A2

Your SECOND BEAT REPORT assignment is to turn in a print or broadcast version of a second news story on your beat, however this assignment is worth twice as much as the last because this one involves two more requirements:

1. CORA ELEMENT: This assignment is based on your same beat, and is also a news type story, but one of the main focus reveals in your story is some type of data you obtained via a Colorado Open Records Act Request, courtesy of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition:  https://coloradofoic.org/create-and-send-a-public-records-request/ (链接到外部网站。)

2. VISUAL ELEMENT: to go along with your piece. If it is for PRINT, then include 1-2 photos with complete and properly written captions and photographer credits. Either you may take the photos, or, find photos available on free photo sharing sites such as  www.Unsplash.com (链接到外部网站。)  where photographers upload content for free but require you use credit.

This assignment has a two week minimum turn-around-time (TAT), because immediately leaving this class, you will be filing a Colorado Open Records Request (CORA) For PRINT, this should be approximately 500 words. For BROADCAST, this should be approximately 1min 30 secs to 2 minutes. On this first assignment, I expect to see at least 2-to-3 quotes or soundbites. Photos or visuals are not yet required, simplify the assignment itself. This assignment is worth 20 points of your final grade.

Here are some resources, which are either linked here and/or in the FILES section of Canvas.

They include:

· How to write a lead  - good article on why "grabbing" your audience right out of the gate is so important

· News Report Planning Template - if it's been a while since you've written a news article, this is a great way to organize the material you've gathered, for both print and broadcast, and put it into a cohesive, digestible sketch before putting pen to paper.

· News Writing for Print Tips (链接到外部网站。) : Excellent article about the basics of print writing, the Inverted Pyramid, and how to know what to include - and in what order - in a print story.

· What is in a PRINT News Article - EXPLAINED  (链接到外部网站。) : This document explains the parts of a news article, including headline, subheadline, byline, dateline, copy, etc. This example is approximately 250 words. Most assignments for this class will be twice this long at 500 words.

· TEMPLATES: Both of the following template links are located in the SYLLABUS and in the assignment itself:

· Broadcast News Template  (链接到外部网站。) : This template uses the side-by-side broadcast news format in Google Docs (or the version in FILES is a MS Word .docx) which you can copy and utilize for your story. As mentioned in class, I request that you write the whole story, from anchor toss, to anchor take-back.

· Print News Template  (链接到外部网站。) : This template is a simple print outline for your story, which requires a headline, a subheadline, a byline, dateline, and the copy and content of approximately 500 words.

We will talk about this assignment at length in class on Monday, September 20, 2021.

This assignment is due via upload to CANVAS by 11:59pm on Wednesday, October 13, 2021.