The Orion editors will be meeting in coming weeks to decide how to best use each of the paper;'s content platforms. That wasn't a top priority when print-first meant the newspaper was published on Wednesday and the website was updated using that content.
But this year's advent of a daily webcast on theorion.com's home page, robust Twitter and Facebook efforts, and the arrival soon of the new Orion phone and tablet app means what gets played where and when takes on new significance.
What, for example, should appear only on the website? Only on the mobile app? Anything?
Arts and entertainment coverage is a good candidate for reconsideration. Reducing the number of printed pages last year forced some content out of the paper newspaper and onto the website, and this year that's meant the Entertainment section has been Web-only content.
I'd like to suggest the website is the perfect place for entertainment features, previews and reviews. The web excels as a visual and aural storyteller, and most arts content appeals heavily to our senses of sight and hearing. Also, readers who are looking for something to do on Tuesday night (or Friday or Satuday) are less likely to pick up Wednesday's Orion to find it and more likely to turn to the Web.
Ideally, that means the team that works on the website plays to that strength, focusing on providing extensive coverage of arts and entertainment with a full range of storytelling tools (video, audio, slideshows, invitations to readers to add their own content). It should also mean playing arts coverage prominently on the home page instead of hiding it in the Arts section. And because arts coverage doesn't have a home in the paper newspaper, it should be easier to get writers to file interviews, reviews and other coverage in a timely way instead of waiting for the newspaper to come out ... writing and posting a review the night of a concert, for example.
A couple of other ideas:
- Invite readers to post their photos and comments immediately after and even during concerts and other events
- Make it a habit to phone artists a week before they appear on campus for a Q&A that can serve as a preview or do a video interview in person just before soundcheck and post it right away.
- Beef up the online calendar and reverse the order it appears on the home page so today's events are up top. Build a longer-range calendar exclusively for the website to help readers plan entertainment options and purchase tickets.
- Start new blogs for arts and entertainment to replace the paper-newspaper columnists on the home page, who can find a home on the website's opinion page.
If theorion.com makes arts and entertainment its signature content, along with breaking news, it'll start attracting a loyal audience who visit the site daily to see what's new. It'll also attract arts and entertainment writers who want the same sort of play on the website that news reporters now enjoy in The Orion.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Friday, October 12, 2012
The new Orion app: Get ready!
The paper joins more than 30 other college publications, many of them dailies, under the iCampus umbrella. The new app:
• provides readers with a small-screen-friendly interface that makes navigating content easy
• lets the paper post news on the app simultaneously with theorion.com or immediately through the app dashboard
• lets advertisers post digital coupons or deals in real time on a special Offers page that updates immediately and automatically
• has a couple of other advertising options (banners and home-screen tiles) that should be attractive to merchants who want access to students' phones
• will push information to phones and tablets if the user requests that service.
The Red and Black at the University of Georgia signed on to the same service earlier this fall. It's doing a good job of using the app's functionality (that's its home screen on the right), if you'd like to take a look.
Kelsy Jehle and her ad staff are gearing up to promote the new app and start signing advertisers to monthly contracts. Once the link to the app is available, I'm hoping everyone on the paper will aggressively encourage their friends to download it.
Kacey Gardner and the other news-side managers will be meeting in the next week to figure out how The Orion can add the new platform to the paper's publishing routine. If you have ideas for how best to make this happen, be sure to let her know.
Monday, October 8, 2012
The plagiarism problem
A student at the Penn State daily paper was recently suspended for plagiarism and inventing quotations for a story, something that happens occasionally on student papers across the country. I'm not aware of incidents of plagiarism or fabrication at The Orion, but I think it's a good idea to make these journalistic deadly sins a topic of conversation so everyone on the staff understands just how serious they are.
Mallory Jean Tenore just posted a piece on The Poynter Institute's blog that surveys how several student dailies are dealing with plagiarism at the policy level and in the day-to-day bustle of producing their papers. It prompted me to take a look at The Orion's own policies and think about what I'm doing as adviser about the issue.
Here's what the handbook, which all staff members are required to read, says:
That seems pretty clear. The problem at Penn State and other papers isn't policy, though. It's prevention. What can reporters do to avoid doing the wrong thing? What can editors do to help them?
Like other papers, The Orion requires multiple sourcing when facts are presented in a story. That's a great first step, and it might have prevented the plagiarism and invention cited in the Poynter article... but maybe not.
Here are some further suggestions:
• When stories are assigned, editors should work with their writers to develop a list of potential sources. When it's time to edit the story, the list should be revisited and the reporter asked if he or she used any other sources and what they were.
• Make every effort to first-edit stories face to face. The convenience of editing by email is a poor substitute for the interaction of editing in person.
• The editor should make it a habit during editing to ask "who says?" whenever facts are presented in a story.
• Reporters should be asked to bring their notebooks and audio tapes to editing sessions so they and their editors can review quotations together.
• If information is taken from news releases, websites and emails, those should be reviewed during the editing session to make sure they're used correctly and attributed properly.
• Examples of plagiarism and fabrication in other papers and websites should be posted on a bulletin board in the office so reporters and editors understand in a concrete way what the terms mean and what the consequences are for violating the rules.
An editor's healthy skepticism about the accuracy of stories during editing might seem harsh to writers at first, but if it becomes a normal part of editing, plagiarism and fabrication are much less likely to become a problem.
Mallory Jean Tenore just posted a piece on The Poynter Institute's blog that surveys how several student dailies are dealing with plagiarism at the policy level and in the day-to-day bustle of producing their papers. It prompted me to take a look at The Orion's own policies and think about what I'm doing as adviser about the issue.
Here's what the handbook, which all staff members are required to read, says:
Plagiarism of Words, Art, Other
Plagiarism is prohibited and is illegal if the material is copyright protected. For the purposes of this code, plagiarism is defined as the word-for-word duplication of another person’s writing. A comparable prohibition applies to the use of graphics. Information obtained from a published work must be independently verified before it can be reported as a new, original story. Staffers who plagiarize are subject to disciplinary penalties, including possible termination from the staff and course failure.
Fabrication of Any Kind
The use of composite characters or imaginary situations or characters or quotes will not be allowed. Immediate termination and an “F” grade for the course are the penalties.
That seems pretty clear. The problem at Penn State and other papers isn't policy, though. It's prevention. What can reporters do to avoid doing the wrong thing? What can editors do to help them?
Like other papers, The Orion requires multiple sourcing when facts are presented in a story. That's a great first step, and it might have prevented the plagiarism and invention cited in the Poynter article... but maybe not.
Here are some further suggestions:
• When stories are assigned, editors should work with their writers to develop a list of potential sources. When it's time to edit the story, the list should be revisited and the reporter asked if he or she used any other sources and what they were.
• Make every effort to first-edit stories face to face. The convenience of editing by email is a poor substitute for the interaction of editing in person.
• The editor should make it a habit during editing to ask "who says?" whenever facts are presented in a story.
• Reporters should be asked to bring their notebooks and audio tapes to editing sessions so they and their editors can review quotations together.
• If information is taken from news releases, websites and emails, those should be reviewed during the editing session to make sure they're used correctly and attributed properly.
• Examples of plagiarism and fabrication in other papers and websites should be posted on a bulletin board in the office so reporters and editors understand in a concrete way what the terms mean and what the consequences are for violating the rules.
An editor's healthy skepticism about the accuracy of stories during editing might seem harsh to writers at first, but if it becomes a normal part of editing, plagiarism and fabrication are much less likely to become a problem.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Becoming more interactive
I mentioned at Wednesday's critique that The Orion was doing a good job of sending readers to theorion.com for additional information with refers at the end of stories, in one of the front page ears (the space either side of the flag) and elsewhere. At the end of her student-money column, Samantha Youngman often invites readers to send suggestions, and the big feature piece on Chico bucket lists this week invited students to Tweet their own lists to #chicobucketlists.
Getting readers to immediately do something with your content is at the heart of interactivity, one of the key differences between traditional media and the Web. The link in the last sentence (to an interesting research paper about how people rate a website higher when it's more interactive) is the simplest way to get readers interact with content. But there are richer applications worth exploring.
Here's a TED talk about using crowdsourcing to gather news. The speaker is a reporter for The Guardian in London.
A post on Twitter, Facebook or theorion.com could similarly ask people in the community for help reporting stories for The Orion paper and website.
Asking the audience to help with story ideas is another way to get them involved. The Submit Your News module on the News Section page of the website is one way to do this.
Using Twitter and Facebook to ask more specifically for help -- asking followers which are the best bands in Chico, for example, could yield enough suggestions to get a story on local bands started or create a list for a continuing series of features about local musicians -- is a great way to expand the pool of story ideas beyond beat reporting.
There are lots of others ways to get the audience involved, and the more readers are involved the more positively they feel about newspaper.
So, I'm going to practice what I'm preaching here: If you have some other ideas for interactivity that The Orion or theorion.com could implement, comment on this post. I'll pass your suggestions along to Editor-in-Chief Kacey Gardner.
Getting readers to immediately do something with your content is at the heart of interactivity, one of the key differences between traditional media and the Web. The link in the last sentence (to an interesting research paper about how people rate a website higher when it's more interactive) is the simplest way to get readers interact with content. But there are richer applications worth exploring.
Here's a TED talk about using crowdsourcing to gather news. The speaker is a reporter for The Guardian in London.
A post on Twitter, Facebook or theorion.com could similarly ask people in the community for help reporting stories for The Orion paper and website.
Using Twitter and Facebook to ask more specifically for help -- asking followers which are the best bands in Chico, for example, could yield enough suggestions to get a story on local bands started or create a list for a continuing series of features about local musicians -- is a great way to expand the pool of story ideas beyond beat reporting.
There are lots of others ways to get the audience involved, and the more readers are involved the more positively they feel about newspaper.
So, I'm going to practice what I'm preaching here: If you have some other ideas for interactivity that The Orion or theorion.com could implement, comment on this post. I'll pass your suggestions along to Editor-in-Chief Kacey Gardner.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
theorion.com: quick hits
Today, a little about a lot...
• Great job of getting the announcement about a new CSU chancellor on the website this morning. That's being on top of the news!
• I really enjoyed the bucket list person-on-the-street interviews in Wednesday's webcast. Great idea to introduce it in a fun way so viewers know it's a feature.
• Quinn Western's edges were showing in Wednesday's 'cast -- might be time to rethink putting so much in front of a green screen. Compare that video to Jon Ortez's weather standup -- so much nicer to look at. Time to build a set? Reserve the newsroom between 6 and 6:30?
• Speaking of Jon... love his energy on camera!
• The Thursday weather video shows how much better shooting outdoor segments in the sunshine is than those shot in the shade or dappled sunlight. Keep that in mind when an outside shot is scheduled.
• Framing continues to be an issue for the anchor segments. I thought the framing last week (tighter on Quinn) was better.
• The interview segments outside of the newsroom have been a nice addition, but they could use a little tweaking. In Pedro's interview today, for example, the camera angle gives us Pedro's full face, but his subject is in profile. Should be the other way around.
• Can the order of Today's Events on the home page be reversed: newer posts at the top?
• To avoid a fade as a transition in video, shoot b-roll (cross-country runners for today's interview, for example) so you can cut away, continue the audio underneath, and then come back to the subject to finish.
• Are the music and arts reviews being promoted on the home page? I'm having trouble finding them. Because they don't appear in the paper and need to be fresh, they should be prime content for the website. Maybe a regular place in the photo rotator? Shouldn't be that hard to to get your own photo from the event or a promotional photo from the promoter.
• Great job of getting the announcement about a new CSU chancellor on the website this morning. That's being on top of the news!
• I really enjoyed the bucket list person-on-the-street interviews in Wednesday's webcast. Great idea to introduce it in a fun way so viewers know it's a feature.
• Quinn Western's edges were showing in Wednesday's 'cast -- might be time to rethink putting so much in front of a green screen. Compare that video to Jon Ortez's weather standup -- so much nicer to look at. Time to build a set? Reserve the newsroom between 6 and 6:30?
• Speaking of Jon... love his energy on camera!
• The Thursday weather video shows how much better shooting outdoor segments in the sunshine is than those shot in the shade or dappled sunlight. Keep that in mind when an outside shot is scheduled.
• Framing continues to be an issue for the anchor segments. I thought the framing last week (tighter on Quinn) was better.
• The interview segments outside of the newsroom have been a nice addition, but they could use a little tweaking. In Pedro's interview today, for example, the camera angle gives us Pedro's full face, but his subject is in profile. Should be the other way around.
• Can the order of Today's Events on the home page be reversed: newer posts at the top?
• To avoid a fade as a transition in video, shoot b-roll (cross-country runners for today's interview, for example) so you can cut away, continue the audio underneath, and then come back to the subject to finish.
• Are the music and arts reviews being promoted on the home page? I'm having trouble finding them. Because they don't appear in the paper and need to be fresh, they should be prime content for the website. Maybe a regular place in the photo rotator? Shouldn't be that hard to to get your own photo from the event or a promotional photo from the promoter.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Video sequences, video interviewing techniques
Lam Thuy Vo, a multimedia reporter for NPR's Planet Money show, and USC Professor Andrew Lih led probably the most helpful session I attended at the Online News Association Convention in San Francisco: the Fast Track Video Workshop.
They demonstrated a video sequence that's the template for the Web video on the BBC's website. Shot sequences, they said, are a sure-fire way to tell a visual story. They showed how easy it was by demonstrating the technique in front of a room full of people using volunteers from the audience.
Lih has turned the BBC Five-Shot sequence into a checklist that he makes his students take along when they do video assignments.
He and Vo also demonstrated some do's and don'ts for Web video interviews. Lih has a checklist for that, too, and was good enough to share both with session attendees.
And now I'm sharing them with you:
http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/video/
They demonstrated a video sequence that's the template for the Web video on the BBC's website. Shot sequences, they said, are a sure-fire way to tell a visual story. They showed how easy it was by demonstrating the technique in front of a room full of people using volunteers from the audience.
Lih has turned the BBC Five-Shot sequence into a checklist that he makes his students take along when they do video assignments.
And now I'm sharing them with you:
http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/video/
Monday, October 1, 2012
Cleaning up the webcast scripts
Now that The Orion daily webcast has hit its stride in terms of format, it's time to start cleaning up the story presentation. Here are some tips about making the show sound as good as it looks:
Is it live or is it digitally recorded? We hear the expression "reporting live from..." wherever all the time on TV news, but what does that really mean? A live shot or a live report means the reporter is on camera in real time (the same time as the news broadcast), almost always at a location away from the newsroom. The pictures and sound are transmitted using a satellite truck (although now it's possible to do the same thing with services such as Qik and UStream) and beamed directly to the station. The anchor live in the studio and the reporter live in the field could appear to be having a conversation.
The nature of The Orion's webcast makes it impossible for anyone to be reporting live, so the reporters should avoid that phrase. Just say, for example: "This is Renee Crane reporting from Bidwell Park, where record crowds turned out for this year's Bidwell Bark Festival."
What day is it? Because the webcast is usually put together the night before it officially airs, it's important that the scripts reflect time based on the day of broadcast. So, if the story being reported or voiced is happening on Saturday but doesn't air until Monday, the reporters and anchors should avoid the word "today" and use the actual day it happened. If possible, write the beginning of the script to bring the story up to date, or use the anchor intro to do that. Today, for example, instead of starting the sports by saying: "Men's soccer played this weekend...," try instead: "The men's soccer team is now five and two in conference play after defeating...." The rest of the report should (and did) report which games or matches were played on which days. (Quick note: It sounds better and makes more sense to say The men's soccer team.... not just men's soccer.)
What's that he said? - During almost every newscast, a few words or phrases get swallowed instead of spoken. Reporters need to remember to slow down and try to pronounce the beginning and ending sound of every word as clearly as possible. They shouldn't exaggerate the word endings (that's a different kind of bad), but they should finish saying one word before starting another.
And, finally, a related note...
Could you try that again? - Occasionally we'll hear a broadcaster stumble over a word or phrase, then recover and keep on speaking. But that should only happen when someone is reading live (during a live broadcast or broadcasting live from an event). If the story is being recorded (as all stories are on The Orion webcast), then a take with a mistake should be done over again until the script is read correctly. When you think about it, it's perfectly natural to make a mistake reading copy aloud, so having to record three or four takes of the same script should be a perfectly natural thing to expect. It only takes a couple of extra minutes, but the payoff is a professional-looking and -sounding news show.
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