Tutorial 3: Due Tues, Jan 31

For Tuesday, Jan 31
Tutorial 3: Finding a Good Story and Telling It (Quiz to follow)
Listen to the first part (30 minutes) of the Rest Stop episode of This American Life. Then watch Ira Glass talk about the elements of storytelling on YouTube.
Part 1 – The Building Blocks of a Story
Part 2 – On Finding Great Stories
Part 3 – On Good Taste
Part 4 – Two Common Pitfalls

Multimedia Reporting Assignment I

Due: Thurs, Feb 9 at the end of class
(Worth 10 points. Late = deduction of 2 points)

Topic: “Extreme South Jersey”
The story must have a local angle. It may be a person who resides locally. It may be an activity or event that occurs in South Jersey. It may be someone who has a particular passion for the geography or sense of place.

Extreme is defined as:

• reaching a high or the highest degree
• not usual; exceptional
• very severe or serious
• advocating severe or drastic measures; far from moderate, esp. politically
• denoting or relating to a sport or activity performed in a hazardous environment and involving great physical risk
• furthest from the center or a given point; outermost

Subjects should not be a friends or relatives. It can be about a Rowan related activity or person, but you are encouraged to go off campus.

For this assignment, you will record audio, take photographs, and write a short article. You must create all media content yourself. If you are including audio clip that you did not create (i.e., music from a band) you must obtain permission to use it from the owner and give proper credit in the text of your article. No photos from other sources allowed.

You will turn in all of the following items:

300-500 word article with a headline and byline
•    Saved as word .doc or .docx
•    Saved as YourLastNameA1Text.docx”

60 to 90 second audio clip
•    Exported in .mp3 format
•    Saved as YourLastNameA1Audio.mp3

3 photos
•    .jpg format
•    Medium quality
•    Sized approx 600 width x 450 height
•    Saved as YourLastNameA1Photo1.jpg, YourLastNameA1Photo2.jpg, YourLastNameA1Photo3.jpg

To create these media elements:

1. Do some leg work to find a story. Do research. Make phone calls. Go somewhere. You are looking for something unexpected, surprising, and unique. You must be able to explain why the story fits the theme of “Extreme South Jersey.” Find the most compelling story you can.

2. Take a camera, your audio recorder, microphone, and headphones. Introduce yourself. Let everyone you talk to or photograph know that this is for a public web site.

3. Audio Reporting: Interview your subject(s). Try to ask questions that elicit stories, not just information. You must also gather other sounds (natural sound effects) to enhance your audio and tell your story.

4. Photo Reporting: Take photos of the event, activity, and people you interview. Capture a variety of shots (wide, medium, close-up, detail, etc). Take more photos than you need (Try to take at least 100 photos). Look for moments that capture the essence of the experience. Make sure you have strong images the person or people in your audio.

6. Audio Editing: Edit your audio to 60 to 90 seconds. Edit out the sound of your own voice and questions. Integrate natural sounds to make it more vivid. Use your audio to capture voice, emotion, personality, and anecdotes. Try to identify and include an anecdote and a moment of reflection in your audio edit.

7. Photo Editing: Pick your three best photographs to accompany the audio and text. Use your photos to present visuals, portraits of people, action, and specific moments.

8. Writing: Write a short article to go with your audio and photos (approximately 300-500 words). Use the text to convey basic information (who, what, where, when, why) and to entice the viewer to explore the audio and photos. Make sure you have first and last names spelled correctly. Write a compelling headline for your story that is descriptive and uses key words.

10. Make sure all of your media is saved in the proper format and named correctly. (See list above).

11. Put your audio clip, three photos, and text document in a folder called YourLastNameOJ2A1. Turn in your entire folder and its contents via Flash drive.

Grading: Worth Total 10 points

1 point = Audio edited to 60 to 90 seconds, no reporter’s voice, natural sounds.
1 point = Quality of audio gathering and editing.
1 point = 3 photos. At least one photo must be of a person. At least one photo must show some action.
1 point = Quality of photos. Focus, framing, light, variety.
1 point = 300-500 words article with a compelling and descriptive headline.
1 point = Quality of text. 5 Ws, lead, structure, free of grammatical errors and typos.
3 points = Story content. Is it compelling, relevant, worth reading, hearing, seeing, and sharing? Do the elements work together to provide a cohesive and vivid story?
1 point = Files submitted in proper formats with appropriate file names

Here are some examples of multimedia stories that are in the same “spirit” as your assignment:

Subway Preachers (NYTimes.com)
Running Voices (NYTimes.com)
High School Students Predict their Future (NYTimes.com)

See some student work from last semester:
Renter Keeps Folk Art Sculpture Alive
Looking After the Atlantic City Cats
More than Just a Girl Band

Alex Blumberg on “What Constitutes a Good Story?”

In this 2005 article in Transom Review, NPR radio reporter and journalism instructor Alex Blumberg offers some great advice for determining if you on the right track to finding a good story.

Here are some takeaways from the article:

1. Don’t confuse a location or premise with an actual story.

2. You need someone to talk to and a situation to discuss.

3. Trust the first question that comes to you. Figure out what question you want to answer or what story you want to hear. If the question seems obvious, chances are it’s a story.

4. Just because something is a story or takes the form of a story doesn’t mean it’s an interesting story.

5. Don’t pursue a story just because it’s story you’ve heard before. In fact, do the opposite. Look for the story that is the most surprising and unexpected.

6. People often tell you the boring part first. Sometimes they think it is exciting or think it’s what they are supposed to tell a reporter. Dig deeper. If you are bored, your audience will be bored.

7. Everyone has a story, but it’s not always that interesting or something you can adapt. If you don’t have a story, find someone else.

8. Try the “and what’s interesting test.” Blumberg has developed a simple test to see if you are on the right track. He writes:

You simply tell someone about the story you’re doing, adhering to a very strict formula: “I’m doing a story about X. And what’s interesting about it is Y.” So for example… “I’m doing a story about a homeless guy who lived on the streets for 10 years, and what’s interesting is, he didn’t get off the streets until he got into a treatment program.” Wrong track. Solve for a different Y.

Y = “… and what’s interesting is there’s a small part of him that misses being homeless.” Right track.

Y = “… and what’s interesting is, he developed surprising and heretofore unheard of policy recommendations on the problem of homelessness from his personal experience on the streets.” Right track.

Y = “… and what’s interesting is, he fell in love while homeless, and is haunted by that love still.” Right track.

Y = “… and what’s interesting is, he learned valuable and surprising life lessons while homeless, lessons he applies regularly in his current job as an account manager for Oppenheimer mutual funds.” Right track. In other words, who the hell knows what you might find out. Just don’t settle for the story you already know. Find the exciting or surprising or unusual moment, and focus the story on that.

Story idea brainstorming

Collectors and Buyers
Computer Gamers
Anime/Role Playing/Star Wars Geeks
Atco Raceway
Cowtown Rodeo
Wing Bowl
Skydiving
School clubs
Eagles Fanatics
Ghost Hunters
Devil Hunters
Gambling Addicts
Polar Bear
Warrior Lab
Parkour
Pokemon Champ
Shark Tank Sweet 16 Party
Comic Con
Off Season Golfers
Sneaker Heads
Dieting/Fitness
Dating (online)
Cat Lady
Jersey Shore
Traveling
Sports
Music
Car Shows
Cruising
Spoken Word/Rapping
Neglect
Logging
Beer Enthusiasts
Ice kayaking bass fishing
Jumping Rabbits
Graveyard caretakers
Porn maker
Dropping out to make it big
Baby beauty pageants

Week 2

Due by beginning of class on Thurs, Jan 26
Tutorial 2: Reporting Across Platforms (NewsU course report due)
Sign up for a NewsU account. Enroll in this course on Reporting Across Platforms and email me the Course Report when you are finished.

For Tuesday, Jan 31
Tutorial 3: Finding a Good Story and Telling It (Quiz to follow)
Listen to the first part (30 minutes) of the Rest Stop episode of This American Life. Then watch Ira Glass talk about the elements of storytelling on YouTube.
Part 1 – The Building Blocks of a Story
Part 2 – On Finding Great Stories
Part 3 – On Good Taste
Part 4 – Two Common Pitfalls

Thoughts on Seeking Out Multimedia Stories

Week 1

In Class:
-Course overview and introductions
-Equipment
-Permission, Waivers, Plagiarism, and Copyright
-Planning web site strategy and developing story ideas

For Tuesday, Jan 24
Tutorial 1: Multimedia Storytelling Lexicon (Quiz to follow)
Study the multimedia vocabulary list and the examples.

What’s the Theme for Spring 2012?

For Thursday, Jan 19

Come to class with two theme ideas for this semester’s edition of njsouthbound.com.

Spend some time looking at the websites below. Pay attention to the themes and how the stories elaborate on each theme. Which theme(s) are you drawn to? What stories are you drawn to? Based on what has been done in the past, come to class on Thursday ready to brainstorm about the class project for the semester.

Look at what OJ2 students have done in the past:
Vol 6: The Underground Issue
Vol 5: The NJ Symbols Issue
Vol 4: Off the Turnpike
Vol 3: The Real New Jersey
Vol 2: Jersey Jobs
Vol 1: The Diner Issue

Sample what some other online journalism students have done:
Archives of nyc24.org
Unsung New Yorkers
Young and the Wireless
Future of the urban, multicultural youth
While We Sleep

NJSouthbound Project Overview

The Online Journalism 2 class will advance the website http://njsouthbound.com created by past classes. The basic premise will remain the same: to create a journalistic web site of multimedia stories (text, photos, audio, video, graphics) on issues and residents of Southern New Jersey. We will collaborate with the Photojournalism class. The website will showcase some of the best multimedia work by Rowan journalism students and serve as an online magazine for the residents of South Jersey. The website will be created in beta (a public, experimental phase) early in the semester. We will build an audience and traffic over the course of the semester and solicit feedback and responses. The site will culminate in an official launch in late April.

Perimeters:
The project must meet high journalistic standards for accuracy and ethics. All interviews, photos, articles, videos, etc. must be able to hold up to criticism and legal challenge. This is a public website, and students are responsible for all content.

The stories should be “evergreen” feature stories or profile based, rather than news based. You are looking for stories that won’t go out of date quickly. However, they can still be timely.

The stories will be rooted in a sense of place and should reveal something unique about the people, culture, or issues of Southern New Jersey. (If stories occasionally venture into Central or North Jersey that is fine. But we do not have the people or resources to adequately cover the entire state).

The majority of the stories must be about people and places off campus. There is already a school newspaper, TV station, radio station, and several other publications about Rowan. There is no need to replicate them.

Students will collect information through in person interviews and reporting. You will do this individually and in teams. Email and phone interviews won’t reap the required multimedia elements. For assignments, start early. Use the entire time given. Have back up plans.

Stories will be gathered and presented in a variety of multimedia formats: text, audio recordings, photos, audio slideshows, and short video segments.

The website should be interactive allowing visitors to read, listen, watch, and contribute.

The website will be promoted (via social networks, etc) so that it reaches an audience outside of the university.

The website will showcase the best multimedia work by Rowan journalism students.

Equipment Room Policies

Students can check out some equipment (video cameras, microphones, tripods, chords, and other items) in the Journalism Department Office in Bozorth 105O. Do not go to the RTF equipment room for this course, please! The equipment room is open Monday to Friday 9:00-10:30 a.m. and 1:30-4:30 p.m. Equipment can be checked out on a first-come, first-serve basis and must be returned on time. Students must read, follow and sign the Journalism Equipment Room Policies and Guidelines (pdf).