week 13 (April 20-25)

Tuesday, April 21: Tour of The Boston Globe


Thursday, April 23: Class discussion of final story. Return of papers. Desserts.

week 12

Tuesday, April 14: Return of police stories (Story #5) Discussion of common mistakes/issues. Group discussion on visiting courthouse. CLASS CANCELED!!! Post your courthouse stories on your blog.

Read courthouse tales by Angelica, Kelsey, Kelly, and the Sarahs (Jones and Greenbaum) to get a sense of what I am looking for.

Thursday, April 16: Return of police stories (Story #5) Discussion of common mistakes/issues. Group discussion on visiting courthouse. Tour of the Globe will be Tuesday, April 21.

week 11 (April 6-10)

Tuesday: Return of story #4, quiz #3. Discussion of Accuracy, Libel, Privacy Story # 5 due.


Thursday: Writing for TV. Tips on Broadcast Writing.

week 10 (March 30-April 3)

Tuesday: Writing from a police report.
Go to these two links, pull up the two-part police report and write a news story (400 words or so) based on the report. Write as if this is going online tonight for your paper’s website. Assignment due: April 7. This is story #5.

Thursday: Quiz #3. The People's Court. You have been summoned to attend court, class.

A helpful link to finding some Boston courthouses.

Week 9 (March 23-27)

Tuesday, March 24: Media ethics. Classroom exercise.

Thursday, March 26: Writing from a police report. Assignment in class.

week 8 (March 16-20)

Tuesday, March 17: Quiz #2. Classroom discussion of covering a meeting. Story #4 will be assigned.


Thursday, March 19: Guest speaker, local TV news reporter.

week 6 (March 2-6)

Tuesday, March 3: Return of Story #2. Discussion of reporting process. Common mistakes. Tips for clear and concise writing, attribution, etc. Rewrites due for Story #2 on March 17.

Watch this video from NBC Nightly News. Discuss newsgathering elements. How can this be done at Emerson?


Thursday, March 5: Covering City Government, Town Hall meeting. (you will have Quiz #2 on March 17 when you return. Quiz is based on AP style entries I-O and that day's current events) Return of in-class obit.

Story # 3

Watch this funeral service and write an obit as if you were there.

week 5 (Feb. 24-29)

Tuesday, Feb. 24: Story # 2 due. Discussion of various interview techniques. What to do (or not do) in an interview. Beginning discussion on how to write a killer obit.

Thursday, Feb. 26: In-class assignment. The news obit! This will count as a grade.

week 4 (Feb. 16-20)

Feb. 19, Thursday: Quiz #1 (sections A-L in AP Stylebook and current events from the day's paper.) Return of Story #1. Discussion of writing techniques, common mistakes. Story #2 due Feb 24, next class

Read: List of top news websites in the US in 2008

week 3: Feb 10-12

Tuesday, Feb. 10: Discussion of budget lines, local stories, profile candidates. Story #1 due

Thursday, Feb 12: Continue discussion of story ideas, the Google Alert, Sourcing stories (upcoming quiz, Feb. 19)

week 3: Feb. 3-10

Tuesday, Feb. 3: Discussion of lead exercises, Return of scene setting story, common grammar and AP style mistakes, finding story ideas, creating slugs

Thursday, Feb. 5: Story #1 assigned in class, Due next class, Tuesday, Feb. 10

week 2: Jan 26- 30

Tuesday, Jan. 27: The anatomy of a news story, hard news versus soft, Take the lead!

Thursday, Jan. 29: Adding some color and detail to your reporting and writing. Setting the scene. Colorful in-class assignment!

Week one, Jan. 20

Bienvenidos! Welcome to Newsgathering, JR102E!

Tuesday: Introduction to the course. Meet your professor. Who's Johnny? Create a news blog.

Thursday: News never stops. Why? What is news? How to spot it? What makes something newsworthy?