How To Conduct Radio Interviews

Hofstra University School of Communication Department of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations JRNL 10 -- Journalism Tools (3 semester hours). Instructor Information Mo Krochmal, Assistant Professor of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations Hofstra University, School of Communication Website: http://krochmal.synthasite.com Office Telephone: 516 463 4338 Hofstra E-mail: [email protected] Personal E-mail: [email protected] Office: 147 Dempster Hall Fall Semester Office Hours Tuesday – 10:00 a.m.-11:30 Thursday – 10:00 a.m.-11:30 And, by appointment.

Every student enrolled in this course is responsible for understanding and complying with the information, requirements and policies contained in this syllabus. Please read this syllabus thoroughly so that you are familiar with the format, policies, requirements and any deadlines. You should also have it for reference throughout the rest of the semester. DISABILITIES If you have any documented disability-related concerns that may have an impact upon your performance in this course, please meet with me within the first two weeks of the semester, so that we can work out the appropriate accommodations. Accommodations are provided on an individualized, as-needed basis after the needs, circumstances and documentation have been evaluated by the appropriate office on campus. For more information on services provided by Hofstra, and for submission of documentation of your disability, please contact: Ann Marie Ferro in 101 Memorial Hall at 516 463-5341 (for physical and/or psychological disabilities) or Dr. Diane Herbert in 202 Roosevelt Hall at 516 463-5761 (for learning disabilities and/or ADHD). All disability-related information will be kept confidential.

COMMUNICATION Please make sure that you forward your Hofstra e-mail address to your favored e-mail address. The professor may send you class or individual information through your official Hofstra e-mail address. COURSE DESCRIPTION Journalism Tools is just what it sounds like. It’s about the tools journalists use. Journalists in the multimedia age need a variety of skills and tools to effectively tell their stories to the public and succeed in the profession. This course will introduce students to a number of different tools journalists use to gather information, audio and pictures/video as well as produce the stories for a converged media environment. GOALS The journalism program aims to make sure students are exposed to the skills they will need in multimedia journalism early in the program and then go on to master them in later, specialized classes, which will explore and use the tools more in-depth. This class is an introductory class, which will set students on that path. OBJECTIVES Students who go through the Journalism Tools class will become familiar with a variety of technical methods of gathering and disseminating news stories. The class is not expected to give students a mastery of any one tool, but instead will expose them to a variety of tools available for their use in journalistic storytelling. Students will learn the basics of gathering information through interviews, covering events, record searches, computer databases and other online sources. They will also be introduced to the use of audio recorders, digital still photography and videography and their use in news gathering. The ethics of their uses will also be explored. Students will learn how to use computers and software for writing and editing copy, HTML for online journalism, information graphics, plus simple audio and video editing and digital image manipulation. They will also learn how to put stories together for the department’s online news outlet, Nassau News. As part of that, students will be required to work three hours a week in the department’s multimedia newsroom. Tests on lectures and graded exercises using the actual equipment will help assess how well students learn the skills and perform with the journalism tools. REQUIRED TEXTS/READINGS Multimedia journalism is a new and growing field. We will use two textbooks to cover the range of tools that this course addresses.

Available at the student bookstore, this is your official textbook for this course: "Convergent Journalism, an Introduction." By Stephen Quinn, Vincent F. Filak. 2005, Focal Press Title, ISBN: 978-0-240-80724-9. Available for free download is the second required text at http://www.kcnn.org/resources/journalism_20/, is “Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive. A digital literacy guide for the information age” Download, print out and put in a binder. In addition to the required readings in the textbooks, you are required to keep up with the news. GRADING CRITERIA No letter grades will be given for papers, tests, quizzes or projects during the semester. You will receive points (based on 100 for each). At the end of the semester I will add up the points and weight them according to the percentages listed below. Your points then will determine your grade based on this scale: A = 95- 100 A- = 90-94 B+ = 88-89 B = 84-87 B- = 80-83 C+ = 78-79 C = 74-77 C- = 70-73 D+ = 68-69 D = 64- 67 F = 0-63 There will be several projects, tests and quizzes during the semester that will determine your grade. Assignments 60% Midterm Exam 10% Final Exam 10% Class participation 15% Quizzes and attendance 15% TOTAL 100% ATTENDANCE POLICY Attending class and arriving on time will be important to your grade. There are no grace days; every day counts for attendance. Attendance will be taken at the start of class. If you tell me a few weeks after a class that you were there, I will be sympathetic, but will not excuse the absence, relying on the attendance as the official attendance roster. Internship/job interviews,

doctor’s appointments, late night at The Chronicle, etc. are not excused absences. You must provide documentation for funerals, sickness when you return to class. If you miss class, you must communicate with me via e-mail that day you missed the class to explain why. ASSIGNMENTS/REQUIREMENTS See Course Schedule for assignments. Assignments are to be e-mailed to me by the start of class. Use Microsoft Word without formatting and attach it to an e-mail with the Class and Assignment in the subject line. COURSE SCHEDULE Class 1 -- Introduction: Getting to know each other, overview of the course. Assignment: Write a 200-word blog post about what you learned about this class and the people who are in it. Write a 50-word professional profile of yourself. Include links to a Google search of you and a link to your public Facebook profile as well as any other Internet references. Read for Next Class: Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp On the Wild, Wooly Internet Old Ethics Rules Do Apply http://www.ojr.org/ojr/ethics/1092186782.php Class 2 -- Understanding credibility, attribution, copyright, corrections and foundational ethical considerations. Assignment: Write a personal 50-word professional code of ethics based on your readings. Read for Next Class:: Ch. 3, Ch. 10, Convergent Journalism Class 3 – Convergence Assignment: Write a summary of each of the chapters in 200 words. Separately, write a reaction and set a goal for your learning in this course that reflects an understanding of your reading. Read for Next Class: J-School: The Right Tools Teach the Right Mindset By Amy Gahran Class 4 – Content management Assignment: Access the class Wordpress site and your personal pages. Post your previous writing in this order (profile, personal ethics, class goal). Make sure you have formatted it correctly. Read for Next Class: Ch. 4, Broadcast Writing and Speaking, Convergent Journalism

Class 5 – Reporting Assignment: Conduct an interview with people not your friends on a current news event. Take notes. Read for Next Class: Ch. 7, Journalism 2.0 Class 6 – Audio / Sound Assignment: Conduct interviews about news event using audio recorder. Gather natural sound. Save it as an MP3 file. Class 7 – Audio Editing Assignment: Download your raw MP3 files and edit into an article using the free tool Audacity. Read for Next Class: Ch. 7, Digital Still Photography, Convergent Journalism Class 8 – Photography basics Assignment: Take at least 72 pictures of a Day in the Life of a Classmate. Read for Next Class: Ch. 8, Journalism 2.0 Going beyond Facebook pictures. Students will leave this session with knowledge that will improve their skills in taking journalistically sound still photographs and writing full and complete captions to accompany them. Class 9 – Photo editing Assignment: Edit your photographs into a 5-photo essay with complete captions. Read for Next Class: Chapter 4: New Reporting Methods, Journalism 2.0 Class 10 – Computer Assisted Reporting Assignment: Find 5 different verified sources for a news article using Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Linkedin, or YouTube. Read for Next Class: Ch. 6, How to Report News for the Web, Journalism 2.0 Class 11 – Spreadsheets, Databases Assignment: Find and evaluate 5 databases from public sources and export data to a spreadsheet for analysis.

Read for Next Class: Ch. 6, Converged Graphics Across All Media, Convergent Journalism Class 12 – Graphics Assignment: Create a graph from your database exercise. Class 13 – Research for Visuals PROJECT DUE: Using your information from the first project create three separate graphics for it Assignment: Gather data, analyze, graph and pitch an article based on this data Class 14 –Visuals Assignment: Create an Explanatory Visual How to do it in 450x450 pixels. Students will gather and prepare a simple visual information news graphic for online posting. Class 15 – Review for midterm Class 16 – Midterm Examination Read for Next Class: Ch. 8, Digital Video Photography, Convergent Journalism Class 17 -- Videography techniques for news coverage. Flipcams to class to practice. Assignment: Pairing up, students will read their profiles for video. These will then be uploaded to the Internet for archiving. Read for Next Class: Chapter 9: Shooting Video for News and Feature Stories, Journalism 2.0 Class 18 -- Simple video editing techniques. Assignment: Go out on campus, take 30 minutes to gather three interviews on a news topic. MovieMaker. Students will be introduced to editing techniques using Microsoft MovieMaker software. Read for Next Class: Ch. 9, Editing for Moving Pictures, Convergent Journalism; Ch. 10, Basic Video Editing, Journalism 2.0. Class 19 -- Practice video editing in class.

Assignment: Edit your videos into sound bites and place them on a timeline in MovieMaker. Read for Next Class: Chapter 11: Writing Scripts, Doing Voice-overs, Journalism 2.0 Class 20 -- Writing a simple television VO/SOT Assignment: Write a script for the story that goes with the video bites. Class 21 -- Sound bites, b-roll: Bring to class two sound bites on a newsworthy Hofstra topic and b-roll that you shot outside of class. Practice editing your VO/SOT. Assignment: Edit your package, combing voice, video, b-roll, graphics Read for Next Class: Journalism 2.0 Chapter 5: How to Blog Class 22 -- Blogging Assignment: Write a blog post on a news event with links. Write a script for a breaking news event you are reporting live via stream. Read for Next Class: Chapter 3: Tools and Toys, Journalism 2.0 Class 23 -- Flash Assignment: Find and evaluate 5 Flash-based news items. Class 24 -- Producing Flash slideshows Assignment: Armed with a camera, gather pictures, audio and create a SoundSlides presentation. Class 25 -- Podcasting, vlogging, mobilecasting Assignment: Write a script for a 5-minute newscast for webcast, mobilecast. Class 26 -- How everything comes together in the world of new media. What’s expected of today’s multimedia journalists. Read for Next Class: Journalism 2.0 Epilogue: Putting It All Together PROJECT DUE: Create an audio slideshow of one of the stories you have previously reported. Assignment: Evaluate your goal statement and report. Identify and link to 5 job ads. FINAL EXAM PERIOD: Test covering the readings and lectures since the Midterm Exam.