From the Rapidian staff
Each week, a Rapidian staffer will publish a piece related to goings-on at The Rapidian, developments in the world of citizen journalism and tips for making the most of the site. Click here for past editorials.
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Public Hours:
- Tuesdays: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
- Thursdays: 3-6 p.m.
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Denise Cheng, available to assist you in the Wealthy newsroom
The newsroom is outfitted with comfy chairs, tea, and many resources to help you hone your reporting skills.
What are public hours?
Every week, The Rapidian staff is available to you in person in our offices for specific hours. We call them "public hours," and they're a great chance to stop by to visit, brainstorm article ideas, ask general questions and get a tour of the site. Reporters can get some tech trouble-shooting help, editing help on the spot, check out equipment, or even sit down and work on their articles (on a personal laptop or one of our netbooks) right in our Wealthy newsroom.
Public hours are held Tuesdays 11-2 and Thursdays 3-6.
New themes added to public hours
We realize that there are a lot of tools, skills, and information from which our reporters could benefit. Instead of creating a day-long new reporter orientation that may not fit a person's schedule, we thought we'd break all this helpful stuff into individual weekly opportunities to learn more during our public hours. We'll be continuing these themes indefinitely: with technology always changing and new ways to tell our stories constantly being developed, I doubt we'll ever run out of fun things to learn about. Many of the new public hours themes will be focused on fun, alternative ways to tell a story: reporting without words, if you will.
Public hours themes for the next 12 weeks are as follows:
- April 19/21 & 26/28: Photo Essays: Telling your story in pictures
- May 3/5 & 10/12: Creative Commons and fair use: What the heck are they and how useful they are to reporting
- May 17/19 & 24/26: Collaborations: How to get stronger together, and the online tools to make it easy
- May 31/June 2 & 7/9: On-site Reporting: Planning and methods for seamless event coverage
- June 14/16 & 21/29: Interviewing: Avoiding leading questions & getting to the point(ed questions)
- June 28/30 & July 5/7: Audio reporting goes mobile: iPhone apps allow audio capture and editing on the go
Photo essays: Telling your story in pictures
As you'll notice, the first theme is surrounding photo essays. In the first week, we'll be talking about capturing your story. We'll get you prepared to get out and share your stories with more than just words, brainstorming what pictures are needed to create your story, basics for convincing images and "photowalking" as a way to tell a story.
The second week will be all about presenting your story: selecting the best shots to create a full report, utilizing tools like Flickr, and anything needed to turn your collection of photos into a well-rounded and engaging story.
Building community in person
Of course, public hours aren't only open to our reporters: It's a great time for our readers to stop in and give us feedback and creative ideas as well. We're always looking for new ways for our community to tell their hyperlocal stories, so stop on by and get creative with us!
the red penner, ink slinger, storyteller, page changer. when not working as the managing editor at The Rapidian, holly is typically found scribbling in her journal, playing in her studio, getting muddy in the garden, or experimenting in the kitchen. she has a not-so-tiny boy for a son and a very patient man for a husband.
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