Integrated Media: A new UToledo course for 21st Century journalists

Hear ye, hear ye:
Bright and early on the morn of Tuesday, August 27, at the obnoxious dawn hour of 8 a.m., I officially became a Toledo Rocket!  

I humbly and enthusiastically greeted 16 students who willingly (an elective) signed up for a new, curious course taught by an instructor they undoubtedly have never heard of. 

So let the collaborative learning begin!

   But seriously, I’m super excited and honored to introduce a new course in the University of Toledo’s communications department called Integrated Media, which is basically mobile journalism (MOJO). As defined by Mobile Journalism Manual, MOJO is a form of digital storytelling where the primary device used for creating and editing images, audio and video is a smartphone.

   This is the future of journalism, and the future is now.

Toledo Blade reporter Brooks Sutherland gets his MOJO on.

   In the summer of 2018 I was struck with the idea to teach this course because most Toledo Blade journalists are now using their phone cameras to shoot video stories. They literally stand right next to us photogs, both of us shooting our subject at the same time. This leaves no doubt that it's time for university journalism programs to prepare its students to walk into newsrooms ready and able for MOJO. 
   In full disclosure ... I first resisted the idea of journalists doing the job of photojournalists. After all, we are trained for visual work, not most of them. Many of us have photojournalism degrees, or at least a photography background. We have a trained eye and understand camera operations, but not most of them. 
   But these days that doesn't matter. Regardless of visual experience, journalists in newsrooms across the country are handed a smartphone and told to replace us. I dare say the quality of the content certainly suffers. And I question whether it's fair to either of us. But it doesn't matter, because that's the way it is these days.
   So, my ultimate goal for this course is to help students develop a MOJO frame of mind, and to guide them along as they construct and maintain a MOJO workflow for their smartphone storytelling. By exclusively using their smartphones to create and produce native content to disseminate on social media, they will hopefully learn to trust their phones for visual and audio content.

   During the first week of class the students set up a website, and linked Twitter and Instagram to it. YouTube will be added later. But before they start to put their work out there for the WWW to see, they will first learn to be responsible MOJOs by learning their ethical and legal boundaries, their copyrights, and, of course, the First Amendment. They will also learn AP style caption writing, and about audience engagement and analytics.

   Because this is a new course, I will have a learning curve, as well. I don’t typically shoot stories with my smartphone (iPhone 8) because I don’t have to. I use my Canon 5Ds and a Fujifilm X-H1 on most assignments, particularly when shooting sports. Let’s face it, the smartphone is definitely not cut out for replacing long, fixed lenses. However, there are times when I use my phone camera, particularly for breaking news. Timeliness is the key in those situations.

   That said, I need to practice what I teach, so last week I shot a simple, short video story on my iPhone (except the actual interview was recorded on my Fuji because I needed an external mic). That story is below:

   Can you tell it was shot on a smartphone camera? Can you tell the difference between the moment clips and the X-H1 interview? 

   Although I edited this story on a MAC laptop using Adobe Elements Premiere, I am teaching myself to edit on my iPhone using iMovie. I must be able to pass what I learn along to the students. But let's be real here ... many of them will actually teach me a few things! Yes, I expect to learn from them, as well, which is why I consider this class to be ‘collaborative.’
   So, stay tuned to see how this course develops in the next few months!
   Thank you, UToledo, for this great opportunity!

Wayne State Digital Photojournalism final projects showcase multiple skills

“This assignment was truly a culmination of skills, and I exercised them all to the best of my ability. After this assignment I’ve realized just how artful photojournalism is and the work people put in to doing it. For me the hardest part was still the photos, the technique. I now know that as a photojournalist you also have to create your style, your ‘way of doing,’ to create this common thread in your images and that thread is you. What you’re looking at through your lenses, what composition you’re using, how you’re using light, what moments you capture. You’re given the tools and the skills but once you’re out shooting it all comes down to you.” – Pulled quote from blog post of Kayla Cockrel, fall semester 2016 Wayne State Digital Photojournalism student.

   What a succinct way of describing what photojournalists do!

   It is certainly true that once you’re out there with camera in hand, whatever and wherever it is, it all comes down to you, the shooter: What lens you choose. What composition you see. How you evaluate light. What moment you capture.

   Kayla learned this through experiencing those important choices via the assignments given in the Digital Photojournalism class at Wayne State University in Detroit.

   I’ve heard grumblings from former students complaining that the course is too advanced. Too difficult. They come in on that first day thinking it’s basically a camera class, but find out as the course progresses that it’s much more than learning apertures and shutter speeds.

   Lessons include:

• What news and photojournalism is. This includes identifying all parts of a print newspaper, learning the history of journalism, and identifying eight news values
• The camera: Learning ISO, shutter speed, aperture; composition; reading light; capturing the moment
• Setting up and maintaining social media sites: Wordpress blogs, Twitter and Instagram
• Writing AP style captions
• Law & Ethics
• Collecting and editing audio
• Shooting feature, portrait, sports and photo story assignments
• Using industry standard software: Photo Mechanic; Photoshop; Adobe Premiere Pro CC; Audacity

  

Screen grab: Blog post by Morgan Kollen

Yes, it’s progressive. But because this is the only photojournalism course available in the journalism program, I stand by the curriculum. Because I understand this is a difficult course for the novice photographer, which most of them are, I allow them to turn in assignments late. This gives them time to soak in the information; reshoot weak assignments; give them confidence and time to get out of their comfort zones.

   Even if they will never use a camera again, they, as journalism and PR majors, will undoubtedly work with photojournalists, or manage them. Now they will have an appreciation of what photojournalists do, and what they need to get the job done.
    The final project is a culmination of all of the aforementioned lessons. I’m proud to say most of the students did amazingly well. Rather than have a strict rule on how it should be presented, they were encouraged to follow their guts, and hearts. Considering most of these students knew absolutely nothing about cameras and storytelling four months ago, I think they did a great job putting their stories together.

   This proves to me that I am on the right track in keeping the curriculum challenging, but giving them time and room to grow. Most students walk into class with a minimal digital footprint, and depart with a Wordpress blog showcasing a variety of photojournalism content. 

   Now, I present to you three wonderful, very different examples of their work. These are their final projects: 

Ryan Miller – a conversation interview format, shot in a difficult lighting situation:

Morgan Kollen – a poetic tribute to the City of Detroit:

Chris Ehrmann – a video story on his trip with fellow WSU classmates to Ghana in October:

KSU Teaching Multimedia students post final assignment: A lesson plan

   The semester is now over, but before I put this blog to bed for the summer, I want to share the final projects for my Kent State Teaching Multimedia grad students.

   But first, I want to say that the Teaching MM course impacted me a great deal when I was a grad student in the KSU Journalism Education program. Under the tutelage of Sue Zake in 2009, a KSU adjunct and instructor for that course back then, I created my first blog, and have been blogging ever since. Now, Zake is a KSU assistant professor, and I am honored to have inherited that course from her in 2013.

   Blogs are now required in all of my photojournalism courses because, it most cases, it’s the first visual portfolio for the students. Blogs are a powerful way of documenting what they’ve learned throughout the semester, and passing that knowledge forward.

   The final and most significant posting is their final project, which is developing a lesson plan, homework sheet, rubric and Camtasia Studio tutorial on a topic of their choice. It was based on their newfound expertise in creating multimedia journalism. The students were instructed to select a subject they wanted to teach and/or use with their own students, and upload all of the required elements to their blogs. 

   Not only do I grade from the blogs, but by posting to their blogs, other teachers and students can share it, as well.

   Of course, all of the teachers have developed lesson plans and rubrics throughout their career. But what was new was developing a lesson using Camtasia, a screen recording and video editing software that is perfect for creating how-to tutorials. Since this was a multimedia course, why not introduce them to a program that enhances their lesson plans?

    I loved the wide range of subjects chosen for this assignment: Videolicious, Twitter, video sequencing and editing, creating infographics, Picasa and editing podcasts using Audacity.

   So, it is with immense pride that I present to you the blogs of the spring semester 2016 class, who are mostly high school teachers advising or teaching student media (broadcasting, newspapers, yearbook).

    Click Here for the Page link to their blogs.

Adding a poll to your content from Mark Davidson on Vimeo.

How to use Twitter to promote a news story from Teaching Multimedia on Vimeo.

  (This video is a demonstration for students posting their live broadcasts to Todd's school website on his class page, by Todd Hatfield)

Editing Video to Tell a Story from Stephen Milligan on Vimeo.

(Introducing students to ThingLink, a website that allows users to create interactive graphics, by Michael Gluskin)


AIR Exam Video from Robin Lester on Vimeo.

Intro to PJ student is a journalist waiting to happen

This is one of several photos taken at an Owens basketball game by PHO245 student Lynn Redding, my student of the week.

    First I saw this photo. 

  It showed a kid from Kellogg College driving through the Owens defense, his feet off the ground in mid-stride. It was a wonderful sports moment frozen in time. And it was in focus! 

   “Wow! That’s fantastic,” I exclaimed.

   Then I started reading her sports essay on the computer screen. I winced as I read the lead sentence, which started out with the date of the game. 

   “Repeat after me,” I instructed Lynn, a student who was working on her sports assignment in class Wednesday. “I will not start a lead sentence with a date.”

    She repeated after me, then promptly deleted the date. And there it was - a strong, descriptive lead sentence that caught my attention right away.

   It read: Owens forward James Kelly quickly broke away from the pack and charged down the court to score the first basket of the night just seconds after the tipoff.

   “That’s your lead!” I told her. Then I proceeded to tell her she was a journalist waiting to happen.  

   In fact, it's already happening. She announced to me at the end of class that she was thinking about joining the Owens Outlook staff as a photojournalist, but she was "too nervous" to make the call.

  I asked her to consider two things: do you have the time, and do you want the job? If the answer is yes and yes, then don't let nervousness stop you from taking advantage of a great opportunity. All it takes for anyone to become a good journalist is journalism education, experience and confidence.

  When Lynn joins the Outlook she will be the second student from the Intro to Photojournalism course on the staff. Former PHO245 student Cathy Zeltner is currently the managing editor!

   To view more of Lynn’s sports coverage of the Owens v. Kellogg basketball game, go her class blog.

   I also want to take the opportunity to give kudos to the other students who posted their sports assignment on their class blogs. Sports is one of the hardest assignments in the course and they all did a great job!

Photojournalism: Two skills, one class

   It's seven weeks into the semester and the students finally have their first shooting assignment. The timing couldn't be better. They are instructed to document the weather, so this weekend should give them lots of photo opportunities. Toledo is supposed to get up to nine inches of snow.
   This shooting assignment will challenge the students in many ways. First, they are tasked to approach strangers dealing with weather, like shoveling or sledding, document the activity and collect caption information. That's the journalism part. The photography part is knowing how to take photos in the snow. Knowing how to properly meter a white scene is key to accomplishing this assignment successfully.
   That's the complexity of this class: photography (math) + journalism (writing) = photojournalism. These are two distinct skills that are learned in one class. The wonderful writing in their blogs prove they are ready to use their cameras. Like one student blogged in her most recent post, "I am a photographer...I did not sign up for grammar."
   Yes, you did, Kathy, and you're doing a wonderful job.