Media criticism when everyone is a critic

Greetings, earthlings. We are writing to you from a distant planet called Medialand, a meta place where people write about people who write about what people are writing about.

It can be a silly place, but an endlessly interesting one that occasionally has profound effects on the world. Media is a lens. It’s not the only one, but as a valuable frame around human endeavors, it merits investigation of the cultural context, business interests, and political agendas behind all the messaging.

In our class, we are going to read — a bunch — and talk — a bunch — about media, media criticism and media consumption. I write about this stuff every week, so my job will be to, yes, share what I know, but then shut my piehole and find out what you know and think.

To that end, we will break into groups of threes and during select weeks, a trio will keynote a discussion in the second part of class on a piece of media with an in-class critique and presentation. For those of you who care about grades, that will be an important moment for you, so prepare like crazy. You can use handouts, PowerPoints, Medium and yes, a puppet show if you choose, to annotate and deconstruct a piece of content, explaining why it is amazing/terrible/destructive/dishonest/important.

There are no parameters on the type of content other than the fact that it should be able to be consumed by the rest of the class in a half hour or less. That means movies and books are out, but television and radio news, Web video, Twitter accounts, blog posts, newspaper stories, are up for consideration and critique.

Teams must pitch a topic at least a week before their presentation for approval. We’re going to read and learn about the history of media criticism, but the class will emphasize the present future we are in. That means that the people-formerly-known-as-the-audience — NYU professor Jay Rosen’s coinage — will be part of the feedback loop we will investigate. How things blow up on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and elsewhere is going to be part of the curriculum.

If you are not a talker, that’s going to be a bit of a challenge in this class. You have to be heard to be seen and graded in this environment. If that is not your thing, do your best to overcome shyness, or talk to me at the sidebar about other approaches.

There will be the aforementioned in-class presentation and three written assignments. You will work with your group members on your written work as well, sharing edits, thoughts and notions on Google Drive docs that your professor and teaching assistant will also have access to. Your comments, edits and helpfulness on the work of others will be part of your grade.

Each week you will be responsible for reading the column I write for Monday morning in the business section. It drops on the Web at 9 p.m. on Sunday nights and is in print following day. There are usually copies of the NYT in the lobby if you are behind the eight ball before class.

Sometimes the columns will be a backbone for the class, other times they will be very much beside the point, but no matter, you are responsible for the reading either way. Other readings meant to frame the week’s discussion will be noted below.

Class

1–4 p.m. every Monday except for the following:

• Monday, Feb. 16 — President’s Day. We’ll meet on Tuesday, Feb. 17.
• Monday, Mar. 9 — Spring break
• Monday, Apr. 20 — Patriot’s Day. We’ll meet on Wednesday, Apr. 22. Prof. Carr will not be attending class that day, see schedule below.

As a matter of practice, class will be in two parts, with a 15-minute break in the middle.

Grading

• 25% in class presentation
• 50% three written assignments, more weight on final, due on the last day of class
• 25% class participation, collaboration on assignments and demonstrated familiarity with the assigned reading

I grade based on where you start and where you end. Don’t work on me for a better grade — work on your work and making the work of those around you better. Show industriousness and seriousness and produce surpassing work if you want an exceptional grade.

Personal Standards

Don’t feel a need to raise your hand in class. This isn’t Montessori, speak up as you like, but don’t speak over anyone. Respect the opinions of others.

This is an intense, once-a-week immersion in media landscape. If you don’t show up for class, you will flounder. If you show up late or unprepared, you will stick out in unpleasant ways. If you aren’t putting effort into your work, I will suggest that you might be more comfortable elsewhere.

If you text or email during class, I will ignore you as you ignore me. It won’t go well. Ask my students from last semester if you are still confused about that. I expect you to behave as an adult and will treat you like one. I don’t want to parent you — I want to teach you.

Excuses: Don’t make them — they won’t work. Stories are supposed to be on the page, and while a spoken-word performance might explain everything, it will excuse nothing. The assignments for each week are due by start of class without exception unless specific arrangements have made based on an exceptional circumstance.

If you truly have a personal or family emergency, your welfare comes first. But nothing short of that will have any traction with me.

If you are having trouble understanding expectations or assignments or instruction, please speak up. I care a lot about not leaving anybody behind.

Academic Standards

This is a web-based course. We will transparently link to all sources. Failure to appropriately cite the work of others is a serious matter. Work done for Just a Minute may not be submitted for another class, and the reverse is also true. Do not use friends or Wikipedia as sources. All other BU academic standards and the University Code of Conduct will be observed and enforced.

Before we begin on Jan. 26, you are responsible for the following readings:

• Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag, up to the end of page 32 on the PDF
• Last Call by Clay Shirky
• Writing News and Telling Stories by Robert Darnton for Daedalus

I am showing mercy — no big tomes of media history or Marxist rants on media theory. Don’t ignore these readings.

Week One — January 26

Overview

What forces are at work that shape media? We’re going to begin with your consumption habits, how you judge credibility and where you spend your attention in terms of media.

How do you know what you know? How do you know it’s true? There are business, cultural, political and power dynamics at work. And the various platforms for media all have idiosyncrasies of their own.

Readings:

• When to Quit Your Journalism Job by Jay Rosen for PressThink
• Do Not Listen to This Crazy Man Telling Your to Quit Your Job by Hamilton Nolan for Gawker

Week Two — February 22

Business

“I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man!” — Jay-Z

How stories are paid for frequently have an influence on how they are told. Trade publications are not going to break news about their industries that will fundamentally injure their relationship. Great big news organizations that rely on the government for the flow of information are rarely going to go directly at those institutions. And reporters on beats may develop great sources, but they also become captives of those same sources.

As business pressures have increased, so have the pressures to not injure relationships with advertisers. And sometimes, unholy partnerships form between media companies and the people they are supposed to be covering.

And newspapers have fallen in value so far, so fast, that some rich guys are buying them for reasons that have nothing to do with journalism.

It’s not always true. Some of the most ferocious accountability reporting on business has come from the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post has done deep, embarrassing dives into the federal bureaucracy.

Readings:

• Politico’s Mike Allen, Native Advertising Pioneer by Erik Wemple for The Washington Post
• The Great Story by Dean Starkman for Columbia Journalism Review
• Chasing Armstrong with the Truth by David Carr for The New York Times

Week Three —March 2

The Politics of Media, the Media of Politics

So much of the political conversation has been taken over by organizations that have ideological agendas that the village common seems to be endangered. Between the spin, the tilt and all the ranting, are Americans actually finding out what they need to know? A discussion of confirmation bias, the filter bubble and how cable news is turning into a cartoon.

Readings:

• New low for ‘Fox & Friends’: Joking about Ray Rice elevator assault by Erik Wemple for The Washington Post
• Why Do So Many Democrats Watch Fox News? By Erik Wemple for The Washington Post

Week Four —March 16

Gender … bias

The leadership of most newsrooms has historically been a sausage fest, but that’s changing. How much does the fact that men are making many of the coverage decisions influence how and what is covered? Would Gamergate have risen into the mainstream more quickly? The fact that women were at risk of sexual assault on both U.S. military bases and American college campuses took years to surface.

Readings:

• The Horrific Trickle Down of Asshole Culture by Sarah Lacy for Pando Daily
• #Gamergate Trolls Aren’t Ethics Crusaders; They’re a Hate Group by Jennifer Allaway for Jezebel
• We have a rape gif problem and Gawker Media Won’t Do Anything about It by Jezebel Staff
• The Bro Whisperer of Bustle by Amanda Hess for Slate

Race and the Word

The underrepresentation of minorities in journalism is a chronic problem, but it often leads to journalistic shortcomings as well. What we cover reflects who we are, and identity will tell its own story.

Readings:

• The New Republic: An Appreciation by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Blue Lives Mater by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Ubering While Black by Jenna Wortham for Medium
• The Racism Beat by Cord Jefferson for Medium

Week Five —March 23

Critic as Church Lady or When to Cry Foul on Ethics

When is okay to go after someone or some institution for a lapse in moral judgment? What makes you any more morally fit than those you would judge? Pointing the crooked finger at others is perilous, but sometimes important work.

Readings:

• Newsweek’s Niall Ferguson Debacle by Ryan Chittum for The Columbia Journalism Review
• Sowing Mayhem, Once Click at a Time by David Carr for The New York Times
• Calling Out Bill Cosby’s Media Enablers, Including Myself by David Carr for the New York Times
• The Dr. V Story: A Letter From the Editor on Grantland

Tentative: first team presents in class media critique

Week Six — March 30

Platforms versus Publishers

Is crowdsourced media subject to standards and criticism? When armies assemble on the Web, they can do amazing or terrible things. Witness the hunting of the Boston bombing suspects who were not suspects at all. The New York Post published their photo, but Reddit is the one who hunted them down. Who and what is responsible when Twitter goes bad or Facebook perpetuates a myth?

Readings:

• Student wrongly tied to Boston bombings found dead by Doug Stanglin for USA Today
• Bombings Trip Up Reddit in Its Turn in Spotlight by Leslie Kaufman for The New York Times
• Publishers or platforms? Media giants may be forced to choose by Jemima Kiss and Charles Arthur for The Guardian

Week Seven —April 6

Social Media Media

Reminder: Monday is Patriot’s Day. Substitute Wednesday for Monday classes.

What happens when the megaphone goes both ways? It used to be the reader’s only recourse was a letter to the editor that appeared days or weeks after a story appeared.

Now readers are everywhere … in comments, on Twitter and on their own blogs responding. And reporters now have immediate, frictionless access to social media. Should they be held to the same standards when they are tweeting as well as writing?

Readings:

• At Front Line, Bearing Witness by David Carr for The New York Times
• Is All of Twitter Fair Game for Journalists? by Amanda Hess for Slate
• There is no such thing as “The Court of Public Opinion” by Aaron Bady for The New Inquiry
• The Internet’s Endless Argument and the New Shape of Debate by Navneet Alang for Hazlitt

Week Eight —April 13

New Models, New Pitfalls

Native advertising, branded content, brands as content providers, all of it, by any other name, spells trouble if it isn’t done right. As the traditional banner ads lose traction, the line between what is independent editorial content and advertising in disguise grows ever thinner. A look at patrolling the borders.

Readings:

• Journalism, Independent and Not by David Carr for The New York Times
• Gigaom’s Sponsored Content: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by Sam Petulla for Contently
• The Atlantic’s Scientology Problem, Start to Finish by Erik Wemple for The Washington Post
• Inside the Buzz-Fueled Media Startups Battling for Your Attention by Mat Honan for Wired

Week Nine —April 22

Going After Those Who Go After the Press

Targets of the press frequently punch back. Sometime, an act of media criticism involves protecting the rights of others to do the same.

Readings:

• Using War as Cover to Go After Journalists by David Carr for The New York Times
• When Fox News is the Story by David Carr for The New York Times
• Blurred Line Between Espionage and Truth by David Carr for The New York Times
• Glenn Greenwald: detaining my partner was a failed attempt at intimidation for The Guardian

Tentative: third team presents.

Week 13 — April 27

Final project due, review.

3/10/15: Note: this article was edited by Clinton Nguyen in light of class schedule changes.

This is a rant. If you are looking for genuine insight on how things went wrong this week in America’s unmanned and under-funded space efforts, there are a lot better places to look.

A short inventory of a bad week:

The Antares rocket was deliberately destroyed by NASA safety officers on Tuesday night after it became clear the launch was headed toward catastrophic failure. It was a privately financed, NASA-contracted effort that used ancient, refurbished Soviet engines —the hardware equivalent of garage sale remainders — in an effort to send a payload to a space station operated by the Russians. And after U.S. efforts ended in a spectacular explosion, it was the Russians who flew backup. I have no jingoistic antagonism toward our partners in space, just a sense of shame that we are now hitchhikers, failed ones at that, in mankind’s collective reach for the stars

On Friday, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashed, killing one pilot and severely injuring another. Virgin’s effort was part of a less ambitious, but still bold attempt to give civilians access to suborbital space flight. I had the opportunity to spend time on Necker Island with would-be astronauts and watched the unveiling of SpaceShipTwo in the Mojave back in 2009. It was impressive to behold.

But here’s the thing about rocket science — it’s rocket science: Expensive, dangerous, fraught with peril. It is sickening to me that we as a country have folded our wings and folded our cards when it comes to all manner of flight. Never mind manned flight to Mars, we no longer have the stomach or will to get off the launch pad.

I admire the men and women who have used guile and craftiness to cobble together private efforts, but the scale of space flight requires a sense of national purpose. Only a robust nation can absorb the cost, some of it in blood, and the towering risk of leaving behind the gravitational pull of earthly constraints.

Back on earth, back in America, kids are still hungry and under-educated, people search for meaningful work at living wages and fundamental infrastructure like bridges and rail lines are failing. We have spent trillions building nations elsewhere that crater once we leave. As a country, we can’t even build trains that go fast — the rest of the developed world has — let alone ships that explore the cosmos.

So why spend money on space, which is and always had been a non-economic endeavor? In part, because we are still coasting on the achievements of the giants who came before us. We have let them down, let ourselves down, and become a country where dreams and aspirations are shrinking. We create magical devices — manufactured elsewhere — that sit in our palms and can tell us there is good pizza around the corner, but we can’t get our hands around a version of our future that unpacks the mysteries of the great beyond. America is no long that kind of place, that kind of country, that kind of ideal.

It was a shameful week, a reminder that our country’s privatized effort to crawl into space on the cheap isn’t working. Lasting scientific achievement requires public investment and public purpose on a grand scale.

The invisible hand can do many things, but it can’t launch big dreams.

American Greatness 2.0 was originally published in Press Play on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This thing of ours:

This course, Press Play, aspires to be a place where you make things. Good things. Smart things. Cool things. And then share those things with other people. The idea of Press Play is that after we make things we are happy with, that we push a button and unleash it on the world. Much of it will be text, but if you want to make magic with a camera, your phone, or with a digital recorder, knock yourself out. But it will all be displayed and edited on Medium because there will be a strong emphasis on working with others in this course, and Medium is collaborative.

While writing, shooting, and editing are often solitary activities, great work emerges in the spaces between people. We will be working in groups with peer and teacher edits. There will be a number of smaller assignments, but the goal is that you will leave here with a single piece of work that reflects your capabilities as a maker of media.But remember, evaluations will be based not just on your efforts, but on your ability to bring excellence out of the people around you. Medium has a remarkable “notes” function where the reader/editor can highlight a specific word, phrase or paragraph and comment, suggest a tweak or give an attaboy. This is counter-intuitive, but you will be judged as much by what you put in the margins of others work as you are for your own. (You should sign on to Medium as soon as you can. You can log in with Facebook or Twitter credentials. Pithy instructions on writing and collaborating on Medium: here, here, here, and, yes, here.)To begin with, we will look at the current media ecosystem: how content is conceived, made, made better, distributed, and paid for. We will discuss finding a story, research and reporting, content management systems, voice, multimedia packaging, along with distribution and marketing of work. If that sounds ambitious, keep in mind that in addition to picking this professor and grad assistant, we picked you. We already know you are smart, and we just want you to demonstrate that on the (web) page.

What we‘ll create:

Together, we will make a collection of stories on Medium around a specific organizing principle — it could be a genre, topic, reading time, or event — which we’ll decide on in collaboration as well. And once we get stories up and running, we will work on ways of getting them out there into the bloodstream of the web.

In order to have a chance of making great work, you have to consume remarkable work. Fair warning: There will be a lot of weekly reading assignments. I’m not sliming you with a bunch of textbooks, so please know I am dead serious about these readings. Skip or skim at your peril.

I will be bringing in a number of guest speakers. They will be talented, accomplished people giving their own time. Please respond with your fullest attention.

So, to summarize: We will make things — in class, in groups, by our lonely selves — we will work to make those things better, and, if we are lucky, we will figure out how to beckon the lightning of excellence along the way.

More info:

Grading

30% final project
30% collaboration, based on assessment of your notes on others’ work
20% class participation and demonstrated familiarity with the assigned reading
20% smaller assignments

I grade based on where you start and where you end. Don’t work on me for a better grade—work on your work and making the work of those around you better. Show industriousness and seriousness and produce surpassing work if you want an exceptional grade.

Personal Standards

Don’t raise your hand in class. This isn’t Montessori, I expect people to speak up when they like, but don’t speak over anyone. Respect the opinions of others.

This is an intense, once-a-week immersion on the waterfront of modern media-making. If you don’t show up for class, you will flounder. If you show up late or unprepared, you will stick out in unpleasant ways. If you aren’t putting effort into your work, I will suggest that you might be more comfortable elsewhere.

If you text or email during class, I will ignore you as you ignore me. It won’t go well.

I expect you to behave as an adult and will treat you like one. I don’t want to parent you—I want to teach you.

Excuses: Don’t make them — they won’t work. Stories are supposed to be on the page, and while a spoken-word performance might explain everything, it will excuse nothing. The assignments for each week are due by start of class without exception unless specific arrangements have made based on an exceptional circumstance.

If you truly have a personal or family emergency, your welfare comes first. But nothing short of that will have any traction with me.

If you are having trouble understanding expectations or assignments or instruction, please speak up. I care a lot about not leaving anybody behind.

Academic Standards

This is a web-based course. We will transparently link to all sources. Failure to appropriately cite the work of others is a serious matter. Work done for Press Play may not be submitted for another class, and the reverse is also true. Do not use friends or Wikipedia as sources. All other BU academic standards and the University Code of Conduct will be observed and enforced.

Readings

Weekly assignments as noted in the outline. The assigned reading for each week must be completed before that class.

Before we begin the semester, do read:

“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates for The Atlantic

“The Empathy Exams” and “Fog Count” by Leslie Jamison (I highly recommend her whole book, btw, but it is not assigned as such.)

“The Wrestler” by David Carr for Medium

The places we will go: a course outline

(subject to significant emendation)

1. State of Play (Sept. 8)

Overview of the state of narrative and content. A foreshadowing of what is to come in class and in the media environment. A discussion of the production and distribution of content, with a focus on both editorial and business dynamics. Short introduction and tutorial about Medium. (You can do yourself a world of good by signing in early to Medium before class, so you won’t be trying to figure out the content management system instead of actually writing in it.)

Random assignment into writing groups of four.

Readings:

• “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable” by Clay Shirky
• “2013: The Year the Stream Crested” by Alexis Madrigal for The Atlantic
• “Baptism by Fire” by N. R. Kleinfield for The New York Times

• “Why did Jodon Romero Kill Himself on Live Television” by Jessica Testa for Buzzfeed

2. Choosing Targets (Sept. 15)

Where do great stories come from? A discussion about how to chose persons, places, or things that lead to remarkable stories. Class will discuss and settle on an organizational principle for story collection on Medium.

Brief in-class writing assignment.
Due Next Week: a story on Medium that takes advantage of the format and can be read in under five minutes.

Readings:

• “Dr. Glimer and Mr. Hyde” by Sarah Koenig for This American Life (audio)
• “Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace for Gourmet
• “The Emperor Miramaximus” by David Carr for New York

3. You Are What You Type On (Sept. 22)

We look at various content management systems and platforms for making and distributing content on the Web. A discussion of how, more and more, the medium is becoming the message.

Due today: First draft of Medium story #1 (under five minutes)
Due Friday, Sept. 26 at noon: Edits and feedback on group members’ drafts — please make all notes public by Friday at midnight

Readings:

• “The Remains of the Night: Sex, trash and nature in the city” by Elizabeth Royte for Medium
• Glass, a blog on Quartz by Zach Seward (read a few days’ worth)
• “Deep Sea Cowboys” by Joshua Davis for Epic Magazine

4. Collaboration (Sept. 29)

How new and different eyes make things better. We look at how to provide constructive feedback without crushing the soul of the writer. A visit from an esteemed editor will be part of this class. There will also be some real-time edits in class.

Due today: Read the comments by your group members, professor, and TA on your work
Due next week: Final Medium story #1

Readings:

• “My So-called Stalker” by Anonymous for Washington City Paper
• “At Flagging Tribune, Tales of a Bankrupt Culture” by David Carr for The New York Times

5. New Business Models for Storytelling (Oct. 6)

Historically, publications have created things people want to watch and read, and then extracted circulation revenues from the audience and advertising revenues from companies that wanted to reach that audience. Both those models have come under heavy pressure and pushed some media outlets — along with the people who work there — off the table. Are there other ways of supporting storytelling? A look at referral sales, branded content, and the vanity press.

Due today: Final Medium story #1
Due next week: Just the readings

Readings:

• “What Journalists Need to Know about Content Marketing” by Shane Snow for Poynter
• Google Hangout with Brian Lam of Wirecutter and Kevin Kelly of Cool Tool
• “GE become legit news publisher” by Lucia Moses for Digiday

Intermission

6. Storytelling Innovations (Oct. 14)

What good is the fact that we now have the tools do almost anything on the Web if we don’t do anything with them? A look at the new forms of storytelling, using data, video, sound, and scrolling to tell sticky, remarkable stories. I will be traveling, so you will have a surprise guest lecturer.

Due today: Just the readings
Due next week: first draft of a short profile (1000 words) on an interesting person of your choosing

Readings:

• Arcade Fire’s “Reflector” by Vincent Morisset
• “India’s Toilet Crisis” by Emily Gibson for Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism (password protected — password is “india”)
• “The Most Deranged Sorority Girl Emails You Will Ever Read” by Caity Weaver for Gawker
• “Zombie Underworld” by Mischa Berlinski for Epic Magazine

7. The Holy Music of the Self (Oct. 20)

Personal essays can be dreary or magical — how do you pull yours out of the mundane? How to find the universal in the specific and render it in a way that aims toward transcendence, not self-aggrandizement? Special guest TBD.

Due today: submit Essay 1 to appropriate collection; first draft of profile (peer edit your group’s work throughout the week)
Due next week: final draft of profile, incorporating any comments from your group

Readings:

• “Amazon is Killing My Sex Life” by Tricia Romano for Dame Magazine

• “Me and My Girls” by David Carr for The New York Times Magazine

8. Voice Lessons (Oct. 27)

Twitter / carr2n: Whenever I think about ...

Whenever I think about voice/writing, this Magnetic Fields song comes to mind. http://www.last.fm/music/The+Magnetic+Fields/_/Smoke+Signals ...

How to quit sounding like everyone else and begin sounding like … yourself. Who you are and what you have been through should give you a prism on life that belongs to you only. We will talk about the uses and abuses of a writer’s voice, how to express yourself in copy without using the “I” word, and why ending stories with a quote from someone else is often the coward’s way out.

Due today: final profile draft, submitted to appropriate Medium collection
Due next week: pitch for your final project

Readings:

• “Your rape fantasy is boring, Katie Roiphe” by Hamilton Nolan for Gawker
• “The Princess and the Trolls: The Heartrending Legend of Adalia Rose, the Most Reviled Six-Year-Old Girl on the Internet” by Camille Dodero for Gawker

9. Distribution Models (Nov. 3)

So you made something wonderful. Now, how do you get anyone besides your boyfriend/mother/professor to read it? A discussion of social media marketing, the Collections feature on Medium, wooing the trolls of Reddit, and submitting to relevant digital and print publications.

Due today: pitch for final project (due by email by start of class)
Due next week: Submit profile pieces to Persons of Note collection by start of class. Final pitch and proof of content due in class. (Have you made contact with any subjects? Can you prove your pitch is an achievable goal?)

Readings:

• “The Six Things That Make Stories Go Viral Will Amaze and Maybe Infuriate You” by Maria Konikkova for The New Yorker
• “Click Print Gun” by Erin Lee Carr for Vice Media
• “Statistics—Measuring the Impact of Your Story” on Medium

10. Beyond Clicks, a Look at Reader Engagement (Nov. 10)

If clicks are overrated and traffic is a game, what is a meaningful measure of what is making a dent in a cluttered universe? A look at the new economics of audience, advertising, and paid content. This class will include a guest lecture, if all goes as planned, by Tony Haile of Chartbeat.

Due today: Final pitch and proof of content. Profile pieces should be submitted to Persons of Note by start of class.
Due next week: Come to class with what you have so far on your final projects, to workshop in small groups.

Readings:

• “2013: The Year the Stream Crested” by Alexis Madrigal for The Atlantic
• “What You Think You Know About the Web Is Wrong” by Tony Haile for Time.com

11. Telling Stories in a Visual Age (Nov. 17)

If we are going to be writing for an audience of visual learners, can typing solve all of our problems? Probaby not. A look at image-based social media, including Instagram, Pinterest, and Vine. And we will peer in on the video content economy — what works, how long is too long, and can serious content go viral on YouTube?

The formula for good narrative video: Shot well, there are experimental elements to engage jaded viewers; a cultural nerve is hit and begets conversation and sharing.

Due today: Bring to class what you have so far on your final projects.
Due next week: Submit drafts of final projects to Press Play collection by start of class. Your small group, David, and Mikaela will make notes on them over Thanksgiving.

Viewings:

• “Life After Food” by Brain Merchant for Motherboard
• “Getting High with Russia’s Spiderman” by Ralph Avellino and Masha Charnay for Vocativ
• “Interview with a Cannibal” by Santiago Stelly for Vice

12. Pitching for All the Marbles (Nov. 24)

Is it more important that you fit in or stick out? At what point does a pitch cross the line from persistence to stalking? How to elbow your way in, get noticed, and leverage who you are and what you have done. A lot of miscellany, including how to target pitches, best time of day to send them, and how long to make them. Work for free or no? Send the whole story or just a pitch? And when to take “no” for an answer.

Due today: Semi-final drafts of final projects should be submitted to the Press Play collection by start of class.
Due next week: Make notes on your group’s work, as early in the week as possible. Final projects due, along with a plan for social media dissemination, by start of class.

Reading:

• Media Equation Column on Epic by David Carr for The New York Times
• “Behold the Heart-Breaking, Hair-Raising Tale of Mexico’s Monkey Woman” by Tim Stelloh for Buzzfeed

13. The Unveil (Dec. 1)

In-class presentation of final projects, with audience feed-back, notes, and digressions on finer points of storytelling. Class stories will be assembled in collection on Medium, and we will push the button to publish. We will also discuss plans for dissemination via the social medias, U.S. postal service, megaphone-wielding wildebeests, etc.

Due today: Final projects, along with a plan for social media dissemination.
Due next week: List of metrics on how your project was shared (be prepared to talk about distribution strategies, wins, and failures). Also due: a short critique of Medium as a CMS and learning platform.

Readings:

• Your classmates’s stories!

14. So What Have We Learned? (Dec. 8)

A look back at the things we made and lessons learned about the art of collaboration and distribution. In the present future, is there really a dividing line anymore between print, Web, radio, and video? We’ll take a long, hard look at the media ecosystem and your place in it.

Due today: List of metrics on how your final project was shared, and a short critique of Medium (800 words or less) as a content management system and a platform.

Readings:

• “The rise of the personal franchise site in news” by Jay Rosen for Pressthink
• “Can Rupert Murdoch Hold onto Kara Swisher?” by Felix Salmon for Reuters
• “Ezra Klein Is Joining Vox Media as Web Journalism Asserts Itself” by David Carr for The New York Times

Addendum

The good news is that this is the first time that I have taught this class, so boredom will not be an issue. It’s also the bad news, because even though I have done a great deal of teaching over the years, it’s the first time I’ve been an actual professor and have had to string together an entire semester. You are a beta, which means things will be exciting and sometimes very confusing. Let’s be honest with each other when that happens. If you don’t get where I am going or what I want, say so. I care deeply that I do a good job in all endeavors, especially this one. I expect you to work hard and want to respond in kind.

And just so you know, to speak to Mikaela is to speak to me. I lean hard on her and trust her judgment. Just saying.

Not need to know, but nice to know: Your professor is a terrible singer and a decent dancer. He is a movie crier but stone-faced in real life. He never laughs even when he is actually amused. He hates suck-ups, people who treat waitresses and cab drivers poorly, and anybody who thinks diversity is just an academic conceit. He is a big sucker for the hard worker and is rarely dazzled by brilliance. He has little patience for people who pretend to ask questions when all they really want to do is make a speech.

He has a lot of ideas about a lot of things, some of which are good. We will figure out which is which together. He likes being challenged. He is an idiosyncratic speaker, often beginning in the middle of a story, and is used to being told that people have no idea what he is talking about. It’s fine to be one of those people. In Press Play, he will strive to be a lucid, linear communicator.

Your professor is fair, fundamentally friendly, a little odd, but not very mysterious. If you want to know where you stand, just ask.

Press Play was originally published in Press Play on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Conor Kenny is a legislative aide who lives in East Austin. The 33-year-old Kenny was waiting on line at the Mohawk late Wednesday night. (Originally reported for a piece in The New York Times, but space constraints prevented including his story. Turns out Conor is the kind of stand-up guy you might want to be standing next to when something bad happens. )

This is what he saw. This is what he did. This is what he is doing tonight.

I was a festival attendee and had a SxSW wristband. I was waiting in line for Tyler the Creator. The wristband line was farther in, closer to the sidewalk. The badges and people without wristbands were closer to the street.

There was no warning whatsoever. I did not see a car, I did not process that there was a car, there was just kind of a whoosh and a thud and people started flying.

There were people in the air.

The next I knew, there were people on the ground. There was a lot of groaning and crying.

There was guy who could not have been more than three feet in front of me who got hit. He literally got knocked out of his shoes and landed right at my feet. He was bleeding very badly from the head. I was a lifeguard and a Boy Scout when I was younger and I gave him basic first aid, applying a compress to his head. He started coming to, but I kept him on the ground. Everywhere around me, people in the crowd who had not been hit were attending to the people who were hurt.

A cop came by and asked if we could move him. We got him out of the road and sat him down. He was out of it and kept asking where his phone was. I lied and said we were looking for it.

Finally somebody came by and said that it was car that hit people. That was the first I knew of what had actually happened.

Tonight? I’m going back down to see music at Shotguns. I won’t be doing anything differently because of what happened, and I don’t think there was anything different that could have been done. The street was closed off, the guy drove through a barricade and short of putting up concrete barricades, there is nothing that would change anything.

Everybody, including the EMTs, the police, and the crowd themselves did amazing things in a very difficult situation. It reinforced my belief that SxSW is a good event with good people. Before, during, and after the event, people continued to be helpful, friendly and in good spirit. It reinforced my faith in our community. I don’t see why a freak event should change anything.

One of my favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman performances did not happen on-or-off Broadway or on a big screen.

At the Independent Spirit Awards in 2008 — a party on the beach meant to celebrate indie excellence the day before the Oscars — Hoffman was there to receive the best male lead award for his role in “The Savages”, a quiet film that unfolds into something spectacular. Rainn Wilson was the MC and he did a great job, mugging, joking, and provoking. From the dais, he kept calling Hoffman, indie film royalty in this context, “the Hoff”.

The event itself is always fun. Low stakes, lots of booze, and drunk celebrities in a tent on the Santa Monica beach. What’s not to like about any of that? Even if you don’t consume adult beverages — Hoffman was in that bunch — it was easy to enjoy the spectacle of actors in full frolic.

Somewhere near the end of the event, Wilson called out “The Hoff” once more, invoking, as I recall, their shared background as high school wrestlers. A gauntlet was thrown and the two men collided mid-room, rolling under tables, grappling for their lives in a ferocious, spontaneous death match. Hoffman had a belly, but the man was not soft — he gave as good as he got, huffing and puffing the whole time. One thing led to another, his pants slipped, and he was selling a fair amount of crack. It was not his best feature, but he did not seem to care, instead concentrating on the matter at hand, which was fighting Wilson to a joyous and crowd-pleasing standstill.

I saw him on the way out and we walked back the match. I had wrestled in high school as well. “If I just would have opened a little stronger,” he said, smiling. “He sorta got the drop on me to start.” So … game, ferocious, and always thinking about how he could have done it better.

Covering entertainment means that you come across people whose faces you first saw 20-feet-tall on a movie screen. They tend to shrink when you meet them, but Mr. Hoffman was far from disappointing in person. He didn’t enjoy press even a tiny bit, but knew everyone had a job to do and mine, on occasion, was covering him during the awards season. And he was always available for a quote about a fellow actor or a project he was working. He was a professional, and a kind, decent guy to boot.

Some actors survive the press needs of the job by staying within a narrow bandwidth of discourse, treating the world as a red carpet to be endured as they step-and-repeat their way through interviews. Hoffman wasn't like that. He listened to questions, thought about it, and actually tried to answer them.

It’s easy to get confused covering celebrities. You make fake friends, born of transactions and mutual needs, but there is no human relationship under that. I was not pals with Hoffman, but he was uncommonly gracious. He remembered my name, which is something of a parlor trick given how many reporters actors see in the course of a career, and gave me his phone number so I wouldn't have to run a gauntlet of factotums just to ask a question or get a quote.

He also knew that I was in recovery and we chatted about that a bit. In that context, he was authentic and insightful.

Now that he is gone, much has been said about his failure, about his fall. I don’t really see it that way. He got in the ring with his addiction and battled it for two decades successfully, creating amazing film work along the way and doing the hard stuff to keep ambitious theater alive in New York.

And then something changed and he used. Everyone is surprised when that happens to someone famous, but it happens routinely everywhere else. Rooms of recovery are full of stories of people with long-term sobriety who went back out and some of them, as a matter of mathematics and pharmacology, don’t make it back.

Chemical dependency does not change — have one and you might die — and recovery does not change — have none and you might live. Addicts live between those two poles, but the hole that they once tried to fill with chemicals always remains, pushed back on a daily basis. Addiction, whether you believe it is a disease or not, is a pirate, constantly on patrol and looking for a weakness so it can climb aboard.

I have no certainty about what went wrong, but I can tell you from personal experience that what happened was not the plan. I have been alone in that room with my addled thoughts, the drugs, and the needle. Addicts in the grip always have a plan. I will do this, get this out of the way, and then I will resume life among the living — the place where family, friends and colleagues wait and hope. He didn’t make it back to that place.

We have the work, the memories, the films. I feel the loss, like all of his fans, but mostly I feel sad for him and those who knew and loved him. He built an amazing life while the rest of us got to watch and somewhere in there, forgot or lost the ability to enjoy the promises that recovery had delivered. I don’t blame him or condemn him or second-guess him. He did the best he could with everything that he had.