Group Project 2: News Release

Mass Communication Research
Group Project 2: News Release

Your group will write a news story based on analysis of the S01.sav data set, which you can find by clicking the Assignments button of the C300 CourseInfo Page. To complete the news release you will also need the codebook for the data, which is in available in the assignments section of the C300 Schedule on the CourseInfo Page. This assignment is worth 60 points.

Groups submitting paper copies of preliminary reports by the beginning of class, Sept. 19, will recieve comments from the course instructors on how to improve their project by Sept. 21. Your group will submit a final written report by the beginning of class, Sept. 26. Minutes for your group meeting should be posted on the C300 CourseInfo Discussion Page under a new thread. If you've forgotten how to do this, please refer to the Web note.

The assignment is your opportunity to demonstrate that you have mastered course materials to date. The news release should show:

That you know how to analyze the data using SPSS and interpret the output. You should demonstrate that you can recode data, and run frequencies and Chi Squares.
That you can write a sound news lead based on your analysis. (20 points)
That you can use numbers appropriately in writing the body of a news story. (20 points)
That you can write in a manner that adheres to AAPOR Standards of Disclosure. (20 points)

Like the professionals whose work you reviewed in the first group assignment, you don't need to report all the information available in the data. In fact, you should report some newsworthy aspects of the data and ignore others. Your news story should between 500 and 1,000 words long and conform to Associated Press Style.

Pertinent Information for AAPOR standards

Sponsor: College of Communications, University of Tennessee; conducted by students in two Communications 300 classes
Exact Wording: use question wording from the codebook.
Population: currently enrolled UT undergraduates
Selection procedure: A fixed interval sample was used to assign each interviewer a page from the Spring 2001 timetable. Intercept interviews were used to find students coming or going from classes chosen from the timetable pages. One class interviewed freshmen and sophomores, while the other class interviewed juniors and seniors. A quota sample was also used to ensure a balance of respondents by gender.
Sample size: 427 students
Precision of Findings: +/- 5 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent
Subsamples: As appropriate
Method, location and dates: Face-to-face interviews conducted in various academic classroom buildings on the University of Tennessee-Knoxville campus from April 4-16, 2001.

Individual Extra Credit:

For 10 points extra credit, you may write a sidebar (a news story to accompany the main story) of 250 to 500 words. This should be based on an aspect of the data not covered in the main story. Because it should be clear that the sidebar is based on the same data, it need not repeat the information required by the AAPOR standards. The sidebar should conform to Associated Press style. It is governed by the same due dates as the rest of the assignment.

If you don't understand something in this Web note, please e-mail Dr. Miller or Mr. Sitton.