Journ class: Tweets, art and grades

Friday, September 21, 2012
3 things for students in journalism class today:

KEEP ON TWEETIN'. Now that you've established a Twitter account for the beat of your choice, you should live, eat and breathe that beat. Watch your Google Alerts for stories of interest, Tweet them, use them as inspiration for stories you can report on your beat.
* Twitter's advice to journalists: Tweet your beat, but not just your own stories.

WRITING AS PERFORMANCE ART. In 2002, Roger Ebert observed that the computer and the Internet have transformed the work of writing: "Because the monitor serves so many purposes, it seems to me like a public space. Countless voices have appeared on it—including yours, if you've e-mailed me. Typing on this monitor is subtly different from typing on a piece of paper on the L.C. Smith. That was a solitary act. This is more like a performance."
* Author using Google Doc to write, edit book in realtime -- as you watch.
* Information decay is eating away our modern history.

A GRADE REVOLUTION? What would you think about a class where the only grades are A, B or F? Mindy McAdams is experimenting with that in her journalism classes at the University of Florida: "... if A is 'excellent' and B is 'good,' then anything less than a B must be done over, or it earns a zero. ... [I]n the world of journalism work, we can’t publish or broadcast or upload C work."


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