Newspaper Wins DuPont Broadcast Award

What's remarkable about the 13 recipients of this year's Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for national broadcast journalism is that, amidst the usual alphabet-soup suspects (ABC, CBS, PBS, BBC, NPR), we find the Las Vegas Sun.

Videojournalism stories on the Websites of print newspapers (such as the Detroit Free Press) have started winning Emmy Awards, which were previously bestowed only upon TV productions. But this is the first time that the prestigious DuPont award has gone to a print newspaper -- in this case, for "Bottoming Out," an online multimedia package about gambling addiction.

(Needless to say, the video was originally showcased on KobreGuide to the Web's Best Videojournalism at the time of publication.)

The cornerstone of the three-part package is a video self-portrait by Tony McDew, who documented his own Las Vegas casino slot machine addiction with the hope of helping others, and in the process ended up quitting gambling himself.

The series is strengthened by a powerful video diary following one man’s descent into gambling addiction with strong interactive engagement. The Las Vegas Sun explored problem gambling three ways — through the experiences of an addict; by examining what happens inside the brain of an addict; and by considering the role of slot machine designs in feeding gambling addictions. The web site also provides support and resources to help gambling addicts.

Part 1: Tony's Story
The pull of a drug, a push to the brink

Part 2: The Physiology
Illness theory gaining ground for gambling addiction

Part 3: The Machines
Could the game be partly to blame for addiction?



LINKS:

* Las Vegas Sun's award-winning multimedia package on gambling addiction.

* Las Vegas Sun story about DuPont Award

* "Bottoming Out" on KobreGuide

* 2011 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award Winners

Slideshow: A Videojournalism Student Syllabus

Wonder what they're teaching videojournalism college students these days?

Remember -- these courses didn't exist until recently. Originally they were "TV news" or "broadcast journalism." Then the newspaper folks climbed aboard, and it was labeled "multimedia journalism."

This painstakingly detailed syllabus (below) is from a class called "Web journalism."

No matter. Most of the underlying principles are the same -- only the technology changes. Or so it seems on the surface. But the accessibility and ease of using shooting hardware and editing software, accompanied by morphing audience habits, leads to some philosophical shifts as well.

This slideshow does a pretty good job of clinging to the basics while incorporating the difference between those bulky old $35,000 cameras and a modern handheld $175 Flip. And it acknowledges some of the important changes in how news is produced and consumed these days.

Adelphi University communications professor Mark B. Grabowski (pictured) explains it all for you.

And you can follow his lesson plan here.

(View more presentations from cubreporters.)

Grabowski also runs CubReporters.org, an information-rich Website devoted to helping today's 200,000-plus journalism students break into the shrinking field.

Video: How to Report the News

Two years of broadcast journalism courses distilled into two minutes.