Videos -- Some Examples

I know this might be a tough assignment, given that you don't have much to refer to. But guess what? You do. Here's some videos from my fall 2010 JRN 200 class, along with comments/critiques of their work.

First up is this video. It ran way over the one minute that you were allotted, but for now let's simply focus on how the story was told. The lede wasn't one I'd recommend with a harder news story, but in this case it was fine.

The problem was with the audio. I can barely hear what some folks are saying. Can you? Make sure you follow some of the recording tips offered in the handout I gave you last week and in the downloaded texts I offered in the syllabus: Journalism 2.0 by Mark Briggs and The Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency by Mindy McAdams.

In the same way a print story must be easy for a reader to navigate in terms of word use and sentence structure, a video story has to be easy to watch and listen to in terms of clear video and understandable audio. Make sure the audio and video are clear and easy to follow for your viewers.

This video also has some choppy audio, but what I want you to focus in on is the use of multimedia tools in this video, such as titles and captions and transitions (like the page-flip effect between interviews) and even background music. When you're in a visual medium, use the tools offered by programs like iMovie to maximize your presentation.

Such tools aren't just to make your video look flashy. The captions with each interview, for example, provide value-added information: the name of who is being interviewed. It gives the viewer MORE information. That's a good job of attribution, which is a basic journalistic principle. The tool, in this case, allowed you to seamlessly offer that attribution.

Instead of relying on titles and such, in this video you offered narration before heading into the interview sections. Note a common problem -- and a frequent problem for first-time videographers -- and that's poor sound. Try to avoid spots that create an echo (like a hotel hallway) or places with background noise. If you can use a microphone, put it close to your subject. If you are using a device lacking an extended mike -- like a Flip camera -- try to shoot the person as close to the camera as possible, so audio doesn't suffer.

Try to be precise in where you have transitions between interviews. In this video, the first person seems to get cut off. Perhaps you transitioned too quickly. With the last one, the interview subject kind of trails off at the end. Maybe the edit should have been a bit sooner. In the same way you try to be precise in using quotes in print, try to be just as precise in audio and video.

Now let's look at this one. And this one. Whaddya think?

One of you did something a bit different: a podcast. That is, an audio-only report kind of like a radio segment. It worked well, except for one thing -- it was a bit hard to keep track of who was saying what. Perhaps the person acting as the show host could have prefaced each new commenter with a quick identifier, such as "What do you think, Dave?" or "Devyne?"

You may ask yourself, "Where do you post a podcast?" I didn't know either. So I Googled "podcast upload" and found something in about five seconds. I used podbean.com, which is free (with registration) and which you can link to here.

That wasn't the only bit of different multimedia done by this class. This person did an audio slide show, where still images are used instead of video, and sound is run concurrent with the person pictured at the time.

Look at how you introduced animation of sort, by having the still image pan back slowly. That's a nice touch, making a static shot a bit more lively.

I'm sorry to say this story failed in a very critical area: one name was misspelled in the closing credits.

I wish I didn't have to, since otherwise this was such a nicely-done assignment. But no matter what the medium, the journalistic value of getting it right applies. If I gave you a pass on multimedia, I send the message that it is lesser journalism. It's not. I'm sorry to say this was a fatal.

Blogs -- An Example

I'm sorry to say most of the JRN 200 blog posts from the fall are either gone or buried under socres of more recent blog postings.

But I think you may be able to get a sense of how you can turn a news story into a blog by looking at this Gawker.com blog post based on a news story you have have heard about on your own: Michigan's ban on energy drink/alcohol mixes. Oh, and whaddya know, this blog links to -- and even credits -- The State News!

Take a look at the blog and its style and how it presents information, and then look at the State News story and its presentation method. See similarities? Differences? How alike goals are accomplished in differing ways? And see how helpful hyperlinking is to provide background without cluttering the blog or breaking its conversational tone?

Tweeting -- Some Examples

Unfortunately, many of the Tweet streams from my last JRN 200 class are long gone. But here are some tips for tweeting from last semester:

>>> If you go waaaay beyond 12 tweets, that's okay! If there's something going on that calls for constant updates, then tweet away until you feel the story is adequately told.

And that's the most basic value of Twitter -- it's another way to relay events live and as they happen to an audience who may not be near a TV or radio or whatever. You can essentially "broadcast" live, just using text sent to mobile devices of readers.

>>> You can supplement your tweets with links to a photo uploading site, like yFrog, which can help tell the story beyond the 140 characters allowed in a tweet, and beyond simple words.

>>> You can also link to anything on the Web with the aid of a URL shortener, like bit.ly. What the service does is take a URL and replace it with a much shorter one. Using a bit.ly link here gives you more room to write text without the URL taking up so much space.

>>> Ideally, the best tweet streams can be put in reverse order and read just like an inverted-pyramid news story, with (timewise) your first tweet summing up what happened, and the following tweets filling in details and offering a chronology as something unfolds.

Here -- again, in reverse order, with the tweets in order of when they were posted -- is the State News' sports Tweet stream just before and from the press conference announcing Coach Dantonio's heart attack:

Report: Football head coach Mark Dantonio suffered a heart attack but is OK.

There is a "important football-related press conference" scheduled for 1 p.m. It is unclear if it is related to reports of Dantonio's health

MSU: Dantonio will remain at the hospital for a few days for monitoring. Return to sidelines at a later date.

MSU: Offensive coordinator Don Treadwell will manage day-to-day responsibilities of head coach.

MSU: Dantonio had "symptoms consistent with a heart attack."

MSU: Dantonio had a cardiac catheterization procedure early Sunday morning.

AD Mark Hollis said Dantonio will not be on the sidelines for the Northern Colorado game Saturday.

Hollis: "This is a time for the Spartan nation to come together, to rally."

Dr. D'Haem of Sparrow Hospital said a full recover is expected.

Dr. D'Haem said procedure is very routine and happens often. Also said he expects no long-term negative impact. Return yet to be determined.

Dr. D'Haem said Dantonio began feeling symptoms around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

Dr. D'Haem: Heart attacks are never good...but I would classify this as a rather small heart attack.

Hollis said he spent the night at the hospital until about 5:30, the returned to hospital this morning at 8.

Dr. D'Haem: "Stress doesn't cause coronary heart disease, but very stressful events can be a trigger."

Coach Treadwell on players' reaction: "They're handling it as well as they can. They love their head coach."

Hollis: "(Dantonio's) thoughts went immediately to his family and then to the football program."

Treadwell said the fact staff has been together for a number of years will make this process easier from a football point of view.

Dr. D'Haem said timetable for Dantonio's return will be taken week-by-week.

There's a lede. There's a nut graf. There's supporting details. There are quotes. There is background. It collectively qualifies as a journalistic story. And you did it within the confines of social media.

This is exactly how The Associated Press wire service has always filed breaking news stories as a story is breaking: line-by-line, with the idea the lines can be pasted together into a story. It allows the writer to push out a story (and an editor to edit copy) much faster than if he or she waited to have a mass of information combined into a story, and yet a reader still ends up with all the information they need to consider the package in its totality.

So really, tweets are just a way of applying old journalistic skills in a new way.

Multimedia -- How To Do A Video Story

Well, not really. But this video from the BBC is kind of correct in its (snarky) advice on a basic way to structure a video story. (Thanks for the heads-up, Ryan McPhail!)

Multimedia Homework -- A Reminder

What you need to do is . . .

. . . find ANY THING to observe -- a sporting event, fave TV show, a real news happening, whatever -- and . . .

1. Do at least 12 live tweets, each with the same hashtag of your choosing, via your Twitter account.

2. Do at least two blog posts of 100-400 words, each with at least two hyperlinks, via your blogspot account.

3. Send links to your Twitter and blog accounts to omars@msu.edu by 9 a.m. Monday.

Then, you ALSO need to do a 1-minute video story or photo/audio slide show on what peopel have learned sofar in JRN 200, using a minimum of two sources from among your classmates. Then upload the video to YouTube, and send me a link to the video by 9 a.m. Monday.

Hyperlinks kick ass

Yes, they do.

Stats -- Write With (AP) Style

Is it internet, or Internet?

Did anyone look in AP Style, under Internet?

If you did, you'd see it's Internet, capitalized.

Please review AP Style under Internet.

Lawsuit -- Write With (AP) Style

In AP style, under titles:

In general, confine capitalization to formal titles used directly before an individual's name.

That means, if you are referring to the principal in the generic, then it's lower-case:

In response, the principal said the plaintiff's son is a dumbass.

If you are adding the title before the name, then you do capitalize:

In response, Principal Greg Hubbard said the plaintiff's son is a dumbass.

But if you do not directly connect the name and title, then the title remains lower-case.

In response, the principal of the school, Greg Hubbard, said the plaintiff's son is a dumbass.

Please review AP Style under titles.

Extra Credit -- An Important Point To Make

I just want to be clear on this one point regarding extra credit: extra credit will be applied to replace the grades of assignments you have actually done, including fataled assignments.

Extra credit will NOT be applied to assignments that you did not turn in, or in which you had a time fatal.

So if you were thinking of skipping an assignment or two toward the end of the semester since you've already turned in some extra credit, then that plan won't work.

Out-of-Class Story #1 -- The Rewrite

Some general observations on your first rewrite:

Doing rewrites helped your grades. The average grade on the original story was a 2.7. The average rewrite grade was nearly a 3.2. That raised the overall average final grade for this assignment to a 3.0. And that's no small increase, given that just one out-of-class story is equal to 10 -- yes, 10! -- practice stories that we do in class.

Don't simply correct what I note. Take the opportunity to step back and look at your story in total. You're not writing it from scratch, so you have the time to just read it and see if it sounds like a sensible story to someone who may be encountering your topic for the first time and who has no prior knowledge of anything you're writing about.

Ask yourself, does it flow the way you want it to? Is it logically sequenced? Do any changes you make create the need for a restructuring of your story to make it read the best? Would it make sense to your grandmother if you gave it to her to read?

Don't be afraid to play with your story a bit and to fine-tune it beyond my suggestions. The worst thing that could happen is that your grade would be no worse off than before.

Make sure you spell people's names correctly! Someone fataled the spelling of a name. I know that because I compared the person's name to what was listed at MSU People Search.

That person received a major break because I did not catch the same fatal on their original paper. This one time only, I will not dock the person for the original fatal. The next time, your grades will be subject to revision if I subsequently find a fatal that I missed while originally grading the assignment.

Whenever you interview any subject, don't assume you know how their name is spelled. Ask them to spell it out for you. Each time. Every time. You know what happens when you assume.

Make sure that you get contact information for your sources, and that you list their contact info after your story! First, you should be getting contact info in case you have questions later. Second, I want to be able to contact your sources randomly and verify the information you gathered.

Neutral experts help! One of you did a story on the lawsuit against Taco Bell, alleging it uses subpar meat. You got statements from the lawyers behind the suit. And Taco Bell. And an MSU professor who specializes in food law!

Another one of you did a story on STDs, and you found a professor in Alabama who happens to head an international STD association. That person was able to help rate a vaccine that was developed by a pharmaceutical company that has a profit motive in touting the drug. The prof, of course, has no similar motive. He's just calling it like he sees it, based on his expertise.

Good gets!

Rescue -- Why Did So Few Of You . . .

. . . make any mention that the city's zoning board was to be notified about the site's hazard to children, as indicated at the end of the report?

Isn't that an important detail relating to where the story may go from here, and detailing consequence for what happened?

Also, some of you referred to the site owner generically, but you never named the company directly. Why is that? Isn't that specific and useful information? Wouldn't readers want to know who owns the land, in the same way they want to know who died? Isn't who one of the five W's every story should have?

Finally, if this was a real story you were doing for a real news organization, what would have been some additional steps in reporting this story? Let's get some good answers.

Rescue -- Be Careful With Word Use

This was one of your ledes:

On Tuesday afternoon, an East Lansing boy drowned after playing near a pond with friends . . .

Hold on right there. Did the boy drown? Or did he die after being buried?

Let's look at this definition of "drown" from the American Heritage Dictionary in my office:

drown. 1. To kill by submerging and suffocating in water or another liquid. 2. To drench thoroughly or cover with as if with a liquid.

The only reason I did not score this as a fatal was because of definition number 2.

At best, this is a poor choice of word use. Drown is so often associated with a watery death that this is a confusing term. If you had offset it in a more specific phrase, like an East Lansing boy drowned in dirt, then it would have been much more acceptable.

At worst, this is an outright fatal. Make sure you use the correct words that best tell the story. At the same time, make sure you fully understand the words you are using so that you are sure they are being used correctly.

Rescue -- A/An vs. The

Is it an East Lansing Fire Department incident report? Or the East Lansing Fire Department incident report.

In general, on first reference you'd be better off using an or a. That's because this report is certainly not the only incident report filed by East Lansing Fire Department. You are noting it's one among many reports on various incidents that the department handles every day.

Now, after establishing in the first reference you are referring to one report among many, then you are free to refer to it as the report.

Where you may vary in first references is when you are using a clearly distinct and one-of-a-kind document; e.g., according to the Declaration of Independence; according to the resignation letter from President Nixon, ect.

Otherwise, if it's a more common type of document, you may be better off with a or an in first reference.

Again, once you establish that, the should be acceptable in all subsequent references.

Rescue -- Was it . . .

. . . a fort the kids were building? You know, with gates and turrets and moats and solid stone walls and stuff?

Or a tunnel that was a kind of play-fort?

It's the former, right?

So, why call it a just fort when it was really a tunnel?

It's not wrong that you refer to the fort in some way; just make sure the context is correct. One of you found a great way to say it: the boys were digging a tunnel to create a play fort.

Spring Break Reading -- Some Links

In case you forgot your syllabus en route to Florida, here are links to downloadable PDFs of your assigned multimedia readings:

http://www.kcnn.org/resources/journalism_20/

http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2009/now-printable-reporters-guide-to-multimedia-proficiency/

Police -- Deadlines Are Important!

I'm sorry to say on this assignment we had a time fatal; that is, someone who failed to turn in their story by the 11 a.m. Tuesday deadline.

It's doubly sad because the person says their story was finished on time; they just forgot to turn it in.

It's a shame, but I can't cut slack for that. In journalism, you not only have to get it right, but you also have to get it on-time. This is a deadline-oriented business. Finishing a story on-time is of no use to readers if they don't get that story from you on-time.

Newspaper people have to get their stories to the printer on time, so newspapers can get delivered on time. Broadcast people have to get their scripts done before their scheduled newscasts, or else anchors won't have anything to read. (They won't hold up the 11 o'clock news until 11:03 so you can get a script finished.) Online journalists must get content up as soon as possible. Getting news to people while the news is still fresh and needed is like delivering a pizza while it's desired and hot. Late just won't cut it.

Let's please be sure we're meeting our deadlines. Every time and all the time.

Police -- Peanut Barrel

I'm kind of surprised that so few of you cited something that to me stood out like a sore thumb: the fact that the cane-wielding victim was almost 6 1/2 feet tall, while the would-be alleged robber he beat was not much over five feet tall and weighed less than half as much as the victim.

Isn't that a Peanut Barrel-type of story? Isn't that sharp contrast in size what takes an out-of-the-ordinary robbery story (unusual in that the victim beat off the attacker) and make it even more unique?

I'm not shocked that many of you didn't weave it into your ledes, because to do that is doable but a bit complex. I'm just surprised many of you didn't note that bit of interest at all.

Any explanations?

Police -- Many of You . . .

. . . didn't list an exact address for Jiffy Foods.

You should have. It's news WHERE something happens, right?

Who, what, when, where, why, how.

Police -- Allegedly

Some more problems with when to use allegedly.

It's not alleged that Keel entered the store. He has a face full of broken bones proving he was there.

What is alleged is whether he pulled a knife, and tried to commit a crime.

So, where does allegedly fit in here?

DaRoza walked behind the counter for the key to the restroom when Keel followed him and exposed a knife.

Before "exposed a knife," right?

Police -- Attribution

Many people fell short of offering proper attribution.

For example, how do you know that Keel suffered broken facial bones? Was it because you spoke to paramedics?

No. It's because that's what paramedics told police for their report.

So, correct attribution would be something like, Paramedics said Keel suffered various broken facial bones, according to a police report.