Everyone's a Journalist

Last Articles Due ASAP

rcbsam — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:06:27 +0000

The deadline for grades is fast approaching, and a few of you still need to post your final stories. Please do so ASAP – thanks!

What You’ll Be Graded On…

rcbsam — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:10:37 +0000

With the changes in the class projects, there has been a slight change in how the class grade will be determined. Here’s what you’ll be responsible for when all is said and done June 5:

Miniprojects 1-5 (described in a previous post)

Stories 1 and 2 for your blog (story 1 has already been completed; story 2 is due June 5).

Story for The Hot Mess - remember that this story should be based on your own experience, but should include outside sources and touch on broader issues. You could, for example, decide to interview a professor for his/her take on the experience of students trying to juggle work and classes.

And don’t forget that I’m still offering 2 points for each post to the site you rustle up – talk to your friends and neighbors. They can send their posts directly to Team Editorial. Make sure they mention your name so you get the points (sounds remotely like a magazine subscription scheme, but you get the idea).

Finally, each team will post on The Hot Mess a short description of the efforts they undertook to improve the blog and allow it to carry on in to the future. I have every intention of updating the blog over the summer, and look to the Teams to give me the blueprint for how to accomplish this. Talk about the challenges you faced in putting together your part of the blueprint, and where the blog should go from here.

For starters, the Triangle folks have graciously agreed to run a short news story about the blog in an upcoming edition (call me about that soon folks), and to include The Hot Mess among its many already fine blogs.

Well, that’s it: as for points, Stories 1 and 2, and your Hot Mess story, are each worth 20 points. The final team post is worth 10 points, and the miniprojects 2 points each. Thus, we’re working with an 80 point scale, instead of the original 100-point scale detailed in the syllabus.

Sorry if this has caused confusion – I really think, though, that we’re going to end up with a blog to which folks will contribute, and which will expand the dialogue on these issues at Drexel and beyond.

Followup to Dan Simon

rcbsam — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:08:54 +0000

Hi Ron,

here’s the links to online journalism web sites and other useful
locations I referenced in my talk with your students. I’m also
attaching the PowerPoint files as well.

http://www.ojr.org/ (USC Annenburg)
http://www.macloo.com/journalism/
http://www.inms.umn.edu/elements/ (this one is very good for
multimedia and video
http://www.dpreview.com/ (this is a good photography resource,
particularly the forums broken down by camera manufacturer)
http://strobist.blogspot.com/ (this is an advanced flash
photography site, although it does have some good basic flash
tutorials)

These are the links I referred to in my presentation:

http://www.fotoco.dk/flash/ireland/UK/indexUK.php

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=a3aeb4233f40d123c23345d063b9654cc3b02b1a

and here is the piece I did for Greenworks on Vintondale:

http://www.greenworks.tv/special/TrailMix/amd_art.html

as always, it was a pleasure talking to your class. Let me know
if there’s anything else I can do.

A Follow-Up to Buzz

rcbsam — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:03:21 +0000

Check out this article from Philadelphia Weekly on the flap following Buzz Bissinger’s contretemps with Will Leitch, the creator/editor of deadspin.com.

Gave me a new perspective, and highlights the importance of what we’re doing with The Hot Mess.

The Home Stretch…

rcbsam — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:22:20 +0000

In the interest of pooling our resources, and time, I’ve decided to chuck the rest of the syllabus and try something: I’ve divided you into teams, each of which will be responsible for a different area of The Hot Mess. For the last four weeks of our journey, each team will work their you know whats off trying to make the site an ongoing endeavor. We’re off to a good start, but it’s time for the contributions to come from all corners.

Here goes:

Team editorial: Noah Cohen, Shawn Gauby, Katrina Gaudier, Nancy Lan, Ali Qari – these folks will be responsible for editing the posts and submissions (including yours) that find their way to the site.

Team technical: Joel Brennan, Alissa Harris, Lauren Lopez, Katrina Mitchell, Alina Palimaru. These folks will try to bring our blog further into the 21st Century – exploring feeds, RSS, pinging, the works.

Team promotion: Phylicia Bender, Andrew Damiter, Kelly Golden, Rob Hampton, Kent Tribbett. These folks will be responsible for driving awareness of the site on campus and beyond, using some of the tactics we discussed on Thursday.

And speaking of Thursday, I want to apologize for trailing off a bit after our discussion of investigative reporting. My best friend’s mom died Sunday after a long illness, and Sheila and I have been trying to help him out – I appreciate your understanding.

Make contact ASAP with the other members of your group to begin hashing out strategies. More on this change Thursday. Please email me if you have any questions.

Those Five Mini-Projects Again…

rcbsam — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:07:07 +0000

Just by way of review, here are those five mini-projects again:

1. Find a friend (using electronic sources). Write a short news story (500-750 words) about him or her.

2. Rewrite the first 5-7 paragraphs of a newspaper story in a way more suited for the web, or a blog.

3. Visit the discussion boards, newsgroups, and Facebook pages that you frequent and list and discuss briefly the newsworthy things you find there.

4. Visit a blog or website and play “spot the copyright violations.” Write up what you find.

5. Critique a blog – what works? What doesn’t? Is there a clear idea of audience at work? What would you add and get rid of? What’s the tenor of the comments? Does this blog move us closer to wisdom on this topic?

Mini-project five, like the others, can either be posted as a response to this post, or as your own post. Mini-project five is due at the end of week 8.

Take care.

Our First Hot Mess Post!

rcbsam — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:09:02 +0000

Thanks to Alissa Harris for our first Hot Mess post – read it and let me know what you think. We’ll discuss it further Tuesday.

Remember also that you earn 2 points for every person whom you convince to post.

Mini-Projects 3 and 4

rcbsam — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:48:49 +0000

Just a quick reminder about the last two mini-projects:

#3: check out a handful (4 or 5) newsgroups, forums, and chat rooms that you visit (or that are new to you) as if you were a journalist in search of story ideas. In a paragraph or two, tell us what you found.

#4: check out a handful of your favorite blogs and spot the potential copyright problems. What in your view might cause a company or organization to send a nasty note to the blog’s creator. Same rules here: write up what you’ve found in a graph or two.

For both minis, post your findings on the blog.

Our Blogs So Far

rcbsam — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:24:08 +0000

So far, these fine folks have sent me the URLs to their blogs – check them out, and please offer feedback:

Remember that I’d like to see comments from all of you on each other’s blogs. Some really great stuff out there.

No Quizzes – But Wait, There’s More!

rcbsam — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:49:24 +0000

I’ve decided to drop the quizzes from the syllabus.

In their place, I propose the following: for every person – friend, acquaintance, stranger – you convince to post a story on The Hot Mess, you’ll receive two points toward your final grade. The quizzes would have been worth a total of 10 points, so to earn those points, you’ll need to strong-arm, cajole, finagle, and persuade these folks to share.

Make sure you provide me a list of their emails so I can bestow your points on you.