Tips for reporting and telling stories with traditional and new tools, including “Writing Tools” by Roy Peter Clark.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune writer Julia Keller is leaving the paper in June to teach at Ohio University and write novels, reports Robert Feder today. Keller’s Pulitzer in feature writing was awarded for a series of three stories… Read more
Sound can make or break a multimedia production, whether it’s an audio slideshow, a documentary video or an interactive narrative. Unfortunately, audio often gets short shrift. Visuals and interactive elements tend to command our attention, and just getting the story… Read more
The Federal Communications Commission stirred debate last week when it voted to require some broadcast television stations to post their political ad spending records online. The four largest broadcasters in the top 50 markets soon will be required to… Read more
Recently, I became so upset by the number of easily avoidable mistakes I was encountering in respected online and print outlets that I got in touch with Poynter, eager to write something making clear the risk these organizations were taking… Read more
I have been reading more poetry lately, and not just because April was National Poetry Month. For reasons I can’t explain, I have not found poetry; rather it has re-discovered me. Perhaps the re-connection was a natural result of my… Read more
In January 1967, I began my first serious study of poetry under the tutelage of a brilliant young professor named Rene Fortin.
The poetry was 20th century, described as Modern, and took us from William Carlos Williams to Sylvia Plath.… Read more
In photography’s equivalent of the after-life, “no one can hear you scream.”
At least let’s hope that’s the case because, if not, W. Eugene Smith – the 20th century’s master of the photo story — would be creating a… Read more
When I was a kid, I was the walking definition of “painfully shy.” I was so shy, I couldn’t read out loud when teachers called on me, even though I could read at a higher grade level than my classmates.… Read more
My friend Jay Rosen has posted another useful essay on his blog Pressthink and asks provocative questions with important implications for every writer.
Rosen begins with a graphic that shows the steady decline in news media credibility… Read more
I assume that the Sept. 11 attacks will have an effect on people for decades to come. I often associate this effect with the assassination of JFK, another story that keeps evolving.
And now, once again, on the 100th anniversary… Read more
