Listen to these two podcasts to use as your models:
On the Media, NPR
http://audio.wnyc.org/otm/otm111309a.mp3
Media Matters...with Robert Greenwald
http://will.uiuc.edu/media/mediamatters091101.mp3
Imagine you are producing a segment to appear on either of these shows. Interview two thought-leaders in online journalism regarding
the Downie-Schudson report. What aspects of the report do they find insightful, helpful?
Weak? What were the best, most useful responses to this report? Tailor your
script to serve as a module or breakout report: you
are a contributor filing a story on this ongoing journalism debate.
For good list of thought-leaders, check out the following
sites:
http://www.cjr.org/reconstruction/
http://chronicle.com/article/Academethe-Decline-of/49120/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
Use this executive summary to refresh yourself with the
report's main points:
http://www.cjr.org/reconstruction/executive_summary_the_reconstr.php
You can also use any of the Emerson Journalism faculty, they
are all familiar with this piece.
I often use a script when I call my sources since I get
nervous about asking for their time. I suggest having a paragraph in front of
you that reads roughly:
"Hello, my name is BUCK TRENCHANT from Emerson College, I'm
producing a podcast devoted to the CJR article on "Reconstructing Journalism."
I want to talk with you for about ten-fifteen minutes on your responses to this
article, and the state of journalism in general."
And then start in with questions. This puts your subject at
ease as well.
One of the more important questions you can ask at the end
is: "Who else should I talk with about this subject?" and/or "Are there any
other aspects of this story that haven't been addressed yet? What questions are
getting left on the table?"
Part of this assignment involves forming good questions for
your subject, tracking down some good sources, and assembling a strong script
to set up quotes and lead the listener through these ideas. Stay tuned to this
blog for further instructions regarding long-distance calling code arrangements
for area codes outside 617 and 718.
Assemble your podcast in the following script structure:
Opening sound: music, theme sound (brief, under ten seconds)
Introduce yourself, your focus statement, and your guests.
Lead paragraph should be your NUT graph: explain your point
of view on this material, and set up opening quotes from your sources. Then,
lead the listener through the rest of your quotes.
Conclusion: what did you learn from interviewing these
figures that you didn't know before? How has this enhanced your understanding
of the current state of journalism?
Turn in: your podcast script, with quotes transcribed, and
your audio in mp3 format. Length is NOT
a criterion, but your story should run between 4-6 minutes. You will have class time on Nov. 30 to work on this, but by then you should have collected all your sound and be working on final production.
It is for us to introduce them to the virtues of reflection, context, confirmation, and balance. Theirs is too often a technology that threatens to connect an intimate circle of texting pals and "friends" (in a technical sense), but in the proc-ess to disconnect the wider world. Too many walk through life, heads down, absorbed in pressing tiny keys or glued to miniature screens waiting for incoming transmissions. All around them the world buzzes and pops and hisses. Too often they are oblivious to it all. It is our job to interrupt their technological reveries and point out the wider world...--Ted Gup, Chair of Emerson's Journalism Department, in today's Chronicle of Higher Education.
MONDAY 11/9: Time magazine's Detroit project
THURSDAY 11/12
Search for and blog on the top three Twitter lists for Journalists: how can Journalists use Twitter to find sources, follow stories, or check facts? If you were running a newsroom, what three twitter lists would you consult daily? Which lists would you want your reporting teams to follow? Which twitter lists will you put on your new homepage?
FRIDAY 11/13
Write a post about Rupert Murdoch's recent announcement that he plans to sidestep Google spiders and post content behind a pay wall.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jarvis-coffin/rupert-murdochs-serious-i_b_352538.html
What are the best Twitter sources on this story, how it broke, and whether Murdoch stands to gain or lose by his actions? Do you think Murdoch is sorry he bought MySpace?
Also: Incorporate Zemanta links into your next five posts through next week, both in your copy and below, for related articles. Do you like this product? Does it enhance your story or simply clutter things up? Do you find yourself revising your stories after Zemanta provides you links because of new content it serves up? Why did it take so long for somebody to invent this product, does it feel behind the curve to you?
FRIDAY 11/14
Watch this interview with Google's Eric Schmidt and answer the following questions: what was the most surprising thing you learned? If you could ask Schmidt a question abot Google and its impact on everyday life, what would it be? Should the government be looking at Google's predominance in the online marketplace in terms of monopolistic practices or revise the law based on new realities created by the internet?
MONDAY 11/17
Describe the ideal ways a Journalism department can use Twitter. What other journalism schools are using this tool, to what effect? Are readers put off by pure promotion, or can a twitter account mount an effective PR strategy without seeming cynical? How many rival schools feature student twitters as part of their overall strategy?
Us at least three of the following schools for your references: UC Berkeley, Columbia School of Journalism, Boston University, City University of New York (CUNY), University of Missouri, University of Southern California.
exec producer, mg producer
designers, reporters
videographers, photographers
other roles?
Groups will work to assign these positions and choose from homepage templates. During the last half hour of class, we'll go over the top three finalists from each group and choose our two homepages.
Next Monday, we'll work in class again, and Wednesday the two exec editors will present to the entire class discussing the homepage goals, audience, and strategies.
Other resources: OJR: "Starting your news site...", Mashable: "Teaching Social Media", Online Journalism Blog proposal
NEXT WEEK
For Tuesday, Nov. 10 (when we observe the WED Nov. 11 schedule), our guest speaker will be David Whitford, a longtime reporter for Fortune magazine. He's just completed his first round of reporting for Time Inc.'s special project on Detroit.
Also: Dan Okrent's Time cover story from several weeks ago, Detroit: The Death -- and Possible Life -- of a Great City, which kicked off our year-long project: http://www.time.com/time/
And here's Whitford's first contribution from the October 12 issue of Fortune: http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/
...After Jones rounded off the panel with a note of hope, Baron added a note of defiance.
Yes, newspapers in particular need a new business model to right themselves, to survive, and to prosper again, he said. But public financing of journalism, a staple of media punditry these days, is not a viable option.
National Public Radio and similar outlets do good work, said Baron, but it is "highly derivative" and often dependent on deep-digging newspaper journalists.
"True adventurous, original investigative reporting" that holds government accountable is "the rare exception" in publicly supported media operations, he said, with perhaps the PBS series "Frontline" the sole exception.
One reason is that when public news operations challenge the legitimacy and the honesty of government with their reporting, "they put their own resources at risk every time," Baron said, "and that's the definition of a conflict of interest."
He declared himself "as concerned as anyone ... over the future of journalism, but I hope the answer is not to turn to the government for help."
MON: Mass. Senate race
WED: net neutrality
FRI: truthdigg.com
Msg from Phelps: Tim, I am mortified. This day turned out to be insane, and for some
reason, our appointment totally escaped me. It's even on my calendar. I
am deeply sorry.
What's the next available time we can do this, and how can I make it up
to you and your students?
Yours, Andrew
I talked to Andrew on the phone on Friday and he's agreed to come on Monday, so we'll have our discussion on "Reconstruction of Journalism" essay on Wednesday. I've added some robust new resource links to our delicious page, and trying to update our blog with an rss feed widget from same, but it's glitchy... there's also a good Google wave link on delicious if you want to get started... mapping out second half of term, stay tuned... Tim
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