Generation Progress Journalism Network Resource Book by Generation Progress

Journalism Network Resource Book

Table of Contents

The Generation Progress Journalism Network Resource Book is designed specifically to help student publications in the Generation Progress Journalism Network. If you see something missing, let us know.

A Reading List for Young, Progressive Journalists

p. 4

Generating Story Ideas

p. 6

The Art of the Interview

p. 10

Reporting: Tips and Tricks

p. 14

Investigative Reporting: Tips and Tricks

p. 17

Writing a Lede For News Articles For Feature Stories

p. 20 p. 21

Writing a News Article

p. 25

Writing a Feature Story

p. 27

Writing an Opinion Piece

p. 30

p. 31 p. 33 p. 34

Reaching Different Audiences: Linguistics in the Media

p. 36

Editing Content Editing Checklist Copy Editing: A Crash Course in AP Style

p. 37 p. 40

Photography

p. 45

Layout

p. 47

Covering Beats Tuition and Higher Education Science and Bioethics Events & Speeches

Display Type: headlines, subheds and captions

p. 49

Blogging: Tips and Tricks & Social Media

p. 51

Funding a Student Publication Being an Ethical Journalist

p. 53

p. 58

Additional Resources

p. 59

A Reading List For Young, Progressive Journalists Narrative Nonfiction “Submersion Journalism: Reporting in the Radical First Person” From Haper’s Magazine Edited by Bill Wasik “Deadline Artists: America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns” Edited by John Avlon, Jesse Angelo and Errol Louis “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” By Hunter S. Thompson “The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test” By Tom Wolfe “The White Album” By Joan Didion “Hiroshima” By John Hersey “Down and Out in Paris and London” By George Orwell “The Jungle” By Upton Sinclair “In Cold Blood” By Truman Capote “Now Dig This” By Terry Southern “Clandestines” By Ramor Ryan “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” by John Berendt

Texts for Guidance Reporting & Writing “Inside Reporting: A Practical Guide to the Craft of Journalism” By Tim Harrower “Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate” - The Essential Guide for Progressives By George Lakoff Layout and Design: “The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook” By Tim Harrower Media Law: “The Law of Public Communication” By Kent R. Middleton and William E. Lee

Journalism

The Atlantic

Huffington Post

Mother Jones

The Nation

Free Speech TV

Colorlines

Feministing

ThinkProgress

The New York Times

National Geographic

Pacific Standard

Truthout

Rolling Stone

The Economist

Democracy Now!

This American Life

NPR

Planet Money

Public News Service

Richard Fowler Show

Symbolia

The New Yorker

Generating Story Ideas Tip of the hat to Patricia Rodriguez, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Headed from the gym to the locker room after aerobics, I almost tripped over them—a gang of thirtysomething men, sprawled in front of my health club’s only HDTV. What were these workout yuppies watching so attentively? “Beavis and Butthead,” the MTV cartoon supposedly aimed at metalhead teens. Women walked by the TV as if it didn’t even exist. Why did grown men have such an interest in a kids’ show? This, I decided, was a story. The feature story my newspaper eventually ran quoted married couples, film historians and local humor experts, explaining the difference between comedies aimed at men and those aimed at women. OK, so it’s no Pulitzer winner, but it did address a topic people were talking about in my city. In order to produce good, well-read feature stories a staff must find out what people are interested in and write about those topics in an interesting way. Under that definition, almost everything can be a feature story. Yet in two summers of teaching feature writing, I’ve found that developing story ideas is the most daunting task for beginning writers. “Where do we get ‘em?” students ask. There’s no right or wrong way to come up with story ideas, but here are some of my favorites (with edits by Generation Progress): •

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Read, read, and then read some more. You can get story ideas from your main student newspaper, from your local paper, or from blogs, listservs and Twitter feeds for residents of your town. You might do a local version of a story in a national magazine. A short local news story might inspire you to write a longer, more detailed feature about the same topic. Some staffs might want to assign different people to read different publications to assure that a wide variety of topics is being covered. Pay attention. What are your friends—or, even better, peers you rarely or never talk to—talking and thinking about? What trends, activities and clubs are popular? One of my favorite things about being a reporter is that I can snoop on other people’s conversations and call it research. You can also ask people, both on campus and in your community, what’s new and what they’re reading about. Brainstorm. At one publication where I worked, we had weekly meetings where everyone was required to bring at least two story ideas. We would then discuss each idea briefly. The best part of the meeting was that our discussions went off on tangents and that’s where the best ideas often originated. Talk to people, and keep your ears open during interviews. Sometimes you’ll hear a stray fact that might be irrelevant to the story you’re working on, but it could you to another story altogether. Researching a routine story about a women’s trade show recently, I heard about a new Fort Worth golf league forming strictly for executive women. That ended up being a much bigger and better feature. Change your routine. Visit a club or town meeting you wouldn’t normally attend. Eat lunch in a different spot. Talk to a different group of people. Your job is to cover your whole school, so it’s natural to get in a rut after a while. By trying new things, you’ll find new stories. Record your ideas. Make a note in your cell phone (a draft text message, perhaps) when you think of a good story idea but are away from your computer. Keep a document on your computer that compiles all your story possibilities. 6

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Formulate a beat. Try to become an expert in one particular area, and cover it over and over again. Let relevant professors and student ers know what you’re covering, and ask if they have any ideas for stories. Or just get to know them and see whether they mention anything interesting. Follow these people on Twitter. Think. This isn’t as simpleminded as it sounds. You really do have to LEARN to think like a writer. Lots of times, students will tell me interesting things they find out about classmates during the workshop without ever realizing they can write a feature story about it. Without becoming obsessive, you have to learn to treat the whole world as your journalism workshop, always being on the lookout for something interesting or unusual. After all, you never know when you might just trip over a story idea.

Finding an Angle for a Story Tip of the hat to Linda Kane, journalism adviser at Naperville Central High School in Naperville, Ill., and The “Student Newspaper Survival Guide,” by Rachele Kanigel College publications often write about the latest political issues facing the nation—climate change, health care reform, a presidential election. These are interesting and important topics for college students and absolutely appropriate fodder for journalism. However, these stories often end up looking like generic term papers, only rehashing others’ work. The trick to a great story is to find a fresh angle. Recent statistics or research studies often provide such an angle. News developments are even better. When a student at CSU-Chico died in a hazing incident in 2005, journalists wrote about hazing at the university from a bigger-picture perspective. If there isn’t news to peg a story to, prowl the Web looking for organizations, news stories and research that may help you find a fresh angle. Look for experts on your campus, like professors. With each potential source, look for something new. Is there a new treatment for this condition? Is a professor doing research on this topic? Are police seeing an increase or decrease in this crime? Let’s take a well-known news item, the push for climate change legislation, and consider the different angles or approaches a feature story in a campus publication might take. PROFILE At this point, most people take the threat of climate change seriously. But does every informed citizen know about the people working to make a difference? Interview and follow an environmental activist on your campus or in your community for several days, and write about what makes him or her tick. 7

TREND STORY This kind of story reports on a trend, such as an increase in membership in the campus environmental club, new opportunities for environmental volunteerism, or a campus-wide move away from disposable dishes and cutlery. INFORMATIONAL FEATURE A story about local polluters might make an informative article. (See scorecard.org to start your research.) Informational features should focus in on a narrow element, and it’s best if these stories are pertinent to your community. Remember: The New York Times can talk about Congress’ latest bill, but your readers hunger for more local information. HUMAN INTEREST What else is changing because of global warming? Interview students to see if anyone has a family member affected by the West Nile Virus, or investigate whether mountain pine beetles have hit your local parks and forests. IN-DEPTH STORY Attend an event organized by your campus environmental organization. Then, attend club meetings and interview the president and executive board members about how that event fits into their overall mission of changing the world. This list isn’t even close to exhaustive. You might also consider how-to features on greening your life or purchasing environmentally-friendly apparel. The main goal: Journalists should always experiment with new angles and reporting opportunities.

Story Idea, Reporting and Writing Tips Tip of the hat to Linda Kane, journalism adviser at Naperville Central High School in Naperville, Ill. Here are some tips to keep in mind as you work to produce great stories: 1. LOCALIZE Always keep in mind that your readers can go elsewhere, and The New York Times can cover most national or international stories better than you. But, as college and community journalists, you can still interest readers and provide a fresh angle by taking a major story and localizing it — in other words, by including information relevant to your community alone. 2. FOCUS your topic. You cannot possibly cover everything. Take broad topics and narrow them; don’t be afraid to link or refer to someone else’s work if it would provide good background for a reader wanting to know more. But try to differentiate your story from others by taking a fresh angle. 3. Remember that the , or introduction, is the most important part of the story. You only have a few seconds to capture your readers’ attention. Take, for example, the following from a feature story in the Chicago Tribune:

Being a clown is more than something to do for David Heffley. It’s also a tribute to his gutsy determination to succeed against the odds. Yes, it’s cheesy and sounds a bit promotional, but this is a catchy, punchy that has good potential to capture a reader’s attention.

4. CONDUCT ORIGINAL INTERVIEWS and use direct quotes from as many sources as you can. Many newspaper reporters aim for at least three sources per story. If you’re writing a feature story – anything that isn’t a news story or opinion piece – consider lengthier anecdotes and vignettes. 5. USE CONCISE LANGUAGE and avoid GRE words. Showy or academic writing is a bad idea in journalism, since we want to hold readers’ attention. 6. If you can, write an effective conclusion, but consider that sometimes the best ending leaves a story hanging. Avoid cheesy, clichéd endings that sound moralistic or preachy. Consider how the Tribune writer ended the story that began above, in #4:

“People always told me I was stupid and acted like a clown,” he said, “and I’ve turned it into something good.” 7. REVISE your drafts often. Even the pros do this: Ernest Hemingway rewrote the last page of A Farewell to Arms more than 30 times. 8. Follow a STYLE MANUAL, like the Associated Press or New York Times style guides. 9. If you’re writing a feature story, try to include a NEWS PEG: a recent event, occurrence or finding that makes the larger issue worthy of coverage. Why do you think this might be a good idea?

To Write or Not to Write? The following questions will help guide you to produce quality stories. If you can not answer at least one of these questions, you are on the wrong track with the story idea and either need to find a new angle or scrap the story and start with a new idea. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Do I know something about this issue that other people do not know? Can I write about it with authority and conviction? Am I passionate about this issue? Are other people passionate or interested in this issue? Will this story present new information that people are unlikely to get anywhere else? Will this story challenge people’s assumptions or present arguments people are unlikely to hear elsewhere? Will this article have an impact on a topic people are already talking about? Do I have access to sources of information that can help me gather information for this article? If you answer YES to these questions, then you have a good story idea to move forward on.

The Art of the Interview By Eric Nalder, Seattle Times

The Set Up RESEARCH: The best questions are informed questions. Whether you have five hours or five days, gather clippings and court records and talk to the subject's cohorts. TACTICS: Make a tactical plan and discuss it with a friend or colleague. Whenever possible, I interview people close to the action, while they are actually doing whatever it is I am writing about. However, whistleblowers and reluctant targets are best contacted at home. You can calm a nervous source by taking him or her for a walk. And if you arrange a lunch appointment you can force a person to spend at least an hour with you. ORGANIZE: Write single-word clues on the flap of your notebook to remind you of issues you want to cover. Organize paperwork so you won't fumble with it as you talk. Begin with softball questions (i.e., a chronological life history), but prepare a comprehensive all-purpose question for cases where the door might slam in your face. INNER INTERVIEWING: As a warm-up (maybe during your morning shower), imagine a successful interview. Reporters who don't believe they will get the interview or the information usually fail. As far as I'm concerned, no one should ever refuse to talk to me. It works. THE OPENER: The techniques of "inner interviewing" continue. Never approach your subject as though they seem menacing or likely to clam up. Appear innocent, friendly, unafraid and curious. If you are a hardboiled, cynical reporter who talks out of the side of your mouth, you will need acting lessons. PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL: Inventory the room thoroughly and in an organized fashion. Look at the walls, read the top of the desk and study the lapel pin. You'll get clues and details for your story. Make notes on what you see. LOOK FOR OTHER SOURCES: While at the interview, meet the secretary and the other co-workers and make note of details about them. This will come in handy as you turn them into sources.

Reluctant People KEEP IT GOING: When the door is closing on your face, find common ground. "By the way, I notice you've got a poodle. I've got a poodle. Weird dogs. Just the other day ..." As a person hangs up the phone, I quickly say I only want to explain what I am working on and they should at least know that. (They usually comment once they hear what I am doing). On one occasion I inadvertently repeated something that was inaccurate and a cop dragged out a report I wanted to see just so he could show me I was wrong. You've got to be quick, sincere, kind and courteous. IT'S NO BIG DEAL: Respond to the "I can't comment" by saying "You don't have to worry. Heck, you are just one of several people I've talked with. It's no big deal. Here's what I understand about the situation. Let's talk about this part a little bit ... (and then start talking about the information you want to confirm)." Notice that I avoid a debate over the reasons they don't want to talk with me. You'll lose that debate 9 times out of 10. Keep the conversation rolling.

SYMPATHY: Respond to the "I'm afraid to comment" with a little sympathy and a lot of reassurance: "I understand your concern. These are tough times for your agency. But a lot of folks talk to me in situations like this, including people you work with. Let me at least cover a couple of things with you, it would help me a lot." Give glancing recognition to their concerns, but try to move right on to the point of the story. PUBLIC OFFICIAL OR OTHER BIG SHOT: Respond to the "no comment" from an "important" person or bureaucrat by saying: "You know, I feel bad about just putting a `no comment' in this story since the readers will think you are hiding something. Let's find a way to talk about this. Tell me about this, for instance ... " DOOR NO. 1, OR DOOR NO. 2?: As a last ditch method with the reluctant public official or big shot, I say, "Look, whether you talk to me or not, I'm going to do a story on this. So you can have it one of two ways: Either I do a fair story that says that you refused to cooperate, or I do a fair story that has your point of view in it. Now which do you want?" They usually choose Door No. 2. DETOURS: If a person won't talk, go to others in his or her office or to associates. You will get more information, and by doing this you will loosen them up. RATCHETING: If a subject insists on talking "on background," take notes anyway. At the end of the interview, pick out a good quote in your notes that isn't too damning and say: "Now what about this thing you said here. Why can't you say that on the record?" If they agree to put that comment on the record, go to another one in your notes and say: "Well, if you can say that on the record, why can't you say this? And so on. I have gotten an entire notebook on the record this way. If they insist on anonymity, however, you must honor it. ANONYMITY: Don't accept information "on background" without a fight. Even if it means going back to them several times, try to convince people to go on the record. (Absolutely "off-the-record" information is useless, since you can't use it under any circumstance. Avoid it. It's a waste of time.) FOR THE SAKE OF CLARITY:There are cases where someone tells you part of a story and then balks, or you already know part of a story and can't get the rest. Try saying, "look, you've already told me this much (or, I already know this much). You had better tell me the rest. I mean, you don't want me to get it wrong, do you? For instance, what about this part here ...(refer to something in your notes)." PLAY LIKE YOU KNOW: Ask the official WHY he fired the whistle-blower rather than asking WHETHER he did the deed. The question presumes you already know even if you don't have it confirmed. They'll start explaining rather than denying. THE STATUE OF LIBERTY PLAY:- Emphasize that people are more believable when they put their name behind what they say. It's the American Way: A robust public debate. LOST REPORTER: It doesn't hurt to say you need the person's help. "Who is going to explain this to me if you don't?" TRY AGAIN: When the door is slammed in your face, try again a day or two later. People change their minds.

Getting All the Goods CHRONOLOGY: Take the subject through his or her story chronologically. You will understand the tale better, and you will spot gaps in the timetable and logic.

HOW AND WHY: When a person says something important, ask the key question: "How do you know that?" It sheds light on credibility, extracts more detail and is a door opener to other sources. Also, ask people why they do what they do, rather than just asking what they do. SLOW MOTION: When people reach the important part of a story, slow them down so you can get it in technicolor. Ask where they were standing, what they were doing, what they were wearing, what was the temperature and what were the noises around them? Then switch to the present tense, and ask questions like: What are you doing now? What is your friend saying? You and the interview subject will then re-enter the scene and walk through it together. If this fails, tell them it is not working. "I'm trying, but I just can't picture it yet. What did it feel like?" This is how you get a story, not a bunch of facts. TELEPHONE: Ask people on the phone to describe their surroundings (the plaque on a man's wall became a key detail in one story, after I had independently verified what it said). Get people to tell their stories in three dimensions (see the "slow motion" advice above). USE YOUR EARS: We talk too much during interviews. Let the other person do the talking. After all, you can't quote yourself. And check your biases at the door; listen with an open mind. GETTING THE CONFESSION: Ask the subject for the names of people who support him or her. Then ask for the names of people who would criticize. Then ask what those critics are likely to say. This will jar loose uncomfortable information and tips. Ask whether the person has ever been disciplined or fired on the job or in school, charged with or convicted of a crime, arrested for drunken driving, sued, testified in court, etc. Since all this stuff is on a record somewhere, people are reluctant to lie about it. LIARS: If you know someone is lying, allow the liar to spin his or her yarn. Don't interrupt except to ask for more detail. Deceivers frequently provide extensive detail because they think a very complete story will add to their credibility. Listen and take good notes. When the lie has been fully constructed -- down to the last nail -go back and logically de-construct it. Don't be impatient. The fabricator is now in a corner. Keep them there until they break. LIFE STORY: Get the life story, even in cases where you don't intend to use it. Even when I interview a lawyer about a case, or a bureaucrat about a government policy, I get the life story if I have time. I get useful information and ask better questions as a result. DON'T JOIN: Be sympathetic in manner, but don't join sides with your interview sources. Don't get sucked in by the embattled congressman who seems so cooperative when he grants you an interview and says, "I don't believe in taking money from those guys." You should say, "that may be true, but I'm asking you whether you took the money, not whether you believe in doing so." ASK AGAIN: Sometimes it pays to interview a person two or three times on the same subject. One public official gave me four different and conflicting explanations for the trips he took at taxpayer expense. REVIEW: Go back over your notes with people. They will fill in gaps for you, and in doing so give you more information. INNOVATE: If an outrageous question comes to mind, ask it, even if it is terribly personal. There are no embarrassing questions, just embarrassing answers. Your chisel-like questions should chip away at all sides of an issue. DRAIN THEM: People aren't aware of how much they know. You must them through their memory. Visualize your subject as a bucket full of information and empty it.

HONESTY: Don't pretend to be someone else and don't lie. You can certainly omit information, but the more you can reveal about the nature of your story, the more comfortable and helpful your subject will be. BE THE DIRECTOR: A great interview feels like a conversation but moves relentlessly toward the information you need. Keep control, but do so gently. DON'T BE UNMOVABLE: You may know what your story is about, but don't get stuck. A great interview will change your story. PERSONALITY: Let your personality shine through (if you have a good one). Don't be a blank wall. OPEN-ENDED QUESTION: Near the end of an interview, ask the person what else our readers might be interested in. Sometimes people have more than one newspaper-worthy story in them. CHECK BACK: After the story runs, call the subject for his or her reaction. You'll get additional stories and tips this way.

Reporting: Tips and Tricks Your readers want to know more than just your opinions, which they can find out by calling you or talking to you on campus. They want to see fresh information in your stories, facts that give them something to discuss with their friends and perhaps even influence the decisions they make. The best way for you to provide this is by reporting. Virtually all professional journalists integrate quotes and facts from sources. Take a hard look at your favorite newspapers and magazines — and no, I don’t mean the opinion section — and ask yourself: How many separate sources do the writers cite? Three is usually a good number, but longer-form pieces often include more. (Keep in mind that oftentimes, reporters talk to a handful of sources and experts they never quote before they find a useful person whose quotes are newsworthy.) Here are some pointers on interviewing: •

Remember that in-person interviews are better than phone interviews, which are better than email interviews. In fact, conducting an interview over email should be avoided unless completely necessary (or unless you just need a quick fact and not a quote). Oftentimes PR reps will want to do interviews by email to avoid answering tough questions and giving them time to prepare processed responses.

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Try to set up interviews in advance, though sometimes you will have to knock on doors, catch people on the street or at events. Get sources on the record by identifying yourself as a reporter for your publication, and avoid granting sources’ requests for anonymity unless totally necessary.

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Before interviews, prepare questions in advance, but remain open to changing your game plan if you think up new questions or if the conversation veers in a different direction.

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Direct observation can be a great way of obtaining information. Ask if you can observe a subject in his or her natural environment; this will help you obtain anecdotes that involve action.

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Always get as many details as possible. You may end up with some you don’t use, but that’s better than missing important details you could use later.

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Don’t rely on a tape recorder. Take notes in every interview, even if you’re using a tape recorder. Batteries die, memory cards fill up, things happens.

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Be a good listener. Nothing is more aggravating than a journalist who wants to talk more than the source does. Let your source speak. Often times, an awkward silence might bring out more information.

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Seek a diversity of viewpoints, if possible, to provide nuance and depth. Pursue sources quoted in other articles, but always think up fresh sources, too. Mid- and low-level people are often more honest than high-ranking officials.

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Often one source will lead you to another. Always ask: Can you think of anyone else I should interview?

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Always name your sources, if at all possible. There are very few reasons to use anonymous sources.

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If a source is nervous at first, get to know them a bit. Talk to them more than once and work on gaining their trust. Never repay them by taking advantage of that trust though. It is your job as the reporter to explain to them your intentions. You are a reporter for your publication writing a story about _____. If the source is someone not used to the press and the story is on a sensitive subject, it is your job to make it known to them the possible ramifications of their participation. One way to go about still convincing them is weighing their possible consequences against the greater community good that could come from the story. In the end, your first responsibility is to both your readers and your sources. If you can’t get the story without seriously harming the life of a source, find another source or another way to tell the story. If a source says something that is off-base, it is your job as the reporter to research behind them, find out if what they said is true. If it is untrue, find out what is true. You should never just quote a source because they said something. Always verify. You are a professional fact finder.

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Be aggressive and persistent, but not rude. State a deadline to let your source know what time they need to contact you for an interview.

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If you need information immediately, call every 15 minutes in a very friendly voice if someone is avoiding you. Beg, cajole and play hardball. Say that you’ll run the story anyway.

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If people are reluctant to talk about a sensitive topic, remind them that they will have a better chance of influencing your piece if they talk to you. Tell people your goal is to be fair. Play sources off one another if it’s helpful.

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If you are profiling someone, talk to his or her family, friends and, yes, even enemies. Ask for specific anecdotes. You usually can get better info from people who know your subject than from the subject him or herself.

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When interviewing, be friendly and unassuming. Use a soft touch. Chat and get to know your subjects. Agree with and mimic them. Sound interested.

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Ask easy questions at first. You might want to gradually ask tougher questions, or, if you have one that’s tougher than all the rest, ask it when the source will least expect it. Don’t broadcast tough questions in advance.

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Act like you know something already and people will often confirm that knowledge. On the flip side, if you play dumb, insensitive sources may become more helpful, though they might also underestimate you and become careless with their words.

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Direct and control your interviews. Don’t let sources get far off topic; when they do, bring them back where you want them. If you can’t get what you need, end the interview.

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Ask a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions.

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Listen. Don’t fear silence – people will often say things they shouldn’t to break an uncomfortable silence. You can get your best quotes this way!

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Develop sources and work a beat. Don’t get too chummy with sources, but always be friendly.

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PR people will try to control the information you get and subsequently write, but they are almost never your friends.

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Catch sources when their guards are down. You didn’t hear it from us, but alcohol can be a great social lubricant.

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Sometimes, sources will get angry at you. Try to work through it and repair the relationship, but don’t sacrifice your principles by apologizing for mistakes you didn’t make. Listen and suggest that an angry source write a letter to the editor, or a rebuttal column. You might also mention the name of your supervising editor.

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Investigative Reporting: Tips and Tricks By Rachele Kanigel, The Student Newspaper Survival Guide “People have this misguided notion that investigative journalism is this voodoo thing that only select people can do,” said Matt Waite, a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times who has been doing investigative journalism since college. “It’s pulling documents, reviewing routine matters and keeping an eye out for trends for when something different happens. It’s watchdog journalism.” Brant Houston, executive director of Investigative Reporters & Editors and a professor of journalism at the University of Missouri, advises students who want to do investigative journalism to start by asking a simple question: “What’s not working?” Why is the university parking garage already full at 9 a.m.? Why has tuition gone up? Why does a physically fit athlete have a handicapped parking placard for his car? Why is the roof on the new building leaking? When he kept seeing underage friends drinking alcohol at local bars, college journalist Brian Krans got the idea for his first big investigative project. His journalism professor asked him to survey students for a top 10 list, and Krans thought: “How about the top 10 bars that minors go to?” Over the next two months Krans surveyed more than 300 students about which bars were easiest to get into. He accompanied underage high school and college students as they entered bars with fake IDs and even used a counterfeit identification card to get himself into a club. Here’s how his story began: Andre “Dre” Klonecki, a senior at Winona Senior High School, wanted to go to the bars with friends from Winona State. He did—using a fake ID. The only shared trait between Klonecki and the ID, the top corner cut off and expired in 1999, was the red tint in Klonecki’s strawberry blond hair. Klonecki—a tall 18-year-old man—used the ID of a man three inches shorter, six years older and 25 pounds lighter. Given a quick glance, the ID might have resembled Klonecki, and that is all it took. On Jan. 18, manager Tony Haglund was checking IDs at the front door of Bulls-Eye Beer Hall, a popular college bar. Haglund inadequately checked Klonecki’s fake ID at the door and let him in with little hesitation. At Bulls-Eye, Klonecki was served by three different bartenders and despite having 15 drinks, no one asked for ID again.

Public Records So many documents and records can be accessible to you—if only you know where to search. Here are a few examples of documents that are part of the public record: • Health department records on cafeterias and restaurants 17

• • • • • • • •

Lawsuits filed against the university Police records of all kinds—though be careful, police file paperwork quickly and do make mistakes. University or department budgets University salary data Accreditation reports On-campus crime reports Criminal records of faculty members, administrators, athletes, staff Housing records, such as who owns a property, how much they paid, any upgrades, and a layout of the building.

How to Request a Document Adapted from a guide by Amy Emmert of UCLA 1. 2. 3. 4.

Find out what documents you need. Find out who or what office holds those documents. Talk to that individual, or an official from that office, to see if you can obtain the document from them. If you are denied access, note the name of the person and ask him or her to cite the law that enables withholding the record. 5. If you are looking for a document held by a government agency (e.g., city or campus police, state board of health, etc.), use the SPLC’s fully automated, fill-in-the-blanks Freedom of Information Act letter generator to draft an official written request for the document. You might also try www.rcfp.org/ foi_letter/generate.php. 6. Different states have different numbers of days to respond to your request. If at the end of the waiting period you still have not received the records or you have an insufficient response, contact a media law expert or the Student Press Law Center. For more information on how to obtain public records for particular topics, check out the resources at Investigative Reporting Resources.

Story Ideas From Public Records CRIME • Get crime statistics from your university police department for the last five years. Take note of trends— which are up, which are down. • Ask for arrest records from campus police. Look for familiar names, trends, evidence of raids. Were a slew of students arrested for marijuana possession in a dorm last month? Was the dean of students arrested for DUI? • Run key school officials—the chancellor, president, provost, dean, controversial professors—through a criminal records check. • Do the same for high-profile students, such as members of the football team or student governing board or ers of student groups • Get information from the agency that handles parking on campus. Ask for lists of people who get handicapped placards, who have their parking tickets waived, people issued faculty (or other premium) parking passes. Make sure these people are legitimate. (In 1999, 19 football players at UCLA were cited for the illegal use of disabled parking placards.)

BUDGET • Get your university or college’s budget for the past five years. Note which departments are getting more and less funding than before. Take note of the biggest changes. • Compare budgets for different departments. Divide by the number of students in each department to find out how much the university is spending on different groups of students. ATHLETICS • Find out how much your school is spending on team recruiting. • Check the graduation rates for each NCAA team on campus. Compare those numbers to the graduation rates for the campus as a whole. • Look at funding for athletic scholarships. You might compare it to financial aid for academic achievements. • Find out what kind of perks your athletes get. Schools have been known to lavish gifts on their top players, particularly if they win an important game. HEALTH AND SAFETY • Check the health inspection reports on the cafeterias and other food service establishments on campus. • Find out which popular bars near campus have been cited for serving underage drinkers. • If you’ve got a medical school on campus, check the licensing records of all MD faculty members with the state medical board. • Use sex offender registries to find out about offenders who live on or near your campus. • Check fire inspection reports on dorms, fraternity and sorority houses and other buildings. ACADEMICS • Look up the grade records on controversial or popular classes. You won’t be able to get grades for individual students but you should be able to get records without names. If Human Sexuality is reputed to be an easy A, report on the grade distribution. Compare different sections of the same course or different professors. • Find out which departments are undergoing accreditation reviews. Study the accreditation reports to find the department’s strengths and weaknesses. • Request salary data for all faculty members. Find the highest-paid professors and compare how professsors in different departments are paid. • Peruse the latest accreditation report for your school. Some colleges and universities routinely keep copies of these reports, which can run hundreds of pages, in the library. If you can’t find it there, try the university registrar’s office. USEFUL WEBSITES FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM • Investigative Reporters & Editors • National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting • Freedom of Information Center • The Search Systems Free Public Records Directory • Center for Investigative Reporting • How to use the federal FOIA • Tapping Officials’ Secrets • The Scoop: Derek Willis’ weblog on investigative and computer-assisted reporting • Access to college accreditation reports • Student media guide to the Clery Act • A Manual for Investigative Reporting

Writing a Lede News Ledes

By Rachele Kanigel, The Student Newspaper Survival Guide The goals of every lede are to: - Report the essential details of the story - Lure the reader into the piece - Make the reader want to read more A news lede, also called a summary lede or direct lede, delivers the news immediately. These ledes are generally short—one or two sentences at most—and include the most important details. Writers typically try to limit news ledes to 30 words or fewer so they’ll be easy to read. Here are a few examples: The Hynes Student Center was evacuated for about an hour Wednesday as a result of a phoned-in bomb threat. It was the second threat made on the building in less than a month. Former Northwestern linebacker Braden Jones, who left the university in March after being charged with assaulting and trying to rob a taxi driver, will return to NU as a student and football player this week, he said Monday. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you write your : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Write tight—use short sentences. Leave unnecessary details out—put them later in the story. Avoid passive verbs. Translate jargon. Steer clear of clichés. Highlight the news that’s most important to your readers, not to readers of other publications or readers who don’t exist.

Critiquing Newspaper Ledes Let’s see if the following s measure up to the standard we established above: 1. Headline: “Rev. White Couldn’t Care Less About Leviticus 20” Lede: It's not every day a congregation witnesses a reverend standing behind a podium, wearing a pink shirt and cashmere socks to match, and saying, "I'm so glad I'm a queer but—oh my God—what it took to get here."

2. Headline: “Does Teach For America Work?” Lede: Teach For America (TFA) is an innovative program designed to close the achievement gap in American high schools by recruiting high achievers from selective universities and placing them in lowincome school districts for two year teaching stints.

3. Headline: “A Glimpse into Worker-Management Relations at CC” Lede: “A man must work in order to live. If he can express no control over his conditions of employment, he is subject to involuntary servitude,” proclaims a senate report on the Norris-LaGuardia Act, which passed Congress in 1932.

4. Headline: “Pittsburgh G-20 Protests Highlight Neoliberalism Woes” Lede: Tens of thousands of protestors marched into the streets during the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Seattle on November 30, 1999.

Feature Ledes Three seconds. That’s all the time you have to capture your reader’s attention, studies show. As a result, the most important part of journalistic writing is the lede, or introduction. If you want your reader to make it to the very last word, you’ll need a great first few sentences to capture their attention. Feature ledes often take a storytelling approach. They may start with an anecdote or scene that draws a picture for the reader. Features are usually several sentences, or even several paragraphs, long. After that, writers need to include a nut graph to explain what the story is actually about. The nut graph explains the point of the story and why readers should care. Here’s an example of a feature and nut graph: When Charles Martin left the University of Arkansas in 1941 to fly C-87’s across the infamous Himalayan passage to China called “The Hump,” he was a senior and “president of everything,” he said, chuckling as he looked through his UA Razorback yearbook. Now, while working through UA reporting courses, he suffers occasional “senior moments” of another type. “It’s so much more difficult now,” he said. “I don’t know if you know what a senior moment is, but sometimes I have senior moments and it makes exams a lot harder.” Martin, his hair grayed and his 6-foot-2-inch frame bent by arthritis, will walk with the class of 2005 and earn a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, the degree he started in 1937. Another type of feature lede evokes a vivid image: It is mid-July, and piles of papers are scattered across the floor and tables of Assistant Dean of Freshmen Lesley Nye Barth’s Hurlbut Hall apartment. As she sorts through the collection of papers, her cat wanders into the room, stepping on and destroying a few carefully ordered stacks—groups of 21

four roommates that she had spent hours assembling as she culled 550 or so housing applications for the perfect match. The cat’s romp sends her back to step one, and she gathers the papers to rematch the students. Such is the life of the three assistant deans of freshmen (ADFs), Barth, James N. Mancall, and Sue Brown, who spend nearly two-and-a-half months hand-picking rooming groups and then assigning these groups to create entryways. It’s a process that takes hundreds of hours and turns the summer—when most administrators take a relaxing break from the frenetic pace of the school year—into some of the busiest months for the Freshman Deans Office (FDO).

Critiquing Feature Ledes Let’s see if the following ledes do their host publications justice: 1.

From ESPN, the Magazine: Let’s start with the positives. On Sept. 8, 2002, the Houston Texans won the first coin toss in franchise history. Good. Then quarterback David Carr threw a touchdown pass on the fourth play of the first game in franchise history. Very, very good. That led to an opening day win against the Cowboys, the one team Houston fans hated even before the Oilers skipped town.

It didn’t get any better than that.

From Dirt Bike Mag:

Evolution. Whether you like it or not, is a fact of life. Sure, we could argue all day about whether or not man actually evolved from single-celled protozoa or was simply molded into man from a handful of dirt by a benevolent God, but that’s not my point. I’m talking more about things like hammerhead sharks and giraffes. Things that have adapted to fit the nature of their surroundings and the times they’re living in. Even more specific than that, I’m talking about the new SAM Dirt Bike: The Next Generation.

From Scientific American:

Roger Penrose is a serious man with serious ideas. He is the Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He shared the 1988 Wolf Prize for Physics with Stephen J. Hawking. He was knighted in 1994. He has mused about the physics underlying human consciousness in two wellreceived books, The Emperor’s New Mind and Shadows of the Mind. He is also in a big fight over toilet paper.

From a Generation Progress-sponsored magazine. This story is about labor relations between the college and its cafeteria and custodial staff.

“A man must work in order to live. If he can express no control over his conditions of employment, he is subject to involuntary servitude,” proclaims a Senate report on the Norris-LaGuardia Act. Congress

No, really. It didn’t get any better than that.

passed the act in 1932 as a response to the allegedly biased judicial rulings against labor interests. The act ensured the rights of employees to bargain collectively for fair working conditions. Since the rise of the modern labor movement at the time of the Industrial Revolution, workplace reform in the United States has evolved to include improved industry standards as well as legislation to protect workers. While the standards of living for unskilled workers in industrialized nations tend to exceed historical norms, working conditions are still not ideal.

From teen magazine J.17:

Underneath Christina Aguilera’s tough, rebellious exterior is a fragile, young woman with a lot of pain and frustration bottled up inside. She insists that she’s doing just fine, but is she really?

From GQ:

Matthew McConaughey is looking forward to making coozies. You know, those squishy rubber can holders that keep the Bud cold and the beer sweat off your hands. His production company, j.k. livin, is rolling out, which means McConaughey is reading scripts and considering projects and, well, a man best considers a project with a drink in his hand, and what better to swathe the drink than a j.k. livin coozy?

“Yeah man, coozies,” he says slowly, almost perversely, with sand in his voice, followed by “ye-ah, ye-ah” – long, rough and dirty. It’s a stoner’s voice, a whisper of California and a gutful of Texas. A seedy drawl, lazy and sop rich with aw-rights, heymans and whatz-ats? “Coozies, man,” he says again, blue eyes jiggling, bare feet propped up on a nearby chair, exposing his smooth ankles, tanned a butternut brown because, among other things, McConaughey is not a sock wearer. He grins conspiratorially, and you can’t help but picture it – the spongy foam rubber squeezing just hard enough, the beer inside perfect, guzzle-able, cool. He keeps grinning, all crinkle eyed, staring you dead in the pupils, daring you not to feel his joy, and you can’t help but think, Yeah, what the hell – coozies, man. Right on. How awesome would that be? And you want one for yourself; no, you want to be invited to McConaughey’s house in Malibu to use one of his because then you’re a brother, man; you’re a coozy cousin, laid-back and easy and comfortable, spitting chaw and swigging beer and soaking sun and just hanging. You want all this because this is Matthew McConaughey’s éclat, his way, and in a world rife with attitude, posturing, whiners, oozers and guys who roll their eyes, a 27-year-old man who makes more than $2 million per picture and still gets jazzed about coozies is a man you want to be like or be liked by or sleep with or, at the very least, buy a drink. Which happens to McConaughey a lot, especially since, given a choice, he would rather eat at the bar.

Feature Ledes and Nut Graphs Here’s an exercise you can practice with new writers and staffers to get a feel for combining a feature lede with a nut graph: A reporter’s shift just ended and he needs you to write a story he just reported on. The piece will be published in the weekly magazine in Hoof, Nebraska. Here’s a transcript of the reporter’s notes. Please write a lede and nut graph, approximately 2-5 sentences in total. 23

Frazier Mohawk is the owner of Puck’s Farm near Hoof, Nebraska. The farm produces dairy products, corn, honey and eggs. Also, it’s near an educational center. School children and others come to see rural life, with more than 50,000 people visiting Puck’s last year. Mr. Mohawk decided to sell advertising space at his farm to raise more money. Last week, Mr. Mohawk told local businesses that for $500 a year, he would rent them the side of one of his cows. The ads are on two-footby-three-foot pieces of oilcloth strapped onto the cow. Since Hoof is midway between Lincoln and Omaha, the state’s two largest cities, Mr. Frazier figures that more than 100,000 people would see the cows each year as they drive between the two cities. “I figure that bus ads are so commonplace that people quickly forget them, but they’ll remember a message on the side of a cow for the rest of their lives,” Frazier says. The farm wants to rent both sides of all six of its cows. “We hope people like the dairy council and the milk marketing board will see the value of advertising in the field,” Mohawk added. For an extra $7 a month, the advertiser can rent a cowbell to attract attention. Advertisers also are in line for a bonus, because if a cow gives birth while she’s wearing a sign, the advertiser gets a sign on the calf for free. If the cow has twins, it’s a double bonus. “If you buy one of those billboards downtown, even if they do proliferate, they don’t have babies,” Mohawk said. Mohawk said he got the idea because he wanted to maximize the farm’s investment. “After selling dairy products and manure, the only thing we hadn’t found a use for was the outside of the cow. With our mediacows, as we call them, we’ve entered the modern age.” Since the farm began selling space last week, one restaurant has signed up, for just one side of one cow. Farmer Mohawk said: “We’re expecting to see him buy the other side because cows lie down a lot and it’s sort of Russian roulette as to which side they’ll lie on.” Mr. Mohawk said he had a call from another interested party, who said he represented a political party. “He wanted to rent a bull, but we don’t know if it would be for his party or the opponent. Also, I don’t know if the caller was serious.” A spokesman for the Nebraska Advertising Standards Council, an industry group, said the council regulates the content of ads, but not where they’re displayed. “We’re not after their hide; I guess they can milk it for all it’s worth,” the spokesman said.

Writing a News Article

Writing any kind of journalism can be daunting for a new writer. After a while, placing a lot of information in limited words becomes more first-nature. But at first, you may need help or you may find yourself coaching new writers on how just to do that. Start off with news stories. Everyone needs the skill, and they’re easier to learn than feature stories, usually. These parameters can also apply to online-specific stories. Here’s a check list to start with to make sure all the essential elements are included. Also refer to Writing a News Lede on page 18.: What are the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, why) and H (how) of this story? Who: ___________________________________________________________________ What: __________________________________________________________________ When: __________________________________________________________________ Where: _________________________________________________________________ Why: ___________________________________________________________________ How: ___________________________________________________________________ Who is the audience? ______________________________________________________ What are the audience’s characteristics? Previous knowledge of issue: ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Feelings toward it: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Why does this story matter to my audience? ____________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What is my angle? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What are the top three facts or pieces of information to include in this story? 1. ______________________________________________________________________ 2. ______________________________________________________________________ 3. ______________________________________________________________________ 25

Is there any controversy inherent in my story or the issue I’m covering? ______________ ________________________________________________________________________ What sources have I used or will I use for information? 1. _________________________ 2. _________________________ 3. _________________________ Write one to two sentences that explain what you intend to say with the story. Think of it as if you were just telling a friend what you’re writing about: ________________________________________________________________________ Then, it’s time to combine all of this information into a news story. Refer back to Writing a News Lede on page 18 for the lede. Here is a basic outline of a news story. You don’t have to follow this all the time, but it’s a good place to start. Lede - Use a news lede that answers as much of the who, what, where, when, why and how. Nut Graph - Explain in one to to sentences exactly what the story is about, concisely. Answer any remaining aspects of the who, what, where, when why and how that you didn’t answer in the lede. Quote - This is generally a good place to put a strong quote in that supports the nut graph. This is often a good place to introduce your first source if you haven’t done so already. Supporting information - All of the rest of the story should be information from your sources that supports your nut graph. If you write something—a sentence, graph or even multiple graphs—it should add to the point laid out in the nut graph. Otherwise, it’s tangental and should be cut.

Writing a Feature Story Feature stories humanize news events. They provide entertainment value in addition to educational value. Features are generally longer (800-1,200) than the average news story. Concision is still important, but there is more room for creativity in language.

Why Write a Feature Story? Journalism is the first draft of history, and feature stories provide better-written first drafts. This means two things:

1. Great human interest pieces can substantially increase the chances of your publication’s success. 2. News is often more memorable if presented as a feature. And in many cases, features provide more details and thus a better historical report of the current times.

People like to read about other people, not numbers, statistics, laws, policies … While those things are important, if you can present them in a way that makes readers understand how those numbers, policies, etc., applies to them or other people in their community with whom your readers can empathize with, they’ll remember the news factor much more clearly and for a much longer time and you’ll be providing a much better basis for the history.

Characteristics of a Feature Story

1. You can read it, if you want to, in a single sitting the day the feature is published. 2. Short features take about 5 minutes to read, and long ones take about 15 minutes to read. 3. Features are not news stories but can be inspired by news. 4. Feature stories are always based on human interest. 5. Feature stories illuminate people and places in our time. 6. Features use narrative techniques common to creative writing. 7. Features are based on facts.

Ways to Strengthen Your Features 1. PLAN BEFORE YOU WRITE. Don’t just sit down at the computer (or typewriter) and start typing. Generally your stream of consciousness will not translate onto the page and will only come off as disjointed and misguided. Think before you write. Have a plan for your story: how you want it to start, what the major theme is, and what you want the reader to walk away with. If a reader has to keep asking themselves,“what’s the story here?” then you’ve got a problem. 2. HAVE A MISSION STATEMENT FOR YOUR STORY. This is an underlying idea that you want the reader to come away with. It should reflect the mission of your publication, your own mission for the story and represent a larger idea. It’s not something you will outright write down in the story, but it should be what each paragraph comes back to.

3. SHOW DON’T TELL. This is the best writing advice anyone can give you. If you can show someone what you’re trying to say through a scene, by all means, do it. Being specific is a great way to do this. “Telling” merely communicates fact, while “showing” invites understanding. To do this: a. Use dialogue. b. Use sensory language, like describing the smell or the taste. Go beyond sight. c. Be descriptive. d. Be specific. 4. SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT. Start your sentence strong with the subject and then an active verb and then everything else. 5. AVOID PASSIVE VOICE when you can, unless you want to use it for a specific purpose. What is passive voice? When the subject receives the action. It’s much more interesting when the subject performs the action. 6. BEWARE OF THE OVERUSE OF ADVERBS. In the industry, it’s generally a sign of weak writing or someone who can’t come up with a single word (verb that’s strong enough) to say what they want it to. 7. SHORTER IS BETTER, but don’t limit yourself. It’s a general (sometimes too general) rule that journalists should keep things as short as possible. This goes for words, sentences and paragraphs. It’s just easier on the eye and the mind. But with that in mind, don’t cling to shorter words or shorter sentences at the expense of your overall point just for the sake of this rule. Your readers are not idiots, but we should make it as easy as possible on them. The idea of shorter is better is the quicker you can get a point across, the more points you can get across overall. 8. VARY SENTENCE AND GRAPH LENGTHS. One trick to keeping your story moving smoothly and keeping a reader’s attention is to alternate between shorter and longer sentences and paragraphs. It helps keep you from droning on and on and on and on. 9. YOUR STORIES SHOULD BUILD (maybe not all stories, but most features and long-form stories) from the lead to a climax to a conclusion. Leave “gold coins” (A Roy Peter Clark tip) for your readers along the way to keep their interest. Have mini-builds within your stories. 10. EDIT, EDIT, EDIT. Don’t stress too much over your first draft for yourself. Have a general plan for your story, write it out on the page just to get it out of your head and in a working form. Then go back and look at it to actually start writing your story. But we can’t stress enough how important editing is. A great way to edit your story in its final stages (before you submit it to the editors) is to read it aloud to yourself. This helps you catch the rhythm, which is very important to captivating the reader. Also, don’t get discouraged when editors ask you to go back and do more reporting or to re-arrange a story or anything else for that matter. Being pushed is the only way to get better. The faster you learn this and don’t take constructive criticism personally, the faster you will progress as a writer. 11. DON’T PLAGIARIZE. Duh, we know. But seriously, don’t do it. If you use information that has been reported by someone else in a previous story, attribute it to them. They did the work, not you. Just one case of plagiarism can ruin your credibility as well as that of your publication. 12.

12. FACT CHECK. Some people may think, well, this is why we have editors. But the truth is you should be your own fact-checker. Before you submit a story, you should be as sure as possible that all the facts and quotes in the story are accurate. Without accuracy, you’ll lose all credibility and also tarnish the credibility of the news organization. 13. FIND YOUR VOICE. For example, Matt Taibbi has a successful voice, though obnoxious people like him. On that note, you are NOT Hunter S. Thompson or Matt Taibbi. Don’t try it. You’ll fall flat on your journalistic face just like every other person who has tried. Find your OWN voice. Check out this Taibbi story, which not only shows a writer with a voice but also shows how reporters can effectively communicate complex, difficult issues (in this case, the financial crisis and Goldman Sachs role in it). Notice how the story is organized in digestible sections. Not to mention, Taibbi reported the hell out of this story.

Writing an Opinion Piece Many people new to journalism accidentally stumble on op-ed writing first. Most find that it’s much easier to write about a personal opinion on a topic than report what others are saying and doing. The catch to writing a good op-ed though is that you write more than your opinion. Anything you write should be based on verifiable facts, so you don’t totally get out of reporting by writing op-eds. Before you start writing, try answering the following questions to help outline your op-ed. 1. What is the subject or topic you wish to write about? 2. What is your main argument? 3. What is your purpose for writing this argument down for your readers? 4. Who are those readers—aka who is the audience? 5. Describe your audience. What characteristics define them? Will they already be on the same page as you or are you trying to reach a group that thinks very differently? Think about the language you want to use in relation to who your audience is and meet them where they are. If you are writing about abortion, for example, and you want to make a case on the pro-choice side of the debate, don’t use the term “pro-life.” For one, this evokes all the connotations associated with this viewpoint that contradict any point you could write from a pro-choice perspective. And two, “prolife” is easy to get on board with. Who isn’t for life? What you want to do is write around it, being very clear with the viewpoint rather than defaulting to a term full of connotations. In this example, you could write something along the lines of: “representatives who believe women should not have the right to an abortion, no matter the circumstances.” Write exactly what they support, don’t use their terms. They coined those terms to make their point the ultimate one that wins legislation, so don’t help them if you’re writing an oped against that point. 6. Going along with the point above, ask yourself, why does this issue matter to my audience? Write in a way that frames the issue so that it makes sense to their values, whether or not those are different than your own values. 7. What are the top three points that support your main argument? 8. What are the main counter arguments? You want to make sure you can think of as many counter arguments as possible, and address them in your op-ed. 9. If you’re going to recommend a course of action, what is it? 10. And finally, last but certainly not least, what sources can you use to backup your point? Government documents, university and foundations studies, expert opinions, etc., are all good places to turn to. Random Fact: Op-Ed is short for Opposite the Editorial Page.

Covering Beats All reporters want a good beat, but sometimes we get stuck with a beat we’re not into. The good news is, any beat is what you make it. Skilled writers can make covering town hall meetings interesting. Remember while you are writing about who, what, where, when, why and how, ultimately you are writing about characters in a story. Develop your characters and the background in which they live. And tell your stories in a way that they can’t be put down.

Tuition and Higher Education

Tip of the hat to Mary Beth Marklein, USA Today education reporter since 1997 Higher education is largely neglected by the national media. It’s been more in the spotlight recently with student loan debt reaching $1 trillion, but overall, it’s not a major focus. A brookings Institution survey found that in the first nine months of 2009, education coverage took up a mere 1.4 percent of prime real estate in mainstream media. Of that, less than a third was devoted to higher education, and coverage is most often driven by events. The report paints a slightly rosier piecture for local coverage. But in light of newsroom cutbacks, it’s safe to assume that a lot of really good stories about the inner workings of higher education are going untold. That’s unfortunate because just about everyone has a stake in the local college or university, whether they’re students or parents, employers, employees or taxpayers. And there’s a lot of skepticism. Between questions about why the cost of college keeps climbing and why graduation rates are so low at some institutions, there is plenty to investigate. So, how do you cover higher education? 1. Go to meetings. Follow agendas. Read other student newspapers on your campus. Talk to students. 2. Don’t assume you understand the complexities of higher education just because you have a college degree or are working toward one. 3. Ask to sit in on admissions decisions. The process is shrouded in secrecy, as the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of influence-peddling at the University of Illinois showed. A first-hand look can help you demystify a process that perplexes many families, and help you understand what pressures the admissions staff faces when building a freshman class. And while not al schools have competitive admissions, today’s economy has added some new wrinkles, as some open-access schools limit enrollments and some private institutions struggle to meet their goals. All the more reason to look into who gets in and who doesn’t. 4. Examine all charges. An increase in tuition sticker prices makes for an easy headline but often a misleading one. Make sure to count increases in mandatory fees and room and board charges. Colleges typically focus on whichever figures cast their institution in the best light. And remember, when financial aid is figured in, the amount any one student pays can range from zero to the full amount. Some of the biggest debates today center on financial aid, including concerns about merit v. need-based aid, average student loan debt for graduates, and a school’s loan default rates. 5. Expand your horizons. Three-fourths of today’s students no longer fit the traditional just-outof-high-school mold. Some stories might be best told through the eyes of a veteran, single parent or displaced worker. Likewise, don’t overlook community colleges, which enroll nearly half of all undergraduates, or the fast-growing for-profit institutions. Those schools have their own challenges, and view non-traditional students as an important market.

6. Meet the institutional researchers. Accountability and assessment are hot topics in higher education, and this department (or person) collects data on all kinds of things. Some statistics, such as enrollment and graduation rates, get reported to the Education Department, accrediting agencies, and U.S. News & World Report. Increasingly, the researchers are being asked to prepare internal reports on topics, such as student learning, how schools are spending money or how faculty pay compares to peer institutions. 7. Understanding the budget. That, plus institutional data, provides context “to everything that everybody else at the university says,” Josh Keller, a reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education, said. When University of California-Berkeley officials said the school was admitting more international students as a way to increase diversity, for example, Keller pointed out that the higher fees they paid also boosted tuition revenue. 8. Request copies of audits. They examine how the institution handles its cash and whether the money is well tracked. Read every word, “including the dry ones about internal controls,” Ryan Gabrielson, an investigative reporting fellow at the University of California-Berkeley, said. His review of Scottsdale Community College audits found multiple examples of fraud, including faked enrollments, at the Arizona school. 9. Use the IRS Form 990. Private universities file a 990, which contains salaries of the highestpaid employees, as well as trustee information If you cover a public university, get the 990s for the institution’s foundations, which in many states are relatively rich and increasingly powerful. 10. Be ready for the “student privacy” excuse. Colleges are notorious for citing the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, better known as FERPA, as a reason against releasing documents. The 1974 law was created to protect student academic records, but colleges have cited it to avoid handing over information about everything from parking violations to transcripts of public meetings. Frank LaMonte, executive director of the nonprofit Student Press Law Center, said court decisions typically favor the news media, as a judge did when a a Wyoming college didn’t want a local paper to publish information about the president that it had received from an anonymous source. But, “because we don’t have anything binding from the Supreme Court or a federal Court of Appeals, schools keep pursuing the path of least disclosure, LaMonte said. Some trends to monitor include: • Doctoral programs, which are expensive and can enhance prestige, are poised to get attention with the release of newly formulated rankings by the National Research Council. With cost-cutting on everyone’s mind, it will be interesting to see what happens to poorly ranked programs. • Many colleges are expanding their master’s programs, but who are they helping, really? Master’s programs typically are cash cows for colleges, and compared with doctoral programs, offer fewer avenues for financial aid. In a tight job market, many graduates may be passing the time in unnecessary programs because they don’t know what else to do. • Student debt is a hot issue right now, with the collective national debt at about $1 trillion. In June of 2013, student loan interest rates are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. • Many post-grads with bachelor’s degrees are finding their degrees aren’t getting them jobs, and when they are, they aren’t making much more, if any, than they would have without the degree. Are college degrees worthwhile anymore for certain career aspirations? • There has been too little scrutiny of the impact of state budget cuts to higher education. Cuts are often made across the board, which sounds fair, but is it? Community colleges, for example, rely more heavily on state appropriations than do the flagships, so a 10 percent cut hurts them more than it does a state research university.

• Take a look at low graduation rates at most community colleges. They may be local institutions, but they are gaining national scrutiny, including from the Obama administration. Be sure to look at how community colleges are experimenting with potential solutions, too. • Enrollments, especially among poor and minority students, are surging at for-profit institutions. Those schools typically offer courses at convenient times and locations, but are controversial with higher education. Some do good things, but merit scrutiny on recruitment practices, student loan defaults and other issues. • How is technology revolutionizing education? Or is it? • Culture wars may be on the rise at religious schools. A Catholic university is under fire for rescinding a job offer to a professor who is a lesbian, and whose scholarship includes lesbian sexuality. And an evangelical scholar of the Old Testament was dismissed recently by a seminary after a video showed him endorsing evolution. • Some interesting twists are surfacing regarding grade inflation. A professor who failed 90 percent of her students was recently yanked from the classroom. A Duke professor uses a modified version of crowdsourcing in which students determine how well their peers did on assignments. Most, if not all, got an A for the class. • A three-year bachelor’s degree has quickly emerged as a way to help families keep costs down. But is it good policy, and are students enrolling? Some evidence suggests otherwise.

Science and Bioethics

By the Center for American Progress’ Progressive Bioethics initiative interns and staff This guide was developed by staff and interns at CAP’s Progressive Bioethics Initiative and the CAP publication Science Progress. Its purpose is to provide you with some of the scientific and policy background behind cutting edge scientific and bioethical developments and debates, and to serve as a tool to help your publication incorporate science and bioethics issues. In the broadest sense, bioethics is the study of the ethical, moral, and social implications of science and medicine. There is always some ambiguity about where bioethics begins and ends but it is always branching out to see how it can apply ethical principles to new technologies and scientific research. Bioethical discussion ranges from the philosophical: “What is life?” “What is free will?” to the practical: “Should I change my diet based on this genetic test?” Common bioethics topics include beginning/end of life issues, stem cells, subject protection in research, cloning, genetic technologies, enhancement of the human body, privacy rights in healthcare and research, healthcare access and delivery. Here are some general tips to think about when undertaking science writing in your publication: • There are several different vantage points from which you can write. Students on your campus may be generally interested in learning more about the science of the day. Philosophy majors may be interested in the more abstract discussions of bioethical questions; political science and public affairs majors may be interested in the policy implications of specific science topics; and hard science majors and pre-meds may be interested in these issues from a research and/or clinical practice point of view. By including relevant and timely scientific subject matter into your publication, it may be the case that you can increase 33

your readership to include these (and potentially other) new audiences. • Additionally, it’s important to note that science issues, and bioethics issues in particular, often tend to not fit in well with the traditional progressive v. conservative dichotomy that many of us know well. • One common misstep in the discussion of science in the public sphere is the confusion of distinct scientific topics. For example, some think that cloning, stem cell research, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) are all the same thing. • At the same time, even though we put issues/topics into separate categories, there are many instances in which they do relate to each other. For example, in vitro fertilization, while not stem cell research, can be connected to stem cell research in the sense that frozen embryos created by IVF but not used in a fertility treatment are donated to stem cell research. Articles that show germane connections between different topic areas are often more interesting and can attract a broader readership.• Avoid the false dichotomy that often presents science and ethics as opposing forces that must be balanced. They are continuously intertwined and they inform one another as part of an ongoing dialogue. Although scientific evidence is never perfect, it does not mean that “the science” is completely up for grabs for whoever wants to have “the science” on their side. Nevertheless, participants in bioethical dialogue can incorporate different interpretations of the evidence and emphasize different pieces of evidence provided that they are intellectually honest. Not everyone has to draw the same conclusions from scientific evidence but most readers should be able to understand how different conclusions can come from the same scientific evidence. This is how different views can proceed in an intellectually honest manner where proponents admit their values, biases, and inclinations and make the best evidence-based arguments they can for their views. Helpful Contacts: Michael J. Rugnetta mrugnetta@americanprogress.org Andrew Pratt apratt@americanprogress.org

Events and Speeches The lede is the most important part of an event story. Make sure it focuses on either the most important or the most interesting thing that was said or that happened at the event. BAD EXAMPLE: Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, addressed students in the McCormick Tribune Forum on Thursday night as part of Islam Awareness Week. Explanation: It’s easy to fall into this trap, so don’t let it happen to you! The news is NEVER that so-and-so came to speak about such-and-such topic, but rather what the speaker said, or what happened at the event. GOOD EXAMPLE: Neoconservative David Frum said American politics are unusually right-wing —in a “sane” country, anyone more conservative than him would be institutionalized. Explanation: Woah! This is really interesting—David Frum is generally pretty moderate—and gives me a sense of what actually happened at the event. 34

After the lede, segue quickly into a direct quote or supporting details. Consider how that David Frum story continued: Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, spoke to about 30 people at a Branford master’s tea in the first on-campus event in the William F. Buckley Jr. Speakers Series, which will bring prominent conservatives to Yale for the remainder of the semester. He talked about the state of America, elite education, and the role of conservative ideology in shaping national discourse. Alternately, it’s OK to include a quote right after your lede. If you do, supporting details will come right after that. Next, see if you can address the two to five of the most interesting or most important points about the event or the speech. Include plenty of quotes as appropriate. Depending on how much space you have, end with a catchy quote or interesting fact, or just end when you’ve covered everything you intended. Avoid clichéd, moralistic endings or cheesy efforts to be cute like you often hear on the local news. Try to provide color to your event stories and take a unique angle other than he/she said this at such and such hearing or speech. Everyone will write that. You want readers to come to your publication too, so give them something new. Good examples of event stories: Frum talks conservatism, anti-elitism (Yale Daily News) DeStefano proposes city budget (Yale Daily News) MIT psychology professor talks about new book (Harvard Crimson) ‘One Book’ author Tracy Kidder discusses the life of a humanitarian—includes video (The Daily Northwestern)

Reaching Different Audiences Tip of the hat to George Lakoff

If you look at conservative media over the last few decades, you’ll see that politicians, journalists and public speakers alike have framed just about every issue in conservative moral terms. Progressives all too often find themselves stuck with using conservative language and ideas, which reinforce those ideas even in arguing against them. If you learn to use linguistics to your advantage, you can pull yourself as a writer out of that trap. For example, if you’re trying to make an argument in favor of immigration reform that supports a path to citizenship and you use the term ‘illegal immigrants’ you are evoking an image in readers’ minds associated with the word ‘illegal’ that they’ve spent their whole lives developing. When you use the word ‘illegal’ readers’ brains automatically and instantly bring up images of theft and harm. So without meaning to, you’ve already lost your argument—associating immigrants with theft and harm. No matter what audience you’re writing for and what their thoughts are on immigration, you’ve drawn a picture that is counterintuitive to the argument you are trying to make. Beyond that, if you’re trying to sway a disagreeable audience to listen to your argument, you’ve turned them off before they’ve even had a chance to read your argument. George Lakoff, a professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley, is one of the primary voices on the use of language in the media. Check out his blog and books to learn more about how to use language to your advantage and reach different audiences in your writing. George Lakoff ’s blog Metaphors We Live By Women, Fire and Dangerous Things Moral Politics Don’t Think of an Elephant Thinking Points The Political Mind Another leading voice on this topic is Joe Romm, the author of “Language Intelligence: Lessons on Persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga.” Check out his book and read other writing by Joe in his publication, Climate Progress.

Editing Content Editing Checklist

Once you have a complete draft of a story, read it through in its entirety and then try to answer all of the questions on this checklist. Send it back for revisions based on the questions you can’t answer. 1. Does it make the point the writer originally laid out in those one-two sentences? 2. Is there a clear nut graph that lays this out for the reader 3. Are there unanswered questions? 4. Are ALL facts sourced accurately? 5. Does the story build? Does its progression make sense? 6. Does it have an engaging lede? 7. Does it have a punch for an ending? 8. Do you see any tangents? 9. Does the story have a human face as well as analysis and factual backup? 10. Did the reporter search out as many sources as possible to make sense of the issue? 11. Does the reporter utilize quotes well to progress the story? 12. Does the story mention any timely elements and make relevant connections? 13. Is the appropriate background included and explained? Also... - Make sure the article is not falling into the trap of black and white reporting, or ‘he said, she said’ reporting. - Be careful to differentiate between opinion and factual articles. If there’s too much opinion, replace it with a source’s perspective. If opinion can’t be avoided, mark the piece as an oped. It’s easy to fall into the trap of black-and-white reporting...Here’s why you shouldn’t. Because we live in a two-party dominate political system, the mainstream media very often approaches issues with this crutch. Stories ready like this: - Gist of the issue being discussed. - The REPUBLICANS say this. (or conservatives) - The DEMOCRATS say this. (or liberals) - Background information. 37

- Kicker - usually a quote from an analyst who says something generic like “with more debate, we will surely come to a compromise.” Or as in this case, a quote from Obama stating the fact that the issue has been split by both political camps, and oh nothing else beyond that. Now what did you learn? You learned the basics of the issue and some simple background. Beyond that, you learned that there are two sides. Yes, just TWO sides to the issue. Now, as a reader, you will likely, unconsciously, take a side. One that fits most closely, but likely not right on, with your views. Or you would say, hey, I don’t agree with either side and be left with questions. Or you may be so disgusted with the inner fighting that you won’t even care to finish the story even if you know that if you can make it a bit farther down you’re promised at least a bit of background info. Now, if you read these types of stories over and over and over again, it becomes second nature to default to the two-side argument. But as intelligent people, we can all agree that there are never JUST two sides to an issue. We live in a gray scale. So our coverage of the world should reflect that gray scale. If you only see two sides to an issue, you are very definitely missing something. Think gray scale. Not black and white. Here’s an example of a black-and-white reported article: Financial Overhaul Wins Final Approval in House By The New York Times (Note: The New York Times has its own style guide that varies quite a bit from AP style, so don’t be thrown off by the Mr. Mrs. and funny capitalizations) WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday adopted legislation to revamp the nation’s financial regulatory system, voting mostly along party lines as partisan acrimony impeded cooperation even News lede on the shared goals of averting future economic crises. The vote in the House was 237 to 192, with all but three Republicans standing in opposition to a measure that President Obama in his State of the Union speech said embodied one of the highest priorities of his administration: “serious financial reform.” “If this bill were to fail,” the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said, “We would be preserving a status quo that has left our economy in a wretched state.”

Democrats said this...

To symbolize the importance of the bill, Ms. Pelosi personally gaveled the vote to a close, with 234 Democrats joined by three Republicans in favor; and 173 Republicans and 19 Democrats opposed. The Senate is also expected to approve the measure, but the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said that he would not be able to schedule a vote until after Congress returned from a weeklong recess for the Fourth of July. Republicans said Democrats in the Senate need the support of a few Republicans to complete the financial regulatory this... overhaul and one of those who supported the Senate version of the bill, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, said he wanted to spend the recess reviewing the final language. The bill gives government regulators the authority to liquidate failing financial companies by breaking them apart, selling assets and forcing creditors and shareholders to take losses so that taxpayers do not pay the bill. The legislation also vastly expands the regulatory powers of the Federal Reserve and establishes a systemic risk council of high-ranking officials, led by the Treasury secretary, to detect potential 38

Some brief background

threats to the overall financial system. It creates a powerful new consumer financial protection bureau and widens the purview of the Securities and Exchange Commission to broaden regulation of hedge funds and credit rating agencies. The measure restricts the ability of banks to invest and trade for their own accounts — a provision known as the Volcker Rule, for its proponent, the former Fed chairman, Paul A. Volcker — and creates a new regulatory framework for derivatives, the complex financial instruments that were at the heart of the 2008 crisis. The bill was shepherded through the House by Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Financial Services Committee, who spent more than a year drafting it even as Congress was mostly focused on health care. The mostly party-line House vote stood in contrast to the bipartisan approval of the $700 billion financial system rescue in October 2008, when 172 Democrats and 91 Republicans joined in support of the bill requested by President George W. Bush. Ms. Pelosi recalled that effort on Wednesday in her speech urging passage of the regulatory overhaul. House Republicans complained that the Democrats’ legislation would extend the reach of government regulators too far, that it would encourage rather than prevent future bailouts, and that Democrats said it would not address the causes of the financial crisis because it did not deal with the government- this...Republicans said this... controlled mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “When you look at this legislation it is proof positive again that this majority just doesn’t get it,” said Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana. “Under the guise of financial reform, Democrats today are pushing another bill that will kill jobs, raise taxes and make bailouts permanent.” But Democrats said that Republicans had tried and failed to prevent the government from Democrats said responding to the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression and had put their desire to this... obstruct Mr. Obama’s agenda ahead of the nation’s best interests. Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a member of the Democratic leadership, said the bill would establish safeguards against future crises. “Never again will we allow the American economy to be held hostage to bad decisions made by Wall Street and the financial sector,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “Unfortunately our colleagues on the other side of the aisle haven’t gotten this message.” Representative Paul E. Kanjorski, Democrat of Pennsylvania, expressed disbelief at the Republican Republicans said opposition. “To now make the argument that we need do nothing,” he said, “is pure ludicrousness.” this... In speech after speech, Republicans attacked the bill as a threat to free markets and to economic recovery and job creation. “This legislation is a clear attack on capital formation in America,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican whip. “It purports to prevent the next financial crisis, but it does so by vastly expanding the power of the same regulators who failed to prevent the last one.” Mr. Cantor added, “It’s the notion that you can solve a problem by reflexively piling vast new layers of new bureaucracy and regulatory costs and taxes on it.” Mr. Obama had wanted the bill completed and on his desk by Independence Day. The delayed vote in the Senate represented a small victory for Senate Republicans who were working hard to run 39

down the clock and deny Democrats a chance to notch legislative accomplishments between now and the midterm elections in November. But the Democrats also see political advantage in the Republican opposition, and Mr. Obama, at a town hall meeting in Wisconsin on Wednesday, seized on comments by the House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, in which he said of the financial regulation bill, “This is killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.” Mr. Obama said, “You would think this would be a bipartisan issue.” He added: “He compared the financial crisis to an ant. This is the same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly eight million jobs, the same crisis that cost people their homes, their life savings.” And finally, we close with a quote from Obama that says pretty much nothing.

Copy Editing: A Crash Course in AP Style

Most publications follow AP style. If you learn it for your student publication, you’ll have a leg up when you enter the post-grad journalism world. This is a good crash-course guide, but every journalists should have his/her own AP style guide. The Associated Press was founded in 1848 as a cooperative effort among six New York newspapers that wished to pool resources for gathering international news. Today, with over 3,700 employees in 121 countries, the AP is the world's single largest news organization. Every day, more than a billion people read, hear or see AP news. From the beginning, AP reporters have written their dispatches for readers from diverse social, economic and educational backgrounds and a wide range of political views. The AP therefore strives to keep its writing style easy to read, concise and free of bias. The Associated Press Stylebook, first published in 1977, clarified the news organization's rules on grammar, spelling, punctuation and usage. The Stylebook is the standard style guide for most U.S. newspapers, magazines and public relations firms. The following Quick Reference is taken from The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, Sixth Trade Edition. NUMBERS • Spell out the numbers one through nine; for 10 and up, use Arabic numerals. • For ages and percentages, always use Arabic numerals, even for numbers less than 10. • Spell out numerals that start a sentence; if the result is awkward, recast the sentence: Twenty-seven detainees were released yesterday. Yesterday, 993 freshmen entered the college. • The one exception to this rule is in a sentence that begins with a calendar year: 1938 was a turbulent year for Leon. • Use Roman numerals for wars, monarchs and Popes: World War II, King George VI, Pope John XXIII • The figures 1, 2, 10, 101, and so on and the corresponding words — one, two, ten, one hundred one and so on — are called cardinal numbers. The terms 1st, 2nd, 10h, 101st, first, second, tenth, on hundred, first and so on are called ordinal numbers. • For large numbers: use a hyphen to connect a word ending in y to another word: twenty-one, one hundred forty-three, seventy-six thousand five hundred eighty-seven 40

• Do not use commas between other separate words that are part of one number: one thousand one hundred fifty-five • Spell out casual expressions: A thousand times no! PROPER NAMES • Use words or numerals according to an organization’s practice: 3M, Twentieth Century Fund, Big Ten Quick • Reference Associated Press StyleAbbreviations • United States as a noun, United States: The prime minister left for the United States yesterday. • As an adjective, U.S. (no spaces): A U.S. soldier was killed in Baghdad yesterday. • As part of organization names (see the AP Stylebook under “U.S.”) STATES • Spell out the names of the states in text when they appear alone: Wildfires continued to rage through southern California yesterday. • Abbreviate them when they appear in conjunction with the name of a city, town, village or military base: Needham, Mass., Oxnard Air Force Base, Calif. • Do not abbreviate Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah (the two states that are not part of the contiguous United States and the states that are five letters or fewer) • When abbreviating U.S. states, do so as follows: • Ala. Ga. Mich. N.J. R.I. Wis. Ariz. Ill. Minn. N.M. S.C. Wyo. Ark. Ind. Miss. N.Y. S.D. Calif. Kan. Mo. N.C. Tenn. Colo. Ky. Mont. N. D. Vt. Conn. La. Neb. Okla. Va. Del. Md. Nev. Ore. Wash. Fla. Mass. N.H. Pa. W.Va. • Place one comma between the city and the state name, and another after the state name, unless at the end of a sentence or in a dateline (e.g. She traveled from San Diego, Calif., to go to school in Kansas City, Mo. Now, she’s thinking of moving to Santa Fe, N.M.) DATELINES • Put the city name in CAPITAL LETTERS, usually followed by the state, country or territory where the city is located. • Domestic and international large cities stand alone in datelines (see the AP Stylebook under “datelines” for a complete listing). • Do not abbreviate Canadian provinces and territories. • In most cases, use the conventionally accepted short form of a nation’s official name (e.g. Argentina rather than Republic of Argentina), but there are exceptions. • Use an article with El Salvador (but not with Gambia, Niger, and so on). • Within stories: Follow the city name with further identification in most cases where it is not in the same state or nation as the dateline city. ACADEMIC DEGREES • • • • •

Avoid abbreviations: Billy Bob, who has a doctorate in philosophy. Use an apostrophe in bachelor’s degree, a master’s, etc. There is no apostrophe in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science. Use abbreviations such as B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. only when the need to identify Many people by degree on first reference would make the preferred method cumbersome; use the abbreviations only after a full name and set the abbreviations off with commas: Samuel Cotton, Ph.D., lectured yesterday on bioethics. 41

DATES Always use Arabic figures, without st, nd, rd or th. Capitalize months. • When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. (e.g. Oct. 4 was the day of her birthday.) When a phrase lists only a month and year, do not separate the month and the year with commas. (e.g. February 1980 was his best month.) • When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas. (e.g. Aug. 20, 1964, was the day they had all been waiting for.) • • • • •

TIME • Use figures except for noon and midnight • Use a colon to separate hours from minutes (e.g. 2:30 a.m.) • 4 o’clock is acceptable, but time listings with a.m. or p.m. are preferred PUNCTUATION • apostrophe (') • For plural nouns ending in s, add only an apostrophe: the girls' toys, states' rights. • For singular common nouns ending in s, add 's: the hostess's invitation, the witness's answer. • For singular proper names ending in s, use only an apostrophe: Descartes' theories, Kansas' schools. • For singular proper names ending in s sounds such as x, ce, and z, use 's: Marx's theories, the prince's life. • For plurals of a single letter, add 's: Mind your p's and q's, the Red Sox defeated the Oakland A's. • Do not use 's for plurals of numbers, or multiple letter combinations: the 1980s, RBIs • colon (:) • Capitalize the first word after a colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence: He promised this: The company will make good all the losses. But: There were three considerations: expense, time and feasibility. • Colons go outside quotation marks unless they are part of the quoted material. • Comma (,) • Do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series: John, Paul, George and Ringo; red, white and blue • Use a comma to set off a person's hometown and age: Jane Doe, Framingham, was absent. Joe Blow, 34, was arrested yesterday. • dash (—) • Make a dash by striking the hyphen key twice. Put a space on either side of the dash OR if you’re using a Mac, hold down option/shift and hit the - key: Smith offered a plan — it was unprecedented — to raise revenues. • Use a dash after a dateline: SOMERVILLE — The city is broke. • Hyphen (-) • Use a hyphen for compound adjectives before the noun: well-known actor, full-time job, 20-year sentence • Do not use a hyphen when the compound modifier occurs after the verb: The actor was well known. Her job became full time. He was sentenced to 20 years. • Do not use a hyphen to denote an abrupt change in a sentence—use a dash. • Parentheses ( ) • The perceived need for parentheses is an indication that your sentence is becoming contorted. Try to rewrite the sentence, putting the incidental information in commas, dashes or in another sentence. If you do use parentheses, follow these guidelines: • If the material is inside a sentence, place the period outside the parentheses. 42

• If the parenthetical statement is a complete independent sentence, place the period inside the parentheses. • Period (.) • Use a single space after the period at the end of a sentence. • Do not put a space between initials: C.S. Lewis; G.K. Chesterton. • Quotation marks (“ ”) • In dialogue, each person’s words are placed in a separate paragraph, with quotation marks at the beginning and end of each person’s speech. • Periods and commas always go within quotation marks. • Dashes, semicolons, question marks and exclamation points go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted material. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence. • Use single marks for quotes within quotes: She said, "He told me, 'I love you.' And that was great.” TECH TERMS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

cyberspace database dot-com DSL e-mail home page hyperlink hypertext Internet intranet login logoff logon online shareware Website webcast webmaster World Wide Web

TITLES • For books, computer games, movies, operas, plays, poems, songs, television programs, lectures, speeches and works of art (Also called composition titles): • Put quotation marks around the title. • Capitalize the first and last words of the title. • Capitalize the principal words, including all verbs and prepositions and conjunctions with more than three letters • Translate a foreign title into English, unless the American public knows the work by its foreign name: Nietzsche’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra”; Mozart’s “Magic Flute” BUT “Amores Perros”; “The BhagavadGita.” • For newspapers and magazines: • Do not place in quotation marks. • Capitalize the in the name if that is the way the publication prefers to be known. • Lowercase ‘the’ before names if listing several publications, some of which use ‘the’ as part of the name and some of which do not: Time Newsweek, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. 43

• Where location is needed but not part of the official name, use parentheses: The Huntsville (Ala.) Times, The Toledo (Ohio) Blade. • For places: • The best reference for all place names is the “U.S. Postal Service Directory of Post Offices.” • The best reference for foreign geographic names is the most recent edition of “Webster’s New World College Dictionary.” The second-best reference is the “National Geographic Atlas of the World.” • Lowercase compass directions: The warm front is moving east. • Capitalize names of U.S. regions: The Northeast depends on the Midwest for its food supply. • The “Middle East” applies to Afghanistan, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The term is preferable to “Mideast.” • For ethnic groups: • The preferred usage for African Americans is “black.” The term is not capitalized. • Preferred usage for Caucasians is “white,” also not capitalized. • Preferred usage for Asian people is “Asian,” capitalized. Please note that in British usage the term applies only to people of the Indian Subcontinent. • “American Indian,” capitalized with no hyphen, is preferred over “Native American.” • For seasons: • Lowercase “spring,” “summer,” “fall” and “winter” and derivatives such as “wintertime” unless part of a formal name: I love Paris in the springtime; the Winter Olympics.

Photography Good photography can make your publication just as bad photography can break it. It’s important to remember that people most often judge each page, whether in print or online, on its visuals first. If you can grab a reader’s attention visually, then you have a chance of keeping it through your headlines, sub heads and finally the written story. Capturing a reader’s attention visually is a joint effort between the art on a page and its layout. Art doesn’t always have to be photography. It can be an illustration or an infograhic, as well, but most often it will be photography. Here are some tips to remember as you take photos, work with photographers and choose photos to use in your publication and on your website. - Frame subjects with other elements in a photo. - Every photo should have a focal point, or an area of the photo where your eye lands first. Figure out what that is and remember the rule-of-thirds, placing the focal point in one quadrant, never the center.

- Odd numbers of subjects are better than even numbers. - Never cut off the feet of your subjects. If you have to cut them in half, cut above the knee. - Choose photos that show action. - Choose photos that show emotion.

Take a look at some award-winning photos from Journalism Network publications over the years and see if you can point out some of the elements described on the previous page.

For more information and help on photojournalism, check out our additional online resources on the Journalism Network Resource Page at GenProgress.org. Finally, the best way to learn how to take great photos is to look at as much photography as you can get your hands on. Look at the photos in National Geographic and Time Magazine, two publications that boast strong photography. Check out the Hearst competition winners each year. The more you consume, the better you will become at identifying good photographs and framing photographs.

Layout When you’re looking for new designers, don’t just look in your journalism and communications school. Try branching out to your graphic design college, too. Many graphic design students have the skills to be excellent magazine designers but lack a professional outlet while in school. Your publication can be that. You can request an on-campus training on layout design through the Generation Progress Journalism Network, which is a good place to start if you are training new designers or looking to make an effort to strengthen the layout design to your publication. Right now, you can also check out the basic tips below as well as the additional online resources on the Journalism Network Resource Page at GenProgress.org. The best way to begin learning what is an effective design is to look at magazines. As you do this, note what catches your eye and what doesn’t catch your eye. Try to find similarities among these layouts. For example, if repeating color throughout a spread catches your eye, note that as a successful element. On the other hand, if you notice, for example, that headlines in a small font size with little variation from the other text on the page don’t catch your eye, note that as an unsuccessful element. These notes should help you as you begin your layouts. Try to use the elements you found in other magazines that created eye-catching layouts, and try not to use the elements you found in other magazines that bored you and did not catch your eye. While you are doing this, look for things like: - Differences between the font and font treatment used for headlines, subheds, body copy and captions (serif vs sans serif, bold, italics, color, capital letters, lower case letters, size, etc.) - How color is used through a spread (remember a spread is two pages next to each other) - How big or small the photos are on a layout and the difference among various photos on the spread - The photos that are used (see tips for photo choice below) - How many photos are on a spread (usually strong spreads have an odd number of photos) - How margins are used (do the pages have margins or do the photos “bleed” off the page, ignoring the margins and running right up to the edge of the paper) - How many columns of text there is - How page numbers are handled (are there any design elements that you notice and like or don’t like for page numbers?) - Where does your eye focus when you first open to a spread? Why do you think it focuses there? What draws your eye to that point? Take out a pencil and sketch pad Before you ever sit down at a computer, you need to practice on paper. It is much easier to be creative with tools you are used to working with than trying to be creative and learn to use a new tool at the same time—in this case, using pen/pencil and paper instead of a new computer program.

As you look through magazines, try sketching the elements of your favorite layouts that you find. These sketches donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to be detailed. They just need to show where the different elements would lay on the page (headline, body copy, photos, etc.).

Once you start to learn the art of layout, you can make the transition to InDesign much more smoothly and simply work on learning the program (see next section). For more information and help on layout, check out Tim Harrowerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Design Doctor and additional design resources on the Journalism Network Member Resource Page at GenProgress.org.

Display Type

Or how to grab a reader’s attention Tip of the hat to The Atlantic for the examples

Different readers enter stories through different avenues, so display type—headlines, subheadlines and captions —should provide those avenues to grab as many readers as possible. Each piece of display type should say something new about the story and work together to tell readers just enough information to form an engaging package that evokes curiosity. Repetition wastes valuable print space. Display type should also work with the layout and art on a spread. All-in-all, each piece of information that readers get on first glance all work together to grab readers’ initial attention.

Headlines Headlines are where writers can be creative. Headlines should be engaging and evoke curiosity. For example:

Guns for Hunting People Are Different

Subheds Subheds are important to give context to a story. Following a creative headline, a subhed should give enough information to continue engaging readers while also telling them a bit of the who, what and when of the story. Make sure to give enough information to continue evoking curiosity without telling the entire story. For example, here is the subhed for the above headline:

A gun owner and hunter explains why policymakers should pull assault rifles out of circulation entirely

Captions Captions can be used to both explain a photo and give a bit more initial information about a story. The Poynter Institute conducts eyetrack research that captures and analyzes the eye’s gaze, its fixations and movements. Poynter takes this research and publication design to help journalists better caption the attention of readers through display type, layout and art. The following are key findings of Poynter’s eyetrack studies that can be applied to publications. 1.

Photos attract attention. Color photos are viewed as often as black and white. Color is a powerful tool that pulls the eye toward various parts of a page, especially when readers view two facing pages.

Eyes follow a common pattern of navigation. The majority of readers enter all pages through the dominant photo or illustration, then travel to the dominant headline, then to subheds and captions, and finally to text.

Teasers accompanied by visuals receive far more attention than text-only teasers. 49

Two facing pages are viewed as one. When viewing two inside facing pages, readers enter the pages on the right hand side and travel immediately left. Readers view a two-page spread as if it were one single unit.

Readers love color. The majority of participants in Poynterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s studies said they read more of the text on a colorful page, though, in fact, many had not. Color also gives readers the illusion that there is more information than appears on the pages.

Images (photos and graphics) are viewed more than text. Photos and artwork are looked at the most, followed by headlines and advertising, then briefs and captions. Text was read the least.

Blogging: Tips and Tricks Blogging has become the catch-all term for online writing. Notice, we say online ‘writing,’ not journalism. There is a big difference. Bloggers have gotten a bad rap, and it’s because of this difference. A lot of publications, especially student publications, treat their websites as a dumping ground for all that is ‘not good enough for print.’ If you do that, stop it. Right now. We mean it. At the same time, there are non-journalists out there who ramble constantly on their blogs, calling it worthwhile. And then there are the SEO pirates: People who create blogs simple to garner traffic and make an income. If the future of journalism is moving more and more online, which it seems to be doing, then we all need to join together as journalists who aim to uphold the craft and hold our websites to the same standards we hold our print publications to. WRITING FOR THE WEB Writing online is different because readers have an even shorter attention span online than they have in print. You have an average of 3 seconds to grab and keep a reader’s attention. That’s on average, meaning many readers will give you even less time. So, that means, your headlines must be catchy. And your copy must be engaging, concise and factual. In fact, with these parameters in mind, you may want your strongest writers assigned to your website rather than your weakest ones, which is traditionally the case. HEADLINES Headlines can be different between your print issues and your website, even if you’re publishing the same piece. For the web, keep them short and sweet. Evoke a sense of curiosity. Ask a question or start a question, but leave it unanswered. Be clearer with your web headlines than with your print. In print it may be ok to have a vague but catchy head and then an informative subhed. Not the case for online. You only get the head online, so you have to make it both catchy and informative. When you can, include the location and/or main idea in the head without giving too much away that a reader doesn’t need to bother reading further. HOMEPAGE DESCRIPTIONS Write them. Don’t let them auto generate from your copy. Remember, this is prime real estate, so say something different than your web head says. Include more information, but not too much that your reader doesn’t feel curious to click on the story and read more. Often these are the same descriptions that will show up in a search. Depending on how your website is set up, you may or may not want to write two separate descriptions. One for your homepage that is more curiosity evoking, and one for your search engine optimization that is more informative. BODY COPY Use lots of graph breaks to the keep reader’s eyes moving down the page. Keep it short, 300-400 words should do it for an online piece. If you’re reprinting a longer print feature online, try posting 300-400 words per page with a ‘read more’ link at the bottom that directs to the next page. Use photos and other multimedia to break up the text. Bold subheads to keep the reader’s eyes moving. LINKING Do it! It lends credibility to your piece when a reader can directly verify your facts themselves. Also, it helps with SEO. Link names, organizations, news stories that support stated facts, and anything else that seems linkable.

REPORTING Remember we said hold your web articles to the same high standards you hold your print articles to? That means do your reporting. Don’t fall back on other news sites and simply quote their work as your own. Pick up the phone and call sources. Get out of bed and go witness what’s going on in person. Treat online journalism just like you’d treat print journalism, just focus on being more concise than you may otherwise be. UTILIZE MULTIMEDIA This is unique to online publishing. So use it to your advantage. Do you have a cool feature story from your print issue you’d like more people to read online, try creating a video from your reporting to post as a web exclusive on your site. Advertise the web exclusive in the print issue and all over social media. Keep videos to 2 to 3 minutes. You can post them either on Vimeo or YouTube and then put the embed code on your website. There are advantages to both, so pick what is best for your publication and then stick with it. What about slide shows? Do you have great photographers? Utilize them! How about doing a web exclusive to complement a print story with a slide show? If you’re on WordPress, there are very simply plug-ins you can use to create very nice looking slide shows. There are two big advantages to utilizing multimedia on your site: 1. The longer readers stay on your site, the better you rank in search engine searches and the more people will be directed to your site. 2. If you offer readers something different on your site than you do in your print issues, you give them a real reason to visit your site, and visit it often. Once you establish that expectation, keep delivering and your readers will respond with loyalty. Other multimedia options include (but are not limited to): • Storify • Thinglink • Interactive timelines • Interactive commenting For more tips on multimedia, check out the Journalism Network Member Resource page at GenProgress.org. PHOTOS No matter what, every online story should include at least one photo. The more visual you can make your website, the better. Readers are very visual, and even more so online. Think about how much effort your layout staff puts into grabbing your readers’ attentions with your print issues. You should put that much effort into the visual aspects of your website too. If your site looks confusing, cluttered, ugly or generally uninviting, your readers will click off your site before they ever read a headline.

Social Media Social Media is very important for a publication’s online presence. In addition to promoting new stories, issues and your website in general, social media can keep your publication live and in readers’ minds even when you’re not publishing. Check out what Generation Progress’ social media guru, Tara Kutz, has to say about social media for student publications by visiting your online resource page at genprogress.org. Go to the Journalism Network page and login to the Network Member Resources page. You’ll find our social media tutorial video under Online Trainings. 52

Funding a Student Publication Funding your publication may end up being the most challenging thing you face as a leader. Generation Progress grants help, but they rarely cover all operating costs. Plus, it’s important to develop a sustainable model for your publication so that you aren’t relying on grants and can continue serving your community through various obstacles the publication may weather throughout the years. The following are starting ideas for funding your publication, but not fully inclusive. Be creative, talk to your staff, be honest about your financial situation and come up with ideas together.

Grants

In addition to the Generation Progress grant that you receive, check out Resist.org. Resist.org compiled a list of media funders and resources in an effort to assist small, progressive organizations. Their Media Funding Resources list is very long, and you’re sure to find other grants on that list that apply to your publication. Remember, when you apply for grants, it’s all in how you present yourself. Focus on the topics you cover that match the areas that foundations work to support. Check your grammar and spelling. Be complete but concise. Once you have your boilerplate down, applying for multiple grants really isn’t that time consuming. Work those connections. Do you know someone who works for a foundation that offers journalism or issue-based grants? Maybe someone on your staff does. Students, especially dedicated students like those you are likely working with, often have internships at places that offer grants for progressive publications. See if you know a student who has connections through a former internship. It’s always better to reach out to someone you know or have a connection with than coldcalling.

Fundraising

When you put together fundraising campaigns, remember that they should somehow relate to your overall mission of the publication. This usually helps you not only raise money but also make a mark in the community, do good PR for the publication itself, and further your goals. Hold workshops in your office space Do you have office space or meeting space that is open for your use? Then try holding workshops there. Base the workshops off of topics you cover, and find community members willing to donate their time to conduct the workshops. For example, if you recently produced an issue on food justice, maybe you can hold a workshop on backyard gardening. Charge a low fee ($10 is usually acceptable to college students) plus any material costs if they are needed. If you can get 10 people at every workshop and hold three to four a month, that’s $400 a month right there. Things to remember: - Make sure you publicize the workshops. Put ads in your print issues and on your website. Make a poster and plaster it around campus and town. - Make sure workshop hosts are willing to donate their time. You won’t make any money if you have to pay them. 53

Hold documentary nights Use that office space again. Find documentaries that allow open showings, get a cheap projector from a second-hand store, string up a white sheet and you have yourself a nice make-shift theater. You can pair the documentary titles to match issues you cover with your publication. Maybe get community members who work on issues with local activists groups to come and talk after the documentaries. Charge a sliding scale donation of $5-$10 every time you hold a documentary night. Host benefit shows Have some fun! Your staff works hard. Your readers very often commit to some sad news when they read your publications. So have some fun. Make a name for the publication in the community. Make sure your promotion for the benefit shows match the branding of the publication and make sure everyone knows your publication put on this great party. Get local bands to donate their time to play, host it at a staffer’s house/backyard, and charge $5-$10 to get in. Things to remember: - Get a noise permit from the local police to avoid being shut down. These are easy to obtain and cost very little. - If you provide alcohol (which obviously is a big draw) either card at the door or don’t give out cups. - Make sure to have only one entrance and collect the entrance fee there so that you don’t miss people in the dark. - Theme your parties! People love themes. It makes each show different and continuously fun. - Put your photographers to work. Set up a photo booth and have your photographers take pictures of guests in their themed costumes. You can put the photos up on your website the day after and drive a lot of traffic to your site that way. I wouldn’t recommend charing for the photos, but you could try it and see if it works. You could put a donation jar by the photo booth, though. - Send around a donation jar late in the night to get some extra cash on top of the entry fee. - Have branded swag to pass out like buttons and stickers — things that people can put on right then and not lose. You could have some publications on the entry table, but it’s not a great place to pass them out. The point here is to make some money, improve your branding and self promotion, and have some fun. Host benefits at local shops Do you have good connections with local restaurants, coffee shops, breweries, etc., in your town? If not, you should work on that. Many local establishments will allow you to set up a benefit evening where you promote that you will be at a coffee shop during certain hours and a certain percentage of all sales goes toward your publication. This helps get more customers into the shop, and helps you make some money. You could also ask your full staff or at least leadership staff to be there for the full time to talk to people who may be interested in joining the publication. They can be there to talk to potential staffers about the publication and get them pumped up for joining. Or you could have them there to discuss recent stories they’ve written with community members. Make sure to have copies of your issues and any branded swag you can sell. Make branded swag Buttons Stickers T-shirts Notebooks and pens Bottle openers Planners Bags 54

Anything that you can put your logo on for a low cost and sell for an increased cost will help you bring in some cash. It’s not a hugely lucrative option, but it helps with self promotion and branding at the same time, and you can bring these things to every event and distro day you have and sell them. Host a reception or release party Whenever you release a new issue, consider hosting a party. This could be different than the benefit show and provide more of a professional space to get together and discuss the topics in the recent issue. Invite local activists working on various issues you discuss in the issue. Invite musicians to play background music. Have food and drinks. Make it fun but professional, too. Just don’t make it boring. And, importantly, put out a donation jar and promote it. Remember: Don’t spend too much money on this. The point is to help with branding, promotion, community image, distribution and fundraising. Get your staffers to make food and bring in or local restaurants to donate food. Hold a raffle Consider making connections with the local person who books bands in your town. This person should have access to a fair number of free tickets to shows. Offer an exchange—an ad in your print issue or on your website for the show for three free tickets to the show—and then raffle those off. Charge $2 per raffle ticket and hold the raffle at an upcoming event or on your website or facebook page. $2 is nothing if you’re getting an $80 ticket to a show. Talk to local restaurants, coffee shops, ice cream shops, breweries, etc., and see if they’d be willing to donate a handful of gift cards to their stores. These could be as low as $10 and still be worthwhile. Then you charge for the raffle tickets, raffle off the gift cards, and you’ve made the profit from the raffle without any investment cost. You can do the same trade as with music, offer a free ad in your publication one time for X number of gift cards. With all of these options, REMEMBER Anything that leaves the hands of the publication and goes out into the general public should have your brand on it—that includes your logo and the correct fonts, colors and styles. Everything you send out to the public is affecting the way the public sees the publication, so don’t mess that up.

Advertising

Advertising can be rough. Often student publication don’t have the (wo)man power to sell ads. It’s also tough to get local businesses to take you as a good investment until you’ve proven yourself to the community for many, many years. But, it can be done. Here are some steps to take: - Do everything you can to establish your name in the community widely, strongly and quickly. Show up at community events with your publication and branding. Go to the farmer’s market every week with your publication and branding. Put posters up in local businesses that advertise the publication and publication-hosted events to get the brand and publication name in the minds’ of local business owners. - Get the advertising packets from all the other publications in town and set your prices lower. - Make an advertising packet and make it professional. Here’s an example of a simple one from a network publication. Check out the elements to include... 55

A D V E R T I S I N G I N F O R M AT I O N

THE FINE PRINT Ashira Morris, Ad Director ads@thefineprintuf.org 850-445-9979

The Fine Print is an alternative publication based in Gainesville, FL. Our mission is to serve the Gainesville community by providing an independent outlet for political, social and arts coverage through original, local and in-depth reporting. You can find us in boxes on campus and around town, in local businesses and online at thefineprintuf.org. FORMAT We print in black and white ink on 8.5x11in., staple-bound newsprint. We print bimonthly during the fall and spring semesters and distribute 5,000 copies of each print edition, with hopes to expand to printing over the summer. Our print editions are also made available online via Issuu. See the “PRINT EDITION” tab on the top menu bar of our website, thefineprintuf.org. In addition to our print edition, we update our website throughout the week. DISTRIBUTION We currently have news boxes throughout the UF campus and the downtown, 13th Street and Archer area. We also leave issues of The Fine Print at local businesses around Gainesville to be picked up by patrons and passersby. A list of these locations as well as box locations available upon request. However, what makes The Fine Print unique is that we also personally hand out issues on campus and at farmers markets and community events. This is the most effective way to make sure our publication, and your ads, are seen and read by members of the student and Gainesville community at large. DEADLINES Listed in the next column are tentative deadlines for the spring and summer print editions. Deadlines are subject to change. Please email us at ads@thefineprintuf.org for the most current deadlines.

Camera-ready (CR) ads Camera-ready indicates that the ad is of the proper dimensions and that no editing or adjustments need to be made in order for the ad to be placed on the page and sent to the printer. Camera-ready ads submitted digitally must be 300dpi.

We-design (WD) ads For advertisers without camera-ready ads, we offer complimentary ad design. All materials and information must be submitted to ads@thefineprintUF.org by the specified “we-design” (WD) ad deadline for the issue in which the ad will appear. A proof of the ad will be available no later than a week from the WD ad deadline and any changes must be submitted within three business days.

DEADLINES, CONT’D For advertisers who prefer submitting hard copies of their materials, please email us at ads@thefineprintuf.org to arrange pick-up, or mail materials to The Fine Print office at 200 NE 1st St., Suite 201, Gainesville, FL 32601. WD CR

We-design ad Camera-ready ad

Vol. V, Issue III / Spring 2013 (Print estimate of Feb. 15, 2012) WD ad deadline

TBA

CR ad deadline

TBA

WD proofs available

TBA

WD proof changes deadline

TBA

Vol. V, Issue IV/ Summer 2013 (Print estimate of Apr. 15, 2012) WD ad deadline

TBA

CR ad deadline

TBA

WD proofs available

TBA

WD proof changes deadline

TBA

PRICING We have recently updated our prices, taking into consideration the often tight advertising budgets of local businesses and community organizations. 1/8 page (3.75in W x 2.75in H)

$25

1/4 page (3.75in W x 5in H or 7.5in W x 2.5in H)

$50

1/2 page (7.5in W x 5in H or 3.75in W x 10in H)

$100

Full page (7.5in W x 10in H)

$200

DISCLAIMER As it is our mission to serve the Gainesville community, The Fine Print reserves the right to refuse advertisements that the editorial board deems incongruent with this mission.

- Reach out to student groups on your campus to advertise their events and group in general. Most student groups that are affiliated with Student Government get a semesterly or yearly budget to spend how they see fit. Convince them a good use of some of that funding is on advertising in your publication. Even if your publication doesn’t get SG money, this is a legit way to get it anyway. - Does your university hold big events on campus? Like big-name speakers, concerts, etc. That means your university has a huge budget for that. Those events aren’t cheap. Get them to spend some of that money advertising in your publication that reaches the hands of X number of students—their target audience. - Remember, when you’re talking to advertisers, it’s all about them. So frame your publication in a way that reflects how you can help them. - If you don’t have the staff to sell ads, then give every staffer (who you trust to represent the publication professionally) an ad packet—or at least your leadership team. Ask them each to sell one ad per issue. This is doable and will help. You don’t want your issues to be taken over by ads anyway. You work hard to provide quality, strong journalism. So don’t lose that, just do what you need to to cover costs, and look at all the other ideas on the previous pages for other options too.

Being an Ethical Journalist What Would You Do?

Before you cut your reporters loose, it helps to establish a sense of the ethical nature of the publication so you can hold everyone involved accountable to a certain level. The following or example scenarios that provide ethical dilemmas for journalists. Talk to your staff and see what different people would do. You can use that as a jumping-off point for a discussion on ethics in your publication. 1. A source wants to conduct an interview with you via Gchat, and is reluctant to meet in person or speak by phone. 2. A member of the College Republicans, in a casual Gchat conversation with a reporter, brags about disenfranchising student voters. 3. A journalism professor writes a column in the local newspaper that includes an anonymous, promotional quote from a student in his class. The quote sounds canned. 4. You’re interviewing Mike Huckabee and he says that if we want to legalize gay marriage, we may as well legalize bestiality too. Then he says that comment’s off the record. 5. You get a tip that the women’s soccer coach (who’s male) is sexually harassing the female members of his team, but no one’s willing to talk to you on the record. 6. You find out through your reporting that the head of a campus conservative group is gay. Some have called the group’s campaigns homophobic. 7. Members of the football team are accused of gang raping the head of a campus feminist group. Do you name the rape victim? The team members accused? 8. You get a tip that the cafeteria is serving bad meat and dropping food on the floor.

Additional Resources Websites for Reference

• • • • • • • • • • • •

NewsLab 10,000 Words Nieman Reports Nieman Storyboard The Poynter Institute College Media Advisers Student Press Law Center Innovation in College Media Nieman Foundation New York Times Campus Weblines University of Iowa Journalism Resources Page W3schools

For more resources, log onto your Journalism Network Resource Page at GenProgress.org.