The class has ended, congratulations!

23Feb10

The class has ended. This blog will remain here as long as WordPress allows it.

To the students: Thank you!

A note to visitors: This blog served as an online portal for the students of a ‘Multimedia Journalism’ class at Lewis University. The blog was operated and maintained by Brandon Wall, who was at the time at senior at LU and served as a teaching assistant/co-teacher for the class to professor Lisa O’Toole.

The class was two days a week. On Tuesdays, Lisa would teach multimedia journalism theory. On Thursdays, Brandon would teach practical skills (recording audio, editing photos, etc.)


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Final storytelling project rubric

08Dec09

Your final project is due December 15 at 10:30 a.m.

There is no final exam, you will merely have to turn in your final project. No ifs and or buts, 10:30 a.m. sharp!


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Introduction to iMovie + video project

05Nov09

Here is the introductory video to iMovie we watched in class. http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie-intro

For Tuesday, have your topic ready.

Finding your topic

  • Brainstorming…
    • How can your podcast be visualized?
    • Can your photo gallery be successfully transitioned.
    • It does not have to be an overly complicated investigate piece.
  • Where are people? What are they interested/concerned about?
  • This project is designed to get used to the camera and iMovie.
  • Does not necessarily have to be Lewis University related.
  • You can make a boring topic exciting
    • Be creative as you are confident being

Requirements

  • 3 1/2-5 minutes in length.
  • Keep it simple!
  • More than a home movie, but not a full blown news package
  • Some basic storytelling elements
  • Have a theme
  • Narration is not required but it needs to tell a story
  • Music is required
    • (copyright free)

Tips

  • Video taping is the shortest part of the project
  • Editing is time consuming and will always take long than you expect
  • Plan on shooting 20-25 minutes of video for a 5 minute project
    • Better to have too much than too little!
  • Scripts aren’t required but you should write out a plan
  • Try to tape in sequence
  • Make sure you are telling a story!
  • Subjects need permission before being recorded
  • It is journalistically not ethical to be staging scenes, it should be candid

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Podcast turn-in instructions

03Nov09

After many, many late nights and countless hours of work, it is time to turn in your podcasts. We want you to turn in just the mp3 file, not the GarageBand file. To export as an mp3, go to Share -> Export to Disk. Chance ‘encoder’ from AAC to MP3 and set the filename to your two names. Save it to the desktop for easy access. It will take several minutes to process, but eventually you will have an mp3 saved to your desktop. E-mail that in and you are done!

 

As a sidenote, I will be e-mailing you your photo gallery grades sometime tonight.


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Work for next Thursday

15Oct09

For Thursday, October 22nd

  • Have a rough script ready
  • Have an idea of who you will be interviewing if you haven’t interviewed them already!
  • Be having a super duper fun time working together

There is no final due date set. We will probably figure it out on the 22nd.


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Podcast Work Outline

15Oct09
  • Brainstorm
    • What are your hobbies?
    • What are your interests?
    • Areas of expertise?
    • Come with a list of topics
  • Solidify your ideas
    • Finalize your topics
    • What you are going to be covering
    • Formulating what you think
    • What is the goal?
  • Start writing your script
    • Conversational
    • Better too much than too little
    • No one way to do a script
      • Bullet point main ideas?
      • Write out your thoughts?
      • No paper towels
  • Go through the script
    • Record it if you want
      • Get an idea of what works and what doesn’t
  • Honing the finished the product
    • Should have more than 4-5 minutes
  • Post production
    • Inserting quotes into the podcast
    • Jingle
      • Non copyright music

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Finishing your Photo Gallery

13Oct09
  • E-mail final projects to both thewalldo@gmail.com and otooleli@lewisu.edu
  • All photos should have captions
  • The slideshow should have a headline (under project info)
  • The final due date is Wednesday October 14 at noon (same time as your blogs)

Here is the grading rubric

Communicates a Message

All photos effectively communicate a message, theme, action or emotion.

Expert 20

Mastered  19   18   17   16   15

Average 14   13   12   11   10

Poor  9   – 0

Title

The photo gallery is introduced to the site visitor with a clever and relevant title that

peaks the visitor’s curiosity. The title is clear and follows the rules of good grammar.

Expert 20

Mastered  19   18   17   16   15

Average 14   13   12   11   10

Poor  9   – 0

Rule of Thirds

The composition of all photos effectively recognizes the rule of thirds.

Expert 20

Mastered  19   18   17   16   15

Average 14   13   12   11   10

Poor  9   – 0

Cropping and Photo Correction

Unimportant aspects of the photo(s) have been cropped out.

Expert 20

Photos are clear and any problems with lighting, etc have been corrected.

Mastered  19   18   17   16   15

Average 14   13   12   11   10

Poor  9   – 0

Captions

All photos include a caption that explains the action taking place and names all visible

people. Captions are clearly written in present tense.

Expert 20

Mastered  19   18   17   16   15

Average 14   13   12   11   10

Poor  9   – 0

Name:___________________________________________


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Washington Post’s new guidelines for social media

27Sep09

The Washington Post unleashed a new set of guidelines for employees in regards to social media, including using it for investigations.  Interesting tidbits I highlighted in red. Here is the full text:

The following are effective immediately:

Newsroom Guidelines for Use of Facebook, Twitter and Other Online Social Networks

Social networks are communications media, and a part of our everyday lives. They can be valuable tools in gathering and disseminating news and information. They also create some potential hazards we need to recognize. When using social networking tools for reporting or for our personal lives, we must remember that Washington Post journalists are always Washington Post journalists.  The following guidelines apply to all Post journalists, without limitation to the subject matter of their assignments.

Using Social Networking Tools for Reporting

When using social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, My Space or Twitter for reporting, we must protect our professional integrity.  Washington Post journalists should identify themselves as such. We must be accurate in our reporting and transparent about our intentions when participating.  We must be concise yet clear when describing who we are and what information we seek.

When using these networks, nothing we do must call into question the impartiality of our news judgment.  We never abandon the guidelines that govern the separation of news from opinion, the importance of fact and objectivity, the appropriate use of language and tone, and other hallmarks of our brand of journalism.

Our online data trails reflect on our professional reputations and those of The Washington Post.  Be sure that your pattern of use does not suggest, for example, that you are interested only in people with one particular view of a topic or issue.

Using Social Networking Tools for Personal Reasons

All Washington Post journalists relinquish some of the personal privileges of private citizens. Post journalists must recognize that any content associated with them in an online social network is, for practical purposes, the equivalent of what appears beneath their bylines in the newspaper or on our website.

What you do on social networks should be presumed to be publicly available to anyone, even if you have created a private account.  It is possible to use privacy controls online to limit access to sensitive information. But such controls are only a deterrent, not an absolute insulator. Reality is simple: If you don’t want something to be found online, don’t put it there.

Post journalists must refrain from writing, tweeting or posting anything—including photographs or video—that could be perceived as reflecting political, racial, sexist, religious or other bias or favoritism that could be used to tarnish our journalistic credibility. This same caution should be used when joining, following or friending any person or organization online.  Post journalists should not be involved in any social networks related to advocacy or a special interest regarding topics they cover, unless specifically permitted by a supervising editor for reporting and so long as other standards of transparency are maintained while doing any such reporting.

Post journalists should not accept or place tokens, badges or virtual gifts from political or partisan causes on pages or sites, and should monitor information posted on your own personal profile sites by those with whom you are associated online for appropriateness.
Personal pages online are no place for the discussion of internal newsroom issues such as sourcing, reporting of stories, decisions to publish or not to publish, personnel matters and untoward personal or professional matters involving our colleagues. The same is true for opinions or information regarding any business activities of The Washington Post Company. Such pages and sites also should not be used to criticize competitors or those who take issue with our journalism or our journalists.

If you have questions about any of these matters, please check with your supervisor or a senior editor.

NOTE:  These guidelines apply to individual accounts on online social networks, when used for reporting and for personal use.  Separate guidelines will follow regarding other aspects of Post journalism online.

Some very interesting points in here. What do you think? Are you ready and willing to sacrifice your personal habits for a job?


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Leveraging social media

27Sep09

These sort of videos are quickly becoming a dime a dozen. The animation in this one may not be as impressive as some, but the facts are astounding.

So what do you think?

  • Would you pay for commercial-free prime-time television?
  • Would you make a purchase using your cell phone?
  • How many text messages do you send a month?
  • How can you use social media websites to leverage your presence, whether you are a journalist or a business?

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Links to today’s class

24Sep09
  • Crowdsourcing
    • http://ec.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/derushaj-twitter-image.jpg
  • Double checking your sources
    • http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2009/07/fake_twitter_account_for_david_miliband.php
  • Journalists on Twitter
    • http://muckrack.com/
    • http://www.mediaontwitter.com/
    • http://blog.journalistics.com/2009/70-percent-of-journalists-use-social-networks-to-assist-in-reporting/
  • Good example of using social media
    • http://twitter.com/nytimes

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