ZUR393p Reporting Pubic Affairs
Fall Semester 2016
Faculty of Social Studies
Masaryk University
Instructor: Prof. Stephen Doig Hours: 1.30-3pm
E-mail, Twitter: steve.doig@asu.edu, @sdoig Days: Tuesdays
Office hours (from 19th of Sept): 3-5pm Tuesday and Thursday, office 5.51
Course Description: Perhaps the most important role of journalists in
democratic societies is to report on the functioning of government at all
levels. A democracy functions best when its citizens can get objective
information about the effectiveness of public officials and policies in order
to make informed votes in elections. Often this journalistic role involves
simply reporting on actions taken by governmental agencies and choices
made by elected officials. Sometimes, however, it means calling attention
to harmful policies, bad decisions, wasteful spending and even outright
criminality on the part of public officials. This kind of journalism is often
called "watchdog reporting", after guard dogs that start barking when they
see something wrong.
The goal of this course is for you to learn some of the basics of how to
cover the activities of elected officials and governmental bodies and such
important public functions as education, environmental protection, public
safety and courts.
As your instructor, I assure you that I have a lot of experience in covering
public affairs in the United States, but not as much in European countries.
Therefore, an important element of this course will be assignments you will
do to educate each other about how government bodies and agencies in
Brno, the Czech Republic and the European Union are organized and
function.
I will teach you techniques for finding out information from government
officials and writing informative stories based on what you find. This
instruction will include where to get public data and how to use tools like
spreadsheets and mapping programs to find patterns in the data that will
suggest good public affairs stories.
Readings: There is no required textbook for this course, but I will give you a
number of printouts or readings from the web for you to do as assigned.
Grade: Your grade will be based on the following elements:
Shoot First/Ask Questions Later (20%): Each week I will expect you to
develop your eye for stories by shooting a picture of something unusual
and then writing a couple of sentences explaining it based on
information you gathered by asking about what you saw. Examples
might be a police motorcade going by, or construction starting in what
had been an empty lot, or fresh paint covering over what had been a
wall of graffiti. I will give you a more detailed instruction sheet about
this assignment.
Public agency description project (20%): I will assign each of you a
governmental agency -- such as the Brno city council or the Czech
Parliament -- to research and then write a 2-3 page description of its
functions and structure and other details I will specify in an assignment
sheet I will give you.
Public affairs stories (50%): During the course of the semester you will
write six news stories based on government activities. They might
involve sitting through a city council meeting or a court hearing or a
speech by a politician, then writing about it.
Final exam: There will be a final during the January exam period that will
be worth 10% of your grade.
Make-up Work: The unexpected does happen. When it does, I will accept
make-up work for full credit, including any exercises and quizzes, if you can
convince me there was a non-frivolous reason for missing your deadline.
Obviously, it will get harder to convince me if there are multiple occasions.
Hashtag: If you are a Twitter user and want to post something of interest to
other class members, use #doigclass.
News media: You are expected to read a good newspaper or news website
every day. Look particularly for stories about government decisions,
political activities and social problems.
Schedule: The schedule below is subject to revision as I see fit, depending
on our progress, the possibility of guest speakers and other factors.
NOTE THAT THE FIRST CLASS SESSION SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 20
WILL NOT BE HELD. Unfortunately, I have to be in Prague that day to attend
a Fulbright orientation. In lieu of that class meeting, I will send you by email
a survey and a reading to do. We will hold the true introduction to the class
the following week.
Meeting
number
Class
date Lecture subject
1 20-Sep
NO CLASS
MEETING
2 27-Sep Introduction
3 4-Oct
Reporting and
writing public
affairs stories
4 11-Oct Brno city govt
5 18-Oct CZ national govt
6 25-Oct Budgets
7 1-Nov Elections
8 8-Nov Public safety
9 15-Nov Courts
10 22-Nov Education
11 29-Nov Immigration
12 6-Dec Environment
13 13-Dec Covering the EU
Steve Doig is a Fulbright Scholar who holds the Knight Chair, specializing in data
journalism, at the Cronkite School of Journalism of Arizona State University. Before
joining ASU in 1996, he was research editor of the Miami Herald in Florida. Data
projects on which he worked at The Herald and at ASU have won the Pulitzer Prize for
Public Service, the Investigative Reporters & Editors Award, the Goldsmith Prize for
Investigative Reporting, the George Polk Award for Medical Reporting and other
recognition. He consults actively with news organizations on complex data analysis
stories, and has done data workshops and lectures in 18 countries. He is a political
science graduate of Dartmouth College and the Defense Information School, where he
trained to be a journalist for the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.