You will no longer need to bring your RFTM textbook to class on a daily basis. This is in effect until further notice.
That is all for now.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Journalism 2.0: An Introduction
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
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 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
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: What It Might Look Like
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:
-
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 -
Chicken gyros, homemade by Chef Ryan, look the best I've ever seen them.#bestcampuscook pic.twitter.com/AJP1dgD5nz
Now, here are the blog posts previewing and recapping the event:
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
******
Here's another example:
-
Erickson is beyond frustrated that her chances of winning are in jeopardy now.
-
The game is getting intense. Erickson is extremely focused.
#NikkiGameCubePro pic.twitter.com/Nw0aayHiPp
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.
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?
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?
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