Government & politics assignment

Reporting Assignment No. 4
Due: March 30
Government/politics

For this assignment, you will cover some event or issue that relates to local politics. Fortunately with an election coming up on April 5, you won’t have any trouble finding something to write about.

In most newsrooms political reporters are the top dogs, with the highest salaries, most prestige and choicest assignments. The best political reporters have a knack for taking complicated topics and rendering them in ways that allow ordinary citizens to understand them and come to some conclusion about them.

The key to being good at this is to know something yourself about the issues at hand so that you can do the reporting that allows you to provide insights to your readers. To write a successful political story, you need to do a fair amount of research before the event that you are covering occurs.

It’s also a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of the conventions of the genre. To that end, you will closely read an article from a national publication on the political maneuvering surrounding the Terri Schiavo case and answer the following questions (to be posted in the class blog, where you should also post a link to the article you read):

1. How would you describe the central controversy here?
2. Webster’s describes politics as being about “competing interests.” In the Schiavo case what are the competing interests for the individuals involved?
3. What are the competing interests for the political factions involved?
4. Political issues are often complex. Did the article you read bring out complexities of the case?
5. Was the level of complexity too much, too little or about right for this issue?
6. Explain your answer to question No. 5.
7. What was the best part of the story, i.e. something you should try to do in your own reporting?
8. What was a weakness of the story, i.e. something you should try to avoid in your own reporting.

If at all possible, I would like everyone in the class to attend the campus forum that will be held Wednesday, March 23, in Reeve 202 and write an article about either the Council candidates or the mayoral candidates based on their performance in that forum.

If you cannot attend the forum, you should still write an article about the city elections.

In either case, your task will be to select what you think will be the deciding issue in the campaign, explain it to readers and contrast the candidates’ positions.

The point of emphasis for this assignment will be your ability to illuminate complexity, that is to present a complicated issue in enough detail for your readers to come to conclusion about it while not overwhelming or confusing your reader.

As a first step you will need to educate yourself about the issues in the campaign.

A rough draft is due March 28. We will meet in small groups March 30 to review your articles.