Recent Stories

assignments

Assignment: Multimedia Feature, Multimedia Collaboration

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The final project will be a publication that integrates research, writing, audio, video, and graphic elements in the exploration of a larger overarching theme. The purpose of this assignment is to expose you to the processes of pitching, developing, organizing, managing and producing a multimedia publication—both as individuals and as a collaborative team. Format

The title of this collection will be ONE MONTH IN MURPHY, and will pursue stories that touch, in some way, Murphy Hall. That is, you could do a profile of a worker who cleans carpets in Murphy or go to an event that is advertised in Murphy—the story doesn’t have to stop at the building walls, it just needs to have some connection to this place. The project will be divided into two parts: 8 individually produced multimedia features, and 16 collaboratively produced pieces across different media.

assignments

Assignment: Photo/Graphic Gallery

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Purpose

You’ve started to think about your story from other perspectives, and in this unit we will continue the process by trying to use visual information to illustrate, clarify, or personalize the stories you’ve told. Format

There are many ways to tell a story using visual data. For this assignment, we’ll break them into two primary categories: Photos & Illustrations on the one hand, and Graphics on the other. The gallery you submit must include at least nine discrete images. Of those images, at least 4 must be photos or illustrations, and must include

A scene setter
A portrait
A detail/macro
Another shot: an extreme close-up, unique angles or framing, an action, shot, long or short exposure, dramatic lighting, etc.

assignments

Class 2/6: Parts of an Audio Package

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In class on Monday, we went over the next assignment for the course: an audio package. The elements of an audio package are as follows:

Research: Always research first. This could be research of a social, cultural, or political phenomenon that your story is trying to explore, research about the person you'll be interviewing or place you'll be recording in, or research on other types of a stories that have been told in this arena. If you don't know what to look for, you won't know how to recognize it when you find it! Sound effects: Buzzing crowds, footsteps, cash registers, glasses clinking on the bar, traffic speeding by--all of these things help you create a soundscape for your listeners that you can use to paint a picture before, after, or between your segments. 

Wild track: This is the "room tone" of the sounds wherever you will be doing your interviewing.

assignments

Story Assignment: Audio Package

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Purpose

Now that you have written your first story, we’re going to begin to explore how to adapt those stories into different genres, media, and formats. For this assignment we’ll look to adapt, expand, or extend your story into an audio package in the format of a short radio spot.  

Format

 

In a traditional print story, writers and editors utilize language, structure, research and interviews to convey a message, tell a story, deliver a report or explore an idea. In the realm of audio or radio, producers and recordists utilize different means to achieve the same ends. A radio or audio package utilizes many different types of recorded sound (including interviews, ambient sound, and pre-recorded audio).

class

Class 1/23: Types of Ledes, Nutgraf Basics

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In class today we walked through a series of types of lede paragraphs, from basic News Ledes to more literary and stylistic choices. Here are the ledes we discussed in class:

Summary lede (AKA Straight News Lede, 5W’s Lede)
Punch lede – It uses strong verbs and short sentences that are meant to create an impact. Anecdotal lede – This one begins, as is obvious, with an anecdote. Descriptive lede – As the name suggests, this type of lede goes into great detail to describe the scene or person that makes up the subject of the story. Quotation lede : Ledeing with a colorful quote can get right to the heart of your story.

MCJ

Protected: Out in the Great Alone

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(19296 words)

I’m really glad I chose to read this essay because it had the most happening as far as multimedia and story elements go. I liked how Brian Phillips basically took an idea that he liked, with elements that he had no experience with—such as cold weather and piloting an airplane—and just went with it. It’s really inspiring to see it work for a journalist and all of the pieces of this essay to fall together so well. At the beginning of the essay it seemed as if this would be focused solely on the Iditarod, but Phillips chose to take it beyond that and address the land that makes up the Iditarod. I was fascinated with the concept of the author focusing on the land and the people that he encountered along the way to further his own story.

assignments

Class 2/6: Parts of an Audio Package

By |

In class on Monday, we went over the next assignment for the course: an audio package. The elements of an audio package are as follows:

Research: Always research first. This could be research of a social, cultural, or political phenomenon that your story is trying to explore, research about the person you'll be interviewing or place you'll be recording in, or research on other types of a stories that have been told in this arena. If you don't know what to look for, you won't know how to recognize it when you find it! Sound effects: Buzzing crowds, footsteps, cash registers, glasses clinking on the bar, traffic speeding by--all of these things help you create a soundscape for your listeners that you can use to paint a picture before, after, or between your segments. 

Wild track: This is the "room tone" of the sounds wherever you will be doing your interviewing.

class

Class 1/23: Types of Ledes, Nutgraf Basics

By |

In class today we walked through a series of types of lede paragraphs, from basic News Ledes to more literary and stylistic choices. Here are the ledes we discussed in class:

Summary lede (AKA Straight News Lede, 5W’s Lede)
Punch lede – It uses strong verbs and short sentences that are meant to create an impact. Anecdotal lede – This one begins, as is obvious, with an anecdote. Descriptive lede – As the name suggests, this type of lede goes into great detail to describe the scene or person that makes up the subject of the story. Quotation lede : Ledeing with a colorful quote can get right to the heart of your story.

MCJ

Protected: Out in the Great Alone

By |

(19296 words)

I’m really glad I chose to read this essay because it had the most happening as far as multimedia and story elements go. I liked how Brian Phillips basically took an idea that he liked, with elements that he had no experience with—such as cold weather and piloting an airplane—and just went with it. It’s really inspiring to see it work for a journalist and all of the pieces of this essay to fall together so well. At the beginning of the essay it seemed as if this would be focused solely on the Iditarod, but Phillips chose to take it beyond that and address the land that makes up the Iditarod. I was fascinated with the concept of the author focusing on the land and the people that he encountered along the way to further his own story.

MCJ

Protected: The Fight for All-Ages Shows

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Jes Skolnik (1254 read)

This essay is one-of-a-kind, because you can see how much work the author has put into not just the writing, but the planing behind creating an all-ages space. This is unlike most of the other articles that I read because it doesn’t feature much in the terms of multimedia use. Skolnik relies heavily on their own emotions to drive the story, rather than pictures, graphs, etc. They do include links that give more detail about other situations or related topics that the reader can look into, which is helpful. This whole essay seems like a brainstorming piece because the author is constantly asking questions, that they don’t have the answer to.

MCJ

Protected: The Greatest Story Reddit Ever Told

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Kevin Morris (5562 words)

People on the internet, as a community, can be so inexplicably nice, for no reason. I’ve never had any experience with Reddit so I can’t attest to that platform personally, but from this article I was able to get a closer look into that community of helpers. From the beginning of the article I didn’t know what to expect, honestly I was half expecting the story to actually take place on Reddit through threads. This was much better. It was a long article, but I think that each part was important.

MCJ

Protected: Interview With a Woman Who Recently Had an Abortion at 32 Weeks

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Jia Tolentino (8,145 read)

After reading this article, I have so much respect for both the woman being interviewed and the author. This is such a s difficult topic to discuss for a woman going through this painful process and for a woman trying to understand why she’s doing it. IT’s hard to see how abortion is a selfish act when it is used to save a life. I think the set up for this article is what makes it so easy to read and understand what’s going on. It’s conversational and it’s as if the author knows each of the questions that you’re thinking of, but they are able to actually ask it.

MCJ

Protected: The Most Deranged Sorority Girl Email You Will Ever Read

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Caity Weaver (1597 words)

“Thank god Arcadia doesn’t have sororities,” was my first thought when I read this article. I think this piece was a work of art, and after reading it for a third time I will begin to explain why but first, I need to talk about my own brief run in with sorority girls. I believe in order to fully appreciate this article in particular you have to at least know or experienced what it's like to be around a sorority girl for an extended amount of time. I never actually believed that the Sorority Girl trope was a real thing until I studied abroad in London for the summer. I somehow managed to befriend four sorority girls and for the brief four days that I spent with them, all they talked about was LITERALLY (exaggerated for emphasis) their respective sororities and how amazing they were.