Hofstra Journalism 80 Section B Fall 2007

Transcript of Jacqueline Hlavenka's Interview with Kat Slevin

2008-01-02T13:12:00.000-08:00

Interview with Kat Slevin, Associate Director of The Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC)

1) How is the Long Island Bus funded?

Slevin: Every year, the president of Long Island Bus doesn’t know how much money he’s going to get because they go through the county budget process and the state budget process, and there’s no sort of shared funding agreement. We’ve called it the stepchild of the MTA system because no wants to pay for it. Ridership is way up and it has been for a number of years. The funding for the system hasn’t increased that much. The county’s contribution is actually lower than it was in 1999. It still needs more revenue to profit. There’s so much demand out there for better bus service.

2) What about threats of service cuts? How does that affect Nassau County?

Slevin: That all goes back to the allocation problem. If the Long Island Bus doesn’t get enough money from the county or the state or MTA, they can’t operate the system without revenue. Then, they have to go into cutting service.

3) Have there been any cuts this year?

Slevin: No, I don’t think so. You should call Long Island Bus on that. There was talk of it because they were missing about $3 million and there was a budget gap, but I think they worked that out.

4) What if the proposed fare increase happens on local buses?

Slevin: You never want to raise transit fares, and in this case, the MTA is in a significant financial bind. But, you’d like to think you’d get something out of your higher fare. If the Long Island Bus doesn’t have a stable funding source, it’s much harder to give that back to the riders, like better service, faster routes.

5) Do you think a government subsidy would help the system?

Slevin: Every transit system is subsidized. They provide an economic benefit to society by giving transit to people. But as far if it’s from a strictly financial sense, they would always operate in the red because it costs a lot to run a transit system and fares never make up 100 percent. That’s why the buses are subsidized by the county, state and MTA—to make up for what the fares don’t cover.

6) How can service be improved in the future?

Slevin: They need a more regional bus system. They need an operating agreement between the MTA, the county and the state, not only an operating agreement, but a financial agreement, to figure out who’s going to pay what each year. From there, they need to figure out how to expand bus service.

(Interview and photo by Jacqueline Hlavenka, Nassau News)

Jacqueline Hlavenka's Production Notes

2008-01-02T12:32:00.000-08:00

By Jacqueline Hlavenka

I finished shooting the video and photos two weeks ago during the “reporting” period. I gathered audio from Kat Slevin at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign over the phone, since her office is in Manhattan. I interviewed John Michno over the web via YouTube messaging. He also responded to me on a message board on the NYC Straphanger’s Campaign.

Shooting the stills and video footage was somewhat difficult. I was warned by the MTA Police to stop taking pictures at the Hempstead Transit Center. Fearing that I would loose my camera, I was very discrete with my handy FlipCam.

On the bus, I tried to remain discrete with my camera. There’s a fine line between being a journalist and respecting people’s personal space, especially considering how crowded it was. Eventually, I found a happy medium.

After I finished the reporting, putting everything together was the hard part. I uploaded my videos to Blip.TV, my photos to Flickr and imported the media into iMovie. The audio from the voice recorder caused a problem. My USB cord wouldn’t recognize the files. I then decided to import the sound into Apple Garage Band to cut-up the audio.

After importing all the video, I used a microphone to record my voiceover (vo) audio track. As I began to speak, I needed to re-record certain things because I realized my writing was too long! Broadcast needs to be quick, clean and to the point.

For John Michno’s text, I wanted to create a graphic. Using Photoshop, I placed the text inside an image that resembles an ordinary piece of paper. My boyfriend, Dave Beede, helped me animate the graphic in iMovie, since I didn’t know how.

Two coffees and six hours later, I uploaded the video to blip.tv, clocking in at one minute and fifty seconds. I am very pleased with the piece, and now have a better understanding of making a video project -- not just writing a news story.

Katie Heelon's Production Memo

2008-01-02T11:48:00.000-08:00

By Katie Heelon

Throughout the reporting for this projects there were both highs and lows. There were many setbacks that came about, which made it important to think fast, and decide what you would do in order to fill a spot instead.

I interviewed two people within the Hempstead community, one who was living there presently and one who had moved away. The one, Lesley, was fine with being videotaped, however Matt was a little more apprehensive about being interviewed on camera, so he instead decided on allowing me to interview him, and then agreed to send a picture via email for me to use. (Since I only had a flip camera on me, and not my digital camera, which could have led to problems if he wasn’t so helpful.)

I also interviewed Mayor Hall, and although he didn’t have a good time to meet in his office, we talked for about fifteen minutes over the phone, and he directed me to the website , for a picture of him. Mayor Hall was extremely helpful, and the phone call also cut back some of the anxiety I have for calling people for interviews over the phone, it was a really great experience. For other parts of footage I both photographed and videotaped within the Village of Hempstead. I visited www.villageofhempstead.org, to obtain information about the village itself, along with Factfinder.com to obtain population statistics.

Most of my article however, was based on my three interviews. One of the forums I used was this one, on Topix.com. I also asked random people on the street, who I allowed to remain anonymous for the section about giving me one word to describe the Village of Hempstead, I thought that was a good way to show the overall feeling towards the village.

Amanda DeCamp's Production Memo

2008-01-02T11:40:00.000-08:00

By Amanda DeCamp

For this project, I started with my story pitch. It was very weak at first because I did not have an angle. I knew that I wanted to write about food, but I was not sure what else. Finally, with some research, I was able to refine my story to writing about eating healthy on a budget and avoiding fast food. By researching online, I found that people with lower incomes eat more fast food and that there are more fast food restaurants in black neighborhoods with lower incomes.

It was helpful to come up with a list of 10 links. By reading similar articles, I was able to come up with my own unique angle.

The interviews that I got were the hardest part to come by. Originally I wanted to stay strictly in Hempstead, but when I tried to get people to talk to me with the flipcam in Hempstead, I was very unsuccessful. People would either say they didn't have time or that they just didn't want to. I had more luck in Westbury and Willison Park, which are both within five to 10 minutes from Hempstead Turnpike. Also, I originally was trying to set up an interview with a dietitian from Hempstead, but she stopped returning my phone calls. Finally, I thought to look at Hofstra's sources on health and found Andy Herman who was very helpful. In the end I learned that one source is better than no source, even if they weren't who you planned on getting.

The video editing is not perfect but I did learn a lot about broadcast journalism and online journalism by editing my own video. Hopefully with this experience, I will be able to improve my broadcast and editing skills.

Jessica Crankshaw's Production Memo

2008-01-02T11:14:00.001-08:00

By Jessica Crankshaw

I came across a huge problem after I recorded all my video clips on my own camera: it wasn't compatible with the video programs. Therefore, I had to go and re shoot the whole thing. This did help solve my voice over problem thought. This time, I spoke while I was shooting so I did not have to do a voice over. It worked out really well. The other problem I had was that when I did a transition from one slide to the next it cut out some of my audio. It took me awhile, but I finally figured out a proper transition so I only lost a little bit of the audio. Everything else went smoothly and I am happy with the result I was able to get. Before this class I never would have been able to accomplish such a hard task, especially because I am not technology savvy, but after hard work I can say that I did a good job.

Dana Carroll's Production Memo

2008-01-02T10:39:00.000-08:00

By Dana Carroll

The process of building and creating my final online story about the future of housing and quality of life in the Village of Hempstead was an experience from which I learned a lot about the issue at hand, technologies involved in online journalism, and myself as a student journalist.

The beginning stages of brainstorming for my story were difficult at first because I was limited to the Hempstead area and, knowing very little about the area, I was more interested in issues outside of Hempstead Village. However, when I discovered what was going on with the Mayor's plans for re-development, I was immediately interested. As a student living in the Hempstead area, I was curious about any effort that was being made to improve the poor conditions.

In my research, I found many articles in The New York Times and Newsday about the Mayor's plan and his subsequent obstacles he was facing from opponents within the community. I also discovered blogs and business commentary about the situation and various points of view from residents and community members.

For the video portion of my story, I collected footage of Hempstead Village in the Main Street area. I also took photos to use in a slide show to show the poor conditions all over Hempstead and not just on Main Street. I paired that footage with videos of interviews with Hempstead residents as well as with Mayor Wayne Hall. I found it interesting to see the difference between how residents felt about their own community and the way it was described by the mayor. Most residents I spoke with would not allow me to film or quote them; however all of them said that more affordable housing needed to be built in Hempstead. Yet, Mayor Hall felt that Hempstead already had enough low-income housing and that by building more, it would add to the poor conditions and worsen the problem. Both sides did agree on the fact that conditions of living in Hempstead Village needed improvement and that it was necessary to take action in some way.

The next step was to put the pieces together to create a cohesive multimedia representation of my story. I decided to post all pieces of my story onto a Tumblr page because it was a central location where the story could come together. I found it easy to use Flickr.com to post my pictures and create a slideshow, however it was more difficult to create and edit video because I had no prior experience with video editing. After exploring Kaltura for some time, I decided to try JumpCut instead, and found it easier to use and navigate. I thought the process of editing video clips was overwhelming and tedious at first, however once I got started I was able to cut a large amount of video into only the crucial parts needed to tell the story. Adding voiceover created another obstacle because Jump Cut does not allow the user to use sound for separate parts of a video, but only as one constant audio track. This created problems with timing the audio to the video exactly. I resolved this by adding still shots to fill time during the audio story. Other problems I had with the Jump Cut program that I was unable to resolve were my final movie freezing at a certain part every time it played, and sometimes parts that I had edited would not save after I published it, so that when it played it would play a previously unedited clip instead. I was not sure how to fix these problems without risking loosing my video or starting all over from scratch. When I went to the help section of the site, it stated that these were common complaints of Jump Cut users and the site was working to fix these problems. Although I embedded the video onto my Tumblr.com page, it does not play the whole way through and can be viewed better by clicking the "remix" button in the lower corner of the video screen.

After creating video and photos, I wrote text to accompany the visuals and embedded links to pertinent information using html code. I also created a poll using Snappoll.com for readers to vote on what they think is the best direction for the Village of Hempstead, and linked to a message board for Long Island residents where readers can add comments about the plan.

After each piece of my story was in placed on my Tumblr, it was rewarding to see how my work had come together to tell a full story from many angles. I also overcame many personal obstacles as well while creating this story. I was able to learn more about an issue and the people which it affects, and I also learned to navigate unfamiliar people and surroundings. Also unfamiliar was the media technologies being used to create this story, and I was able to teach myself how to navigate video and blog programs as well as how to create an interactive poll online. Throughout the entire process, I was able to see the differences between print and online journalism. While print journalism will always be relevant and credible, sometimes a story needs to be shown through different visual and interactive perspectives in order to make the strongest impact.

Links Used

1) http://www.villageofhempstead.org/

2) http://acorn.org/index.php?id=7926

3) http://www.villageofhempstead.org/government/mayor.htm

4) http://www.urbanamerica.com/

5) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=LIRR+Hempstead+Station,+Hempstead,+NY&sll=17.476432,-66.796875&sspn=72.007237,163.476563&ie=UTF8&ll=40.712703,-73.624449&spn=0.007449,0.019956&t=h&z=16&om=1

6) http://www.policylink.org/EDTK/AH101/policy.html

7) http://thecommunityalliance.blogspot.com/2007/02/can-urbanamerica-save-suburban-long.html

8) http://www.topix.net/forum/city/garden-city-ny/TIQEJK2L83A0D49A5

9) http://libizblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/say-goodbye-to-urbanamerica-so-whos-next/

10) http://www.flickr.com/photos/14697042@N03/sets/72157603235077671/show/

11) http://snappoll.com/poll/239250.php

12) http://www.jumpcut.com/create/edit?movie_id=861470CAA34E11DC8F2F000423CF381C (VIDEO LINK)

13) http://dcarroll.tumblr.com/post/21211257 (STORY IN TEXT)

14) http://dcarroll.tumblr.com/ (Entire story with links)

Michelle Carlson Production Notes

2008-01-02T10:28:00.000-08:00

By Michelle Carlson

Behind the Scenes: The Story Behind the Story

This project has gone through more changes than any story I've worked on. I initially began with the idea that I wanted to do a story that in some way involved the youth of Hempstead. One problem was that I soon discovered there were many different ways a story like this could go, and I would need to find a better focus. I then narrowed down my idea to education in Hempstead, but with a number of elementary schools and even two middle schools, that topic was also too broad to tackle. I then decided to focus on education at the high school level.

Once this was decided, I still needed to find my angle. I discovered there are two high schools in Hempstead, and both are extremely different each other. There's Hempstead High School, a public school with approximately 1,600 students, and Sacred
Heart Academy, a private all-girls' Catholic school. The immediate differences between the two schools were interesting from the start, and with an ongoing debate over whether students should attend public or private schools, I believed a story that intertwined both of Hempstead's high schools would be a great approach to take.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a great idea to everyone, and school officials at Sacred Heart Academy refused to talk to me. After many phone calls, messages and even some debate, I realized that I was not going to get anyone from that school to agree to
an interview. It was the most difficult time I had ever had trying to get people to talk to me and it was without a doubt a great learning experience in dealing with certain people. I didn't want to give up, but it was a difficult situation and with time running short, I realized sometimes things just don't go the way you planned and you have to be prepared to change your plans when that happens.

I then turned to Hempstead High School and tried to figure out how I could write a story that included Sacred Heart without actually talking to anyone. I was surprised to realize I knew very little about Hempstead High School and that there was plenty
to discuss without including another school.

After researching Hempstead High School and interviewing officials at the school, I was immediately intrigued by their story. For years, and even now, it has been a struggling school. And yet, they are still working hard to make necessary changes in
order to bring them up to a level that compares to most other schools. I saw how some of the changes helped and how some still hadn't quite made an impact yet, but they were still trying. Most of all, it seemed as though there was a real change in student attitude. Regardless of whether they were taken of the list of worst achieving schools, only to be put back on months later, the school, its students and the administration were still putting in an effort and I wanted to share their efforts with everyone else.

Timothy Baysinger Production Notes

2008-01-02T09:20:00.000-08:00

By Timothy Baysinger

My video was an interesting project, to say the least. Due to numerous audio difficulties, I decided to scrap a lot of my material because without sound, you wouldn't know why certain things were in the video. Instead, I decided to make a video of what exactly the plan is that the Lighthouse wants to do. Using clips from a separate digitally animated movie, along with still frames of artists' renditions, I was able to scrap together something that I feel could go along with the written story, instead of being something different in itself. I also put the video to music because apparently music is a lot easier to add to the file. This project taught me how the way a story can be told can be changed very suddenly. Also I learned how to edit and make a movie, even though my movie is not at all like a broadcast story.

Syllabus for JRNL 80 Section B Fall 2007

2007-09-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Online Journalism
Fall 2007
Professor Mo Krochmal

Goals

Students will:

1. Examine the theoretical, legal and ethical underpinnings of this new but fast-growing element of journalism.

2. Understand the connection among platforms in community journalism.

Objectives

Students will:

1. Develop and use the practical skills of Web-based reporting and writing.

2. Implement design and construction of Web sites.

3. Learn the practical skills of multi-media/cross-platform content gathering.

4. Examine connections between online journalism and print and broadcast media.

Introduction:

Welcome to a world where nothing remains constant, change is rapid, the future is wildly unclear, and your opportunities might only be limited by the breadth of your imagination and by your grasp of the basic building blocks of journalism. Today, we call it online journalism, but it’s journalism, unbound.

This is an exciting time to enter journalism. There are many opportunities opening up as traditional or mainstream media wrestles with how to use the new tools and capabilities of the Internet and still fulfill its critical role in a free society while, at the same time, sustaining a viable business.

Journalism needs people who are undaunted by technology, comfortable with the traditional core values, mores and ethics of the field, and willing to work around any obstacles to get the story and get it right. You aren’t guaranteed riches, or even job security, but you can make the world a better through your public service.

By your very presence here, you are playing a part in building this medium. That is an amazing opportunity, and a serious one that requires determination and a disciplined work ethic.

Welcome pioneers.

What We Will Do

If you add up the times we spend together over the period of a semester, you will see that it hardly adds up to one working week, and a light one at that. The time we spend in class together is really important and special. Let’s use it to the best possible advantage by convening on time, being prepared, participating, questioning and working efficiently.

We have a lot of ground to cover.

The goal of this class is not to make you an HTML wizard, or a Photoshop guru, or even to make you a "plug-and-play" intern in some newspaper's web shop. You are paying much too much money for us to just teach you HTML. That’s knowledge you can learn easily enough on your own, or even from an 11-year-old. In fact, much of today’s HTML coding is automated. As a journalist, you should know how to write a link, and how to provide appropriate and useful links.

The goal of this course is to nurture in you the intellectual tools you will need to make a meaningful contribution to an evolving field where the only constant is change. You are entering a dynamic and relentless environment that builds on a foundation of solid writing, ruthless editing, having "a nose for news," diligently reporting, holding a strong ethical compass and having a willingness to use technology to innovate and create.

The objective of the course is to exercise your writing and reporting skills, to hone your understanding of the principles and laws of freedom of speech and press, and to know how this medium is different.

You will need to recognize that you are operating in a diverse multicultural and multilingual global environment. Additionally, you will get practical experience in the ethical use and presentation of images and information and be able to explain the ethical principles that guide the decisions you make. You must demonstrate the ability to think critically, creatively and independently, and to work within a group.

You will also be able to critically evaluate your work, and that of others. You must do the math, and crunch the numbers, and ask questions. You will be able to critically examine new technologies and apply them where appropriate.

We will work at an extremely high level, classes will be interactive, and we will be proceeding on various tracks concurrently. You are expected to be well read in current events (read the daily editions of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Newsday, at the minimum) be aware of current events, and be prepared to always ask questions and contribute to the discussion.

For every hour spent in class, I will expect you to spend two hours outside. Part of the skills you need in life are the ability to manage your time and juggle many projects.

I'll be here and I expect you to be here on time, and to stay for the full class. Being late is being absent, and you will be marked that way. We have a lot to do and you will have daily, weekly and long-term assignments that require your presence. Pop quizzes, news quizzes and style quizzes can not be made up and an absence is not an excuse for not handing in work on time.

If you miss too many classes, it is my responsibility to let the university know out of concern for your wellness. Miss three classes, and you fall one letter grade, and an A becomes out of the question. Doctor’s appointments and job interviews are not excused absences.

You will soon be entering the newsroom of the future. Along the way, you will be forging lifetime bonds of friendship and trust. You are expected to conduct yourself professionally, and respectfully, towards your colleagues. This is a demanding class, but you aren’t alone. Your colleagues can be a big help, so treat them with respect.

You are expected to bring to the table a grasp of grammar, style and punctuation and to turn in clean copy and to communicate professionally in whatever medium you are using (and that includes e-mail).

Here are our rules:

Accuracy

All articles must strive for accuracy: Quotes must be exact, names must be spelled correctly, and addresses should be accurate. Errors of this type in a piece will result in an F.

Integrity

"A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do." I like the simplicity of the honor code of the U.S. Military Academy. Do not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do. As journalists, we hold a trust in this society. We are looked upon to seek truth and serve the public. Let us work to uphold that trust. We do not take shortcuts. If you didn’t write it, it’s not yours and you must credit where you got it.

Writing and reporting. This is the foundation of any type of journalistic endeavor. You must be able to come up with story ideas. You then must do the reporting, the writing, the editing, the re-writing, and then, and only then, the posting, or publishing.

You will learn how to write and report for online presentation and how to collect and produce multimedia and critically evaluate it and then use it in publication online. You will also evaluate the writing and reporting of your peers.

Teamwork and Deadlines: No matter what the medium, today's professional journalism requires the ability to work well with others – editors, artists, producers, photographers, videographers, audio engineers – and most importantly, with readers, who are empowered with the ability to fact-check your work and to respond well beyond the letters-to-the-editor page of the newspaper. Ask Dan Rather.

You will be working in teams and your success in this class will depend on your ability to integrate with each other, support each other, and meet deadlines.

Deadlines count. In the newsroom, if you don't make your deadline, you don't keep your job. It's just that simple. So, know that deadlines count in this class too.

A skilled online journalist should: have innate multitasking ability, extreme attention to detail, fluent skills in multimedia and personal communication, comfort in working under the duress of extreme deadline pressure, be fearless and eager to deploy new technology, be able to work collaboratively in a team environment and successfully manage projects.

Additionally, an online journalist should understand the business/revenue issues of this medium and realize the value of understanding and cultivating diverse communities and encouraging user-generated content.

You will get experience in all of this as well as in evaluating news and online presentation, generating news story ideas, and, of course, in lots of writing and reporting. You will go off the campus for your reporting.

New media

You will learn how to write and report for Web, including the emerging channels of blogs, vlogs, and mobile. You will learn and practice the skills of writing headlines, captions, blurbs, voice-overs, and audio reports to create compelling matrix that meets the highest standards of ethical journalism and keeps the user engaged and interacting with the articles that will be assigned throughout the class. You will take photographs, collect audio and video, and generate graphics and perhaps even some animation.

The Business of Online Journalism

In this field, while respecting the traditional and inviolable ethical "wall" between editorial and business, you will still need to know about the financial fuel that powers your ability to conduct your journalism. We will look at the search for successful business models for online journalism, within traditional and start-up companies, and well in as solo efforts.

Each week, students will have required readings from the textbook, web research, editing and writing. The class meetings will include instructor lectures, deadline writing exercises, multimedia production, guest lectures and tests. But, this is not a class about somebody at the front reading, and you typing. The professor serves as a guide and a facilitator.

Assignments will be turned in electronically, via e-mail or posted in a website.

Students will earn points for attendance, and for contribution in class.

Required Texts:

Rich, Carole. Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method. Fifth Edition. Belmont, Calif., Wadsworth Publishing. 2006.

Norm Goldstein. The Associated Press Stylebook. New York, Associated Press. 2006.

Note: With the exception of the first class meeting, all assigned readings should be completed prior to each class meeting.

Note 2: There will be a number of unannounced quizzes on the reading, asking you to work with ideas from that day's assignment, or to put ideas from that reading into a context developed earlier in the term. Missed quizzes can not be made up.

The overall course score will be assigned based on the following criteria:

Class participation and attendance -- 25 percent
Assignments -- 20 percent
Quizzes, grammar, punctuation, style – 10 percent
Final Project -- 45 percent

Your work will be edited and you will have the chance to rewrite the assignments but you will not receive letter grades on your reporting/writing assignments. This is a non-graded, coaching approach that is designed to let you concentrate on your skills, not your grades. At midterm and at the end of the semester, we will meet and look at your work, which will be graded at those times. You will receive grades on style quizzes, pop quizzes and class work. At mid-semester, you will turn in a self-evaluation, detailing your progress, what you have learned and your goals for the remainder of the semester.

Grade criteria
A = Outstanding work with excellent content, ideas, writing, reporting and style. Shows leadership, innovation, participation, support.
B = Very good work. Minor changes required.
C = Average. Requires substantial changes such as additional reporting, major rewriting and correction of numerous style errors
D = Poor. Fundamental problems in the assignment.
F = Unacceptable – late, inaccurate, incomprehensible, factual errors or misspelled names. Plagiarism is an automatic F.

Standards

Every article you do for this class must be original for this class. No repurposing of other work. You are encouraged to submit work done for this class for publication elsewhere, but not to take a piece written for another publication and turn it in for credit here. So, if you work for the student newspaper, or the radio station, or elsewhere, your work for this class must go through the editorial process, and then you can publish it elsewhere. All work assigned may be posted online.

No use of art that you have not produced. If you don't own it, or haven't received specific permission to use it, it's not acceptable for use.

Every piece you turn in must follow these standard forms:

Date: [This is the turn-in date]
Class: JRNL 80 A or B, or JRNL 215
Professor: Mo Krochmal
Headline: [No more than 40 characters]
Byline: By Joseph Pulitzer (joe@pulitzer.com)

In an e-mail, subject lines will be simple: Class Name and Section, and Assignment. All pieces may be posted. In a notebook, you will keep a hard copy of the assignment, the edits, and rewrites. Newer work will go after previous work. Get an e-mail and a phone number for all sources. This information must be included in your notebook and e-mailed to me with every assignment. You will also post your final rewrites to a portfolio site that you will set up on Googlepages.

On your assignments, basic grammatical spelling and style errors will be indicated. You will be expected to discover what you did incorrectly using the style guide and/or other resources.

Headlines are required and will follow New York Times style (mixing uppercase and lowercase) and will be judged as strictly as the writing that follows. All work will have a headline that is compelling, and grammatically correct.

Articles will have a lede, a nut and a kicker. All will include appropriate and specific links. Multimedia will be captioned, people will be identified, photogs/videographers/creators will be credited.

No unidentified or anonymous sources unless approved by the professor. You can not interview your family or friends for an article for this class. Wikipedia links are not acceptable.

The Schedule:

Your semester is designed to build your skills and knowledge and culminate in a final project, a multimedia article for publication in NassauNews.org, the school’s hyperlocal journalism online publication.

The following schedule is subject to change – we are in journalism and news events sometimes dictate a change in the path we walk – that is part and parcel of the business. Get used to it. Additionally, I reserve the right to change the schedule to reflect your abilities and needs. You must be comfortable in this atmosphere, it’s like the real world.

Following is an outline of the topics we will cover by week. You will have readings, you will write, you will edit your colleague’s work, and you will collect lots of URLs for your portfolio.

Week No. 1 Background, Ethics, law, copyright

Class 1. Introduction, Background.

You will take a short test to gauge your facility with AP style and grammar. We will also learn about each other and review the syllabus. In-class writing: You will have 10 minutes to write a short essay that describes the state of journalism today, as you see it.

Assignment: You will prepare a short professional of yourself. This describes your skills and aspirations and highlights of your career. Also, it will include links to previously published materials and other references that you choose, such as social networks.

Reading Assignment: Rich, Ch. 1, “Changing Concepts of the News” Rich, Ch. 12, "Web Journalism"

Assignment:
Write a short professional profile of yourself and include any social networks and links to articles written.
Prepare a memo that describes the final project you would like to undertake.

-- Week No. 2 Writing
This is the keystone for this class. We will talk about, look at and write headlines, captions and scripts. You will select a topic to research for your final project and create a list of reference sites and potential interview sources. No matter the medium, it’s about the writing. Word.

-- Week No. 3 Research
We will cover the skill of online research, how to evaluate news sources, and how to collect and archive materials. We will talk about your potential project topics and evaluate newsworthiness.

-- Week No. 4 Multimedia
We will talk about graphics, maps, mashups and coming trends. You will find examples and write an analysis of what you see.

-- Week No. 5 Pictures
We will look at the state of photojournalism, and we will examine some photographer and journalism websites. You will do a photo essay, mug shots, and postcards.

-- Week No. 6 Video
We will train in video shooting and editing techniques.

-- Week No. 7 Community
We will examine the concept of community journalism and apply it to our neighboring communities.

-- Week No. 8 Project Pitches, Mid-term conferences and personal evaluations.
You will write an evaluation of what you have learned at the midpoint of your semester, assess goals and leave the week with your final project approved.

-- Week No. 9 Social
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, your AIM list. We will look at the social aspects of Web 2.0 and you will create a plan to incorporate that into your final project.

-- Week No. 10 Business
We will examine the business plans of multimedia journalism and you will prepare a plan to exploit your journalism for possible revenues.

-- Week No. 11 Global
After getting very local with your journalism, this class allows you to step back and examine from a global perspective, considering multiculturalism, multilingualism, and poverty.

-- Week No. 12 Rough drafts of projects
You will present a rough draft of your final project for peer review.

-- Week No. 13 The culture of the Internet
Are you a geek or a dweeb; a social networking king or an e-mail forwarder? We will look at these issues, as well as examine bloggers and vloggers to create a cultural framework that is Internet savvy.

-- Week No. 14 Review
As you are polishing your rewrites and finally catching up with that source, we will review the semester.

-- Week No. 15 Presentation of Final Projects

So, that's the plan. Please know that this is a road map. In our journey, we may veer off the road in response to your needs.

We are going to do a lot, and you will be able to do it. Just hang in, come to class, and do the work. I am available to you, after class and online. Ask for help, and do it before your deadline.

Also, remember that in this medium, you have a community. Ask for advice.

Disabilities

If you have any documented disability-related concerns that may have an impact upon your performance in this course, please meet with me within the first two weeks of the current semester, so that we can work out the appropriate accommodations. Accommodations are provided on an individualized, as-needed basis after the needs, circumstances and documentation have been evaluated by the appropriate office on campus.

For more information on services provided by Hofstra, and for submission of documentation of your disability, please contact:

o Ann Marie Ferro in 101 Memorial Hall at 516-463-5341 (for physical and/or psychological disabilities) or
o Dr. Diane Herbert in 202 Roosevelt Hall at 516-463-5761 (for learning disabilities and/or ADHD)

All disability-related information will be kept confidential.

Office Hours

Tuesday – 10:00 a.m.-11:30
Wednesday – 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Thursday – 10:00 a.m. – 11:30
And, by appointment

Coming Soon, Your Syllabus

2007-08-31T19:10:00.001-07:00

Professor Krochmal will post your syllabus as part of the first class.