Some people did very well on the first out-of-class story. Nice ledes, good attribution, a nice range of sources from different perspectives and sides of an issue, and a lot of original reporting that didn't rely on what you found online from some other news source.
Then again, we had some struggles. And most of those struggles are normal with a first out-of-class story, for which you have not much -- if anything -- compare it to.
There was a lack of attribution, where I didn't know where you got the information from.
There was an over-reliance on other sources for your information, as opposed to you getting quotes and data directly from first-hand sources yourself.
There were instances where you interviewed a narrow set of sources, like just one set of people in a complex issue. You may have just talked to one side of an issue but not the other or neutral experts. It seemed like some people stopped on the first and most obvious source group and didn't ask themselves, "Who else would be a good source to talk to about this? Who else would have good information that is relevant to this issue? Who would be a neutral expert, and how do I find them?"
There were some cases where stories were way too wordy and overloaded with paragraphs that took up space but really didn't advance the story or say much of anything in particular. This is journalism and not a term paper, folks; filling a story up with fluff to make the 700-word limit will get you an equally-empty grade.
And some people treated this like a term paper, rather than a news story. What I mean by that is, with a term paper you are filling up a space with relevant information to satisfy an arbitrary standard sought by a teacher.
You have presumptions, and you simply fill the space between presumptions with whatever seems to support the presumption. There really isn't much research of exploration or curiosity or even much consideration that there may very well be a surprising twist out there that may be found if you do enough digging.
And that's not journalism.
In a news story, what we are doing is exploring an issue, and investigating it like a detective would a crime scene. Yes, we have some presumptions that we start with, but during the course of our investigation we are seeking sources that either confirm or deny our presumptions or even take the story in a whole new and unexpected direction, based on following the facts.
It's just like a scientific experiment: you start out with a theory, but that theory is just a starting point. Then you fact-test the theory by gaining real-world evidence. Then, you see what the evidence says -- whether or not it has anything left to do with your original theory -- and only then you decide upon your lede and your nut graf and what information you have is worth sharing with your audience.
Still, those problems I expected. What I didn't expect was four people fataling the first out-of-class story.
That was a shock for many reasons: first, I've never had more than one person fatal any out-of-class assignment. Second, I've never had a class with this few fatals to date on practice stories. I thought fact-checking was one area we were doing pretty well.
And the frustrating thing to me was that it was clear that the fatals all came from the simplest of mistakes, and were ones where the most basic principles of fact-checking were not being followed.
One person fataled in an election story while talking about a student, saying:
Having worked at the poles before she was even old enough to vote ...
You meant polls, as in a place to vote, and not poles, as in a vertical rod, like those used by strippers.
In another case, you spelled the first name of MSU police spokeswoman Florene McGlothian-Taylor as Maureen.
We need to make sure we don't take anything for granted, and seek spellings of names even when we think it's a common name with a common spelling. Don't assume anything; if they say their name is Jack Smith, ask them if it's the common spelling and if they can spell it out, letter-by-letter.
Yes, as a professional journalist I learned this the hard way, too.
A third person fataled when they referred to the Gallup Poll (the name of the poll) as the Gallop Poll (as in, a horse that gallops). A fourth person misspelled colleges (schools of higher learning) as collages (a collection of images).
Early on in this class, I talked about how doing all the little routine things in journalism -- like thoroughly checking your work to make sure what you wrote was what you intended to write, and that it was accurate as compared to your notes and the facts -- was something that you could never take for granted. It's not.
And it has nothing to do with talent, just vigilance. In the same way American can have the best army in the world, it doesn't really matter if the one night the army takes the night off, Canada decides to invade us.
Or if we're trying to stay in shape, and instead of running our miles every day we start to cut corners and slack here and there. Eventually, the pounds will start showing.
The fact is, you could be the world's best journalist, and you still have to do all the little and annoying things -- like checking routine facts -- if you want to stay ahead of making mistakes. Because when you're processing thousands of words a day in a professional environment and on deadline, a mistake is always waiting to catch you at a lax moment and bite your ass.
It's why The New York Times has the best journalists in the world, yet they still have a copy desk.
So there's no big thing to learn from the fatals, other than if we want to do things the right way, we have to do things the right way completely and each and every time.
This job isn't about writing. It's about getting it right. I'm sorry some of you have to learn that lesson in a very harsh manner.
The good news is, you have a rewrite. You have other assignments. And I will offer a wide range of extra-credit opportunities that will do two things: prove to me that you can do all those little things right (along with the big things), and give you an opportunity to repair your grade and (hopefully) essentially make these fatals go away when it comes to your final grade.
But we have to start making sure we're following all the steps, every time. No more short cuts. No more assumptions.
Each and every one of you is capable of doing this, and doing it well. But we need to do all the things we're supposed to do for that to happen.
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