Your major assignment for the six weeks will be to create a multimedia or mixed media article. This could be photo-essay (8-15 pictures with captions), a podcast (15-30 minutes), or a more traditional article with embedded media (such as video or GIFs).
So towards that last choice, I wanted us today to do some work with GIFs by creating a listicle with embedded GIFs. Your assignment for today is to create a ten-point listicle in the style of buzzfeed about your favorite or least favorite class. Here is what I think is a good site for finding or even creating GIFs: http://giphy.com/ I want you to embed at least one GIF for each point in your listicle. You can find 8 GIFs, and I want you to create 2 original GIFs. Today we are going to change things up a little. We've been doing a lot of responses and a lot of work on photography. I want to give you all a chance to do some free writing.
You will need a paper and a writing utensil. You may go wherever you all feel comfortable in the high school, but you have to stay unplugged, away from the things of the internet. Here are some possible prompts - you may pick one of these or one of your choosing and write - lets say 400-500 words (or 2 pages of poetry) and complete the story. There are no rules. Write a poem. Write a short story. Write an essay. Just start writing, and have fun. You will need to type this into the computer, so make sure your finish in time to get back to the room and type it into your blog.Creative Writing Prompts
I want us to consider the ethical lines of photo manipulation in journalism.
Here we will look at what has been published around the world and the impact of changing photos. There is a time and a place to change photos. Let's start that discussion here: 1. Read the following story about examples of photo manipulation. You only need to read the first part of the story, you can stop when you reach the subheadline titled "Advice from Pros". http://globaljournalist.jour.missouri.edu/stories/2009/07/01/ethics-in-the-age-of-digital-manipulation/ When you are done reading, in the top right corner where there is a photo of a missile launcher, click the link near the bottom of the photo called "Launch" (it is red and it is below the photo). This will open up a series of four photos. You need to look at each of the four examples. They are before and after photos, so you need to see both of them. On your blog A. Summarize the main points of the story in 2-4 sentences. B. Explain why you think this type of photo editing is unethical or acceptable. 2. Look through the example images on this page: http://www.photographyschoolsonline.net/blog/2010/10-photoshopped-photos-passed-off-as-real/ On your blog A. Post the manipulation (this means get that image and post it on your blog) that you think was the most unethical, and explain why you think it was unethical. If you do not know what the word ethic or unethical means, look them up on the internet. It is very important you know what those two words mean. B. Post the manipulation that you consider the least unethical, and explain why you think it is not as bad as others. You all should be finished with your photo-essays, and they should be posted to your blogs. I want you all to share your pair's photo essays with another pair. Look at the photos and read the captions and then create a blog post to respond to these questions:
1. What did you think was the best or most important photo? Why? Describe the photo. 2. What was the overall sense or understanding that you came away with from the photo-essay? 3. How did the authors more or less create narrative? If they did not, how might they have done so? Once you are finished, feel free to do work for other classes. Be thinking about possible subjects for a photo-essay for The Pursuit! Today, I want you all finalizing your slideshow with captions. Remember, those should be posted on one of your two member's blog.
Once you are finished with that I want us to consider another platform for journalism, podcasts! Here are two articles on how to make a good podcast: http://www.copyblogger.com/better-podcast-interviews/ (this article is focused on what makes for a good interview) http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2015/06/course-narrative-podcasting/ (this article goes more in to the actual production of a podcast) And a list of 2015's best podcasts: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/12/the-50-best-podcast-episodes-of-2015/421572/ Pick one of these podcasts to listen to and considering these articles, answer these questions: What is the intersection between the subject and the audience? How heavily edited is the podcast? How does it contribute to the tone of the program? Does the program feel more spontaneous or does it feel more rehearsed? In pairs, you will go out in the wilds of Anderson high school to take pictures that you think encapsulate the feeling of LC Anderson High School. Keeping in mind the notions of good photography that we learned about last class, take tons of photos.
Afterwards, cull from from your photographs 10 as the basis of a slide show that you will post on one of your partner's blogs. Photos should be given captions with citations (i.e. Photographer/Publication) http://photoinf.com/General/KODAK/guidelines_for_better_photographic_composition.html
Post one example for each of the techniques from the composition web site. For example- Post a photo with "Framing" as the title. You will need to do a post for each of the composition techniques. Which means you should have 6 posts today. As we continue our examination of photography in journalism, I want us to take a look at how a series of photos come together to tell a story.
Read (at least) three of the photo-essays in this link (http://time.com/4129215/photojournalism-links-november/) and consider the following questions: - What is the first image in the piece? After reading the photo-essay, why do you think the author chose this image to begin the piece? - What is the author/photographer's purpose in their photo-essay? In other words, what is the news value? - How are the photos arranged? Does it represent a collection on a theme or a narrative progression? What is the theme of the collection or what is the arc of the story? - What inferences can you make about how the photographer interacts with the subject? - How do the captions contribute to your understanding of the piece? (give examples) After you are finished reading, choose one of the articles to write about. Create a blog post and respond the the questions above.
Today you all will take a crack at writing some captions. Read these helpful tips for caption writing and complete the caption-writing activity I have attached. Once you are done, upload the document to your blog.
Tips for caption-writing from Gregg McLachlan 1. Don't insult your readers. If you have a photo of an environmentalist standing next to a fence at a toxic dump site, don't write, John Johnson is standing next to the fence. . . Your readers know that. Good photos already tell part of the story. In your caption, tell readers something more, besides the obvious. Why is John Johnson at the site? What concerns does he have? 2. Cutlines are mini stories. Think TV newscast. When you watch the nightly news, the anchor will give you the basics - When, What, Where, Who, Why and How - as film footage rolls. Essentially, the anchor is giving viewers a caption. The anchor may have just 30 seconds, but the details he/she gives are crucial. In the newspaper, you don't have much space, but what you do wth a three-sentence cutline is just as important. Check out the following cutline.. It covers the bases: (Who) Nine-year-old Joey Smith of (Where) Bayham is managing his (what) diabetes with help from parents (Who) Ann and Gary. The (What) Southeast Diabetes Research Foundation has named Ben its goodwill ambassador for this (When) Sunday's first annual (How) Walk to (Why) Cure Diabetes event in (Where) Bayham. 3. Who's who? It's one of the simplest parts of a cutline, yet, it's one of the most overlooked basics: Identifying who's where in your cutline. Readers don't have ESP. Readers don't know who's on the left, who's on the right, or who's in the centre. Tell them. When it's not clear who's who, you must give your readers some help. And for readers' sake, do it simply. Don't write, John Johnson, second from left in the middle row starting next to the boiler room door opposite the men's washroom . . . Don't turn your cutline into a maze. Your readers will get lost. If you don't believe it ask our proofreader. He gets lost trying to figure out who's who in many captions. . . because reporters forget to make it clear. 4. Names. Names. Names. Get names in your cutlines. Photos record history. When you fail to get the names of the people in your photos, you're recording a blank for history. Are we really doing our job when readers open up the newspaper and see a cute photo of a kid eating ice cream at a festival, and then remark, "Nice photo, but who's the kid?" Imagine how the kid's family feels. People like to see their name in print. And that means cutlines too. 5. Keep accurate notes. The root of many errors in cutlines is in our notebooks. Scribblings that we can't decipher when we're back in the office sitting at our desks. Out-of-order notes that don't correlate to the order of photos. It's no wonder why so many cutlines incorrectly identify people. If you took a photo of Bubbly Bill, make sure your notetaking enables you to identify him as Bubbly Bill, not Lively Larry (the guy in the other photo you took). 6. Write like it's happening now. Your caption represents a specific moment in time captured by a photograph. The photo is the window that takes readers to the scene as it's happening. Example: 1) A Nigerian technician prepares to cull all the fowl at a chicken farm on the outskirts of Kano yesterday. Rather writeprepared, the writer uses prepares. Example: 2) Afghan boys and girls overcome their shyness and venture into the sandlot next to the Canadian compound on Tuesday. This is far better than Afghan boys and girls overcame their shyness and ventured into the sandlot next to the Canadian compound on Tuesday. 7. Quality control. It's drilled into our heads to doublecheck and triplecheck our news copy. Captions deserve the same attention, not less. How many times have you seen a name in a cutline spelled differently than in the story? How many times have you seen typos? Get it right in your captions too. You spend hours on your stories to get them right. Don't let your guard down for three minutes to write a three-sentence cutline. 8. The little important stuff. Cutlines can be a great, reader-friendly place to put stuff that readers need to know quickly. A local theatre group is performing next month. Why not put ticket information and the box office phone number in the caption? Perhaps your photo involves conflict (neighbour protesting against city hall). Why not include a quote from the neighbour to humanize the impact of the conflict? If it's a sports cutline, include the date, time of the team's next game. Cutlines can be useful. And never forget the other little important stuff: street names, ages, town, time of day. 9. Look at your photo before you write the cutline. OK, it sounds ridiculous to even say this. But it happens over and over again. A cutline looks like it has no relevance to the photo. The answer is obvious: another rushed cutline, done from memory, because after all, cutlines are a hassle and a burden on our time. What's worse, the reader knows it: "The caption says this, but it looks like he's doing this. . .," they wonder. Or, even worse, "I don't think the writer was even at this event, judging by what's written here!" Don't churn out your cutlines like they're part of an assembly line. Put some thought into them |
AuthorMr. Forinash is the teacher for Journalism I Archives
April 2016
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