Writing for a Digital News Publication

With the advancement of mediated technologies, digital news media has become standard in the field of journalism. This week, you will write a news story for the fictional digital publication, The AU Champion. You will take the same story that you analyzed in Week Two and tailor it to the readership of the publication. The population for the magazine is online students, alumni, faculty, staff, administration, and other stakeholders. The magazine serves approximately 95,000 readers. The AU Champion provides news and information about Ashford University as well as useful information for the readers of the magazine.

Write a 450-500 word story, in which you:

Formulate a summary or anecdotal lead that engages the audience.

Examine at least two perspectives through research from various credible news publications using quotes and attributions appropriately.

Organize the story by creating logical connections and using transitions throughout the story.
Include at least one visual element and one interactive element to enhance the story.
The story must adhere to the Digital News Template and must be written in Associated Press (AP) style. You must fully identify the sources of information for the story in a way that does not detract from it. The story must include sources and attributions according to AP Style.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

WK4 BLOG

Prepare: Now that you have all of your factual information and hopefully your interviews completed or scheduled, it is time to focus on how you will tell your story to your readers. Chapter 10 of the textbook focuses on writing stories that the audience will want to read. Reflect: After reading Chapter 10, discuss the various techniques that you will use in your special report to engage your audience. Focus on the tools of narration that are mentioned in the textbook and decide which ones may be beneficial for your story. Write: Then, write a 250- to 300-word blog post that shares with your peers the various ways in which you may write your special report. View the Formatting Stories and Blogs (Links to an external site.) document for assistance with formatting your blog. Respond to Peers: After you have written your blog post, read the blog posts of your peers and post a comment to at least three other bloggers about their story ideas. Your comments should address them by name, be between 50 and 75 words in length, and must include your name at the end of each response.

WK3 SPJ BEAT
Ethics in Journalism
The Society of Professional Journalist's Code of Ethics provides guidelines that all journalists are expected to adhere to in order to ascertain that freedom of the press does not infringe upon the rights of others in several ways. While many codes exist, the SPJ code has become the industry standard for how journalists are expected to conduct themselves when it comes to gathering information and using it for news reports. This week you will write a blog post about ethics and your submission will also be considered for publication to the SPJ blog. Watch the video (Links to an external site.) presentation below for more information about the SPJ blog on ethics. Then refer to the information below it for the Grading Criteria.

n the blog you must:

Choose a topic directly related to ethics in journalism

Write a 500 word blog post in a consistent style and voice

Include at least two images and/or pieces of multimedia to enhance the content of the blog post

Provide proper attributions throughout the blog post

Adhere to AP style in writing the blog post

Blog posts that meet all of the requirements outlined will be judged and considered by the instructor in the course for submission to the SPJ blog for publication.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your activity.

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. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

WK4 NEWS DESK

Prepare: Gathering factual information for a news story is the most important responsibility you will have as a journalist. Telling that story in an intriguing way ensures that the information you gathered will be well received by your audience. The Missouri Group discusses the various ways in which news stories can be told in Chapters 9 and 11 of the textbook.

Reflect: Once you have read Chapters 9 and 11 of the textbook, find a recent news story from a digital news site that you believe illustrates at least one of the news story structures discussed on page 222 of the textbook.

Write: After finding your story, save it in a Word document. Once the story is in a Word document, add comments that illustrate the various parts of the story that make if fit the structure you have chosen. Save your work and attach it in your post. In the body of your post, indicate the name of the story, the publication it came from, and the story structure you believe it most likely fits.

Respond to Peers: After you have posted your story, read the posts of your peers and respond to at least three of them. Your responses should address them by name, be between 100 and 150 words in length, and include your name at the end.

Writing News for Social Media

News organizations, as well as independent bloggers and citizen journalists, are making full use of social media in the reporting of stories. For this assignment, you will follow a current, breaking news story and use Facebook and Twitter templates to and post about the story. You are not required to create social media accounts, but you will need to investigate each platform to get an understanding of the rules and guidelines of sharing information on each platform.

Follow a news story that appears in a digital publication this week that is likely to be ongoing. This will be signified by the news reporter or journalists stating that "the investigation is on-going" or something similar. As you follow the story in the digital publication, you will create a Twitter Feed and create Facebook posts related to all updates received about the story. You should not visit the social msedia sites of the publication you choose or read any other social media feeds about the story. Information for each social media platform should be written differently and use different images.

For this assignment, you must:

Create headlines according to the conventions of each social media platform

Write engaging leads for the story on each social media platform.

Include images that support the story on each social media platform.

The story must adhere to the Facebook and Twitter templates and must be written in Associated Press (AP) Style. You must fully identify the source of information for the story in a way that does not detract from it.