Land Acknowledgement

Carleton University acknowledges the location of its campus on the traditional, unceded territories of the Algonquin nation

Time: Wednesdays 8:35 a.m. – 11:25 a.m. Eastern Time
Dates: Sept 4, 2024 – Oct. 16, 2024
Location: Richcraft Hall, 4114

Instructor
David McKie Email: davidmckiec@gmail.com
Phone: 613-858-1429 Office hours: By appointment

Photography instructor
David Kawai davidkawai@gmail.com
613-884-1623

TA
Justin Fiacconi
JUSTINFIACCONI@cmail.carleton.ca
519-671-6479

Course Methods
This is a workshop course that offered in person, subject to Carleton University COVID-19 policy. Full details will be available on Brightspace.

Course Description
JOUR 3235 is a reporting course in which students produce works of journalism intended for publication on Capital Current (https://capitalcurrent.ca). The course is divided into two six-week segments. In this segment, we will build upon some of the digital skills acquired in second year and develop some additional ones. The focus will be upon data and photography.

You an also find this syllabus on Brightspace.

Course Objectives
Students who successfully complete this course should be able to:
• download datasets from government open-data portals;
• manipulate data filtering, sorting and creating pivot tables to see newsworthy patterns;
• recognize the importance data and visual elements can play in journalism;
• write a data-driven story;
• produce journalistic work that incorporates visualized data;
• shoot and edit high quality photographs.


Online Resources
There is no textbook for this course segment. Resources, readings, instructions, handouts and examples will be made available throughout the course via Brightspace.

Assignments
Your final grade for this course will be calculated based on the grades you earn on your assignments as follows. (Keep in mind that the assignments for the multimedia half of the course make up 50% of the overall course weighting. The other 50% comes from the reporting half. Also, as noted later in the outline, you must achieve a passing grade in each of the six-week segments of this course to achieve a passing grade for the course as a whole.)

Visualized data: 15%
Data story: 30%
Photo essay: 25%
Quizzes: 10%
Small assignment(s): 10%
Professionalism: 10%

Visualized data
This is the graphic that will accompany the data story. This graphic will be produced using Datawrapper, according to best practices outlined during the course, and will be included in your data story. The visualization should include the following:
• A pithy headline;
• A sub-headline that explains what the audience is seeing;
• A source citation, which in this case would be Statistics Canada;
• A visualization such as a bar chart or line graph that is easy to understand due to its simplicity.

Data story
The data story is a piece of written journalism, produced in teams that must follow these guidelines:
• roughly 700-800 words in length;
• submitted with no spelling or grammar mistakes and according to CP style;
• includes at least three human sources;
• includes no fewer than two pieces of visualized data (which will count as the ‘visualized data’ assignment);
• includes at least one relevant photograph or image;
• includes at least one hyperlinks (URL) to external primary source of information;
• pay attention to the headline. The more imaginative and snappy, the better.


Photo essay
This is a series of between five and seven photos that tell us a story about somebody in your community. The photo essay is an individual assignment. Because the idea is to shoot tghe photographs within the individual’s personal space, be it a room in a house, students can choose to profile somebody in their household, friend, or acquaintance. More details will be available on this site and Brightspace.

Quizzes
There will be a number of quizzes that follow instructional videos and/or readings. Quizzes are generally made up of five multiple-choice questions and will be done either through Brightspace or emailed to me. The final grade for the quizzes will be calculated as the percentage of the total number of questions answered correctly. Please note that if you are late for class or have missed it entirely, and haven’t given the instructor a heads-up, you will not be allowed to retake it.

Small assignments
There will be smaller assignments on data visualization and photo editing. These assignments will also be graded on a five-point scale.

Professionalism
Professionalism covers a wide range of practices, including attending class, being on time, contributing to class discussion, and working constructively with others.

Final course grades
JOUR 3235 is composed of two six-week segments. An overall grade of C or better must be obtained in 3235 in order to proceed to the next level of reporting courses. A grade of F in one of the segments of the course will result in an automatic overall grade of F for the course as a whole. If you receive a grade less than a C (D-to C-) in one or both of the segments, the final overall grade will not be higher than a C-. This means that you will be ineligible to proceed to the next level of reporting courses. If the above grade conditions are met, the final grade for the course will be the average of the two segments.
Questions or appeals about your grade on assignments or other graded components of the course should be raised with the instructor no later than seven business days after the grade has been issued, as explained in the university’s undergraduate academic regulations (3.3.4 and 3.3.5, https://calendar.carleton.ca/undergrad/regulations/academicregulationsoftheuniversity/regulations-for-degree-students). Your final course grade is based on grades earned throughout the term on the assignments and other graded components listed in the syllabus. This means requests to raise an overall course grade at the end of the term or year cannot be considered.
Standing in a course is determined by the course instructor subject to the approval of the Faculty Dean. This means that grades submitted by an instructor may be subject to revision. No grades are final until they have been approved by the Dean.

Grading criteria
Professionalism matters here, as it will throughout your careers. This is a professional school, so students will be expected to meet professional standards in both assignments and conduct.
Regarding assignments, meeting professional standards means completing them according to the criteria outlined in class and in the course outline, as well as submitting them on time. If you are unclear about the requirements for any assignment, it is your responsibility to ask the instructors or the teaching assistant for clarification well before the assignment is due.
If you expect an exceptional grade, you will need to produce exceptional work. Letter grades will be awarded to each assignment within the following range:

An A range grade will be awarded to excellent work. Generally this means that written assignments:
• are presented in clear, well-written prose, free of spelling, style and grammatical errors;
• include the requisite number of sources, presented in an appropriate context;
• demonstrate a strong understanding of the relevant issues; and
• are produced with high ethical standards.
A B range grade will be awarded to solid work. Generally, this means written assignments may be lacking at least one of the elements required for A range work listed above.

Grades of C or D will be awarded to sub-standard work. Generally this means that written assignments are lacking most of the elements required for A range work listed above.

An F will be given to assignments that are late, contain significant errors of fact, fail to meet the requirements of the assignment, and/or seriously violate the School’s Ethics and Professional Standards.

Professional Conduct

Meeting professional standards includes being on time, regular, meaningful participation; accepting responsibility for mistakes; and treating your classmates, teaching assistants, technical support staff and instructors with respect, even under the pressure of deadline.

Attendance

Showing up, whether it’s to a reporting assignment, a team meeting with colleagues or a shift at work, is a key part of journalism. Being there and being reliable matters. The same is true for attending class, regardless of whether it’s a lecture, seminar or workshop.

All students must attend 75% of instructional time to pass this course. If you miss more than this amount (not including apprenticeships or sick days), it’s an automatic fail. If you anticipate missing more than three classes or 75% of instructional time, please contact the instructor by email as soon as possible to discuss your personal circumstances.

Statement on Plagiarism
The Carleton University Senate defines plagiarism as “presenting, whether intentionally or not, the ideas, expression of ideas or work of others as one’s own.” This can include:

• reproducing or paraphrasing portions of someone else’s published or unpublished material, regardless of the source, and presenting these as one’s own without proper citation or reference to the original source;
• submitting a take-home examination, essay, laboratory report or other assignment written, in whole or in part, by someone else;
• using ideas or direct, verbatim quotations, or paraphrased material, concepts, or ideas without appropriate acknowledgment in any academic assignment;
• using another’s data or research findings;
• failing to acknowledge sources through the use of proper citations when using another’s works and/or failing to use quotation marks;
• handing in “substantially the same piece of work for academic credit more than once without prior written permission of the course instructor in which the submission occurs.”

Plagiarism is a serious offence that cannot be resolved directly by the course’s instructor. The Associate Dean of the Faculty conducts a rigorous investigation, including an interview with the student, when an instructor suspects a piece of work has been plagiarized. Penalties are not trivial. They can include a final grade of “F” for the course.”

You should familiarize yourself with Carleton University’s policy on Academic Integrity, which can be found by following the link below: https://carleton.ca/registrar/academic-integrity

Academic Advice

If you have questions about the journalism program, degree requirements, your standing in the program or your academic audit, you should contact the Undergraduate Administrator Gwen Morgan at gwen.morgan@carleton.ca or Undergraduate Supervisor Prof. Aneurin Bosley at aneurin.bosley@carleton.ca.

Ethics and Professional Standards

This is a professional school, and you’ll be held to professional standards in both assignments and conduct. As a student of journalism, you must read and adhere to the School’s policies.

Our ethics policy sets out the rules of behaviour that you, as students and journalists, are expected to follow as you carry out your assignments for this course. One of the rules, for example, makes clear that you must not interview relatives or friends for your story, except in rare and special circumstances and with the advance permission of the instructor.

Our publishing policy requires certain authorizations before journalistic coursework can be published outside of the class. In addition, your sources must understand that any assignments they are associated with may be published outside of class, typically on Capital Current.

Our policy on electronic media usage requires that you follow copyright regulations with respect to your use of all materials culled from the Internet. For example, you cannot use any pictures you find online in your assignments unless you get written permission from the copyright holder to use them and submit it to the instructor.

Undergraduates can find all three policies on this page: https://carleton.ca/sjc/journalism/undergraduate-studies/resources-current-undergraduate-students/ You are expected to be familiar with these policies and apply them to your work. Failure to abide by them will adversely affect your standing in the course.

You are expected to be familiar with these policies and apply them to your work. Failure to abide by them will adversely affect your standing in the course.

Carleton E-mail Accounts
All email communication to students from the Communication and Media Studies Program will be via official Carleton university e-mail accounts and/or Brightspace. As important course and University information are distributed this way, it is the student’s responsibility to monitor their Carleton and Brightspace accounts.

Course Copyright
Classroom teaching and learning activities, including lectures, discussions, presentations, etc., by both instructors and students, are copyright protected and remain the intellectual property of their respective author(s). All course materials, including PowerPoint presentations, outlines, and other materials, are also protected by copyright and remain the intellectual property of their respective author(s).

Students registered in the course may take notes and make copies of course materials for their own educational use only. Students are not permitted to reproduce or distribute lecture notes and course materials publicly for commercial or non-commercial purposes without express written consent from the copyright holder(s).

Session Recording
Web conferencing sessions in this course will be recorded and made available only to those within the class. Sessions will be recorded to enable access to students who can not make the class due to illness and can either participate from home, or at a later date to get caught up before the following class. The recordings will also make it possible for the students to review the technical aspects you’ll be tested on the following week. If students wish not to be recorded, they need to leave your camera and microphone turned off.

You will be notified at the start of the session when the recording will start, and Zoom will always notify meeting participants that a meeting is being recorded. It is not possible to disable this notification.

Please note that recordings are protected by copyright. The recordings are for your own educational use, but you are not permitted to publish to third party sites, such as social media sites and course materials sites.

You may be expected to use the video and/or audio and/or chat during web conferencing sessions for participation and collaboration. If you have concerns about being recorded, please email me directly so we can discuss these.

COVID-19 and the Classroom
Though we are thankfully through the worst of the pandemic, COVID is still an unfortunate part of our daily lives. If you are feeling unwell and suspect you may have COVID-19, or indeed have tested positive, please stay at home and, if you are well enough, you can join remotely, as our classes will be recorded on Zoom. If you are too unwell to attend, you’ll be required to review the class recording at your earliest convenience to avoid falling behind.

Equity and Diversity
Discussion and debate play valuable roles in online and in-person classes. Differing views should focus on the content of the material and efforts should be made to understand how a person’s lived experience might or ought to shape their perspectives. Racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and ableist language WILL NOT be tolerated.

Carleton’s journalism program is committed to creating a welcoming, stimulating, professional and creative environment for our increasingly diverse student body. We commit to eliminating racism against Racialized and Indigenous people, as well as inequities or other barriers based on ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender expression, sexual orientation or ability. We hope our program’s commitment to anti-racism and anti-oppression practices will benefit all of our students while they are here and that it will foster a wider culture of equity and inclusion in newsrooms of the future as they respond to and report on an increasingly diverse society.

The Permanent Working Group was established to help keep the journalism school on track with structural changes that aim to make the school a safe and welcoming environment for all students. The group also provides specific direction and advice to the journalism program committee and head on matters pertaining to equity and inclusion. Students wishing to propose programmatic ideas or who have concerns may contact us directly via https://carleton.ca/sjc/journalism/equity-and-inclusion/permanent-working-group.

The Department of Equity and Inclusive Communities fosters the development of an inclusive and transformational university culture where individual distinctiveness and a sense of belonging for every member drive excellence in research, teaching, learning and working at Carleton. Students with complaints may direct them to the Department of Equity and Inclusive Communities via https://carleton.ca/equity.

The journalism program has a student-led Association for Equity and Inclusion in Journalism. Its mission is to make the journalism school a safe(r) space for Black, Indigenous, and students of colour, 2SLGBTQ+ students and students with disabilities/disabled students. More information about the association can be found at https://carleton.ca/sjc/journalism/equity-and-inclusion/student-association.

Additional Student Support

The Centre for Student Academic Support (CSAS) is a centralized collection of learning support services designed to help students achieve their goals and improve their learning both inside and outside the classroom. CSAS offers academic assistance with course content, academic writing and skills development. Visit CSAS on the 4th floor of MacOdrum Library or online at https://carleton.ca/csas.

Requests for Academic Accommodation
Carleton University is committed to providing access to the educational experience to promote academic accessibility for all individuals.

Academic accommodation refers to educational practices, systems and support mechanisms designed to accommodate diversity and difference. The purpose of accommodation is to enable students to perform the essential requirements of their academic programs. At no time does academic accommodation undermine or compromise the learning objectives that are established by the academic authorities of the University.

You may need special arrangements to meet your academic obligations during the term. For an accommodation request, the processes are as follows:

Pregnancy obligation
Please contact your instructor with any requests for academic accommodation during the first two weeks of class, or as soon as possible after the need for accommodation is known to exist. For more details, visit the Equity Services website: https://carleton.ca/equity/wp-content/uploads/Student-Guide-to-Academic-Accommodation.pdf.

Religious obligation
Please contact your instructor with requests for academic accommodation during the first two weeks of class, or as soon as possible after the need for accommodation is known to exist. For more details, visit the Equity Services website: https://carleton.ca/equity/wp-content/uploads/Student-Guide-to-Academic-Accommodation.pdf.

Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
If you have a documented disability requiring academic accommodations in this course, please contact the Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities (PMC) at 613-520-6608 or pmc@carleton.ca for a formal evaluation or contact your PMC coordinator to send your instructor your Letter of Accommodation at the beginning of the term. You must also contact the PMC no later than two weeks before the first in-class scheduled test or exam requiring accommodation (if applicable). After requesting accommodation from PMC, meet with your instructor as soon as possible to ensure accommodation arrangements are made. For more details, visit the Paul Menton Centre website.

Survivors of Sexual Violence
As a community, Carleton University is committed to maintaining a positive learning, working and living environment where sexual violence WILL NOT be tolerated and where survivors are supported through academic accommodations as per Carleton’s Sexual Violence Policy. For more information about the services available at the university and to obtain information about sexual violence and/or support, visit: https://carleton.ca/equity/focus/sexual-violence-prevention-survivor-support.

Accommodation for Student Activities
Carleton University recognizes the substantial benefits, both to the individual student and for the university, that result from a student participating in activities beyond the classroom experience. Reasonable accommodation must be provided to students who compete or perform at the national or international level. Please contact your instructor with any requests for academic accommodation during the first two weeks of class, or as soon as possible after the need for accommodation is known to exist. https://carleton.ca/senate/wp-content/uploads/Accommodation-for-Student-Activities-1.pdf.

For more information on academic accommodation, please contact the departmental administrator or visit: https://students.carleton.ca/course-outline.

JOUR3235 (multimedia): Week One

Class recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UzNefdkBew

What you will learn

• Introductions and course overview;
• A general discussion about data and how it is used in stories;
• An introduction to the concept of open data;
• Exercises with datasets from Statistics Canada website;
• Lookahead to next week.

Links

Ottawa communities have a need for speed control measures, but are they effective?
Ottawa communities have a need for speed control measures, but are they effective? – Capital Current

Ottawa students struggling to afford housing as rents rise across province
Ottawa students struggling to afford housing as rents rise across province – Capital Current

‘I have started to buy only the necessities:’ Food inflation threatens students’ ability to consume a balanced diet
‘I have started to buy only the necessities:’ Food inflation threatens students’ ability to consume a balanced diet – Capital Current

Working it out: Ontario youth struggle to find jobs as unemployment rates rise
Working it out: Ontario youth struggle to find jobs as unemployment rates rise – Capital Current

Unemployment rate unchanged in July, though jobless rate for young people continued to rise
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/jobs-july-stats-can-1.7289784

July jobs report ‘does nothing to dissuade’ more rate cuts: economists
https://globalnews.ca/news/10689917/canada-jobs-unemployment-july-2024/

Statistics Canada

StatCan release schedules

StatCan 2024 release schedule – PDF version
http://www.davidmckie.com/StatCan release sked_2024-eng.pdf

Statistics Canada’s data tables

How to use Statistics Canada’s data tables
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/sc/video/howto

Labour Force Survey, July 2024
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240809/dq240809a-eng.htm

Labour Force Survey – Statcan Instagram post
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-vDW9bzc9S/?img_index=1

Labour Force Survey – Statcan Twitter post
https://x.com/StatCan_eng/status/1821901900175790419

Labour Force Survey in brief: Interactive app
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/14-20-0001/142000012018001-eng.htm

Labour force characteristics by immigrant status, three-month moving average, unadjusted for seasonality
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410008201

Consumer Price Index: Interactive app
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/2018016/cpilg-ipcgl-eng.htm

Data to download

Labour Force Survey stats for total population and immigrant status
http://www.davidmckie.com/LFS Total_Immigrant Status.xlsx

Assignments

Sign up for a Datawapper account.

Repeat the exercises in Excel that we reviewed in class using the class recording as an instructional video.

JOUR3235 (multimedia): Week Two

Class recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_57ZcVNDS28

What you will learn

Mini-test based on last week’s Excel exercises;
Choosing groups, reviewing the data-story assignment and reviewing filtering and sorting to produce story ideas;
Pivot tables using Labour Force Survey;
Lookahead to next week.

Links

Canada’s unemployment rate rose in August amid tough summer job market
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-jobs-sept-2024-1.7315234

Alberta’s unemployment rate spiked in July, Edmonton’s too
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-s-unemployment-rate-spiked-in-july-edmonton-s-too-1.7027987

Canada’s unemployment rate hits 7-year high in August
https://globalnews.ca/news/10736478/jobs-unemployment-canada-august-2024/

Labour Force Survey, August 2024
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240906/dq240906a-eng.htm

Labour force characteristics, monthly, seasonally adjusted and trend-cycle, last 5 months (for August 2024)
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv.action?pid=1410028701

Labour force characteristics by immigrant status, three-month moving average, unadjusted for seasonality
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410008201

Consumer Price Index: Interactive app
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/2018016/cpilg-ipcgl-eng.htm

Consumer Price Index, July 2024
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240820/dq240820a-eng.htm

Canada’s inflation rate falls to 2.5%, paving way for another interest rate cut
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canada-s-inflation-rate-falls-to-2-5-paving-way-for-another-interest-rate-cut-1.7006941#:~:text=July%202024%20year%2Dover%2Dyear,as%20of%20August%2020%2C%202024.&text=In%20addition%20to%20the%20latest,the%20end%20of%20the%20month.

Canada’s inflation rate dips to 2.5% in July, lowest since March 2021
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cpi-july-2024-1.7299200

Consumer Price Index
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/2018016/cpilg-ipcgl-eng.htm

Google Alerts
https://www.google.ca/alerts

The problem with the province’s crime stats and closing supervised consumption sites
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/what-do-crime-stats-actually-say-about-the-supervised-consumption-site-at-somerset-west

The problem with the provinces crime stats and closing supervised consumption sites.pdf

Ottawa police launch interactive map for crime statistics
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/ottawa-police-launch-interactive-map-for-crime-statistics

Ottawa Police Force open-data portal
https://data.ottawapolice.ca/

Ottawa Police Crime Map from 2013-2022
https://data.ottawapolice.ca/datasets/25a533e5e7c945faadf37765639657a5_16/explore

Ottawa Police Crime Map (year end) 2018-2023
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/e5a8c6d852f242758355702fa041c012/

Assignment

Read chapter three of Nathan Yau’s Data Points and check out his website https://flowingdata.com/. Download chapter three by clicking here.

Repeat the exercises in Excel that we reviewed in class using the class recording as an instructional video.

JOUR3235 (multimedia): Week Three

Class recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKZIAVP5xZw

What you will learn

• A review of last week’s pivot table exercises;
• Calculating rates;
• Discussion of progress on stories;
• Lookahead to next week.

Links

Canada’s inflation rate fell to 2% in August, hitting Bank of Canada’s target
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/inflation-bank-of-canada-target-1.7325365

Canadas inflation rate cools to 2 per cent – The Globe and Mail
http://www.davidmckie.com/Canadas inflation rate cools to 2 per cent.pdf

Consumer Price Index, August 2024
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240917/dq240917a-eng.htm

Consumer Price Index: Interactive app
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/2018016/cpilg-ipcgl-eng.htm

Consumer Price Index, August 2024
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240820/dq240820a-eng.htm

Labour Force Survey in brief: Interactive app
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/14-20-0001/142000012018001-eng.htm

Labour force characteristics of immigrants by sex and age group, three-month moving average, unadjusted for seasonality ¹
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410008401

Instructional video

Creating a table in Datawrapper using cannabis data – Aneurin Bosley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi5tJyqaeTA

Assignment

If you haven’t already done so, read Nathan Yau’s chapter — referenced under the previous week’s “assignment” section to prepare for next week’s quiz.

Your data story (the story itself and the graphic in Datawrapper) is due by 17:00 on Sept 30

JOUR3235 (multimedia): Week Four

Class recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6Wvw0IJGAA

What you will learn

• Dataviz quiz on Nathan Yau’s chapter;
• Ways of thinking about the data you want to visualize and discussion of techniques;
• Group work on stories due Monday Sept 30;
• discussed in Nathan Yau’s chapter;
• Lookahead to photo stories.

Links

Headline Analyzer Tool: Write Better Headlines
https://capitalizemytitle.com/

DataWrapper example using Consumer Price Index data
http://www.davidmckie.com/41686-2/

Resources

Capital Current WordPress Pagination.pdf

Capital Current Production Style Guide-F20.pdf

Cropping and ratios.pptx

JOUR3235 (multimedia): Week Five

What you will learn

• Quiz and quiz review (camera mechanics and PhotoShop);
• Review portrait assignment;
• Lookahead to photo stories.

Links

Portrait Assignment

Make a landscape oriented (not vertical) portrait of a person you know. It must be someone whose life you can get good access to for the next couple of weeks. The individual could be a relative, a friend, or even a complete stranger. The main light source for the photograph must be daylight from a window (but that doesn’t mean you need to place your subject right next to the window). The location must be inside the person’s home or living space. Include a CP Style caption to describe your photo. Submit it by email to David McKie, David Kawai, and Justin Fiacconi before next class.

Text or call if you have questions. You’ll find my coordinates at the top of the syllabus.

1. The example I used to illustrate CP caption style in class is found in the “Pictures” section of my edition of the CP Stylebook. It was on page 119, but it might be slightly different depending on what edition you own. The main points to notice about a CP style caption is that there are two sentences. The first sentence describes the moment/action captured in the photo, with the location, including the city, and the date. The second sentence provides a broader context for your story. Lastly, sign off with PHOTO ASSIGNMENT/Your Name.
2. The “moment” in the portrait CAN be quite static and posed, such as “stands in her room” or “sits on his bed,” but a portrait CAN ALSO be more active, such as “reads on her bed,” “does a pull-up on his door frame” or “meticulously arranges her vast collection of Dungeons and Dragons figurines,” for some examples. Just remember that a portrait should show your subject’s face in a way that we can easily identify him/her/them. With few exceptions (you can ask me about your concept if in doubt), we should be able to see your subject’s face clearly enough to recognize the individual on the street.
3. Shoot lots of photos in the process of getting to the best frame. A portrait is never just one or two snaps. For example, I might take 3-5 photos for every moment I’m timing up to capture. In a 20 minute portrait session, I can easily blast off 100 frames from various angles and potential moments. At this early stage in some of your understandings of photography, lean on the side of over-shooting so that you have plenty of options to pick when reflecting on the results. You’d be amazed how frequently we end up finding the best frame in the outtake pile.
4. Use the crop tool to size your photo 1200px wide by 800px tall in Photoshop. Use the Save As dialogue in the File drop down menu to export your photo. Name your file PORTRAIT-YourName.jpg. Click save, and when you see a pop-up for “Image Options: quality,” drag the slider to adjust the file size output to be between 300K-500K.
5. Think about making some close ups, some medium frames and some wider ones too, and try playing with the position of your subject in the frame/context of the room. Think about how bright or dark your photo result should be. Have some fun and let your subject settle in long enough to get comfortable with you.

Photo examples

Watch the following videos before the next class

Video tutorial: Camera mechanics

Video tutorial: Basic editing in PhotoShop

Video: Aspect ratios and cropping

Resources

Powerpoint on cropping and ratios
http://www.davidmckie.com/cropping and ratios.pptx

JOUR3235 (multimedia): Week Six

What you will learn

Critique of the portrait assignment;

Review examples;

Show and tell for previous photo story assignments;

Discussion of photo story assignment.

Photo Story Assignment

The Photo Story builds on the work you’ve already done with the Portrait Assignment.

Instructions:

Take a photojournalist’s approach to documenting someone in no fewer than three strategically story-telling locations. (You have in all likelihood already succeeded in making a decent photograph of them in one location, and please feel free to use more than three locations).

Submit between five to 10 final images each with unique captions written in CP Style for your final Photo Story.

Make sure all photos are 1200px wide. No vertical photos allowed for this assignment, please.

Use Microsoft Word or Mac Pages to organize and submit your photos in the correct order, one photo with caption per page. So, if you are submitting five photos, then the Word or Pages document should be five pages long.

Due END of day (midnight), AFTER next week’s class (Oct. 16).

JOUR3235 (multimedia): Week Seven

What you will learn

Continue with photo assignment;

Postmortem;