- Justice Potter Stewart

1

• On The Verge Intro
• The Beginning Our instructions our goal (OTV as
  multimedia distribution platform--how?)
• Our Expectation We were under the impression
  that we would jump in to an already-established
  new newsroom as managing editors.
• The Reality Our semester included
• Testing theory of OTV in practice (Phase I)
• Also required us to address ongoing issues from
  FS08
• Researching viability (Phase II)
• Developing plan for future (Phase III)

- Justice Potter Stewart
2

• On The Verge Phase I Implementation (first two
  weeks)
• Based on the design from Fall Semester, our first
  course of action was to solicit help from the
  convergence faculty and reporting/editing
  students.
• 4804 Student faculty hesitations (no site, no
  time, no ability) lack of interest.
• 4806 No initial interest no available
  resources
• Missourian/KBIA Scouts idea fell through due
  to lack of cooperation with 4806.

- Justice Potter Stewart
3

On The Verge Phase I Targeting 4804 We addressed
the lack of interest and general unfamiliarity by
doing classroom visits to 4804, sending out
emails, and establishing weekly office
hours. Our main goal was to encourage 4804
students to bring their weekly team stories to us
to refine and, eventually, publish. The
professors helped by allowing extra credit
opportunities for students who chose to do so.
Still, we had very little interaction with them,
and concluded that this was due to time
restrictions (a hypothesis reinforced by our
initial survey research).
- Justice Potter Stewart
4

On The Verge Phase I Expanding Finding the
convergence sequence somewhat unreceptive to our
attempts at implementation, we expanded to other
outlets in order to get our message to as many
people as possible. After speaking to Tom
Warhover and Janet Saidi, we began attending
weekly planning meetings at KBIA/the Missourian
to identify and target opportunities for
long-form multimedia to tack on to other stories
in the beginning stages. The Maestro meetings
gave us several interesting chances which we
pursued, but none of them worked out (for a host
of reasons).
- Justice Potter Stewart
5

On The Verge Phase I Content Despite our
setbacks with editing or creating original
content, we were able to solicit some excellent
examples of the types of stories we are looking
for that had already been finished. Through
aggressive solicitation and rigorous monitoring
of submitted 4804 missourian.com stories, we
were able to recognize and obtain some stories
that are suitable in terms of style and quality
for our website. These will serve as examples for
future students, as well as provide the first few
rounds of content updates until a steadier system
can be introduced.
- Justice Potter Stewart
6

On The Verge Phase I Website (ongoing from FS08
project) As we explored ways to establish a
workable framework for content submission, we
also had to work on getting the site live. It was
a major setback to not have a working site to
show people as we tried to pitch our
model. -Files Obtain from CS department -Hosting
space Purchase set up hosting -Re-writing
files Have former CS student rewrite code to
work with new site location -Troubleshooting
Work with current CS students to troubleshoot
issues such as content upload malfunction (v.
important) find ways to work around limitations
- Justice Potter Stewart
7

On The Verge Phase II Research We faced two
gaping questions at the beginning of our work
with OTV. The first Who is our audience? Do we
even have an audience? The second What is the
best way to make OTV work for the students? We
decided that since OTV had been conceived
primarily as an educational tool to provide
otherwise unavailable multimedia opportunities,
our research should focus on how best to deliver
that opportunity. Note we recognize that
audience is still an important question, and this
will be addressed in the second part of the
presentation.
- Justice Potter Stewart
8
Review Survey Focus identify ways to work with
contributors gauge hypothetical vs. real student
interest determine what motivates people to
contribute voluntarily (instead of us soliciting
content) Survey Population all J-school
students are eligible since we want to open this
to all sequences. We are mostly interested in the
response from sophomores/juniors since they are
the ones who will be around to continue it and
have some experience already.
- Justice Potter Stewart
9

• On The Verge Phase II Survey
• Sent out February 16, 2009
• Responses 194 (10 response rate, 95 confidence
  level)
• Results
• Incentives--asked to rank the effectiveness of
  several incentives for contributing, respondents
  rated the opportunity for more portfolio clips as
  the most effective motivator (followed closely by
  money).
• Open-ended--people who left comments were
  overwhelmingly positive about the proposal.
  Possible selection bias.
• Time--when asked about interest level, it jumped
  exponentially in relation to whether the work was
  incorporated into class structure (see next slide)

- Justice Potter Stewart
10

- Justice Potter Stewart
11

• Survey Open-Ended Responses
• You're on the verge of destroying newspapers,
  which is incredibly despicable.
• I think it's a great idea to help students
  develop their skills and their portfolio.
  Sometimes I feel that unless you're specifically
  a convergence student, you tend to get left
  behind in terms of producing and creating
  multimedia stories, which stand out later on a
  resume and in a portfolio.
• It provides extra incentive to do high-quality
  work as well as another opportunity for students
  to get clips.
• If OTV can connect students of different
  sequences, then it would be the first of its kind
  in my experience! I've never been fully engaged
  with a student of another sequence.
• There should be an advertising wing where
  students learn how to utilize social networks and
  pay-per-click systems to promote the site.

- Justice Potter Stewart
12

• On The Verge Phase II Focus Group
• Offer as a multimedia elective for all sequences
  (would need to include a training period)
• Combine students from different sequences to
  teach each other the necessary skills and work
  together on projects
• Pair multimedia-capable students with advanced
  reporting/writing classes as those types of
  stories already require extra legwork
• Catch people EARLY. If you get them to think
  multimedia before they start reporting, its not
  much extra work to take along a camera or marantz
• Clips are central to motivation, make sure to
  emphasize this is a benefit
• Market, market, market. OTV needs to have a solid
  reputation and name in order for it to be
  worthwhile. If nobody has ever heard of it, who
  cares whether we publish their work?

- Justice Potter Stewart
13

• On The Verge Phase II In-Depth Faculty
  Interviews
• Broadcast (Kent Collins) Broadcast students held
  back by having too little time to prepare and
  too little time to air. Would like opportunity
  to explore other forms of visual storytelling
  (Documentary? Slideshows? Etc.).
• Convergence (Lynda Kraxberger)Need to create a
  new way to integrate convergence skills
  throughout the department. Need more offerings
  for convergence students. NEED MORE RESOURCES!
• Strat Comm (Margaret Duffy) Our product is
  targeting Missouri Journalism students, not
  financially helpful. Need to identify our
  specific goal/theme, research to figure out all
  aspects of audience (what do they want? What can
  we give them? Do they even exist?) THEN
  re-evaluate/create product. Missing 1/2 of our
  necessary audience!

- Justice Potter Stewart
14

On The Verge Part 2 So Where Are We Now?? Our
goal is to create an outlet where students
produce and publish high-quality multimedia
projects which are long form in process, style,
and development, without length specifications or
time restrictions.
- Justice Potter Stewart
15

On The Verge Part 2 Helpful Definitions Multimedi
a Tells the story however it works best, no
restrictions. Should be interdisciplinary with at
least one audio/visual element and one written
element. Long-form Has a beginning, middle, and
end (in other words, it tells a STORY! Not the
same as feature). Includes thorough research,
answers all questions, and shows full development
of both characters and subject matter. Exhibits
in-depth reporting! High-quality Work that is
worthy of a 4804 A
- Justice Potter Stewart
16

• On The Verge Part 2 Our Suggestion
• We believe this has become a two-tiered project
  and needs to continue in a way that will be
  develop each of these levels.
• Research In order to create a viable product,
  audience research must be done to find out what
  our audience wants and how we can provide it.
• Student Benefit Because it was originally
  developed with the journalism students as an
  audience, it needs to provide them with the
  opportunity for advanced multimedia work.

- Justice Potter Stewart
17

On The Verge Phase III Necessary Research In
order to make the content that comes out of On
The Verge sustainable and beneficial to the
community, we need to do audience research. For
this, we propose that that current concept be
given to Strat Comm capstone students who will
identify our target audience, research market
demand, and make suggestions for how to focus
future content.
- Justice Potter Stewart
18

• On The Verge Phase III Advanced Course Offering
• Offer an advanced convergence elective, (I.e.
  Advanced Multimedia Production), similar in
  nature to intermediate writing.
• Basic Steps
• (Next year) Facilitate through a TA, grad
  student, or as independent study with an
  interested professor
• (Future) Eventually go through bureaucracy to
  provide necessary resources, such as hiring new
  faculty, etc.

- Justice Potter Stewart
19

On The Verge Phase III Advanced Course
Offering Why a class? Survey responses, focus
groups, and practice all strongly suggest that
students do not have the time or motivation to do
the work necessary for advanced, high-quality
multimedia stories outside of their already
strenuous course schedules. HOWEVER Everyone we
spoke to expressed a higher level of interest in
participating if it were incorporated into that
course schedule (see survey results).
- Justice Potter Stewart
20

• On The Verge Phase III Course Structure
• Open to students from all sequences (with some
  restrictions--see handout)
• Part 1--Skill Development
• Designated time period
• Topics pulled from Maestro meetings or pitched
• Team work, peer-to-peer teaching
• IMPORTANT This time is NOT in place to teach
  multimedia. It is only intended to advance basic
  skills to a higher level and round off skills
  that may be underdeveloped.
• Part 2--Individual Stories
• Deadline is fluid--story is finished when its
  ready to publish, not at a set date
• Periodic progress critiques will ensure time
  management multiple drafts (Focus Group
  Journalism students thrive on deadline!)
• Topics are not necessarily time-specific but on
  general issues (show examples)

- Justice Potter Stewart
21

• On The Verge Phase III Work Examples
• Each of these stories exemplify the style, tone,
  and quality we want OTV to have.
• Heartland Beats Rob Bratney http//robsviva.blogs
  pot.com/2008/12/final-project-fools.html
• 2. Gospel Choir http//www.columbiamissourian.com
  /media/multimedia/2009/02/13/media/Archive_/index.
  html

- Justice Potter Stewart
22

• On The Verge Phase III Class Benefits
• -Strong demand for an opportunity to experiment
  with media while still working in a structured
  environment.
• -OTV would provide the expertise to assist
  students with such experimental work while still
  encouraging solid journalistic values
  (storytelling, reporting, transparency, etc).
• -Interest in developing multimedia skills beyond
  what is taught in classes. System so far lacking
  in terms of higher-level, multimedia-specific
  offerings.
• -OTV would provide an opportunity for students to
  further develop the skills they gained in their
  newsroom experiences.
• For everyone who participates, OTV will offer an
  almost-guaranteed opportunity to publish work in
  a recognized, high-quality outlet. Weakness We
  cannot assure a recognized outlet until it is
  better marketed.

- Justice Potter Stewart
23

On The Verge Pt. II Addressing Practicality
Issues -Content Upload? (schedule
personnel) -Resources? (equipment
personnel) -Advanced or 4802-lite?
Why? Questions?
- Justice Potter Stewart