On their own, these are powerful elements for storytelling. Combining them into a social virtual reality app like Spaces, however, means a new world of possibilities. What is Facebook Spaces, and how could we use it for journalism? I set out to gain insights about this app in the context of telling stories, and as I discovered tips and practical uses, I also learned more about limitations when using this technology.

During a social virtual reality workshop in November at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, I put on an Oculus Rift headset and listened to verbal directions on how to use the two Oculus Touch hand controllers. My eyes veered all over as I soaked in this 360-degree, cartoon-like world. I clutched controllers that felt too big for my hands, yet gave me a vague sense of security and stabilization.

I clumsily acclimated to the gesture-based controls. I created an avatar, took some photos with a virtual selfie stick and spoke to one of my colleagues, USC professor and Annenberg Media Digital News Director Laura Davis. Even though we were physically far apart, being in Spaces made us feel like we were right next to each other.

“Honestly you really do forget about the world around you,” Davis said. “It was a discombobulating experience to come out of it. You really do get lost in the world and in that place.”

Emma Pierre, a USC student at the workshop, agreed.

“I feel like I just woke up from a dream. If I had this at my house, I would never leave,” she said.

“I feel like this technology is great for interacting with people you may not interact with,” Pierre added. “You can go to places other people have created.”

Space for Creativity

At USC, Davis and I had been talking to the Annenberg Media emerging platforms student team about the possibility of launching a storytelling project in Spaces. I had seen a preview of Spaces when I attended Facebook’s developer conference earlier in 2017, and I was fascinated by it. We discussed a plan with students, but we all knew we needed to try out Spaces and understand how people used the technology before we moved forward with launching a journalistic project in a social VR environment.

So, I organized the day-long event in November to explore the platform, expose faculty and students to social VR experiences, and think about how we could use it for journalism and storytelling. I reached out to Facebook, and the organization sent three members from the Spaces team to USC’s event. The team conducted sessions ranging from an intro to Facebook Spaces to best practices for VR storytelling.

This was helpful as we explored using Spaces for storytelling. Our emerging platforms student team at USC had previously seen a few experiments that didn’t go exactly as planned, including Slate’s launch of a weekly talk show in Facebook Spaces called “Conundrums.” We also saw some of the criticism Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced when going live in Facebook Spaces touring a hurricane ravaged area of Puerto Rico. When the Facebook founder appeared as a cartoonish avatar in front of real images of devastation, many felt the outcome was insensitive, if not offensive.

Zuckerberg said in a Facebook comment: “When you’re in VR yourself, the surroundings feel quite real. But that sense of empathy doesn’t extend well to people watching you as a virtual character on a 2D screen. That’s something we’ll need to work on over time.”

At Annenberg Media, we were discussing several ideas for Facebook Spaces, including a possible project dubbed “Open Spaces.”

We wanted to see if newly released virtual reality technology, specifically Facebook Spaces, could break down geographical, psychological and demographical barriers to engage communities around possibly sensitive topics.

Another idea was around the concept of “Origins,” where students would look at where people came from and how it has shaped their lives.

After seeing how others were using Facebook Spaces and trying it out ourselves, we learned a few things.

Social Virtual Reality Tips

Know the product and the audience: It’s great that a social VR tool is built into the huge audience Facebook has fostered. You must have an Oculus Rift with Touch controllers to use Spaces (although you can join in via Facebook Messenger if someone in Spaces calls you), or it will also be compatible with HTC Vive, according to a recent announcement. When you experience Spaces, you can open up 360 photos and videos, and it feels as if you are inside those visuals. Knowing about all of these parameters helped us in shaping future projects. There are also more products in the social VR arena we haven’t looked at yet, like AltspaceVR.

Use it: We already knew that a product has to be experienced before planning out a project, but that notion was even more evident with Spaces. Using Spaces was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. (Some may recall Second Life, which features an online virtual world you can explore with a customized avatar and identity. Spaces takes that a step further with Oculus and hand controllers to make you feel like you ARE the avatar).

It takes some getting used to: I fumbled with the controllers at first. It was also weird not to have any actual legs for your avatar in Spaces, but you get used to it after a while and almost forget about it.

A virtual selfie stick and capability to go live on Facebook are some of the features of Facebook Spaces. (Photo: Amara Aguilar)

There’s potential here: Social VR combines social media, 360 content, personal interaction, capabilities to go live, share and more. The Facebook team mentioned three principles to keep in mind when it comes to product: Keep it simple, straightforward and human. By using the platform, I found there is huge potential for Spaces to create community and connect people in a more personal way, especially those who are physically separated. Annenberg Media emerging platforms editor Drew Schwendiman said, “It has the potential to allow people to join in a conversation from around the world. They don’t have to be in the same building as you as long as they have access to the technology, the internet and a Facebook account.”

Proceed with care, but don’t be afraid to try new things: As with any technology, sometimes journalists can try something, and it doesn’t go as planned — or totally fails. I think that’s OK; however, it’s important to keep in mind, with this technology specifically, that cartoon-like avatars could be seen as a not-so-serious way of approaching serious content. Emojis and GIFs can be viewed that way too, although I have seen serious journalistic storytelling done with GIFs. We learned that with social VR, we really need to think through perceptions and how we use the technology in order to tell stories with care.

More tips: A few tips the Facebook team shared with us: Give control of the story to the audience, create an emotional connection to the location, and promote use of authentic interactions and details.

We’re still figuring it out: We are still planning to use Spaces in some way next semester at Annenberg Media and are very excited about the possibilities, but learning about the technology, using it and brainstorming through our ideas has allowed us to take a step back as we prepare to step into our first journalistic experiences in Spaces.

Amara Aguilar is an associate professor of professional practice in digital journalism at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She teaches courses in mobile and emerging platforms, social media, design, digital news project development, among other areas. She loves journalism, Star Wars and all things tech.

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This was one of the conversational commands University of Southern California journalism students programmed when creating a new skill for the Amazon Echo device that uses Alexa voice-powered technology. Chilaquiles is a Mexican dish made with corn tortillas and chili sauce, but this story wasn’t just about a recipe.

The students, Cristina Galvan and Almond Li, were working on a project for the “Advanced Journalism for Mobile and Emerging Platforms” class at USC Annenberg that promotes experimentation with a variety of emerging technology—including mixed reality, augmented reality, chat bots, stories for Alexa, 360 photo and video storytelling, and other new formats that allow journalists to tell stories in different ways.

Cristina and Almond wanted to create stories about food and culture for their semester-long class project. As the professor of the course, I talked with the students about the focus of the story, their goals and their audience. The students put themselves in the place of their users and thought Amazon Echo would be an interesting device to experiment with based on the audience experience they wanted to create.

Ingredients for Compelling Stories

Beyond a recipe skill, the students wanted to program Alexa to tell a story that a user could experience in his or her kitchen, a common place Alexa-powered devices might be used. In addition to the ingredients and cooking directions, the students built in stories from a Mexican mom who shared what the dish meant to her and how her personal memories affected the preparation of the dish.

These weren’t just the ingredients of a flavorful dish, it was a recipe for a compelling audio story and rich experience for the user. The students had to make adjustments. They had previously worked on audio and video for the web and social media platforms.

Tips from Amazon’s day-long workshop in Los Angeles on April 11 featuring tips for creating new skills for Alexa. Photo by Laura Davis

“Initially when I was editing the audio I did it as a regular audio piece, but when I started developing it, we looked at it and knew it had to be in real time as if you are in the kitchen with the person,” Galvan said. “It had to be in real time, conversational, fun and something you want to do, not feeling like ‘I’m going to cook with this robot.’ It had to be something that really made you feel like you’re bonding with the person you are listening to.”

The students recorded interviews and blended in natural sound and music for a real-time experience. They wrote a script with narration, interviews, natural sound and user actions with time code. As they developed various parts of the story, the students had to consider how long it would take to cut tortillas, make sauce and cook ingredients.

“A lot of things were really trial and error,” Li said. “The first time we did this we didn’t plan ahead enough. We thought it was going to be easy and that we were just going to [feature] the steps. Then we would insert the story in between the lines, but it was not that easy. We needed to weave things together.”

Once the students had their audio story complete and were satisfied with user experience, we focused on the technical aspects of creating a skill, or command, for Alexa. In preparation for this, I attended (and invited the students to attend) a free day-long workshop on developing Alexa skills in Los Angeles and I also examined a variety of Alexa skills.

I already had an Amazon developer account required to make skills for Alexa, but I also needed to sign up for an Amazon Web Service account. After reviewing the steps for creating an Alexa skill and going through them at the workshop, I had a good understanding of the process. (Side note: I had previous experience developing apps and some coding experience, which really helped).

I went over the process with the students on how to create the Alexa skill and also sent them a guide to get started. But even as the project was being finalized, Alexa developments, including a new interface, continued.

Submitting the Skill

We submitted the skill and it came back with a few bugs, which we are currently fixing, but you can listen to the students’ story on SoundCloud for now.

“There was a lot of help and guidelines, but one of the hardest thing is that it hasn’t been done as much before so there wasn’t a lot of videos and tutorials,” Galvan said. Even with some challenges, it was really fun to work with the students as they created a story for Alexa.

A Learning Process

1. Put story first. The students wanted to create stories on food and culture. They had a simple, but strong concept of the story and what they wanted to accomplish. They considered Alexa because they thought it would be the best way to engage their audience considering the topics and goals they wanted to pursue.
2. Focus on your audience and user experience. The students had to create content for a real-time experience, so they had to move away from the tight storytelling they were used to for radio storytelling, broadcast and social media content. They even went through and visualized cooking the dish themselves to take into consideration time needed for prep, dicing, cooking, etc. They worked with a script, but adapted the format for the Alexa experience. They also went beyond a recipe and told the story behind the dish and humanized the story with personal interviews and anecdotes. “For different topics you want to make sure you get a wide variety of sounds to make the story more interesting and rich,” Li said. “For us, making food and the sounds really makes the whole story richer and also so much more engaging when you hear the oils sizzling and the stove and the fire and all that. It really makes people more engaged and feel like they are in that environment. And if they are cooking, they can feel it and follow along.”
3. Use existing resources and take advantage of Amazon’s step by step guidelines. Amazon has snippets of code on GitHub and also has a lot of documentation on how to get started with creating Alexa skills. We were fortunate to have access to an Amazon Echo, courtesy of the Annenberg Media newsroom. It helps to have a programming background, but it is not required to build a skill for Alexa.
4. It’s okay to try and get stuck, but don’t give up. Our first skill submission had to be debugged, but we learned a lot along the way. It helps to use the device yourself regularly, stay up to date with stories about the industry, and stay current with latest tech advancements from Amazon (or Google and developments about Google Home). The students also documented their experiences on Medium and were candid about the challenges and process.
5. Start simple and consider your deadline. The students completed the Alexa assignment as part of their semester-long project. “Definitely finding something that is the right amount of time and that is feasible was helpful,” Galvan said. “Starting small and also really having a good plan going into it is important. We had all semester to plan it out and think about it and that really helped.”

Professional Feedback

The project helped the students develop an innovative and flexible mindset when it comes to creating stories for emerging platforms and we are looking forward to experimenting more with Alexa and other voice-powered devices next year, in addition to other forms of emerging technology. At the end of the semester, the students got to present their projects to members of Facebook’s product development team for feedback on the last day of class.

Advanced journalism for mobile/emerging platforms class @USCAnnenberg featured AR, bots & more student projects + @facebook guests #ascj pic.twitter.com/12Jryg9xcO

— Amara Aguilar (@amara_media) April 27, 2017

“I think it was really cool and interesting to just get to explore these new platforms. For myself, I was just used to doing video and text and it was really an interesting experience learning how to do something for an emerging platform,” Galvan said.

We’ve already requested a Google Home device and more Echo devices for the next school year and will also explore how controlling lights and other devices in the home can enhance storytelling.

So for now, “Alexa, get ready for more stories.”

Amara Aguilar is an associate professor of professional practice in digital journalism at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. She teaches courses in mobile and emerging platforms, social media, design, digital news project development, among other areas. She loves journalism, Star Wars and all things tech.

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At the University of Southern California, these aren’t just stories of our students, or even Los Angeles. They aren’t just stories for Latinx people. They are stories that touch all people. They are stories that matter, but they often may be overlooked, sometimes because of lack of diversity in newsrooms.

This semester, journalism students at USC joined together to launch “Dímelo,” which means “tell me” in Spanish. They want people in the community to tell their stories, and the students want unheard voices to have a platform.

The aim of this new media brand is to reach young Latinx and Hispanic adults beyond borders — beyond geographic borders, beyond cultural borders, beyond stereotypes and beyond boundaries.

Dímelo was born out of a directed research class at USC called “Social Media Storytelling for Latino Audiences,” taught by myself and Professor Laura Castañeda.

The story of Dímelo

Students in USC’s National Association of Hispanic Journalists student chapter originally wanted to start a Spanish-language newscast, but when they recently indicated their audience was young Latinos, we decided to research this audience first and create a strategy that spoke to that goal.

We found that many young Latinos consume media content in English. We also looked at platforms where young people spend the most time and where they consume the most news and information.

After doing some of this research, Castañeda and I worked with the students to decide a Spanish language newscast may not be the most effective way to reach our audience. So we decided to take a distributed content approach and launch a storytelling brand native to social media for young Latinos because that is where much of our audience was spending time.

We also looked at established brands for Latinx and Hispanic audiences on social media, including Flama, Remezcla, BuzzFeed’s Pero Like, Huffington Post Latino and Fusion.

For the first few weeks of class, students conducted more audience research. They even came up with unscientific personas who might represent their audience.

We also brainstormed about our brand and the name associated with it. We thought of names in English and Spanish. After several iterations, the students decided on Dímelo.

Since launching on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, the Dímelo students have been able to produce social videos, Facebook Live and chat content, and we are now working on a chat bot for Facebook. The secret project code name for our chat bot is “Cholula Chat.”

“The reason I think Dímelo is such a valuable component to the Annenberg Media space is because it’s a one-of-a-kind unit and team,” Dímelo editor Barbara Estrada said. “We create content that is similar to content seen through outlets that are well-known — like BuzzFeed, mitú, Flama — where they’ve garnered this huge amount of attention. An audience for that can also be seen at the student level. I feel like this necessary because we are the audience for these platforms, so why not create it at the student level, as well.”

Students also were able to work with Fusion for a week in October to cover border stories leading up to the RiseUp AS ONE concert on the Mexico-California border. Two Dímelo journalism students took over Fusion’s Snapchat account. Several traveled to Tijuana to work on stories. One flew up in a small plane with Fusion editor Alexis Madrigal to capture 360 footage of the border. Some students had never been to another country and were encouraged to see a diverse team at Fusion working together to tell powerful stories.

In addition to field trips, students are exploring the emerging digital storytelling space while also exploring culture, identity, empowerment and their community. The students launched a series called “Brownish,” that explores the complex identities many share.

The class has also featured speakers from Azteca America, Vista LA, and media researchers and experts on young Latinx audiences. In addition, the class is taking a field trip this month to mitú offices in Santa Monica.

“Young Latinx journalists bring a different and fresh perspective to stories that might otherwise never get covered,” Castañeda said. “Our students are learning how to analyze the market they want to reach, partnering with professional media outlets like Azteca and Fusion to produce different kinds of social media stories, and reaching a broad range of Latino and non-Latino viewers interested in these important stories.”

Takeaways

Knowing your audience is key when launching a new brand or product. Break down who your audience is and how you can reach them most effectively. Even beyond reaching the audience, ask yourself how will you engage your community.

Have a diverse team. In many cases, the most diverse stories often come from diverse teams in your student newsroom or classes. A variety of perspectives contributes to more well-rounded content.

USC journalism student and Dímelo editor Barbara Estrada checks her camera while on location with a team of reporters from Fusion near the California-Mexico border. USC students worked with Fusion to cover stories near the border in October. Photo by Amara Aguilar

Embrace the similarities and differences in us all. Remember that social media transcends physical and geographical boundaries. You have the potential to reach your audience in their personal space with powerful stories that touch people’s emotion, no matter what their background is.

Put story first and use technology to tell untold stories. The students have been able to use their mobile devices, Facebook Live and Snapchat for reporting. But they are also experimenting with 360 photos and video when it best serves the story. One student is working on capturing barbershops in LA with a 360 camera and adding hotspots to tell the stories of that place and people who have spent time there. Also, look out for our Facebook messenger bot coming soon.

Start small. We decided to launch mainly on Facebook and Instagram, and later launched on Snapchat. Our team consists of nine students, both grad and undergrad from all backgrounds.

Have a goal and mission. At USC, students have driven the Dímelo brand, stories and social accounts. They spent time on a mission statement and specific goals.

Measure outcomes and learn from engagement patterns. Students are tracking engagement, traffic and analytics. While they are looking at numbers, they are also looking at meaningful conversations people are having around stories and reporting. They learn from what they have done well, but more importantly what didn’t work well.

Integrate focused projects into curriculum. By creating a class at USC that focuses on social media storytelling for Latino audiences, we have created time and space to discuss focused issues and targeted content.

Starting a team from scratch is challenging. Finding support and funding takes time and energy. Not everyone sees the value in new projects, but don’t give up. We have faced challenges, but have continued to support our students’ goals and interests.

Next steps

Currently the Dímelo team is working on a DNA social video story that explores people’s perceived identity versus their scientific identity. They are working on stories that they — as young Latinos — want to read, see and hear. The social media storytelling for Latinx audiences class will be offered in the spring 2017 semester at USC.

“The class has allowed me to assume the role of being a leader. This class helped form a group of people that have the same interests in creating a space to create content for the Latino audience,” Estrada said.

For this student team, the ultimate goal is simple: “Dímelo.”

Amara Aguilar is an associate professor of professional practice in digital journalism at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. She teaches courses in mobile and emerging platforms, app design, digital news project development, among other areas. She loves journalism, Star Wars and all things tech.

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As we started the JEDI desk at the University of Southern California in the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, we knew we had to go all in.  There was no try.

JEDI (Journalism, Emerging, Digital, Innovation) is a USC Annenberg Media student team that produces native content for social media and emerging platforms. The unit consists of Annenberg students, volunteers and students from different areas of study.

The team produces video stories, Instagram content, Snapchat stories, GIFs, personality-based video series for social media, mini-documentaries for social media, 360 photos, and news content, among other things. Basically, the students produce content similar to the styles you might see on the social media accounts of BuzzFeed, NowThis and AJ+.

It all started when students and faculty saw a need to better engage audiences. Broadcast videos being posted to Facebook weren’t working well on social media. These weren’t the results we were looking for.

It was December 2014. After I had a few informal chats with USC Annenberg Media student executive producer Fernando Hurtado, we moved forward and set up formal meetings. Annenberg Media Center faculty adviser and professor Rebecca Haggerty joined us as we discussed digital strategy.

It was a perfect mix. Hurtado was an uber-talented journalism student with fresh perspectives and Haggerty would represent the USC Annenberg Media Center faculty with an impressive background in broadcast journalism. We were going to start this thing called the mobile and emerging platforms unit.

As a former student news publications adviser and a digital professor at USC, I was interested in working with the Media Center to reach millennials and create engaging digital content while experimenting and pushing boundaries.

How could we better work with platforms that most of our audience and students at USC were using?  We met almost weekly. We looked at analytics. Yes, there were what the numbers were telling us. But we also saw a huge need to develop content our audience was consuming on mobile devices and social media platforms. We needed to produce compelling stories that our audience could easily access. We wanted to go to where they were. We wanted work to be “shareable,” but what did that look like? Everyone loves cute, fluffy cats jumping around, but our students produce news, among other types of content. What did our fluffy cats look like?

USC Annenberg Media’s Facebook page has more than 30,000 likes, in part due to the efforts of the JEDI desk.

May the audience be with you

Hurtado created a mission statement. We discussed goals, including trying something new every day. Snapchat, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook content — there was no shortage of how we could explore the digital space through storytelling.

With the support of Annenberg Media Center executive director Serena Cha, Hurtado formed a unit of student volunteers in the Media Center during the spring 2015 semester. He and other students experimented, particularly with video, looking for the formats that would work best for the content he and the students wanted to create. Haggerty oversaw the team in the Media Center and spent countless hours working with students and developing the team.

At the end of the semester, it was clear the team had momentum. This team was growing at galactic proportions. We needed to create a class to give students time and space to meet, brainstorm and strategize.

We were beyond excited. The unit was growing. There was a buzz around this new mobile and emerging platforms team. Journalism 499 (Journalism for Mobile and Emerging Platforms) was officially offered in fall 2015, but the class only ended up with four people enrolled.

Our director of journalism at USC Annenberg, Willow Bay, knew the importance of expanding learning opportunities for students. She supported the class and the growth of the unit within the Media Center.

Guest speaker and startup entrepreneur Eric Ortiz shows JEDI student manager Monica Castillo how to use the Evrybit app during the mobile and emerging platforms class at USC in fall 2015. Photo by Amara Aguilar.

The class, taught by Haggerty and me, produced weekly assignments on social media platforms. The students produced GIFs, Instagram photo series, videos and 360 photos, and they tried out new apps (like Evrybit and First Person). We had guest speakers from Fusion’s Snapchat team, spoke with Fortune’s audience engagement editor, and took a field trip to BuzzFeed. We learned that size matters not. The number of students in the class was small but mighty.

In addition, many Annenberg students contributed to the unit in the Media Center as part of their weekly required lab shifts. Others volunteered, excited by the chance to create something interesting.

Students in the class working with the JEDI unit planned special social media coverage and engagement projects. One project, diverSCity, focused on covering issues surrounding diversity at USC. The students created a Facebook page and took portraits of people in the campus community, asking them the same three questions. The variety of perspectives was eye-opening and powerful. The content was created specifically for Facebook.

The students also planned a community engagement event on campus tied to the diverSCity coverage, inviting students, staff and faculty to share their thoughts in person on problems and solutions surrounding the topic of diversity at USC. This type of engagement was exactly what we were looking for.

During the fall 2015 semester, something else happened. Two students (Barbara Estrada and Taylor Villanueva) who were part of the Media Center JEDI team created a fun video called “Similarities Between Arabic and Spanish.” Hurtado noticed the Facebook views on the video starting to spike. In a few days, the video had millions of views on Facebook.

In the meantime, the unit got a new name. Mobile and emerging platforms unit (MAEPU) doesn’t exactly glide off the tongue, so I suggested something else, like JEDI. The name stuck. (We are still looking for a desk to call the SITH desk, but that’s another story).

The following semester, in spring 2016, the class had standing room only during the first week of school in January and has already started to produce engaging content. So, what did we learn?

Former USC Annenberg journalism student Fernando Hurtado speaks to the mobile and emerging platforms class on campus in January, sharing tips for producing social media content. Hurtado was the first executive editor for the JEDI desk. Photo by Amara Aguilar.

Learning the ways of the JEDI

Hurtado reported that by January 2016, the JEDI unit produced 300+ minutes of content, reached 30+ million people and increased followers by more than 30,000 across platforms.

He also analyzed the audience of many of our popular social media platforms. For example, Annenberg Media’s Facebook page is 59 percent female, 40 percent male with 62 percent of the audience in the USA and 17 percent in Mexico. In addition, 65 percent of the audience is between 18 and 34 years old. Hurtado noticed some times were better to post than others. Noon posts worked really well on Facebook, he said. Then, there were the small things that made a big difference. Based on everything he had observed in the past year running the JEDI desk, Hurtado started putting together tips for new JEDI students (or Padawans as we like to call them), and he shared them during the start of the spring semester with the new class. He also agreed to allow me to repost here:

Hurtado’s Facebook tips:

• videos with stingers at the end had higher average view
• videos with text and audio (voiceovers) had bigger retention rate
• non-USC-specific language in status bar increases engagement
• don’t put crucial audio in first two seconds because of autoplay feature
• photos tend to do better if they have wow factor

Twitter takeaways:

• if text doesn’t fit in tweet field, put text into picture
• tweets with pictures outperformed those without pictures
• breaking news content lives here
• add location to tweets whenever possible
• you don’t need to add hashtags to join larger conversation
• technology, sports and business content showed consistent traction

Instagram tips:

• if it doesn’t make you say wow, think three times before posting
• breaking news doesn’t do as well on Instagram
• lifestyle content proved to be more engaging
• use as many hashtags as you want
• the more niche the Instagram content strategy, the better

Snapchat Stories:

• the longer the story is, the better
• you can take pictures of Photoshop files and upload to story
• weird/quirky bits do better
• add personality to it if possible
• political debate coverage is easy to produce, but don’t go too long
• short: 80-second Snapstory
• long: 240-second Snapstory
• post more than two a day if possible, at least four hours apart

Haggerty and I also had several takeaways from professors’ points of view, including:

• Storytelling, above all, is at the core of what we do. All the cute puppies in the world will not take the place of good storytelling. While the JEDI unit produces light, off-the-cuff content, it also produces content surrounding breaking news and important community/global issues.
• Adapt and innovate. We saw a need and moved on it immediately. We provided input and advice, but allowed the students to lead and take ownership. We tried new things consistently.
• Strong curriculum is important. We created a class to support the JEDI team. The team could exist without a class, but the course gives structure, time, space and more students to add value and consistency to the JEDI experience.
• Institutional support is key. The directors of the school and the Media Center were willing to take a chance on this unit and allow students the freedom to produce content outside of traditional conventions. This provided support such as equipment and expertise critical to the unit’s success.
• Failing is okay. Some of the experiments that were tried and content that was produced just didn’t work. That was OK. We learned from it and applied those lessons as we moved forward.
• Stress the fundamentals of journalism, but recognize the changes in the industry and focus on experimentation.
• Make the experience interactive and fun. We had field trips. We took the students to a local high school in Los Angeles to share their experiences producing on social platforms. Giving back to the community is important engagement.
• Don’t be shy when it comes to new platforms. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Snapchat. We struggled a little with storytelling on that platform, but students are now hooked. They want to produce on the platforms where they live.
• Skills count. Our students knew how to write, edit, and shoot videos, and use simple graphics. They were able to leap into producing directly for social with confidence and competence.
• Analytics are your friend. We didn’t want to only make popular content, of course. But with the luxury of not having to chase page views or drive traffic to a website, students could focus on techniques that resonated with audiences. Students settled on multiple formats that included text for quick mobile consumption, an informal but not snarky tone, and strong visuals.
• Content remains king. Our audience responded to explanatory videos, breaking news particularly for campus-themed stories, and clever, well-produced features in formats that felt fresh and relevant.
• Collaboration is critical. The JEDI team involves Annenberg students, volunteers and students from other schools on campus who all work together under student editors. Leadership from Hurtado was a powerful inspiration to the first JEDI team and set the tone for the future. Volunteers were vital. Faculty collaboration was also critical. While Haggerty oversees the day-to-day operations of the JEDI desk as Media Center faculty adviser, I’ve provided input on curriculum and overall digital strategy. Along with students, both professors have been critical in making JEDI what it has become today.

We have faced challenges. Professor Haggerty and I noted the following:

• User-generated content is hard to come by. We tried several ways to elicit video stories from our audience, with limited success. We plan to keep working on the best ways to not only engage audiences, but participate with them.
• Not every campaign finds a niche immediately. Our students created a Facebook album, videos and even a live event around diversity on campus that managed to be both thought-provoking and effective. But a similar effort around women in sports reached fewer people. We’re still experimenting with the best platforms and content for each story.
• Serious reporting takes effort and commitment, no matter the platform. We’re proud of what the students have accomplished but want to keep pushing them to find ways to use social platforms to take on original reporting and complex subjects.
• Building a class from scratch and creating momentum for a new team was challenging. We had to constantly recruit, but it helped to have good content and an organized team, with specific goals and a defined workflow.
• Not every video is going to go viral. But take advantage of those that create traffic because it will help build your audience.
• Don’t get caught up with the fluffy cats. Yes they are adorbs, but it’s important to balance light stories with serious content. Consider the brand you want to develop and audience you want to reach.

Despite these challenges, the JEDI unit is in full force. It’s a popular unit and it’s fun to see students telling stories on the platforms they are constantly using.

“This experience, no exaggeration, changed the course of my career and my interests too,” Hurtado told me in a recent interview. “Before this, I didn’t know careers existed in this and that media organizations were dying to crack the code behind mobile and social native content. I learned a lot.”

Hurtado, who was known as our JEDI master, graduated from USC in December. After receiving multiple job offers, he started working for Circa in March.

JEDI has a new executive editor and is continuing to grow and innovate while preparing students for careers in journalism, social media, audience engagement and emerging areas of the media industry. In short, we’ve got a good feeling about this.

Amara Aguilar is an associate professor of professional practice in digital journalism at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. She teaches courses in mobile and emerging platforms, app design, digital news project development, among other areas. She loves journalism, Star Wars and all things tech.

The post May the Audience Be With You: How USC Students are Learning the Ways of Social Media appeared first on MediaShift.

For their bravery in journalism, three women were honored by the International Women’s Media Foundation last week at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles.

Mwape Kumwenda based in Zambia, Anna Nemtsova of Russia, and Lourdes Ramirez of Honduras accepted 2015 Courage in Journalism awards and shared experiences about the challenges they have faced and overcome. Former Associated Press reporter Linda Deutsch also received a Lifetime Achievement award at the event.

All of the honorees faced battles in their own ways.

“Being courageous in journalism in my country, Zambia, is a challenge,” said Kumwenda, a reporter for Muvi Television. “The law is not on our side. Many reporters are harassed, intimated and attacked by those that perceive them as enemies.”

Despite the danger, Kumwenda has continued to report on social and economic injustice.

“Risks must be taken and a story must be told for as long as it is for the public good and can inspire hope to oppressed communities,” she said. “I will not remain silent when innocent people are killed. I will report.”

Persistence was a theme for these women throughout the evening. Nemstova recalled when she decided to become a reporter 15 years ago. She wanted to tell stories about human rights. She said she knew about the danger, but she wanted to report the truth.

“The people who are really courageous are the characters in our stories,” she said. “It is a big tragedy to lose friends and colleagues in conflict zones. It is an even bigger tragedy and shame to see them shot in peaceful cities.”

Nemstova, who is a Moscow-based contributor to the Daily Beast and Newsweek, has been put in physical danger while reporting, even being held at gunpoint, according to IWMF.

Ramirez, a freelance journalist who has shed light on human rights violations, has been physically threatened too. Because of her reporting, Ramirez was threatened and forced to temporarily leave her country, according to IWMF.

“It is difficult to accept having courage when I have spent many sleepless nights living in fear over many months with latent threats that could materialize at any moment, suffering in silence, unable to tell anyone about the things that terrorize me,” Ramirez said.

A LIFETIME OF COURAGE

While Kumwenda, Nemstova and Ramirez were honored for their international work, Deutsch was honored for her lifetime achievement in the United States through her work for the Associated Press as a special correspondent trial reporter.

She worked for nearly 50 years covering some of the most infamous trials in the U.S., including those involving Charles Manson and O.J. Simpson. She said she found her calling telling important stories in the courtrooms of America.

Deutsch said many of the trials she covered made history and she had “a front row seat.”

International Women’s Media Foundation Lifetime Achievement award winner Linda Deutsch accepts her award at the IWMF awards ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles on Oct. 27, 2015. Photo by Amara Aguilar.

As she accepted her award, she said, “The quest for justice concerns all of humanity. My sister honorees have put their lives on the line in the pursuit of truth, justice and human rights. I am honored to share with them a noble profession that shines light in the world’s darkest places.”

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION

Before attending the IWMF awards ceremony in Los Angeles, all four women appeared at a panel entitled “Facing and Surviving Danger to Uncover the Truth” at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.

The women were asked what advice they had for student journalists. Here’s a summary of what they said.

• Find an experienced journalist and learn from them as much as you can. —Nemstova
• Be ready to take risks. Be ready to sacrifice time. Don’t worry about impressing others, leaders or yourself. Your job is to report and serve the public. —Kumwenda
• Provide a voice for those who don’t have it. In our community horrible things happen, unspeakable things, but you are there to tell those stories.—Ramirez
• If you can think of anything else you would rather do that would give you as much satisfaction, do it. It’s a hard road right now. But if it is your passion and you truly feel that you want to be a journalist and that you believe that you can do work that will improve on the world around you, do it. If you believe that you are the best there is and the journalism business cannot live without you, then do it. —Deutsch

In addition to giving advice, Deutsch recalled what it was like being the only woman in the Los Angeles bureau of the Associated Press. She said she remembers walking into a room full of men with cigars and hearing typing machines clacking away before she worked on one of her first writing assignments at the bureau.

Deutsch also recalled when women weren’t allowed to go out and report at night because it was considered too dangerous. Finally, she reflected on the importance of what women bring to the field of journalism.

“I think that women are able to bring a certain sensitivity to specific stories that sometimes men are not able to. I have covered some of the most heart wrenching trials in America, and I think my coverage often reflects the emotional side of it, what was important about it, why does it touch people in their hearts.”

USC Annenberg journalism professors and students attend the International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism awards ceremony on Oct. 27, 2015 at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Los Angeles. Photo by Amara Aguilar.

Alexa Liacko, a USC communication management graduate student, was able to attend the IWMF awards with several USC professors and a handful of students.

“I think it’s really amazing to be here with all these women who we all aspire to be like some day,” she said. “It’s really important for us as young women to have role models and have people we can look up to. I think that events like this really inspire us to look forward and always remember that people have come before us and paved the way for women to do great work in journalism.”

Amara Aguilar is an associate professor of professional practice in digital journalism at USC Annenberg. She previously was the journalism department chair and an assistant professor of journalism at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., where she advised student news publications and led the journalism program’s mobile and tablet initiatives.

The post Courageous Women in Journalism Inspire a New Generation appeared first on MediaShift.

It was a little awkward, but filled with excitement. It’s not that I hadn’t had many first days of class. I’ve been teaching for nine years and first days don’t really give me butterflies. But this was my first time teaching with two other instructors in the same classroom, and my first semester teaching journalism at USC.

Just days before the class started I had met broadcast instructor John Cyrus Smith and print journalism instructor Nomi Morris in person.  The three of us were assigned to teach a Fall Digital News Immersion course together as part of a new nine-month master’s program in specialized journalism at USC.

Instead of students taking separate classes in broadcast, text and digital journalism, the courses were converged into one.

USC instructors, from left, Nomi Morris (text), John Cyrus Smith (broadcast) and Amara Aguilar (digital). Photo by John Cyrus Smith.

Our first meeting

We had a good plan for the first day of class and felt we were ready to go. Our first day went well overall, but it was definitely different than any other first day of class I ever experienced.

I had never taught with two other instructors in the same classroom before. I had co-taught classes, but this was different. All three of us were so enthusiastic and had something to say. We wanted to talk about our three areas: Broadcast, text and digital. We tried not to interrupt each other, but it was inevitable. We needed to get our groove, but we all knew we were on our way.

“I think it’s been really chaotic, but so is the news business,” Morris said. “It’s a great real-world, hands-on type of experience right from the get go.”

One of the best things about this experience is that while we are teaching our students, we are also learning from each other. My background is in academia and digital journalism, but I never knew what a “VSV” was until I heard Smith explain it to our class. (A VSV is voice over, sound on tape, voice over for a broadcast piece).

“It’s so great to be able to learn from colleagues who have specializations and to be able to point out the similarities and differences as they come up in the classroom,” Morris said.

I have become a more well-rounded instructor because of this experience. My colleagues have too.

Graduate student David Hodari edits video on his mobile devices. Photo by Amara Aguilar.

Going all out

Recently for class, I taught a session on shooting and editing video with mobile devices. Students were assigned to shoot some video outside of the classroom, come back and edit and publish their videos on the fly. Smith went out and did the assignment with the students and for the first time, edited video on his phone.

“Three heads are better than one,” Smith said. “No one knows everything. I learn from (my colleagues) just like I learn from my students.”

For the students in the program, the environment in the digital immersion class is definitely unique.

“It’s different because of all the different perspectives we get,” USC graduate student Phoenix Tso said. “There isn’t just one focus on print. We have all of them together, which is nice.”

While it’s nice to have three instructors in one space, we really have tried to make sure we don’t confuse students or overwhelm them.

Students in USC’s Fall Digital News Immersion course edit video on their mobile devices. Photo by Amara Aguilar.

Breaking down walls

In addition to gaining instruction in the Fall Digital News Immersion course, students also are required to work a full day’s media shift every week in the new student Media Center in Wallis Annenberg Hall at USC. Below a plethora of new digital flat screens, student journalists sit side by side producing content for student media outlets that include radio, TV, web, mobile and emerging platforms.

The concept of convergence is at the heart of this state-of-the-art newsroom, which opened for the fall 2014 semester. Inside the core of newsroom, there are no physical walls. No cubicles. No silos. That concept has been infused in the master’s program and has carried over into the classroom and curriculum.

“The intent behind it was to kind of break down the walls between the different types of journalism we were teaching,” said Vince Gonzales, who is the coordinator of the nine-month master’s program at USC.

“Those siloed classes had to go away and we needed to teach (broadcast, text, digital) in one class,“ Gonzales said

So far, Gonzales said he has seen the efficiency. For example, leads used to be taught in separate classes for print, web and broadcast. Now, instructors build off each other to teach all formats together in the same space.

“People were confused when they were taught leads differently in print and broadcast classes. When we taught leads together we didn’t see that confusion,” Gonzales said.

The program isn’t perfect of course. Feedback and surveys are being closely examined to adapt and improve the curriculum. Even now, we are considering adjustments for next year’s program.

Lessons Learned

This experiment in the classroom has taught me several things.

• Embrace the unknown: We aren’t afraid to admit when we don’t know something outside of our area of expertise and jump in and learn along with the students.
• Learn to adapt: With three experienced instructors in the room, everyone wants to contribute. We’ve learned to adapt, work hard not to interrupt the flow of the class, but balance that with complementary instruction. We also make sure to assign someone who is the “lead” instructor to portions of the class.
• Have a plan: Before every class we draft a plan as any instructor would. We make a rough outline, but we pay attention more than the usual attention to time. We always seem to run out of time, but we have learned to adapt and be flexible if one of us runs over. Planning is also important so we don’t confuse the students when switching topics or disciplines.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment and fail: After every class, Morris, Smith and I talk about the class session. We talk about what went well and what didn’t. We’ve tried things that haven’t worked and built on the concepts that have been successful. We have especially found that short lectures, hands-on assignments, and group critique keep students more engaged.
• Embrace change: I know this is obvious, but we have all seen even more so that we need to change the way we teach from this experience. Just as the news industry has evolved and needs to continue to change, so do instructors.

Building chemistry

Our classes no longer feel like a first date, but more like a long-term relationship. It’s no longer awkward with three instructors in the classroom. That passed pretty quickly. We’ve gotten to know each other better. We’ve got chemistry, but we worked for it. There are still times when we interrupt each other, but we are more conscious of it and wait for the right moments. We are evolving and learning from this experimentation in the classroom and loving every minute of it. We know there will be bumps in the road, but we’re in it for the long haul because we are growing from this experience and most importantly, we are doing it for our students.

“I got to use an audio recorder and had never been really introduced to that,” USC graduate student Kenneth Mashinchi said about his experience in the Fall Digital News Immersion course. “I was familiar with video but got even more comfortable with the camera, and writing for broadcast and writing for text — all the different types of mediums that will make us successful so we can walk into a job interview and confidently say, ‘I know how to do everything you would need.’”

Here’s a sample of in-class exercises from the Fall Digital News Immersion course.

• Leads Exercise: write broadcast & text leads from wire copy or fact sheets
• Real-Time Drill:  Students watch a pre-recorded news event and live blog & tweet (offline) their own coverage of the event and then write a short story or news brief with highlights and quotes as if for the Web.
• Mobile Assignment: A mobile technology live assignment, possibly outside the classroom. Or a Real-Time Drill:  Students go to an event or speech on campus, listen to a guest speaker or watch a pre-recorded event and use mobile apps to create coverage and write a short story or news brief as if for a mobile site/app.
• Lead Assignment: write lead-in & package scripts with video and sound provided.
• Crime Story Assignment: Writing exercises with police & crime stories that include headlines, tweets, text, audio, video and graphics (news conference fact sheet).
• Standup Assignment: Standup shooting assignment or Live Shot drill for aspiring video journalists and nervous text reporters who need this skill today.
• Graphic Assignment: Create an interactive graphic in class for a story you are working on or one that has been published by Media Center outlets using the various online tools you have been trained in (map, timeline, etc.) and your advanced writing skills.
• HTML Assignment: write, code, upload Media Center shift work including photos and video. Build an HTML table.
• Data Assignment: Turning a number-heavy story into a story with impact about people. Different best practices for Web, mobile, audio/video, and text.
• Sports Assignment: Real-Time Drill: Students watch a pre-recorded sports or entertainment event and live-blog & tweet (off-line) their own coverage of the event and then write a short story with highlights and quotes as if for the Web.

Amara Aguilar is an associate professor of professional practice in digital journalism at USC Annenberg. She previously was the journalism department chair and an assistant professor of journalism at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., where she advised student news publications and led the journalism program’s mobile and tablet initiatives. Amara loves journalism, education, and all things tech. 

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