Out-Of-Class #3: We Bring It All Together

For the third out-of-classer, we're gonna do something that's a bit different yet still familiar, and at the same time brings together everything we've been working on this summer.

That's because the third out-of-classer won't simply be a written story; instead, we will be filing versions for all mediums.

Due on the same topic will be:

... a written story, for which the topic must be pre-approved by me, via tip sheet; the story must be at least 700 words long; you need to note the word count at the end of the story; the story should include at least three sources who you have personally interviewed. Three is the bare minimum, but I expect to see many more than that; and you should try to incorporate at least one neutral expert, as noted in the syllabus.

Also, on a separate page, attach a source sheet where you list by name, title, phone number and email address each interview source you communicated with. I will be randomly spot-checking sources to check your accuracy and make sure you spoke to whom you claim to have spoken.

Plus, keep in mind you will have the opportunity to do an optional rewrite of your story, after the graded version is returned to you.   To earn credit for a rewrite, you must do additional reporting and rewriting, as suggested by me. Then, your initial grade and rewrite grade are averaged, and that average becomes your final assignment grade;


... a 1-2 minute video, uploaded to YouTube, with B-roll and at least two source interviews on-tape; on either the entire comprehensive story or simply one aspect or angle of it.


... a 100-200-word preview, 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;

... a 100-200-word recap, 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;

... and a tweet stream on Twitter with at least 12 tweets on the subject, and a unifying hash tag applied to each tweet.

For this exercise, you may re-interview sources from your written 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 and tweet stream 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. 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).

There will be separate deadlines for the print and multimedia versions of your stories. The  deadline for the written version of the story will be no later than 9 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 7 via email to omars@msu.edu under the subject line of OOC3.

The deadline for all multimedia components of the story will be no later than 9 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 14 via email to omars@msu.edu. Please include links to all the multimedia products in a single email under the subject line MM3.

The deadline for the third out-of-class story rewrite, the optional fourth out-of-class story, your job shadow report and all extra credit work will be no later than 9 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 14 via email to omars@msu.edu.

That will be the last day of class, and no work will be accepted after that date and time.