OKBLITZ.

COM
Where everyone’s in the game.

2010 MEDIA SUBMISSION GUIDE

WELCOME TO THE WORLD
OF SPORTS REPORTING

WELCOME!
OKBlitz.com is proud to announce an exciting new
program to help your students learn the fundamentals
of sports reporting, writing, and photography!

As OKBlitz.com Student Mojos (Student Mobile

Journalists) they will not only get a feel of what it’s
like to be a sports reporter by covering your school’s
teams, but they can also see their work published on
our website, right along with our anchors Dean Blevins
and John Holcomb.

This program is a fun and easy way of integrating

technology in the classroom while providing real world
exposure for students. The Student Mojo program is
a great way to integrate curriculum in photo, video,
journalism, yearbook, newspaper, sports management
or English classes. Plus each participating student will
receive an OKBlitz.com Student Mojo Press Badge and
a Student Mojo T-shirt.

In this packet your students will find: information

about OKBlitz.com, the basics of how to upload their
videos, stories, and photographs directly to us, contact
information and some helpful tips from our OKBlitz.
com Mojos.
ABOUT OKBLITZ.COM

OKBLITZ.COM HAS CHANGED THE

WAY OKLAHOMANS VIEW SPORTS
AND FOLLOW THEIR FAVORITE
TEAMS.
NEWS 9 sports
with Dean Blevins
in Oklahoma City
and The News On
6 sports with John
Holcomb in Tulsa
merged in August
of 2009 into one Oklahoma powerhouse of sports
coverage on both television and online.

OKBlitz.com provides sports enthusiasts an online

platform where they can follow expanded coverage of
their favorite Oklahoma teams and the big match-ups
and player stories.
OKBlitz.com also gives sports fans, players, coaches
and parents a place to express their love of the game
and their team with unmatched high school team
pages, set up to encourage a forum for discussion,
user generated videos, interviews, and stories. If it’s
happening under the Friday night lights, you can see it
on your team’s home page…and so will everyone else!
WHAT CONTENT
OKBLITZ.COM IS LOOKING FOR

We are looking for journalism, and broadcasting
students who have a passion for shooting video, taking
photos, editing, writing, and sports reporting.
The OKBlitz.com Student Mojo program gives students
an outlet to share local sports stories from their schools
in a number of ways with Oklahomans across the state.
Student Mojos can send OKBlitz.com photos, stories
or video of local school athletic events. Football,
basketball, softball, wrestling, the sky is the limit.

EACH STUDENT MOJO WILL RECEIVE

A T-SHIRT AND PRESS PASS.
VIDEO SUBMISSION
FOR OKBLITZ.COM

PREPARING VIDEO FOR SUBMISSION

TO OKBLITZ.COM
1. All video submitted to OKBlitz.com should be edited
and trimmed to include ONLY the portion that is to be
loaded to OKBlitz.com.

2. The preferred video submission formats are:

a. AVI
b. QuickTime
c. WMV
d. MPEG-4

3. Use the following naming format for the file:

a. [yyyy][mm][dd]-[schoolname].[filetype]
i. Example: 20100114-OwassoHS.avi

b. When submitting multiple files for a day, add a

number to the filename.
i. Examples:
1. 20100114-OwassoHS1.avi
2. 20100114-OwassoHS2.avi

c. Use a shortened name if school name is over

12 characters.
i. Example:
Amber-Pocasset High School could be
AmPocassHS
d. DO NOT use spaces or special characters in
the filename.
SENDING VIDEO
TO OKBLITZ.COM
1. Open web browser
2. Go to the following address:
http://ftp.griffincommunications.net/
3. The following screen will display:
4. If prompted allow the applet to run.
5. Drag the file and drop it on the OKBlitz logo. To
browse for file click on ‘Browse’ located at the bottom
of the block containing the OKBlitz logo to bring up a
file browser window.
6. After the file is dropped or browsed in the following
box will display:
Log on using the following settings:
a. User name: okblitzugc
b. Password: okblitzok
c. Click ‘OK’
7. Progress of the file transfer is displayed on the
status bar at the bottom of the OKBlitz box. Transfer
time is dependent on the size of the file and the speed
of the internet connection.
8. When the upload is complete the following screen
will display:
9. Close the browser.
10. Send an email to highschoolstories@okblitz.com
with the following information:
a. Your name and contact information
b. The organization you represent
c. Complete name of the uploaded file
d. What time the file was uploaded
e. Length of the video clip
CREATING STORIES
ON OKBLITZ.COM

CREATING STORIES ii. Examples of stories:

1. The following elements need to be included in your 1. Game Coverage - http://www.okblitz.com/
story to be considered for submission on OKBlitz.com Article.aspx?id=14218
a. Story Headline – this should be a 7-12 word 2. Overall Event Coverage - http://www.okblitz.
summary title for the story com/Article.aspx?id=14113
i. Example – Tulsa Hands Oklahoma State First 3. News Event - http://www.okblitz.com/
Road Loss of the Year Article.aspx?id=14201
b. Byline – This is your name, title and school e. Keywords – a list of words that one would most
i. Example: Joe Smith, student, Owasso likely use when conducting a site or topic search.
High School Select 10 to 15 words that you feel are most
ii. Example: Joe Smith, teacher, Owasso important and relevant to your story and that
High School would result in site search optimization.
c. Story Summary– this should explain the story in i. Example: School names, player names and
one sentence, less than 25 words or 170 characters. the class and/or division of your school
i. Example - After narrowly beating Memorial
in the second round, Putnam City had no problem
winning the Tournament of Champions as the
Pirates crushed Booker T. Washington.
d. Story Body (written AP style) – all stories written
for OKBlitz.com should be written following the AP
style guide for punctuation and spelling. Books for
AP style can be obtained from most major book
stores, or online at http://www.apstylebook.com/.
AP Style guides have a section for sports writing.
Your school may also have an AP style guide.
i. Notes on Story Body – the story body should
include the following:
1. First Paragraph – summary of event,
including score of main game covered.
2. Second or more paragraphs – in detail
description of the highlights of the event, such
as who scored the most, what was the pivotal
turning point in the game, etc.
3. Final elements – any additional information
the user might deem useful, such as future
events, or additional news related to the event.
CREATING PICTURES
ON OKBLITZ.COM

CREATING PICTURES
1. We like for each story to have at least one picture,
but this is not necessary. And remember that OKBlitz.
com can support up to 10 photos per story. All images
MUST be submitted with the following dimensions to
be considered.
a. Image Dimensions: 576 pixels wide, 324 pixels tall
b. Image Resolution: 72 pixels/inch
c. Image Size: less than 30kb per picture.
i. Many photo editing programs, such as Adobe
Photoshop, have export settings for website
images that automatically convert your images to
the proper size and resolution for web use.
2. Photos cannot be obtained from the internet; all
photos must be taken by you.
3. Photos considered vulgar will not be accepted
4. All photos submitted to OKBlitz.com become the
property of OKBlitz.com, Griffin Communications and
its subsidiaries.
MOJO VIDEO TIPS
TIP #1
Utilize natural sound as much as possible.
Natural sound is ambient noise that you hear
throughout a game that helps paint the picture of
the outcome. If a basketball player dunks and then
screams....use that noise. The emotion of that sound
really grabs the viewer’s attention. Use whistles,
crowd noise and the PA announcer screaming
“THREEEEEEEEE!” after a great shot. Those things
certainly don’t need to dominate your story, but when
used correctly, they really add to your reporting.
TIP #2
Whenever possible, have your interview subject sit
down. People tend to fidget whenever they are in
front of a camera. A lot of high school aged athletes
(especially) move around a lot because they are either
uncomfortable in front of the camera or unsure of
their answers. If you sit an interview subject down and
interview them that way, they are much more likely to
sit still and not mess up your camera shot. Nothing is
worse than standing up conducting an interview only
to find out afterwards that part of the player you were
interview’s ear is cut off on the perfect sound bite
because he leaned to the right during his answer. Sit
them down. You will be happier with the look of the
interview. (Use a wireless mic if you have one)
TIP #3
Speak slowly.
Sometimes when you are reporting, it’s natural to feel
like you have to get all of the great information you
have stored up in your head out of your mouth as
quickly as possible before you forget it. Don’t do that.
Speaking quickly won’t help you avoid making any
mistakes. Take a deep breath. Write down what you
want to say. Rehearse it a few times and then deliver
your report to the camera. Just because you can spit
out a bunch of facts quickly, doesn’t mean that the final
product will look presentable. Take your time and it will
pay off.
TIP #4
Remember the Rule of Thirds.
Break up your camera shot into thirds. Look through
the viewfinder and divide the shot into a left third,
middle third, and right third in your head. Always place
an interview subject in either the left or right third of the
screen. An interview subject is never centered in the
camera. The proper way to frame a shot is to have the
subject of your interview in the left or right third of the
screen.
TIP #5
Have fun.
Sports reporting is about fun. If you aren’t having fun,
nobody watching you will enjoy your report.
MODERATION GUIDELINES
FOR OKBLITZ.COM

MODERATION GUIDELINES FOR 2. OKBlitz.com will not edit content sent from users
USER GENERATED CONTENT (UGC) (stories, pictures or videos).
FOR OKBLITZ.COM a. All content must remain true to the original source
All content intended for OKBlitz.com will be fully (the user) before publishing. Any required changes
reviewed by the OKBlitz.com staff before posting live to should be made only by the user and documented
the website. When reviewing content from users, keep in an email.
the following in mind BEFORE sending any content to b. OKBlitz.com is not to be held responsible for
OKBlitz.com. spelling errors or grammatical errors. Please proof-
read all content before sending to OKBlitz.com.
1. Users are asked to use ‘appropriate journalistic c. All videos should be edited and ready to go from
standards’ when creating their content. This includes the user. If video needs to be changed, please re-
reviewing the following: submit the video.
a. Do not use content that is from somewhere else: 3. Content on OKBlitz will not be deleted once it has
i. Stories obtained that are not your been published. Just like with current stories written
original stories by OKBlitz.com or any staff member, changes need to
ii. Stories from local or national sources be made in the form of retractions on the website.
(newspaper or websites)
iii. Quotes from local or national sources you did
not get yourself
iv. Images that are not your original images (from
the internet, television, paper, etc.)
All of the above are types of standard copyright
infringement
b. Do not use Videos/Stories that contain the
following unusable content:
i. Music - no music can be used in any video
– with the exception of background music from a
marching band
ii. TV Footage – OKBlitz.com does not have rights
to re-publish video from on-air
iii. Profanity/vulgar content
iv. External Links to objectionable third
party content
OKBLITZ.COM
Where everyone’s in the game.

CONTACT INFO
Kevin Winsell
O: 405.841.3624
C: 405.659.1811
kevin.winsell@okblitz.com