Journalism
FINAL PROJECT RESOURCE LIST: JOUR 201 Video Links for 2019 Meeting Story Assignments
(See instructions below for troubleshooting access to balky links.)
Please review these videos of public community government meetings, then
select one of them to use as the basis for your final project for this class.
You will not be able to change your video choice after your Story 1
assignment has been graded, so choose wisely!
You will complete your final project in stages. Expect to re-edit your
assignments after every stage, including after each stage is graded
by your instructor.
For the Story 1 assignment, you will write a news lead about what happened
at your video’s meeting. Pay careful attention to the notes about each
meeting’s video – they include suggestions about the most newsworthy item
to write about!
For the Story 2 assignment, you will add to your news lead by writing the
body of a news story about your video’s meeting.
For Story 3, you will conduct an interview and write a news sidebar story on
your own about something related to your video’s meeting that you think
would make an interesting second story in your final project meeting story
package.
For the final step, you will put the stories together in a package that includes
social media and online enhancements.
You can find detailed instructions for each of these steps to creating your
final project in the Content area of the classroom under Course Resources >
Assignment Instructions.
All final project options will require students to assess the meeting video’s
content critically and to complete independent research to add background
information and online and social media enhancements to the final project
meeting story package.
Completion of the news interview sidebar story will require students to find
and conduct at least one personal interview with a subject matter expert, so
plan ahead for this work!
Students should write their meeting story packages as if they are reporters
working for community newspapers who have covered a local government
meeting and must produce a hard news story for the next day’s publication,
using the Associated Press Stylebook rules for print news publications. This
means you should write about the meetings as if they happened TODAY and
will appear online and in print today and tomorrow, respectively.
Meeting Story Exercise Video #1
Lompoc, Calif., City Council meeting December 4, 2018
Best story option: New Business Agenda Item 7 (NOT Agenda Item 6
prohibiting overnight parking on some city streets, and NOT Agenda Item 5,
the cannabis cultivation fines)
https://www.cityoflompoc.com/Home/ShowDocument?id=7151 (agenda &
meeting packet; background information on Agenda Item #7 begins on page
79; the proposed resolution to establish the program is on page 93)
meeting video was to be posted
at https://www.cityoflompoc.com/government/committees-boards/city-
council/-toggle-allpast after this classroom's publishing deadline
minutes were to be posted
at https://www.cityoflompoc.com/government/committees-boards/city-
council/-toggle-allpast after this classroom's publishing deadline
Meeting Story Exercise Video #2
City of Alexandria, Va., Planning Commission meeting Feb. 3, 2015
Best story option: Agenda Item #6
http://legistar.granicus.com/alexandria/meetings/2015/2/1349_A_Planning_
Commission_15-02-03_Docket.pdf (agenda)
http://media-
07.granicus.com:443/OnDemand/alexandria/alexandria_136b9352-bad7-
489e-ae4e-ed4632824811.mp4(mp4 video)
http://media-
07.granicus.com:443/OnDemand/alexandria/alexandria_136b9352-bad7-
489e-ae4e-ed4632824811.mp3(audio only)
Meeting Story Exercise Video #3
Montgomery County, Md., County Council community meeting October 23,
2017
Best story option: small cell towers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s6ap2ckTj4&t=695s
alternate links: https://youtu.be/6s6ap2ckTj4(with (with captions)
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s6ap2ckTj4&feature=youtu.be (wi
th captions)
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/cable/Resources/Files/Towers/docum
ents/Executive-Summary-and-Information-re-Draft-ZTA-Telecom-
Towers.pdf (council’s issue summary)
Meeting Story Exercise Video #4
City of Columbia, S.C., Council meeting Sept. 6, 2016
Best story option: Public Hearing Item #30
http://columbiasc.gov/depts/city-
council/docs/2016/2016_agenda_packets/city_council_09062016_agenda_p
acket.pdf(agenda)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-01msP-snM (video)
Meeting Story Exercise Video #5
Montgomery County Council, Md., Public Safety Committee public hearing
January 27, 2015
Best story option: Bill 50-14
http://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?vie
w_id=6&event_id=17071 (agenda)
http://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=6&eve
nt_id=1707&meta_id=75551 (legislative packet)
http://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=169&c
lip_id=8572 (video with captions)
Meeting Story Exercise Video #6
Montgomery County, Md., County Council meeting March 3, 2015
Best story option: Bill 56-14 or Bill 50-14
http://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?vie
w_id=169&clip_id=8832 (agenda and meeting packet)
http://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=169&c
lip_id=8832 (video with captions)
If a meeting video does not play, try these 10 strategies:
Double-click on the link.
Right-click and open the video in a new tab in your browser.
Right-click on the link and open the video in a new tab in your
browser.
Right-click on the link to open the video in incognito mode in another
tab or on another web page.
Copy and paste the url into your browser.
Change to a different browser, i.e., Firefox, Chrome, Edge.
You may need to enable Adobe Flash in Google Chrome:
1. Open Chrome
2. At the top right, click the More (the three vertical dots) and
select Settings
3. Scroll down the page and click Advanced
4. Under “Privacy and Security”, click Content settings
5. Click Flash
6. Under “Ask first (recommended),” ensure it’s enabled (will show in blue)
7. Under Allow, click Add
8. Enter the URL of the website you’re trying to reach
9. Close and re-open Chrome
Check your download folder. Some of the links are to multimedia
formats that will drop down to your device automatically and
quickly.
Check with your network administrator to see if access to YouTube
and other areas of the internet is being blocked.
Call the help desk at 888-360-UMUC (8682).
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