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:
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.
