Journalism 371
Reporting on Business
Prof. Pam Luecke
Reid Hall, Room 117
Office phone: 458-8435
Home phone: 463-7860
e-mail address: lueckep@wlu.edu
Class time: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 1:25 – 2:20 p.m., Reid Hall, Room 215
Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday,
The goal of this course is to give you an introduction to business journalism and to acquaint you with the opportunities and issues in this growing field. This fall’s course will focus primarily on covering companies, the people who work for them and the consumers of their goods and services. A second business journalism course, offered in the winter, will focus more on writing about the economy, finance and the stock market. Students in the business journalism sequence are required to take both courses. Other students may take both or either one by itself. (The courses may be taken in either order.)
J371 will emphasize not only the writing of clear business news stories, but also the identification of compelling enterprise and trend stories. You will also learn to find and evaluate business sources. By the end of this semester, you should be able to handle with relative ease a deadline story on a company’s earnings, merger or layoffs as well as an in-depth company profile.
While the course would be good preparation for anyone thinking of a career as a business journalist, it would also be valuable for someone planning to work on a metro, sports or features desk. (As we will discover during the semester, nearly every beat can have a business dimension.) Students interested in careers in other facets of communications or business may also find the material useful.
The main text for the course is “Show Me the Money,” by Chris Roush, a former business journalist who taught at W&L in 2000 and 2001. You should also buy the Wall Street Journal’s “Guide to Understanding Money and Investing” and “Conspiracy of Fools,” by Kurt Eichenwald, the New York Times reporter who will be visiting us this term. Finally, please borrow or otherwise obtain a copy of “Working,” by Studs Terkel. I will put the library’s copy on reserve in Leyburn.
An optional text is “Writing About Business, The New Columbia Knight-Bagehot Guide to Economics & Business Journalism” (referred to below as “Bagehot”). This is the book I used as the main text for the first three years of this program. I will put a copy on reserve in the Reid Hall Green Room and occasionally recommend a chapter to you. In addition, examples of good writing from recent publications or various editions of “The Best Business Stories of the Year” will occasionally be assigned.
To get in the habit of keeping up with business news, you should read the Wall Street Journal each day. You will also be expected to peruse several business publications each week, to watch business news shows on television, listen to business news on radio and become familiar with online business news sites and online business resources. In short, at least for this term you should become a business-news junkie. To underscore these habits, I will give at least five quizzes on business news and terms; these will count a total of 10 percent of your final grade.
In addition to the assignments outlined below, you will be asked to become an expert on one business magazine and make an oral presentation about it before Thanksgiving.
There will be an in-class midterm exam before Reading Days and a final in-depth story. You will write at least five other news stories during the term and have a number of other written assignments. There may be a field trip, depending on how our schedules mesh.
A few ground rules:
I expect you to attend every class. If you have a legitimate reason why you cannot, let me know in advance.
We will have several guest speakers during the term, taking time out of their busy schedules to share their expertise with you. I expect you to be especially attentive during those classes, and to come prepared to ask them questions.
All assignments must be turned in on time. Late assignments will be graded, but will be docked a grade for each day (or part of a day) that they are late.
Accuracy is essential. Your assignment will receive an F if you misspell the name of a person or company, get a key fact wrong or exhibit faulty math.
Your course grade will be determined in this way:
Midterm: 20 percent
Final story: 15 percent
Other stories: 25 percent
Magazine assignment: 10 percent
Other written assignments: 15 percent
Professionalism, attendance and class participation: 5 percent
Quizzes: 10 percent
The following class schedule might be adjusted to accommodate outside speakers’ schedules or take advantage of opportunities presented by campus visitors or breaking business news.
Class Schedule
1) Friday, Sept. 8 – Course overview: The dynamic field of financial journalism
For next class: Roush, Chapter 1; CJR handout.
Recommended: Bagehot, pages xv-xxv
2) Monday, Sept. 11 – Public and private companies
For next class: Roush, Pages 22-38; Pages 234-240
Recommended: Bagehot, Chapter 22.
3) Wednesday, Sept. 13 – Small business
For next class: Roush, Chapter 5 , WSJ Guide, pages 38-39, 54-55
Look at: sec.gov, secinfo.com, edgar-online.com, footnoted.org
4) Friday, Sept. 15 – The SEC: Meet in Leyburn 301
For next class: Roush, Chapter 14
Recommended: Bagehot, Chapter 23
5) Monday, Sept. 18 – Other sources of information on business
For next class: Roush, Chapter 4
“How to Read an Annual Report” (online)
Recommended: Bagehot, Chapters 9, 10, 21; WSJ Guide, pages 58-59
Look at: yahoo.com (finance); hoovers.com, reuters.com, bloomberg.com, morningstar.com
6) Wednesday, Sept. 20 – Financial reports
For next class: Roush, Chapter 15
Recommended: Bagehot, Chapters 25 & 26;
Look at: fool.com; cfainstitute.org (about us: press room)
7) Friday, Sept. 22 – Financial reports, financial analysts
Recommended: Understanding Financial Statements (Taparia), Chapter 4
8) Monday, Sept. 25 – Financial ratios: Guest, Scott Boylan, accounting professor
For next class: Roush, Chapter 12, Handouts on bankruptcy
Look at: abiworld.org; nabt.com; vawb.uscourts.gov;
findlaw.com (bankruptcy & debt); vaeb.uscourts.gov (click on “megacases”)
9) Wednesday, Sept. 27 – Bankruptcy
Guest: Prof. Margaret Howard, W&L School
of Law
10) Friday, Sept. 29 – Bankruptcy, continued
11) Monday, Oct. 2 – Finding good story ideas
Guest speaker: Rob Johnson, Roanoke Times business editor
12) Wednesday, Oct. 4 – Banks and other financial institutions
13) Friday, Oct. 7 – Guest: Tom Contiliano, Bloomberg News
Due: Story Three, on banking or bankruptcy
For next class: Roush, Chapter 6
Look at: www.mareport.com, www.ipohome.com
14) Monday, Oct. 9 – Business strategies, mergers and acquisitions
15) Wednesday, Oct. 11 – Midterm
For next class: Roush, Chapter 8
Look at: thecorporatelibrary.com; conference-board.org and catalystwomen.org
Break
16) Monday, Oct. 16 – Corporate management and governance
For next class: Handouts on executive compensation
Recommended: Bagehot, Chapters 27 & 28
Look at: mercerhr.com; pearlmeyer.com; salary.com; worldatwork.org; http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch
17) Wednesday, Oct. 18 – CEO compensation
18) Friday, Oct. 20 – Corporate scandals
For next class: Finish “Conspiracy of Fools”
19) Monday, Oct. 23 — Enron: The perfect storm
Attend 4:30 p.m. talk by Kurt Eichenwald,
New York Times investigative reporter
Attend dinner and reception at
Morris House
For next class: Handouts on whistleblowers
Look at: whistleblowers.org
20) Wednesday, Oct. 25 – Whistleblowers
21) Friday, Oct. 27 – Discuss “Working” Assignment
22) Monday, Oct. 30 – No class
On your own, watch “Smartest Guys in the Room”
23) Wednesday, Nov. 1 – No class
24) Friday, Nov. 3 – Deadline
Writing Assignment (Story Four)
Due: Assignment B: Review of “Smartest Guys”
Recommended for next class: Bagehot, Chapter 40
25) Monday, Nov. 5 – Labor and Workplace
26) Wednesday, Nov. 8 – Labor and Workplace
Due: Assignment C: Three story ideas
27) Friday, Nov. 10 -- Discuss Final Story and Magazine Assignment
Due: Story Five, “working” interview
Attend talk by NPR ombudsman, 5 p.m.
For next class, Read Roush, rest of Chapter 9
Recommended,
Bagehot, Chapters 38 & 41
28) Monday, Nov. 13 – Consumers & Retail
Due: Final story proposal
29) Wednesday, Nov. 15 – In-class exercise (Story Six)
30) Friday, Nov. 17 -- Oral magazine reports
Written magazine reports due
Thanksgiving break
31) Monday, Nov. 27 -- Business journalism and ethics
For next class: Roush, pages, 40-45.
Recommended: Bagehot, Chapter 31
Look at: poynter.org
32) Wednesday, Nov. 29 – Ethics, continued
Due:
Final story outlines (5 percent of
course grade)
33) Friday, Dec. 1 – Illustrating business stories
34) Monday, Dec. 4 – Writing business stories people will want to read
Due: First draft of story
35) Wednesday, Dec. 6 – Writing, revision
36) Friday, Dec. 8 -- Wrap-up
Final story due: 5 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 12