MM #2: Some Examples From The Past

Below are links to the second video assignment from some JRN 200 classes in the past few years. Now, in looking at these don't focus too much on technical quality. Like you, they were taking their first real journalism class, and like you they were using basic equipment of varying quality.

Instead, look at the principles they're trying to establish: thorough interviews of a broad variety of sources -- everyone from direct participants to neutral experts. Good B-roll that shows what is being talked about. Frequent use of captions and attribution.

Let's take a peek, shall we? 

Here we go:

* Smoking ban video

Simple yet strong B-roll here. It's a story about a smoking ban; we show people smoking in different environments. That's all it has to be.

* Road work video

The video style here is what we call a "stand-up," which is literally that: a reporter stands in front of the camera and narrates the report. But notice the extensive use of B-roll throughout, especially within interview segments where we start with the talking head, then while the head continues to talk we switch the visual to B-roll that shows what the person is talking about, and then we return and finish with the talking head shot. Good story structure here. It's the video equivalent of pairing telling facts and quotes in print.

* City market video

LOTS of B-roll SHOWING what sources are talking about. Plus, four sources! Two is just the minimum; the necessary amount is however many you need to get a broad sense of things. 

* Golf course flooding video

OUTSTANDING B-roll here! What makes it outstanding? While a golf course official talks about a flooded course, we play B-roll showing the flooding from the perspective of a motorboat trekking across the flooded course! We show (via video) AND tell (via interview) at the same time. That's what we're aiming for; telling a story in two dimensions simultaneously.

Do these give you any new ideas on how you'd like to do YOUR video, or the best ways to do it?

Vid #1: Let's Look At Some Videos!

Okay, so here's the video recap. I ask that you please look at EACH video and read my comments for EACH video (not just your own!), so we can learn like we've learned from each other throughout this semester.

Overall, I thought we did very, very well on this assignment, especially considering it was a first-time video in this class. Lots of good B-roll, good story flows, ect. Certainly some things that can be tweaked, but that's to be expected. 

Let's look for what worked and what didn't and what we could borrow for the next time and what we need to avoid doing again.

BTW, unless you received an email from me noting a specific grade, your grade for this exercise was a 4.0, with it equaling two practice stories in final grade weight. (Future assignments will be evaluated and graded much more specifically based on execution and will be of higher grade weight, though).

Here we go:

Jocelyn T: LOTS of great B-roll and medium/tight/establishing shots here, which is what we want. Video is a visual medium; we need to show what people are talking about, and not just show people talking. But we don't need to have the source saying their name as the caption already IDs the person for us. To do both is redundant, and using the caption lets us save story audio time for substance and not identification.

Michael D.: Overall a nice job, but for B-roll we were stuck on doing just medium shots; we could have used some tight shots as well (fingers strumming the guitar strings, fingers typing on the keyboard, eyes glancing at the laptop screen) to mix in and show different perspectives.

Tony B.: A strong mix of tight, medium, establishing and re-reestablishing A-roll (interview subject and main action) and B-roll shots here. Note how the first head shot doesn't follow the rule of thirds but the second does; doesn't the latter look better? There is also natural sound the compliments but doesn't overwhelm the interview subject's voice.

Alexis G.: Good use of still pics as B-roll, but a big problem: unless you have written permission from Miley Cyrus's agent to use her song, you are committing a violation of federal copyright law! No, it's not enough to cite them; you need permission. That goes for just about anything we find on the Internet: pictures, music, videos, etc. (Hyperlinks are okay because you are directing traffic back to the original site.) Also, make sure your subjects are facing a light source (a lamp, the sun, etc.) and are NOT backlit, and try to keep sound levels steady.

Nicole B.: Again, a good sampling of medium and tight shots, but not enough variety in terms of content. The office shots are a bit repetitious; ideally, we would want to see B-roll of the treatment program itself being performed. We're also missing a title slide or narration or a firm opening statement from a source to let people know what we're getting into.

Allia McD.: Strong variety of B-roll in terms of content and medium/tight shots. But we don't need to have the source saying their title as the caption already IDs the persons' titles for us. To do both is redundant, and using the caption lets us save story audio time for substance and not identification.

Alan W.: Don't be too fast with B-roll snippets. The first one comes and goes so quickly the viewer barely has any time to absorb the content. Give a shot three or four seconds, at least, before you move on.

Kayleigh R.: Once again, a nice range of B-roll showing many of the different things people are talking about, as they talk about them. That's what B-roll is for, showing people while the subject is telling people about what they're seeing.

Yujin O.: Here, we open with B-roll, which is kind of a video version of an anecdotal or alternate lede. That's fine. The shooting, editing, B-roll and sound bytes are all solid and well-organized here.

Mary S.: Lots to like here, but sound could be better. Really watch for spaces with echoes or distracting background noise, and avoid those areas. Use interview areas where sounds are unobstructed and clear.

Honda C.: We see some wide shots here, which are fine. Again, a good mix of head shots and B-roll.

Ben C.: More great examples of B-roll and wide/medium/tight shots (with probably more wide shots that many previous examples, which is okay).

Jingjing N.: In the same way we wouldn't lede a story by just saying, this is a story, we probably should lede with the title of what our story is about -- " what are people doing this semester at MSU?" -- rather than just "JRN 200." Let's also make sure the sound level can clearly be heard by the audience. Good variety of different shots for B-roll and good natural sound, like the sizzling sound with a cooking segment.

Austin G.: Nice mix of still shots and video for B-roll here. Nice framing of interview subjects using the rule of thirds.

Britney-Ann V.: Great B-roll subjects; what's more animated than dogs? But less panning and zooming and more steady shots taken from different angles and distances (tight, medium and wide) like with some of the other video examples here. We're also missing attribution within the video segments in the form of name and title captions, as well as a lede caption or narration. Again, look at some of the other videos for examples. Let's also get tighter talking head shots -- armpits to an inch above their heads -- and get the mic closer to their mouths. Good natural sound where the source shows (via B-roll) and tells (via sound bytes) and says (via nat sound).

JRN 200: Your Homework For Friday 3/31

More multimedia work! Here we go:

*** For your second multimedia assignment, we will use video and blog formats like those in our first assignments, but instead of having sorta irrelevant topics, you will take all of or an aspect of one of your first two out-of-class stories, and do a video/online preview/online recap for it.

That would include:

... a 1-2 minute video, uploaded to YouTube, with B-roll and at least two source interviews on-tape;

... a 100-200-word preview or one side of the issue, posted to blogger.com and done in a journalistic style, taking a look at the issue going into your reporting, with at least two relevant working hyperlinks embedded in the text;

... and a 100-200-word recap or other side of the issue posted to blogger.com and done in a journalistic style, taking a look at what you discovered about the issue/how it ended, with at least two relevant working hyperlinks embedded in the text;

For this exercise, you may re-interview sources from your previous stories or interview new sources. You may also use what you gathered and your notes from your original stories in putting together your new media news products.

Also, when I say you can do the entire comprehensive story or just an aspect of it, this is what I mean: let's say you did a story on the pros and cons of living off-campus vs. on-campus. The video may just look at one aspect, such as student opinions on the issue. The preview online story might look at the experiences of on-campus residents; with the recap looking at off-campus viewpoints. Or maybe one post looks at the pros of being on-campus, with the next looking at the cons. None of the mediums necessarily have to look at the issue as broadly as you did in a traditional text story (though you may do so if you so choose).

Your deadline for the second multimedia assignment will be 9 a.m. Thursday, April 6 via email to omars@msu.edu. Please put ALL your links to your work into a single email, with the subject line of MM2. 

Plus, don't forget that due by 9 a.m. Monday, April 3 are two things: your pitches for out-of-class story #3 and optional out-of-class story #4, and the optional rewrite of out-of-class story #2.

Also, for class on Wednesday, April 5 we will NOT have class! Please use the time to work on your upcoming multimedia work. Class will resume Friday, April 7.

If you need any assistance, contact me ASAP. And good luck, everybody!

OOC #2: A Pretty Good Example ...

... of solid overall work and a pretty typical assignment problem with a lack of data to support the points being made. Please take a look:

JRN 200

March 24, 2017

Social Media Burnout

One night in February, Michigan State University freshman Olivia Baratta made a Facebook status that got 124 likes. By the next evening, all of her social media accounts had been deactivated.

Baratta announced over Facebook that she was taking an indefinite break from social media, the last step in a process that had been going on for years, she said. Twitter had been the first to go, early in high school, but it took longer for her to detach herself from Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.

At the start of year, she was “hyper-sensitive” to what her friends and classmates from high school were posting, she said. It seemed like everyone was having a lot of fun, which was stressful to Baratta, who was unsure if she wanted to stay at MSU. However, she didn’t post anything negative, either.

“If you were to look at my Instagram, you wouldn’t think I hated where I was,” said Baratta.

Social media offers endless possibilities for self-expression, but also endless audiences who can potentially see that expression, said Dr. Scott Campbell, a professor at the University of Michigan who researches smartphone and social media use. It creates a lack of context, and can be confusing when family, friends, and co-workers are all on the same platform.

“We play different roles on different stages,” said Campbell.

THIS IS A GOOD PLACE FOR SOME TELLING DATA THAT HELPS STATISTICALLY DETAIL THE PROBLEM AND ISSUE

Baratta said she realized that in order to figure out what she wanted to do at school, she would have to stop surrounding herself with online images of people who seemed to have everything figured out.

She started with Snapchat, but Instagram was harder to break away from, she said. She deleted and re-downloaded it a few times. Despite feeling like she, and others, were posting things that were “fake,” the validation of a like or a comment still felt good.

“It makes you feel like okay,” said Baratta, “Even if, like, my stress was not from my looks, it was from something else, another part of my life, that validation makes you feel like you’re fine.”

Alyssa Bedaine, a senior at MSU who is active on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Tumblr, said she views social media as a creative tool. She joked that she takes her Instagram layout and style “way too seriously,” but sees it as a supplement to her other modes of expression, like writing and makeup.  

Creative pursuits, such as photography, have changed with the introduction of social media, said Campbell. The focus now is less on curating photos to show friends later, and more on capturing the moment, posting it, and then letting it go.

AGAIN, IS THERE DATA THAT CAN HELP CONTEXTUALIZE THIS AND SHOW THE TREND?

“I’m friends with a lot of creative people. That’s who I normally surround myself with and they do the same thing, so it’s kind of like keeping up with others,” said Bedaine.  

Bedaine said she checks Twitter and Instagram most frequently, at least once an hour, to keep up with friends, celebrities, and the news. Her visits are usually brief, but sometimes last for hours.

Baratta said she used to use social media all the time, but didn’t fully realize it until her Spanish professor asked her class how many hours a day they spent on their phones. Her classmates’ answers ranged from three to seven hours a day. Baratta was surprised to realize that she too sometimes spent seven hours on her phone in a single day.

All the time spent responding to texts, calls, and Snapchats added up, Baratta said. There was always something new to see.

“It doesn’t run out,” said Baratta.

Bedaine said she hasn’t had an issue with any media platform that would prompt her to cut back or quit her use, except Facebook. She recently deleted the app from her phone after noticing how angry she felt after using it.

“I was finding myself disliking people who have never, like, actually been mean to me,” said Bedaine.

Bedaine said she noticed that she would separate herself from people if they posted things she didn’t agree with. A political fight that took place on Facebook caused one of half of her family to stop speaking to the other half.

Just as people can use social media to make things look better than they are, Baratta said, it also has the ability to make things look worse. It creates a disconnect where people don’t have to care what they say because they’re not speaking to others directly.

It is unlikely that large swaths of the population will begin to reject social media, said Campbell.

“It’s cool, it’s a statement, it’s kind of counter-cultural,” said Campbell, of the decision that some people have made to exchange their smartphone for a flip phone.

Baratta, who is majoring in Media and Information, MAJORS ARE LOWER CASE, PER AP STYLE said she does see the irony in the close relationship between her chosen career path and the websites she has distanced herself from. She expects to use social media again later in life, but in a professional setting, not posting as herself.

“People are like, ‘I don’t understand why you don’t just cut back’…Part of it is, I don’t think I’m strong enough to have it,” said Baratta.

Baratta said some of her friends have also made an effort to stay away from their phones when they are hanging out together, but not everyone is willing or able to do so. She pictures a bygone era when no one even had an option.

“People used to go dancing on dates, like how fun is that?” said Baratta, “We don’t do stuff like that anymore. We get drunk and Snapchat, and the more we’re Snapchatting, the more we have our phones out, the less fun we’re having.”

Word Count: 792

Sources:

Olivia Baratta

MSU Student

(redacted)o@msu.edu

(313) (redacted)

Alyssa Bedaine

MSU Student

(redacted)@msu.edu

(517) (redacted)

Scott Campbell

(734) (redacted)

ASSIGNMENT GRADE: (REDACTED)

INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS: VERY NICE JOB WITH A HUMANIZING ANECDOTAL LEDE AND GOOD STRUCTURE AND RANGE OF SOURCES THROUGHOUT. I THINK THERE’S ONLY TWO SIGNIFICANT MISSES: ONE, AS NOTED ABOVE, DATA THAT HEPS SHOW HOW MANY PEOPLE USE SOCIAL MEDIA AND HOW MANY MINUTES A DAY THEY USE IT AND WHETHER THAT IS HIGHER OR LOWER THAN BEFORE AND HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE QUITTING SOCIAL MEDIA, ETC. THE SECOND IS SOMEONE DRIVING THE ISSUE: SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES THEMSELVES. WHAT DO THEY SAY OF THE PROS AND CONS AND WHAT THEY ARE DOING OR NOT DOING ABOUT IT? STILL, NICE WORK HERE.

Blog/Tweets #1: Some Good Examples

First, regarding your grade on this assignment if you did not receive an email back from me with a grade, that means you got a 4.0 on each segment of the assignment, with the tweet stream, the preview post and the recap post each counting as a practice story grade toward your final grade.

Some general observations, first for tweets:

• Don't forget a lede tweet! People need to know what you are about to start streaming, right?
• It's good to use pics and hyperlinks in your tweet stream.
• It's also good to have some quote tweets embedded in your stream.

Now, for blog posts:

• Be sure to lede each post like we would a story, with end result and ultimate outcome.
• Remember blog posts are intended to be read in a stream, so make it complementary to the previous post or posts.
• Then again, remember that when blog readers start reading a blog, they don't go all the way back to the first post ever and then work their way back; they start where they start. So each post has to have just enough background to get people up to speed.
• Don't forget hyperlinks!

Now, some examples of the work that you guys did. Do take a look to see how it compares to what you did:

Katie K.: homework time preview and recap and tweets #msulibrarygrind

Honda C.: high school basketball preview and recap and tweets #breslinboysbasketball

Tony B.: flipping houses preview and recap and tweets #hgtvmsu

Jocelyn T.: workout day preview and recap and tweets #letsworkout

Alexis G.: watching TV preview and recap and tweets #gameofthronessunday

Alan W.: family play time preview and recap and tweets #lamacchiaplaytime

Mary S: dispensary trip preview and recap and tweets #dispenstory

Riley M.: TV show preview and recap and tweets #bbs4finale

Ben C.: card game preview and recap and tweets #primetimeeuchre

Nicole B.: movie night preview and recap and tweets #neighbors2

Kayleigh R.: studying preview and recap and tweets #latenightstudyingritual

Austin G.: video game preview and recap and tweets #325grovemaddenshowdown

Yujin O.: noodle meal preview and recap and tweets #spicybuldakchallenge

Jingjing N.: video shoot preview and recap and tweets #tenureshootingday

Allia McD.: vet visit preview and recap and tweets #jojoandkevatthevet

Michael D.: video game preview and recap and tweets #rainbowsixgamer

Vid #1: Vertical Videos

From one of youze ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA&t=28s

JRN 200: Your Homework For Friday 3/24

Now that your second out-of-class story and blog/tweets assignments are in, I'll start going over them. Here's some work to keep you busy until then:

First, start working on your third and optional fourth out-of-class story pitches. Use the same formats as before. If you choose to do a fourth story, it will replace your worst grade from your other three stories. Your pitch deadline is no later than 9 a.m. Monday, April 3 to omars@msu.edu.

Second, we now have a video story assignment. 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 been up to this semester? Your interview subjects can be working or going to classes or hanging out; whatever. 

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 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 to 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 9 a.m. Thursday, March 30 via email to omars@msu.edu. Again, you should be emailing me links to your YouTube account, and not an attached video file.

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!

Third, I will have your graded out-of-class stories back to you in the next few days. Your optional rewrite deadline will be no later than 9 a.m. Monday, April 3  to omars@msu.edu.

Now, how do you do the video assignment? Follow along in the following posts, and good luck, everyone! 

Video #1: What Are You Doing?

For the first video assignment, I am asking you to do a news video on the topic of, what are people doing with their semester?

For this assignment, you will have to interview at least two people on-camera about what they've been up to this semester.

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 semester, and one interview subject is making burgers at McDonald's, and the other is going to the club every day. B-roll would be showing what they're doing: shots of one person flipping greasy burgers, and of the other person clubbing it up on the dance floor, etc.

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, "What have you learned sofar in JRN 200?" Classmates were used as interview subjects. Like your assignment, it required two human sources on tape per video. 

Off we go:

Andrea 

Shanin T.

Emily

Julia

JRN 200: Some Multimedia Tips ...

• on what is B-roll, and how to shoot it.
• The difference between wide, medium and tight shots.
• The Rule of Thirds.
• Natural sound.

Video #1: How A Past Semester's Bunch Did It

Okay, so here's a recap of some of the videos from a past semester's first assignment, which was for a summer class and sought to find out what people were doing that summer. Overall, I thought they did very, very well on this assignment, espcially considering it was a first-time video in this class. Lots of good B-roll, good story flows, ect. Certainly some things that can be tweaked, but that's to be expected.

Let's look for what worked and what didn't and what you could borrow. Here we go:

Julie: This one is a lot of fun. Notice the home-made graphics, which help tell the story textually, but in a visual manner. More good B-roll ideas here for an otherwise hard-to-illustrate story, by showing screen grabs of weather forecasts. Other B-roll ideas could have come from getting generic video of people doing summer activities: hanging out at a pool or the beach, people jogging and sweating, ect. That's B-roll any of us can shoot, and at any time. 

Aaron: Want to see an example of lots of varied B-roll? This video got a bunch. See if you can get some ideas on how a simple topic can have varied B-roll, showing all aspects of something routine.

Kristen: More good use of B-roll, with the B-roll matching what the person is talking about at that particular moment. We want to be sure to match the sound to the visual when mating B-roll to audio.


Also, again we had redundancy in having a caption naming the speaker, and the speaker saying their own name. Ideally, just let the caption do the identifying, and save air time for the substance of what the person is actually talking about.


Daniella: This vid used still photos as B-roll, which is totally acceptable. Note how she fades in and out of the still images, to create a sense of movement within the video. Nice job.

But we're missing captions to tell us who we're talking to -- just like attribution in a written story -- and the vid is well short of the 1-minute minimum. We could have filled more time in a meaningful way by extending the interview segments.

Robert: We're missing a title slide, but there's other things executed well here. Note the captions identifying the speaker; it helps with attribution without the speaker having to name himself and waste air time doing so. And this is how B-roll is best used: to roll in the middle of the interview, while the interview is still going on. But make sure that the B-roll matches what the interview subject is talking about at that moment. In the second interview, the speaker is talking about out-of-state trips and the B-roll was of a campus building. Better B-roll would have been something representative of out-of-state vacationing.

Khadija:  Here, we are heavy on the use of a narrator to help move the story along, and that's fine. Whether you use narration or not depends on which ways are best to tell a particular story. Like in print, we pick presentation style not based on our preferences, but by what better and best tells the given story. Also, the first interview segment better uses B-roll, with the B-roll being specific to exactly what the speaker is talking about at the moment.

Speaking of speakers, not the audio is uneven. I'm not gonna ding you for that, because you're working with pretty basic equipment. But it's something we need to be aware of as we get experience and better resources; bad audio can make great video irrelevant. Let's make sure we get mics as close as we can to our subjects, and get clear audio.

Danielle: Nice array of interviews, but we sorely needed B-roll to show the actions of what people were talking about, and to break up those long interview segments. Also, like with print attribution, on first attribution in captions we need first AND last names. 

Brittany: Again, we need B-roll. In a video format that emphasizes activity and action, it's not enough to have people telling us what they're doing; we need to see what they are doing, as they are doing it.

In the second of two interviews, the image is upside-down. Did I ding you for that? Not on this first one. I'm letting go a lot of technical problems just on this first one so you can get used to shooting and editing and the problems that can ensue, and at the same time allow you to get the hang of technical aspects like B-roll and captioning and such, while giving all of us some things to look at, build off of, emulate and/or avoid in the future.

Journalism Next: 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 Next 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 Next: 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!