Journalism440 Course Syllabus
Digital Media Skills for Journalists and Public Relations Professionals
Spring Semester 2015
Department of English and Journalism
Western Illinois University
Simpkins Hall Room 309
Section 021
Tuesdays and Thursdays
12:30 p.m.-1:45 p.m.
Instructor:
Yong Tang, Ph.D.
Assistant professor of journalism and media law
Office location:
Simpkins Hall 226H
Office telephone:
309-298-1217
Office hours:
Tuesdays
2 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Wednesdays
2 p.m.-3 p.m.
Thursdays
2 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Or by appointment
Electronic mail:
Y-Tang@wiu.edu
Snail mail:
Simpkins Hall Mailroom 122
Course Materials:
1) Mark Briggs, Journalism Next: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and
Publishing, CQ Press (2012).
2) Mark Briggs, Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive, A Digital Literacy
Guide for the Information Age, Knight Citizens News Network and J-Lab (2007).
http://www.kcnn.org/images/uploads/Journalism_20.pdf
3) Since WIU does not purchase software tutorials and training from Lynda.com,
a technical manual will be distributed to students later. It gives you step-by-step
instructions on how to use various kinds of software and equipment.
Course Equipment:
1) Olympus WS series digital recorder
2) Western Digital portable hard drive
3) Digital camera and camcorder
4) Tapes and SDHC cards
5) Microphone
You are encouraged to purchase your own equipment. You may rent digital cameras from
the department of English and Journalism. Some electronic gadgets can be checked out
from the department of Broadcasting. You are responsible for the rented equipment for
the duration of the semester. Any university equipment that is broken or lost while it is in
your possession will be your responsibility.
Course Description:
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The U.S. media are undergoing a profound revolution. Print journalism is gradually
giving way to digital journalism. The course will prepare journalism and public relations
students to enhance digital media skills such as social media tools, multiplatform
storytelling and data visualization so students know how to generate and deliver news
stories more effectively to web-based audiences. By the end of the semester, students
should be able to use blogging and social media for news reporting and writing, assess
and create journalism work driven by data, and know how to report and write across
different media platforms. Students are not eligible for registration if they have not yet
taken JOUR232 or fail to obtain prior consent of the instructor.
Course Objectives:
This course has three components: social media, data visualization, and multimedia
reporting. For the social media section, by the end of the semester, students will be able
to:
•
Be familiar with blogging and social media (e.g., Wordpress.com, Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, YouTube, My Space)
•
Create blogs and open social media accounts
•
Produce blog content for journalistic web publication
•
Find new story ideas, track trends and sources
•
Publish real-time news updates and community engagement
•
Connect with readers and viewers in new ways
•
Bring attention and traffic to their work
•
Create, craft and enhance their personal brand
•
Understand social media ethics for journalists and public relations professionals
For the data visualization section, by the end of the semester, students will be able to:
•
Understand what data visualization or data-driven journalism is
•
Be familiar with data visualization software such as Many Eyes, Inkscape and
Statsilk
•
Develop skills necessary to visualize data and solve basic visualization problems
•
Understand data visualization ethics for journalists and public relations
professionals
•
Critically evaluate journalism work driven by data
For the multiplatform storytelling section, by the end of the semester, students will be
able to:
•
Understand what multiplatform storytelling is
•
Identify elements of multiple media used in journalistic storytelling
•
Produce audio story packages
•
Produce video story packages
•
Combine audio and still photographs to produce audio slideshows
•
Demonstrate understanding of characteristics of online journalistic storytelling
•
Produce stories for online news site
•
Generate story ideas and be able to choose the best multimedia strategy
•
Quickly write, revise and proofread text to accompany multimedia projects with
the goal of eliminating clutter, awkwardness, misspellings, and grammatical
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•
•
errors
Understand multimedia ethics for journalists and public relations professionals
Critically evaluate professional journalistic multimedia packages
Grading Criteria:
Breakdown of the final grades for the course:
Blog Account Creation and Updates:
Social Media Site Creation and Updates:
Critique of Social Media Policy:
Write A Story Using Storify:
Without Media Project:
Data Visualization Assignment:
Audio Story:
Audio Slideshow:
Video Story:
Final Multimedia Project:
Follow A Multimedia Journalist:
Poynter Institute’s NewsU Training (http://www.newsu.org)
Attendance:
Participation:
100 points (10%)
100 points (10%)
50 points (5%)
50 points (5%)
50 points (5%)
100 points (10%)
50 points (5%)
50 points (5%)
50 points (5%)
100 points (10%)
50 points (5%)
50 points (5%)
100 points (10%)
100 points (10%)
Total:
1000 points (100%)
Extra credit opportunities will be announced throughout the semester whenever they
become available. Final grades for the course are determined according to the following
scale:
920-1,000
A
890-919
A870-889
B+
830-869
B
800-829
B770-799
C+
730-769
C
700-729
C670-699
D+
630-669
D
600-629
D0-599
F
Assignment Descriptions:
This course will comprise of interactive lectures, hands-on computer lab training and
exercises, on and off campus newsgathering, class discussions and critique on work by
classmates and professional journalists. The course has various reporting and writing
assignments for social media, data visualization and multi-platform storytelling. All work
leads to the completion of a digital multimedia portfolio by the end of the semester.
1) Blog Account Creation and Updates: Create a blog site and keep updating throughout
the whole semester. At least two blog updates per week. Blog entries should focus on one
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topic. By the end of the semester, students should send the blog link to the instructor for
review. Avoid completing your blog entries all at the last minute!
2) Social Media Site Creation and Updates: Create a social media site, follow 20 people
who interest you, and update throughout the whole semester. At least two posts per day.
By the end of the semester, students should send the social media site link to the
instructor for review. Avoid posting all entries to your social media site at the last
minute!
3) Critique of Social Media Policy: Analyze and critique a social media policy of a
mainstream news organization such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or
CNN. When it is done, upload the critique to your blog.
4) Write A Story Using Storify: Use Storify to tell a story that interests you. When it is
done, upload it to your blog.
5) Without Media Project: You will find a 24-hour period during which you can pledge to
give up the use of all social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) and mobile media devices
(e.g., texting on smartphone, iPod, or tablet computers such as iPad): no Internet, no
texting, no iPod, no music, no movies, and no video games, etc. You can still use
traditional media – radio, magazines, newspapers and television, and make phone calls.
Each student will use this experience to write a blog and post it on your own blog site.
6) Data Visualization Assignment: Upload a data file of your choice to a data
visualization site and produce a chart or graph or any form that is visually appealing and
makes sense journalistically. Upload it to your blog when it is done.
7) Audio Story: Interview someone that interests you and produce a 2-minute audio story
with accompanying texts, title page, credit page, natural sound, actuality, narration and
music. When it is done, upload it to your blog.
8) Audio Slideshow: You will produce one slideshow combining audio and photography.
There should be one photo for every 4-5 seconds of audio. A good length for an audio
slideshow is 1:30 to 2 minutes. When it is done, upload it to your blog.
9) Video Story: You will produce one video story. When it is done, upload it to your blog.
10) Final Multimedia Project: Your final multimedia project will contain one piece of
video and one other multimedia piece around the same journalistic subject. When it is
done, upload it to your blog.
10) Follow A Multimedia Journalist: You will select one multimedia journalist who
interests you and write a blog post critiquing this journalist’s work.
11) Poynter Institute’s NewsU Training: Go to this website http://www.newsu.org and
register. Then enroll in two training sessions that focus on any aspect of social media,
data visualization or multimedia reporting. The registration is free. Enrollment of many
courses is free. When completing your training sessions, you will receive a confirmation
email from Poynter Institute. Forward that email to the instructor as evidence of your
participation and completion of the training sessions.
12) Attendance: Attendance is mandatory for this course. You get 100 points if you don’t
have any unexcused absences throughout the semester. Students will be allowed to miss
three classes without grade penalty. For these three missed classes, no excuses are
needed. Please use them just for emergencies and sick days. Beyond the three, you chip
away at attendance and participation points. Five attendance points will be deducted
for each unexcused absence. It is the student’s responsibility to provide written
document to the instructor in order to receive an excuse for an absence. Quizzes or
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assignments missed because of lateness or unexcused absences cannot be made up and
will receive zeros. For WIU Student Absence Policy Clarification, see
http://wiu.edu/policies/stuabsc.php.
13) Participation: Students are expected to be active participants of class discussions. In
particular, you are expected to ask and answer questions during the class sessions in
which we review and critique work by your classmates.
Deadlines:
Media practitioners are required to write and produce quality work under strict deadline.
This course is no exception. Deadlines will be enforced! No project will be accepted
after its due date. Extensions will only be allowed in special circumstances with formal
documentation.
Academic Integrity:
Western Illinois University, like all communities, functions best when its members treat
one another with honesty, fairness, respect, and trust. Plagiarism, cheating, and other
forms of academic dishonesty constitute a serious violation of University conduct
regulations. Students who engage in dishonesty in any form shall be charged with
academic dishonesty. Any student with a question about academic integrity or plagiarism
is encouraged to discuss it with his or her instructor. For details on WIU’s Academic
Integrity Policy, see www.wiu.edu/policies/acintegrity.php.
Student Rights and Note to Students with Disabilities:
As a WIU student, you have your rights and responsibilities, see
http://www.wiu.edu/provost/students.php. In accordance with University policy and the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), academic accommodations may be made for any
student who notifies the instructor of the need for an accommodation. For the instructor
to provide the proper accommodation(s) you must obtain documentation of the need for
an accommodation through Disability Resource Center (DRC) and provide it to the
instructor. It is imperative that you take the initiative to bring such needs to the
instructor's attention, as he/she is not legally permitted to inquire about such particular
needs of students. Students who may require special assistance in emergency evacuations
(i.e. fire, tornado, etc.) should contact the instructor as to the most appropriate procedures
to follow in such an emergency. Contact Disability Resource Center (DRC) at 298-2512
for additional services.
Personal Communication Devices:
Personal computers must be turned off when class begins and must not be used again
unless it is for an assignment. Use of cell phones, pagers, IPods, or any other personal
communication devices or programs in the classroom during class time is strictly
prohibited. You will be asked to leave for the day if you engage in such practices.
Repeated offenses will affect your final grades. Make sure these devices are turned off
prior to entering the classroom.
Miscellaneous:
If you have a question about any of the readings, assignments, or anything course related,
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it is up to you to approach or contact me in due time. I cannot read your mind and it is
much better to be overly safe than sorry later: No question or concern is stupid except the
ones that remain unexplored.
About the Instructor:
Before joining academia, Dr. Yong Tang worked for nearly 15 years as an awardwinning editor and reporter for the People’s Daily, the largest and most politically
influential newspaper in the People’s Republic of China. From 2004 to 2007, he was a
Washington, D.C.-based correspondent of the People’s Daily. Drawing upon his unique
reporting and writing experiences as a foreign correspondent in the world capital of news,
Tang published in 2014 a four-volume book America in the Eyes of Yong Tang with a
reputable publishing house in Beijing.
Yong Tang is a recipient of WIU Professional Achievement Award (2014). He was
named as Faces of Penn State (2013) (http://faces.psu.edu/faces/yong-tang/). He was on
the list of Top 50 Journalism Professors (2012) (http://journalismdegree.org/topprofessors/). Tang's list of additional honors and awards includes the top faculty paper
award from the Law and Policy Division, AEJMC (the Association for Education in
Journalism and Mass Communication) (2012); AEJMC's Best Research Scholar-toScholar Presentation Award (2011); Gene and Fran Goodwin Journalism Scholarship at
Penn State (2010); University Graduate Fellowship at Penn State (2009); Freeman
Fellowship at George Washington University (2007); and the China Journalism Award
(2004).
Yong Tang holds a doctoral degree in mass communications law and policy from The
Pennsylvania State University and another Ph.D. in international journalism from The
Communication University of China in Beijing. He studied at the George Washington
University Elliott School of International Affairs and earned a master’s degree in
international policy and practice. Yong Tang received his undergraduate education in
China, where he received his bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from
Sichuan International Studies University and another undergraduate degree in English
news reporting and editing from China School of Journalism. For more information about
the instructor, see Tang’s faculty page:
http://www.wiu.edu/cas/english_and_journalism/directory/show.php?y-tang.
Course Schedule:
This schedule is tentative and may be adjusted throughout the semester. The instructor
reserves the right to modify the requirements of this class during the semester as
necessary to achieve the objectives of this course.
Part I: Social Media
01/20 Instructor and student introduction/course overview
01/22 Syllabus/assignments
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01/27 Blogging: How to do it
01/29 Blogging: Writing for the web
02/03 Blogging: Ethical implications
02/05 Social media: Finding new story ideas, trends and sources
02/10 Social media: Finding new story ideas, trends and sources
02/12 Lincoln’s Birthday/no class
02/17 Social media: Connecting with audiences in new ways
02/19 Social media: Getting traffic and attention to your work
02/24 Social media: Getting traffic and attention to your work
02/26 Social media: The latest in social networking, including Google+ and Storify
03/03 Social media: The latest in social networking, including Google+ and Storify
03/05 Social media: Enhancing your brand and understanding ethical implications
03/10 Social media: Enhancing your brand and understanding ethical implications
Part II: Data Visualization
03/12 Data visualization
03/17 Spring Break/No Class
03/19 Spring Break/No Class
03/24 Data visualization
Part III: Multimedia Reporting
03/26 Introduction to multimedia journalism
03/31 Audio story
04/02 Audio story
04/07 Audio story
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04/09 Audio slideshows
04/14 Audio slideshows
04/16 Storytelling with video
04/21 Storytelling with video
04/23 Storytelling with video
04/28 Legal and ethical concerns in multimedia reporting
Part IV: Assignments Critique
04/30 Critique/vote for the best
05/05 Critique/vote for the best
05/07 Critique/vote for the best
05/12 (1p.m.-3p.m.) Critique/vote for the best
Useful Links:
Audio Slideshows
Soundslides - http://www.soundslides.com
Audio
Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net
Video Sites
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com
Vimeo - http://www.vimeo.com
Blip.tv - http://www.blip.tv
SchoolTube: http://www.schooltube.com/ - Video sharing site specifically for
students and educators.
Blogging
Blogger - http://www.blogger.com
Wordpress.com - http://www.wordpress.com - the free, hosted version of
WordPress blogs
Wordpress.org - http://www.wordpress.org - the open-source version of
WordPress that requires hosted server space.
EduBlogs - http://edublogs.org - WordPress-based weblog site for educators
and students.
Reference Resources
Interactive Narratives - http://www.interactivenarratives.org - Site that features
various kinds of multimedia projects. Run by the Online Journalism Association.
Multimedia Shooter - http://www.multimediashooter.com - Multimedia site with
tutorials and featured content run by Richard Koci Hernandez, former
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photojournalist at the San Jose Mercury News.
Teaching Online Journalism - http://www.mindymcadams.com/tojou - Weblog
with great resources and tips run by University of Floriday professor Mindy
McAdams.
News Videographer - http://www.newsvideographer.com - Videography site run
by Angela Grant, former videographer with the San Antonio Express-News.
Transom.org - http://www.transom.org - Tutorials and guides for audio
production.
Robb Montgomery - http://www.robbmontgomery.com - Weblog of trainer who
created Visual Editors.
Visual Editors - http://www.visualeditors.ning.com - Site for visual journalists of
all stripes, run by Robb Montgomery.
Poynter Institute - http://www.poynter.org - A non-profit journalism think-tank
and training institute in Florida
Advancing the Story - http://www.advancingthestory.com/ - Examples and tips
from broadcast journalism professors Deb Halpern Wenger and Deborah Potter.
Videomaker - http://www.videomaker.com/ - Equipment reviews and training resources
about videography.
10,000 Words - http://www.10000words.net/ - Resources and tips by Mark
Luckie, a multimedia journalist.
CSJ Blog - http://csjblog.org/ - The Center for Scholastic Journalismʼs blog.
Innovation in College Media - http://www.collegemediainnovation.org/blog - the
blog run by presenter Bryan Murley which covers changing trends in journalism.
Mashable - http://www.mashable.com - a site that covers interactive features on
the web.
Gettin Digi With It Linkshttps://collegemediainnovation.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/cma-nyc13-gettin-digi-withit-presentation/.
Free Online Tools Spreadsheet:
http://www.collegemedia.org/news/innovation_in_college_media/article_d3a847e8-aa2d11e3-a546-001a4bcf6878.html.
Acknowledgement:
I want to acknowledge the contribution made by the following individuals for the
completion of this syllabus:
Bryan Murley, associate professor of journalism from Eastern Illinois University
Sree Sreenivasan, professor of journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of
Journalism
Curt Chandler, senior multimedia lecturer from Penn State College of Communications
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