Workshops

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Workshops

The Boomer Reporting Corps (BRC) workshops were help in the fall of 2012 and spring of 2013. Below is a summary of past workshops.

PAST WORKSHOPS

Pulling it all Together: Designing Packages for Print & Digital Media 

Participants learned to produce multimedia narratives that integrate still photos, captions, audio recordings and movies for ink-on-paper and digital media.

Topics included:

  • Working with print publishing software such as InDesign for ink-on-paper media
  • Working with digital publishing programs such as WordPress for blogs and other online media
  • Working with ePub publishing programs such as iBooks Author for mobile media

 

Engaging Larger Audiences & Leveraging Media Skills Via Social Media & Mentoring 

Participants learned to extend their audience and leverage effectiveness by applying skills and insights to additional issues of local significance and by cultivating the capacity to create meaningful media throughout their community.

Topics included:

  • Learn to use sites like Twitter to expand the audience for your writing, photography, podcasts and videos by driving traffic to Facebook pages and blogs that serve as your principal media outlets.
  • Learn to work with community journalists who may not have had the opportunity to participate in a media training program such as BRC and could learn from your experiences.
  • Learn to work with local and state-wide non media organizations to integrate your media skills with their expertise, programming and staffing resources to amplify everone’s effectiveness.
  • Learn to share your media skills with teachers and students who are studying media making in their classrooms, and with others who also aspire to become citizen reporters and storytellers.

 

 

Multimedia Narrative: Producing Galleries, Slideshows & Videos

Participants learned to produce multimedia narratives that combine still photos, captions, audio recordings and movies for ink-on-paper and digital media.

Topics included:

  • Choosing your tools: Camcorders, microphones, video-capable DSLRs (Digital Single Lens Reflex), mobile devices (iPhones, iPads), editing applications (Garage Band, SoundSlides, iMovie)
  • Combining video interviews (taught in Workshop #3) with B-Roll shots: Long shots, two-shots, close-ups, cutaways, pans, zooms, traveling shots, etc.
  • Gathering and mixing ambient sound for slide shows and video
  • Producing slide shows and galleries
  • Video editing on iPads and laptops
  • Exporting movies to web, DVD and tablets

 

Telling Stories Using Sound & Moving Images – Videos, Slideshows & Galleries

Participants learned to choose and use the most affordable and versatile photographic, recording, editing and publishing tools available to today’s professional and citizen journalists. Lessons included learning to think and act like a pro and to employ cameras and recorders in ways that can become intuitive and productive.

The workshop combined lectures and demonstrations with hands-on experience using iPads provided by the instructor and Apple.

Topics included:

  • Choosing your tools: Camcorders and DSLRs (Digital Single Lens Reflex)
  • Choosing your tools: Tripods, lights, reflectors, diffusers
  • Shooting the video interview
  • Learning the video language: Long shots, two-shots, close-ups, cutaways, pans, zooms, traveling shots, B-Roll, etc.
  • File formats
  • Gathering sound for video
  • Video editing on the computer
  • Slide shows and galleries
  • Exporting your movie to web, DVD and tablet

 

What is News & How Does One Recognize it? Reporting & Writing Like a Journalist

Participants learned to develop timely, relevant news ideas and plan for and conduct reporting to create informative and readable articles for a variety of media.

Topics included:

  • Choosing themes and issues and planning how to cover them
  • Identifying and cultivating knowledgeable sources
  • Preparing and conducting interviews
  • Researching online and other authoritative sources
  • Understanding your rights as a citizen journalist
  • Respecting the rights of those about whom you wish to report
  • Writing for newspapers, magazines, the web.
  • Matching the medium with the message: deciding which information is best conveyed in words and which in photos, maps, charts, etc.
  • Accuracy checking and follow-up reporting

 

Becoming a First-Rate Photographic Reporter & Storyteller

Participants learned to approach stories in ways that maximize their visual potential and prepare yourself to make the best use of your photographic tools.

Topics included:

  • Candid and posed portraiture
  • Landscape and small object photography
  • Photographing events
  • Choosing and using a suitable camera
  • Photo accessories that will be the most valuable
  • Creative uses of flash
  • Enhancing images for legibility and impact in print and on screen
  • Writing effective captions
  • Planning and completing the picture story and essay

 

JOURNALISTIC ETHICS were covered in every workshop. Participants explored the standards that distinguish the profession of journalist: thoroughness, objectivity, balance, fairness, accuracy checking and error correction. They learned to understand the difference between photographic enhancement and manipulation, and strategies for identifying and minimizing the effects of ignorance and unconscious bias. Participants analyzed their own motives and developed a personal philosophy that could guide them as they joined the ranks of new media communicators – the civic media professionals.