J Class Website » Advanced J

Form: Reporter evaluations

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:36:21 +0000

Reporter Evaluation

Reporter _____________________________ Class _____ Team _____

Evaluated by _________________________________

1) ____ attended assignment meeting.

Editor’s story idea:

Reporter’s idea:

(Circle the one you assigned.)

2) ____ draft in by 9:25 on production day

____ revision in by start of production meeting

____ paid attention to editors’ email/suggestions for improvement (good faith effort to improve)

____ editors believe more work could have been reasonably done

____ in production meeting, made more revisions as requested by editors (NA = does not apply)

3) General appraisal:

supportive? team player? listened to editors’ suggestions for improvement?

made writing/reporting improvements since last article?

need to improve in any area?

Youth Media Projects

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:12:00 +0000

MediaShift

Why Youth Media Projects Should Link Up with Public Media

Posted: 21 Jan 2010 11:49 AM PST

“The issues that we tackle in our ﬁlms are very powerful,” said youth filmmaker Lenah Perez in a newsletter from the New York-based youth media organization, Global Action Project. “I should say the way we tackle the issues is powerful, the issues are important — to look at the world as the big picture and to ﬁght for this world.”

As Perez’s quote suggests, there is often tremendous overlap between youth media and Public Media 2.0 projects. While we describe public media’s core function as “generating publics around problems,” youth media projects often accomplish the same goal by addressing issues such as social justice, civic engagement, and media reform. But, too often, these sectors are not linked. Is this a missed opportunity?

There are over 100 youth media organizations in the United States, and they have a diverse range of priorities. According to the State of the Youth Media Field, a report written by Ingrid Hu Dahl, editor-in-chief of Youth Media Reporter and program officer of youth media at the Academy for Educational Development:

Youth media neighbors other fields — including youth development, media arts, and public interest journalism — and has looser ties with civic engagement, youth organizing/activism, and service-learning. But youth media is distinct in that it uses media as a tool and strategy for young people to examine themselves, their communities, and the world at large. One of the greatest qualities of youth media is its potential to reach large audiences while offering young people a thoughtful, mediated process.

Powerful Youth Media Examples

Below are just a few of the many powerful youth media projects that span different platforms with varied goals and approaches, including journalism, career training, and social justice activism. They are participatory, grassroots efforts that take full advantage of Public Media 2.0 tools in order to generate the kind of engagement that spurs community development and social change.

Global Action Project
Since 1991, Global Action Project has provided media training for underserved youth in New York City and beyond. Global Action Project runs several programs, including Urban Voices, which combines social issue media production, college prep, leadership and critical thinking skills; and Media in Action, which provides support for community campaigns with “targeted, cross-generational trainings in capacity-building through creative youth engagement, media production, and strategizing.”

Additionally, their Global Voices program links youth producers with regional organizations in order to produce and screen videos all around the world. With the help of partner organizations, Global Action Project’s productions are screened for over 250,000 people per year. Films are for sale on their website, and many are also available on Global Action Project’s YouTube Channel. Below is “What’s Justice?” a video about how the Youth Leadership Project of CAAAV (also known as also known as Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence) is organizing for justice and community healing in the Bronx:

The Lower East Side Girls Club
It connects media production training, hyper-local journalism, intercultural understanding and community activism for girls aged eight to 18. The organization’s website includes podcasts (check out this one about two young women who refused to serve in the Israeli Army), blogs, girl-produced videos, and girl-produced citizen journalism, including an extensive multimedia hyper-local journalism project. In addition to media training, the Lower East Side Girls Club runs a diverse array of programs, ranging from health to the environment to international field trips. For more information on the Lower East Side Girls Club, see the video below:

Youth Radio/Youth Media International
Founded in 1990, Youth Radio provides underserved youth with free media training. Each year, Youth Radio trains 1,300 young people in broadcast journalism, multimedia skills training and career preparation. Youth Radio has achieved tremendous success in terms of distribution — over 300 Youth Radio reports are broadcast annually, on outlets including NPR, CNN.com and iTunes. According to Youth Radio’s website, “an estimated 27 million people hear and read the often overlooked perspectives of young people through Youth Radio’s work each year.” Read Youth Radio blogs here, listen to programs live here, or explore the archives here. Also, be sure to check out this youth-produced journalism collaboration with KQED.

Challenges Facing the Youth Media Field

While youth are often at an advantage in terms of social media fluency and knowledge of contemporary culture, the youth media field faces major challenges in supporting training, production and distribution, especially for resource-intensive broadcast platforms. Perhaps the most pressing issue is funding. According to the State of the Youth Media Field report:

Veteran funders are making fewer and smaller grants, and new funders are not inclining toward the kind of small, youth development-oriented organizations that populate the youth media field. Despite this funding landscape, youth media organizations and their funding partners acknowledge that the field has great potential to address large issues like poverty, education, war/conflict resolution, and HIV/AIDs. Funders in these areas tend to make long-term investments with short-term deliverables — a combination that would seem perfect for youth media, which routinely produces short, powerful, convincing, provocative, and extremely innovative pieces that have the potential to change society.

Along with difficulties in securing funding, practitioners in the youth media field sometimes struggle to uphold production values that match professionally produced media. While a particular youth media production may tell a great story that has the potential to ignite social change, many people will disregard it based on production values alone. Additionally, youth producers are not always taken seriously, or seen as even remotely authoritative. And in some school-based youth media programs, students can find their freedom of speech restricted.

According to Christine Newkirk of Youth Media Reporter, as a culture we are especially uninterested in the opinions and concerns of socially marginalized young people: “We see young people as consumers. We want their engagement in terms of buying things from us, but not in terms of listening to what they have to say.”

Another issue facing the youth media field is visibility. There are hundreds of youth media organizations in the United States and abroad, but individual projects are often grassroots and local, and lack access to widespread distribution. The field is in need of a centralized distribution hub in order to create the kind of awareness that makes adults sit up and listen. For example, Youth Radio has had great success in broadcasting youth-produced pieces on national media outlets. The potential for public engagement and social change increases exponentially when the audience is widened. Newkirk noted that exposure to youth productions can lead adults to develop “a newfound respect for youth citizenship and participation.”

As Dahl pointed out, youth media has too much potential to be ignored. And, much like public media, “youth media has the potential to create lasting, sustainable, major shifts in the culture we know today.”

The youth media field must continue to generate engagement while expanding its reach into new audiences — including adult communities. And stakeholders in both fields must continue to nurture the areas in which youth media and public media overlap.

Katie Donnelly is a research fellow at the Center for Social Media at American University where she blogs about the future of public media. With a background in media literacy education, Katie previously worked as a Research Associate at Temple University’s Media Education Lab in Philadelphia. When she’s not researching media, Katie spends her time working in the environmental field and blogging about food.

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Getting a j job requires flexibility

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:14:03 +0000

MediaShift

Flexibility, Freelance Key for Journalism Grads in Tough Job Market

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 10:01 AM PST

Stephanie Lim is a bright twenty-something who graduated top of her class in May 2009* from the UBC School of Journalism in Vancouver, Canada. When she returned home to Toronto, she had to face the reality of looking for a position in an industry reeling from fragmented audiences, declining profits and job losses.

“Even though I had high hopes upon graduation to find my dream job in journalism, when I graduated the media job market was not in good condition for hiring anyone full-time,” she recalled.

Lim did find work, though it was not the full-time position she’d been hoping for. Instead, she freelanced as a video editor for Global TV news in Toronto.

Her story will be familiar to journalism graduates in North America. The 2008 Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates found the lowest level of full-time employment reported by graduates in the U.S. for the past two decades.

Only six in 10 of graduates had full-time employment six to eight months after graduating in 2008. The report said “by almost all indications, the 2008 graduates of the nation’s journalism and mass communications programs found themselves in a disastrous job market.”

A year later, the State of the Media report for 2009 concluded that the collapsing economy in the U.S. aggravated an already weakened industry.

Across the border in Canada, the year was just as bleak, with hundreds of job losses, newspapers cutting back on publication days and one of the main media conglomerates, Canwest, seeking creditor protection.

Opportunity Knocks

The journalism graduates that are getting work find they have to be flexible when considering their options.

“Pickings were slim in the job market when I graduated but opportunities were, by no means, non-existent,” said recent grad Allison Cross. “I say opportunities because full-time, permanent jobs were scarce, but there were plenty of contracts out there to do journalism, social media, communications or professional writing.

“In many cases, these opportunities did not resemble the ideal job I was looking for, but still seemed to provide opportunities for new journalists to get their names out, try new things and make a bit of money along the way,” she said.

Cross took a different route after graduating from UBC in 2009. Attracted by the idea of reporting abroad, she spent five months in Sierra Leone freelancing and doing media development work for the Canadian non-profit organization, Journalists for Human Rights.

On her return, she landed a one-year contract as a reporter with Canwest News Service, a wire service for several major Canadian newspapers.

“I was most surprised by my new employer’s enthusiasm for multimedia skills, and how desperately those skills are needed in the newsroom,” she said.

Taking the job involved making a difficult decision — leaving her native Vancouver.

“My biggest challenge was trying to find the right job in the city where I wanted to live,” she said. “Ultimately, I had to sacrifice my city of choice and move across the country for a job.”

Difficult Choices

UBC journalism grad Krysia Collyer also had to make compromises. She was awarded a prestigious Joan Donaldson scholarship with the CBC News Network, which she hoped would be the first step towards being a TV reporter.

“I won the Donaldson and as a result have had a lot easier time finding work,” said Collyer. “CBC has approached me as opposed to me going out and applying for a job with them.”

She is now an associate producer in Ottawa, switching between radio reporting and producing, though she hopes to move back into TV at some point.

Recent grads in the U.S. have faced a similar dilemma. The 2008 survey of journalism and communication students found job satisfaction down, with some grads saying they accepted a job because it was the only one available.

However, few students can hope to land their ideal job straight out of school. The challenge for grads is to marry their hopes and dreams with the realities of journalism today.

If anything, students are expected to be more entrepreneurial, though this is a relatively new area for journalism schools. Ironically, the 2008 job survey found that public relations students fared better because they were more entrepreneurial and less tied to traditional job definitions.

New Positions

New media is creating new types of opportunities. 2009 grad Dan Haves took on a new role as social media officer for the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education in Vancouver.

Fellow grad Cynthia Yoo is working for the citizen journalism website OhMyNews in Korea, as well as with the Korean blog network Tatter and Media, and a start-up based in California.

“I don’t think you can plan out your career as journalists did in the past,” said Yoo, who also teaches at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. “But there are many jobs and interesting projects out there, if you’re flexible.”

For Stephanie Lim, being flexible has meant coming back to Vancouver temporarily for the Winter Olympics. She is working as a producer’s assistant for the Olympic Broadcasting Services Vancouver.

“The biggest challenge diving into the real world of journalism was the realization that this industry is unlike any other,” said Lim. “A job is not just given to you on a silver platter just because you have a degree in journalism. Instead, you must work from the bottom of the ladder as an intern, perform, and earn respect from veterans in the field.”

Her advice for journalism students who are apprehensive about graduation is simple.

“Know what area of journalism you want to get into, and strive for your goal. Don’t give up, even if it may take you two years to find that dream job.”

*Correction Jan. 20, 2010: This post originally and incorrectly said Stephanie Lim graduated from UBC in 2010. She of course graduated in 2009.

Alfred Hermida is an online news pioneer and journalism educator. He is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Journalism, the University of British Columbia, where he leads the integrated journalism program. He was a founding news editor of the BBC News website. He blogs at Reportr.net.

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Building a community with your readers

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:41:19 +0000

MediaShift

How to Use Meta-Stories to Engage the Newsroom, Community

Posted: 19 Jan 2010 04:11 PM PST

How do we create a community? This question is frequently asked by editors as well as by marketing managers and other business people. More and more, I don’t think you can create communities.

Communities already exist. You can try and offer them a news service or a platform that the community finds useful and engaging, but forget trying to control that community or shape it to meet the needs of your media company. The community calls the shots, not you or your company.

In December, I attended the LeWeb conference in Paris. I was impressed by Chris Pirillo, who told us that people who view communities as “tools” are tools themselves. Control is an illusion. (In fact, during his passionate presentation, Pirillo said “control is bullshit.”)

With that in mind, I’d like to suggest a simple way to make your newsroom or website do a better job of connecting with the community you serve: writing meta-stories.

Meta-stories are stories about what’s happening on your website, and about what happens in the newsroom. They’re a great way to engage the community.

Tell a Story From Forums, Comments

We allow people to post comments directly to our newspaper’s website, but we intervene and moderate whenever the debate gets personal or off-topic. This is a story in itself. I have started writing a daily story about the comments on our site and in our discussion forums. I’ve been amazed by the hidden gems of insight I’ve found. It really is a story in itself to examine how people react when a story breaks, and how the discussion evolves.

It’s also important to have a forum where people can come together and interact. This is a way for them to help tell a meta-story. Using CoveritLive, I hold chat sessions each weekday (for between 30 and 60 minutes) with or without a special guest. (We’re a financial newspaper, so mostly we chat about what happened with the markets.) This synchronous contact with our community builds trust. Beyond that, often people make very useful suggestions, like “why don’t you publish that investment guide each quarter instead of only once a year, we really like and need it.” Or they suggest interesting new angles for news stories.

Allow the Community to Listen In

My next way to create a meta-story is very simple: I talk to my colleagues. I ask them what they’re up to, and what their thoughts are about ongoing stories. I just jot down a list of topics and ideas and post them on our financial blog. This becomes a story about what’s going on inside the newsroom as we prepare our reporting.

Go Where Your Community Is

Once I’ve written my meta-stories, I share them on Facebook and Twitter in order to try and reach an even broader group of interested people. But even though I use Facebook and Twitter, I suggest focusing on the places where the community tends to focus its presence and attention.

For our paper, we generate the most debate and comments on our website, rather than on Facebook or Twitter. Our audience is interested in finance and economics, which means they have an interest in innovation and technology. But they’re not geeks and aren’t necessarily tech savvy, meaning that only a minority of them actively use Twitter.

Even though I’m personally inclined to spend lots of time on Twitter, I force myself to hang out more on our site. Maybe it’s not the latest in social media technology, but it’s where our community hangs out.

They Actually Like It

At first I was afraid that community members would complain about my comment meta-stories: ‘Why did you mention his comment and not mine?’ It didn’t happen. People actually told me they appreciated the effort, even if they weren’t the one being featured. I also get the impression some of them have started writing carefully worded comments in order to be included in the comments story.

As for my colleagues, my fear was they would object to being quoted when they are in the early stages of their reporting. It seems, however, they have no objections at all. They actually seem to appreciate the fact that their work is being noted and updated, and all they have to do is to speak to me or to jot down what they’re up to — much like status updates, in fact. It gives the editorial work a stream-like, real-time web urgency.

Keep Things Simple

So forget about complicated community-building strategies. Meet the existing community you want to serve, talk to them, talk to your colleagues, write down the whole process, and put it out there for everyone to read. (This approach works equally well for those who work with sound or video.)

Then combine that with a synchronous session (such as chat) and have real-time interactions. You’ll be surprised how much your community will teach you — not only about the news, but about what you do.

*****

I’d love to hear about your suggestions and thoughts about using meta-stories! Please share then in the comments.

Roland Legrand is in charge of Internet and new media at Mediafin, the publisher of leading Belgian business newspapers De Tijd and L’Echo. He studied applied economics and philosophy. After a brief teaching experience, he became a financial journalist working for the Belgian wire service Belga and subsequently for Mediafin. He works in Brussels, and lives in Antwerp with his wife Liesbeth.

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10 lessons from NPR’s digital transformation

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:11:33 +0000

http://www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/leadership_blog/comments/10_lessons_from_nprs_digital_transformation/

January 14, 2010

10 lessons from NPR’s digital transformation

Ellen Weiss, VP News at National Public Radio describes what she and her organization have learned about change in the past two years

(USC journalism graduate student Nikki Usher sat in on the Knight Digital Media Center’s Strategic Leadership Summit for Public Radio Stations, held last month in conjunction with National Public Radio and funded by Knight Foundation. I asked her to write about key takeaways.)

By Nikki Usher

National Public Radio is clearly an organization looking to make radical transformations as it moves from being a radio network to a multiplatform news provider.

What has NPR learned from trying to rethink its digital strategy? Ellen Weiss, Senior Vice President for News offered ten lessons from two years in the change trenches that may be useful to other news organizations:

1. There is no end state. The transition will take a long time and no one anywhere has figured this all out. For the transition to happen, managers have to be part of the conversation.

2. Be realistic about how much multimedia you can handle and train for. Writing is multimedia when you are a broadcast organization. NPR brought its training back to reality – away from video and to things people could take back to their jobs: how to take a good picture, what’s the mix of writing, blog writing, writing for the web vs. writing for print.

3. Communicate.Weiss held three Q&A sessions a month to help explain to staffers the plans and the process and to give staff a chance to ask questions.

4. Test and learn. Repeat. Stop things that aren’t working. Realize that lots of people through the organization are going to do things differently and try new things in different ways. Don’t be afraid to reorganize the newsroom (NPR has done this – twice). Be strategic about every hire you have.

5. Do not play into Web versus radio competition. (Or, to extend on Ellen’s thoughts, for other newsrooms, Web v. print, or web v. broadcast). Geography matters. Seat people together. Bring digital and editorial staff together. Remind people they are delivering the audience, not one audience versus another audience.

6. Demonstrate your affection and enthusiasm for digital work. People will follow your lead, if you acknowledge the good work.

7. Make tough decisions about what you want to stop. NPR stopped the Bryant Park Project, but started Planet Money. Planet Money, a big success, benefited from Weiss and others willingness to let the podcast/blog experiment and develop into what it is now.

8. Be transparent about metrics and educate your staff. Counter the fear that work is going to be driven by getting the hottest number or different editorial standards.

9. Listen to people’s concerns, don’t try to downplay them. Look for early adapters. Weiss won’t accept anyone not writing for web, but when it comes to social media, she trusts that buzz in the newsroom will build and grab people interested in it.

10. Have reasonable expectations. You can’t do everything, pick a few things and try to do them well. Give people the support they need to do these things well.
Weiss and two other NPR executives, Kinsey Wilson, senior vice president and general manager for digital news, and Dick Meyer, NPR’s executive editor for news, shared some of their visions with the public radio group.

They stressed the importance of NPR being more than a destination site with multimedia like CNN or the Washington Post. NPR’s focus is on being a nimble site adapted to the new forms of the Internet that recognizes the advantages of audio, social media, niche sites/verticals and mobile platforms.

A big step for NPR has been to produce continuous news and information in what Kinsey Wilson called “real time” or the “price of information on the real clock not on programming time,” an effort which has taken 18 months of Knight training, retraining and hiring staff, and rethinking digital strategy. The goal is not to “match CNN” but to have NPR’s own sensibility and story selection to breaking news on internet time.