Making News: Feature or Profile Story

COM Students:

This assignment requires you to create a publication for various media platforms that is driven by original photographs and video that you take in your local area. Your publications will be designed for real-world businesses or organizations in your community, city, or state. The imagery that you choose must be relevant to the nature of the business or organization and must be designed to reach the audience that the entity serves.

JRN Students:

This assignment requires you to write a news story for various media platforms that is driven by original photographs and video that you take surrounding significant events in your local area. Your news stories will be geared towards real-world media outlets in your community, city, or state. The imagery and topics you choose must be of local, state, regional, or national importance but must be designed to reach the audience that the media outlet serves.

Important: Please read the instructions below carefully, and follow them according to your area of study. If you are a COM student, your instructions fall at the front of the “or,” and if you are a JRN student, you should follow the instructions after the “or” in each criteria. If there is no “or” included in a criteria, it applies to all students, regardless of area of study.

For this assignment, you must

Explore information about a business or organization that is beneficial for the public and promotes that entity or examine a topic that is current, controversial, and of human interest.
Create a communication for a real-world print publication, digital publication, and a television broadcast tailored to a specific audience of a business or organization or develop a news story for a real-world print publication, digital publication, and a television broadcast tailored to a specific audience.
Incorporate visual and interactive elements to enhance each news story or publication.
Present a variety of ideas related to the entity for which the publication is designed or differentiate between various facts and opinions on the topic in the news story.

The Print News Story

Must adhere to the Newspaper template
for the news story or the Print Publication template
for the profile story.
Must follow the standards of Associated Press (AP) Style. (For guidance on AP style, COM majors should consult the appendices in the Strategic Writing text from COM 345 and JRN majors should consult the AP Stylebook.)
Must be at least 300 words but no more than 350 words.
Must use at least three sources of information:
The opinion of an expert related to the publication or at least one verbal interview (in person, by phone, or by video conference) with a specific, expert opinion on the topic.
An additional opinion from an expert related to the publication or at least one varying opinion on the topic in the form of an additional interview conducted by the student or from a credible source where another person was interviewed with an opposing opinion.
At least one statistical and/or factual piece of information about the topic from a credible source.
Must include at least two original visual images.

The Digital News Story

Must use PowerPoint according to the instructions in the tutorial below:

JRN Majors: News Story (Links to an external site.)

COM Majors: Profile Story (Links to an external site.)

Must follow the standards of Associated Press (AP) Style. (For guidance on AP style, COM majors should consult the appendices in the Strategic Writing text from COM 345 and JRN majors should consult the AP Stylebook.)
Must be at least 300 words but no more than 350 words.
Must use at three sources of information:
At least one verbal interview (in person, by phone, or by video conference) with a specific, expert opinion on the topic
At least one varying opinion on the topic in the form of an additional interview conducted by the student or from a credible source where another person was interviewed with an opposing opinion
At least one statistical and/or factual piece of information about the topic from a credible source
Must include at least one original visual image and at least one interactive element.

The Broadcast Story Script

Must adhere to the Broadcast Script Template
for the broadcast story OR broadcast story.
In order to complete this assignment, you will use a platform called Screencast-O-Matic (Links to an external site.). Please review the Screencast-O-Matic Quick-Start Guide (Links to an external site.) instructions in order to get started. This guide will familiarize you with the tool and review how to upload your video to the classroom. If you choose to use another video recording tool for your submission, please follow the guide instructions to upload an MP4 video file into your classroom using the same steps. Important Note: All submissions require an upload of the video to the classroom. The video will be submitted for grading via the Week 5 – Final Project Video Submission. Submission of a link to a video does not fulfill the submission requirements.
Must be at least two minutes and include at least one minute of original video footage recorded and submitted via the Week 5 – Final Project Video Submission. (Footage can be divided into segments for the script.)
Must use at least three sources of information:
At least one verbal interview (in person, by phone, or by video conference) with a specific, expert opinion on the topic. (Note: The interview should only be written into the script with no on-camera presence).
At least one varying opinion on the topic in the form of an additional interview conducted by the student or from a credible source where another person was interviewed with an opposing opinion
At least one statistical and/or factual piece of information about the topic from a credible source