Week 8: Journalism 2001

1. Week 8: Journalism 2001 October 29, 2007

2. What’s misspelled? • snowmobilers • designated • snowmobling

3. Review of last week’s news • Hard News: (murders, city council, government, etc.) • Major local stories • Major national/international stories • Major sports stories • Soft News: (retirements, school programs, human interest) • Local stories • National/international stories • Sports stories

4. Indian leaders win several concessions from KQRS after Barnard show comments • http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1515148.html

5. Police Department News Release • Good job! • Need attribution, or reads as opinion • One sentence summary lead still strongest • Style errors: • Numerals • Dates • Dateline

6. Police arrested a thirty-year-old man Tuesday for possession and the intent to distribute narcotics during a residential raid on North 58th Avenue west. Police arrested a 30-year-old man on Feb. 20 after a search of his residence located in the Cody neighborhood uncovered narcotics and several firearms. A 30-year-old man was charged with drug and weapon possession after police officers found several firearms, crystal methamphetamine, and prescription pain medications in his West Duluth home. Police arrested a 31-year-old man Tuesday, Feb. 20 for narcotics possession, and found a small stockpile of firearms and home surveillance cameras. Investigators of the Lake Superior Drug & Gang Task Force and Duluth police arrested a man after finding crystal methamphetamine and prescription pain medication in his residence Feb. 20.

7. Upcoming stories • Hard News 2 Reporting Assignment • Final article due: October 26 • Tonight will edit classmates’s story, return feedback • Rewrite/edit stories in class, will be put up on class website • Sports Reporting Assignment • Final article due: November 5 • Any problems? • Community Journalism reporting assignment • Story pitch due: October 31 • Final article due: November 19 • Feature Story Assignment: Will discuss next week • Story pitch due: November 14 • First draft due: November 26 • Final article due: December 10

8. Community Journalism Assignment • Story Pitch Due: Wednesday, 10/31 • No more than three paragraphs, 200 words • Include 5Ws and H • Email to: lkragnes@d.umn.edu • Work in teams or solo • Go out into an area of Duluth, report on a topic of interest in that area • Divide the city into zones – let’s assign teams to locations: • Central Hillside: Ashley I./Kendra/Vann • Chester Park/UMD: Ean/Allie • Congdon Park • Downtown/Central Business District: Brooke/Matt • Duluth Heights: Travis/Nicole/Ryan • East Hillside/Endion: DAyna/Martha/Ashley H. • Kenwood: Cory/Peter • Lakeside/Lester Park • Lincoln Park/West End • Park Point • Piedmont Heights • West Duluth: Claudia • Woodland: Nikki/Fallon/Thomas: Traffic accidents at 21st and Woodland • Final story due: 11/19

10. Chapter 17: Multimedia Journalism • Storytelling on the Web • Print, broadcast journalists inevitably online journalists • Internet explosion: 7 out of 10 surf in 2005 • Established in 1969 by Department of Defense (not Al Gore) • Shovelware: text, photos, audio, video from other sources

11. What’s the difference from print? • Multimedia stories: • Linear or nonlinear • Unlimited background, space • Less formal – snappy, conversational, edgy • More active with searchable databases, blogs, games, polls, surveys, quizzes, etc. • Needs to be constantly updated

12. Multimedia story structure • Inverted pyramid • Linear stories best on scrolling pages • Screen-size chunks for nonlinear stories • Readers rule: Each chunk independent National Geographic: http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/

13. To link or not to link • What do you think? • Story summaries: a type of link • Sidebars, information boxes

14. Slide Shows (Photo Galleries) • Take readers behind scenes • Washington Post’s Camera Works • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo • Duluth News-Tribune • Editors told to put stories on web first • http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/ • Tips for cutlines: • Good ol’ 5Ws and maybe H

15. Multimedia Storytelling on the Web • Seven steps to success • Find a fresh idea • Focus your topic • Plan and research • Sketch a storyboard • Report, interview, observe • Edit and revise • Test and troubleshoot

16. Your future as a Multimedia Journalist • The Backpack Journalist • Write, shoot and record • What skills do you need? • Strong writing • Use digital still camera, video camera, audio recorder • Edit photos, videos, html • Global, yet personal • How does it affect your readers? • The Bottom Line: Sky’s the limit • May the force be with you……

17. Chapter 11: Computer-Assisted Reporting and Research • Traditional journalism skills: • Good interviewing • Accurate note-taking • Organization and fast writing • New journalism skills: • Searching the Internet • Using email, chat programs for collaboration, interviews • Building computer spreadsheets • Using online databases • Laptop computers • Cell phones • Wireless internet • Digital cameras

18. Precision Journalism • Precision Journalism, book by Philip Meyer • Among the first journalists to experiment with social science tools of public opinion surveys, statistical analysis to examine social problems of the 1960s • Desktop computer revolution of 1980s led to journalism specialty • Today, evolved into computer-assisted reporting, or CAR

19. Stories by CAR specialists • Criminal justice sentencing patterns • Election campaign contributions • Election results • Tax roll studies • School test scores • Residential segregation

20. Local examples of CAR stories • Hospital deaths in state • Housing values drop • Nursing home abuses • Rip tide currents • State budget analysis

21. Online research • Newspaper archives, commercial databases • Duluth News-Tribune • Using the Internet • Email • Listservs • Newsgroups • Chat • World Wide Web

22. E-mail • What an email account means • lkragnes@d.umn.edu • Name: lucy kragness • @: at • Host computer: Duluth University of Minnesota • Type of host computer: education • Types of host computer: • edu: educational institution • org: nonprofit organization • gov: government • com: commercial • net: network • mil: military

23. Listservs • Virtual community of people linked together by some common interest • NICAR-L list: National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting at the University of Missouri • “One to many” communication • Emails sent to all members of the listserv • Most open to anyone, some are moderated • NAPANET • Typically, 15 percent actively post messages, others are “lurkers”

24. Where to find listservs • Tile.net: www.tile.net • Profnet: www.profnet.com • ‘zines: Use a search engine such as Google • Save instruction email when sign on to a listserv Find a listserv to possibly join…..

25. Newsgroups • Post messages to a newsgroup area • An electronic bulletin board • Messages posted publicly • Like listservs, good source of story ideas • Google Groups: groups.google.com • Online Forum • Similar to newsgroups, but open to members of a specific service

26. Chat • Online chat areas are real-time typed “conversations” • Chat room • Can be waste of time unless active area • Major websites host chat sessions with prominent people • Find chat rooms at: • ICQ (I seek you): www.searchirc.com • Yahoo: chat.yahoo.com

27. World Wide Web • Began in late 1960s as U.S. military project • For 20 years, used by computer engineers, research scientists, government contractors • Problem: Mastery of often cryptic commands • Gopher: Early way to navigate the web • Hyper-text system developed in 1989 by Tim Berner-Lee, a Swiss physicist • By 1994, WWW began to eclipse Gopher

28. Why did the Web grow? • Hypertext markup language (HTML) coding and web browser software meant that Web pages could be created that incorporate text, images, sound files • Web pages designed to easily link to other pages • Web pages could be interactive

29. Useful information • Government websites • Securities and Exchange Commission: www.sec.gov • Annual reports, etc., about publicly owned comptanies • U.S. Census Bureau: www.census.gov • Population statistics • White House: www.whitehouse.gov • Minnesota Legislature: http://www.leg.state.mn.us/ • Companies • Often find a company: www.companyname.com • Duluth.com

30. Associations • Greenpeace: www.greenpeace.org • Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org • World Health Organization: www.who.org • Reference Works • UMD Library • Information Please almanac: www.infoplease.com • Merriam-Webster dictionary, thesaurus • www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm

31. Search tool categories • Directories: organized by subject • Yahoo: www.yahoo.com • Health Finder: www.healthfinder.gov • Spiders/Robots: Roam the Web, index words • Google: www.google.com • AltaVista: www.altavista.com • HotBot: www.hotbot.lycos.com

32. “Shaft” search sites: Like spiders, but only goes to certain selected Web sites • TotalNews searches news sites: www.totalnews.com • Medical World Search: www.mwsearch.com • Euroseek: www.euroseek.com • Metasearch databases: multiple search engines • Dogpile: www.dogpile.com • Metacrawler: www.metacrawler • Scouting reports: Evaluated, annotated by scouts • Poynter Institute for Media Studies • FindLaw: www.findlaw.org • Web Rings: www.webring.com • Guessing: • Let’s find: White House, Burger King, Mayo Clinic, St. Scholastica

33. Checklist when looking at websites • Authority • Who sponsors page? Link to goals? • Accuracy • Sources listed so they can be verified • Free of grammatical, spelling errors • Objectivity • Check if biases clearly stated • Timeliness • Look for dates showing when page was written • Coverage • Is the page complete or under construction?

34. Ways to use website information • Story ideas: identify trends, interest of readers • Use as background information • When have new story assignment, search the web for similar stories, ideas • Find sources on a particular topic • Make sure the website is legitimate • Never attribute by writing “according to the Internet”

37. Dan Rather Assignment • Out of Class Assignment: Due today

38. Next week’s assignment • Computer Assisted Reporting worksheet • Due: October 29

39. In-class Assignment: Due today • Editing classmate story • Make changes, give to reporter • Editing form returned to me: Worth 5 points • Rewrite Hard News 2 mayoral stories • Using all of the editing suggestions, rewrite/edit your story • Email final copy to: lkragnes@d.umn.edu • Worth 5 points • Stories will be posted on class website: • http://blog.lib.umn.edu/lkragnes/jour2001fall2007/

40. Egradebook • Doublecheck assignments correct in egradebook: • http://www.d.umn.edu/egradebook

41. Portfolio • Store academic information on your Electronic Portfolio. Each student has 100 mb of storage. • Access Electronic Portfolio at: https://portfolio.umn.edu/portfolio/index.jsp