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Business Journalism Professors 2014: Avoid Rookie Mistakes by Rob Wells
This document provides advice for teaching business journalism courses to avoid common rookie mistakes. It outlines strategies for focusing classes on practical skills like writing earnings stories, using active learning exercises to promote student engagement, gradually increasing assignments in difficulty, and emphasizing key financial concepts like bonds, economic indicators, and corporate SEC filings. Sample class elements are proposed, such as discussing a company's income statement, navigating the SEC website to find filings, and connecting economic data to retailer performance. The goal is to give students basic financial literacy and skills in retrieving and reporting on business information.
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Business Journalism Professors 2014: Avoid Rookie Mistakes by Rob Wells
- 1. Avoid Rookie Mistakes TitleSlide Rob Wells, Jan. 3, 2013
- 2. Rob Wells Adjunct Faculty, Universityof Maryland, Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Ph.D. student Reynolds Visiting Professor of Business Journalism, University of South Carolina, Columbia. Former Deputy Bureau Chief, Dow Jones/ Wall Street Journal, Washington, D.C. Reporter for Dow Jones, Bloomberg, The Associated Press
- 3. WHAT YOU WILLLEARN Active Learning Exercises For Business Journalism Classes How To Create A Basic Business Reporting Class Strategies To Focus Classes A Sample Finance Class Session
- 4. Rookie Mistake #1: Slow Down They Won’t Get It The First Time! Be Patient. Teach From Several Angles
- 5. Rookie Mistake #2: Don’t Overreach Focus on Financial Literacy Explore The Business Journalism Genre Convey Practical Skills: Earnings Stories Don’t Expect Students to Produce Print-Quality Work in First Semester
- 6.
- 7. Course Elements 1-Basic corporatefinancial statements, SEC filings. 2–Differences between stock, bond and currency markets. 3—U.S. economic data, impact on markets, economic policy. Cont…à
- 8. Course Elements 4–Business regulation,documents, lawsuits 5—How The Fed, White House, Congress, Corporations Shape Economic Policy 6—Quick Overview of Trade, International Markets
- 9. Rookie Mistake #3: Limit Your Lectures Get Them Talking
- 10. Promote Active Learning --Ungradedquizzes --Fact Boxes: Split Up Complex Material --Blog entries --In-class writing exercises, ungraded, instructor assists
- 11.
- 12. YOUR TURN: WRITE DOWNTWO ACTIVE LEARNING EXERCISES YOU’VE USED IN CLASS. HOW WOULD YOU APPLY THESE TO BUSINESS JOURNALISM?
- 13. Corporate Research Step-by-Step —Extract andwrite a basic earnings story by the end of the semester —Achieve basic financial literacy and be able to understand an income statement —Know how to navigate and retrieve basic information from SEC filings —The concept of public disclosure and its role in the securities markets
- 14. Company Research 1) Assignstudents companies to follow during semester, ones they understand. McDonald’s. Target, Boeing. etc 2) Check Income Statements for Curveballs 3) Avoid Banks, Foreign Cos. 4) Stick To Four SEC Forms: Major Events, Quarterly, Annual, Proxy (8-K, 10-Q, 10-K, Def 14a)
- 15. Your Turn Go ToSEC’s Website, Retrieve Apple 10-Q, Check Income Statement, Management Discussion and Analysis http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/ companysearch.html Discuss: Active Learning Ideas. --Financial Concepts? --Business Concepts?
- 16. MATERIALS 1) Jimmy Gentryhandout on finance 2) “Guide To Money & Investing” --Morris. 2011 Lightbulb Press 3) SEC Edgar website 4) Google Finance website 5) Investopedia videos 6) Daily WSJ, AP coverage
- 17. Rookie Mistake #4: Move Gradually Tip: Set aside two weeks to drill and build confidence, a lightly graded test to focus their attention and then the assignment. Tip: Work with them on ungraded in-class drills. Tip: Iterative Assignments: Split It In Two. First assignment, a memo, 15% of assignment grade. Suggest changes, fix a few things. Second assignment is 85% of grade Students get opportunities to improve.
- 18. Rookie Mistake #5: Use Free Websites Tip: I showed them proprietary financial databases but Google Finance actually will fit your needs. https://www.google.com/finance Assignment Idea: Calculate Percentage Change in Stock Price for Apple Over Last Year, Compare to S&P 500 and Microsoft Corp.
- 19. Economic Data Maingoals for this unit: --Discover government economic data and understand how it affects financial markets and economic policy. —Extract and write a basic economic indicators story by the end of the semester —Understand why economic data moves the markets —Why bond and stock markets react differently to economic data
- 20. Rookie Mistake #5: Don’t Bite Off Too Much Use Extended Discussion of Employment Report To Make Broader Points About All Economic Data —Start with the employment indicator. Kids understand jobs. —Drill in class, build to a deadline writing assignment
- 21. YOUR TURN: REVIEW LISTOF MAJOR ECONOMIC INDICATORS. http://www.nber.org/releases/ IDEAS ON INDICATORS YOU MAY WANT TO TEACH? ALTERNATE WAYS TO TEACH TOPIC? ACTIVE LEARNING EXERCISES?
- 22. Rookie Mistake #6: Be Prepared: Bond Market Students Struggle With Basic Bond Market Concepts. Emphasize: --Ratings, S&P etc --Muni bonds finance schools, roads --Yield moves inverse to Price --Inflation is a bond killer --For Floating Rate Discussion, Discuss Credit Card Interest Rate Formulas --Size of Bond Vs Stock Markets
- 23. SUCCESSFUL ASSIGNMENTS PROPOSE YOUROWN ECONOMIC INDICATOR, COMPARE TO EXISTING DATA, DEFEND IT --PROMOTES CRITICAL THINKING --SLEEPING PILL INDICATOR --BAR FIGHTS INDEX --ABANDONED PUPPY INDICATOR
- 24. SUCCESSFUL ASSIGNMENTS FIELD REPORTING:Blend the Economic Data and Corporate Reporting 1) Review consumer confidence: Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey 2) Pick a publicly traded retailer, like Target, review its SEC filings. 3) Go to store, interview customers. Any parallels to the Univ. of Michigan Survey? Differences?. Write a story that compares the Univ. of Michigan survey to your company and what customers are saying on the ground.
- 25.