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

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.

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

Finding a Story is the Hardest Part

This doesn’t seem like it would be the case given that many countless pieces of news and media each day in the form of texts, messages, tweets, feeds, blog posts, online article, photos, podcasts, and videos. But in a digital age, information and media are fleeting. We consume them and then quickly move on to the next thing. A truly engaging and memorable story is rare.

As a multimedia storyteller, your goal is to find compelling stories and tell them in the most accurate and vivid way possible. This does not mean the stories have to long or intricate or earth shaking (although at times they can be all of those things).

The best multimedia stories are engaging, surprising, informative, and provide the audience with an “experience” of being a witness to the events themselves.

This takes time, effort, and often a good bit of luck. The main task is to practice, learn from the experience, and keep practicing.

Go Online, Go Offline
In a digital age, the easiest place to look for story ideas is online. And there are many interactive ways to hunt down contacts and leads. Searching websites, existing news articles, databases, archives, records, blogs, social networks, Facebook groups, online forums, and listserves are all great places to begin.

As a reporter, you should be using all of them to find tips, background, events, sources, experts, and various points of view.

However, with multimedia reporting, it is impossible to do all of your reporting using the Internet, phone and email. To get the multimedia elements you need (photos, audio, video, etc) you must go offline. You must go somewhere where something is happening and meet people and talk to people in person.

“I think many of the best stories come from wandering around a city and wondering what the hell is going on,” says NPR business reporter Adam Davidson.

Immerse Yourself in Multimedia Journalism
If you want to be a painter, you study other painters. You take art classes, listen to lectures on art history, look at books of paintings, go to museums, and study techniques. If you want to be a multimedia journalist, you need to spend time exploring the masters of the craft.

Here are some places to begin:
Innovative Interactivity
Interactive Narratives
Multimedia Shooter
NYTimes.com multimedia
LATimes.com photography and multimedia
Duck Rabbit
Media Storm

Thinking Like a Multimedia Reporter
Multimedia journalism uses various media elements – text, photos, audio, video, and graphics – to tell a compelling news story. Which elements you select depends on the story itself. And it depends on the platform that is used to deliver the story to the audience.

The key is to embrace the freedom to use various tools and to understand how to take advantage of the unique qualities of each tool to tell the story in the most compelling way.

Think about which media elements might be best for your story. Each element has its own unique qualities and limits. (We will study each of these more in-depth over the course of the semester.)

Text
•    The entry point into any story through a headline.
•    Used to convey information, facts, history, and analysis.
•    Readers go at their own pace and choose what to read and when to stop.
•    Embedding hyperlinks into text allows the reader to navigate to additional resources on the web.

Photographs
•    Capture the visual aspects of a story.
•    Audience can instantly identify people, places, and events.
•    Capture a particular moment.
•    Convey the emotion and mood of story.
•    Illustrate a sequence or series of actions.

Audio
•    People telling stories about what has already happened in the past.
•    Taps into the power of the human voice – accents, intonation, emotion, etc.
•    Allows people to tell their own stories in their own words.
•    By itself, audio allows the audience to visualize elements of the story for themselves which engages the imagination.
•    Used alongside photos and video, audio complements the visuals.

Video
•    Capturing action or something as it happens in the present.
•    Combines qualities and visuals and audio.

Graphics
•    Useful for distilling, illustrating and conveying complex information in a visual manner
•    Can take multiple forms – maps, timelines, charts, graphs, etc.
•    Can be animated which allows audience to actively interact and manipulate.

Plan Your Multimedia Reporting
Even before you know exactly what your story will be, you want to set a course for your reporting. Planning it out ahead of time will help you find most interesting aspects and help ensure that you get the material you need.

Before you go:
•    Do your research. Know enough to ask the questions that need to be asked.
•    Set up interviews. Have specific times and places to do your interviews. Have all of your subjects contact information. Confirm before you go. Tell the person you are interviewing that you have a deadline; if people can delay it they often will.
•    Prepare your interview questions.
•    Try to sum up your story in a paragraph to help you find the “nut graph.” What is the core of the story? You can revise this later.
•    Identify some of the main characters? What is the best way to gather their information, emotion, opinion?
•    Consider the location. Is it outside or inside, day or night, quiet or noisy?
•    Think about visual and audio elements. Is there something the audience would want to see? Are sounds important to the story? Is there action?
•    Coordinate with others. Are you reporting alone or with a team?
•    Be flexible. Be ready to ask questions you have not prepared. Be willing to explore an angle that you did not foresee.
•    Make sure your equipment is prepared and ready to go.

What’s in Your Multimedia Backpack?
Having the right tools and knowing how to use them is essential to multimedia reporting. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, you need to have equipment organized and ready to go.

Primary Tools
•    Cell phone or Smart phone
•    Audio recorder
•    Digital camera
•    Video camera
•    Notebook, pens

Accessories
•    Tripod
•    Microphones
•    Headphones
•    Chords and cables
•    Additional lenses
•    Extra memory cards
•    Batteries

Other suggested items
•    Equipment manuals
•    Heavy-duty tape (can always come in handy when you have to improvise)
•    Zip-lock bags (in case of weather)

“Make Your Own Luck”
Journalists love to talk about “making your own luck.” What it means is that the best reporters are prepared, quick to respond, and put themselves in situations where they might encounter a good story.

Seek out places that have action. Go to places where people gather, interact, perform, dress up, make money, lose money, debate, create, participate, compete, protest, educate, and worship. Someone who sits in an office all day and works on a computer is good for background information or a quote, but they generally make for lousy multimedia.

Talk to more people than you need to. Ask your questions. Then ask them what questions they think you should be asking. Then ask, “Who else should I talk to?”

Look for new angles. A way to localize a national story? Are there missing viewpoints? What questions are left unanswered?

If something strikes you as odd, surprising, or too good to be true, check it out.

Spend as much time as you can reporting. If you can revisit a place more than once you often find new information that you did not get the first time.

Pay attention.

Above all, be curious.

Circle Back to the Story
It is easy to get lost in the logistics, technical aspects of your equipment, facts and all of the media that you are gathering.

So continually ask yourself, “What is the story?” Do this before you report, while you are reporting, after you have done your reporting, and while you are editing.

Return to the basic questions that will help you find and fashion your narrative:
•    What are you trying to convey?
•    Who are the characters?
•    Does something happen?
•    Is it surprising or unexpected?
•    Does the story present a dramatic question? Will the audience ask: What will happen next? How does this end?
•    Do you care about the story? If you do not, chances are your audience will not care either.

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

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

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.