COMMUNITY RADIO PRODUCTION (CMUN 146)
	LAKE SHORE COMMUNITY MEDIA PROJECT
	SEMESTER II, 2006/07

COURSE GOALS
This course is designed to fulfill both the service learning and social justice goals of the university, the college, the Communication Department and WLUW.  Those goals are to be realized through your use of audio/radio technology and the development and implementation of your journalistic skills.  The course will provide you with an understanding of the audio production process and how that process, when part of radio programming, can contribute to the building of community.  The course and project exist so that Loyola students, faculty and staff, as well as residents of communities within the WLUW coverage area, have an opportunity to use the audio production facilities on campus for the creation of community-based radio.
	Please note that this course counts as an elective for the Urban Studies minor and is part of the MAGIS program.

TEXTS:  Various video, audio and print texts.

SPECIFIC SKILLS:  Audio production - both field recording & studio editing, alternative journalism, community-based news gathering, interviewing, writing for radio and understanding the theoretical basis for the above

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

I.  THREE STORY IDEAS (Due 1/25):  Come to class with three story ideas written down.  Our discussion of these will give you insight into the kinds of stories which are appropriate to the course and ideas about developing those stories.  You are not limited to just these stories.  But all story ideas need approval before being started.

II.  WBEZ CRITICAL PAPER (Due 2/1):  Spend time monitoring WBEZ, 91.5 FM, Chicago’s public radio station, for examples of the kinds of work we expect for the Community News Hour.  Particularly instructive are the news/magazines, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, and The World.  You should write a 3 - 4 page paper critiquing three of the segments/reports/news stories you hear.  How do they inform your work in this course?  What distinguishes NPR/WBEZ’s news from news heard on commercial radio?  How are the news pieces constructed?  What elements comprise each story?  How are interviews used?  What role does the reporter play in the finished piece?  The anchor?  Are there ambient sounds?  Music?  How much scripting is there?  

III.  FINAL CRITICAL PAPER (Due 5/3):  This is your opportunity to critically reflect on your work in this course in a 3 - 4 page paper.  What did you learn about community, service learning and the role of radio in community building?  What is community radio?  What is alternative media and what purposes does it serve?  You should support your ideas with examples from the readings and reports. 

CLASS REPORT  Each student will lead a class discussion on some assigned topic.  The topic relates to alternative media, media reform, documentary production and community radio.  The week before that discussion the student will distribute a list of study questions which will serve as the basis for the class discussion.  

PRODUCTION PROJECTS  The production projects involve two different processes:  interviewing and then editing and mixing those interviews into finished stories to air on WLUW.  After recording the interview in the field you log it.  Then you load it into the computer for editing.  Each interview you load should also be entered on the log sheet in the Blue Book.  Be sure to consult the style book - “Blue Book” - in the Blue Room for specific production guidelines for your news stories.  All finished audio projects will be turned in on a minidisc or CD clearly labeled with your name, name of interviewee, topic and length.  Be sure to turn in a log with your first interview.  After that you need only turn in the interview.

I.  NEWS STORIES:
A.  Do four stories during the semester.  You will first learn how to interview and to record in the field with the minidisc field kits.  You will then focus on scripting the interview in preparation for the editing necessary to produce a finished story to air on  Community Reports.  No story should be produced without my prior approval of the story idea and of your script.  Absent that approval you will be marked down one grade.  One of your stories can be a recording of a speaker on campus.  You then edit that into an appropriate length and package it to air, adding an open and close.   It gets aired on WLUW either as part of Community Reports if it is less than a half hour, or on one of the magazine shows if it is longer than a half hour.
B.  Stories are due Thursday at 6:00 PM.  They will then be included in that - or an upcoming - week’s Community Reports which airs Sunday morning at 10:00.  Work turned in after 6:00 on due dates will be considered late and marked down one whole grade for each week it is late.
	1.  Story 1:  Turn in your interview and your log.  Submit your script 
			for approval before producing your story.  Turn in the 
			completed story on a minidisc or CD.
2.	 Stories 2 – 4:  Submit the scripts for approval before producing your
                          story.  Turn in your finished stories.      

II.  ANCHORING:							
Students working in teams of two will anchor a Community Reports.  You will be assisted by me.  You will do the announcing and edit together the different stories comprising that week’s report. Working on this last step in the production process illuminates that entire process.  We will all observe this anchoring the first time it is done.

GRADE	Four news stories		=	400 points 	= 	40%
Anchoring Comm. Report	=	  50 points	=    	10%
WBEZ Paper			=	100 points 	= 	10%
Class Report			= 	150 points	= 	15%
Final Critical Paper		=	150 points 	=	15%
Participation/Attendance 	=	100 points 	=	10%

ACCESS TO FACILITIES & CHECK-OUT:
Lake Shore security, located in the Grenada Center, has a list of all students in this course.  Being on that list assures you 24 - 7 access to D 437.   You must reserve 437 through Jim Collins, who also reserves and checks-out the field recording kits.  His hours (8:30 - 5:00) constitute check-out time.  Abuse of check out of equipment or facilities will result in your grade being reduced.  Repeated abuses will result in failing the course.

CONTACT INFORMATION

JIM COLLINS			773.508.3708 / D 437	
	CRAIG KOIS	 		773.508.8071 (WLUW) / D 437 / 847.864.6703                                                                        ckois@luc.edu

Please be aware that given the class size and the unpredictability of some aspects of the work in this class, there may be adjustments made to the syllabus as we move through the semester.  

WEEK BY WEEK

1/18:		Introductions / Syllabus / Radio Echo /Course Goals

1/25:		Lab Rules / Story Ideas / Field Kits / Interviewing

2/1:		Listen:  Examples from Community Reports / NPR                       Documentaries 
2/8:		1st Interview + log / WBEZ visit/tour (Navy Pier)
			Ben Calhoun on news / George Lara on internships 
2/15:	 	1st  Story Script  / Pacifica Radio Video / Computer Tutorial / Writing for Radio / Script example
2/22:		2nd Interview / World Community Radio (AMARC)Video / 
			Reports 1, 2, 3

3/1:		2nd Story Script – Listen audio docs. 
3/8:		Mid-Semester Break
3/15:		Reports 4, 5, 6 / Barn Raising – Low Power FM
3/22:		1st & 2nd Stories / Reports 7, 8, 9
3/29:		3rd Interview / Listen to some finished stories / 
			Reports 10, 11, 12

4/5:		Easter break
4/12:		3rd  Story Script 
4/19:      	4th  Interview 
4/26:		4th Story Script, Reports 13, 14, 15

5/3:		Final Exam Meeting Mandatory - 3rd & 4th News Stories