It’s the Story, Stupid!
“It’s the story, stupid” is a note that I wrote to myself many years ago at about the same time James Carville was quoted as writing a note to himself that read “It’s the economy, stupid.” My note was to remind me that in spite of all of the fancy equipment I was purchasing for my program, the goal was to teach students how to tell a compelling story.
It was sometimes hard to keep that focus when many of the cool gadgets I reviewed created such seductive “eye candy” and begged for me to play with them. I knew my students would be equally seduced and if all I wanted to do was to recruit students into my proposed class, these new gadgets would do it.
I knew that my challenge was something more. As a media educator I had to show students how to use media to achieve a more profound way of looking at ideas, not just a fun way to look at the technology. In other words, I had to teach them how to tell powerful stories using media: stories that were history stories, chemistry stories, and math stories. As media educators, we need to teach students how effectively to use multimedia storytelling to communicate within a rapidly changing world. We also need to teach students how this rapidly changing world communicates with them using multimedia storytelling.
Media Literacy
Like it or not, students are daily seeing manufactured “solutions” to complicated world problems. Each day they awaken to a barrage of media pictures, sound bites and commentary. All of it challenges their sense of what is real. All are carefully manufactured stories with nothing left to chance. We need to teach students how to write with media and how to read and process the media of others.
These manufactured “solutions” are not "slices of life" or "mirrors of society". Although they attempt to imitate reality, they are not reality. They are by definition, mediated reality. The success of these manufactured stories lies in their apparent naturalness. As media educators, we need to make media strange and problematic for the student. Media shape our attitudes, behavior and ideas about the world. As media educators, we need to coach students to think about reality vs. mediated information.
Audiences are not passive to media. Individuals may look passive as they sit motionless in front of a book or TV, but their minds are working to make sense of the information. This is especially true of fast-paced modern media. We learn to anticipate the codes and conventions in media and to somehow "read" or make sense of its message. We do this as individuals and in predictable ways, as groups. Advertisers know this and try to target audiences. As media educators, we need to coach students to become aware of the way they interact with media personally and speculate about the way others might use media.
People derive great pleasure from media, and media literacy skills can heighten that pleasure. We can appreciate the artistry of story telling, technical feats and creative vision. We can also understand that form and content are closely related in media, and that each medium has unique codes, conventions, advantages and disadvantages that influence its content. As media educators we need to coach students to read and write using media.
Classrooms Compete with Television
This year, your students will spend 12,000 hours in a classroom and 15,000 hours watching television. They will see 20,000 TV ads. We allocate countless hours teaching students how to read and interpret the texts they encounter in school, yet we spend no time teaching students how to process the television they encounter at home.
Ned Davis in his book Lessons for Tomorrow: Bringing America’s Schools Back from the Brink writes about the need for schools to co-op mass media. “Mass media show us how to consume, not how to produce, how to defend ourselves, not how to wage peace of cooperation, and how to treat sex casually, not seriously.” We cannot blame mass media. Mass media is driven by corporations that are trying to capture some of the $500 billion worth of purchasing that students in the United States now spend or influence.
In medieval universities the foundation of inquiry was language arts, the trivium, which was grammar, rhetoric, and logic. This was the First Curriculum. Neil Postman in Teaching as a Conserving Activity puts a new spin on it. “Television is not only a curriculum but it constitutes the major educational enterprise now being undertaken in the United States. That is why I call it the First Curriculum. School is the second.” Corporate media teaches us which toothpaste will ensure our perpetual youth; what car will impress our friends; and what cleaning solution will protect us from drudgery. But it is a double-edged sword. Multimedia storytelling can also teach that a community of diverse voices is an enriched place to live; that big ideas are complex and nuanced; that students must take charge of their own learning.
Mass media may have been used to prepare a nation to make war, but it is also being used to discuss universal health care and global warming. It is all in the story.
Video Equipment
I am frequently asked to help school districts design television studios and purchase equipment. Everyone wants their facility to be state-of-the-art, which is another way of saying impressive. Often times an administrator labors under the assumption that bigger is better. Students definitely think bigger is better. Students want to be treated as adults and believe that small cameras are more toy-like. I tell everyone: size doesn’t matter. It is the story that matters. Powerful stories can change minds and adults respect people who can change minds. However, audio does matter. Video without sound is surveillance video. I advise them to buy cameras with external mic jacks.
Television studios impress people, and board of education members, as well as parents, want to easily point to something impressive that says, “we teach technology to our students.” You can see very impressive television studios on television. It follows that if schools are going to teach television they should have a television studio, right? A big studio with big cameras and a big control room is better, right? Wrong.
A lot of news studios seen on television are virtual studios created in a computer. More importantly, it’s the story that matters. Charlie Rose on PBS has a big studio and big cameras but you see none of that. You see very articulate, well informed individuals telling powerful stories. No fancy editing, no tracking camera shots, just conversation that is riveting, conversation that changes minds. So if you have a Charlie Rose at your school and can get the likes of Sandra Day O’Connor, Madeleine Albright, or Peter O’Toole to drop by, you should make building a studio a top priority. However, if not, you need to think of the story that students will tell using a studio.
Teaching Television Production
I like studios. Products from NewTek and Sony have lowered the price of studio equipment but it will still cost between $30K and $100K to outfit a studio. However, there are a lot of community uses for a school based studio. A live studio call-in program is thrilling. It can teach students how to work as a team and how to solve technical problems on the fly. A portable studio that can tape high school sports is usually a prized community commodity. The most in demand local programming nation-wide is high school sports: not public meetings where government makes laws but high school sports.
Directing a live sport event is a cross between conducting a symphony and downhill skiing: thrilling and exquisitely beautiful if done right. I make a lot of money advising schools how to design a studio. However, with a studio, fixed or portable, the storytelling is left to those in front of the camera. A studio production class is not the best way to teach multimedia skills to the most students for the least amount of money.
A production team is made up of 6-10 people. So a production class is small, about 10 students. You can double up the students but you risk boring the ones not occupied with a production task. Production classes that teach only production techniques are not very cost effective. Editing classes on the other hand can use an existing computer lab, need only three cameras for 20 students to share, and can teach storytelling skills that are transferable across the curriculum. Editing classes cost a fraction of the cost of a studio. I advise schools to begin by create editing classes and at a later date build a studio for a production classes.
The Business of Production
When I do design a production class, I design it as a media business class to teach students how to “manage” a business that coincidentally operates a television studio and produces television programming like sports shows, talk shows, game shows, and studio news. Students learn the business of media as well as production skills. The story in a production class is a business story.
The business of television is changing. As I have written in previous articles, consolidation is forcing media businesses to cut programming that produces the least revenue. Historically, local news was a public service provided by media outlets and not a profit center. As media businesses compete for ad revenue with websites and video games, local news will suffer.
This change will have major consequences on how we produce and consume news. The Project for Excellence in Journalism reported on the situation.
“In the future, we may well rely more on citizens to be sentinels for one another. No doubt that will expand the public forum and enrich the range of voices. Already people are experimenting with new ways to empower fellow citizens to gather and understand the news — whether it is soldiers blogging from Baghdad, a radio program on the war produced by students at Swarthmore College carrying eyewitness interviews with Iraqi citizens, or a similar effort by young radio reporters in Minnesota to cover local towns.”
Michigan has designed a set of curriculum benchmarks in an attempt to align the curriculum in Michigan schools toward a common vision. This is the preamble for the technology benchmarks.
“Learning with and about technology prepares learners to live responsibly in a democratic, technologically driven society. Students can use technology for knowledge acquisition, communication and information management, problem solving, creative expression, research and design. Learners become technologically capable when they apply technology across discipline areas and when technology is used across the content areas.”
I believe that as media educators we can teach new media as a language art and create storytelling practicums across the disciplines. By doing this we will have a vehicle in place with experienced student practioners that can present balanced, nuanced, stories about the complicated activities that go on in American schools. Our students can be change agents for school reform while becoming productive American citizens who are media literate.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Assignments that Focus the Story
This article is about creating student story assignments that work. A clear, focused plan will give your students confidence at the start and save you problems in the end. Each story assignment should have its own study guide which includes a brief focused assignment, 3-5 suggested newsmakers, and of course the five magic questions (which you will learn more about later.) The assignment should be no more that two paragraphs and include the main theme while explaining the story’s importance.
To demonstrate what I am talking about, I want to use a specific example of a story produced by Bath City Beat reporters. I arranged for our student reporters to tour the studios of the NBC owned TV station in Detroit, WDIV-TV4. The tour was to be brief, 30-minutes at tops, but the station agreed to let the students do a video story for their own student show, Bath City Beat. Because the students were prepared, they charmed everyone, and instead of a 30-minute tour, they received with a 2-hour mentoring session. They were thrilled.
The Assignment:
This is the written assignment the students received:
WDIV-TV 4 has invited the Bath City Beat crew to tour its studios. Explain to viewers various career paths for a job in broadcast journalism and what that job might be like. Produce a 3-5 minute BCB story using the WDIV studios and personalities.
Research WDIV on the web at http://www.clickondetroit.com/. Know the personalities, with titles and job descriptions so that you will be prepared for second choices if your primary newsmakers are unavailable. Ask the technical engineering staff for an air-check tape to use for b-roll. Plus shoot your own b-roll: wide shots with activity and lots of close-ups of hands operating equipment and computers and faces talking, listening, and reacting. Have fun and smile often.
The Story Focus
In the first paragraph the focus of the story is clear: the many career paths for a job in TV news so that students (and adults) can find out what to expect if they pursue such a career. The students know that the story is short, 3-5 minutes long.
The Generic Reminders
The second paragraph of the assignment is somewhat generic and can be tweaked for use on many different projects. First, I identify a research point, preferably a website, so that students can inform themselves of the background of the story. It could be a promotional video or brochure, even the public library or Wikipedia. I tell students that they are searching for things of interest to shape into a story. In many ways, they are like a predator and the better they know their prey the more successful they will be at collecting story parts. I coach them where to look for things of interest.
B-roll
Before reinventing the wheel, students might try to see what material the newsmakers already have. Ready made material, like air-check tapes, promotional videos, TV commercials, or even home video of company parties or events are useful. Sometimes all a student has to do is ask for it.
Then I remind them to look for two types of b-roll shots: wide shots and close-ups. I remind them to look for activity in the wide orienting shots. People moving into and out of the shot, people together working as a team, all of these will orient the viewer as to the location of the story.
The close-ups make the story intimate and about people; these close-up also can help in editing when you need to cover up any problem with other video. Close-ups are good video band aids. Faces and hands are great close-ups.
Faces are stories in and of themselves and since students always capture natural sound when shooting b-roll, it is fortuitous to sometimes get that perfect sound-bite that takes the viewer from voice-over to sound-on-tape. Wear head phones when shooting b-roll and ride the audio controls for clear sound.
Hands are natural story-telling devices. They tell the story of work: the work of operating a computer keyboard, a telephone, a camera or connecting cables. All tell the story of unique, competent, interesting, working hands. These shots with a well-constructed narrative make a compelling story.
The camera should rarely move with b-roll; let the action move within the camera shot. A tripod is not necessary but a steady shot is. Use available walls and counters for stability. Forget the zoom unless you have a clear post-production idea for it. And of course, have adequate pre-roll and post-roll footage (see Phil Harris’s articles regarding this detail).
The Newsmakers
I arranged for interviews with several employees of WDIV and told them that the students would interview them about how they got into the industry and what advice they might have for students interested in becoming TV Journalists. It is much easier for the teacher to make the initial contact with a newsmaker, but often times the planned interview is canceled and the student reporter will need to find a replacement quickly. Each reporter should have done enough research to make quick judgments on location.
Newsmakers need to be: knowledgeable about the story, willing to talk on camera and reasonably articulate. You don’t want your interviewee to be camera shy or answer “yep” and “nope”. Teachers can run interference for students by trying to select appropriate newsmakers ahead of time, but students need to be prepared to step up and make the interview happen on location. Surprisingly, there were individuals at WDIV who did not want to talk on camera – and they work in television no less. My students are always prepared to interview and to be interviewed.
This is how I identified the prearranged newsmakers at WDIV to the students:
Neil Goldstein – Vice President and News Director
Mr. Goldstein is the Big Man at the station. He recently came from NBC offices in New York. He is excited about student reporters being the future of television news. He is very, very busy so make it a focused, short interview…unless he warms up to the idea.
Mathew Triplett – Assignment Manager
Mr. Triplett manages the stories. He is committed to helping students. He will tell you personal stories.
Jeffery Liebman – News Operations Manager
Mr. Liebman manages the micro-wave trucks, helicopter, etc. He has offered a tour of the helicopter. Think of a segue inside the helicopter.
Rachel Bianco – Reporter
Ms. Bianco was our initial contact. Her father teaches broadcast journalism to high school students and he loved Bath City Beat. She is our host and likes your show. Be sure to be gracious and not wear out our welcome – you may get invited back.
Ta-Young Johnson – Photographer/News
Mr. Johnson shoots a lot of Ms. Bianco’s stories and he is impressed with the editing on Bath City Beat. You can get technical with him.
Bill Townsend - Engineer
Mr. Townsend manages the live feeds from studio, satellite, and microwave. He would be the one who can get you air-check or promotional tapes.
The Five Magic Questions
I designed these questions as a fail-safe interviewing technique for beginning students who were unsure of their narrative voice. These questions are not intended to be the only questions, but rather stock questions for a student unsure of the subject matter. In fact, these are more ideas than questions. Over time, however, students have come to find these idea/questions have universal application, are open ended, cover most subject matter and can create a compelling story without the need of a narrator. To many, they have become the five magic questions that can be pulled out of their hat at a moment’s notice. These questions are in two groups: the fact questions and the opinion questions.
The Fact Questions 1-2-3:
Who, what and why. 1) Who are you and how are you involved in “x”? 2) What is “x”? 3) Why is “x” important? These are the first three magic questions.
Who:
Who you are and how are you involved in “x” identifies the newsmakers in a way they want to be identified and explains how they are involvement in the project. You can take the graphic ID right from this question. But sometimes a student will assume someone is the president of an organization when that person is actually the acting-president or a student may have been told that the interviewee is the founder when that person actually sees herself as the facilitator. These nuances are important to a well-crafted story. Don’t assume, simply ask. Students will give the interviewee the opportunity to be humble on tape but provide, at the same time, a power graphic like “President and Founder of xyz”. If a student is thrown into an interview with a strange person, it is always reassuring to have magic question #1 at the ready: “So could you please tell our viewers who you are and how are you involved with all of this?” It even works if you have no idea how to describe “all of this.” Your interviewee will do it for you: after all, it is his project, he should be able to describe “all of this”!
What:
And if the newsmaker doesn't quite describe what “all of this” is, ask again. “What is all of this?” Individuals describe ideas, event, people and places differently. For our purpose, there is no wrong answer. The fact that students collect diverse opinions through interviews will make the story more interesting. Each newsmakers has a different idea about what it is they are working on and that diversity creates interest in the story. Since the story will be assembled in the mind of the viewers, each viewer will add personal references of their own in ways they could not have if there was one, absolute certain, description of the project. Ambiguity is good with feature news stories. Viewers personalize the story. With hard news stories, ambiguity is conflict. Both drive the drama of the story.
Why:
The same for why. The importance of a project, idea, event, people or place is personal. There may be an institutional reason why something is important, but all newsmakers describe that reason differently. This diversity of descriptions will provide creative tension in the story and make the story more memorable. By putting these diverse perspectives and opinions into the story the student will give the community a special voice – a diverse community voice.
The Opinion Questions 4-5:
Best and Proud. 4) What do you think is the best part of “x”? 5) What gives you the most pride in being involved in “x”? These opinions are intentionally personal and give the newsmakers an opportunity to tell their reasons for being involved.
The Best:
The best part of something may not be obvious to a casual observer but our interviewee is not a casual observer: they are a newsmakers. Each newsmaker will probable have a unique best part. This adds more flavor to the story and everyone enjoys talking about their personal favorites.
Most Proud:
Pride of accomplishment forces individuals to discuss the impact of “x” on a broader community. It also allows the newsmakers to personally describe their own pride and what they see as their particular contribution to the project. It is also a great way to end stories: on a personal note.
Watch the finished video
So to recap: 1) Focus the assignment and do a little teacher research yourself. 2) Select good storytellers for your students to interview. 3) Use the five fail-safe questions. 4) Constantly be on the look out for stories.
Good hunting!
This article is about creating student story assignments that work. A clear, focused plan will give your students confidence at the start and save you problems in the end. Each story assignment should have its own study guide which includes a brief focused assignment, 3-5 suggested newsmakers, and of course the five magic questions (which you will learn more about later.) The assignment should be no more that two paragraphs and include the main theme while explaining the story’s importance.
To demonstrate what I am talking about, I want to use a specific example of a story produced by Bath City Beat reporters. I arranged for our student reporters to tour the studios of the NBC owned TV station in Detroit, WDIV-TV4. The tour was to be brief, 30-minutes at tops, but the station agreed to let the students do a video story for their own student show, Bath City Beat. Because the students were prepared, they charmed everyone, and instead of a 30-minute tour, they received with a 2-hour mentoring session. They were thrilled.
The Assignment:
This is the written assignment the students received:
WDIV-TV 4 has invited the Bath City Beat crew to tour its studios. Explain to viewers various career paths for a job in broadcast journalism and what that job might be like. Produce a 3-5 minute BCB story using the WDIV studios and personalities.
Research WDIV on the web at http://www.clickondetroit.com/. Know the personalities, with titles and job descriptions so that you will be prepared for second choices if your primary newsmakers are unavailable. Ask the technical engineering staff for an air-check tape to use for b-roll. Plus shoot your own b-roll: wide shots with activity and lots of close-ups of hands operating equipment and computers and faces talking, listening, and reacting. Have fun and smile often.
The Story Focus
In the first paragraph the focus of the story is clear: the many career paths for a job in TV news so that students (and adults) can find out what to expect if they pursue such a career. The students know that the story is short, 3-5 minutes long.
The Generic Reminders
The second paragraph of the assignment is somewhat generic and can be tweaked for use on many different projects. First, I identify a research point, preferably a website, so that students can inform themselves of the background of the story. It could be a promotional video or brochure, even the public library or Wikipedia. I tell students that they are searching for things of interest to shape into a story. In many ways, they are like a predator and the better they know their prey the more successful they will be at collecting story parts. I coach them where to look for things of interest.
B-roll
Before reinventing the wheel, students might try to see what material the newsmakers already have. Ready made material, like air-check tapes, promotional videos, TV commercials, or even home video of company parties or events are useful. Sometimes all a student has to do is ask for it.
Then I remind them to look for two types of b-roll shots: wide shots and close-ups. I remind them to look for activity in the wide orienting shots. People moving into and out of the shot, people together working as a team, all of these will orient the viewer as to the location of the story.
The close-ups make the story intimate and about people; these close-up also can help in editing when you need to cover up any problem with other video. Close-ups are good video band aids. Faces and hands are great close-ups.
Faces are stories in and of themselves and since students always capture natural sound when shooting b-roll, it is fortuitous to sometimes get that perfect sound-bite that takes the viewer from voice-over to sound-on-tape. Wear head phones when shooting b-roll and ride the audio controls for clear sound.
Hands are natural story-telling devices. They tell the story of work: the work of operating a computer keyboard, a telephone, a camera or connecting cables. All tell the story of unique, competent, interesting, working hands. These shots with a well-constructed narrative make a compelling story.
The camera should rarely move with b-roll; let the action move within the camera shot. A tripod is not necessary but a steady shot is. Use available walls and counters for stability. Forget the zoom unless you have a clear post-production idea for it. And of course, have adequate pre-roll and post-roll footage (see Phil Harris’s articles regarding this detail).
The Newsmakers
I arranged for interviews with several employees of WDIV and told them that the students would interview them about how they got into the industry and what advice they might have for students interested in becoming TV Journalists. It is much easier for the teacher to make the initial contact with a newsmaker, but often times the planned interview is canceled and the student reporter will need to find a replacement quickly. Each reporter should have done enough research to make quick judgments on location.
Newsmakers need to be: knowledgeable about the story, willing to talk on camera and reasonably articulate. You don’t want your interviewee to be camera shy or answer “yep” and “nope”. Teachers can run interference for students by trying to select appropriate newsmakers ahead of time, but students need to be prepared to step up and make the interview happen on location. Surprisingly, there were individuals at WDIV who did not want to talk on camera – and they work in television no less. My students are always prepared to interview and to be interviewed.
This is how I identified the prearranged newsmakers at WDIV to the students:
Neil Goldstein – Vice President and News Director
Mr. Goldstein is the Big Man at the station. He recently came from NBC offices in New York. He is excited about student reporters being the future of television news. He is very, very busy so make it a focused, short interview…unless he warms up to the idea.
Mathew Triplett – Assignment Manager
Mr. Triplett manages the stories. He is committed to helping students. He will tell you personal stories.
Jeffery Liebman – News Operations Manager
Mr. Liebman manages the micro-wave trucks, helicopter, etc. He has offered a tour of the helicopter. Think of a segue inside the helicopter.
Rachel Bianco – Reporter
Ms. Bianco was our initial contact. Her father teaches broadcast journalism to high school students and he loved Bath City Beat. She is our host and likes your show. Be sure to be gracious and not wear out our welcome – you may get invited back.
Ta-Young Johnson – Photographer/News
Mr. Johnson shoots a lot of Ms. Bianco’s stories and he is impressed with the editing on Bath City Beat. You can get technical with him.
Bill Townsend - Engineer
Mr. Townsend manages the live feeds from studio, satellite, and microwave. He would be the one who can get you air-check or promotional tapes.
The Five Magic Questions
I designed these questions as a fail-safe interviewing technique for beginning students who were unsure of their narrative voice. These questions are not intended to be the only questions, but rather stock questions for a student unsure of the subject matter. In fact, these are more ideas than questions. Over time, however, students have come to find these idea/questions have universal application, are open ended, cover most subject matter and can create a compelling story without the need of a narrator. To many, they have become the five magic questions that can be pulled out of their hat at a moment’s notice. These questions are in two groups: the fact questions and the opinion questions.
The Fact Questions 1-2-3:
Who, what and why. 1) Who are you and how are you involved in “x”? 2) What is “x”? 3) Why is “x” important? These are the first three magic questions.
Who:
Who you are and how are you involved in “x” identifies the newsmakers in a way they want to be identified and explains how they are involvement in the project. You can take the graphic ID right from this question. But sometimes a student will assume someone is the president of an organization when that person is actually the acting-president or a student may have been told that the interviewee is the founder when that person actually sees herself as the facilitator. These nuances are important to a well-crafted story. Don’t assume, simply ask. Students will give the interviewee the opportunity to be humble on tape but provide, at the same time, a power graphic like “President and Founder of xyz”. If a student is thrown into an interview with a strange person, it is always reassuring to have magic question #1 at the ready: “So could you please tell our viewers who you are and how are you involved with all of this?” It even works if you have no idea how to describe “all of this.” Your interviewee will do it for you: after all, it is his project, he should be able to describe “all of this”!
What:
And if the newsmaker doesn't quite describe what “all of this” is, ask again. “What is all of this?” Individuals describe ideas, event, people and places differently. For our purpose, there is no wrong answer. The fact that students collect diverse opinions through interviews will make the story more interesting. Each newsmakers has a different idea about what it is they are working on and that diversity creates interest in the story. Since the story will be assembled in the mind of the viewers, each viewer will add personal references of their own in ways they could not have if there was one, absolute certain, description of the project. Ambiguity is good with feature news stories. Viewers personalize the story. With hard news stories, ambiguity is conflict. Both drive the drama of the story.
Why:
The same for why. The importance of a project, idea, event, people or place is personal. There may be an institutional reason why something is important, but all newsmakers describe that reason differently. This diversity of descriptions will provide creative tension in the story and make the story more memorable. By putting these diverse perspectives and opinions into the story the student will give the community a special voice – a diverse community voice.
The Opinion Questions 4-5:
Best and Proud. 4) What do you think is the best part of “x”? 5) What gives you the most pride in being involved in “x”? These opinions are intentionally personal and give the newsmakers an opportunity to tell their reasons for being involved.
The Best:
The best part of something may not be obvious to a casual observer but our interviewee is not a casual observer: they are a newsmakers. Each newsmaker will probable have a unique best part. This adds more flavor to the story and everyone enjoys talking about their personal favorites.
Most Proud:
Pride of accomplishment forces individuals to discuss the impact of “x” on a broader community. It also allows the newsmakers to personally describe their own pride and what they see as their particular contribution to the project. It is also a great way to end stories: on a personal note.
Watch the finished video
So to recap: 1) Focus the assignment and do a little teacher research yourself. 2) Select good storytellers for your students to interview. 3) Use the five fail-safe questions. 4) Constantly be on the look out for stories.
Good hunting!
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