We're on our weekly cycle. That means on Tuesday, you will have your second weekly story pitch due no later than 9 a.m. to omars@msu.edu. Same parameters and rules as before.
This is how it will be every Tuesday for the next few weeks, so as soon as you get a new story pitch in, start thinking about your next. If you're running out of ideas, redo the beat visits/Googling/questionnaire exercises we did before to come up with a new batch of ideas.
Then, on Wednesday, you will have your first weekly story due no later than 9 a.m. to omars@msu.edu. That includes your text story in a Word document with hyperlinks indicated and URLs included; pictures, graphics and/or fact boxes attached to your email; and links to any related YouTube videos and other multimedia.
This is how it will be every Wednesday for the next few weeks, so as soon as you start wrapping up one weekly story, start working on your next approved idea. The harvest part of journalism is finding and actually interviewing sources, so please get started on your next set as soon as you get your story pitches approved.
On most weeks, I should have stories posted to our sites no later than the end of the day Thursdays. This coming Thursday, I will be out of town so I will have stories posted and grades with summary instructor comments back too you by the end of the day next Friday.
After your story is posted, please look at what I actually posted on your site to see how I edited it. Get a sense of what changes I made, and think about why I did it and how it helps the story. Feel free to call me if you want a greater explanation.
Plus, look at the other stories posted by your team mates. Think about their story ideas and how they wrote and organized their stories and what you liked that you want to emulate and what you did not that you'd want to avoid. A big way we learn in this class is from each other, so be sure to make this a regular habit.
And it wouldn't hurt if you looked at the work of the other site in this class, too. You can get great story ideas from them, and those are ideas you are free to replicate on your site. (While I won't allow the same idea twice on the same site, you may borrow ideas from the other site.)
A reminder: our two sites are Listen Up, Lansing and Spartan Dispatches.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email, text or call me ASAP. And don't wait; most advice I will give you will probably involve doing some more reporting, which is really hard to do well -- if at all -- if you're calling me the night before deadline.
Good luck, everyone!
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