Schedule notes:

This schedule is a work in progress. I update it just before every class period.
Looking for last week's class or homework assignment? Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Want to check your grade? Go to Blackboard
Here's the rubric you'll need to turn in with each assignment.

Nov. 17/19

Tuesday
Your ideas for the slideshow
Photo composition: mugs, portrait/rule of thirds, wide/medium/tight, action/reaction
Homework: publish your best photos to your blog

Thursday
Portrait | interviewing | your pictures
Soundslides: getting your files into soundslides, creating title slides, publishing your slideshow online

Due Dec. 1:
Slideshow assignment:
One minute of narrative audio, at least 20 photos exhibiting photo composition basics: rule of thirds, fill the frame, action/reaction and wide/medium/tight. Grading rubric.
Like the slideshow examples we'll watch in class, you'll create a one-minute slideshow that features an interesting story, compelling audio and well-composed photographs.
Skills/reading: soundslides, photo composition (wide-medium-tight, pairing photo to audio)

Nov. 24

Tuesday
No class. Faculty furlough day.

Thursday
No class. Happy Thanksgiving.

Dec. 1/3

Slideshow due

Tuesday
Soundslides troubleshooting, publishing your slideshow

Thursday
Chapter 14: Journalistic principles

Dec. 8/10

Tuesday
Chapter 15: Legal issues and journalism ethics

Thursday
Final exam review

Final exam

Section 002: Monday, Dec. 14, 12:30 to 2:30
Section 003: Thursday, Dec. 17, 12:30 to 2:30

Sept. 1/3

Tuesday

Introductions

Homework
Read and come prepared to discuss:

Prep for Assignment 1:

Look at bulletin boards on and off campus, bring to class the two most interesting flyers/announcements you see. We'll list them on the board and talk about which ones are the most newsworthy and why.

Thursday

Discussion

Writing warm up: In pairs, respond to: What qualities does a good reporter have?
News today | Chapter 1: News in the age of convergence
What's news? | Chapter 2: Deciding what is news | your bulletin board/daily digest items
Assignment: One-source news brief 250 words or less, one link, about a campus news item. Grading rubric.Your assignment is to scour bulletin boards on campus and find a news item that hasn't been covered in the Towerlight or the Daily Digest. Conduct at least one interview and include at least one quote in your brief. Publish the brief to a page on your blog, being sure to follow the writing guidelines posted here.
Skills/reading: Chapter 4: Briefs and short reports, AP Style, grammar/punctuation, WordPress, headlines, cutlines, blurbs, Chapter 7: Writing the basic online story

Homework

Read Chapter 4: Briefs and short reports
Download midterm study guide, grammar practice. Study/complete p. 26-34. (NOTE: It's Monday night and the library hasn't uploaded it yet. I'll make a photocopy of the first section for you and hand it out in class on Tuesday.)

Sept. 8/10

Tuesday
Discuss

Homework

Grammar slammer, punctuation slammer (study guide p. 26-34)
Study for a quiz on Thursday over: commas, AP Style
Read Chapter 7: Writing the basic online story

Thursday

AP Style, comma quiz
Discuss Chapter 7: Writing the basic online story
Portfolio example. Setting up WordPress

Homework

Study grammar handout pages 35-42, grammar problems #2 and #3.
Email me the web address of your portfolio blog.
Post your one-source news brief to your portfolio blog by 10 a.m., Tuesday.

Sept. 15/17

one-source news brief due

Tuesday

(2 p.m. section: comma quiz)
Story due today: One-source news brief 250 words or less, one link, about a news item of interest to TU students.
Story checklist: We'll go over a few basics to help you polish your stories. By the end of class, print your post, page and the grading rubric.

Homework:

Read Chapter 5: writing the basic text story and Chapter 13: Key story types
Prep for a quiz on grammar problems #2 and #3

Thursday

Quiz on grammar problems #2 and #3
Bravo on the news briefs: Olivia and Sam
News style practice
Chapter 5: writing the basic text story and Chapter 13: Key story types

Homework
Basic text story--event. 500 words, three sources, two links, photo by you. Grading rubric.
Your assignment is to attend an on-campus news event (a speech or SGA meeting, for example) and write a direct-lede news story. Skills/reading: Chapter 5: writing the basic text story and Chapter 13: Key story types, ledes, quotes, story body

Sept. 22/24

Text story (event) due

Tuesday
Notes on

Homework

Basic text story--event. 500 words, three sources, two links, photo by you. Grading rubric.

Your assignment is to attend an on-campus news event (a speech or SGA meeting, for example) and write a direct-lede news story. Skills/reading: Chapter 5: writing the basic text story and Chapter 13: Key story types, ledes, quotes, story body, headlines, cutlines, blurbs

Thursday
Print and turn in event/speech story with the grading rubric
Audio guide

Homework

Read Chapter 3: Research and interviewing
Story assignment: One-minute audio with photo, headlines, blurbs, cutlines. Grading rubric. Your assignment is to find one good story about the history of Towson University. You'll interview a staff or faculty member and produce a one-minute audio story like the NPR story corps stories. This is a short interview that delivers a brief slice of life and history. Be sure to take a photo of your subject. Edit the audio to one minute by focusing on the most compelling story and details of the interview. Just like on the StoryCorps website, your post should feature a headline, blurb and thumbnail and should link to a separate page feature a brief, the larger photo and the audio clip. Get the post and page ready by classtime Oct. 1, and we'll upload and link to the audio in class. Skills/reading: Chapter 3: Research and interviewing, interviewing, audio
On Tuesday, the 12:30 section of class will meet in VB 207 to hear guest speaker Nestor Aparicio. Anyone from the 2 p.m. section who would like to come is welcome.
As of next week, we'll start using some video. Be sure that you've got a digital camera that takes video or a Flip around to use.

Sept. 29/Oct. 1

StoryCorps audio clip due

Tuesday
Print and turn in event/speech story with the grading rubric
Attend your choice of classes. You must attend one:

12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. We'll meet in VB 207 to hear guest speaker Nestor Aparicio, the sports talk show guy, radio station owner and blogger.
2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Open audio lab in MC 100. Upload, edit and export your audio. I'll be around to help you troubleshoot.

Thursday

Stories handed back | your questions | 10-minute revising session
Publish your MP3 and fill out the rubric
Intro to basic video
Localizing the news

Homework
Text story (localized news)
500 words, three sources, two links, photo and raw video of one source by you. Grading rubric.
This story will be 500 words or less and will quote at least three sources. Your assignment is to localize a national news story. Be sure the new news (what your reporting uncovered) is in the lede.
Skills/reading: video

Oct. 6/8

Text story (localized) due

Tuesday
Great audio stories: Sarah, Krystal, Bianca
Localizing news: Your questions
RSS

Thursday
Twitter

Oct. 6/8

Thursday
Troubleshooting | rubric | reading

Intro to Twitter

Twitter page | TweetDeck
Finding people: class blogroll | Baltimore Sun | A few of my favorites Twitters | other journalists on Twitter | The Towerlight
Twellow | local tweets

Twitter party
Links we'll use: Twitter | bitly | Search.twitter.com

#mcom257 roll call
@replies
Link sharing
Retweeting

Assignment
Q&A
Five-question interview with photo, headlines, blurb and cutlines. Grading rubric.
Example: Q&A with Matt Vensel and Q&A with Baltimore style expert. Using Twitter, find a journalist to interview and ask five good questions about how they use Twitter (and other social media) for reporting. Tip: Don't send out a generic plea for help, as in "does any journalist want to help me for a school assignment?" Find a specific journalist and, using the @function, ask that journalist if he/she would like to answer your questions. "@name I'm a TU journalism student and I'd like to interview you about how you use Twitter in your job. Do you have time to answer five short questions? DM me." When you find a person you'd like to interview, check out their profile page. If another MCOM 257 student has already interviewed them, find someone else. Get started early. Some journalists will answer questions via email or phone, but others will prefer to meet in person. Publish the Q&A to your portfolio with a photo of the person you interviewed. Don't forget to write good blurbs, headlines and cutlines. Skills/reading: Twitter & RSS

Oct. 13/15

Q&A due

Tuesday

Q&A questions
Grammar: problem #4 sentence structure
Midterm practice test handed out. Complete it and bring it to class Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Thursday

Q&A due
Introduction to interactive graphics and maps
Assignment: Interactive timeline or map due Oct. 27. Should have at least five plotted times/addresses, each with 1) a 30- to 100-word news brief, 2) a photo taken by you, 3) a one-minute or less video interview. Each plotted event will be worth two points. Reading: interactive graphics and maps.
Extra credit: Did you have trouble getting the Q&A done? This was a five-point assignment. To make up the five extra points, you may plot up to two extra times/addresses on your interactive timeline/map, for a possible of four extra points.

Oct. 20/22

Midterm

Tuesday
Midterm review

We'll go over the practice midterm test and review AP Style, commas, and whatever else you have questions on.
You'll have time to go through your graded stories and revise the style, punctuation and grammar errors on your blog.

Thursday
Midterm exam

Oct. 27/29

Interactive map due

Monday, Oct. 26, 4 p.m update: There's been some confusion over when the assignment is due. Here's my current plan for the week:

Tuesday

Review midterm exam: great leads
Lab/troubleshooting. I'd like to see what you've done so far, and try to help you with anything you're having issues with.

Thursday

Interactive maps/timeline due
Introduction to html. We'll embed your map/timeline onto an html page, upload it to tiger.towson.edu, and publish a link to on your wordpress blog.
Assignment: the blog post

150- to 250-word blog post that follows the blog post formula given on p. 138 of Chapter 7: Writing the basic online story. Last May, former Baltimore Sun reporter and creator of The Wire David Simon testified with other notable industry leaders before the Senate. The subject: the future of journalism. I wrote several posts about David Simon's testimony over on my blog, New Media Mobtown. Your assignment is to pick one of the other pieces of testimony to read, critique and blog. The transcripts are available online here. C-SPAN's video library has helpful information such as a list of all the participants. Follow the formula given on p. 138 of the textbook, being sure to include links to other blog entries on the subject and at least one piece of multimedia such as a copyright-free photo or video. Blogs are a more personal way of writing, so you may use first person.
Skills/reading: Chapter 7: Writing the basic online story, p. 138.

Nov. 3/5

Tuesday
Guest speaker: Patrick Thornton | website | blog

Thursday
Class: Watch the first half of Newswar, part III. Take notes for class discussion Tuesday on:

What happened to network news?
What's happening online?
What happened at the LA Times?

Nov. 10/12

Blog post due

Tuesday
Class: Watch the second half of Newswar, part II
Discussion: the news industry, your blog post

What happened to network news?
What's happening online?
What happened at the LA Times?

2 p.m. guest speaker: John Eisenberg

Homework:

Now that you've heard from the Journalism Iconoclast and watched Newswar, what do you have to say about the future of journalism?
Your assignment: To write a blog post on a piece of recent journalism news. If you've got a link you want to comment on, feel free to use it. If not, use this news:

Last May, former Baltimore Sun reporter and creator of The Wire David Simon testified with other notable industry leaders before the Senate. The subject: the future of journalism. I wrote several posts about David Simon's testimony over on my blog, New Media Mobtown. Pick one of the other pieces of testimony to read, critique and blog. The transcripts are available online here.

Using the blog psot formula given on p. 138 of the textbook, write a 150-250 word blog post.

Thursday

Blog post due, turn in with the rubric
Blogging basics: Brian Stelter | mcom 407 | my bookmarks
Slideshow introduction

Homework

Come up with one good idea for a slideshow. Topic: unusual jobs (Ideas: dirtiest jobs? holiday jobs? strange student jobs?)
Bring your camera on Tuesday for photo composition practice
Slideshow assignment:
One minute of narrative audio, at least 20 photos exhibiting photo composition basics: rule of thirds, fill the frame, action/reaction and wide/medium/tight. Grading rubric.
Like the slideshow examples we'll watch in class, you'll create a one-minute slideshow that features an interesting story, compelling audio and well-composed photographs.
Skills/reading: soundslides, photo composition (wide-medium-tight, pairing photo to audio)