Gateway to Media: Critical Thinking, Storytelling and Multimedia.
Ira Glass, the master storyteller behind “This American Life,” shares tips on telling and finding stories. These are four short and excellent clips that answer about half the questions I’ve fielded from students.
On the basics:
On finding good sources:
On good taste:
On two common... 
Washington Post reporter Anne Hull wrote a series of brilliant features about being a gay teenager in America. This story, about Newark 17-year-old Felicia Holt, is one that I’ve given to students to read over the last two years. It’s gripping, for one, and it’s a great example of using narrative and rich, necessary details. We read this story in lab Friday; your classmates agreed that... 
From Professor Blaine: “There has been a common question about whether students can use the same interviews for G1 and G2. I encourage students to use subjects from G2 interviews for G1 assignments. Ultimately we want them do develop integrated multimedia packages and those connections are... 
TED is a nonprofit dedicated to bringing people together from those three worlds — technology, entertainment and design. I’m posting this 15-minute talk by National Geographic Photo Editor David Griffin because the photos are beautiful, and also because he explains how some of these photos were taken. If you have time, I’d recommend watching this to get your brain juices... 
A very helpful photo tutorial with easy tips on taking prettier photographs.... 
Microbe Research Promises Better Future for Biofuel
Discoveries involving microbes and their ability to break down organisms and create ethanol provide exciting possibilities for more efficient, cheaper biofuel production. As scientists modify the microbes, they are able to combine reactions to make the chain reaction, from breaking down to fermenting plant matter, faster and easier. At Macoma... 
To access your files on the jdata server you will need to take the following steps:
1. Download the VPN Software. That software makes the U of O server “think” you are on campus so you can access all resources that you can access when you are connected to the Internet on campus. To download the VPN software, go to this address: http://libweb.uoregon.edu/systems/proxy/
Once you have downloaded... 
Q. What is the most important general news story this week? Write a title/headline and a one- to two-sentence summary of it. Include the source or sources where you got it.
Headline: Republican Wins Massachusetts Senate Seat.
Summary: Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown won the election for Ted Kennedy’s previous senate seat over Democrat Martha Coakley. It is an important victory for the Republican... 
Student Max Barkley writes:
"Because our topics are supposed to be heavily
intertwined with our government, I feel as
though this web site is a great reference to
everyone in the class; it is a text bank of the
U.S. Senate's current legislation. It is
heavily... 
Ed Madison suggests this important article from the New York Times about... 
A lot of you haven’t been hyperlinking properly. It’s easy. HERE’S HOW.
Why hyperlink? It looks less sloppy than having an incomprehensible URL address clutter your page, and it also means that your reader can go immediately to the site you’re recommending as opposed to the more cumbersome... 
Trust us, it is. A good way to find out is by setting up a Google news alert for your topic. Be sure it isn’t too vague, but make sure it’s broad enough to capture most of the articles that touch on your issue. (Education would be too broad by itself, but education reform or teacher merit pay would not.) If you’re not sure, play around with it for a while. Or type in several.
Check out... 
Hi everyone,
Some of you asked me whether the two sources requirement for Assignment 1 is an important component of it. What if you would like to tell the story of a single person as narrated by that individual (i.e. have only one source)?
It is an important part of this assignment to tell a story drawing from your interviews with two sources. The idea is to sift through different perspectives of the same... 
Who is a source… and why? We explored this in class on Wednesday using the Kevin Everett story as an example. As you read or watch each article think about what role each source plays in telling the story.
ESPN coverage the injury (YouTube)
Much Hype in Player’s Treatment (NYT) – January 15, 2008
Choose One for Class Discussion:
Doctors on the Scene Acted Quickly to Treat Everett with... 
THE INTERVIEW
1. When you meet the interviewees for the first time, say thank you. It shows you value their time.
2. Ideally, you’ll have written down a few questions but expect to be surprised by what you hear and change courses. I often like to start with one of two prompts:
a) “I do have some questions, but I thought we’d start at the beginning — how you got here and how... 
Multimedia News & Links
Gateway to Media Gateway integrates critical thinking with basic storytelling skills in a multimedia environment. Students work from a blog format and research topics, gathering sources that they evaluate critically for their usefulness to filing a report, making an argument or telling a story.
