Click here to watch the video preface. 
Professors, to take a sneak peak at the Online Workbook, click here.

Praise for Advancing the Story:
"Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World is more than just a book - indeed, it exemplifies the textbook of the future. While there is a hardcopy book, it only provides half the learning experience - the other half being a Web log and an interactive workbook, which authors Deb Wenger and Deborah Potter have been updating constantly since this text was published in October . . . At their core, this text and the supplemental e-resources are designed to make students better reporters for whatever platform on which they're conveying the story . . . With students coming to our classes immersed in the World Wide Web, it was only a matter of time before we would have a multimedia-journalism textbook that is truly multimedia. It looks as though that time has come."
--George Daniels, University of Alabama
Review of Advancing the Story in The Convergence Newsletter (February 2008)

In today’s media world, broadcast journalists need to do more than produce top-notch news reports. They must write stories that will be put on the air, as well as posted online or printed in tomorrow’s paper. Multiplatform journalism is simply a fact of life for any up-and-coming journalist who wants to get ahead and compete for the industry’s best jobs. So how do you teach your students to think beyond repurposing, to advance their stories to the next level, for any medium?

Beginning with the premise that broadcast journalism is an excellent starting point for multimedia storytelling, broadcast veterans Debora Halpern Wenger and Deborah Potter build on the basics of good television reporting practices. Advancing the Story helps students understand the strengths of each medium, with depth, interactivity, and immediacy all playing a different role as content is separated from container. One approach does not fit all media—Wenger and Potter show students specific techniques and strategies for maximizing the advantages of each platform.

In every chapter, the authors provide:

• Know and Tell reports, a distinctive feature in which dozens of professional journalists lend their expertise and insight on multiplatform approaches, trends, and industry changes.
• Trade Tools showcase select materials used in the authors’ training seminars such as handy checklists of pointers and best practices.
• Taking it Home offers brief chapter wrap-ups.
• Talking Points provide questions and scenarios for in-class discussion.
• eLearning Opportunities include chapter exercises, practice tools, and additional resources found online in the book’s interactive multimedia workbook.
  

1. The Multimedia Mindset
Multimedia Basics
Media on Demand
Technology Changes Content
The Best of Broadcast
The Power of Print
The Originality of Online
Focus on the Future

2. Reporting the Story
Finding Stories
Story Building Blocks
Research Strategies
Research Tools
Sources
Interviews
Interview Questions
Types of Interviews
Interview Ground Rules
Note Taking
Getting It Right

3. Multimedia Newsgathering
Thinking across Platforms
Sound
Video
Lighting
Nonvisual Stories
Natural Sound Stories
Teamwork
Working Alone
Tools of the Trade

4. Reporting in Depth
Mapping the Community
Beat Reporting
Topical Beats
Investigative Reporting

5. Writing the Story
Finding the Focus
Planning Your Story
Story Structure
Beginnings and Endings
Watch Your Words
Accuracy
Revising Your Story

6. Visual Storytelling
Planning
Choosing Sound
Choosing Video
Writing to Sound
Writing to Video
Editing
Graphics
Natural Sound Stories
Slide Shows

7. Writing for the Web
How People Use the Web
When News on the Web Falls Short
Writing for the Web
Print to Online Story
Converting Broadcast to Online
Web Headline Writers Wanted
Web Extras

8. Producing for the Web
The Skill Set
Continuous Production Mode
Blogging
Interactive Tools
Planning the Multimedia Story
The Multimedia Team
Citizen Journalism

9. Producing for TV
The Journalist Producer
Show Choreography
Audience and Ratings
Strategic Producing and Special Reports
Teases
Working with Newscast Producers
Web Work
Newscasts of the Future

10. Delivering the News
Voicing
Stand-ups
Live Shots
Talking Heads
Podcasting
Print Pointers

11. Multimedia Ethics
Thinking about Ethics and Ethically Thinking
Multimedia Issues
Online Issues
Multimedia Solutions
Diversity

12. Getting Ready for the Real World
The Changing Media Landscape
New Distribution Methods
Media Convergence
Multimedia Job Searches
Job Applications
Contracts
Journalism Entrepreneurs

“If you want to visit an important battlefield, you want guides who walk it. Deborah Potter and Debora Wenger have not only walked the journalistic field, they know the generals, tactics and foot soldiers. As a successful network correspondent, Potter fought the battles herself, and now brings her keen understanding to the page. Advancing the Story is a deep resource. From storytelling and practical field advice, to journalistic ethics and multi-platform performance, Potter and Wenger offer sharp advice to journalists trying to get a job, learn one or just plain keep the dang thing.”

“Advancing the Story is a very good primer for students and individuals with an interest in creating multimedia journalism. Faced with the demands of an ever growing myriad of platforms to deliver news, this book should become a standard in many newsrooms around the country as seasoned, single platform journalists are challenged to break out of their comfort zones and tell their stories using more than just one form of delivery. As more newsrooms turn to the communities they serve and open up the ‘presses and transmitters’ to them, this book is just the tool the managers need to conduct workshops to teach their readers, viewers and users how to be more effective neighborhood correspondents. The real life experience in the newsroom by the authors is demonstrated throughout by their easy to follow breakdown of the steps necessary to tell a story on the various platforms available to journalists today.”

“This is an excellent book! Its strengths are clearly its readability, clarity, and engaging examples. These authors are both outstanding broadcast writers, and that simple, straightforward writing style translates incredibly well in this text. The constant references and referrals to real stories and professionals will keep students and young professionals interested and attentive. This is a much needed text, and the E-Learning component will make it a must-have text for broadcast programs.”

"This book is ideal for beginners AND old pros. It’s a comprehensive how-to, chock full of strategies for journalists in the new age of 'multi-platforms.' I learned a lot."

Debora Halpern Wenger, a 17-year broadcast news veteran, is associate professor for media convergence and new media at Virginia Commonwealth University. Prior to her academic appointment, Wenger served as assistant news director at WFLA-TV in Tampa, FL. She started her career as a reporter/anchor at KXJB in Fargo, ND, moved on to producing at WBBH in Ft. Myers, FL and WMUR in Manchester, NH, then became executive producer at WSOC in Charlotte, NC. Wenger conducts multimedia training in newsrooms around the country and is a co-author of the online journalism curriculum for the Society of Professional Journalists’ Newsroom Training Program.

Deborah Potter is a veteran journalist and educator who spent 16 years as a network correspondent for CBS News and CNN covering the White House, State Department, Congress, national politics and environmental issues. She worked in local television and radio as a producer and anchor. Potter is executive director of News-Lab (www.newslab.org), an online resource center for journalists in Washington, D.C., that she founded in 1998. Potter leads workshops for journalists in newsrooms across the United States and around the world and is a featured columnist for the American Journalism Review, writing about broadcast news.

TWO BOOKS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!
A one-of-a-kind interactive multimedia online workbook will take your students to the next level
college.cqpress.com/advancingthestory

FREE with every new book, Wenger and Potter’s online workbook is so much more than a few resources on a web page. With original video footage, customized functionality, and proven ideas drawn from years of leading training seminars, this workbook is a treasure trove of projects, videos, and tutorials. In addition to self-testing, students can email solutions and write-ups to instructors, arming you with valuable teaching tools and ready-made assignments.

Organized by chapter, the online workbook includes the following sections:

• Study. Concise summaries include annotated bulleted lists of the most important concepts.
• Skill Building. In Web-based exercises students apply techniques and principles such as honing computer assisted reporting skills, writing focus statements, developing a blog, creating a line-up, and testing their ethical decision-making. Students also create their very own multimedia portfolio to use as they enter the job market.
• Ongoing Story. This innovative project allows students to write and report a story from beginning to end. Starting with a news release, students conduct virtual interviews, plan a one-day shoot, review data to add depth, log sound and video, plan and write a package as well as a stand-up and Web version and develop a multimedia story plan. As students complete each step, they can see what the authors did with the same story at each stage.
• Discover. With an array of journalism examples, such as marked-up web pages, print articles, slide shows, or videos with linked examples, students see models of first-rate work they can emulate.
• Explore. Fully annotated links include information on tracking media trends, developing story ideas, and evaluating online sources, among other essential multiplatform information.

And there’s an author blog, too!
http://advancingthestory.wordpress.com
Wenger and Potter keep a blog updating both instructors and students with developments in the industry and new resources for advancing the story.