How to create side items for the big story?
How to create alternative ways for telling your story?
Practical training with the photo editor (1 hour) (participants work in groups to produce stories)
The art of listing: (2 hour) When, why and how to use it?
http://www.toptenz.net/ practical training
Benefits of google and web 2.0: (2 hours) Delicious, Flickr, video compressing, photo editing, sound mixing and much more free online applications serving the editorial process.
watch how FilGoal.com presented Manchester united's manager Sir Alex Ferguson career in a slide show .. it was a bit long but a great collection of pics that fans like to watch
Although I was introduced to the concepts of convergent journalism and multimedia journalism 2 years ago in United States .. I only practiced it today with the full meaning of the new tasks required from reporters.
I have practiced it partially as an editor by telling the story in different forms and even teaching others how to tell it in text, slideshows and videos.
Today I attended the press conference of Vingada al-ahly club new coach
and I was gathering material to produce interactive content .. I found that :
1- it is a very possible task for one person to gather photos and videos while still taking notes as a reporter in the same time. (I remember how mark comerford said once about how we can do multitasks in the same time in good quality).
2- you have to think wisely when to take video or sound bites coz you should expect when the source is going to say something interesting or u r wasting ur memory card.
3- At the time of video recording u should hold ur camera tight and focus in what is said in order to write it down after you finish recording.
4- to beat ur competitors you should have a speedy internet connection or to have someone on the phone to post breaking news (as ahmed ezz helped me).
5- Start capturing photos for ur slideshow even before the event starts you will be saving ur time .. taking close shots for meaningful stuff in the place can help u create a slideshow story by mixing wide and medium and close shoots (as mentioned by Rob Montgomery). .. I add for low quality cameras u should mix between using flash in certain shots and avoid it in other shots.
6- Don’t sit down in the middle of a row of chairs or u will lock urself from moving to get different angels.
7- in office you need good internet connection or you will be pissed off coz you cant upload ur material.
8- make a plan in ur way to the office like : give photos to the photo editor then upload video to youtube .. continue writing while the first 2 tasks are handled by someone else.
9- as an editor you should know that big news and VIEs (very important events) deserve to send one reporter for every task .. it worth but I time of financial crisis and low budget task one well trained journalist is enough .. he can produce a good story.
As one significant result of our first course Ahmed Ezz wrote a very good story creating a debate on who deserves to join Egypt's starting 11 players against Zambia in the world cup qualifiers.
The best thing about this debate that it was published in an almost dead time of getting news (just 12 hours before the game) and 9 hours before announcing the final 11.
The story was read more than 27000 times and it generated 354 comments .. more than 95 % of these comments were in point with no offensive content.
this debate was one of the debates we created methodically to attract users when we dont have big news reports.
J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism is an incubator for innovative news experiments that use new technologies to help people actively engage in critical public issues. Its core mission is to improve public life by transforming journalism for today and re-inventing it for tomorrow.
J-Lab spotlights dynamic news experiences and helps to develop interactive news ideas that not only educate people about public affairs but also invite their participation.
I suggest for you to follow 3 important websites to keep updated with issues related to online journalism.
http://www.interactivenarratives.org/ To keep updated with the latest articles or features supported by multimedia, Flash and interactivity tools .. this website is the perfect place to follow .. find daily links to excellent interactive pieces made in American and European newspapers and web portals.
Interactive Narratives is designed to capture the best of online visual storytelling as practiced by online and print journalists from around the world. Their goal is to highlight rich-media content, engaging storytelling, and eye-popping design.
http://onlinejournalismblog.com/ Paul Bradshaw Bradshaw is a Senior Lecturer in Online Journalism and Magazines at Birmingham City University’s (UK) School of Media, where he teaches on the degrees in Journalism and Web and New Media, and the Masters in Television and Interactive Content.
Bradshaw’s Blog is one of the best sources you can find to update your knowledge about online media and new media in general. Mindy Mcadams http://www.macloo.com/
http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/ A pioneer in online newspapers, she was No. 15 on the Online Journalism Review's list of 50 "Names to Know" in new media in 1998. For 11 years she worked as a copy editor -- on The Washington Post's Metro desk, at Time magazine, at a technology business newspaper, and at Dell Publishing in New York.
Macadams is a knight chair professor in University of Florida, I met her during my visit to USA in 2007 .. beside her nice and friendly personality .. her blog is like an online journalism encyclopedia .. at these links you will find her lessons and tips about the best online applications and digital journalism.
First Day 3 hours What is interactivity? Explanation of the concept with examples from spots websites and calculation for the time users spend on these websites
Why it is important to my work? discussion about the benefits of interactivity and how it could be used to support hits and sales
From a news piece to a news story (serving users instead of informing them) + Excercise Use examples to show editors complete news stories and weak news pieces then trainees start to suggest ideas of how to serve the user by adding value and rewarding the user through exercise
Information gathering Questions create stories not answers .. an open discussion about getting the right answer from your source using questions followed by a practical exercise
Second Day 3 hours
How to raise a debate? Use examples showing trainees different methods of engaging users into debates through direct and indirect ways + exercise where the trainees will supposed to suggest ideas
Photography and video story telling for internet? Explanation using examples for how to gather still photos or video clips to tell stories for internet users
Project : Producing a multimedia package story with photos or video creating a story implementing all the skills they learned during the course
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