Study multimedia journalism in Italy or France

Do you dream about being a foreign correspondent? Would you like to learn "backpack" (multimedia) journalism skills in Europe for college credit?

San Francisco State University and the Institute for Education in International Media (ieiMedia), are co-sponsoring 4-week intensive summer sessions in Italy and France in the summer of 2010.

The programs are open to college students and recent graduates from all schools.

* Urbino, Italy (June 3-July 2, 2010) This picturesque Renaissance hill town is the capital of the Marche region, a beautiful but little-touristed region of Central Italy. The city's impressive Ducal Palace houses one of the most important collections of Renaissance paintings in the world. Students study digital video, photography, blogging and reporting (as well as intercultural communication and Italian language) and produce an online documentary about the town (see last year’s project at http://inurbino.net). Students will live and dine (most meals included) in a University of Urbino dormitory.

* Perpignan, France (June 24-July 23, 2010) Perpignan lies in the Languedoc region of southwestern France, 8 miles west of the Mediterranean Sea and 19 miles north of the Spanish border, within sight of the Pyrenees. The city features a charming, pedestrian-friendly historic quarter; a daily market; and lively night life. Many attractions in France and Spain are only a short train ride away. Students will share studios in a modern apartment-hotel and take French and multimedia classes at the ALFMED language school in the heart of the old city. This program puts a particular emphasis on video storytelling; students will produce an online video gallery about the city.

Students can earn 3 transferable units of upper-division undergraduate credit (JOUR 677 Multimedia Study Abroad) through the San Francisco State University College of Extended Learning.

Program cost: $4,900 plus airfare

Early-bird rate (for students who apply by Jan. 15, 2010): $4,700

For more information about the Urbino program, email UrbinoProject@gmail.com; to learn more about Perpignan, email PerpignanProject@gmail.com. Go to http://inarmagh.net and http://incagli.net to see past ieiMedia student projects.

Applications will be available on the ieiMedia Web site beginning Nov. 1.

Study multimedia in Italy, N. Ireland this summer

In case you're wondering why I've posted so little lately, it's because I've been devoting a lot of time to negotiating an agreement between San Francisco State University and the Institute for Education in International Media to offer multimedia study-abroad programs next summer. The deal is done!

In 2009 SFSU and ieiMedia will co-sponsor month-long programs in Urbino, Italy (June 30-July 30) and Armagh, Northern Ireland (July 15-August 16).

Students will be able to earn 3 units of journalism credit through the SFSU College of Extended Learning. Students and recent graduates from all universities and majors are welcome to apply. The application deadline is Feb. 1.

The institute, a pioneer in converged media education, has been taking students abroad since 2001.

The programs in Armagh and Urbino are a continuation of the ieiMedia philosophy of taking students to communities that are off the beaten tourist track, allowing them to immerse themselves in the local culture. Students will learn various aspects of digital storytelling -- including photography, video, writing for the Web, blogging and Web design -- and will produce an online multimedia documentary about the local community (see InArmagh.net and InCagli.net for examples of work from previous years). Students will also study intercultural communication and Irish history and culture (Armagh) and Italian language (Urbino).

The cost of the program is $4,475 plus airfare. For more information and an application for Urbino contact UrbinoProject@gmail.com; for Armagh contact ArmaghProject@gmail.com.

About Armagh, N. Ireland
Situated on the Irish Republic’s border, Armagh is a city rich in culture and history. It was here that St. Patrick reportedly built the first stone church in 445 and two cathedrals in his name still tower over the city. With 15,000 residents, Armagh has a wide range of attractions: museums, national parks, historic castles and houses, a modern theater, a university, Ireland’s only planetarium, and numerous restaurants and pubs. Activities include golf, fishing, bicycling, and hiking. Armagh is served by public transportation and is one hour from Belfast, two from Dublin, and three from Galway.

Classes will be held in the AmmA Centre, a multimedia creative learning centre in Armagh. Students will live in the Armagh City Youth Hostel,a modern facility with private baths. Some meals will be provided, and students will have access to a large communal kitchen, as well as laundry facilities.


About Urbino, Italy
Urbino is a picturesque Renaissance hill town and the capital of the Marche region, a beautiful but little-touristed region of Central Italy. The city’s impressive Ducal Palace houses one of the most important collections of Renaissance paintings in the world. The artist Raphael was born in Urbino (in 1483) and visitors can tour his family home, which is now a museum. Other attractions include a small botanical garden, a medieval church and a 14thcentury fortress offering stunning views of the town and the surrounding hills.

The University of Urbino, founded in 1506, will provide classroom space as well as housing. Students will live in a residence hall; all meals in the university dining facility are included.

10 Tips for Becoming a Wired Journalist

35,000 FEET OVER COLORADO – I’m flying back from New York City, where I moderated two daylong workshops on new media for College Media Advisers last week. After breathing the same air as new media visionary Rob Curley and hearing from other leaders in this field (see earlier post), I’m a little dizzy. And I’m even more convinced than ever that ALL journalists have to get wired or die.

And yes, that applies to you, the 53-year-old reporter calling yourself a “narrative writer” and you, the student who wants to write for magazines and you, the photojournalism educator who left the newsroom 10 years ago and just wants to teach kids to shoot.

Journalists who say “I want to write long magazine features” or “I’m not into the computer stuff” or “I just want to shoot pictures” are destined to find themselves without work.

Face it: We’re all new media geeks now.

With this in mind, here are tips for journalism students, professionals and educators on how to become a wired journalist.

1. Open your mind. It’s time to toss out your preconceived, 20th century ideas about what it means to be a journalist. Open yourself up to the possibilities of new media. This is not some flash in the pan or even something in the can’t-quite-see-it future. This is the way the media world works now and you better get hip to it.

2. Learn the lingo. If you don’t know RSS from CMS, look them up. You may feel like you’re studying a foreign language, but if you don’t learn what people are talking about you’re going to find yourself in the dust.

3. Get some training. Virtually any new skill you can add to your journalism toolbox is valuable. The Poynter Institute, the Knight Digital Media Center, the European Journalism Centre, the Center for Innovation in College Media, College Media Advisers and IRFA Newsplex are among the organizations offering new media training for journalists, educators and students. Or get some quality time with your friendly neighborhood geek – the lab monitor at your school, the multimedia professor in your department, your colleague in the computer science department, the database freak at your newspaper.

4. Train yourself. If you think you don’t have the time or money to invest in training (I’d argue can’t afford not to) the Internet, books, tutorials and the help menu that comes along with just about every piece of software will allow you to train yourself. Poynter's NewsU offers free or low-cost online courses in Multimedia Storytelling, Telling Stories with Sound, Online Project Development and other skills. If you can’t figure out how to do a particular thing, post a question to Google. The Internet has the answer to just about any question you could possibly ask – probably even the meaning of life.

5. Invest in equipment. Even if you see yourself as primarily a writer or editor, being a 21st century journalist means being armed with equipment to record news in a variety of ways. Every journalist should have a digital audio recorder, digital camera and some way of recording video, even if it’s just short video clips on a digital point-and-shoot. Reporters are now shooting photos and videos with their cell phones and posting them to the Web immediately, sometimes before a photographer can even get to the scene of the news.

6. Link up. Social networking is becoming an increasingly important part of journalism and all journalists should have a presence on a number of sites, especially LinkedIn, but also myspace, facebook, Wired Journalists, Twitter and other sites.

7. Get yourself out there. Even before you enter a newsroom (or, for journalism educators, even after you leave one) you can get your work out there by posting videos to YouTube, photos to flickr, articles to Web sites, posts to blogs. If a potential employer can’t find your work in a Google search (and yes, these have become a routine part of considering a candidate for a job), you don’t exist.

8. Create a Web presence. If you don’t already have a Web site or blog, it’s time to get one. Register your name – or something close to it – as a domain name at register.com and put some content up there. Every journalist should have at least a resume and some work samples up on the Web. Put up photos, videos, stories, anything you have that can show you have multiple skills and you’re not afraid to use them.

9. Stay current. With new equipment, software and applications being developed all the time, the possibilities for online journalism are literally changing by the day. It can be hard to keep up to date but you have to if you want to survive. To get up to speed, follow the leaders in the field, including the Center for Innovation in College Media, Wired Journalists, Mindy McAdams, MediaStorm,Ryan Sholin, Multimedia Shooter, Rob Curley.

10. Don’t despair. Yes, media outlets and media jobs are disappearing, but it doesn’t pay to wring your hands. Even while old forms of journalism seem to be dying out, new ones are rising, offering new possibilities for great storytelling and truth-sharing. Journalism is not dying out, it’s just changing. As Rob Curley says, “The most important part of the word newspaper is news, not paper.”

Do you have tips, resources or Web sites to share? Post a comment here.

Breaking news right now

NEW YORK -- How do you write breaking news for the Web?

Follow the Bloomberg model, said Paul Conley, a media consultant who co-led a workshop on Multimedia Storytelling today sponsored by College Media Advisers.

Conley noted that reporting breaking news on the Web is all about speed and updates. When a news story breaks, Bloomberg starts by posting a headline, usually within seconds of the news happening.

Next, a reporter will write a two-paragraph story, which will be posted within minutes. Then comes a four-paragraph story, which will generally follow this format:

Paragraph 1: Theme – what happened and why
Paragraph 2: Authority – a quote
Paragraph 3: Details – more information
Paragraph 4: Why it matters, what’s at stake

“This is the fastest and easiest way to move to 24/7 publishing,” Conley said. “It’s possible to impose this system tomorrow on your Web site.”

Breaking news should be edited quickly, even with the editor looking over the shoulder of the reporter writing.

“It’s not quite publish first, edit later, but almost,” Conley said. “Since it’s the Web, it’s not permanent.”

Jennifer Ward, assistant managing editor, interactive media, for the Fresno Bee, said her paper covers breaking news with updates of three to four paragraphs posted throughout the day.

“Then we do a write-through at the end of the day or as the story is closing,” she said.

Reporters often file news updates and even photos by cell phone, posting material as an event unfolds. “We just had someone filing text message updates from a funeral,” she said.

Sportswriters provide brief play-by-play reports on games and update a scoreboard on the newspaper’s Web site every time a team scores.

Ward noted that Fresno Bee reporters also use their cell phones to take video on breaking news stories and are often able to post before television reporters can. Two new Web sites, Qik.com and Flixwagon.com, allow reporters to post video from their cell phones within seconds.

“It’s the coolest thing I’ve seen in a decade,” Ward said. “It’s totally changing the way we do things. We’re beating TV. We don’t need a $30,000 video truck to do live video.”

Seventeen student journalists and college newspaper advisers attended today’s workshop, one of 27 “Media Pro” workshops sponsored this week by College Media Advisers.

Some resources for learning multimedia:

J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism
An organization that "helps journalists and citizens use digital technologies to develop new ways for people to participate in public life with projects on innovations in journalism, citizen media, interactive news stories, entrepreneurship, training and research and publications."

J-Learning
A how-to site for community journalism

Journalism 2.0 How to Survive and Thrive
A digital literacy guide for the information age by Mark Briggs, Assistant Managing Editor for Interactive News, The News Tribune

Soundslides
A cheap, easy-to-use program for putting together audio slideshows created by photographer Joe Weiss.

Audacity
A free, easy audio editing program

WordPress
A free content management system. Some newspapers, including The Temple News at Temple University, have started to use WordPress to publish online.
(You can read about The Temple News' move from College Publisher to WordPress here.)

Drupal
Another free content management system

Study multimedia in Italy, N. Ireland this summer

The Institute for Education in International Media is still accepting applications for its 2008 multimedia journalism programs in Italy and Northern Ireland this summer. The application deadline is March 15; applications that come in after that will be considered on a space-available basis.

I taught in the program last summer and can testify students had a great time and learned a lot about multimedia storytelling.

Students spend four weeks studying digital storytelling, photography, video and Web design and produce a multimedia Webzine about the local community. (For examples of past projects see InCagli and InArmagh.)

The Italian program is based in Cagli, a charming town nestled in the foothills of the Apennine Mountains. The program has come to Cagli every summer since its founding in 2002. In Ireland, students live and study in Armagh on the Irish Republic's border, two hours from Dublin, three from Galway, and one from Belfast.

The program welcomes students from all universities and disciplines.

Highlights of the program:

* Earn six undergraduate credits (through Marquette University) or six graduate units (through Gonzaga University) in communication
* Study with experienced faculty plus top media professionals (3:1 faculty-student ratio)
* Live in furnished apartments in Cagli or a youth hostel in Armagh
* Combine hands-on professional experience with academic learning
* Travel independently on three-day weekends (additional faculty-guided travel opportunities may be available)

Dates:

Cagli, Italy: 5/27 – 6/24
Armagh, Northern Ireland: 7/22 -- 8/19

Costs:

$4,999 + airfare for 6 undergraduate credits from Marquette University
$6,500 + airfare for 6 graduate credits from Gonzaga University
Prices are subject to change based on market fluctuations.

For info and application visit ieiMedia or email CagliProject@gmail.com or ArmaghProject@gmail.com.

Think multimedia at your next editors meeting

ST. PETERSBURG, FL.--Here's something to try at your next editors meeting or staff meeting: Think multimedia.

Start with this exercise inspired by Regina McCombs (photo at left) , a senior multimedia producer at StarTribune.com in Minneapolis-St. Paul (and a faculty member at the Multimedia Journalism for College Educators seminar I'm attending this week at The Poynter Institute).

Consider each of the different media your news organization uses--text, photos, graphics, slide shows, podcasts, audio slide shows, video. Then discuss what each medium does best. Your group will probably come up with several different attributes for each medium but they might include:

Text: Provides depth, background and context

Photo: Captures a moment in time, shows something happening

Graphic: Explains complex information, especially numbers; help readers visualize the unseeable

Slide show: Tells a primarily visual story that goes beyond a single moment

Podcast: Captures sound, tone, voice

Audio slide show: Tells a story with strong visual and audio elements, captures mood

Video: Portrays action and motion, lets subjects tell their own stories

Once you have a list for each medium, go through your story budget for an upcoming issue. Discuss each story and what would be the best way to tell it. Ask:

* Is the story dense with information and have a lot of background/context to explain?
* Does the story have a strong visual component?
* Does it have a strong sound component?
* Does it have audio and visual elements?
* Is there action or movement?
* Does the story have a lot of number facts?
* Would a map--two-dimensional or interactive--help the reader understand the story?
* Do you have subjects with stories to tell?

Finally, consider what is the best medium to tell each story and assign the story to the appropriate journalist. Voila! Now you're thinking like a multimedia journalist!


Does your newspaper staff already ask these questions on a routine basis? Are you proud of your use of multimedia? Post a comment below.

Photo courtesy of Sandra Ellis

Al's Rules for Online Storytelling

ST. PETERSBURG, FL.--"Make it interactive."

That was the first of "Al's 10 Rules of Interactive Storytelling" Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute offered today to 25 journalism educators.

Tompkins, group leader for Poynter's Broadcast/Online team, is playing tour guide/ring leader/master of ceremonies this week for an intensive four-day seminar on Multimedia Journalism for College Educators sponsored by The Poynter Institute.

“The Web does interactivity in ways no other media can do it,” Tompkins said.

Tompkins showed a host of examples of the power of interactivity in online storytelling, including:

* The Herald Tribune's" "Broken Trust," an investigative report on abusive teachers

* The Washington Post's "Faces of the Fallen," a report on the soldiers who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq

* The Times Herald-Record's "I Didn't Do That Murder," an investigation of the 20-year-old conviction of Lebrew Jones

* Obleek.com's chilling map showing the toll of the war in Iraq on coalition forces.

"Ask yourself: What data do I have and how can I make it interactive," Tompkins said.

Here are Al’s 10 Rules for Interactive Storytelling:

1. Make it Interactive. It is NOT about YOU. Let the user manipulate the page, select what part of the story he/she wants to explore. Offer the story in graphics, text, videos, audio and photo soundslides. From the very earliest planning stages of your stories ask, “how can we make this interactive?” Don’t wait until the reporting is done and stick the leftovers online.News consumers want what they want how they want it and when they want it. It is true for the fast food business, it is true for the coffee business and it stands to reason that it would be true in the information delivery business too. If the user wants a completely packaged story we should offer that. If they want a short text brief, we should offer that. If they want just the video with no narration, let’s give it to them. Let them decide and let them interact with the information. They choose what they want to know.

2. Make a Front Page Promise. On the web, headlines must rock. Three word headlines, playful use of words and noun-verb-object heads work best. Your website’s front page must make promises about how the reader will benefit if they click a jump link. The most important promises speak to one of five main motivators:
—money, family, health, safety and community.

3. Make it Raw. The more important or visual the event, the more willing I believe the public is to tolerate lower quality video and less than perfect sound. Content is king. That is not an excuse however to intentionally lower your photographic standards or your professionalism. Raw video allows viewers to experience the story on their own terms, not just “know” what happened.

4. Leverage Your Digital Assets.When you cover trials, get copies of jury instructions, photos introduced to juries and put those online. Web Weather might target special interest forecasts that might not have a wide enough audience in the paper, but groups like surfers, farmers and golfers want detailed information about wind, waves, humidity and lightning. What other information do you collect in the course of your day? How can you leverage it to a higher use?

5. Involve the public and/but make it meaningful. Forget the lame online polls. How easy is it for your online users to contribute video, photos or report details of a spot news story, parades, holidays and weather? I do not recommend opening every news story up to comments. Some stories lend themselves to comments and some don’t. Be prepared to monitor discussions about news stories.

6. Tap into Local Passion Groups. What are people in your area passionate about? In San Francisco it is dogs and the environment. In Arkansas it is hunting. In Charlotte it is NASCAR and church. Whatever people are wild about in your area, give them a virtual watering holes where people gather to talk about and share whatever they are passionate about.

7. Map it! Interactive mash-up maps are a great way to allow the public to interact with information. Sites like ChicagoCrime.org map daily crime data over an interactive Google map. WTHR in Indianapolis mapped broken tornado sirens so viewers could see if they would be safe when a storm approached. Reporters at the The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette now collect GPS coordinates for where they gather stories and the stories get mapped daily so readers can see when a story is reported in their neighborhood. You can create free interactive flash maps easily using QuickMaps.com.

8. Feed Your Needs too. Use your online site to explain who and why businesses should advertise. Most news sites make it nearly impossible to learn anything about online advertising opportunities. USAToday.com’s online employee roster now offers links to stories that every staffer has contributed to.

9. You must SHINE online during elections, big breaking news and special events coverage. That is when sampling will be the highest. Do not disappoint people who are sampling you for the first time. Constantly update. Make sure you are changing your lead photo and headlines. Timestamp your coverage to highlight how often you are updating. It might be well worth hiring freelance help to make special events shine online.

10. Save elaborate online presentations for projects that have long legs. Don’t be afraid to build coverage over time. When a high profile crime occurs, for example, build a special section of your site that will become the home of continuing coverage that could last years as the case moves through the system. For major investigative projects, include reactions, follow-ups, legislative action and resolutions that flow from the stories. Put your biggest multimedia efforts in those parts of the site that will have a long life. A great hurricane resource page could be useful for years. There are topics and stories that occur over and over in your community. Save your big efforts for those kinds of efforts.

You can read a longer version of Tompkins’ rules in the July/August 2007 issue of Communicator, the magazine of the Radio and Television News Directors Association. And for more words of wisdom from Tompkins check out Al’s Morning Meeting on Poynter.org.

Poynter Multimedia Seminar: Day 1 Addendum

ST. PETERSBURG, FL.--Inspired by multimedia goddess Mindy McAdams to teach myself something, I decided to play around with the mapping program Atlas. Here's a map showing where the Poynter attendees come from (be sure to scroll over to Europe and the Middle East; we have two international colleagues!):



I did it! OK, now I'm going to sleep.

Poynter Multimedia Seminar: Day 1

ST. PETERSBURG, FL.--How do I sum up a day of intense learning and discussion at the Poynter Institute's Multimedia Journalism for College Educators seminar?

I keep coming back to Mindy McAdams' penultimate slide before sending the 25 brain-weary journalism profs back to the hotel after more than six hours at the institute.

Pssst! My own secret

I have usually learned technology that I teach in class less than one week before the first time I taught it!

You don’t need to be an expert; you just need to know a little more than the parts you will teach!

That's right. Mindy McAdams, multimedia guru, author of the pioneering textbook Flash Journalism, a woman whose name turns up 77,400 entries on a Google search, doesn't know it all.

And to teach this stuff we don't have to either.

All we have to do is learn a little, read/view/listen to a lot and know how to navigate an online tutorial.

McAdams, a professor of journalism at the University of Florida, recited the reasons journalism educators give for not transforming their curricula:

“We don’t know how”
“We don’t have equipment”
“We don’t know what they’re doing in these newsrooms”

"If we want to train students to think different, then we’ve got to do it ourselves," she said.

Take database reporting, for example. All those numbers, all those spreadsheets. What's a math-phobic journalism professor to do?

McAdams offered five concrete, simple things any journalism educator could do today without learning a single new skill:

* Assign articles by or about Adrian Holovaty
* Study EveryBlock
* Discuss any New York Times data project
* Assign a project to be built with Atlas
* Use exercises from National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting to teach Excel.

McAdams and the other faculty for this week's seminar--Al Tompkins and Ellyn Angelotti of the Poynter Institute and Regina McCombs, a senior producer for multimedia for The Star Tribune--had other inspiring things to say, but I'm too bushed to report them right now. And in ten hours I have to be back at the institute for another mind-numbing but inspiring day.

You can check out McAdams' presentation, as well as other course materials, on her Web site. I'll share other links as I get them.

LA Times series offers journalism lessons

Hey Journalism Educators,

Looking for an easy and powerful lesson for this week? The Los Angeles Times has put together a package just for you -- The Marlboro Marine.

Three years ago Luis Sinco, a photographer for the LA Times, took a photograph of a battle-weary soldier smoking a cigarette in Fallouja, Iraq.

"With the click of a shutter, Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, a country boy from Kentucky, became an emblem of the war in Iraq," Sinco writes in the story that ran Sunday. "The resulting image would change two lives -- his and mine."

In a masterpiece of multimedia storytelling using photographs, video, text and original music by the subject of the story -- Sinco tells the story of what happened to the marine when he came back.

The beauty of this piece is that it offers many kinds of lessons -- the power of multimedia storytelling, the importance of photojournalists learning to tell stories with words and a courseload of lessons on ethics. You can discuss the way a single high-profile photo can change a person's life, what happens when a journalist gets personally involved with a source and where to draw the line between being a journalist and being a human being.

It's a piece every journalist should see.

Hat tip to Tom Nelson of Loyola Marymount University for bringing this piece to our attention.

Ira Glass shares storytelling secrets

If you happen to think Ira Glass is brilliant (I do) or even if you just kind of like This American Life, you should check out this series of videos on YouTube, in which Glass shares his thoughts on storytelling.

It's a great primer for student journalists getting into video, audio slide shows, podcasting or even narrative writing. Glass' advice is wise, amusing and even self-deprecating. In the third part, he critiques one of his own radio stories, pointing out where it's boring, where it's stilted, where it's false.

• Ira Glass on Storytelling #1 -- on the basics
  
• Ira Glass on Storytelling #2 -- on finding great stories
  
• Ira Glass on Storytelling #3 -- on good taste
  
• Ira Glass on Storytelling #4 -- on two common pitfalls
  

Golden Gate [X]press editor shares vision

Last week, Golden Gate [X]press, the student newspaper at San Francisco State University, unveiled its redesigned Web site, which highlights multimedia. The redesign caught the attention of Bryan Murley at Innovation in College Media. Aaron Morrison, online managing editor, shared some thoughts on the redesign in an e-mail interview.

Why did you want to redesign the site?
The old site was, to be honest, a bit cluttered. I was interested in finding a way to highlight our audio/visual content (audio slideshows, photo galleries, multimedia packages). That content, unlike many of the stories from the print edition, is a product of hours of production (editing, story-boarding, sequencing). Jesse (Garnier), our advisor, has done an awesome job of facilitating that change.

What are you hoping to accomplish with the new site?
More than anything, I would like for us to get more mileage out of our multimedia work. The old site lacked a clear hierarchy for the content. So when we published stories, they'd be added to a list of stories with no clear designation of what type of media it was (i.e. podcasts, slideshows, etc.)

What are some of the new features you are incorporating?
The new site should communicate what our biggest stories are. We can do that by highlighting our packages in the new multimedia widget, which appears prominently in the middle of the front page. Each section front will soon have that widget. Story pages will also display larger main images.

What do you want the redesigned site to say to readers?
I would like readers to see that [X]press is all about drawing you into the stories that we do. Jesse always tells us that online multimedia has the benefit of being an intimate experience for the user, as they are typically sitting very close to their computers and often use headphones to listen to audio. With that in mind, the redesigned site draws more attention to content that takes advantage of that intimate environment. I want readers to know that we take pride in bringing them where we've been.

How are you publicizing the site?
Parties, parties and more parties! No, just kidding. We're working on ways to get the campus community aware and involved with what we are offering online. Making ourselves visible might mean sitting in the student center with a couple of laptop computers and fliers with the web address on them. And of course we'll have a launch party soon.

Curleyize your student newspaper

WASHINGTON, D.C.--I’ve seen new media guru Rob Curley give basically the same speech four times in the past few years, but I always find his message inspiring. The gospel of hyperlocal coverage mixed with what he calls “multimedia overkill” that he delivered Friday at the ACP/CMA National College Media Convention here is one all student newspapers should heed.

Student media organizations may not have the legions of database whizzes and eager-to-please interns who have supported Curley’s innovations through the years at the Lawrence Journal World, the Naples Daily News and now at Washington Post Newsweek Interactive, but here are some things you can do to apply his philosophy to your student paper.

• Seek out the “nerds” that Curley says every newspaper needs. Go to your computer science department to find people who think it might be cool to create a searchable database of all the restaurants in your college town or to crunch the numbers in university salary records or other data.
  
  
• Strive for your own brand of “multimedia overkill.” That means creating videos, slideshows and podcasts about everything happening on campus, not just the big events, but the little ones – health fairs and routine games and the bands that perform on the quad at lunchtime every week.
  
  
• Create your own version of The Washington Post’s “On Being” series--two-minute videos about what life is like for regular Joes that has become one of the most popular features on the newspaper’s Web site.
  
  
• Make a series of virtual tours of your college campus. Take readers to the most outrageous dorm rooms, the coolest research labs, the messiest professors’ offices, the best places to kiss.
  
  
• Collect mini videos of professor’s lectures so students can see if they’d prefer Professor Chen or Professor Jones for Art History 101.
  
  
• Give more attention to college sports, creating video reports for every game and pages for each player like Curley’s staff does for the high school teams of Loudon County, Virginia.
  
  
• Link to data that already exists. When you write about professors like to their university Web pages so readers can read their bios, find out more about their research and get their office hours and contact information. If your campus is audiotaping or videotaping lectures and putting them on the Web, link to those, too.
  
  
• Create the partnerships with readers that Curley advocates by encouraging students to send in their photos, videos and other materials. Link to regular contributors' Facebook and MySpace pages.
  
  
• Encourage students who don't work for the newspaper to write blogs about specific aspects of campus life--dorm life, medical school, study-abroad programs, fraternities and sororities.
  
  
• Create resource guides to your campus like the ones at LoudonExtra.com These might include guides to student or community elections, student clubs and organizations, Greek organizations, local bands, local restaurants and/or businesses. Include photos, videos and useful information like hours, phone numbers and maps. Once readers know these guides are on your site, they will come back again and again to check information. You can update them each year or each semester.
  
  

Developing this kind of material isn’t just going to make your newspaper better. It will give you the skill sets that Curley and other professionals say they want in new hires.

Do you have other ideas student newspapers can use to emphasize multimedia and hyperlocal coverage? Share them by posting a comment below.

Golden Gate [X]press launches new Web site

I generally resist the urge to brag about my own students on this blog. But I couldn't help it this week as Golden Gate [X]press, the award-winning student newspaper at San Francisco State University, launches its redesigned Web site.

The new site features a fresher, bolder look that highlights multimedia and breaking news. It also makes more space for photo galleries and blogs.

Though I've been advising [X]press for the past four years, I'm currently taking a semester off from the newspaper. Credit for the redesign goes to Online Adviser Jesse Garnier and Online Managing Editor Aaron Morrison, who spent countless hours on the project over the summer and through the early fall.

For comparison, you can see the old site here or check it out on the Wayback Machine.

Golden Gate [X]press is a finalist for both the Online and Newspaper Pacemakers, to be announced by Associated Collegiate Press on Sunday at the annual ACP/College Media Advisers National College Media Convention in Washington, D.C.

What do you think of the new Golden Gate [X]press site? Post a comment here.

Northern Star "flooded with news"

Four days before the Northern Star, the student newspaper at Northern Illinois University, was planning to roll out its new 24-hour news operation and redesigned Web site, the paper faced one of its biggest stories in years: a severe storm followed by a flood that forced the campus to close.


The newspaper staff was in a training session for the revamped news site Thursday afternoon when the story broke.

"Assignments went out and reporters snapped into action," Managing Editor Michael Swiontek wrote in an opinion blog about the newspaper's response to the story. "It was what an exciting newsroom can be — scrambling to relay horrible news."

The paper managed to post three news updates on its Web site before its server went down Friday, Swiontek wrote. But the site was back up Monday, with lots of follow-up stories on the flood.

"We got on-the-job training," Swiontek wrote in his blog. "Last week’s news was perfect practice for a great semester of covering breaking news."

The Northern Star's new Web site is a model for college papers around the country. The staff has pledged to cover news as it breaks, putting stories online first and posting updates on major stories throughout the day.

"Our first and foremost priority now is the Web site," Online Editor Justin Smith wrote in a column about the revamped Web site.

In addition, the newspaper is beefing up its coverage with new media enhancements -- blogs, photo slideshows, Podcasts, maps, charts and other graphics. (In case you're wondering what the old site looked like you can see it on this post.)

If you're looking for inspiration, watch for the Northern Star.

And if you're a Northern Star staffer we'd love to hear more about the revamped, re-energized site. Post a comment here.