JOURN 2100 1st Edition Lecture 4 Outline of Last Lecture I. Who to interviewII. How to be preparedIII. The setupIV. StrategiesOutline of Current Lecture I. MeetingsII. Elements of JournalismIII. StrategiesCurrent LectureI. Meetingsa. Lots of new that affects your readers happens when government leaders gather to make decisionsb. One of journalism’s most important duties is to act as a watchdog holding government officials accountable. Although we have sunshine laws, government often tries to be secretive.c. What meetings to cover (this is more if you are writing for a local publication)i. City council, trusteesii. County commissionsiii. School boards, university curatorsThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.iv. Planning and zoning commissionsv. Others on merit and time as long as resources allow for itvi. It is better to attend a meeting than be sitting in the newsroom waiting for news to happen!d. Know the playerse. Make meetings interestingi. Find human examples-this helps give your story human interest aspectii. Emphasize the impact on the publiciii. Decipher what is driving the newsiv. Eliminate government jargon. Be conversational in your writingII. Elements of Journalism (Kovach and Rosenstiel)a. Journalism’s 1st loyalty is to the citizensb. Must serve as an independent monitor of powerc. Must provide a forum for criticism and compromised. Must strive to make the significant interesting and relevantIII. Strategiesa. Ladder of abstractioni. Most stories on government start out with the big idea, then the muddy middle, then the nitty gritty.b. Getting ahead of the gamei. We work best when we identify and write about emerging issues long before they come upii. This way we can inform the public and encourage debatec. Identify anecdotes/mini-stories that emerged during course of a meetingd. Some members of the public represent or articulate the problem or the big idea. Use theme. On deadline, keep it simplei. Do as much pre-writing as possibleii. Get story structure in placeiii. Sometimes when you have to turn a story in quickly it is okay to rely on the inverted pyramidf. Covering speechesi. In the political realm watch out for pseudo-events. We don’t want to cover these because they are staged and not real news.ii. For major/important speeches, try to get the text out ahead of time so people know about itiii. Focus on what is said rather than the fact that a speech took