This week's bunch at spartanedge.com includes Tia and Carly.
Congrats!
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
JRN 200: Your Turn To Grade Me!
Student Instruction Rating System (SIRS Online) collects student feedback on courses and instruction at MSU. Student Instructional Rating System (SIRS Online) forms will soon be available for students in this class (JRN 200, Sec. 003) to submit feedback.
The link is here, and it goes live Nov. 26 through Dec. 26.
Students are required to complete the SIRS Online form OR indicate within that form that they decline to participate. Otherwise, final grades (for courses using SIRS Online) will be sequestered for seven days following the course grade submission deadline for this semester.
Rating information collected by SIRS Online is reported in summary form only and cannot be linked to individual student responses. Student anonymity is carefully protected.
Vid/MM #2: Let's Take A Look-See!
This time, we're going to look at the videos/tweets/blog posts as a unit, to see how each medium cross-told the story. Off we go:
Bella: news stress video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #badnewsstudy
Angelica O: student voting video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #postelection2012
Alex: college hockey video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #msuhockey
Tia: dining halls video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #dininghallsjrn
Carly: housing video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #housingatmsu
Nourhan: movie screening video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #crossingbordersmsu
Okay, now the next four I'd like you to also look at after class, because included are links to the related written out-of-class stories, as published by spartanedge.com. If you want to get an idea of what all parts of your third out-of-class story should look like, this gives you a pretty good and thorough idea:
*****
Danielle: campus safety video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #msucampussafety (spartanedge.com version)
Brytanie: Body image video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #menonbodyimage (spartanedge.com version)
Nick: campus smoking video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #smokingjrn200 (spartanedge.com version)
Shelby: student stress video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #midyrstress (spartanedge.com version)
*****
Now, back to the rest:
Cait: student voting video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #msuvote
Matt: instant replay video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #jrn200 #mlb
Liam: student voting video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #msuvoters
Amber: student voting video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #jrn200tweet
Angelica C: health care costs Video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets
Bella: news stress video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #badnewsstudy
Angelica O: student voting video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #postelection2012
Alex: college hockey video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #msuhockey
Tia: dining halls video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #dininghallsjrn
Carly: housing video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #housingatmsu
Nourhan: movie screening video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #crossingbordersmsu
Okay, now the next four I'd like you to also look at after class, because included are links to the related written out-of-class stories, as published by spartanedge.com. If you want to get an idea of what all parts of your third out-of-class story should look like, this gives you a pretty good and thorough idea:
*****
Danielle: campus safety video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #msucampussafety (spartanedge.com version)
Brytanie: Body image video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #menonbodyimage (spartanedge.com version)
Nick: campus smoking video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #smokingjrn200 (spartanedge.com version)
Shelby: student stress video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #midyrstress (spartanedge.com version)
*****
Now, back to the rest:
Cait: student voting video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #msuvote
Matt: instant replay video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #jrn200 #mlb
Liam: student voting video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #msuvoters
Amber: student voting video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets #jrn200tweet
Angelica C: health care costs Video / blog 1 / blog 2 / tweets
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
JRN 200: Even More Published Reporters!
Residence hall diversity? We've got it.
Food improvements on campus? You know we've got it!
Congrats to our latest published reporters!
Food improvements on campus? You know we've got it!
Congrats to our latest published reporters!
Ethics: the 9/11 Falling Man, Ect.
There's a fine line between showing readers the brutal truth of a
situation so that they understand the powerful truth of any story, and
showing readers a truth so brutal that readers ignore the point you were
trying to make and instead question your judgment.
I can think of no better example of this than the so-called Falling man photo, taken by an Associated Press photographer during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and published by The New York Times the next day.
This remarkable article from Esquire Magazine in 2003 offers a summation of the complex and contradictory forces at play in deciding if running the image was the absolute right thing or the incredibly wrong thing to do.
If you were an editor on Sept. 11, what would you have done? And why?
Likewise, what would you do if you were a photographer covering an African famine and you came across a starving girl being stalked by a vulture? That was a real-world decision for one photog, and it may have led to his own unfortunate end.
Finally, what would you do if you were the photographer who took this award-winning pic?
Let's talk it out.
I can think of no better example of this than the so-called Falling man photo, taken by an Associated Press photographer during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and published by The New York Times the next day.
This remarkable article from Esquire Magazine in 2003 offers a summation of the complex and contradictory forces at play in deciding if running the image was the absolute right thing or the incredibly wrong thing to do.
If you were an editor on Sept. 11, what would you have done? And why?
Likewise, what would you do if you were a photographer covering an African famine and you came across a starving girl being stalked by a vulture? That was a real-world decision for one photog, and it may have led to his own unfortunate end.
Finally, what would you do if you were the photographer who took this award-winning pic?
Let's talk it out.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Obits: Just A Few Things
First off, we have some fatals to go over. Really, a lot of fatals. Nine out of 18, to be exact. That means one of every two people fataled. It's the biggest fatal binge of the semester, on an assignment that in past classes has typically been the easiest assignment of the term.
And it's the usual variety.
In three cases, we misspelled the first name of Terrence as Terrance, with an "a." Three!
In another instance, we spelled Terrence as Terence, with only one "r."
In two other cases, the last name Burnes was misspelled as the more common Burns, without the "e."
Also, we misspelled "fine" as "ine" -- with the "f" missing -- inside of a quote. Any misspelling inside of a quote is a fatal.
In another case, we alternately spelled the restaurant's name as Deacosta's and Deacista's. Obviously, one had to be wrong, right?
Also, in one case we said the dead guy was a resident of Chicago. In fact, he was born in Chicago and moved to East Lansing as an infant. (Remember all pertinent unspecified locales were East Lansing?)
(In regard to all these fatals, I'm wondering if I did you guys a disservice in allowing for so many practice stories to be done as homework, in that you didn't have to balance writing and fact-checking with deadlines in such a rigorous way as when we do practice stories in-class with a stricter and more immediate deadline.)
(I know some of you think I can be tough, but in this case I'm fearing that I wasn't tough enough to a point where we worked out bad habits and instituted good habits by more realistically simulating deadline conditions.)
(Unfortunately, we are just about out of time to keep working on this. I implore you to take the fact-checking strategies we've discussed and that are offered in this blog and make sure you implement them each and every time from here on out, and into your communications careers.)
Next, let's remember this lessons from the first few days of class: journalists do not use euphemisms -- words or terms used in place of more direct terms or words -- we use direct language.
In the case of this assignment, that means we don't say someone passed away,which is a euphemism for dying. So we simply say they died.
Plus, we should have capitalized the names of the medals he earned: the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Why? Because those are the specific names of specific medals. And we capitalize specific names. Which is why a certain person is Terrence Austin and not terrence austin, and why a certain type of car is a Ford Mustang and not a ford mustang.
Also, one last AP style check: when we have multiple people with the same last name in a story, then we throw out the usual AP Style rule where in first identification we use first and last names, and from then on just the last name.
Instead, in these instances we use the first and last names throughout, for every person who shares the same last name. Including the deceased, in this case.
Now, you don't need to start using the full name after the first reference until you actually hit a second Austin in your story. But once you do, its firsts and lasts the rest of the way.
Finally, you would know you should capitalize Marines if you looked in your AP Style Book under the heading of, Marines.
And it's the usual variety.
In three cases, we misspelled the first name of Terrence as Terrance, with an "a." Three!
In another instance, we spelled Terrence as Terence, with only one "r."
In two other cases, the last name Burnes was misspelled as the more common Burns, without the "e."
Also, we misspelled "fine" as "ine" -- with the "f" missing -- inside of a quote. Any misspelling inside of a quote is a fatal.
In another case, we alternately spelled the restaurant's name as Deacosta's and Deacista's. Obviously, one had to be wrong, right?
Also, in one case we said the dead guy was a resident of Chicago. In fact, he was born in Chicago and moved to East Lansing as an infant. (Remember all pertinent unspecified locales were East Lansing?)
(In regard to all these fatals, I'm wondering if I did you guys a disservice in allowing for so many practice stories to be done as homework, in that you didn't have to balance writing and fact-checking with deadlines in such a rigorous way as when we do practice stories in-class with a stricter and more immediate deadline.)
(I know some of you think I can be tough, but in this case I'm fearing that I wasn't tough enough to a point where we worked out bad habits and instituted good habits by more realistically simulating deadline conditions.)
(Unfortunately, we are just about out of time to keep working on this. I implore you to take the fact-checking strategies we've discussed and that are offered in this blog and make sure you implement them each and every time from here on out, and into your communications careers.)
Next, let's remember this lessons from the first few days of class: journalists do not use euphemisms -- words or terms used in place of more direct terms or words -- we use direct language.
In the case of this assignment, that means we don't say someone passed away,which is a euphemism for dying. So we simply say they died.
Plus, we should have capitalized the names of the medals he earned: the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Why? Because those are the specific names of specific medals. And we capitalize specific names. Which is why a certain person is Terrence Austin and not terrence austin, and why a certain type of car is a Ford Mustang and not a ford mustang.
Also, one last AP style check: when we have multiple people with the same last name in a story, then we throw out the usual AP Style rule where in first identification we use first and last names, and from then on just the last name.
Instead, in these instances we use the first and last names throughout, for every person who shares the same last name. Including the deceased, in this case.
Now, you don't need to start using the full name after the first reference until you actually hit a second Austin in your story. But once you do, its firsts and lasts the rest of the way.
Finally, you would know you should capitalize Marines if you looked in your AP Style Book under the heading of, Marines.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Out-of-Class #3: Don't Forget ...
... that you will have related multimedia on the same topic that will be due the last day of class!
That includes a video with at least two interviews and b-roll, two online news posts with at least two hyperlinks each, and a tweet stream with at least 12 tweets and a universal hash tag.
The old-fashioned written version will be due Nov. 20. The usual rules apply.
That includes a video with at least two interviews and b-roll, two online news posts with at least two hyperlinks each, and a tweet stream with at least 12 tweets and a universal hash tag.
The old-fashioned written version will be due Nov. 20. The usual rules apply.
Tweets #1: HowTo Tweet Non-Breaking News
Tweeting a breaking news story is easy, as you've learned. Just type
what you see, as you see it. But how do you tweet something that isn't
breaking? Like a trend story, or something about a topic without a
specific time peg or an actual event associated with it?
Actually, that's easy, too!
That was a situation a student in one of my past JRN 200 classes faced. She was doing a story about a rash of concussions among student-athletes. And here's her tweet stream, which I reversed so that you see her first tweet first and her last tweet last; the opposite of how it would appear on Twitter. Here we go:
#concussedathletes Over 300,000 sports related concussions occur each year, according to the Brain Trauma Research Center.
#concussedathletes The NCAA, the nation's largest college athletic association, has no guidelines for treating athletes with head injuries.
#concussedathletes The Big Ten is trying to implement its own regulations to deal with concussed athletes.
#concussedathletes Michigan State University is not pushing for the Big Ten to have the regulations.
#concussedathletes MSU soccer goalkeeper Liz Watza has had five concussions and said "The NCAA should create guidelines."
#concussedathletes Sports Specialist Dr. Homer Linard said the main concern with letting injured athletes back in the game is brain injury.
#concussedathletes Suffering a second concussion shortly after the first one can be deadly, according to the Brain Trauma Research Center.
#concussedathletes Incoming freshmen athletes at MSU are given a specific concussion test, called ImPACT. impacttest.com
#concussedathletes Athletic Clinical Coordinator Brian Bratta said "ImPACT assesses memory, cognitive ability and function of the brain."
#concussedathletes Once a concussion occurs at MSU, the athlete takes ImPACT again to gauge the severity of the injury.
Now, please notice a few things. Look at the first four tweets. Each could be a lede, right? For many of you, in writing a story -- especially trend stories -- you may find that you have more than one good lede option, but you can only choose one lede. But in tweeting the news, each lede option can become its own tweet.
Second, the tweeter took telling quotes and made each a tweet, like that of the player giving her opinion on the subject. Just like a quote in a story, it's not YOUR opinion; it's what somebody who is a subject of your story thinks.
Third, interesting facts are offered as tweets, like those on what the effects of a concussion can be.
Fourth, a mini-series of tweets are used to explain a nuance of the story, like the half-dozen tweets that in total detail how MSU deals with concussed athletes.
Fifth, hyperlinks are offered via tweet. Notice the tweet that uses a bit.ly link. Bit.ly is a URL shortener that will take a long URL and convert it into a shorter one that better fits on a character-restricted service like Twitter.
Let's take a look at what bit.ly can do for you, via this link.
Actually, that's easy, too!
That was a situation a student in one of my past JRN 200 classes faced. She was doing a story about a rash of concussions among student-athletes. And here's her tweet stream, which I reversed so that you see her first tweet first and her last tweet last; the opposite of how it would appear on Twitter. Here we go:
#concussedathletes Over 300,000 sports related concussions occur each year, according to the Brain Trauma Research Center.
#concussedathletes The NCAA, the nation's largest college athletic association, has no guidelines for treating athletes with head injuries.
#concussedathletes The Big Ten is trying to implement its own regulations to deal with concussed athletes.
#concussedathletes Michigan State University is not pushing for the Big Ten to have the regulations.
#concussedathletes MSU soccer goalkeeper Liz Watza has had five concussions and said "The NCAA should create guidelines."
#concussedathletes Sports Specialist Dr. Homer Linard said the main concern with letting injured athletes back in the game is brain injury.
#concussedathletes Suffering a second concussion shortly after the first one can be deadly, according to the Brain Trauma Research Center.
#concussedathletes Incoming freshmen athletes at MSU are given a specific concussion test, called ImPACT. impacttest.com
#concussedathletes Athletic Clinical Coordinator Brian Bratta said "ImPACT assesses memory, cognitive ability and function of the brain."
#concussedathletes Once a concussion occurs at MSU, the athlete takes ImPACT again to gauge the severity of the injury.
#concussedathletes Despite new technology, the biggest indicator is the presence of symptoms, said Bratta. http://tinyurl.com/6cq9dx
#concussedathletes When a head injury occurs, MSU athletes are immediately given SCAT, the Standardized Concussion Assessment Test.
#concussedathletes SCAT is a checklist of common symptoms and tests balance, said MSU Certified Athletic Trainer Yume Nakamura.
#concussedathletes When a head injury occurs, MSU athletes are immediately given SCAT, the Standardized Concussion Assessment Test.
#concussedathletes SCAT is a checklist of common symptoms and tests balance, said MSU Certified Athletic Trainer Yume Nakamura.
Now, please notice a few things. Look at the first four tweets. Each could be a lede, right? For many of you, in writing a story -- especially trend stories -- you may find that you have more than one good lede option, but you can only choose one lede. But in tweeting the news, each lede option can become its own tweet.
Second, the tweeter took telling quotes and made each a tweet, like that of the player giving her opinion on the subject. Just like a quote in a story, it's not YOUR opinion; it's what somebody who is a subject of your story thinks.
Third, interesting facts are offered as tweets, like those on what the effects of a concussion can be.
Fourth, a mini-series of tweets are used to explain a nuance of the story, like the half-dozen tweets that in total detail how MSU deals with concussed athletes.
Fifth, hyperlinks are offered via tweet. Notice the tweet that uses a bit.ly link. Bit.ly is a URL shortener that will take a long URL and convert it into a shorter one that better fits on a character-restricted service like Twitter.
Let's take a look at what bit.ly can do for you, via this link.
JRN 200: More Published Reporters!
Congrats to Nourhan, Shelby, Danielle and Brytanie, whose stories on the Nobel Prize and midterm struggles and campus safety and body image, respectively, have been published by Spartan Edge!
The way its front page is looking, maybe they should call it JRN 200 Edge.
The way its front page is looking, maybe they should call it JRN 200 Edge.
MM #1: In General
Good job by most folks on this first round of multimedia work! If you have not received a grade email for me, you can assume you received 4.0s on each segment, each of which counts as a practice story grade on this assignment (but will weigh much more on future assignments).
Also, in the future it would be very helpful to me if you sent all your links to all different media assignments in ONE email, and if you provided hyperlinks to each in that email. Thanks!
Also, in the future it would be very helpful to me if you sent all your links to all different media assignments in ONE email, and if you provided hyperlinks to each in that email. Thanks!
Blogs/Tweets #1: Your Work!
Let's take a look:
Bella: TV show preview / review / tweets #cm21
Cait: Cleaning up preview / review / tweets #cliquewentsick
Insert your hyperlinks INSIDE the text!
Nick: TV show preview / review / tweets #onehilarioustvshow
Angelica O: Library preview / review / tweets #nightsatthemsulibrary
Don't forget a lede tweet, so people know what will follow
Leah: making a pie preview / review / tweets #joeyjrn200
Make sure your links all work!
Carly: TV show preview / review / tweets #crimminds
Need a lede tweet, and more description of what you're seeing instead of what you think
Alyssa: trash ball game preview / review / tweets #obrienblalock
Shelby: TV show preview / review / tweets #jrn200oth
Needs a lede tweet; no such thing as too many tweets. But this comes close.
Brytanie: Cafe preview / review / tweets #ryanschapelureadventure
Nice use of varied hyperlinks from different sources in the blog, and Twit pics in the tweets
Stephen: TV show preview / review / tweets #scrubs #musical
Let's not forget journalistic writing style: short grafs, use of quotes, ect.
Nourhan: TV show preview / review / tweets #nollyonrevenge
Liam: TV show preview / review / tweets #watchinggameofthrones
Danielle: TV show preview / review / tweets #tladdictedtoheroin
Don't forget your hyperlinks!
Tia: World Series preview / review / tweets #jrn200tigers
Alex: World Series preview / review / tweets #alexonws
Amber: Tablet / fire / tweets #jrn200tweet
Make sure we stay on topic!
Matt: football game preview / review / tweets #jrn200 #gogreen
Bella: TV show preview / review / tweets #cm21
Cait: Cleaning up preview / review / tweets #cliquewentsick
Insert your hyperlinks INSIDE the text!
Nick: TV show preview / review / tweets #onehilarioustvshow
Angelica O: Library preview / review / tweets #nightsatthemsulibrary
Don't forget a lede tweet, so people know what will follow
Leah: making a pie preview / review / tweets #joeyjrn200
Make sure your links all work!
Carly: TV show preview / review / tweets #crimminds
Need a lede tweet, and more description of what you're seeing instead of what you think
Alyssa: trash ball game preview / review / tweets #obrienblalock
Shelby: TV show preview / review / tweets #jrn200oth
Needs a lede tweet; no such thing as too many tweets. But this comes close.
Brytanie: Cafe preview / review / tweets #ryanschapelureadventure
Nice use of varied hyperlinks from different sources in the blog, and Twit pics in the tweets
Stephen: TV show preview / review / tweets #scrubs #musical
Let's not forget journalistic writing style: short grafs, use of quotes, ect.
Nourhan: TV show preview / review / tweets #nollyonrevenge
Liam: TV show preview / review / tweets #watchinggameofthrones
Danielle: TV show preview / review / tweets #tladdictedtoheroin
Don't forget your hyperlinks!
Tia: World Series preview / review / tweets #jrn200tigers
Alex: World Series preview / review / tweets #alexonws
Amber: Tablet / fire / tweets #jrn200tweet
Make sure we stay on topic!
Matt: football game preview / review / tweets #jrn200 #gogreen
Vid #1: Your Work!
Let's take a look!
Leah
Could have used more b-roll and a title slide, and it ran too long
Amber
A tripod would be nice. No matter how steady you think you can hold a camera, it will look shaky without a tripod.
Bella
Good use of captioning. See how much better the shot is with a tripod?
Nourhan
Nice back-and-forth interviews. But, tripod! And b-roll!
Nick
The audio is a bit uneven. Try to get the mics as close as you can to the subject.
Matt
Again, mic + distance = lousy audio
Carly
Better audio. Good thing you asked Brytanie how she spells her first name. Watch your editing at the end; the last sound byte gets cut off.
Stephen
B-roll was wise to use between segments, but would also have been helpful amid segments, too, to break up that constant head shot of your interview subject.
Brytanie
Good tight head shots, but needs more b-roll
Alex
Good audio; good b-roll but needs more b-roll.
Shelby
Under copyright law, you can't use copyrighted music without expressed written permission of the author. It's not enough to credit it. (Same with pictures.) So, no fatal, but you do get a federal lawsuit.
Angelica O.
Ambitious interviewing: you interviewed a FORMER student, too!
Danielle
Captions when we first introduced interview subjects would have been helpful.
Alyssa
Nice interviews, but a lack of b-roll.
Liam
Ditto
Tia
Fun opening b-roll!
Cait
Unfortunately, a fatal: be sure to double-check name-spellings!
Leah
Could have used more b-roll and a title slide, and it ran too long
Amber
A tripod would be nice. No matter how steady you think you can hold a camera, it will look shaky without a tripod.
Bella
Good use of captioning. See how much better the shot is with a tripod?
Nourhan
Nice back-and-forth interviews. But, tripod! And b-roll!
Nick
The audio is a bit uneven. Try to get the mics as close as you can to the subject.
Matt
Again, mic + distance = lousy audio
Carly
Better audio. Good thing you asked Brytanie how she spells her first name. Watch your editing at the end; the last sound byte gets cut off.
Stephen
B-roll was wise to use between segments, but would also have been helpful amid segments, too, to break up that constant head shot of your interview subject.
Brytanie
Good tight head shots, but needs more b-roll
Alex
Good audio; good b-roll but needs more b-roll.
Shelby
Under copyright law, you can't use copyrighted music without expressed written permission of the author. It's not enough to credit it. (Same with pictures.) So, no fatal, but you do get a federal lawsuit.
Angelica O.
Ambitious interviewing: you interviewed a FORMER student, too!
Danielle
Captions when we first introduced interview subjects would have been helpful.
Alyssa
Nice interviews, but a lack of b-roll.
Liam
Ditto
Tia
Fun opening b-roll!
Cait
Unfortunately, a fatal: be sure to double-check name-spellings!
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