Discussion questions for the August /September 2008 issue, along with suggestions for further readings on multiple newsrooms' teamwork on an investigation into a murdered journalist's death, the growing reliance on mobile technology for disseminating news, citizen and media efforts in covering disasters, and finding inspiration for feature stories and columns. Story 1: "Notice What You Notice" |  Story 2: "Handheld Headlines" |   Story 3: "The Oakland Project" |  Story 4: "First Responders" STORY 1: "Notice What You Notice: Stop obsessing about the depressing industry news on Romenesko and open your eyes to all of the amazing stories out there. " By Beth Macy   MORE INFO FROM THE STORY:  How do columnists and feature writers find ideas for publication every week? Regina Brett of Cleveland's Plain Dealer advises getting out of the newsroom and into the community. Former Baltimore Sun reporter Diana Sugg recommends that writers find themes that speak to their experiences. Writer Annie Dillard says writers should follow what astonishes them. Kris Kimel, founding director of The Idea Festival, held annually in Louisville, says most creative people have an insatiable curiousity about everything. "They aren't discouraged if others--editors, for instance--aren't immediately receptive to them," Macy summarizes for him. Sam Roberts, who spun a story out of a semicolon for the New York Times, agrees. "Being reporters, we're paid to basically get a graduate education in whatever we're interested in! We should be out there all the time, just jumping into the things that make us curious." CLASS REPORTING ASSIGNMENTS AND DISCUSSION: Ask students to profile -- in 300 words or less -- an everyday person whose life touches on a universal theme. The assignment, which forces students into shoe-leather reporting and concise writing, is patterned after a successful, award-winning series called "300 words" from the St. Petersburg Times. See links below. Give the above assignment a multimedia spin. If students have taken a basic multimedia course -- on shooting photos and collecting audio and video -- ask them to include photos or audio or video clips with their piece. Or ask them to reconceive the text-based assignment completely as a multimedia story, using video or a slide show as the main canvas for their narrative. Invite in two to three columnists or feature writers from area professional publications to talk about the inspiration for a handful of their favorite stories. How did they come up with the ideas for their pieces? How did they come up with the questions for their interviews and the structure for their stories? RELATED COLUMNS, STORIES AND WEB LINKS: "Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location," by Sam Roberts, in the Feb. 18, 2008, New York Times. "They Love Everyday People," a book review by Carl Sessions Stepp, published in the February/March 2008 issue of AJR. "Telling Our Own Stories, Becoming Better Journalists," by Mallory Tenore, published on PoynterOnline May 14, 2008. "Nieman Narrations: Tips and Tales from Top Storytellers," by Bill Kirtz, published on PoynterOnline March 20, 2008. "Short and Sweet: Storytelling in 300 Words," by Michael Weinstein, condensed from The Write Stuff for PoynterOnline, April 25, 2006. And, for fine examples of profiles of ordinary people written in 300 words, see "After the Sky Fell," by Brady Dennis, published in the Jan. 28, 2005, St. Petersburg Times; and "One Hour at a Time," also by Brady Dennis, published March 10, 2005. "Writing as Magic: It Only Looks Easy," by Chip Scanlan, published on PoynterOnline on Aug. 19, 2005. Apple's iPhone: Helping to move the masses to mobile. (Photo courtesy JTref) STORY 2: "Handheld Headlines: News organizations are embracing content aimed at cell phones and other mobile devices as part of their survival strategy in the digital age." By Arielle Emmett   MORE INFO FROM THE STORY:  Emmett reports that consumers can use any of 500 different handheld devices and 20 different mobile Internet browsers to access breaking news from top publishers. And large-scale mobile advertising networks are cropping up to serve these media publishers seeking a mobile presence. The most successful publishers of mobile content may be the most focused. Hearst's mobile Web sites, for instance, are designed to do just a few things very well--giving readers recipes, blog snippets and dating tips on the fly. Washingtonpost.com Executive Editor Jim Brady agrees with the concept of being selective for content offered on mobile. The Post greatly winnows its content for the mobile platform, he says. CLASS RESEARCH AND REPORTING: Ask students to research -- through phone calls and traditional methods -- what strategies top news sites are pursuing in the mobile market. Perhaps each student could be assigned two media companies to investigate. Students should find out not only what types of news the companies are moving to the mobile platform, but what demographics they are targeting for readership and what revenues the companies hope to pull in from the move to mobile. Students should be prepared to present the findings of their written reports to the class. Ask students to report and write an 800-word story on news consumption by college students on their campus. How are students chiefly getting their news? Students should do background research on industry trends (see Nielsen link below, for instance), before doing anecdotal interviews on campus. Bonus points for students who take head shots of their sources to go with their stories. RELATED COLUMNS, STORIES AND LINKS: "On the Go. What's the Outlook for Mobile TV News?" column by Deborah Potter, published in the August/September 2008 issue of AJR. "Capturing the Moment, (and More), Via Cellphone Video," by Anne Eisenberg, published Sept. 13, 2008, on The New York Times. "Mobile Carriers See Opportunities in 'Tween Market," by Marguerite Reardon, published Sept. 10, 2008, on CNET News. "Nielsen Reports TV, Internet and Mobile Usage Among Americans," Nielsen Co. press release from July 8, 2008. "AOL Opens Its Mobile Platform, Too," by Jamie Lendino, published Feb. 11, 2008, on PC Magazine. "Facebook Links Up With Vodafone on Mobile Platform," by Jeremy Kirk, of IDG News Service, published Feb. 7, 2008. "Yahoo! Opens Its Mobile Platform," by Michael Muchmore and Jamie Lendino, Jan. 7, 2008, in PC Magazine. "Google Bets on Mobile Market," by Marguerite Reardon and Elinor Mills, published July 31, 2007, on CNET News. "Will iPhone Revolutionize the Mobile Market?" video with ZDNet Editor-in-Chief Dan Farber, published in 2007. "Mobile Market Shifts Its Focus," published Sept. 28, 2005, on BBC News. STORY 3: "The Oakland Project: In an echo of the Arizona Project that investigated the murder of slain journalist Don Bolles in 1976, Bay Area news outlets, journalism schools and media groups have joined forces to complete the unfinished work of murdered Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey. " By Sherry Ricchiardi MORE INFO FROM THE STORY: Since Chauncey Bailey's murder Aug. 2, 2007, professional journalists and student reporters teamed up to uncover a slew of stories on a Bay Area crime family implicated in Bailey's death, and in the torture, murder and rape of others. Journalism students, Ricchiardi reports, have helped to create a paper trail by scanning public documents and dumping details into a database whose information is shared with professional colleagues. One legacy of the project has been the relationships developed between reporters at competing organizations. CLASS RESEARCH AND DISCUSSIONS: The Arizona Project and the Oakland Project are two high-profile cases in which reporters from competing news organizations have teamed up to unearth stories for the public good. But they're not the only partnerships that have been formed to report tough stories. Ask students to prepare research papers on other instances in which competing professional and/or student media organizations have teamed up on public-service projects. When students turn in their papers, they should be prepared to discuss their findings with the class. Plan a conference call or a videoconference with student editors or reporters involved with the Oakland Project. (Journalism students at San Francisco State University, San Jose State University and the University of California, Berkeley, have participated.) Why did their journalism departments/teachers decide to commit to the project? What have been some of the students' notable findings? How did the students find their information? Which documents did they search? Where? What tips do the students have for future document searches for tough stories? RELATED STORIES, COLUMNS AND LINKS: The Chauncey Bailey Project site. "Oakland Trib's Chauncey Bailey Project Honored by IRE," a March 26, 2008, press release from the Knight Foundation. "The Chauncey Bailey Project," a press release from the Maynard Institute, Oct. 10, 2007. "Hit Man Kills Newspaper Editor on Oakland Street," by Christopher Heredia, Leslie Fulbright and Marisa Lagos, published Aug. 2, 2007, on SFGate. "The Arizona Project," (a history), published on the Investigative Reporters and Editors site. "A Look Back at the Arizona Project," by Lauren Vasquez, published March 28, 2006, on AZCentral.com. STORY 4: "First Responders: Citizen media's agility during the Iowa floods offers a lesson to traditional journalists." Column by Barb Palser MORE INFO FROM THE COLUMN: The citizen-launched 2008flood.org helped to connect volunteers to those needing help within hours of the flooding this June in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Corridor Recovery, a nonprofit-corporate-local government effort, also went live early in the crisis, and gained momentum during it. But its information was spotty at first. A more ambitious online resource launched by the Gazette and KCRG-TV went live June 21. According to Palser, this effort, called Floodlist, grew "into a fairly robust database of offers and requests for help." CLASS RESEARCH AND DISCUSSION: A number of disasters in recent years -- the tsunamis in south Asia in December 2004, Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the shootings at Virginia Tech in April 2007 and the Iowa floods of June 2008 -- have demonstrated the power and speed of citizen "journalists" to inform. Ask students to prepare a 1,500- to 2,000-word research paper comparing citizen and traditional media's coverage of one of these seminal news events. What lessons can each learn from the other? Papers should include citations and foot notes or end notes. Invite in a panel of editors and news directors from local news organizations to talk about how they're incorporating citizen photos/videos/blogs into their news mix. What are the benefits of this? What are the potential pitfalls -- in accuracy, credibility and ethics? RELATED LINKS, STORIES, TUTORIALS AND MORE: "Journalists at Work Covering Floods," roundup by Al Tompkins, published on PoynterOnline June 15, 2008. "Resources for Journalists Covering Floods," column by Al Tompkins, published on PoynterOnline June 15, 2008. "Another Sad But Seminal Day for CitJ," column by Amy Gahran, published on PoynterOnline April 16, 2007. "The Ties That Bind," by Mark Lisheron, published in the August/September 2006 issue of AJR. "To Love This City Back to Life," by Brian Thevenot, published in the August/September 2006 issue of AJR. "Taking Tsunami Coverage into Their Own Hands," by Steve Outing, published Jan. 6, 2005, on PoynterOnline. "Tips for Covering Tragedy," by Mark Brayne, published on PoynterOnline Jan. 11, 2005. "NOLA.com blogs and forums help save lives after Katrina," by Mark Glaser, in the Sept. 13, 2005, edition of Online Journalism Review. "Apocalypse in New Orleans," by Brian Thevenot, published in the October/November 2005 issue of AJR. The Knight Citizen News Network offers learning modules/tutorials for citizens and professionals interested in launching or improving a site that relies on user-generated content. Top of Page | Index Page Teachers' guide written and produced by Chris Harvey, online bureau director at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a former managing editor of AJR. First two items for this issue written Sept. 14, 2008; third item added Sept. 15, 2008; last item added Sept. 21, 2008. Copyright © 2008 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Permission is granted to freely print, for classroom use, up to 100 copies of the most up-to-date version of this document, as long as the document is not modified.