Week 3 - Feb 2-6
Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed the spring holiday and are raring to go.
This week we will:
1. Start processing your Lunar New Year assignments
The brief was:
Produce a report on the subject of: Coping with Recession: the Lunar New Year 2009
You were assigned to produce an article of no more than 400-600 words. You were permitted to use photos and other media to illuminate your story but were to bear in mind this was a text-orientated article.
We will have a quick look at some of your articles, chosen at random. Please view them with a news editor’s eye. If you were in charge of a special report, which articles from your group members would you run? Or request some changes? In which order would you run them? Would you use any accompanying pictures in the same format? Or would you enlarge/shrink them? If you were in charge of layout, which pix would you choose for a stand-alone picture album? Which picture would you choose to illustrate the entire report?
Once we are through with the discussion, you will return to your groups. You will then compile a special report using the material reported by group members which should have been posted to their blogs. This is a group exercise.
The editor and art editor of each group are responsible for:
1. listing all the articles/pix and arranging them in running order
2. writing an introduction of one to two paragraphs
3. posting their final choice of stories/pix (linked to the original blog) and layouts to 1. their own blog and 2. when finalised, to the group blog (logon details will be provided in class). It is up to the editors to decide style (ie whether to use honorifics such as Mr/Mrs etc), the running order and the layout of their page.
They can choose one to three members of their group to assist them in their task.
PLEASE SEE THE CLASS BLOG FOR SOME EXAMPLES
When uploading to the class blog, choose the post that corresponds with your group number. EG Group 1 should upload to “LUNAR NEW YEAR 2009 - Part 1″, Group 2 to “Lunar New Year - Part 2″ and so on.
Note: throughout the term, everyone will be required to act as editor/picture editor in a project. So bear this in mind. One day you will need the cooperation of your peers!
In the case of the larger groups, should there be too many members to be directly involved in the editing process, they will be assigned (by me) to produce sidebars and other extra material. These should be posted by the editor to his/her OWN blog and are available to all groups.
2. Discuss your reporting assignments from Prague/Cambodia
Each group/individual will need to report to the class on his/her/their progress. Some people have already completed their first drafts. Some have written their stories. The deadline for the articles is Feb 10 for the Wednesday class and Feb 12 for the Friday class. So I need to know that each story is well advanced.
See Week 3 Assignment for further details.
