Your assignments go here. You can work online in this space as well.
Need a laptop?
To obtain a laptop loan from the FNUniv library, take a screen shot of your U of R registration, and email it to jcliff@fnuniv.ca with a laptop request. If you have any problem, ask Shannon or Trish to help.
WEEKs 1 & 2 - PRINT MEDIA
YOUR INSTRUCTors
Betty Ann Adam
Journalist & Screenwriter
Betty Ann Adam spent 29 years with the StarPhoenix, uncovering stories such as forced sterilization of Indigenous women and the infamous ‘starlight tours.’ She wrote the award-winning feature Scooped: How I Lost My Mother and co-wrote the NFB film Birth of a Family. She is a member of Fond du Lac Denesuline Nation and co-chair of the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Saskatchewan.
KERRY BENJOE
Editor of eagle feather news
Kerry Benjoe is from the Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation. Her journalism career that spans nearly two decades. Her first degree was in English, and she attended the INCA Summer Institute. In 2002, she wrote her first freelance article for Eagle Feather News. Four years later she became the first full-time Indigenous reporter in the Regina Leader-Post’s history. Afte working there for 13 years, in 2019 she returned to school and received her Master of Journalism degree. In 2021 became CBC Saskatchewan’s first Indigenous Storyteller, before stepping into her current position as Eagle Feather News editor.
Week 1
Day 1
Assignment: INCA bio and picture
250 words max. due Friday AT noon
Tell your classmates about yourself in a personal yet professional tone, written in the third person (eg. Jane is from Mars). Include something about your life, you interests, experience, skills, goals, etc. Upload or create in the Google Drive Workspace folder labelled ‘Bios.’ Use your name as filenames for your photo and writing. Include social media handles, if you have them. If you have any trouble accessing the drive space, talk to Trish or email her at pelliott@firstnationsuniversity.ca
Opening Day panel guests
Day 2
CREE DICTIONARY ONLINE (with syllabics converter)
First Voices – Language Preservation Site
First Voices – Keyboard App
Assignment: NEWS interview & Story
300 words, due at 3 p.m.
Interview a classmate about something newsy that happened to them. Write a 300-word news story with a simple lede that explains what the story’s about, further details and at least one quote. Upload to the assignment folder in our shared Workspace. Create a file name [name of classmate] by [your name]. Include social media handles, if you have them.
If you have any trouble accessing the drive space, talk to Trish.
Day 3 & 4
Study how these stories are put together
Saskatoon homeless count tries to put a face to poverty
Cuthand: Indigenous population growth must lead to increased education
MMIWG Inquiry delays is not holding back the work on the issue
Punchlines and life lessons: sometimes a story is more than just a story
ASSIGNMENT – A STORY FROM A NEWS RELEASE
A 300-word news story, with a news release as your starting point.
Write your story in the Day 3 Assignment folder in our Workspace. Click on the plus sign to create a new document.
SAMPLE APPROACH
My name is ____. I’m a journalism student working on a story about _____. I got your name from a press release. Do you have a moment to answer a few questions?
Recording
Devices and SD cards are available from INCA
Summer Institute students “scrummed” Jane Philpott in 2018, when she was the minister of Indigenous Services Canada.
Day 5
Congratulations!
You’ve written your professional bio and two news stories in one week. Here are a few points to remember:
- Your lede will define what your story is about. It’s your first and most important sentence.
- A lede is more than a fact. It describes something that is happening.
- If you aren’t sure whether to include something, read your lede again. Everything in your story should help fulfill the promise of your lede.
- Put the most important information at the top of your story. Less important details can be saved for later.
- Stories are about people. Put at least one quote in your stories.
- If a quote is too long or confusing, you can paraphrase it. But make sure you accurately describe what the person was saying.
- Always be trustworthy in how you report information.
Week 2
DayS 6-10
Writing features and profiles for Eagle Feather News
Eagle Feather News Style Guide
WEEKs 3 & 4 - RADIO
Meet Your Instructor
Peter Skinner
Peter Skinner was the Senior Producer for Radio Current Affairs for CBC North in the Northwest Territories and Radio Network Producer for Performance and Current Affairs for CBC North. A former sketch-revue comedian and bar-band drummer with many (deservedly) forgotten combos, Peter began his radio career in 1979 as a technician at CFCF Radio in Montreal. He worked as a radio host (at CJSB in Ottawa), open-line host (at CJAD in Montreal and CBL’s Radio Noon in Toronto), associate producer (at CBC Radio’s Open House and CBC-TV’s Man Alive), network producer (as founding producer of CBC Radio’s Tapestry) and in management (Program Director for the Canadian Forces Radio & TV Network at CFB Baden-Soellingen in West Germany and as Radio Program Manager for CBC North in the NWT and Managing Editor for CBC North). The worst job he ever had was in a ski-pole manufacturing plant, where he lasted for two 13-hour overnight shifts before quitting to become a sound man for another (deservedly) forgotten bar band.
Getting ready
CHECKLIST
- You have a professional Zoom H2n recorder
- You have a 32 gig SD memory card
- You have rechargeable batteries that are fully charged
- You have downloaded Audacity onto your computer
- You have done the recording and editing exercise below
YOU ARE READY FOR RADIO!
Audacity download:
Audacity tutorials – Google Audacity tutorials – there are tons
Audacity exercise
- Record a conversation between you and someone 🙂
- Upload it into an Audacity timeline
- Play with all of the tools
- Cut between “clips” and move your clips around
- Hum a song and add a music track
- Fade your music under your voice
- Notice levels – we will cover this lots
- Repeat 🙂
Weeks 3 & 4 Draft Schedule
May 23 – Holiday
- Focus on basics of radio journalism
- Students will have a story that they have been working on during the previous sections of the Institute, including potential guests who are available for recorded interviews
- Students will have gone through some Audacity tutorials and played around with Audacity, and have it installed on their computers
- Students will have Zoom recorders
- Students will complete a questionnaire about their self-assessed skill levels with the equipment and software, as well as their interest and experience with radio and/or podcasting.
- Focus on a specific form of radio journalism, i.e., the voicer, so students can put the instruction to practical use quickly and definitively.
- We will talk about other forms of radio journalism, but the voicer gives students the opportunity to use all the elements of the course instruction, while being relatively easy to produce.
- Their voicers can also be combined in a radio program.
- Rather than make the final MBC program a class project, we will use almost all of the class time to work on the voicers as final projects,
- Then, we will assemble the pMBC program in class so everyone can see and hear how it’s done.
- The class input to the MBC program will be choosing two hosts plus writing and directing the narration of the program
- Peter will act as producer… better serves journalism students by developing their skills in a more focused way and succeeding at producing a voicer.
The Zoom H2n XY vs Mid Side microphone configurations
AUDACITY BASICS
- Editing an Audio File – Import the file, edit and export it
- Online manual
- You can find many tutorial videos online. Just google the function you are trying to figure out (eg. ‘Remove background noise in Audacity’).
- AUDACITY TUTORIAL
Elements of a newscast
COPY – The news reader reading a script (20-35 seconds)
SCRIPT / CLIP – A short script and sound clip (30-45 seconds)
RANT – Only the reporter talking. They rely on their notes to create a script that tells the details of a story. (50 sec – 1:10 min)
ACTUALITY – Captured background sound that sets a scene.
VOICER – Your assignment. Telling a complete story clearly and concisely in approx. 1 minute 30 seconds.
ROLES: Reporter gathers information and creates the story. The reporter also write an intro that the news reader reads. The producer ‘vets’ the story (reviews and improves the story). Nothing goes on air unvetted. There should always be a second set of ears and eyes.
Check your script
Is it:
Simple
Clear
Direct
Powerful
?
Peter's Cheat Sheets
Writing For the Ear
Some rules to follow:
- One thought per sentence.
- Read it out loud – does it make sense? Did you stumble? A stumble almost always means the script needs a rewrite.
- Use your focus to tell your story in a limited amount of time.
Sentences
There are three types of sentences.
- Simple Sentence: Peter threw the ball.
- Compound Sentence: Peter threw the ball and Shannon caught it.
- Complex Sentence: Peter threw the ball, hoping Shannon would catch it.
If you write a sentence that has a conjunction in the middle (and, but, if, etc.), then it is too long. Break it up.
If you have a sentence that triggers a second thought (hoping, then, because, etc), then make two sentences instead.
Don’t use a conjunction in the middle of a sentence. It indicates you are linking two thoughts. Avoid it at all costs.
Verbs
Find an active verb that has action and direction to it.
Not: She was sick. (‘to be’ – a state of being – is the weakest verb in the English language).
But: She was lying on the floor coughing.
Active voice not passive
Active voice establishes accountability.
Example: Seven kindergartens were closed in 2022 (passive).
The Ministry of Education closed seven kindergartens (active).
Avoid unnecessary use of adjectives
Don’t use anything you wouldn’t say in conversation. Don’t write things that you wouldn’t say.
Example: You would not say, “I’m a Yellowknife man.” You would say, “I’m from Yellowknife.”
Avoid abbreviations, acronyms and jargon
The Chief initialed an MOU to establish an AIP.
Spell it out:
- Memorandum of Understanding
- Agreement in Principle
Every word has to count
Wrong: This happened back in 1985.
Right: This happened in 1985.
Wrong: This residence was a safe haven.
Right: This residence was a haven.
Wrong: close proximity, first ever (should be close, first)
Avoid clichés
Example: think outside the box
Don’t use tired phrases. Find a simple, clear different way to write it.
WEEKs 4 & 5 - TV
Meet Your Instructor
Tamara Pimental
Tamara is Métis from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She received a diploma in interactive media arts at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon and has worked as a videographer for CBC in Winnipeg and Iqaluit. Tamara was hired by APTN in 2016 as a camera/editor and is now a video journalist in the Winnipeg bureau.
Weeks 5 Schedule
Monday
Morning – Intro and Planning, Shooting
Afternoon – Review shooting exercise
Tuesday
Morning – Scripts, Review and plan stories
Afternoon – Nelson Bird, Social media
Wednesday
Morning – Visual storytelling, rethinking stories with pictures
Afternoon – To be confirmed
Thursday
Morning – Scripting, writing to visuals
Afternoon – Vetting scripts
Friday
Performance with Peter and Tamara
Afternoon – Reading scripts on camera
Brittany HObson
Brittany is a member of Long Plain First Nation. She is a reporter with The Canadian Press and former Winnipeg correspondent for APTN News. A graduate from Red River College’s creative communications program, her work has been published by CBC, the Winnipeg Free Press and the Community News Commons.
Stewart Manhas
Stewart is Global Regina’s Morning News live photographer and truck operator. He is an longtime INCA instructor and student mentor, with longtime working experience in planning, shooting and editing compelling video.
TIP SHEETS
Week 6 Schedule
Monday June 6
Morning
10-11 Scripts
11-12 Careers with Brittany and Tamara
1-3:30 work
3:30 wrap
Tuesday June 7
10-12 Lessons
1:30 – 3:30
3:30 Wrap
Wednesday, June 8
Shooting, editing and writing
3:30 Wrap
4 p.m. Radio hosts on zoom with Peter
Thursday, June 9
Shooting, writing and editing
11:30-1:30 FNU BBQ
Shooting, writing and editing
3:30 Wrap
Friday, June 10
Shooting, writing editing
2:30 Final INCA circle with Roland
Convocation stories – Volunteers
Crystal, Michael, Micheala, Ryea, Eric
Host Volunteers
Rebecca, Crystal, Michaela, Rebecca
TO DO THIS WEEK
- Interviews in low res on Google Drive
- Find clips
- Write script and get it vetted by an instructor
- Do stand-ups
- All elements and scripts to Stewart
- Final cut into folder (Week 5 TV Stories Final Stories)
- Write online story for Brittany