JOURN 2100 1st Edition Lecture 4 Outline of Last Lecture I Who to interview II How to be prepared III The setup IV Strategies Outline of Current Lecture I Meetings II Elements of Journalism III Strategies Current Lecture I Meetings a Lots of new that affects your readers happens when government leaders gather to make decisions b 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 trustees ii County commissions iii School boards university curators These 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 commissions v Others on merit and time as long as resources allow for it vi It is better to attend a meeting than be sitting in the newsroom waiting for news to happen d Know the players e Make meetings interesting i Find human examples this helps give your story human interest aspect ii Emphasize the impact on the public iii Decipher what is driving the news iv Eliminate government jargon Be conversational in your writing II Elements of Journalism Kovach and Rosenstiel a Journalism s 1st loyalty is to the citizens b Must serve as an independent monitor of power c Must provide a forum for criticism and compromise d Must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant III Strategies a Ladder of abstraction i Most stories on government start out with the big idea then the muddy middle then the nitty gritty b Getting ahead of the game i We work best when we identify and write about emerging issues long before they come up ii This way we can inform the public and encourage debate c Identify anecdotes mini stories that emerged during course of a meeting d Some members of the public represent or articulate the problem or the big idea Use them e On deadline keep it simple i Do as much pre writing as possible ii Get story structure in place iii Sometimes when you have to turn a story in quickly it is okay to rely on the inverted pyramid f Covering speeches i 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 it iii Focus on what is said rather than the fact that a speech took place