“In order to survive, the journalist/ writer of today must understand and champion NEW media. The Internet, blogs, social media, and smartphone journalism is the vocabulary of our new language. The journalist/writer today must be just as concerned with learning style and structure as he is with learning to design websites and build a strong Twitter following. Even if you ‘just want to write article,’ you must cultivate various other skills in order to make this dream a reality.” (Saleh)
Mission:
The design and production of Antioch’s own online magazine/newspaper provides the unique opportunity to a publish a newspaper with rich media and interactivity. Digital storytelling is an emerging term that uses new digital tools to help ordinary people tell their own “true stories” in a compelling and emotionally engaging form (combining the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia, including graphics, audio, video, and Web publishing). Digital storytelling that uses this engaging form to distribute news and current events and special topics as well (campus activity, community events and happenings, world coverage etc). Using new models of content development (content writing for readers and SEO) and distribution, the AUSB Odyssey will create strategies for reader engagement and focus on publishing multimedia stories of interest to the Antioch community: activities & events; alumni stories; social justice issues; student and faculty profiles. This is a fun learning experience that gives YOU as the student a voice, an ability to research, investigate and create feature pieces that interesting to YOU and will help you in your future endeavors.
Writing Development and Editing:
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Assisting with teaching students how to research, develop, and write a story or news-piece. They will learn how to report, interview for profiles or news-pieces.
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Helping students draft, cite/quote, edit and publish on the AUSB Odyssey online platform. They will learn a diverse set of skills for the emerging freelance and writing/ media world.
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Helping students learn how to write for SEO (content writing and what that means). Develop students knowledge of the freelance platform with the latest in social media outlets.
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Teaching students how to seek out new ideas and topics for their next article/project and learn that it is a continual process of participation, research, and readership interaction.
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Measured online analytics as well as stories that receive a lot of attention from other students and the AUSB community, showing them what makes a great story or piece.
What To Expect & Accomplish
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Midterm (Week 7): First Feature Piece due. A feature includes written content plus additional media, interview, photos, incl. drafting, revisions and posting.
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Final (Week 10): Final Feature. This should showcase all that you have learned and incorporate all media channels.
Each Week:
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At LEAST 1 article (can be a list, short piece, literary piece, interview, profile or spotlight)
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other ideas include concert, shows, art, restaurant, community event reviews and write ups (see community event calendar)
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Newsroom: Bring at least 2 ideas to the table for researching, investigating, conversing about for the next week.
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Gradual development of roles (social media specialist, page editor, junior editor, content development specialist)
