Dr. Spaulding

We’ve got guest speakers this week: Steve Luxenberg on Tuesday and Michael Olesker on Thursday. Plus, we’ll take a look at your slideshows and talk about using characters to tell a story–from the wacky to the historic to the adorable. Your rough draft of story #1 is due next week, the final draft the week [...]

Thanks to Bailey O’Malia for spotting this infographic on the power of Linked In. Our class guest tonight, Jonathan Oleisky, is the CEO and founder of Media 924, a social media and brand development firm. He’ll speak about the value of Linked In and why you should start using it now. Afterwards, we’ll read Pulitzer [...]

Ira Glass on the basic building blocks of stories: Anecdotes and moments of reflection. Tips for multimedia stories Find characters, actions. The best visuals are interesting people doing interesting things. Use good composition and sequences: wide/medium/tight, the 5-shot sequence Shoot first, then ask questions Slideshow model: Chess competition. Notice the mixture of wide/medium/tight shots, the [...]

But first: What Brian Stelter Reads In this Ted talk, graphic designer Jacob Cass discusses how his personal brand has helped him professionally. In this one, author Seth Godin argues that the Internet has killed mass marketing and given us the ability to connect powerfully with small human units: tribes. As always, class assignments and [...]

Basic composition Fill the frame | Get closer | Take a giant step closer to your subjects! Use the rule of thirds Tips for working with people Look for soft outdoor light Sequences Sequences tell stories: Rescue me 5 shot rule: The BBC method | Venice pier gets its fill | Andrew Lih’s handout Notice [...]

A few of my all time favorites Valentines from 10,000 Words (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) and NPR.

According to a recent study, Twitter users are more likely to follow and interact with journalists on Twitter rather than the media organizations they work for. What does this suggest about your Twitter experience? Do you follow more organizations or people? What does this suggest about your Twitter strategy as an emerging media professional? What [...]

Today we believe anyone can be an artist. Anyone can be a photographer. Anyone can be a blogger or journalist. While technology makes it easier to create and share, the true artist relentlessly studies craft and practices technique. Your textbook author, Carl Sessions Stepp, writes: Writing is a craft. Good writers advance methodically through a [...]

Welcome to MCOM 333! To start off our class discussion, here’s a (parody) social media strategy to consider: In class today, we’ll be discussing this video, the course syllabus, the course schedule, the movie Press Play Pause, and your homework. Here’s an example of the homework for you. My current social media profile Here’s a [...]