Opportunity for broadcast experience via an e-mail to Professor Cochran:
I am writing to you as the Volunteer Program Assistant at a growing news organisation called The Real News Network. The Real News Network is a non-profit news and documentary network focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism. Critically,we are member supported and do not accept advertising, government or corporate funding.
We have been producing daily video news content since August 2007, and have an increasing number of people accessing our news pieces on our home site (approx 7,000 per day) and our robust YouTube channel. At the turn of the new year we were the Number 1 non-profit on YouTube, and have continued to dominate this category week to week. We have an impressive list of regular contributors to our service, including Pepe Escobar (Asia Times Online), Aijaz Ahmad (Frontline, India) and Phyllis Bennis (Institute for Policy Studies, Washington DC).
Our mission for the US Presidential Elections is to take on the candidates of both parties, the Bush administration and corporate news. We will listen to the voices, opinions and wisdom of Americans across the country and answer their questions.With facts and incisive analysis we will help Americans decide whom to vote for. We will help people decide what to demand from their candidates. And we will create a dialogue between Americans and the people of the world about the critical choice Americans are about to make.
Part of bringing this mission to life, is to regularly feature the voices of people on the street right around the United States. We would love to bring together a dedicated pool of volunteer shooters, who can take a camera to the streets with set questions, and upload the video to us to edit for web publication. We also may ask the volunteer team to visit interviewees we have lined up, in their places of work, and record an interview with them. The volunteer work will be managed with the newsroom back in our main studio in Toronto. The volunteers will need to have access to a camera, sometimes at short notice, and know how to upload video to an FTP server we administer.
If you think your students would be interested in this work and you want to find out more, please email me as soon as possible. Alternatively I would be happy to speak to any of you at your earliest convenience.
We think this would be an excellent opportunity to involve students in professional news production, utilising the latest online video techniques and covering the U.S. Presidential race for a worldwide audience.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
All the best,
Nina
Phone: +1 416 916 5202 Ext: 436
--
Nina
Communications and Volunteer Program Assistant
Monday, March 31, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Tips and Tales from Top Storytellers - Poynter
Nieman Narrations: Tips and Tales from Top Storytellers
Anne Hull, Dana Priest and others provide insider accounts. Plus: Roy Clark reports on the Benton blogging curve and Mallary Tenore blogs the conference.
By Bill Kirtz (more by author)
Professor, Northeastern University
Details. Details. Details. Top writers and editors last weekend called them the engine that drives every compelling story.
Their comments came at the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism in Boston, March 14-16. Speakers offered tips on dramatizing investigations, doing narrative on deadline, identifying writing flaws and enhancing stories with multimedia.
RELATED
"From Blog to Narrative," By Roy Peter Clark
Nieman 2006, by Bill Kirtz
Conference blog posts by Poynter's Mallary Tenore:
"Narrative on Deadline," with St. Petersburg Times writer Tom French and editor Mike Wilson.
"50 Writing Tools in Three Hours," with Roy Peter Clark.
"Ten (Not So Secret) Tips for Effective Interviewing," with Jacqui Banaszynski.
"Creating An Investigative Narrative," with Anne Hull and Dana Priest.
Washington Post reporters Anne Hull and Dana Priest, who uncovered scandalous conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, said shoe leather reporting, not fine writing, drove their probe.
Hull, a five-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, said, "We didn't think of narrative, voice, sequencing, empathy or storytelling" when they started. "But all these elements" found their way into their series. By immersing themselves in the squalor that wounded veterans endured, she said, they got the specifics that made the story "pop to life in the way traditional investigative reporting doesn't."
Because they "lived and breathed the story for four months," Hull said, they picked up telling details, like the mold and cockroaches limbless soldiers lived with, like the blue ribbon the wife of a brain-damaged soldier tied to his bedroom door so he'd know which room was his.
Priest, a 2006 Pulitzer winner, stressed the need to emphasize with and respect any group you're investigating. (She has said the veterans' plight brought her to tears.) Quipping that patience isn't one of her virtues, she said the Walter Reed story taught her the importance of listening. "It sounds basic, but we're in an era of talking journalists. It's crucial to remember that we're not there to do that. You can pick up so much by reading body language, voice. Just listen. It pays off."
Skim the Meringue
Jon Marcus, who led Boston Magazine to win national awards and who now teaches at Boston University and Boston College, also underscored the importance of details. He said he sees too much narrative journalism marred by "lots of pretty words that don't say anything.
"People who think of themselves as capital W 'Writers'" can produce "meringue -- sweet but empty," he said. "Great reporting is essential. If people don�t learn anything from a story, they won�t keep reading. The foundation of good narrative journalism is detail [and] description. This is required today. We're competing with 24-hour news and the Internet -- we live in a high-definition world. We need description: the color of the lipstick, the pattern of the wallpaper."
Jack Hart, another advocate of detail, said it powers great narrative. Example: a flood survivor munching six Oreo cookies and mourning the loss of foxhounds Ebbie and Priss.
Reiterating the lessons of the Readership Institute's Impact Study, Hart, who edited two Pulitzer winning series at The Oregonian, called narrative journalism the key to grabbing and retaining readers. "Newspapers need more real life stories about ordinary people."
How to get them? Hart recommends substituting narrative approaches for traditional news forms, even on deadline, on stories like the theft of a foam donut, a rescue of a woman pinned in a fiery car, the frantic search for a substitute pianist.
Before starting a narrative, he said reporters, with an editor's guidance, must create a structural road map, answering questions like: What is this story about? Do you have a sympathetic, interesting lead character? Who struggles with obstacles?
Narrative Moments
Jacqui Banaszynski, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer who holds the Knight Chair in editing at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, also underscored the importance of details that can let reporters drop narrative moments into routine stories and transform a subject into a character.
Banaszynski said she believes that criticism of writing too often focuses on symptoms, not causes. "You write too long," for example, identifies a problem, not a solution.
To find and fix flaws, she recommends separately highlighting every part of a story, such as verbs, quotes and attribution. Are there active, descriptive verbs or passive ones? Too many quotes? She said quotes only add spice if they�re the right ones. Otherwise, they slow the story. So, "edit quotes down and pick the standout."
Unless it introduces a new or a vitally important speaker, Banaszynski said attribution should go in the middle of a sentence. And watch those dependent clauses. They can be mere "throat-clearing."
"It's Just a Platform"
New York Times multimedia editor Andrew DeVigal called new media "just a platform. Story and story-telling hasn't changed." He said that because audio storytelling is the "low hanging fruit" of multimedia, many news organizations are now producing slideshows and photo galleries on a regular basis.
The easiest route is adding audio to a story tied to great narration, he said, noting that The New York Times put together an eyewitness account of Benazir Bhutto's assassination -- a photographer's voice describing his pictures -- within a few hours.
Since only 20 percent of The New Yorker's online readers subscribe, the magazine's multimedia editor, Matt Dellinger, called multimedia a great way to "extend our brand." Material is easy to find, he said, such as archival films of conductors used to enhance an article on symphony orchestras. He and other speakers noted that using subjects' own voices, like soldiers reading from their Iraq journals, is another quick way to dramatize a story. Dellinger said each non-print element "has to have its own narrative integrity. It has to add value and be complete in and ... of itself."
If multimedia is just "bells and whistles," don't use it, said Laura Ruel, assistant professor of visual communication and multimedia at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and project leader for Poynter's Eyetrack III research. Ruel said good multimedia storytelling shouldn't distract from the story. Use audio and video only when appropriate; not every story is worth telling with multimedia. And make sure users can find their way around the site.
Anne Hull, Dana Priest and others provide insider accounts. Plus: Roy Clark reports on the Benton blogging curve and Mallary Tenore blogs the conference.
By Bill Kirtz (more by author)
Professor, Northeastern University
Details. Details. Details. Top writers and editors last weekend called them the engine that drives every compelling story.
Their comments came at the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism in Boston, March 14-16. Speakers offered tips on dramatizing investigations, doing narrative on deadline, identifying writing flaws and enhancing stories with multimedia.
RELATED
"From Blog to Narrative," By Roy Peter Clark
Nieman 2006, by Bill Kirtz
Conference blog posts by Poynter's Mallary Tenore:
"Narrative on Deadline," with St. Petersburg Times writer Tom French and editor Mike Wilson.
"50 Writing Tools in Three Hours," with Roy Peter Clark.
"Ten (Not So Secret) Tips for Effective Interviewing," with Jacqui Banaszynski.
"Creating An Investigative Narrative," with Anne Hull and Dana Priest.
Washington Post reporters Anne Hull and Dana Priest, who uncovered scandalous conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, said shoe leather reporting, not fine writing, drove their probe.
Hull, a five-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, said, "We didn't think of narrative, voice, sequencing, empathy or storytelling" when they started. "But all these elements" found their way into their series. By immersing themselves in the squalor that wounded veterans endured, she said, they got the specifics that made the story "pop to life in the way traditional investigative reporting doesn't."
Because they "lived and breathed the story for four months," Hull said, they picked up telling details, like the mold and cockroaches limbless soldiers lived with, like the blue ribbon the wife of a brain-damaged soldier tied to his bedroom door so he'd know which room was his.
Priest, a 2006 Pulitzer winner, stressed the need to emphasize with and respect any group you're investigating. (She has said the veterans' plight brought her to tears.) Quipping that patience isn't one of her virtues, she said the Walter Reed story taught her the importance of listening. "It sounds basic, but we're in an era of talking journalists. It's crucial to remember that we're not there to do that. You can pick up so much by reading body language, voice. Just listen. It pays off."
Skim the Meringue
Jon Marcus, who led Boston Magazine to win national awards and who now teaches at Boston University and Boston College, also underscored the importance of details. He said he sees too much narrative journalism marred by "lots of pretty words that don't say anything.
"People who think of themselves as capital W 'Writers'" can produce "meringue -- sweet but empty," he said. "Great reporting is essential. If people don�t learn anything from a story, they won�t keep reading. The foundation of good narrative journalism is detail [and] description. This is required today. We're competing with 24-hour news and the Internet -- we live in a high-definition world. We need description: the color of the lipstick, the pattern of the wallpaper."
Jack Hart, another advocate of detail, said it powers great narrative. Example: a flood survivor munching six Oreo cookies and mourning the loss of foxhounds Ebbie and Priss.
Reiterating the lessons of the Readership Institute's Impact Study, Hart, who edited two Pulitzer winning series at The Oregonian, called narrative journalism the key to grabbing and retaining readers. "Newspapers need more real life stories about ordinary people."
How to get them? Hart recommends substituting narrative approaches for traditional news forms, even on deadline, on stories like the theft of a foam donut, a rescue of a woman pinned in a fiery car, the frantic search for a substitute pianist.
Before starting a narrative, he said reporters, with an editor's guidance, must create a structural road map, answering questions like: What is this story about? Do you have a sympathetic, interesting lead character? Who struggles with obstacles?
Narrative Moments
Jacqui Banaszynski, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer who holds the Knight Chair in editing at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, also underscored the importance of details that can let reporters drop narrative moments into routine stories and transform a subject into a character.
Banaszynski said she believes that criticism of writing too often focuses on symptoms, not causes. "You write too long," for example, identifies a problem, not a solution.
To find and fix flaws, she recommends separately highlighting every part of a story, such as verbs, quotes and attribution. Are there active, descriptive verbs or passive ones? Too many quotes? She said quotes only add spice if they�re the right ones. Otherwise, they slow the story. So, "edit quotes down and pick the standout."
Unless it introduces a new or a vitally important speaker, Banaszynski said attribution should go in the middle of a sentence. And watch those dependent clauses. They can be mere "throat-clearing."
"It's Just a Platform"
New York Times multimedia editor Andrew DeVigal called new media "just a platform. Story and story-telling hasn't changed." He said that because audio storytelling is the "low hanging fruit" of multimedia, many news organizations are now producing slideshows and photo galleries on a regular basis.
The easiest route is adding audio to a story tied to great narration, he said, noting that The New York Times put together an eyewitness account of Benazir Bhutto's assassination -- a photographer's voice describing his pictures -- within a few hours.
Since only 20 percent of The New Yorker's online readers subscribe, the magazine's multimedia editor, Matt Dellinger, called multimedia a great way to "extend our brand." Material is easy to find, he said, such as archival films of conductors used to enhance an article on symphony orchestras. He and other speakers noted that using subjects' own voices, like soldiers reading from their Iraq journals, is another quick way to dramatize a story. Dellinger said each non-print element "has to have its own narrative integrity. It has to add value and be complete in and ... of itself."
If multimedia is just "bells and whistles," don't use it, said Laura Ruel, assistant professor of visual communication and multimedia at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and project leader for Poynter's Eyetrack III research. Ruel said good multimedia storytelling shouldn't distract from the story. Use audio and video only when appropriate; not every story is worth telling with multimedia. And make sure users can find their way around the site.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Sexism in the media
This topic has come up in class. You are invited to a panel I'll be on along with SOC professors Dotty Lynch and John Watson, and some other GW professors:
GW Law School: 2000 H St. NW,
Wed., March 26, 4 p.m.
On the fifth floor in the Faculty Conference Center.
The Feminist Forum at GW Law School spring
panel on the topic of sexism in the media, particularly political/election reporting.
GW Law School: 2000 H St. NW,
Wed., March 26, 4 p.m.
On the fifth floor in the Faculty Conference Center.
The Feminist Forum at GW Law School spring
panel on the topic of sexism in the media, particularly political/election reporting.
UC Berkeley multimedia presentation
Watch Richard Hernandez: Choosing the Right Tools for the Job. Take a look.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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