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SYLLABUS

• Assignments
• Attendance
• Books
• Cheating
• Critiques
• Diversity
• Extra Credit
• Grades
• Instructors
• Lab Times
• Objectives
• What’s New?

TOOLS

• CSS
• Flash
• Photoshop
• Soundslides

DESIGN

• Color
• Cropping
• Design
• Photography
• Typography

MULTIMEDIA

• Audio
• Maps
• Multimedia
• Video

WRITING

• Blogs
• Captions
• Headlines
• Sidebars

RESOURCES

• Copyright
• Jobs

Assignments

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, work handed in one day, one hour or one minute late will receive an E (55 percent). Remember: There’s no penalty for turning an assignment in early.

Most assignments are due at the beginning of class. If you arrive late, your assignment will receive an E. Put Web assignments in your STUDENT folder. Print out written assignments before 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 on the Cronkite server at a prescribed date and time. Blog and NewsU assignments are due at midnight.

In a few cases, when we’re working on projects for publication, you’ll have a chance to revise your work. 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.

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

WRITTEN CRITIQUES & HEADLINE EXERCISE (2 x 25 points + 1 x 15 points = 65 points)
Two short (500–750 words), typed critiques will analyze one example of multimedia storytelling and one narrated slide show. In addition to recognizing what works and what doesn’t, think about what technique(s) you can use in your projects.

The headline exercise will give you practice with SEO.

PHOTO, DESIGN & CSS EXERCISES (1 x 25 points + 1 x 20 + 1 x 30= 75 points)
Three graded exercises will help you improve your skills with CSS, design and Photoshop.

• Typography in Photoshop (25 points)
• Text in CSS (20 points)
• Abe Lincoln Web page design (30 points)

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WEEKLY BLOG POSTINGS (10 x 15 points each = 150 points)
You’ll create and maintain your own blog for the entire course. Your blog must have a newsworthy focus, such as politics, education, the environment, technology or sports. You’ll maintain that focus throughout the course. You must make one post each week, for a total of 10 posts. Each blog post must link to and comment on at least one pertinent and recent Wweb page, website or blog post by another writer. Blog posts do not need to be long, but they do need to say something. The post of the week is due by midnight. Each post will be graded on the following elements:

• writing style (conversational, interesting to your audience)
• content (accurate, reflective, insightful, informative, engaged with the issues raised through readings and/or class activities)
• quality and relevance of links
• mechanics (correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, AP style)

VIDEOBLOG (25 points)
You’ll shoot and edit a video blog to post on your blog.

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

YOUR MULTIMEDIA PROJECT

• Story package Soundslides (100 points)
  You’ll produce a narrated slide show about one aspect of your multimedia package. Make this package good enough to show prospective employers.
  
  
• Story package video (200 points)
  Take us as far as you can! Your multimedia package might appear on the Cronkite zine.
  
  
• Story package text (25 points)
  Write a thoughtful, well-researched story that provides context for your multimedia package.
  

• Story package map mashup (25 points)
  Add pertinent info to a Google map.

PROJECTS FOR PUBLICATION

• Divided Families design and multimedia (team = 100 points)
  You’ll design a story page and create a slide show, map mashup and Flash piece for one of your Divided Families stories. 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.
  
  
• Zine story and sidebar (class project = 75 points)
  As a class, we’ll produce the next edition of the Cronkite Zine, which will showcase your work and that of other Cronkite students. Each of you will handle at least one story, which includes writing a scintillating sidebar and producing a multimedia element. The zine has won awards in the online magazine category of a national student magazine contest for several years in a row. Let’s keep up the winning tradition!

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

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.