News Events

News Event Assignments

General description:
Throughout the semester you will hand in six News Event Assignments. Each one will be of a news event of your choice (examples below). For each event, you will hand in:
• Your five best photos from the event
• Captions for each photo
Some of these events will overlap with other assignments (like your sports photo assignment). However, a news event must be different than your other assignments. For example, you can shoot a basketball game, but you can only use it for your sports assignment or your news event. You can shoot two games and use one for sports and one for a news event.

Examples:
DMACC Bears baseball or basketball game
State wrestling events (in the Spring)
High school games
Drake basketball or football
iCubs (Spring)
Media events like press conferences, speeches or unveilings/groundbreakings
Spot news like fire, accidents, etc.
Special campus activities
Concerts or plays (talk to whoever is in charge of media)
Special conventions or shows, like the Home and Garden Show
Special events for kids like KidsFest

Where to find ideas:
Des Moines Juice newspaper
DMACC website
KCCI community calendar
Des Moines Register events

For some of these you will need to speak to the media relations person to get a media pass or just to make sure it is okay to come and take photos. You can say you are a photojournalism student and inquire about a media pass or you're a freelance photojournalist or that you're shooting for the DMACC Campus Chronicle (especially for DMACC events, the Chronicle is always in need of photos).

Due dates:
News Event 1: Sept 23
News Event 2: Oct 12
News Event 3 & 4: Nov. 4
News Event 5 & 6: Nov. 30

The main purpose of the one-on-one meetings is to discuss the photos you take at these news events.

Handing in assignments:
The assignments will be handed in electronically on the web via Flickr. Creating an account is free (or you can use a Yahoo! email account if you already have one).

Remember to include a caption for each photo you upload to Flickr. (we'll talk more about writing captions)

Grading:
News events are worth 20 points:
10 points for technical quality (proper focus, exposure, cropping, and Photoshop work)
5 points for newsworthiness
5 points for captions