HOME

SYLLABUS

• Assignments
• Attendance
• Books
• Cheating
• Critiques
• Discussions
• Diversity
• Extra Credit
• Grades
• Instructors
• Lab Times
• Objectives

TOOLS

• CSS
• Flash
• Photoshop
• Slideshows

DESIGN

• Color
• Cropping
• Design
• Photography
• Typography

MULTIMEDIA

• Audio
• Maps
• Multimedia
• Video

WRITING

• Blogs
• Captions
• Headlines
• Sidebars

RESOURCES

• Copyright
• Jobs

Assignments

EFFORT
Never be satisfied with less than your best. Count on at least 6 hours of homework outside class per week. Failure to complete all assignments will result in an E for the class.

DEADLINES
Deadlines are sacred in this class, as they are in the real world of journalism. If you can’t make a deadline, you must let me know before the due date. Otherwise, late work will be penalized at the rate of 25 percent of your grade per day. There’s no penalty for turning an assignment in early!

Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Put digital assignments in the appropriate JMC 460 folder. Print out written assignments before class (Repeat: Do NOT print them during class) and put them in the folder on the table in the front of the classroom. Don’t wait to be asked.

In-class assignments are due at the end of class or at a prescribed date and time. Check the schedule.

You’ll have a chance to revise projects intended for publication. Assignments are due on the first deadline, not the revision deadline. That doesn’t mean turning in garbage on the first deadline. Work hard to turn in an excellent project the first time. You can raise your grade a maximum of one letter on the revision IF you go beyond just making my suggestions and greatly improve your project.

WORKLOAD
Per ASU guidelines, a student taking a three-credit course should expect to spend at least an additional six hours a week on coursework outside the classroom.

Jump to top

Will Kirkland A sea lion sunbathes on a mangrove-framed beach.

DESIGN & CSS PROJECTS (150 points)
These graded exercises will help you improve your skills with CSS, design and Photoshop.

• Font Poem (25 points)
• Visual Puns / Name Logos (25 points)
• Typography in Photoshop (35 points)
• Text in CSS (15 points)
• Abe Lincoln Web page design (50 points)

ZINE LOGO, HOME PAGE & STORY PAGE (team = 50 points)
Your team will design a logo, home page and story page for the Cronkite Zine using Photoshop and CSS. Some of you might not be keen on teamwork, but online journalism is highly collaborative. Employers look for someone who can work on a team, handle deadline pressure and complete a task with grace.

TWO WAYS OF SEEING (25 points)
As National Geographic photographer Sam Abell does, take time with the subjects you photograph. Photograph them in different ways. Turn in your three best pairs.

SLIDESHOWS (120 points)
Turn audio and visuals into two dazzling slideshows (40 points for first slideshow, 80 points for second slideshow).

DATA VISUALIZATION (25 points)
Create a poll, survey or other type of data visualization (but not a word cloud or map). Easy. No programming required.

MAP MASHUP (50 points)
Produce a map mashup with extras, such as text, photos and/or audio.

SEO HEADLINES (25 points)
The headline exercise will give you practice with SEO.

Jump to top

Cecil Schwalbe Endemic to the islands, the Galapagos hawk is one of the few land predators.

SHORT LIST
Love it or hate it, list journalism drives traffic to your site. According to a Poynter article, “Want to be featured or get the top buzz on Yahoo? Make a list. Want to drive page views and lower your bounce rate? Make a list. Want to get tweeted? Make a list. Want to get stories written about your organization? Make a list.”

Here are sites that have used lists successfully:
• Forbes
• U.S. News
• Time’s Best Sites
• Cosmo
• Mashable Lists
• Mashable Design Lists

FLASH (75 points)
Create a Flash timeline or another type of Flash interactive.

FROM SCRIPT TO ONLINE STORY (25 points)
Many news organizations are requiring reporters to write a text version of their video script.

MEDIASTORM-STYLE VIDEO (150 points)
Show us your skills by shooting and editing a 1:50 to 3:00 personality profile done only in video. Take us as far as you can! For those of you with video experience, let us challenge you to produce a MediaStorm-type video with still photos, words and/or video. Make this production good enough to show prospective employers.

Jump to top

QUIZZES (75 points)
We’ll have two so you can show how us much you’re learning. They’ll review what we cover in class as well as what you read.

MIDTERMS & FINAL
There won’t be any. Instead, we’ll focus on honing your skills and producing publishable work, including a fabulous piece for your multimedia portfolio.

CLASS PARTICIPATION (50 points)
Class participation is important too. You’ll be encouraged to express your thoughts and contribute to every discussion. Respect for other’s feelings, beliefs and values is essential to the success of the class, so please be considerate of your classmates’ different backgrounds and experiences. Much of what you’ll do in the day-to-day professional world will involve dealing with people. I welcome honest feedback, which I try to respond to as best I can.

A positive attitude, extra effort and constructive criticism will help your grade. Whining won’t.

Participation also means paying attention during class. It means showing me respect by not talking to your neighbor while I’m talking or your classmates are talking. It also means putting down the mouse and not working on other projects while I’m talking or your classmates are talking.

MASTERY (50 points)
At the end of the semester you’ll receive up to 50 points for your mastery of the subject matter and skills we’ve covered this semester.