Lauren Rabaino » cal poly

Thoughts on integrating Publish2 into Cal Poly's journalism curriculum

Lauren Rabaino — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:15:29 +0000

Full Disclosure: I have been employed by Publish2 as a product designer since January.

My favorite Cal Poly journalism professor emailed me this week asking how he could use Publish2 in his journalism classes. Although this list of ideas is specific to Cal Poly’s journalism curriculum, it could easily be adapted to other j-school courses as well.

For those of you unfamiliar with Publish2, it’s a collaborative curation platform powered by journalists (i.e. a way of link saving and sharing powered by the most authoritative experts in the news field). Because all Cal Poly journalism professors and students are journalists, the service is free to them.

Before I jump into my implementation ideas, there are four general assumptions I am going to be making (or really, they’re standards I’m encouraging) for journalism students and professors.

All journalism professors should maintain a blog — either personal or for the courses he/she teaches.
All students should maintain a blog.
All students should subscribe to their professors’ blogs and vice versa.
All journalism students should be consuming excessive amounts of content (news, blogs, tweets etc.) — more on this later.

If Cal Poly wants to integrate Publish2 into its curriculum, every student should make an account in their first journalism class and continue to use it throughout their four years of college.

Journalism 203: Introduction to News Reporting and Writing

Introduction to the fundamental techniques of reporting and writing news articles from print and online perspectives. Extensive laboratory and field practices in

gathering and evaluating information. Writing basic news stories under close supervision. 3 lectures, 1 laboratory.

The best use of Publish2 in this class would be for curating the best journalistic reporting on the web. One of the best ways to learn to write, in my opinion, is to read really good writing:

Each lecture in this class usually focuses on a specific element of news writing (leads, nut grafs, transitions, inverted pyramids, soft leads, etc.) that eventually culminates at the end
Prior to each lecture, students could add links to the newsgroup of the best writing that relates to the upcoming lecture
Each student could add a comment along with their link about why that example is important
The professor could make this a requirement for each class and make it count toward a grade (although, more on this later too)
This example and following examples would make for effective assignments that are easy to submit and grade (no printing out work or keeping track of stacks of paper; professors would simply navigate to the newsgroup and read everyones’ analyses).

Back to my earlier premise that all journalism students should be consuming excessive amount of content: In an ideal world, this would be true. But as a recent college graduate, I’ve seen first-hand that many students don’t stay up on news. Making it a requirement for class won’t encourage it either; I’m against requirements as a form of habit-building. If you force students to read news, it won’t be fun and they won’t want to do it. If you give them an incentive to read news (discussing current events at the start of each class; creating a reward-based system for those who curate the best links), rather than assigning a grade value or quizzing students on news consumption, it will be more effective.

JOUR 285 Introduction to Web-Based Journalism

I was still at Cal Poly the first quarter this class was introduced. I helped write the syllabus and contributed to the lectures each week. From the course description:

Introduction to the social, editorial and technical issues surrounding the Web as a new form of communication. Fundamentals of gathering, writing and publishing content for the Web that includes using photographs, sound, pictures and video to tell a story. 3 lectures, 1 laboratory. Prerequisite: JOUR 203.

Although that sounds vague, the class actually had a very specific goal: each student created a blog and by the end of ten-week quarter, they were semi-experts in bloggings, curating, tweeting and amateur multimediography.

Each student maintained a WordPress blog with a very specific beat (prime target for Publish2 usage)
In addition to commentary, analysis and original reporting on topics specific to the beat of their choice, each student could curate a newswire of links relevant to their blog
If some students’ beats overlapped (local music blog and local art critique blog, for example), the students could create a newsgroup and collaborate together.
(This same process can be applied to JOUR 304 Public Affairs Reporting in which each student is assigned a geographic beat. Although they’re not blogging as a requirement to this class — sadly– they could still use newsgroups and save the links to Publish2 without publishing to a blog).

The ability to be an expert curator is a huge part of journalism these days when it comes to finding the value in context in an era of information overload and content pollution (more here, here and lots here). Finding the top news and tweets relevant to a beat is one of the best ways to learn curation (and even at the professional level, it’s what high profile journalists are doing — and they’re even using Publish2 to do it).

JOUR 303 Multimedia Reporting and Production, JOUR 410 Applied Multimedia Reporting

These classes are parts one and two in a hierarchy of multimedia classes. Over the span of these two classes, students learn how to take photos, record audio, make slideshows, audio slideshows, video, podcasts, interactive maps, a little flash, and how to publish all those media types on the web. I see a few potential uses of Publish2 in this realm.

Collaboratively generate “reading materials” for class:

I’m of the opinion that you can’t learn multimedia by reading a textbook. Much like good writing comes as a result of reading good writing, the same goes for multimedia. Students should be expected to read over classmates’ comment and links in the newswire before each class.
Students should be scouting the web to find good examples of multimedia as relevant to each lecture, saving those links with comments to Publish2, then discussing them each class
This could serve as a very useful, thought-provoking assignment that gets students to read and provides interesting content for class discussion to supplement elements of the lecture.

Showcase student work:

One of my introductory assumptions at the start of this post is that each professor has a blog (Brady has a WordPress powered site for each of his journalism classes).
If each student adds a link to his/her published work through a newsgroup as a result of class assignments, professors can easily display that work on the class site/blog along with analysis of how the assignment went.
Because Publish2 gracefully integrates video into saved links, a multimedia class is a perfect use case

Department-wide usage

One of the key concepts Publish2 was built around is collaboration. So, naturally, the product would be more effective if its usage wasn’t only broken into silos for each class, but if journalism professors used it to curate news for the department to read. An even better situation would be if the entire department — faculty and students — were collaborating together. I’m sure plenty of other uses would arise once that collaborative network was initiated.

I’m open to any other suggestions for how Publish2 could be used in the classroom to encourage collaboration. Good luck and happy publishing.

How to use social media in a global communications class

Lauren Rabaino — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:51:08 +0000

I’m meeting with a Cal Poly journalism professor Monday to talk about ways he can use social media as a supplement to his global communications class.

I don’t know much about the class or the professor, but I’ve embedded the syllabus from 2007 below. I don’t imagine it’s changed much, if at all. (Disclosure: I’m enrolled in this course for fall quarter, which starts in two weeks. )

A few ideas I have for how he can use social media in his class:

Social bookmarking

From the syllabus:

Students will choose a particular country whose media/news they will monitor at least twice a week. Students are expected to bring to each class session an article they have downloaded from the media of the country they have chosen.

That system is antiquated.

Instead, students should be bookmarking those articles along with their personal commentary using Publish2 or Delicious. Not only does it save us paper in bad financial times, but it makes more sense as a way of organizing and keeping track of content (tags, anyone?).

Instead of going around and reading off our printed-out articles, the professor could open our Publish2 group on the projector at the start of each class and pull up each student’s article as it comes up in discussion.

Twitter/blogs to gauge hot topics

From the syllabus:

The article should be recent and not older than 2-4 days. It is up to the students to choose the articles they feel are the most the important for the people of that country.

Just because we’re in the United States doesn’t mean we should have to make guesses about hot topics in foreign countries. Twitter, blogs, Digg — and now, even searchable Facebook updates — can give us a very realistic idea of topics people care about in certain places at given times.

By using search.twitter.com, you can filter results by city using filters like near:Kabul to see tweets from Afghanistan’s capitol. Sites like GeoFollow have a similar feature with a translation option.

RSS and Google Alerts

If we’re expected to follow world news for ten weeks from specific countries, we need to become deeply consumed in their affairs. On the first day, every student should be required to sign up for Google Alerts and subscribe to RSS feeds in Google Reader for media from their assigned countries.

According to student critiques of Professor Havandjian on PolyRatings (and stories I’ve heard from classmates), he spends the first 15 minutes of class writing notes up on the board. Students should use that time to catch up on their RSS feeds (assuming the class is held in one of the journalism labs) instead of sitting around waiting for class to start.

Reaching out to individuals over social media

From the syllabus:

There will be a number of written assignments based on those handouts where students will deploy critical analysis to dissect material they have researched to supplement the handouts.

In any other journalism class, an analysis would mean talking to people who are directly impacted by widespread news issues. In a global communications class, the same thing is possible thanks to Twitter direct messages and Facebook messages. I’m sure people are willing to Skype or IM about issues in their country. Although this doesn’t have to be a requirement for the class (because of privacy/security/safety issues), for anyone who really wants to leverage their resources to have a true, accurate analysis of global issues, why not? (I know I will!)

Do you have better ideas for how social media can be used in a class like this? If so, share ‘em in the comments.

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Could a budget crisis spur journ profs to innovate?

Lauren Rabaino — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:02:30 +0000

While checking e-mail on my stroll to work this morning, I stopped dead in my tracks. Twice.

The first gasp of disbelief was after reading an e-mail from ostensibly one of the most “old-school” journalism professors at Cal Poly requesting the help of yours truly to integrate social networking into his curriculum. The second was from another very traditional professor who is willing to pay me $15/hour to produce videos to supplement her lectures.

In the same morning, two professors showed interest in breaking away from tradition. What’s going on here? Is there some kind of revolution underway? Are they finally starting to understand?

I blame (or thank) the $584 million budget deficit hitting the CSU.

Before the budget crunch hit California, professors saw no direct impact of being stuck in their ways. Their students were the ones feeling the hit with job losses after college. Now, it’s a little different. Here at Cal Poly, our multimedia professor was recently put on tenure track and we brought a second multimedia professor on board — that’s right, a new professor during a hiring freeze and faculty cuts. That means we’re getting serious about change. And professors are probably realizing that if they don’t catch up, they’ll be replaced by a younger, more tech-savvy generation.

So, while a few videos and knowledge of social media won’t save journalism, at least it’s a step forward. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Fixing Cal Poly's journalism department

Lauren Rabaino — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:18:34 +0000

At Cal Poly, we’re adding a “new media” track to our journalism department (as a supplement to broadcast, editorial and public relations). But in an economic crunch when money and resources are low, we shouldn’t create a new track– we should revamp existing tracks.

Current situation:

There is one “new media” class in our entire journalism department: applied multimedia reporting, JOUR 410. I put “new media” in quotes because that phrase bugs me. It’s not really new anymore, is it? That already puts us behind the curve when we’re thinking of it as something new and emerging. It needs to be integrated. It needs to be like breathing. When it’s “new,” it’s scary. Students don’t like scary.

This solitary multimedia class is not a required course; it’s an elective class open to all tracks within the journalism major. It’s taught by the ONE tech-savvy professor in our department, our savior, Brady Teufel.

From blogging to podcasting to soundslides to flash to video editing to HMTL to content management systems, students are expected to learn it all in one 10-week session. Each of those topics separately could fill a cirriculum for their own separate 10 week courses, so you can imagine how rushed it is. That’s not the way to learn. You can’t edit one 30-second video and expect to be a pro. But when we only have one professor and one class dedicated to multimedia– what other options do we have?

To give you a feel for a few classes that are required for all journalism majors: writing for the media, mass media in a multicultural society, mass media law, visual communication, journalism ethics

Print concentrations: copy editing, public affairs reporting, feature writing, advanced newspaper reporting

Broadcast concentrations: Broadcast news, broadcast announcing and editing, ENG reporting, advanced radio reporting, advanced TV reporting

Public relations concentrations: Intro to public relations, advanced public relations writing, public relations campaigns, advanced public relations practice

If our department really wants to take a proactive “new media” approach to prepare its students for the world ahead –while being economical and saving money/resources — this is how it should be done:

1. Scrap print as a track

Although the technical name for the track is “news editorial,” internally, it’s a print track. Instead, it should be called the multimedia concentration, although it would be ok to maintain a few print elements. Why scrap it? Because there is no such thing as a purely print publication (and if there is, it’s sure to go bankrupt soon).

For example, students are required to take a feature writing class with a basis in writing 2,500 word features. For students who want to go into magazine writing, it’s great — but it should be an elective. A required class that could replace it would be a class about newswriting for the Web, since it will be valuable to every concentration.

The curriculum for a web-writing class could include:

Blogging
Tagging posts/articles
Using keywords
Hyperlinking
Writing effective headlines
Effective, web-based research (RSS feeds to find story ideas)
Engaging in discussion with your readers
Crowdsourcing via social networks to find sources
Commenting on other blogs/drawing readership

…just to name a few.

2. Make video a must for all concentrations
Combining talent and resources with the broadcast track, the multimedia track should require students learn how to shoot and edit video. In addition, broadcast students should know how to get their video on the web, since most of them have the editing/shooting down, but are clueless about what a flash player is. PR students need to take a video shooting/editing class too– because what better way to represent a client than to do something viral on YouTube? The concepts apply across all three concentrations.

Structure for the video class:

Video shooting basics
Coordinating teams to shoot video
Video editing (Final Cut)
TV broadcasting basics
Exporting/uploading video to the Web
Incorporating video with 3rd parties (Google Maps, timelines, etc.)

3. Restructure JOUR 410 (Applied multimedia reporting)
This class, which currently touches briefly on many facets of new media, could be more focused. Under the current circumstances, this cannot happen, but if we split it up among professors, it can work. With video taught in a broadcast class, JOUR 410 can focus on three basic topics:

Slideshows/Soundslides
Podcasting
Interactivity: Livestreaming/Live chats

4. Creating a class about social media Let’s face it. Social media is becoming a huge part of the way we find and spread news in the journalism industry, but the average Cal Poly journalism student wouldn’t be able to tell you that. Any public relations professor would be able to teach a class of this nature because it’s about conversation. It’s about creating an image and communicating with the public– that’s what PR is all about. Again, it’s an example of how to use current resources to create modern classes. Whether it’s plausible to stretch our professors any more, I’m unsure. In theory, though, dropping outdated classes for new classes seems reasonable.

This class, however, would not teach how to use existing social networks, although that’s part of it. The real lesson exists in concepts. How to adapt to changing mediums and communicate without compromising your objectivity and credibility. This class could not focus specifically on platforms because you cannot teach something that is continually changing. You cannot make Twitter the basis of a class when something new will exist soon. But you can teach concepts and ideas.

5. Create a course about the business aspect

Traditionally, the business end of newspapers was left to the advertising side. But these days, editorial has to at least understand it and think about it. Andrew Dunn, a student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and university editor at The Daily Tar Heel, created the following plan for what a media business class might look like:

Case studies that focusing on how models have weathered the past few years
Start by looking at models in 1960: How modern newspaper business models developed, from when the large chains began buying up newspapers
Analyze nonprofit/unique business structure. How does that affect its model?
Look at recent business models like Spot.Us, with revenue generated by crowdsource funding, and the Huffington Post, an entirely online-only news site

Read the entire post and course description here.

We can’t give students the choice of learning “new media” or “old media.” They’re both intertwined into current media. You can’t learn how to write or how to make a slideshow– you need both. Old and mew media are both important and should be treated that way.

Thoughts?

In economic struggles, newsrooms should turn to the web

Lauren Rabaino — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:44:11 +0000

It’s old news: the Internet makes life easier.

Yet, still, I’m always astonished to find that some professionals still don’t consider it a serious, practical, and usually ideal solution to budget cut problems.

Let me explain…

As a member of my journalism department’s College Based Fees Committee, I see the effects of this “economic downturn.”* *(Because our committee is largely transparent, I have no qualms about openly discussing our budget issues.)

Our broadcast concentration (CPTV ) hasn’t aired once this year because of equipment problems. First, their tape decks were busted, now they need a $20,000 switcher. Of the eight live shows that were supposed to broadcast this fall quarter, none have aired. That’s right, zero of eight.

Equipment defects and financial dilemmas aside, this is inexcusable.

The entire purpose of college is to get enough education and experience to land a job out of college. Even if they can’t broadcast to the dorms every week over the TV, they should still broadcast online.

Some traditional members of the industry would see the online market as a last resort or a less-professional means of learning, but I think it’s the ideal solution.

With the click of a mouse, free services like Mogulus can potentially do what the $20,000 switcher would accomplish.

It’s FREE
Limitless number of input devices (Web cams, camcorders connected through firewire, pre-recorded video, you-tube clips, you name it!)
Can switch between input devices with transitions
Ability to have titles and lower thirds
Can connect their camcorders with firewire (i.e. don’t have to use poor-quality web cams)
Can see how many viewers are watching you at any given moment, track statistics
Video player is embeddable on social networks, blogs and web pages
Can enable a live chat feature for viewers to interact
Not limited to an audience of on-campus dorm rooms (You can expand to faculty, parents, alumni and other interested viewers all over the world)

By building up an online viewership (with trackable statistics), the department would have more of an argument when trying to pursue industry connections for donations. Then, they could use their online stats to raise the money for their $20,000 switcher (but hopefully by then they would realize they don’t need it).

Mustang Daily multimedia coverage of the election

Lauren Rabaino — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:08:43 +0000

We dedicated out front page to the election all day, with continuous updates as it all progressed.

An overview:

We also had a live chat using CoverItLive.com which we kept open all night for students to talk about results as they came in. It was far more popular than I imagined it would be.

What I would change for next time:

More video: both a live stream and edited
More live updates as stats come in, using Twitter
Live blogging

If I had a team of Webbies it would have been so much cooler. When you’re a one (wo)man band, it gets tough. I also had three other classes on election day, not to mention my second job as a graphic designer. There are some days I wish being online editor was my only responsibility. I didn’t leave the newsroom until 3 a.m..

But enough moping. I’m proud of the Daily’s coverage. I’m shocked that reporters were actually willing to do so much multimedia.

Why it worked

Planning things ahead
Sending reporters out in teams to do both reporting and multimedia editing
Having as much stuff pre-made as possible

I’m glad to have been part of such a historical election. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.

Facebook: A newspaper's best and worst friend

ryan — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:06:17 +0000

Guest blog by Ryan Chartrand

The problem

Newspapers have made some pretty desperate moves in the last few years. They’ve cut pages, cut staff, cut paychecks, but then decided to try to add social networking to their Web sites.

Sure, it was a great idea; the problem was they were too busy cutting and scrambling to notice that it was just another desperate attempt at “innovation.”

The turning point

And as much as I didn’t want to believe it, the turning point came in May 2008. When the once-messiah of digital journalism Rob Curley jumped ship from Loudon Extra, the forerunner in innovative community sites attached to a newspaper Web site, newspapers started to rethink the idea of community sites.

I work at a major newspaper in a major California city that felt the effects only a month later. Our community site hadn’t even left its “beta” stage before the paper abandoned it…partially (there are still some advocates left in the building, likely to be laid off soon anyway).

The saddest part of this little memory in digital journalism history is that a lot of people thought community sites would be what saved newspapers.

Bringing the community together in a fully-interactive space where they could have profiles, post pictures/video, talk to people with similar interests, become more politically active, etc. were all possible through these community sites once they got off the ground.

Sadly, “off the ground” was a marketing dream that eventually turned into “buried in the ground.”

The blame

So who’s to blame for newspapers’ last hope? The site that already offered all of this, of course: Facebook.

Newspapers rarely hire the right people for the Web, and they suffer because of it. At my paper, the technology used to develop the community site was clunky, bland, and not nearly as robust as Facebook.

Facebook has always been and always will be clean, easy to use, consistent, and very robust in its capabilities.

With that in mind, here’s what people wanting to get involved with social networking were faced with:

While newspapers had a lot of features to offer similar to Facebook (not nearly as many, of course), it seemed silly to join a social network that had 10 people while all of your friends partied in the Facebook castle next door. There’s simply no way to compete with these massive networks that have already claimed the territory.

Some newspapers were semi-successful in their attempts at generating communities, but the costs of maintaining these sites rarely exceeded the gain.Should newspapers completely abandon this innovative idea then? Is it truly hopeless? Once again, the answer lies in the beast that is Facebook.

Giving in

If you can’t beat ‘em, you might as well join ‘em. I really think newspapers are focusing their efforts in the wrong part of town, and if they actually went to where the people are, they’d have the potential to bring in the community they desire.

Should newspapers actually make the switch to Facebook, they’re going to need developers to build them applications. CNN and New York Times have a few cute applications, but nothing that really helps engage people, as they’re mostly RSS-generated info. (Although I must say, CNN’s public forum connection to Facebook is quite brilliant).

Considering the amount of information a newspaper receives daily, coming up with innovative ideas for applications should be simple; finding people to develop them, however, won’t come easy.

The future

But just imagine applications like the Washington Post’s blog Buzz Map (a map that geocodes keywords from blogs and news stories and places them on a map according to the keywords) that would also pull data from what its “fans” are saying on walls and notes. If a newspaper offered a dozen of applications like this on its profile and distributed them to fans’ profiles, people would actually be interested in connecting and “friending” a newspaper (which seems impossible, I know).

Or an application that shows breaking news or live blogs on your profile. People want ways to make their own profiles come alive, let alone the newspaper’s profile. And just to make advertising happy, how about an application that feeds off of the paper’s classifieds, showing the latest jobs or private party cars posted?

These are just a few random ideas, the point is that there is plenty of room for creativity and rethinking the newspaper and how it can be applied into a social network.

Online journalists think that because they’ve made poor replicas of Facebook that they’re being innovative and saving newspapers. What we need to do is put newspapers into an actual social network with actual people and see where truly innovative ideas can take the industry.

The idea of online communities merging with newspapers shouldn’t be abandoned quite yet; at least not until it’s tested in a real, populated social networking environment.

I think we could see a much stronger connection develop between newspapers and their communities through this relationship with Facebook. If we could just leave the tent outside and go where the communities really are, if we could just serve people the way they want to be served and where they want to be served, rather than trying to take them away from their networks, newspapers really could still have hope online.

Twitter election center is amazing

Lauren Rabaino — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:41:24 +0000

I have never experienced anything like watching live comments on a VP debate as it happens:

http://election.twitter.com/

Web 2.0 is truly amazing…

Should college publications go web first?

Lauren Rabaino — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:02:45 +0000

Should small newspapers post stories to the Web first (i.e. before the presses are running)?

That’s the very question Mark Van Patten explored in his blog on Media Shift today. It’s the same question I ask myself asking about the Mustang Daily every day.

Each night, we do a little process called “shovelware.” After the paper is printing, I’m finally allowed to copy and paste all the articles into our CMS.

It feels like such a ridiculous process (the web should not cater to print!), but it’s really the only practical process.

I have to wait until 10 p.m. to post because stories are being copy edited right up until 9:59 p.m.

Being a student publication, our copy editors can’t spend all day editing stories as the come. They have other commitments. They edit stories only when they have to. The whole atmosphere of our newsroom is based on the print deadline.

The only person who is truly committed to breaking/posting news as it happens is our sports editor. Although all our staff claims to be pro-”new media,” print is always their first priority. With sports though, we always have breaking news on our blog and on the site.

My goal: the extend this enthusiasm for the web to everyone on staff. (How to do it? Hell if I know. That’ll be another blog).

What Van Patten notes in his blog is that a majority of his newspaper’s readers don’t go online for their news:

Right now, our readers aren’t particularly Internet savvy. Many still use dial-up for Internet access. They generally only check their email a couple times a week. They don’t know much about what’s available online. They still depend heavily on the printed paper for their news.

It’s a proven statistic at the University too. Students pick up a paper while walking down the hall and read in class. Most of our online readers are alumni and parents.

But my rationale says the reason students don’t go online for their news is because we’re not posting news online until 10 p.m.

The news industry is a 24-hour industry. News doesn’t only matter when the clock strikes 10. If we want to be an industry-leading college publication, we have to change up the way we do things.

Print editions will probably never die at universities. Why? Because Sudoku and crosswords ease boredom during lecture hall. There shouldn’t be a worry that breaking the news online will hurt print. It won’t.