Vid/Blogs/Tweets #2: Let's Take A Look!

FYI, I graded these fairly lightly. Like the first assignment, I'm less worried with crispness and details and more concerned with attempts to execute the basics, and necessary elements like B-roll and captions and, of course, content.

And in this review, we will look at the videos and blog posts and tweets together, since they are all on the same topic. Let's look to see how certain mediums emphasized certain parts of each story.

(Now, some people did NOT turn anything in for at least one part of this assignment. Remember we talked about having more heavily-weighed assignments later in the semester? This was one of those assignments. It total, these assignments equal about TEN practice stories in weight.)

(So, if you are one of those people, you and I should be talking about doing some extra-credit multimedia assignments, to try to pull up your grade. If these assignments -- or any out-of-class work, for that matter -- stand as 0.0s, your final grade will take a serious hit. Please try to extra-credit your way to a better grade by showing me you can execute these concepts in practice.)


Back to the review: here we go, in order in which the assignments were turned in (just so you know I'm not picking on you by making you first again, Ali):

Ali: war protesters video and preview and recap and tweets #200protesters

The vid had a nice mix of B-roll, but it could have used a more solid introduction via a title slide or narration to tell us what we're looking at.

Mandi: Chinese culture at MSU video and preview and recap and tweets #chmsu

Good range of interviews between a Chinese student and a domestic student and an expert! But each blog post should have different hyperlinks, instead of simply using the same ones in each.

Darien: Student-athlete life video and preview and recap and tweets #msustudenathlete

The tweet stream was something different: instead of trying to recap the subject, it was a Top 11 list (plus a lede tweet) of what one student-athlete loves about his chosen path. ("Girls" was #4, FYI.) What do you guys think; does it work?

Whitney: pets on campus video and preview and recap and tweets #jrn200hammy

Narration at the start of the video solidly sets up the rest of the story.

Anne: new sorority video and preview and recap and tweets #sigmaalphamsu

You don't need to do both narration and captioning of the same content; just pick one. Also, while you should use a name caption when first interviewing someone, you don't need subsequent name captions. In print we do need subsequent attribution to know who is being quoted. But on video, we have another cue: the person's face, who we already saw in connection with the original name caption.

Strong and very broad use of hyperlinks here:

Preview

Sigma Alpha, a professional agricultural sorority, wants to join Michigan State Universities Panhellenic Council.

The Panhellenic Council governs the 13 existing sororities on campus and helps run events such as Greek Week, Safe Halloween, and formal recruitment.

Sigma Alpha is located at 336 Oakhill Ave, and currently has 66 active members with 12 membership candidates to join this semester, Amanda Sumerix, their current president said.

By joining The Panhellenic Council, they will be able to be involved in such events and would allow potential new members to see their chapter during recruitment, and potentially higher numbers.

There are agricultural Fraternities that are part of The Interfraternity Council, a similar council, that benefit from being included in IFC which makes it a parallel for a sorority of the same interest to join possibly.

Review

Sigma Alpha, is to be an associate member of Michigan State Universities Panhellenic Council starting in Fall of 2013.

The By-Laws state that an associate member acts as every other chapter, although they may not vote on matters such as expansion.  They usually do not participate in formal recruitment.

Chapters such as Sigma Delta Tau at MSU are also considered an associated member and only are involved in the first day of formal recruitment, Spirit Day, then followed by open bidding.

MSU's sigma alpha will be only the eighth chapter out of 56 nationally to be considered  part of their Universities Panhellenic Council, according to their national website.

The Panhellenic Council has not currently began the formal process for Sigma Alpha to become part, but the conversational portion is complete and there will now be an open conversational meeting and procedural vote to proceed with their membership.

(Yes, we had some problems finding the "public" setting here. So we improvised. And that's what we do in journalism; we figure out a way to make things work, even when they don't.)

Dan: general education video and preview and recap and tweets #jrngened

The online news posts on the merits of general education courses are cleaved in a logical way: one represents the student perspective, and the other the faculty angle.

Colin: dorm life video and preview and recap and tweets #dorm200

Sometimes, we lock in too long on the head shot of someone we're interviewing. Here, we lock in too long on pretty inactive B-roll intended to break up that kind of head shot. We'd be better off showing more varied B-roll or a more active single stretch of B-roll. We don't want to simply go from one dull shot to another dull shot.

Karilynn: fake IDs video and preview and recap and tweets #jrn200fakeids

Good use of hyperlinks in the tweets. But one doesn't work. After posting tweets or blog posts, always check and make sure your links work!

Thrishanna: major vs. money video and preview and recap and tweets #moneyvsmajor

The video was one interview subject short of the two-person requirement, plus it lacked B-roll. What B-roll can you do with such a vague topic? you may ask. Easy: think about what the crux of the story is about: a decision people make about their time on-campus. So, you could get generic campus shots: people walking around campus, a class listening to a lecture, a student going online to register for classes, ect. If you break down a B-roll quest to the most basic elements, you can usually come up with some generic but related B-roll.

Plus, good hyperlinks to related articles in the preview story! But, like with a traditional print story, try to avoid first-person references in the review.

Tyler: IM sports video and preview and recap and tweets #jrn200imsports

Yes, the video quality isn't great. But let's ignore that. The structure was good, though I wish the shooting angles would have been better (and can the one guy at least get off his laptop while he's being interviewed? It's almost like he's telling the viewer, "Naah, this ain't that important. I can't even bother to close my laptop to talk to you."

Charlene: dance marathon video and preview and recap and tweets #msudancefever

Again, let's make sure we're not simply mimicking hyperlinks between blogs.

Yuehan: service learning video and preview and recap and tweets #jrn200sl

Don't overload captions with too much information; keep identification captions simple and easy to read. Also, even though they are intended to be red sequentially, be sure to treat the preview and recap as separate stories. That means correctly citing first attributions in the recap, even if the person was mentioned in the preview.

Thomas: Kickstarter app video and preview and recap and tweets #plmlt

The video really needs a more detailed opening caption or narration -- kinda like a lede -- so that the viewer knows what the first interview subject is talking about when she starts with, "Obviously ..." Well, it's not obvious yet to the viewer. We also needed some in-interview B-roll. Here, try to match the sound to the B-roll. When the speaker talks about an app, show the app at work on a phone. When the speaker talks about customer-friendly businesses, show a local business place. Good tweet stream.

Kaylonni: MSU diversity video and preview and recap and tweets #welovediversitymsu

Try to incorporate some habits from written story organization, like telling and showing by pairing telling statements up with supporting quotes. A tweet making a statement like, MSU students would love to see more multicultural events here on campus, should be paired with a quote that supports that conclusion, like "We need to advertise and push multicultural programs," said Kuwaiti student.

The medium is different, but many of the principles we've worked on all semester still apply. It's still journalism -- and all the related principles -- whether we're typing or shooting or tweeting or whatever.

Vid #1: Your Work!

And off we go!

Ali

The edits between items in Ali's vids are a little too abrupt, but that's not an uncommon problem in a first video.

Colin

The subjects were a bit distant. Don't be afraid to bring the camera up to them.

Dan

Good mix of B-roll, and nice job in jumping from one interview to another quickly, so it feels more like a conversation where people jump in and out, instead of having one person drone on, then the next.

Darien

The camera angles could be better-executed, but you have the concepts right.

Mandi

B-roll needn't be video; you can also use still images, like you do here.

Thrishanna

Be sure to get good, clear audio!

Charlene


Again, audio! Plus, it may have been helpful to have some narration as sort of a lede over the opening B-roll, just so we don't have a long period of no sound, and so the viewer knows what you'[re getting at. Just like a written story, we don't want a viewer to have to wait and guess what a vid is about; they should know right away.

Tyler

Don't be afraid to use B-roll in the middle of an interview segment, and not just as transitional B-roll between different interview segments.

Kaylonni


I know you're working with basic equipment, so I'm not very concerned with video quality. But in terms of concept, we could have used some B-roll to break up single interview segments while the subject keeps talking, just to break up that tedious shot of someone droning on.

Karilynn

Nice structure and good sound, but two things: first, this is a general news story for a general audience, so avoid the direct and opinionated statement at the end (though I appreciate the sentiment). Second, there was a fatal in the spelling of Yuehan Liu's first name. Let's be sure that we're following the EXACT same fact-checking standards as we have in print. The medium is different, but why we do it and the standards we're trying to execute are not.

Ariel

Just like in print stories we need attribution, we also do in video. Who are the interview subjects? Why are they talking about this subject? We could really use some attributing captions here.

Thomas

Audio, right? And B-roll? Captions?

Yuehan

Nice audio! Nice use of still pictures as B-roll!

Blogs/Tweets #1: Your Work!

Let's take a look:

Ali: CATA bus preview and recap and tweets #200CATAbusprobz

With Ali's tweets, we'd preper to have more shared observations and fewer opinions and feelings. Treat it like a news item; it's about what you see, not what you think.

Tyler: video game football preview and review and tweets #JRN200NCAA13

Karilynn: procrastination preview and review and tweets #hwisnotfunJRN200

Again, I would have preferred you wrote/tweeted about something you were observing, rather than something you were doing.

Colin: basketball tourney preview and recap and tweets  #BIG200

Good tweet stream here.

Dan: basketball tourney preview and recap and tweets #jrnisfun

Very good use of varied hyperlinks offering background info and visuals. I know it's social media, but still watch your spelling. It's "wrap" and not "rap" if you're talking about wrapping things up.

Whitney: frozen yogurt trip preview and recap and tweets #JRN200FROYO

Darien: basketball game preview and recap and tweets #clevelandsreckoning

Nice use of hyperlinks, but what about variety beyond biographies? Like, game highlights? We went waaay beyond 12 tweets here but that's good! Twelve was the assignment minimum; use as many tweets as you need to tell the story. And I enjoyed your friends' tweets, too.

Mandi: weather preview and recap and tweets #msuweather

The recap essentially repeated the preview; our best option was to use the last paragraph of the recap as the starting point for a new post, maybe looking forward to what the weather will be in the near future.

Anne: basketball tournament preview and recap:

Preview

Today March Madness will kick off with the pairing of number three seed Michigan State University and number 14 seed Valparaiso. 

The game taking place at the Palace of Auburn Hills, will tip-off at 12:15 pm.

MSU is the favorite with players such as Adrian Payne, Derrick Nix, and Keith Appling to carry the team to a believed easy victory.

MSU a three seed for the tournament is a believed possible contender for the championship, something that multiple sports professionals have said.

Valparaiso will do everything in their power to keep their presence in the tournament and possibly create a large upset.  

Review

Michigan State University defeated Valparaiso 65-54 today in Detroit.

After a slow first few minutes, MSU's superior three point shooting and defense pulled off a win in their first round of March Madness against Valparaiso.

Michigan states Derrick Nix picked up his fourth double double this season, leading the team with 23 points and his career high of 15 rebounds. 

Valparaiso just didn't seem to catch a break throughout the game, with many calls not going their way, and shots just not seeming to fall.

As the game seemed to be coming to a close Valparaiso's Ben Boggs finished with a slam-dunk as the final shot of the game. 

...  and tweets #msuvalparaiso

Thrishanna: St. Paddy's Day preview and recap and tweets #JRN200bdubs

Charlene: TV show preview and recap and tweets #teentvatthebest

Nice preview and recap, but we're missing hyperlinks.

Tyler: TV show preview and recap and tweets #JRN200HIMYM

Don't forget a lede tweet, so people know right away what the tweet stream is going to be about

Kaylonni: dinner preview and recap and tweets #MSUquesadillas

Jack:  basketball tournament preview and recap and tweets #msuvalpjrn200

Thomas: beer rhetoric meeting preview and recap and tweets #jrn200lt

Nice use of a Twit pic to illustrate the twitter stream

Yuehan: making cupcakes preview and recap and tweets #cupcakes

The hashtag is too generic here. See what happens when you click on it?

Tweets #1: How To 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.

#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.

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.

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

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.

#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.

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: Video/Blog/Online News #1

Per your request, here are the details of the first round of video/social media/online news assignment. Everything is due via email by 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2 to omars@msu.edu.

If you have any questions on details of these assignments, or if you want to see examples of what these assignments in finished form looked like in my summer 2012 JRN 200 class, please see the appropriate previous recent blog posts.

The assignments are as follows:

Video: Create a news video no shorter than one minute and no longer than two minutes, reporting on the topic of what we've learned sofar in JRN 200 this semester. Your video must include at least two interview subjects from your video group, and no fatals.

When finished with your video, please upload it to your YouTube.com account, and make sure that account is set to public viewing. Then email me a link to your video by the deadline.

Tweets: Live-tweet an event you are following. It can be as simple as a TV show you're watching, or your roommate making breakfast, or some other routine activity. You need to do a minimum of 12 tweets, each with a unique universal hash tag unifying the tweet stream.

When finished with your tweet stream, please email me a link to your Twitter account (and make sure it's open to the public), along with what your unique hash tag is for this assignment.

Online news: You need to write a minimum of two posts -- one preview and one review -- of the same even you're live-tweeting. Each post must be at least 100 words and no longer than 200 words, and each must include at least two relevant hyperlinks.

When finished with your news posts, make sure they are open to the public and please email me links to each post.

Questions? See me ASAP, please. And good luck!

Blog #1: Hyperlinks Are Easy

In traditional print journalism, we work in one dimension. That is, in the text story we put everything a person needs: a lede, quotes, data, background, ect.

But when we are writing online news, we can write in two dimensions: the literal text, and via hyperlink.

Hyperlinks are highlighted pieces of text that, when clicked on, takes the viewer to a new Web page. For example, this is a hyperlink. And it takes us to a Wikipedia entry about hyperlinks.

What hyperlinks do in an online story is allow you to offer background or quotes or video or other related content in a secondary dimension, so that your primary story can concentrate on conclusions and such.

If in print we try to show and tell readers, in online news hyperlinks allow us to tell in the main story, and then show through a hyperlink. Like in this ESPN.com story, where the hyperlinks let us know who is who, without that background overwhelming the text of the story.

In this blog post, hyperlinks include ones to earlier stories from the same Web site, and news stories from other Web sites (including one of my local favorites). See how it offers background in two dimensions?

And that gives the reader options. If they choose to trust your summary, they can leave it at that. If they want more info, all they have to do is click on a hyperlink and -- voila! -- they can get into as much detail as their little hearts desire.


Hyperlinks are real easy to make.

First, you want to highlight a section of text that is directly relevant to what you're hyperlinking to. For example, if you're writing an article about yourself and you want to hyperlink to your Facebook page so people can get background about you, a relevant place to hyperlink from would be a mention of your name.

After highlighting the next, look at your tools bar for wither a symbol that looks like linked chains, or the word "link." Click on that.

When you do, a box should pop up that asks for a URL, which is a fancy way of saying, Web address. Copy the URL and paste it into the box, and then hit "OK."

Then, save, close and publish your item. You should now have a working hyperlink.

And after posting your story, be sure to go to your item just as a reader would, and double-check your hyperlinks to make sure they work.

Tweet #1: Tweets Are Easy

Many of you already use Twitter, but you may wonder how to use it for news.

That's easy, actually.

As you probably know, in Twitter you communicate in bursts of text no longer than 140 characters. So you're trying to say a little in a lot of space.

But that's less of a challenge than you may think.

That's because you're not limited to just one tweet. You can do as many tweets as you'd like!

So a single tweet is not a single story. Rather, a collection of tweets are. One tweet may be like sort of a lede, where it sums up the main point. following tweets are like the body of a story, with one tweet offering an update and another some relevant stats, and yet another a quote.

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.

A collection of related tweets are unified by a hashtag; that is, the hashtag symbol on your keyboard (the thing that looks like a criss-cross fry; it's the number 3 key when under shift lock) followed by a unique phrase. For example, tweets at the convention I am going to are joined by the hashtag #ncmc12 (short for National College Media Convention 2012).

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 a while back:

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.

Now, it's your turn. Your assignment is to live-tweet anything -- the latest episode of your favorite TV or radio show; a sporting event you're attending; your roommate eating dinner; whatever -- and send me a link to your Twitter account (which must be open to the public), with a deadline of the start of class Wednesday.

You will need to send a minimum of 12 tweets, with a unique hashtag applied to each. For this first assignment, I don't care what the news value is of your topic. I simply want to see your technical proficiency in live-tweeting something happening, as it happens.

Blog/Tweet #1: Some Examples

For our opening assignment in using social media and writing about breaking news, what I will ask you to do is to pick out anything in your daily routine for which to write an online breaking news preview story, an online breaking news follow-up story, and a live tweet stream as the event is unfolding.

When I say I want you to do anything in your daily routine, I do mean anything. Cover your watching your favorite TV show. Or your roommate making breakfast. Or a game on TV you're watching. Really, anything.

The reason for that is that I simply want you to get used to the technical process, without having to do any real and time-consuming reporting. We will incorporate reporting in latter versions of this assignment.


Now, on these assignments, everyone will get a 4.0 as long as long as we meet the basic parameters of the assignment.

Those include:

-- Each breaking news entry being about the SAME topic, being covered as a preview and then a recap of what happened
-- Each breaking news story staying over the 100-word minimum
-- The breaking news stories being written in a journalistic style, as opposed to a first-person blog-like style
-- Each breaking news item containing two working hyperlinks, inserted onto text
-- A minimum of 12 tweets on the same subject as the breaking news topic
-- Each tweet having a consistent unique hash tag, to allow the tweets to be chained together

The penalty for failing to meet these parameters is 0.5 of your grade, per error. So, if your tweets lacked a consistent unique hashtag, you got a 3.5. If your breaking news stories lacked topic consistency AND the minimum hyperlinks, you got a 3.0.

In addition, a fatal resulted in a 1.0 grade. And failure to turn it in, of course, is a 0.0.

These same deductions will apply on all future multimedia assignments. But future assignments WILL include consideration of content and journalistic value.

Now, to give you an idea of what the final product might look like, let's look at breaking news/tweet combos from the first such assignment my summer 2012 JRN 200 class, and let's talk about what worked and what can be done better.

And we're off:


Max: Stanley Cup preview / review  /tweets #maxonstanleycup

Julia: making pasta preview / review / tweets

Lindsay: rainy day preview / review / tweets #whenitsraining

Molly: making a sandwich preview / review / tweets #bestroomie

Nubia: movies review / another review / tweets #vh1babyboy

Lilly: Bachelorette/baseball game preview / review / tweets #bachelorettelivetweets

Tiarra: TV show preview / review / tweets #funnyshow

Justin: NBA Finals preview / review / tweets  #NBAFJRN200MSU

Emily: TV show preview / review / tweets #finallysomedecenttv

Kyle: NBA Finals preview and review / tweets

Katelyn: TV show and scary stuff: preview and review / tweets

MM #2: Let's Look At Some Vid/Blog/Tweet Combos!

Okay, round two of multimedia. Except this time, we're going to look at how each medium -- social, online and video -- told the same story topic in different ways.

Let's look at how each medium maximized its advantages -- video telling stories in motion and sound, online using hyperlinks for background, and social breaking things into short blasts -- and how each medium complemented the others and helped form a well-rounded examination of the subject at hand.


Off we go:


Julia: construction accident first story / update story / video / tweets #jrn200collapse

Max: MSU baseball: first story / update story / video / tweets #maxonmsubaseball

Justin: summer school  first story / update story / video / tweets #msujrn200class


Lindsay: grub crawl event  first story / update story / video / tweets #omargrubbing

Kyle: healthy eating first story / update story / video / tweets #healthyisexpensive

Lilly: Facebook policy  first story / update story / video / tweets  #facebookpolicy


Nubia: bike safety first story / update story / video / tweets #msubikesafety

Emily: student work  first story / update story / video / tweets  #jrn200story2tweetstream


Now, this is how the grading worked: the first story, second story and tweets were individually graded, then an average grade was determined that was your multimedia assignment grade.

Your video was graded individually, and had its own grade equal in weight to the multimedia package grade.

Grades were figured more on content and substance and proper use of journalistic style than in the previous multimedia/video assignment. This assignment was NOT a perfect 4.0 as long as you met the technical requirements, as was the last assignment, though the technical aspects still weighned in as part of your grade. Those were:

-- Videos staying within the 1-2 minute range and on-topic
-- Videos containing at least two human interviews on tape
-- Videos containing sufficient attribution of sources

-- Each breaking news story staying over the 100-word minimum
-- The breaking news stories being written in a journalistic style, as opposed to a first-person blog-like style
-- Each breaking news item containing two working hyperlinks, inserted onto text
-- A minimum of 12 tweets on the same subject as the breaking news topic
-- Each tweet having a consistent unique hash tag, to allow the tweets to be chained together


In addition, a fatal resulted in a 1.0 grade. And failure to turn it in without proper and verified excuse, of course, is a 0.0.

New Media: Let's Look At Some Breaking News/Tweet Combos!

Look! We have some breaking news/tweet combos! Let's take a look at a few:


Max: Stanley Cup preview / review  /tweets #maxonstanleycup

Julia: making pasta preview / review / tweets

Lindsay: rainy day preview / review / tweets #whenitsraining

Molly: making a sandwich preview / review / tweets #bestroomie

Nubia: movies review / another review / tweets #vh1babyboy

Lilly: Bachelorette/baseball game preview / review / tweets #bachelorettelivetweets

Tiarra: TV show preview / review / tweets #funnyshow

Justin: NBA Finals preview / review / tweets  #NBAFJRN200MSU

Emily: TV show preview / review / tweets #finallysomedecenttv

Kyle: NBA Finals preview and review / tweets

Katelyn: TV show and scary stuff: preview and review / tweets

ONE PROBLEM with this assignment: some of you sent me tweets from protected (closed to the public) accounts. Either open your accounts so I can see your work, or unprotect me as a follower. I'm @omars81 on Twitter.

Breaking News: Web Updates Are Easy

Writing news for the Web is just like writing for our in-class practice stories. You're writing in real time, with the goal of getting a story up quickly and updating it as needed.

And we are going to practice writing news in real time in this class. For your first exercise, I want you to cover ANYTHING -- and I mean anything! Cover your favorite TV show. Cover a game you're watching on TV. Cover your roommates having dinner. Whatever.

But I want you to cover it this way: first, in your blog account, write a preview story 100 to 250 words in length, in which you preview the event. Then, write a story of the same length at the end of the event, recapping it.

And EACH story will have to include TWO related hyperlinks. A hyperlink is a highlighted and/or underlined set of text that, when clicked upon, takes you to a separate Web page. In the case of news stories, we try to hyperlink to things that provide additional background and information on a subject area.

And hyperlinks can come from just about anywhere. You can hyperlink to other media coverage of the same thing. Or a clip of your subject matter on YouTube. Or the home page of your subject's Web site. Or a Wikipedia entry. Or a biography. Or whatever helps provide background.

In print, we provide background in one dimension: in text, following your lede and nut graf. Online, we can offer background in a second dimension via hyperlinks, leaving your writing more compact and to the basic essentials.

Now, how do you hyperlink? Simple. You highlight the section of text you want to have hyperlinked; then click on the "link" button or linked chain symbol at the top of the page; when a URL box pops open, enter the URL (Web address) of the page you want hyperlinked, and then hit "okay."

Then, go back to the text and click on the hyperlink to make sure it works.

Make sure that the section you highlight is relevant to the hyperlink. If you're doing a story about MSU's football coach, for example, maybe you want to have a hyperlink go to the first time you mention the coach by name, Mark Dantonio. Or if you're writing about the football team's shocking win against Notre Dame in 2010, you want to highlight your reference to the "Little Giants" play.

Either way, look for resources online -- hellooooooo, Googles! -- that can help you provide readers value-added background and multimedia regarding your topic.

Again, EACH story MUST have at least TWO hyperlinks EACH.

Your stories will be due via email links from your blog to my email by the start of our next class.

Vids/Blogs/Tweets #2: The Roundup

Let's look at some of the groupings!

Sam: beyond coal video / blog / tweets #jrn200msuenergy General comments: Video: Watch your spellings! One video caption has a misspelling. Blog: Give each post its own headline, not just one that's the old post name, plus "continued." Also, don't use the same hyperlink in consecutive posts. Use new hyperlinks.

Breanna: cosmetics video / blog / tweets #organicvsconventional General comments: Video: What is the attribution for the information in your text slides? Don't forget attribution there! Also, watch your editing. A latter caption had text saying "text here" or something like that; there was also a span with no video. Blog***: EXCELLENT use of embedded video and hyperlinks. Tweets***: EXCELLENT use of hyperlinks!

Trisha: housing video / blog / tweets #toliveonoroff General comments: Video***: Good range of interviews.

Jessy: roommate conflicts video / blog / tweets #roommateconflictsstory General comments: Video***: Notice the back-and-forth use of sound bytes, where you talk to one person, then another, then go back to the first person. It's more conversational and generally preferable to using everything someone has to say all at once.

Darcie: protest video / blog / tweets #MSUsafety General comments: Video***: note the use of narration to help keep the story moving between sound bytes. Blog/tweets***: EXCELLENT use of hyperlinks to give people more information. See how each medium tells a story using basically similar content, but parsing that content in different ways?

Mattie O.: college housing video / blog / tweets #collegehousing General comments: Video***; EXCELLENT use of captions to introduce each subsection and nice b-roll, but where are the minimum two interviews with a human being? Perhaps you could have introduced sound bytes to explain some of the subsections instead relying solely on what was otherwise strong narration. Blog***: Insert hyperlinks into existing text as opposed to saying, "Watch this!" Tweets*** Strong hyperlinks, including link to video. But make sure your hash tag is truly unique unless you WANT to let your readers see related topic tweets beyond your own.

Ashley: inclusion video / blog / tweets #MRULESouth General comments: Video: B-roll would have helped break up the long interview segments. Tweets: You have some tweets that are quotes. If they are from someone else, you still need attribution. If they are your observations, then you don't need quotation marks; tweets are assumed to be from you.

Nick: cigar tax video / blog / tweets #jrncigars General comments: Video***: When you're doing a news story as opposed to an opinion piece, please refrain from interjecting opinion, like you did at the end here.

Julianne: restaurant video / blog / tweets #recordbreakingnoodles General comments: Video*** Nice use of b-roll and neutral experts! The latter turns what could have been a one-sided puff piece into something more analytical. Tweets:*** Nice mix of quotes and facts.

Nicole: keg law video / blog / tweets #kegtags General comments: Video: more b-roll would help break up the interview shots a bit. Blog: Hyperlink on text and don't create a "click here" link. For example, instead of saying "To see what the tag looks like, click here," just create a hyperlink on your first reference to the tag. Tweets***: It flows well, like a story would.

Stefany: speaker video / blog / tweets #takethepledge General comments: Video***: This was a tough assignment, in that you were reporting on a speech that already took place. Smart back-tracking in getting an interview with the speaker, reactions from people who were in the audience. Blog***: Smartly updates and evolves original post on he speaker by delving into one of the subtopics of the speech. Tweets***: A basic play-by-play rundown of the speech.

Mike: dorm water podcast / blog / tweets #hubbardwater General comments: podcast***: something different, but the same. Note the structure: you still have a (narrated) lede, you still have quotes (via sound bytes), you still have attribution. Blog: Give each post its own headline, not just one that's the old post name, plus "continued."

Bethan: LGBT community video / blog / tweets #bethanstory General comments: Video: B-roll would be helpful, even with a topic where visuals aren't obvious. The story is about individuals becoming part of a community; show them interacting with others, on their daily rounds, ect. Blog: Insert hyperlinks into the text, not into a separate line. So, instead of having a line at the end saying, "All of these groups have pages" and then offering links, instead put hyperlinks over the first reference to each group.

Alissa: online dating video / blog / tweets #loveisintech General comments: Blog: Give each post its own headline, not just one that's the old post name, plus "continued."

Maddie F.: MSU entertainment video / blog / tweets #iloverha General comments: nice job all around.

BriAnn: dodgeball fundraiser video / blog / tweets #SKPhilanthropy General comments: Video***: Good use of janky-free b-roll and nice use of yourself as an on-camera narrator. But remember as journalists we need to present ourselves neutrally, which means don't wear a Greek shirt when doing a NEWS story about Greek life. Tweets***: a play-by-play of the event that complements -- but doesn't overlap -- the vid and blog.

Julia: holiday creep video / blog / tweets #christmascreep General comments: Blog***: nice use of an initial overview, then a post on reaction. Also, nice link to your own video. Tweets***: make sure your hash tag is truly unique unless you WANT to let your readers see related topic tweets beyond your own. Which, in this case, might be kinda useful.

Kevin: MSU entertainment video / blog / tweets #uabmsu General comments: Video***: your b-roll of the sales stuff would have been better used while the co-owner was talking, so you can show and tell at the same time.

Connor: Dorm security video / blog / tweets #msudormsecurity General comments: Video: a little more b-roll, pleez! Blog: Posts are a bit on the long side; you may have been better off in breaking up your two posts into four or five shorter posts.

Carly: Greek life video / blog/ tweets #missgreek2011 General comments: video: nice use of b-roll, but you only used one source when the assignment required at least two. Plus, unauthorized use of copyrighted music.

Maggie: Fan violence video / blog / tweets General comments: blog: Hyperlinking is best done when embedded in ordinary text passages, as opposed to at the end of all text. Tweets***: nice overview where the tweets collectively read like a story.

Blogs/Tweets: Let's Look At 'Em!

Here are some blog/tweet pairings for your first assignment. Let's see how things worked! As long as you showed technical proficiency in this assignment -- using the minimum number of tweets and blog hyperlinks, and not fataling (though for Twitter, given that it's a speed-based social medium, I will relent a bit for minor typos that do not change meanings of things) then you received a 4.0 that's worth two practice story grades. If you missed a major component -- like failing to include the minimum number of hyperlinks -- then you received a grade point reduction.

Let's take a look at how you guys did:

Mike/TV show: Blog/tweets #himym

Connor/game: blog/tweets #phivschi

Mattie O./class: blog/tweets #seewhatimeancas111

Kevin/play: blog/tweets #actitout

Maggie/football blog/tweets #footballfail

Trisha/talk show: blog/tweets

Darcie/TV show blog /tweets #othtime

Jessy/Sing-off blog/tweets #jrn200singofftweets

Nick/football blog/tweets #nfljrn200

Nicole/TV show blog/tweets #legendary

BriAnn/misc. blog/tweets #sigmakappaordie

Stefany/house blog/tweets #livinginasororityhouse

Breanna/TV show blog/tweets #mtvtruelife

Alissa/TV show blog/tweets #cosbyrerun

Sam/TV show blog/tweets #gleekout

Julia/misc. blog/tweets #8amproblems

Bethan/ blog/tweets #bethanwatchesglee

Carly/dancing blog/tweets #dwtsfanatic

Maddie F./Sportscenter blog/tweets #sportscenteraddict

Julianne/school days blog/tweets #badcaseoftheTuesdays

Ashleigh/TV show blog/tweets #theoffice