TNT

21212013 Top submissions to Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century Vol. 2

Newspaper and Online News Division Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Page 2 Volume 2, 2013 About TNT21 This booklet shares teaching ideas honored in courses, though they may be tailored for specific versions 2013 in Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century, of those courses. For example, tips for teaching newswrit- the teaching ideas competition of the Newspaper and ing across media would be welcome, as would tips for Online News Division of the Association for Education teaching a specific type of reporting, such as public affairs in Journalism and Mass Communication. TNT21 was reporting, business reporting or environmental reporting. founded in 2009 to publicly acknowledge good ideas for Tips can address practical skills or conceptual foundational journalism courses: newswriting, reporting knowledge, showing, for example, how to teach students and editing. to report ethically or edit to avoid libel. Tips that help Ideas are accepted in three divisions: professors address the challenges of teaching in a world — Full-time faculty members where technologies are rapidly changing are especially — Adjunct professors welcome. — Graduate-student instructors Ideas are judged for their originality, innovative The competition awards prizes of $100 for the best nature, ease of application, completeness, writing and teaching idea from each group and gives certificates to whether they would work in more than one course and/ others whose work is honored. or at different types of schools. Deadlines for contest entries typically are in the TNT21 has been administered since 2009 by Susan summer, to allow instructors to enter materials outside Keith, an associate professor in the Department of the rush of fall/spring semesters, and are announced on Journalism and Media Studies in the School of Commu- the Newspaper and Online News Division listserv and on nication and Information at Rutgers University in New the JOURNET listserv. Teaching tips submitted should Brunswick, N.J., and one of the Newspaper and Online be suitable for use in newswriting, reporting or editing News Division’s teaching chairs. 2013 judges Erin Coyle, Louisiana State University Joel Campbell, Brigham Young University Patricia Dobson, Eastern New Mexico University Pamela B. Fine, University of Kansas Kyle Heim, Seton Hall University Kevin Lerner, Marist College David Loomis, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Mitchell McKenney, Kent State University John Oudens, The New York Times Craig Paddock, University of North Carolina Charlotte Bill Reader, Ohio University Scott Reinardy, University of Kansas Chris Roberts, University of Alabama Lisa A. Romero, University of Illinois Carol Schlagheck, Eastern Michigan University Robert N. Spicer, Millersville University Leslie-Jean Thornton, Arizona State University Volume 2, 2013 Page 3 First place, full-time faculty member Short and Tweet By Sue Burzynski Bullard final tweets on Twitter using a class hashtag i.e. University of Nebraska-Lincoln #201short.

Types of courses the idea could be used in: How is the assignment innovative? What newswriting, reporting, editing makes this idea good for teaching in the 21st- century or preparing 21st century journalists? Target level: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, After students post “short and tweet” head- seniors, graduate students in a professionally lines, the professor pulls up Twitter, searches for oriented program the hashtag and show the entire class their work. This allows for an easy discussion of what makes What is the goal of the assignment or a clear but concise headline. It demonstrates Sue Burzynski Bullard teaches exercise? how headlines can be clever and interesting editing, reporting and multimedia The goal is to help students learn to write within tight constraints. It forces students to classes. She joined the Nebraska clearly and concisely. It reinforces William edit their own work. And it demonstrates how faculty in August 2008 after Zinsser’s advice in “On Writing Well.” He said, Twitter is a 21st century news wire because news a year as a visiting editor-in- “Examine every word you put on paper. You’ll outlets frequently post headlines and links. The residence at Michigan State find a surprising number that don’t serve any assignment outcome: Students learn the need University. Sue held a variety of purpose.” The exercise helps students learn to for clear, concise writing and understand that a editing positions during 21 years find the focus of stories. It helps editing students social media site can be a critical information- at The Detroit News, including write concise, clear headlines that pull read- sharing tool. three years as managing editor. ers into stories. It also helps reporting students In that role, she was responsible learn to summarize stories accurately and briefly How do you overcome pitfalls? for the day-to-day operation of — a skill they need as they craft their own ledes. Students need familiarity with basic head- the newsroom. She supervised line concepts and also need some understand- nearly 300 journalists and helped How does the assignment or exercise work? ing of Twitter before the assignment. I’ve used to integrate print and online Students are given copies of the same Twitter in other assignments in the class before newsrooms. She also worked as a stories. Each student must write a headline (in the Short and Tweet assignment, which helps reporter and editor at newspa- tweet form) summarizing a story in 120 charac- save time since they already have accounts and pers in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., ters or less. Students then must refine the head- familiarity. Occasionally, a tweet won’t show up Lansing, Mich., and Port Huron, line to 100 characters or less. Although Twitter under the hashtag on the Twitter stream. I’ve Mich. allows for 140 characters in a tweet, editors overcome that by having students read their often provide links to stories with their tweets, tweets aloud if they aren’t on the screen. which means they can’t use all 140 characters for headlines. Smart editors also allow extra space What is the impact of the assignment so tweets can be easily retweeted by others. or exercise? The professor provides copies of stories for Students learn quickly that concise, clear students. Ideally, the stories are features that can writing draws you into stories. It’s easy to entice readers via well-written headlines. The recognize good work. Students vote on best assignment takes one class period, depending on tweets/headlines. (Best headline writer wins how may rounds of stories students are assigned. candy). The exercise proves strong writing can Students are given a limited amount of time – be done in few characters, essential for edit- about 20 minutes — to read each story and write ing and reporting classes (headlines and ledes). tweets. One student wrote in a reflection: ‘Journalistic Students practice writing tweets in Mi- tweeting is a lesson in brevity and hooking your crosoft Word, using word count to check the audience simultaneously. When the limit is 100 number of characters they use. Forcing students characters, creativity and efficiency are forced to to go from a “first draft” of 120 characters to a develop. The most challenging aspect of journal- final tweet of 100 or less teaches them to omit istic tweeting is word choice. Every word must needless words and edit themselves. They post be chosen to convey an emotion, action or idea.” Page 4 Volume 2, 2013

First place, adjunct-faculty division Impact journalism: Learning from real-world public service reporting cases

By Roy Harris radio news operations, and lets each student get Emerson College to know the reporters and editors involved. The class benefits when it sees and hears the individual Types of courses the idea could be used in: presentations, and can compare and contrast them reporting with the one presentation, or the award-winning Target level: juniors, seniors or graduate students local project, that all students see. in a professionally oriented program How is the assignment innovative? What makes What is the goal of the assignment or this idea good for teaching in the 21stcentury or exercise? preparing 21st century journalists? Roy J. Harris Jr., who has The assignment’s goal is to allow each student My observation has been that far too few taught as an adjunct professor in a class to totally immerse herself or himself in journalism classes take advantage of the investi- at Emerson College in Boston, a case of public service journalism that is being gative reporting resources in the area where the has been a journalist for some considered for a major prize – either a Pulitzer, an school exists. Making these connections between of the nation’s most respected Emmy, or an Online News Association award, for news organization and school results in a mutually news organizations for four example. The class first identifies finalists or -prob beneficial arrangement, since the news organiza- decades. From 1971 to 1994 he able candidates for the awards, and each student tion gets to use the classroom to review its suc- served as a reporter and editor chooses one candidate to learn about. Having cesses. It is a natural outgrowth of this approach for the Wall Street Journal, taken “ownership” of that project, she or he is then that journalists stress the online aspects of their including six years as deputy responsible for explaining why the project won or print or broadcast journalism. Thus each presenta- chief of its 14-member Los lost the contest in which it competed. tion will have a cross-functional look. Angeles bureau. He spent 13 years as senior editor of The How does the assignment or exercise work? How do you overcome pitfalls? Economist Group’s Boston-based The individual student presentations on the Students often are embarrassed contacting CFO magazine and CFO.com. He journalism project work against a backdrop in local journalists. Thus, the professor needs to act was national president of the which the class has looked at the recent history of as a matchmaker – something that generally works 800-member American Society award-winning public service journalism across well, because local journalists are proud of talking of Business Publication Editors a variety of print and electronic media. Concen- about their successes with students. from 2006 to 2007. He is the trating where possible on the school’s own area, author of Pulitzer’s Gold the entire class also has gotten to see and hear What is the impact of the assignment (www.pulitzersgold.com), a reporters and editors face-to-face in the class- or exercise? history of the Pulitzer Prize room, describing how one actual reporting project I was fortunate enough to have a terrific for Public Service. was proposed, took shape, and was successfully central case for students to learn about: the Boston pursued to achieve a public service result. The stu- Globe’s Pulitzer-winning reports on the sexual dents get to know the journalists and the projects abuse of parishioners by Catholic priests, and the in which these journalists were involved. This may church coverup of that abuse. The students came take several class sessions, so that all the students away fascinated with that work, and driven to get to hear about the project inside and out. learn as much as they could about the award can- Thus, the students have a “model” to use in didates they chose to study individually, using the learning about the individual projects that are model for understanding the work that the Globe up for national awards. They learn about their case offered them. This approach definitely helped candidate, and prepare a presentation for the class students by letting them see real-world reporting – win or lose – after the awards are announced. approaches up-close, and meet actual reporters This approach “personalizes” the project work of and editors – who in some cases made job offers newspapers, online organizations, or television or to the students eventually. Volume 2, 2013 Page 5

First place, graduate-student division Today’s journalist challenge: Write better, adapt faster, promote smarter

By Ioana Coman execution. Members of the winning team received University of Tennessee an A (90–100 grading scale) for the “writing assignment” portion of their class grade. Members Types of courses the idea could be used in: of the non-winning team were graded individually newswriting, reporting, editing on their story content (quality of the story, news Target level: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, values, etc.). seniors and graduate students in a professionally oriented program How is the assignment innovative? The assignment teaches students how to be What is the goal of the assignment or exercise? good writers while focusing on how to promote Ioana Alexandra Coman Learning how to write and report news in their news stories in an environment where the is a Ph.D. student and today’s constantly changing and challenging competition is fierce and being social-media graduate teaching as- media environment is essential to any media savvy is a required skill. I also noticed that they sociate in the School of student’s education. Students attain how to paid more attention to proper attribution of Journalism and Electronic collaboratively report news in today’s challenging their sources since the finished product was not Media at the University media environment. I designed this “writing contained in the class setting. of Tennessee. She studies assignment” portion of the grading schema with crisis and risk commu- three student-learning outcomes in mind: Media What pitfalls have you encountered in using the writing best practices, adaptation of writing to idea and how did you overcome them? nication, social and new multiple platforms and promotion of news stories A struggle for me was to have less control media, international online. of the finished product because I did not assign, communication, and read, or edit the stories before they went live on mass media and political How does the assignment or exercise work? each team’s blog. Additionally, students were not systems. First phase: I divided the class into two teams, used to having so much control over their work She earned her master’s and I verified that both teams contained at least and had to shift into the decision-maker role. degree at Tennessee and one person with copy-editing experience and one Having lab time to work on the stories helped her undergraduate degree person with photo and video-editing experience. bridge this gap because I was there to answer any from the University of Both groups then established their team name and question and help them through. Bucharest in Romania. created a blog using Wordpress. Second phase: Teams were responsible for What is the impact of the assignment? uploading stories onto their blogs and promoting The students loved the assignment. They had these posts using Twitter, Facebook and other the chance to take ownership of the work since applicable social media. I mandated that students they were deciding on the stories, writing them, post one story per week, but their particular and promoting them. The assignment also allowed roles in content creation were guided by a them to easily show peers, friends, family, etc. the weekly rotation: Editor, writer, photographer/ skills they were learning in school. Quotes from videographer. The lab portion of class was students’ feedback include: designated as a time for “editorial meetings,” — “I like the blog project. It gives us when students could edit and upload stories while management experience along with reporting.” under supervised interaction. — “It’s like real world experience but on a Third phase: I determined the winning team small scale.” as the group with the best news content (quality — “I actually really enjoy the project we’re of the story, news values, etc.) combined with doing, I feel a lot more productive now than I did the highest blog traffic and online promotion before we started the project.” Page 6 Volume 2, 2013

Second place, full-time faculty division ProWatch: Critically thinking about reporters’ work By Carla J. Kimbrough University of Nebraska-Lincoln To build your skills as a reporter, find one newspaper article each week to examine closely. Answer the questions below (do Types of courses the idea could be used in: newswrit- not exceed two pages) and attach the article you selected. ing, reporting, editing — Publication date and newspaper name Target level: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, — Origin of story (where do you think the reporter found it?) seniors, graduate students in professional — What sources and how many did the reporter use to gather the programs information? Describe the role/title of the source. (Examples are officials, real people, documents). Carla J. Kimbrough What is the goal of the assignment or exercise? — Identify 3 to 5 questions the reporter asked of each source. teaches reporting and ProWatch, an activity in critical thinking, is an as- — What question do you wish the reporter would have asked? editing at UNL, which signment that I use in beginning reporting and editing — What source/s was/were missing or would have improved classes, but it can be adapted easily for use in editing and she joined in August the story? advanced reporting classes. It is designed to make stu- — What type of lede did the reporter use and was it effective/ 2008 after a career in dents read the newspaper, identify sources of story ideas, ineffective, why? journalism. She develop interviewing skills, identify Associated Press — Circle the nutgraph. worked as a reporter style, think about presenting stories across platforms and — Find three examples of AP style. at the Lincoln (Neb.) strengthen story organization skills. This assignment is — If this story has no visuals (graphics or photos), what could be Journal; as a reporter, used throughout the semester so that students can gain added to illustrate this story visually? Be specific. copy editor and fill-in these skills by critically examining the published work of — If this story appeared online, what elements would you use to assignment editor at professional journalists. the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock; and as How does the assignment or exercise work? they need to write the information in an organized way. a regional editor, city To complete the ProWatch assignment, students But what “updates” this assignment is the thought pro- need access to a print edition of a daily newspaper. The editor, or night metro cess of telling traditional print stories online. Would it be professor provides the questions students should answer editor at the Jackson best to tell the story with video or a photo slide show? If and may offer guidance of story type (see instructions). the story has no visuals, what could be created? Asking (Tenn.) Sun, Marietta The ProWatch assignment should be repeated several (Ohio) Times, Cincin- students to determine what visual and online options times to cultivate the skills mentioned above. exist for print stories, helps them to think the way they nati Enquirer and Students choose several published stories to exam- must in a newsroom. Dayton Daily News. At ine, write a response paper in a question-and-answer the Denver Post, she format, and attach the article used. For example, when I How do you overcome pitfalls? was part of the senior used this assignment previously in a five-week summer This assignment is easy, but students need some management team reporting course, I asked the students to find two stories background information to complete the assignment and was responsible weekly: a story that caught their attention and a story successfully. For example, do they have the vocabulary for newsroom that they normally wouldn’t read. A professor can specify to discuss the quality of a lede or nutgraph? If not, give the newspaper section or story type to match lessons – recruitment and staff them those tools and then let them demonstrate an un- speech; meeting; crime/police; feature; event; profile; development. derstanding by finding examples. Other than that, giving business; sports, etc. students detailed instructions on how to complete the Each homework assignment takes an hour or less. assignment should be sufficient for students. To broaden the learning, students discuss their stories in small groups or a few students tell the class about What is the impact of the assignment or exercise? the stories they examined. Students receive completion Students no longer simply read stories, but learn to points rather than a grade. Students collect their stories dissect stories and extract lessons about reporting and in a three-ring binder to refer to later. It takes minimal writing.This assignment allows professors to introduce a time for maximum payoff in student learning. critical thinking skill that young journalists will be able to use for years to come. When the assignment editor How is the assignment innovative? says, “I want a story something like this,” a reporter can Regardless of the century, journalists need basic dissect the story. In a course that requires a great deal of interviewing and writing skills. They need to know what feedback, this assignment silently teaches students how basic questions are necessary to develop a story and then to improve their work. Volume 2, 2013 Page 7

Second place, graduate-student division Many eyewitnesses … but did they see the same thing?

By Robin Blom goals mentioned above. Ball State University The length of the assignment depends on the amount of writing time and the analysis afterward. Types of courses the idea could be used in: newswriting, reporting How is the assignment innovative? What makes Target level: freshmen, sophomores this idea good for teaching in the 21stcentury or preparing 21st century journalists? What is the goal of the assignment or The exercise gives student journalists a realistic exercise? example of how social media can bombard them This exercise gives students a taste of report- with information, but with the instructor in charge Robin Blom graduated ing in a hectic and messy news environment, in of the news flow (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, press in 2013 from the Ph.D. which they constantly receive new details through releases). Traditionally, reporters always needed to program in Media and a variety of channels (in-person interviews, Twitter, decipher what is correct or incorrect information, Information Studies at Facebook, etc.). Importantly, they need to figure out but the amount and speed has increased. Students Michigan State rapidly whether those information pieces are true or learn to revise their stories quickly after receiving University, where false, especially eyewitness reports. The performance new details during the exercise. This forces them he taught introduc- of eyewitnesses in correctly remembering and de- to keep (re)analyzing all information. Yet, they are tory mass media and scribing events is often not covered in basic report- also forced to report the news as fast as possible: the newsriting courses ing courses. This exercise can lead off a lecture about screen once shows an angry editor that is demand- and developed this the difficulty for people to remember important ing the story “right now!” teaching idea. events in their lives and how question framing by He began work in fall journalists can lead people to create false memories. How do you overcome pitfalls? 2013 as an assistant The eyewitnesses are told that they are hav- professor in the How does the assignment or exercise work? ing lunch in a pub before they see the video. They Department of Outside the classroom, three volunteers are told do not have much more background information, Journalism at Ball that they are having lunch in a pub and then watch which becomes a bit problematic when they receive State University in a 2-minute clip of a bar fight. They are the eyewit- questions they cannot really answer (how long it Muncie, Ind. His nesses. The other students are reporters for a local took before the police arrived, if they were ques- research interests newspaper and can interview the eyewitnesses to get tioned by the police, etc.). In that case, the instruc- include journalism information for a news story. tor has to jump in and help the eyewitnesses “to education, news media After the interviews, the students are writ- remember” what happened to keep the cover story perceptions, memory ing their story. They get additional information plausible. The “reporters” also may need some hints and cognition, on a projector screen that shows an iPad and a about what essential information they need to write eyewitness identifica- cell phone. The iPad features a Twitter feed that is a complete story, depending on the course level. tion and media law. prepared for the exercise with PowerPoint. The in- He has professional structor can manually add new tweets on the screen. What is the impact of the assignment journalism experience They contain additional eyewitness accounts and or exercise? from the Netherlands, updates from other news organizations. Meanwhile, The exercise has functioned as an eye-opener where he wrote about on the cell phone, the reporters receive text messag- for many students to realize that it is not easy to get government, courts, es, Facebook updates, and an email from the police all the facts right in a frantic news environment. The drug and alcohol with a press release about the case. Importantly, a lot students have become aware that journalists fre- addiction, the arts and of the information is false! quently receive incorrect information from eyewit- multiculturalism for When the reporters are done writing, several nesses and other (news) sources that, nonetheless, is national and regional students read their stories out loud. Soon enough, it used in news content. newspapers. becomes clear that there are “different stories” and It has helped them to fully understand the that the students included incorrect information, importance of verifying information with multiple which leads to class discussions about the exercise sources. The exercise also helps to identify students Page 8 Volume 2, 2013 Third place, full-time faculty division (tie) The Red Line Project: Teaching in the 21st Century

By Michael Reilley DePaul University

Types of courses the idea could be used in: newswriting, reporting Target level: juniors, seniors

What is the goal of the assignment or exercise? Provide in-depth coverage of an urban issue us- Mike Reilley teaches ing multimedia storytelling tools. Typically, it’s a group Online Journalism I of students covering a topic (such as gun violence in Chicago) using digital storytelling tools. and II, News Editing, The goal: a published piece about Chicago’s gun Multiplatform News violence problems on our community news and urban Editing, Reporting for issues website, The Red Line Project (http://www. plates to track homicides in Chicago and tell the story Converged Newsrooms redlineproject.org), which I built with my Online II visually. The searchable map template (give it a try) and Online Sports and students two years ago. (The gun violence project was allows you to sort by the victim’s age, etc. We mapped advises DePaul’s Society in Winter Quarter 2013, during the middle of one it over Chicago’s political wards to find areas with the of the largest spikes in gun-related homicides in the of Professional Journalists worst gun violence. city’s history. President Obama came to the city to chapter. The organization Fusion Table maps and data visualization ex- discuss gun control, and we covered it along with our was named SPJ National amples: in-depth package on gun violence.) Campus Chapter of the http://www.redlineproject.org/gunschicago.php

Year in 2011 and 2013. He http://www.redlineproject.org/claytonmap/index. How does the assignment or exercise work? is a former reporter and html We started by researching the issue of gun http://redlineproject.org/2013chicagogundeaths.php copy editor at the Los An- violence and divided up the assignments among the http://redlineproject.org/gunmentalhealth.php geles Times and was one students. Then, I started training them on various http://redlineproject.org/andrewmap/index.html of the founding editors of multimedia tools we used: video (Final Cut Pro), Meo- ChicagoTribune.com. He’s graph, Google Fusion Tables. I brought in journal- How do you overcome pitfalls? a former news editor at ists and experts as guest speakers. I took some of the The biggest challenge was the Google Fusion students to a Community Media Workshop panel on WashingtonPost.com and Tables and getting the searchable map template to gun violence in week 4 of the quarter to research and ran the 2000 Summer work. It was a challenge, but we made it happen. The make contact with sources. Olympics copy desk for students and I even stayed on campus after it was We met outside of our weekly Wednesday night AOL. Reilley also founded shut down because of a blizzard to work on the maps. class (typically on Friday mornings) to go over prog- the journalism research (Note: Security let us stay.) The students and I all knew ress and sketch out project structure. The students not site, The Journalist’s Tool- we were blazing a new trail in our journalism program only reported and produced the work, they also built with this, so it was worth the extra time and effort. box, which he sold to the it on the site in our Surreal CMS content management Society of Professional system. The professor acted in the role of editor and What is the impact of the assignment Journalists in 2007 tech trouble-shooter. or exercise? and continues to The project was published in early March at This project helped all of us in many ways. I’m update for SPJ. http://www.redlineproject.org/gunviolence.php It has participating in hackathons (I have one this com- received nearly 35, 000 page views as of May 28. ing weekend) to learn more about Fusion Tables and develop ideas for future projects. It has encouraged me How is the assignment innovative? What makes this to push the envelope even further. idea good for teaching in the 21stcentury or prepar- The eight students who worked on this project? ing 21st century journalists? Two are currently working in the Chicago Tribune It combined great news reporting and writing Interactive dept. and a third is choosing between the skills along with visual storytelling skills. Students Tribune and Sun-Times. Others are beginning their used Google Fusion Tables and searchable map tem- search for full-time work in major markets. Volume 2, 2013 Page 9 Third place, full-time faculty division (tie) The amazing Twitter list race

By Michelle Carr Hassler periodically weed out unhelpful sources and replace University of Nebraska-Lincoln them with new ones.

Types of courses the idea could be used in: How is the assignment innovative? What makes newswriting, reporting this idea good for teaching in the 21stcentury or Target level: sophomores, juniors, seniors or gradu- preparing 21st century journalists? ate students in a professional program While students use social media for personal reasons, they often don’t realize its potential for re- What is the goal of the assignment or porting. By creating a Twitter list of credible sources, exercise? they discover how easy it is to monitor breaking The goal of this assignment is to show students news, keep track of events and spot trends – all in Michelle Carr Hassler how curating lists on Twitter can help them discover one place. With a tsunami of information to sort teaches multimedia and online journalism at the news sources, monitor what is happening in their through daily, today’s journalists need to know and University of Nebraska- community and develop story ideas. They complete use strategic curating techniques. Lincoln, where she has the assignment as part of a friendly competition in This assignment gives students a concrete been a faculty member which each student tries to develop a Twitter list example of how Twitter can help them as journalists. since 1998. She regularly with the most news sources. Now they can see the potential and may be inspired teaches the journalism Students often do not follow local news closely to develop other ways to use social media for jour- capstone course and and struggle to come up with strong story ideas. nalistic purposes. recently created and This assignment helps them focus by creating one taught UNL’s first social place where they can keep current on events and be How do you overcome pitfalls? media course for journal- ism majors. Before coming inspired. So they don’t simply copy sources they’ve seen to UNL, she was a reporter by looking at each other’s lists, I ask them to keep and editor for 16 years at How does the assignment or exercise work? their Twitter lists private until class time. And newspapers in suburban To prepare students for the assignment, I dem- to avoid having students “stack” their lists with Phoenix and Lincoln, Neb. onstrate how Twitter lists work and show examples meaningless accounts, I warn them that the quality In 2011, she and colleague of how beat reporters use them. I discuss how of sources will be closely scrutinized by me and the Sue Burzynski Bullard students can mine social media for credible sources other students during the class discussion. I suggest won third place in the in several ways: by using search applications such that students be prepared to defend why they added Teaching News Terrifically Listorius, WeFollow and Twellow; by identifying each source. competition. Another of Hassler’s teaching ideas valuable sources and examining who they follow; by was recognized in 2013 by monitoring pertinent hashtags to see who tweets to What is the impact of the assignment Journalism Interactive. them; and by “raiding” other people’s Twitter lists. I or exercise? also give them examples of viable story ideas that I Students said the lists helped them learn more culled from my own local news Twitter list. about the community and develop better story ideas. The assignment requires students to compile in I noticed improvement in a subsequent assignment a Twitter list as many valuable local news sources that required them to propose three story ideas as possible. To make it fun, I pitch it as a contest in gleaned from their Twitter lists. which students compete to gather the most sources After the exercise is completed, I encourage by the next class period. To get them thinking about students to share the sources they’ve found so they specific sources, I designate class time to brainstorm can build even better lists. In essence, they develop ideas of followers from different facets of the com- “super lists” that they can tap into for future assign- munity. ments in this class and others. And their new under- When class reconvenes and they return with standing of how to use social media for reporting their lists, we compare them and talk about the and story development will help them someday on quality and helpfulness of sources. We also discuss the job. the importance of monitoring their lists so they can Page 10 Volume 2, 2013 Honorable mention, full-time faculty division (tie) Storify and Twitter for reporting and curating a meeting story

By Michael Fuhlhage How is the assignment innovative? What makes Auburn University this idea good for teaching in the 21stcentury or preparing 21st century journalists? Types of courses the idea could be used in: Storify is being used by leaders in online news reporting such as the CBC and the New York Times. Recruit- Target level: sophomores, juniors, seniors, graduate ers now list curation as a desired skill, yet journal- students in a professional program ism texts omit it. This assignment pushes students beyond Twitter basics toward construction of nar- What is the goal of the assignment or ratives. Using Storify helps students master organi- Michael Fuhlhage is an exercise? zation of like material with like material and helps assistant professor in the This assignment helps students learn to write recognize where to place transitions. It encourages School of Communication an SEO headline, use Twitter to cover a newswor- them to think about all the possible online materials and Journalism at Auburn thy event as it happens, and use Storify, a free and they could use to help readers understand the story. University, where he teaches easy-to-use platform for curating social media and And it helps us, as educators, to meet students on multimedia journalism, online content such as infographics, photos, maps, their own digital turf where they are most comfort- media history and mass diagrams and links to text and multimedia content. able. communication theory. He Students sign up to use Storify at www.storify.com. has 17 years of experience How do you overcome pitfalls? in news, sports, and feature How does the assignment or exercise work? We have to face the reality that not all stu- editing, design, and writing, The assignment presumes students have writ- dents can afford smartphones, so we must offer including work at the ten a conventional news story about a previous city workarounds to the problems some students face Santa Fe New Mexican, Des council meeting. It also presumes the professor has in completing the assignment. Just about every- introduced students to the use of Twitter as a report- body has a phone that can be used to send tweets Moines Register, Lawrence ing tool for sharing information and finding human and texts, and we can assume nearly every student (Kan.) Journal-World, Palm sources. has a wifi-capable laptop and a digital camera, but Springs (Calif.) Desert We devote a class to examining good journal- not everybody has camera phones. So we need to Sun, and St. Cloud (Minn.) istic uses of Storify by the Canadian Broadcasting suggest that students use these tools separately, and Times. He taught newspaper Corp. and learning how to use it to curate social then upload images after the event is over and they editing, news design, and media and other online material. have time to transfer photos from the camera to the general semantics for five Before the meeting, the professor leads students laptop for uploading. years while serving as a through the council agenda and supporting docu- professional practice as- ments that the city posted online before the meeting. What is the impact of the assignment or exercise? sistant professor at the Uni- Potentially controversial and newsworthy agenda Many students complain covering City Coun- versity of Missouri School of items are discussed, including how to identify news- cil is boring. Many have confessed confusion Journalism. There, he was a worthy information. Students are reminded of tweet- about identifying the most newsworthy aspects. news editor at the Columbia ing conventions and the importance of accuracy. By crowdsourcing information gathering, students Missourian and taught in At the meeting, students use a predetermined get a chance to see whether their news judgment MU’s Dow Jones Center for hashtag with each tweet to make it easy to find conforms with that of their peers. When they see Editing Excellence. tweets for curation. they are not alone in their decisions about newswor- I provide feedback on Twitter as I sit in on thiness, their confidence increases. Students tell me the meeting with them. I leave it to the students to they actually had fun doing this assignment. Before decide what to tweet but drop hints along the way, they did it, they didn’t realize city government could e.g., “See if you can link to a map of the 5k the city’s actually be interesting. As a bonus, students aren’t closing streets for this weekend.” Students then distracted by their smartphones because they’re create narratives of the meeting using one another’s too busy using their smartphones productively to tweets in Storify. complete the task. Volume 2, 2013 Page 11

Rubric for grading Story and Twitter meeting curation assignment Page 12 Volume 2, 2013 Honorable mention, full-time faculty division (tie) Editors as curators: Using new tools to deliver news

By Sue Burzynski Bullard before posting. University of Nebraska-Lincoln The assignment spanned several weeks with waves of deadlines for posting information. Students followed a format for curated Type of course the idea could be used in: editing links, which emphasized credit to the original source. Target level: juniors or seniors The final product: comprehensive backgrounder pages with links to data and stories about numerous races. What is the goal of the assignment or exercise? How is the assignment innovative? What makes this idea good This assignment teaches students to understand digital tools for teaching in the 21stcentury? used to research, gather and disseminate news. They learn to The assignment produced rich content for a student-produced curate news using a foundation of traditional journalistic values news website, which is actually the product of a capstone class but including verification, fairness, judgment and attribution. Today, was used as a home for the backgrounder stories. Most impor- audiences are bombarded with information. They want journalists tantly, the assignment mimics actual newsroom behavior in today’s to make sense of it. News organizations providing comprehensive digital world. Students learn a variety of digital techniques, but all information from valued sources retain audiences. In many news- of them are built on a strong foundation of traditional values such rooms, editors become aggregators. In this assignment, editing as attribution and verification. The opportunities for active and students learn to evaluate and verify sources of information, par- collaborative learning also make it innovative. Students learn from ticularly social media. They study how news organizations act as the instructor but they also learn from each other. Ultimately, they curators and provide context. And they learn to properly attribute learn by doing and produce a valuable product. curated stories. How do you overcome pitfalls? How does the assignment or exercise work? Although the election provided much material, some races The assignment provided comprehensive coverage of Election had more coverage than others. Students assigned rural races had 2012 but can be adapted to any ongoing story. Teams of editing difficulty finding sources of news about their races. In the end, students were assigned regional, state those students were assessed on the value and national races. Students used of the package they pulled together — RSS feeds, Google alerts and social Profile formatting example not the number of stories/data sources media search and bookmarking to they found. In future semesters, the track news. They curated coverage to assignment will be used to cover ongoing create election backgrounder pages, stories — such as immigration reform or published on a Wordpress website. the impact of extreme weather. The in- Through lectures and hands-on structor needs to carefully evaluate what activities, students learned to use digi- sources of information might be available tal reporting strategies. For example, before the assignment begins. they created Twitter lists of sources to monitor. Lists included Twitter feeds What is the impact of the assignment from candidates, campaigns, pundits or exercise? and media. Students loved this assignment be- The assignment offers oppor- cause they published content, which can tunities for collaboration. Teams be used in their portfolios. They learned determined what information each to use many digital tools. They learned backgrounder page should include. the importance of traditional values. And For instance, a student assigned a they learned to think critically — which congressional race found campaign stories would be valuable to readers and finance information for her candidate. which wouldn’t? As one student wrote Another found profile information on each legislative candidate. in a reflection paper, “The ability to do something like this will Students shared information and ensured all congressional races be a good skill to have when looking for jobs in the future.” Said had similar coverage. another: “I think the Election coverage for this class has been a The instructor’s lectures covered accuracy and verification, great learning tool for both reporting and digging up information SEO headline techniques and news judgment. Students peer edited on a subject.” Volume 2, 2013 Page 13 Honorable mention, full-time faculty division (tie) Talking all at once: Managing simultaneous face-to-face, online discussions By Jennifer Brannock Cox social media postings relevant to the topics, includ- Salisbury University ing YouTube videos, Instagram photos, and Facebook statuses. Types of courses the idea could be used in: newswriting, reporting How is the assignment innovative? Target level: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, This activity requires students to use technology to graduate students in a professional program facilitate critical thinking, reporting, and analysis they will be expected to do in 21st century newsrooms. Jour- What is the goal of the assignment or exercise? nalists are equipped with the latest networking tools and Discussion in the classroom has been a favorite expected to use them to improve reporting and interact tool for learning among educators and students, while in innovative ways. Students blended their tech-savvy Jennifer Brannock Cox technologies, such as laptops and mobile devices, have tendencies with traditional journalistic skills, including is an assistant become more of a distraction. By combining the two, listening, questioning, reasoning, and processing. Now, professor of educators can improve learning outcomes, allowing stu- instead of simply recording interviews with Smart- communication arts dents to share information and converse in ways that are phones, these students can listen critically and be present at Salisbury University familiar for them without interrupting the richness of the in the moment, brainstorming follow-up questions and in Salisbury, Md. discussion. Students use different technologies to partici- analyzing information on the spot. These techniques are She earned a master’s pate in and later reflect on discussions about journalism essential for journalists, no matter what century it is. degree from the and media. Students use critical thinking to contribute University of Alabama thoughtful comments, both written and spoken, and How do you overcome pitfalls? deeper analysis to process the information learned on Students in this class were equipped with mobile and a Ph.D. from the multiple levels and platforms. devices for reporting, making the temptation to text or University of Florida. check social media that much greater. By incorporating She is a two-time win- How does the assignment or exercise work? students’ love of mobile technology into the discussion in ner of TNT21, having For class discussions, I separated 20 students into a meaningful way, and choosing contemporary journal- taking home first inner and outer circles. The inner circle participated in a ism topics that were interesting and engaging, students place in the face-to-face discussion, contributing a minimum of five stayed on task and enjoyed participating in ways that graduate-student meaningful comments that demonstrated their under- were fun and familiar. division in 2010 and standing of the assigned readings and ability to think Discussions can also be difficult for students who the full-time faculty critically about each topic. The instructor moderated the are introverted and prefer not to speak up in class. The division in 2012. conversation, asking broad questions and guiding the online portion of the discussion was also ideal for them, discussion. as they could make their voices heard without actually The outer circle was not permitted to speak at all, speaking. participating instead on Twitter using a shared hashtag. These students followed the inner circle conversation, What is the impact of the assignment or exercise? tweeting 5-10 times using their phones or laptops. Their The method proved more effective than regular note tweets included direct quotes from the conversation and taking, in that students had to not only listen to the in- their own critical analysis and reactions. Additionally, formation being shared but also process it and add their outer circle students had their own conversation online, own critical analysis. In their class evaluations, students addressing each other using the @ symbol and the group felt they learned the most during these discussions. Their as a whole using the hashtag. enthusiasm for the subjects increased, and students felt One hour into the class, the circles switched sides more confident speaking authoritatively about their and repeated the activity using different questions. future professions. Following the discussion, students used Storify.com Students said they felt a new appreciation for the to build an article exploring key arguments from the challenges journalists face, and they were eager to learn discussion. Students used at least 10 of their classmates’ more. Their hunger for the material was more palpable tweets and their own text to transition between points. during these multi-faceted discussions than I have seen Students also went beyond the discussion to incorporate before. Page 14 Volume 2, 2013

This booklet is set in Minon Pro Regular and Bold and Futura Condensed Medium. Design is by Susan Keith, Rutgers University.