Resources
This resource page will be updated with new tools, guides, videos, and other useful items for Student Media. Additionally, the Student Leader Resource Center website is an excellent general resource for students in SALP.
Tools
Journalism
- For a vast array of journalistic resources, explore the Journalist's Toolbox website. For numerous resources related to multimeida journalism, visit the KDMC-Berkeley site.
- Five tools for mining public records.
- Muck Rack lets you know which stories are trending among journalists, as well as which journalists and bloggers shared your links.
- Data.gov has the U.S. government's publicly open data.
- Foundation Center provides information about donations.
- Wayback Machine lets you see archived websites so you can see what was there at different times.
- SecureDrop lets sources securely communicate with the media.
- NICAR has numerous resources for investigative reporters and editors.
Data Visualization
- Infogr.am lets you make interactive graphics.
- Word Clouds lets you generate word clouds from text.
Writing
- Scrivener helps you organize large projects such as a thesis, novel, investigative report, etc.
- You can use the Character Name Generator if you need help coming up with names for your creative works.
- If you want to blog regularly, but need help coming up with ideas, you can use the Blog Topic Generator.
- Thsrs lets you take long words and get a list of shorter words for tighter writing style.
Photo
- Enlight let's you edit creative photos on your phone.
- You can use iWatermark on iOS and Android if you're concerned about your photos being used without permission.
- Pexels and Unsplash have free stock image libraries.
- Thinglink lets you create interactive photos.
Video
- Videolicious lets you quickly create edited videos from your phone.
- Eyefi is a memory card that lets you transfer files from your camera via wifi.
- Klynt helps you create interactive choose-your-own-adventure videos.
Audio
- You can transcribe audio and video using oTranscribe.
- Tapeacall lets you record phone conversations. Be sure to check your state's laws regarding consent, and consider the ethics of making the recording even if it is legal without consent.
- Incompetech and Audio Jungle have large collections of royalty-free music.
Design
- TinEye searches for images by color.
- Piktochart and Easel.ly help you make infographics quickly by dragging, clicking, and editing without any graphic design experience.
- Canva, Lucidpress, and befunky lets you create a variety of visual items.
- Adobe Color CC and Paletton.com let you create and explore color palettes.
- Pictaculous creates color palettes from images.
- GIMP is a free image editor similar to Adobe Photoshop.
- Inkscape is a free vector program similar to Adobe Illustrator.
- Google Fonts provides users with free web fonts.
- FontPair and Just My Type have collections of downloadable font pairings.
Websites
- Build a portfolio website with Wordpress.com, Tilda, Squarespace or Blocs for Mac.
- Themeforest lets you find website templates for starting up or updating a website.
- Google Maps API lets you create custom maps for different devices.
Virtual Reality
- Aframe is a web framework that lets you create virtual reality environments.
- Google Cardboard is an inexpensive and easy-to-use virtual reality headset.
- Cardboard Camera lets you easily create 360 video and photo content on your mobile device.
Social Media
- TweetDeck lets you organize your tweets and set up an automatic posting schedule.
- Periscope lets you live-stream video on your Twitter account.
- Iconosqure provides metrics on you Instagram account.
- Tagdef lets you make sense of popular hashtags.
- Followerwonk lets you analyze your Twitter followers patterns.
Game Development
- Scratch let's you easily program animations, games and interactive content.
- Unity is a free and open-source game engine that many professionals use to build video games.
Utilities
- Doodle lets you efficiently find common times of availability among people to plan meetings.
- Trello lets you easily organize and assign tasks for projects.
- Yamdu is a project management tool designed for video and multimedia.
- KwikSurveys lets you create polls and surveys.
- There is also a Poll, Survey, Form & Quiz Maker for Wordpress.
- Scannable turns your phone into a scanner to store and share documents.
Guides
Caption Tips (from Greg Lewis of Fresno State)
Investigative Reporting
- Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) is a primary resource for journalists developing investigative reporting skills.
Media Law
- Make public records requests at PSU.
- The Student Press Law Center is your go-to site for legal resources and assistance.
- FCC regulation of obscenity, indecency, and profanity, and a fact sheet.
- Photographers' rights, explained by the American Civil Liberties Union.
- Open Oregon provides information on a variety of media law matters in the state of Oregon.
Media Ethics
- The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.
- The National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics.
- The Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin.
- Radio Television Digital News Association Code of Ethics.
- Considerations for reporting related to sexual violence.
Writing
- Grammarbook is a great source for learning various grammatical rules, presented with examples.
- Ira Glass on storytelling.
- Famous writers give advice about writing.
- 22 rules of storytelling from a Pixar artist.
- Better Novel Project analyzes common threads among some of the most popular stories and offers tips.
- Monty Python’s John Cleese offers some advice on how to be more creative.
Photo
- Learn about photography from the Digital Photography School.
- Tips for improved composition.
- Techniques for more creative photography.
Video
- To make better videos, avoid these 10 common mistakes.
- A guide to different types of shots.
- How to shoot b-roll to add variety to your videos.
Design
- Some guiding principles behind good logo design.
- 52 Weeks of UX discusses designing products for people.
Social Media
- Verification Handbook is a guide for verifying digital content.
- A guide to optimized social media images sizes.
- Here are five ways hyperlocal news site can use social media to drive engagement.
Webs Development
- Codeacademy provides free interactive courses on multiple programming languages and frameworks.
- Find tutorials, references and examples for HTML, CSS, Javascript and more on w3schools.com.
- Ask and find answers to your web development questions Stack Overflow.
- Cybrary has free and open source courses on cyber security, IT and more.
- Knowing how people actually view websites can help you more effectively present content.
Critical Thinking
- Here are materials on logical fallacies and biases that you can download for free.
- Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders provide annual global press freedom rankings.
- Vision of Humanity provides an annual global peace index.
- World Happiness Report provides an annual ranking of happiness by country.
- Black Mirror is a British series that examines the intersection of technology with our darkest instincts.
- Century of the Self is a documentary examining post-Freudian efforts by elite forces to control society.
- The Persuaders (PBS, Frontline) examines the persuasion idustries trying to control us.
- Toxic Sludge is Good For You is a video delving into problems at the intersection of journalism and PR.
- Amusing Ourselves to Death: Huxley vs. Orwell is a comic that illustrates the two authors' dystopian visions.
- Sociological Images raises questions about the images we see.
- This a list of 100 documentaries to "change the world."
- "On a Plate" is an illustrated story that addresses the cycle of inequality.
- This
Power and Privilege Concepts.pdf document provides explanations on concepts often discussed in the realm of social change.
Jobs
Portland Jobs
- PDX Pipeline lists jobs in Portland.
- Mac's List also list jobs in Portland.
Broadcasting
- TBD
Journalism
- Journalists can explore journalismjobs.com.
- The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Assoication lists jobs (journalistic and non-journalistic) that support regional newspapers in the Northwest.
Creative
- Portland Creative List has a jobs board for various types of creative work such as writing, designing, photography, etc.
Academia
- The Chronicle of Higher Education and HigherEdJobs have listings for faculty, administrative, and other types of jobs in Academia.
General
- PSU Advising and Career Services is a great place to start on campus.
- WorkSource Oregon helps people find jobs and improve career skills. Its related site, TrainOregon, lets you develop skills online by using different practice modules, culminating in certifications in such areas as typing, Microsoft applications, etc.
- Learn How to Become offers its listing of the 15 best job search sites.
- Monster.com has job listings and a number of useful tools related to effective job hunting, such as finding out the value of your job in the marketplace so you can negotiate more effectively.
- LinkedIn is a professional networking site.
- Glassdoor lets you see and post annonymous infomration about institutions and their management.
- Visualize.me lets you graphically enhance your resume.