Photojournalism

The American Teenager Project:

The American Teenager project aims to get people to appreciate young adults in our community and have empathy towards the struggles of adolescence. They believe that young people have a lot to offer to shape our futures for the better. They work towards a society in which young adults advocate for each other and all people's rights. Robin Bowman is a freelance photojournalist specializing in portrait and documentary photography. She's a photographer acting as witness to the human condition in crisis and its aftermath. She's been all over the world and has been featured in many international publications. All of her work is of young adults where they're usually not smiling, they're all in black and white to create a depressing mood to create a theme within the photos. She's taking photos of all of these young adults and is writing stories about their lives to document all of the challenges that they go through. Traditional photojournalism has one focus typically on an event or something happening in the community, but this is a full, all around the world project of photojournalism.

PennLive:

Attendees at vigil in Lancaster "unsurprised in aftermath of Ferguson decision by Debbie Truong:
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/11/attendees_at_vigil_in_lancaste.html#incart_big-photo

A. Protesters are vandalizing, robbing places, and filling the streets with signs held in protest to racism in reaction to the Grand Jury announcing that they would not indict officer Darren Wilson for shooting 18 year old, Michael Brown who was unarmed.

B. I like that the photos are of everything going on with the police officers guarding places to the protestors in the street vandalizing and robbing. The article tells you exactly what happened with quotes of things that people actually said to help you have a better connection of how those people actually feel.

Processing the News:

This article is talking about how some people edit and process their photos too much and others are claiming that the viewer of the photos can't even trust what they're seeing anymore or the photographers taking them because things can be altered in photos to make them appear different than what it actually is. Which meant no excessive lightening, darkening, or blurring of an image to mislead the viewer. A man edited a colleague's video camera out of a photo of a Syrian opposition fighter during a battle and ended up being told they would remove his pictures from being viewed in archives but ended up helping win a Pulitzer prize. Something that I could take from this article to benefit my final project is don't edit your photos too much and keep it simple and the way it was taken.

Student Yearbook Guide:

Reporting

1.     Good Reporters

a. Look and listen for their readers

b. Always look for specific information that is new or different

c. Seek out a individuals with a variety of viewpoints to tell a complete story

d. Ask who, what, when, where, why, and how questions

2.     Research

a. Research helps reporters understand their stories    

b. Previously published material is a place to start researching a story

c. Primary sources provide background and material that may become part of a story

3.     Interviews

a. The better the questions, the better the answers      

b. Active listening produces the best results      

c. Good notes contain direct quotes and facts      

Writing          

1.     Notes

a. A writer uses questions to help focus the story      

b. If the notes seem incomplete, there is more reporting to do      

c. Organizing notes helps with decisions about content      

2.     Stories

a. The best feature stories put information in a human context.      

                                               i.     Lead – Opening sentence or paragraph that introduces the story, sets the tone and angle and piques reader interest

                                             ii.     Quotes –Word-for-word statements from sources show a reaction to an explanation for an interpretation of an activity, event or issue. Quotes with full attributions add voices and human interest to the story.

                                            iii.     Transitions – These details give context to quotes and make them more meaningful. transition paragraphs inform readers and help them understand what sources are talking about. A transitional paragraph also prepares the reader for the next quote.

                                            iv.     Conclusion – The final sentence or paragraph ties the end of the story back to the lead; it gives a story a sense of completeness. A story should end with a strong point or quote, not with an editorial comment from the writer.

b. Quick reads offer an alternative to features      

3.     Good Writing

a. Good copy depends on an angle and a substance   

b. Good copy seems tightly written and lively      

c. Good copy uses alternative elements   

d. Good copy seems fresh and original     

Read the article by Mallory Summers & see all the components working together

Writing effective headlines requires creativity, effort, and attention to details

What can you take from this page to help in writing creative headlines?

Make sure it's present tense, use strong, active verbs, and use specific, descriptive nouns.

Describe the 3-step process to writing dynamic headlines

1. List 10 to 15 keywords that describe and relate to the topic   

2. Form the list of key words and then brainstorm rhyming words     

3. Using the list of words craft words and phrases that creatively capture the story     

Captions                        

1.     Content

a. Captions should do more than state the obvious      

b. Captions answer readers' questions about a photo      

c. Caption writing requires reporting      

d. Direct quotes from individuals in the photo add depth      

2.     Describe the 3-step process to writing captions

a. Answer who, what, when, where, why, and how questions      

b. Create a connection by brainstorming a list of attention grabbing words that come to mind when looking at the photo     

c. Summary caption: write a detailed sentence in present tense describing the action in the photo
   Expanded caption: write a second sentence providing details not obvious in the photo, emphasizing the how and why

Photography

We will be discussing this section in class