Presented at the 97th Annual Conference for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

1. Teaching Literary Journalism
in a Multi-Platform World:
Survey Results of Educators
Mitzi Lewis, Midwestern State University
John Hanc, New York Institute of Technology
Scott Ramsey, Midwestern State University
Calvin Hall, Appalachian State University
97th Annual Conference for the
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Teaching the New Narrative
August 2014 Panel

2. Presentation:
bit.ly/aejmc14-litjourn OR
Contact info:
Email: mitzi.lewis@mwsu.edu
Twitter: @mitzilewis

4. Organization Affiliation
0
20
40
60
IALJS Magazine
Division
Small
Programs
Interest Group
Other

5. • AAUW American Association of University Women
• ACCM Advisers of Christian Collegiate Media
• ACLA American Comparative Literature Association
• AEJMC Commission on Status of Women
• AEJMC Cultural & Critical Studies
• AEJMC Cultural and Critical Studies Division
• AEJMC History Division
• AEJMC Newspaper & Online News Division
• AEJMC Religion and Media Interest Group
• AEJMC Visual Communication Division
• AJHA American Journalism Historians Association
• AOJ Association of Opinion Journalists (formerly NCEW
National Conference of Editorial Writers)

6. • APSA American Political Science Association
• ASJMC Association of Schools in Journalism and Mass
Communication
• Aust Prof Writers Association
• BAAHE Belgian Association of Anglicists in Higher
Education
• BLASA Belgian Luxembourg American Studies
Association
• Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center
• CCA Community College Association
• CMA College Media Advisers
• ECRA European Communication and Research
Association

7. • EPA Evangelical Press Association
• IAMCR International Association for Media and
Communication Research
• ICA International Communication Association
• IRE Investigative Reporters and Editors
• ISA
• NAHJ National Association of Hispanic Journalists
• NASW National Association of Social Workers?
• NAWE National Association of Writers in Education
• Newspaper Online Division
• ONA Online News Association
• Other AEJMC sections
• Other emerging media groups

8. • PCA Popular Culture Association
• RSAP Research Society for American Periodicals
• SANEF South African National Editors' Forum
• Some Norwegian organizations for reporters and authors
• SPJ Society of Professional Journalists
• SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive
• TWUC Writer's Union of Canada

9. Countries represented
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• “Several”
• South Africa
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Australia
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• China
• Finland
• Germany

10. Age in Years
20-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
no response

11. 20-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
Age in Years
excluding non-respondents
average 51.9
median 53.5
min. 20
max. 70

12. Years teaching
0-4
10-14
15-1920 or more
5-9
no response

13. Student level taught
both
graduate
undergrad
no response

14. 0
20
40
60
80
100
print (text) video audio slideshows other
#ofresponses In what form do you have your
students produce work (as class
projects or assignments) in
multi-platform journalism (and if
you stick to one platform, please
check just that one).

15. Select comments
“I incorporate audio, video and slideshows in my capstone
course, but not in my longform course.”
“I require a multimedia of their choice of platform to
accompany a print piece.”
“Most assignments are written for print, but one
assignment is to be done using video and/or still shots
with an audio track and narration.”

16. Select comments, cont’d.
“We use platforms like The Creativist to create long-form,
digital and cinematic stories that are native to mobile and
eReader environments. We also use programs like the
InDesign to create some basic prototypes for interactive
stories. We will be working with the Adobe Digital
Publishing Studio as well.”

17. What platforms
do you teach
students to use
to deliver
long-form
narrative?
0 20 40 60
print book
ebook
print newspaper
online newspaper
print magazine
online magazine
class blog/website
student’s own blog/website
another publisher’s blog/website
student media
Facebook
Twitter
Tumblr
Pinterest
YouTube/Vimeo
other (please specify)
# of responses

18. Select comments
“I'm involved in a program that teaches new forms,
although my own teaching concentrates on words and still
photos, with occasional forays into video.”
“I don't teach platforms, just how to write a long-form
story.”
“I've also started using Cowbird.com for shorter narratives
in class.”

19. Select comments
“How does not do "long-form narrative" 140 characters at
a time on Twitter???”
“Not clear what you mean here since you can't really
DELIVER long-form narrative on Facebook and Twitter.
You can promote it on those social media channels and I
encourage students to do that.”

20. What do these new platforms
offer long-form narrative?
Increased Likelihood for Publication
New platforms offer venues “for publication and dissemination of texts
that would otherwise remain unknown”
Additional Publication Space
“Unlimited space on the Internet, with the exception of the insipid
Twitter”
Opportunity to Promote Work
The capacity to “advertise long-form narratives at other sites”
Broader Audience
“Broader audience, broader way of telling a story”

21. Do these new platforms change
the stories we tell? If yes, how?
Enhancement
“More intertextuality, via technological enablers”
Engagement
“They throw up new juxtapositions of image and text, and digital reading
has different ‘affordances’”
Dimension
“The new platforms literally open up the world of potential stories”
Exposure
“Provide opportunities to catch the attention of potential audiences who
may not have otherwise been exposed to the story”

22. How do these new platforms change how we work
with the long-form conceptual essentials of character,
setting, plot, theme, voice, and structure?
Essentials Remain Unchanged
“New platforms do not change the above-mentioned essentials, as “[a] new
platform is not a stage for narrative metamorphosis”
Challenges
“They force students to think as multiplatform editors”
Improve Storytelling
“Additional ways to develop and display these essentials”

23. How do these new platforms change how we work
with the long-form conceptual essentials of character,
setting, plot, theme, voice, and structure? (cont’d)
Change the Form
“With multimedia we can now emphasize capturing audio or video clips
[that] highlight the most dramatic moments. This will change the form”
Persona
“Characters, possibly including the writer/narrator, are literally seen,
which may change the persona the writer chooses in the prose”
Expanded Possibilities
“The platforms are like tools in a toolbox,” and the more tools one has to
work with, the better the story will be

24. Are there any new conceptual essential(s) that these
new platforms introduce? If yes, please list.
Equality
“More equality between writer and reader in terms of accessibility to
sources”
Interaction
“They allow interaction, very short but very quick bursts of information,
meshing of e-media with writing, photography, basically classic magazine
and news journalism”
Engagement
“I find the opportunity for engagement to be a new concept, the idea that
one can read, watch, hear about a topic and then also become engaged in it
as a citizen or participant”

25. Are there any new conceptual essential(s) that these
new platforms introduce? If yes, please list. (cont’d)
Change
“Interactive media is an untapped resource for long-form journalistic
storytelling,” and is “useful for reaching younger online-fixated audiences”
Accessibility
“Multiple points of entry”
Consistency
New platforms require and promote “consistency across media”
Editing
New platforms “force students to think as multiplatform editors” rather
than traditional print media editors

26. How can these new platforms help to sustain
the viability of long-form narrative?
Dissemination
“Dissemination, at national and international levels”
Increased Readership
You “get readers who didn’t read these long stories to read them
because they are promoted on social media and available in multiple
formats (like on tablets)”
Appeal
“I believe they will make it more appealing to certain audiences that
might not select to read a long-form piece otherwise”
Profitability
By “giving them space and cutting costs”

27. There are some who would argue that digital or
multi-platform journalism cannot by definition,
be literary journalism. Do you feel that new forms
of narrative journalism can be considered under
the rubric of literary journalism?
no
yes
no
response

28. What’s so good about the emergence of new
media platforms for literary journalism?
• Greater access to younger, more diverse audiences
• Allows for new dimensions of story telling
• Presents new challenges, develops new skills for
students
• Not only for the “good” writers: Teaching
multiplatform enables students with other skills to
learn about and participate in narrative journalism

29. Challenges
Increased demands
Writers “are now forced to be videographers, photographers, audio
engineers, etc.”
“Although the newshole is, theoretically, bottomless, the pressure is to
keep it short and snappy”
Story selection
“It may be that the new platforms privilege story topics that are more
easily illustrated visually, so that important but complex issues that
can’t be easily supported with images and video are overlooked”
Importance of editing is marginalized
“‘Long’ is not a good in itself, it if it not also EDITED. This does
not always hpapen on digital platforms”

30. Challenges
Profitability
“I am not interested in blogging for free”
Distraction
“Sometimes, when you’re into a narrative, the last thing you want is
to be interrupted. It makes you lose focus.”
“The difficulty is the jammed ‘airwaves’”
Keeping up
“There is little training to allow faculty to make the leap.”

31. Interview Findings:
Collaboration is Key
Within courses
Between courses
Between schools
Three elements are essential
1) Positive interdependence between students
2) An outcome to which everyone contributes
3) A sense of commitment and responsibility of
the group's preparation, process and product
Between professors/team-teaching

32. Interview Findings:
Storytelling is Paramount
“Tell the story and adapt the technology to the
medium”
“Learn about the platforms on which we’ll
have students tell their stories and the tools
(software, hardware, etc.) they’ll use to create
them. We don’t need to become experts at using
the tools, we just need to be experts in judging
the stories they create.”

33. Presentation:
bit.ly/aejmc14-litjourn OR
Contact info:
Email: mitzi.lewis@mwsu.edu
Twitter: @mitzilewis