Columbia University Journalism
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is a 1 year Master’s degree program in New York City. Russell Chun is an adjunct assistant professor in the Digital Media department and Coordinator of the Digital Media Master’s projects (2008-2010).
Courses and Workshops taught:
New Media Masters Project Advising (Fall 2006-2010) and coordination (Fall 2008-2010)
The master’s project, which spans the autumn and spring terms (or the summer for part-time students), requires intensive research and writing of a substantial piece of journalism. The project is intended to demonstrate the students’ ability to conduct and sustain in-depth research over several months, the ability to gather and organize large amounts of material, and the capacity to write that material in clear, accessible, and professional-quality prose.
New Media Newsroom (Fall 2007), with Sree Sreenivasan and Stephen J. Isaacs
In a swiftly changing media world, this course will introduce students to the essentials of multimedia journalism – from the breaking news or feature story to interactive graphics, audio slide shows and video packages. You will learn by doing, using New York City as your laboratory. You will develop and hone multimedia storytelling skills, drawing chiefly on raw material derived from your RW1 neighborhood beats. You will have a hands-on experience, from story conception through digital execution. You will never stint on basic journalism. In that sense, the course will be a modern mixture of the traditional and the digital, reflecting the hybrid state of the news media today
The class will be a blend of students who are concentrating on new media and those enrolled in other concentrations. Each of you will sharpen multimedia skills in the computer lab but also spend time on the street. While exploring neighborhood beats for RW1, class members will pursue a dual mission: report on RW1 stories and gather content for this course. Under the theme of “In the Nabe,” the class will engage in a multimedia exploration of the people, cultural traits and leading issues in a variety of diverse, ever-evolving neighborhoods – or “nabes” in the vernacular of the street. Over the semester, the class will build three Web sites that capture important aspects of these neighborhood profiles. As the course evolves, more complex storytelling will be pursued.
Student stories published at NewMediaNewsroom.com
New Media Newsroom for Non-New Media Concentrators (Fall 2008), with Adam Glenn and Stephen J. Isaacs
Designed for non-New Media concentrators, this new course will introduce students to critical technical skills and techniques used in the modern online newsroom. Students will learn new media tools, including digital image editing, audio newsgathering and editing, blogging, map mashups and interactive presentation, etc. Students will learn to efficiently and effectively apply these technical skills to traditional reporting and writing, taking their new skills from the computer lab to the streets of New York City. Students will produce a final enterprise project that they choose, using all of the multimedia, interactive storytelling skills they have learned during the term.
Student stories published at NewMediaNewsroom.com
Digital Media Newsroom (Fall 2009), with Tom Edsall
This course will introduce students to multimedia storytelling and newsroom work flow. Using a combination of original reporting as well as building on stories already done for RW1, students will work with several digital-media tools, including web page production; photography and image editing; audio and video editing; blogging; data analysis, etc. This course is an excellent opportunity for students to learn how newsrooms are evolving – combining the best of traditional reporting and editing with the latest new media storytelling techniques. Students will learn to efficiently and effectively apply the technical skills learned in the August training sessions to traditional reporting and writing.
Student stories published at DigitalMediaNewsroom.com
New Media Interactive Storytelling Workshop (Spring 2008, Spring 2009), with Adam Glenn
The Interactive Storytelling Workshop combines traditional reporting and writing skills with the best of interactive digital media storytelling techniques. Students will learn to report and create stories using interactive software, hardware, and theory, with a focus on exploring non-traditional and innovative ways of presenting content. The class meets in formal training sessions on Thursday evenings and most Fridays. In addition, reporting will be required outside of class. Leading experts from the editorial and business sides of the media serve as guest speakers and provide feedback and direction for projects. Priority for enrollment will be given first to new media majors who have taken New Media Newsroom, followed by non-majors who have taken New Media Newsroom. If there are still open slots, other students will be considered. This course assumes the incoming student has a working knowledge of digital audio, photo, and video capturing and editing, Dreamweaver and Flash, and web technologies such as Google maps, blogging, and basic HTML.
Student stories published at NYCInteractive.org
Interactivity Workshop (Spring 2010 with Gabriel Dance, Spring 2011)
The Interactive Workshop will explore storytelling through data and the interactive presentation of that data. Students will learn to report, conceptualize, design, and produce interactive stories and story components with an emphasis on innovation, visualization of information, and clarity of pedagogy. The course is design-intensive and code-intensive.
The course consists of weekly technical exercises in object-oriented programming, lectures on the principles of data visualization, critical analysis and discussion of professional multimedia projects, guest lectures (previous lecturers were from the NYTimes and the Wall Street Journal), and team pitching, reporting, and production of three major news assignments. The first team assignment is an image-driven story, the second team assignment is a data-driven story, and the final team assignment can be a combination.
Student stories from 2011 are posted on the Interactive Journalism site at Columbia.
Advanced New Media: Intro to Flash for non-New Media Concentrators (Fall 2008, Spring 2009)
Students learn the basics of producing multimedia and interactive projects with Flash, the industry standard authoring tool. Students learn how to translate their story ideas into integrated packages of text, photos, audio, video, and interactivity. We’ll discuss how and when to use Flash, its pros and cons, and how it fits in with other online technologies. Students should be proficient on the Mac operating system and be familiar with Photoshop.
Innovative Storytelling (Spring 2007), a preparatory course for the Columbia News 21 Fellowship
This course is an exploration of the “mind-set” and the “skill-set” of new media storytelling. Students will learn how to integrate various media (text, photos, audio, video) to create effective and engaging multimedia experiences for online delivery. We’ll explore what it means to develop non-linear narratives, how different media and combinations of media can convey content in more expressive ways, and how interactivity, navigation, and graphic design play key roles in new media delivery. We’ll survey current new media story sites to evaluate and discuss what works and what doesn’t work, and to note any new storytelling techniques that are emerging. We will also see how technical limitations with the tools and with online delivery informs our processes and products.
New Media Skills
Students learn the basics of new media production, including software such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Flash. Students learn to build Web pages and slide shows and learn the basics of photo editing and graphic design
RW1 New Media Training (Fall 2007)
New Media Fall Orientation Training (Fall 2007)
