PBS story highlights online journalists' role in new media landscape

A story aired last week on Public Broadcasting System's "NewsHour" that highlighted both the decreasing number of reporters working for newspapers and how their role is being taken up by online-only reporters.

"As Newspapers Cut Back, Online Reporters Step In," reported by Jeffrey Brown (clearly brilliant, despite the misspelling of his last name), aired April 13.

The stretch run: class schedule weeks 10-16

Longer Podcasts, Standards, Law, and Ethics
Monday, March 30
Class: “Radio News Packages versus Online Audio News Packages"
Guest Instructor, Mario Caballero, KCSU-FM and Student Media
Lab: Audio Script Writing/Natural Sound Gathering/Package Planning

Wednesday, April 2
Class: Introduction to first Web site critique (legacy news sites vs. online only sites) due 4/15
Lab: Second audio project editing work

Monday, April 6
No class scheduled Lab open to work on audio editing, if needed

Wednesday, April 8
Class: “Legal and Ethical Issues Online”
Readings for class: "Diversity at Work: Rewriting the American Story" by Tom Huang
"RTNDA Survey: Women, Minorities Progress in TV Newsrooms" by Jill Geisler
"Legal and business advice for online publishers and bloggers" by Kim Pearson
Lab: Second audio project editing
Project is due before class April 13, posted on or linked from blog site

Multi-media Reporting and Design
Monday, April 13
Class: Introduction to in-depth cooperative “Multi-Media Reporting” and Planning Guide
Reading for class: Chapters 9, 10 and 11 from Briggs and "Multi-media Storytelling" by Jane Stevens
Lab : Form teams and brainstorm assignment

Wednesday, April 15
First Web site critique due
Story idea due
Readings for class: "Video Techniques" and "Standups and Voice-overs"

Monday, April 20
Class: “Basic Online Design Usability” with guest instructor Mike Gaede
Group outline/Package Planning Guide due

Wednesday, April 22
Introduction to second Web site critique assignment (multimedia packages) due 4/29
Newsroom: Groups meet after Web site critique assignment
Readings for class: "Google Map Basics" by Jerry Monti
"Map Mashup Resources" by Jerry Monti
"Using Spreadsheet Data in Google Maps and Google Earth" by Jerry Monti
Lab: Work on critique and/or group project

Monday, April 27
Class: Newsroom (Your group must meet at 1 p.m.)
Lab: Work on critique and/or group project

Wednesday, April 29
Second Web site critique due Class: Newsroom (Your group must meet at 1 p.m.)

Monday, May 4
Class: Newsroom (Your group must meet at 1 p.m.)
Class: Drafts of all materials due to instructor (page designs, written, video, audio, graphics, etc.) at the beginning of the class (1 p.m.)

Wednesday, May 6
Class: Newsroom (Your group must meet at 1 p.m.)
Presentations of multi-media projects: Q&A
Evaluations of class, peers and self

Each group leader must meet with instructor to review work before it is posted to Web.

All Multi-Media projects must be posted to the Web BEFORE the beginning of the final exam period on May 14 at 1:30 p.m.

FINAL EXAM
Thursday, May 14, at 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Open lab to work on final project

Seattle P-I goes Web only

The dominoes continue to fall in the printed newspaper business, but unlike The Rocky Mountain News and Scripps Howard, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and parent company Hearst announced Monday they'd give a Web-only version of the P-I a try.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) will mark the final print edition of the 146-year-old paper, which was put up for sale in January. Hearst found no buyers, but instead of shutting down entirely, the P-I likely will significantly downsize its newsroom and continue as a hyper-local Web only publication.

This will be worth watching over the next several months to see if the P-I can make a go of it in that netherworld where newspapers save tons of money by cutting out the print product. But have they killed the golden goose at the same time?

Student Media finishes third multimedia project

Student Media at CSU's multimedia coordinator Ryan Avery introduced his team's third online project today. This project -- with parts contributed by CTV, KCSU-FM, The Rocky Mountain Collegian and College Avenue magazine -- focuses on African-American history at CSU.

Avery and Web designer Trevor Simonton added a feature to this package allowing for community feedback.

In addition to viewing the package online, you can also watch the selected video segments on CTV News this week or read the Collegian. "KCSU Live" on Sunday night dedicated its show to the topic.

The two previous packages focused on AIDS awareness and students with disabilities.

Another story on the future of newspapers (and the death of reporting)

This time it's Salon.com coming to the defense of, not newspapers, but of the reporting traditionally done by newspapers.

Check out the subheads, too. More fodder for your mid-term exam responses on March 11.

Also, I've added my audio (edited by Matt Stephens) on the side of this blog page. Listen well.

Class Schedule through March 25

Here it is, from the end of Week 5 through Week 9 this semester

Wednesday, Feb. 18
Class: "News War, Part III" video and discussion completed
"The Morgue: A reporter's elegy for his dying paper" by Joe Mathews about the Los Angeles Times
"The Scoop Factory: Inside Politico and the brave new world of post-print journalism" from The New Republic
"Battle Plans for Newspapers" from The New York Times
Lab: View and discuss Audio Project; embed audio edited by partner in your page

Reporting and Writing for Online Media
Monday, Feb. 23
Class: "Generating and Focusing Story Ideas"
Lab: Begin generating ideas for Reporting Assignment (See Ram CT for assignment details)
Readings for Class: Chapters 4 and 6 of Briggs
"Distinction Between Bloggers, Journalists Blurring More Than Ever" by Mark Glaser in MediaShift Arrange carpools for Wednesday's road trip

Wednesday, Feb. 25
Class: Road Trip to Fort Collins Coloradoan, 1300 Riverside Avenue, to discuss the role that multi-media reporting plays in the modern newsroom
Meet in the lobby of the Coloradoan

Monday, March 2
Class: "Web Resources and Databases"Readings for Class: "Wikipedia in the Newsroom" and "Citing Wikipedia" by Donna Shaw, AJR
"Open-Source Journalism: It's a Lot Tougher than You Think" by Anna Haynes, wired.com

"Give Each Blog Post a Pretty Face" by Chris Brogan about using Flickr's Creative Commons to find photos

Lab: Finalize story ideas and assignments (includes traditional Web writing,audio storytelling and complementary photography)

Wednesday, March 4
Class: "Photo storytelling on the Web"
Readings for Class: Chapter 8 of Briggs
San Francisco State Golden Gate Xpress
Audio Slide Shows with Microsoft Photo Story
Soundslides Tutorial
And Another Tutorial
Or just flickr it in five frames
Lab: Continue working on Reporting Assignment

Monday, March 9
Class: “Online Writing Styles, Hooking and Keeping Readers”
Readings for Class: Writing style for print vs. Web
Review for Mid-Term Exam
Lab: Editing project

Wednesday, March 11
Class: Mid-term essay exam on blogs, citizen journalism, convergence, and online news reporting and writing

Monday, March 23
Class: Work on all aspects of Individual Multi-Media Reporting Project
Lab: Feedback and work on written and audio drafts, which are due at beginning of class

Wednesday, March 25
Lab: Finish and post reporting projects on blog site

SPJ Region 9 Conference approaches

CSU's award-winning chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is gearing up for its annual road trip to the SPJ Region 9 conference. Only this year, they get to go farther than Denver because the conference is in Salt Lake City.

The two -day conference starts Friday afternoon, April 3 and continues through Saturday, April 4. If you're interested in making the trip with the CSU group, contact Valerie Hisam at vmhisam@msn.com or Holly Wolcott at holly.wolcott@colostate.edu.

The conference theme is "Evolution: Journalism is Changing; Be a part of the Digital Revolution."

You can also find out more by hitting up the Utah SPJ blog.