Creating a Story
There are two recommended statuses that you can designate in FLOW when initially creating stories: stories can be pitched by the staff and later assigned to a staff member by the editors, or stories can be created and immediately assigned. This is up to each staff’s discretion, but if you choose to pitch stories make sure “pitched” is set as the default status of the story by the editors and adviser. This can be adjusted in the Statuses section of the settings.
To create a story, click the plus button in the top row next to the FLOW logo and select Create a Story. From there, make sure to select the assignment types that will be required and the story tag groups (e.g. section, publication, issue, etc.).
Once you have entered all of that information, click the plus icon in the center of the window to create the assignment. You will then see it in the story list view. You may need to refresh the browser in order to see the new story on the story list.
Assigning a Story
Each story will have tabs at the top that correspond to the assignment types you've selected for that story (e.g. Writing, Photography).
Each story will have, at minimum, as many people assigned to it as there are assignment types on a given story. For example, if a story has a writing, photography, and video component, there will be three people assigned to the story, because each assignment type needs a staff member, even if the same person is doing all three parts of the assignment. In addition, there can be multiple people assigned to a particular assignment within a story.
There are two ways to determine who will take an assignment - volunteer or direct assignment. If the staff chooses to allow people to volunteer for assignments, then it will be open for volunteers until editors assign it to an individual. However, if the staff or editorial board assigns the stories in a meeting, they can directly assign a story to an individual and bypass the volunteer option.
To see which assignments still need volunteers click the “Available Assignments” button on the dashboard view (house icon).
To volunteer for a story, click the headline of that story, navigate to the particular assignment you want to volunteer for (e.g. writing, photography, etc.), and click the volunteer button.
If something is assigned to you directly, or submitted to you for review, you will receive a notification and it will be visible on your dashboard when you log in.
Story View Once Assigned
Create/view Google Doc- This button will open the Google Doc where the actual story is written.
Writing Deadlines - These are the deadlines for the different drafts of the story.
Workflow - This shows who will need to sign off on an assignment before it is approved for publication. You can hover over a title/group to see who that person is or who is in that group. If there are multiple editors in a group, only one of them will need to approve the story to advance it in the workflow.
Tasks - These are things that you should complete before/during completion of the assignment. It may be a default list (e.g. something you see on every writing assignment), or editors also have the option to add extra tasks specific to individual assignments, so make sure to check those carefully before you begin.
Notes - These are notes that will be important for the reporter and all editors to see. For example, it might talk about how the story must include an interview with a specific source, or the reporter might note that an important source is out of town or otherwise unavailable for an interview.
Attach a file - This is where you can place the link to a Microsoft 365 document (or other document sharing program) if your school does not use Google Docs. You can also attach a PDF if you want to have the editor upload it and link it in the final story. This would also be a good place to include the link to the final and uploaded audio or video assignment.
Chat - Here you can have a back and forth conversation about the assignment. Click the chat icon to access chat specifically for this story. Any comments made in the chat are visible to all staff members that click the chat button in a story.
More - This contains a variety of extra information that editors may need to utilize. Staff members working on a story will not need to interact with these options.
Add Photos - To add a photo to that portion of the assignment, click the photo button at the bottom of the assignment screen. Then upload the photo by selecting the file on the computer. Once the file is uploaded you can enter the caption and photographer. You are able to upload as many photos to a story as you want, although we recommend no more than 15 images. Just a reminder that those images should be edited in your photo editing software before uploading them to FLOW.