Beats and blogs, posting your project, and Audacity editing part deux

1. Beats and blogs,posting your project, and Audacity editing part deux Feb. 28, 2013

2. Class outline - Blog development exercise - Blog and headline writing - How to upload your audio project - Writing for radio - Editing in Audacity, continued

3. News blog vs. Personal blog What are some ways a news blog differs from a personal blog? What are some of the similarities?

4. Blog writing Journalistic Blog posts, like newspaper articles and TV articles, are supposed to be informative. Each post should address a clearly identified topic, related to your beat. Every piece of information should be attributed or sourced. - If citing the reporting of other news organizations, provide a link - If you gathered material from an interview or report, label it as such - Try to answer the who, what and when somewhere in your post (how and why, as needed, too!)

5. Blog writing Succinct Limit the length of your posts to no more than 500 words. Accept that you may not be able to include every piece of information you feel is important to the story. Be selective. Use links to give readers an opportunity to go deeper.

6. Blog writing Clear writing Assume Web users want information fast. How can you inform them in a direct but engaging way? All content should be clear and concise. Edit your content before posting. Remove information which is irrelevant.

7. Blog writing

8. Blog writing • Headlines • Must be short, accurate, direct • In present tense, active voice • Not: Supreme Court conservatives • expressed skepticism over voting law • provision • Express a complete thought • Subject-Verb-Object • - Immigrant release – sparks – firestorm • Not: Opposition to illegal immigrant release • - SupCo conservatives – express – skepticism • Not: Voting law skepticism

9. Blog writing Headlines Use proper nouns only if they are common knowledge Don’t oversell Ensure it works out of context Play with language to entice readers

10. Blog writing Generally speaking: Gather, organize and interpret

11. Posting your audio project There are multiple ways to post your project to your Wordpress blog. See: en.support.wordpress.com/audio/ The quickest way is to do this via SoundCloud: www.Soundcloud.com

12. Posting your audio project 1. Go to SoundCloud and establish an account 2. Once you’re logged in, click Upload http://soundcloud.com/upload

13. Posting your audio project 3. > Choose files, and select your file from your desktop

14. Posting your audio project 4. When project has uploaded, enter project information … … Then hit the Save button at the bottom

15. Posting your audio project 5. You’re ready to go! Hit “Share” and copy the Wordpress code at the bottom of the pop-up window.

16. Posting your audio project 6. Log into your Wordpress blog and paste that code into a New Post.

17. Posting your audio project 7. Add supplemental text as needed into post body, then publish!

18. Writing for radio

19. Writing for radio Not: Michelle Obama will visit Chicago Thursday… Michelle Obama is scheduled to visit Chicago…

20. Writing for radio Active voice Present tense Smooth transition into a relevant soundbyte No redundancy between reporter and interviewee

21. Writing for radio Want to learn more? Listen to and read the work of pros: wbez.organd npr.org Poynter’s News University offers two self-directed online courses: 1) www.newsu.org/courses/telling-stories-sound 2) www.newsu.org/courses/writing-ear

22. Audacity - Creating and using multiple tracks - How to decrease track volume - Ambient sound - Smooshing - Questions?