JRN 100: Information and Visual Resources for Journalists

Course Outline – Fall 2007

The news of the day as it reaches the newspaper is an incredible medley of

fact, propaganda, rumour, suspicion, clues, hopes and fears, and the task of
selecting and ordering that news is one of the truly sacred and priestly
offices in a democracy.

Walter Lippmann

Course Instructors

Anne McNeilly
Room 155 RCC
(416) 979-5000 ext 2699
[email protected]
Lab – Section 5 – Room 185 - Fridays 1 p.m -5 p.m.

Dan Westell
[email protected]
Lab – Section 4 – Room 185 - Fridays 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Charles Kopun
[email protected]
Lab – Section 2 – Room 185 - Thursdays 12 p.m.-4 p.m.

Gavin Adamson
[email protected]
Lab – Section 1 – Room 183 - Thursdays 12 p.m.-4 p.m.

Jasmine Miller
[email protected]
Lab – Section 3 – Room 187 - Thursdays 12 p.m.- 4 p.m.
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Overview
To be a successful journalist, you need to ask good questions, discover relevant
information, and deliver your discoveries in a meaningful way to viewers, readers and/or
listeners.

This course will give you the tools to begin your career as both an academic and a
journalist, with time spent on:
• search techniques, both traditional and online,
• the importance of understanding and verifying information,
• the use of numerical information, and
• ways of presenting facts as part of news stories, using words, images and
numbers.

You will be encouraged to develop your abilities using spatial and visual resources, both
in terms of reading and creating images. This will include a brief introduction to
photojournalism.

Required

• Full attendance at and participation in each lecture and lab

• A blank journal (with unlined pages) with at least 10 pages, 8.5 x 10 inches
• An active Ryerson e-mail account and log-on for Blackboard
• Regular consultation of the course website: http://my.ryerson.ca/, choosing
JRN100

The JRN 100 website on Blackboard will be used as a key resource for the
course and students are required to regularly consult it and read materials
posted, and are encouraged to participate in online discussions.

• The backing-up of work (you need a disk, USB drive or e-mail, or web-based
method of saving copies of what you do)
• Two AA batteries for use with the cameras (it is recommended that you use re-
chargeable batteries).
• Adherence to CP style and spelling (students should have the most recent copy of
the Canadian Press Style Guide and Caps and Spelling.

Teaching/Learning Methods

JRN100 is different than any other journalism course you’ll take this year: it mixes a
large lecture with small lab groups, and students cycle through a series of labs. The
whole thing is tied together by a major project: a single story. You come up with the
story idea, you do the research, you illustrate it with photos, and you write a final news
story using all the tools discussed in the course.
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Sound daunting? The story is handled piece by piece, with elements completed
throughout the course through the labs.

Attendance is important. A mark for participation is assigned.

You may have to complete assignments outside of class time. If you don’t own a digital
camera, see the Blackboard site for details on checking them out. Computer labs are
available in the RCC and at other locations on campus throughout the week.

The weekly quizzes will consist of questions reviewing the previous week's lecture, as
well as current events. They will be timed, and must be taken at the beginning of each
week’s lab. Your final mark will include 10 per cent based on the scores of all the
quizzes. It can be an easy way of increasing your mark, so take them seriously. While
you may (and indeed must) use the Web to search for some of the quizzes and tests,
use of e-mail, or any other means of communicating during the quiz period will
result in an automatic failure. Your career as a journalist hinges on personal integrity;
don’t start squandering it over a quiz.

If you can foresee an absence, please let your lab instructor know ASAP. If you are
unable to attend or complete assignments on time due to illness or other personal
difficulty, please contact your instructors as soon as possible, and provide a copy of any
relevant documents (e.g.. doctor's note). It is much better to give your professors a "heads
up" when you have trouble meeting expectations, rather than try to beg for leniency after
the fact.

Students may use office hours or e-mail or phone to contact the instructors; check with
each of us first to see what will be best. E-mail will generally not be answered before 9
a.m. or after 5 p.m. on weekdays, and not at all on weekends. Only Ryerson e-mail
addresses will be used to correspond with students.

Marking Scheme

Mark Component Due Percentage of

Total Grade
Participation Throughout 10
Weekly quizzes Throughout 10
Visual journals Weeks 7 and 13 10
Story proposal Week 3 10
Database/online assignments Completed by end of 10
workshop
Spreadsheet assignments Completed by end of 10
workshop
Visual assignments Completed by end of 10
workshop
Final package including story December 4, 4 p.m. 30
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During the term, marks will be posted on the Blackboard site, where students can see
their own grade, and where possible, the overall course average, minimum and maximum
grades. Students can not see anyone else’s mark. Grades for participation are calculated
at the end of term and will not be posted online. Final grades are sent out by the
University and will not be posted on Blackboard.

As with any journalism course, deadlines are important, and a partial letter grade will be
deducted for each 24 hours an assignment is late. Failure to hand in an assignment by the
specific time given by the instructor will result in an automatic penalty. (In other words,
an assignment that might have merited an A will become an A- if handed in 5 minutes
late, and becomes a B+ if handed in over 24 hours later.) Unless told otherwise, each
assignment is due at the beginning of class (generally this is the beginning of your lab
session).

Information is only useful if it is accurate and major spelling or factual errors will result
in deductions, the severity of which will depend on the mistake made. A mistake in a
proper name, or a key fact or number will carry a substantial penalty, potentially dropping
an entire assignment's mark by a letter grade. Part of the evaluation of assignments will
be adherence to CP style.

Plagiarism of any kind will not be tolerated. Students should refer to the Student
Code of Academic Conduct found in their Ryerson University calendar and the
journalism school website for definitions and penalties.

On a positive note, students should know that there is an award given annually to the
student with the best standing in this course. It could be you!

Additional Course Policies:

• If you require time off due to religious observance, the request must be made
within the first two weeks of class. If you are absent due to illness, a medical
certificate is normally required.

• Students with physical or learning disabilities who wish to make arrangements for
accommodation (extra time on assignments, alternative mechanisms for testing
and performance evaluation) must first register their disability with the Access
Centre at Ext. 5290 to make an appointment to see a disability counselor or
learning disability specialist.

• The use of laptops, electronic or digital recording devices in class is prohibited

without prior approval. Cellphones should be turned off.

• In all of your work, remember that the Code of Ethics for Ryerson’s School of
Journalism applies. http://www.ryerson.ca/~journal/school/ethics.html
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• Students are required to adhere to all relevant University policies, such as the
student code of conduct, set out in the Ryerson calendar and the student
handbook, available online.

• Students must abide by the School's truth-telling document and by the

University’s policies on student academic and non-academic conduct. Please note
that this means you must identify yourself as a Ryerson student when conducting
interviews. Should you wish to try to sell or distribute your story outside of the
class, for payment or not, you must get explicit permission to re-use the interview
material.

Workshops/ Lab - JRN100 – Fall 2007

Information and Visual Resources
(NB – some slight changes may occur)

Week 1 - Sept. 6 -7
Introductions
Log on and get acquainted with class website – Blackboard.
Complete trial quiz
Survey
Begin thinking about big question proposal
Assignment – 1. Reading: Informing Ourselves to Death – Neil Postman.
2. Interview a reporter (magazine/print/broadcast – student/faculty/working) and ask
them how they found some information that resulted in a story they were particularly
proud of. How was it illustrated? Suggest an alternative.

Week 2 - Sept. 13 -14 - Online

Quiz
First visual journal assigned
Scavenger Hunt 1 – Library Resources
Finish proposal

Week 3 - Sept 20-21 - Online

Proposal due by e-mail by beginning of workshop session
Complete second quiz
Second visual journal topic given.
Scavenger Hunt 2

Week 4 - Sept 27-28 - Online

Complete third quiz
Scavenger Hunt 3
Work on proposal(s)

Week 5 - Oct. 4 -5 - Online

Complete fourth quiz
Assign third visual journal topic
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End of First (online) workshop – Final assignment/test for this workshop

Week 6 - Oct. 11-12 – Excel

Second (Excel) workshop begins
Complete fifth quiz

Week 7 - Oct. 18-19 – Excel/Numbers

Complete sixth quiz
Visual journals (3) collected for marking

Week 8 - Oct. 25-26 – Excel/Numbers

Complete seventh quiz
End of second workshop – Unit test

Week 9 - Nov.1-2 - Visual

Complete eighth quiz
Fourth visual journal assigned

Week 10 - Nov. 8-9 - Visual

Complete ninth quiz

Week 11 - Nov. 15-16 - Visual

Complete tenth quiz
Assign final visual journal.

Week 12 - Nov. 22-23 – Visual

Complete eleventh quiz.

Week 13 - Nov. 29-30

Last class
Visual journals due

*Final Big-Question package with related assignments due Dec. 4 at 4 p.m.