Final prep, finally

Final prep:

What does the author mean when he says:

“The fact is, if you work in journalism, you work for an online news organization – whether you want to or not.”

“News is a conversation, not a lecture.”


Definitions:
RSS
URL
html
mp3
jpg
byte vs bit
mega, giga, tera
vlog
tag
mobile journalist or backpack journalist
crowdsourcing

How might The Critic or News 7 use crowdsourcing to report a story?


Is Internet the same thing as World Wide Web?

Web 2.0 vs Web 1.0 (sites that get value from the actions of users)
Give an example of a Web site that manifests 2.0

Can you…?

Give an example of a blog
Tell the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web?
Name the blogging platform you used to create your blog?
Name the audio editing software we used in class?
Name the video editing software installed on the Macs in the classroom?
Explain how often you should change images in a slideshow?

If you are a newspaper, what can you do with a Web site that you cannot do with the printed product?

If you are a television station, what can you do with a Web site that you cannot do with the 60-minute newscast at 6 p.m.?

How would you write a story differently for the Web and for a newspaper?

Final projects

What are you doing for your final project

Josh: Musical friends video solo
Darcy: Spring day map solo
Skyler: Fashion audio slideshow solo
Ariana, Michelle, Emily, Tara: Swimming places map w/photos team
Frank: Toilet cleaning video solo
Caitlin: Long-distance map w/audio s-show solo
Sam: Floor hockey video solo
Bob: Economy video podcast solo
Madi, Eric Professor video team
Kacie Rant video solo
Heather: French podcast solo
Joe: Messy professor offices slideshow solo

Thomas?
Jack?
Chris?

Tell me what you're working on

Tell me on your blog what you are doing your final project on.
If you use Reportingon.com, you get extra credit.

New jday

Final Project Guidelines

For the final multimedia project in the class, please choose one (or more) of the forms we have worked on during the semester and tell a fresh story.

You may work in teams or solo.

The only form that is off-limits is the blog. You already have one of those.

You may create an interactive map, a podcast, a slideshow, an audio slideshow, or a video project.

Rules:
The interactive map, the podcast and the slideshow require a written component.
The audio slideshow and the video project do not require a written component.
Otherwise, follow the directions from the original projects.

Combining two multimedia forms will send your score into the stratosphere.
Examples: a podcast, slideshow or video that plays out of an interactive map;
A video that combines still and moving pictures.

Deadlines:
Tuesday, April 28: Post a description of your project on your blog.
Thursday, May 7: Project is due at the start of class -- we will present as many as we have time for. (This supercedes the class schedule.)

Video projects

Team 1: Elements
Team 2: Nugget assault
Team 3: "All Shook Up"
Team 4: Ask the professor
Team 5: Campus beautification
Team 6: Who throws like a girl?

Youtube posting

Due Tuesday, April 28

Newspaper video assignment

This assignment is due on Thursday, April 16. You can work on it right after you mail in your taxes!
Critique the video offerings of two newspapers.
Find one that offers video and does an effective job with it, and another that offers video but does not do an effective job with it.
Post your critique on your blog along with links to the video offerings.

Schools doing online video

The Center for Innovation in College Media maintains this list of college media operations that offer video on their Web sites.
The Critic could add itself to the list soon.

Your Multimedia Spring Break

Over Spring Break, grab a blanket and a cooler and head to the beach. Fire up your laptop's Wi-Fi connection and check out iReport’s offerings. You'll critique them on your blog.
Go to iReport.com (not cnn.com).
Critique at least three submissions that have not aired on CNN.
At least two need to be video submissions rather than slideshows.
Criteria:
Is it interesting?
Why or why not?
Is it news?
If you were a CNN producer, would you put it on the air?
Could you do the same thing as well or better?
Also -- read Chapters 9-11 and the Epilogue in Journalism 2.0.

Don't forget the sunscreen.

Slideshow How-to

(Please Remember: on Thursday, post your slideshow on your blog, and bring in your mp3 and jpg folders. We’ll hand those over to the Flash class.)

You’ll need the following ingredients to create an audio slideshow using Soundslides nad post it on your blog:

The Soundslides program (available for free from Soundslides.com).
A folder containing jpg photos.
An mp3 audio file.
An account with Webng (available for free from Webng.com).
A bit of patience.


Getting started:
Open Soundslides.
Ignore the Registration page by clicking Later.
Select NEW Create a project.
Give your project a name and give the computer a place to save it.

You’ll come to a page that asks you to load your jpg folder and mp3.
First, select an Output size on the left. Try “small” because you’re putting it on a blog.

Now load your jpg folder.
Then load your mp3.

You can change the order of your photos, and change the amount of time they stay on-screen.

You cannot alter the mp3 file once it’s loaded.

To change the order of your photos, drag and drop them where you want them. If that doesn’t work – it didn’t work well for me – you can specify the time at which they appear. This is done in the Slide Info tab.

You can adjust the length of time a photo stays on-screen by clicking the side of a photo in the timeline and sliding it left or right.

When you’re happy with your audio slideshow, click export.
This creates a folder called publish_to_web.

You must highlight all of the items in the folder and create a zip file of them – go to File, and select Create Archive. You will need the zip file when you upload the slideshow to the Web, so find out where it resides (I had trouble finding mine).

In WebNG, use File Manager and create a new directory. Open that directory, then upload your zip filed.

Unzip.
Allow it to overwrite files.
Delete the Archive zip file in the directory.

Click Current URL to view the soundslide.

Copy the URL and paste it into:
www4.soundslides.com/apps/utilities/

This generates an embed code that you can place in your blog.

You can modify the width and height of your slideshow at this point. If you change them, click Modify. That generates a new embed code.

Audio Slideshow: Curt Holden

Slideshow topics and resources

Here are the slideshows planned by your teams:
Team 1: New building (Michelle, Ariana, Emily, Tara)
Team 2: Lacrosse (Frank, Bob, Joe, Jack)
Team 3: Bands in the old Critic office (Tom, Skyler, Josh)
Team 4: Tour of Campus (Eric, Madi, Kevin)
Team 5: Making up Caitlin (Caitlin, Kacie, Darcy)
Team 6: Day in the life of Hoagies (Heather, Sam, Chris)

Resources:
Soundslides.com
Download the free (demo) version.
The site contains lots of instructions.

Webng.com
This is a free Web server. You'll need to create an account.
You need to upload your Soundslides slideshow to a Web server before you can post it to your blog.
Webng generates a URL, which you'll need below.

media.soundslides.com/screencasts/webng
This takes you to a short movie that explains how to upload a slideshow to Webng.

www4.soundslides.com/apps/utilities/
Go to this site and paste your slideshow URL into the URL field.
The site will generate an embed code that you can copy and paste into your blog.

Audio slideshow project

Audio Slideshow Project
Due: April 2
Upload slideshow to your blog
Save audio file and photos in a folder on the server

Create a 2- to 3-minute audio slideshow.

Tell a story with this project.
Consider it a journalistic narrative, with a beginning, middle and end.
Include sound from an interview with someone outside of your team (and family).
You can mix the sound with your own voice(s), or just use the interview sound.
Figure out how to identify the project at the top so the listener/viewer will understand.
Remember Mindy McAdams’ suggestion: change photos every 5 seconds.

Ideas:

Messy professors
Sporting event:
lacrosse, intramurals, tennis
Campus tour
Cooking lesson
Speech
Concert
Class lecture
Public meeting
How to
Interview someone about something he/she does

New teams for audio slideshows:

One: Michelle, Ariana, Tara, Emily
Two: Eric, Madi, Kevin
Three: Skyler, Josh, Red
Four: Jack, Bob, Joe, Frank
Five: Caitlin, Darcy, Kacie
Six: Sam, Heather, Chris

If you wish, you may create an audio slideshow on your own.

...and it's free!

Looking for free journalism courses?
Want 100?

Best and Worst Time?

Caitlin offers this item from a blog called Newsosaur.

State of the News Media 2009

Check out the report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Somethin fishy

Tuesday, March 24

Create a simple slideshow (without audio) using 10 photos. Use Picasa. Add captions and post the slideshow on your blog.
Team 1 will teach us the basics of creating an audio slideshow using Audacity and Soundslides.

Better Fishy Slideshow

Fishy Slideshow

Fish slideshow

For Thursday, March 19

Assignment for Thursday, March 19:
Read Chapter 8: Shooting and Managing Digital Photos
Find two slideshows or photo galleries on separate Web sites and critique them on your blog. One should have audio, but the other should not.
Include the URLs so we can find them.
Criteria: Do the slideshows or photo galleries function well as storytelling tools? Why or why not? What difference does sound make?
(This critique originally was to be due on March 24, but I am moving it up.)

Podcasts 4 U

Team 1: Horoscope
Daily Horoscope for Pisces
Team 2: Advice
Savage Love Podcast (explicit)
Team 3: Drum kid
Drum&BassArena Podcast
Team 4: Economics
Seeing Red Radio
EconTalk
Team 5: Beat box kid
Beats Like a Boxer podcast

Interviewing:
Philosophy Bites

Podcasting:
Podcasting for Dummies

"Curley-ize your news site"

The Rob Curley mentioned in this post is now working in Las Vegas.
The Web site -- The Student Newspaper Survival Blog -- is interesting, too.

What? Optimism?

The guy who launched a project called "Next Newsroom" explains why he's optimistic about the future of journalism, though his own job is kinda shaky.

Rewriting Sam

Sam Monroe

In collegiate sports the road to success starts well before the season does.
“Great players make good coaches great,” said Vincent Maloney, the Lyndon State women’s basketball coach. And in order to find those great players coaches need to look for them through recruiting.
“Recruiting is the life’s blood of your program,” said Bill Johnson, Lyndon’s sports information director, who coached basketball for 28 years before coming to Lyndon.
Most coaches will agree that recruiting starts with networking. This is when coaches set up relationships with high school, prep school, and junior college coaches through out their area. Johnson liked his network to extend through a 100-mile radius. While other coaches will travel through New England and the northeast, larger schools travel nation wide to recruit.
However being a smaller, division three school Lyndon State does not have the luxury of offering scholarships or having a big recruiting budget with lots of recruiting coaches which makes it harder. Maloney says a team camp he runs in the summer helps his recruiting. Chris Ummer, the LSC cross-country coach and athletic director said he also used a summer camp to help recruit. Ummer no longer runs the camp however.
“Recruiting is selling,” said Johnson. The coach needs to sell the school and entice athletes with the small things that they can’t get at other schools. Johnson also said that he would never mention another school during a recruiting visit.
Joe Krupinski, the men’s basketball coach at LSC, says he try’s to sell the improvement of the team and the individual to a prospect. He tells his recruits “you can be a building block in turning this around.”
Ummer try’s to sell the area around the school. He sells the mountains and the plethora of outdoor activities to his prospective runners.
Maloney often uses the size of the school and the size of the classes at the school as a selling point. Selling the player on the fact that they will have access to their professors and they will be a name and a face instead of just a number in a computer.
Johnson stressed that recruiting is more than sitting in and office and looking at stats. “Recruiting is leaving campus, because players don’t walk in your door,” he said. Seeing the player play is an important part of recruiting as well.
“Students are very excited when a coach walks in to see them play,” said Maloney. However that can be a difficult beast. This is because most high school seasons run at the same time as the college season. Both basketball coaches stressed using the semester break in Dec. and Jan. as well as summer tournaments as important times to do their recruiting.
The cross-country season is very short and runs at the same time as high school seasons. This means Ummer is very rarely able to actually see the runner compete. “It involves doing a lot of recruiting through results,” said Ummer. He also said that he likes to go and watch the athletes in other sports as well, just to let them know he is interested.
Once they have player’s names coaches will start sending letters and e-mails, followed up with a phone call to try and entice a campus visit. Most will agree a campus visit is the most important part of recruiting.
During the campus visit Ummer will often try to introduce the prospect to a current runner. “It makes them feel like they are already part of the team,” he said.
“Bringing in solid athletes to make the program stronger, builds the team and helps the campus as well,” is how Maloney sums up recruiting.
While Krupinski puts it into one sentence “it is about finding your niche and finding guys who are a good fit at your school and your level.”

Online Writing Assignment

This assignment is due at the start of class on Thursday, Feb. 5.

Find a story in a newspaper and "reversion" it for the Web on your blog.
The newspaper can be the Caledonian-Record or any other newspaper you have access to. It just needs to be the printed edition rather than the online version.
Include the following in your Web version:
Headline (six words or fewer)
Blurb (a two-sentence summary of the story)
Full story (in this case, five brief paragraphs will do)
Link (use your blog's linking tool to link to a related story or Web site)

Visit a few news sites to get a feel for Web writing. Avoid using the blurb as the first paragraph of the story -- that's a CNN.com habit I can't stand.
If you like a challenge, write the full story in one post and the blurb in another and figure out how to construct a link from the blurb to the full story.
Good luck.

How to link

This is how you link to cnn.com.

Pimp Your Blog

Project Guidelines:This is due on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
Create the coolest blog you can.
Play with design.
Use the Customize button to add features.
Write a blog entry explaining the process and why you chose the things you did.
Best blog wins a prize.
Grades:
A – Blew me away. Fun design, cool features.
Added photos, audio or video
B – Good blog, good blog.
C – It’s okay
D – It’s there
F – It’s not there
Please post the URL of your blog as a comment here. Include your name so I can give you proper credit.

Mmmmm. Bacon, sausage, Internet

Okay, so you create a blog. How do you get people to look at it? Here's a tasty lesson from the New York Times.

Cops and Trauma

Breaking the news isn't easy.

Funny coincidence

A few days ago, I received an issue of Nieman Reports in the mail.
It's from the Nieman Foundation found journalism at Harvard.
It's chock-full of reports about where journalism is heading.
Today, my son in Boston sent me this link to the Nieman Lab Web site, which describes itself as a "collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age."
Good to see someone besides us is trying to figure it out!

LSC Multimedia Contest Winner

LSC student Teelah Churchill has won a national contest for multimedia portrayals about the national debt, sponsored by the group Public Agenda. She also won the LSC U.S. National Debt YouTube Contest organized by professor David Plazek.
Plazek says there will be an award ceremony at 1 p.m. Feb. 3 in the Burke Mountain Room.

College instruction cuts

Check out this USA Today story suggesting colleges are spending less on instruction and more on other things.