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Course Syllabus

Course: COMM 2910

Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New Media
Department: Communications
Title: Newspaper Production II

Semester Approved: Spring 2020
Five-Year Review Semester: Summer 2025
End Semester: Fall 2025

Catalog Description: Snowdrift senior staff students have the opportunity to lead and assist with instruction as students engage in an in-depth examination of Journalism and new writing processes. Senior staff will help in planning design and publication of the student newspaper. This production process will involve feature writing, page/graphic design, typesetting and business management.

Semesters Offered: Spring
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 2; Lecture: 2; Lab: 1

Prerequisites: COMM 1900 or COMM 1910

Justification: Students need experience in leadership positions as well as newspaper production techniques such as page layout, design, headline writing, editing, etc. to produce a high-quality student paper. The course provides some training in subject and skill areas that would be covered in advanced journalism courses at larger schools. The course will transfer as elective credit.


Student Learning Outcomes:
Senior students completing this course will know and practice the principles and skills of good newspaper production as they write, edit, design, layout, and publish the school newspaper. This will be assessed in their article writing, as well as design assignments.

As a second year course for senior staff students they will take a leadership role. This will be assessed through leadership responsibilities and the completion of assignments associated with these leadership roles.

The focus of this Spring course is to layout and design pages for every publication in the newspaper. Students will read newspapers, focus on layout and respond critically to professional journalistic style.  Assignments will be returned with suggestions for improving the student's design and layout skills.

An important goal of this course is to foster an appreciation of the Scholastic Journalism rules and regulations. Students will experience all aspects of journalism and will be requires to meet assigned deadlines for in class publications. As senior staff students in this course will encourage junior staff in meeting deadlines.  Participation, deadlines, and class discussion will be used as an assessment tool for this outcome.

Students will learn to work with the first-year newspaper editorial staff, photographers and members of the community to foster a professional relationship.  This will be assessed through professional responsibilities and the completion of assignments associated with these professional roles.


Content:
Course objectives will be accomplished by providing students with learning experiences in the following subject areas: Writing Hard News; writing soft news; leadership; group communication; editing and revision techniques; Redesigning a newspaper; Proofreading and assisting Jr. staff; Advertising; Ethics of news reporting.

Key Performance Indicators:
Completion and quality of stories written for publication. 10 to 30%

Indesign and layout assignments 20 to 30%

Production assignments  10 to 20%

Leadership roles in assigned areas 20 to 30%

Participation 20 to 30%


Representative Text and/or Supplies:
Local and national newspapers will be analyzed, as well as The Snowdrift and other college newspapers.


Pedagogy Statement:
This is a hands-on class. Students actively participate and produce a student newspaper. As a senior staff class students are encouraged to take a managerial role in this course. Emphasis is placed on active participation, leadership, research and presentation skills.

Instructional Mediums:
Lecture/Lab

Maximum Class Size: 20
Optimum Class Size: 15