Spring 2010 M-W-Th-F, 3:00-3:50 p.m., Room 382 BRMB Plus twice-weekly lab, as assigned Instructor: Dr.

Dale Cressman Ofce: 360 BRMB Consultations: by appointment (see secretary) email: cressman@byu.edu Professional newsroom lab staff: Chad Curtis, News Director Dale Green, Production Manager Class description: Welcome to Comms 325, where you will learn the basics of television news reporting. In order to relay accurate, objective, and unbiased information to a mass audience, you will learn the principles of news writing, video editing, voice narration, and on-camera presentation. Your work will be aired on KBYU-TV, Channel 11. Learning objectivies: The faculty of the Department of Communications has identied three primary learning objectives with the overall goal that students become professional communicators whose messages contribute to a bitter society by beneting the organizations for which they work and the audiences they reach. This course has been designed to address one of those objectives, specically that of being a procient communicator with the following contributing outcomes: Become procient in the grammar of visual storytelling Improve broadcast news writing skills Become procient in the use of non-linear editing software to combine broadcast narration with compelling video and audio. Improve eld production and video newsgathering techniques Learn to conduct interviews for television news Learn on-camera eld reporting skillsspecically the production of effective stand-ups Contribute content for the Daily News broadcast and other programs supported by the Department of Communications. Be able to report on deadline. Lab experience: You will have the opportunity to work in a state-of-the-art newsroom with industrystandard equipment. Best of all, youll be doing it under the direction of award-winning professional staff members. Typically, you will be expected to produce two stories per

week over the course of spring term. (Please note that spring term is a very short and intensive period.) Youll also be graded on how well you complete assignments given by the professional staff. Textbook: Tuggle, C.A., Carr, F., and Huffman, S (2011). Broadcast News Handbook, Fourth Edition (McGraw Hill). This book is available in the BYU Bookstore and at ne online booksellers everywhere. Other required reading: You will have regular, unannounced quizzes on current events covered in the New York Times. Free copies of the Times are available in the Brimhall Building. Other materials you will need to purchase for this class (of which you will learn more in the lab orientation): At least two Mini-DV eld tapes An external hard drive with at least a 500 GB storage capacity Headphones Microphone Learning activities: 1. Newsroom orientation: In the rst few weeks you will need to learn the iNews computer system and become comfortable with the Newscutter editing system and cameras. We will be having orientation sessions to help you along. 2. Lab days: You twice-weekly lab days will include beat coverage and/or general assignments for the Daily News newscast, which airs weekdays at noon on KBYU-TV Channel 11, as well as radio newscasts on KBYU-FM. You will be expected to provide a story idea the day before your assigned lab day, where you will either be given approval to work on your story idea, or youll be assigned a different one. Please make other arrangements with Chad Curtis if you are unable to attend the 12:45 p.m. story meeting. If one of your lab days is a Monday you should attend the Friday story meeting. Your stories should air on the days of your assigned labs, unless you arrange or are directed to do otherwise. Each story will be critiqued and evaluated based on a rubric which will be given to you. 3. Classroom activities: We will meet in the classroom on Mondays and Wednesdays (3:00-3:50 p.m.). Dr. Cressman will provide instruction and lead discussions. We will also invite a limited number of guest speakers to class. 4. Clinics: We will meet in the newsroom on Thursdays and Fridays (3:00-3:50) where the professional staff will hold clinics to help you improve your work. 5. Learning reection and individual consultations: As faculty and staff, we will do as much as we can to help you; we are fully invested in your success. However, in the nal analysis, you are responsible for your learning. You will be asked periodically to reect on what you are learning, how you are learning it, and what would better help you learn. We may also occasionally have individual consultations, in lieu of meeting as a class.

6. Learning portfolio: Part of the learning and reection process includes saving all your work, gathering it into a portfolio, and analyzing your own progress. You will need to save all your scripts and nished stories, as well as contacts you made in the course of your reporting. The nished portfolio and reection will count as a major assignment in the course-grading scheme. Grading: The following is a good-faith estimate of how your nal grade will be calculated. Assignments may be changed to improve learning, but will only be done so in consultation with the class. Subsequent changes will be made in writing and posted on Blackboard. Breakdown: TV stories: 50% Radio stories: 10% Class participation (including quizzes & tests) 30% Final portfolio 10% Letter grade equivalents: 93-100 " A" " 90-92" " A" " 88-91" " B+ " " 83-87" " B" " 80-82" " B" " 70-79" " C+ " " " " " 66-69" " 60-65" " 56-59" " 50-55" " below 50" C C D+ D E

Deadlines & Professionalism As a department, we strive to create a learning environment that closely mirrors the professional surroundings in which you will soon nd yourself. thus, we expect you to carry yourself as though you were already a professional. This means you should dress and act professionally and appropriately while in the lab and on assignment.s We will give you further directions in class concerning proper attire. Please read the departments Statement on Professionalism, included with this syllabus. Additionally, the department faculty has identied meeting deadlines as a signicant learning outcome for this class. This learning outcome reects the fact that communications industries are deadline driven and that meeting deadlines is an essential component of this program. The content of this class is intended to help you prepare for the demands of the working world. Therefore, the ability to meet deadlines is essential and will not be waived, modied or accommodated, except in rare cases to be determined by the professor. In deciding whether extra time will be given for an assignment in this class, the professor will apply a professional standards, such as whether an extension would be reasonable in a professional setting. Adding this class This class has a capped enrollment, which means it may not be possible to add the class.

Incompletes policy As per University policy, incompletes are not given for academic emergencies. Please be aware of the drop deadline. See the University Catalog for further information. Honor Code In keeping with the principles of the BYU Honor Code, students are expected to be honest in all their academic work. Violations of this principle may result in a failing grade in the course and additional disciplinary action by the department and/or the university. Because we are training journalists, we are particularly concerned with plagiarism. Instances of plagiarism are typically addressed by dismissal from the program. Students are expected to adhere to the universitys Dress and Grooming Standards. Adherence demonstrates respect for yourself and others and ensures an effective learning and working environment. It is the universitys expectation that each student will abide by the standards he or she agreed to upon admission to BYU. Preventing sexual discrimination or harassment Sexual discrimination or harassment (including student-to-student harassment) is prohibited both by the law and by Brigham Young University policy. If you feel you are being subjected to sexual discrimination or harassment, please bring your concerns to the professor. Alternatively, you may lodge a complaint with the Equal Employment Ofce (D-240C ASB) or with the Honor Code Ofce (4440 WSC). Students with disabilities If you have a disability that may affect your performance in this course, you should get in touch with the ofce of Services for Students with Disabilities (1520 WSC). This ofce can evaluate your disability and assist the professor in arranging for reasonable accommodations. Faculty & Staff Dr. Cressman has worked as a television news producer in South Bend, Indiana (WSBT); as an Executive Producer in Waco, Texas (KWTX) and Salt Lake City (KUTV); as a Managing Editor in Green Bay, Wisconsin (WBAY); and as a line-up editor at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He was a chief liaison ofcer for the Host Broadcaster during the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games. In 1995, Dr. Cressman won an Emmy for producing the television documentary "Russia: Hidden Memory." He has also worked as a newspaper reporter, at the Star-Phoenix in Saskatchewan. Before rst coming to BYU in 1993, he was an assistant professor and news director at Lyndon State College in Vermont. He was an assistant professor at Brigham Young University and news director of KBYU TV and FM between 1993 and 1996. He left BYU to work on a PhD, which he completed in 2003. Before returning to BYU in 2000, he taught at Utah State University for three years. Dr. Cressman's research is on broadcast news history and he has published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media and American Journalism. He is working on a biography of Elmer W. Lower, best

known as President of ABC News. He is currently Historian of the American Journalism Historians Association. He and his wife Rebecca (she's also a broadcaster; you can hear her middays on FM100 in Salt Lake City) are raising three active boys and live in Spanish Fork. Broadcast News Manager Chad Curtis comes to BYU after nearly 15 years as a producer at NBC News Channel, the afliate service division of NBC News. An expert on remote news transmission, Chad has coordinated eld production for afliate coverage from major news and sports events; everything from 9/11 to the Presidential nominating convention to Summer and Winter Olympic games around the world. Chad is also known for his expertise in working with satellites in delivering news and data content. Before joining NBC, News Chad was lead news producer at WEYI-TV News (CBS, later NBC) in Flint, Michigan and a news producer at KVBC-TV (NBC) in Las Vegas. Chad holds a Masters Degree in Communications from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte (where he also taught journalism as an adjunct) and a Bachelors Degree from Brigham Young University. Chad is here in Provo by himself this semester but his wife, Linda, and 12-year-old son are looking forward joining him here. Dale Green is an Emmy award-winning photographer with 18 years of broadcast production experience. Ten years as a news photographer working in Spartanburg, South Carolina and at KSL-TV. He was the Utah County Bureau photographer with Robert Walz for 8 of those years. Dale started his own company 8 years ago and has traveled the world doing many documentaries and sporting events. His work has been seen on NBC, ESPN, CBS, A&E, OLN, CNN, PBS, and PBSHD, and several other local and national shows. He won an Emmy for a documentary on Foster Families and has been nominated two other times for documentaries that he has shoot. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for a documentary for the Children's Miracle Network about guns and kids. Dale is a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War where he was activated with the 1475th engineer battalion and stationed in Germany. While there he reported on the activities of his unit and had a series of stories called Dale's Diary, which won the 1991 SPJSDX on going coverage award.