The role of journalists

Journalists play a very important role in society. As a journalist, you can learn the basic skills that are
necessary to “do the job” such as proper grammar, spelling and punctuation and appropriate use of AP style.
As Stovall (2015) discusses in Chapter 4, there are certain aspects that go into the development of news
stories that every journalist must be cognizant of: (1) impact (2) timeliness (3) prominence (4) proximity (5)
conflict (6) the bizarre or unusual and (7) currency.
Your essay should have a thesis statement located at the end of an introductory paragraph that outlines the
purpose and direction of the essay. The thesis should be supported with at least six supporting paragraphs.
Each paragraph should have at least one and no more than three sources to support and illustrate the points
being made. No more than 25% of your essay should be quoted material.
For the Reflective Response, students must
Define the elements of news.
Select three recent news stories from print/digital mainstream publications (one local, one national, one
international).
Discuss which elements of news are evident in each news story.
Analyze the appropriateness of each news story for each audience that the story serves.
The Reflective Response