Scribble Chat: Real-time content in journalism school
As real-time content becomes increasingly important in the world of journalism, professors are embracing the digital world and bringing liveblogs into the classroom. It can be intimidating using new programs to create content for students and professors alike. How are professors integrating real-time content into their courses? How is teaching this medium impacting students' abilities to find a job after graduation? These are just some of the questions we'll be asking our expert panelists during this chat.
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Another panelist has agreed to join us tomorrow: Mick Cote, a former journalism student who attended University of King's College (where panelist Terra Tailleur teaches) where he was introduced to liveblogging. He has since worked in a variety of multimedia and journalism positions and is currently working as a multimedia content producer for Spundge. He'll be adding the student perspective to the chat. -
Mick Côté
Mick Côté is a graduate of the Masters of Journalism program from the University of King's
College. Since completing his bachelor's degree in 2011, Côté has held
various positions in different newsrooms and worked as a freelance journalist
for several publications including Huffington Post Canada and Maisonneuve
Magazine.Mick now works for Montreal-based startup Spundge as a multimedia content producer and continues to research innovative ways to tell stories and implementing them in newsrooms.
by Courtney Dickson on Aug 13, 2013 at 4:43 PM -
Gavin Adamson
Gavin Adamson is an assistant professor at the Ryerson School of Journalism in Toronto. He teaches an introductory digital journalism course and graduating students in an integrated digital newsroom, and has used real-time content to enhance his students' newsroom experience.
by Courtney Dickson on Aug 13, 2013 at 4:51 PM -
Terra Tailleur
Terra Tailleur is a former senior writer for CBC.ca who now works at the University of King’s College. She specializes in online news and multimedia journalism. She teaches students how to deliver news and information quickly and accurately, using appropriate storytelling tools and forms.
by Courtney Dickson on Aug 13, 2013 at 4:52 PM -
Hi everyone! Thanks so much for joining me for today's chat about real-time content and bringing it into the journalism schools. As a journalism student myself, I'm really interested in what everyone has to say.
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Hello everybody. Happy to be here. I have such a professional-looking photo : ) That's my younger daughter, Lauren, by the way. -
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So as we already know it’s becoming more and more important to teach real-time content to journalism students so they can be prepared for whatever job the land after graduation. How can professors integrate real-time into their curriculum smoothly so they can start teaching real-time if they haven't already?
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Great question. I'll answer by describing what we're doing at the School right now. In a second-year digital course, we introduce them to live blogging. (A bit of praise here for Scribble, they've been very helpful to facilitate this.) So 140 students are broken into five labs, where they break up again into teams of three to five to live blog. We start by having them "live blog" a taped event. A newscast, a sporting event, whatever. We spend a good two hours stopping and staring this practice round, talking about what makes a live post, photo, etc. Throughout the course of the term, each team eventually picks an event to live blog. That's their first crack at it.
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It all starts with basic journalism. Research. Understanding story. Understanding what's news. -
Awesome, Terra. Is there anything then that differs from basic journalism when talking about real-time reporting?
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That's a great idea Gavin. We tried something similar with students watching an archived event and "covering live" in a Word doc. The first takeaway message? It's damn hard to do.
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We have a couple of reader questions that are a little similar, more directed towards Terra and Gavin.
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Courtney, I think journalists need to approach a live event like they would any story. What's it about? Why? Who's there? This basic research.
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When teaching real-time journalism in your classes, do you ever integrate user generated content into the discussion? How? -
It's hard to do well. Most students get caught up trying to quote people directly in real time. It's hard to have the patience to listen, wait, then write an efficient synopsis of someone's basic point. It gets to the heart of good journalism writing.
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Allendria, you touch on something very important: audience engagement. For some of our events we work in teams so that someone is responsible for just UGC.
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Gavin makes a good point. It's tough work just paying attention and being accurate.
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Allendria, I agree with Terra and you're right: Community engagement is what this is all about. Whenever possible we'll have the live blog editor search for social posts via twitter, facebook, to add to the discussion. But also, I've been trying to get students in the habit of asking people at the events that they're covering (participants and audience members at hockey games, for example) for their twitter handles, etc.. They can then tweet@ the present audience and ask them to join the discussion via liveblog too.
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For Terra and Gavin: real-time is all about engagement and participation. How have you incorporated those concepts into your teachings? -
Don't worry, Mick! I have a couple questions here for you, as well!
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Students are introduced to curation tools like Storify (and Spundge!) in various classes. This helps them understand what UGC is all about. This is one way to teach the idea that journalists are no longer soloists with the audience standing afar.
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Mick, how did learning to liveblog affect your ability to get a job after you graduated? -
For Mick: can you give an example of how learning about liveblogging has helped you professionally?
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One thing I'd add about engagement that might not have been clear: The live blog reporters take pictures of people at events, shoot video and then tweet that content @ them. Sometimes they might not see the content until after the event is over, but this sort of engagement will really show up in the analytics. I've been getting into the habit of showing students analytics for scribble, but also through google, etc. It's one measure of engagement.
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Thank you readers for all your great questions! Thoughts, Mick? Those questions are kind of similar.
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Brendan and Miles, learning to liveblog was definitely a huge asset when it came to finding a job. Not because it's a mandatory skill but rather because I could show that I could cover an event on social media.
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How many of these real-time reporting skills (and technologies) did you have to teach yourself? Or, were you already familiar with them from your experience as a working journalist? -
I acted as the social media producer for CBC Montreal during the last Quebec provincial elections. I was within one of the first people to tweet out breaking news of the shooting at the Metropolis because I had my eye on Twitter (and on the camera) and knew how to handle the event.
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What do you see as some ethical issues in using real-time content? How important is that to discuss with students?
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It's all about the issues, Courtney. It's not just thinking about content, it's about tone and purpose.
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@bgillesp I think that once you understand the flow of breaking news on Twitter and the repercussions a mistake can cause, you're on your way to understanding most technologies or real-time methods. I find being honest is the best thing. If someone asks you a question which you can't answer, be direct.
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That's good advice, Mick. Often saying what you don't know is as good as saying what you do know.
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Terra is right. Ethically, you have to think about what would realistically make it on air/in print. If you can't verify your facts or don't know if what you witnessed is a) or b), don't post it. Back up your facts and always be 100 per cent sure that what you're saying is correct.
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Great question Bruce. I personally found that some of the live-to-air broadcast training and experience I had comes into practice in this environment. To that point, generally, I've found that people who like broadcast really tend to get live blogs. ... As for engagement and understanding it: Driving engagement was something I learned as an online video editor/producer at Transcontinental with a business publication called Investment Executive. I was always distributing the content, usually through email, to the people we interviewed, or the people that I thought might be interested. So it wasn't exactly the same process, but the concept was identical.
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To Mick's point, I think this is where exercises like the one Gavin talked about earlier are very handy. If you try a "live event" without going live, you can go through the steps and talk about not only what you're covering but why.
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Good point, Terra. I think trying out a mock liveblog before sending students out in the field is brilliant. Everyone needs guidelines. The impact of a simple mistake on a public platform, as we know, can be confusing if not completely terrifying.
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I always find it interesting how many students try to "tweet" too much. Or get a quote wrong. Or miss colour. And they're always exhausted!
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Gavin, you guys did a study on real-time and noticed your students were making a lot of errors. How do you combat this? As a student, I see why they get so edgy and excited about live events, and it's easy to make mistakes.
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On ethics, Courtney, most students need plenty of ethical and legal reminders about posting content that's not theirs. For example, many twitter users will repost professional photographs without asking, attributing and sourcing. We have to disavow journalists from that typical user habit.
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Anecdote: my first big liveblog was during the 2011 Student Day of Action (I was a student in Terra's class at King's). I tweeted so much in a darn blizzard and dropped a rather public f-bomb on Twitter. Was it necessary? No. I should have thought more carefully about how I would carry myself had I been on T.V., for example.
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I think part of the problem is when people consider a live blog or chat to be like a live radio program. They don't consider how it'll live on or be retweeted. If you know it has a life beyond "the now" that can change your perspective.
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On real-time errors, Courtney, yes, that's true. Particularly tricky is getting to know how your mobile hardware might integrate with the app you're using. (In our case, Scribble's). So the editorial mistakes can of course be corrected in this environment, but if you load a video sideways or upside down it's not something that can be corrected. You have to live with some mistakes and make a judgment about the value of the content against the appearance of the media on the live blog. In one instance we've got great protest video upside down. We kept it! In this instance, the students just need more experience and then maybe even a physical reminder on their phone about which way to hold it for live blog-ready video. It's easy to make mistakes when you're managing all the software at once. I should add that you can rotate and edit photos in this environment, but not video.