Unit Name: News Writing

Course Code: ADMI 201

Credit Hours:
Pre-requisites: None
Course Description
News Writing course introduces students to writing for the mass media. These forms include (1) news and
feature stories for print and broadcast (2) advertising and public relations copy and (3) screenwriting.
Assignments will introduce the fundamentals of reporting and newsgathering.

Methodology
Classes will be conducted with a combination of lectures, group discussions and real world projects; Case
Studies; In-Class Presentations,; Evaluation exercises based on course readings and guest speakers/coaches.
Additionally, students will review and provide feedback to their classmates work (peer review) as well as
document their own progress/reflection on the course using an ePortfolio.  

Teaching Resources
Goldstein, N. (2004). The Associated Press Style Book (Latest Edition). Cambridge, M.A. Persus Publishing
Kuehn, S. & Lingwall, A. (2017). The Basics of Media Writing.
Carole, R. (1999). Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method. (3rd Ed). Wadsworth Publishing

Other Free E-Resources:

Assessment: Course Practical- 40%; Continuous Assessment -  30%; Final Exam – Written - 30%

Grading Policy:
90 -100 A. Professional  80 - 89 B.Excellent          60 - 79 C+ Good
50 - 59 C. Fair                40 - 49 D. Poor               0 - 39 F. Fail

By the end of this course the learner should be able to:

1) Distinguish modes of media writing styles between radio, television news, print (newspapers, magazine and
Internet) journalism and advertising
2) Write for a diverse audience, using proper grammar and punctuation, word usage and spelling, sentence and
storytelling structures across multiple journalistic formats
3) Gather and analyze information, including basic numerical concepts, using journalistic storytelling
techniques, such as interviewing, observation, and researching primary and secondary sources.

Topic Sub topic Learning Outcomes

Introduction Audience
Centric After completing the lesson you should be able to:
Journalis
m
 Understand what makes today’s readers different from news consumers in prior
generations and how best to serve them based on those differences.
 Identify the tools you can use to define your audience and how each tool will
provide specific value for you as a reporter.
 Know and apply the interest elements that attract readers: fame, oddity, conflict,
immediacy and impact.
 Understand what we owe our audiences above all else, including accuracy, value,
fairness and objectivity as well as why these matter to both us and them.

Critical Thinking
After completing the lesson you should be able to:

 Understand the basic tenets of critical thinking and how they affect journalism.
 Enhance your reporting through stronger analysis of your approach to content
 gathering and news writing.
 Demonstrate proactive and reactive skills during the process of reporting.
 Use critical thought in analyzing content in terms of relevance and value to your
audience.

Basics of Learning
After completing the lesson you should be able to:

 Apply audience centricity to your understanding of news and focus on what

matters most to your readers.
 Write a lead for a news story based on the concept of the 5W’s and 1H.
 Identify and repair problematic leads, such as quote leads, question leads and
“held a meeting” leads.
 Apply the basics of the inverted-pyramid writing format to your stories.
 Understand the purpose of attributions, and apply them properly in terms of
structure, verbiage and placement.

Expanding News Writing

After completing the lesson you should be able to:

 Understand how to structure stories in an expanded inverted-pyramid format as

well as in other expansive writing approaches.
 Compare and contrast the elements of the inverted pyramid with those in
narrative writing and nonlinear storytelling.
 Understand and be able to construct a narrative opening and a nut graph.
 Use secondary senses, like feel and smell, to augment your storytelling approach.

Social Media
After completing the lesson you should be able to:

 Understand how best to reach your audience in a variety of ways through social
media.
 Understand the basic benefits, drawbacks and usage strategies associated with
social media.
 Become familiar with several social media tools that serve the various forms of
communication, including text, photos and videos.
 Outline key elements of successful blogging.

Interviewing
After completing the lesson you should be able to:

 Prepare for an interview by creating open-ended and closed-ended questions that

are based on the research you conducted.
 Be able to approach a source for an interview and then conduct it in a way that
creates a smooth flow of ideas between the source and you.
 Identify problematic questions and be able to restructure them to improve the
Basic Reporting News that
interaction with your source.
Find you
After completing the lesson you should be able to:

 Define and differentiate various types of events you could cover, such as
speeches and news conferences.
 Explain how to analyze an event for important news content and share that
information with your readers.
 Conduct research and locate human sources crucial to your reporting effort.
 Understand how to report for non-event-based stories, such as localizations,
crime and natural disasters.

Beyond Basic
Reporting: News After completing the lesson you should be able to:
You have to Find
 Find news features by opening up the aperture of your mind and learning to see
elements of everyday life as potential story ideas.
  Understand the basic elements of beat reporting as well as the types of beats you
could cover as a journalist.
 Engage in the basics of beat reporting through proper research, source
development and continual follow-up work.
 Understand the value of personality profiles as well as some best practices for
profile reporting.
 Apply the three interviewing phases of personality profiles.
 Understand the role of the watchdog as part of bigger investigative pieces.

Broadcast Style Writing

& Voicing After completing the lesson you should be able to:

 Construct a standard broadcast story, keeping in mind the impact of audio and
video on your storytelling.
 Define and differentiate among the types of broadcast stories and explain how
and when to use them.
 Apply strategies of writing for the ear instead of writing for the eye.
 Understand the differences between print and broadcast writing in terms of script
style, formatting and story structure.
 Apply concepts of pace and flow to sentence construction and story structure.

Collecting Audios and

Visuals in the Field After completing the lesson you should be able to:

 Identify the tools you can use for audio and video collection.
 Compare and contrast the forms of audio and video equipment, focusing on
benefits and drawbacks of each.
 Understand how to tell stories with audio and video equipment.
 Outline the way in which collected material can be used to tell stories

Editing Audio & Video

After completing the lesson you should be able to:

 Understand the importance of using audio and video bites to augment your text-
based storytelling.
 Assess the quality, value and importance of soundbites for audio and video
storytelling.
 Know the various forms of video shots you can use while building a package as
well as the benefits and drawbacks of each shot type.
 Identify problems associated with video and understand why these problems
detract from your storytelling.
 Understand how to assemble a quality video package for presentation on the web.