JOUR 4370 Spring 2024 Sandbox

DATA-DRIVEN MIDTERM STORY (LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1 THROUGH 6) 

Investigate a topic in our community, including Lubbock, surrounding areas, or the state of Texas. When you’re choosing what to report on, think of the motto of investigative journalism: “Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable.” Bad and wrong things happen all the time. Ideas can be found all around us! 

This is an individual investigative assignment that must report the results of your own data analysis. It is not sufficient to report numbers presented on a website, in a press release, or a published news story. The data could come from the Census Bureau, the EPA, the CDC, or any other agency that has records relevant to your story. Please upload to Blackboard the original dataset and evidence of how you analyzed the data. Stories that do not contain original data analysis get zero points. 

The story must also include quotes from three human sources whom you personally interviewed (in person or on the phone, but not over email or chat). Note that your sources do not have to be local. For example, you could interview a lobbyist in Washington, DC, over the phone or Zoom. Please be sure to upload audio (and video, if you want to, but that’s optional) of all your interviews to Blackboard. No more than one of your sources can be a Texas Tech student. 

It’s your choice whether to produce a written news story (800-1,000 words), a video/audio package (2-4 minutes), or a converged online package. This assignment is worth 150 points. Please note that you lose 10 points for any factual error (misspelled names count as factual errors). This is a reporting, not a writing assignment, so I will grade based primarily on the quantity and quality of the information included in the story – not on AP style perfection! The mid-term story is due via Blackboard by 11:59 p.m. on March 9.

DATA-DRIVEN FINAL STORY (LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1 THROUGH 6) 

Investigate and provide explanatory context on a topic of local or national significance. This is an individual assignment expected to combine elements of both investigative and explanatory journalism. Like the midterm story, the final project must report the results of your own original data analysis. Please upload to Blackboard the original dataset and evidence of how you analyzed the data. Stories that do not contain original data analysis will get zero points. 

The final project must also include quotes from five human sources you personally interviewed. Once again, these do not have to be local sources. The interviews do not have to be done face-to-face (for example, you could do a phone or a Zoom interview with a university professor in Florida who happens to be an expert on the subject of your story). Please avoid email or text interviews, and be sure to upload audio of all your interviews to Blackboard. No more than one of your sources can be a Texas Tech student.

Once again, it will be your choice whether to produce a written news story (1,00-1,200 words), a video/audio package (3-5 minutes), or a converged online package. This assignment is worth 300 points. Please note that you lose 10 points for any factual error (misspelled names count as such). This is a reporting, not a writing assignment, so I will grade based on the quality of the scoop and the quality of explanatory context– not on AP style perfection! The final story is due via Blackboard by 11:59 p.m. on April 25 (TO BE CONFIRMED).

MAKE YOUR STORY INTERACTIVE (NOT REQUIRED, BUT IMPORTANT FOR YOU – and I will give you 10 bonus points!)

When your story is close to completion, you should make it available online. I do hope that by the end of the semester, you have at least one good “viz” and maybe some images or a short video that you can use to make a multimedia story. You can use Adobe Express.

Habemus mascae!