Every other semester, I teach a class called Media Criticism at Boston University’s College of Communication. (I took it over from the late great David Carr after his untimely death in 2015.) One of my in-class assignments goes something like this:You are a rookie reporter at the Daily Gazette, working the evening shift. This afternoon, there was a shooting in a rundown neighborhood south of downtown, leaving a teenager dead. You have two documents: the official police report of the incident and some notes gathered by your colleague Dave, a dayside reporter who went to the scene, did some interviews, and wrote down some observations. Using only these two documents, your job is to write up the shooting for tomorrow’s paper — aim for 300 words.I break the class into small groups and each is tasked with writing their own version of the story. The two documents are loaded with potential landmines meant to force journalistic decisions on deadline. The suspect’s mugshot clearly shows someone who has been physically beaten, but the police report makes no mention of any “resistance” to his arrest. Do you mention that? Does that make you more or less likely to want to run the mugshot with the story? The police stopped the suspect because he fit an eyewitness description: a black male, approximately 16-24 years of age, between 5’8″ and 6’0″ tall, slender, wearing blue jeans, and a dark-colored jacket. Not the narrowest of descriptions! An eyewitness told Dayside Dave that the suspect’s older brother is already in prison on an assault charge and gives you a good quote about how this will break their mom’s heart. Do you mention that or use the quote?
Origen: Google wants you to let its AI bot help you write news articles | Nieman Journalism Lab
