Now presenting my Valentine’s Day gift to the world: The Grumpy Cat Emoticon. Ready? Here it is:
Σ:(
You’re welcome!
Assignment: Blog about three photo slideshows that inspire you. We’re just interested in slideshows or galleries that have photos and captions, but not audio. We’ll save the audio slideshows for your next mandatory critique post. Your post must meet each of the following requirements to receive full credit:
- They must be relevant to your blog topic. The idea of this assignment is to point you toward good examples for you to emulate in your own work as you develop an online audience.
- Provide their titles.
- Identify the people who created them. Include the name of their news organizations.
- Briefly describe their content.
- Briefly explain what you think is the journalistic value in their content.
- Link to them.
- Explain what you find inspiring about them.
- Ask your readers a question related to the content in one or more of the slideshows you identify. Why? To get you in the habit of talking with your readers, which is a critical part of Web 2.0.
- Assign categories and tags to your post.
Example of the kind of slideshow I want you to write about:
Pictures of Typhoon Haiyan: The New York Times compiled several captioned slideshows on the devastation the Philippines felt from the strongest storm ever to make landfall.
Good sources of photo slideshows:
New York Times Multimedia/Photos page online: You’ll find a mix of still photo galleries with caption, audio slideshows and video and interactive graphics here. For this assignment, limit your choices to slideshows without audio.
Online News Association Social Shares: Top Audio/Photo Slideshows Chosen by ONA’s Community
Note: This has a mix of video and photo. Pick photo. Do not pick video to write about.
National Geographic: Take heed: This is the gold standard for journalistic and documentary photography.
Sports Illustrated Slide Shows: For the more athletically minded aspiring visual journalist.
Deadline: Post by 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1. Email your link to mjf0009@auburn.edu.
Note: This was assigned during the third week of class.
It’s frustrating as all get-out that NBC isn’t providing live coverage of the opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics. I’m sure I have that in common with millions. But three news outlets’ live blogs are giving us what the network refuses to provide.
These are my three favorites at this moment in case you just can’t wait to watch tonight:
- The Guardian: The place to look for thoughtful and cheeky commentary and vibrant photography. Location: United Kingdom.
- New York Times: Look no further for a rapidly updated streaming photo gallery coupled with meatier posts by a variety of NYT staffers. A classic American new media approach to the Sochi Winter Olympics.
- Wall Street Journal: It’s terse. It’s rapid. It’s informative. Feels more like a microblog (which is what Twitter is for), but concentrated in one place. Seems more optimized for maximizing hits for WSJ.com than for fitting the audience’s needs, but hey, it’s a business! And WSJ is all about the Benjamins (well, more like the Salmon P. Chases), yes?
- NPR: National Public Radio’s live blog from Sochi is wonderfully descriptive and quickly updates. The emphasis is more on writing that appeals to the senses than photography. It feels very much like radio voices translated to text, and it works. I’m constantly telling my reporting students the advice Charles Kuralt’s blind editor early in his career gave him: “Make me see it!” NPR’s writing embodies that advice.
Let the Games begin!
Michael Fuhlhage, Ph.D. 