Newsroom Management

WELCOME:

Hi! Welcome to MC 525 (DE) -- Media Management. We are your instructors, Sara Brown and Paul Steinle. Please feel free to call us “Sara” and “Paul” respectively. We look forward to working with you and we will try to do everything we can to make this course fun, informative and useful in your careers – either from the perspective of management or that of understanding management. By the way, the techniques learned in this course are applicable for any team-oriented media organization.

SOFTWARE:

This course works best if you have access to MS Word and use Word for all the documents you send to us.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Newsrooms are, by their nature, complex and stressful organizations. Typically, highly skilled journalists are selected to assume important leadership/management positions based on their outstanding reporting and writing skills. But leading a high performance team, effectively, requires fundamental leadership skills that are rarely taught in journalism and/or liberal arts programs.

Media Management is an introductory management theory and training seminar designed to address this education gap for professional newsroom managers and to prepare graduate journalism students aspiring to newsroom management positions. This course aims to develop leadership skills for newsroom managers by:

A.) Providing insight into the psychological foundations of the key supervision and leadership issues newsroom managers are likely to face in a professional setting, and by

B.) Providing techniques and strategies for addressing team-building leadership issues and the problems surrounding them in the newsroom environment.

OVERVIEW:

The focus of this course is the analysis of readings, and the analysis of selected case studies in an interactive, on-line setting. Students will also be assigned to work in teams to write case studies about their own leadership experiences, and to prepare and present written analyses (WACs) of selected problems

Subsequently, readings, case studies and other team-based discussion exercises will be assigned each week, on-line, so that this course will not conflict with regular on-the-job responsibilities. The assignments will be comprised of questions and exercises based on the materials in the reading.

METHODS OF LEARNING:

Face-to-Face Learning

The students will meet as a group with the instructors once, at the beginning of the course, in a day-long workshop in the news technology center in the Ed McMahon Center at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.: Saturday, June 7, 2002; 9:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.

Individual Learning

-- Weekly reading assignments:

You are expected to complete the reading assignments, on time, on a weekly basis.

-- Case study analysis assignments:

Case studies – Individual students will be assigned to analyze selected case studies published in the “Newsroom Management” text. These case studies will be due at midnight, Fridays, on the weeks they are assigned. The format for this analysis will be discussed during the face-to-face meeting June 7.

WACs -- In addition to the text-based case study analyses, three 1000-word, written analyses of cases (WACs) will be assigned during the term. The WAC is written in memo format as though you were a consultant writing a memo to your boss. (Each WAC will also be analyzed -- by assigned teams -- in order to get multiple points-of-view and to learn various leadership techniques to address specific problems.)

Team-centered Learning

In addition to individual study and learning, you will be assigned to learning teams during this course. Teams will be established at the June 7 meeting and each team will be assigned a private “group discussion” site on Blackboard in which to discuss and prepare your team assignments, which you will then share with the class.

We will monitor individual contributions to the learning team assignments as well as the work of the team as a whole.

We mention this for clarity because there is always a question about whether all members of a learning team will automatically receive the same grades or whether individual scores may differ. In this class, not everyone in each learning team will receive the same assessment for each assignment—in this case, part of the assessment will depend on individual effort. We will be looking at individual contributions to the team project as a whole, as well as the ability of each learning team to work together well as a team and not as individuals “simply” combining separate answers to the assignment.

-- Discussion questions

Weekly written assignments: Students will be assigned to work together in teams to submit written materials, on-line, each week to address the key issues contained in the study materials through: (a.) key assigned chapter reading questions and/or (b.) films each week.

Final project: A real-world case study, assigned to each team, will be assigned instead of a final exam (see details below).

CHECK-INS

Student’s Roundtable: “On-line check-ins”-- A threaded discussion will be set aside for ad hoc discussion of on-going issues, management problems the students may be confronting, or simply relevant observations the students would like to share with each other. For example you may wish to seek assistance from your fellow students to help you manage newsroom situations you are currently confronting or they may simply wish to share observations about how they have applied new techniques they are learning. Or they may wish to share observations they have about management practices that would be useful or interesting to this group.

FEEDBACK

Instructors’ Feedback & Weekly Summaries: After the student’s deadlines for each week’s assignments, the instructors will post (under LECTURES):

(a.) Feedback about the student’s answers and progress to date,

(b.) Summaries of the key materials in each chapter, and

(c.) Answers to frequently-asked-questions (FAQs).

Threaded discussions: There will also occasionally be questions for all the class where each student may contribute in an on-line threaded discussion.

CLASS PREPARATION:

Students should pace themselves to read the weekly assigned chapters thoroughly and answer, on-line, the questions set forth for each chapter.

Students should budget 6-8 hours each week to complete the reading and the assignments.

--- Case study analysis -- The case study analysis should follow a format in which the student includes:

A.) A concise summary of the key event(s) in the case,

B.) A concise description the consequences these events create, and

C.) The recommended remedial action(s) needed to address the consequences of these events.

--- Case study critiques -- When case study analyses are published, each student will be assigned to critique one analysis.

--- WACs -- Three written analysis of cases (WACs) will be assigned.

These analyses will be prepared in the form of memos to an executive editor (or whomever is designated in the case). A WAC memo should be written in the same manner it would be done within a news organization:

(a) the key problems should be cited and summarized, briefly, and

(b) an action plan should be offered that explains, in accessible language, why the remedial action is being recommended.

These WACs may be no longer than 1,000 words (about three double-spaced, type-written pages,). They should be written in easy-to-read memo form.

--- WAC critiques -- The WACS will then be posted, and teams will be assigned to comment about several WACs. The goal of this exercise is to offer constructive insights – praise or criticism-- about:

A.)The effectiveness and clarity of the memo.

B.) The tone of the memo.

C.) The focus of the memo.

D.) The soundness of the recommendations.

E.) The justification ( using terms the executive can understand ) for the actions recommended.

F.) Shared learning from each student’s personal experience about the newsroom problems and solutions cited.

FINAL PROJECT:

For the final project:

1.) Each team will write a brief case study about a problem that he or she has confronted in their news organization (pseudonyms may be used if necessary; the problem may be current or historical.) If teams members are not currently employed in a newsroom, they must contact a newsroom manager, elicit a leadership problem this manager has encountered, and document this problem.

2.) The student will then prepare a memo for her or his executive editor (news director, etc.), setting forth an action plan to address the issues identified in the case study. These team case studies and the action plans will be shared with class members.

3.) Schedule:

(A.) First report: A brief summary of the problem selected and contacts that have been made – Sunday, June 30.

(B.) Final draft due – Sunday, August 3.

REQUIRED MATERIALS:

-- Newsroom Management: A Guide to Theory and Practice; Robert Giles; Media Management Books; Detroit; 1990. (ISBN: 089731811)

-- Dead Poets Society; Peter Weir, 1989 (movie rental).

-- The Paper; Ron Howard, 1994. (movie rental).

SELECTED TEXTS ONLINE (click “Resources” / “Reading” on Bb)

-- Note on Managing the Psychological Contract; R. Roosevelt Thomas, Harvard Business School Case Studies.

ATTENDANCE / ASSIGNMENTS:

Assignments are expected to be submitted on a weekly basis by midnight on the day/date cited. You earn one grade point for meeting each deadline.

LABELING NOTES

It would be very helpful if you could label each message that contains a written assignment on the “subject line” with the Week Number and Assignment Title:
For example:

-- WK 2 – CSA 1 (e.g. Case study analysis #1). Your two initials (PS, etc.): WK2-CSA1.ps

-- WK 2 – DQ 2 (e.g. discussion questions #2). Your two initials: WK2-DQ2.ps

This will help everyone to immediately distinguish your written assignments from the conversational "back and forth" which is so much a part of the class conversation, and it will help the instructors keep track of everything.

INSTRUCTOR RESPONSES:

Assignments will be reviewed and returned (and or posted) within 72 hours.

E-mails: The instructors will aim to respond to any questions that are e-mailed to them within 48 hours -- sooner if possible.

GRADING:

Significant weight will be given to week-to-week participation.

-- 50% of the grade (50 points) is dependent on weekly assignments.

---- (15% for individual participation; 35 % for team participation )

-- 25% of the grade (25 points) is dependent on written case-analyses.

-- 15% of the grade (15 points) is dependent on the final project.

-- 10% of the grade (10 points) is dependent on meeting deadlines.

HONOR CODE:

Private and Confidential: In order to support a complete, honest and frank discussion of the management issues raised by this course, the materials developed by the students in this course must be held private and confidential and may only be shared among the students and the instructors. Anyone who knowingly distributes this material outside the bounds of this course and its participants, without their written permission, will receive an “F” for the course.

Plagiarism and secondary sources: All materials derived from secondary sources must be clearly attributed in the text. The use of any un-attributed secondary materials will result in an “F” in the course.

SCHEDULE: All Team Assignments are noted by **.

WEEK #0: Monday, June 2

Please read the following material before attending the Introductory Workshop:

READING:

Giles, Newsroom Management

• Chapter 1: Management Theories and Human Behavior; pp. 1-14.;

• Chapter 2: Newsroom Work Groups; pp. 15-40.;

• “The Note on Managing the Psychological Contract” (online click TEXTBOOKS)

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

(No writing is required for the first week. Come prepared to discuss these materials, June 7)

• Case Study Analysis #0: case study, Chapter 2, pp. 623-4.

• Discussion Questions #0: Team Formation

Saturday, June 7

INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP:

9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

News Technology Center, Ed McMahon Center; Quinnipiac University; Hamden, Conn.

• Introduction: Who are we (the instructors)? What is leadership?

• How this course works.

• How to use the case study method.

• Discuss Case study – Chapter 2.

• Appreciative Inquiry: What motivates you?

• The Psychological Contract

………………………………………….

WEEK #1: Monday, June 9

READING:

Giles, Newsroom Management

• Chapter 3: Motivating Journalists; pp. 41-78.;

• The Psychological Contract, (hand-out)

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

• Case Study Analysis #1: case study, Chapter 3, pp. 624-5. (due midnight, Friday)

• Case study critique (due Sunday Midnight)

• ** Discussion questions #1: Chapters 2-3. (due midnight, Sunday)

………………………………………….

WEEK #2: Monday June 16

READING

Giles, Newsroom Management:

• Chapter 4: Communication in the Newsroom; pp. 79-112.

• Chapter 5: Newsroom Supervisors; pp. 113-136.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

• Case Study Analysis #2: case study, Chapter 5, 628-630

• ** Discussion questions #2: Chapters 4-5.

…………………………………………..

Week #3: Monday June 23

READING:

Giles, Newsroom Management

• Chapter 6: Newsroom Management Roles; pp. 137-178.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

• Case Study Analysis #3: WAC #1 – Written memo to boss.

• **Discussion questions #3: Chapter 6.

……………………

Week #4: Monday, June 30

READING:

Giles, Newsroom Management

• Chapter 7: Leadership and Power; pp. 179-212.

• Watch: Dead Poets Society; Answer instructors’ questions on-line.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

• Case Study Analysis #4: Discuss WAC #1 (On-line, threaded discussion).

• **Discussion questions #4: Dead Poets Society.

………………………………………………..

Week #5: Monday July 7

READING:

Giles, Newsroom Management

• Chapter 8: Styles of Management

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

• Case Study Analysis #5: WAC #2 –Written memo to boss.

• **Discussion questions #5: Chapters 7-8.

…………………..

Week #6: Monday July 14

READING:

Giles, Newsroom Management

• Chapter 9: Understanding Individual Potential; pp. 213-274.;

• Chapter 10: Rating Performance, pp. 275-334.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

• Case Study Analysis #6: case study, Chapter 9, pp. 635 - 636. and Discuss WAC #2 (On-line, threaded discussion)

• **Discussion questions #6: Chapters 9-10.

………………………………………………….

Week #7: Monday, July 21

READING:

Giles, Newsroom Management

• Chapter 11: Pay, MBO and Other Rewards; pp. 275-368.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

• Case Study Analysis #7: WAC #3: Written memo to boss.

• **Discussion questions #7: Chapter 11.

……………………

Week #8: Monday, July 28

READING:

Giles, Newsroom Management

• Chapter 12: Managing Change, pp. 369-399;

• Chapter 13: Managing Conflict in the Newsroom; pp. 369-440.

• Watch: The Paper.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

• Discussion questions #8: The Paper

• **Case study Analysis #8: Discuss WAC #3 (On-line, threaded discussion.)

• **Final Project Due: Sunday, August 3, midnight

…………………………………………

This schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.

4/03/2003