Multimedia Master's Project Workshop 2019-2020

Aug. 28 — Introduction to the class

We will go over the syllabus, talks about expectations and timeline for completing your master’s project. We will go around the room to get early ideas from each student about what they are thinking about pursuing for their project, and if they already have ideas. We will use the last part of class to setup logistics for communication (listserv, Google Docs, Slack, etc.)

Assignment: FIVE IDEAS. You’ll have two weeks to generate a list of five ideas you might want to pursue for your master’s project. They can be blue-sky ideas, or more fleshed out versions if you have them. If you already have a solid idea for your master’s project coming into class, you need to still generate four alternative fallback ideas as part of this exercise.

Weekend barbecue at Koci’s house on Saturday Aug. 31 at 1pm

Sept. 4 — What Makes a Good Story?

In this class session, we will talk about how to find good stories/project ideas. Whether you plan to do a traditional journalistic story, or embark on a new innovative project, storytelling will be an important foundation of the process. A good story is interesting and important. While anything can be news, not everything is newsworthy. We will discuss what qualities make a story worthwhile. In this session, we will look at examples of past master’s projects, and talk about challenges those projects faced, and what we can learn from past experiences.

Assignment: FIVE IDEAS CONTINUED. You should still be working on your list of five ideas. You’ll verbally share the TOP idea with the joint-class next week, but still have the four others in planning.

Sep. 11 — Ingredients of a Memorable Story

We will go around the room, and everyone will introduce their initial master’s project ideas in a short 2-minute pitch format. A guest speaker may be present to listen in and give feedback on the pitches.

Note: J-Rue and Koci are out of town at the ONA conference.

Assignment: FIVE IDEAS DUE. Turn in the five ideas assignment by the end of the day so the professors have time to read it for next week’s class.

Sept. 18 — The Memo

Discuss Five Interviews Assignment

Reporting memos are a hallmark of exploring the viability of a good story. In this week, we will talk about effective note taking, organizing your thoughts, and generating strong reporting memos. Even if you’re planning to pursue a non-traditional project, a memo will help to organize your thoughts. In this class, we’ll go over your five ideas, and select the top one for advancement.

Sept. 25 — Art of the Interview

Assignment: TALK TO PEOPLE. You got your five names. Now, you have two weeks to interview all five of the subjects you’ve identified. Each person should give you insight into your project, and help you learn more about the situation you’re trying to explore. Write a memo detailing the five people you spoke with, 300-500 words on each interview. Due in 2-weeks.

Oct. 2 — Preparation for The Pitch PART I (Guest Speaker)

Joint Class in Upper Newsroom

In this class, we will talk about how to pitch story ideas. We’ll talk about effective delivery techniques, getting buy-in on your ideas, and how to formulate your story clearly and succinctly. Using the sources you spoke to the previous week, you’ll compile all of your information into a pitch presentation. In the second half of class, we will go over the format of next week’s pitch session and get everyone started on their presentations.

Oct. 9 — Preparation for The Pitch PART II (Guest Speaker)

Guest speaker will hold private sessions with students who didn’t get time to work with him the previous week. Review the assignment.

Assignment: PREP THE PITCH. The following week you’ll do Ignite-style presentations for a panel of editors. For this format, you’ll need exactly 20 slides, which will autoplay at 15 seconds each. You’ll formulate a five minute presentation.

Assignment: TALK TO PEOPLE DUE. Turn in the Talk To People assignment for professors to review.

Oct. 16 — The Pitch

JOINT CLASS IN UPPER NEWSROOM

Twenty slides. Five minutes. Each of you will pitch their project idea to a panel of editors using the popular ignite-style pitching process. You’ll have exactly five minutes to present, and 20 slides will auto advance. We’re not going to sugarcoat it. You’ll hate this constrictive format initially. But the discipline required to narrow your focus to a few key concepts will reveal what your story is really about. You’ll get some valuable initial feedback on what makes a story interesting or worth pursuing.

Assignment: MEMO. Whew, you made it. Take the feedback the reviewers provided you, and begin to formulate a longer, more traditional story memo and submit it by next week.

Assignment: TRAVEL GRANTS DUE OCT. 18. For those submitting travel grants, submit your pitch to your professor by end of Oct. 16 for approval. All travel grants must be approved by your adviser, so don’t delay. Your professor will also give feedback, and you can adjust your pitch for the travel grant committee.

Oct. 23 — The Debrief

In this session, we will debrief from last week’s pitch session. How did it go? What did you learn? We will open it up to a group discussion and peer feedback about how we all did. We’ll go over the reporting memos to figure out if we should change anything, or pursue alternative ideas.

Assignment: DATA MINE. As we get into the reporting and research phase of your story, you should take some time to identify the potential data portions of your project. What quantitative elements exist? What would you want to know about your project? Data answers questions… what questions do you have? Come next week with a list of potential data questions you want to explore about your stories.

Oct. 30 — Diving into Data (JOINT CLASS)

We will use data journalism tools for exploring some publicly available datasets to go over the process for exploring your stories. We’ll cover how to organize data, how to keep citations handy, and if needed, set up some scraping utilities. We’ll also cover how to get mapping information if it pertains to any of the stories.

Assignment: PROTOTYPING YOUR PROJECT. This assignment will be an early project mock-up, just to get a sense of what you’re thinking about pursuing. These early ideas can help shape your reporting process. Details to come.

Nov. 6 — Documents, Records, and Spreadsheets, Oh My!

Potential guest speaker and/or joint class.

In this class session, we will explore the art of the public records act request, and go around the room to explore how it might pertain to each of your projects. We will touch on data organization, spreadsheets, and initial analysis. We will go over the databases available to you (Nexis, TLO, Bloomberg, and others) and see what we can find.

Nov. 13 — Story Development Part I

We want a concrete plan on your reporting plans for your project as we move toward winter break. Who are your subjects? When do you plan to interview them? Where are you traveling and when? Write up your plans in a 600 word memo detailing your reporting plans (you can use language from your previous memo.) Due after Thanksgiving break.

Assignment: STORY DEVELOPMENT. Write a 600 word memo, due the week after Thanksgiving.

Nov. 20 — Story Development Part II

Continue the lesson from the previous week with the other half of class.

Nov. 27 THANKSGIVING WEEK (NO CLASS)

Dec. 4 — Discuss Reporting Plans

Discuss the reporting plans people turned in.

Dec. 11 — Safety in the field

This will be the start of planning the winter break reporting. We’ll go over logistics on how to stay safe when traveling, and some of the resources offered to you by the university.