Blog post 14: Journalism blogs

Most news organizations nowadays have one or more blogs on their website. These blogs vary widely in both tone and content.

In this assignment, you will find two blogs within ONE news organization. I do not mean two blog POSTS; I mean the entire blog.

Tuesday I showed you a post at The New York Times Lens blog, for example.

How to find blogs: I went to the website of a major TV news organization and looked around for a LIST of blogs. At the BOTTOM of the page of one of their blogs, I found a list of links to all the other blogs for that news organization. Another way to find the blogs at one news organization is to search on Google with the word blogs and the name of the news organization.

Find two blogs at one news organization. Examine them. Read several posts. Then compare the two blogs.

Blog post 13: Photo stories

The National Press Photographers Association has a monthly contest for its members. Looking at the winners in the “Feature/Multiple Picture” category is a great way to learn more about telling a story visually.

This is one of those assignments where you will select one item and write about it. Please dig around and try to find a photo story that really appeals to YOU. I won’t ask you you to post your selected story in advance, but please make an effort to choose one that no one else has written about.

To view the winners and choose one story:

1. First go to the 2013 winners page and select any link there (R1, R2, etc., stand for regions of North America).
2. From the region page, select any month.
3. On the month page, open the link for “Feature/Multiple Picture.” Only this category contains photo stories.
4. Choose a photo story to write about.

Blog post 12: Reading assignment

In this blog post, publish your notes from Kobré, chapter 7, “Photo Editing.” Your notes must appear in the form of one (1) numbered list. Write a brief statement above the list to explain or summarize it.

The idea is to highlight or capture the ideas or information that resonated most strongly with you, in a format that other people might find interesting to read.

Although this chapter is about photo editing, it will also help you understand way photojournalists think when they are shooting multiple photos for one story, as well as the way they think when they are selecting the final photos to be included. I think this is one of the best chapters in the book (and I like just about everything in this book).

Photo 1: Practice photographing people indoors

IMPORTANT: All photos submitted for this assignment must be shot between Wednesday morning (Sept. 25) and Monday (Sept. 30) at midnight. Photos must NOT be edited in any way before uploading EXCEPT resizing.

The ability to deliver good images from a variety of real-life situations — this is useful in many journalism jobs.

Almost every digital camera has a variety of settings that will enable you to capture good, clear, usable shots indoors. Learning how to use these settings to get the best results will require you to PRACTICE with your camera.

Exemplary online journalism from last year

See the list — everything is linked:

2013 Online Journalism Awards finalists 

You can learn a lot by looking at a few of these every week.

New news startup targets ‘the Change Generation’

What do you think about this site? OZY.com is a new site with a mission of keeping younger adults (like you) informed without … um … stressing you out too much, I guess.

Leave your reactions (if any) in the comments.

Blog post 11: Your camera

In this post you have creative freedom to write about your relationship with your camera.

Include a photo of your camera in the post, and make sure the photo is as wide as the text of your post. No tiny pictures!

Make it personal. Write for an audience of professional journalists. Write in your own voice, as a student.

Blog post 10: Reading assignment

In this blog post, publish your notes from Kobré, chapter 1 (and page vi), and chapter 15. Your notes must appear in the form of two (2) numbered lists, one for each chapter. Write a brief statement above each list to explain or summarize that list.

The goal is for you to highlight or capture the ideas or information that resonated most strongly with you, in a format that other people might find interesting to read.

The list is not meant to represent everything in the chapter. It should represent what was most meaningful to YOU. Thus each student’s list will be different.

Please approach the reading with an open mind, with an attitude that there is much of use to be learned from this book. That’s why I assigned it — I think it’s well written and has wonderful examples.

Blog post 9: Exploring a photographer’s vision

For this assignment, you will choose one “Featured Essay” at the Magnum Photos site. You will read the text and view all the photos in the essay slideshow.

No two students may write about the same essay. So, as soon as you decide which essay you want to write about, REPLY TO THIS POST and write the title of the essay and ALSO use the complete URL that points directly to that essay to make that title a LINK. If you are first, you can write about that one. If someone else named that essay first, then you must choose another.

For example:

2012 Egyptian Presidential Election

Blog post 8: Improve your website

You have created a website using WordPress. Not the blog for this course. Not the blog for bootcamp. I mean your real website — the one I would see if I went to “yourname.com.” For example, mine is mindymcadams.com.

Last week you critiqued a professional journalist’s website, in Blog Post 4. It’s time to start making your website more like that.

How do you get started? There are three things you can do right now:

1. Choose a WordPress theme that is suitable for a professional journalist’s portfolio. In particular, make sure the home page of your website sends a clear signal that this is professional portfolio site.
2. Write a personal statement that makes you appear serious, professional, committed, hire-able.
3. Construct a resume page on a WordPress page that will be easy for you to update in the future. NOT A PDF. A live, searchable Web page, built inside your WordPress theme.