Tuesday, July 5, 2016

JRN 200: Second Story Pitches ...

... include:

  • How a town will recover from the loss of a historic hotel in a fire
  • Differences in school hours at different schools
  • Popularity of Lansing's parks
  • Football players and their off-season demands
  • Lives of MSU students after they graduate
  • Why taxes are so high in one community
  • Plans to revitalize one city's downtown
  • Parking at MSU; why so frustrating?

... and more!

Overall, I think it's a very strong set of topics. These are all ones that can be locally reported (the ones in out-of-area locales are in places where students taking this class actually are this summer); they all regard trends and issues in that they're not hooked simply on the fact that something's happening; they seek context through looking at pros and cons and who's affected and in what ways. Really nice bunch.

A few of you did NOT send in a pitch. Big mistake. Each of these out-of-class stories are worth around 10 percent of your final grade, so these are the projects on which we have to be perfect. The deadline clock is already ticking (see related blog post); you need to get me a pitch ASAP. You will also be docked on your final assignment grade for missing the tip sheet deadline.

Still, it's better than blowing off your assignment. If you miss your story deadline, you will blow a hole in your final semester grade that will be so severe you will be hard-pressed to do better than a 2.5, at best and potentially much worse, in this class.

That's by design. In journalism, an editor can work with a piece of junk story that's submitted before a deadline. An editor can print, post or air something that's never turned in. And in this business, along with getting facts wrong it's an unforgivable sin.

Let's get on it, folks.


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