Class Agenda: Tuesday, March 24 – Multimedia Reporting

Today’s class:

Pitch Workshop

Updated due dates:

Your scripts for your new radio stories will now be due on Thursday, April 2, our last official day of class before spring break begins. (We have no class on Tuesday April 7 because classes follow a Wednesday schedule.)

On that day when your scripts are due, instead of having a normal remote class over Zoom, I’ll be doing phone edits with everybody individually where I give you feedback on your script—make sure you don’t record your narration before this edit session, because the script will probably change and you’ll just need to do it over.

Here’s the sign-up sheet for editing times for next Thursday. It’s first come, first served. If for some reason none of these times work for you—I know some of you are in different time zones—please reply to this email so we can work something out.

The final version of the radio story will now be due April 21, the first day we will “meet” again after spring break. Please also start thinking about story ideas for your video assignment—and again, you’ll need to think creatively about video stories you can do under the circumstances.

Here are the guidelines our department has discussed for reporting during this time:

Social Distancing Reporting Guidelines

With all the restrictions we now face in our lives in the name of public health, this is a strange time to be studying journalism in the hands-on way we do it in our program. But it’s also an opportunity to take part in covering one of the biggest stories in our lifetimes.

Some of the usual rules are going to go out the window for the rest of this semester. Normally, we discourage our students from reporting on close friends and family members to avoid conflicts of interest and to encourage you to flex your reporting muscles by getting out of your comfort zones and developing new sources. But under the circumstances, interviewing loved ones, friends, partners, or roommates—people you are already in close contact with—is fine and even encouraged. In a story where the front lines are literally everywhere, every individual’s experiences has the potential to be a newsworthy story.

When it comes to multimedia reporting, normally we ask you to rely on audio and video you have recorded yourself. But again, we’re making major exceptions here, as you’ll see in the guidelines below.

Print Reporting

Do your reporting over the phone or online.

Radio/Podcast Reporting

Conduct interviews over the phone and record them.
If your subject is willing and has access to a landline or a borrowed phone, ask them to record a “tape sync” for you by recording their end of the call with their Voice Memos app (or equivalent) and then sending you the file along with at least 90 seconds of room tone. Make sure they know where the phone mic is located (on iPhones, it’s on the bottom of the phone.) Make sure you record the call from your end, too, as a backup.
To record a call from your end, there are a few options. 1. Google Voice is free to use: create a number, route it to your phone and press “4” during any call to start recording. 2. TapeACall is also a great app which lots of professionals use, but it’s not free. 3. Put the phone on speaker and record it with your audio recorder or a borrowed phone.
Download Audio Hijack, which allows you to record the system audio from your computer for up to ten minutes. This will allow you to grab audio from press conferences, YouTube or Instagram videos, etc., depending on what you’re covering.
Record natural sound only if it’s something you can do at home or by going for a solitary walk or bike ride outside and from a distance of greater than six feet.
Record your narration in an improvised at-home “studio.” Aim to record in a space that absorbs sound: a room with carpeting, curtains, bedding, etc. Some tried-and-true methods that radio journalists use in a pinch is to go in their closet or simply to throw a blanket over their head. Take a look at the way some WNYC journalists are setting themselves up at home for inspiration: https://twitter.com/WNYC/status/1239896211903086592
Download Audacity, a free program, for audio editing.

Video reporting

Aim to find stories you can report at home. Interview people you are already in close contact with. There are also a ton of internet/social media stories right now because so much human interaction and creativity is unfolding virtually, so consider finding ways to report on this visually via screen recording tools.
Ask your sources to record video on their phones and send it to you. Make sure they orient their phones horizontally. This can inclue interviews you conduct over the phone or B-roll/video diaries done in the moment while your source is handing out free lunches at an NYC public school, teaching their child from home while struggling to work full-time from home, working a hospital shift, etc.
Use the Screen Recording feature on your phones to record video from your phone screen, or select “New Screen Recording” in Quicktime to record video off your laptop screen. Use KeepVid to grab videos off of YouTube, if relevant to your story. (Make sure to attribute any videos you grab this way and make sure you only use short clips to stay on the right side of Fair Use.)
Go out and film only if it’s filming you can do outside by going for a solitary walk or bike ride and from a distance of greater than six feet. Don’t use your wired lav mics to interview people; only use the mounted shotgun mic so you can stay far enough away. Under the circumstances, it’s okay if the audio isn’t perfect. Ask the person to speak up.