The Good Citizen Newscast

Let's Be Good Citizens!

Chances are, you've seen a news program before, and noticed several segments on it, such as:

• Main stories

• Sports

• Weather

• Field reports

• Traffic

• Food/Game/Movie Reviews

Now, we're going to use the skills we've picked up in order to create a newscast of our own based around the idea of Digital Citizenship.

This can be about any part of digital citizenship that we've talked about, including last year's topics. That includes cyberbullying, personal/private information sharing, plagiarism, online identity, broadcasting too much on the internet, safe online talk, your online code, or offline meetings!

You and two or three teammates are going to work to tape several segments of a newscast and edit them together. These segments will have the look of a news program, but will be focused around the idea of Digital Citizenship and being a good citizen online. You and your partners will each choose one of the segments mentioned above (main story, sports, weather, field report) and film a section of the newscast. Then, you'll independently edit the segments before sending them to one person in order to simply join them together. 

Here's the process:

1. Each person in the group picks a segment.

2. Each partner then writes their segment.

   • The segment written does not have to be committed to memory; however, it will be much more professional if you aren't reading from a piece of paper the entire time. Take a cue from things like APN!

3. Each partner will rehearse the segment to make sure they have it mostly down pat.

4. The partners work together to film the segments 

5. Find images online that match what you're speaking about and download them to add to the project as "introduction" slides that tell us what we're about to see (sports, weather, etc). See my example for more information. Feel free to edit these as I did in order to create a custom sequence.

6. Edit your clip so that it looks professional. Add pictures. Add music. Cut carefully. Remember to use the rubric.

   • You must have a picture-in-picture in each segment.

7. Once finished editing, send your clip to the "head anchor" through Google Drive. He or she is responsible for putting the clips into one large sequence. Don't worry, head anchor; no further editing is necessary. (The only exception to this rule is if you are finished after the time to work on the assignment in class has passed: see below.)

TIPS:

• Use transitions at the beginning of each new section. 

  • • Transition examples: “Around the globe….”, “Closer to home…”, “In the sporting world….”, “Within the walls of Jonathan Alder Junior High….…”, “The weather today calls for ….…” 

• Use an introduction with your full names and a show title. (For example: This is Jonathan Alder Headline News. I’m _________.) Consider adding in music here, like most newscasts have. This will be a job for the lead anchor, since it's his/her segment!

• Having trouble coming up with ideas?

  • • Head reporters: Report on national or local news. You have the easiest job here: simply make up a story about digital citizenship.

    • Field reporters: 

      • You are live on scene where something is happening! Think of how digital citizenship might create an exciting, live story!

      • You are reporting on the aftermath of something local. Maybe there's an interviewee or eye witness?

    • Sports: Think about the locker room! What happened behind the scenes today in sports? How did it affect the players?

    • Weather/Traffic/Reviews: This is the hardest, but also perhaps the most fun because of the open-ended challenge of the report. Maybe this is more of a character story about the weatherman him/herself rather than anything that's happening on the radar? A review of an online game in which the reviewer had a bad experience? Think about being personally affected by one of the aspects of digital citizenship discussed!

• Since you are now journalists, your stories should focus on the 5 W's:

  • • What Happened?

    • When did it happen?

    • Who was involved? 

    • Where did it happen?

    • Why or how did it happen (if that’s known)?

Links and Stray Observations:

• I am affording you an incredible amount of freedom with this assignment. Please keep your maturity level in mind when you are out of the classroom and filming. 

  • Do not interrupt other classes. 

  • Do not go places you shouldn't be. 

  • Do be polite and quiet in the hallways.

  • Do return five minutes before the bell.

• You are responsible for your opening graphic and music all the way to the end of your segment. It is NOT NECESSARY to toss it back to the lead anchor (like I did in my video); it is only necessary to toss it to the next anchor.

• Each story should be no shorter than 30 seconds in length.

• The student music drive is here.

• My example is here.

• Please view the map here in order to see what area are off-limits and which are okay (anything outlined in yellow is fine).

• Panzoid is a super cool way to create fancy 3D intros. It's how I made mine! Feel free to use this instead of Paint.NET for your introductory cards! (The learning curve isn't terrible, but here's a tutorial to give you some idea of what you're up against.)

• If you happen to finish this assignment after the time in class is up, forego sending the entirety of it to the lead anchor. Instead, send me each segment individually, so you don't have to worry about waiting on members of your group.

Student Examples:

• World of Obese People

• The Chill Newscast