Election coverage

Here is a strong election package.

Here is a basic candidate story.

Here is a pre-election story regarding residency.

Election resources

Here is a good resource for covering elections.

Here is another.

Here is a good resource for campaign finance questions.

Here is Orange County election information.

Here is Seminole County election information.

Covering elections

Exam 1 Study Guide

Here is a link to your study guide for Exam 1 on Thursday.

Beat 1 story reminder

Just a reminder from your syllabus:


Guidelines for written work:
• ALL PAPERS MUST BE TYPED AND STAPLED.
• LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
• You must have three human sources per story. Documents and reports should also be used as sources where appropriate, but they will not count against the three-source minimum. Your relatives, friends and classmates are NOT acceptable sources. Random citizens make poor sources.
• Make sure you submit a source list including contact information with each story.
• Do not plagiarize, fabricate, or submit work you have done for another class. Your story should not have a UCF connection.
• Stories must be double-spaced, in correct form and style and should contain your name, the date, and the slug in the upper left-hand corner.
• Proofread and correctly copy edit your copy! All spelling, punctuation, grammar, AP style, and factual errors will cause you to lose points.
• You may not quote another newspaper or television or other media source.
• All stories must be approved in advance – by a minimum of 12 hours. An email pitch must be sent and it must include an explanation of why the story is newsworthy and a list of 3 sources. If it is not approved in advance by email, the highest grade you may receive is 70 points.

Good luck!

Covering legislation

Another city council story possibility is looking at legislation that the council has approved.

Here is a link to all local laws/ordinances in Florida.

Here is a good explanation of how a law is approved at the state level. (Although it is not actually Florida, most state approval works the same way.)

Here is another good resource.

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Chapter 4

Google maps Assignment

View Orlando City Hall in a larger map

Covering local government

PAR story examples

Here is a city council story.

Here is a Public Works/City Council story. Here is another.

Here is an ordinance story.

Here is a zoning story.

Forms of City Government

here are three basic forms of local government - these are covered in chapter six.

1) Mayor-council
2) City manager-council

Here's a chart comparing/contrasting the two forms.

3) Commission - rarely used

Here's a link to one of the few cities that uses this form of government, Portland.

Story Pitches

Remember that you need to have beat story pitches approved. Here are tips for story pitches:

* Pitch ideas not topics
* Do initial reporting
* Explain why is this newsworthy
* Explain why this is important now
* Make sure that there are people central to the story

Good luck!

Meetings

Here is a meeting preview.

Here is an explanatory meeting preview story.

Here is an average story that came out of a meeting. (This is not an actual meeting story.)

Beat communities and newspapers

Winter Park/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Will & James

Oviedo/Detroit Free-Press
Hannah & Lea Anne

Maitland/Las Vegas Sun
Monique & Katie

Winter Springs/Louisville Courier-Journal
Carmen & Manny

Ocoee/Kansas City Star
John & Lauren

Offbeat meeting example

Here's an offbeat meeting story. It's an example of how sometimes the real news has nothing to do with the agenda.

Florida's Open Meetings Laws

Here is information about Florida's open meetings laws.

Census Data

Get to know your beat community through Census data.

What story ideas come to mind?

Does anything surprise you?

How might this information impact your list of sources?

Questioning officials

Beat Community Background

Today you will receive your beat community - a self-governing city in Orange or Seminole County.

The possible communities include:
Winter Park, Oviedo, Maitland, Winter Springs and Ocoee.

You will cover this community for the rest of semester and pitch story ideas about what is happening. You will be competing with another classmate on these pitches. We will go over examples in class. Good luck and have fun.