Assignment: News Story

Seeing is Believing

While we can easily become engaged in a print news story that is well-written and tailored for a specific audience, the ability of television to "show us" the news is something that has given it the edge over print news media for decades. Traditional radio also provides us with the "storytelling" aspect where we may find ourselves sitting in the car hanging on to every word of a great news story. This week, you will write a broadcast script for a television news story and for a radio news story. The television script and the radio script will both be designed for the delivery of a story that is 5 minutes in length.

Topic and Sources of Information: The issue that you choose to write about must be current and have some relevance for your local community, city, and/or state. You must derive the information for this story from print media only. You will need to read several print publications for mention of the story and take notes of the facts of the story from several national publications.

For this assignment you must:

• Adhere to the Broadcast Script Template
• Summarize facts and/or statistics that are relevant to the story
• Develop the story for the local audience
• Compare two opposing opinions about the topic
• Provide proper attribution for all sources of information included (facts, statistics, images/video, and opinions).
• Incorporate at least three visual elements to enhance the television story
• Incorporate at least three indirect quotes (citing other sources) to enhance the radio story
• A list of each of the sources must be included using the Media News Source Template

Saving Your Work: To maintain the formatting of your work, you are strongly encouraged to save your assignment as a PDF file. View Saving a Word Document as a PDF for steps on how to do this.

Check it! Your print news stories must be submitted through Grammarly and Turnitin prior to submission.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

Editing Exercise

Accuracy, Clarity, Brevity

Read Chapter 3 and 4 in The Complete Editor. The complete Exercise 4.10. Rewrite the story in a Word document.

For this assignment you must:

• Format sentences, expressions, and words according to AP style
• Use correct grammar
• Use correct spelling
• Use correct punctation

Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

Editing Exercise

Headlines and Summaries

Read Chapter 6 in The Complete Editor. Then complete Exercise 6.5 and Exercise 6.12. Label each of the exercises and include them in one Word document.

For Exercise 6.5 you must:

• Include the headlines alongside the rewritten headlines
• Follow the principles of writing headlines (logic, specificity, word precision, avoid double meanings)

For Exercise 6.12

• Identify the approach used for each summary
• Format sentences, expressions, and words according to AP style
• Use correct grammar
• Use correct spelling
• Use correct punctuation

Discussion

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses.

Digitized News

Prepare: It is befitting that we discuss writing for digital media after we have explored print and broadcast media because the Internet has given us the capability of converging those two forms of traditional media. In Chapter 7 of Writing for the Mass Media, Stovall (2014) states, "The Web is like broadcasting and newspapers, but it is also something quite different. Although it shares many of the characteristics of other media, it has qualities that make it unique. Those qualities are immediacy, flexibility, permanency, capacity, and interactivity." Read Chapter 7 and explore all of these qualities about news on the Web.

Reflect: Take a moment to surf the web for news on at least four digital news media platforms. Consider what you see in relation to the five qualities that Stovall (2014) discusses in the reading. How well are those qualities demonstrated on the sites that you explore?

Write: Choose two of the sites that you explored and write a 250- to 300-word response that discusses at least two of the five qualities of digital news media. In your initial post, you must include at least one in-text citation from the reading material and an additional in-text citation from a scholarly source that you locate in the Ashford University Library or from another credible source. At the end of your post, include your name and a full reference for all sources cited in the body of your post. All citations and references must adhere to APA style guidelines as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Check it! Your post must be submitted through Grammarly and Turnitin prior to submission.

Respond to Peers: After you have written your initial post, read the posts of your peers and respond to at least two others about their experiences exploring digital news media. Your responses should address them by name, be between 100 and 150 words in length, and you must include your name at the end of each response.

Editing Exercise

News Story

The impact of digital media on news coverage and delivery is undeniable. Many of us have our news delivered directly to us via our laptops or smartphones. The greatest draw of digital media is getting everything in one place with the ability to be selective about what you get and when you get it. Digital media is what makes convergence a reality.

For this assignment, you will write a story for a digital media platform tailored to your local community. You will also create two social media feeds for Facebook and Twitter that brings attention to the story that is on the digital media platform. The length of the actual story for the platform must be at least 350 words for each story.

Topic and Sources of Information: The issue that you choose to write about must be current and have some relevance for your local community, city, and/or state. You may derive the information for this story from print or broadcast media only. You will need to access several print publications and broadcast new programs-- including radio and television-- and take notes of the facts of the story.

For this assignment you must:

• Adhere to the Digital News Publications Template
• Adhere to AP style
• Create an engaging headline for the story and for the social media posts
• Write the story according to the Inverted Pyramid
• Summarize facts and/or statistics that are relevant to the story
• Develop the story for the local audience
• Compare two opposing opinions about the topic
• Provide proper attribution for all sources of information included (facts, statistics, images/video, and opinions).
• Incorporate visual elements to enhance the story and the social media posts
• A list of each of the sources must be included using the Media News Source Template.

Saving Your Work: To maintain the formatting of your work, you are strongly encouraged to save your assignment as a PDF file. View Saving a Word Document as a PDF for steps on how to do this.

Check it! Your print news stories must be submitted through Grammarly and Turnitin prior to submission.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment. and Layout

Read Chapter 9 in The Complete Editor. Pay particular attention to Figure 9.4 in examining the various parts of the page. Then, go back to the Peer Critiques in Week 4 and select two stories in addition to your written story. Use the Newspaper Template to layout and design the front page of the newspaper.

For this assignment you must:

• Create a visually appealing front page
• Rewrite the headlines for each story
• Include bylines for each of the stories
• Include a headshot of yourself for yourstory
• Incorporate a picture or infographic for one of your peers' stories
• Include a pull quote for one of your peers' stories.