Journalism Boot Camp ​ COMM 624, Summer 2020 July 27 to Aug. 13 American University School of Communication Investigate, Innovate, Inform. Now is the time. SOC is the place. Instructors Professor Terry Bryant [email protected] (785) 979-0345 Professor Jeremiah Patterson [email protected] (202) 630-1095 Professor John Watson [email protected] (202) 885-2083 Professor Amy Eisman [email protected] (202) 841-6840 (mobile) Welcome to Journalism Boot Camp Your Journalism faculty have planned an exciting Journalism 2020 Boot Camp experience enhanced this year by special features for online engagement. Each day you will learn from deeply informed instructors and journalists at the top of their field as you study the basics of the profession, from ethics to hands-on digital production. Despite being online this year, the overall objectives for Boot Camp are the same — to introduce you to Washington, D.C., to the journalism landscape and to the varied skills you need to succeed in the year ahead. Our three-week course will feature both synchronous and asynchronous instruction, focusing on writing and reporting basics, multimedia and web production and much, much more. Clearly, you are studying journalism at one of the most challenging and difficult times in contemporary history. The demands of covering and living through the realities of Covid-19 — at the same time as the nation grapples with the racial disparities in healthcare and the economy highlighted by the protests this summer — make this a particularly remarkable moment in time. This also means an evolving syllabus dependent on both health guidance and news events, a curriculum that will be informative as well as sensitive to the needs of journalists and sources. In other words, whether online or outside, you will be replicating the same experience as the professional journalists around us. Obviously, we will also focus on the presidential election ahead; indeed, you have a front-row seat to history. You no doubt face a summer of pandemic, protests and politics. Some of the features you can expect: ● A welcoming website built to enhance community and communication ● Daily journalism ethics lectures ● Video introductions from some of division’s journalism instructors ● One-on-one virtual meetings with instructors to gauge progress ● At least one virtual “happy hour” ● Intense writing and digital production training ● Routine feedback on scheduled assignments ● Lectures on everything from building an online portfolio and producing news remotely to how Washington works. Some of the topics we will cover include: reporting on the global pandemic, race issues, the upcoming presidential election; journalism’s mission; AP Style; the First Amendment; investigative journalism; covering underrepresented communities; branding yourself; social media verification; the freedom of information act; visual journalism; covering congress; podcasting; interactive journalism; and photography, video and audio The Journalism Division has three main goals for Boot Camp: 1. To introduce you to how we teach and think about journalism 2. To learn how to navigate the official Washington, D.C. ecosystem - sources, context and issues ​ ​ 3. To introduce you to the School of Communication and American University Over the next three weeks, you will learn journalism on a variety of media platforms — digital, photography, audio, video and social media among them. In Boot Camp and in the M.A. program, we stress the importance of learning the fundamentals of critical thinking, news judgment, interviewing, AP style, grammar, ethics and the ever more complicated world of fact checking. Traditional reporting and distribution methods continue to evolve as journalism is realigning. You are part of the generation that will create, navigate and define journalism’s future. This evolution in our industries is happening against an extraordinary backdrop — as we said, in Washington, D.C., you have a front-row seat to history. Here's how Austin Ramsey, a student in last year's cohort ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ described his experience in the journalism master's program. Few of us can remember a time so fundamental to our journalism roots, which means we are doubling down on the traditions — objectivity, transparency, accuracy, veracity — even while we explore new avenues for storytelling. Ethics The importance of appropriate ethical behavior is part of why Boot Camp devotes a full hour nearly every day to the discussion of journalism ethics. The time invested is the equivalent of a one-credit course in the topic. Professor John Watson – one of the most memorable and engaging faculty members on this topic – will lead that discussion daily. Learning at the Right Pace Through a combination of class lectures, tutorials, guest speakers and multimedia reporting assignments, you will begin to learn the skills you need to survive in journalism’s digital age. It won’t be easy. You will learn on assignment, getting honest and sometimes tough feedback that you haven’t heard in awhile. If it sounds like a lot, it is. Expect long hours — including overnight homework and, perhaps, weekend assignments. We recognize that some of you might be more advanced in professional journalism so please work with your instructors to make sure you are getting the most out of Boot Camp. Objectives You will: ● Be introduced to professional journalistic writing, headlines, AP style, news literacy, ethical decision making ● Develop a professional online portfolio that you will use throughout the rest of the program ● Be introduced to multi-platform storytelling: online writing, photos, audio, video, mobile, data ● Learn from experts on cutting-edge issues ● Understand how to navigate a professional newsroom Why we take the multimedia approach Multi-tasking journalism skills are the norm, not the exception, for working journalists and communicators today. Most news organizations, news sites, networks, magazines, radio stations and television stations produce content for mobile and online audiences first, as they seek ways to vertically integrate content across traditional venues. One reason they do this is to produce new income streams to replace traditional ones that have declined over the past decade and to reach audience members where they are. Expectations ● Your work will be accurate, ethical, transparent, fair and truthful ● All assignments are due on deadline without excuse ● You will need to become an “all-platform journalist,” which means digital writing and reporting, and gathering audio and video, often as a solo journalist Required Tools You will need your own laptop computer and a cellphone for shooting video. This is necessary for academic and professional work. You also should have an external hard drive. You will have access to video labs and cameras on the AU campus. Recommendations External hard drive: Getting a reliable external hard drive is a critical investment for a digital journalist. You ​ will have many uses for this drive throughout your American University career and beyond. Be aware that video, in particular, uses a large amount of space and power so you will put your video work on external hard drives instead of leaving projects on your desktop. An external hard drive formatted for a Mac is preferred because the video editing equipment is Mac based. You can also get by with a hard drive that is partitioned for both a Mac and a PC. You can get a hard drive with plenty of storage at a reasonable cost. Here are a couple of 1TB hard drives for under $50: Seagate Portable 1TB External Hard Drive Western Digital 1 TB External Hard Drive You can purchase what you need from any reputable company (Seagate, Western Digital, LaCie, etc.) Make sure it is bus-powered, meaning it doesn't have to be plugged into an electrical outlet — it's powered by the ​ ​ computer. An external HD will be mandatory for broadcast specialization students because they must master video editing and that requires a substantial amount of storage and computing capacity. Broadcast students might all consider newer external SSD hard drives -- extremely fast hard drives with no moving parts that have become much more affordable in the last couple years. Samsungs are a popular choice with the 1TB models retailing for under $200. ​ ​ USB Thumb Drive: This is good for storage of files for smaller projects such as papers and PowerPoint. A flash ​ drive (at least 32-64 GB) is good for smaller projects. Here are some 64 GB flash drives. ​ ​ ​ You don’t have to use USB drives for all of your files; AU students get Google Accounts, which come with Google Drive for storage. However, Google Drive is not a reliable system for storing large video files. Computers: If you need to purchase a new computer, we recommend an Apple laptop. SOC labs and ​ equipment are primarily Mac-based or formatted for Mac. Our instructors also primarily use and teach on Macs. For students who are in the international or investigative tracks, you can get by with any current Windows or Mac laptop. The standard MacBook Air, with a 1.1GHz Processor and 256GB Storage is sufficient. (Note, however, 256GB is not a lot of storage, so if you purchase this Mac, get in the habit of using an external hard drive, USB drive or uploading to Google Drive or Dropbox.) If you plan on editing any video, you will likely ​ ​ encounter frustrating results with the MacBook Air. It’s simply not powerful enough. We have labs with iMacs for higher-end editing. For Broadcast track students or anyone interested in multimedia, a MacBook Pro is your best option in order ​ ​ ​ ​ to seamlessly run Photoshop, Audition or Premiere Pro and offer compatibility with Macs in our media labs.. The baseline 13” MacBook Pro with a 1.4GHz Processor and 256GB Storage should be OK. Obviously, more processing power and larger storage can help you further, but at a price. Additionally, editing video on a 13” screen can be frustrating for many students.