1. News Reporting & Writing Event backgrounder

2. Lab Exercise

3. Brief background paragraph on the speaker, Alec Ross (one or two sentences) NOTE: Do NOT just copy and paste from existing material. That’s plagiarism. - Pull this information from Factiva, Google, or other search tools to research the background of the event. Industry sites such as Columbia Journalism Review and Poynter Institute also are useful. Be sure to cite sources. (According to the New York Times…) List at least five questions you would like to ask the speaker. Lab Exercise - backgrounder

4. Uses of backgrounders To ensure you’ve done the necessary research To prepare “boilerplate” for the final story in advance To use in writing a “curtain-raiser” story ahead of the event To understand the issues before the event, and be better able to judge what’s “new” (hence: news)

5. Deadline Deadline is the same: 10 a.m. Friday Please email to kevinvoigt@netvigator.com Name Word document and subject line: JMSC 0108 Backgrounder (Your Name)kevinvoigt@netvigator.com