Introduction: What is enterprise reporting, especially in the context of sports?

Journalism has always gotten a bad rap from people who don’t want a subject investigated. In fairness, plenty of journalists have gotten stories wrong, intentionally or out of laziness or failure to take care to verify their reportage. In sports, this can be particularly challenging because of the intense relationship fans have with their teams, leading to abuse and sometimes real danger for journalists who go deep on particular stories. However, this is the core mission of journalism: to tell the stories of how circumstances affect people, even if those circumstances include cherished social institutions. In short, journalists need to tell the stories that need to be told. When they don’t, society and individuals can both suffer.

There is investigative reporting, and there is enterprise reporting: the former is a subset of the latter. We may or may not be doing investigations (i.e., looking hard for evidence of purported wrongdoing) in this class, but deep reporting sometimes feels like investigating.

Learning objectives:

• To ascertain the current state of enterprise reporting.
• To develop a set of resources to use as models for your own work.
• To understand the steps that journalists go through in developing enterprise pieces.

Steps to completion:

Background:

• Spend time at a sports setting and find someone or something that seems out of place. If it’s someone, conduct a short interview with that person. If it’s something, find someone whom you can interview about the something. Then write 300 words about the someone or something, with quotes. Describe, identify and place the someone or something in the scene. Do not include personal pronouns or second-person references in your writing (they can be within quotes). Use a maximum of two “to be” verbs. Post this piece in Dropbox Paper and share it with me. It is due August 15.
• Write a short profile with links to and summaries of at least two stories written by a journalist you admire. Explain why you admire this person, and briefly summarize how you believe s/he reported the stories you reference here. Post using the Module 1 category and the tag “hero.” It is due August 17.
• Watch Spotlight during class August 18. If you can’t finish the whole thing, find time over the weekend. As noted below, live-tweet it.
• Vox: Check out Vox’s Card Stacks (http://www.vox.com/cards). What’s one thing in there you didn’t know? Is it presented well? Write up a short blog post and post it using the Module 1 category and the tag “vox”. It is due August 22.
• Write a short piece chronicling what you remember about your reaction when the news about Jerry Sandusky at Penn State broke. Then, read the Patriot News’ work on the Jerry Sandusky case at Penn State: http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/sara-ganim-and-members-patriot-news-staff. Finally, add a few sentences to your blog about what was most surprising, gut-wrenching, or interesting about the coverage looking back on it now, also by August 22 using the Module 1 category and tagging it “psu.”

Reflective

• Class discussion August 11: Day 1 and getting set up
• Class discussion August 16: Review syllabus and setting assignments
• Class discussion August 18: Watch Spotlight and live-tweet it using the hashtag #gradysports_e
• Class discussion August 23: Discussing Sandusky, Vox, and team and individual assignments.
• Class discussion August 25: Work time to plan team assignments

Exploratory

• Think about the things that have confused you or surprised you in sports. That could be how a particular kind of decision is made, why something is done in an unusual time or manner, or a process like recruiting or team selection. Write it up as a short blog post, linking to at least two stories about the subject, and post in your personal category using the tag “surprising” by August 24.
• Define that topic and outline a series of questions you’d ask to develop a feature, perhaps one that looks like a Vox card stack. Write up those questions in a personal category post using the tag “questions” by August 26.

Introduction: You can’t just “go do a story” on one of these topics. Instead, it takes a lot of deep thinking and forethought. So we’re going to practice deep thinking and idea development here.

Learning objectives:

• Practicing the concept of saving string
• Looking deeply at what’s been done before
• Developing questions
• Developing a process for answering them

Steps to completion:

Background:

• Watch research video (which you may have seen before): 

• Find one archival story about your high school (I suggest using NewsBank for this one) from 2009 or before and write a short blog summary in the coursework category using the “schooldays” tag by August 29.
• Read Clark’s Writing Tools Part IV. Write a short blog post in the coursework category explaining how you keep track of material you need for a story, particularly in light of what Clark calls doing your homework and composting/saving string. If you don’t have an established method, describe how you plan to keep up with such material in this class and beyond. Tag your post “string” and publish it by  August 29.
• Read all three parts of John Branch’s piece Derek Boogard: A Boy Learns to Brawl. As you read, keep count of the sources cited. Also, keep track of the source types (friend or family member, teammate, coach, official, doctor, other expert, public record, private record, etc.) Type up your list in a Dropbox Paper document and share it with me by August 31.

Reflective:

• Class discussion August 30: Research and organization
• Class discussion September 1: Boogard and story development

Exploratory

• Take the issue or topic you considered above for your personal story and how you might formulate the questions that could drive your reporting. Using LexisNexis and NewsBank, find five stories that have been written about this topic between 2010 and 2015. Write the questions and summarize the stories in a post in your personal category using the tag “background” by August 31.
  
• Come up with at least five story ideas for your personal story (one paragraph per idea) and post in your personal category using the tag “brainstorming” by September 2.
• With your team, develop a story budget with one or two questions that each member will explore through reporting and post in your team category by September 2.

Introduction: 

As you might have figured out from the previous assignments, there is more information about various kinds of organization than you can shake a stick at online. The question is how you go about making sure that you get the right information, and how you can use it to tell a story.

Learning objectives:

• Finding information online
• Analyzing such information effectively
• Displaying information to tell interesting or surprising stories

Steps to completion:

Background:

• Go to GuideStar and register for a (free) account. I will assign you a Division I conference. Navigate to the page for that conference and find its most recent IRS form 990 and write up the following information using TablePress. Post it in the Module 3 category with the tag “conference” by Sept. 5.
  • Name of conference
  • Year of report
  • Revenue broken out by source
  • Expenses broken out by type
  • Distributions to members
  • Salary of commissioner
  • Names, titles, and salaries of 2 employees with the highest pay
• I also will assign you a team from UGA, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, or Georgia Southern. Go to Open Georgia and find names, titles, and salaries for all coaches affiliated directly with that team. Create a second table using TablePress and post it in the Module 3 category with the tag “team” also by Sept. 5.
• Read the following articles:
  • Tufte
  • Visualizing Trouble
  • Cairo
• Find a story that uses infographics and data to tell a story. The New York Times’ Upshot vertical and FiveThirtyEight are good sources. Write a blog post in the Module 3 category explaining how that story uses or fails to use the principles discussed in the Tufte, HBR, and/or Cairo articles, using the tag “graphics principles” by Sept. 7.
• Working with classmates I will assign, develop two graphics, one comparing conference financial positions and the other comparing team salaries, using the tool of your choice. Post it in the Module 3 category with the tag “conference graphic” or “team graphic” as appropriate by Sept. 12.
• Read the following two articles from The Chronicle of Higher Education (you may need to be on campus to access):
  • The $10 Billion Sports Tab
  • Confessions of a Fixer
• Come up with three questions for author Brad Wolverton about these two projects, especially about how he reported them, organized the information he came across, and particularly in the context of the sports tab story, how the team found stories in the data and presented them. Tweet at him (@bradwolverton) using the #gradysports_e hashtag by Sept. 14.

Reflective:

• Class discussion Sept. 6: Conference and team comparisons
• Class discussion Sept. 8: Conceptualizing graphics for conferences and teams//story memos
• Class discussion Sept. 13: Visualizing graphics
• Class discussion Sept. 15: Brad Wolverton: reporting with data and people

Exploratory

• Develop a story memo for your personal project, laying out the key questions you want to ask and how you plan to answer them, i.e. the basic structure of your main story and the complementary elements you envision, i.e. graphics, multimedia, sidebars, etc. Post to your personal page using the “personal story memo” tag by Sept. 16.

Introduction:

This is going to be a little different as Prof. Herndon and I are partnering on offering an in-depth stats boot camp for Grady students. We aim to engage you with understanding how vital numbers are to modern work in any kind of journalism, including sports. We’ll have a couple of sessions on stats, sports, and understanding how to use the former to tell stories about the latter.

Learning objectives:

• Understanding how to use data and statistics to tell sports stories
• Understanding the basic principles of statistics in the context of journalism

Steps to completion:

Background:

• Tableau information TK
• Silver Chapter 3, “All I care about are Ws and Ls”
• Class session with Jacob Pomrenke of SABR and Dash Davidson with Tableau, Thursday, Sept. 22
• Basic Statistics for Journalists (9:05-9:55am or 10:10-11am Friday, Sept. 23)
• Extra Credit: Intermediate statistics for journalists, (12:20-1:10pm Friday, Sept. 23)

Reflective:

• Using a stats database like http://stats.nba.com, come up with a defensible story about why a player, a team or a game finished the way it did during the previous season. Use a Tableau graphic to illustrate your point. Post your story to Module 4 by Sept. 26.

Exploratory

• Team budgets due Sept. 19
• Team conferences during class Sept. 20
• Revised story memo due Sept. 23
• OPTIONAL: Develop a plan for using advanced statistics for your team or personal package.
  

Introduction: For many of the kinds of stories you’re going to be doing, you’ll need to know how to get certain kinds of information, primarily but not exclusively online. Some information is only a Google away, but a lot of it has to be requested, formally or informally. In this module, we will talk about proprietary information, public information, and the differences between the two, and we’ll discuss how to get them in different forms.

Learning objectives:

• Finding legal information online
• Filing FOIA requests
• Verifying information
• FOIA and ethics

Steps to completion:

Background:

• Read over the following as well as finding news coverage on your own of the recent change to Georgia’s Open Records Act regarding collegiate athletics departments. Write a blog post in the Module 5 category using the tag “open records” explaining the new law and whether you believe it’s fair to journalists, other records requesters, and the public’s interest by Sept. 28.
  • Georgia FAF model request
  • UGA’s open records policy
  • Fetty Wap story
• Read over the complaint in the Jenkins, et al. v. NCAA, et al. case and write up a short blog in Module 4 summarizing the case and potential stories arising from it using the tag “Jenkins” by Oct. 3.
• PENDING: Read stories by CBS Sports reporter Jon Solomon and tweet three questions at him (@jonsolomoncbs) about how he got information he used in at least one story by Oct. 3.

Reflective:

• Class discussion Sept. 29: FOIA, open records, fishing vs. searching
• PENDING: Class discussion Oct. 4: Guest speaker: Jon Solomon

Exploratory

• Go over the individual storyboard and fill in/edit the missing sections for your story by Oct. 3.
• For your topic and your team’s topic, make lists of potential records you might need to explore your questions. Write up a blog post discussing those records and how you might go about retrieving them. Summarize in the individual storyboard linked above Post in the appropriate category using the tag “open records to get” by Oct. 5.

 

Introduction: Data and records are helpful, but ultimately stories are about people and must be told by people. In the case of enterprise stories, people will either tell you stories that you weave into a broader narrative or they put information you already have in the broader context. Extending what we all discussed in multiplatform and other courses, we will talk about identifying the best and best variety of sources to help you tell the story you want to tell.

Learning objectives:

• Identifying people with firsthand knowledge of the subject you’re working on
• Identifying people who can provide community context for the subject you’re working on
• Identifying experts who can provide much broader context for the general issues you’re dealing with

Steps to completion:

Background:

• CNN guide to interviewing: http://www.cnn.com/2010/IREPORT/10/01/interview.tips.irpt/
• CJR art of interviewing: http://www.cjr.org/realtalk/the_art_of_the_interview.php
• Conduct and transcribe at least two interviews for your personal story by Oct. 7.
• Read Gary Smith’s profile of the late Pat Head Summitt and make a list of the people you think he interviewed for this story: http://www.si.com/vault/1998/03/02/239460/eyes-of-the-storm-when-tennessees-whirlwind-of-a-coach-pat-summitt-hits-you-with-her-steely-gaze-you-get-a-dose-of-the-intensity-that-has-carried-the-lady-vols-to-five-ncaa-titles. Bring it to class Oct. 13

Reflective:

• Class discussion October 11: Individual story conferences
• Class discussion October 13: Discuss Smith piece and transcripts

Exploratory

• Review the interviews you’ve done so far for your story. Come up with categories for the folks you’ve interviewed and look for holes. Who else do you need to find? Write up your list of interviews and to-be-interviews in a post in your personal blog category along with your critique by October 12 with the tag “interviews.” NOTE: interview lists must be lists of real people not just examples (e.g. “coach at a local high school”).
• Do the same as a team, comparing notes to come up with a single post by October 14, also tagged interviews.”

Introduction:

As we wrap up the reporting process and concentrate on writing, this is an opportunity to review the best-structured stories and consider options for planning and structuring your own stories.

Learning objectives:

• Consider your own writing habits and plans.
• Study structures other writers have used in their stories.
• Organize and plan your own stories.

Steps to completion:

Background:

• Read “The Things that Carried Him” and develop a paragraph by paragraph outline of it, summarizing each graf. Post in Module 7 with the tag “outline” by Oct. 17.
• John McPhee: Beyond the picnic-table crisis
• Clark, Part III
• Find a story from the Don van Natta list or elsewhere. Find an example of the advice offered by Clark and write a short blog post explaining in Module 7 with the tag “structure advice” by Oct. 19.

Reflective:

• Class discussion Oct. 18: Planning stories
• Class discussion Oct. 20: Structuring stories
• Class discussion Oct. 25: Writing plans
• Oct. 27: Workday

Exploratory

• Initial draft (top matter, nut graf, overall structure) due for team stories Nov. 4
• Initial draft (top matter, nut graf, overall structure) due for individual stories Nov. 11

Introduction:

Editing is not just a process of tweaking and fussing over language, but of ensuring that the story conveyed is the story intended, that the story is fair to all subjects, and that all information is accurate.

Learning objectives:

• Reviewing the failures of editing
• Considering modern editing structures
• Practicing peer editing
• Practicing self-editing

Steps to completion:

Background:

• Read (or reread) Rolling Stone’s account of “rape culture” at UVa.
• Read the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism’s report on the story.
• Write a short blog post detailing what you think the last moment in the reporting/writing/editing process might have been that would have prevented the debacle of this story in Module 8, tag “UVA” by Nov. 7.
• The Artful Edit, chapter 2
• The Artful Edit, chapter 3

Reflective:

• Class discussion November 8: UVa and the role of editing; concepts of micro- and macro-editing
• Class discussion November 10: Work time: micro editing and macro editing your own work

Exploratory

• Final draft of team package due Nov. 18
• Final draft of individual story by Dec. 2

Introduction:

Learning objectives:

Steps to completion:

Background:

Reflective:

• Class discussion
• Class discussion
• Class discussion

Exploratory