Lecture 22/09 2009 - Jour 202Searching the Web,

Storyboard, Web 2.0 Tools

Today

1. Your blogs, my comments 2. A few Blogs and J-Projects3. RSS, Google Reader (iGoogle)4. The Pitch – Developping a story and presenting it5. Databases and story development : the questions to ask, the

numbers to use6. Search engines vs. directories; query language and Boolean

logic; how a database thinks; narrowing your search; how to find what you need

7. Storyboard again8. CAR1 Assignment: Use the Net to research and write a 500-

word piece related to preliminary project topic and post on your blog (due Sept. 29)

9. Blog Assignment #210. Tools : Twitter

Marking of blog posts  Each blog posts will be graded on 10.

What I’m looking for : Content (multimedia and journalism related) Structure (appropriate lead, syntax and grammar) Referencing & sourcing (use of hyperlinks, correct attributions/citations) Research (quality and breadth of material used) Use of multimedia features (when a tool is discussed in class, you are to use it in your

blog i.e. video, graphs, audio, still pix).

Each element is give 2 out of 10 marks.

You’re to produce anywhere between 20 and 30 blog posts during the course of the term. Marks will be added up and then normalized to tabulate a grade worth 50 % of the final mark.

Your blogs…

Leads

Be careful with adjectives, redundancies, and hinges that just clutter the texte.

Watch for Clutter

You need to develop the blog a bit more ; I need you to build side bars where you'll reference stuff, your musings, and eventually other blogs.

Paragraphs are most often times way too long. Separate it a bit more.

And plan out more what you’re going to write about.

Real simple syndication - RSS

1. 100 times more efficient than using your browser bookmarks

(or favorites).

2. A customized Page One, ready for you on any computer with

Internet access, at home or at work, and even on your phone.

3. It’s better than an aggregate of all the wire services—because

YOU set it up to bring you what YOU want. (Mindy McAdams)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPZ2Uu_X3Y http://mashable.com/2008/12/07/how-to-use-google-reader/

The best story idea is (most often) at most 1 km away from you

… Choose something that you care for, that you really want to do

Circumscribe your problem in little units, easier to manage

One theme at a time : History, chronology, data, people, consequences,

impacts, etc.

Then, set out to research the info you need :

Questions you need answered

Documents you may need

People who will talk about your story

Images, sounds, data

How to get started

1- What’s the starting Point/Question/Hypothesis?

2- ID the info

3- ID the sources

4- ID the Audio/Images/Graphs you need,

5- Why you need it and what you’re going to do with it?

6- What do you need the info/sources for?

7- What are you going to do with it?

8- ID the people who make the story

‘’How does it work? Does it work well? Who wins? Who loses? How? Why?‘’

Chronology also comes in handy because ::

It gives you an idea of how the story evolves

Tells you how a person/a fact/a situation is important to a story

Helps you plan the writing/story board

Organise the material as you go along. It helps sort through the stuff you collect, make sure you don’t miss out on anything.

One page, one idea

A folder on each subtheme

A folder on each character

What’s the story aboutTo convince an editor to let you go along with time and resources, ‘’pitching’’ the

story requires a few ingredients :

Timing, public interest, never heard of before

Story isn’t covered

The question asked is funny

Injustice

Corruption, crime

System fails

A character who carries the story

An element of contradiction, a paradox, an opposition

STORYBOARD ONE – The story

A multimedia storyboard is a story outline that lays out the multimedia possibilities.

The best multimedia stories are multi-dimensional. They include action for video, a process that can be illustrated with a graphic, strong quotes for video or audio, and/or powerful emotions for still photos and audio.

They use the strengths of each medium to tell the story in a way that draws in readers.

Multimedia stories also are nonlinear. You engage readers by letting them choose which elements to read and when to read them.

Then consider what media you will use to tell each part.

A multimedia piece has action, process and a person who can give strong quotes.

STORYBOARD TWO - Collect Preliminary Information

Gather as much information as possible to put together a rough

storyboard.

Preliminary interviews with sources

Getting a basic idea of what to expect in the field

Research what’s published in print or on the Web

Collect visuals -- photos, videos, maps and graphics

THE STORYBOARD – Define the elements

A paragraph or two explaining the story

Profiles of the main characters

The main event

The process of how something works

Pros and cons

Background of the situation

Other issues

Again, a multimedia piece has action, process and a person who can give strong quotes.

THE STORYBOARD Identify the media

Video – Best for describing action and emotions, presenting characters

Animated Graphics – Describes a process

Audio – adds drama to still photos and videos ; avoid audio alone

Maps – Location, and possibly interactive information

Words – Describes a story, gives accounts

Still photos – best for emphasizing strong emotions ; makes strong points in the story ; can be more dramatic than video, as they don’t go by as quickly

Again, a multimedia piece has action, process and a person who can give strong quotes.

Databases

Sophisticated computer programs used to manipulate, query and organize electronic data.

Flat-file databases, basically spreadsheets; they store the data in rows and columns; you sort and filter, and can calculate/tabulate.

Relationnal databases also let you query the data in all forms (Through SQL). Most websites, when offering research, use relationnal databases.

A list of American/Canadian databases

http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/01-winter/internet.html

Basic Research

Proquest & Canadian Newstand : Books, dailies, magazines, trades, academic papers, etc.

http://library.concordia.ca/research/databases/index.php?subid=15&action=ListBySub&ListDB=List+databases

Lexis Nexis : www.lexisnexis.com/news

Lists most of English mediawith an online presence the world over. The unsub’d access is not a search engine, but a newsfeed10

Press Display

www.pressdisplay.com : Over 500 world dailies are referenced, and their lead stories are organized by subject. Searches by countries/subject

Google advanced search and its multiple features

Reports, experts, documents, groups, blogs, books, etc.

Basic Research

Social Media

Personnal contacts, forums and blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. For characters, or to refine story ideas.

Interest Groups

For each and every subject, chances are someone, somewhere, will have a group about it.

Repertories and search engines

Yahoo, Google, http://www.sources.com/

Wikipedia, Britannica, and encyclopedias in general :

Good to explain a subject and get a head start on a situation

JournalismNet

How to find people in discussion groups

How to search government websites

How to find media

How to use search engines

How to find stats

HINTS at research : JournalismNet

http://www.peoplesearchpro.com/journalism/

Twitter Twitter is a mass medium or ‘’broadcast’’ platform — Twitter is also a personal

space for those who choose to use it that way. (‘’Why are people putting such drivel? They’re not talking to you.’’)

You need a strategy : you use it for personnal reasons, to keep in touch with friends, or to network with other colleagues, professionnals?

Figure out what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Another way to put it: Who is your audience, or who do you want to be in your audience? Who is this for? There’s an old creative-writing maximum that goes something like this: If you write only for yourself, you’re likely to have an audience of one.

http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2009/whats-your-strategy-for-your-online-work/ See also http://mashable.com/2009/05/14/twitter-journalism/