Large files (eg audio files) should be FTPed to the class server at

ftp.hkstories.net
user name: classwork2010@hkstories.net
p/w: hint: there’s two of them

REMEMBER TO CREATE A FOLDER TO HOLD YOUR FILES – (no spaces, all lower case)

details – http://www.hkstories.net/jmsc-online/2010/01/18/ftp/

- – - – -

LAYOUT

Please upload your project as a POST not a PAGE

Change the post template to POST NO SIDEBAR  (this is found right at the bottom of the page under DISCUSSION and AUTHOR). That will give you a full screen.

DELETE the custom fields

Under html view – get rid of the syndication code — it will look something like this

<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/”><img src=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/” border=”0″ alt=”" /></a> <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godelicious/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/”><img src=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/delicious/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/” border=”0″ alt=”" /></a> <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gofacebook/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/”><img src=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/facebook/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/” border=”0″ alt=”" /></a> <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gotwitter/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/”><img src=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/twitter/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/” border=”0″ alt=”" /></a> <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gostumble/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/”><img src=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/stumble/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/” border=”0″ alt=”" /></a> <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godigg/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/”><img src=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/digg/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/” border=”0″ alt=”" /></a> <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/goreddit/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/”><img src=”http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/reddit/mashhk.wordpress.com/1/” border=”0″ alt=”" /></a> <img src=”http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mashhk.wordpress.com&amp;blog=17245864&amp;post=1&amp;subd=mashhk&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1″ border=”0″ alt=”" width=”1″ height=”1″ />

How to use Anchors

How to use Tables

How to use Iframes (please use SPARINGLY)

CHECK LIST

• Headlines and sub-heads — Are they pithy, concise and do they entice viewers to read on?
• Have you included your BYLINE
• Spelling and grammar — did you put your text through a spell/grammar check? If you are unsure, ask a classmate for a second opinion!
• Are your photos etc meaningfully captioned?
• Would a viewer UNFAMILIAR with Hong Kong and UNABLE to read/understand a language other than English understand your project?
• Have you checked you are not violating copyright or committing plagiarism?
• Have you DOUBLE-CHECKED HOW TO AVOID COMMON PITFALLS and ensured that you are compliant?

DEADLINES ARE IMPORTANT. YOU WILL LOSE MARKS FOR LATE SUBMISSIONS AND RISK FAILING THIS COURSE. Be warned: Some students are at risk scoring 0 for their blogs. A number missed the first deadline for their draft project. This will be reflected in their grades.

YOU MUST CLEAR YOUR PROJECT WITH A CLASS INSTRUCTOR. DUPLICATION IS NOT PERMITTED, ALTHOUGH SOME OVERLAP MAY BE ACCEPTABLE. PLEASE RESERVE AND DISCUSS YOUR TOPIC ON THE CLASS WIKI.

(NB the Classwiki is now locked for final topics — if you hadn’t posted in time you missed that deadline. Please discuss your project direct with instructors)

1. All assignments, including the final assignment, should be uploaded to your blog — elements uploaded elsewhere (eg to youtube or our ftp server) should also be linked to from your class blog

2. Your final project will be ported to the class project website at http://www.hkstories.net/fall2010/ — and you will be given access to the site to tweak your project, adjust the layout etc

3. Your individual online report will be a multiple media report about this semester’s theme:  User Friendly/Unfriendly Hong Kong.

It will combine text, links, pictures and/or graphics, audio and other elements as appropriate.

The written text is not supposed to be too long, the point is to show that you know how to tell a story in an innovative way by combining different elements to best tell the story using the appropriate media/medium.

Your final project MUST include the following:

• A soundslides of no less than 2.5 mins and no more than 3 mins in length
• An audio-only component
• A map element
• A graphics element
• A photographic essay element
• Text
• Appropriate hyperlinks and metadata (including SEO-friendly headlines, tags and headers)

The above are minimum requirements. Utilisation of other elements (eg polls, video etc) are up to you. But they must be used in an appropriate manner and not just for the sake of it.

Layout IS important. Final stories that are slapped together in one long column so as to resemble any old blog will lose marks.

Deadlines:

• The draft of your final project is due at noon on Thursday, November 25 (ie ahead of Lecture 5)
• Your completed project is due at noon on the day before your final lab session (week six)

To Reiterate:

• Text should NOT EXCEED 800 words, but can be as little as 400-500 if you are relying on strong visual, graphic, and audio elements to tell your story. This is NOT a term paper or newspaper story.
• Make coherent use of multiple media elements to tell the story you have chosen.
• You WILL be evaluated on whether you tell a story clearly and journalistically, in a way that a member of the public (i.e., somebody who is neither your teacher or your relative who is not obsessed with your topic) would actually want to spend time reading/watching/listening. The longest and most complicated story will NOT necessarily get the best grade – less is often more when you are trying to tell a compelling story to a general audience.
• The website is in English for an English-speaking audience. Assume that you are working for a news organization whose editors and audience cannot read or understand Chinese. Therefore your work must be comprehensible to non-Chinese speakers as well as to people who do not live in Hong Kong.
• Professional standards of language usage, grammar, punctuation, and spelling apply to your web work in the same way that they apply to your print stories.

IT’S A GOOD IDEA TO CHECK OUT AVOIDING COMMON PITFALLS BEFORE YOU FILE!

TOPICS LIST

See: http://www.hkstories.net/jmsc-online/2010/02/20/soundslide-audio-visuals/

This is a group exercise: (3-4 people)
Deadline: End of lab session 3
Topic: Navigating the HKU campus in a wheelchair.
Length: 1.5-2.5 minutes
Graded: Yes.

The files will be stored on the DML shared drive (Z)

1. Crate a folder using all the names of your group (eg: May-June-Fred)

2. Upload your project (all files — not just the publish-to-web file) to that folder.

You will then need to ftp your project to the class web server.

See FTP/Uploading Soundslides to the Web: (lecture 3) for instructions.

Assignment 1:

Before your first lab session please:

1. Set up your class wordpress blog with one of the following:

http:/www.wordpress.com / http://www.edublogs.org / http://www.blogetry.com / a self-hosted WP blog if you have your own domain

2. Sign up for a Flickr account and link it to your blog in your blog roll

3. Join the class wiki at http://jmsc6091.wikispaces.com/message/list/home

4. If you don’t already have one, set up a Twitter account and follow jmsc6091. If you are on Twitter complete the latter requirement.

SEE SCMP: HANDICAPPED IN HONG KONG

Some ideas to kick you off …. how easy is it for a wheelchair-bound person to use the MTR, ferries, supermarkets, taxis, trams etc … are the new MTR lines any better than the older ones ….what are these places like for parents with babies … or young kids … in pushchairs. How disadvantaged are you if you break a leg?

How does a blind person catch a bus ….. tell the difference between a $100 and a $500 note? Use an ATM. How does an elderly person manage when the lift breaks down … Which buildings are notorious for poor access …. especially modern ones for which there is no excuse.

It doesn’t just have to related to access …. what jobs are there available for the deaf? The blind? Those with learning disorders, brain damage or congenital conditions such as Down’s Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy?  How does a rich place like Hong Kong take care of its disadvantaged? Do they have job security? Will they be covered by the minimum wage? And what of tourists? Are disabled tourists unwelcome?

How do you manage in, say, a hospital if you don’t speak Chinese or English? Or are unable speak at all!

Reserve, share and discuss your ideas and work-in-progress on the class wiki’s discussion forum.

Why should we care?

Lam Woon-kwong

We tend to take things for granted: for example, travelling smoothly from home to office, or taking a bus or the MTR and being right on time, or entering a restaurant and being served without fuss. These simple, daily routines seem to come effortlessly to many of us.

Now imagine that you are a wheelchair user, or that you need a crutch due to an injury. Imagine you are about to enter a building, only to find that the entrance is outfitted with steps that you cannot climb. Think about having to wait for an hour to get on one of the few buses that are fitted with platforms for wheelchairs.

Imagine that you have to climb 30-odd steps with your crutches out of some MTR stations because they do not have lifts. What would it be like when seeing friends at a restaurant becomes a near-impossible task because the restaurant raises its entrance onto a platform to stop rainwater from coming in, or because its hallways are too narrow for your wheelchair?

Such are the struggles that people with disabilities face on a daily basis. Such are the struggles that keep Hong Kong from becoming a truly friendly city.

Is it fitting to call Hong Kong a world-class city if this is our treatment of people with disabilities? And before you think that these difficulties do not concern you, think again: the line between people with and without disabilities is much more blurred than you might realise, and the problems people with disabilities confront actually affect us all.

Perhaps you are now taking care of your elderly parents. Perhaps you are a mother who uses a baby-stroller. And, inevitably, all of us will grow old, and many of us will require assistance in our old age. The activities we take for granted now, such as boarding a bus or eating at a restaurant, may one day become an exhausting and frustrating affair. In short, many of us may one day become disabled, and would we not then want facilities to make our lives easier?

‘Universal design’ is already an internationally accepted access concept that we should adopt to foster a more friendly world, undivided by different levels of accessibility. Indeed, improving accessibility makes economic sense, since it allows people with disabilities to participate more fully in the marketplace and bring about greater business opportunities for all. One wheelchair user told us: ‘If there were improvements in buildings and roads, we could benefit from more employment opportunities, which would lessen our reliance on the government’s assistance.’

The government should do more; it should lead this fight to ensure accessibility for all. In June, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) announced its findings from an investigation into accessibility to public premises. After inspecting 60 government-owned buildings, we found that they were doing a far from satisfactory job in providing barrier-free facilities. In the most recent Legislative Council by-elections, even though the EOC raised this issue 10 years ago, a full 15 per cent of polling stations remained inaccessible to people with disabilities.

So what can the government do to rectify this situation? The EOC has already laid out both policy and operational recommendations in its investigation report, but I would like to emphasise a few points here.

First, policymaking should not be piecemeal. A holistic approach is required, one that takes equal opportunities as one of its mainstream considerations. The needs of people with disabilities and the larger aim of integrating all sectors into our society must be factored into the formulation of government policies.

Second, we need a change of mindset. Too often, indifference is the cause of the shortfalls in accessible facilities. I believe indifference stems from a lack of empathy, a feeling that this is not our issue. But accessibility is everyone’s issue, and we must move beyond being concerned merely for today’s convenience in order to adequately prepare for the assistance we all may require tomorrow.

We need to start looking at universal design as a necessary and beneficial-for-all arrangement.

Hongkongers expect the government to show a commitment to building a world-class city. It is only fitting that the government acts now to seriously tackle problems of accessibility. By going for universal access, the government can set a powerful example and shows us that, yes, it does care.

We must also call on the private sector to join in the collective effort to provide universal access, so that together we can live up to our aspirations as a civilised and inclusive society.

Lam Woon-kwong is chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission

Week 1

Week 2
Audio Recording and Editing / Using Soundslides / Mull Final Project

Week 3
Complete in-class Soundslides project / Getting Online=2 / FTP / Basic HTML / Communicating and Collaborating / Finalise Final Project

Week 4
Getting Online=2 / Basic HTML / Dreamweaver / Communicating and Collaborating/ Writing for the Web / Graphics, Timelines, Mapping and Charts / More HTML/ CSS / Dreamweaver

DRAFT OF FINAL PROJECT DUE @ NOON ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25

Week 5
Advanced Wordpress / More Web2.0 tools / Web Security / Discuss Draft Final Project

FINAL PROJECT DUE @ NOON ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2

Week 6
Present and Critique Final Projects

Illustration Courtesy of Gavin Coates

NOTE: CLICK HERE FOR JMSC 6091 FALL 2011

Objectives:

Your weekly class notes, assignments, announcements, and other materials related to the course, will be posted on this site. Please make sure you check the site regularly! JMC6091 will be presented online. There will be no paper handouts.

Journalism | Calendar | Course Goal | Learning Outcomes | Attendance | Grading |  Instructors

Journalism

This course is about on-line journalism.
It is not about producing pretty websites.

The multiple media skills you will develop during the course of the semester are designed to enable you to harness the power of the Internet to gather news and information and to present your journalism to its best effect in the most appropriate form on the web.

Calendar:

First Lecture: Thursday, October 28 from 8 to 10 pm
First Labs:  Section A: Friday, October 29 – 2-6 pm / Section B: Saturday, October 30, 9.30 am to 1.30 pm / Section C: Tuesday, Nov 2, 9.30 am – 1.30 pm / Section D: Tuesday, Nov 2, 2-6 pm.

Course Goal:

The aim of the course is to equip you with the skills to report and present hard news and features in the most appropriate media/medium be it text, photographs, graphics, audio, video – and/or a combination of the above for display on the web.

You will learn how to report, write, edit and lay out text and other reports, take and edit photographs, record and edit audio and produce multi-media reports using standard and web2.0 tools such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Audacity, Soundslides, Wordpress and other content management systems, RSS, social media, plus the latest Web2.0 interactive applications.

These reports will be in a form ready for uploading to internet newsites.

You will also address online security and privacy issues and the ethical use of web-generated content and leads

Intended Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this course you will be able to:

1. Harness the power of the internet and online tools for reporting and research purposes. This means using online tools to track trends, develop topics, research background and data, and generate leads (including potential sources) while judging and checking the veracity of the source information.

2. Report and edit text, audio, visual and audio-visual articles and packages – this means developing leads (from online research and from fieldwork) to develop and cultivate sources, obtain information and further leads, re-check facts, and then edit the information gathered into news-ready packages. An important part of this process is developing your news judgement – particularly the need to decide what to include/exclude.

3. Produce and lay out these reports for web publications aimed at an international audience. Again, this means further judging the information to include/exclude and choosing the best format for the element of the story – text, audio, audio-visual, charts etc etc. You will need to be able to make ethically responsible decisions in the planning, editing and publication of news packages, aesthetic decisions in how to present it and technological decisions in how best to deliver the package to an international online audience.

4. Be familiar with extant technologies and be equipped with tools and skills to enable you to self-teach yourself new technologies as they emerge.

Attendance:

This is a six-week long intensive lab plus lecture course. Attendance is mandatory. You are expected to manage your time professionally whether you are a part-time or full-time student. You cannot make up missed classes. While faculty and TA staff are available outside lab time for advice and guidance, they are NOT available to provide private make-up tuition for individual students who failed to attend class without good reason. Missing class without good reason will result in a zero attendance mark AND a zero class participation mark which will affect your final grade.

• Medical certificates are required for those who miss class on sickness/injury grounds and seek make-up advice
• Medical certificates are required for those who seek to claim extensions for missing group, mid-term and/or final assignment deadlines on the grounds of sickness/injury
• Missing class in order to complete assignments for other courses or for family holidays are not acceptable justifications for absence
• It is up to you to decide how you wish to manage your time — and thus to accept the consequences

Grading:

• 10% – In-class work & class participation
• 25% – Your individual CLASS blog/site
• 25% – The main soundslides element in your final project
• 40% – Final individual project uploaded to http://www.hkstories.net/fall2010/

Assignments and projects will be graded according to the following criteria (depending upon context)

• Journalism (Journalistic merit, compelling headline(s), comprehensibility to non-HK viewers), sourcing, accuracy
• Attention to detail (avoidance of spelling and grammatical mistakes, choppy editing)
• Attractive and logical navigation and lay-out
• Coherence of storytelling
• Appropriate choice and utlilisation of apps, software and other multiple media elements
• Quality of photos and photo editing (given limits on equipment)
• Quality of audio recording and editing (given existing equipment)
• How well elements (text, pictures, audio etc) fit together
• Meaningful, appropriate, and accurate use of captions, hyperlinks, alt tags and other metadata

Note: assignments that contain plagiarism and/or copyright infringements will earn a failing grade (0)

• Note: This is an English-language course and stories must be understood by an English-speaking audience. Assume they know NO OTHER LANGUAGE. Translate ALL non-English material, including voice-overs and signage on pix
• Always write in the THIRD PERSON unless there is a very compelling reason not to
• Remember the WHO, WHAT WHEN, WHERE, WHY formula
• Remember to SOURCE and ATTRIBUTE your information; the reader should never be left wondering how the reporter got the information, knew a fact, obtained a photo and so on
• When quoting people, you MUST get their full names and where relevant, their titles. If they will disclose only part of their name, or decline to be identified, you MUST say so in the article
• Should you quote a Hong Kong resident, ensure you render their name correctly according to their preference which will probably be the Cantonese rendition – eg Yung not Rong, Yue not Ren, Ng not Wu … check how THEY render their name and respect their decision
• Resist the temptation to kick off an article, particularly a text article, with a question. Reporters are supposed to answer questions, not ask them!
• Resist the temptation to produce “information-dumps” — you are telling a story; not writing an encyclopedia
• When photographing items such as pictures hanging in a gallery put them in context/environment – show they are hanging in a gallery and don’t crop them so the picture fills the whole frame – that can be construed a copyright infringement
• Copyright violations and plagiarism will not be tolerated
• Material – YOU must produce the bulk of the material – photos, words, pix, audio – we’re not testing Robert Capa’s photo skills!
• Make full use of the medium – use hyperlinks in your text where relevant, also alt tags and other metadata
• Appearance matters; take time to lay out your pages attractively, wrap text around graphics, be confident with “white space“
• Always use a microphone when recording audio
• Ancillary music is not to be used in news-orientated audio reports unless there is a very compelling reason to do so. One example might be a slideshow showing John Lennon’s life – then it would be acceptable to argue for the use of Lennon tracks (subject to copyright agreement) to accompany the pix. But that’s an exception that proves the rule. See this article about audio editing, dos and dont’s and ethics
• See http://www.hkstories.net/jmsc-online/2010/01/18/pitfalls-and-how-to-avoid-them/ for updates

Grading Scales:

• IN-CLASS WORK & CLASS PARTICIPATION: there are two components:
  1) you will be required to complete assigned tasks in class. These tasks cannot be completed or made up outside of class.
  2) you are expected to offer your ideas in class and demonstrate that you have done and understood the readings and assignments. You should upload assignments to your blog (when applicable).
• YOUR CLASS BLOG: your various assignments will be uploaded initially to your class blog at wordpress.com/blogertry/edublogs – or at any other blog site/website you nominate. It must be RSS-enabled. You are expected to maintain this blog/site – and build on it during the semester. You be assessed by your efforts to maintain an informative blog/site and to have demonstrated use of the various techniques and tools discussed during the course. Regard your blog as a primer for experimenting with different technologies and techniques and discussing what did and did not work for you. Details.

• IN-CLASS TEAMWORK PROJECT: you will work in teams in class to produce a text plus audio-visual slideshow package using SOUNDSLIDES on a topic related to this semester’s theme: User Friendly Hong Kong. Details.

• FINAL INDIVIDUAL PROJECT: you will produce a multiple-media online package centered on this semester’s theme to be uploaded to the class site. Details.
  

Instructors:

• DIANE STORMONT – Senior Teaching Consultant, JMSC
• KEVIN VOIGT — Adjunct, JMSC
• KEVIN LAU – Online Media Producer/Teaching Assistant
• AJ LIBUNAO – Online Media Producer/Teaching Assistant
• CEDRIC SAM – TA / Mapping / Programming