Happy summer!

Thanks for a good semester!

Why you need to learn how to spell

Reason #19: So you won’t undermine your own message…or look as stupid as this person.

(Thanks to Jessica Loebig for passing on this Copy Edit the World example.)

One hundred percent SJSU

Check out the latest project, 100 Percent SJSU, by Kyle Hansen, the Spartan Daily’s online editor, and friends. It’s a graphic look at diversity and ethnicity at SJSU.

Click on the icons on the campus map to see pie charts showing the ethnic breakdown of students in each college. Note: in case you’re wondering, the School of Journalism and Mass Communications is part of SJSU’s College of Applied Sciences and Arts (CASA), represented by the medical icon.

Guest speaker Mansi Bhatia on Thursday

Our guest speaker on Thursday, Mansi Bhatia, is a writer and communications specialist in SJSU’s Communications and Publications group. She will talk about what she’s learned since graduating…and maybe offer some tips on succeeding in your first post-SJSU media job.

At SJSU, Bhatia does everything from writing news releases…to crafting stories for SJSU’s Washington Square magazine…to ghost-writing speeches. She says she enjoys the variety. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Bhatia also freelanced and worked for a local non-profit organization, handling media relations and starting a newsletter, before joining SJSU.

You can find out more about Bhatia by checking out her Linked In homepage.

Sparring over sports bloggers

OK, sports fans. Do bloggers belong in the locker room? That’s one of the questions posed in this NYT article, Tension Over Sports Blogging.

Might make a good subject for an individual blog post. Here’s a taste:

Tension over sports blogging is one of the strains between sports franchises, leagues and reporters to have emerged during the digital age.

The dispute has grown lately between the press and organized sports over issues like how reporters cover teams, who owns the rights to photographs, audio and video that journalists gather at sports events, and whether someone who writes only blogs should be given access to the locker room.

Direct link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/business/media/21bloggers.html?th&emc=th

AS Voter Guide

Wondering who to vote for in next week’s Associated Students election? Check out the Spartan Daily’s online election guide, complete with: a video; pics, profiles and individual videos of candidates; and links to the Daily’s recent election coverage.

Some hot topics for individual blog posts

Your weekly individual blog post is due tomorrow. If you’re scrounging around looking for a media-related topic for this week’s post, here are some candidates:

• An Ad Age article on Web 3.0 and the dearth (and perhaps the death) of original reporting
• Blogger Mayhill Fowler reflecting on her reporting of Obama’s “bitter” comments
• The Churner Prize web site/blog, focusing on examples of “chournalism”
• Actor Tim Robbins’ rabble-rousing speech at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas

If you have some other hot media-related topics you’d like to suggest, please add them in a comment to this blog post.

New office hours

I’ve changed my office hours to 2-4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

For the rest of the month, I’ll be filling in for another JMC instructor who’s recovering from surgery. Her 100w class meets at 12 noon T/Th, so I’ve pushed back my office hours from 12:15-1:45 p.m. to 2-4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I can also usually be found in my office before class, from 8-9 a.m. However, since I’m usually getting ready for my classes, please try to limit any early morning visits to quick questions.

Extra credit options for S’08

As we discussed in yesterday’s class, you can submit up to 30 points worth of extra credit for 100w. Here are your three options, each of which is worth up to 15 points:

1. Submit extra Copy Edit the World items
2. Write a newspaper opinion piece (see item #6 on the Assignments page of this blog)
3. Write your own obituary (see item #13B on the Assignments page of this blog)

Note that these options are worth “up to 15 points.” You get the full 15 points only if they’re well written and free of errors. As with any other assignment, typos and AP style errors (not to mention boring leads and poor organization) will reduce your grade.

Please post any extra credit items on your blog by April 29 and title them “extra credit.” To get extra credit, they must be posted on your blog by April 29.

Also note that this does not include the up to 25 points you can earn for getting something published this semester. You have until our exam day (Wednesday, May 21, from 9:45-12 noon) to show proof of publication (or acceptance for future publication).

Feature story structure

You can now download the pdf version of my Powerpoint on feature story structure…just in time to review for Tuesday’s midterm!

You’ll find the link to that PDF on this blog’s Resources page, listed under “PDFs”…or you can just click here or on the image to download it.