Month: July 2019

Week 6: Expanded Treatment guidelines and details, plus your third assignment and our next Google Hangout

If you haven’t read the course essentials post, which contains a link to the course outline as well as important course and time management information, please do so before reading this post. (I suspect you’ve all read it by this point, just checking …) Also, a reminder that your third assignment, feedback on your classmates’ pre-interview and research plans, is due by 5 pm EST on Friday, July 19, as a comment on their blog post.

This week’s materials:
Guidelines: Writing Your MRP Expanded Treatment
(make sure you’re logged into your Ryerson Google account to view)

via GIPHY

This is the last week of instructional blog posts from me until the end of August when I no doubt will be sending several reminders about your Expanded Treatment, which is due on Aug. 30 before 5 pm EST as a link to a Google Doc from a post on your individual blog. You’ll note that the course outline asks you to submit a link to the treatment to me via email. Don’t do that. The reason I’ve switched it is so that the document is easily accessible to you and your MRP supervisor and is easy to find in the Fall semester when you’re taking JN8502 MRP II: Storytelling Seminar.

You can find the Expanded Treatment guidelines here. Working on your treatment will force you to greatly clarify the themes and strategies you have developed during your research and pre-interviews. Most importantly, it will help prepare you for producing your story, which means “gathering information and conducting interviews designed to say something instead of blindly collecting stuff that you hope can be beaten into shape during the writing or editing” (Hampe, 2007). 

You are strongly recommended to write several drafts of your proposal during your designated six weeks. Do not start it right before it’s due. Keep on writing and rewriting until your proposal is complete, free of redundancy and effortless to understand. A reminder that you are required to connect with your MRP supervisor – either in person or remotely – for feedback on your Expanded Treatment at least once between July 15 and Aug. 15, 2019.

You have been given more than six weeks toward the end of this course to complete your Expanded Treatment. Use your time wisely. Treatments that don’t sufficiently reflect a depth of research, reporting and analysis and offer no significant information beyond the preliminary plan will receive a failing grade. Successful completion of this course is a prerequisite for JN8502 MRP II: Storytelling Seminar in the Fall semester.

I’ll be going over the guidelines and assignment details in our next Google Hangout, scheduled for Monday, July 22 from 8-9 pm EST. Check your inbox for an invite.

Alternatively, please email me with any questions or to schedule a time to talk by phone. Over the next six weeks, I’m mostly available, though I will be unreachable the week of Aug. 4-11.

I’ll have my feedback on your research and pre-interview plans for you by next week. In the meantime, I’m sure you’re all working on your feedback for your classmates, which is due on Friday by 5 pm EST. Please make sure to check your own blog for a comment on Friday evening. Don’t edit the peer feedback, however, just approve it in the Dashboard. You can find instructions on how to do this on the last post.

Wishing you a productive and exciting rest-of-the-summer,
Asmaa

Assignment 3: Peer feedback matches

Your third assignment, due July 19 by 5 pm EST on your classmate’s blog post, asks you to read a classmate’s research and pre-interview plan and share your feedback directly on their blog post in a 400-word comment. You are expected to offer suggestions for additional sources, potential story directions, as well as links to videos, audio clips and articles that could help supplement their research.

I’ve matched you with your classmates who are working on similar subjects or platforms. You can find the spreadsheet with your peer assignments here. You must be logged into your Ryerson Google account to access the spreadsheet.

There have been some issues with people’s privacy settings on their blogs, but I think they have mostly been resolved. However, if you run into problems trying to access your classmates’ blog posts, please email them first and ask Lindsay for help if necessary.

READING + APPROVING CLASSMATES’ COMMENTS

Your comments will not automatically appear on your classmates’ blog posts. They go into a moderation queue on your WordPress dashboard. By default, you’ll receive an email notification if you have a comment that needs to be approved on your blog. But you’ll also know you have a comment awaiting moderation when you see a red circle with the number 1 next to Comments in the sidebar menu, example below:

When you click on Comments, you can read your classmate’s comment and Approve it. Please don’t edit it and do remember to Approve it, otherwise I can’t see it. Feedback must be posted on your classmate’s blog by 5 pm EST on Friday, July 19.

As always, please email me at asmaa.malik@ryerson.ca if you have any questions.

Have a good weekend!
Asmaa

Week 5: Writing and producing your story, plus notes on privacy settings, tonight’s Google Hangout and your third assignment

If you haven’t read the course essentials post, which contains a link to the course outline as well as important course and time management information, please do so before reading this post. Also, a reminder that your second assignment, your research and pre-interview plan, is due by 5 pm EST on Monday, July 8, as a post on your individual blog.

This week’s materials:
My advice for aspiring explainer journalists (Roberts, 2018)
Designing data visualisations with empathy (Bui, 2019)
Excerpt: Sound reporting: The NPR guide to audio journalism and production (Kern, 2008)
Tips for recording professional audio remotely (Berkeley Advanced Media Institute)
Start-to-finish storyboarding (Berkeley Advanced Media Institute)

PODCAST: FINDING CLEO (2018)

If you haven’t listened to Connie Walker’s award-winning podcast series, Finding Cleo, you really should. She tells the story of the Semaganis siblings who were separated from each other and their mother during the Sixties Scoop and tries to find out what happened to the one sister everyone lost track of. It’s a masterclass in how to write and produce longer-form narrative for radio. To listen, go to the CBC website here or subscribe via iTunes.


This week we’re focusing on writing and production skills, from the secrets behind Vox’s trademark explainers to how to best capture audio from your iPhone. I’ve also added an extra reading that isn’t on the course outline. It just came out last month and it’s from journalist P. Kim Bui whose work on building relationships in marginalized communities you read a few weeks ago. In this piece, she talks about taking the principles of empathy and applying them to the design and production of data visualizations.

My advice for aspiring explainer journalists (Roberts, 2018)
In this 2018 piece for Vox, journalist David Roberts offers insights and suggestions for how to develop your skills as an explanatory journalist. His advice – e.g. “learn about something – may seem somewhat facile but is quite instructive when you’re trying to break down a larger concept or idea and giving readers insight into how the world works. Incidentally, I used the Shutterstock image he talks about for our course outline because it is a pretty funny depiction of how this illustrator and likely so many others think stories are written.

Designing data visualisations with empathy (Bui, 2019)
I highly recommend anything from P. Kim Bui. She is a deep thinker on the responsibilities and the impacts of journalism. In this most recent piece, she takes the empathetic approach she first outlined in her American Press Institute research and explains how the same principles can be applied to data reporting. She writes: “Reporting and storytelling methods like photos and videos, in a way, have an easier path to empathy. … What is harder is finding the people and shared experience within numbers and data. How do you get audience members, much less the journalists presenting the story to the audience, to walk a mile in the shoes of a dot? Or a bar chart?”

Excerpt: Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production (Kern, 2008) + Tips for Recording Professional Audio Remotely (Berkeley Advanced Media Institute)
Many of you who are working on radio documentaries or podcasts for your MRPs will be taking the podcasting course in the Fall. That said, you may have already started interviewing subjects for your story. These two resources – one that focuses on writing and production and the other that offers tips for out-of-studio recording – are good quick references for you to consult.

Start-to-Finish Storyboarding (Berkeley Advanced Media Institute)
Storyboarding is often thought of as something you do once you have done some significant preliminary reporting on a feature. However, it can also be helpful to create an early-stage storyboard to visualize the outcome and to help you plan your reporting and production strategy.

setting your blog to private

A reminder that individual blogs are set to public by default. To set your blog to Private, please follow these instructions:

  • From the Dashboard for your site, go to the left sidebar menu and click on Settings
  • Choose Reading and look for the section titled “Site Visibility”
  • In the first section of options, click “Discourage Search engines” 
  • In the next set of options, choose “Visible only to registered users of this network”

Please email Lindsay Hanna (lindsay.hanna@ryerson.ca) if you have any questions.

next assignment:
FEEDBACK ON CLASSMATE’S PLAN

Your third assignment, due July 19 by 5 pm EST on your classmate’s blog post, asks you to read a classmate’s research and pre-interview plan and share your feedback directly on their blog post in a 400-word comment. You are expected to offer suggestions for additional sources, potential story directions, as well as links to videos, audio clips and articles that could help supplement their research. I will be pairing students with classmates who are working on similar subjects or platforms. The assignments will be made after the plans are submitted, no later than July 12.

GOOGLE HANGOUT TONIGHT AT 8 pm

Our next Google Hangout is scheduled for tonight (Monday, July 8) from 8-9 pm EST. You should have received a Google invite for the video chat and can click on the link during that time to ask questions or discuss any issues related to your MRP. Joining the Google Hangout is not mandatory and of course, if you have any questions, please drop me an email at asmaa.malik@ryerson.ca.

Have a great week,
Asmaa

Extra: The Danger of a Single Story (2009)

As you work on your research and pre-interview plan, I wanted to post this 2009 TED Talk from Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie (Americanah, We Should All Be Feminists) in which she cautions against telling a singular narrative about a person for fear of minimizing their story. I usually show it in my undergraduate Critical Issues in Journalism class at the beginning of the semester and I think it bears sharing here as a reminder to understand your interview subjects as complex human beings who do not merely represent the issues your work hopes to address, but whose lived experiences, with their contradictions and their intersections, imbue your stories with humanity.

the danger of a single story (2009)

Week 4: Interviewing techniques, plus notes on marks, your second assignment and our next Google Hangout

If you haven’t read the course essentials post, which contains a link to the course outline as well as important course and time management information, please do so before reading this post. Also, a reminder that your second assignment, your research and pre-interview plan, is due by 5 pm EST on Monday, July 8, as a post on your individual blog.

This week’s materials:
Asking Questions: Techniques for Semistructured Interviews (Leech, 2002)
The Art of the Interview (Friedman, 2013)
What Journalists Need to Know About Interviewing for Video (Frechette, 2013)  

conversational competence (2015)


This week’s readings and video focus on fostering fruitful conversations with subjects in social sciences research, feature reporting and radio and video interviews. Building trust and empathy, as we learned last week, are at the core of great interviews but you also need to do your homework. This TEDx Talk from radio journalist Celeste Headlee offers strategies for better conversations.

Asking Questions: Techniques for Semistructured Interviews (Leech, 2002)
In her journal article for Political Science and Politics, Beth L. Leech uses her experiences as a journalist and as an anthropological researcher to break down two different approaches to interviews. She categorizes the “journalistic style” as one that tries to verbally pin the respondent down by appearing to know everything already. By contrast, the ethnographic style of interviewing “instead tries to enter into the world of the respondent by appearing to know very little.” While they diverge in many ways, in the hands of a strong feature writer, both styles can be quite complementary.

The Art of the Interview (Friedman, 2013)
This Columbia Journalism Review article by Ann Friedman offers great tips for feature interviews, emphasizing the importance of doing your research ahead of time but being flexible enough to engage your subject in meaningful conversation. She also addresses the importance of allowing for silences and using them to your advantage. If you’d like check out more of Friedman’s writing, subscribe to her freemium newsletter here.

What Journalists Need to Know About Interviewing for Video (Frechette, 2013)  
Video interviews require you to pay attention to more than just the conversation you’re having with your subject. In this piece for Poynter, Casey Frechette goes into great detail aobut the three phases of video interviews: (1) Prepping the interview and planning logistics; (2) Setting up the location for optimal visuals; (3) Recording and conducting the interview.

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First assignment marks: You’ll receive your marks on the digital feature critique assignment via email by Friday, July 5.

Second assignment: Your Research and Pre-Interview Plan is due, as a post on your individual blog, by July 8 at 5 pm EST.  You will be submitting a 1,200-1,500-word early-stage proposal for how you will embark on research and preliminary interviews for your Major Research Project. Please organize your proposal into the following categories and include a working bibliography and source list (not part of word count):

  • Project overview
  • Story form and justification
  • Primary and secondary sources
  • Human sources
  • Access to principal sources
  • Reporting and production schedule

Reminder: Individual blogs are set to public by default. To set your blog to Private, please follow these instructions:

  • From the Dashboard for your site, go to the left sidebar menu and click on Settings
  • Choose Reading and look for the section titled “Site Visibility”
  • In the first section of options, click “Discourage Search engines” 
  • In the next set of options, choose “Visible only to registered users of this network”

Please email Lindsay Hanna (lindsay.hanna@ryerson.ca) if you have any questions.

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Online office hours: Our next Google Hangout is scheduled for Monday, July 8 from 8-9 pm EST. You will receive a Google invite for the video chat and can click on the link during that time to ask questions or discuss any issues related to your MRP. Joining the Google Hangout is not mandatory and of course, if you have any questions, please drop me an email at asmaa.malik@ryerson.ca.

Have a great week!
Asmaa