JRN 200: Rules To Remember

I'm always looking for a way to simplify our principles to an easily-understood and effortlessly-followed list. Sometimes I come up with such a formula; other times, I find something that's good to go.

Below is an example of the latter: a list of 22 rules for journalists. It does a nice job of reminding us of some basic precepts that can easily be forgotten amid the daily hubbub: keep it simple, do the right thing, it's about people, ect.

Give it a quick read and think about how these rules can apply to your day-to-day routines now and beyond this semester.

By Robert Mann

Whenever I hear about some press secretary cursing a young reporter, I think, “That’s a press secretary who was never a young reporter.”

That’s one reason some politicians have such poor press relations: the people they hire to manage their press relations know nothing about the daily life of a journalist. They think it’s about intimidation and manipulation when it’s mostly about mutual respect and creating and nurturing trusting relationships.

I discussed this in considerable detail earlier this week in this post about politicians and their spokespeople.

That post prompted a few friends to offer some additional rules.

It also prompted my friend and former LSU Manship School colleague Jay Perkins (a longtime Washington, D.C., Associated Press reporter) to offer some rules for journalists that he’s compiled over the years.

Jay is quick to note that most of these aren’t original to him. But it’s a great collection of wisdom that he once shared with all his students — and that I now share with you:

EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT REPORTING (And most of it I stole)

By Jay Perkins

1. Journalism is an attempt to discern the truth from liars. Don’t expect anyone to tell you the truth. They won’t. It’s up to you to find it. Look for contradictions in what people say. Three words to live by: compare and contrast.

2. Most lies are those of omission. Most people aren’t going to lie totally. They’re just going to tell you the version of the truth that makes them look good.

3. There’s a big difference between repeating and reporting. Repeating what someone said is easy. It doesn’t require much judgment or intelligence. Reporting is a search for the best version of the truth. It requires intelligence, skepticism, hard work and lots of digging. Strive to be a reporter.

4. The last reporter to get the truth from one source was a guy named Moses. Unless your source is God, you’re not going to get the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth from one interview. And if you’re getting interviews with God, you’re in the wrong business.

5. Reporting requires common sense – all five of them. It’s not enough to just listen to what someone says. God gave humans – even reporters – five senses. Sometimes how someone looks is just as important as what he or she says. Sometimes the way their voice wavers can tell you a lot. Use your senses.

6. Too many journalists try to climb a mountain from the top down. If you go right to the top and interview the big guy first, you’re dependent on what he wants to tell you. If you interview the little people first, you’ll know what to ask when you get to the big guy. Take it one step at a time. Start at the bottom. Hit the library and find out everything you can about the subject. Interview the little people second. You’ll get to the top quick enough – and you’ll know what to do when you get there.

7. Most business stories are not news stories. But most news stories are business stories. If you don’t understand business, you can’t understand news. Look to see how the news affects business – and why.

8. What someone knows is important. But the real question is how do they know it. Ask them. Beware the person who knows everything – college professors are a good example. They may just be good at talking about nothing.

WRITING

9. Good writing will take you further than good reporting. The reason? Most editors can recognize good writing. But few of them can recognize good reporting. Be a good reporter. But also be a good writer.

10. Writing is like making love – it’s a lot more fun with a partner. Unfortunately, too many journalists think they’re writing for themselves. They’re so interested in satisfying their own ego that they forget about satisfying the reader. Keep your focus on your readers. Tell them the story. They’ll think better of you in the morning.

11. Good writing starts with a KISS. That’s a maxim political consultants live by – Keep It Simple, Stupid. Leave the big words and the complex sentences in your English classes. Your job is not to impress the reader with your vocabulary or your ability to say nothing in 4,000 words. It’s to eloquently elucidate a communique – uh, communicate a message.

12. People are more important than statistics. You tell your reader that 500,000 people went broke in America last year, he’ll yawn. You tell him the personal story of one person who went broke, he’ll listen. Statistics are important and they have to go into the story. But your focus is on people.

THE NATURE OF NEWS

13. News is never new. It is simply recycled for a new audience. The only journalists who think they’ve found something new are those who are too dumb to read and too lazy to research. Read what other reporters in other towns are doing. Read what other reporters have done. Here’s betting the story they covered could be covered in your community. Do it. And then everybody will think you’ve found something new.

14. Anyone can cover an event. But only the good reporter can put it into perspective. Most reporters have an institutional memory of one day. The good ones can relate what happened on any one day to the historical trends that created the event and the ripple event the event will have across society. Don’t be satisfied with covering an event. Stretch the envelope.

15. Reporting and writing are tools that a journalist uses. But what he or she really is selling is knowledge. If you think the Mujahadeen sell ice cream in Beijing, that Khadaffi is the French word for coffee, that Mekong is what a big gorilla once said, you’ve got a problem. Three words to live by: Read. Read. Read.

LAW AND ETHICS

16. Ethics are elastic. It’s easy to be ethical when the story is small. It’s a lot harder when the story is huge. Develop an ethical code that you can live by. And live by it. The rule one reporter lives by: he never does anything to get a story that he would be ashamed to have printed alongside his story.

17. More libel suits are caused by bad manners than by bad reporting. You write something. Somebody gets mad. They call you up to complain. You listen to them, they feel better. You act like an arrogant jerk, they sue. Be nice. It will save you numerous libel suits.

RESPONSIBILITIES

18. Journalists can’t tell people what to think. But they certainly tell people what to think about. What you decide to cover and the way you organize your story all impact on what the reader is going to think about. That’s an awesome responsibility. Think about it.

19. The journalism profession doesn’t need any more bad reporters. It’s got plenty of those already. If you’re going to be a journalist, be a good one. If you’re not going to be a good one, find another field of work.

20. There’s no such thing as objectivity. But there’s something called fairness. If you don’t think your preconceptions influence the questions you ask and the story you write, you’re dreaming. Don’t worry about being objective. But try to be fair. Let everyone tell their side of the story.

21. So now you’ve been fair and allowed everyone to tell their side. Don’t let fairness cause you to miss the target. What’s the point of all this work you’re doing? Finding the truth. And the truth is never fair and it’s never balanced and it’s never objective.

CONSISTENCY

22. And finally, remember: most people will remember you not for your best story but for your worst.

JRN 200: What Journalism Is

Recently, a former State Newser asked me to review her personal statement as part of her MSU College of Law admission. And at the heart of her statement was what she learned being a journalist,  which I want you to consider for two reasons: first, it gets to what being a journalist is really about; it's not writing, it's about a responsibility to truth and community and getting out of your own comfort zone to do your job. Second, it's a literal example of how performing journalism can be used to demonstrate skills that apply to things that have nothing to do with journalism, and help you become anything but a journalist. Here we go:

My pen trembled in my hand as it hovered over the notebook and a list of questions.  I had been nervous for days — going over my notes and asking colleagues for tips —

as I prepared to conduct one of the toughest interviews I faced as a journalist. It was for a story about the B.R.A.D. Foundation, which sends out cards promoting safe drinking to young adults a few days before their 21^st birthday. The program was set up by the parents of Bradley McCue, who died on his 21^st birthday from ethanol poisoning. This interview would test all of the technical and interpersonal skills I had gained over the years from work and school.

            I had come a long way since one of my first interviews as a paid staff member of Michigan State University’s The State News. On those occasions, I simply read all my questions and failed to ask any follow-ups, resulting in me missing pertinent information. This taught me the importance of asking questions that build on the others. I had also learned a lot since my first story on a controversial political issue, affirmative action, a topic that I failed to thoroughly research prior to interviewing my main source. This taught me how research is critical before an interview. I made it a practice to come up with multiple ideas – more than I was required to have – every week at work. As a result, I quickly became someone other reporters could rely on for a story idea. The more I researched, interviewed, and wrote, the more I honed by ability to talk to others and be a skillful reporter overall.

             Looking back, I have to say that the interview process was initially the most challenging aspect of journalism for me because it is difficult talking to people who do not want to answer your questions. But, without a human source, the story or article never feels complete. So, I learned to relate to an interviewee, ask the right questions, and began enjoying the interview process. After four years of preparation, I had become ready to take on the toughest interview of my journalism career.

Mrs. McCue answered on the second ring. “Hello?” she said, in a cheery voice that lifted my spirits just a little. “Hi, this is Isabella from The State News. Is now a good time to talk?” I asked, knowing full well there is never a good time to talk about your deceased son. “Yes,” she said. I let out a deep breath, sounding shakier than I had expected.

My pen moved quickly as I went through the simple questions first to ease her into the interview and feel ready to open up, eventually leading up to “What do you think Bradley would make of this program if he were alive today?” Even after 14 years, his mother had a difficult time choking out the answers to these questions. I used a soft tone of voice to convey compassion for Mrs. McCue and make her feel comfortable enough to open up about her son. I paused between questions to give her time to respond and collect her thoughts. I also let her know how impressed I was with the program and all she had done to put her at ease and ensure that she was ready to discuss how the Foundation benefits young adults.

            About two weeks later, the story was published and I received positive feedback from both parents who wanted to send the B.R.A.D cards to their children and fellow students who were touched by Bradley’s story. In October 2013, I received a B.R.A.D. card of my own, which I keep on my bulletin board as a reminder of not only Bradley’s story, but also the accomplishment I felt in writing about him.

The article I wrote about the B.R.A.D. Foundation was symbolic of my personal development. I was first drawn to journalism in high school because of my love for writing, but I was unaware of how the journalistic goal of getting to the truth of a matter could have so much meaning until I started college. Being a journalist was my way of helping others, something I am passionate about. I loved receiving an email or phone call from someone I interviewed or who read my story and was impacted by it.

            I am now drawn to an education and a career in the field of law in part because, as an attorney, I will be able to use the very skills that enabled me to excel in journalism — engaging in critical thinking, painstaking research and challenging interviews — to help clients with their issues. At Michigan State University (MSU), I would benefit from opportunities to educate myself in a variety of legal fields. One area that I am interested in is animal law, given my lifelong passion for animals, and writing for the Journal of Animal & Natural Resource Law would be an amazing opportunity and a boost to my future legal career. I am also interested in MSU’s unique Indigenous Law Certificate Program, which would enable me to work with and help Native American tribes right here in Michigan. In addition, I plan to join MSU’s Moot Court and Trial Advocacy Board. I shadowed a defense attorney this past summer, and her work inspired me and made me feel more confident in my choice to pursue a law degree. I enjoyed being in the courtroom, and I want to learn and practice courtroom skills in Moot Court. Finally, I have attended MSU for almost four years, and I call East Lansing my home. There is no other school where I’d rather continue my education.

            It has been about a year and a half since I did my interview about the B.R.A.D. Foundation, and I’m now looking ahead to the challenges that I’ll face in my legal career. Five years from now I hope to be prepping for another type of interview — one where I am sitting across the room from a client in need of my legal services. I look forward to researching and sharing information and knowledge as a lawyer.

Tweet #1: How To Tweet Non-Breaking News

Tweeting a breaking news story is easy, as you've learned. Just type what you see, as you see it. But how do you tweet something that isn't breaking? Like a trend story, or something about a topic without a specific time peg or an actual event associated with it?

Actually, that's easy, too!

That was a situation a student in one of my past JRN 200 classes faced. She was doing a story about a rash of concussions among student-athletes. And here's her tweet stream, which I reversed so that you see her first tweet first and her last tweet last; the opposite of how it would appear on Twitter. Here we go:

#concussedathletes Over 300,000 sports related concussions occur each year, according to the Brain Trauma Research Center.

#concussedathletes The NCAA, the nation's largest college athletic association, has no guidelines for treating athletes with head injuries.

#concussedathletes The Big Ten is trying to implement its own regulations to deal with concussed athletes.

#concussedathletes Michigan State University is not pushing for the Big Ten to have the regulations.

#concussedathletes MSU soccer goalkeeper Liz Watza has had five concussions and said "The NCAA should create guidelines."

#concussedathletes Sports Specialist Dr. Homer Linard said the main concern with letting injured athletes back in the game is brain injury.

#concussedathletes Suffering a second concussion shortly after the first one can be deadly, according to the Brain Trauma Research Center.

#concussedathletes Incoming freshmen athletes at MSU are given a specific concussion test, called ImPACT. impacttest.com

#concussedathletes Athletic Clinical Coordinator Brian Bratta said "ImPACT assesses memory, cognitive ability and function of the brain."

#concussedathletes Once a concussion occurs at MSU, the athlete takes ImPACT again to gauge the severity of the injury.

#concussedathletes Despite new technology, the biggest indicator is the presence of symptoms, said Bratta. http://tinyurl.com/6cq9dx

#concussedathletes When a head injury occurs, MSU athletes are immediately given SCAT, the Standardized Concussion Assessment Test.

#concussedathletes SCAT is a checklist of common symptoms and tests balance, said MSU Certified Athletic Trainer Yume Nakamura.

Now, please notice a few things. Look at the first four tweets. Each could be a lede, right? For many of you, in writing a story -- especially trend stories -- you may find that you have more than one good lede option, but you can only choose one lede. But in tweeting the news, each lede option can become its own tweet.

Second, the tweeter took telling quotes and made each a tweet, like that of the player giving her opinion on the subject. Just like a quote in a story, it's not YOUR opinion; it's what somebody who is a subject of your story thinks.

Third, interesting facts are offered as tweets, like those on what the effects of a concussion can be.

Fourth, a mini-series of tweets are used to explain a nuance of the story, like the half-dozen tweets that in total detail how MSU deals with concussed athletes.

Fifth, hyperlinks are offered via tweet. Notice the tweet that uses a bit.ly link. Bit.ly is a URL shortener that will take a long URL and convert it into a shorter one that better fits on a character-restricted service like Twitter.

Video #1: Your Assignment

So yes, we now have a video assignment to cram in along with your ongoing social media, blog and out-of-class story assignments.

For this assignment, you will be asked to create a news video no shorter than 1 minute long and no longer than 2 minutes long, on the subject of, what have people learned sofar in JRN 200? Your interview subjects must come from one of your multimedia groups, as assigned in a separate blog post.


You will be required to interview at least two people on-camera and shoot b-roll (a video camera would be great, but a simple Flip cam or even a good smart phone will suffice); edit the raw video using iMovie or FinalCut Pro or some other comparable video editing software; create an edited news video with a lede and attribution and such; upload the video to the YouTube account you were supposed to create for this class; make sure that the YouTube account is set to a public setting (and not private); and then email me a link to the video to omars@msu.edu, with  a subject line of video #1.


As long as you meet the basic parameters of this assignment, I will give you a 4.0 equal to that of a practice story. Those parameters include:

-- staying within the 1-2 minute range and on-topic
-- containing at least two human interviews on tape
-- containing B-roll
-- showing signs of editing; that is, not simply pasting entirely unedited tape onto YouTube. You want to create a video story using raw video as a base to be edited and moved around, in the same way we want t write a text story using raw information as a base to be edited and moved around.
-- containing NO fatals

The penalty for failing to meet these parameters is 0.5 of your grade, per error. In addition, a fatal resulted in a 1.0 grade. And failure to turn it in, of course, is a 0.0. Please review the video links provided in the earlier blog post to get an idea of what this assignment may look like, in finished form.

These same deductions will apply on all future multimedia assignments. But future assignments WILL include consideration of content and journalistic value.



The deadline for this assignment will be no later than 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5 to omars@msu.edu. Again, you should be emailing me links to your YouTube account, and not an attached video file. (PLEASE make sure your account is set to a "public" setting!!!)

If you are unsure about your topic or fuzzy on some of these concepts like B-roll or captions or whatever, or if you have any questions whatsoever, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Good luck, everyone!

Video #1: What It Might Look Like

For the first video assignment, I am asking you to do a news video on the topic of, what have you learned sofar in JRN 200?

For this assignment, you will have to interview at least two people in your video group on-camera about what they've learned in JRN 200 sofar.

The videos must run between 1 and 2 minutes long. Each must start out with some sort of a title caption (sort of like a lede), so that the audience knows what the story is going to be about. The story should include video of your interview subjects talking (sort of like quotes in a story), and those subject shots should include captions identifying the people who are speaking (sort of like attribution).

Of course, the stories should have no fatals -- not in terms of what people are saying (it must be true), and captions should have proper spellings and titles. All because it's video doesn't mean we operate at a lower standard than print. Be sure you do thorough double-checking of the information you gather.

(See? Lots of concepts we worked on are true regardless of medium.)

Also, the videos should contain B-roll. What is b-roll, you ask? It is video showing what your story is about, that you use to break up segments of the video.

For example, let's say you are interviewing people about what they're doing this summer, and one interview subject is making burgers at McDonald's, and the other is going to the beach every day. B-roll would be showing what they're doing: shots of one person flipping greasy burgers, and of the other person laying on the beach as waves roll in.

Then, we would use some of that b-roll to break up the interview segments. For example,you know that standard shot of someone talking in a video interview, where you just see their head and they're talking blah-blah-blah? You would start a segment with that, then while they're still talking, you roll some b-roll over the sound, so that people can see what the person is talking about at the same time they're talking about it.

(That goes back to a print concept: show the audience; don't just tell them. At the same time, it breaks up that monotonous shot of someone just talking).

Then, you return to the head shot and end the segment.

Also, B-roll can be used during transitions between segments, to help illustrate those transitions.

Some good b-roll examples can be found in the following videos from some past classes, where the topic was the same: "What have you learned sofar in JRN 200?" Like your assignment, it required two human sources on tape per video.


Off we go:

Andrea 

Shanin T.



Emily

Julia

Journalism 2.0: An Overview

Journalism is still about people, not technology. Technology is changing how we're reaching people, but it doesn't change that we're trying to reach people to tell them stories that are interesting, relevant and useful to their lives.

We need to change how we do journalism to adapt to how and when people get their news, but we are NOT changing our values.

In many ways, today has never been a better time to be a journalist. In the history of civilization, people have never consumed as much information as they do today, and in so many different ways, like:

-- Print.

-- Traditional broadcast (TV, radio).

-- New broadcast (cable and satellite TV, on-demand TV, satellite radio).

--  Online (news Web sites, blogs, aggregators, social media, ect.).

-- Mobile (smart phones, tablets).

-- The next big thing on the horizon, whatever it may be.

Likewise, there has never been a time that offered so many powerful ways to tell stories and serve the audience.

Journalists can reach the audience in a multitude of ways, no longer being limited to a single specialty medium. The Web means there are no more constraints based on time and space. Whenever you get the story, you can share the story, and in endless ways. No more solely having to wait for the start of a printing press or for an 11 o'clock broadcast time.

No longer are we pure media companies sticking to a single medium. We are information technology companies producing content across many mediums.

That means mastering fundamental skills that have not changed. Story-telling, gathering and organizing information is still critical; so is affirming accuracy and focusing on what is most relevant, interesting and useful to your audience. The only difference is, we do that across many mediums, and not just one.

We will use traditional print concepts as a foundation on which we will build your skills and expertise in telling stories in many ways: in print; in breaking news stories for a Web audience; with video; and with real-time social media tools like Twitter.

And we will experiment with these techniques in inventing our own multimedia approaches to story-telling. Think of the technology you use as information consumers: to get news and information, how do you use social media? Or multimedia? Or mobile? Then, let's apply those habits to how we tell stories.

We will learn all this by doing. We will put these skills into action almost immediately. Then, we will review what we did and apply those lessons going forward.

The pace has to be fast, and there's no time to waste. As Journalism 2.0 says; The fact is, if you work in journalism, you work for an online news organization --- whether you want to or not. Change is inevitable. Progress is optional. The future is now.

Now, let's go evolve journalism.

Journalism 2.0: How To Report News For The Web

Of all the new skills, this should be the easiest to learn. It simply requires a new way of thinking and working.

Writing news for the Web is very similar to wire service reporting, like what's been done at The Associated Press for over 150 years. Think less in terms of filing one complete story, and more in terms of fling "takes." Each "take" has the latest information, in the briefest form and updating the previous "take."

The news must be timely and relevant. Time is of the essence, as competition is in real time.

Write lively and tight. Be simple and direct. A more analytical, stylistic writing style can be saved for later. Write actively, like you would for a TV news script. And only have one idea per sentence -- don't overload it.

We still have to ensure fundamentals. Facts need the same level of checking as in print. We still need the "why" of a story prominently included.

Use hyperlinks to connect to supporting sources and background information that may be relevant and helpful to the audience in trying to understand the story.

Don't forget visual aids like photos or locator maps (which you can easily create on Google) or video!

Journalism 2.0: How To Blog

What makes a good blog? And a popular one? The same principles of what makes a story good and popular apply here. Blogging is just journalism done differently.

What does a blog do? It allows a reporter to enhance authority via the ability to publish information outside the traditional news cycle and story format. And it allows a news organization to establish a deeper relationship with its audience and leverage the wisdom of the crowd for the benefit of the reporter's coverage.

The rules are a bit different. You can play off of other information via links to competitors. You can have a more personal and conversational (but not necessarily opinionated) voice. Plus, a blog is an ongoing conversation. You tell a story post-by-post, rather than all at once.

What is a blog? There are several common characteristics:

-- It's frequently updated.

-- It's written in a conversational style.

-- It's in reverse-chronological order, with the newest stuff on top.

-- It links to other news and information found on the Web.

-- It's more analytical.

-- There are reader comments appended to the end of each blog post.

To get started, first we must know the form. Before you wrote your first news story, you probably read one, to see what a finished one should look like. Do the same thing here: read other blogs.

Notice which posts you like. Ask yourself, what makes those posts compelling? Note which ideas you can borrow or incorporate. Notice the frequency of the posts. Are they as frequent as you'd like? Are they too frequent? Is there too much information to keep up with?

There are several keys to the mechanics of blogging. First, write tight and quick. Get to your point immediately. There is no set length for a blog post, but 100-400 words is a good target. If you have a lot to say, you can always write a second related post! And a third. And so on.

Plus, think email: think of it as an email to someone you know. Think about a long-winded email you received -- that's what you want to avoid.

Also, link, summarize and analyze. You need attribution and background, like with a news story. But here, attribution and background come via hyperlinking. So, hyperlink frequently to offer background, instead of stuffing that background in the next of your blog.

And, be the authority, but with a personality. Write it in the way you'd talk to someone about a story you wrote. Make it conversational. Sound like a human being, and not a lecturer.

Be short with posts. I cannot say this enough. You are a middle man, linking sources (like links) to readers. Let the links fill in the blanks, and the background. No need to write it all in the post when people can just click on the links for more info. And again, you can always write another post!

Use photos and screen shots to illustrate your posts. Keep in mind, you cannot simply take an image you found on the Web and use it. That's likely a copyright violation if you do so without permission (and even if you give credit without having first received permission!) It's best to use your own photos, or clip art, or to get permission before using a photo or image you find online.

Post often. At least once a day. If you have a blog worth reading and writing, you should have plenty to write about. A blog is like a friend; you build a relationship by frequently sharing new thoughts. A blog that's rarely updated is like a friend with nothing new to say.

Journalism 2.0: Putting It All Together

Our task is, according to the Journalism 2.0 text, to serve people in our community by telling them useful and entertaining stories through whatever technology they want to use.

There are many new ways to serve the audience, like new writing styles (like blogs), and non-linear story-telling methods (like interactive online stories). Conversations between media and the public is no longer one-way like a lecture; it's a two-way conversation empowered by the Web in general and social media in particular.

There is no excuse for not learning how to tell stories in ALL mediums, and continuing to evolve mediums for story-telling purposes. That is true whether we work in print or TV or radio or magazines, or even online.

(The Detroit Free Press has Web videos. ESPN has a magazine. NPR has a Web site. People don't go to the Free Press for something to read or ESPN for something to watch or NPR for something to listen to; rather, they go to those news sources for news, regardless of the medium.)

The era of the single-tool journalist is over. We must be proficient in all mediums. Newspapers are hiring people who can do videos and blogs. Blogs and Web sites are hiring people who can do traditional long-form writing. (Over the past few years, CNN has hired a number of former State Newsers to do print-style stories for their Web site, for example.) The inability for us to master multiple mediums will make us less desirable to employers.

To get better, we should practice for fun. Play with new mediums, especially ones that we use as consumers, or that your friends use. Find ways to create content that fits those mediums, and the content people want in those mediums.

(For example, by playing with Twitter we know that it works well with telling a breaking news story as it happens, and blow-by-blow. With a deeper, more in-depth story, not so much.)

Plus, look for examples of the type of mediums and content you're playing around with. Once we start playing with a new medium, it will be easier for us to identify things that we like or don't like as practiced by others using the same medium.

(It took The State News probably two years of experimenting with Twitter before it found formulas for using Twitter that the audience found useful and engaging, and journalists found as good ways to break and broadcast stories.)

The goal isn't to produce multimedia just to produce multimedia; it's to produce multimedia that is as interesting, relevant, useful, and of the same quality as more traditional news products.

Blog/Tweet #1: Something New!

Today, we will begin our shift from telling stories in a traditional print medium, to telling stories in new mediums like social media, online media and video.

For our opening assignment in using social media and writing about breaking news, what I will ask you to do is to pick out anything you observe as part of your daily routine for which to write an online breaking news preview story, an online breaking news follow-up story, and a live tweet stream as the event is unfolding.

When I say I want you to do anything in your daily routine, I do mean anything. Cover your watching your favorite TV show. Or your roommate making breakfast. Or a game on TV you're watching. Really, anything.

(I want these to be observations, not something you're participating in. For example, you can cover your roommate making breakfast, but not a first-person account of you making breakfast yourself. Just like with a news story, don't use first-person references.)

The reason for that is that I simply want you to get used to the technical process, without having to do any real and time-consuming reporting. We will incorporate reporting in latter versions of this assignment.

Then, what you will do is cover the activity of your choice, in two ways:

First, via social media, specifically Twitter. You will have to create a tweet stream of at least 12 tweets, each with a consistent unique hash tag, describing the event as it unfolds.

Second, you will have to create two online breaking news blog posts, with one post being a preview and the next being a recap of the event. Each post must be at least 100 words and no more than 200 words, and each should include at least two relevant hyperlinks.

Okay, Omar, so how the hell am I supposed to do this? you may be asking right about now.

Well, the next few blog posts should spell that out for you.

Tweet #1: Tweets Are Easy!

That's because you're not limited to just one tweet. You can do as many tweets as you'd like!

So a single tweet is not a single story. Rather, a collection of tweets are. One tweet may be like sort of a lede, where it sums up the main point. following tweets are like the body of a story, with one tweet offering an update and another some relevant stats, and yet another a quote.

And that's the most basic value of Twitter -- it's another way to relay events live and as they happen to an audience who may not be near a TV or radio or whatever. You can essentially "broadcast" live, just using text sent to mobile devices of readers.

A collection of related tweets are unified by a hashtag; that is, the hashtag symbol on your keyboard (the thing that looks like a criss-cross fry; it's the number 3 key when under shift lock) followed by a unique phrase. For example, tweets at a convention I went to this year were joined by the hashtag #ncmc13 (short for National College Media Convention 2013).

You can supplement your tweets with links to a photo uploading site, like yFrog, which can help tell the story beyond the 140 characters allowed in a tweet, and beyond simple words.

You can also link to anything on the Web with the aid of a URL shortener, like bit.ly. What the service does is take a URL and replace it with a much shorter one. Using a bit.ly link here gives you more room to write text without the URL taking up so much space.

Ideally, the best tweet streams can be put in reverse order and read just like an inverted-pyramid news story, with (timewise) your first tweet summing up what happened, and the following tweets filling in details and offering a chronology as something unfolds.

Here -- again, in reverse order, with the tweets in order of when they were posted -- is the State News' sports Tweet stream just before and from the press conference announcing a football coach's heart attack here a few years back:

Report: Football head coach Mark Dantonio suffered a heart attack but is OK.

There is a "important football-related press conference" scheduled for 1 p.m. It is unclear if it is related to reports of Dantonio's health

MSU: Dantonio will remain at the hospital for a few days for monitoring. Return to sidelines at a later date.

MSU: Offensive coordinator Don Treadwell will manage day-to-day responsibilities of head coach.

MSU: Dantonio had "symptoms consistent with a heart attack."

MSU: Dantonio had a cardiac catheterization procedure early Sunday morning.

AD Mark Hollis said Dantonio will not be on the sidelines for the Northern Colorado game Saturday.

Hollis: "This is a time for the Spartan nation to come together, to rally."

Dr. D'Haem of Sparrow Hospital said a full recover is expected.

Dr. D'Haem said procedure is very routine and happens often. Also said he expects no long-term negative impact. Return yet to be determined.

Dr. D'Haem said Dantonio began feeling symptoms around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

Dr. D'Haem: Heart attacks are never good...but I would classify this as a rather small heart attack.

Hollis said he spent the night at the hospital until about 5:30, the returned to hospital this morning at 8.

Dr. D'Haem: "Stress doesn't cause coronary heart disease, but very stressful events can be a trigger."

Coach Treadwell on players' reaction: "They're handling it as well as they can. They love their head coach."

Hollis: "(Dantonio's) thoughts went immediately to his family and then to the football program."

Treadwell said the fact staff has been together for a number of years will make this process easier from a football point of view.

Dr. D'Haem said timetable for Dantonio's return will be taken week-by-week.

There's a lede. There's a nut graf. There's supporting details. There are quotes. There is background. It collectively qualifies as a journalistic story. And you did it within the confines of social media.

This is exactly how The Associated Press wire service has always filed breaking news stories as a story is breaking: line-by-line, with the idea the lines can be pasted together into a story. It allows the writer to push out a story (and an editor to edit copy) much faster than if he or she waited to have a mass of information combined into a story, and yet a reader still ends up with all the information they need to consider the package in its totality.

So really, tweets are just a way of applying old journalistic skills in a new way.

Now, it's your turn. Your assignment is to live-tweet anything you are observing -- the latest episode of your favorite TV or radio show; a sporting event you're attending; your roommate eating dinner; whatever -- and send me a link to your Twitter account (which must be open to the public).

You will need to send a minimum of 12 tweets, with a unique hashtag applied to each. For this first assignment, I don't care what the news value is of your topic. I simply want to see your technical proficiency in live-tweeting something happening, as it happens.

Blog #1: Hyperlinks Are Easy!

In traditional print journalism, we work in one dimension. That is, in the text story we put everything a person needs: a lede, quotes, data, background, ect.

But when we are writing online news, we can write in two dimensions: the literal text, and via hyperlink.

Hyperlinks are highlighted pieces of text that, when clicked on, takes the viewer to a new Web page. For example, this is a hyperlink. And it takes us to a Wikipedia entry about hyperlinks.

What hyperlinks do in an online story is allow you to offer background or quotes or video or other related content in a secondary dimension, so that your primary story can concentrate on conclusions and such.

If in print we try to show and tell readers, in online news hyperlinks allow us to tell in the main story, and then show through a hyperlink. Like in this ESPN.com story, where the hyperlinks let us know who is who, without that background overwhelming the text of the story.

In this blog post, hyperlinks include ones to earlier stories from the same Web site, and news stories from other Web sites (including one of my local favorites). See how it offers background in two dimensions?

And that gives the reader options. If they choose to trust your summary, they can leave it at that. If they want more info, all they have to do is click on a hyperlink and -- voila! -- they can get into as much detail as their little hearts desire.


Hyperlinks are real easy to make.

First, you want to highlight a section of text that is directly relevant to what you're hyperlinking to. For example, if you're writing an article about yourself and you want to hyperlink to your Facebook page so people can get background about you, a relevant place to hyperlink from would be a mention of your name.

After highlighting the next, look at your tools bar for wither a symbol that looks like linked chains, or the word "link." Click on that.

When you do, a box should pop up that asks for a URL, which is a fancy way of saying, Web address. Copy the URL and paste it into the box, and then hit "OK."

Then, save, close and publish your item. You should now have a working hyperlink.

And after posting your story, be sure to go to your item just as a reader would, and double-check your hyperlinks to make sure they work.

Blog/Tweet #1: Your Assignment

Okay, one more time: this is your first blog/tweet assignment you have to do. Please use the accounts you created for class at twitter.com and blogger.com to create your content, and then send me a single email with links to your content to omars@msu.edu. In your email subject line, please write, new media #1.

What is due will be:

-- At least 12 tweets regarding a happening or event you are observing; and,
-- Two breaking news blog posts on the same event, with one post previewing the event, and the other recapping it.
  
Parameters of that content include:

-- Each breaking news entry being about the SAME topic, being covered as a preview and then a recap of what happened;
-- Each breaking news story staying between 100 and 200 words each, with each being no shorter than 100 words;
-- The breaking news stories being written in a journalistic style, as opposed to a first-person blog-like style;
-- Each breaking news item containing two working hyperlinks, inserted onto text;
-- A minimum of 12 tweets on the same subject as the breaking news topic; and,
-- Each tweet having a consistent unique hash tag, to allow the tweets to be chained together.

Now, on these assignments, everyone will get a 4.0 as long as long as we meet the basic parameters of the assignment.

The penalty for failing to meet these parameters is 0.5 of your grade, per error. So, if your tweets lacked a consistent unique hashtag, you got a 3.5. If your breaking news stories lacked topic consistency AND the minimum hyperlinks, you got a 3.0.

In addition, a fatal results in a 1.0 grade. And failure to turn it in, of course, is a 0.0.

These same deductions will apply on all future multimedia assignments. But future assignments WILL include consideration of content and journalistic value.

Your deadline will be no later than 9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 31 by email to omars@msu.edu. Again, you should be emailing me links to your Twitter and Blogger accounts, and not actual text.

If you are unsure about your topic or fuzzy on some of these concepts like hashtags or hyperlinks or whatever, or if you have any questions whatsoever, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Blog/Tweet #1: What It Might Look Like

For our opening assignment in using social media and writing about breaking news, what I will ask you to do is to pick out anything you observe as part of your daily routine for which to write an online breaking news preview story, an online breaking news follow-up story, and a live tweet stream as the event is unfolding.

When I say I want you to do anything in your daily routine, I do mean anything. Cover your watching your favorite TV show. Or your roommate making breakfast. Or a game on TV you're watching. Really, anything.

(I want these to be observations, not something you're participating in. For example, you can cover your roommate making breakfast, but not a first-person account of you making breakfast yourself. Just like with a news story, don't use first-person references.)

The reason for that is that I simply want you to get used to the technical process, without having to do any real and time-consuming reporting. We will incorporate reporting in latter versions of this assignment.


The parameters  of the assignment include:

-- Each breaking news entry being about the SAME topic, being covered as a preview and then a recap of what happened
-- Each breaking news story staying over the 100-word minimum
-- The breaking news stories being written in a journalistic style, as opposed to a first-person blog-like style
-- Each breaking news item containing two working hyperlinks, inserted onto text
-- A minimum of 12 tweets on the same subject as the breaking news topic
-- Each tweet having a consistent unique hash tag, to allow the tweets to be chained together


Now, to give you an idea of what the final product might look like, let's look at breaking news/tweet combos from the first such assignment (cut-and-pasted here; though for this assignment I want you to do it on Twitter and blogspot.com and then send me the links) from a past JRN 200 class, and let's talk about what worked and what can be done better.

And we're off: 

26. Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5

    Girls begin to leave the kitchen and head to their 12:40 classes. Ryan will be serving lunch until 1:00pm. #bestcampuscook

    
    
27.   Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5

    The bus boys are beginning to clean the dishes of the girls who have already finished their meals. #bestcampuscook

     
28.   Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5

    More girls just arrived as Ryan puts out another round of chicken gyros. #bestcampuscook

     Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5
29. Liz Redmond: "This is my favorite meal that Ryan makes!" #bestcampuscook

     
30.   Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5

    Chef Ryan made glutton-free chicken nuggets for a couple girls who can't eat the meal today. #bestcampuscook

     Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5
31. The volume in the kitchen is louder than ever due to all the conversations by the girls. What is everyone talking about? #bestcampuscook

     
32. 
    

    Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5

    The girls just discovered the Italian wedding soup. 4 bowls were just poured. #bestcampuscook

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33.    

    Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5

    The smell of freshly cut tomatoes and onions are filling the kitchen. #bestcampuscook

     

    x
    

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34.   Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5

    Chef Ryan, a U of M fan, lost a bet to the girls & he has to wear a green and white tutu all week. # 

    
    

    
    

    
    

    bestcampuscook pic.twitter.com/Kq4xdmAwvc

    
    

    

     

     
35.   Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5

    Chef Ryan just put out a fruit bar. Pineapple, cantaloupe, mangos, and oranges all freshly cut for the Theta girls. #bestcampuscook
36.   Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5 Chicken gyros, homemade by Chef Ryan, look the best I've ever seen them. #bestcampuscook pic.twitter.com/AJP1dgD5nz

    
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

     
37.   Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5

    20 girls out of the 54 who live-in are attending lunch today. #bestcampuscook

    
    
38.   Andrea Urban ‏@JRN200_AndreaU Nov 5

    It's almost lunch time at Kappa Alpha Theta with Chef Ryan! Chicken gyros are on the menu today. #bestcampuscook

Now, here are the blog posts previewing and recapping the event:

Lunch at Theta

Tuesday, November 5

Post

When it nears time for class, the ladies of Kappa Alpha Theta give their dishes to the bus boys who help clean up while Chef Ryan begins to prepare dinner. The bus boys are men from fraternities on campus who are expected to come by the sorority house at the end of each meal. Chef Ryan has only been with Theta for two years now and they've never been happier about hiring him from Campus Cooks. The girls always leave with their stomachs full and looking forward to dinner. It is rare when the girls have something bad to say about Chef Ryan's masterpieces. Today is was chicken gyros, wonder what it will be tomorrow?

Preview

Everyday at 11:30am, Kappa Alpha Theta's Chef Ryan has a full meal made and ready for the girls to eat. Each day it's a new meal, plus he will special make certain dishes for girls with allergies. Chef Ryan is a part of Campus Cooks here at Michigan State. Each Sorority and Fraternity have a Campus Cook Chef to cook for them 5 out of the 7 days a week. During lunch you can expect to see plenty of girls throughout all grades who live in the sorority come downstairs to the kitchen for a quick lunch before class. 

****** 

Here's another example:

1. 
   

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2.   Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

   Erickson finished the race with a great time, got first, and just won the game despite her interruption! �� #NikkiGameCubePro
3.    

   Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

   Erickson is on the edge of her seat on the futon, determined to take first place and win it all. #NikkiGameCubePro

    
4.   Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

   Erickson moved on from the city ride to test her skills in the final race against her computer opponents. #NikkiGameCubePro

    
5.   Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

   Baker apologized and just left the room. Erickson has returned to concentrating on her goal of winning. #NikkiGameCubePro

    
6.   Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

   Erickson is beyond frustrated that her chances of winning are in jeopardy now.  

   #NikkiGameCubePro pic.twitter.com/WJRRopg039

   
   
   

   

    
7.   Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

   Erickson yells at her friend, Emily Baker, for her disturbance. #NikkiGameCubePro
8.   Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

   Erickson's friend from down the hall entered her room and has severely interrupted her game. #NikkiGameCubePro

    Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5
9. Erickson just collected a ticking time bomb and had Kirby shoot it at a hopeless victim. #NikkiGameCubePro

    
10.   Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

    The game is getting intense. Erickson is extremely focused. #NikkiGameCubePro p

     

    ic.twitter.com/Nw0aayHiPp

    
    

    

    
    

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11.    

    Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

    Erickson is off to a good start, as usual, busting open boxes and collecting dozens of badges. #NikkiGameCubePro

     Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5
12. Erickson turned on her favorite game, Kirby Air Ride, and is beginning her quest through the city as Kirby. #NikkiGameCubePro
13.   Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

    Erickson kicked off her shoes, grabbed her GameCube remote and a blanket, and is now retrieving to the futon. #NikkiGameCubePro

     
14.   Sophie Smith ‏@sophiejrn200 Nov 5

    Nikki Erickson just returned to her dorm room for the first time since early this morning. She's eager to relax. #NikkiGameCubePro

Now, the blog posts:

Blog New Media #1 - Review

Michigan State student Nikki Erickson quickly paired up with her GameCube controller when she came home from her class-filled day on Tuesday.

Erickson was going through her normal routine of dominating her favorite game, Kirby Air Ride, in an attempt to win it all as she had done many times in the past.
 
Just after busting open a crate with a bunch of badges inside to collect in the game, Erickson was interrupted when her friend down the hall, Emily Baker, entered her room unannounced.
 
Erickson's concentration had been blown and as a result, blew up at Baker. Baker left the room promptly after.
 
"I really didn't know she was so in the zone," Baker said. "I wouldn't have interrupted her if I knew."
 
Just when Erickson thought she had lost her chances, it was time for her final race that determined her fate.
 
After zooming past her computerized opponents as fast as lightning, receiving 3 speed boosts on the way, Erickson took first place and won the game.

Blog New Media #1 - Preview

A student at Michigan State University plans to come home from a long day of classes on Tuesday and play her GameCube. Nikki Erickson has always enjoyed video games and playing Kirby Air Ride in her dorm room is something that helps her to unwind at the end of the day.
 
Erickson is extremely competitive and excels greatly at this game she plays so frequently. However, every time she sits down to begin to play, the excitement is just as great as before.
 
Erickson knows the game like the back of her hand, yet she strives to perform even better and accomplish more than she did in the game she played previous.
 
"I love playing my GameCube because it helps me forget my school work for a little while," said Erickson. "Instead of doing college algebra I get to zoom around on a Warpstar. Who wouldn't want to do that?"
 
Although that's an easily answered question, the one that's not is will Erickson successfully take on several races and mini games once again and win the game?