Online Journalism Workshops

Monday: Online News Discussion and Blogging Workshop

Online News Discussion

Current online practices in newspaper newsrooms and news Web sites are discussed.

Multimedia examples:

New York TImes multimedia
Washington Post video and photos
Interactive Narratives: Links to examples
MediaStorm: Independent multimedia storytelling

Clean design in online newspaper front pages:

Guardian (Britain)
Miami Herald
Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press (see also Redding Record-Searchlight)
Las Vegas Sun
El País (Spain)

Blogging Workshop

See separate page: Blogs and Journalism

Tuesday: Web Audio Workshop and Soundslides Workshop

Web Audio Workshop

Everyone must have headphones for this workshop!

We recommend two levels of recording equipment for Web audio. The least expensive digital audio recorders (less than $100) will work better if you add a professional microphone. The more expensive recorders ($200 and up) have built-in microphones of good quality.

Make sure your recorder can save files in one of these formats: WMA, WAV or MP3. If it saves in some other format, it's going to give you nothing but trouble.

For editing audio, we recommend Audacity. This is a free program that works on Windows and Mac.

For converting a WMA file to WAV format (uncompressed), we use Switch (the FREE version). Audacity cannot open a WMA file. It is not necessary to use Switch if your recorder saves files as WAV or MP3.

Digital audio recorders -- comparison of the more expensive models
Olympus voice recorders -- less expensive, good quality
- I recommend the VN-5200PC.
- These recorders differ in A LOT OF WAYS. For example -- the recorder MUST has a USB connection. It MUST save files in one of these formats: WMA, WAV or MP3.
- Outside the U.S., see Olympus's global site.
Ethical guidelines for editing audio, by Mary McGuire, a longtime radio journalist for CBC Radio in Canada
Super-Fast Guide to Audio Editing (PDF, 236 KB)
Includes instructions for how to download and install Audacity, a free audio-editing program that works on Windows and Mac. You can print this. You may share it with others.
Editing Audio with Audacity, Part 2 (PDF, 193 KB)
Skills for your later audio projects -- including multitrack editing; fade-in and fade-out; noise reduction. This is more advanced than what we covered in the workshop session, but you can easily add these skills to your repertoire later.

More audio tips and resources: Journalists' Toolkit: Audio

For more tips about Web audio, see these posts in the Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency:

RGMP 3: Buy an audio recorder and learn to use it
RGMP 4: Start editing audio
RGMP 5: Listen to podcasts
RGMP 6: Post an interview (or podcast) on your blog

It is very simple to embed your audio file in a blog post at WordPress.com! The instructions are provided in RGMP 6 (link above).

Soundslides Workshop

See separate page: Audio Slideshows with Soundslides

Thursday: Newspaper Video Shooting and Editing

See separate page: Video for Newspapers

Friday: Teaching Online Journalism Discussion & Putting It All Together

Teaching Online Journalism Discussion

How can journalism educators design courses and modules that meet the needs of students in a rapidly changing field?

One way is to encourage stuents to use social media tools.

See separate page: Social Media and Journalism

Teaching Links

Links to course syllabuses (from Mindy McAdams)
Q & A with Mindy McAdams: Teaching students to integrate multimedia tools and storytelling
Multimedia journalism teaching: 10 things I learned (from Mindy McAdams)
Journalism Grads: 30 Things You Should Do This Summer (by Mark S. Luckie)
10 Ways Journalism Schools Are Teaching Social Media (by Vadim Lavrusik)

Putting It All Together (work period in the lab)

Participants may work with their collected media (text, photos, audio and video) and online journalism faculty to practice their convergence skills and post projects related to their Institute experiences.

U.S. Study Institute on Journalism and Media