Advertising/Business
It’s time to print the next issue of your newspaper, but your staff is $1,000 in the hole... or you had to cut out that flat of four-color pages from your yearbook because your staff didn’t meet its ad sales goal. Don’t want these problems on your staff? The CJI business track is for you.
Not only will you learn how to create and design professional looking ads for your publication, but you will also learn how to conduct a consumer survey, create and maintain an accurate budget, market your publication effectively, increase revenues through ad sales and fund-raising, and create a professional ad package that you can take into your community.
Broadcasting
Class participants will learn about video broadcast journalism and the process of creating a story. They will work in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications broadcast facilities to establish and operate as a professional newsroom.
They will pitch stories to the news director and team; shoot stories and edit for airing. With positions assigned, the CJI news team will prepare an end-of-the-week broadcast as well as some nightly broadcasts. Each participant will receive a copy of the final news show.
Desktop Publishing
This class will teach you everything you need to know when designing a publication as small as a brochure or as large as a yearbook. You will learn the in’s and out’s of Photoshop and InDesign, the two must-know tools for designers. You will also learn to use type, color, photos and copy to produce compelling and innovative designs for literary magazines, newsmagazines, newspapers and yearbooks.
One of the goals of the class is to produce a wrap-up publication featuring stories and photos taken by other workshop participants. This publication will be distributed to CJI participants and SIPA members.
Journalistic Writing
This class is designed for any staff member or adviser of any publication who wants to improve his or her journalistic writing skills. The instructors help students notice new things and open a part of their mind. They teach interviewing, creating a startling lead and finding an original angle. They’ll give titles of books to read because as they will teach, writing is not a five-day course. They will encourage reading aloud in class.
These enthusiastic teachers will help make subtle changes in writing. It will not seem like criticism. It certainly will not seem like work. Students will learn the reason they want to write is to be heard. And in this class they can write as loudly as they want.
Photojournalism
This class offers both the beginning and intermediate photographer the opportunity to learn more about producing award-winning publication photographs. Topics covered will include lighting and composition, proper selection of subject matter and an emphasis on the story-telling nature of photography. Using digital cameras and Macintosh computers, students will learn about photojournalism, digital imaging basics and basic Photoshop.
Digital cameras will be available for use, but students are encouraged to bring any digital cameras the publication uses so that instruction can be given on that specific equipment. Students should also bring a blank CD-ROM so that they will be able to take their images home with them. Students who wish to photograph with 35 mm cameras can pay to have their color film processed and then learn to scan the film into the computer.
Reporting
This class concentrates on both basic and advanced techniques of reporting and looks at ways to use other media in reporting. It is ideal for the beginning staff member as well as more experienced staff members who need to hone their ability to report. Participants will learn as Bobby Hawthorne says, “Reporting requires planning, contemplation, and most, importantly, footwork.”
In learning research and interview skills they will practice computer assisted reporting and research and reporting through interviews. They will learn how to find multiple sources and how to look for diversity beyond the usual religious, cultural and ethnic. The emphasis of class will be on gathering and organizing of material and the thinking of the best ways to get the information to the audience.
Literary Magazine
Learn how to combine good writing, design and art/photography into a first-class publication. By the end of the week, students will have new knowledge of what a literary magazine should contain as well as a quality magazine mock-up to take back to school.
All topics covered will be directly related to the production of an award-winning scholastic magazine. Whether their magazine is considered a literary magazine, a folk art magazine or one that has expanded to include feature stories and coverage of community events, they will come away with a vast amount of knowledge from this intense, but fun, workshop.
Beginning/Advanced Designers: Newspaper and Yearbook
Sssshhh! Don’t tell anybody that newspaper and yearbook design is the best aspect of being on a staff. In this class they will review the basic design elements, practice using these elements by creating mock-ups and compile a design idea “cookbook,” or idea file for your staff. Students will learn teaming concepts that help pull together writers, artists, photographers and editors.
CJI instructors will teach you the rules of design and then they will teach you how to break them effectively. They will help improve staff’s typography, page consistency, and make a designers visions jump off the page.
Newspaper or Yearbook Advisers
Ask any adviser who has taken these classes before, they are a must. Whether adviser’s are rookies or a veteran of more than 20 years, everyone can get something from this class as well as give to others in the class. Call it Advising 101 or Advising from A-Z, it’s a class in which advisers will not only get a wealth of information (handouts galore!) on how-to teach journalism, where to get resources, how to deal with problems on staff, etc, but also advisers will leave the workshop with a new support system – the CJI instructor and all the class participants.
Newsmagazines
This class will help staffs understand the common elements and the differences between newspapers and newsmagazines. They will learn to approach both format and content in newsmagazines in different ways.
They will learn how to interview, report and write for a newsmagazine, how to approach story angles and develop a package approach to coverage of indepth issues. They will work with design, including how to work with ad space and white space effectively on the smaller pages. They will learn how to balance entertainment with covering hard issues, and talk about how to decide on and create covers.
Newspaper advanced section editors
When editors in chief are pulling their hair out during deadline times, they will find comfort in the group of competent section editors that anchor the staff’s editorial board. This class for section editors goes beyond basic production principles and covers leadership and organizational techniques that will help section editors get the most out of their staff members.
Newspaper Editors in Chief/Editorial Leadership
Top staff leadership will get ready for a year of excitement, responsibility and stress. “What stories should we cover? When should we battle the administration and when should we lay low? How can we get the most out of our editors and staff?” This class is designed to help editors plan their newspaper’s most successful year ever by reviewing the basics, considering redesign ideas, dealing with coverage, learning leadership and motivation strategies, gathering a thousand story ideas and working around the clock to get the staff kick-started for the year ahead.
Elements of Yearbook
Beginning staffers and managing editors will get an overview of the basics of yearbook. Emphasis will be on copy writing, design and packaging of alternative copy, photo selection, caption and headline writing and design.
Yearbook Editorial Leadership
Top editors and managing editors will focus on organizing a staff to produce a professional looking yearbook. This class will cover staff management and organization, time management, deadline setting and obtaining, and production schedules.
Yearbook Theme/Concept Development (Editors in chief)
Yearbook editors will concentrate on theme packet development. Editors will learn contemporary design and coverage development ideas and will conceive and develop a theme/concept. A theme packet will be produced.
