Students in my Digital Journalism II (JOUR 1550) course this week chose their community journalism assignments as part of our collaboration with the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. As I shared in an earlier post, the 10 students will work as pairs this semester to produce multimedia packages profiling 2012 MANDI finalists.

We spent most of our time in class yesterday focusing on how to best conduct interviews. Most of the students don't yet have much experience in student media and only one has any in broadcast. So I did a quick Internet search for sure-fire tips on how journalists prepare for interviews and then conduct themselves while in the midst of one. These tips will help journalism students whether they are using audio recorders or depending on pen and paper only.

Sarah Stuteville offers 13 Simple Journalist Techniques for Effective Interviews. Among them, Stuteville writes, are "be a little annoying" – as in don't be afraid to revisit a question or topic that hasn't been completely answered – and "be a little sneaky," or, in other words, remember to continue taking notes even after the interview is over. In Top 10 Tips for Conducting an Exceptional Interview, Pat Flynn reminds us to remember our audience, prepare open-ended questions, strive for a high-quality production and, yes, to have fun. "If you make it seem like a task or a chore, then it will reflect in the interview – and that's not what we want," Flynn writes.

Shreyasi Majumdar provides 10 more tips in The Art of "Question": How to Conduct a Good Journalistic Interview. They range from selecting interviewees with care to setting clear rules for the interview to avoiding stupid questions. "Interviewees do not like being asked questions which insult their intelligence," Majumdar writes, adding that if you think about to ask one, "take a step back, think about the question again, rephrase if necessary, and then present it more intelligently." For broadcast interviews, Angela Grant presents six tips in Audio Interview Advice Also Useful for Video, including don't let you equipment get in the way, asking the speaker to repeat what's just been said if someone coughs or the dog barks, and don't ruin it all with uh-huhs. "Simple nods and smiles are enough to let people know you're listening," Grant writes.

If all these aren't enough, David Sparks shares 30 Tips on How to Interview Like a Journalist that he writes come from his questioning fellow journalists for their best advice. From making the interviewee comfortable, to asking to spell and pronounce their name and title, to asking about feelings, to not trying to fill the void – give the subject time to answer – there's plenty to learn and consider among these tips, whether it's for print, blog, radio, TV and films.

Finally, in 50 Common Interview Q&A, Bhuvana Sundaramoorthy begins with "tell me about yourself" and ends with "do you have any questions for me?" Clearly, this list offers typical job interview questions. But they also can be used or altered by a journalist asking about a person, institution, team, organization, community, etc. For their news service assignments, for example, my students can ask a nonprofit leader, "What motivates you to do your best on the job?" or "Why (did) you want to work for this organization?" or "What is your (organization's) greatest strength?"

Any student that makes smart use of these dozens of interview tips will almost certainly return with a nice story.

The Diederich College of Communication presented Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Enberg as this year's Axthelm Memorial Lecture speaker last week at the Alumni Memorial Union on campus. Hundreds of people packed a ballroom to hear Enberg, a 14-time Emmy Award winner, reflect on his experiences with Al McGuire, his longtime broadcast partner and, of course, the beloved coach who led Marquette's men's basketball team to the 1977 NCAA championship. Calling his lecture "Communicating in a World of Noise," he also shared his five "points of power" for succeeding in journalism: pause, perseverance, presentation, humor and kindness.

Enberg also met with students and classes during his latest visit to Marquette – he served as its commencement speaker in 2009 – including a "news conference" after the lecture for my Digital Journalism I (JOUR 1100) class that my Diederich College colleagues James Pokrywczynski and Julie Rosene arranged. Surprising that only one of my 14 students had heard of Enberg when I first said they would use Twitter to cover his lecture. Certainly, I had heard him exclaim his signature "Oh my!" during countless significant sports events of the past generation.

This was the first live-tweeting experience for most of the students. (Of course, I shared what their predecessors had accomplished by live tweeting Marquette's presidential inauguration last fall.) We had practiced in class the week before and some had used the 2012 Grammy Awards and other recent events to try it out. In class after the lecture, they said the #muenberg live tweeting helped them, among other things, focus on their writing; extend their journalism to as far as Puerto Rico; capture moments not typically reported in news articles, and inform and engage MU alumni, students and employees unable to attend. We then discussed curating social media, employing tools and tips used by many professional news agencies and people worldwide.

Indeed, a few students from my other courses this semester (JOUR 1550 and JOUR 4953) also live-tweeted the lecture for their Storify assignments. And the word is spreading across campus. Last night, the Marquette University Student Government speakers commissioner emailed me to ask if I would assign students to live tweet Morgan Spurlock's campus visit on Thursday. The commissioner wrote that "friends studying journalism" had referred her to me. Actually, some in my JOUR 1550 class already plan to live tweet this event; they even had me change the deadline so they could. Still, I love it that students outside of Johnston Hall appreciate what's happening in my classes – and, yes, hope more of them will answer the commissioner's call.

Finally, it must be shared that #muenberg trended in Milwaukee, reaching the same success that #muprez achieved when my classes live tweeted the inauguration. Another sign of progress: Diederich College Dean Lori Bergen encouraged those tweeting to use #muenberg while welcoming them to the Axthelm lecture. With apologies to Enberg, must admit that when the dean did that, I could only say to myself, "Oh my!"

I had the pleasure of being the guest speaker at a Social Media @Marquette event earlier this month. Tim Cigelske, a communications specialist with the Marquette University Office of Marketing and Communication, asked me to focus on using social media in the classroom – and using it to engage with students away from class. It was a GROW With Marquette event, so my audience included mostly staff and administrators of various non-academic units who were, hopefully, interested in using social media to extend their personal and organizational branding.

So that those present could see someone curate what just happened, I asked Marissa Evans, a junior journalism major in the Diederich College of Communication and a self-described CLT (Chronic Live Tweeter), to capture the hourlong session using Twitter. Her efforts made it possible for me to share some of the highlights of my presentation, "Digital Footprints: Using Social Media in the Classroom and in the Office," using Storify.

I love using Storify to preserve on the Web what happens at an event, whether large or small, for long after it is over. That's right, program coordinators, social media isn't just for increasing attendance and promoting results. It's also for showcasing mission and identity to current and prospective students as well as to alumni.

Anyway, I enjoyed showing how my students use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Storify, Delicious, etc., for their class assignments and journalism pursuits, and how they and I use Facebook and Twitter to interact outside class. Here's hoping that my colleagues across campus will be inspired to maximize social media. As I said in my presentation, I came to Twitter kicking and screaming – but once I started using it for fun, using it for work was so much easier.

The Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service yesterday unveiled a special report focusing on eight nonprofit organizations that provide services to residents in local communities. Writing here with much pride that my Digital Journalism II students last fall created the 17 stories for the series, "How Service Agencies Work, From Inside and Out." Even more pleased that NNS Editor Sharon McGowan wishes to continue the series as she and I send those students enrolled in my latest JOUR 1550 class to profile another group of notable agencies and residents.

McGowan met with JOUR 1550 last week to help me introduce the news service and to reveal this semester's community journalism assignments; they will be from among the 15 finalists for the 2012 MANDI (Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood Development Innovation). "Anyone of these makes a good story, I think," she told the class.

The editor and I then shared what we learned from our first experience working together. First and foremost, she said, more than a few students last semester seemed unprepared to craft and report a 400-word story. Next, too many factual errors – or, as McGowan put it, "stupid mistakes" related to names, dates, etc. "I really need much more attention to accuracy than I had from the last class," she said. "The factual errors just eat away at our (NNS) credibility. ... Here's how I want you to feel if that happens: I want you to feel sick."

We're just getting started. "Students did not go into the interview sufficiently prepared," McGowan said, noting that agency leaders shared afterward that some had not spent enough time becoming familiar with their assignments. Source information was another problem. With any story, at any level of journalism, editors will likely have questions requiring reporters to reach back to those interviewed for more answers. For the JOUR 1550 assignments, however, many students did not get any contact information for the residents they spoke with. Not even a cell phone number, which seemed to particularly perplex McGowan. "We haven't come across anyone – in any neighborhood or income level – who doesn't have a cell phone or have access to one," she said. "We have to know how to reach them."

Other concerns included knowing when to ask your editor for help and trusting when he or she says to cut bait. Case in point: one pair of students found an organization's leaders inaccessible for way too long. When McGowan proposed another group to feature, the pair dallied and ended up stressing during finals week to complete their work. (Oh yes, being published by NNS represented a significant part of each student's final grade.)

For sure, these matters left me feeling charged, indicted and convicted as an instructor. Last semester was the first time I sent students into the community for assignments. In my three prior terms, I had only had assigned them to cover events on Marquette's campus, and in most cases I attended as well, so spotting factual errors was easy and sourcing wasn't a major problem, either. Of course, community work is much more instructional, it inspires students much more to do their best work and getting published by a professional news service provides invaluable exposure. On the other hand, because neither McGowan nor I live in Wisconsin, fact-checking and sourcing is crucial.

All this to say the instructor and editor are better prepared to help JOUR 1550 and news service succeed. Most importantly, the students will begin their community work much earlier in the course. Instead of distinct multimedia packages on both a service provider and service recipient, they will produce just one package about their agency. Each package will offer multiple sources and longer text stories – 650 words long instead of 400. Also, they will submit drafts of their text stories long before the final deadline, so there's more time for editing and fact-checking.

To be very clear, JOUR 1550 produced some exceptional work last semester for the news service, which is proudly promoting it as a series on its website. (Indeed, McGowan hired two of the students – Tessa Fox and Heather Ronaldson – as interns for this term.) Every news agency spends time learning how to make its product and journalists better, and what me and McGowan learned last term will surely better prepare my students for internships and their first jobs. If nothing else, there's satisfaction in having their work viewed by more than just their instructor.

Here's what Kenya Evans, a part-time beat reporter for the news service, told the class last week after McGowan discussed how the local Fox News affiliate re-published one of her stories:  "It feels good to know the stories are getting out there and that people are reading them." Based on these tweets below, my class is ready to get started:

This is my third semester teaching Digital Journalism II in the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University and so I hope to build on the success of my previous class in the fall. The course objectives remain the same: producing and promoting digital news stories using text, images and audio; understanding key industry trends, technologies and multimedia reporting techniques; working solo and or in teams to produce stories and packages for the Web, and using social media to build a following and "brand" as a digital journalist.

Once again, the course textbook is the second edition of "Aim For The Heart: Write, Shoot, Report and Produce for TV and Multimedia." Published in 2011 by CQ Press, the book by Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute is great for students because it stresses, among other things, finding memorable characters, writing inviting leads, using active verbs and objective adjectives, learning to listen during interviews and why pictures are so powerful.

Each of the 10 students this semester will pursue a Digital Journalism Basics certificate from Poynter's News University, write a weekly blog post related to their assigned news media website; produce a Storify from each of four events on campus they will live tweet; produce two multimedia packages called "One at Marquette" and based on The New York Times' extraordinary "One in 8 Million" collection; and, with a partner, produce a multimedia package about a local nonprofit organization and assigned by the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

The students will share and promote their coursework on their respective digital portfolios created via Weebly.com. Those portfolios can be accessed collectively from the same webpage here. Check their progress often.

In November, I reported that my Digital Journalism II (JOUR 1550) students had been assigned to produce two multimedia reports for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (MNNS). With yesterday's unveiling of a report by Kyle Doubrava and Eric Oliver about a veteran preschool teacher at Neighborhood House of Milwaukee (see below), the news service has published nine of 18 reports the class produced in the fall. The remaining pieces will be made available for the public on the new organization's website in the coming weeks.

This was the first time Sharon McGowan, the news service's editor-in-chief, and I teamed to enable my students to practice digital journalism in neighborhoods near Marquette's campus. It was definitely a learning experience for all involved and McGowan and I aim to collaborate again with my spring JOUR 1550 class.

In an email expressing her appreciation, McGowan said the students impressed her as motivated to do their best work. (Disclosure: their final grade was tied to being published.) "Your class has provided valuable content on some of the many organizations and people in Milwaukee’s central city who work every day to make a difference in their communities," she wrote. "I was also grateful for the opportunity to participate in the class critiques of the audio slideshows, since it allowed me to hear your students’ thoughtful comments on each others’ work. I learned a lot."

The most significant thing McGowan and I learned this time, especially related to my end: have the students' companion print stories submitted sooner to allow more time for editing and additional reporting. She also wants only one print story; this time, it would longer (650 words), multi-sourced and packaged with separate, single-sourced audio slideshows about both a provider and beneficiary from the assigned community group. We also will insist students move onto Plan B if an organization, for whatever reason, fails to provide timely access.

Here are the other JOUR 1550 reports the news service has published: Our Next Generation (Sarah Butler and Tessa Fox), Art Works for Milwaukee (Andrea Anderson and Rebecca French), COA Youth and Family Centers (Elizabeth McGovern and Benjamin Sheehan), Select Milwaukee (Erin Caughey and Heather Ronaldson), Habitat for Humanity (Sarah Hauer), Centro Legal (Kathleen Doherty and Allison Kruschke), Next Door (Alec Brooks and Ryan Ellerbusch) and Urban Ecology Center (Benjamin Stanley).

As 2011 ends, please allow me to revisit my proudest moment as a journalism faculty member with a new Storify.

In late September, my digital journalism students at Marquette University made the most of an extraordinary campus opportunity – a presidential inauguration – that offered trial-by-fire experience and demonstrated the power of social media as a tool for journalism. Instead of the typical reporting and writing exercise, in which the students would each produce a 500-word story that just I would read – sigh! – they used Twitter to report on the inauguration. Their tweeting allowed countless Marquette alumni and supporters across the world to witness the ceremony live.

Tim Cigelske, a MU communication specialist and the campus social media guru, lauded the students' efforts. "I never thought we would surpass Sweet Sixteen," Cigelske said of the Twitter explosion following the men's basketball team's success last spring. He told my students that not only did their inauguration tweeting do so, it also netted the top eight trending topics in Milwaukee that day – "which is huge." (My Storify includes just a sampling from that day.)

The inauguration exercise also readied my students to use Twitter to cover events as reporters through the term. Indeed, live tweeting was only half of the inauguration assignment. Each student also had to create a Storify about the coverage. (The Poynter Institute offers five types of stories that make good Storifys.)
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No one knew what to expect beforehand. Those among my students who had tweeted regularly had mostly offered youthful banter. I stressed for class-related tweets using complete sentences, abiding AP style and correct grammar, spelling and punctuation, and no long or uncomplimentary hashtags such as #onmywaytowalgreenstobuylicorice and #icouldrantbutiwont. Both classes practiced with the Princess Diana eulogy before the ceremony. Each student then had to produce at least 12 tweets with their class hashtag and #muprez among the 140 characters.

After live tweeting beyond my wildest dreams, the next generation of professional scribes acted like true journalists – they went searching for food, assessed their own performance and found reasons to complain or blame their editor, that is, professor. That's OK. So gratifying when my students' work matters. Cigelske, formerly of The Associated Press, put it best when he told them during his class visit: "It was like you were all Associated Press reporters. You provided the color and the personality of being right there. You pretty much covered the spectrum – from breaking news to context to archival coverage. This is great training for ... your journalism careers, wherever it takes you."

'Tis the season, everyone! Earlier this week, my wife, Mira, received a wonderful digital holiday greeting from a friend via email. It made us smile broadly and was a welcome distraction as I sought to finish grading final exams.

The greeting reminded us of a few years back, when we were looking for a new way to convey holiday greetings to our family, friends and colleagues. In 2002, instead of cards, we mailed and handed out CDs with our favorite Christmas songs. The response was overwhelming. People loved them. So we did it again with another set of songs the next year, and then with other collections two of the next three years. It's gratifying that so many of our friends still play the CDs while wrapping gifts, entertaining guests or doing whatever their heart desires.

For this year, our friend's before-mentioned digital offering inspired us to produce our own holiday greeting – with a little help from our famous neighbors in Hyde Park, Chicago. We hope you enjoy it. Let us know what you think. 

In August, I shared with pride that the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service had published my video about an urban beekeeper. Now, members of my Digital Journalism II class aim to match my milestone. Not once. Twice. Working in pairs, the students aim to produce a total of 16 short pieces for the news service by the semester's end.

Each student had written a blog post about the new service's website by the time its editor-in-chief, Sharon McGowan – a veteran reporter, writer, editor and teacher – visited our class on Thursday.

McGowan had read all of their posts and concluded three things: 1) Almost all of them wrote they had not known about the news service, even though it has been headquartered in our very own Diederich College of Communication for about a year; 2) "everybody liked the look of our site," and 3) "we don't do enough enterprise or in-depth stories." To that, she said, "I 100 percent agree. It's one of my goals."

Then, after explaining the challenges of trying to cover so much territory with limited staff, McGowan told the class, "I'm very excited about you guys working on this project. ... You're going to help me break into our neighborhoods." Each student pair has been assigned to produce two audio slideshows about a selected neighborhood nonprofit organization, one focusing on someone helping to provide a service or operate a program, the other on a beneficiary of those efforts. Both pieces are to be about two minutes long and come with a 500-word news story.

The students are to function as real journalists in communities requiring a bus ride from the Marquette campus. Indeed, the organizations have not been prepped that they will be calling. "Your job is to identify the person and to identify the story," McGowan told the students, who are mostly sophomores and juniors but all journalism majors.

The reward for high achievement will be having their multimedia journalism published on the news service's site. No sure thing, McGowan said while stressing that high-quality writing and storytelling is important. "I'm a stickler for AP Style because it shows that you care about being professional," she said.

As much a nurturer as as exacting editor, McGowan offered great advice while answering student questions. Concerning personal queries of neighborhood residents who have struggled or suffered more than most, she said: "You're a lot more sensitive about it than they are. You will be very surprised ... people do want to talk, especially if they have been through a lot." And: "The main thing that young reporters do wrong in my opinion is not doing enough work before they get to the story. You can't just look at the (organization's) website."

If all goes well, the news service will be publishing digital journalism about the following organizations: Our Next Generation (Sarah Butler and Tessa Fox), Art Works for Milwaukee (Andrea Anderson and Rebecca French), COA Youth and Family Centers (Elizabeth McGovern and Benjamin Sheehan), Neighborhood House of Milwaukee (Kyle Doubrava and Eric Oliver), Select Milwaukee (Erin Caughey and Heather Ronaldson), Habitat for Humanity (Sarah Hauer and Benjamin Stanley), Centro Legal (Kathleen Doherty and Allison Kruschke) and Next Door (Alec Brooks and Ryan Ellerbusch). Each pair considers itself the class "Dream Team." Let's hope so.