Category Archives: BCIU

Recorded classes from BCIU.

BCI University 113B: Live Tweeting

BCIU

Class was held April 21, 2016. Presented by Claudia Laws.

Tips for live tweeting
Live tweeting standards are very similar, no matter if the event is a game, a press conference, breaking news or a trial.
Before you go
• Follow the people you know will be there (speakers, participants, etc.) Engage with them before the event starts and know their handles for when you are tweeting.
• Let your followers know that you will be live tweeting.
• Know the event’s #hashtag
• Do we need to set up a widget on the website?
During the event
Our goal during the event is to help followers feel like they are at the event.
• Give people a sense of place. What’s the scene like, how are people acting?
• Engage all five senses as you compose your tweets – smells, sights, sounds, etc.
• Use at least one hashtag, ideally one associate with the event, so people can easily find your tweets, either in the moment or after the fact.
• Keep an eye out for trends, key moments, or shifts in momentum or mood. Share these observations.
• Use quotes. Obama: “We will not give up in this fight against terror.”
• Connect with others: respond to @replies, DMs, etc.
• What’s the lede of the story? Put that in 140 characters or less. What’s the lede five minutes later? Ditto.
• If you can’t fit everything in one tweet, start with one, and add a follow-up tweet with additional context. While this technique should be kept to a minimum, don’t shy away from something just because it’s complex.
• When writing your tweets, picture an editor looking over your shoulder, continuously chopping off unnecessary words to make it more concise. Keep them as short as possible and only include the most pertinent info.
• Be visual: add photos, short videos or Periscope moments from the event.
• Be interesting.
After the event
• Continue to engage with the players from the event.
• Tweet your final story with a link and photo, so readers can see the final product.

BCI University 106: Breaking news – what to do, when to do it, a basic plan

BCIU

Classes were held March 1 and 3, 2016. Presented by Claudia Laws

BREAKING NEWS PROCESS
Know who the BREAKING NEWS editor is on your shift. (They will be the person with the sign on a stick.) That’s your go-to person.
Our goal is to post breaking news within 10 minutes of knowing about it.
Reporter
• GO! Head to the scene.
• Find out who the photographer is, and coordinate with him.
• Tweet from the scene. Make sure tweets have @DurangoHerald on them.
• First person on the scene, photographer or reporter, must take a photo and file three sentences of what they see and send to the breaking news editor.
• If you interview a PIO or on-scene coordinator, audiotape some of that interview so that the photographers can use the audio as overlay on the video.
• Set up a timeline with breaking news editor about when you’ll next be in contact.
• Upon returning to office, determine with breaking news editor if new asset should be created or if you should update previously posted version.
• Write story.
• Put story in First Edit status and notify the breaking news editor that it is ready.
• When you update the story after it’s been published, change slug to indicate which write-thru you are on. Example: Weather 1st writethru. Change the slug each time it has been written through after publication online.
Photographer
• GO! Head to the scene.
• Find out who the reporter is, and coordinate with him or her.
• Tweet from the scene. Make sure tweets have @DurangoHerald on them.
• First person on the scene, photographer or reporter, must take a photo and file three sentences of what they see to the breaking news editor.
• Set up a timeline with breaking news editor about when you’ll next be in contact.
• File photos and let breaking news editor know they are ready.
• File photo gallery and let breaking news editor know it’s ready to be edited.
• File video.
Breaking news editor
• Create story package in Saxotech, including photo request if necessary.
• Work closely with reporter and photographer to ensure proper communication and give him or her direction as needed.
• Post breaking news on Herald social media accounts.
• If photos are in Saxotech, attach them to the article and write cutlines.
• If the photographer and/or reporter are in the field, monitor their Twitter feed and grab photos from the tweet, upload into Saxotech, attach to story and write cutline.
• Put story in Web-ready status. (Once it is successfully published online, change it back to working so that the reporter knows he or she can get back in the story to update it.)
• Add proper taxonomies and priority for website.
• Add Google map.
• Publish story to website ASAP. Post updates as often as we can.
• Once story has successfully published online, post it on the Herald social media accounts: Both Twitter and Facebook. Make sure the posts link to the article.
• Depending on the news, send breaking news text alerts and breaking news email. *Talk to Amy about this if you are unsure what news warrants this. We do not want to abuse these methods.
• Coordinate with daily editor about possible extras for print story, graphics, maps, etc.

Breaking news stories

• Breaking news stories should initially be a photo from the scene and three sentences on what the reporter or photographer sees.
• Mostly, we do not file based on scanner reports. If the news is big enough and warrants a tweet or Facebook post, make sure you say that it is “according to scanner reports…”
When you tweet/Facebook based on scanner chatter, never include that a school bus is involved (unless it has been confirmed by authorities), never include personal information about who is involved, never include suicides, especially manner of death, and always follow up those tweets/Facebook posts with additional information as it becomes available.
• When the second update comes in, the words “Original story” need to be put in front of the first update; the second update needs to have the time updated then the report above the original. For example:

Updated 4:47 p.m.: One man is dead and the Durango Mall is in lockdown following a shootout at mall early Friday morning, according to Durango Police. No other information is being released at this time.
Check back at www.durangoherald.com for more information as we get it.

Original story: Police are responding to shots fired at the Durango Mall.
Check back at www.durangoherald.com for more information as we get it.

• The full story for the next day should be filed as a separate asset so that we preserve our live reporting.