Reporting & Writing for Sports Media – COMM 2507
Professor: Hayden Coombs, Sharwan Smith 176, haydencoombs@suu.edu
Course Overview:
To be a sports reporter, editor, columnist, broadcaster, blogger or online journalist, you also must master the skills of a business reporter, a legal reporter, a medical reporter and a metro reporter — as well as be comfortable using the Internet as a resource tool and breaking-news medium. Print, broadcast and online journalism are converging today in ways we never imagined barely a decade ago. As sports journalists like Tony Kornheiser, Michael Wilbon and Mitch Albom have demonstrated, journalists must be able to work across a variety of media.
In this course, you will learn how to write a sports story. We will address these basics while examining issues from race and gender to hero worship and sportsmanship. We will examine the ethics of what sports journalists do and why they do it. For these reasons, this course, like sports itself, is equal parts journalism, history and sociology. Be ready to rethink your concept of what a sports journalist is and what she or he is expected to do.
Course Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Track and interpret basic statistics and data to inform event coverage as well as enterprise sports stories.
- Comfortably conduct interviews in a variety of settings, from sidelines to press conferences to locker rooms.
- Frame questions that elicit insightful, interesting answers, even in chaotic post-game situations.
- Cover a sports event on deadline, using multiple platforms.
- Understand the concept of a second-day story angle and apply it to sports events and breaking news.
- Identify and write interesting sports profiles and enterprise pieces, using multiple platforms.
- Understand that basic competencies in business contracts, legal and criminal proceedings, sports medicine and diversity issues are essential for sports media professionals.
Assignments and Grading:
Class participation- We will discuss current events from each of the major leagues. You must stay up-to-the-minute on breaking news, competition results and trends of the sports world. When breaking news happens, be ready to discuss and write, as they will provide the foundation of our classroom discussions. These blog posts will not just be opinion pieces, but rather a well-written take on an issue, bringing together different perspectives and/or news developments. Blog items will be critiqued in class discussion. Everyone will get the opportunity to choose a blog topic. Everyone is also expected to read their blog posts in class.
Event coverage/Game Stories- We will cover several SUU games. Not completing event coverage assignments as instructed, including missing deadlines, will count against your grade. Please carefully check your schedule against the planned events within the class schedule, and let me know ASAP about any conflicts.
Feature Story/Profile- You will write a 750-1000-word profile on any SUU student, but it must be sports-related. The story will require an interview and must quote at least two sources in addition to the subject. The story must examine an aspect of the person’s life beyond his or her involvement in sports.
Other Journalism Assignments- Throughout the semester, you will learn about various types of sports articles, including: columns, games stories, sidebars, book reviews and podcasts. You will write an article in each of these styles.
Enterprise final project- You will write a 1,000-word piece on a trend or issue in sports, along with an accompanying 500-word sidebar. The stories must quote at least three sources. It must also be accompanied by at least one multimedia element – edited video, a photo gallery, a podcast, an audio slideshow or an infographic. Extra credit (5% toward your overall class grade) will be given for more than one multimedia element.
Grading Guidelines: For every assignment except for event coverage, you must give me contact information for your sources (e-mail addresses and/or phone numbers). Failure to do so will result in an automatic 30% deduction from your assignment grade. Grades will depend on how much editing your work would need before being published by a professional media outlet, as outlined below.
A (90-100): Needs only minor word usage and/or punctuation editing.
B (80-89): Needs some structural editing but no additional reporting.
C (70-79): Needs some structural editing and some additional reporting.
D (60-69): Basic framework in place but needs significant additional reporting.
F: Assignment needs to be entirely redone.
Required Materials:
AP Stylebook, online or print edition
Additional online readings will be provided throughout the semester.
You will need to save your work to your SUU F: drive, a Google drive or a flash drive. The hard drives of the computers in the lab are purged daily automatically. You cannot store your work on the hard drive. It is best to save a copy of all your work, even if you finish and turn it in. This way, should the finished product be misplaced, you will have a copy.
You will also need a modest printing budget to print the first draft of your stories.
Class Policies:
1. Attendance– This is a face-to-face class for a reason: It is essential that all students who can attend class do so. Attendance will be taken at every class. If you are unable to attend class, you will be expected to watch the zoom recording and complete any and all assignments without question.
2. Participation– Participation and attendance also includes, but is not limited to: Attending class regularly and on time, participating in class discussion on concepts in the readings for that day, being focused and practicing good listening skills, contributing meaningfully to group discussion and exercises, relating class material to your own experience and the outside world during class discussions.
3. Academic Dishonesty– Cheating on exams and plagiarism of papers constitutes grounds for failure of that assignment, and potential failure of this course. Plagiarism consists of such things as: taking quotes or other material from another published source (news release, newspaper article) without attribution; fabricating quotes and interviews; failing to include exact wording from such sources in quotation marks; claiming work as your own that was not your original effort; using notes from another student, without permission; having another person conduct your interviews or write your stories. Cases may arise in which you may share notes or documents with fellow students. In these instances, you must disclose in your source list the fact that you did not gather the material yourself, and you will be held responsible for any errors the shared material contains.
4. Computer Usage– Electronic devices such as computers, tablets and smart phones are powerful learning tools in the classroom. Students are encouraged to use them at appropriate times. However, if the computers or your phones are a distraction to you or your classmates, you will be asked to not come back to class. The first time I catch you using the computer for non-class-related purposes (and I can monitor your screens on my computer), you will receive 0 points for every assignment that week. The second time this happens, I will drop an entire letter off your final grade. If I catch you a third time, you will receive an automatic F.
5. Late Work– In the field of journalism, you do not receive any extra opportunity to complete an assignment or task if you miss a deadline (in fact, you will likely be fired). For this reason, late work is not accepted in my class. Do not even ask unless you find yourself in an extreme situation.
6. Extra Credit– I will (likely) provide opportunities for students to earn extra credit throughout the semester. To be eligible for extra credit, you must have all coursework turned in.
7. Out of Class Contact– The best way to get in contact with me outside of class is with a simple text message. Feel free to text, call, DM, or email me at any time, but please be respectful of the hour. I will respond at my earliest convenience, but am most likely to give you a quick response if you text me.
8. Respect– Enjoy the readings, enjoy the class, enjoy the assignments, enjoy your instructor, and enjoy one another. It is expected that students will be considerate of the instructor and fellow classmates and act in a professional manner. Once class begins, students should stop talking, working on other class assignments, etc. Please be patient with me and your classmates; we are all in this together.
Grading Policy:
I will consider each assignment as a professional editor would, applying the same professional standards in accepting or rejecting stories from writers and PR professionals. Grades will reflect your performance as a reporter, writer and editor. In evaluating the reporting, I will consider news judgment in gathering and selecting information used in the story, accuracy, choice and use of sources, thoroughness, etc. In evaluating the writing, I will consider the quality of the lead, organization, use of quotes, clarity and effectiveness, among other factors. In evaluating editing, I will consider spelling, grammar, punctuation, correct use of AP style and accuracy.
Some emphasis will be given to improvement and attitude.
Factual errors: Any major factual error, such as misquoting a source; misspelling a name or company name; or getting a wrong date, URL, address, etc., will receive a mandatory 20% deduction. Again, misspelling a name on a second or later reference will result in another 10% deduction. AP style errors after the completion of the stylebook quizzes and any spelling and grammar errors will be a 1-point deduction for each error. Major factual errors are generally not tolerated in the real-world setting and can have major implications for you as a writer and for the publication/organization/company you work for, especially credibility. Spelling and style errors reflect poorly on you and the reputation of your publication/and or company, organization.
Rewrites: You will submit two drafts of every major story you write. After receiving feedback on your first draft, you will rewrite your story and submit the final copy to me.
*You must include the original story that I marked up along with your re-written story and your original grading sheet. I will not accept a rewrite without the original story.
*You must make substantial efforts to improve, change your original story to obtain rewrite points. You may need to rewrite extensively, re-interview, do new interviews, do more research, etc., to obtain rewrite points. In addition, you cannot delete information from your original story to avoid errors in your rewrite, such as a missing comma or a misspelled word. No points will be added to your score if the material with mistakes is deleted. Instead, fix the mistakes.
Hayden Coombs 