Journalism video contest

http://www.youtube.com/user/projectreport?v=bId0znEVYVc&feature=pyv&ad=3885139639&kw=project%20report%20videos

On the Brink of Niagara's Horseshoe Falls

http://downtown360.com/about/ManonBrink.pdf

 

 

Niagara Falls Jumper Resists Rescue

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/11/national/main4860726.shtml

Possible resource on writing about suicide

http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=0523D365-A314-431E-A925C03E13E762B1

check it out.

Likely sources for police, fire or rescue stories

http://www.tompkinsready.org/

http://tompkinsfireems.com/main/

http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/ems/counties/tompkins.htm

http://www.tompkins-co.org/departments/detail.aspx?DeptID=41

http://www.tompkins-redcross.org/disaster.html

Fire, rescue, rescue or police reporting

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/cicero_family_watches_house_bu.html






http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/14/cheating.death.harden.cpr/index.html

Future topics

Bottom-up reporting.

Outside-in reporting.

Cornell basketball

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/andy_staples/03/21/cornell.wis/


http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/13095479/cornell-schools-wisconsin-in-every-facet-to-make-sweet-16

Discussion: How many story ideas can you think of related to Cornell's NCAA tournament wins?





Other stories from Cornell:

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20100321/SPORTS03/3210352/Feeling+is++indescribable++for+Cornell+s+Dake

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20100321/SPORTS/3210350/Big+weekend+for+Big+Red+sports+teams

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20100321/SPORTS03/3210366/Cornell+women+lose+hockey+title+in+triple+OT

http://www.silive.com/sports/advance/gordon/index.ssf/2010/03/everyone_except_the_players_su.html

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100321/SPORTS03/3210336/

Sunshine laws

http://www.stargazette.com/article/20100313/NEWS01/3130345/Sunshine-laws-aren-t-just-for-the-media-to-use

http://www.stargazette.com/article/20100313/NEWS01/3130344 

http://www.stargazette.com/article/20100313/NEWS01/3130355

Committee on Open Government 
New York State Department of State
http://www.dos.state.ny.us/coog/index.html

http://www.dos.state.ny.us/coog/freedomfaq.html

Blog tags

Check out this link sent in by Natalie King:

http://slatest.slate.com/features/news_dots/default.htm

Journalism internships

I do freelance writing for a Washington DC area parenting magazine and we are looking for summer interns. We'd like a few college journalism majors who are interested in publishing, writing for print/web and who live in the Northern Virginia area. These internships are unpaid but the experience is hands-on (byline credit and direct access to editorial leadership).

Please have any interested parties send me email/resume to WriterCroll@gmail.com.

Chris

Notes on Slideshows from Mindy McAdams

Do’s and don’ts for slideshows

DO:

1. Have clear relationships between what we hear and what we see. If the event planner is talking about making the decorations, for example, show the decorations.
2. Tell a story. Don’t just slap on an interview in which someone explains something.
3. Provide context. Why are these people doing this, or what’s the purpose of the event?
4. In an early caption, tell us exactly where we are (including the state, please!) and the exact date (including the year, please!).
5. Write captions that provide additional information. Do not tell us what we can see in the photo (if we can see it, you don’t need to tell us).
6. In captions, identify each person in the photo with first and last name, and some other information, such as where they live, their occupation, or (for students) their major.

DON’T:

1. Begin with an ID ( “I’m Mary Jones, and I’m a finance major”); this is completely boring. It fails to spark any interest in your story.
2. Allow the background sound to drown out the interview.
3. Use natural sound out of context — for example, a car horn blowing when we see no cars and no street.
4. Show objects, walls, signs — unless there is a person (or a person’s hand, etc.) in the photo too.
5. Combine audio and photos in a way that misleads (for example, we hear one person singing while we see a photo of a different person singing).
6. Repeat the same lengthy information in multiple captions.

Final Cut Pro log and capture

Examples of Soundslides

Journalists who have used Soundslides posted their work to their Web site here:

http://forums.soundslides.com/viewforum.php?id=12

Here's one from an L.A. Times photographer I used to work with:

Audio slide show: Chasing the dream

Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-p2p-vegas-audioslideshow,0,3148597.htmlstory

Homeless World Cup

http://jacopodettoni.altervista.org/kyrgyzstan/

The Music of China's Nomads

http://www.eurasianet.org/music/ss1.shtml

Making magnets

http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/mediacenter/slideshows/makingmagnets2/index.html

Khmer New Year

http://www.charles-fox.net/wpg2?g2_itemId=810#

http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2009/rgmp-10-learn-to-use-soundslides/ 

http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2009/dos-and-donts-for-slideshows/ 

http://support.soundslides.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=70 

http://markhancock.blogspot.com/2007/07/embed-soundslides-onto-blogs.html

Verifying your blogs for Google
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/10/verifying-blogger-blog-in-webmaster.html





http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/?hl=en

Reminder: I'm reading you.

I cruise through the blogs once a week, and there are some nice posts. One about a barbershop, another on a writer of Haiku, another on belly dancing. These posts demonstrate a curiosity about Ithaca that helps to build strong reporting and writing skills.

Others have not posted anything since their observation assignment. You need to get cracking. As someone noted, the signs of spring are creeping in on us. That opens up a lot of possibilities.

Entertainment reporting

Here's a good example from the New York Times. Possibly a cautionary tale for any journalists who also dream of making it in Hollywood:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/fashion/07boal.html

And below it on the same page, a feature on Joan Rivers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/fashion/07Rivers.html

Death Bear Will See You Now

(Not an entertainment story, but a good read.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/fashion/07love.html

Sports stories

http://www.nesn.com/2010/03/world-champion-of-four-square-crowned-in-maine.html


Rachel Stokes

The lede in this story was interesting, the this third paragraph would have been a much better choice:
“With the hearts of all Canadians fluttering and the crowd at Canada Hockey Place creating enough electricity to light the entire country, Crosby took a pass from linemate Jarome Iginla and walked in alone on Miller. Crosby’s quick release decided the game, triggering roars here and all over Canada.”

Norah Sweeney

Here are two sports stories that I thought were marvelous. I don’t understand a thing about sports, so stories with statistics and technical lingo do nothing for me. These two tell personal stories, in gorgeous prose style, might I add.
Roger Federer as Religious Experience is from the New York Times’ Play Magazine. The writing gets pretty incredible when you get down a few paragraphs, but I personally would have gone with a different, more compelling, lede.
Canada Mourns for Great One is a bit of a classic, published in the St. Petersburg Times in December 1999, about Wayne Gretzky’s retirement. I like the conciseness of the piece, and the consistent use of one-sentence paragraphs. I also thought it a little overdone, in fact, I thought that Gretzky had died when I first read the piece. However, his retirement could probably equated to his death for hardcore hockey fans, and the writer undoubtedly understood that.
Enjoy!




Bridget Corrigan

http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-olympics-hockey1-2010mar01,0,7064297.story

Laura Murray
 

I knew that the US Men's swim team just taking the gold in the 4x100m relay 
against the French team would have some great leads.  Here are two of my 
favorites.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/swimming/news/story?id=3528865

BEIJING -- With history about to slip away and Michael Phelps cheering him on, 
Jason Lezak pulled up next to the lane rope and set out after hulking Alain 
Bernard, like a NASCAR driver drafting down the backstretch at Daytona.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/columns/story?
columnist=forde_pat&id=3529125

BEIJING -- Halfway through what might have been the greatest comeback swim 
in Olympic history, Jason Lezak peered through his goggles at the lane to his 
right and briefly abandoned hope.

Weir

V1U camera

The best advice on using the V1U camera is to go with the automatic features whenever possible.

User's manual:

www.edbond.com/v1u_manual.pdf

Tape to use:

http://www.amazon.com/TDK-60Mins-Digital-Video-Cassette/dp/B00006HST5

Product detail:

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-HVRV1U/

Video on camera tripods



http://edbondreporter2.blogspot.com/2010/01/equipment-available-for-checkout.html

http://www.videomaker.com/video/watch/reviews/348/sony-s-v1u/?utm_campaign=traffic&utm_content=/learn/product-reviews/digital-camcorder-reviews/sony/rss/&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=videomaker.com

http://vimeo.com/936720

Sports ledes

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/sports/olympics/01last.html?ref=sports

From Jackie Wild