1. Spring 2012 February 8, 2012 Dr. Alma Kadragic

2. MMC911 Introduction to News Writing Why it’s important know news writing: Writing well as a journalist helps writing in general Journalistic writing is accurate, clear, pointed Journalistic skills are useful in media, PR, report writing, and journalism You have to understand how journalists work and write to deal with them or to be one yourself

3. Daily MMC911 Students should Read 2 newspapers in print or online Read in more than 1 language if possible Receive news alerts from at least 2 news sites Identify continuing news and feature stories Find news about the UAE Find news about another country Follow news about the UAE and the other country

4. MMC911 Students should consider Joining Twitter: www.twitter.comwww.twitter.com Following me: @almakad Starting a blog: www.wordpress.com, www.blogspot.comwww.wordpress.comwww.blogspot.com Joining the MMC blog: coming Joining YouTube: www.YouTube.comwww.YouTube.com Starting the MMC newsletter

5. MMC 911 Students will learn To work individually To work in teams as leader and member To meet deadlines To organize work To produce increasingly professional writing To write for print To write for online To work in the field

6. Introduction to News Writing Program A lot of writing Lectures and guest speakers Team projects Write news stories for print Write news stories for online Field work

7. Some Basic Principles Journalism is limited by time and space Journalism is different in every format Journalism is affected by culture and politics Journalism is not always appreciated

8. What does a journalist look for? A story How do you find a story? What is a story? When would an editor tell a journalist, “That’s not a story? How do you create a story? When you find it or invent it, what do you do with it?

9. Once the story is identified What happens next? Set up a process What do you need? What can you get easily? What takes more time? How much time do you have? What’s the deadline? Is it possible?

10. How do you start? Remember the 5 Ws and How The opening is the most important Pyramid style – what is it? Jot down key points Put them in order Write simple sentences Use present tense mainly Other styles for features, backgrounders

11. After you’ve written Read out loud Change bits that are hard to say Proofread Ask another person if text is clear If not, make changes Read again Put away and give yourself a break Read again Hand in

12. What are the limits? Time Space Format Competition Cultural/political climate Ignorance

13. Before Session 2 next week Prepare by going over Week 1 readings in the Syllabus Take notes - everything is related to news writing Save information, references, titles that seem interesting – for presentation, paper, and/or essay Come to class with comments about your reading Come to class with observations about what journalism is doing in today’s society Bring examples of news stories: good ones; bad ones!

14. MMC911 Introduction to News Writing That’s it for tonight. See you Monday in MMC910 Call, email with questions. Don’t wait till next class to get answers, solve problems. Tomorrow is too late!