A Smartphone Lead

English: The EMHS iPhone app screenshot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

from Chronicle of Higher Education

Resisting the urge to pull out your phone in class is quite difficult for many students, apparently. There are texts to answer, emails to read, snapchats to send, and rude comments to post on Yik Yak. But two students at California State University at Chico have created something they hope will persuade students to keep their phones tucked firmly in their pockets: An app that rewards them with coupons for local businesses when they exhibit self-control and leave their phones untouched during class.

Rob Richardson, a junior computer-science major, got the idea for the iPhone app, called Pocket Points, by looking around his classes and seeing what he considered to be far too many students with their heads down, paying attention to their phones rather than to the lesson taking place in front of them.

If you’re in class, it’s simple: “There should be no reason you should be on your phone,” Mr. Richardson argues. He says he realized there was a business opportunity that could also help students pay better attention.

Here’s how it works: Students acquire points—based on the length of time the phone is locked and how many people around them are also using the app—that can then be redeemed for discounts at local businesses. The app is location-based and works only on the campus. The app is being extended to other campuses as well, including a few community colleges and high schools.

Professors have been some of the app’s biggest supporters, Mr. Richardson says. Some have even expressed interest in offering rewards to their students, like extra credit or attendance points, through the app, though Mr. Richardson says such features are not currently being explored.

The app also has a leaderboard and rankings, elements incorporated to “gamify” it, says Mr. Richardson’s co-founder, Mitch Gardner, a senior business-marketing major. Some students appear to care more about those elements than the coupons.

Mr. Richardson coded the app last summer, while Mr. Gardner got local businesses on board.

Though the app is meant to help students focus on their studies, Mr. Gardner says, it was difficult to do so while they were setting up the app last semester.

“I don’t think our grades were very good,” Mr. Gardner admits with a laugh.

Both Mr. Richardson and Mr. Gardner have taken a leave of absence from Chico State this semester and are working full time in an office in Chico to further develop the software.

Right now, Pocket Points is focused on education, but its creators say it could one day move beyond that—because students aren’t the only ones addicted to their phones.

Related articles

• App Gives Students an Incentive to Keep Their Phones Locked in Class
• Can An App Make Your College Student Go to Class?
• Favorite iphone photo-editing applications
• How to See Which Apps are Taxing the Mobile Data on Your iPhone

The Zombie Cat: Human Interest/Bizarre as News Value

I do a Google search using "zombie cat." So many hits.

Newspapers Die, Bad Things Happen

English: Front of local news sheet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Washington Post: Danny Hayes of George Washington University warns that “the impoverishment of local political news in recent years is driving down citizen engagement.”

“Previous work has shown that the recent deaths of newspapers in big cities — such as Cincinnati, Denver and Seattle — have coincided with lower levels of civic participation. With fewer outlets providing public affairs information, voters appear less politically active.”

Hayes’ analysis, “based on a large-scale study of local coverage and citizen behavior in every congressional district across the country, demonstrates that the fading of two-newspaper towns is not the only problem. When the content of local news deteriorates — as has happened nationwide in an era of newsroom austerity — so do citizen knowledge and participation.”

“To the extent that a knowledgeable and participatory citizenry is a marker of a healthy political system, the demise of local news should raise concerns about the operation of electoral democracy. An anemic news environment makes it more difficult for citizens to hold their local representatives accountable.”

Related articles

• The decline of local news is threatening citizen engagement
• Community Service Ideas

First Assignment Due Thursday, January 29

Topic: Should USF faculty forbid the use of smartphones in class?

Length: Your choice but I recommend that you*write tight*.

So Funny It Hurts

What's Wrong with This Audio Slideshow?

Here's what's wrong.

Chewing Up that Number Salad

Making Sense of Number Salad

Created these online here.

Jumping Jacks before the Sun is Up? Can I Say That?

Let's check it out.

Some Fire Leads

1.  The old saying, “don’t make the same mistake twice,” isn’t as easy as it sounds for Albert Lofton, even when the mistake in question is lighting his own house on fire.

            According to fireman Norman Young, 28, Mr. Lofton confessed that he was watching David Letterman in the middle of the night while smoking a cigarette and accidentally fell asleep, igniting the sofa while unconscious.

            No one was killed in the fire that raged in the Lofton family house at 1789 Napa Street in Castro Valley, but Lofton’s wife Barbra had to jump out of the bedroom window to escape the fire and consequently sprained her ankle. Mrs. Lofton said she had been awakened by shouts from outside and smelled smoke, thus evacuating the house just in time.  128 words

2. Make no mistake-it was an accident. The fire that cost Barbara and Albert $50,000 in damages to their Castro Valley home was almost like déjà vu. According to Young, officials have evidence on file that Albert, 53 caused a similar fire in the same home two years ago.

            Barbara, 26, lay asleep in bed in the hot weather, as Albert remained awake, downstairs watching television. Barbara stated that Albert informed her of his inability to sleep due to the hot weather.

            Later on that evening, Barbara awoke to what was more than just heat from the summer season; flames blocked her from fleeing to her husband’s side as a fire struck the home. In an attempt to escape, Barbara opened the window and jumped, consequently spraining her ankle. 128 words

3.     Albert and Barbara Lofton are faced with $50,000 in damages to their house in the Castro Valley after a second fire arose in their home. Albert Lofton was carried out of the building by firefighter Norman Young, 28 and resuscitated by Sidney Campion, 35 both from the Mt. Pleasant fire station.

 Barbara Lofton jumped from a second story window resulting in an ankle sprain after waking up to smoke and yells from onlookers.  According to the Young, Albert Lofton was apparently watching David Letterman and smoking a cigarette and fell asleep, causing the couch to erupt in flames and spread throughout the house.  The neighbors, Ralph and Winnie Gleason, said that they were able to help Mrs. Lofton and led her to their kitchen to help with her ankle as well as calling the fire department. 137 words

4.    Castro Valley - Yesterday, a man started a fire in his own house for the second time. “It was hot. I couldn’t sleep, so I went downstairs to watch TV, said Albert Lofton. I remember I was smoking a cigarette; I guess I fell asleep and it burnt the sofa on which I was stretched out. It happened before.”

His wife Barbara was sleeping in her bedroom when her neighbours’ shouts woke her up. “I smelled smoke, I knew something was going wrong, she said. I started downstairs in search of my husband, but I was driven back by heat and flames”. Mrs Lofton had to climb out the window, and jump on the ground. She sprained her ankle escaping the fire. 119 words

5.  Castro Valley- Man sets fire to his house for the second time

            Last week, Albert Lofton, 53, set fire to his house unintentionally with a lit cigarette.  According to his wife Barbara, 26, Albert had been unable to sleep and had gone downstairs to watch television.  She was later awakened by shouts coming outside.  Realizing that she was unable to exit through the downstairs due to flames, she jumped out the window of her bedroom and sprained her ankle.  The Lofton’s next-door neighbors, Ralph and Winnie Gleason, were quick to the seen, and having already called the fire department, helped Barbara into their kitchen.  The Mt. Pleasant fire station was quick to respond on scene. 103 words

6. East Bay residents Barbara and Albert Lofton narrowly escaped a fire which engulfed their Castro Valley home.  According to fire officials this was not the first fire they had put out at the Lofton's home.  Do they have bad wiring or just bad luck?  Neither, it seems.  The fire started after Mr. Lofton had decided to have a cigarette in the middle of the night, leaving his wife upstairs in bed.  Watching TV and smoking, Lofton subsequently fell asleep on the couch and his lit cigarette caused the couch to catch fire.  Mrs.

Lofton awoke to the smell of smoke and shouts from outside.  She attempted to reach her husband but was unable to make it down the stairs as the fire had grown.  Forced, Mrs. Lofton jumped out of the bedroom window and sprained her ankle.  Two firefighters, Norman Young and Sidney Campion, were able to reach an unconscious Mr. Lofton who was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and survived. 159 words

7. A fire damaged the Castro Valley home of Barbara and Albert Lofton for the second time in two years, resulting in $50,000 of damages to the house, in which it is believed by fire officials to have originated.  Barbara, 26, and Albert, 53, were going to sleep when Mr. Lofton decided to watch television on the sofa downstairs instead, where he fell asleep with a lit cigarette in his hands.  Barbara Lofton was awakened by shouts from outside and started downstairs before the flames stopped her.  86 words

8. Remember that retro public service announcements (PSA) made by a very animated “Smokey the Bear”?  “Only YOU can prevent forest fires!” exclaimed a firm but friendly grizzly, aptly named Smokey.  The “Smoking Kills” PSA was commonly used as well.  The message, however, didn’t make it as far as Castro Valley, where Albert Lofton, 53, for the second time in two years, started a fire by falling asleep on a couch while smoking.  

The lit cigarette ignited his couch, starting a fire that caused an estimated $50,000 in damages.  His wife, Barbara Lofton, 26, was asleep upstairs, and was awakened by shouts from outside the house.  She then proceeded to escape from an open window. 

Local fire department officials reported that Mr. Lofton was found unconscious, and was revived by firefighter Sidney Campion.  Mrs. Lofton was treated and released from a nearby hospital.  Mr. Lofton is still under observation, but hospital officials have reported that he is in good condition. 159 words

A Classic Human Interest Story

Impact or consequence? No, though I suppose it's a variation on the Utopian dream of the lion lying down with the lamb. Might say it's a conflict story in that it's an *anti* conflict story.

Just very sweet with good visuals.

Comment Assignment if You Lack an Idea for Your Own Blog

Comment on one of  these ethical dilemmas

You are interviewing

·       *  The longest surviving heart transplant patient in the U.S. When talking about the disability pay he receives, he mentions he does a little bookkeeping on the side the income from which he does not report.

·        * A beloved radio weatherman who is about to retire and who mentions in passing he has a

Down’s Syndrome child and immediately says, “Don’t print that.”

·        * The family of a teenager who has just died after a long battle cancer whose mother says sorrowfully, “Noah died a virgin, and it made him so sad.”

·      *   A sex researcher who has done an extremely popular book on various sexual matters who says – when you jokingly ask her who should appear in the movie version – that it should be you.

·       *  A  family living at a restaurant/motel in the middle of the Nevada desert, the eight-year-old daughter of which tells you when her parents aren’t around that on weekends dad likes to get drunk and blow up the wrecked cars out in back of  their isolated business.

·       *  An interracial couple – she is Filipino and he is African-American – who are having a June wedding. At the wedding reception, his father tells you he is disappointed his son is marrying “outside the race.”

·       *  A rather famous movie star who has just written a rather New Ageish book in which she writes that whatever happens to people is their own fault. You consider asking her about the six million Jews lost in the Holocaust.

·        * A nun as part of a story about a neighborhood that is undergoing a rash of burglaries. One of the buildings in the neighborhood is a convent for nuns who work in the community as teachers and social workers. After talking about precautions any sensible homeowner should take, she pauses and then explains that she was raped some years ago and makes some suggestions about how women might avoid situations in which that might occur.

·      *   Construction workers on a downtown highrise who explain in some detail how they like to “party hearty,” with considerable detail about how much alcohol this requires many nights after work.

What do you do?

Reflecting

Re-writing my journalism assignment on a talk given by Dr. Joy Ladin, I found myself very intrigued by the intersection of gender, sexuality and religion. For my final paper I am going to be taking a very different approach to looking at the same intersection. Rather than transgender identity and Judaism I will be looking at youth college student identity and Catholic school, USF.

It is so cool how all of my classes seem to be overlapping this semester and I am really looking forward to the body of work that it is going to produce for me as a reflection on my last semester as a college student.

Here is the assignment I have written and submitted about Dr. Joy Ladin:

She’s the Man

 “My kids call me daddy”, Dr. Joy Ladin said, talking about her young children since she made the transition from man to woman in 2007. After feeling trapped in the wrong body for decades, Ladin changed everything. “I was a good man”, she said. Though, to her, that meant being a bad person. On October Second, Ladin, English Professor at Yeshiva University and author of seven books, spoke to USF students about her relationship with herself, her God, and the world, reading excerpts from her autobiography and creating a dialogue with the audience, as well.

Growing up as a Reformed Jew, Ladin said she was drawn to Orthodox Judaism and felt a special relationship with her version of God and the Jewish scriptures of the Torah. She is the first openly transgender person to be employed by an Orthodox Jewish institution. To many, her transgendered-ness and Judaism are mutually exclusive, yet Ladin read and continues to read the Torah, her way. While the Talmud, Torah and Judaism itself, alienated her, it also comforted her a great deal. She said that a lot of trans children feel a closeness to God because God has no physical body, so the sense of being created in the image of God really resonated with her. Also, she believes that since God made her, she is therefore accepted for who she is and especially who she is not.

            Ladin said: “after being a persona, I wanted to become a person”. She understands her transition in terms of learning and becoming fluent in a new language. That language is gender, the way people understand who they are in relationship to themselves and the world. She quoted the Talmud, saying: “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?” This helped her realize that she could never actually be in a state of being until she was for herself and truly became the woman she always knew herself to be.

The transition that she eventually made after marrying and fathering two children, was far from resolving the “problem” of finding a self-identity. “I had to remake myself in the eyes of others”, she said, explaining how difficult this can be. Gender is indeed, a performance with many parts. For instance, becoming the woman she always knew herself to be, meant changing the clothing that she wore everyday, shaving her facial hair and speaking with a different tone of voice.

When a student asked her if she had changed her genitals to fully become a woman. Ladin responded: “It’s important for me to not answer”. She acknowledged that it was a good question and a typical one, but not natural or fair. She explained that when she made her transition, she felt as though it was a trade for her right to having a private self.

            It has not exactly been easy for her family, either. Ladin’s nine year-old does not want ‘daddy’ to come to her school because she does not want to have to explain why daddy identifies and dresses like a woman, to her friends. Ladin does not regret or wish that she were born a woman in the first place. “If it had been any other way, they wouldn’t exist”, she said of her children.

Her autobiography, Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey between Genders, explains that if identity is a combination of being and becoming. While others spend a lot of time being and very little, becoming, she said she is “always going to be a process of becoming with a little bit of being mixed in”.

Here's a link to my Belva Davis Storify

Vicky Nguyen: A Storify Portrait

How cool and interesting! UNICEF is helping to start and support a Children's News Service that will help children understand the basics of journalism while also providing the news information.

bdnews24.com, Unicef launching children journalism Thu, Sep 6th, 2012 7:30 pm BdST Dhaka, Sep 6 (bdnews24.com)—bdnews24.com and Unicef have joined forces to launch a Children's News Service to promote causes affecting 45 percent of Bangladesh's population. The two organisations agreed a partnership at the newspaper's Mohakhali office on Thursday for the service that will be launched later on. bdnews24.com will be making huge investments apart from editorial oversight in this venture with Unicef to introduce children journalism, Bangladesh's first Internet newspaper said in a media statement. Children from all echelons of society will be able to practice and learn journalism at the online newspaper's children website, http://kidz.bdnews24.com, it added. "This will give us a unique opportunity to take the children's stories from across Bangladesh to a huge number of audience," Toufique Imrose Khalidi, Editor-in-Chief of Bangladesh's first Internet newspaper, said in a statement on Wednesday. "Being part of our already-popular http://kidz.bdnews24.com, the Children's News Service will get some natural advantage," he believed. "We will train them, teach them the basics of journalism, create a manual for them to follow, hoping that many of them will become professional journalists in future." Khalidi said such training would be organised in at least 20 districts initially and that bdnews24.com correspondents would be sensitised to the children's issues through workshops so that they could work as effective coordinators in their respective districts. He added that bdnews24.com will continue the programme even after Unicef's partnership ends. Unicef is considering the initiative as an opportunity for children to contribute in making a child-friendly news industry and for strengthening their rights. "Around 45 percent of the population in Bangladesh are under 18. Unicef in partnership with bdnews24.com is keen to create a 'space' for children where they will be able to raise their concerns, share their aspirations for the future and contribute to decisions that affect their lives by suggesting solutions while playing an active role in mainstream media," said Unicef's Acting Representative for Bangladesh Michel Saint-Lot. "We are hopeful that through this unique initiative, we will be able to hear the unheard voices of this nation, enable children to make a contribution to the news agenda and accelerate the process of upholding child rights for children in Bangladesh," Saint-Lot added. The children will be responsible for the gathering of information, editing and publishing news under the supervision of bdnews24.com journalists. bdnews24.com/rn/bd/1721h

Here's a Nice-and-Easy Blogging Assignment

In the comment section, add a question or two you'd like next week's journalism panel to answer.

Tips on Becoming a News Entrepreneur

10 Tips

View more presentations from jlab

A Media Studies/Journalism Student Reports from the Field

I can't remember when I updated you last, but in January I got hired as a Legislative Aide  for a law firm in Minneapolis.  I helped their Gov Relations team at the state capitol  throughout the legislative session - sitting in on committee hearings, writing client reports,  tracking bills.  It was great experience, as I'd never done legislative work before. When session ended in May, the firm asked me to stay on.  I've been doing a bit  more administrative work since then, but they give me political stuff when it comes up  (since session is over it's not as busy).  I think it's a good place for right now - it's full-time  with benefits, so even the office work is worth it. Plus, I'm meeting good people and  they've said they don't want to lose me - so maybe I can get back to the capitol  again next year. As for the skills I was taught at USF that have come in handy at work - everything!   But I would say specifically the journalism courses because a big part of the  legislative work I did required good writing skills; it was the main thing the firm  looked for and I had to submit writing samples.  So although I'm not reporting,  I did have to be able to follow complex issues at the Capitol and write about  them for clients in a way that made sense to people who didn't follow politics on a daily basis.  An interesting story on social media:  A Repub state senator here in MN used  Twitter to post what a Dem senator had said during a floor debate on budget  issues - the only problem was, the Repub completely misquoted her colleague  and it become a huge controversy because the Twitter post had the Dem saying  negative things about the disabled (which never actually happened).  It was  taken up by the Senate Ethics Committee and got lots of media attention.   Just another reminder about the potential pitfalls of social media, if used carelessly.

We Buy the Folger Building: Playing Around with Storify

Professors Doing Tech Well - and Just the Opposite

Springtime for bin Laden: Why we use humor to neutralize evil | Poynter.

Springtime for bin Laden: Why we use humor to neutralize evil | Poynter.

The Fight Song

The Fight Song

Search Engine Optimization Unpacked!

Danny Sullivan's tips.

A very simple animation!

Linking to KDMC

Knight Digital Media Center


Some student work from University of Florida.

Bin Laden's Demise in the Headlines

Newspaper fronts still a billboard of communal expression.

Simple Simple Slideshow

How to Shoot a Basic Net-Quality News Video

Borrowed from the Knight Citizen News Network

Documentary-style video story

The best way to make a solid video story is to think about it the same way you think about writing a story. Indeed, it’s critical to think about how the video will “tell the story.” Once you envision what the story should “say,” it’s simply a matter of filling in the spots with the most appropriate footage. Here’s how.
Plan the shoot before you go out: Just like the elements of a good news story that are second nature to you (background, quotes from more than one source, documentation), there are basic elements of a shoot you will need to construct an interesting video story. You need a mix of shots:

• Wide-angle—These shots, also known as “establishing” shots, give viewers a sense of the environment, so shoot the outside of the building or back up and shoot the entire room.

• Medium—Somewhere in between wide and close-up, these shots are the ones you are probably most comfortable shooting.

• Close-ups—These shots zoom in on who’s talking or what they are talking about. Remember: Always zoom first, then record, instead of recording and zooming at the same time.

A good mix would be 25 percent wide-angle, 25 percent close-ups and 50 percent medium or mid-range shots.

Breaking news/highlights/clips style video

For these types of video, you rarely know what the “story” will be in advance. You simply know that news is happening or has happened and you want to capture some essence of it on video.
For a breaking news event like a highway crash or a school shooting, you probably won’t get to the scene in time to capture the actual action. However, the reaction from witnesses and investigators as well as footage of the scene are well worth capturing.
Press conferences (if they are tied to compelling news events or delivered by news figures) can make good video and are about the easiest to shoot. You have a fixed subject and the lighting will be good (especially if there are TV cameras around).
Highlights clips, especially in sports, can be among the most popular content on any news site. Shooting sports video can be challenging, however. The constant movement of the subjects requires large capacity in the digital video file and can be hard to follow once the video is downsized and compressed for Web display. As a result, short clips of the best action is the way to go, either edited together with voice-over descriptions or linked to a news story as raw clips with caption information next to the link.

Other important tips to remember:

• Be selective in shooting. There are two good reasons for this: You don’t want to waste tape and you don’t want to waste time editing.
• Avoid panning, zooming. Stop recording when switching between wide, medium and close shots. Avoid zooming and panning if possible. Simply shoot a shot, stop recording, then adjust for the next shot and hit record again.
• Hold your shots. Since you can make a shot shorter in the editing process—but not longer—make sure to hold each of your shots for at least 15 seconds. Even if it’s a wide environment shot that you’ll likely use for 5 seconds, shoot the full 15 seconds. You’ll be glad you did.
• Be silent when you shoot. The camera will pick up every sound you make—a sigh, a cough, a chuckle or anything you say. So keep your lips zipped when recording because you won’t be able to edit out the unwanted audio later.

The gridlines show you how to compose video using the “rule of thirds.”

• Frame your subject carefully. When framing your shot, it is best to avoid a static composition by keeping the main subject slightly off center. To do this consistently, follow the “rule of thirds,” which recommends dividing the frame, using imaginary lines, into thirds both horizontally and vertically. If you position your main subject (usually a face) near one of the intersections of these lines, you will achieve a pleasant, active composition.
• Seek the best short clips. Understand that the best video stories are comprised of many short clips edited together, and your job is to get the best short clips. The best way to fully comprehend the array of clips you need to capture is to actually perform the editing—or at a minimum sit with the person who edits the video. It’s the only way to see what types of clips you shot work best and what types of clips you missed.

If you shoot video footage and hand it off to a Web producer or multimedia editor to await the final product, your video story skills will never improve.

As simple as it gets

A company called Pure Digital has released a new line of video cameras that make shooting basic video as easy as recording a conversation on an old microcassette recorder. The device is small and basically “idiot-proof” since it only has buttons for play, record, stop, forward and back. It has to be hand-held and doesn’t zoom, so it’s only appropriate for basic videography, like shooting the subject of a story so the audience can see and hear the person talk and sense their personality.

Pure Digital video camera.

The Tri-City Herald in Washington state purchased one of the cameras in January 2007 and deployed it within a couple hours. A reporter shot a video interview and published it on the site the same day. Web site director Andy Perdue had this to say about the trial:

“Was this video compelling? Not particularly, but it wasn’t bad. It provided a voice and face to the story, and it offered a multimedia element. It was no worse than what most local TV news stations offer at 6 and 11 p.m. Perhaps of greatest significance, our newsroom embraced this technology in record time: 2.5 hours!”

The version of the Pure Digital camera that holds 30 minutes of video sells for $129 at national retailers like Target and Best Buy (as of January 2007). There is also a 60-minute version for $179. “We plan to purchase one or two of these per month throughout the year and deploy them in our bureaus as well as in the newsroom,” Perdue said.

Do a trial run

If you are interested in learning to shoot video, get comfortable before heading out on assignment. Shoot some footage at home of your family or friends and experiment with different types of shots. Practice capturing a mix of shots, using different types of microphones, using a tripod and lighting. Shooting basic video is not difficult but, like most new technology, takes some getting used to.

Assignment:

1. Watch your favorite local TV news station.
   
2. Try to mimic shots you find effective.
   
3. Compare news stations.
   
4. Look for the rule of thirds.
   
5. Be a critic; it will help you improve.
   

Maybe HuffPost isn't a Plantation After All

Food for thought. Nate Silver is a wise young man.

News reporting with a point of view: where to draw the line?

News reporting with a point of view: where to draw the line?

Backing away from ‘multimedia specialist’ self branding

Backing away from ‘multimedia specialist’ self branding

Advice from a working reporter: Be a reporter first, to which you add multimedia skills.

Reporting Class Practices Interviewing a Cooperative Passerby

Good job, class. You did ask Pat how much he made and by throwing out a high but still plausible figure -- I believe you suggested 100K -- he did answer the question. But since Patrick was doing this as an act of friendship, I cut his answer from the video.

If this had been a real interview, I certainly would have included his answer. Already we see a problem you will face as a student journalist. Your sources may think you are playing at being a journalist and that you won't use what they tell you. You need to make clear upfront that our assignments are not just class exercises and could find their way into print or online.

But even if you do that, since you are seen as a peer or even a friend, your sources may come to you after an interview and ask that some comment not be used. And when that happens, you will have an ethical problem, and we will have a nice class discussion.

By the way, it took me about 50 minutes to edit this little slice of life into rough shape. To get something more than blogworthy would have taken more interviewing time and more editing time -- and before I began I would have been better off consulting with someone who knows how to do this kind of thing right.

But even rough product is better than no product at all.

Your Blogging Responsibilities

Journalism I/F2009:
Your Blogging Responsibilities

Basic principle: Fulfill the basic blogging requirements and you get credit; that is, your grade will not be lowered. Blog well and you get extra credit.

1. Your own blog. You will create a personal blog to which I will link at our class blog. The minimum requirement is that over the rest of the semester you post there once every two weeks -- seven posts during the semester -- on any aspect of your growth as a journalist that interests you. Your post might be a reaction to a news item that you read in the textbook or in a newspaper or magazine or the Internet or something you hear or see on a news broadcast. You might write about something that is said in class or respond to something that happens while researching, reporting or writing a story. I am not looking for polished essay writing, though the better your entries are written the better I will like it. I am looking for quick hits, what you are thinking at the moment about journalism.

2. The blogs of your classmates. In addition to your posting once every two weeks on your own blog, you are also required to comment on the posts of classmates once a week. These posts can be short, a sentence or two in length.

3. The USF alumni blog. Any posting on these blogs will be considered extra credit.


If you have trouble setting up your blog, stay after class or make an appointment with me as soon as possible, so I can help you set up your blog.

Our Class Blog -- http://bloggnu.blogspot.com/


The USF Journalism and Media Studies Blog -- http://oliversmojo.blogspot.com/


The Ethics Class Blog -- http://bloggnu1230.blogspot.com/


How to set up a blog at blogger.com –
http://weblogs.about.com/cs/blogcreatetools/ht/blogger.htm