Dr. A. Greenbaum 

ENG 364: Multimedia Writing

Syllabus

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Semester/Year: Spring 2004: 11-11:50 MWF Garner 106
Office: Greenbaum: Lehman 322; Peever: Lehman 316
Office Hours: Greenbaum T.: 8:30-12:30; Peever: TBA   Tel: Greenbaum: 305-899-4568; Peever x4072
E-mail us: mailto:greenbau@hotmail.com; apeever@mail.barry.edu

Course Prerequisites: CS 180 Introduction to Computers; JOU 207 Introduction to Journalism; CS 300 Introduction to Multimedia.

Course Description: Multimedia Writing takes an innovative approach to journalism by preparing students for the brave new world of multimedia technologies. News is no longer limited to newspapers and journals, but has expanded, converged with television, the Internet, and radio. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with these emerging technologies, while, at the same time, enhancing their skills as journalists and editors. Students will author their own interactive documentaries by using a variety of media. Students’ compositions will integrate text, graphic, audio, video, and photographic elements, primarily by blending three software packages: Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe PhotoShop, and Adobe Premiere. The stories will be presented as multimedia documentaries that will invigorate students’ visual literacy skills, allowing them to recognize the myriad ways in which narratives can be told. Students will be composing within a hybrid genre drawing on the qualities of expository, creative, historical, visual, oral, musical, digital, and aesthetic communication.

Relationship of Course to University Mission: This course is designed to help students use technology to enhance their writing and to help them recognize the ethical foundation upon which good journalism is founded—respect for others. It includes the Barry University mission statement’s goal of helping students “assume responsibility in . . . social . . . and political affairs as a means of effecting . . . activist justice” by having them examine and seek to emulate the work of contemporary visual journalists in the documentary field, through which students will, as the Barry mission statement promises, “reflect on the fundamental questions of human experience and study the responses to those questions proposed by the liberal arts and sciences.”

Course Objectives: The primary goal of this course is to prepare students to write with the assistance of some of the variegated multimedia technologies that now dominate. Our objective is for students to write electronic journalism by implementing the basic textual, visual, and aural tools of Internet publishing. Students will read books, print-articles, and online journalism, and will participate in workshops that increase their skills as multimedia journalists. Students will write, edit, and proofread non-linear, interactive e-texts that integrate verbal and visual elements.

Learning Outcomes: By the end of the semester students will:

• Compose in a multimediated environment
• Integrate various softwares into their writing
• Apply their editing and proofreading skills
• Create a strong writing sample for their future portfolios
• Articulate the ethical issues involved in documentary work
• Apply Associated Press Style
• Conduct interviews
• Learn to work collaboratively

Learning Methods:

The course is divided into three sections:

Section I:  We will guide students through an analysis of the grammars and rhetoric of the documentary genre—that is, the student will be asked to uncover the spoken and unspoken rules and patterns that define effective documentaries. In addition, students will begin to write individual research notebooks, which will eventually become part of a searchable archive/FAQ for future students.

Section II:  At this stage in the course, students will begin to incorporate media clips, navigation, and other design features into their writing.

Section III: The remainder of the course will be devoted to a variety of workshop activities, all of which will focus on student writing, editing, and proofreading, in the preparation of the students’ final interactive projects.

Attendance Policy: The School of Arts and Sciences adheres to the following attendance policy: A total of 6 class hours of absence will result in withdrawal with W, WP, or WF if within the designated withdrawal period, or with an automatic F if not. It is the student's responsibility to initiate the withdrawal during the designated withdrawal period. Otherwise, an F will be issued at the end of the term. Work will be accepted only during class-time, and grades will be reduced one letter-grade per day of lateness. This said, we expect you to turn in your work on deadline, as working, professional journalists do. Two lates for class equal one absence. We define "late" as arriving after the class sign-in sheet is collected.

Academic Dishonesty Policy:
Cheating and Plagiarism
a. Cheating is defined as the attempt, successful or not, to give or obtain aid and/or information by illicit means in meeting any academic requirements, including examinations.

b. Plagiarism is defined as the use, without proper acknowledgment, of the ideas, phrases, sentences, or larger units of discourse from another writer or speaker.

Students are expected to know and abide by the policy as stated in the university catalogue and student handbook

Disability Statement: Students with documented special learning needs may want to contact the Barry University Office of Services for Students with Disabilities 305-899-3489.

Student Behavior: All Barry University students are expected to behave according to accepted norms that ensure a climate wherein all can exercise their right to learn. Such norms are set forth in the undergraduate catalogue, under School of Arts and Sciences, Guidelines for Student Conduct and Academic Responsibility. Please be sure that you have read and understood that section. No faculty member will tolerate classroom behavior that violates these norms. Such behavior will be grounds for withdrawal from the class, judicial proceedings, or failure of the course. If warranted, students engaging in such behavior will be removed from class by security personnel and may be required to undergo counseling.

Course Requirements:
In-class writing, editing, proofreading assignments 20%
Quizzes 20%
Research Notebook 25%
Final Research Project 35%
(a 2000 word essay, 5 photos, a 3 minute audio interview, and a 5-7 minute video.)

Measures of Evaluations:

Students will be given letter grades for each assignment.  Individual assignments will be graded based on the criteria established in class, as per the categories listed in Course Requirements.   

Required Readings:
Hampe, Barry. Making Documentary Films and Reality Videos: A Practical Guide to
Planning, Filming, and Editing Documentaries of Real Events. New York: Henry
Holt, 1997.

Harris, Christopher, R. and Paul Martin Lester. Visual Journalism. Boston: Allyn &
Bacon, 2002.

Required Course Materials:

MiniDV cassette 60 minutes (at least one tape)

Audio compact cassette (at least one)

Zip 100 Disk (PC format, at least one)

Compact Disc CD-R 700 MB (one disk)

Many additional materials will be provided to students courtesy of a Barry University CELT Title 3 grant.

Research Notebook:

Students must write a minimum of 250 words per research notebook assignment to receive full credit for that assignment. If the entry is under 250 words, you will receive a zero. On average students will write between one and two entries per week. Entries will vary based on reading, films, and research.

Suggested Reading:
Adobe Premiere: Classroom in a Book. Berkeley, CA : Peachpit Press, 2003.
 

Schedule (Provisional)

[Schedule may be adjusted subject to the needs of the section]
VJ=Visual Journalism
MDF=Making Documentary Films

WEEK 1 -- Jan. 12-16

Jan 12: Introductions, syllabus; review Dr. Todd Taylor's online course materials, including student documentaries, here: http://www.unc.edu/~twtaylor/29/

Jan 14: Watch the documentary Roger and Me

Jan 16: Finish watching Roger and Me; discussion on documentary filmmaking
Writing Component: Research Notebook Entry: Michael Moore and reading chapters
Digital Convergence & the Age of the Visual Journalist
Documentary Genre and Cinema Verite
VJ: Chptrs. 1 & 2: Ch 1 “Visual Journalism: Past, Present, and Future.” ; Ch 2: “A Visual Literacy Primer”
MDF: Chptrs. 1 & 2: 1: “It Looks So Easy”; 2: How Things Got this Way”

WEEK 2 -- Jan. 19-23

Jan. 19: No Class: MLK Holiday

Jan 21: Lecture on Readings

Jan 23:  Photojournalism: “The first of these notions is that the camera doesn’t lie. Which is nonsense.”: Using digital photographs to enhance your story: Yizkor
Writing Component: Research Notebook Entry: Photography and Reality
MDF: Chptr. 3: “Reality is Not Enough”
VJ: pp 52-54 “Picture Manipulation”; 92-94 “Computer manipulation of pictures”

WEEK 3 -- Jan. 26-30

Jan. 26:  Lecture on creating a proposal for your project; lecture on gathering evidence by using database research

Homework: Write a proposal for your documentary. Create a working research bibliography.

Jan. 28: Student multimedia composition workshop 1: making pictures [take photos of each other and save in different formats]

Jan 30: Peer Workshop on Proposal

VJ: Chptr. 15 “Internet Research”
MDF: Chptrs. 4 & 5 “Recording Human Behavior” and “Visual Evidence”


WEEK 4 -- Feb. 2-6

Feb. 2: Ethical Approaches to Reporting: Cropping, Linking, and Journalistic Objectivity
What is Plagiarism in a News Context?  Lecture on readings.

Feb. 4: Bowling For Columbine: Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking
Writing Component: Research Notebook Entry: “Purloined Letters” (on plagiarism in journalism)

Feb. 6: Ethics, continued.

Copyright: Intellectual Property and the News
VJ: Chptr. 3 “An Ethical Approach”
MDF: Chptrs. 6 & 7 “Verisimilitude in Documentary” and “Ethics in Making a Documentary”

Byrd, Joann. (1996). "Online Journalism Ethics: A New Frontier Questions Greatly Outnumber the Answers in Exploring the Ethical Issues and Values of the New Media." The American Editor, The American Society of Newspaper Editors, November 1996, pp. 6-7.
http://www.asne.org/kiosk/editor/november/byrd.htm

“Purloined Letters: Are We Too Quick to Denounce Plagiarism?" by James Kincaid, The New Yorker January 20, 1997, pp. 93-97
http://www.bergtraum.k12.ny.us//cybereng/ethics/purloined.html

The Copyright Website [streaming audio and video of copyright infringement cases].

WEEK 5 -- Feb. 9-13

Feb. 9: Lecture on Reading 

Feb. 11:  multimedia composition workshop 2 [Make a Web page using the pictures you've collected]

Feb. 13: multimedia composition workshop 3 [introduction to shooting and embedding video]

The Story in Pictures: Some recent photojournalism
Writing Component: Research Notebook Entry: An Unforgettable Image
VJ: Chptr. 4: “Technical Considerations”
MDF: Chptrs. 8 & 9 “Steps in Producing a Documentary” and “The Documentary Idea”

Nielsen, Jakob. (1997). "How Users Read on the Web." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Nielsen, Jakob. (1999). "Differences Between Print Design and Web Design"
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html

Mitchell, Liz & Miller, Carolyn (1999) “What's Happening on the Web? A Writer's Perspective of an Emerging Medium.”
http://www.wga.org/tools/Internet/index.html

Miller, Drue (1998). Seven Deadly Sins of Information Design. Netscape Webbuilding Studio.
http://home.netscape.com/computing/webbuilding/studio/feature19980729-1.html 

WEEK 6 -- Feb. 16-20

Feb. 16: Lecture on readings and interview techniques

Feb. 18: On-camera Peer Interviews; Gordon Parks; multimedia composition workshop 4

Feb 20: Student peer interviews continued [see photo gallery]

Documentary Assignments: “A Treatment Instead of a Script”
Writing Component: Treatment Exercise
VJ: Chptr. 5 “Documentary Assignments”
MDF: Chptr. 10 “Writing a Documentary”

WEEK 7 -- Feb. 23-27

Backpack Journalism: Capturing the news through video
Writing Component: A peer-interview video transcript
Using Adobe Premiere to edit videos.

Feb. 23: Adobe Premiere; multimedia composition workshop 5

Feb. 25: Adobe Premiere

Feb. 27: Adobe Premiere; multimedia composition workshop 6

WEEK 8: Spring Break

WEEK 9 -- Mar. 8-12

Mar 8: Discuss documentary interview clip: Shoah [Barry AV area: D810.J4 S4]
Writing Component: Research Notebook Entry: Shoah
Writing Component: Linking a non-linear story summary
Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation http://www.vhf.org/

Mar. 10: Lecture on Reading

VJ: Chptr. 6: “Manipulated Assignments”
MDF: Chptr. 16 & 17 “Recording Picture and Sound” and “working on Location”
VJ: Chptr. 7 “Reporting” including “Finding Stories”
MDF: Chptrs. 18 & 19 “Building an Invisible Wall” and “Directing People Who Are Not Actors”

Mar. 12: Guest Lecturer; checklist

WEEK 10 -- Mar. 15-19
Writing for Readability

Mar. 15: Lecture on Readings

Writing Component: Text Editing Exercise

Mar. 17: Watch Born Rich [dir. Jamie Johnson]

Mar. 19: Born Rich [dir. Jamie Johnson] continued

Writing Component: Analysis of Born Rich [dir. Jamie Johnson].

VJ: Chptr. 8: “Writing” including “Visual Journalism and the Connection with Word Reporters”
MDF: Chptr. 21 “The Documentary Interview”

WEEK 11 -- Mar. 22 - Mar. 26
Strong and Weak Typography in Interactive Stories
Writing Component: Proofreading exercise

Mar. 22: Lecture on Readings

Mar. 24: Adobe Workshop

Mar. 25: (Thursday) FIELD TRIP: Higher Authority Production Studios

Mar. 26: No Class

VJ: Chptr. 9 “Typography”
MDF: Chptr. 21

WEEK 12 --Mar 29--Apr. 2

Mar. 29: Guest Lecturer: Dick Maher, David Brinkley Studio, Barry University: Lighting Your Subject in the Studio and on Location.

Mar. 30: Lecture on Readings
Graphic Design and Postproduction Editing
Writing Component: Converting the research notebook
VJ: Chptr. 10 “Graphic Design”
MDF: Chptr. 23 “Preparation for Post”

Apr. 2: Hypertext Workshop

WEEK 13 -- Apr. 5 -9

Workshop in Production
Audio and Motion: telling stories with sound
Using audio editing software to compose and edit interviews
Writing Component: Audio Interview transcript with links

Apr. 5: multimedia composition workshop 8 on Processing clips. View sample embeds.

Apr. 7: Audio Editing

Apr. 9: NO CLASS

VJ: Chptr. 11: “Informational Graphics”
MDF: Chptr. 25: Finishing the Production”

WEEK 14 -- Apr. 12-16
Interactive Journalism
Workshop in Production

Apr. 12: Lecture on Readings

Apr. 14: Production

Apr. 16: Production

VJ: Chptrs. 12 & 13: “Visual Motion” and “Audio and Motion”
Writing Component: Combining text and embedded audio in an interview transcript

WEEK 15 -- Apr. 19-23
Workshop in Production

Apr. 19: Catch up

Apr. 21: Production

Apr. 23: Production
(W)reader Interaction: Combining story components (text, graphics, audio, and streaming video).
Writing Component: Project workshop
VJ: Chptrs. 14 & 15 “Interactive Multimedia” and “Internet Research”

WEEK 16 -- Apr. 26 - 30
Workshop in Production

Apr. 26: Production

Apr. 28: Production

Apr. 30: FINAL PROJECT & FINAL JOURNAL DUE

VJ: Chptr. 15
Writing Component: Project Workshop

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page copyright © 2003, 2004, 2006 Dr. A. Greenbaum agreenbaum@mail.barry.edu and Dr. A. Peever. apeever@mail.barry.edu. Disclaimer:  "The views, opinions, and conclusions expressed in this page or document are those of the author or organization and not necessarily those of Barry University or its officers and trustees. The content of this material has not been reviewed or approved by Barry University, and the author is solely responsible for its content."