Dr. Spaulding

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 [...]

A few recent anniversary stories–the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of Phylicia Barnes–have me thinking: what makes an anniversary story good? Readers sometimes complain such stories are “lazy and pointless.” Scholars often point out that these stories are filled with myth, not [...]

Congratulations to the winners of our second MCOM 407 Best In Show contest! The winners, clockwise from left: Alex Sutton, who won Best Photos for Baltimore Urban Agriculture BoJo Bauer, who won Best Multimedia for Loch Raven Mountain Biking Anni Milli, who won the Judges’ Choice Award for Best Overall Project for Baltimore Community Groups [...]

This one is from Kristin Pattik. Great job!

Before we start, please check the blogroll and Blackboard. Is your site address correct? Are your scores correct? Tuesday class: Using html anchors If you’re a student with a great business idea, your elevator pitch could win $100,000 to start your business. But what if you’re a journalism student? A great elevator pitch that features [...]

This one from Alex Sutton: Read her full story: Baltimore farmers’ markets season coming to an end

Look at the lovely work Annie Millie turned in after our discussion of explainers and infographics a few weeks ago in class: Read her full story: Watch for Flying Discs: Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello Community Corporation Brings Disc Golf to Baltimore’s Lake Montebello.   Here’s another one, this one from Sarah Alexander. Read her full story: City Residents [...]

Can you write a news story using all 10 of the top searches today on Google Trends? And the real question: do you want to? SEO and the Huffington Post Misspelled names are not SEO friendly An example of ultimate SEO? Other examples: What time does the Superbowl start? and Chelsy Davy Accessibility How people [...]

Story & Multimedia #3 due | Nov. 29, Dec.1 Website package due | Dec. 6, 8 Revision sessions | 6 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 29 | 6 p.m. Thursday Dec. 8 | 6:30 p.m. Tuesday Dec. 13 Final Exam | Dec. 15 | Best in Show Awards & Potluck | 6:30 p.m.

Agree or disagree: Student journalists need to learn SEO more than they need to learn AP Style What’s wrong with these headlines?   (first image by me, second image via The Editor’s Desk) Good journalism can also be good SEO. The first headline misses the news: it doesn’t tell us that it was the windiest [...]