Two-day Class Feature Party!

You are cordially invited to attend the final week of JRN 186! During the last two course periods (Today, Dec. 6 and Thursday, Dec. 8), enjoy the entertainment of engaging web features written by your classmates!

BYOF--Bring Your Own Feature

Virtual refreshments will be provided! (per computer classroom policy)

Line-up TBA. Come to class and sign up for a performance slot.

Dress code: Pima casual

No need to RSVP. Contact the instructor if you need help getting to the party* on time.

*Attendance is mandatory and participation is part of your grade (and your papers are due by class time today). See you this afternoon!

p.s.--Don't forget your pictures, links, video, audio, and links!

Dear 186 students,

I hope you all had a nice holiday and that you've been productive working on your web features. Today is November 29 and they are due for workshopping and instructor feedback.

You must save these features as Word documents (Word will support links and pictures) and be able to access them from the classroom computers. The easiest way to do this is to e-mail the document to yourself and to me, which is how you should turn in your drafts.

Remember, do NOT post your features to your blogs just yet. You'll post only the final revision, next week.

Please come to class on time and ready to work with your peers! Late drafts will result in points deducted from the final semester project grade.

Please E-mail Pitch Letters

Dear students, many of you have e-mailed your pitch letters but in case you handed them in on paper, please now e-mail it to me as well. I absentmindedly left them in a folder that did not get packed for my holiday travels. (Ever hear of the absentminded professor? Well, now you have!)

Thank you and please have a nice day off.

Lululemon Ludicrousness

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stewart-j-lawrence/when-yogis-kill-the-grisl_b_1077457.html

Due Thursday for Class Teach-In

Several of you were absent and missed a) pitch-letter workshopping session and b) a research session. Remember, absences and tardiness will be reflected in your grade. (You also missed your instructor a little sleep-deprived after staying up most of the night watching livestreaming video from the Occupy Wall Street raid. See twitter posts.)

Your assignment for Thursday is to crack open Journalism Next and pick one of the following three chapters.

Chapter 5 GOING MOBILE

Chapter 9: DATA DRIVEN JOURNALISM

Chapter 11 BUILDING A DIGITAL AUDIENCE FOR NEWS

Read chapter and note the most important points and most compelling examples. Be ready to "teach" the chapter to your peers. Also write a blog post summarizing the chapter. As always, think about the lede, add something personal, see if you can incorporate a link or picture or both. And remember to cite the book/author.

Assignment Due Tues: Pitch Letter

You may want to keep blogging after this class, or you may want to try to publish on someone else's blog (often they accept "guest posts") or on a professional web site. To do either you need to communicate your ideas to an editor, and to do that you write a pitch letter, proposing a story idea or blog post.

Pitch letters are short, usually between 250 and 500 words. But they must work very hard. You need to sell yourself and your story with this letter. It must grab the editor's attention, show that you can write, give the editor a snapshot of the story, demonstrate the story's relevance to the site's readers, and persuade that you are qualified to write this.

Think of the pitch letter as answering these five questions (that will inevitably be asked by the editor):

• What is the story?

• Why should we publish it?

• How are you going to tell it?

• Who are you?

• Why are you the one to write it?

Like stories themselves, pitch letters have “leads” that serve the same function: to grab the reader's attention and get them to keep reading. One trick of pitch letter writing is to begin the pitch as you would the story.

Your assignment is to pitch your web feature (semester project) story, as if I'm the editor and the publication is Pima186. Print it out and bring it to class Tuesday.

Here's a sample outline:

Dear ____________ (always address to a specific editor).

Lede graph: Exactly like you'd write the lede to the story itself.

Idea graph: Quickly explain the larger story and its significance. Include any helpful statistics, recent news, any relevant links. Justify why this story belongs on this blog/site.

Sources graph: Demonstrate that you've done some research and have access to sources willing to be quoted, include any reporting ideas you have for the story.

About me graph: Who are you, where have you published (you can all say you have been writing on your own blog!), and why are you qualified to write this piece?

Ask graph: Ask if the editor is interested. If there are any dates or deadlines, mention them ("Would PimaWriting be interested in this story? The event is this Wednesday.")

Thanks for considering/Sincerely/Best,

Your name
contact info
blog/web site address if you have one

links to clips if you have them. (A clip is a published example of your work)

Calling All Twitizens to the Twitterverse

It's time to tweet.

Here's a really basic intro to Twitter for individual users:

http://www.commoncraft.com/video/twitter


Media expert Deanna Zandt offers some great guides for signing up:

http://www.deannazandt.com/twitter-guides/

And now, the writers who have tried to make sense of it:

• An article from Time magazine from 2009 by author Steven Johnson--more of a THING feature.

• And more of an IDEA feature (or "think piece) from the New York Times magazine about "digital intimacy," by tech columnist Clive Thompson.

Pop Survey Says...

On Thursday I asked the class for some feedback on what we'd covered so far, what else you'd like to have covered, and whether you find reading and analyzing articles in class helpful. Here are the results (out of 9 students present):

Out of the items on the “Building Blocks of Stories” handout (please grab it if you missed class—I've uploaded it to the course page FILES section), there are votes to review:

Nut graphs (1)

emotional connection (1)

Quotes/interviewing (1)

leads & conclusions (1)

anecdotes (1)

scenes (1)

research/facts (2)

There's interest in the business of freelance journalism and using social media to increase readership of your blogs. We are going to spend next week on the business side and work on pitch letters. And this week we are going to get Twitterized. And I think we'll also spend some class time on research. (As for the rest, maybe the students who were absent can break the tie)

Eight out of nine of you enjoy reading features in class and would like to read more in the remaining class time. Several of you said that it allows you to read stories you wouldn't read otherwise, and to learn from the writing techniques. Others said you've enjoyed being introduced to a wide variety of web sites. One criticism was that it's too easy to get off topic. Thus, we will be reading a couple more articles together, but we'll try not to follow any tangents too far.

There's also some interest in having more “conference” time with me regarding your blogs. I am willing to meet with students before or after class so please e-mail me for an appointment if you'd like some additional feedback.

p.s. We also figured out that it IS possible for you to comment on the blogs, but for some reason you have to log out and log back in each time. So if those of you who were absent would like to weigh in publicly, go ahead an comment below. If not, you may write your feedback down and hand it in to me like the others did.

THANK YOU for filling out the "survey"!

Metallica & Lou Reed

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/10/lars-ulrich-metallica-lou-reed-question-answer

Stanley Tucci Q&A

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/10/q-a--stanley-tucci-on--i-margin-call--i---failing-algebra--and-w

Assignment: The Paragraph Profile

I'm quoting from Jacqui Banaszynski's "Profiles" essay in the book Telling True Stories:

Paragraph Profile
The shortest of profiles aren't really profiles at all but single paragraphs within larger stories. A paragraph profile transforms a fairly flat story into one with real characters. It helps your readers move through the story because names are no longer merely names. The paragraph profile reveals something about a person's character that is germane to the broader story.

While writing the most mundane beat stories, paragraph profiles allow you to push yourself to do the kind of reporting required for narrative writing. They force you to dig deeper and focus on what is truly relevant about the subject.

In class assignment: Look back over an article we've read in class (scan my blog for links if you need to) and find examples of paragraph profiles. HOMEWORK assignment: Write a paragraph profile of one of the people you've interviewed for your feature. If you need to, call or e-mail them with follow up questions. This is not for your blog; type it on paper.

The "Thing" Feature

In honor of Halloween, it's time to read a feature focused on a thing. We've done person, place (next is issue/idea). WIRED is a great magazine to go to for examples--because it is largely about things, tech things--though of course there are others. Today we read two stories. The first is about 2000 words, exactly the length you are going for in your feature, and it is about a web site called TaskRabbit. The second is shorter, about a computer program used to help Vets suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Use the in-class assignment sheet to analyze these two pieces.

A Web Feature ABOUT a Feature

This is so very cool: a few years ago, WIRED magazine published a web feature about the writing of a feature story. In other words, they broke down the process of a magazine feature, from idea to pitch to draft to interviews to fact-check to final proof. (It's the equivalent of the DVD extra "Behind the scenes") You, students of web writing working on your semester project/web feature, get a two for one: you can read a great feature story--a profile of film director Charlie Kaufman--AND get an inside look at how this process goes at a professional magazine. Take some time and have a look.

Q&A Interview Assignment: Due Thursday, 10/27

It's time to get out there an interview someone. From this point on, almost all of your assignments (aside from your weekly blog post--don't forget that!) will feed into your web feature/semester project.

The interview is the building block of feature writing and news reporting in general. But when you're interviewing for feature writing you're not just getting the facts; you're getting the story.

Your assignment is to choose one of your sources from your web feature worksheet and interview them in person (or on the phone if you must, but not over e-mail). Then, you are going to compose a 600 word "Q&A". There are many examples of this format in magazines both print and online. What this means is that you are going to pick and choose the best, most enlightening, most interesting questions and answers. The Q&A form is an edited interview. You will not actually post this on your blog: you will turn it in on paper.

My advice for interviewing:

1. Set your goals: What are you hoping to get from this interview? What kind of information? What stories/anecdotes? What are you hoping to learn about the person?
2. Make a list of questions: Write/type a list of questions, making sure you hit all of your reporting goals. Think about the order of the questions so the conversation unfolds easily. Don't ask hard questions first. Put those in the middle.
3. Be ready to go off-script: The ideal interview flows more like a conversation, and an answer may lead you to ask a different question, pursue different information. That's great. Don't be afraid!
4. Get/use/borrow a recording device: You won't regret it. Not having to furiously take notes will free up your brain to think and listen and come up with different questions if you need to. Take notes, sure, but record also.
5. GET PERMISSION: Journalists have enormous responsibility to their sources, since what they say becomes mass communication, read by many. You must be clear with your interviewee that you are interviewing them for a class in which you will post the article online. If they have any problem being quoted see if you can negotiate to use just their first name or initials. If that doesn't work, e-mail me.
   

Commentary: Being Persuasive on the Web

Writing commentary for the web allows us advantages that don't exist in paper. What are they? Let's read this Salon opinion and think about whether the author utilized these advantages and whether he is persuasive.

Assign. Due Thursday: Read an Opinion, Give an Opinion

Homework is to find an opinion piece on the web--it can be on a Newspaper's web site or on a web-based site. (Look to the op-ed section of a paper, or anything called "commentary" "views" etc.) Read it, think about it, and post a comment on the site. Yes! You may have to create an "account" to do this, but that's OK. You don't have to use your full name or even your real name. Join the discussion! Your comment may pertain to the piece as well as others comments. Finally, re-post your comment on YOUR blog, with a link to the original opinion piece.

Reading Feature Stories, This Time Focused on Place

Last week we read a feature story focused on a person, a paparazzo. This week we are going to turn to a feature focused on a place, published, appropriately, in National Geographic, by the award-winning writer Cynthia Gorney. It is about a place that is often in the news, a place that is not too far away from here: Mexico.

In case you are interested, here is another feature from Guernica magazine, also about a place that is often in the news, but probably one that we've never been to: Libya. Also in Guernica you will find that feature on Disneyworld that we mentioned in class.

Here is another great "place" feature that focuses on nearby Havasu Falls, in the Grand Canyon. It is both about the place (and its people) and a murder. We can't read them all in class, so if you're interested you'll need to do some reading on your own!

What makes a good review?

There were some strong opinions on the paparazzo feature story we read last week, and that's good, because we're turning now to reviews, which also rely on opinion and analysis. First we are going to read this one in class, about the film Contagion. Then, you are going to search the web for the good, the bad, and the snark. (What is snark? See this book about it).

In class activity instructions: Search online for a review of a film, book, album, or video game. For ideas, try sites like Amazon, RottenTomatoes, and Pitchfork, and then search for a web magazine or blog review (not user-generated). Alternatively, you could start your search at an online magazine or blog. Once you've found a review, determine whether it is good, bad, or too snarky, using the following criteria:

Summary: the review gives you a good description of the film/book/album/game.

Point of view: the reviewer has an opinion/thesis and supports it with examples. You can easily tell whether the reviewer likes or dislikes the film/book/album/game and why.

Balance: There's a good balance of summary v. point of view (about half and half).

Authority: the reviewer has a strong, knowledgeable voice that makes the point of view persuasive.

Tone: Is the strength of the point of view in the argument/thesis, or does the reviewer rely heavily on “snark,” which is snide, mean-spirited, and often lacking substance.

Homework: write a review of the review and post to your blog (linking of course!). You may or may not be familiar with the book/film/album/game that is being reviewed.

Upcoming Live-Blogging Assignment

I gave a heads up in class Thursday about your upcoming "Live blogging" assignment, which I'm moving up on the syllabus to be due Tuesday, October 18.

For this assignment, you are going to choose an event that lasts between 1 and 3 hours and "live blog" it. What this means is that instead of writing up a paragraph or two or three about the event after the fact (in which you wouldn't necessarily describe it in chronological order) you are going to write about the event as it is taking place. See this example from the blog Gothamist, about a protest last week in New York in which 700 people were arrested. See how the reporting is "timestamped" (3:50, 4:15, 4:35 etc.) and the event is described as it is happening.

How will you do this? What event will you cover? This is entirely up to you. I suggest getting a copy of the local paper (like the Tucson Weekly) or scanning TucsonSentinel to see what's happening around town. Maybe it's some sort of meeting or lecture or tour. Maybe it's a performance. Maybe it's a food or retail or sporting or political event. (No movies though--it's got to be a live event).

If you have a laptop and it's feasible, take it with you and type as the event is going on. If not, take notes, constantly noting the time. Later, you can recreate the live blog with timestamps. Make sure your live blog consists of at least 5 "updates," each timestamped. As always, link, use photos, video, any multimedia you can. And make sure you begin the live blog by telling us clearly where you are and when the event took place.

The reported web feature: it's time to read one. Homework: comment on this story in a blog post (of course reference writer's name, publication, and link). Make sure your post, written in paragraph form, answers the following:

• What is this story about?
• What is the central conflict?
• Who is the central character?
  
• What did you think of the story? Should your readers click on it? Why/why not?
  
• What are the larger human themes this story touches on?
• What questions or issues does this story make you think about?

Also for homework: Read the "Semester Project-Reported Web Feature" document saved in the Files section on your My Pima course page.

My Homework: Why Aren't Your Blogger Blogs Searchable on Google?

"Google sends out bots," explains Jeremy, a friendly customer service rep at GoDaddy*, which is the web hosting service I use for my own blog (which you will find via Google, but please don't look to it as a model. It isn't a true blog, but more of a promotional tool). Basically, the bots only report back the sites when they see the site info in the domain's main folders, and your blogger blogs do not have their own dedicated hosts. "Easy-to-set-up blogs on Blogspot, or the old Angelfire accounts, they're not going to show up on Google. It's the way they're coded. If the bot is sent into subfolders, subdomains, it doesn't recognize it as a site," says Jeremy.

Here's one way to understand it, I think: Google's bots are sort of snobby. When they go to a party (the Internet), they only pay attention to the people (sites/blogs) who make themselves the center of attention, who seem to be the ones making the introductions, who act like they own the place. If you're a friend of a friend (a "masked" domain, or a blogspot.com), snobby Google bot may wave a hello, but it's not going to ask for your number.

Jeremy then makes it clear to me why I pay for a domain name and hosting: "When you have what's called a shared hosting account, Google bots don't see your site as a subdomain. We make it look like you have your own little server."

*note: your instructor is reasonably satisfied with GoDaddy but this post should in no way be seen as promotion. There are many, many web hosting services out there if you someday want to upgrade. At the very least, you can probably find one that has a more user-friendly web site!

Homework: Explain How Bloggers Make Money

In a post no more than 400 words, explain how blogs make money. Include examples of profitable blogs, how they rose to that level, and what elements they share. You should do some web research to formulate your explanation, and make sure to quote, credit, and LINK to your sources. To get you started, here are a couple of good posts on this topic: Slate's Blogging for Dollars (though a little dated--from 2008) and this post from the blog WriteChangeGrow. Make sure you look beyond these posts. Due Thursday, October 6.

Blogging Advice from the Pros

What makes a blog great? You can turn to Slate and Problogger for advice.

Another Great Feature Story

I just came across this story, "Hecho en America" from GQ magazine, via Longreads. It's much different than the piece we read in class today ("Dr. Don," from last week's issue of the New Yorker. Read it online if you missed class.) Writer Jeanne Marie Laskas spends time with blueberry pickers in Maine and offers a close-up of their lives, which she argues are lost in the immigration debate:

"It's easy to forget that there are people who harvest our food. Sometimes, maybe, we are reminded of the seasons and the sun and the way of the apple tree, and if we multiply that by millions of apple trees, times millions of tomato plants, times all the other fruits and vegetables, we realize, holy potato chips, that's a lot of picking. Without 1 million people on the ground, on ladders, in bushes—armies of pickers swooping in like bees—all the tilling, planting, and fertilizing of America's $144 billion horticultural production is for naught. The fruit falls to the ground and rots."

This piece has a much stronger point of view, and the writing style is more bold, energetic. This is much more of an issue piece than a profile. You might notice other differences--if you do, please comment below! Laskas has done other great work for GQ, including a piece about the reality of head injuries in football.

Your Next Assignment

TOP BLOGS LIST

Directions: The “list” has been a mainstay of magazine journalism and has carried over to the web, e.g. “10 Steep Hikes in Arizona” “Vancouver's Best Noodle Houses” “25 Best Community College Journalism Programs." You are going to survey the Blogosphere and generate your own “Top Blogs” list. Pick 5. You are going to introduce your picks similarly to the way you rounded up the news: describe each blog in a sentence or two, devote another sentence or two to why you like it, and give your readers a taste of what the blog is doing with a quote/link/photo/video. Technorati catalogs ALL the blogs out there by category, and provides a good starting point. You may also look at “Top Blog” lists that others have created, such as this one from The UK's Sunday Times. Also, pay attention to a blog's "blog roll," which tells you the blogs that blogger enjoys.

Some questions you might ask in evaluating the blog: Is it well written? Is it designed well? Is it funny/entertaining/moving/interesting/informative/useful/inspiring? How so? Is it interactive, are the comments interesting?

Post by Tuesday.

Mind your commas

Where to Find Features

You may of course look to print magazines to find a feature, or you may look to their web sites to see if they post them online. Some suggestions: Mother Jones (investigative) The New Yorker (human interest, excellent writing) Outside (extreme sport, environment themed) Time (general interest) GOOD (humanitarian, international) Tucson Weekly (local, political).

You may also look to online magazines like Salon. You may also want to check out a feature-aggregator (like news-aggregators, but for features!) like Longreads or Ladyjournos (UPDATE: or this one, just in, Give Me Something To Read.) I just stumbled across a new online magazine called Guernica that has a lot of features.

Oh, and look what I just found: "The 51 Best Magazines Ever" according to GOOD magazine. Check it out!

Hope this helps!

Good Housekeeping Post With New Lede

"Each year, about 48 million people — one in six Americans — get sick from something they ate,” according Good Housekeeping magazine. I have 34 students this semester, and I hate to think that statistically, 5 or 6 of them will end up with food poisoning. And not just because it means they will miss class! “Contaminated food sends 128,000 victims to the hospital, and it kills 3,000 children and adults," writes Madeline Drexler. Now, I don't typically think to pick up Good Housekeeping when I want some hard-hitting, investigative reporting, but this month the grocery store check-out aisle glossy teamed up with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism to take a close look at food safety in the United States. Most shocking of all is that the "big six" E Coli strains that poison people the most are in frighteningly high percentages of packaged foods. And yet, the USDA had no prohibition against them--until this article. An editor's note reports that since its publication, the USDA has banned all six strains, which means food companies will soon have to test for them and destroy the batch if the bacteria are found. This is how powerful investigative journalism can be. Ms. Drexler may indeed be saving lives!

Good Housekeeping Keeps Watchdog Journalism Alive with Food Safety Expose

I don't typically think to pick up Good Housekeeping when I want some hard-hitting, investigative reporting, but this month the grocery store check-out aisle glossy teamed up with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism to take a close look at food safety in the United States. The findings? "Each year, about 48 million people — one in six Americans — get sick from something they ate. Contaminated food sends 128,000 victims to the hospital, and it kills 3,000 children and adults," writes Madeline Drexler. Most shocking of all is that the "big six" E Coli strains that poison people the most are in frighteningly high percentages of packaged foods. And yet, the USDA had no prohibition against them--until this article. An editor's note reports that since its publication, the USDA has banned all six strains, which means food companies will soon have to test for them and destroy the batch if the bacteria are found. This is how powerful investigative journalism can be. This one reporter may indeed be saving lives!

Embedding Video Into Your Blog

My 102 class was talking about the Tucson Gem show, so I found this video about it on YouTube:

Is "Fit Sugar" Possible?

This looks like an interesting site: Fit Sugar.

Welcome students, enjoy JRN 186

This will be your instructor's blog. I'll be linking to students' blog posts here so that you can check out each other's work from from time to time.

I'll post...

1. articles
2. pictures
3. video
4. maybe even a podcast