Ashford 5: ­ Week 4 ­ Instructor Guidance      News Coverage Galore!    In Week 4, you’ll continue to amass advice on refining your reporting skills. Do the assigned reading, and  you’ll see that obituaries, news releases, and the basic news stories all rely on one thing—sound news  judgment!  The Deal on the Obituary Piece  One of my jobs at ABC News was slightly peculiar. I’m glad you’re sitting down! I wrote obituary summaries,  called obits, in 2005. The catch? They were for people who were still alive! The purpose was to provide  one­page life summaries for famous people. In the event of an unexpected death, the network would have  ready access to the most important facts about the person’s life; the media organization would not be caught  off guard and could break/report the news using the obit information right away.  I recall writing obits for the  likes of Michael Jackson, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and the former President of Pakistan. Unfortunately,  you can see that the need for even obituary summaries for the living is real.            What is the overarching point here? An obituary is about the person’s life! It should offer a rundown of what  the person accomplished while alive, preferably in the order of chronology or significance. Details such as  the manner of death or scandals are not essential and should be handled with caution. Make sure you are  familiar with your organization’s policy on obituaries, because what reporters are expected to omit or include  can vary throughout the media.  Can you see why obituaries are ideal for the inverted pyramid structure? Also, I strongly advise you to  triple­check the spelling of the person’s name. This is one simple instance where more than your credibility  will be at stake in the event of inaccuracy.  News Releases: Love them or Hate Them?  Personally, I have grown to love them! And trust me, you will too, especially on exceptionally slow news  days. You just have to be able to read between the lines. Like ​News Reporting & Writing ​says, the news  releases that journalists are provided with are usually very self­serving. Thinking of them as press releases  will help you to avoid falling for the trap of reporting the release as a means of free publicity. Knowing what  the sender hopes to gain from the media coverage that they are eliciting is important.  The news releases I appreciate most are those centered on announcements or causes. They are your news  plug for timeliness and relevance! The trick now is to take the plug and utilize it to turnover a report that  advances an underlying story.  For example, I once got a news release from a local nonprofit announcing the coming of World Aids Day in  December and detailing the rally planned. Reporting this alone would have qualified as a story by some  accounts, but journalists must take it a step further. In turn, I researched, coming to learn of the rapidly rising  numbers of women in monogamous relationships with HIV in.

1. Ashford 5: - Week 4 - Instructor Guidance
News Coverage Galore!
In Week 4, you’ll continue to amass advice on refining your rep
orting skills. Do the assigned reading, and
you’ll see that obituaries, news releases, and the basic news stor
ies all rely on one thing—sound news
judgment!
The Deal on the Obituary Piece
One of my jobs at ABC News was slightly peculiar. I’m glad yo
u’re sitting down! I wrote obituary summaries,
called obits, in 2005. The catch? They were for people who wer
e still alive! The purpose was to provide
one-page life summaries for famous people. In the event of an u
nexpected death, the network would have
ready access to the most important facts about the person’s life;
the media organization would not be caught
off guard and could break/report the news using the obit inform
ation right away. I recall writing obits for the
likes of Michael Jackson, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and the
former President of Pakistan. Unfortunately,
you can see that the need for even obituary summaries for the li
ving is real.
What is the overarching point here? An obituary is about the per
son’s life! It should offer a rundown of what
the person accomplished while alive, preferably in the order of
chronology or significance. Details such as

2. the manner of death or scandals are not essential and should be
handled with caution. Make sure you are
familiar with your organization’s policy on obituaries, because
what reporters are expected to omit or include
can vary throughout the media.
Can you see why obituaries are ideal for the inverted pyramid st
ructure? Also, I strongly advise you to
triple-check the spelling of the person’s name. This is one simpl
e instance where more than your credibility
will be at stake in the event of inaccuracy.
News Releases: Love them or Hate Them?
Personally, I have grown to love them! And trust me, you will t
oo, especially on exceptionally slow news
days. You just have to be able to read between the lines. Like
News Reporting & Writing says, the news
releases that journalists are provided with are usually very self-
serving. Thinking of them as press releases
will help you to avoid falling for the trap of reporting the releas
e as a means of free publicity. Knowing what
the sender hopes to gain from the media coverage that they are e
liciting is important.
The news releases I appreciate most are those centered on annou
ncements or causes. They are your news
plug for timeliness and relevance! The trick now is to take the p
lug and utilize it to turnover a report that
advances an underlying story.
For example, I once got a news release from a local nonprofit an
nouncing the coming of World Aids Day in
December and detailing the rally planned. Reporting this alone
would have qualified as a story by some
accounts, but journalists must take it a step further. In turn, I re
searched, coming to learn of the rapidly rising

3. numbers of women in monogamous relationships with HIV in th
e community. I interviewed the county health
department and also found a diagnosed mother to interview, foc
using on her struggle and her shock at
becoming infected. The story focused on this angle, using the u
pcoming World Aids Day event as the news
plug. Had I been doing the piece on-camera, I would have chose
n the rally site for my standup. All of this
resulted from a news release!
Basic Storytelling 101
It’s crucial to have an instilled awareness of libel, defamation, f
air use of content and copyright, and privacy
issues (such as with confidential sources). You need to cover yo
ur bases to avoid a lawsuit or a crazy upset.
This is as simple as avoiding inflammatory language like “he cl
aims” when introducing a quote. Or this can
be as serious as not detailing embarrassing factors in an obituar
y or misreporting facts that seriously hurt
someone’s reputation, including your own.
SOMETHING TO PONDER
Remember, once you report something, our advanced technolog
y will make sure it is permanently out for
everyone to see. The best advice I could ever give you? Verify e
verything, including news release content.
Attribute your information. This will help get you off the hook,
although not always, and it will force you to
have substantiated information. The Dan Rather scandal of 2004
captures the point quite well.
THIS WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT
Your written assignment requires you to get used to integrating
social media into your reporting. Along with

4. the instructor guidance above, it will help you learn to analyze t
he news and prepare for the news from a
journalism perspective while drawing from different media. The
assignment is due by the end of Day 7, or
Monday. Please don’t forget to include an APA-style title page.
Reference
MSNBC. (2004, September).
CBS News Admits News Documents Can’t Be Verified.
Retrieved May 24, 2010,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/60552
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6055248/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6055248/
Ashford 5: - Week 4 - Discussion 2
Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and y
ou have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to
your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your
initial post and the depth of your responses.
Reference the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric
for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.
Reporting Scenarios

5. Choose one of the following scenarios and respond to the discus
sion prompt. At least one of your responses
should be to a student who chose a different scenario from your
own.
●
Scenario 1: You are sent to the scene of a bank robbery, where
you find that the police and FBI are
still investigating. Describe what steps you would take to get as
much information as possible for an
early edition of your newspaper.
●
Scenario 2: You have been sent to the local river where a young
girl is believed to have drowned.
From whom would you try to obtain information and what woul
d you expect to get from each of
them?
●
Scenario 3: You have covered a tornado and would like to inclu
de damage estimates in your story.
From whom would you obtain those estimates?
●
Scenario 4: You are assigned to cover a preliminary hearing in a
murder case. What information
would you expect to obtain at such a hearing?
Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support
your claims with examples from required
material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite a
ny references. Respond to at least two of
your classmates’ posts by Day 7.

6. http://threadcontent.next.ecollege.com/(NEXT(37a1e5e10f))/Ma
in/CourseMode/Thread/ListThreadsView.ed?courseItemSubID=
817603647&courseItemType=CourseContentItem&TopicID=0&
#
Ashford 5: - Week 4 - Discussion 1
Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and y
ou have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to
your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your
initial post and the depth of your responses.
Reference the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric
for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.
Policy Questions and the Obituary
Important policy questions often arise when you are writing obit
uaries. Choose one of the following
scenarios and respond to the questions. At least one of your resp
onses should be to a student who chose a
different scenario from your own.
●
Scenario 1: If a private citizen committed suicide on the ground
s of a local high school when no one

7. was around one night, would you include the cause of death in t
he obituary? Why or why not?
●
Scenario 2: If the mayor died and you could quote other city off
icials as saying the mayor’s drinking
had interfered with his or her work in the last year, would you i
nclude that in the obituary? Why or
why not?
●
Scenario 3: If a citizen who was an active member of several ci
vic groups died and you had several
paragraphs describing the work he or she did for the community
, would you include the fact that he
or she had died of AIDS? Why or why not?
Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support
your claims with examples from required
material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite a
ny references. Respond to at least two of
your classmates’ posts by Day 7.
http://threadcontent.next.ecollege.com/(NEXT(37a1e5e10f))/Ma
in/CourseMode/Thread/ListThreadsView.ed?courseItemSubID=
817603642&courseItemType=CourseContentItem&TopicID=0&
#