JOMC 426 - Producing Radio News



COM 375 – Social Media Skills for JournalistsInstructor: Adam HochbergPhone 919-238-9664 ahochberg@elon.edublogs.elon.edu/com375Course goal: Social media has become an essential tool for gathering news, finding sources, connecting with the public, and promoting quality journalistic work. This class will center on strategies journalists can use to navigate and maximize the use of social media, while still maintaining our profession’s high standards of accuracy, credibility, and ethics. By the end of the class, you should be skilled in the use of:BlogsMicroblogs, such as TwitterSocial networks such as FacebookCrowdsourcingAudience engagement through social mediaPersonal online brandingOther social media tools such as multimedia, geolocation, and aggregation.Course structure: This course will examine new technology not as a threat to traditional journalism, but as an exciting tool that allows journalists to dig deeper into stories, meet new sources, interact with readers, and provide the public with a more complete understanding of the world. Through readings and lectures, you’ll examine social media in a historical and sociological context. Through activities and assignments, you’ll become a skilled practitioner at using social media in your reporting. And through class discussions, we’ll explore some of the challenges and ethical issues involved with using social media responsibly.Deadlines and workflow: As in a professional newsroom, this class has several non-negotiable rules:Meeting deadlines is essential. All in-class and out-of-class assignments must be completed by the specified deadline. Late work will not be accepted.Attendance and punctuality is mandatory. Points will be deducted from your final grade for unexcused absences and tardiness. You are expected to actively participate in class discussions and activities. Stay up to date on both the day’s news headlines and news concerning journalism and social media. Be prepared to discuss class readings and other relevant issues in class. (We’ll put together a list of social media related RSS feeds and Twitter feeds in class.)You will be expected to monitor the class web site for assignments and required readings. Typically, there will be at least one reading per week (in addition to your readings from the textbook.) You’ll be expected to comment and/or blog about these readings on the course website and discuss the readings in class. Because this is a winter term class, it will move quickly. (Almost as quickly as a real newsroom -- except in a real newsroom, you won’t have weekends, holidays, and weekday afternoons free!) Course values: You’ll be expected to approach the class as you’d approach a full-time job to keep pace with the assignments, lectures, activities, and exams. And even though this is a social media class, the standards of traditional journalism apply to all that you write or produce during the semester. These standards include:Accuracy: Our standard is 100% accuracy. You must fact-check every sentence in your stories, blog posts, and other content -- whether you say it or somebody else does. (For example, if you quote a Facebook post that complains about the Governor’s “million dollar salary,” you need to make sure the Governor really earns a million dollars.) Major factual errors can affect your final grade, as can multiple smaller ones. And all errors – big and small – must be corrected as soon as they come to our attention if they’re published in a public place.Clarity: In addition to being accurate, our stories must be comprehensible. You’ll be expected to write in clear, conversational, grammatically correct English. Your prose should be polished and understandable. Poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation will affect your grade.Transparency: Good journalism gives the reader all the information he or she needs to assess the credibility of a story. That means we fully identify all sources, attribute our facts to reputable sources, and disclose any potential conflicts of interest (for instance, if the athlete you profile is your sorority sister, or the business owner you interview used to be your boss.) We attempt to contact and verify the identity of all sources – both online and offline, and we don’t use anonymous sources except in extremely rare cases where there’s absolutely no other way to tell the story.Needless to say, we never fabricate any aspect of our stories, plagiarize other people’s work, or use video or audio that’s not our own without proper permission and credit. To do so is an honor code violation. (If I request you to do so, you must produce all notes, recordings, or other work product that you used while gathering your story.)Professionalism: We treat everybody we meet in our job with respect – especially those we interview. We ask thoughtful and sometimes tough questions, but we don’t badger them. Everybody you interview or correspond with online must be fully aware of who you are, how you intend to use the interview, and what the story is about. While everybody you contact might not like every aspect of your final story, each should feel that his or her comments were represented fairly. Innovation: Rather than mimicking what you already see and hear in the mainstream media, think about innovative ways to present quality journalism. Can you come up with a better structure than the standard “inverted pyramid” story? Can you use digital tools in new ways? Can you experiment with audio, video, maps, and other elements? Is there a role for reader involvement? An online component that invites participation? Texts: Briggs, Mark, JournalismNext, Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2010.Coursepack available at Elon Campus Bookstore.Other readings as assigned on the course webpage.CLASS SCHEDULE (subject to change)Topic and assignmentBefore class, read this:(check the course website for links)JAN.3Course overview.Intro to social media.In-class: Setup RSS feeds, pick beat to followRosen, Jay, “The People Formerly Known as the Audience” (We’ll take time to read this during the first class.)JAN.4Social media ethics and values.News organization social media policies.From Coursepack: Shirkey, Clay, “Everyone is a Media Outlet” JAN.5Blogging as a journalistic tool; Wordpress and class blog. JAN.9 PRESENTATION TOPICS DUE.In class: Set up and start writing your blog.Briggs, Chapter 2JAN.6Twitter for journalists.In-class: Live tweet an event.Briggs, Chapter 4See course website for additional readings.Blog your reaction to these articles before class.JAN.9STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Show us a creative way a news organization used social media to tell a story, or describe a social media ethical issue JAN.10Crowdsourcing.In-class: Identify and contact experts on beat.Briggs, Chapter 3; From Coursepack: Beckett, “Is it a bird? Is it a Plane? No! It’s SuperMedia!” Blog your reaction to these articles before class.JAN.11Advanced Facebook for journalists.See course website for readings.JAN.12Using storify and other cool tools.A quick tutorial in Web photography.In-class: Storify a story on your beat.Briggs, Chapter 6See course website for additional readings.JAN.13MIDTERM EXAMJAN.17Using multimedia: YouTube, Soundcloud, UStream, embedding audio and video.In-class exercise: multimedia practice.Briggs, Chapters 7 and 8JAN.18Audience engagement.In-class: Engage with your potential audience online. ONLINE SOURCE ASSIGNMENT DUE.Briggs, Chapter 10See course website for additional readings.JAN.19Geo-location, visualization, mapping as storytelling tools.Briggs, Chapter 9See course website for additional readings.JAN.20Metrics, search engine optimization.Briggs, Chapter 11See course website for additional readings.JAN.23Building your online brand. In-class: Develop your online brand through LinkedIn and other platforms. LIVETWEET ASSIGNMENT DUE.See course website for readings.JAN.24FINAL PROJECT DUE: Use social media to produce and post a story on our class website. Include multimedia, user engagement, and at least one other social media component.OUT-OF-CLASS ASSIGNMENTS:During the term, you must post at least four entries to your blog on the course website. They should be related to your beat. Some can be aggregation posts that bring together interesting material posted elsewhere, but at least two should involve content that you originate yourself – such as enterprise reporting, reactions to news events, analysis, etc. Use the best practices for blogging that we’ll discuss during the first week of class.Due January 9: Prepare a five-to-seven minute presentation on one of the following two topics:A news organization or other group or individual that used social media to tell a story in a creative way. Tell us whether you feel the approach was successful, and explain what we can learn from it. Provide any information you can about why the authors chose the strategy they did.A real-life situation that raised important ethical or professional issues about social media and journalism. Be prepared to explain the issues to us and tell us the lessons we can learn from them.We’ll discuss potential presentation topics in class. Please let me know your topic by the morning of Jan. 5 at the latest, so that we can avoid duplication.Due January 18 at 8:30 a.m.: Write and post a 500 – 1000 word story about a subject on your beat that relies on sources you’ve contacted through social networks.Due anytime during the term before January 23 at 8:30 a.m.: Live-tweet a news event – preferably a local event that you personally witness. A televised national event is also acceptable. Use the course hashtag (#elon375) in your tweets and cut-and-paste them into your page on the course website when you’re done. (We’ll practice live tweeting in class Jan. 6.) Because your successful completion of this assignment is dependent on your ability to find and attend an event, do not wait until the last minute to complete this assignment. The subject does not necessarily have to be something on your beat.Due January 24 at 10:30 a.m.: Your final project, which should demonstrate all that you have learned in this class. Use social media to produce and post a story on our class website. Include multimedia, such as photos, audio, or video. Include an opportunity for users to engage with the project in ways beyond just leaving comments. (For instance, an online game or simulation, an opportunity for users to submit their own multimedia,etc.) Also include at least one other social media component. I strongly prefer if the subject is something on your beat. It also should be a subject for which at least some of the sources are available locally.GRADING:Presentation assignment10%Midterm exam20%Story using sources from social media15%Live-tweet news event15%Final project 20%Blog entries10%Class participation10%SCALE:93 – 100 = A80 – 82 = B-67 – 69 = D+90 – 92 = A-77 – 79 = C+63 – 66 = D87 – 89 = B+73 – 76 = C60 – 62 = D-83 – 86 = B70 – 72 = C-59 and below = F ................
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