Week 1 – Welcome; Media Trends/Uses of Social Media
Day 1: Media Trends
Readings: 10 tips to optimize your social resume; The State of Social Media
In-class:
What Facebook and Twitter mean for news
10 things every journalist should know in 2013
A history of online journalism
No more resumes, say some firms. Instead, they want to see this: 
How Americans are spending their online time
On the dangers of consuming news online only: "That’s because there’s pretty good evidence that we generally don’t truly want good information — but rather information that confirms our prejudices. We may believe intellectually in the clash of opinions, but in practice we like to embed ourselves in the reassuring womb of an echo chamber." Source
Example: Fox News and ABC News and ABC News2 and Washington Post |
Social Media Facts 2011
Do you have any advice for other social media editors out there who might want to make a similar transition some day?
I think not limiting yourself to just being the social media person. It sometimes might mean you have to work even longer hours, but it’s really good to still know all those old journalism skills — good copy editing, having good news judgment, being able to write a news update that’s longer than 140 characters. And also just being more involved with news than just pushing things out and doing engagement.
Source |
Advice from the Career Center and the social resume
Day 2: Uses of Social Media
Readings:
Twitter for Newsrooms
25 Ways to Use Facebook, Twitter, Storify, etc. to improve political coverage
In-class:
The CDC's social media page and How do the top U.S. brands stack up on social media
Getting creative
Uses of Social Media notes
20 Things You Should Share On Social Media
- YouTube Videos reviewing products or showing how to construct a product for DIY
- Photos of events, exhibitions and post them on Flickr
- If you are a creative business and create images and art also put them on Flickr or other social media sharing sites
- Audio recordings of your online videos put them on your website or blog
- PDF documents of offline archived information that is appropriate to put online
- Slideshare presentations
- Graphs
- Infographics
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Music if you are a musician
- Text format of your video blog posts
- Microsoft Office Documents
- Notes displaying keypoints from your power point presentations
- Newsletters
- Press releases about your brand
- News items about your company
- Your Bookmarking such as Delicious, Stumbleupon and Digg
- Competitions shouldn’t be just advertised on traditional Mass Media but shared via social media ..have a look at Ford’s Fiesta competition
- Share your humour.. mix up your serious content with some humourous photo’s, articles and even cartoons
|
| Spotlight
on Research |
In addition to making it easy to find, consume and interact with news content once someone is on their site, it is also important for news organizations to understand where users go after they leave. Are they heading to another company-owned property promoted on that site? Are they sharing content by heading to a social network that the site pointed them to? Are they clicking on an advertisement and moving to a retailer promoted on the page? Or have they left for other reasons?
If a large portion of users are going to Facebook after leaving a site, that may indicate the site’s content is easy to share and viewed as worth distributing to friends. On the other hand, if most users are leaving for Google or some other search engine, that could indicate that users either did not find what they were looking for on the site or got what they needed but were not drawn to any other content. |
Social media can take the power away from companies, and you can't ignore that
Four Ways Social Media is Changing Business
What are these examples of: FastLane
But we should also look at what not to do
Read how Purdue's updates at LifeAtPurdue Twitter page and Purdue University Facebook page are a click away.
Daily Assignment 1 (outside of class): Go to ITAP (in the HSSE library in Stewart) and get your career account space increased from 500 MB to 1,000 MB. Take the note I am passing out. If you have an issue, email me immediately.
Week 2-3 – Blogs
Readings: State of the Blogosphere
Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency, Section 2, Start a Blog, pgs. 3-4
What is a blog post vs. an article?
Tumblr for journalists
In class:
| Is the Blog Dead? |
| "We will still have blogs, of course, if only because the word is flexible enough to encompass a very wide range of publishing platforms: Basically, anything that contains a scrollable stream of posts is a "blog." What we are losing is the personal blog and the themed blog. Less and less do readers have the patience for a certain writer or even certain subject matter. Instead, they use social media to efficiently pick exactly what they do and do not click on, rather than reading what a blogger or blog offers them." |
A blog gets Chick-fil-A in hot water
| When a blog breaks a big story |
| When asked about his reaction to The Boston Globe calling Deadspin “a website that has broken some high-profile stories but not an outlet regarded for journalistic standards,” Craggs says: “Whatever. Why should I care what a craven, slipshod outfit like the Boston Globe thinks of my ‘journalistic standards’?” Source |
Let's go over our blog criteria and our blog schedule
Blogs are legitimate sources of information but make sure you remember to verify before you pass information along
Blog uses
Live blog example and another and live blogging Hurricane Sandy and don't forget sports
Why blogs are important for PR and journalists. Now, Live Blogs are becoming popular with programs such as CoveritLive. See an example of a Live Blog from the Purdue Exponent
Lifting the fog of the blog: Before you write a word. Top 5 Blogging Business mistakes and using blogs to interact with readers: CNN Connect (a video blog).
The blogs you need to be reading: Mashable and ReadWriteWeb and Social Media Today and Jim Romenesko
Fun with Tumblr
Pretty much ever publication/organization/company has a blog now. Tumblr is getting more attention: check out Newsweek's and NPR's and LATimes and The Guardian. Notice the focus here on images, as opposed to "regular" blogging sites, like those at the NYTimes, the J&C blogs and blogs at Indiana Prairie Farmer (can you find one that's similar to yours?). 50 blogs by journalists for journalists
How the Kansas City Star's crime reporters does it a little differently with his blog (like this post). How my students in China working for the Olympic Committee kept people up-to-date back home via blogs featured on the J&C.
A blog provide instant insight
Ten Tips for Writing a blog post says
- Make your opinion known
- Link like crazy
- Write less
- 250 words is enough
- No block of text more than 5 lines
- Make headlines snappy
- Write with passion
- Include bullet point lists
- Edit your post
- Make your posts easy to scan
- Be consistent with your style
- Litter the post with keywords
Top Tips for Writing a Great Blog (courtesy Mindy McAdams)
- Short posts, short sentences, make it easy to read.
- Include at least one link to another blog or Web site in every post.
- Write good link text. Click here is bad link text (where will you go? You don't know!). This is good link text: Lyndon gave us 10 tips that help him write his blog. Why is it good? Because the text of the link gives you a reasonable expectation of what you will see if you click!
- Make a new post at least three days each week. This keeps your blog fresh and interesting.
- Use good keywords in the headline for every blog post.
- Read other blogs -- and leave thoughtful comments on them. The more you look at other blogs, the better your own blog will be.
- Use an RSS reader, such as Google Reader, to subscribe to other blogs. This is much more efficient than bookmarking them!
- The blogosphere is all about connecting. Your links to other blogs (and your comments on other blogs) will come back around to your blog as others link to your posts.
- Do not steal other people's text. Quote a brief excerpt and LINK, if you like someone's post.
- Do not steal other people's images.
- Your choice of keywords in the post title is of paramount importance to the findability of the post itself. Every word counts. The title also needs to be short — five or six words is an ideal length.
And 10 Journalism Rules You can break on a blog
Let's look at a couple of sample, professional posts. This is from a blog geared to college students. Compare to this one.
Where to get a blog:
Here is a list of a few places to obtain a blog.
You can also use most, including WordPress, to create a Web site
How to search for blogs:
Technorati or Google blogs
Check out options like shortcodes, etc. on your own. Chances are Wordpress' support page can answer all your questions.
Daily Assignment 1:
- Choose 2 to 3 options for your "beat" blog.
- E-mail me your ideas and support
- I will then assign the blog beats
Daily Assignment 2:
- Sign up for your beat blog (Wordpress) and your in-class blog (Tumblr)
- Customize it (here's some help for you)
- E-mail me the URLs
- For fun, let's also test email a post and test email a YouTube URL and photo (of yours) to your Wordpress blog.
Daily Assignment 3:
- Come up with a list of 10 web sites you will be regularly checking to help you keep up-to-date on your blog topic. At least two of these should be blogs. Post this list on your in-class account. Then, reblog a post from one of those blogs. We will do this IN CLASS.
Daily Assignment 4:
- Make your first post to your beat blog, a kind of introductory post. Let them know what you hope the blog will be. We will do this IN CLASS. In addition, if you have not done your "About" page on Wordpress, do it as well (if your theme has one).
Daily Assignment 5 (outside of class):
- View a week's worth of posts on a newspaper/reporter's blog similar to yours or a company/nonprofit's (that is related to your beat) blog.
- Write a post about it on your in-class blog. How was it used? Cite specific examples from your readings (Top 5 Blogging Business mistakes or blog uses, or Four Ways Social Media is Changing Business , etc.) as to its purpose and then specific examples from your blog to back this up. What was the writing like? How did it differ from a traditional print news article/news release? Which would you enjoy reading more? POST IS DUE MIDNIGHT FEB. 1. Minimum 400 word post. (Sample post from last year)
- Be prepared to present what you found in class.
Week 4 – Twitter
Readings:
A Journalist's guide to Twitter and Twitter Guidebook from Mashable and Steve Buttry's Expanded Twitter Tips and 9 Twitter accounts every journalism student should follow and How to guide on Twitter Lists
Tweet your Beat: for Sports and News
In class:
Twitter facts
Wanna work at Twitter?
John Stewart takes on Twitter and Twitter gets Patricia Heaton in trouble
What you talked about in 2012 on Twitter and Time Magazine's 140 best Twitter feeds of 2012 and Top Tweeters
Here locally, a high school principal is learning a Twitter lesson
| Spotlight on Research |
What does the most annoying tweet look like? Watch overusing the hashtags and sharing personal, stale info. The best tweets: informative and funny.
Source |
Twitter Day 1:
So what does that hashtag say?
Let's get you a Twitter account and show you Twitter tips you may not know. What are hashtags and how do you know what they mean? Avoid hashtag fail and challenging the overuse notion!
Twitter says get to the point quicker
You're on Twitter, what now? and Jay Rosen's types of tweets
Twitter's new search function focuses on breaking news. And introducing Vine video and tips of effective Vine videos and how to share them on Tumblr and embed on a webpage but remember, don't do this
Or you can have a Tweetchat
Using Twitter in news coverage
Twitter will be useful to reporters and other journalists in a variety of ways:
- Reporters should follow the feeds of any officials on their beats using Twitter. They may break news on Twitter, using it as a format for press releases or quotes. They may tweet from closed meetings (probably not a lot, but if they do, you won’t know unless you follow).
- As you build a following of people in your community, they are a quick resource when you’re seeking sources, examples for a story, questions to ask in your reporting or even story ideas. A quick question to your tweeps will frequently bring a response that helps for a story. Keep in mind that you are crowdsourcing to a small segment of the population, so don’t use this as your only crowdsourcing tool. Take the steps to seek diversity in your sources. But Twitter is a good place to start (and Twitter may help diversify your sources, because the tweeps may be younger than your average news-story source and less likely to interact with the print edition).
- Twitter is valuable for story ideas, either to ask people about a good angle to take on one of those routine or annual stories or simply to follow the community chatter on Twitter and be alert for tips and ideas as they pop up.
- Tweet live coverage of an event, either on Twitter alone or as a feed into CoverItLive.
- Curate tweets (yours and/or the community’s) on a topic you’re covering, using Storify.
- When you post to a blog or post a video, story, photo, slideshow, multimedia project or database online, tweet a link and, if you’ve been active enough to develop a lot of followers, you’ll see a bump in traffic coming directly from Twitter.
- Reaction is the name of the Twitter game
Source: Steve Buttry |
| Spotlight on Research |
Study: Here are the factors that impart the least credibility to a tweet:
- Non-standard grammar or punctuation (2.71)
- Author has the default Twitter user image (2.87)
- Author has a cartoon or avatar as user image (3.22)
- Author is following too many users (3.30)
Another study found an author’s influence, topical expertise, and reputation all enhance a tweet’s credibility; other perceived markers of credibility include the public profiles of tweeters and how often their posts are retweeted. |
| Spotlight on Research |
Study: When should you tweet?
On Twitter, the best window is 1 to 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. Facebook was hot at 1 to 4 p.m. And Tumblr is a night owl, with posts doing best after 7 p.m. |
Twitter in the news on with censorship issue
Time magazine's list of top Twitter feeds
Twitter faux pas and advice to college athletes (lots of recent athlete miscues on social media)
The J&C breaks D.J. Byrd's arrest and Twitter's own Breaking News
Twitter resources from Journalist's Toolbox
| Spotlight on Research |
Study: What should you tweet?
From the first longitudinal Twitter study findings: Stop tweeting so much about yourself.
“Informational content attracts followers with an effect that is roughly thirty times higher than the effect of [personal] ‘meformer’ content, which deters growth,” the researchers wrote. “We think this is due to the prevalence of weak ties on Twitter.”
In other words, your Twitter followers don’t know you that well and thus don’t care about what you’re eating. Feed them information instead. Among the accounts studied, users talked about themselves in 41 percent of their tweets while informational content accounted for only 24 percent. |
"Ten Ways Journalists Can use Twitter before, during and after a story"
Careful what you retweet. Should journalists verify before they retweet? See's AP's rules
| Spotlight on Research |
A new study found that followers rated only 36 percent of 43,000 tweets worth reading. The most-liked (of six categories researchers created) of tweets were Questions to Followers, Information Sharing, and Self-Promotion. The least popular: Presence Maintenance (“Hello Twitter!”), Conversation, and Me Now (the tweeter’s current mood or status). “Given that users actively choose to follow these accounts, it is striking that so few of the tweets are actively liked,” the researchers note.
The authors conclude with a list of “best practices” for Twitter content: “[Posters should] embed more context in tweets (and be less cryptic); add extra commentary, especially if retweeting a common news source; don’t overuse hashtags and use direct messages (DMs) rather than @mentions if more appropriate; happy sentiments are valued and ‘whining’ is disliked, and questions should use a unique hashtag so followers can keep track of the conversation.”
Source: Who Gives a Tweet? |
Who's using Twitter?
Some local twitter sites:
Day 2: Tweeting live
Online reading: A case study in using Twitter on breaking news and Andy Carvin test pilots Twitter journalism
Be quick but try to avoid a grammatical error that has people giggling:
The J&C live tweeted last week's editorial board meeting with Mitch Daniels
The Joplin, MO, tornado coverage by New York Times’ Brian Stelter: "It was, after all, the place where my latest reporting was being posted. … Looking back, I think my best reporting was on Twitter. … People later told me that they thought I was processing what I was seeing in real-time on Twitter. I was." He archived his tweets on his Tumblr.
Source
|
Tweeting Live notes
| Don't hog the Twitterstream |
Live tweeting poses particular problems for students (and anyone, really); their regular followers can feel spammed when they’re suddenly exposed to a stream of live tweets.
Leslie Thornton (@ljthornton) suggests that students let their followers know that they’ll be live tweeting. “It should be clear why you’re flooding Twitter with tweets,” she said. “If you can, give people who want to follow all those tweets a hashtag to follow.”
Andy Bechtel (@andybechtel) agrees: “If you are going to tweet frequently from a live event, give your followers a heads-up with an introductory tweet. That way, they’ll be ready for a lot of tweets from you in a short period. (Example: “I’m at a social media workshop. I’ll pass along the best tips as I hear them.”)
Source |
Using Twitter to mass communicate: Angie tweets her abortion
The J&C livetweets a press conference
How did a former student do at a School Board meeting? Or the polar plunge?
Programs like TweetChat can help.
QuoteURL and how it operates (not always reliable though)
Daily Assignment 1: Sign up a twitter account and customize it. Include a photo. Post the URL of your Twitter account to your in-class blog and e-mail it to me. Here's Twitter's how-to page.
Daily Assignment 2: If you have a smartphone, you can upload photos directly to Twitter. If not, there is still Twitpic.
Daily Assignment 3: Set up Twitter lists: How to Use Twitter Lists. Find at least three people you want to follow on Twitter related to your beat and create a Twitter list. In addition, add Twitter feed to your beat blog and a Twitter share button
Daily Assignment 4: Come up with a couple of Tweets from your "beat." You can promote an event, comment on a situation, promote a blog post you just made, etc. Make sure you use a hashtag. Send them flying from your new account. Practice using a URL shorteners and URL Shortening Wars and bit ly and tinyurl.com and Google's shortener and WordPress.com has its own
Daily Assignment 5 (outside of class):
- Follow a journalist or company/organization (again, related to your beat) on Twitter for a week.
- Write a blog posting about the experience. Were the tweets personal or professional? Were they interesting? What was the benefit (or was there one) of following this person? Was there back and forth with readers/customers? Remember our Four Ways Social Media is Changing Business? How did they do? See sample from previous semester
- Be prepared to present to class on what you found. Post is due midnight Feb. 12. Minimum 400 word post.
Major assignment, due Feb. 11:
- You must cover a meeting, forum, speech, etc. relating to your beat. (Default assignment is Miss Purdue pageant Feb. 10). Remember your Tips for Live Tweeting
- Minimum of 10 tweets from the event.
- You must notify me in advance what event you plan to cover, when it is.
- You must promote on your beat blog that you will be tweeting the event and encourage readers to follow you. You must also promote the live tweet on your Twitter account.
- Post a blog about your experience on your class Web log. What were the difficulties covering the story this way? What were the benefits? Would you personally rather read a news story in the newspaper or online, or via Twitter? Why? Blog posts due midnight Feb. 11.
- Remember to review the assignment grading checklist
Week 5 –Twitter, ctd./Basic Photoshop
Readings: Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency, Sections 7, 8 and 9, pgs. 13-20
Photoshop tutorial and 35 Basic Tutorials
In-class:
Day 1: Tweeting live, ctd.
Funny Twitter reax to Superbowl blackout and #lightswentout
Assign video cameras.
Daily Assignment 2: Do backgrounding for your event you will cover via Twitter (agendas, bios, previous newspaper articles, articles from other towns, etc.) Make sure you ask for any information they may have available, i.e. Web pages, brochures, fliers, news releases. You need to be able to effectively convey who is sponsoring the event, what is planned, why it is being held, the impact of the event, etc. Post links to your class blog. Due: prior to event covered
Day 2:
Photoshop Workshop, be ON TIME!!!!
Week 6 – Images/Ethics of Social Media
Day 1: Images
Reporters are being asked to do more
A good photo tells a story
See this example of Washington Post reporters using Instagram to upload photos from the campaign 2012 trail. In addition, citizen journalists use Twitter to upload photos from ice storms in Seattle area and Oregon flooding. For a little fun, the 12 most cliche photos on Instagram
Be careful of the liberties you take and the choices you make
And you still need to edit photos
Twitter photo ruling
Even the U.S. Department of State uses Flickr. Yahoos Election Flickr page.
Photo tips
Using photos to accompany a word story. Photos are a key role in Flash and Soundslides productions
Recent photo slideshow from Venice floods does what words cannot
Options other than Photoshop program include Webresizer.com and Picasa.
Daily Assignment 1 (outside of class): Bring in four photos from your beat to accompany a post to your beat blog (or to just serve as a post). Edit them using Photoshop. Then we are going to 1)Upload one to the blog, and 2) Create a Flickr or a Wordpress slideshow. Sample 1 and Sample 2 from students.
Daily Assignment 2: A common usage: Let's find a tweet that is applicable to your beat, save it as a photo and upload that image to your beat blog.
Daily Assignment 3: Let's find a photo on Flickr and share it (embed it) on your blog. But read this warning about overuse of stock photos
Day 2: Ethics of Social Media
AP's Social Media Guidelines (with a recent update) updated as a result of this
For journalists, the definition of ethics gets a lot longer. The Society of Professional Journalists offers a long list of what constitutes journalistic ethics, including: making every effort to be accurate, avoid stereotyping and offering a diversity of viewpoints. It also calls for journalists not to plagiarize and to distinguish between advocacy and news reporting.
So are things any different online?
Online Journalism Review argues no. Journalistic ethics are pretty much the same online as in print or broadcast: Don’t plagiarize; tell readers how you got your information; don’t accept gifts or money for coverage; tell the truth; be honest.
E.W. Scripps introduces social media policy for employees
Source: SavetheMedia |
What is "metasourcing"?
Ethics of Social Media notes
And the legalities are being worked out as well
So what do you think?
First, you still need to rely on some "old media" standards, like verification to get it right in the Matt Painter fiasco
The Exponent incident and continuing debate and a sampling of the letters to the editor. View the video of the incident.
Let's look at some recent ethical issues: Obama vs. Kanye ; Steve Jobs heart attack; Criticizing your employer; Nestle, and too many cooks ...; Hurricane Sandy faux tweets
Daily Assignment 1 (homework):
Evaluate the Exponent incident. Read all accounts and the letters to the editor provided. On your class blog, post your reaction. Did the Exponent videographer act properly? Why or why not? Was the Exponent's coverage of the event impartial? Why or why not? Be prepared to discuss your post in class. In addition, pick on of the above stories and offer your opinion on it in the same post.
Week 7 – Facebook and other issues; Pinterest
Readings:Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency, Section 1, Reads Blogs and Use RSS, pgs. 2-3; Mashable's Facebook guide; Facebook and social media presentation
Day 1: Facebook, etc.
The world is obsessed with Facebook
What does an average day on Facebook look like? The best and worst days to post on Facebook
Applebee's recent nightmare on Facebook because of this:
| Spotlight on Research |
Can Facebook determine your future?
A study soon to be published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that a 10-minute review of a Facebook page can yield not just red flags but also provide an unvarnished look at a job candidate and some strong clues to that person's character and personality. Across the board, the study found that these relatively quick Facebook evaluations more accurately predicted success than standard tests. |
The Journalists Guide to Facebook: "If you’re using Facebook just to publicize stories you’ve written, you’re using it wrong."
Facebook pages you need to be following: Social Media Today and Mashable
Facebook chats
New Facebook stuff: How business can use the new Facebook graph and Facebook groups and Facebook app adds video
A Facebook only newspaper? (It didn't work)
Facebook influence
What is Southwest Airlines doing wrong here
Jason Aldean uses Facebook to "reach out" to fans in a time of "crisis"
A Facebook "what not to do"
Some local Facebook page examples:
Other issues:
- Foursquare and 7 Ways Journalists can use FourSquare
- Aggregation: Mediagazer and Huffington Post
- An introduction to RSS and
How Reporter's Use RSS and an RSS lab and Purdue's options
- Mapping: Such as Mapbuilder or Google maps (put a link to a map in your blog post). Check out Google Maps Mania blog. See the Exponent's use of Google maps this week
- Reddit, Digg , Delicious, etc. to share news and save lengths.
- Friendfeed, and and example Friendfeed
- The newMySpace (co-owned by Justin Timberlake)
- Personal Web sites: Tiger Woods example
- MeReporter for citizen journalists; Reuters' Global Voices
- Still message boards
- Skype for interviews
- Linkedin and NY Times article and how to keep your LinkedIn profile from hurting you and its new "follow me" button. It's also more than just resumes. See how the Newark mayor is using the blog function. Did you know you can sync your blog and your Linkedin profile? Do you like the new design? How journalists use LinkedIn and 10 Ways they can Use It. CCO tips for Linkedin. Now on LinkedIn, video and photos to illustrate your work.
- Instagram
- About.me and cuttings.me and pressfolios.com and example
- How mobile news is affecting the industry and Journalist's Toolbox Mobile Journalism page
- Scribd publishing site
- Path or Google+
- Nonprofit news sites like ProPublica
- Hyperlocal news sites
- Broadcastr is a location based app that delivers info based on where you are
- RSSGraffiti and see it in action on the COM435 Facebook page
- Dipity creates timelines
Daily Assignment 1: Find an upcoming event related to your beat. Come up with two different Facebook "posts" you might make about the event if you had a professional Facebook page (i.e., you were a beat reporter for the J&C and had a Facebook page in that capacity). One post must include a URL that you used a shortener to obtain. The other must include a Google map link. Post these on your in-class blog.
Daily Assignment 2: Make a "post" this week touting one of your beat blog posts and link to the blog post.
Daily Assignment 3:
- Monitor a newspaper's/organization's/company's Facebook page for one week.
- Post your thoughts about its content to your blog. Was it real content? Would you check back often for it? Who was the intended audience? What kind of comments did the site get from readers/customers? How is this more/less effective than other ways to communicate this information? Remember our Four Ways Social Media is Changing Business? or Four ways journalists can use Facebook
or The Journalist’s Guide to Facebook?How did they do? Post due by midnight March 4. Minimum 400 words.
- Be prepared to present what you found in class.
Daily Assignment 4: Are you Linkedin? If not, let's set up an account for you.
Day 2: Pinterest
Readings: Mashable's guide to Pinterest; 10 Ways Newspapers are Using Pinterest; and even more ideas; and even more; and Learn Pinterest (from a Pinterest page!!) and 10 Pinterest tips from a user with 1.2 million followers
Pinterest is hot right now; list of newspapers on Pinterest; analysis of their Pinterest. And the less popular Maninterest. And, there is even a beta "Cat Pinterest" called Catmoji. How is your Pinterest page performing?
A beginner's guide and new design and ways journalists can use it and even hack it and do's and don'ts for businesses.
Example pages: Humane Society of New York; Southwest Air
Also media pages: Our own J&C and the Louisville Courier-Journal
How to install the "Pin it" button
Use the bookmarklet to pin as you browse the web. When you see an image you want to pin, click Pin It on your browser. This will pull up all the images you can pin.
Select the image you want to pin, choose which board the image belongs on, type a description, and add some tags to help users search for it.
You can choose to share the pin to Facebook and/or Twitter.
When you're done, click Pin It.
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Daily Assignment 1:Let's create your Pinterest account. If you need help as you get going, the Pinterest help page is just that, helpful.
Daily Assignment 2: Create at least one board. Pin at least 2 photos using the bookmarklet. Then, repin at least 1 photo.
Daily Assignment 3:Find someone related to your beat to follow on Pinterest. Follow that person.
Daily Assignment 4:Let's try to add a Follow me on Pinterest button to your Wordpress blog. And embed a pin to your blog.
Daily Assignment 5:
- Monitor a newspaper's/organization's/company's Pinterest page for one week.
- Post your thoughts about its content to your blog. Would you check back often for it? Who was the intended audience? How is this more/less effective than other ways to communicate this information? Post due by midnight March 20. Minimum 300 words.
- Be prepared to present what you found in class.
Major assignment, through April 17 :
- You must create a Pinterest account associated with your beat (you can put it under the name of your beat blog if you have a personal Pinterest account already).
- Create a minimum of two boards
- Pin to the boards on a regular basis throughout the semester
- There will be weekly checkpoints after the assign dates
- Don't forget to check your grading checklist
Week 8 – Storify; Audio
Day 1: Storify
Readings: Storify redesign. For review, the Storify tutorial
What is Storify? It's the compiling of social media (Twitter, YouTube, etc.) to tell a story (without or without comments). (Think Buzzfeed) Storify sifts through all that's out there. There's even a bookmarklet under tools (bottom of page, just like the Pin It button).
Sample: Breaking news: Newtown Shooting (he only used Twitter)
You want to be focused, interesting, long enough: Clackamas town shooting. How Houston Chronicle used it during the November election (note the hashtag they provided). Storifying a live tweet.
You don't have to lose your voice. You can include your words: Gay Girl in Damascus. Or at least transitions for readers: Colorado theater shootings.
And it can be humorous: Alec Baldwin.
The 5 types of stories to use storify on.
2012 Storify on the Year
Other entries: Rebelmouse is gaining followers
Daily Assignment 1: Your storify assignment. Some nice efforts from students with interesting ideas: Rain Delay and Oscar Wedding Influence
Day 2: Audio
Readings: Learn to use an audio recorder and Editing audio and Listen to Podcasts from Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency
Super-fast guide to Audio Editing YOU NEED TO BRING THIS TO CLASS
If you like video instruction better, watch this
Journalist's Toolkit Audio site
Creating Audio blogs and the Complete Guide to Podcasting
Wordpress.com audio support
Great Audacity online reference guide and #1Audacity tutorial and #2 Audacity tutorial and #3another
In-class:
Uses for audio:
Using audio (language) to accompany photos/print
Audio Public Service Announcements
Radio features
Pass along information, like health information
Zamzar.com for free conversions
How to interview:
The art of the interview from Poynter
What makes a good soundbite?
Listen to these answers
13 Simple Journalist techniques for the interview
Soundcloud
What is a Podcast?
Podcasts are audio programs that are broadcast over the Internet. They are MP3 files which can be downloaded onto a compatible digital player or played on your computer. You can download one or many, for free (generally), or you can subscribe to an RSS service for downloads so you can be alerted when new postings are made available. The name podcast comes from compounding the words iPod and broadcast.
They can be longer, like Slate.com's podcasts or NPR's. or informational like the U.S. government's or CDC's, or entertaining like BBC's.
Why podcast?
- Marketing
- Web presence
- As part of your overall communications strategy
- Because your patrons are looking for varied content
Cool apps like Audioboo to collect audio on your smartphones and share
Week 9 – Audio
Audio, ctd.
Daily Assignment 1: Upload a file from the voice recorder, convert it to an MP3, edit it in Audacity and post it on your blog.
Daily Assignment 2 (you will need to bring the audio to class with you):
- Write a blog post about an upcoming event, etc., occuring on your beat over spring break.
- Upload audio from an organizer/participant of an event whom you interviewed into your blog post.
- You must include at least two soundbites from the interviewee.
- That soundbite should not be longer than 30 seconds.
Week 10 – Spring break
Week 11 - 14 – Video
Readings:Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency, Sections 12-15, pgs. 28-38
Five shots, 10 seconds
Premiere Elements instructional video
Inserting YouTube video into Wordpress.com blog
IMPORTANT: ADOBE PREMIERE INSTRUCTION ON MARCH 20, DON'T MISS
In class:
Laying off photographers in favor of video
Just for fun and YouTubing your resignation
| The state of newspaper video |
The explosion in online video prompted many print publishers, especially newspapers, to hire videographers and push their news staffs to start producing lots of videos in the mid to late 2000s. Newspapers actually surpassed broadcasters in total minutes of video streamed, although they tended to produce shorter pieces.
But some of the fervor about video has waned recently, and a lot of newspapers are cutting back on video production and laying off video journalists, according to an Associated Press study. This was in part due to the continuing economic slump that caused major reductions in newsroom staffs.
Another problem is that video production hasn't necessarily translated into big viewership numbers.
In response some papers, like the WSJ, created an app that allows reporters to use cellphone video to report. |
YouTube offers live streaming to nonprofits
Video notes
Let's look at some examples. Reporters are being asked to do video only stories now, like Ernie's sandwich:
The Exponent online version highlights the brief videos. Here's a good example from a CC meeting.
Uses:
Programs like Voxant allows embedding of news video on Web sites
Check out the reporter's center on YouTube
Some recent video flap: a) Obama Thanksgiving speech and b) Sherrod clip and c)YouTube can bring a company to its knees
A word about video
Do not zoom or pan unless you're dealing with a motivated movement. If you are following action, then a pan makes sense, but otherwise don't do it. Zooming is something amateurs do; give kids a camera and they will zoom. Zoom with your feet, not with your lens. Great video with crappy sound is not fun to watch. Move closer, and pay attention to ambient sound that will wipe out the audio you are really trying to capture.
It is usually best to use video cameras that allow for external microphones instead of using built-in condenser mics. Shoot sequences that you can edit together (wide, medium, close-up, super close-up.) Again, shoot actions and reactions. The photographer/videographer should not talk much. Viewers want to hear the subject of the video, not you.
Source: Poynter Institute
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| Continguity |
Contiguity is the process of adding multimedia elements and combining them with text at just the right place in a story. The most effective multimedia story quickly provides key connections between text, video, polls, etc. Reserach shows that readers will spend more time on a site when it includes text explaining how all the story's elements relate to one another. And users learned significantly more from the contiguous stories.
Source: Mastering Multimedia, AJR |
What is a video illustration? It's the simplest type of just one or two shots totaling 30 seconds or less to a minute or two that complements or illustrates a text story. It enhances the print story by showing something that is not as effectively described in print as by video.
Let's look at these example and another together. Here is another example of natural sound and interview combined accompanying a written article.
Daily assignment 1: Sign up for a YouTube.com account
Daily assignment 2: Upload a video to YouTube. Embed a link to the YouTube video on your class blog.
Daily assignment 3 (outside of class): Pick a company or newspaper or organization that is using video. Examine the use of it for several weeks. How do they use it ? How often do they use it? How effective is it? Post your findings to your class blog. (See sample post ) Due by midnight April 3.
Major assignment, due midnight April 7:
- Record videos (video illustrations) at an event (interview/testimony and natural sound)
- Edit the videos (less than 2 minutes each)
- Post the videos to YouTube
- Post a link to the videos on your blog post. A reminder, the video adds to the blog post. It is not simply the post.
- Sample videos from previous semester: Needs improvement: Pie fundraiser and swim practice and interview. Good efforts: Theater interview or Thursday dinner for interview and Matt Maher or Milk Monday or Thursday dinner or barrel racing for natural sound
- Remember to review your video assignment grading checklist
Week 14-16 – Slideshows/Soundslides
Readings: Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency, Sections 10 and 11, pgs. 20-28 and section 15, pgs. 39-42 (BRING THIS TO CLASS WITH YOU)
Embedding Soundslides into blogs
Slideshows the scourge and savior of online journalism
Do's and don'ts of slideshows.
More slideshow notes
Some slideshow examples: Dying business is an example narrated by the reporter, as is the Post's "The Journey" . A Decade in Space is narrated by the subject. Biking is just slides and text (no natural sound, interviews or narration), as is this recent effort by J&C on Pearl Harbor. This Vegas slideshow with no sound doesn't even use captions. is natural sound and text (no narration) THIS IS WHAT YOU WILL DO.
Should we add music?
Example Soundslides projects: Baptism and Beekeeper and amateur Niki's Ability (interview only). Notice here in the Nutcracker and Guitar Lady how captions are used.
Combining Soundslides with other elements (video and words)
From previous semester: Let's critique this effort
Even "magazine-length" slideshows
Go back and review your tips for good photos
Major assignment, due end of class period April 24 :
- Cover an event on your beat (default assignment is Springfest April 13/14). From this event you must construct a 2-3 minute Soundslides show. See details on assignments page.
- Upload project to your career account
- Post URL on in-class blog and beat blog (if beat related). Due end of class period on April 24.
- Don't forget to review the assignment grading checklist
- Turn in camera and tape recorder at end of class April 24.
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