business.

Feature Writing Comparison - A Man and his Job

Journalism Assignment - Who's on First?

In an effort to examine reliability of our articles and to compare and improve our feature writing as a class, we are going to complete an activity I like to call "A Man and His Job".

You will, as a class, create a character who has a particular occupation. From that, you will develop more information about the person, their background, their likes and dislikes, etc. You will them generate quotes about the man and about the facts you have been given.

From that, you will be given the task of writing a feature article about the person. What direction will you take the story? What angle will you research? How will you keep the reader entertained?

The feature article, which is to be a minimum of 500 words, will be due on Wednesday, December 10, must be posted in the form of a BLOGSPOT POST ON MUSKETEERJOURNALISM.BLOGSPOT.COM. It will be worth 75 points for your semester grade.

We will discuss the posts in a week...

A couple of points.

1. Make sure that you are writing it in a freature-y style - a hybrid of a short story and a news article.

2. Keep it interesting, make it funny - it is your choice.

3. Consider tone and situation, audience and purpose, and mode.

4. Also, Thursday will be our pitch meeting. Get your story ideas ready.

Thanks,
B. Parsons
Musketeer Journalism

Journalism Assignment - Who's on First?

In an effort to examine reliability of our articles and to compare and improve our writing as a class, we are going to complete an activity I like to call "Who's on First?"

As a class, we are to do the following role-playing. USING seven students, prepare a "hall incident" that carries a school suspension punishment. Have the protagonist tell his story, the antagonist tell his, a friend of each should give his rendition, a teacher who happened on the scene should explain the incident, three uninvolved passers-by should tell what happened, and the principal (who was not there) should comment on the event.

For homework, each class member should be the reporter and attempt to write an objective account of the happening in the form of a news article. The article, which is to be a minimum of 500 words, will be due on Monday, in the form of a BLOGSPOT POST ON MUSKETEERJOURNALISM.BLOGSPOT.COM.

We will discuss the posts in a week...

A couple of points.

1. I realize I am asking 7 of you to volunteer and act in this roleplay. I know you can do it.

2. There will be bonus points (25) for the actors.

3. If you don't have the acting, you can't have the roleplay. If you don't have the roleplay, you can't write the stories. If you don't write the stories, you don't get the credit.

4. I have not forgotten those who have not presented their PowerPoints. We will get to those at the next available moment.

5. We have a guest speaker (Terry Hapney, Professor of Communications and Journalism at Marshall University) coming to speak to us on Friday. Please have at least a question or two formulated for about the industry, his occupation, his school, etc. for the Q and A session that will take place after his lecture.

6. Also, Thursday will be our pitch meeting. Get your story ideas ready.

Politics in the Media - Part II

Hey guys!

After you complete the packet, please answer the following questions. Make sure your questions are complete sentences, with responses of no less than 300 words for each question:

1. Who would/will you vote for in the 2008 presidential election? What are the issues that are most important to you as a voter? How did you come to your decision?

2. Why do you believe your candidate will do a better job in the White House than his opponent?

Thanks,

B. Parsons

Politics in the Media

Guys,

Today we watched a video on the role of media in the shaping of a political campaign. Please answer the following questions as a blog, with a minimum of 75 words per question response.

1. What role does the media have in how you follow politics personally? Where would you go to find out political information?

2. How do politicians manage their images through the media? (i.e. photo ops, avails, etc.)

3. How was Kerry misquoted in the media? How did it affect his campaign?

4. Why was the Bush Administration's Publicity Department called the "Broadway" division? 

5. What are the different media options that you can use to access information about the political race?What are their strengths and weaknesses?