Investigative Reporting (CCJN 3365) Spring 2012 2-3:20 pm/TTh/Umphrey Lee Bldg., Rm.

278

For nothing is lost, nothing is ever lost. There is always the clue, the canceled check, the smear of lipstick, the footprint in the canna bed, the condom on the park path, the twitch in the old wound, the baby shoes dipped in bronze, the taint in the blood stream. And all times are one time, and all those dead in the past never lived before our definition gives them life, and out of the shadow their eyes implore us. That is what all of us historical researchers believe. And we love truth. -- Robert Penn Warren, All the Kings Men

In a society that is more connected than ever, investigative journalists that were once shrouded in mystery are now taking advantage of their online community relationships to help scour documents and uncover potential wrongs in many respects, social media is enabling watchdog journalism to prosper. -- Vadim Lavrusik, Mashable.com Instructors: Jake Batsell Office: #282C, Umphrey Lee Phone: (214) 768-1915 Email: jbatsell@smu.edu Office Hours: 11 a.m.-noon, T/Th/Fri. Course blog: http://j3365.tumblr.com Twitter hashtag: #j3365 Course Objectives and Requirements: * Students will demonstrate knowledge regarding some of this countrys best investigative reporters. To meet this objective, you must be prepared at each class to discuss the work of these reporters and their impact. * Students will show they possess the skills needed to produce quality investigative stories for multiple platforms. To meet this objective, you must produce two enterprise stories that are solidly researched and well-written, while also empowering readers to experience the story in at least one multimedia format. * Students will demonstrate competence in data-driven and social media reporting methods using online tools such as Google Fusion Tables, Twitter and Storify. Craig Flournoy #211, Umphrey Lee (214) 768-3395 cflourno@smu.edu 1-2:30 pm, Monday & Wednesday.

2 Course description: The purpose of this course is to teach you how to do stories that can make a differencehow to find them, report them, write them, and empower your readers to dig even deeper by using online tools. You will learn by doing investigative pieces. This is the technical or how-to part of this course. This course also will acquaint you with some of this countrys best investigative reporters. You will see how an unlikely collection of charactersa novelist, a biologist, an oil trader-turned-investigative reporter, students at a nondescript Texas college, reporters at a small North Carolina newspaperwrote killer stories that exposed injustice and brought about reform. You also will keep your finger on the pulse of the best investigative journalism produced worldwide this semester by regularly monitoring the Twitter hashtag #muckreads. These elements are the content part of this course. An essential part of investigative reporting cannot be taughtpassion for your subject. This is entirely up to you. If you dont care about something, we strongly suggest you get out of this course. By the same token, if you are interested in preserving the status quo, this course has nothing to offer you. By its very nature, investigative reporting involves challenging the status quo on behalf of the little guycomforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. It is not about attending meetings or covering speeches. It is about doing the story that no one else will do. Required Texts: * Muckraking! The Journalism that Changed America, Judith & William Serrin, editors. * Chapter 9: Collecting and Using Data, from Producing Online News: Digital Skills, Stronger Stories, by Ryan Thornburg. $4.25 for full chapter and online module. * Online readings will be specified on the course blog. Required Online Accounts: * Twitter (public), Google Docs, Scribd, Storify. Class Policies and Procedures The following policies have been adopted by the Division of Journalism. By enrolling in this class you are agreeing to the following terms and conditions. Attendance: We take roll every day. If you miss the first day of class, we may drop you. If you have more than three unexcused absences, we may drop you or give you an F. You are responsible for contacting us within 24 hours of an absence. We will consider the absence unexcused unless you provide a doctor's note or other valid reason such as participation in a SMU-sponsored activity or observance of certain religious holidays. The SMU Health Centers policy on giving forms for excused absences can be found at SMUpolicy. There is a PDF file you can download and submit to us for consideration of an excused absence. This form must be filled out fully for us to consider your absence as excused. If you consult a physician for an illness and receive specific certification for a recovery time, absences will be excused if we are given a form from the physicians office. Turn off cell phones and pagers before class. The SMU honor code governs course work.

3 Deadlines: Cast in stone. If you fail to meet a deadline, you will get one letter grade off for each day the assignment is late. After four days, an automatic F. If you have an excused absence, you must turn in the assignment at the next class. Grading: Based on three stories, an oral presentation, and a participation grade. Investigative piece #1 30% (Draft 1=10%; Draft 2=15%; Multimedia element=5%) Investigative piece #2 (Draft 1=10%; Draft 2=15%; Multimedia element=5%) Profile of investigative journalist (Profile=10%; Oral presentation=5%; Storify=5%) 30%

20%

Participation 20% (Includes attendance, readings, homework, guest speakers, weekly #muckreads voting and presentation, class data assignment) The first two stories will be investigative pieces. You may work with a partner. You are to submit a first and a second draft. After submitting your second draft, you have 48 hours to submit a multimedia element such as a Web video package, interactive graphic or How I Got the Story recap on Storify. Each of you also will write a profile of an investigative journalist. It will count for 10 percent of your grade. You also will make an oral presentation about this person and provide a Storify recap of your journalists career highlights. Grading Scale: 93-100=A 80-82=B67-69=D+ 90-92=A77-79=C+ 63-66=D 87-89=B+ 73-76=C 60-62=D83-86=B 70-72=CBelow 60=F Additional grading information: As are awarded for excellent work. Very good work receives a B; average work a C; below average a D (per university regulations). We will be happy to discuss your work with you. A formal process is available to protest a grade. Story Preparation: Submit an electronic copy of your first draft with your name, the course name and a slug (a one- or two-word title that identifies the piece) single-spaced in the upper left-hand corner. Put your nut graph just below this. Failure to do this will cost you three points. Double-space the story. Number each page. Submit an electronic copy of your second draft. Submit a hard copy of the second draft with the first draft attached. Failure to do this will cost you three points. Sourcing: We require multiple sources on each reporting assignment. You also must provide attribution for the information in your story so we know where you got it. To help us fact-check stories, you must turn in a list with each sources name and phone number (or email address). For paper and online sources, include a general reference in

4 your copy (according to an online journalism Web site) and a more detailed explanation in your list (www.cjr.org). Failure to do this will cost you three points. You are required to use at least five hyperlinks in your stories as a way of citing online sources. At least two of these links must be primary documents. Participation Grade: Your grade will be based on these areas: Do you come to class regularly? Are you on time? Have you read the assigned readings? Do you do a satisfactory job on the brief written homework assignments? Do you participate in class discussions? Do you ask questions of guest speakers? During class, do not use computers to surf the Web, check e-mail or log on to Facebook for reasons unrelated to class. If you do, it will lower your participation grade. #muckreads: Make a habit of monitoring the Twitter hashtag #muckreads, an ongoing collection of watchdog reporting curated by ProPublica. Every Sunday by 7 p.m., visit http://j.mp/muckreads and nominate your #MuckRead of the week. Well begin each Tuesday class with a 10-minute discussion of the weekly winner, led by an opening synopsis/presentation by a member of the class. When preparing your #muckreads presentation, consider the following questions: 1) Whats the upshot of the story? 2) What impact is it having? 3) Does the story empower readers with online tools to dig deeper? If so, how? The objective of the #muckreads assignment is to inspire you by highlighting current examples of watchdog reporting. Your weekly #muckreads votes and your opening presentation will factor into your class participation grade. Plagiarism & Fabrication: Plagiarism is stealing someone's words or ideas and passing them off as your own. Fabrication is making stuff up. Both strike at the heart of the journalistic process, where proper attribution and fact checking are paramount. If you plagiarize an assignment or fabricate information in this class, you will fail that assignment. In addition, I will refer the matter to the SMU Honors Council. Disability Accommodations: Students needing academic accommodations for a disability must first contact Rebecca Marin, the coordinator of services for students with disabilities (214-768-4557) to establish eligibility for accommodations. Then schedule an appointment with one of us. (See University Policy No. 2.4.) Excused Absences for University Extracurricular Activities: Students participating in an officially sanctioned, scheduled University extracurricular activity will be given the opportunity to make up class assignments. It is the responsibility of the student to make arrangements with the instructor prior to any missed scheduled examination or other missed assignment for making up the work. (University Undergraduate Catalogue) Religious Observance: Religiously observant students wishing to be absent on holidays that require missing class should notify me in writing at the beginning of the semester. We will discuss ways of making up any work missed. (See University Policy No. 1.9.)

5 Class Schedule This schedule may change during the semester. Any changes will be discussed in class. Week 1Finding stories. 1. Tues., Jan. 17 Course introduction. Syllabus review. Homework: Come up with one or two story ideas and be prepared to discuss at next class. Read the Introduction to Muckraking and the Introduction to Homestead by William Serrin. Be prepared to discuss the following questions. Write an answer to one and post as a comment on the course blog by 9 pm Wed., Jan. 18. a. In Homestead, Serrin said that after several years as the labor reporter for the New York Times, he concluded he had done a poor job. Why? b. What is Serrins main point in his Introduction to Homestead? c. In the Introduction to Muckraking, William and Judith Serrin challenge one of the central standards of contemporary journalismobjectivity. They say all good reporters have agendas. Do you agree or disagree? Why? d. What is the central point in their Introduction to Muckraking? 2. Thurs., Jan. 19 Discuss story ideas. Discuss readings. First story assignment distributed in class. First draft due Thurs., Feb. 9. Homework: Write a summary of your proposed story. Include the thesis or nut graph (aka the most important thing). Also include a list of sources (paper, electronic and human). Upload your work to Google docs by 9 p.m. Mon., Jan. 23. Bring a copy to the next class. Read Nate Blakeslees An Isolated Incident in Texas Monthly (Feb. 2009). What is the main point of the story? Blakeslee focuses on Tom Stileswhy? What does the story suggest about how SMU deals with controversy? Be prepared to discuss. Week 2Asking the right question. 3. Tues., Jan. 24 Discuss story ideas. Discuss reading. Batsell on boiling your investigation down to a single question and the ethic of the link. Homework: Read Charles Russell on convict leasing in Georgia in 1908 (pp. 343-346); William Shepherd on the Triangle fire in New York in 1911 (pp. 29-31); John Steinbeck on migrant families in California in 1936 (pp. 9-12); and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the Centralia mine disaster in Illinois in 1947 (pp. 37-39). What do these stories have in common? How do the authors use detail and description to make their stories more powerful? Be prepared to discuss. Also, provide a story update. 4. Thurs., Jan. 26 Discuss readings. Homework: Read Vadim Lavrusik, How Investigative Journalism is Prospering in the Age of Social Media; Mercedes Bunz, How Investigative Reporting Makes Use of the Internet; Talking Points Memo, TPM Needs YOU to Comb Through Thousands of Pages; The Guardian, Investigate Your MPs Expenses; Texas Tribune government salaries.

Week 3Crowdsourcing, Transparency and Investigative Reporting as a Process 5. Tues., Jan. 31 Discuss readings. Homework: Be prepared on Thursday to give an update on your story with specifics. Our class has the opportunity to join The Texas Tribune and other journalism students for the 2012 Light of Day Project, a statewide investigative collaboration that will examine the finances of college athletics at Texas universities. For Tuesdays class, all students must read SMU j-student Steve Thompsons 2010 story, $93 Million and Counting; Taylor Branchs The Shame of College Sports from The Atlantic; and the Newsday article NCAA Talks Realignment, Paying Athletes. If you are interested in taking part in the Light of Day Project, please also read two writers ideas on how to reform the system -- Joe Nocera in the New York Times Magazine, Lets Start Paying College Athletes, and George Dohrmann in Sports Illustrated, Pay For Play. 6. Thurs., Feb. 2 Discuss your stories. Discuss reading. When it comes to college athletics, what are some investigative angles that would interest SMU readers and/or a general college audience? Homework: Work on your story. Bring an electronic draft to the next class. Week 4 Beat-based investigations 7. Tues., Feb. 7 Work on preliminary draft of your story in class. Homework: Beat-based investigations. Read American Journalism Review, Slow to React; Watch Breaking the Penn State Scandal on CNNs Reliable Sources; Read Nicholas Kristof, Fighting Back, One Brothel Raid at a Time; Watch PBS NewsHour segment Reporters Win Pulitzer for Exposing Corruption on Steroids in Bell, Calif. 8. Thurs., Feb. 9 Discuss reading. Homework: Complete first draft of story. Its due at the next class. Also read J-Lab press release, Storify Wins $10,000 Knight-Batten Award.

Week 5Guest speaker Emily Ramshaw 9. Tues., Feb. 14 Turn in first draft of your story. Discuss reading. Class exercise on using Storify as a tool for journalistic curation and transparency. Homework: Read investigative articles by Emily Ramshaw, editor of The Texas Tribune and a guest speaker at our next class. Ask a question. 10. Thurs., Feb. 16 Guest lecture by Emily Ramshaw. First draft of your story returned in class. Second draft is due Tues., Feb. 28. Homework: Read Sam Houston State University rape stories. What strikes you about the stories? This was not a planned series. How did the students decide what to do next?

Week 6-Dont expect much of these students. They couldnt get into UT or A&M.-- Dr. Bobby K. Marks, Sam Houston State University president, April 15, 1997 11. Tues., Feb. 21 Hicks? Absolutely. Kickass reporting. That too. The pure f . . . ing joy of college students whose work made a difference. Homework: Read George W. Smalley on Antietam in 1862 (Muckraking, pp. 269-280); Edward R. Murrow on the German blitz of London in 1940 (pp. 281-283); Seymour Hersh in 1969 on the My Lai massacre in Vietnam (pp. 288-293); and Dana Priest and Anne Hull in 2007 on the ill-treatment of Iraq War veterans. What differences do you see in the war coverage of Smalley and Murrow versus that of Hersh and Priest/Hull? What lesson do you find in the work of Priest and Hull? Type up a brief answer to each question and hand in at next class. 12. Thurs., Feb. 23 Discuss reading. Homework: Complete second draft of your story and turn in at next class. Read selection from Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (Muckraking, pp 252-254). At the next class, we will watch a documentary about Carson and Silent Spring. After watching the film, explain what most surprises you about Carson.

Week 7Rachel Carson/ The value of local muckraking 13. Tues., Feb. 28 Turn in second draft of story. Watch Rachel Carsons Silent Spring. Discuss film. Second investigative assignment will be distributed. First draft due Tuesday, March 27. Homework: Read selections from two series of stories in the Dallas Morning News, Separate and Unequal and Rewarding Neglect. 14. Thurs., March 1 One series was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, the other is the work I am proudest of. Discuss. Homework: Write a summary of your proposed 2nd story including nut graph and sources. Upload your work to Google docs by 3 pm Mon., March 5.

Week 8One story ends. Another begins. 15. Tues., March 6 Batsell and Flournoy to return graded second drafts and multimedia elements. Discuss lessons learned. Discuss 2nd story ideas. Homework: Read Mark Dowies 1977 piece on cars with exploding gas tanks (pp.66-70); Jonathan Neumann & Bill Marimows 1977 story on tortured confessions (pp. 360-363); Eileen Welsomes 1993 account of humans as atomic guinea pigs (pp. 76-79); and Houston station KHOUs 2000 report on Firestones killer tires (pp. 79-82).What do the stories have in common? What changes did they bring about?

8 16. Thurs., March 8 Discuss multimedia elements of 1st story. Discuss reading. Provide update on 2nd story. Homework: Read Chapter 9: Collecting and Using Data, from Producing Online News: Digital Skills, Stronger Stories, by Ryan Thornburg. Spring Break Mon., March 12 Fri., March 16

Week 9Mapping, Data-Driven Journalism and Other Digital Tools 17. Tues., March 20 In-class mapping and data exercises. Google Forms. Using hashtags and Open Facebook searches as investigative tools. Homework: Read (or reread) Chapter 9: Collecting and Using Data, from Producing Online News: Digital Skills, Stronger Stories, by Ryan Thornburg. 18. Thurs., March 22 More class data exercises. Homework: View stories by Mark Smith, an investigative producer for Channel 8 (WFAA) in Dallas and our guest speaker at the next class. Ask a question.

Week 10Mark Smith/Nellie Bly/Katherine Boo A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." --Ghandi 19. Tues., March 27 Guest lecture by Mark Smith. Homework: Read Nellie Bly on life in a NYC lunatic asylum in 1887 (pp. 142-146) and Katherine Boo on life in a Washington, DC home for the mentally retarded in 1999. How would you compare the two reporters? What do you find surprising in their work? Be prepared to discuss. 20. Thurs., March 29 Discuss Mark Smith. Discuss reading. Homework: Complete first draft of storydue at next class. Read Batsells nutritional fraud investigation and the resulting FDA inquiry. Week 11 Investigative History 21. Tues., April 3 Turn in first draft of second story. Discuss Batsells nutritional fraud investigation and the resulting FDA inquiry. Homework: Read selections from the Winston-Salem Journals Against their Will series: Lifting the curtain on a shameful era (Part one main story) Records unexpectedly available (Part one sidebar) All aboard: newspapers jumped on sterilization bandwagon (Part three sidebar) Wicked silence: state board targeted blacks but few cared (Part four main story) What is this series about? Why is it unusual?

22. Thurs., April 5 First draft of story returned. Second draft due Thurs., April 12. Discuss reading. Homework: Read The 30-Year Secret by Nigel Jaquiss. What is this story about? What is unusual about the story? About the author? Week 12Who the hell is Nigel Jaquiss and what does he know about investigative reporting? 23. Tues., April 10 Discuss reading. Homework: Complete second draft of your story and turn in at next class. 24. Thurs., April 12 Turn in second draft of your story. Third writing project explaineda profile of an investigative reporter. Each of you will do an oral presentation and written profile and Storify recap of your reporter. Homework: You have 48 hours to submit a multimedia element for your 2nd story. Also, write a brief description of who you will be profiling. Upload to Google docs.

Week 13Profiles in kicking ass 25. Tues., April 17 Graded second drafts and multimedia elements returned. Discuss lessons learned. Students discuss who they will be profiling. Homework: Work on your profile. 26. Thurs., April 19 Oral presentations, part I. Homework: Work on written profile and Storify recap.

Week 14What was the most important thing you learned in this class? 27. Tues., April 24 Oral presentations, part II. Homework: Deadline time approaches. 28. Thurs., April 26 Oral presentations, part III. Adios