Teaching Online Journalism

Poking around in The New York Times’s job listings, I found this description of three distinct internships “in the Web Newsroom of The New York Times”:

• Front-end Interactive Designer: full skill-set of client-side technologies including HTML, CSS and JavaScript/Prototype. Experience with Ruby on Rails is a plus.
• Motion Design Storyteller: working knowledge of AfterEffects and Photoshop in producing motiongraphics. Final Cut a plus. We are looking for someone to help grow the motion design side of storytelling. So applicant must have a strong sense of timing and narrative and have the ability to implement a variety of creative styles.
• Interactive Flash Journalist: Advanced programming knowledge and experience in Flash and ActionScript 3. Experience with Photoshop and Illustrator is a plus.

When I tell journalists and journalism students that skills such as these are important to the future of their career, I catch a lot of flak. Frankly, I’m a little tired of hearing that there is no need for journalists to learn these skills. This is storytelling. This is what the ability to type on a typewriter was in 1970.

As Ann Landers used to write in her advice column: Wake up and smell the coffee!

Update (10:30 a.m.): Then I found an ad for a reporter at The Times-News of Hendersonville, N.C., “a New York Times-owned media company” that describes itself as “a print and 24/7 online newsroom that produces a 14,000 circulation daily newspaper and a website with about 2 million pageviews a month”:

Our reporters cover beats, work on enterprise projects, post stories to the Web and shoot video. Our staff works as a team and reporters are often asked to cover other beats as well as breaking news. The right candidate will have a passion for journalism and multimedia, a strong sense of community journalism and the ability to develop sources and go beyond routine meeting coverage.

In June I posted a ranked list of skills needed by today’s journalists. In reviewing it today, I wondered whether it would be different if instead of saying journalist we said reporter.

Say you want to hire a reporter — for a Web-only organization, a magazine, a newspaper, a TV or documentary outfit. Or for all of the above! Of course you want the person to have some experience, some evidence that he or she can do the job. Of course you need the person to be able to write grammatically, correctly, fluently.

What else?

Here’s an unranked list to get us rolling:

• Conduct an interview
• Capture the interview as clean digital audio
• Gather background material for a story
• Cover a live event
• Narrate a story for video
• Script a video package

What else?

Here’s a new, stripped-down, easy-to-follow introduction to WordPress — the free blogging platform that also works as a versatile content management system:

WordPress Basics

This short tutorial is based on the second installment in my Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency, but I have shortened it to the essentials so that I can just give it to students and say, “Now set up your blog.” Hooray!

If you need any encouragement to start blogging, Adam Westbrook recently posted Why journalists must blog and how — followed by five more posts that will give you a lot of inspiration!

Just because comedy or humorous videos are the most popular among U.S. adults (source) does not mean journalists should wring their hands and despair about public tastes.

What’s more important, I think, is that among people who have broadband Internet access at home, 75 percent watch online videos (source). Moreover, when the Pew Internet researchers looked at all the people in their 2009 survey who do watch video online, they found that 89 percent have broadband.

Not a shock, you say? Fine. But what does it mean? Like the growth of radio, and then television, the growth of online video is fueled by access to technology. Television devices were not always as common as they are now; like television, broadband continues to expand.

Don’t ignore the history of home video viewing:

In the early days of the video business a number of tapes from non-mainstream producers became widely available, but these were largely pornography and low-grade slasher films. Even these disappeared as the Mom and Pop video stores were displaced by the clean corporate hegemony of Blockbuster Video and other chain distributors. (source)

People watch what is available to them, easy to get, and not overpriced.

People also tend to hop on the bandwagon of popular interest, the flavor of the week. CNN’s October 2009 interview with the family of the “balloon boy,” for example, “was viewed more than 2.5 million times that week” (source). These videos rise and fall rapidly — 91 percent of YouTube’s top videos don’t stay in the top ranks for more than one week. (See: Top 10 YouTube Videos of All Time.)

In analyzing the most viewed news-related videos on YouTube in 2009, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that the “news agenda on YouTube rarely coincided with that of the mainstream press”:

In only eight of the 49 weeks studied was the top video about the same subject that also led the traditional media. Of those eight occasions, three of them involved footage of discussing the health care reform bill (often with contentious opposition), and two of them were videos about the protests in Iran. (source)

That tells us that people are seeking out stories that the mainstream media are not providing. I think that’s encouraging — it means the public does want news video, and is not only looking for a good laugh.

PEJ concluded that the top videos usually had “a visual and dynamic quality that makes people want to share them with other people.”

Share. With other people. That’s something we in journalism ought to be thinking about. Not to pander, but to evaluate our storytelling. When I hear a good story, I do want to share it.

Are most journalism videos good enough to share?

The percentage of U.S. Internet users who said they watch news video online did increase from 2007 to 2009 (from 37 to 43 percent) — even though that was a smaller increase than for other types on online videos (source). Comedy and humorous videos saw the biggest leap, from 31 to 50 (percentage of Internet users who said they had watched that type).

But note, sports video online went from 14 to 21 percent — less than half the viewers for news!

How many online news operations are putting the lion’s share of their video effort into producing sports videos?

Among the 18–29 age group, humorous/comedy video viewing far outstrips news video viewing — but note, 56 percent in that age group said they have watched news video online. (Only 34 percent have watched sports video online.) Note too that only 19 percent in this age group have uploaded video (source) — squashing the widely held misconception that all young Americans are technical wizards.

I saw a lot of evidence in the PEJ report about YouTube that people are hungry for news video. For example:

• “In January 2009, the most viewed clip was Obama’s inaugural address while the second video was raw footage of the US Airlines plane that safely landed in the Hudson River without incurring any significant injuries.”
• “More than a quarter (26%) of the top five most watched news videos in a given week were about things that happened overseas. Many of them were in foreign languages and were about issues that received virtually no attention in the American press or elsewhere in English-language social media.”
• “After international events, the next largest subject on YouTube was government with 20%. More than half of those (11%) involved President Obama or his administration in some capacity … [e.g.] his first interview with the Arab television station Al-Arabiya.”
• “One of the unique aspects of YouTube is the ability of users to view raw footage that is not edited or posted by a news organization. Many of the most viewed news videos on YouTube are of this nature. For example, for two consecutive weeks in September, the most viewed video was a first-person clip from a demonstration in Pittsburgh surrounding the G20 summit where an unidentified protestor is forced into a car by three men dressed in camouflage.”

@killbutton Q1 Yes, because the foundation of journalism is SO important. Journos need a strong foundation in ethics! #wjchat

@dnvolz Brian Williams never got any college degree and is considered a top journalist even in an ever-changing market #wjchat

@mhinojosa Q1 Yes, I think it’s more important now to go to J-school. More and more we work alone and don’t have others to teach us the ropes #wjchat

Last night I helped to moderate an organized Twitter chat. (Here’s how a Twitter chat works.) Robert Hernandez (a k a @webjournalist) is the juggernaut behind #wjchat; he’s aided by a cheery posse including @killbutton, @kimbui, and @RobinJP.

Here’s Robert’s own account of how and why he launched #wjchat.

@wcochran Q2 What would replace J-school? “Indentured servitude”? #wjchat

@rohanv Q2 English majors w/PoliSci minors. People are not going to shed the idea of a degree. #wjchat

@PDXdrew Q2 Nothing can replace real-world experience. Apprenticeships are a good idea. But you need a rounded education for balance #wjchat

We met up at TypeWith.me a few days in advance to discuss the topic of the chat and to come up with some questions. This provides a no-frills environment for group authoring in real time. I hadn’t used TypeWith.me before (thanks, Robert!), and I’m already thinking of some ways it could be used by students to rapidly produce some brainstormed work.

The topic of the chat is set, but the questions remain fluid and flexible up to and during the live chat itself. Robert ran the chat last night (as @wjchat) and also participated as himself. My role was less that of a moderator, I think, than that of a facilitator. I re-tweeted the Q’s, responded to various tweets and re-tweeted others as they struck my fancy. I tried to highlight remarks made by different people — there were a lot of people in the chat!

@alexisgrant Q3 Biggest regret re: J-school experience? Wish I’d learned more technical skills. And how to edit video — but it wasn’t big yet. #wjchat

@justinNXT Q3 Biggest success in J-school? Finally understanding data, databases and how to use numbers thanks to a CAR class! #wjchat

One of my favorite Q’s asked the crowd to list the top five skills, ranked in order of importance, for a student of journalism to learn:

@kbeninato Q4 1) Empathy 2) Grammar 3) Skepticism 4) Creativity 5) A Sense of Humor #wjchat (Can drinking be an alternate?)

@lisawilliams #wjchat Q4 Basic grounding in how to launch & run a sit that’s more sophisticated than a Tumblr blog. Flash, not so much.

@Amadeus3000 Q4 1) curious 2) organized (of information and yourself) 3) unselfish – what others want, not you 4) driven/innovative 5) transparency #wjchat

If you want to review last night’s chat, see the “room” at TweetChat (you can also use TweetChat to follow during the live chat; it updates in real time) — but be warned, new tweets with the hashtag #wjchat will come in at the top, so next week all the tweets from last night will be buried under the new ones. You can also search #wjchat at Twitter.

Update (June 4): See a transcript of the complete chat — provided by What the Hashtag?!

A few people said the chat was hard for them to follow at Twitter. I used a new column in TweetDeck and found that worked well, but if you don’t use TweetDeck, you could just use TweetChat in your browser.

@brookevandam Q5 As a Journ Prof I would say students are more tech and SM savvy but only when it serves their self interests #wjchat

@notblue Q5 Fiction. It’s not if you’re older/younger; it’s how adaptable you are. An “ooh, what does this do?” mindset doesn’t hurt #wjchat

@kimbui Q6 When I was in school, my irritation with some tenured profs is that they had too little real world experience #wjchat

@Scheopner Q6 when I was in J-school, one tenured prof worked summers in TV newsrooms as a grip, carrying camera equipment, to stay current. #wjchat

There were nine primary questions, with a couple of secondary Q’s thrown in. You can read them here (at Google Docs).

I’ll bet some clever programmer has devised a way to scrape Twitter for all tweets including a particular hashtag, but after some sincere searching, I wasn’t able to find anything that was plug-and-play. See the link at the end of this post — complete transcript!

@AsianStig Q7 Given that the platforms keep changing, J-schools could place more focus on social media sites that have the most impact. #wjchat

@McKennaEwen #wjchat Schools should reward students who work outside the curriculum to master 1 or 2 skills. There should be room to specialize.

@CindyRoyal Q7 challenge is teaching broad range of skills while integrating w new concepts, trends, ideas – perspective. Can be done, though #wjchat

@andymboyle I also wish that professors forced kids to learn to write on deadline. What’s this two weeks to write a 500-word story shit? #wjchat

@BrianManzullo Q8 Newspaper layout teaches core design skills, which still apply to Web/iPad/mobile/etc., even if in a different way. #wjchat

@jaosullivanx Q8 Things like layout and video should be integrated into every class, not set aside specifically for a semester. #wjchat

@glennluther I think a class on the business side of freelancing would be so amazing. I wish that I could take that today #wjchat

@laurakeeley Q9 I’m not sure dividing J school further is the way to go. I like the idea of less concentrations, more overlap #wjchat

@dblanchard Q9 I’m just worried the new options will actually pigeonhole many students, depending on how easy it is to mix and match. #wjchat

@ZTracer Q9 Specialization is important – I think Mizz decision calls into question the notion that J school is best prep for journalism #wjchat

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in #wjchat No. 17 — I really enjoyed it! Hope to see you all again next Wednesday at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT).

See a transcript of the complete chat — provided by What the Hashtag?! Thanks to @CindyRoyal for the tip!

According to Google Analytics, this is what you’ve been reading here (from Dec. 1, 2009, up to today):

1. 21 examples of Flash journalism
2. A few words about digital audio recorders
3. Now printable! Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency
4. Recording phone calls: For reporters
5. Why does anyone major in journalism?
6. What you should know about HTML5 today
7. How to shoot video interviews
8. Thoughts about video editing software

If you missed any of these, enjoy! (Evidence of the long tail: No. 4 and No. 7 were written and posted in 2008!)

If you feel like suggesting a topic for a new post, please do!

Although I hear there are still some journalism programs where CSS is not taught, I’m going to assume that all those Luddites are working on bringing their design and presentation curriculum into the 21st century.

CSS is essential to design and presentation for the Internet. In this post I’m just going to provide a few links and try to summarize what students probably ought to know.

Students should have a basic understanding of how HTML and CSS work, and how they work together. When some journalists challenge me on this, I point out that in my undergraduate print journalism program back in the Dark Ages (before the Web), every single student was required to pass an editing course in which we learned to draw page layouts, spec headlines, crop photos, and use design tools such as a pica stick and a proportion wheel. Presentation has ALWAYS been an important part of journalism — and today’s presentation uses HTML and CSS.

Basic CSS does not change for HTML5. We will continue to use CSS to specify font families, the size of headings, colors for backgrounds and fonts and borders, spacing for margins and padding, and so on. We use CSS to position elements relative to other elements on the screen. We use CSS to create visual effects for navigation links.

One very useful resource for CSS is the Comparison of layout engines at Wikipedia. With simple color coding (green for yes, and salmon-pink for no), it shows us which Web browsers currently support which CSS2 and/or CSS3 selectors (such as id and class) and properties (such as margin, padding, width, and height). Selectors or properties that are mostly pink are not widely supported yet, so beginners do not need to worry about those yet.

Last week, Smashing Magazine published CSS Three — Connecting the Dots, which says:

Just because a property isn’t widely supported by browsers or fully documented at the moment, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be working with it. In fact, I’d argue the opposite.

I am not disputing that — I’m only saying beginners should not try to learn everything all at once. In the Smashing article, author and Web designer Trent Walton shows us a bunch of cool experiments using several of the new CSS3 capabilities, such as:

• Rotations
• Transforms
• Drop shadows
• Animations

Yup, CSS3 can do a lot of amazing new things. But you can get along just fine without them.

Another resource I’ll recommend is Advanced Selectors, at HTML Source. Author Ross Shannon introduces some advanced CSS3 techniques (again, not necessary for beginners to learn) such as combinators (h1 + h2; p > em) and new uses for the pseudo-classes (such as :hover).

As far as I’ve been able to ascertain, the CSS we have been using for the past few years will not change — that is, most of what we have been doing, we can continue doing. The big exception will be in the use of DIVs (see my previous “Tips” post for an illustration of this).

Ross Shannon at HTML Source has a streamlined introduction to CSS that is suitable for beginners. I have a short list of what I consider to be the essential CSS selectors.

I think journalism students should start with a simple HTML/CSS file that has already been styled according to correct Web standards. Their assignment should be to change specific properties and values — for example, change the red border to blue; change the heading font families. This is hardly rocket science, and it should fit in with any first design course in a journalism program.

For related posts, check out the “code” category here in this blog.