Beats and blogs,posting your project, and Audacity editing part deuxFeb. 28, 2013

Class outline- Blog development exercise- Blog and headline writing- How to upload your audio project- Writing for radio- Editing in Audacity, continued

News blog vs. Personal blogWhat are some ways a news blog differs from a personal blog?

What are some of the similarities?

Blog writingJournalistic

Blog posts, like newspaper articles and TV articles, are supposed to be informative.

Each post should address a clearly identified topic, related to your beat.

Every piece of information should be attributed or sourced.

- If citing the reporting of other news organizations, provide a link- If you gathered material from an interview or report, label it as such- Try to answer the who, what and when somewhere in your post (how

and why, as needed, too!)

Blog writingSuccinct

Limit the length of your posts to no more than 500 words.

Accept that you may not be able to include every piece of information you feel is important to the story. Be selective.

Use links to give readers an opportunity to go deeper.

Blog writingClear writing

Assume Web users want information fast. How can you inform them in a direct but engaging way?

All content should be clear and concise.

Edit your content before posting. Remove information which is irrelevant.

Blog writing

Blog writingHeadlines

Must be short, accurate, direct

In present tense, active voiceNot: Supreme Court conservativesexpressed skepticism over voting lawprovision

Express a complete thought

Subject-Verb-Object- Immigrant release – sparks – firestorm

Not: Opposition to illegal immigrant release- SupCo conservatives – express – skepticism

Not: Voting law skepticism

Blog writingHeadlines

Use proper nouns only if they are common knowledge

Don’t oversell

Ensure it works out of context

Play with language to entice readers

Blog writingGenerally speaking:

Gather, organize and interpret

Posting your audio projectThere are multiple ways to post your project to your Wordpress blog.

See: en.support.wordpress.com/audio/

The quickest way is to do this via SoundCloud: www.Soundcloud.com

Posting your audio project1. Go to SoundCloud and establish an account2. Once you’re logged in, click Upload http://soundcloud.com/upload

Posting your audio project3. > Choose files, and select your file from your desktop

Posting your audio project4. When project hasuploaded, enter projectinformation …

… Then hit the Savebutton at the bottom

Posting your audio project5. You’re ready to go! Hit “Share” and copy the Wordpress code at the bottom of the pop-up window.

Posting your audio project6. Log into your Wordpress blog and paste that code into a New Post.

Posting your audio project7. Add supplemental text as needed into post body, then publish!

Writing for radio

Writing for radio

Not:Michelle Obama will visit Chicago Thursday…Michelle Obama is scheduled to visit Chicago…

Writing for radio

Active voicePresent tense

Smooth transition into a relevant soundbyte

No redundancy between reporter and interviewee

Writing for radio Want to learn more?

Listen to and read the work of pros: wbez.org and npr.org

Poynter’s News University offers two self-directed online courses:1) www.newsu.org/courses/telling-stories-sound 2) www.newsu.org/courses/writing-ear

Audacity- Creating and using multiple tracks

- How to decrease track volume

- Ambient sound

- Smooshing

- Questions?