Journalism Primer 1

[Mike Gange]

I have been involved in journalism in some way, since I was in grade 4. I recognize there are lots of kids like me, those who merely want to write and need to have that energy directed and harnessed to get the best possible story told.

 

Most kids do not realize that journalism is writing to a formula. Same as chemistry. Save as cooking. Put these key ingedients together and you should have a certain end product. So the kids need to learn how to write in these formulaic ways to get the story done. I can share some of these formulas with you here now and in the future. Today let's start with some basics.

 

I work in a school where there are 2 000 students. We usually have 2 journalism classes, one per semester. We have a semester that last 17 weeks. My students have to write 12 separate assignments. That means 30 kids x 12 assignments, plus editing, plus lay outs, well you can see this could become unworkable.

Let's use the KISS formula. Keep it simple. Lay outs in news print used to take a whole editing crew over night to lay out the morning's paper. Desk top editing means that even the biggest of newspapers have a bare-bones staff. Two good lay out people can put together a whole newspaper with a staff of fifty or more writers. This is where much of the cuts have come in the newspaper world where lay-offs are always news.

 

Newsprint is also terribly expensive. A print run of 1,000 papers with 12 pages (which is six really, since they are folded) will cost you at least $500. So do something on-line. I suggest you use a blog format. Simple to use, simple to edit. AND teach the kids to do it, so you can be free to do other bigger things. Like marking.

 

I am fairly pleased with our school's. I mention it only for discussion here, because it is no where near where I want it to go. http://fhsblackkat.wordpress.com/

Wordpress is a good blog format to use. You can add to it, every day, every month, all year long as items come in.

Have your students make two copies when they do their assignments. You, as teacher get one paper copy they hand in. You also get an email of the same story. If either one is not there on time, minus five marks out of ten. Be that tough. Deadlines in media are locked in stone. If you don't get the schools basketball scores in to the media outlets by deadline, it won't be there.And tomorrow is too late.