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Term 2 - Briefing for online newspaper Publication and editing time: Three hours per week. The online newspaper is published each week on our own website. It is a real publication, and can be read anywhere in the world, not just inside the university: your work could be seen by a potential employer. This means it has to be produced to professional standards. We want stories that are interesting and well-written, properly researched and legally safe - we don't anyone to end up in court. The results will depend on individual effort and team-work, with everyone taking turns at different roles. It will be challenging, but also great fun. You will work in groups of eight. Every group member must provide at least two stories of 250 words each week. Then, in class, we'll use these stories - plus some that we'll choose and write on the day - to create the online paper. The design is dictated by the website format, and certain sections - eg european news and sport - are mandatory. But the content is entirely down to you. Even so, the local angle should be at or near the top. Each edition will need one of you to act as editor, one as news editor, and the other five as reporters/writers. You will need to allocate these roles the previous week, and to decide who is going to write which stories. Publication day will be busy, so your 250 word stories willl need to be ready beforehand. On the day, the editor will be responsible for subbing copy, ordering re-writes if necessary, and writing headlines. The news editor will allocate the day's breaking news stories, and check copy. These will include a section of world news (12 brief paragraphs, each no longer than 25 words, and each with its own heading, plus one full-length international story of 300 words - see notes below). Two "live" breaking stories will also be covered in each session, along with a 300-word backgrounder on a running story. The format also includes an interactive opinion poll, for which the group will have to choose a question on the day. Apart from the world news section and on-the-day stories, the subjects to be covered in your 250-word stories are: Europe - two, to include local Bournemouth and Poole angles; Reviews - one, covering live local or uni performances (tv, film amd video are not allowed); Sport - each group to provide two stories (one from the university), plus a university sports results table (three sports per group, and the same results each week); Profile - one (you've already written these); Business/economy - one, with a local angle; Editorial - a personal view by one group member. General stories - eight. This adds up to 16 new stories - two each (one general, one specialist) - to be produced each week . (The profiles have already been written, but may need sub-editing to 700-800 words). Showbiz and celeb You will find source material on: www.imdb.com/PeopleNews Two stories. Discussion board: Start a discussion on a topic of the day. One reporter will make check calls on the day - two each to the police voicebank and the fire brigade, one each to the coastguard and the RNLI (lifeboats). To give your stories greater impact, and to create a professional look to the site, aim to illustrate most stories. If possible, take your own still pictures. Otherwise use pics available from the net, making sure you attribute them. You can assume that pictures on press releases and on the websites of public bodies can be taken freely (unless it says that copyright is reserved), but don't lift images from commercial websites or other news organisations eg the BBC - these will be protected by copyright. So, having appointed your editor and news editor, and prepared your major stories, you could find publication day working something like this: Editor - taking overall charge; making sure that each story is suitable for its section; checking, subbing, writing headlines. Newseditor - looking for world news and breaking stories, allocating them to writers; checking copy and looking for possible follow-ups and/or useful internal and external links. Writer 1 - world news - helping to find and writing 12 brief stories. Writer 2 world news - helping to find and writing a full-length (300 word) story. Writer 3 backgrounder (maybe historical, political, economic, timetable - whatever - 300 words). Writer 4 check calls plus helping to find and writing a breaking story. Writer 5 looking for poll subject plus a breaking story. Writer 6 Showbiz stories (two, each 120 words long): Helping with subbing stories (eg worldnews and sport). Showbiz should come second story down, High Priority. Incidentally, you should have at least three High Priority stories in general news. You should have ONE high priority on each of the other sections - profiles, European News, World News etc. That means writing a paragraph in the summary section, or copying the intro into the summary section. Links Each story should have at least two external links. Later, you should know what the older stories in the archive are, and link to them as well. Use five attractive words to trail the content of the link. Pictures Remember to caption these with who and where, and help the reader understand the scene. This should keep most people occupied for most of the session, but inevitably some of you will have slack moments. This is where teamwork makes a difference - don't sit back, but help your colleagues. Offer to look out for new stories or pictures, or check out some angle. And hard-pressed editors and newseditors usually appreciate a cup of tea or coffee. Remember - it'll be your turn one week. Notes: Each world news long story will need to assemble at least three news sources (eg Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France Presse. The BBC might be used as a source too if they have done an original report. If a fact is controversial, it must have at least two sources before you publish it without attribution. If it is uncontroversial, you may be OK. If you only have one source, and it is controversial, you must name that source. There is no harm in naming sources anyway. For world news shorts, you should attibute in brackets at the end of the story. (Reuters) Notes for world news Sources for world news: www.alertnet (Reuters) www.yahoo.com (for Associated Press stories) www.google.com (news - for breaking stories and pictures) www.newsnow.co.uk For UK Agency News use www.netscape.co.uk (Press Association) Also http://www.pa.press.net Look for others on the useful links section of www.well.com/user/mammj A STORY done on the day does not count as one of the 16 you should bring in READY FOR PUBLICATION. Tutors will check your stories. . NB STORIES MUST HAVE A LOCAL ANGLE AND YOU MUST SUPPLY THE PRESS CUTTING IF YOUR STORY IS A FOLLOW-UP. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN MAXIMUM SCORE OF 50. The news editor may alter stories. Checking Copy must be read through and checked first by the reporter. You must check for style _ and you can find the style guide on the website under Styleguides. The reporter should put a suggested headline on the story. It should have a verb, and be accurate, based on the first two paragraphs of the story. It should be lively, and have short, bright wording. Never use 'you' or 'your' - this is not advertising copy. The news editor should read copy carefully for spellings, factual errors, balance, legal dangers, and writing. Long intros and weak copy should be sent back to the reporter. Local angles must be clear and prominent. Sometimes a story has a stronger angle lower than it should be. In this case it must be changed. The editor should also carefully read every word of copy, correcting and checking, improving where possible, and change for style. Headlines should be Four or five words. Longer headlines will be penalised. Contacts: Use your own or share them. Use your patches and the general topic contacts you developed last term