COMMUNICATION 273                                       
PUBLIC ISSUES REPORTING I
AUTUMN 2001
1:15 - 3:05, Tuesday, Thursdays

William F. Woo
300H McClatchy Hall
Office phone: 650 723-2504
Home phone: 650 857-0481 (No later than 9 p.m., please.)
Email: wioux1@stanford
Office hours: 10:00 - 11:00, Tuesdays and Thursdays and by appointment

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Course Reader, California Political Almanac and the Associated Press Style Manual and Libel Guide

Daily Newspapers:  San Jose Mercury News, Palo Alto Daily News  and one other newspaper, such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal (Wednesday California section required reading), San Francisco Chronicle.

A FEW THOUGHTS TO BEGIN THE COURSE:

              It has been fashionable for some years, during meetings of editors

and publishers, to deplore "incremental" news coverage. Supposedly, it is boring, a turnoff to readers, and -- what&'s worse -- it requires newshole. The problem with all of this is that governmental news develops incrementally. And if you don&'t cover it incrementally, you don&'t really cover it at all. Incremental is what it is all about . . .

                      -- Gene Roberts, former managing editor, The New York Times.

 Our comfort zones are covering the institutions traditionally like we&'ve always covered them. Our comfort zones are painted in black and white . . . We&'ve got to blow that up.

-- Peter Bhatia, executive editor, The Oregonian.

The Government&'s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and expose deception in government.

-- Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, 1971.

ABOUT PUBLIC ISSUES REPORTING AND THIS COURSE:

Public issues journalism can be defined as narrowly as the coverage of government and as broadly as the coverage of the public life of the American people -- the sum of their activities involving public institutions and public policies. An analysis of presidential election results obviously would qualify as public issues journalism. But so would a searching examination of one person&'s decision not to vote. Reporting on the progress in Sacramento of legislation affecting solid waste disposal clearly is public issues  journalism. But so, too, is a feature story on the effects of that legislation on the everyday lives of the people who have to deal with trash pickups, carelessly handled toxic industrial materials and so forth.

So this course proceeds from the premise that what we are about is an exploration of journalism directed at the vast relationship between the government and the governed, by whose consent (or indifference) the whole show goes forward. The relationship can be benevolent, oppressive, demanding, indifferent, supremely evident or barely visible. However it exists, it is the object of our journalism.

Public policies and issues do not always arise out of the ordinary workings of governments and their interactions with the people. Sometimes they are the result of unplanned events that may be natural phenomena or the conduct of individuals or groups.

Flood or hurricane relief efforts, involving emergency or long-term government programs, are examples of the former. The terrorism directed at New York and Washington, but more fundamentally at the people and institutions of the United States, is an example of the latter.

The effects of the terrorism will be with us throughout this course and long after. Here we see every branch of government involved. We see private and nongovermental groups, such as the Red Cross, in action.  We see great issues of policy debated not only within the executive and legislative organs but among everyday Americans. Every medium -- print, broadcast, Internet -- has a role in reporting the news, analyzing the news, commenting on the news and attending to the psychological and spiritual dimensions of this ghastly event. Matters of profound importance involving formal acts of war and the future of our most cherished constitutional freedoms are now before the people.

No course in public issues journalism can ignore an event as significant as this, and we shall make it a focus of class discussion and reportage. The acts of terrorism and their  effects on implications for public policy will be the subject of your final project.

More broadly this course accepts Gene Roberts&' assumption that you cannot cover government adequately unless you watch over the entire process through which by fits and starts an idea becomes a law. It accepts Peter Bhatia&'s assertion that we need to get out of our "comfort zones" as we look at and write about public institutions. More than anything, it accepts the late Justice Hugo Black&'s conviction, which he expressed in the landmark Pentagon Papers case -- that we the press earn our right to be free by illuminating and exposing what goes on in government, from City Hall to Capitol Hill.

We shall look at how policy is made. We shall examine how political power is concentrated and devolved. California is an excellent laboratory for us. Since the Reagan years, political power has flowed steadily from Washington to the states and, in some cases, as with welfare reform, to the level of county governments. Never have local news organizations been more important for informing their readers and viewers as to how complex legislation, regulations and policies affect their lives. And yet all across America editors and news directors are subordinating serious public affairs journalism to stories that are more "relevant" to their audience or those that supposedly "connect" them to their communities, such as features on old people exercising in Spandex at the YWCA.

California offers an unparalleled observation point on the ultimate devolution of political power, from representative government to individual voters. Some call it plebiscitary democracy. No other state does more than this one with exercises in direct democracy such as initiatives and referendums by which legislation is enacted that can mandate how children are to be taught in schools, how drug offenders are to be dealt with, how property taxes are levied and so on. Who pays for these initiatives? Whose interests do they reflect and serve?

I intend to conduct our class as if it were an editorial board or news conference of a daily newspaper. We&'ll begin our sessions as if we, the editors of an imaginary newspaper, were convened to discuss and make judgments on the news that will go into the next day&'s paper. Hence, it is essential that all of you be able to talk about what has been in the news -- what you&'ve read, what you&'ve seen on TV, what you&'ve picked up from new media sources -- and to be able to assemble out of this broad array of material a hierarchy of news, justifiable on serious journalistic grounds.

In this way, we shall be developing a workable theory of news, one that gives priority to public issues journalism but does not insist that nothing else in the world is of interest. Additionally, it is important that you become familiar with competing theories of news that affect not only public issues reporting but other forms of journalism as well. I shall expect you to be regular readers of the professional journals: Columbia Journalism Review, American Journalism Review, Brill&'s Content, Nieman Reports, The American Editor and Editor & Publisher. Jim Romensko's Media News on the Poynter Institute's Web site should be a daily port of call for you.

One of the important distinctions between a newsroom and a classroom is that in the first many different stories are being reported and written at once, whereas in the second often all the students are working on the same story -- a story using the police blotter, say, or about a school board meeting. I shall try to simulate a newsroom environment by using a Web site for our class and treating it as if it were a newspaper, with each "issue" containing stories on many subjects. Your work will be "published" on that site, and as a class we shall discuss and edit the stories on it. Hence, you should regard every article you turn to be treated as live case material for the class.

In addition, we&'ll be discussing the readings for the day, some of which are contained in the required texts, some of which I&'ll be distributing to you. We&'ll be talking about your assignments. We&'ll be hearing from journalists with experience in public issues reporting and others whose work affects how we think about public issues.

BEAT ASSIGNMENTS:

Each of you will be covering a public issues beat. Those of you progressing on to C273, part two, with Prof. Dale Maharidge will continue to cover those beats in that course.

Hence, for these students, you'll need to select a beat that will hold your interest. You may choose the beat from the list that follows or you may select one of your own. In either case, my approval is required. You will be expected to write a preliminary beat memo, outlining the coverage that you anticipate. It will be necessary for you to cover the beat with regularity, to do the incremental journalism of which Gene Roberts speaks, even if no immediate story should result from your reporting on any given day. Consistency is the only way reporters can become authoritative about issues they cover.

Because I define public issues journalism broadly, as the coverage of the intersection where the government meets the governed, you will be responsible for reporting on both the actions of public officials and public agencies as well as their  effects on the lives of people. Hence, whatever your beat, it must encompass one or more governmental entities. But you also must pay attention to people -- that is, to the governed.

For example, if you intend to cover education, your beat must include not only the meetings of the local school board but what happens in the classroom and how parents are involved in educational issues. If you wish to cover housing, you must not only cover a housing agency but you also must write about the people who live in public or subsidized housing. You will need to obtain and report on public records relevant to your beat and to write about them in ways that are understandable and interesting to the ordinary reader. You will be at meetings, but you also will be out in the field, riding public transportation, walking through low-rent housing projects, spending time in public health clinics, getting to know teachers. Public policy and people are indivisible.

What follows is a list of beats. Some have been covered by previous public issues reporting students. To repeat, you may substitute one of your own choosing, but my approval is required before you begin reporting. In each case, you must clearly articulate in your memo the public affairs nature of your coverage. Here are some possibilities:

    
A beat centered in Palo Alto or elsewhere on the peninsula will be easier to service competently than one centered in San Francisco or Oakland. You will be going to meetings, conducting interviews, just checking in -- so as you select a beat and set down how you intend to report on it, be aware of the logistical issues that will arise in your coverage. Your relation to the beat should be one of constant attention. I expect you not to be an accidental tourist; nor, as Rick Bragg of The New York Times says, should you treat your beat as if you were on safari -- as if you were just passing through, shooting whatever targets of opportunity appeared in your gunsights and to hell with what happens after you've moved on.

I expect your beat memo to be grounded in the specifics of what your beat entails, what its public policy or public issues implications are and the manner in which you envision covering it. Hence, you should do adequate research into the subject before you write. What are the salient issues in your topic? Who are the main actors and will they be  accessible  to you? How specifically do you propose to cover the beat? What are two or three stories that you would do immediately? The due date for the memo will be announced at the first class.

DEADLINES, GRADES, ATTENDANCE, EXAMINATIONS AND PROJECTS:

Deadlines on your stories, unless otherwise negotiated, will be the beginning of the class period on which the pieces are due. I say "otherwise negotiated" because unforeseen problems and opportunities occasionally arise and I expect you, as journalists, to take them into consideration. However, it is mandatory that you talk to me about these circumstances. I expect deadlines to be met, but I also take into account the balance between the value of timeliness and a complete story. At this level of journalism, though, my priority almost always is timeliness. Keep that in mind.

In any class involving writing, grading is an imprecise science. About 30 percent of your grade will be on class discussion and participation, 50 percent on your regular reporting assignments and 20 percent on your final project. In terms of the discussion, I place a lot of emphasis on your preparedness, on the incisiveness of your contribution, on the important but hard to quantify effect of your comments and observations upon the energy and success of the entire class as it engages the news.

In grading the writing, basically an A is awarded for pieces that reflect high standards and are publishable as turned in (or with very slight editing). B's are given for work that is publishable with moderate editing or require only a little more work. C's are for work that may find its way into the paper (or on the air) with editing but that otherwise displays little out of the ordinary in terms of reporting, flair, originality, organization, etc. D's and F's represent work that is not publishable without heavy editing or rewriting or otherwise is unacceptable.

Your work in all phases must reflect high journalistic and ethical standards. If you encounter any ethical issues in your reporting or writing, you need to discuss them with me. Plagiarism is not only an offense against the Stanford honor code but a serious violation of professional mores. I have encountered plagiarism in my teaching, as well as in my professional life, and I do not tolerate it in either environment.

I am interested in your development. I look for progress, so grades for work later in the course will be given greater emphasis than grades for work early on. Since participation is such a significant part of the evaluation process, absences will affect your grade. If you need to be away from class, let me know beforehand. If work for some other class conflicts with your responsibilities to this one, I also need to know that in advance.

There will be neither a midterm nor a final examination. I expect from you a final project in the form of a 2,000-word piece of news analysis, involving original reporting, on a significant issue related to the acts of terrorism. This story will be due at our final class meeting.

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