FSNE Note
A series of regular updates that appear in upcoming Bulletins about Florida Society of Newspaper Editor activities.
Aug. 29, 2007
FSNE, partnering with FPA and SNPA, announces an affordable one-day workshop on essential, newsroom multimedia tools. The Saturday, Oct. 13 training session at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications is designed for frontline reporters, editors, artists and photographers at daily and weekly papers and their Web sites. Also mark your calendars for Nov. 2-3 when the acclaimed APME NewsTrain program will come to Tampa to provide multimedia focused training for assigning editors and online producers (more below).
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The all-star faculty for the Gainesville workshop includes Chip Scanlan of Poynter on writing for the web, Tony Winton of the AP on audio reporting and editing, Mindy McAdams of UF on blogging, Doug Engle of the Ocala Star-Banner on video for reporters, Adrian Phillips of tampabay.com on video for photographers, John Freeman of UF on narrated slide shows, Jeff Kleinman of the Miami Herald on optimimizing headlines for the web, Crystal Lauderdale of The Tampa Tribune on essential photoshop for copy editors, Vidisha Priyanka of TBO.com on story planning for the web and Bob Stover, ME of Florida Today, on managing digital change.
The Central Florida workshop at Gainesville is the first of several planned for 2007 and 2008 for frontline professionals. The second will be Dec. 1 at the University of Miami and aimed at South Florida journalists. A third is planned for Tallahassee early next year for Panhandle and other North Florida journalists.
We hope to attract staff from FPA-member weekly newsrooms, FSNE member papers and SNPA members in Florida who work within a one -to-three hour drive of the training sites. The Saturday workshops will begin at 10 a.m. and end at 4:45 p.m. so participants can make it a one-day trip. Cost will be $25 per participant to cover meals and refreshments. The presenting professionals are donating their time. Our principal Gainesville host and workshop leader is William McKeen, chair of the Department of Journalism. Assisting him is Rick Hirsch, ME for multimedia and new projects at the Herald, who will be host for the Miami workshop. Both are FSNE board members.
FSNE and FPA members say foremost among their challenges is the digital revolution and its demands on their staffs. The multimedia workshops address the new skills required for digital competence.
Workshop slots will be limited due to the technology required for several of the sessions. Participation will be first-come, first-served with no limit on the number from any newsroom. Be aware, however, of the drive time required to reach Gainesville and know that two similar workshops will follow that could be closer to your area.
Thelma Givens of the FPA staff will provide administrative support for the workshops. Shortly, she will be posting signup information on the FPA web site area entitled Calendar of Events. The web site is www.flpress.com. She can be reached at tgivens@flpress.com for administrative questions. I can be contacted at gthelen@cas.usf.edu or 813-787-3886 for other questions.
The NewsTrain program in Tampa is designed for assigning editors and producers. In addition to its accustomed focus on management and leadership, NewsTrain will have significant segments on online story forms, coaching writers for online, coaching blogging, marrying data with text and visual awareness. Rosemary Goudreau, FSNE vice president, is leading this effort for FSNE and The Tampa Tribune.
August was the month that the Governor’s Commission on Open Government held its first hearings. The two-day event in Tallahassee included testimony from FSNE members Bob Gabordi, Pat Yack and Pat Rice. FSNE President Jeanne Grinstead is a member of the commission. Her letter about the two days and the challenge ahead for Florida journalists is found on the FSNE website, fsne.org.
Gil Thelen
Executive Director
FSNE
Writing Online
Chip Scanlan of The Poynter Institute
When journalists hear “online journalism,” they hear bells and whistles greeting the arrival of digital cameras and recorders, Flash, Final Cut Pro and other sophisticated software. To master these would take many hours of study and experience. But words remain the coin of the realm, whether the platform is online, print or broadcast. That’s why this hands-on session focuses on words and the ways--old and new-- journalists must adapt to meet new ways of delivering news and information. These include the craft of writing bulletins, headlines, blurbs, subheads, sentences, chunks, links and blog posts. Using real-world examples, the seminar will provide opportunities to write these elements and discuss their challenges and rewards.
Writing Blogs
Mindy McAdams, Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of Florida
These questions (and more) will be answered: How is a blog different from a newspaper column? How can a blog enhance your reporting? Why does at least one newspaper editor say you should try to spend more time writing your blog, not less? Mindy McAdams teaches courses about online journalism at the University of Florida and writes an internationally acclaimed blog, Teaching Online Journalism. She wrote a book titled Flash Journalism: How to Create Multimedia News Packages, published by Focal Press.
Narrated Slide Shows
John Freeman, Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Florida
Participants should bring headphones with them. Small ones are fine. This course will be an introduction to using the popular “Soundslides” program to produce short story-telling photo features for the Web. Participants will examine several different approaches and then be walked through the steps to produce a one-minute slide show during the session, using supplied audio and photographs. Video will not be discussed. John Freeman has been teaching photojournalism since 1981 and has worked at several large newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times. He instigated the College of Journalism and Communication’s transition from the darkroom and to the digital world in 2000, and now is trying to keep up with recent rapid changes in the profession.
Storytelling for the Web
Vidisha Priyanka of TBO.com
This seminar will help reporters/photographers/editors plan and execute online projects in detail and in a timely fashion. Some topics of discussion:
Think about the difference between multimedia and multiplatform
What is Internet primetime (When do you publish a story to get maximum audience impact)
Understanding online audience
Types of storytelling formats (How to get the best out of your medium ‑ text, audio, video, other)
Tiers of multimedia displays
Story planning and story boards (This will be the interactive part of the session ‑ participants will storyboard an idea)
User content (What is user-generated and what defines user participation. Levels of participation)
Tools, cables, software, the language of the Web (what tools to use and some terminology)
Multimedia Graphics
Lee Glynn of tampabay.com
The session will address which types of multimedia works and which don’t. Sometimes we end up spending a huge amount of time and resources on a story that gets a very little audience. The session will help understand how to get the maximum impact from minimal resources. Multimedia Graphics (for graphic artists, designers and their supervisors):In the multi-platform newsroom, planning the multimedia components first saves time and pays off in execution. In this 90-minute workshop, you’ll learn how to approach multimedia graphics and create of checklist of steps for putting graphic projects together. You’ll see how projects are executed and learn about some of the tools you can use to enable you to move from a print-only journalist to someone who can create content for the web and the newspaper.
Photoshop for Copy Editors
Crystal Lauderdale of The Tampa Tribune
For copy editors and editors who are beginning to work with your newspaper website. A hands-on Photoshop basics class that will teach you how to crop, resize, sharpen and tone an image _ and how to save it for the web and for print..
Video for Photographers
Adrian Phillips of tampabay.com
This all-day class for photographers will give shooters an introduction to video storytelling, editing in Final Cut Pro, capturing quality audio and how to shoot like an editor. It will include a hands-on editing session.
Headlines for the Web
Jeff Kleinman of The Miami Herald
That catchy, two-word headline may fly in today’s newspaper, but it falls flat on the web. Writing effective, information-packed, search-friendly and, yes, catchy online heds is what this session is all about. We will share tips and examples on how and when to write web heds, how get readers to click, discuss search optimization techniques, and focus on how to train your newsrooms to adjust their workflows to copy-edit the website as thoroughly and thoughtfully as the newspaper.
Managing Digital Change
Bob Stover, Florida Today
This session will discuss ways managers can change the workplace culture to respond to the challenges of the digital age. It will cover training, the importance of technology and mobility, identifying and aggregating audiences, repositioning resources and establishing measurements for your work. It will help you identify opportunities and potential pitfalls and give advice on how to address them. The discussion will draw on experiences at Florida Today award-winning information center, which has developed a sophisticated integration of content to support several platforms. It also will draw on experiences at other organizations across the country, mostly gleaned from my work with the APME multimedia committee.
Audio Reporting & Editing
Associated Press Broadcaster Tony Winton and Florida Broadcast Editor Suzette Laboy
This session will help print and Web journalists identify the importance of audio in telling a story; what works when gathering sound and what doesn’t; how to handle spot news coverage; use of ambient sound; and multimedia packages with narration/sound. Look no further than the latest O.J. Simpson story for an example of how an audio recording took center stage.
Video for Reporters
Doug Engle, Multimedia Editor, Ocala Star-Banner.
In the world of online journalism, reporters are increasingly expected to provide multimedia components along with their written stories. This course will teach reporters basic video techniques and how to use those skills to create storytelling videos to accompany print pieces. By seeing practical, real world examples, participants will learn the “5-10 Rule”, the art of the zoom, working with sound, basic framing and other helpful tips and techniques to help them tell great stories with video. Time permitting, participants will have the opportunity to shoot a quick
video using their newly learned skills.
