This is the weekend edition of TheMarioBlog and will be updated as needed. The next blog post is Monday, January 25.
How does one summarize the state of the media today for a graduate journalism class with about 17 of the smartest students anywhere?
I find myself reviewing Lecture 1 for Spring Semester 2016. Indeed, it is my third time teaching Multiplatform Design & Storytelling. For reference, I am going back to the introductory lecture for January 2015.
Adjustments are in order. As I go through my notes, I am selecting certain centerpieces that will be to the content of our course, where we deal with visuals, but also with content philosophy, mobile strategies and new product development.
Here are those centerpieces in my first lecture:
1. State of the media today— frequency and recency. The printed newspaper has lost the time advantage for breaking news, but it has a role! We will highlight examples of print publications doing exciting things, but only after their editors have realized that the role of the paper is not necessarily that of breaking news.
2. The two tempos— lean forward, lean back. Yes, those are still pretty much there, but I believe that we are not just leaning forward during the day and leaning back at night. We are doing both several times during the day, depending on the content we are consuming. We stop to read a lengthy analysis during an extended coffee break, or while commuting to or from work. And, even when we are in lean back mode, we tend to lean forward to catch up with the news. So, new this semester: two tempos may not describe the behavior of our audiences. There may be several tempos in which we engage during a day.
3. The rise of mobile from tablets to smartphones, the start of the journalism of interruptions and curated editions.This semester is more about mobile first than digital first. The course will include an additional two weeks devoted to storytelling for mobile and issues of usability.
4. From e-papers to smartwatches: the era of at-a- glance journalism has arrived! I believe I will emphasize the importance of writing and designing for the quick read on mobile devices.
5. And because mobile continues to gain momentum, we will discuss the role of home pages in the era of social media and will review alternatives.
All in all, some of the basics will continue to be the same: we will learn principles of design, typography, grids and color. We will emphasize the importance of great content, well presented and the responsibility of each editor/designer to emphasize storytelling that is adequate for a specific platform.
Throughout the semester, students will be required to analyze various publications and how they present information across platforms. They will also stop to think how these could be better. Students will be encourage to come up with new product development.
For the final project they will work on a multimedia story.
I look forward to this new semester and a new group of motivated students. I am well aware that there will be topics we will touch upon during the semester that we may not even be aware of today. That is how fast changing our industry is.
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