Campfire Journalism notes on teaching interactive storytelling

Poynter’s News University and the Broadcast Education Association are trying to create the world’s largest online database of journalism and communication teaching materials. The project launched a few weeks ago and currently contains about 100 resources.

The syllabus exchange works on a point system. For every resource submitted (i.e., syllabus, class exercise, assignment, handout, case study or rubric) a teacher can download two teaching materials. Everything is tagged and searchable by the professor’s name, school, type of course, and education level.

I signed up for a NewsU account and uploaded my syllabi for this semester. It took about 24 hours for NewsU to accept my submissions and award points to my account. Then I downloaded a few  interactive storytelling materials from professors at SMU, San Francisco State, and the Medill School of Journalism. Of course, many journalism professors have been informally sharing teaching materials online for years, but it is helpful to have a concentration of resources.

Here is a link to the syllabus exchange page -  https://www.newsu.org/tools/syllabus-exchange

But don’t use your points to download my materials. If you are interested, here is what I’m doing this fall semester at Rowan University.

Online Journalism I
-Online Journalism I syllabus (pdf)
-Link to Online Journalism I class blog with assignments, tutorials, schedule, student work and lecture notes

Online Journalism 2
-Online Journalism II syllabus (pdf)
-Link to the Online Journalism II class blog with assignments, tutorials, schedule and lecture notes

I recently finished my second year of teaching online journalism to undergraduate students. For me, that means that I have reached a point where I am not perpetually scrambling to prepare for the next class period and have an occasional moment to reflect on how and when some “education” might be taking place.

As I shift to my summer schedule, I wanted to take note of a few general lessons I’ve learned. Most of these are things I came to through trial-and-error, often with instruction from my students.

Lecturing is not the best way to teach that “news is a conversation”
Higher education and journalism are biased toward a “one-to-many” mode of communication; the web is not. In order to understand how journalism works in a digital age, a course on interactive news has to be participatory, conversational and collaborative. In my experience, this can also mean unpredictable and occasionally chaotic, but it is a lot more fun than lecturing everyday.

Follow smart people
My blog roll (see “Sites I Like and Use” on the sidebar) and my Twitter account are my key sources of information on what is happening in the profession and in teaching. If I don’t know something, I turn to those who do.

Don’t assume students are active web users
There is a difference between “passive” and “active” web users. Despite growing up with the Internet, some of my students navigate the web like they watch TV; they surf and consume. Or they only know how to participate within a defined structure like Facebook.

Don’t skimp on HTML and CSS
An assignment to build a simple web page can fill my email box with complaints. Then at the end of the semester, students say they want to learn more coding. So each semester, I give them more.

Raw audio interviews are gold
At the suggestion of veteran online journalism professor Mindy McAdams, I now require students turn in unedited audio recordings of interviews. They take a time to review, but they provide…

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The audio slide show – a multimedia piece that combines audio and still photos – is a standard format in most newsrooms and journalism classrooms. And Soundslides, a program created by Joe Weiss, is the standard program used to create them.

Soundslides is so easy to use that it does not require hours of step-by-step tutorials. However, after a few semesters of teaching audio slide shows, I have collected a list of resources that I have found helpful for introducing and troubleshooting the process for beginners.

Examples of Inspiring Audio Slide Shows

For examples of great audio slide shows, I often turn to Interactive Narratives, a clearinghouse for the best of online visual storytelling. The audio slide show can also be a powerful way to profile individuals. For examples of audio slide show profiles, I like the New York Times series One in 8 Million and the Los Angeles Times series pop.u.LA.tion.

When Is an Audio Slide Show the Best Format for a Story?

NewsUniversity has an online course called Five Steps to Multimedia Storytelling. It aims to teach which stories are more suitable for multimedia.

To understand the power – and limits – of an audio slide show, read a Poynter interview with Sounslides creator Joe Weiss. He discusses the potential and some common pitfalls of the format.

Also on the BBC’s College of Journalism blog, Kevin Marsh ponders the question: “Why would you choose a slide show when you could use video?”

How to Use Soundslides

The Soundslides user manual is the place to begin when teaching or trying the program for the first time.

Jeremy Rues has created a nice step-by-step Soundslides tutorial for the Knight Digital Media Center.

Here is a PowerPoint presentation I use to introduce audio slide shows and SoundSlides in the classroom.

Also I’ve created a screencast video on how to embed a Soundslides slide show on a self-hosted WordPress blog. This is one of the most common questions I get from students, especially after my class has ended and they are doing their own independent projects.

Tips for Creating a Better Audio Slide Show

To avoid common mistakes, read the post How to Make Your Audio Slide Shows Better by Colin Mulvany.

Mark Luckie lists Five Common Photo Slide Show Mistakes.

Mindy McAdams has two great blog posts on the subject: Tell a Good Story with Images and Sound and Do’s and Don’ts for Slide Shows.

Soundslides Tools

On the Soundslides forum, you can read through questions and issues others have encountered and post your own questions. (I posted a message about a bug last week, and I received a reply within a few hours.)

Soundslides Embed Utility – This tool allows you to post your published slide shows to a blog, or embed them in other pages.

Soundslides Video Converter – This tool converts audio slide shows into an mp4 video file. That way they can placed on sites like YouTube and Vimeo, embedded on free WordPress.com blogs, or viewable on an iPod.

Over the next few months I’ll be rolling out a series of screencasts for use in my online journalism classes. I hope these allow students to learn at their own pace and help the students who are absent on the days we cover the material. I hope others outside of my classroom also find them useful.

These are “working drafts.” I will lay down more scripted audio tracks later and add elements that I may have missed.

I welcome responses or suggestions for future screen casts.

How to Convert Audio Files Using Switch

Garage Band Basics for Journalists

Other recommended resources for teaching audio:
Telling Stories with Sound (NewsU)
Audio 101: A quick and dirty guide to recording your story (Common Language Project)
Buy an audio recorder and learn to use it (Mindy McAdams)
Start editing audio (Mindy McAdams)
Gathering Audio by Brian Storm (MediaStorm)
How to Use Garage Band (Knight Digital Media Center)
How to Use Audacity (Knight Digital Media Center)

For the past few years I have used student blogs as a primary format for my introductory online journalism course.

Each student selects a topic or beat to cover for the semester and creates a blog dedicated to that subject. Then students report, write, photograph, gather audio, shoot and edit video for Web, and create interactive maps and timelines. All the student work is public, and the authors must cultivate an audience.

I like using the blog format for a number of reasons:

• It’s a free (or relatively inexpensive) way to create an online publication.
• Blogs can serve as an open-source reporter’s notebook – a place to try things, develop sources, and advance a story.
• It’s a hands-on way to learn about things like  HTML, CSS, feeds, linking, traffic, search engine optimization, and copyright and fair use.
• Students are required to generate ideas, write frequently, and learn to edit their own work.
• It allows for experimentation with multimedia and a chance to explore which elements can or should be used to tell a particular story.
• Students often have their work picked up by other publications or noticed by other reporters and editors.
• When students finish the semester, they have an online publication for internships and job applications. From my own experience, I know that an editor can tell a lot more about an applicant from 15 weeks of covering a single topic than from a stack of clips from the school newspaper.

When I began teaching several years ago, I was one of only a few instructors in my journalism department to use blogs for student work; today, many do.  Some students now complain that they have to maintain three or four blogs at the same time.

At the end of each semester, I ask myself: Is blogging outdated? Should I move on to another platform?

A recent report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which found that blogging has dropped among teens and young adults while simultaneously rising among older adults, raised these questions for me again.

I regularly remind my students that the class is not about blogging. It isn’t about the technology, software, or equipment. All of those things will be outdated in a few years.  I hope they take away lessons in reporting, writing, editing, fact checking, producing, informing, sharing, storytelling, and connecting with an audience.

I’d abandon blogs if I found another way to create that same experience in an introductory online journalism course. Much of the traffic on the Web has moved away from blogs to social networking sites. But I’ve yet to see a social networking experience that allows for all of the elements listed above.

I welcome suggestions.

On January 27, Judge Alvin Hellerstein disclosed in a hearing that Shepard Fairey is under criminal investigation for submitting false images in the case against the Associated Press. Bloomberg News reports that Fairey may invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions related to the case.

Mannie Garcia (Associated Press) / Shepard Fairey

I’ve notice that my students’ eyes tend to glaze over the moment I mention the words “copyright” and “fair use” in a journalism class. So for the past two semesters I have made good use of the current legal battle between the artist Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press.

The dispute centers on the use of a 2006 Associated Press photograph of Barack Obama that the artist Shepard Fairey turned into the iconic HOPE poster during the 2008 campaign.

Shepard Fairey admits he used an AP photo, but argues that his artistic transformation of the image is protected under the doctrine of fair use.

The AP argues that Fairey misappropriated its rights to the image when he created and sold posters and other merchandise with the likeness.

Mannie Garcia, the photographer who took the photo at a National Press Club event, says he owns the rights to the image because he worked as a freelancer at the time and was not an AP employee.

Yesterday the case became even more complex when Fairey admitted to submitting false images and deleting others in the legal proceedings. Fairey initially claimed he used a different AP image that less closely resembled the final poster.

“While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong,” Fairey said in a statement released on Oct 16, 2009. “In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images. I sincerely apologize for my lapse in judgment and I take full responsibility for my actions which were mine alone.”

In my online journalism classes, we look at the four factors courts consider in fair use cases. Then we listen to interviews with Shepard Fairey and Mannie Garcia that aired on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross in February 2009.

The class discussion has been lively, although the legal definition of fair use can sometimes be eclipsed by the personalities involved. After the discussion, I ask the students to rule on the case. An overwhelming majority of students – who are all undergraduates studying journalism – side with Fairey. A few students have presented an impassioned defense of Garcia, but few defend the AP.

Here are some factors that make the case particularly compelling for class discussion:

• Fairey, not the AP, filed the first lawsuit in the case.
  After the source of the images was discovered, the AP requested compensation from Fairey. He responded with a lawsuit.

• Fairey acknowledges he knew it was an AP photo, but says he didn’t take the time to find out who the photographer was and give credit.
  “I didn’t do the research,” Fairey has said. “I didn’t think that I needed to.”

• Fairey says he took the profits from the HOPE poster and put it back into making more posters.
  Fairey argues that he did not gain substantial income from the posters, but that he donated it back to the cause of helping the Obama campaign.

• Garcia didn’t recognize his photo as the source until someone else pointed it out.
  Garcia argues that he takes hundreds of photos a day and there is no way he can remember each one.

• Garcia was actually on assignment to cover George Clooney and a young senator from Illinois happened to be there.
  The photos were taken at a 2006 National Press Club event on Sudan. Clooney had recently returned from Darfur.

• Court rulings on fair use cases can be tricky.
  In a 1985 case, Harper & Row, the publisher of President Gerald Ford’s memoirs, sued The Nation for publishing 300 words from the book before it was released. The Supreme Court found in favor of publisher. In the 1994 case of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose, the Supreme Court ruled that 2 Live Crew’s version of Roy Orbison’s song “Pretty Woman” was covered under fair use. In both cases, the district court ruled one way, the appellate court reversed the decision, and then the Supreme Court reversed the decision again.

• The case has implications for journalism, art, and how all of us use the Internet.
  The AP and Fairey represent two opposing views of how content from the Internet can and should be used. The AP has been more protective of its news content than most traditional news organizations and has used legal action to maintain that control.  Fairey represents the opposite end of the spectrum, which holds that the ability to use, share, and remix content is a central value of the medium.

• Fairey’s recent admission that he falsified court documents further complicates the fair use argument and may bring an end to the case.
  Anthony Falzone, a lawyer for Fairey and the executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University, has withdrawn from the case. It is up to Fairey if he wants to continue.

I recently picked up a copy of Multimedia Journal by Richard Koci Hernandez. The book came out in 2008, but I couldn’t find a review of it, so I thought I’d write about it here.

Multimedia Journal is not the typical online journalism book. It is only 60 pages long, measures 7” x 7”, and contains no HTML tutorials or manifestos about the future of journalism.

In the introduction, Hernandez, who worked at the The San Jose Mercury News and is now a fellow the University of California, Berkeley, writes:

“If you are looking for answers to journalism’s big questions put this book down. Trying to answer or even ponder the questions on the future of journalism are a huge waste of time and stop you from doing what you’re good at: being creative.”

Multimedia Journal, which was self-published using Blurb, is a series of exercises aimed at tapping into the creative process. Each chapter contains a series of activities (i.e. keep a visual journal, start a vlog, use a flip-book, take a picture every day for a year, collect audio sounds from daily life) and lists of inspiring online resources and books. One of my favorite exercises is called “Document Something You Think Is Boring.”

The value of the book is not an argument, information or research; it offers a series of starting points and the reader must create the value for herself.

Hernandez also makes a case for being anonymous when posting online for the first time, arguing that criticism can stifle inspiration.

Anonymity isn’t something I’d advocate in a classroom, but Hernandez isn’t writing lesson plans. He is concerned about separating one’s ego from one’s creative work – which is a difficult task for anyone. In this context, I like Hernandez’s advice. A few years ago, I kept an anonymous blog about a subject I was passionate about. After a year, I deleted it. I enjoyed writing and posting photographs and sharing it online without worrying about reaction. I wasn’t doing it to advance my career or to build my online “brand.” It was fun. And the fun allowed me to be creative in ways I could not be on the job.

I had an idea of what I was getting when I ordered Multimedia Journal. The first 20 pages can be previewed online. I regularly read Hernandez’s blog Multimedia Shooter, (which is currently being revamped). And I’d seen some of the work Hernandez’s students have created.

If I have a complaint about the book, it is that I was left craving more of Hernandez’s advice and insight. I suggest that readers supplement the book with other resources. Watch some of his video pieces, which help illuminate  the exercises and offer concrete examples of how to break out of standard ways of thinking about presenting news.

Also The Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University has a four-part video interview with Hernandez, which is worth watching:

• Part 1: Embrace online
• Part 2: Don’t be afraid of technology
• Part 3: Astonish your audience
• Part 4: The online opportunity to rethink storytelling

A lot of resources on teaching interactive journalism have been circulating around the Web recently. Here are some I found valuable:

Multimedia Standards, a University of Miami class project on multimedia journalism standards

John Temple blogs the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5) and post-workshop reflection Ten steps news organizations should take to embrace a multimedia future.

Archived Chat: How Do You Involve Students in Multimedia Rather Than Just Teach It? (Poynter)

How to Use Digital Story Telling in the Classroom (Edutopia)

Video Tutorials from University of Oklahoma’s Journalism School
-Tutorials for Adobe products (Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, Illustrator, etc)
-Tutorials for Multimedia Journalism course
-Tutorials for Interactive Multimedia Design course

Handout on Multimedia Storytelling from Steve Buttry, Gazette Communications

Also Mark Luckie of 10000words.net has a book called “The Digital Journalist’s Handbook” due out in September.