News and Notes: 6.3.11 The End

It's hard to believe the year is nearly over. The seniors are ready to leave for a week of activities and graduation practice, while the underclassmen get ready for finals (or breathe a sigh of relief that finals are done). Thanks for all of your hard work this year!

Seniors: Your final is due before you leave your class period today.

Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors:
     Your final will be an audit of the most recent issue of the paper. The purpose of an audit it to analyze the type and quality of coverage using a variety of benchmarks. For this assignment, you will be creating a report, complete with graphs and charts, to bring to your final.
     First, review the demographics of Hercules High School by going to DataQuest.
     Next, for level select SCHOOL, for subject select ENROLLMENT.
     Click Submit
     Next, make sure 2010-2011 is selected at the year, then type in HERCULES.
     Make sure Hercules High is selected
     Review Enrollment by ethnicity, grade and gender.
     **NOTE: The numbers for freshmen in all categories is off (as is our total enrollment), but the percentages are roughly correct. For the purposes of this assignment, the percentages are close enough.

     Now you are ready to begin your audit. Go through the June 3 issue of the paper and examine the way we cover our campus and its students. Create a chart for each of the following:

• number of stories for news, feature, arts, sports
• number of sports stories versus the number of spring sports
• number of stories featuring males, number of stories featuring females
• number of stories featuring freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors (yes, this issue will be heavy on senior coverage because of the Top 10 page and the doubletruck on seniors). 
• number of stories featuring students of various ethnicities: African American, Hispanic, Asian, Filipino, White (these are our major groups...in some instances, this section might not be complete because you don't know the ethnicity of a student).
• number of stories citing an expert or authority figure on our campus, number of stories citing an expert or authority figure NOT on our campus (and where they are from).
• one more chart of your choosing that must be significantly different from those listed above. It must be something about the stories and the way they are covered. 

Charts may be combined. For example, you might have ONE chart that shows the number of stories featuring each grade level (that would probably be a bar graph). You may put more than one chart on a page. Clearly label all charts.

Now for the hard part. Analyze our coverage. Compare our coverage to our demographics. What are we doing well? Who are we covering well? Who is being left out of the paper? What are we not doing well in terms of coverage? AND what should we do about it (this would be an action plan to remedy any areas of poor coverage)? Solutions may be creative, but must be reasonable. The analysis should be 2-3 pages long, not including the charts.

Put your audit portfolio neatly bound in a folder in the following order:

1. Cover page that includes your name and the title of the assignment "Titan Template Audit, June 3, 2011 Issue"
2. Charts as described above
3. Analysis as described above 

This assignment must be typed and turned in as a hard copy. You cannot turn it in late. Bring this audit portfolio to class on Monday (7:20-9:15) and be prepared to discuss it. We will be formulating a plan to move our paper forward to meet the information needs of more of our readers.

News and Notes: 6.2.11

Seniors: review yesterday's announcements for your final. It is due tomorrow in hard copy by the end of your class period.

Distribution of the final issue of the paper is tomorrow! Thank you incoming and outgoing editors for making that happen.

Underclassmen, you will get instructions for your final tomorrow.

News and Notes: 6.1.11

Today is yearbook distribution day. No, you don't get your book early just because you're on the newspaper staff.

Seniors this is your FINAL: Collect a minimum of three pieces of writing, but not more than six pieces you did this year (or evidence of other work you did for the paper). For each piece include an analysis of your work. In other words, what worked about it and what could you have done better? Finally, include a piece (form is your choice...i.e. letter, essay, etc.) about how the skills you learned in newspaper can help you regardless of the type of career path you take. Put together neatly in a folder in the following order:

• cover with name and Newspaper Final 
• piece 1
• analysis 1
• piece 2
• analysis 2
• piece 3 
• analysis 3
• reflection on newspaper skills and the future

Analyses and reflection should be between 3/4 and 1 full page typed. Do not exceed two pages for each analysis piece. DUE FRIDAY, JUNE 3 by the end of your class period.

Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors will receive their final (which is different) on Friday.