Student Yearbook Guide

Student Yearbook Guide

Reporting

1.     Good Reporters

a.     Good reporters look and listen for their readers.

b.     Everyone at an activity or event is a potential source.

c.     Some sources offer better insights than others.

d.     Information gathering starts with the five W’s and H.

2.     Research

a.     Research helps reporters understand their stories.

b.     Previously published material is a place to start researching a story.

c.     Primary sources provide background and material that may become part of a story.

3.     Interviews

a.     The better the questions, the better the answers.

b.     Active listening produces the best results.

c.     Good notes contain direct quotes and facts.

Writing          

1.     Notes

a.     After taking good notes and enough detail, review them and find the story. Answer questions the readers would ask.

b.     If there are holes in your notes or questions that can’t be answered, then more reporting needs to happen before you begin to write.

c.     Find specific examples to support the main idea of their story.

2.     Stories

a.     The most appealing stories are about people. They will be packed with information and quotes and details.

                                               i.     Lead – Opening sentence introduces the story, sets tone and angle, and piques the reader interest.

                                             ii.     Quotes – Word-for-word statements from sources add voices and human interest to a story.

                                            iii.     Transitions – Gives context to quotes and make them meaningful. Helps readers understand.

                                            iv.     Conclusion – Ties the end of the story back to the lead. Gives the story a sense of completeness.

b.     Fact, figure, or quote copy formats complement the feature story as a sidebar.

3.     Good Writing

a.     Good copy depends on an angle and substance.

b.     Good copy seems tightly written and lively.

c.     Good copy uses narrative elements.

d.     Good copy seems fresh and original.

Read the article by Mallory Summers & see all the components working together

Writing effective headlines requires creativity, effort, and attention to details

What can you take from this page to help in writing creative headlines?

It has a lead that interests the reader, it talks about people, adds quotes, conclusion connects to the first paragraph.

Describe the 3-step process to writing dynamic headlines

1.     A solid understanding of content results in better headlines

2.     Word play and brainstorming are useful strategies

3.     Guidelines lead to quality and consistency

Captions                        

1.     Content

a.     Captions should do more than state the obvious      

b.     Captions answer readers’ questions about a photo

c.     Caption writing requires reporting

d.     Direct quotes from individuals in the photo add depth

2.     Describe the 3-step process to writing captions

a.     Caption formats range from identifications to mini-stories

b.     Sports captions require specific details and understanding

c.     Joke captions should be avoided

Photography

We will be discussing this section in class

Processing the News

a.

There is a lot of controversy on photo manipulation and they had to build some consensus about what is not acceptable to make everybody happy. It talks a lot about photographers that eroded the public's trust in documentary images. Photomanipulation takes photojournalists down a dark road. Photojournalists are supposed to be the honest ones that show the truth of their stories. This is the hardest time to be a photojournalist. Manipulation and lying could cause readers to not take situations around the world seriously. Every digital photo has a trail when it passes through a camera or is processed. Photographers needed to precisely document the process they went through to arrive at the final version of any photo they want to be considered documentary. Processing is everything done to turn data into an image. Professionals need to make their work verifiable. The more you show how it was produced, the more people will trust your photos. If photojournalists make their work more trustable, they may be opened up to more opportunities and not held back by past issues.
b.
You have to make sure you don't over photoshop anything in photojournalism. It's taken very seriously. Make sure you can show the exact process of how you got the final product of your photo.
c.
Don't photoshop unless absolutely necessary. Take photos of things that are real and make sure it's the absolute truth. 

PennLive

a. ZooAmerica animals secured; staff will monitor as Hurricane Sandy moves through by Ivey DeJesus

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/10/animals_at_zooamerica_penned_u.html

b. The article was about the flood of Hurricane Sandy and how the animals in ZooAmerica were affected. Two bison were not able to be saved in time and had to put them down because it was already too flooded when they went to retrieve the bison. This outraged people and they assured everyone they were more secure now for all the animals and that it would not happen again. They replaced the bison exhibit with sandhill cranes instead. HersheyPark also prepared better for any chance of a bad storm and redid the exhibits so the animals will be safe in case of any new emergency they come across.

c. I like how it shows what they did with the exhibits afterwards and how they involved the opinions of other people instead of only getting information from ZooAmerica and keeping it at that. 

Robin Bowman – It’s Complicated: The American Teenager

Robin Bowman started a project called It's Complicated: The American Teenager and it showcases stories about random teenagers she comes across. The stories could be as simple as what they want to do with their life in the future or traumatic past experiences or just opinions on certain subjects like marriage, college, etc. I love the stories and how the personalities behind the teenagers are expressed, but I would love it if she posted more than one picture of them. It falls under the category of photojournalism because it showcases every day things and can create a lot of causes. It makes people aware of something not most people pay attention to. It's different from traditional photojournalism because most photojournalism stories are of causes or sports or events or newsworthy things, but these photos aren't exactly like that. They showcase personal stories and opinions of random teenagers on the street and that's the only thing it focuses on instead of a magnitude of different things. 

Photojournalism Project Proposal

For my project, I plan to interview and photograph my grandfather on his life growing up because I believe he has a really incredible and inspiring story. I decided to pursue this idea because I really liked the way the one artist interviewed teenagers about the trials of their lives and fell in love with the idea. It's personal to me because if my grandfather hadn't gone through what he did, my life could be completely different or I might not have been born in the first place.

Expression Panel

Action Screen Shots

 Black and white

 Colored

Unique

Portraiture

My model was my 14 year old brother. He loves to play sports so I tried to incorporate his two favorites; baseball and basketball. I loved this assignment. I loved how I got to work with someone and was able to pose him and see what poses worked best and I loved how excited he and my mom were. It just put me in the best mood. I think I ended up with a pretty good ending result with my final shots. I could have done better with the basketball ones because the shadows kind of make the whole shot look kind of dark, but I still think they turned out pretty good. So far, my mom wants every single one I've shown her and my brother was super excited about them. Friends and some teachers have told me that they really like them and that I did a good job, so I feel pretty confident with them at this point, but I know I can do better. Tips I would give someone is to make sure you show the person the pose you want, fix mistakes so you don't have to be on photoshop too much, try something you aren't sure about, and make sure the client doesn't look awkward. The most challenging part of the assignment was trying to figure out poses for his uniforms. I had so many ideas for his dressy/casual outfit, but figuring out different poses for his uniform was hard for me. I think I did really well coming up with poses and places for the casual/dressy outfit.