Magazines
- History of Photography
- a bit of tech
- Matthew Brady/The Civil War
- Life Magazine
- The Great Depression and Photojournalism (Dorothea Lange, then Robert Capa to James Nachtwey)
- Modern Magazines – design, structure, elements as per
- Feature Articles – styles and characteristics
Photos in Magazines
- started with drawings, obviously
- started using half-tone engravings of photos
- in the 20th century, there was a new tech to send photos by wire
- it worked for real in the 30s
- basically it is a fax machine (primitive)
- the first photo used in the papers was a disaster photo – a plane crash and this tells us how photos are used to this day
- other early photos were of New Years celebrations in Times Square (NYC), celebrities in Los Angeles and photos of criminals and crime scenes
- What makes a photo newsworthy?
- If something has a mass impact
- Tragedy, shock, violence, famous people, attention grabbing
- A photo serves to anchor the article – some people only look at the photo – if the picture can tell the story on its own, it is a winner.
- Emotion, fear, human interest (kitties), etc
Elements of Photographs – for photo study (artistic, structural review and analysis)
Target Audience and Demographics
Assignments:
Demographic Analysis of Self
Photo Review and Analysis
Magazine Mockup – cover, 1 article per group member, target audience rationale
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Tabloids
Tabloids
- history of –
- Generoso Pope
- format, structure and elements
- use of sources
- juxtaposition, etc
- car crash appeal, LCD
- history of –
- Generoso Pope
- format, structure and elements
- use of sources
- juxtaposition, etc
- car crash appeal, LCD
Monday, August 30, 2010
Newspapers
- history of –
- Industrial Revolution
- Hearst and Pulitzer
- Yellow Journalism
- expanded audience
- bias and bully pulpit/politics
- LCD newspaper – lurid, photos, headlines, splash
- Jack the Ripper – case study – news and sensationalism
- telegraph and technology
- format, structure and elements (ie Inverted Pyramid, sections, front page, what is newsworthy, etc)
Assignments:
Newspaper Scavenger Hunt
Brief Quiz
Front page mockup
What is the Inverted Pyramid?
Before the end of the 19th century, stories were almost always told in the traditional, slow-paced (let's say long-winded) way. Whether they were fairy tales or newspaper accounts, they began with a signal that something important, useful, inspiring or entertaining was about to begin (“Once upon a time”). The narrator, or storyteller, started at the beginning and continued to the end, leaving the outcome until the last (“And they lived happily ever after”).
That changed with the invention of the telegraph, and a new way of newswriting was created as a response to that, for a number of reasons:
Expense - sending info via telegraph required much time, expertise and infrastructure that added a great deal of cost to the usage
Errors - lines could be damaged, info lost, signal corrupted, misinterpreted, interfered with in a number of ways, which necessitated faster, shorter messages with the key info front loaded (the who, what, where, when_ - the why would have to get
Inverted pyramid checklist
When you write an inverted pyramid news story, use the following checklist to make sure that you have done it correctly. (This section comes from JPROF - the website for teaching journalism)
Information should be presented in descending order of importance.
Leads
Second paragraph
Attribution
AP style
Always. Check numbers, dates, locations, titles, etc.
Check the following
Short paragraphs -- any paragraph more than three sentences is definitely too long; any paragraph that is three sentences is probably too long.
Wordiness -- have you checked for too much verbiage, redundancies, unnecessary repetitions, etc.
Name, title -- When you put the title before a name, do not separate them with commas, such as
(WRONG): Game warden, Brad Fisher, arrested the trespassers.
When the name comes before the title, the title should be set off by commas.
Brad Fisher, the game warden, arrested the trespassers.
Transitions -- use them to tie your paragraphs together. Don’t jump from one subject to another in a new paragraph without giving the reader some warning.
Don’t copy the wording of the information sheet.
Names -- check them once more to make sure they are spelled correctly.
A Few Example Notes
Why Is the Newspaper So Successful through the 20th Century?
1. Cheap form of entertainment and time passing.
2. There wasn’t much competition for much of the 20th century
3. Newspapers got more advanced and more interesting –photos, reports from around the world, techniques for writing would improve, etc.
4. Newspapers are portable, disposable and you can “forage read”- read bits and pieces – it is designed for piecemeal reading – sections
5. Newspapers were regional and applied to the population of a specific area.
Why is the Newspaper Industry Dying Out in the 21st Century?
1. Internet beats Newspaper for speed of delivery of news
2. People are getting lazier at reading – the Internet is more “fun” and “screeny” rather than “texty”
3. Internet news feels free – newspapers cost money
4. Internet allows for a more modern way of interacting with the info – video, audio, talkback (www.digg.com), drilling down, widening out, etc.
5. Audiences are shrinking, and therefore ad revenue is shrinking.
Rats Langis costs about a buck
The New York Times costs about a buck.
Why are they the same price?
Answer: advertising pays for the costs of the paper.
- history of –
- Industrial Revolution
- Hearst and Pulitzer
- Yellow Journalism
- expanded audience
- bias and bully pulpit/politics
- LCD newspaper – lurid, photos, headlines, splash
- Jack the Ripper – case study – news and sensationalism
- telegraph and technology
- format, structure and elements (ie Inverted Pyramid, sections, front page, what is newsworthy, etc)
Assignments:
Newspaper Scavenger Hunt
Brief Quiz
Front page mockup
What is the Inverted Pyramid?
Before the end of the 19th century, stories were almost always told in the traditional, slow-paced (let's say long-winded) way. Whether they were fairy tales or newspaper accounts, they began with a signal that something important, useful, inspiring or entertaining was about to begin (“Once upon a time”). The narrator, or storyteller, started at the beginning and continued to the end, leaving the outcome until the last (“And they lived happily ever after”).
That changed with the invention of the telegraph, and a new way of newswriting was created as a response to that, for a number of reasons:
Expense - sending info via telegraph required much time, expertise and infrastructure that added a great deal of cost to the usage
Errors - lines could be damaged, info lost, signal corrupted, misinterpreted, interfered with in a number of ways, which necessitated faster, shorter messages with the key info front loaded (the who, what, where, when_ - the why would have to get
Inverted pyramid checklist
When you write an inverted pyramid news story, use the following checklist to make sure that you have done it correctly. (This section comes from JPROF - the website for teaching journalism)
Information should be presented in descending order of importance.
Leads- one sentence
- 30-35 words maximum
- lead tells the most important information in the story and gives specific facts
Second paragraph- expand or develop some idea introduced in the lead
- should not drop the story into a chronological narrative
Attribution- All major information should be attributed unless it is commonly known or unless the information itself strongly implies the source.
- Don’t dump a string of direct quotations on the reader.
- Direct quotations should be no more than two sentences long.
- Direct quotations and their attribution should be punctuated properly. Here’s an example:
“John did not go with her,” he said. - Elements of a direct quotation should be in the proper sequence, as in the example above: direct quote, speaker, verb.
AP styleAlways. Check numbers, dates, locations, titles, etc.
Check the following- pronoun-antecedent agreement
- it, its, it’s
- “it is . . .”, “there is . . .”, “there are . . .” structures; avoid these. They are passive and vague.
- Use the past tense, not the present.
- Comma splice or run-on sentence, such as
He picked up the ball, he ran down the field.
Sally does not know where he is he is not here.
These are grammatically incorrect. - Plurals -- don’t make them by using an “apostrophe s”.
Short paragraphs -- any paragraph more than three sentences is definitely too long; any paragraph that is three sentences is probably too long.Wordiness -- have you checked for too much verbiage, redundancies, unnecessary repetitions, etc.Name, title -- When you put the title before a name, do not separate them with commas, such as(WRONG): Game warden, Brad Fisher, arrested the trespassers.
When the name comes before the title, the title should be set off by commas.
Brad Fisher, the game warden, arrested the trespassers.
Transitions -- use them to tie your paragraphs together. Don’t jump from one subject to another in a new paragraph without giving the reader some warning.Don’t copy the wording of the information sheet.Names -- check them once more to make sure they are spelled correctly.A Few Example Notes
Why Is the Newspaper So Successful through the 20th Century?
1. Cheap form of entertainment and time passing.
2. There wasn’t much competition for much of the 20th century
3. Newspapers got more advanced and more interesting –photos, reports from around the world, techniques for writing would improve, etc.
4. Newspapers are portable, disposable and you can “forage read”- read bits and pieces – it is designed for piecemeal reading – sections
5. Newspapers were regional and applied to the population of a specific area.
Why is the Newspaper Industry Dying Out in the 21st Century?
1. Internet beats Newspaper for speed of delivery of news
2. People are getting lazier at reading – the Internet is more “fun” and “screeny” rather than “texty”
3. Internet news feels free – newspapers cost money
4. Internet allows for a more modern way of interacting with the info – video, audio, talkback (www.digg.com), drilling down, widening out, etc.
5. Audiences are shrinking, and therefore ad revenue is shrinking.
Rats Langis costs about a buck
The New York Times costs about a buck.
Why are they the same price?
Answer: advertising pays for the costs of the paper.
Day 2 - Some Terms and Ideas
Forms of Media ( a few suggestions)
Different Forms of Media are all doing a variation of the same thing:
Allowing a particular group of people (PRODUCERS) to communicate with another, larger group of people (AUDIENCE/CONSUMERS) through a MEDIUM that usually involves some form of technology
Technology changes every day, therefore the media change every day, and yet, much remains the same over the years.
EG – Avatar is a movie. Shot on video, in 3D with computer generated images. The actors get their dialogue from a screenplay, which is a written story with a classic old format.
Podcasts are like old time radio programs.
Texting is just the written word, as old as dirt, regardless of the short forms and slang.
However, one of the biggest changes in the media over the years is that, in these modern times:
Modern media is more USER GENERATED and more a participation between the CONSUMER and the PRODUCER and the distance between these two groups is shrinking more every day. – Youtube “celebrities” are an example, Twitter and podcasts are another.
Justin Bieber – created his own career at 15 by posting Youtube videos of himself singing covers. Usher saw them and now Bieber is famous, whether you like him or not.
This is the first video he put out, and it was videos like this that attracted the attention of people in the industry:
Studying the media involves looking at:
The Producers
The Medium (the way they choose to communicate their messages – often a form of technology)
The Consumers
The Context, the time period, the messages that they are communicating, etc. – this area is important because it tells how and why – when we know this, we know more about what we watch or listen to
But Who Cares? Why should we know anything about what we watch?
We are being manipulated all the time.
Our main line of defense is thinking.
EMS30 Some Important Truths:
Mr. Lobb may be the only person in the world that you can trust. Including your Grandma. What? Can this be true?
Maybe. Here’s why:
Everybody else wants something. Even your Grandma.
Who Wants Something?
Mom/Dad – want me to be a good person, even if I want to be a robber – they want me to be a success, even if I want to lay on the couch and eat Doritos instead of working
They’re correct in what that want of course, but it’s still affecting how they deal with me. They hide the truth, they want the best for me. They don’t necessarily have the ability to tell me the absolute truth – they are in some way perhaps blinded by their parental feelings for you.
Girl/Boyfriend – forget the obvious, she wants me to love her, she will behave in a way to enhance our relationship – she wants me to make her feel wanted and so on.
Nike – one thing – cash – they might want your loyalty to get more of your cash
Mr. Matthews – wants you to be respectful and disciplined in the building to make everything work best for everyone else in the building, including for you.
Mr. Sub – cash and loyalty
James Cameron – cash, loyalty, wants you to be amazed and affected by his movie.
Mr. Lobb – wants you to think for yourself and find your own way, your own answers, your own reasons. He wants nothing else. It would be great if you would want to hand in all your work and get great marks with awesome assignments too, but that is something that he wants YOU to want.
In general, we need to look at the people who do things around us, to us, for us and we say – what does he/she want?
When we do this, we start to learn what’s REALLY happening around us.
This is a key part of our goal in EMS30 – to get critical and analytical on the media and the world around us, and maybe even learn to put our own voices and messages out there and be producers ourselves.
Speaking of which – don’t forget to start up that blog at www.blogger.com and send me an email with your blog address and you email address.
See you next time
- - TV
- - Music
- - Video
- - Advertising
- - Books
- - Video games
- - Posters
- - Magazines
- - Internet
- - Radio
- - Newspapers
- - Flyers (direct mail)
- - Clothing (subtle advertising)
- - Licensed or branded products of all sorts
- - Public speaking (media requires a message, a way of getting it out and an audience)
- - Texting (which we agree NOT TO DO IN THIS CLASS PLEASE)
- - Social networking (Twitter, Facebook)
- - IM
- - Skype
- - Podcast
Different Forms of Media are all doing a variation of the same thing:
Allowing a particular group of people (PRODUCERS) to communicate with another, larger group of people (AUDIENCE/CONSUMERS) through a MEDIUM that usually involves some form of technology
Technology changes every day, therefore the media change every day, and yet, much remains the same over the years.
EG – Avatar is a movie. Shot on video, in 3D with computer generated images. The actors get their dialogue from a screenplay, which is a written story with a classic old format.
Podcasts are like old time radio programs.
Texting is just the written word, as old as dirt, regardless of the short forms and slang.
However, one of the biggest changes in the media over the years is that, in these modern times:
Modern media is more USER GENERATED and more a participation between the CONSUMER and the PRODUCER and the distance between these two groups is shrinking more every day. – Youtube “celebrities” are an example, Twitter and podcasts are another.
Justin Bieber – created his own career at 15 by posting Youtube videos of himself singing covers. Usher saw them and now Bieber is famous, whether you like him or not.
This is the first video he put out, and it was videos like this that attracted the attention of people in the industry:
Studying the media involves looking at:
The Producers
The Medium (the way they choose to communicate their messages – often a form of technology)
The Consumers
The Context, the time period, the messages that they are communicating, etc. – this area is important because it tells how and why – when we know this, we know more about what we watch or listen to
But Who Cares? Why should we know anything about what we watch?
We are being manipulated all the time.
Our main line of defense is thinking.
EMS30 Some Important Truths:
Mr. Lobb may be the only person in the world that you can trust. Including your Grandma. What? Can this be true?
Maybe. Here’s why:
Everybody else wants something. Even your Grandma.
Who Wants Something?
Mom/Dad – want me to be a good person, even if I want to be a robber – they want me to be a success, even if I want to lay on the couch and eat Doritos instead of working
They’re correct in what that want of course, but it’s still affecting how they deal with me. They hide the truth, they want the best for me. They don’t necessarily have the ability to tell me the absolute truth – they are in some way perhaps blinded by their parental feelings for you.
Girl/Boyfriend – forget the obvious, she wants me to love her, she will behave in a way to enhance our relationship – she wants me to make her feel wanted and so on.
Nike – one thing – cash – they might want your loyalty to get more of your cash
Mr. Matthews – wants you to be respectful and disciplined in the building to make everything work best for everyone else in the building, including for you.
Mr. Sub – cash and loyalty
James Cameron – cash, loyalty, wants you to be amazed and affected by his movie.
Mr. Lobb – wants you to think for yourself and find your own way, your own answers, your own reasons. He wants nothing else. It would be great if you would want to hand in all your work and get great marks with awesome assignments too, but that is something that he wants YOU to want.
In general, we need to look at the people who do things around us, to us, for us and we say – what does he/she want?
When we do this, we start to learn what’s REALLY happening around us.
This is a key part of our goal in EMS30 – to get critical and analytical on the media and the world around us, and maybe even learn to put our own voices and messages out there and be producers ourselves.
Speaking of which – don’t forget to start up that blog at www.blogger.com and send me an email with your blog address and you email address.
See you next time
Day 1 - Course Description and Info
Welcome to EMS30 for 2011
Hello and welcome to this course.
It's a lot of fun, and there is some work to do, but it's not terribly difficult.
Before we begin, let's find out what the ministry says about this course:
Course Description
This course emphasizes knowledge and skills that enable students to understand media communication in the twenty-first century and to use media effectively and responsibly. Through analysing the forms and messages of a variety of media works and audience responses to them, and through creating their own media works, students develop critical thinking skills, aesthetic and ethical judgment, and skills in viewing, representing, listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
To that end, this is a typical assignment structure I would use in this course. Will I use this exact one this time? Probably. Will there be changes? Probably.
Probable Assignment Structure
Does Mr. Lobb give out handouts of his notes? Yes, if you are ill, absent for something serious, if you have a Mr. Wilkie or other guidance or Spec Ed intervention or if you are failing.
Is it good to ask for handout notes because you sat there and talked or slept? No. But you already know that.
Note Tips:
1. Send Mr. Lobb a Gmail – Checked in (Formative) - thelabcoatguy@gmail.com
- this is me, who I am, picture of yourself if possible
- trying embedding videos, audio or images into the blog - and if you can't try googling the answer as to how to do it. It's easy. Even I can do it.
3. My Favourite Media (with explanations) (Summative)
- tell me about your three favourite forms of media
- ie music, movies, video games
- point out the specific performers, movies, shows, games, etc that you like and give me some explanation as to why you like those
- 500 words is good (aim for that)
- if you run out of gas, then spend some time explaining some you DON’T like, with examples and why.
This is a lot to take in at the start, but you are smart, and you can do it no problem.
See you next time.
Mr. Lobb
Hello and welcome to this course.
It's a lot of fun, and there is some work to do, but it's not terribly difficult.
Before we begin, let's find out what the ministry says about this course:
Course Description
This course emphasizes knowledge and skills that enable students to understand media communication in the twenty-first century and to use media effectively and responsibly. Through analysing the forms and messages of a variety of media works and audience responses to them, and through creating their own media works, students develop critical thinking skills, aesthetic and ethical judgment, and skills in viewing, representing, listening, speaking, reading, and writing.To that end, this is a typical assignment structure I would use in this course. Will I use this exact one this time? Probably. Will there be changes? Probably.
Probable Assignment Structure
- Newspapers – quiz, 2 summatives
- Tabloids – 1 summative
- Comic Books – 1 summative
- Advertising – quiz, 2 summatives
- Television – quiz, 2 summatives
- Music – quiz, 1 summative
- Movies – quiz, 2 summatives
- 10 summatives will be 70% of your total mark (no matter how many I assign) - so, you could be assigned 15 projects, and you can choose to do ONLY 10 of them at the bare minimum.
- 10 formatives – these are to be handed in, but they aren’t marked they give me a checklist for your student skills, etc
- 20% of your total mark will be from the final exam (and quiz marks will be included)
- 10% for the final assessment on movies
Does Mr. Lobb give out handouts of his notes? Yes, if you are ill, absent for something serious, if you have a Mr. Wilkie or other guidance or Spec Ed intervention or if you are failing.
Is it good to ask for handout notes because you sat there and talked or slept? No. But you already know that.
Note Tips:
- a) take notes
- b) get a note buddy – you can trust
- c) form a note group – photocopy from the group – I have done this and it works
- Do Not Text, or Use Your Phone - I will take your phone for the period if you cannot resist and give it back at the end.
- Please pay attention to me, I am a high needs baby.
- Please don’t use Mean Words to hurt others. Think of me as a lesbian, blind, black, wheelchair using, deaf, mute, Asian, developmentally delayed person who is easily offended.
- Further Note: 1/6th of the world is Chinese - you are a minority group.
- We have deadlines, but see #6.
- I will mark work that is late. It is bad to hand work in late makes your life MUCH harder.
- I give due dates by the “week of”.
- Think of it like a job. Work is necessary to be in on time.
- All work can be resubmitted for remarking at any time. Within reason.
1. Send Mr. Lobb a Gmail – Checked in (Formative) - thelabcoatguy@gmail.com
- a) go to www.blogger.com
- b) make a Google account for yourself
- c) get a gmail address
- d) make a free blog – you can put all your written work on it, you can post links, post videos (Youtube), audio, etc
- this is me, who I am, picture of yourself if possible
- trying embedding videos, audio or images into the blog - and if you can't try googling the answer as to how to do it. It's easy. Even I can do it.
3. My Favourite Media (with explanations) (Summative)
- tell me about your three favourite forms of media
- ie music, movies, video games
- point out the specific performers, movies, shows, games, etc that you like and give me some explanation as to why you like those
- 500 words is good (aim for that)
- if you run out of gas, then spend some time explaining some you DON’T like, with examples and why.
This is a lot to take in at the start, but you are smart, and you can do it no problem.
See you next time.
Mr. Lobb
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