Journalism and Social Media: Writing Workshop
Date: June 4, 2013
For further inquires please e-mail mintz@lander.ac.il
Day and Time: Tuesday’s 9:30AM-12:30 Pm
Length:15 weeks; meeting once a week
Academic Hours: 60
Instructor: Tovah Lazaroff of the Jerusalem Post
Cost: 2800 ₪+ 200 ₪ non refundable registration fee
Payment by Cash, Check or Credit Card. All fees must be paid up to one week before the course starts. If paying by Credit Card, tuition may be paid in installments of no less than 250 ₪ /mo for a maximum of 10 months. If paying by check, checks must be paid in advance and can be post dated until the course completion date. Cash – tuition must be paid in full before the course begins. (For exceptions please call our office)
Please note: You also will need to be interviewed by the teacher in order to take this class.
Spread the word:
What to do if Osama Bin Laden is assassinated outside your back yard?
A class for budding citizen journalists who want to use new and old media tools to report on stories in their own lives and on issues they care about.
Reports that lead to the news of Osama Bin Laden’s assassination came not from The New York Times, but from a computer consultant in Pakistan who was up working late at night and tweeting messages about an Apache helicopter outside his window. A decade ago ones needed a newspaper or a newsletter to publish a news story. People with personal tales sent out mass emails or cards. Now anyone with a talent for story telling and an ability to use the web can spread the word out whether they are standing in Tahrir Square or sitting in their living room.
This class will help students improve their written and visual story telling abilities as well as their skills in using Facebook, twitter and blogs to publicize those efforts. It will also help them understood basic reporting skills and news-style writing, for those who want to produce the kind of work which could be published in a standard news outlet. Each class will involve a writing assignment and an evaluation of a student’s work.
Although there is a syllabus, it will likely be amended to match the knowledge level and interest of the participants. For example, if no one knows how to use Facebook, twitter or blogs, time will be spent student how to open Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as how to create their own blog. If students are already proficient in these three mediums, the class instead will focus on improving those skills and maximizing use of those sites. Similarly, although the focus is news, the assignments can be adapted for those students who are interested in public relations, and or who want to improve their writing skills for other forms of web content writing.
No prior knowledge is needed to take the class, but students will need to have a digital camera that can take videos. Most digital point and shoots these days come with video option. Many cell phones also have a camera and the ability to shoot video.
Suggested readings
1. Journalism Next: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing, by Mark Briggs
2. Digital Reporting, by Mark S. Luckie
3. Elements of News Writing, James W. Kershner
4. Associated Press Guide to News Writing: The Resource for Professional
5. Journalism, By Rene J. Cappon
6. Journalist Writing” By Robert M. Knight
7. What is happening to News, By Jack Fuller
8. Will the Last Reporter Please Turn out the Lights, Edited by Robert W. McChesney and Victor Pickard
9. Twitter for Dummies, by Laura Fitton, Michael E. Gruen, Leslie Poston, 2nd Edition
10. Blogging All-In-One for Dummies, By Susan Gunelius
11. Facebook for Dummies, by Leah Pearlman and Carolyn Abram
First section: 21st Century story telling? The Who, What, When, Where and Why of our lives. What is our personal narrative and how do we convey it?
1. Facebook
In this class we will explore student use of Facebook, with an eye to understanding how best to use it convey information about ourselves and issues that interest us. We will also explore the best way to capture the attention of those on our friends by looking at what makes a compelling post.
Assignment: Create a Facebook page or work on an already existing one. Students will be given a daily assignment regarding Facebook.
2. Twitter
In this class we will explore student use of twitter, with an eye to understanding how best to use it convey a more public narrative about ourselves and issues that interest us. We will also explore the best way to use it to report and share information about issues that interest us.
Assignment: Create a twitter account, or work on your already existing one. Students will be given a daily assignment regarding twitter.
3. Blogs
In this class we will explore student use blogs, with an eye to understanding how best to use a blog to convey a private and public narrative of our lives. We will look at already existing blogs, talk about the wisdom of a global diary like blog, versus one on a single topic, and create or improve our own.
Assignment: create a blog, or write entries in already existing ones.
4. Blogs again, and an introduction to photography.
In the first part of the class, we will go over student work from the week. We will then begin to explore what makes a compelling photograph and how can we use pictures to tell a story.
Assignment: use photographs to tell a story about something personal in our lives or an issue of interest or concern.
5. A picture is worth a thousand words
We will go over the photography assignment, talk about ways to improve narrative picture taking.
Assignment: use photographs to tell a story about something personal in our lives or an issue of interest or concern.
6. In their own words
Learn how to use video to enhance your stories. We will go over the fundamentals of video shooting and practice some video shooting in class.
Assignment: Do a short interview or use video to tell a short story.
Second section: doing it the old fashion way.
7. The news story
We will evaluate the assignments and begin to talk about the difference between new media and old fashion journalism. We will over the fundamentals of news reporting.
Assignment: Write a news story. Use photographs and video to enhance the information.
8. The news story.
We will evaluate the news stories, and talk about how they can be adapted for blogs.
Assignment: rewrite the story or do a second one.
9. First person feature
We will evaluate the news stories and talk about the difference between news and a first person feature.
Assignment: Find an interesting person and write a story about them. Use photograph and video to enhance the story.
10. More on first person feature
We will evaluate the feature stories.
Assignment: redo the story or write a second one.
11. Social Issues Feature
We will evaluate the assignments and talk about the difference between a first person feature and a social issues feature story.
Assignment: research a social issues feature
12. Social issues feature
Report back on the information you have gathered and talk about how to turn into a compelling story.
Assignment: write the story. Use photographs and video to enhance it.
13 . Social issues features
We will go over the assignments.
Assignment: rewrite the story or do another one.
14. Opinion/Column Writing
We will talk about the difference between news and opinion, as well as the difference between the traditional opinion piece and a blog.
Assignment: write an opinion piece or a column.
15. Final class,
Evaluate the assignments and conclude.
Finding the reading material
Since the books are likely not available in the bookstores here, they can be ordered on line.
1. http://www.bookdepository.com, ships books to Israel for free
2. Or from www.amazon.com on your kindle. If you do not have a kindle, you can download a kindle application onto your computer for free. This will allow you to order the books from Amazon, where they will be delivered wirelessly to your computer.
Tovah Lazaroff is a senior correspondent for The Jerusalem Post. Her expertise includes settlements, diplomacy, the United Nations, politics and terrorism. She frequently travels to the West Bank settlements to report on the growth of those communities as well as the right wing clashes there with both with the IDF and Palestinians. During the summer of 2005, Lazaroff moved to a Gush Katif settlement in Gaza ahead of the government planned evacuation and wrote about the experience of communities being uprooted from a unique up-close and intimate perspective. In February 2004, Lazaroff traveled to The Hague to report on the judicial hearing regarding Israel’s security barrier at the International Court of Justice and has since covered the on-going debate surrounding that barrier and its affects on Palestinian lives.She has written extensively on the challenges civilians face living under the threat of terror, both those vulnerable to Kassam attacks along Israel’s southern border and those that suffered the daily barrage of Ketusha’s rockets on Israel’s northern border where she was stationed during the Second Lebanon War. She then followed the continued campaign for the release of reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev as well as the ongoing battle to free the captive soldier Gilad Schalit. She also has had a front row seat on the campaign trail during the last three Israeli elections. Lazaroff has made various media appearances,including interviews on CNN, BBC and NPR radio. A native of Brookline, Massachusetts, Lazaroff has a B.A. in History from Brandeis University. Before arriving in Israel in April 2000, she spent eight years working as a local reporter in the Boston area, where she earned awards from the New England Press Association and the Massachusetts Press Association for her work.
