The schedule might change. All participants will be notified in advance. The event will be held at the Romanian American University. View a map in a new window.
Saturday, 26 November 2011
08:30–09:30: Registration
Coffee and water will be available.
09:30–12:30: Keynote speeches
- Laurie Hertzel
THE POWER OF STORY
We tell each other stories every day – narrative is the most natural form of storytelling there is. In journalism, narrative carries power, intimacy and emotion, and when employed skillfully it can make your story unforgettable.
- Pat Walters
THINK OUTSIDE THE PAGE
Even as print media everywhere is struggling with declining revenues, we're entering a new age of deeply reported journalism, and while things might be uncomfortable for a while, there are signs of hope all over the place – a lot of exciting projects, some even making money. We'll talk about a multimedia iPad magazine, a print magazine that’s created using social media tools in just two days by thousands of people all over the world, and a magazine that happens live on stage, among others. We'll also discuss how innovators in radio and film are cooking up new ways to reach their audiences on stage and over the web.
- Alex Tizon
TELLING UNTOLD STORIES
Journalism at its best strives to tell stories that uncover, explore, illuminate and inspire change. The greatest of these is the last: inspiring change. This means finding and telling stories that have been overlooked or neglected or poorly reported. We’ll discuss the storyteller’s calling, and explore the process of choosing a topic, digging out the details and figuring out the most compelling way to spin the tale. We’ll talk about how the best journalists – the ones who educe a shift in perception or understanding – use the tools of the anthropologist, the detective, the raconteur and the poet.
- Jacqui Banaszynski
A STORYTELLER’S ETHIC
Courage, compassion and craft. Ethical boundaries in journalism can seem confounding, limiting and uncaring. But when a journalist is pursuing intimate stories that have deep social purpose, he or she must be guided not by rules but by values. We’ll discuss the intricate dance that occurs between the storyteller, the story subject and the story; how to negotiate intimate but professional relationships; what we owe our story subjects vs what we owe our readers; and the dangerous misuse of “objectivity”.
12:30–14:00: Lunch
Lunch is provided only for participants continuing onto the workshops.
14:00–15:50: Workshop round #1
Over the course of the afternoon, each speaker will host two in-depth workshops with 25 participants. You will be able to rank the ones you want to attend; spots will be filled on a first come first served basis.
- Jacqui Banaszynski
STORY CONSTRUCTION: BLUEPRINTS FOR JOURNALISTS
Like great cathedrals or compelling movies, non-fiction stories are built – brick by brick, scene by scene, character by section by paragraph by word. The stronger the core structure, or blueprint, of your story, the more you can add depth and creativity to your stories. We’ll review a handful of the sturdy blueprints that work for a variety of situations, and that any writer can modify to help focus and organize material, to make writing better paced and more powerful, and to keep the reader moving forward.
- Pat Walters
RADIOLAB UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Longform nonfiction storytelling has established a strong foothold on public radio in the United States. The movement was pioneered by a show called This American Life, founded by a writer named Ira Glass. About five years ago, two of Ira's friends, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, launched a program called Radiolab. The show has taken the public radio world by storm, growing quickly to a listenership of roughly two million people worldwide and developing “a new aesthetic” for the medium. In this workshop, Pat Walters, one of the shows lead producers, will explain what that aesthetic is, why it seems to have connected with listeners and how you can apply it to your own work in radio (or in other media, for that matter).
- Laurie Hertzel
NARRATIVE IN A DAY (OR TWO)
Powerful, memorable narratives do not have to be long, and they do not have to take months of work. We look at narratives that were written on deadline – some newsy, some that would never make it in the paper if not for their narrative form – and we examine the reporting, the form, and the writing.
- Alex Tizon
PROFILES ON THE RUN
The best stories are driven by compelling characters. Sometimes the character is the story; most often the character is part of a larger narrative that includes a cast of characters. A profile can be defined this way: telling the story of a single person in a given time and place. We will discuss what makes a compelling profile, deconstruct a few examples and conduct exercises that encourage new ways of seeing and understanding our fellow human beings. We’ll explore the notion that every life has the makings of an epic tale.
15:50–16:10: Break
16:10–18:00: Workshop round #2
Pat is going to host a different workshop then he did in the first session.
- Pat Walters
SHAPING YOUR STORIES
Kurt Vonnegut once proposed that every story ever told can be mapped on a simple graph - from beginning to the end along the x-axis, from good fortune to ill fortune along the y-axis. It's a knowing over-simplification when he goes on to say that every human story ever told fits three simple shapes along this graph, and yet, the exercise of drawing the shapes of one's nonfiction narratives is a useful one. In this workshop, Pat will discuss (and draw) the shapes of some of his recent pieces -- as well as some pieces by his favorite writers -- most of which bend (or break) the Vonnegut models. We'll also discuss other devices for thinking through narrative structures and workshop participants' stories.
- Jacqui Banaszynski
STORY CONSTRUCTION: BLUEPRINTS FOR JOURNALISTS
- Laurie Hertzel
NARRATIVE IN A DAY (OR TWO)
- Alex Tizon
PROFILES ON THE RUN
The schedule might change. All participants will be notified in advance. The event will be held at the Romanian American University – See information on the location and parking.
