The Backshop

2010-08-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Cover of Inside ReportingAdvanced Reporting

Fall 2010
Dr. Michael Robertson
Office: Kalmanovitz 119
Phone: 666 6250 (office); 510 836 4870 (home); robertson@usfca.edu

OFFICE HOURS: MWF: 2:30p-3:30p

BOOKS: “Inside Reporting,” Tim Harrower. Associated Press “Stylebook”

You will be expected to read regularly, and preferably subscribe to, the San Francisco Chronicle, so you can bring it to class. However, I have arranged to have the Chronicle’s electronic facsimile edition available to the class online, so subscribing is optional. You also will read the Foghorn and watch the news segments of USF-TV. Articles may be assigned from various magazines and books placed on reserve in the library.

ATTENDANCE: No work missed through unexcused absence may be made up. Only absences for which a signed excuse is obtained will be considered excused. The course will meet at other sites at least once during the semester. Make arrangements as soon as possible to have free the evening of Tuesday, October 5, so we can all attend an Oakland City Council meeting. If you have a schedule conflict, let me know as soon as possible so that we can attempt to resolve it.

If you have any physical or emotional handicap or other problems that will affect your attendance or performance, inform the instructor by the end of the first week of classes.

ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT: Any student found to have plagiarized or fabricated work will be given a failing grade for the semester.

LATE ASSIGNMENTS: Stories will be accepted after deadline. However, such stories will not receive full credit unless accompanied by a medical excuse. Stories a day late will be penalized 2/3rds of a letter grade. Each subsequent day's lateness will result in a penalty of 1/3rd of a letter grade. In other words, a "B" paper turned in two days late would be lowered to a "C" grade. A story that is never turned in will be given a zero and averaged into your final grade on the basis of A/95, B/85, C/75, D/65 and F/55.

BEAT REPORTS: Starting the fourth week of the semester, students will be responsible for turning in a weekly beat report in addition to the assigned beat stories. The quality and consistency of those beat reports and of the final beat summary will count for 10 percent of your final grade.

*EXTRA CREDIT*: Stories printed in campus or other publications will be considered at grade time. Those stories may be assignments done for the class or other work. To obtain extra credit consideration, you must turn in a portfolio containing your published work for the semester by exam day.

BLOGS: Most of you created blogs when you had me for previous classes, so you have a head start. Starting the third week of class, every other Monday you are responsible for posting on your blog a journalism-related question, statement or observation. Every class member will then vote by email in support of which question, statement or observation she/he finds most compelling. By the following Monday, every class member other than the winner of the vote will comment on that Q/S/O. Extra credit will be given to those students who do more posting on their blogs than this minimum – if it’s good work.

Posting: 9/13, 9/27, 10/13 (Wednesday because of Fall Break), 10/25, 11/8, 11/22.

Responding to posts: 9/20, 10/4, 10/17, 11/1, 11/15, 11/29.

Your blog work will count for 10 percent of your final grade.

TWITTER: You will produce a total of 30 “news tweets” during the course of the semester. These tweets will reflect what you see and what you hear on campus or in San Francisco. I don’t really care where your observations take place, as long as they have relevance to USF students. Tweets are great places to place “tidbits” from the beat that are worth no more than a sentence or two. I hope your tweeting will inspire discussion of what news is and isn’t. I *really* hope some of them will be the first step toward longer stories.

Example: For the third time in two days, friends comment on some event or topic, and you make note of the recurrence. Do those comments suggest the local impact of a national story? Or do they suggest a trend or fad, something of human interest but no great consequence? Or do they suggest something more important than a mere trend or fad, some newsworthy something that is flying under the mainstream news radar but really matters?

There are no bad news tweets, though some will be more useful than others, and it is my job to give extra credit to those.

Your Twitter work will count for 10 percent of your final grade.

MULTIMEDIA: The “big story” must have a multimedia element. Any of you stories may have such an element, which means extra credit. Such work is not the focus of this class. However, I *urge* anyone in this class who is seriously interested in journalism to take audio and video production classes as well as relevant 1- and 2-unit computer classes.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon completing this course, a student should be able:

1. To write clear, accurate news stories of various types ranging in length from 250 to 2,500 words using correct grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax.
2. To explain the decision making process for making news judgments and the ethical
challenges therein.

3. To understand the how professional journalists understand the concept of objectivity
and to be able to address its limitations.

4. To apply news judgment to sets of facts and synthesize those facts into effective, concise leads and coherent, logically organized news stories.

5. To know when information must be attributed to a source to avoid editorializing and how to handle attribution smoothly in a story.

6. To understand the general sources for news (observation, interview, written reports), the necessity of skepticism in dealing with these sources; to master the process of verifying information; to exhibit that understanding in your stories. You will supply me with a mailing address and/or telephone number and/or email address for each person quoted in your stories. At least once during the semester, I will send a copy of your story to those used as sources to get their judgment of your accuracy and professionalism.

7. To use basic AP style rules in the stories written.

8. To prepare copy so that it is clean and conforms to standard copy preparation rules. (For instance, always double space.)

9. To create and maintain a personal blog.

10. To create and maintain a personal Twitter account.

GRADES:

A

This grade is for work of clearly professional caliber. Writing is clear and concise with only minor editing required. Reporting is complete and leaves no questions unanswered. The work is turned in on or before deadline.

B

This grade is for work that could be raised to professional quality without major editing. Writing is basically grammatical and requires only routine changes but lacks the sparkle of A work. The reporting manages to focus on the main ideas of the story -- but may have a few organizational problems and a misplaced emphasis. Work is in by deadline.

C

This grade is for work that does not measure up to professional standards but could be salvaged through rewriting. Work could not be used professionally without being returned to the reporter -- or assigned to another reporter! Writing has obvious rough spots. Grammatical errors are present. Reporting leaves questions unanswered. Work is usually done by deadline -- but is occasionally late.

D

This grade is for work that is clearly unacceptable in a professional setting. The writing is confused and ungrammatical. The reporting is weak and often misses the point entirely. The work is often late.

COURSE OUTLINE

From wordle.net

Week One: August 23

What is news? The nature of news and newswriting. Why you are here. The assignment for the first week is to produce a back-to-school story, which will be due next Monday. It must be 250-300 words. You may choose to submit a longer version. But if it is longer, it must be accompanied by an edited version of 250-300 words.

Week Two: August 30

Covering a beat. What a beat is and how it works. What makes news on a beat? Writing on deadline. How you can get it done by the time it's supposed to be done. The why's behind getting it done on time.

Due Monday 8/30: Back-to-school story.

New assignment: You will be given a campus beat. For a week from Wednesday in two pages, explain why the beat is important enough to warrant coverage. Include who you anticipate will be your primary sources and the kinds of stories you believe will come off that beat. For a week from Friday: Your first beat story. Minimum length 350 words.

Week Three: September 6 (Labor Day vacation)

Interviewing review. Where do you get your news?

Due Wednesday 9/8. Your beat description.

Due Friday 9/10. Your first beat story.

New assignment: For next Wednesday your second beat story. Minimum length 350 words.

Week Four: September 13

Where do you get your news? We will examine some of your favorite news sites. Our aim is to come up with a list of what is good about current news sites and what could be better.

Due Wednesday 9/15. Your second beat story.

New assignment: For next Wednesday your third beat story. Minimum length 600 words.

Week Five: September 20

The meeting story. The basic outline of the meeting story. Prepare for coverage of a meeting of the Oakland City Council in two weeks. A consideration of “Civic Journalism,” its dangers and opportunities

Due Wednesday 10/1. Your third beat story.

New assignment: Tuesday October 5 we will leave USF at approximately 6 p.m. and travel to Oakland, where we will cover the weekly meeting of Oakland City Council. Class will not meet Wednesday, though I will be in the classroom available for discussion. A story covering the meeting is due Thursday 10/9 by 5 p.m.

Week Six: September 27

Required conference with instructor. Class will meet Monday but not Wednesday or Friday. Continue preparation in class on Monday for meeting of Oakland City Council.

Week Seven: October 4

Tuesday evening lab, October 5. Please clear your schedule. We will attend an Oakland City Council Meeting 7:30 p.m.-? Story is due by 5 p.m. Thursday. No Wednesday class, but I will be in the classroom if anyone wants to talk about the meeting story.

Due Thursday 10/8. Your meeting story.

Week Eight: October 11 (Fall break)

The business story. The basics of business. Net and gross. Reading business reports. What makes a business story. Reading the business newspapers. What stocks and bonds are. Where PR and journalism meet.

New assignment: For next Friday, a business story, minimum length 700 words.

Week Nine: October 18

The final project, a 2,000-2,500 word story on a topic of campus interest derived from your beat. The Big Story is due Friday, 12/10, by 5 p.m.

Due Friday 10/24. Your business story.

Week Ten: October 25

Using the AP Stylebook.

New assignment: For next week, a proposal for your final project. Also for a week from Friday, your fourth beat story, minimum length 350 words.

Week Eleven: November 1

AP style test on Monday. Required conference with instructor. At those conferences you will turn in your project proposal for your Big Story. Class will not meet on Wednesday or Friday.

Due Friday 11/5: Your fourth beat story.

Week Twelve: November 8

The science story. Talking with scientists. Understanding the scientific method. Avoiding false balance.

New assignment for a week from Monday: Your science story. Minimum length 600 words.

Week Thirteen: November 15

Resume preparation. Job hunting skills and what an employer looks for. Ideas about hunting for jobs.

Due Monday November 22: Your science story

Week Fourteen: November 22 (Thanksgiving)

Working on final projects.

Reminder: Big story is due Friday, 12/10. Minimum length 2,000 words.

Week Fifteen: November 29

Working on final projects.

Week Sixteen: December 6

Feature writing. Writing in class for practice and a grade.

Final assignments: Fifth beat story and the final beat summary, a description of sources that would be useful to the next person assigned the beat, are due Friday, 12/17.

2009-08-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

Responses to Readings: Writing Guidelines

2009-08-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

Responses to Readings: Guidelines

Dr. J. Michael Robertson

University of San Francisco

(8/25/2009)

As you go through those reading assignments for which I require a written response, jot down your ideas, connections, questions or comments in the margins or on a separate piece of paper. (I’m assuming you’ll print out the more important of these readings and bring them to class.) When you’ve finished the readings, go back and construct your responses following the guidelines outlined below. Use the stipulated heading for each response (A1, A2, B3, etc.)

Your response should be typed, double spaced, with your name and page number on each page.

· CITATION: Anytime you refer to an actual idea of the writer, provide a citation for each idea used: the writer’s last name, the year of the publication and the page number(s) from which each idea is taken. Use this format: (Writer’s last name, year, page/s). Example: (Robertson, 2007, 32-33).

· Plagiarism alert! Three words or more from a writer need to be in quotation marks.

General Format for Your Responses:

A. Abstract/Synopsis: Report & Support Material

B. Interpretation

C. Evaluation

D. Personal Reaction

E. Analysis

A. Abstract/Synopsis

1. In a paragraph or two, give an abstract for this article: That is, in general, what is this article about? Try to avoid personal opinion, evaluation or interpretation here. Provide only an overview of what the writer specifically says he or she is saying in the article in question.

2. What are 3-5 specific main points the writer makes in this article? (The number of specific ideas should relate to the number of ideas presented by the writer; shoot for five ideas.) Paraphrase the writer’s explanation of the ideas. Strive to put it in your own words. Do not assume a quote from the work can stand on its own as an explanation. Each new idea gets a new paragraph, or present the ideas in a numbered or bulleted list.
[For each idea, provide the citation information as mentioned above (name, year, page/s)].

B. Interpretation

3. What is your interpretation of the writer’s main points: That is, what do you believe the writer is saying--overtly or when you read between the lines? What from the article leads you to this interpretation? You may have to deal with the writer’s inconsistency or even contradiction in presenting her/his “real” point. Be alert for irony, hyperbole or some other rhetorical flourish. What is your final takeaway and why?

C. Evaluation

4. What is your evaluation of the article, taken as a whole? Is the article helpful in some way to the audience to which it seems to be directed? Are the writer’s arguments and supporting materials persuasive? Explain.

D. Personal Reaction

5. What are the two most striking or significant ideas you found in the article? What leads you to each of these conclusions? What you find most useful may not be what the writer seems to think is the most useful. Your own circumstances may shape this response. I’m asking what in your experience leads you to this conclusion/reaction? (For each idea, provide the citation information as mentioned above.)

6. What are two or three uncertainties or confusions you have after reading the article? Explain. If you have no uncertainties or confusions, what further questions would you like to put to the writer? Explain.

E. Final Analysis

8. What are two or three connections you can make between the article and material relating to the subject of the article that you have encountered in journalism classes, in Media Studies classes, in fact, in any class here at USF? Explain how this material fits into your overall Liberal Arts education.

Your Blogging Responsibilities

2009-08-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

American Journalism Ethics/F2009:
Your Blogging Responsibilities

1. The class blog. Each week one of you will be assigned the task of finding an interesting ethical problem and posting it on the class blog. The responsibility of the rest of the class is to comment on that weekly post. We will now do the math! Each week there will be one main post with 13 comments.

2. Your own blog. You will create a personal blog to which I will link at our class blog. The minimum requirement is that you post once a week at your personal blog on any aspect of journalism ethics that interests you at the moment. These posts do not have to be highly developed, intricately reasoned, stylistically dazzling. I am looking for quick hits, what you are thinking at the moment. Your main energy will be focused on the class blog.

As it says in the syllabus, your blogging – both posting and commenting – will count for 15 percent of your grade. The amount of blogging described above is the minimum necessary so that you grade will not be reduced. Thoughtful and consistent commenting -- excellence, not just adequacy -- will result in your getting the full 15 percent credit.

I would also like you to take an occasional look at the blogs of your classmates. Any comments you make on the blogs of your classmates will be considered extra credit -- as long as they add something to the topic under discussion.

The USF Journalism and Media Studies Blog -- http://oliversmojo.blogspot.com/

The Ethics Class Blog -- http://bloggnu1230.blogspot.com/

How to set up a blog at blogger.com –
http://weblogs.about.com/cs/blogcreatetools/ht/blogger.htm

The Advanced Reporting Syllabus

2008-09-07T10:35:00.000-07:00

Advanced Reporting

Fall 2008

Dr. Michael Robertson

Office: Kalmanovitz 119

Phone: 666‑6250 (office); 510‑836‑4870 (home); robertson@usfca.edu

OFFICE HOURS: Monday, 3:30-5:30; Wednesday, 3:30-4:30.

BOOKS: Ken Metzler's Creative Interviewing. You will be expected to own and use an AP Stylebook.

You will be expected to read regularly, and preferably subscribe to, the San Francisco Chronicle. That said, I have arranged to have the Chronicle’s electronic facsimile edition available to the class online. You also will read the Foghorn and watch the news segments of USF-TV. Articles may be assigned from various magazines and books placed on reserve in the library.

ATTENDANCE: No work missed through unexcused absence may be made up. Only absences for which a signed excuse is obtained will be considered excused. The course will meet at other sites at least once during the semester. Make arrangements as soon as possible to have free the evening of Tuesday, October 7, for the Oakland City Council meeting.

If you have any physical or emotional handicap or other problems that will affect your attendance or performance, inform the instructor by the end of the first week of classes.

ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT: Any student found to have plagiarized or fabricated work will be given a failing grade for the semester.

LATE ASSIGNMENTS: Stories will be accepted after deadline. However, such stories will not receive full credit unless accompanied by a medical excuse. Stories a day late will be penalized 2/3rds of a letter grade. Each subsequent day's lateness will result in a penalty of 1/3rd of a letter grade. In other words, a "B" paper turned in two days late would be lowered to a "C" grade. A story that is never turned in will be given a zero and averaged into your final grade on the basis of A/95, B/85, C/75, D/65 and F/55.

BEAT REPORTS: Starting the third week of the semester, students will be responsible for turning in a weekly beat report in addition to the assigned beat stories. The quality and consistency of those beat reports and of the final beat summary will count for 15 percent of the final grade.

*EXTRA CREDIT*: Stories printed in campus or other publications will be considered at grade time. Those stories may be assignments done for the class or other work. To obtain extra credit consideration, you must turn in a portfolio containing your published work for the semester by exam day.

BLOGS: Most of you created blogs when you had me for previous classes, so you have a head start. Every Monday you are responsible for posting on your blog a journalism-related question, statement or observation. Every class member will then vote by email in support of which question, statement or observation she/he finds most compelling. By the following Monday, every class member other than the winner of the vote will comment on that Q/S/O. Extra credit will be given to those students who do more posting on their blogs than this minimum – if it’s good work.

MULTIMEDIA: The “big story” must have a multimedia element. Any of you stories may have such an element, which means extra credit. Such work is not the focus of this class. However, I *urge* anyone in this class who is seriously interested in journalism to take the New Media course taught by David Silver and the Video Reporting course taught by Vicky Nguyen and Toan Lam, both of which will be taught next spring.

GRADES:

This grade is for work of clearly professional caliber. Writing is clear and concise with only minor editing required. Reporting is complete and leaves no questions unanswered. The work is turned in on or before deadline.

This grade is for work that could be raised to professional quality without major editing. Writing is basically grammatical and requires only routine changes but lacks the sparkle of A work. The reporting manages to focus on the main ideas of the story -- but may have a few organizational problems and a misplaced emphasis. Work is in by deadline.

This grade is for work that does not measure up to professional standards but could be salvaged through rewriting. Work could not be used professionally without being returned to the reporter -- or assigned to another reporter! Writing has obvious rough spots. Grammatical errors are present. Reporting leaves questions unanswered. Work is usually done by deadline -- but is occasionally late.

This grade is for work that is clearly unacceptable in a professional setting. The writing is confused and ungrammatical. The reporting is weak and often misses the point entirely. The work is often late.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week One: September 3

What is news? The nature of news and newswriting. Why you are here. The assignment for the first week is to produce a back-to-school story, which will be due next Monday. It must be 250-300 words. You may choose to submit a longer version. But if it is longer, it must be accompanied by an edited version of 250-300 words.

Week Two: September 8

Covering a beat. What a beat is and how it works. What makes news on a beat? Writing on deadline. How you can get it done by the time it's supposed to be done. The why's behind getting it done on time. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Nanette Asimov will be in class on Wednesday to describe her work as a beat reporter. Read chapters 13 & 15 in Metzler.

Due Monday 9/8: Back-to-school story.

New assignment: You will be given a campus beat. For Monday in two pages, explain why the beat is important enough to warrant coverage. Include who you anticipate will be your primary sources and the kinds of stories you believe will come off that beat. For Wednesday: Your first beat story. Minimum length 250 words.

Week Three: September 15

Interviewing review. Review chapters 1-12 in Metzler.

Due Monday 9/15. Your beat description.

Due Wednesday 9/17. Your first beat story.

New assignment: For next Wednesday your second beat story. Minimum length 250 words.

Week Four: September 22

The meeting story. The basic outline of the meeting story. Prepare for coverage of a meeting of the Oakland City Council in two weeks. A consideration of “Civic Journalism,” its dangers and opportunities.

Due Wednesday 9/24. Your second beat story.

New assignment: For next Wednesday your third beat story. Minimum length 600 words.

Week Five: September 29

Required conference with instructor. Class will not meet Wednesday. Continue preparation for meeting of Oakland City Council.

Due Wednesday 10/1. Your third beat story.

New assignment: Tuesday October 7 we will leave USF at approximately 6 p.m. and travel to Oakland, where we will cover the weekly meeting of Oakland City Council. Class will not meet Wednesday, though I will be in the classroom available for discussion. A story covering the meeting is due Thursday 10/9 by 5 p.m.

Week Six: October 6

Tuesday evening lab, October 7. Please clear your schedule. We will attend an Oakland City Council Meeting 7:30 p.m.-? Story is due by 5 p.m. the following day. No Wednesday class.

Due Thursday 10/9. Your meeting story.

Week Seven: October 13

The business story. The basics of business. Net and gross. Reading business reports. What makes a business story. Reading the business newspapers. What stocks and bonds are. Where PR and journalism meet.

Due: Nothing.

Week Eight: October 20

The final project, a 2,000-2,500 word story on a topic of campus interest derived from your beat. Read chapters 16 & 17 in Metzler. The final project is due Friday, November xx, by 5 p.m.

Due Friday 10/24. Your business story. No minimum length.

Week Nine: October 27

Using the AP Stylebook.

Due Wednesday 10/29. Proposal for your final project.

New Assignment: For next Wednesday, your fourth beat story. Minimum length 250 words.

Week Ten: November 3

AP style test on Monday. Required conference with instructor. At those conferences you will turn in your project proposal for your Big Story, which is due Friday 12/15. Class will not meet on Wednesday.

Due Wednesday 11/5. Your fourth beat story.

Week Eleven: November 10

The science story.

Due: Nothing

New assignment: For next Friday, your science story. No minimum length.

Week Twelve: November 17

Resume preparation. Job hunting skills and what an employer looks for. Ideas about hunting for jobs.

Due Friday 11/21. Your science story.

Week Thirteen: November 24

Working on final projects.

Due: Nothing

Reminder: Big story is due Friday, 12/5. Minimum length 2,000 words.

Week Fourteen: December 1

Feature writing. The anniversary story. No minimum length. Writing in class for practice and a grade.

Due Friday 12/5. The Big Story.

New assignment: The anniversary story is due Friday, 12/12.

Week Fifteen: December 8

Last things.

Due Friday 12/12. The anniversary story.

Final assignments: Fifth beat story and the final beat summary, a description of sources that would be useful to the next person assigned the beat, are due Friday, 12/19.

The Speaker's Secret

2008-04-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

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2008-02-25T18:54:00.000-08:00

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Reporting Syllabus S2008

2008-02-24T18:55:00.000-08:00

REPORTING

0166-223

Spring 2008

Class meets Mondays in Cowell 324 and Wednesdays in Cowell 225

Dr. Michael Robertson

Office: 502 University Center

Phone: 422-6250 (office); 510-836-4870 (home)

Email: robertson@usfca.edu

Office Hours:

Monday & Wednesday 330p-430p. If you need to see me, don't hesitate to ask for a time convenient for you.

Required Texts:

“Writing and Reporting News,” Carole Rich. Associated Press, “Stylebook”

Required Reading:

Read all assignments before the due date. Consult stylebook as needed. Regularly read at least one newspaper for local and national news. Read the Foghorn for campus news. Read at least one website that you consider a reliable news source. Be alert for stories in any of these sources that illustrate excellence – or mediocrity – in writing, reporting or news judgment. Bring examples to class for credit. Be prepared to present to the class concerning what you like or dislike.

Quizzes:

News quizzes may be given without prior notice. Points earned will be averaged into the grade for the course. Unscheduled quizzes concerning assigned reading, style, copy format, copy editing symbols, newsroom jargon and like may be given sporadically during the term.

Your Personal Blog:

Each student is responsible for creating a personal blog on which you will post in accordance with class assignments. (See handout for additional details.) Several websites provide free space for blogging. Blogger.com is a popular one.

Late Assignments:

You do not need to ask my permission to turn in an out‑of‑class assignment after deadline. However, unless you have a medical excuse, you will be penalized for turning in a late story. Your mark will be lowered 2/3rds of a letter grade for each day of lateness. For example, a "B-minus" story turned in two days late would be reduced to a "C" grade. If you miss an assignment because of illness, it is your responsibility to present me with an acceptable medical excuse, find an alternative assignment and clear it with me.

Attendance:

Regular class attendance is also expected. Two unexcused absences are allowed, but in‑class work missed through absence may not be made up although it may be excused. If you miss class for any reason, it is YOUR responsibility to find out what future class assignments are. If in-class writing for a grade is announced ahead of time and you miss class without a medical excuse, you will be penalized. Excused assignments will not be averaged into your grade; unexcused assignments will be -- as a zero. Excessive absences will factor into the class participation portion of your grade.

Reminder:

Under the current policies of the Media Studies Department, a student will not get credit in the major for any course in which he or she receives a grade of less than C; that is, a grade of C-minus or lower means you must retake the course. Last semester the average grade in this class was B. Usually the average is B-minus.

Academic misconduct:

Instances of source fabrication or plagiarism will result in the most severe sanctions possible.

Deadlines:

If you have any handicap or any other physical, emotional or personal problem that will interfere with your performance, you should discuss it with the professor by the end of the first week of the course or as soon as the problem arises. Every effort will be made to accommodate legitimate problems if they are discussed in a timely fashion. Some chronic problems may receive a sympathetic hearing but result in no adjustment to expectations for performance. A semester's-end revelation of personal problems will not improve your grade.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completing this course, a student should be able:

1. To write clear, brief, accurate news stories using correct grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax.

2. To explain the decision‑making process for making news judgments.

3. To apply news judgment to sets of facts and synthesize those facts into effective, concise leads and coherent, logically organized news stories.

4. To know when information must be attributed to a source to avoid editorializing and how to handle attribution smoothly in a story.

5. To understand the general sources for news (observation, interview, written reports), the necessity of skepticism in dealing with these sources; to master the process of verifying information; to exhibit that understanding in your stories. You will supply me with a mailing address and/or telephone number and/or email address for each person quoted in your stories. At least once during the semester, I will send a copy of your story to those used as sources to get their judgment of your accuracy and professionalism.

6. To use basic AP style rules in the stories written.

7. To prepare copy so that it is clean and conforms to standard copy preparation rules. (For instance, always double space.)

8. To create and maintain a personal blog.

Grades:

Your final grade will be determined by the average of in‑class writing, out‑of‑class writing, and final exam (70 percent); class participation (10 percent); quizzes (10 percent); blog (10 percent). Additional credit MAY be given for work done for the news side of the Foghorn, and less credit will be given for reviews and op-ed pieces.

A Student: Has either a gift for writing or works very hard at clean, clear and concise prose. Has grammar and stylistic skills resulting in copy that requires little editing. Misses no deadlines and completes all assignments. Participates in class discussions but does not dominate those discussions or divert them from the subject at hand. By the course's end, this student could perform the basic newsroom functions (see goals) for a moderate size daily newspaper with no supervision. Your basic star cub reporter with an understanding of what news is and what it takes to get it. A=100-95.

B Student: Writes basically correct English with flashes of style. May have some grammar and syntax problems, but problems can be corrected without major editing. May blow a few assignments but is basically a contributing member of the class. By the course's end, this student could perform basic newsroom functions without close supervision. Your basic bright journalism student who is still learning. Has some idea of what news is and thinks he or she knows how to get at it. B= 94-85.

C Student: Has problems with the English language that appear to be correctable with effort by both student and teacher in future courses. May have problems with accuracy and attention to detail. May have problems under deadline pressure. Able to perform basic newsroom functions if closely supervised. May think he or she deserves a B because he or she "tried." C=84-75.

D Student: Has problems with the language that may not be correctable -- ever. Has basic grammar and syntax errors still appearing in assignments at course's end. Could not perform basic newsroom functions. Does severe damage to the English language. I will give people who "try" a D. If they don't, I will fail them. D=74-65.

You may turn work in by email or by hard copy. In either case, it is your responsibility to have a second copy of the story in your possession until I return the graded original.

Week One: January 23

Objective: An introduction to the reporter’s job. Test your news nose.

Out of Class: Read Rich 1-42. Write: a "news" story about USF that would be appropriate for the Foghorn (1). You will decide what an appropriate length is. Remember: I want facts from sources, not your opinions, though having an opinion may be the reason you pursue the story. You may discover your opinion is contradicted by what you discover as you report. The story is due in class Monday.

Week Two: January 28

Objective: Writing leads.

In Class: Write leads for practice and a grade.

Out of Class: Read Rich pages 46-61, 152-185. In your favorite news sources, find three good leads. For Wednesday, write a brief explanation of why you like those leads. Bring to class and turn in. Also for Wednesday, write the first 50 words of a news story based on the information given in Exercise 1 in Rich and do Exercise 5 in Rich, pages 43-45. For next Monday, do Exercises 8 and 12 in Rich, pages 60-61.

Week Three: February 4

Objective: Listening and note-taking.

In Class: Press conference; write story in class (2).

Out of Class: Read Rich, pages 121-147. For Wednesday, do Exercises 1 and 2, Rich, pages 147-148. Check out speeches that will be given on campus next week and no later than Friday email me your recommendations about which the class should attend.

Friday, February 8, is Census Date, the last day to drop classes with a refund.

Week Four: February 11

Objectives: Making it right, verification

Style, attribution, finding facts

In Class: Exercises

Out of Class: Read Rich 107-119, 363-377. Speech story. Do a background paragraph concerning the speaker and the topic for the speech story (3) and turn it in before we cover the speech. You will be responsible for arranging to be free to cover that speech. It probably will be an evening assignment due the next morning.

Week Five: February 18 (No class on Monday)

Objectives: Observation and note-taking for the speech story. Correct attribution.

In class: Writing for a grade (4) from materials I will give you.

Out of class: Rich 309-322.

Week Six: February 25

Objectives: Short personality profile. You will interview someone on this campus about his or her “war” experiences. No relatives or hometown friends.

In Class: Practicing interviewing techniques. How to write about people. Proposals for the “war” profile are due Monday, accompanied by a rationale explaining why Foghorn readers would be interested in this person, plus the first five questions you will ask her/him.

Out of Class: Read Rich 253-273. Arrange an interview time with your profile subject.

Week Seven: March 3

Objective: Midterm Evaluation

Conferences with teacher.

Out of class: Profile (5) due by 5 p.m. March 7.

Week Eight: March 10

Objective: Cover meeting, probably student senate.

In Class: Review agenda of assigned meeting

Out of Class: Cover student government meeting. The story (6) will be due 24 hours later.

Spring Recess

Nine: March 24

Objectives: Creating the project memo. Organizing the multiple-source story. Some tips on investigative reporting.

In Class: Project organization and time management. Idea development. Telling a story.

Out of Class: Rich 507-521. Project memo due in class March 26.

Week Ten: March 31

Objectives: Police beat stories. Discuss progress on project

In Class: How to cover the police beat.

Out of Class: Read Rich 401-427 and begin interviews for project

story. Do a USF crime story (7).

Week Eleven: April 7 (Last day to drop class without penalty)

Objectives: Work on multiple-source story; the art of the feature story

In Class: Consult on multiple-source story; practice feature techniques.

Out of Class: Work on multiple-source story.

Week Twelve: April 14

Objective: Finish multiple-source story

In Class: Consult on multiple source stories.

Out of Class: Multiple-source story (7) 1500-2500 words in length due at end of class April 23.

Week Thirteen: April 21

Objectives: Beats. Between editor and reporter

In Class: You will do a “beat” story based on contacts you make or leads you develop during reporting for your multiple-source story. The art of being edited.

Out of Class: Begin work on your beat story (8), which is due April 28.

Week Fourteen: April 28

Objectives: Newsroom survival. Working your beat.

In Class: How to get through the first six months. Office

politics. Either write a story (9) in class from assigned materials or out of class from in-class speaker.

Out of Class: Read Rich 485-500.

Week Fifteen: May 5

Objectives: Final Evaluation

There will be a final exam.

Feature Writing Syllabus Spring 2008

2008-01-26T22:02:00.000-08:00

Feature/Magazine Writing

Spring 2008

Dr. Michael Robertson

Office: 502 University Center

Phone: 666-6250 (office); 510-836-4870 (home); robertson@usfca.edu

Office hours: Monday and Wednesday, 330p-430p. If you need to see me, don't hesitate to ask for a time convenient for you.

Required texts: “The Art and Craft of Feature Writing” by William Blundell; “The Journalist and the Murderer” by Janet Malcolm

Additional reading: Pick a source of what you consider to be first-rate feature/magazine pieces, and read it on a regular basis. Bring outstanding examples to class to share.

Statement of purpose: The emphasis in this course is writing entertaining non-fiction stories that might appear in a newspaper, magazine or on the Web. Some of you are already familiar with the standard newspaper story in which the key facts are crammed into the first 50 words, the style is drab and the justification for the story’s existence is the notion that in some way the information it contains is vital to the community. Feature/magazine stories move toward the other end of the spectrum. The information they contain can be anecdotal, even trivial. The style in which they are written is sometimes so lively that it becomes as important as their content in drawing readers. Such stories often have a strong point of view in that the writer does not strive for “objectivity” – or its appearance – but makes clear directly or indirectly that he or she is giving his or her very personal opinion of the facts or events described.

Of course, as I said earlier, I am describing a spectrum or continuum. On the front page of newspapers, you will often find “news features” in which story-telling elements are used to dramatize or get behind the hard facts. Indeed, some magazine/feature stories bring to life issues of the utmost importance, and in that way they may seem more serious than the dry stories that surround them. Thus, grappling with the shades of difference between the kinds of stories we are going to write in this course is challenging, and we could spend a good deal of time engaging with that problem. We are not going to spend a great deal of time doing so – though we will talk about it just as much as you like. The point of this course is writing, not theorizing. Suffice it to say that I am going to push you to write stories that are as well-structured as possible – I’m looking for a beginning, a middle and an end – and are as well written as possible, by which I mean the shape of each sentence and the choice of each word will manifest considerable re-writing and re-thinking.

Let me point out an irony here. My emphasis on entertainment does not mean reporting becomes less important. This is not a fiction class. I expect to be able to send each of these stories to the people quoted or described therein and have those subjects confirm that all the quotes and events described are accurate and also that you have not ignored key information needed to provide context. You can’t write an entertaining profile of someone unless you spend time with him or her finding the raw material out of which the “art” can be created.

We will concentrate on one particular type of story during this semester. That is the profile, a fact‑based article about people -- their surroundings and how they live in them, how they behave and what they say – that reads like a good short story. Certainly many kinds of feature stories exist, from the news story with a dash of human interest grafted onto it to the trend story to the review of the performance to the fashion or travel story that often reads as if it were an unpaid advertisement for a business whose paid advertisement appears elsewhere in the newspaper or magazine. We are going to do some of those stories, but we will concentrate on the tools of narrative and characterization and how they are used in the construction of the full‑length profile of one person. Narrative and characterization will enhance many types of story, but they are the backbone of the full‑length profile, in which (I argue) journalism comes closest to art. Producing such an "artful" profile is the ultimate goal of this course. By art, however, I do not mean irrelevance. One of the most effective methods of getting at the great issues of our time is by focusing on a single individual. Sometimes such people have chosen to be at the heart of such an issue. Perhaps ironically, whenever any person's life is examined in considerable detail, that life tends to assume universal significance. The challenge to the writer is honoring the facts even as you shape them, for you will discover they can assume more than one shape.

Regard this class as a workshop. You can't learn to write well by talking about it. Talking about writing is fun. Writing itself is hard. That is why good talkers are not always good writers. (There is a school of thought that good talkers are seldom good writers. We shall see.) It may be helpful for you to think of this class as a magazine or newspaper feature section – I am the editor, and you are my stable of talented but high-strung writers. I will make some allowance for real-life problems with deadlines. I will gladly meet with you during office hours to discuss such writing/reporting problems. It is preferable to thrash out such matters in advance rather than turning in an article that doesn’t work. In the real world of a-dollar-per-word (if you’re lucky), editors hate being surprised.

The further we go into the semester, the more your grades will count. Final grades will be determined by progress and by class participation. The final project will count at least a third of your grade. All assignments must be typed double-spaced with generous margins, so I can write in those margins. Serious errors in grammar or spelling will result in a lower grade. Always keep a copy of your story just as you would when submitting a story to a real magazine or newspaper. Student writing will sometimes be read aloud and discussed in class, but no grades will be revealed.

A final word about what this course is not. It is not about writing poetry, children's stories, fiction, recipes, diaries or speculative fiction. All these things appear in some magazines and alternative newspapers, all are important to some readers, and all, from time to time, may be produced by magazine writers and newspaper writers for their own pleasure or profit. But this course centers on basic magazine and newspaper feature journalism, with an emphasis on writing about people and their impact on other people. This course is about the kind of craftsmanship that takes truth and makes it better than truth -‑ but never less.

Your Blog: It seems clear that the rise of the high-speed Internet connection, in combination with the growing power of the personal computer and the greater affordability of all sorts of software for manipulating sound and image, is making it possible for individuals to tell stories in ways that were unimaginable when I began to teach at USF 17 years ago. I certainly didn’t imagine them, anyway. It’s the dawn of a new age of what some call digital storytelling, a genre in which text, audio and video can be amalgamated so easily and inexpensively – and accessed so readily – that audiences may come to expect it and talented storytellers will be drawn to it.

In this course, we will take a couple very small steps toward that sort of “value-added” journalism. If you do not have a blog, create one. I use blogger.com. During the semester, I will require you to post some behind-the-scenes insights about the stories you are doing. That may be the most elementary way in which the Internet benefits the non-fiction writer. It enhances credibility by allowing readers easy access to the process of producing the story, allowing readers to understand, for example, exactly why the writer is so confident in writing about something that he or she did not see. (How many sources – witnesses, documents, etc. – were consulted? How many tough questions were asked?) You will post something every week.

Also, you will record a portion of at least two interviews and post them as online videos. You will take photographs for each of your stories and post them. You will do an audio slideshow for at least one story. If any of you are taking or have taken video production, we will … talk. The focus in this course will remain words on the page. That won’t change. But neither will we ignore what the future may require of word-loving journalists who are open to the possibility of enriching the ways in which they create non-fiction narrative.

GRADING GUIDELINES FOR THIS COURSE

A Exceptionally well‑written, arresting, probing. Well organized. Effective use of quotes, observation, anecdotes, based upon thorough research. Publishable. (Stories are never late.)

B Only a few problems of style and organization. Clear, cohesive, well‑researched. Interesting, but in need of an edit and/or additional material to merit publication. (Perhaps one story is late during the semester.)

C Superficial. Rewrite required to better organize and emphasize significant elements. Details important to the story are missing. Annoying spelling and/or grammatical problems. (Several stories are late during the semester.)

D Factual but ineffectual. Further reporting, interviewing and research necessary before a successful rewrite can be undertaken. Serious problems in style, spelling, grammar, coherence and quality of research. (Stories are usually late.)

F So incomplete, confusing and/or erroneous that it could not be published under any circumstances (except for a brand‑new start, presumably by another writer). Willful and contrary disregard for the assignment. (Some stories are never turned in!)

Semester Schedule

January 23/Week One: Introduction to the course/Interviewing/Focusing your idea.

Assignment: A story of at least 500 words based on an interview with an immigrant or alien (preferably a refugee) who has been in the country no more than two years. Most of the story will reflect your interview with your subject, but I want two additional sources: a secondary written source and a brief comment from a USF professor or staff member who has expertise that is relevant to the experience of your immigrant. Such information is good preparation for asking the tough questions in an interview. Such supplementary information is particularly useful if you think you have been told something that is not true. Read Blundell, Chapter 1.

January 28/Week Two: Physical description/Generating ideas

Assignment due Friday, February 1: The Stranger (1)

New assignment: Catch a live performance (a waiter, a chef, a teacher, a departmental secretary, a traffic cop, a demonstrator, a street preacher, a panhandler, an attractive girl or boy primping or exercising or eating their soup). Write a 250‑word scene in which you describe in precise and evocative language that individual performance. (By performance, I mean only an individual's visible behavior in a situation in which an audience of some kind is present.) Consider this piece as an element that might appear in a larger story, though it should stand on its own. This is not a review. Read Blundell, Chapter 2.

February 4/Week Three: Arts writing/The review

Assignment due on Wednesday: The Performance (2).

New assignment: Review a restaurant. Read Blundell, Chapter 3.

February 11/Week Four: Marketing your story

Assignment due on Wednesday: The Review (3).

New Assignment: A list of possible subjects for your final story, which will be an “issues” profile. Read Blundell, Chapter 4.

February 18/Week Five: (Monday is a holiday) Jon Franklin and his theory of writing for story.

Assignment due on Wednesday: A list of possible profile subjects with reasons why.

New assignment: Pick a newspaper or magazine – or website -- as the intended market for your final profile. (You can change your mind later. This is only an exercise.) Write an analysis of at least 500 words on how you will need to position your profile so that it will serve what appears to be this publication's particular approach to life. Write your analysis in a style and tone suitable for that market. Read Blundell, Chapter 5.

February 25/Week Six: The trend story.

Assignment due on Wednesday: The Market Analysis (4).

New assignment: A trend story of at least 500 words. Read Janet Malcolm’s “The Journalist and the Murderer”

March 3/Week Seven: Discuss “The Journalist and the Murderer,” by Janet Malcolm.

Assignment due on Friday: Trend Story (5).

New assignment: Begin work on final profile. A story of at least 350 words describing your first contact with a prospective subject for your 2,000-4,000-word “issues” profile.

March 10/Week Eight: Final profile/working with an editor. The Travel Story.

Assignment due on Friday: First Contact (6).

New assignment: Read Blundell, Chapter 6. A travel story of at least 600 words based on a “destination” in the Bay Area

Spring Recess

March 24/Week Nine: Libel and ethics.

Assignment due on Friday: Travel Story (7).

New Assignment: Read Blundell, Chapter 7.

March 31/Week Ten: Up Close and Personal

New assignment: We will interview someone during class. You will write a sketch of at least 350 words of that person based on the in-class interview. Read Blundell, Chapter 8.

April 7/Week Eleven: Showing what you mean. (Last day to drop classes without penalty)

Assignment due on Monday: Up Close and Personal (8).

New assignment: You will interview someone in the death business (a hospice worker, an emergency room nurse or physician, an ambulance medic, a morgue attendant, a pathologist in the coroner's office, a suicide survivor, a suicide counselor, a member of the armed forces who informs survivors of the death of a family member, a friend or acquaintance who has lost a loved one). Write a story of at least 600 words, part of which recreates a moment in your subject's life. You must work at drawing out details of something you have no way of directly confirming.

April 14/Week Twelve: Showing what you mean.

Assignment due on Wednesday: Death Story (9)

New assignment: A working outline of your profile, plus a scene from your profile that can stand by itself.

April 21/Week Thirteen: Revising and revisiting.

Assignment due on Friday: An outline of your profile; a scene from your profile (10).

New Assignment: A draft of your introduction and your conclusion.

April 28/Week Fourteen: Revising and revisiting.

Assignment due on Friday: A draft of your introduction and your conclusion (11).

May 5/Week Fifteen: ‑30‑

Assignment due on Monday, May 12: The profile (12).

There will be no final exam.

Linking to Stories

2007-10-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

What a clever headline.

Not!

Reporting Syllabus

2007-10-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

Fall 2007

Class meets Mondays in Cowell 323 and Wednesdays in Cowell 225

Dr. Michael Robertson

Office: 502 University Center

Phone: 422-6250 (office); 510-836-4870 (home)

Email: robertson@usfca.edu

Office Hours:

Monday & Wednesday 330p-430p. If you need to see me, don't hesitate to ask for a time convenient for you.

Required Texts:

“Writing and Reporting News,” Carole Rich. Associated Press, “Stylebook”

Required Reading:

Quizzes:

Your Personal Blog:

Late Assignments:

You do not need to ask my permission to turn in an out‑of‑class assignment after deadline. However, unless you have a medical excuse, you will be penalized for turning in a late story. Your mark will be lowered a letter grade for each day of lateness. For example, a "B" story turned in two days late would be reduced to a "D" grade. If you miss an assignment because of illness, it is your responsibility to present me with an acceptable medical excuse, find an alternative assignment and clear it with me.

Attendance:

Regular class attendance is also expected. Two unexcused absences are allowed, but in‑class work missed through absence may not be made up although it may be excused. If you miss class for any reason, it is YOUR responsibility to find out what future class assignments are. Excused assignments will not be averaged into your grade; unexcused assignments will be -- as a zero. Excessive absences will factor into the class participation portion of your grade.

Reminder:

Academic misconduct:

Instances of source fabrication or plagiarism will result in the most severe sanctions possible.

Deadlines:

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completing this course, a student should be able:

1. To write clear, brief, accurate news stories using correct grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax.

2. To explain the decision‑making process for making news judgments.

3. To apply news judgment to sets of facts and synthesize those facts into effective, concise leads and coherent, logically organized news stories.

4. To know when information must be attributed to a source to avoid editorializing and how to handle attribution smoothly in a story.

6. To use basic AP style rules in the stories written.

7. To prepare copy so that it is clean and conforms to standard copy preparation rules. (For instance, always double space.)

8. To create and maintain a personal blog.

Grades:

You may turn work in by email or by hard copy. In either case, it is your responsibility to have a second copy of the story in your possession until I return the graded original.

Week One: August 27

Objective: An introduction to the reporter’s job. Test your news nose.

Out of Class: Read Rich 1-42. Write: a 300-word "news" story about USF that would be appropriate for the Foghorn (1). Remember: I want facts from sources, not your opinions. The story is due in class Wednesday. For the following Wednesday, write the first 50 words of a news story based on the information given in Exercise 1 and do Exercise 5 in Rich, pages 43-45.

Week Two: September 3 (No Monday class)

Objective: Writing leads.

In Class: Write leads for practice and a grade.

Week Three: September 10

Objective: Listening and note-taking.

In Class: Press conference; write story (2).

Friday, September 14, is Census Date, the last day to drop classes with a refund.

Week Four: September 17

Objectives: Making it right, verification

Style, attribution, finding facts

In Class: Exercises

Week Five: September 24

Objectives: Observation and note-taking for the speech story. Correct attribution.

In class: Writing for a grade (4) from materials I will give you.

Out of class: Rich 309-322.

Week Six: October 1

Objectives: Short personality profile. You will interview someone on this campus about his or her “war” experiences. No relatives or hometown friends.

In Class: Practicing interviewing techniques. How to write about people. Proposals for the “war” profile are due Wednesday, accompanied by a rationale explaining why Foghorn readers would be interested in this person, plus the first five questions you will ask her/him.

Out of Class: Read Rich 253-273. Arrange an interview time with your profile subject.

Week Seven: October 8

Objective: Midterm Evaluation

Conferences with teacher.

Out of class: Profiles (5) due by 5 p.m. October 10.

Week Eight: October 15

Objective: Cover meeting, probably student senate.

In Class: Review agenda of assigned meeting

Out of Class: Cover meeting. The story (6) will be due 24 hours later.

Nine: October 22

Objectives: Creating the project memo. Organizing the multiple-source story. Some tips on investigative reporting.

In Class: Project organization and time management. Idea development. Telling a story.

Out of Class: Rich 507-521. Project memo due in class October 24.

Week Ten: October 29

Objectives: Police beat stories. Discuss progress on project

In Class: How to cover the police beat.

Out of Class: Read Rich 401-427 and begin interviews for project

story. Do a USF crime story (7).

Week Eleven: November 5

Objectives: Work on multiple-source story; the art of the feature story

In Class: Consult on multiple-source story; practice feature techniques.

Out of Class: Work on multiple-source story.

Week Twelve: November 12

Objective: Finish multiple-source story

In Class: Consult on multiple source stories.

Out of Class: Multiple-source story (7) 1500-2000 words in length due at end of class November 19.

Week Thirteen: November 19

Objectives: Beats. Between editor and reporter

In Class: You will do a “beat” story based on the topic of your multiple-source story. The art of being edited.

Out of Class: Begin work on your first beat story (8), which is due November 28.

Week Fourteen: November 26

Objectives: Newsroom survival. Working your beat.

In Class: How to get through the first six months. Office

politics. Either write a story (9) in class from assigned materials or out of class from in-class speaker.

Out of Class: Read Rich 485-500.

Week Fifteen: December 3

Objectives: Final Evaluation

There will be a final exam.

The Ethics Syllabus F2007

2007-01-21T14:22:00.000-08:00

0166-420-01/American Journalism Ethics

Fall 2007

Dr. Michael Robertson

Office: 502 University Center

Phone: 422-6250 (office); 510-836-4870 (home)

Email: robertson@usfca.edu

Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday 3:30p-430p. If you need to see me, don't hesitate to ask for a time convenient for you. (Coffee in Crossroads is always pleasant.)

Course Description: American Journalism (4). Analysis of the ethical constraints and obligations of U.S. journalism and their grounding in the First Amendment. Current ethical and legal issues facing journalists. Development of systems and techniques for confronting ethical challenges. Offered once a year. American Journalism Ethics is the capstone course for the journalism minor. Students should take the course after the completion of Introduction to Media Studies, Journalism I, Journalism II and one 300-level journalism course.

Rationale: The First Amendment is the bedrock of American journalism ethics. Nothing is more compelling (I hope) than investigating its philosophical antecedents, particularly the way in which the philosophical, the political, the practical and the ideal intermingled to produce the constitutional right to a free press that some would argue guards all our other freedoms. Nothing is more vexing than a consideration of how that freedom, by its very nature, seems to produce ethical dilemmas, tangles, abuses and outrages that may threaten the continued existence of that section of the First Amendment that applies to the press. Much has changed since founders deemed a free press the guarantee of an informed and engaged electorate. Advances in technology, the rise of the so-called “objective” mainstream press, government control and suppression of information, media consolidation and the splintering of audiences have all changed the nature of news gathering and distribution. This class will examine the background of the First Amendment and the special protections it affords the news media, as well as the responsibilities implied by the powers granted the press. It will pay particular attention to the ethical problems that arise when journalists, sometimes consumed by the highest motives, find themselves tempted to do things that the law says they may do but which the community feels those journalists should not do. We shall also pay attention to those instances when journalists decide to break the law, going beyond the protections afforded by the First Amendment but acting in what they believe to be the spirit of the First Amendment. We will pay particular attention to the ethical tension between the ideals of fair and balanced journalism and the desire to use journalism as an instrument for social justice.

Texts: J. Herbert Altschull’s From Milton to McLuhan, The Ideas Behind American Journalism. Additional required reading is on electronic reserve at the library.

Additional Required Media. Subscribe to Romanesko’s Media News at www.poynter.org. Students are required to create a blog on which they will post at least once a week on issues of journalism ethics. Students will also be required to comment at least once at week on posts at the blog I have created for this ethics class. (More about your blogging responsibilities will be described in a separate handout.)

Class meets twice a week. Students should expect to put in an additional six to nine hours a week in outside reading, writing, research and consumption of required media.

Reminder: Under the current policies of the Media Studies Department, a student will not get credit in the major for any course in which he or she receives a grade of less than C; that is, a grade of C-minus or lower means you must retake the course.

Academic misconduct: Instances of source fabrication or plagiarism will result in the most severe sanctions possible.

Deadlines: If you have any handicap or any other physical, emotional or personal problem that will interfere with your performance, you should discuss it with the professor by the end of the first week of the course or as soon as the problem arises. Every effort will be made to accommodate legitimate problems if they are discussed in a timely fashion. Some chronic problems may receive a sympathetic hearing but result in no adjustment to expectations for performance. A semester's-end revelation of personal problems will not improve your grade

Attendance: Regular class attendance is also expected. Two unexcused absences are allowed, but in‑class work missed through absence may not be made up although it may be excused. If you miss class for any reason, it is YOUR responsibility to find out what future class assignments are. Excused assignments will not be averaged into your grade; unexcused assignments will be -- as a zero. Excessive absences will factor into the class participation portion of your grade.

Assignments: Weekly written reports are required on certain of the assigned readings. Three essays of 1,000 words are also required. The topics for those essays are currently posted at the class blog. Due dates are the 4th, 9^th and 12^th weeks of the semester. Each will draw on assigned reading, class discussion, interviews with at least two working journalists and whatever additional research you deem necessary. In the category of working journalists I include reporters, editors of all kinds, news directors, station managers, news anchors and so on. If you have any doubt if a potential source is appropriate, check with me beforehand. During those interviews, you may explore not only the specific actions of those news industry workers but also the broader ethical philosophies upon which they base their decisions.

A major paper of 2,500 words on a topic chosen in conjunction with the teacher will be due December 5. There will be a midterm. There will be no final exam.

Final grade: Essays, 30 percent; weekly reading reports, 15 percent; blogging and blog comments, 10 percent; midterm, 15 percent; class participation, 10 percent; final project, 20 percent.

Semester Schedule Fall 2007

Week One What good is this class? An introduction to the

8.27.2007 Potter Box. Assignment: For Wednesday present me with: 1) the exact words of the First Amendment, accompanied by; 2) a page giving your opinion of its most important ethical implications in regard to contemporary journalism

Week Two No Monday class. Finding your ethics. Assignment:

9.3.2007 You will have read Christians, et al., “Ethical Foundations and Principles” and prepared a Reading Response, which is due at class time on Wednesday. Topic for the first essay will be discussed. The essay will be due in two weeks.

Week Three What were the founders thinking and why? Assignment:

9.10.2007 You will have read Altschull, pages 1-29, and prepared a Reading Response, which is due at class time Monday.

Week Four Do the ends justify the means? The ethics of

9.17.2007 interviewing. Assignment: You will have read the

assigned essays but no Reading Response is required, although you will probably draw on those readings for citations in your First Essay, which is due at class time Wednesday.

Week Five The philosophical underpinnings of contemporary 9.24.2007 journalism ethics. Assignment: You will have read

Altschull, pages 33-64, and prepared a Reading Response,

which is due at class time Monday.

Week Six The philosophical underpinning of contemporary 10.01.2007 journalism ethics. Assignment: You will have read

Altschull, pages 101-135, 156-166, and prepared a Reading

Response, which is due at class time Monday.

Week Seven The rise of objectivity as the principal journalistic norm.

10.8.2007 Complicity in power: questioning objectivity. Assignment:

You will have read the assigned essays and prepared a Reading Response, which is due at class time Monday.

Week Eight Midterm. Discussion of second essay.

10.15.2007

Week Nine Privacy: “A journalist is always selling someone out.” –

10.22.2006 Joan Didion. When journalism becomes “nonfiction,” does it acquire the privileges – and the excuses – of art? Assignment: You will have read the assigned essays but no Reading Response is required. Second Essay is due Wednesday.

Week Ten When journalists bend the rules to do the job Going

10.29.2007 undercover: Do the ends ever justify the means? Assignment: You will have read the assigned essays and prepared a Reading Response, which is due at class time Monday. Discussion of the Third Essay, which is due in two weeks.

Week Eleven Photojournalism. Showing those things we should not

11.5.2007 show. Turning away from those things that should be seen. Assignment: You will have read the assigned essays and prepared a Reading Response, which is due at class time Monday.

Week Twelve National Security vs. the public’s right to know.

11.12.2007 The patriotic press. Prior restraint. The Freedom of Information Act, the Patriot Act and the government control of information. Assignment: You will have read the assigned essays, but no Reader Response is due. Third essay is due at class time Wednesday.

Week Thirteen Protecting sources. Advocacy journalism. Assignment:

11.19.2007 You will have read the assigned essays and prepared a Reading Response, which is due at class time Monday.

Week Fourteen Diversity in the newsroom and in news coverage. If “news

11.26.2007 is what happens to editors,” what happens when the editors don’t reflect the demographics of the community? Assignment: You will have read the assigned essays and prepared a Reading Response, which is due at class time Monday.

Week Fifteen Newsroom Codes of Ethics. The class builds its own.

12.3.2006 Assignment: You will have read the assigned Codes of

Ethics. For class time Wednesday you will have

prepared a brief essay describing the essence of your

own personal code of journalistic ethics, those rules

or guidelines or insights that you can draw upon when

you face what you think will be your own greatest

challenges as a working journalist. You will also post this

essay on your blog.

The term paper is due December 12. There will be no final exam.

3rd Essay for American Journalism Ethics: An Ethical Problem as Presented in a Movie About Journalism

2007-01-14T17:23:00.000-08:00

Beware of spending too much of your essay summarizing the plot of the movie. Just as in a movie review, the point of the essay is your judgment of certain events in the movie, not the mere retelling of those events.

Also, I do expect several sources other than the movie itself, those sources including:

• Movie reviews in newspapers and magazines. Though many movie reviewers did not train as journalists, they *are* journalists. (Of a sort. Separate discussion.) In any case, they tend to see themselves – justifiably -- as experts on journalism culture and journalism ethics. Thus, in their reviews they usually take the responsibility of evaluating not only the general accuracy of movies in which journalists play a part but also of the accuracy with which the filmmakers present the ethical realities of a journalist’s job. (By the way, if you locate a New York Times film review to which you are denied access, tell me and I will obtain it for you.)
• Scholarly books and articles on journalists in film, a few of which are available in our library.
• Articles and reviews posted on the web – but be careful to establish the source of such reviews and to footnote them properly.
• Conversations with Media Studies faculty members, with USF faculty members in general and with working journalists.

Of course, the heart of the essay remains your thoughtful analysis of the nature of the ethical problem and how your understanding of journalism ethics shapes your understanding of both the likelihood of the problem actually being encountered in the real world and of the merit of the solution to the problem as presented in the movie. (By the way: the Potter’s Box has limits as a tool for ethical analysis. Don’t be afraid to go beyond it.)

1st Essay for American Journalism Ethics

2007-01-14T15:29:00.000-08:00

Let us assume for the sake of argument that the more information consumers of news media have, the better choices they will be able to make in some area of their lives, beginning with the political but not necessarily ending there. The idea of utility will be our standard for what is newsworthy – for the sake of argument.

Let us further assume that you are a reporter working on a story that you think is, indeed, newsworthy. You believe reasons exist that make it desirable for people to get this information. That being the case, what – if any – are the ethical standards that govern how you go about that most basic of all journalist activities, the face-to-face interview?

I am not talking about granting anonymity to sources, a topic we will consider later in more detail. I am talking about all the ways in which one tries to get the subject talking and keep the subject talking, everything from the opening compliment, to the fake smile, to the mild flirtation, to that moment when Connie Chung “in an interview with Kathryn Gingrich, the mother of Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, urged her subject to whisper her son's comments about First Lady Hilary Clinton ‘just between us.’ The whisper was picked up by the microphone and used by Chung for broadcast.” (That quote is from the Museum of Broadcasting website.)

The list of techniques for “opening up” sources goes on and on, from laughing at dirty jokes to putting down your note pad and lowering your pencil, the implication being that what is about to be said, or was just said, is not part of the interview. (As a former student recently reminded me, I once told him to “keep two drinks behind” whomever he was interviewing, the implication being you should coax the person being interviewed into having a few drinks in the first place. I may have said something like that? How ethical would that be?)

Some guidelines: Part of this exercise consists simply of your making a good first choice, of selecting an interesting aspect of this problem to concentrate on, and also a manageable aspect since the suggested length of this paper is 1,000 words. Also, I don’t simply want just a “term paper” in which you only summarize the ideas of others. I can imagine a good essay that consists of your drawing on a half-dozen sources, pointing out conflicts or particular pertinent points and explaining in your own words why you embrace certain ideas and reject others. A possible approach might be to see what the books say on some point and then discussing with working journalists how useful the books are. (I think we are talking about “field ethics” here, what you actually do, not what you say you will do.)

2nd Essay for American Journalism Ethics: The Ethics of Going Undercover

2007-01-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

Find an instance of a reporter or reporters going undercover in pursuit of a news story that ended in controversy, that is, with legal action being taken against the reporter for deception or, at least, with a general outcry – by the public and/or by media ethicists -- concerning the appropriateness of the reporter(s) concealing identity.

Give the basic details of the incident, including (ideally): 1) the degree to which the news organization anticipated objections to the deception and the process by which they decided the deception would be justified; 2) the specific rules or codes or institutional practices they considered during that decision-making process; 3) the attack on their conduct and their defense of it; 4) the degree to which the news organization changed its rules or codes or institutional practices as a result of that attack; 5) the degree to which the public was served by the news story; 6) the degree to which the reporting of similar future stories is now more or less likely given the ethical conduct of the news organization.

I also want you to cite any rules, codes or guidelines concerning going undercover that you discover in the course of your reading that you find particularly valuable. Make sure you explain why you find them valuable. Either by citing the best of the rules and/or codes you find or by developing rules or codes of your own, end the essay with a statement of what you think “best practices” should be when it comes to going undercover. In other words, is it possible to create a clear and simple set of rules for going undercover that will resolve most of the ethical confusion around this issue most of the time?

Guidelines for Final Paper in American Journalism Ethics

2007-01-14T15:23:00.000-08:00

Your final paper should be a straightforward term paper, 2,000-4,000 words long with standard footnotes and bibliography.

A wide range of topics is acceptable. One might take a general issue like plagiarism, protecting sources, invading privacy, cleaning up quotes, maintaining good relations on a beat, accepting gifts, identifying the race or ethnicity of people in the news, sacrificing accuracy in the service of being first, treating New Age stories (pet psychics, astrology) seriously, refusing to treat New Age stories seriously, cooperating with authorities by suppressing information in war stories or crime stories or stories of “national interest.” One might choose to be extra provocative: Is it possible for television news to be ethical???

You might also tackle specific events – the Lindbergh kidnapping; the Janet Cooke fiasco; the run-up to the current Iraq war; famous undercover cases – and probe their ethical dimensions.

I would keep in mind some of the things we talked about when we were preparing for the class presentations. What are/the facts of the situation? What is/was the common ethical view of the situation by those most intimately involved in the situation? What is/was the common ethical view of the situation at the time by those outside the situation, the experts, the pundits, the public? To what degree do you think a more rigorous ethical analysis is needed? That is, once you have collected opinions about the ethical issue, what do you think, applying some of the techniques and ideas we have discussed during the semester. (This is, of course, a golden opportunity to talk about the strengths and the limitations of the Potter Box.)

Remember: To pass this paper, you must cite three journalists with whom you have been in contact – face-to-face, phone or email. They need not be currently employed as journalists, which means other journalism faculty are fair game.

You have my phone number and my email.

2006-05-13T23:32:00.000-07:00

Looking for Warren Goodbar

2005-08-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

By: James Foster

I stared at the cup of partially-clotted cow’s blood steaming in the brisk morning air, and asked myself aloud, “What am I doing here?” I had just spent the night in a dung hut sleeping on a bed of sticks with tick-ridden baby goats, brushing cockroaches away from my mouth and trying to breathe despite the open fire that was left burning inside our unventilated quarters throughout the evening. Now I wanted to drop that cup of blood in the dirt, smile, and unabashedly say, “Not a chance in hell.” But this isn’t America, this is Africa, and one doesn’t get offered a local delicacy by Masai warriors and simply decline; anyway, by this point villagers had gathered to watch the ceremonial quaffing and I’d never been one to disappoint.

The still-steaming sludge slid down my throat and my eyes began to water. I tried not to cringe, but the immediate aftertaste reminded me of being punched in the mouth and splitting a lip. The men offered me another glass, this time mixed with un-pasteurized milk, and I drank it down with the same false enthusiasm a freshman downs a double-shot of gin at a frat party. I waited for a moment to make sure I wasn’t going to throw up, then smiled with my pearly whites gloriously stained red. A strange rush of adrenaline surged through my capillaries; I felt like fiercely beating my chest and killing a lion with my bare hands. As my wild eyes looked out across the sprawling Kenya savannah, I asked myself again, “What am I doing here?” Surprisingly, I remembered my answer had something to do with Warren Hinckle.

I am currently unemployed, a plight which most aspiring writers (if not all) can relate to. But last September, if someone had told me I’d be slamming down cow’s blood, fending off Nairobi street kids high on glue, and cautiously dozing off to an ominous hyena lullaby in the wilds of Africa, the word ‘unfathomable’ would have immediately come to mind.

Entering into my last year of school, I still didn’t know what career I wanted to pursue. I loved writing, but was warned of its instability as a profession. I considered graduate school, or work in some other media sector, but with California’s economy falling flat on its face, I realized landing a decent job was going to require more than wearing my “nice” tie for an interview. I loaded my schedule with writing courses to sharpen my bygone skills, but one class in particular (Magazine Writing) entertained all my attention. It was here my professor, former San Francisco Chronicle journalist Michael Robertson, sensing my youthful naivete and mid-western optimism, challenged me: track down and profile once- renowned journalist Warren Hinckle. The challenge itself was clearly going to be difficult since none of Robertson’s previous students presented with the considerable task had even come close to snaring the dodgy reporter – but I was then 21, cocky, and confident.

Priority one was research; unfortunately, the only bone I was thrown was that he was a heavy drinker. So I read past profiles and interviewed countless foggy acquaintances from the 60’s, all the while trudging through the rivers of alcohol often associated with San Francisco’s ‘newspaper bars.’ What I eventually uncovered was that I was chasing a living legend of the written word, a pioneer of revolutionary journalism, famous for his contribution to the instigation and exposure of our country’s madness during the 1960’s; a man responsible for launching the Catholic quarterly Ramparts, as well as the demented and wildly successful career of Hunter S.Thompson.

What also became clear was that like other artists, Warren Hinckle ‘created’ himself. He wore an eye-patch, often donned a flowing velvet cape, had a Prince Valiant haircut and was rarely seen around town without his basset-hound in close toe. At 21, Hinckle ran for mayor; he befriended San Francisco’s pornography kings, the Mitchell brothers (one of whom shot the other to death incidentally); he kept a Simian monkey named Henry Luce in his office; he racked up bar tabs comparable to buying small countries; former mayor Diane Feinstein despised him so much she dumped a drink over his head. He was ‘the hard-nosed, eccentric, drunk, San Francisco journalist;’ that was who he created and who San Franciscans embraced, because only during a period like the 60’s in San Francisco, when significance often blurred with sketch comedy, could someone so incontrovertibly crazy, end up so recognized.

“This is Warren. I’m out of the office. Leave a message…click.” Repetition is the mother of memorization - I would know since I called the San Francisco Examiner for two weeks straight and heard that message every damn day. I also drank enough whiskey to drown Ireland and burned through a small fortune in cab fare trying to guess which local dive he was going to crash on any given evening – still nothing. After a month of investigative failure, I succumbed to the seedy underbelly of reporting and traded some undisclosed information involving an incident with the SFPD to one of Hinckle’s co-workers, political editor Frank Gallagher, in exchange for the elusive writer’s girlfriend’s unlisted telephone number.

When I finally reached him a week later, he agreed to speak with me on account of my considerable effort, and on the condition I would stop the incessant phone calls to his girlfriend’s house. Several ‘scheduling conflicts’ later, we met at Perry’s, a New York-style restaurant and bar which once held the undisputed title of the place to see and be seen for San Francisco’s players. Appearing out of the rain like some 18th century ghost, he was decked in worn, black-buckled Quaker shoes, vibrant blue stockings pulled up to his knees, weathered Bermuda shorts, a buttoned-down Polo shirt, a fur-collared trench coat, Prince Valiant haircut, and of course his famous eye-patch. Accompanying him was Doctor Donald Dossett (the same doctored rumored to have supplied Hunter Thompson with the cache of drugs he took to cover the desert rally car races referenced in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), whose shoulder-length renaissance-style ‘do seemed to compliment Hinckle’s pirate garb all too well. We shook hands and I tried to speak, but my ability to formulate a sentence inconveniently escaped me, as if my saliva had become some venomous toxin paralyzing the words anxiously waiting to slip off the tip of my tongue. Instead, Hinckle boisterously barked, “So you’re the kid who keeps leaving the harassing messages, huh? Well, let’s go in and get a drink. Don’t worry Doc, he’s harmless.”

I followed him in as he waddled up to the bar and immediately began to see the bizarre gravitational pull he possessed - the gravelly, grumbling snarl, the droopy eye, the uncut fingernails, the yellowish hue of his child-sized teeth, the unmistakable booze-breath; it was like meeting a famous actor who never changed out of character despite the director yelling “Cut!” Perry’s patrons were inexplicably drawn to him as well; they wanted his opinion on this, that, and the other - and all he wanted was a drink. But I soon saw why his popularity wasn’t based solely on either his ability to saturate himself with barrels of alcohol, his eclectic fashion sense or his tendencies to infuriate society’s authority figures - his ‘schmoozing’ skills were impeccable. He referred to people as “Darling!” and “Prince;” he kissed cheeks, shook hands, visited tables, complimented staff, and remembered everyone’s name who approached him. When we were finally alone at the bar, he leaned over to me and whispered, “Two things to remember: Never turn down a drink, and never forget a name. You’d be surprised how far that’ll carry you.”

The son of a shipyard worker, Warren Hinckle graduated from Riordan High School (a school for “felons and gangsters” as he put it) in the working-class Sunset District of San Francisco and was given a scholarship to attend the Jesuit University of San Francisco. Hinckle became editor of the school’s newspaper The Foghorn, and had a sixth-sense for finding the story and filling pages. And even when there wasn’t news, he created it (he burned down the school’s security guard shack just to write about it – blaming the crime on some unknown arsonist). To complement the outrageous image he began to develop while at USF, Warren Hinckle created his own rules journalistically and authoritatively, avoiding several attempts of expulsion by threatening to blackmail priests with stories he had uncovered of corruption and inappropriate behavior.

After graduating in the early 1960’s, he wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, then teamed up with shopping center millionaire Edward Keating to publish a Catholic journal they named Ramparts. But since leftwing publications in the 60’s were bleak accounts published on cheap paper, ignored by all but a sliver of intelligentsia, Ramparts got off to a slow start. It wasn’t long though before L.A. designer Dugald Stermer was brought in to give the journal the much-needed facelift to compliment the crack team of young reporters Hinckle had assembled.

Ramparts gained notoriety by exposing stories of such government malfeasances as the RAND think tank, the unlawful treatment of the Black Panthers, CIA assassinations, the Chicago riots, and segregation in the Catholic Church - they even printed excerpts from Che Guevara’s smuggled diary. The magazine’s impressive list of contributors, which included Martin Luther King Jr., Noam Chomsky, Kurt Vonnegut, and Hunter S. Thompson, also added to its notoriety (it was while on assignment for Hinckle at the Kentucky Derby that Thompson and Ralph Stedman spawned “Gonzo” journalism). Hinckle himself admittedly devolved into a throwback of “old European-style journalism” in which he tossed objectivity out the window and aggressively, if not unscrupulously, sought facts to sponsor his opinions. He got dirt from politicians about dirty politicians, knew every meddler who had a hand in the war, and exposed all our country’s tainted little secrets never meant to be uttered, on sprawling full-color pages.

When I asked him about what Ramparts was, and what it represented, Hinckle boasted, “We went out looking for stories that would fuck up the war, and there was no end to them. In America they pretend that objectivity is supposed to be your thing. We never pretended to be objective – all we said we were gonna do was back up our point of view with facts, and we aggressively went out and sought the facts”. He went on, “I started meeting all these goofy people at this Catholic magazine who were saying, ‘What? What? That’s really going on? Never learned that in school.’ But what you did learn in school was that authority fucks. And there are ways to combat it, and one of those ways is journalistically…”

Hours had passed, but I was oblivious; I sat contently drinking Johnny Walker Red, enjoying the stories of Warren Hinckle’s adventuresome glory days as one of San Francisco’s most-recognized journalists. He told me of his friendship with Hunter S. Thompson and the time his monkey, Henry Luce, after getting into Hunter’s backpack and eating a large quantity of drugs, went on a tear around his office for two straight days. He told me stories about the night of the Mitchell brother’s murder, exposing political sponsors of the Vietnam War, running for mayor, happy hours turned into three-day benders, making and missing deadlines, journalism politics, blackmail, partnerships forged and marriages lost – he told me about his life as a writer.

As the evening wore on, I began to ponder the significance of my own era versus his - the opportunity (or lack thereof) I was going to have to contribute something tangible to society during my lifetime as Warren Hinckle had. Yes, some might argue Warren Hinckle revolutionized journalism to a certain degree, but he had the benefit of doing so in the epicenter of the 60’s that was San Francisco – a place and time when the abundance of breaking stories, corrupt government officials, willing informants, and phials of acid all seemed to coincide. I, on the other hand had convinced myself that I was just another unfortunate victim reared in the capitalist-happy 80’s and 90’s, when conformity tyrannically ruled with an iron fist, and what qualified as ‘headline news’ was a presidential infidelity and some intern’s stained dress (as if it had never happened before). Writhing in self-pity, I’d envisioned a path wrought with normalcy. A life reduced to sitting in traffic wondering where my dreams, ambitions, and youth had gone.

So there I was, drinking scotch and grapefruit-vodkas with Warren Hinckle, teetering on the brink of graduation (and what seemed oblivion), scared to death about whether or not I had the talent, the marbles, or even the chance to actually pursue something I saw as worthwhile – a passion; a desire to write. I had heard every horror story about the fresh-out-of-college muckraker who ends up writing pamphlets about the benefits of aluminum siding in order to pay the electric bill. Was that to be my fate?

On one hand, further schooling and a stable job offered the comfort and security of a warm blanket, while the idea of life as a struggling writer offered the comfort associated with proctology. On the other hand, I knew writing was my principal aspiration; a love impossible to ignore. But what chance did I have of literarily making a mark like Hinckle had? The wild 60’s of San Francisco were gone, and they had taken their stories with them.

By the mid-70s, our country’s societal insanity showed signs of abating and Ramparts began to fade into obsoleteness. The war was coming to a close and people had exhausted themselves protesting “the issues.” Hinckle launched several follow-ups to Ramparts, but managed to skipper most of them onto the rocks thanks in part to his heavy drinking, disregard for deadlines, and poor money management. His reputation as San Francisco’s pseudo-18th century polemicist also began to fade. With the abundance of ‘headline-worthy’ stories he had grown accustomed to reporting about dwindling, his fact-backed opinions appeared unsubstantiated - rants people scarcely paid much attention to anymore. And though Warren Hinckle still writes for San Francisco’s Independent, his columns are shorter; more tangent than fact; more sketch comedy than significance.

By the end of our interview, I had heartburn and a roaring headache, but had also taken away some invaluable lessons. I learned that dreams, ambitions, and passions are attainable, but like anything in life they require hard work and determination to achieve – writing about aluminum siding may just be a necessary stepping stone to recognition. Warren Hinckle didn’t start at the top; he wrote for his school newspapers, moved on to the local press, and only received the appropriate dues when Ramparts was at its pinnacle, and even then his celebrity was somewhat short-lived.

Furthermore, I learned that if we never take a chance against what’s socially, culturally, or authoritatively acceptable, we’ll never realize our potential for greatness -and the impact we could have on society. The trade of comfort and security for something you’re passionate about it a fair one. Warren Hinckle never considered the impact of his writing when he was doing it, he just did it because the stories were there and he felt obligated to expose them for what they were. Writing was what he knew how to do and he ignored threats, combated sabotage, and uncovered the “issues” of his time with fervor yet to be equaled.

Finally, (and arguably the most relevant lesson learned in my case) news is what you make of it; there is always a story worth telling, you just have to get out there and find it. Through talking with Warren Hinckle, I realized its not general time periods or specific cities that ultimately define the content of our history, but instead, accounts of our experiences and the fashion in which they’re recorded.

With the taste of fresh blood still lingering in mouth, I left the Masai village and began the long journey back to my flat about an hour outside of Nairobi. I walked for a little over 7 miles through the bush, hitched a ride on a flatbed sand truck, then hopped in the back of a pick-up with 12 other villagers and their luggage. I sat next to an old Masai man in his traditional dress, complete with brilliantly-colored cloth, dazzling beads, and massively stretched ear lobes. He couldn’t have been a day under 80 years-old, and by the look and smell of him, had obviously spent the better portion of his morning drinking Kume Kume (an African homebrew so strong its consumption often results in blindness). Though his stench was beginning to wear on my overall well-being, I couldn’t help but be fascinated by him. This man, (despite his current incoherence) had probably seen and experienced more interesting moments in his life than most of us could ever imagine, and with his flamboyant clothes and unmistakable booze-breath, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Warren Hinckle.

These days, when people ask me why I went to Africa, I have a hard time giving them a straight answer. It’s not exactly easy explaining how a washed-up, old lush inspired you to move halfway across the globe, but then again, inspiration often comes from the unlikeliest sources. Sitting at a bar, drinking scotch with Warren Hinckle, I succumbed to the romance of insecurity and decided I was going to give the writer’s life a try. Sure, most San Franciscans would scoff at the idea of taking advice or seeking inspiration from a miscreant like Warren Hinckle, but I doubt few can argue the fact he lived one hell of an interesting life, and embraced the existence of a writer right down to the very last detail. So I guess that’s why I continue to spend time in Africa; to chase an ambition; to take a chance against a social norm; to culturally broaden my perspectives; to experience a different locale in our ever-changing world…to find a story, just as any good writer tries to do.

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