Practical assessment week: 'The College News'

 Introduction

• This week is a simulation activity
• This activity is deliberately very hard, very confusing and very stressful
• You will need to work under your own initiative: you will NOT be constantly told what to do
• It's a team activity, so work hard for everyone
• Remember, it's supposed to be fun. If you get stressed, remember: it's not real!

Your key assessment for the newspaper unit will be a whole class project designed to simulate working at a newspaper.

You will undertake a specific role and work to a tight deadline to ensure that the paper is published in time.

The newspaper will be published on the blog, and possibly in the student magazine (though we’re not entirely sure how this will work).

While there is some structure to this, ultimately, everything from writing copy, finding pictures, arranging furniture (!), creating templates and so in is completely up to you as a class.

You will need to use your initiative to make your own work. You are not in school anymore.

Your grade for this assessment will basically come from how busy you look! So make sure that I, or any editor never catches 

Most of the following technical details were basically ripped from a Guardian seminar...

How to write a story

Every newspaper story needs to quickly confidently communicate the key elements of the story, and how this reflects the news values of the institution. 80% of this comes down to the five W's:

• What happened?
• Who is the story about?
• Why did it happen?
• Where did the story happen?
• When did the story take place?

Beyond this, you must include further details, and then summarise with an opinion about future events

Newspaper roles

A newsroom operates under a strict hierarchy, though there is some wiggle-room in our simulation. You can get promoted, and you can definitely get demoted!

Corporate

Owner

That's me. I'[m going to try and do as little as possible, while the money roles in. I will call meetings to make sure that everything is running smoothly. Mainly I will be talking to the senior editorial department

Senior editorial

Editor - running the ship

responsible for overall content of the paper, makes sure everything runs to plan and has the final say on what appears in the paper. This role will be cycled every lesson. You will tell everyone what to do, and make sure slackers are working (reporting to your boss if required)

News editor - in charge of the journalists and shaping story selection

a senior journalist, in charge of a team of journalists and a section of the paper, who decides what stories should be covered. News editors look at the stories coming in and decide which ones to follow up. You will be in charge or coordinating communication via email, and will be in charge of the master news sheet and what stories get selected

Design editor - in charge of the technical aspects of the newspaper

You are in charge of the subs, and you have a ridiculously important job. You will need to design templates, which will then be distributed and filled. Then you need to shape the look, feel and style of the newspaper. The candidate for this job will have excellent technical skills, and will keep this job for the entire week. 

Middle editorial 

Reporter - writing stories

obtains information and writes stories.  May cover all types of stories or may be a specialist who is concerned with a specific area of the news, such as sport or crime. It is up to you to negotiate which type of journalist you wish to be, and most of you will be a journalist in some capacity. You will also need to find photographs to illustrate your stories. As the week goes on, many of you will move to sub editor. 

Sub editors

Sub editor (layout, copy, and revision) - putting stuff in the right place

This combines three different roles. At first, not many of you will fill this role, but as the week goes on, many more will.

You will design pages (deciding how best to present stories, photographs, etc), sends the stories and headlines to the copy subs, then outputs the completed pages to the print sites. You will edit stories for style and sense, cuts them to fit the page, and writes the headlines and captions. You will also revise anything that needs to be improved

Graphic artists

You will create graphics, designs, graphs and other cools things when you are asked to do so. You will also be expected to take on the tasks of a sub.

Freelance and columnists and so on

Columnist

You get to write a column about your opinions or your feelings or something. Or perhaps you'd rather write a column about how the UK is going to hell in a handcart. It's up to you, really. You'll also get paid an inexplicably huge amount, and everyone will hate you on Twitter.

Specialist reporters

You have one specific area that you report on, and you'll need to research current events and present them in a lively and exciting way. Specialist subjects can include

• Celebrity gossip
• Music
• Lifestyle
• Sport
• Etc
  
  

What actually happens?

Day one

• You'll need to collectively decide the strategic and ideological direction of the newspaper. What are your news values? Are you left wing or right wing? Are you appealing to a working class opr middle class demographic? What is your newspapers USP?
• Roles will then be assigned. For this session, almost everyone will be reporters, with a few of you taking on higher up roles. Some of you will also negotiate specialist roles, but you will probably be turned down. It's competitive out there...
• 'News stories' will break throughout the simulation, and you will be required to write stories about them. Basically, you're making stuff up. It's fun, and a bit weird
• Meetings will be called many times throughout the day, but several of them will be for the senior editorial team only.

Day two

• A meeting will be held about the front page and story order so far. Remember, stories can and will drop rapidly, and you will need to change your plans in real time
• Layout and design will be finalised. The design editor will be exhausted around now

Day three

• Deadline day. By this point, most of you will be subs, as the story's have dried up. But, what if something huge drops at the last minute...?