Category: Announcements (Page 1 of 4)

Week 16: Revise OpEd Pieces/Final Post Assignment Due Date: Monday, Dec. 20

Hi Students,

Please be sure to revise your OpEd on same document in our google docs drive. For many of my comments, you can simply “accept”: HERE.

As we finish our final weeks of the semester, I ask that you continue to consider the role of mobile and social media journalism.  In “Forces at the Gate” (pages 1-22), Journalism Professor Anthony Adornato speaks of the radical shift in how news is both delivered and consumed [see mobileandsocialmedia]. Rather than simply produced by “gatekeeper” media outlets in “one way” fashion, news is now a “two-way” conversation thanks to mobile devices and social media tools that have dramatically changed the media landscape. Today, the public can play an active role in the news production process; almost anyone in fact can become a journalistic “player” (or “social influencer”) in the media landscape, with the right “know-how” and insights.

What’s clear is that to become a journalist today, one needs the ability to use a variety of social media technologies.  Simultaneously, the working journalist of today needs to be aware of multiple media venues. 

These tools include but are not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tik Tok.  Also useful to know about are outlets like Substack, Longform, and Twitter’s new Revue (a digital newsletter in which you can build an audience base) .  It’s also useful to master a variety of tools for making videos, podcasts, and websites (like Squarespace).  

We are coming to the end of our course, but advanced Journalism classes would focus on these technologies (as does a major in Communication Design). 

For those of you interested in furthering your journalism talents, I recommend the Journalism and Media Studies B.A. program at Brooklyn College and the Master’s Program offered at the CUNY Gradutate Center.

Here are some interesting articles to ponder, which relate to the effect of new methods of newsgathering, distribution of news, and audience engagement, driven by our digital landscape.

One article focuses on how media giant Conde Nast is transforming itself to correlate with new digital trends.  The second article is a fun one that shows how an “influencer” used Tik Tok to critique the recent Advent calendars put out by Chanel.  It’s a somewhat silly piece but a reminder of how powerful social media tools can be in changing the minds and perceptions of large swathes of “linked in” media consumers.

To end the semester, I ask that you check out my journalism project (hosted on SquareSpace) that I’ve been working on for a few years.  It’s entitled “City of Print: New York and the Periodical Press.”  [To enter the site, use password: cityofprint2020]. Specifically, I ask that you “take” one of my virtual walking tours through a particular New York neighborhood that focuses on its important print history (choose either the Waterfront, Printing House Square (by City Hall), Union Square, the East Village, or the West Village). [On upper right of site, click on the icon/link called “virtual tours“]

In your final post, please let me know what tour you “took” and what you learned.  In your post, please also describe a journalism project you might like to do in the future (or are currently doing) that might involve social media tools.   You could discuss the way you might expand your OpEd, for example, into a website or a run of articles on, say, substack.   Perhaps you want to write a longer piece for a particular magazine such as Ebony or The Atlantic Monthly. This post will be your final assignment for me.

FINAL POST DUE: Monday., Dec. 20. Reminder: To post, go to top of this post, click “comments” , then type in your comment.

Week 14: Mobile and Social Media Journalism/Revise Your OpEd Assignments

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Consider attending two interesting events this week:

CityTechScienceFictionSymposium Thursday, Dec. 9th

and An Information Session for City Jobs in Civil Service

Civil Service 101 LGBTQ 12.7.21 Tues, Dec. 7 1-2:15

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Great work, students, on your fantastic OpEd drafts. For this week, I ask that you review my comments and revise them (at which point I’ll give them a grade).

Revise your OpEd on same document in our google docs drive: HERE.

The range of topics were excellent.  Chala focused on healthy secrets in skincare; Mosche wrote a riveting piece on reducing the number of hours Americans work; Daniel on the horrific rise in gun violence.  Kahsfi, in turn, spoke to the very real dangers of climate warming; Amina on banning junk foods in public schools, and Ruqayyah on the connection between poverty and childhood education.  Eric focused on “Sports and the Transgender Question”, while Sean wrote an impassioned piece on Biden’s plans to eliminate student debt (hopefully!).  Steven, Caroline, and Sergio directed their attention to maintaining mental and physical health during the pandemic, while Rebecca explored whether it’s wise to vaccinate our very young children.  Keyri wrote an illuminating piece on how we need to be careful with how social media can dominate our lives (if we’re not careful) and Rachel wrote about the importance of protecting our journalists, especially the women who do this courageous work.

As you work on your revisions, please read Chapter One (pages 1-22) of the book Mobile and Social Media Journalism (2018) by Journalism Professor Anthony Adornato:  mobileandsocialmedia

I also want to highlight two other riveting articles currently in the news.  The first concerns important information about how Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill includes lots and lots of money to support local news networks, which have been slowly dying owing to the emergence of massive media conglomerates in the last decade.

The other is a simultaneously amusing and scary article on how Disney removed an episode from The Simpsons that poked fun of China’s absence of an open media (the episode was removed from the Hong Kong edition of Disney +)

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Week 13: Mobile and Social Media Journalism

Happy Thanksgiving and Wampanoag Week!

It was good to see some of you at last week’s discussion of how students made the The Memory-Keeper of Soho Film Documentary. For those of you who missed it, here is a tape of the fantastic event. Please do watch as it offers useful practical applications for presenting material to the wider public in innovative ways.

Telling and Narrating a New York Story Discussion

Watch the Documentary Here: Or Szyflingier and Jonathan Baez, “The SoHo Memory Project” (2020)

Read the article here: Kyle Spencer, “The Memory-Keeper of SoHo” (2015)

This week, I will be reviewing your OpEd pieces.

In the meantime, I ask that read you Chapter One (pages 1-22) of the book Mobile and Social Media Journalism (2018) by Anthony Adornato:  mobileandsocialmedia

For the remainder of semester, we will be focusing on the new ways journalism is produced and consumed. We will also be thinking how we can use mobile tools to practice our own brand of journalism.

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FINAL REMINDER:

Upload your OpEd (Assignment #2) below.

Here are directions for the assignment: OpEdAssignment.

Please upload this assignment HERE.

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