Highlights from Friday’s NewsTrain session in Norman on the University of Oklahoma campus:

NBC news correspondent Bob Dotson reminded us, in the midst of Tweeting, videoing, blogging, Facebook updating and cell phone photography, what we all know remains The Most Important Thing.

That’s the story. And the story is the people. Twitter, video, Facebook and podcasts are the new tools available to help us in the telling. Success of Dotson’s American Story on the Today Show indicates he knows of what he speaks.

Dotson says look for this: Hey – you – see – so.
Hey – get the viewer/reader’s attention
You – why is it important to you. Immediately tie the story to the reader/viewer
See – three or four facts we have
So – why they should care

How do we find the story in the newsgathering?

Listen, he said.
Listen after your first question - make it a non-question to put them at ease - and people will answer the question.
Stay silent a beat, and they will explain their answer.
Remain silent and the discomfort of that silence will lead them to go beneath the surface and tell you more.

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After Mark Briggs, Journalism20.com, gave us his great list of links this morning - Click here for the list, he helped us break down story ideas in the afternoon so we could identify the best tools for telling those stories.

His tips: Identify the characteristics – forms – that best tell the story: Audio, video, text, graphics, photos. Break down the story to ID the best forms for each aspect: characters, financial implications, the event, the issue, the subject, the history, the process, the pros and cons and any call to action.
How can you best present each of those? Maybe the characters lend themselves to great video. Perhaps you need graphics or alternative story forms for financial implications. Briggs suggests moving beyond “This story needs a photo” and examine what each aspect of the story needs in order to be told in the most compelling way.

Briggs also has ideas for defining what is good in digital media. Or, he had ideas for us to define same. And how do we engage our newsrooms in the multimedia revolution?
Says Briggs: Praise their progress. Correct their misguided attempts. Find teachable moments.

Back to alternative story forms, David Arkin of Gatehouse shared specifics and how to use them, even providing take-home templates on CD.
Not to replace full stories but to be part of the daily mix – Weekly Newsmakers, compiled from submitted mugshots and answers people provide on a form; Five Things to do or to know or that we didn’t know – topical segments that can work on news pages for the upcoming strawberry festival or on the editorial page – as in five things we would like to see happen.
Another op/ed idea from Arkin: Kid questions of the week, submitted to classes and gathered for publication with mugs.
Arkin also shared a breakout box guide that gets reporters thinking up front what information they need to gather.

I followed track two in Friday’s NewsTrain session so I am in the web video sessions Saturday.
Also presenting Friday was Ken Fleming on Challenges of the Continuous News Desk. Check out the research here.