International High School
Journalism for Print or Web

Class guide - Semester II, 2001
Instructor:
David Baal


January 22 - (half class) Introduction, expectations for class.

January 29 - Basics of writing news stories - inverted pyramid, who, what, when, where, why, how. Assignment: write two opening paragraphs for two news stories.

February 5 - (half class) truth vs. accuracy, discussion of libel, ethics.

February 12 - (half class) Discussed potential angles and structure for news stories, gave assignments for next few weeks: article on pep rally for next class, proposal for (graded) news story coming up...

February 19 - NO CLASS

February 26 - Writing assignment due.

Pep rally: 300+ words, one quote, 4 paragraphs minimum
Proposal for news story due.

March 5 - Graded news story due.

News story: 300+ words, at least one quote, 4 paragraphs minimum
Article #1 - full details of the News story assignment, in PDF format
(You will need Acrobat Reader to view this document. Download from here)

March 12 - NO CLASS

March 19 - Editorials - News story revisions discussed

March 26 - Editorials - discussion of the controversy around Horowitz' anti-reparations ad

April 2 - Ethics, good journalism practices

April 9 - NO CLASS

April 16 - Editorials due

April 23 - Reviews - books, films, music, art, or performance

April 30 - Reviews / Editorial Revisions discussed

May 7 - Layout & Design, planning for end-of-year issue

Reviews due by Friday, May 11th: 250 - 500 words

May 14 - End of year issue workshop (details here)

May 21 - Articles for end-of-year issue due before Friday, May 25th

May 28 - NO CLASS

June 4 - End-of-year issue published

June 11 -

Helpful info:

X-Poser? Supposer?

Course goals

Journalistic terms

Journalism-related links on the Web

Excerpts from The First Amendment Handbook from The Reporters' Committee on Freedom of the Press

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting tackles
Fear and Favor in the Newsroom

Best Practices for Newspaper Journalists (PDF) from the Freedom Forum

Who owns the media? Take a look at the top six media corporations, and find out how much of your life they control. (PDF)