Crafting Your Story
You have found the power in your voice and now it is time to tell your story. Your experiences and ideas are unique; it is essential for your craft to be as well. As you engage with diverse mediums to determine the purpose of your message and discover your audience, remember that being a responsible storyteller protects you, your voice, and the story you have chosen to tell. Understanding copyright laws and learning to distinguish facts from fiction can preserve the longevity of your story’s community impact as you prepare for its production and publication.
Your story deserves to be told. The New York Public Library's collection of books, databases, and credible online resources on citizen journalism, evaluating information, and legal issues can help you craft it.
"Crafting Your Story" is episode three of “Express Your Power”, a four-part, nationally-recognized media and information literacy learning video series produced by Media Smart Citizens in partnership with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) of The New York Public Library.
Books
Citizen Witnessing: Revisioning Journalism in Times of Crisis by ISBN: 9780745651965Publication Date: 2013-03-04In this timely and provocative book, Stuart Allan introduces the key concept of 'citizen witnessing' in order to rethink familiar assumptions underlying traditional distinctions between the 'amateur' and the 'professional' journalist. Drawing on a wide range of examples to illustrate his argument, Allan considers citizen witnessing as a public service, showing how it can help to reinvigorate journalism's responsibilities within democratic cultures.
Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism by ISBN: 9781138224988Publication Date: 2018-10-22Navigating Social Journalism examines the importance of digital media literacy and how we should all be students of the media. This book aims both to help readers understand the current state of news media through theory and provide practical techniques and skills to partake in constructive social journalism.
Street Journalist: Understand and Report the News in Your Community by ISBN: 9781621061076Publication Date: 2019-05-10A guide for laypeople who want to use social media, blogs, or create news sources to report on what matters in their community using journalistic best practices and ethics.
We Are Bellingcat: Global Crime, Online Sleuths, and the Bold Future of News by ISBN: 9781635577303Publication Date: 2021-03-02The page-turning inside story of the global team wielding the internet to fight for facts and combat autocracy--revealing the extraordinary ability of ordinary people to hold the powerful to account.
The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education by ISBN: 9780520975842Publication Date: 2020-08-04The Anatomy of Fake News offers the first historical examination of fake news that takes as its goal the effective teaching of critical news literacy in the United States. Higdon employs a critical historical media ecosystems approach to identify the producers, themes, purposes, and influences of fake news.
Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World by ISBN: 9780525509189Publication Date: 2020-08-04Drawing on a deep well of expertise in statistics and computational biology, Bergstrom and West exuberantly unpack examples of selection bias and muddled data visualization, distinguish between correlation and causation, and examine the susceptibility of science to modern bullshit.
Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News by ISBN: 9781538141021Publication Date: 2020-08-19Detecting Deception is an essential tool for training future journalists to build stories that recognize faulty arguments and hold their subjects to a higher standard.
Fake News: Understanding Media and Misinformation in the Digital Age by ISBN: 9780262538367Publication Date: 2020-02-18This book examines the real fake news - the constant flow of purposefully crafted, sensational, emotionally charged, misleading, or totally fabricated information that mimics the form of mainstream news. Rather than viewing fake news through a single lens, the book maps the various kinds of misinformation through several different disciplinary perspectives, taking into account the overlapping contexts of politics, technology, and journalism.
Every Writer's Guide to Copyright and Publishing Laws by ISBN: 0805073787Publication Date: 2004-04-01A newly revised and updated edition of the indispensable desk reference for writers, publishers, agents, and anyone else with questions about copyright and publishing laws.
Legal Guide to Social Media by ISBN: 1621537935Publication Date: 2022-04-19Learn how to navigate the ins and outs of the law and social media.
The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More by ISBN: 9781413327564Publication Date: 2020-06-30Find free content and save on permission fees! Millions of creative works--books, artwork, photos, songs, movies, and more--are available copyright-free in the public domain. The 9th edition of this book is completely updated to include new public domain resources and to cover the latest legal changes to copyright protection of songs, books, photos, and other creative works, as well as public domain rules outside the U.S.
Who Said What?: A Writer's Guide to Finding, Evaluating, Quoting, and Documenting Sources (and Avoiding Plagiarism) by ISBN: 9781945841422Publication Date: 2020-01-07Who Said What is a reliable, friendly guide through the often bewildering process of research, writing, and documentation.
Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism
The Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism was established in 1987 through a gift from Joseph Frank Bernstein, in honor of journalist Helen Bernstein Fealy. Each year, finalists for the Bernstein Award are selected by a Library Review Committee comprised of New York Public Library staff. Winners are then chosen by a separate Bernstein Selection Committee.
Winning a journalism prize from The New York Public Library evokes something extra because libraries enable people to discern fact from fiction, says Dan Fagin, a past winner of the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Video premiered May 22, 2017.
LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning is an online educational site that features thousands of courses and video tutorials where you can discover, complete, and track courses related to your field and interests. It is free to access from anywhere using your NYPL library card. Here are some of the online classes offered:
Telling a Story to Build a Community
Do you need to build a following or grow your community? No matter how many facts you rally in support of a cause, they will never hold the same weight as a well-told story. In this course, Michael Kass, founder of StoryImpact, explains how to identify and craft your story in order to create change in the world. Learn about the different types of stories that can be told and the key ingredients of a successful story. Discover how to structure your elements into a story that engages your audiences and rallies them around your call to action, whether that’s to donate, volunteer, or simply spread the word. Finally, discover different ways to deploy your story, both online and in person.
Information Literacy
Information literacy is the ability to discover and use various types of information. It's an essential skill for navigating the information age. Watch this course to learn about strategies for finding information—from a library, archive, database, or the Internet—and the ethics of using it. Librarian Elsa Loftis discusses different types of resources and explains how to evaluate their usefulness and trustworthiness. She also shows how to avoid plagiarism and copyright infringement, and accurately cite sources.
Understanding Copyright: A Deeper Dive
You may have reviewed the basics of intellectual property. Now it's time for a deeper dive into copyright—your mechanism for protecting intellectual property that resides in a tangible form: books, songs, software, product designs, etc. Attorney Dana Robinson explains what constitutes copyright infringement, and how to respond when someone has infringed upon your copyright or if you receive a demand letter or cease and desist from a third party. He also explains licensing, public domain, and fair use, and reviews the process for searching for and filing copyrights. The course closes with a set of valuable copyright FAQs that address many of the most common questions about copyrighting intellectual property.
External Resources
- American Press Institute - Journalism EssentialsThis collection of guides explains the basic principles and elements of good journalism. Many of these guides are largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners, and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important.
- Goodwill Community Foundation Learn Free - Digital Media LiteracyLearn how to interpret and evaluate information online, whether you're reading an article, watching a video, or using social media. For almost 20 years, the GCFLearnFree.org program has helped millions around the world learn the essential skills they need to live and work in the 21st century.
- New Media RightsNew Media Rights is an independently funded non-profit program of California Western School of Law that provides legal services to creators, entrepreneurs, journalists, and internet users whose projects require specialized internet, intellectual property, privacy, and media law expertise.