LAST CALL>Virtual EPW7 Assignments

Kurt Foss (kfoss@journalism.wisc.edu)
Sat, 2 Sep 1995 01:06:50 -0500


We are off to Concord, CA next Wednesday to make final preparations
for EPW7, the annual imaging and publishing technology bootcamp sponsored
by the National Press Photographers Association; the event begins with a
Friday night (Sept. 8) keynote, and by early Sunday teams will be out
covering their assignments in the Bay Area and surrounding regions. ALSO,
we are encouraging participation via the Internet for those who can't make
the physical trip. Read on if you want to be part of a global, educational
journalism project!
We've heard from quite a few folks who are eager to participate
virtually in the Electronic Photojournalism Workshop. We'd like to hear
from even more photographers, editors, educators and students who would
like to collaborate on line in one or both of our Virtual Story
Assignments. (Examples of last year's projects are on the NPPA web site --
follow the link below.)
The details of the global, educational opportunities follow. Remote
participants can create their own web site and provide us a link, can
provide us with their materials if they have no access to a web server,
and/or can provide their finished story designs in Acrobat PDF format.
We'll be doing our best to provide tech support via email from the main
workshop site. We'll be publishing on the web and on CD-ROM.
We also are intending to provide several opportunities during the
week for live videoconferencing from EPW7. More on that once we get on
site, but we'd like to hear from folks out there who are interested and
able to participate via a CU-SeeMe linkup.

MORE: http://sunsite.unc.edu/nppa/epw7home.html

1995 'Virtual' Assignments
Electronic Photojournalism Workshop

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NPPA Electronic Photojournalism Workshop-7
September 8-16, 1995
Concord, CA

Based on the success of last year's first Internet publishing
projects, the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA)
announces the second annual Virtual Assignments. They will be
conducted in tandem with the seventh annual Electronic
Photojournalism Workshop, held September 8-16, 1995 in Concord, CA,
allowing photographers and editors across the world to participate
live on line in EPW7.

The first project is a picture story assignment, similar to one that
will be covered on site in California by registered workshop
participants.

The second is a picture editing project that will provide remote
editors the opportunity to design a page for print and/or for online
distribution. We suggested that participants in this project form
teams similar to the EPW format -- a photographer, a writer and a
designer -- to work together on all aspects of the story.

*** Picture Story Assignment ***

(Welfare & Poverty across the planet)

We are asking virtual participants to document in words and pictures
the challenges of poverty across the United States and worldwide.
Each reporting team should define their specific story approach as a
means of focusing on an aspect of this general theme. And, if you'd
like, discuss it with us in advance.

There are numerous approaches your team might take, for instance:
Public assistance to families in need, the increased variety in
defining "the family" in the late 20th century, self-help programs
designed to assist individuals trying to improve their living
conditions, the challenges of the aging, the difficulties of
children and orphans and/or the many unfortunate aspects of the AIDS
epidemic.

To tell these stories, we are asking participants in this global,
collaborative assignment to do the following:

1. Shoot a documentary picture story after defining your specific
angle.
2. Write an appropriate, accompanying story.
3. Prepare detailed captions and headline(s).
4. And then design the final page. We will provide page templates
and logos in advance of the workshop.

*** Picture Editing Assignment ***

(Edit & Design our work from Concord, California)

>From one of the story assignments covered on site at EPW7, we will
upload via the Internet a loose first edit of around 20 images,
along with the accompanying text and a broadsheet page template.

Remote participants should edit the photographs, design the page and
submit it as an Acrobat PDF file to the workshop staff. An optional
experiment will be to take the same materials and create a full-page
design optimized for on-line distribution, either as a PDF document
or marked up in hypertext markup language (html) for posting in the
Web (either on a local site or the workshop's site).

All of the finished pages should be returned to the workshop via FTP
as Acrobat portable document format (PDF) files and will be posted
on the Internet. Another option is for participants to create their
own home pages and we will create a link from the workshop's home
page to your site. Stories will be made available for browsing on
the on the World Wide Web and/or downloading from an anonymous FTP
site on the Internet, as well as uploaded to several commercial
online services. (These pages also may be republished later in other
non-commercial multimedia presentations, such as a possible CD-ROM
product (not for sale). All participants' work will be fully
credited.)

Our operating principles:

The focus of this annual electronic photojournalism workshop is
documentary photojournalism. It is essential that all situations be
authentic and reported on accurately and honestly; that includes the
following:

* NO setups or staged pictures of simulated events made to look
realistic;
* NO computer-manipulation that alters picture content;
* NO misleading captions or headlines, etc.

We are relying on the team leaders to ensure that these ethical
guidelines are closely followed. Any questionable stories/images
that cannot be verified (if necessary) will be removed from the
project.

For more information BEFORE SEPT. 6, please contact:

Ken Irby, EPW7 Director of Photography
Associate, Photojournalism
The Poynter Institute
801 Third Street South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701-9981
813/821-9494
email: irbyman@poynter.org

or

Kurt Foss, EPW7 Technology Editor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Journalism and Mass Communication
5020 Vilas Hall
821 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706
608/263-3391 or 608-271-1210
email: kfoss@journalism.wisc.edu

NOTE: We will provide new phone numbers from Concord as soon as the lines
are operational.

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