viz. - journalism

New Journalism Publications: A Multimedia Mash-Up by Nathan Kreuter

Lisa Gulesserian — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:46:25 +0000

For a handout, download the PDF document outlining this assignment.

For your second project you will be working in groups to create a 3-5 minute multimedia presentation.

The content of the presentation should focus on one of the following publications: Rolling Stone, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Harper’s, The Atlantic, and New Yorker. Your task is to choose one of these publications and compare its print culture in two different decades. By “print culture” I mean everything printed in the magazine, from features and fiction to interviews and advertising. Your task is to argue in your multi-media presentation about what the publication in each of those two decades you choose tells us about American culture at that time, as well as to point out the changes between those two decades, and speculate as to what those changes might mean.

All of the publications listed here are held in the PCL’s stacks. While UT does have some digital copies of more recent issues, you would be better served by going to the library and looking at the physical issues. And for older issues you won’t have a choice. So you’ll need to get into the library.

The format of these projects is a multi-media presentation, which must be no less than three and no more than five minutes long. It also must be entirely selfcontained, which means that when you bring it to class you can simply press a play button and we can watch and hear the entire presentation. At the least interesting (and least likely to garner a high grade) end of the spectrum would be an automated PowerPoint presentation, and at the most interesting end of the spectrum would be some sort of video that incorporates images and words from the original publications, as well as music and some sort of narration to make your group’s observations and argument.

In the coming days I will provide you with the rubric that I will use to grade the presentations. You also need to quickly decide which publication your group will cover. I would prefer that no two groups work on the same publication. As always, you should email if you have any questions.

Important Dates:

Wednesday, February 25th—Project Assigned

Monday, March 2nd (Texas Independence Day)—Let me know which publication your group will cover, rubric provided to students

Monday, April 13th—Final Projects Due in Class

Creating a Common Class Publication: A Unit Plan by Nate Kreuter

Lisa Gulesserian — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:38:12 +0000

Image Credit: nublue

For a handout, download the PDF document outlining this assignment.

For our second major writing assignment we will be producing a class publication.

Everyone will contribute to the publication, albeit in some different ways (see below). I propose that we "write" a publication dealing, in the broadest sense, with "Austin." You all should choose subject to follow and write about that say something about what makes Austin different from other cities. The assignment is really that broad. And we will have a very boring publication if everyone writes an expose of a frat party. This will require you to get off campus and engage with our broader community. Keep in mind that the New Journalism often approached culture from the fringes—you might want to do the same, but whatever you do, stay safe. If you have a difficult time coming up with ideas, I'll happily help you brainstorm.

Under no circumstance should you put yourself in a dangerous or even uncomfortable position to get your story. There are plenty of great stories available without having to take such risks. Also, your grade will be low indeed if you indulge in some form of reportage that is simply about, say, getting high with your friends. The New Journalism is hip and cool, but don't let that compel you to act or write in ways that you don't want to be recorded for posterity. This, despite the cool of the New Journalism, is still a formal assignment, and should be treated as such.

We will talk about journalistic ethics and your responsibilities to yourselves, your subjects and your readers throughout this project, and I strongly suggest that you take notes when we have those conversations.

In terms of composition, I want us to expand on the typical notion of writing. You could choose to write a traditional essay for this project, but I strongly encourage you to experiment with other forms of compositions: videos, radio essays (a la This American Life), multimedia presentations, flash presentations, and photo essays are all viable options for this project. If you would like to attempt a composition in a medium you have not worked in before, Nate will be happy to direct you to one of the many campus resources available, such as DMS, to help you with your project.

Journalists—Journalists will write stories relevant to the topic of the publication. They will submit polished, well documented stories to the editors. Stories should be between 2000 and 5000 words. The editors may reduce the text as it appears in the final publication, or they may ask a journalist to add or flesh out parts of their story.

Commentators—Once the journalists' stories have been selected the commentators will decide upon a strategy for making sense of what the stories mean. They will each "write" a critical essay commenting on one or more stories and the stories' significance. They will try to tell us what the reporting means.

Editors—Three editors will be selected from applicants to review the stories submitted by the journalists. They will determine which stories to feature, as well as making constructive suggestions for how the stories might be improved before final publication. In consultation with the class as a whole, individual contributors and Nate, they will set deadlines for story submission and final publication. Editors will also "write" introductory and concluding material, as necessary.

Designer—The designer will be responsible for the layout and final publication of our work. They will need to be familiar with web-based and traditional publishing techniques. They will be responsible for bringing all the various media together in one "location" and forming them into a coherent "publication."

Grades—Everyone will get two grades for this assignment. Nate will grade the final publication, for which everyone will receive the same grade. This grade will count as 10% of students' final grades. Additionally, Nate will grade students' compositions and contributions to the final publication, grading the publication in their prior-to-editing state. This grade will count as 20% of students' final grades.

Deadlines—by 10/10 you should email Nate with two things: your preferred position on the class publication (journalist, editor, commentator, designer) and your qualifications for that position. The "default" position will be journalist. Also, everyone, regardless of their preferred position, should email Nate a brief (no more than 300 words) description of what you *think* you would like to "write" about for the publication, assuming that you are a journalist. On 10/13 Nate will inform you of your position, at which point he will also discuss your story ideas with you individually.

All additional deadlines for submissions and publication to be determined by the class as a whole.

As always, email Nate if you have any questions about any component of this project.

Illustrative Example: The Mimetics of Visual and Text

Rachel Schneider — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:16:17 +0000

Image Credit: Screenshot from The Atlantic

Every time I sit down to write a blog post for viz, I struggle not only to think up exciting titles but to find striking visuals to decorate my posts. As we all know, the picture that illustrates the story plays a role in helping to draw meaning from the text. The above picture from The Atlantic shows a good relationship between the two: the sign in the foreground looms ominously over the house to stress the anxious idea implied by the headline “Foreclosure Sales Trap.” However, there are times when the visuals work to imply something that the text doesn’t warrant.

Recently, my friend Jillian Sayre drew my attention to a tweet from Rachel Maddow about a story on Politico:

Obama health proposal is 11 pages long. Politico story on it uses a photo of a 12 inch tall stack of paper.

When you pull up the story on Politico, entitled “President Obama releases health reform proposal,” the image that decorates the side is a triptych where Obama is at the center, on the right side you have a doctor holding up a sign advocating “Doctors for a Public Option,” and on the left you have a picture of a large stack of papers, meant to signify the bill. However, the article directly links to the 11 page proposal at the top of the screen—why would Politico deliberately use that stack of paper to illustrate the idea of the “health reform proposal,” especially if they’re providing the proposal for their audience to read? This may be a part of telling a larger narrative about government: that it’s complicated, the bills are too long, and readers need news organizations like Politico to fill in the gaps.

Image Credit: Politico

H/T: Jillian Sayre

However, as Tristram Shandy points out, sometimes the visual is meant to stand in for the text, to say what the text cannot say. In the case of the Politico story, the gap in meaning might be a political message that the picture implies. In Betsy McCaughey’s interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, she brought a copy of the health care bill in a binder to use the visual of the bill to condemn it, just as her significant glances at the camera were meant to reflect to the audience the skepticism and doubt of Washington that she seemed to feel. Too bad her answers to Stewart’s questions were less than convincing.

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In thinking about this topic, however, I found an interesting study done in The Atlantic Journal of Communication that sought “to examine the effects of news photo presence and role-congruency in news stories of Hillary Clinton on reader interest and memory.” Its conclusion, according to the abstract, was that “mere presence of a photo meant the story would be ranked as more interesting, but photo presence and role-congruency with the story did not affect recall of story ideas.” While visuals do have the power to make arguments, authors Andrew Mendelson and Esther Thorson suggest, they don’t override an audience’s comprehension of the actual context of the text. Maybe, then, Maddow’s critical reading skills aren’t unique and Politico instead merely intended to draw attention more than make an argument. However, considering the effectiveness of visual arguments in many media, I wonder how readers might be influenced by such arguments, even as they separate them from the text, especially as those readers are receptive to those arguments before hearing them.

Digital Manipulation and the Ethics of Representation

micklethwait — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:15:16 +0000

An article this week on Stinky Journalism, Danielle Mastropiero's "Photoshopped Images Booted from Press Photo Contest," calls to mind a couple of other similar incidents in recent memory: first, Adnan Hajj's laughably bad Photoshop manipulations of smoke plumes over Beirut during Israel's summer '06 bombing campaign; and second, Iran's equally laughable manipulation of publicity photos from their summer '08 test missile test launch.

Image source: Stinky Journalism.org

Click on 'voteringen' in the menu of this Flash-animated comparison of Christensen's submitted photographs, their RAW files, and the Photoshop auto-corrections.

The ethical question of representation in these cases branches out beyond simple questions of technique. My gut reaction is that these questions of authenticity in reportage only seem to crop up in depictions of 'the Other'--realities of Haiti, Lebanon, and Iran being the examples I've chosen--but other cases come to mind as well, such as the indignation over unretouched portraits of Gov. Palin (for the cover of Newsweek) and Sen. McCain (for the cover of Atlantic Monthly).

As far as pedagogy is concerned, these cases of photographic manipulation provide an object lesson in the subtleties of plagiarism that are harder to convey than taking credit for another's work. Digital media and tools of manipulation have already deposited this comfortable academic principle in a vague, soupy ethical context. Still, how one represents the works (or realities) of another person opens the door to the specter of plagiarism. A careful exposition and discussion of these cases of manipulation and reportage might help to elucidate these vague or complicated situations for the average undergraduate student.