FALL SEMESTER 2018 :: ERIC THOMAS, instructor :: U of KANSAS photojournalism Jlet’s start410 with us… got to meet a Nobel laureate essentially themselves and tell those people’s one-on-one. But I also got to be in the stories through images. Instructor Eric Thomas ballroom room with a mayoral candidate • Students will learn the basics of expo- 317 Stauffer-Flint Hall right after his campaign pulled off a sure: ISO, aperture and shutter speed. 875-864-7625, [email protected] stunning upset. These intimate human • Students will practice photojournal- Office Hours:Wed 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. moments are the storytelling building ism through focus on self-defined, & 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. blocks of photojournalism. And you must specific, clearly-defined and well-re- My Instagram: @ericthomasphoto be there -- in person and perhaps out of searched subjects. Class Instagram: @KUphotoJhawks your comfort zone -- to experience them. • Students will learn how to gather an Also available by appointment Finding these new and unexpected audience on social media. See Blackboard for course details places to create images is a requirement • Students will learn the techniques in this class. I have asked you to list your of capturing candid, emotional and everyday moments. COURSE DESCRIPTION closest friends, your involvements and your most common places. I don’t want • Students will learn the fundamentals Study of camera, film, printing, com- you to photograph those people, those of light, whether natural or artificial. position, light and lighting, flash, the groups or those locations. • Students will learn technical aspects principles of photojournalism, deadline of photography, including equipment shooting for sports, general news, spot There are other benefits to us photo- choices, lenses and image file types. news, and features. Building a portfolio graphing people we are unfamiliar with. • Students will learn the ethics of pho- and laboratory work are included. Pre- Ethically, we avoid the conflicts of inter- tojournalism. requisite: JOUR 301 Research and Writ- est that come with family, friends and • Students will learn how to compose ing (or JOUR 302 Research and Writing, co-workers. We also help to build our an image through patient exploration Honors) or JOUR 304 Media Writing (or audience rather than giving the same ex- of a situation. JOUR 305 Media Writing, Honors) with a pected people publicity. And, of course, grade of 2.0 or above. we give voice to the voiceless: people who have never met a photojournalist the stuff we will do… MISSION STATEMENT get to tell their story through you. It’s time to reach out into the wide mysteri- MATERIALS As you will read below, one of the core • Photojournalism: The Professionals’ goals of this course is to get you out into ous world as a journalist! Approach by Kenneth Kobre. You can the world to meet people face-to-face. When you do reach out into that world, use either the sixth of seventh edition As reporters we can contact sources in you will likely find people hesitant and of this book. But please know that so many ways: email, text, call, Face- suspicious of you and your camera. We we will read a handful of chapters Time, Twitter message . . . This class will will work on the disarming and reassuring and I have placed two copies of the encourage a different kind of contact: language of the photojournalist. How- book on reserve in the Journalism the personal face-to-face relationship ever -- and this is key! -- all submitted Resource Center. So, maybe you required of photojournalists. It is exhila- images in this class will be published. don’t need to purchase? rating to meet the people who surround First, you will publish them on a publicly • Other (free) online readings you. Indeed, the camera gives you a available website when you submit them • An Instagram account (free) valid excuse to talk to anyone (“Excuse for class. I will often publish them again • Access to Adobe software me. I’m working on a photo project for a on social media (Instagram: @kuphoto- journalism class.”). Jhawks). So, please be honest with your CAMERA EQUIPMENT My time as a photojournalism student subjects and explain that you are journal- You must have access to a camera in this and professional is most memorable for ist who publishes his or her work. class. Please bring the camera, a charged the people I met, even more so than the battery, a transfer cord and a camera events I attended. Sure, I got to shoot GOALS card to each class. We will work with the • Students will learn to meet people, NBA games; but I also got to be in the cameras hands-on, and you will miss out talk with them about their lives and disheveled home of an NBA draft pick without one. show their subjects the value of being on the night he was drafted as he locked That camera requirement may mean a photographed. himself in his room crying while his agent variety of different possible arrange- • Students will meet people unlike sat on his family’s sagging couch. Yes, I ments: using an existing camera, buying a camera, renting a camera, borrowing a ASSESSMENT camera or taking a camera out on loan. Learning outcomes in this class will be The kind of camera that you will need is evaluated through reading quizzes, pho- this, at the barest minimum: an SLR with to projects and Instagram sets. which you can adjust the shutter speed • Semester Project. This photographic aperture and ISO. Most cameras like that project will be your showcase and VISUAL STORYTELLING look like this: your largest cumulative assignment J410 for the semester. First, you will write STUDENT CONTRACT a proposal for the project (10 points) After reviewing this syllabus, please explaining your concept and plan for sign below. the project. Next, you will commit to In signing and submitting the syllabus, photographing three batches of im- you acknowledge all of the policies, ages due a few weeks apart from one both of this class in particular and the another. Finally, you will submit the school of journalism more widely. project as your final assessment (90 You also acknowledge that you under- points) in the class. (100 points total) stand the requirements of the course, • Mid-term Project. Seldom have I in terms of materials, supplies and learned so much about any one thing assignments. Buying a camera: My personal favorite as I did as a student from this assign- Finally, you agree to simply work hard place to shop online for a camera is B&H ment as an undergraduate. The “Day to create original work that helps you Photo and Video. Good prices, fast de- in the Life” project will serve as your to grow as a visual person. livery and kind customer service. You can mid-term. You will be matched with a purchase a new body and lens for less fellow J410 student and photograph that $400. I am happy to help you shop that person’s life from morning to end Please sign below and date. for a camera at any budget. of day. You will be given two weeks Renting a camera: The website www. to arrange the logistics of the project Borrowlenses.com offers equipment and prepare your images. You will ______rental. However, you will find a semester learn so much about being a docu- rental almost as expensive as buying. mentary photojournalist, but perhaps signature Borrowing a camera: If you have a kind more about what it feels like to be the soul in your life who is willing to loan a subject. (50 points) camera, that is great. Please be sure to • Photo Projects. We will complete ______let them know that you will be using the nine other photo projects in this class. camera all semester and, at a minimum, For each project, you will publish the your printed name will need the camera every class period completed images on your personal and likely two other days during that web page for the class. The software week. It is important that you each have that we will use is Adobe Spark, so ______a camera to use during class time. that is why you will see “On Spark” Taking a camera out on loan: The noted on your class schedule. If you date equipment closet in the Journalism submit all of your photo projects Please return to class on the second Resource Center has Canon equipment on time, I will allow you to drop the day of the course. available for loan for the short-term: four lowest of the photo project grades for camera backpacks with zoom lenses or the semester. (25 points total) fixed normal lenses. Unless we have just • Reading Quizzes: During the weeks the right number of students in need of a that you read chapters in the Photo- camera, I would be nervous about relying journalism textbook, you will com- on loaner cameras for every assignment. plete quizzes on Blackboard that LECTURES review our most recent lecture and Lectures will expand on readings. You your reading. Quizzes are open note will want to take good notes that go be- and open book. If you complete all yond the main points of slides. Material of the quizzes on time, I will drop the from the lectures will be on the quizzes, lowest score. I do not give makeup while also being applied to photography quizzes without a verifiable excuse. projects. (20 points each) • Instagram Sets: My goal is that you begin thinking like a photojournalist Policy on Plagiarism & Fabrication/Falsi- during idle time: that you use your fication:Adopted May 7, 2004: phone to document what is around The William Allen White School of Jour- you rather than distract from what is nalism and Mass Communications does around you. For each two-week chunk not tolerate plagiarism, fabrication of on the semester schedule, you will DOODLING SPACE evidence and falsification of evidence. J410 post 5 photojournalistic images on Penalties for plagiarism, fabrication or On the other side of this piece of Instagram. These will be images that falsification can include a failing grade paper is your contract, so I couldn’t are different from your Photo Projects for this course and expulsion from the print any important stuff here. But that described above. (15 points total) School of Journalism and Mass Commu- doesn’t mean that you can’t doodle and draw and generally be a fun nications. finally, the details… visual person. If you have any questions about what Enjoy. EMAIL ETIQUETTE constitutes plagiarism, fabrication or fal- sification, please consult the professor(s) For email, please remember that I get a of this course. lot of it. Please write “YourName: J410” in the subject line. If you miss class, the The following definitions are from Article responsibility is on you to gather notes. II, Section 6, of the University Senate Please don’t email me seeking materials Rules and Regulations, revised FY98. you missed. Plagiarism Knowingly presenting the work of an- ORIGINAL WORK other as one’s own (i.e., without proper The expectation when you come to this acknowledgment of the source). The sole class is that you’ve come to learn, to be exception to the requirement of acknowl- creative, to stretch your imagination, and edging sources is when the information expand your skills. Therefore, all the work or ideas are common knowledge. you do in this class must be original. That means no “recycling” of assignments or Fabrication and Falsification papers from other classes, in the j-school Unauthorized alteration or invention of or outside the j-school. any information or citation in an academ- ic exercise. In this rare case, don’t recycle. Don’t re- cycle old high school assignments. If you STUDENT WITH SPECIAL photographed an event for a publication NEEDS or an earlier class, you cannot revise that The University of Kansas is committed to slightly and resubmit it as a new assign- helping all students learn. If you have a ment in this class. If you are working special need that may affect your learn- for the Kansan or another publication, ing, please contact me as soon as possi- please do not submit work that you did ble. Please be aware that the KU Office for that publication in this class. Likewise, of Student Access Services coordinates I expect the photos/images that you accommodations for all students who create to be created during this semester are eligible. If you have a disability for for submission to this class. which you wish to request accommoda- I assume the work you do for this class is tions and have not contacted this office, original to this class. Any efforts to recy- please do so as soon as possible. cle material will be regarded as academic Information about services can be found dishonesty. at https://disability.ku.edu/. Or you can ABOUT PLAGIARISM visit the office on the first floor of Strong Hall. The phone number is 785-864- In general, any student who turns in work 4064. The email is [email protected] that is not their own on any assignment will receive a zero on that assignment. Please contact me privately regarding

You may also be subject to Journalism your needs in this course.

taking a selfie at a famous place on campus! on place famous a at selfie a taking School penalties on cheating and plagia-

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draw a picture of someone someone of picture a draw CLASSROOM ATTENDANCE If you need a prompt for your doodling, doodling, your for prompt a need you If rism, which can include expulsion from the School of Journalism. I will collect attendance at every class pe- riod. You are allowed three absences in must not be transferred or transmitted that upon submission of final project this class. Once you miss a fourth class, to any other person, whether or not that and hand over a few more points. (10 you start to pay a penalty. I will deduct individual is enrolled in the course. points). points from 10 points (2 percent) from OTHER RULES TO LIVE BY your overall grade for each absence GRADING SCALE • All assignments are due at the start of over three absences. The three ab- The grading scale for this course is shown sences don’t not include documented class. Expect technical difficulties and below. Grades are not rounded to the illnesses (doctor’s note provided to me), do not wait until the last minute to next percentage point. There is no curve. funerals, KU-sponsored sports or other print work. Please do not ask. reasons approved in advance by me. • Assignments turned in after the start of A = 100-93 // A- = 92-90 class (yes, this means even a minute or From the journalism school’s policy: B+ = 89-88 // B = 87-83 // B- = 82-80 two late) will lose 20-percent credit. “No student may add a journalism class C+ = 79-78 // C = 77-73 // C- = 72-70 after the 20th day of a semester. • Assignments not submitted within 75 minutes of the start of class (3:45 p.m.) D+ = 69-68 // D = 67-63 // D- = 62-60 “Students must attend their classes and will lose 50-percent credit. F = 59.9 and below laboratory periods. Instructors may take • No assignment will be accepted 24 attendance into account in assessing a FINAL EXAM TIME hours after it was due without a verifi- student’s performance and may require The university has scheduled an awful able excuse (see next bullet). a certain level of attendance for passing slot for us and the final exam. Instead of • Late & excused work is allowed if: a course. Instructors may choose to drop meeting during finals week to submit your students from a course, based on atten- • a signed physician note docu- infographic, you will submit during finals dance, without consent. ments the absence and illness week using your Spark website and Black- “The School of Journalism reserves the • a KU-sponsored athletic event in board. Your final project for this class is right to cancel the enrollment of students which you are participating con- due Dec. 12, 2018 at 11 p.m. who fail to attend the first class or labora- flicts with an assignmentand you tory meeting.” have notified me of the absence CHANGES TO SYLLABUS “The KU Office of Student Financial Aid in advance As the instructor, I reserve the right to modify the syllabus and schedule, if is required by federal law to determine • you notify me in advance of the necessary. You will note that the course whether students who receive aid are conflict and convince me of its schedule is incomplete for lecture topics attending each class in which they are necessity enrolled. Instructors are required to for the final four weeks as we adjust to • you have a death in the family that report to that office absences of students how much we accomplish before then. you can document with an obitu- who have stopped attending and names Those changes may include altering ary or funeral program. of those who have enrolled but never point values for assignments. Of course, I have attended. Students who do not EXTRA CREDIT will notify you of any changes. attend classes may be required to repay Students have two opportunities for CAREER & OUTREACH OFFICE federal and/or state financial aid. extra credit in J410. You can do both If you need assistance with resume and “Students who receive any form of fi- extra-credit options to earn a total of cover letter development, job search nancial aid should learn all requirements 20 extra credit points. No other options strategy, internships, mock interviews including minimum hours of enrollment available: and LinkedIn profile, schedule an and grades to qualify for and retain that • KSPA event. Volunteering at the KSPA appointment with Steve Rottinghaus aid.” fall conference (Sept. 24). Volunteer at [email protected]. He’s in slots for these events are first-come, COPYING OR RECORDING Stauffer Flint room 120. Make sure to first-served with limited slots.The follow job and internship postings on Course materials prepared by the instruc- twist? If you fail to show for the extra Twitter at @Rhaus90. tor, as well as content of all lectures pre- credit volunteer opportunity, I will de- sented by the instructor, are my property. duct 10 points from your attendance in THANKS Video and audio recording of lectures addition to your not earning the extra I am ready for a great semester and to without my consent is prohibited. On re- credit points. Please only sign up if you see your inspired visual work. quest, I usually will permit students to re- are sure you can help. (10 points) cord lectures, on the condition that these Photojournalistically yours, If you are will- recordings are only used as a study aid • Share your images: ing to share your images from this by the individual making the recording. class with future generations of J410 Unless I give explicit permission, record- students, I will ask you to confirm ings of lectures may not be modified and