Pam Luecke presents "Designing Assignments" during the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism's annual Business Journalism Week, Jan. 3, 2014. Luecke is the Reynolds Endowed Chair in Business Journalism at Washington and Lee University. The annual event features two concurrent seminars, Business Journalism Professors and Strictly Financials for journalists. For more information about business journalism training, please visit http://businessjournalism.org.

1. Designing Assignments
To Build Financial-Journalism Skills
REYNOLDS BUSINESS JOURNALISM WEEK
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
JANUARY 2014

2. Goals:
— How to teach business journalism in a town of any
size
— How to get 20-year-olds to care about business
— How to demystify business and economics
— How to get beyond basic speech/press conference
stories
— How to have a little fun in class

3. 12 ACEJMC skills and competencies
Business journalism assignments can address many of these!
1.
demonstrate an understanding of the history and role of professionals and
institutions in shaping communications;
2. demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of peoples and cultures and of the
significance and impact of mass communications in a global society;
3. demonstrate an understanding of professional ethical principles and work ethically
in pursuit of truth, accuracy, fairness and diversity;
4. think critically, creatively and independently;
5. write correctly and clearly in forms and styles appropriate for the communications
professions, audiences and purposes they serve;
6. apply basic numerical and statistical concepts;

4. 1. History and role of professions
— Magazine Tracking
¡ Assign each student a different publication to follow for the
term
¡ In addition to content, have students report on ownership,
audited circulation, online strategies, internship possibilities
¡ Have students follow one of the publication’s reporters on
twitter, as well
¡ Require oral presentation, one-page fact sheet and “memo to
an executive”
¡ Arrange presentations chronologically, beginning with “The
Economist”

5. Variations
— Have class complete market analysis after
presentations
Propose a NEW business magazine to fill an unfilled niche
¡ Which magazine will be next to fold?
¡
— Substitute business television shows and websites
¡ Have students show representative segments

6. Variations, continued
— Follow economists’ blogs
¡ Palgrave top 50 list:
÷ http://www.econolog.net/stats.php?area=blogs
¡
¡
¡
¡
¡
About.com list:
÷ http://economics.about.com/od/interestingandfunny/tp/
economics_blogs.htm
American Economics Assn: http://rfe.org/showCat.php?cat_id=96
WSJ top 25:
÷ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124769381962047691.html
Boston Globe list
Keep your own class blog
÷ http://www.blogger.com/home?pli=1

7. Skills learned
— Media history
— Media economics
— Business communication skills
— Oral presentation skills
¡ Use peer feedback sheets

8. 2. Diversity and global society
— “Working” assignment
¡ Discuss Studs Terkel’s 1974 book:
÷
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How
They Feel About What They Do.
Play excerpts from interviews with him
¡ Ask each student to identify a person outside of the university
orbit to interview about how he or she feels about work
¡ Record interview
¡ Turn in unedited AND edited transcript
¡ Discuss in class – have each read an excerpt
¡
— Post their edited transcripts:
¡ W&L web site

9. Resources for “Working”
} NPR story about Terkel’s tapes
}
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3892055
} Terkel Interview
}
http://www.studsterkel.org/index.php
} New York Times “American Album”
}
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/album_index.html
} Marketplace
}
“Day in a Worklife”
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/day-work-life-projectionist
} TV shows/ Movies:
}
Undercover Boss, The Office

10. Variations
— Encourage video interviews, audio clips
— Require photos of interview subjects
— Allow students to work in pairs
— Put more limitations on choices to drive home
particular learning objectives:
Hourly workers
¡ Racial diversity
¡ Manufacturing jobs
¡ Older workers
¡ Laid off workers
¡

11. Skills learned
— Interviewing techniques
— Oral history techniques
— Listening skills
— Gets students outside of comfort zones
— Grass roots perspective on business community

12. Tips
— Assignment is more complicated than it seems
— Be explicit about grading criteria
¡ Selection of interview subject
¡ Ability to draw person out on the topic
¡ Skill at editing the transcript
— Ask students to come up with story ideas from the
interviews

13. 3. Professional ethics
} Plan One
}
Give students names of business journalists to research, e.g.:
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
R. Foster Winans
Lou Dobbs
Dan Dorfman
Chris Nolan (San Jose Mercury-News)
Chiquita stories, Cincinnati Enquirer
Chrystal Cox (Oregon blogger)
Give an oral and/or written report that:
}
}
}
}
}
Describes fully the circumstances that led to the ethical problem and what the
person did.
Describes what happened to the journalist as an immediate result of his
actions.
Describes what the key ethical principles were in this case and whether you
agree with how it was handled.
Updates us on where the person is now.
Discusses the implications (if any) this case has for business journalists today.

14. Professional Ethics
— Plan Two
¡ Distribute SABEW ethics code
¡ Develop real-life ethical scenarios and pose them to individual
students or teams
¡ Examples:
÷ Flowers
from a source
÷ Dating a source
÷ Acting on a stock tip
÷ Bloggers and product reviews
÷ Who pays for lunch
÷ Free airplane trip/tickets/samples
÷ Requests to change article posted online
÷ Investing in stocks of local companies, sector funds, etc.

15. Professional Ethics
— Plan Three
¡ Role of the financial press in the economic cycle
÷ “What
is Financial Journalism for - Ethics and Responsibility in a
Time of Crisis and Change,” Professor Damian Tambini, UK
¡
Federal Reserve article: “Consumer Sentiment and the
Media?”
÷ http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2004/
el2004-29.html
¡
Telegraph column:
÷ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/edmundconway/
4109557/Media-is-partly-to-blame-for-the-recession.html

16. 4. Think critically
— Enron
¡ Have students watch DVD of “Enron: Smartest Guys in the
Room” (or, heaven forbid, read the book!)
¡ Write essay arguing a point of view:
÷ Focus
on transgressions of one “culprit”
÷ Was this a “perfect storm?”
÷ Compare/contrast with Fall 2008 meltdown
÷ Role of the press
¡
Devote a class to discussion

17. Other meaty movies
— “The Insider”
¡ Role of a watchdog
¡ Can link to discussion of “whistleblowers” as sources
— “Wall Street” and “Wall Street II”
¡ First one is dated, but a classic
¡ Debate “greed is good” and business ethics
¡ Changes in technology and the role of the press
— “Social Network”
¡ Business Strategy
— 2008-09 Meltdown: “Margin Call,” “Too Big to Fail”

18. Other meaty books
— “The Travels of a T-shirt in a Global Economy,”
Pietra Rivoli
¡
Good introduction to globalization and trade
— “Nickeled and Dimed,” Barbara Ehrenreich
¡ Insights into issues of wages, benefits, Wal-Mart
— “Boomerang,” Michael Lewis
¡ Global dimensions of recent financial crisis
— “Mission in a Bottle,” Seth Goldman and Barry
Nalebuff
¡
“Graphic novel” – history of Honest Tea

19. 5. Write clearly and professionally
— Final journalistic story
¡ Major story on a public company with ties to your community
¡ Expect students to use all skills covered during the term
¡ Teach the process
¡ Describe assignment early in term
¡ Require story pitches and likely source list
¡ Require a story conference with you
¡ Ask for a second, more developed story proposal
¡ First draft – graded!
¡ Peer editing of drafts
¡ Final draft

20. Variations
— Spend a class or two on story organization
— Devote a class to students’ oral descriptions of story
focus and reporting obstacles
— Have entire class do final story on the same
company:
Collaborators on key interviews
¡ Competitors on final stories
¡ Grade on originality of angle
¡

21. Topics from 2008-2013
— Restaurants: calorie-consciousness, green
movement, Obamacare
— Manufacturers: Mohawk Carpet, MeadWestvaco
— Retailers
Wal-Mart, Peebles, Dollar Tree, Lowes, Kroger, Food Lion
¡ Distribution: Target, JCrew
¡ Blockbuster, GameStop, RedBox
¡
— Advance Auto Parts: online strategy
— Weight Watchers, Netflix, Comcast
— Ntelos (small regional telecom); Rosetta Stone

22. 6. Apply numerical concepts
— Deadline earnings exercise
¡ Go to Yahoo Finance calendar for earnings or conference calls
÷ http://biz.yahoo.com/cc/
Pick a company you’ve heard of that is releasing earnings at a
convenient time AND having a conference call
¡ Give students the company’s press release
¡ Require a cogent story in 55 minutes that includes comment
from the CEO’s conference call
¡

23. Variations
— Play conference call in class
— Let students do exercise as a take-home
— Give them a choice of companies
— Have deadline competition for Blackberry “alert”
— Note: A controlled earnings exercise in advance in
advisable

24. 7. Other assignments
a) SEC Scavenger hunt
b) Holiday retail round-up
c) Humanizing an economic indicator
d) Profile of Fed chairman
e) Closet survey

25. a) SEC Scavenger Hunt
— Pick a company of local interest
— Go through SEC filings from last 2 years (or more!)
and look for small nuggets of information
— Craft 20 or so questions to which they must find
answers
— Require citations of document number and date
— Discuss in class

26. Key skills
— Comfort getting around sec.gov
— Appreciation for value of primary sources
— Better understanding of the purpose of various
filings
— Underscores the value of public documents to locate
incidental information – e.g. a board member’s age,
who a company views as its competitors, which
other boards an executive serves on – and, of course,
executive compensation

27. b) Holiday retail round-up
— Divide local retail community into categories, e.g.
Toys, specialty clothing, discount stores, electronics
Assign or let students pick a store from each category
Ask them to interview the store manager and file a 150-word feed
about the store’s holiday outlook (or sales)
Put feeds in a common electronic folder
Add recent press releases from trade groups, statistics from the
Commerce Department, etc.
Give students 55 minutes (or more or less) to write a local retail
outlook story
¡
—
—
—
—
—

28. Variations
— Can be done before or after Thanksgiving – or post-
Christmas
— Make part of the grade the quality of the student’s
feed
— Show students examples of retail roundups in
advance
— Offer best stories to the local media

29. c) Economic indicators
} Select key economic indicators and assign one to each class
member (or let them draw)
} Ask each to prepare a fact sheet or memo about the indicator,
including:
}
}
}
}
}
What it measures
Who measures it – and how
How often it is released
Any controversies about the measurement
Is it leading, lagging or coincident?
} Ones to include:
} Retail sales, durable goods, consumer price index, GDP (though not
technically an indicator), unemployment
} Sources: Economic Indicator Calendars
}
http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/national_economy/
nationalecon_cal.html

30. Economic indicators, part two
— After class presentations about indicators, ask each
student to write a story humanizing and localizing an
indicator
— Doesn’t need to be the one they reported on
— Good ones to use: retail, housing starts,
unemployment

31. Variations
— Begin with general discussion of indicators
Phone interview with someone who compiles unemployment data
— Include fun ones:
¡ Lipstick
÷ http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lipstickindicator.asp
¡ Hemlines
÷ http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2006/04/
short_or_short_.html
¡ Superbowl
¡ Big Mac index
¡ Starbucks
¡ Business Insider list of 29 bizarre indicators
— Have class pool for each unemployment rate announcement
¡

32. d) Profile of Fed chairman
— Combines writing exercise and research on Fed’s
mission and history
— Can frame profile as:
Advance obit
¡ “Resignation/retirement story”
¡ Changing of the guard
¡
— Tip: Tell students to be careful where they print out
their stories!

33. e) Closet survey
— A little, ungraded assignment
— Engaging way to begin discussion of trade and globalization
— Ask each to examine 12 clothing labels and write down the
country of origin
— In class, go around the room and keep a tally on the
blackboard of how many items were made on each country/
continent
— Discuss implications:
¡
¡
Bangladesh fire
Shirtwaist Factory video, PBS
— Variation: Ask each student to wear to class that day
something made in the USA

34. Final thoughts
— Mix it up
— Befriend professors in economics, accounting,
business, law
— Keep topics fresh
— Teach from the headlines
— Have class pools or “consensus estimates”
Where Dow will be at the end of the term
¡ What unemployment rate will be next month
¡ GDP estimate
¡ Reward winner with chocolate
¡
— Sustain YOUR interest; their interest will follow!