You are browsing the archive for Multimedia views.

← Previous Entries

Guest Post: Gargoyle’s lessons learned since going online-only

November 5, 2012 in College Media, innovation, Multimedia views, Websites

Editor’s Note: I asked Brian Thompson to share about the experiences of the news outfit he advises. Here’s his guest post.

By Brian Thompson
Adviser, Flagler College Gargoyle

To the big guys: don’t laugh. Yes, our visitor stats are small potatoes when compared to large university newspaper sites. But, hey, a milestone is a milestone. And sometime in November our small, online-only newspaper, the Flagler College Gargoyle, will mark 100,000 visits for 2012.

That will be the first time we’ve notched that many visits in a single year.

For us, a small online publication at a small, young college in northeast Florida, that’s a lot. It¹s also an indication that going online-only in 2010 was a good move for us.

Not that it didn’t come with its share of grumbling, hiccups and hurdles. But we’ve been more successful than we expected and doubled traffic from our days of print when we were only seeing 49,500 visits to the site a year.

So what have been the biggest lessons we’ve learned since diving into the Web-only world?

Lesson 1: Technology doesn’t have to trump journalism.

That’s one of the biggest concerns people voice to me when I mention we’re an online-only publication: that going online might make us tech-focused, but journalism-light. But we’ve actually found the opposite to be true. In fact, back in the days of print, my top editors spent more time trying to lay out a print newspaper than working on their own stories.

Only, the ease of the Web actually gives us the time to focus more on in-depth, issue-based stories. Proof might just be in the awards. For example, The Gargoyle had only ever won two regional Society of Professional Journalists awards before moving online-only. But in the last two years, we’ve won nine SPJ awards – including best independent online publication in 2011.

Lesson 2: The Web allows you to think bigger, not smaller.

This was another thing I found. In print, we wrote stories about issues on campus that didn’t always affect a large number of people. They were small in scope and had little reach. But the Web opened up new avenues to attract readers beyond our St. Augustine campus. We do more coverage of the local community, and have seen readership grow as we do more stories and opinion localizing larger issues with more wide-reaching themes. Not only that, it gives our students better clips for awards, as well as internship and job applications.

We had a story last semester about a basketball student who went on a religious fast in the middle of basketball season. It was picked up by a site that focuses on religious issues and had more than 7,300 pageviews – one of our most popular stories ever. That energized the staff to keep looking for local stories that would connect with larger audiences.

Lesson 3: Find ways to build enthusiasm for the Web.

Maybe this is the most important lesson. Crazy as it sounds, most college journalists still have a print-centric mindset, even though few of them still get news from print newspapers. For whatever reason, they’re so attached to the idea getting published in newsprint themselves.

But if you get them excited about the possibilities and opportunities online, they will embrace the Web. Getting 7,300 sets of eyes on your story doesn’t hurt. Neither does winning awards, and that fires up others who want to follow in their footsteps.

We also set goals for awards and growing Web site traffic, then we celebrate those accomplishments. We talk about how news media are looking for these skills in future employees, and play up the successes of newspaper alums who are now working in the industry. It has created a culture of enthusiasm that is critical.

Sure, we’re still small potatoes compared to a lot of others, but for a publication our size, it’s all cause for excitement.

Tags: , ,
2 Comments »

Meet your new (Apple) mojo kit

September 2, 2010 in Multimedia views, Tech Talk

hd_video_snapshot20100901

Update: Damon Kiesow responds at Poynter (see below).

Apple held their fall product announcement event yesterday. The iPod lineup got a complete makeover. The biggest announcement from a journalistic perspective – hands down – was the addition of video/still cameras to the iPod Touch.

While the Droid X and other Android phones duke it out with the iPhone for supremacy in terms of mobile phones, the iPod Touch has languished in development until now.

The addition of the HD cameras (both front and rear-facing) make it perfect for a journalist on the go who either doesn’t want to pay a monthly surcharge for data rates on a mobile plan, or doesn’t want to switch providers because of Apple’s AT&T exclusivity.

The downside, of course, is that the cost of the iPod Touch went up a bit.

The new features will be useful for students at the University of Missouri and other j-schools who are “required” to purchase one.

Engadget has a hands-on review of the new iPod Touch.

Update with comment: Kiesow notes the paltry quality of the back still camera and lack of GPS on the new iPod Touch:

However, the back still camera is a paltry 960 x 720 pixels (.69 megapixels), which is far less than the 5-megapixel camera included on the iPhone 4. Of some lesser concern, the iPod Touch does not include a GPS radio, so location sensing is handled by identifying the WiFi networks the device can detect. That is not necessarily an issue for actual news gathering, but it does mean you would need an additional device (GPS or cell phone) to meet any location or navigation needs.

These are certainly valid points. I suppose I’m seeing more of an attraction for college journalists who lack the resources to pay for a full-featured iPhone + mobile plan (or young journalists just starting out who would like to eat more than Ramen noodles on a beginning salary). As Damon mentions, the GPS issue is less mission-critical for actual news gathering. And, I imagine the camera will be upgraded in future editions (hopefully).

Enhanced by Zemanta

Tags: , ,
Comments Off

Random quote: Ira Glass on comments

July 18, 2010 in industry news, Multimedia views

Ira Glass of This American Life giving a lectu...
Image via Wikipedia

“I don’t find it very comforting that there’s like a world of people who don’t agree with my feelings about my own show, but that’s okay with me. Like, I don’t have to feel good about that.

I feel like, you know, you make something, you put it out in the world and you want people to have feelings about it, and the feelings can include, they hate you and that seems okay. And the fact that they get to say it and it gets to stick to my name, I feel like even that seems okay.”

Ira Glass on comments in an interview with “On the Media”

Enhanced by Zemanta

Comments Off

Now you can know the future of media!

June 9, 2010 in General Media, industry news, Multimedia views

Yesterday, the folks who run I Want Media (which I get in a digest form every day) held (yet another) panel discussion about The Future Of Media: 2010. Panel participants were: Dan Abrams, NBC News legal analyst; Josh Cohen, Google News senior business product manager; David Eun, AOL Media president; Jonathan Geller, Boy Genius Report founder and editor; Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post founder; Cindi Leive, Glamour editor in chief; and James Pitaro, Yahoo Media VP. I Want Media Founding Editor Patrick Phillips was the moderator. Here’s the video of the event (if you want to skip the boring introductions, you can skip to the 7:00 mark) :

Watch live streaming video from iwantmediatv at livestream.com
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Comments Off

Opening up Pandora’s box

February 24, 2010 in consulting, hope for the future, Multimedia views, Training

compRecently, I was on a plane flying back to St. Louis from a two-day workshop at The Daily Toreador at Texas Tech. (I say 2-day – thanks to the airlines and the weather, it was a little less, but that’s a story for another time).

Thinking back on it, I just realized the feeling I usually get when I do these workshops – it’s like opening Pandora’s box. Because I never just talk about audio or video. I always walk through all the other free and easy to use online tools that are available to tell a story online.

I’m so used to seeing all these tools and seeing possibilities to use them that I guess they almost seem mundane in a way.

but when I unpack them in front of a group of students who have never seen an online timeline, or known how easy it is to create a map or edit a piece of audio, I get a glimpse of the magnitude of the vista that is out there for some young journalist who wants to explore online storytelling. It can be intimidating.

That’s why I always repeat the advice I first gave several years ago – pick one thing and learn how to do it well. Don’t worry about the entire river, just find one current to surf for a while. After you’ve got a handle on that, then move to something else.

Everyone will settle on something different, but the crucial part is to get going.

This weekend, I’ll be in Phoenix for ACP’s National College Journalism Convention preaching the multimedia gospel again.

4 Comments »

Video camera guidelines: how much money?

February 4, 2010 in Multimedia views, Tech Talk

The Canon Vixia HF200

The Canon Vixia HF200

A couple of weeks ago,  I wrote a post about video cameras. In the comments to that post, Kathleen Flores, adviser at UT-El Paso, wrote:

I’m considering the Sanyo Xacti. It is only $160 but has no microphone/headphone inputs. I want to get something inexpensive so that I can purchase at least four or five cameras and equipment (I could make a mojo kit for $250) to make them accessible for our students. Has anyone used these or have any other suggestions. I would rather get more students doing some basic multimedia than just one or two using the more expensive equipment. Whenever a new student wants to use our more expensive equipment, I always shudder and hope they take care of it. I was thinking that this route would encourage more experimentation and participation.

I don’t have any personal experience with that camera, but I do want to reiterate my personal preference in the quantity vs. quality debate as it regards video equipment: where possible, try to do both.

Budgets being what they are, it’s sometimes impossible to purchase both prosumer and consumer quality cameras. But if it is possible, I’d recommend purchasing some consumer-level cameras for reporters to take out into the field and experiment with, and then get a couple of higher-end prosumer cameras for the photography staff, and people who really seem dedicated to exploring video online. The amount of control over the quality of the images and sound is vastly different between the two.

This is similar to the iMovie vs. Final Cut (use your imagination for the PC equivalent) debate. You can learn quite a lot with iMovie, and for most breaking news or quick turnaround work, it’s a fine product. But if someone is really interested in video, a higher-end editing package is a worthwhile investment.

Thoughts?

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: ,
9 Comments »

Moving beyond breaking news multimedia: now is the time to plan

January 8, 2010 in management, Multimedia views

students

As the new semester begins, I want to encourage you who are working with online/multimedia in your college newsroom to begin the process of planning to move beyond the quick-hit multimedia package this semester.

I try to encourage our multimedia staff at dennews.com to think about two enterprise packages that they could put together over the course of a semester that would really address serious issues of concern to students, faculty and staff.

I’m not talking about the “meet the SGA candidates” package, or the sports season preview, or a year-in-review audio slideshow. No, I mean enterprise, something that takes real digging, journalistic effort, and a team of talented journalists to pull off.

Last semester I put this assignment to my online journalism class. We brainstormed ideas about a month before the end of the semester. I posed the question this way: “What are some really difficult issues that students struggle with here?” Eastern is a pretty typical college campus, so I could probably name some topics you could use:

  • Alcohol/drug abuse
  • Employment prospects upon graduation
  • Juggling work and school
  • Sexuality/relationships
  • Minorities/race relations
  • Faith on campus
  • LBGT issues
  • Military/War issues (students who will serve or have served)
  • Students who are also parents
  • Unwanted pregnancy
  • Mental health/stress issues
  • University impact on town politics

The three teams of students in my online journalism class came up with some pretty good work once they focused on their topic.

I would suggest you take one or two of those topics (or a similarly meaty topic) and break the topic apart into smaller stories, just like if you were going to produce a series of stories for the print/broadcast product. Depending on how many people you have to work with, you could shoot for three, five, or seven different angles/stories.

Then, with each of those smaller stories, figure out how you can present those stories using the unique attributes of the web – timelines, video, audio stories, audio slideshows, animated graphics, databases, maps, etc.

Then start assigning those multimedia elements to a team of people on your staff. Figure out what kind of time, equipment they may need to get each of the parts done. Give them deadlines several weeks into the future. Set a date certain for when the project will be posted online. Check up on their progress. Work on the layout for the “package.”

The point of this is that an enterprise multimedia project is going to take time to produce, just like any significant piece of journalism. And once you get into the flow of the day-to-day of producing a daily or weekly printed product and putting all those one-off multimedia projects together, you’re not going to have the time to come up with a good project, plan it out, budget personnel, and get the work done.

Now is the time to plan for those projects. And when you get them done, let us know so we can share your success with the rest of the college journalism world.

3 Comments »

New School Year: Changes coming to the Daily Eastern News

August 18, 2009 in management, Multimedia views

This week, student journalists at the Daily Eastern News at Eastern Illinois University will begin an experiment to reconfigure the newsroom to better deal with the online future of news.

It’s something I’ve talked about a lot here: getting the copy desk and editors to put stories online, freeing up the online staff to focus on web-only content. Getting print reporters to gather links and prepare their stories with the online component in mind. But the timing for a transition in the newsroom hasn’t been right, until this year.

The online staff, senior editors, and I will lead the entire staff through training in writing blogs, posting items to the dennews.com site, and thinking more about how to add depth to stories through multimedia.

Training sessions begin tomorrow and continue Thursday. We’ll see how things go in the coming weeks and months, but it’s an exciting transition.

I know several student papers have already made this transition. We tried to do this when I first arrived, but the staff wasn’t quite ready. There’s a saying about leading a horse to water that applies here. But the future won’t wait forever, and hopefully this is the time.

We’re still pushing along with College Publisher 4 for the time being, so it’s going to be a little bit more involved than I’d hope.

I’ll update as the semester goes along.

Now if I could only convince them to get rid of the “Daily” in the masthead.


4 Comments »

SEC goes with teh stupid: tells fans they can’t tweet

August 14, 2009 in Multimedia views, social media

SEC Logo

Image via Wikipedia

I continue to think that there is only so much stupid that can be brought to bear in the world of big-time college athletics. Sadly, the SEC is the latest to disprove my theory. (props to Jay Rosen @jayrosen_nyu on Twitter, for the head’s up)

Ticketed fans can’t “produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event … .”

The SEC is getting some blowback for their policy. Not from the media, but from fans. If I were a fan paying premium prices to watch the tenant-farm system that is big-time college athletics, I’d be miffed too.

Of course, this isn’t the first, nor will it be the last, episode in the continuing series of “college athletics attempts to deny reality.” The NCAA has propagated the stupid for a couple of years now related to journalists reporting from games.

Now that one of their own has turned their attention to the fans, will there be some sort of “grasp of the obvious” coming from the heads of various sports entities? I doubt it.

To be clear, we haven’t seen this kind of push back from the NCAA at EIU, since we’re not in the conference with the big time money deals with major networks. Thankfully, we can practice new media coverage so far.

But rather than just castigate the SEC for their stupidity and short-sightedness, here’s a proposition for how to make lemonade out of the new media lemons you think you’ve been given: create a place on your site, or the site of your corporate broadcast overlords, where fans can upload their videos, tweets, whatever, to add to the texture of the games. In other words – surf with the wave, not against it.

Why does this seem so hard for some to get?


Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

1 Comment »

e-reporting: the good, the bad and the ugly

March 2, 2009 in industry news, Multimedia views

iChat AVImage via Wikipedia

In the midst of a good article for student journalists about the perils of “e-reporting,” Mike Heistand of the Student Press Law Center notes the following:

Despite its growing popularity, some veteran journalists scoff at interviews and research conducted entirely by “e-reporting,” arguing — I think somewhat persuasively — that email and other forms of written, electronic communication miss the nuances, depth and spontaneity of an in-person interview. Even telephone interviews allow a reporter to hear changes in the speaker’s tone or voice inflection that e-mail and its close cousins don’t pick up very well. A written, “Of course he did it” is much different from the same statement when said sarcastically or with a chuckle.

The fact that written communication lacks the nuance of an in-person encounter is hardly surprising, news, or unique to computer-mediated communication.

The problems of vocal inflection and nonverbal cues have been known for quite some time (If you’d like an example, just study the arguments people have over the potential use of sarcasm in texts from the Christian Bible).

I cringe when “veteran journalists scoff” about new means of reporting. Sure, there are perils with using e-mail or instant messaging for an interview, and an in-person interview is the sine qua non of interviewing, but in-person interviews aren’t always possible, whether because of time constaints or distance.

I’ve interviewed people by instant messaging, e-mail, phone, face-to-face, and video chat. Nothing beats the ability to see the subject’s expression. But again, that isn’t always possible.

My general rule of thumb: synchronous communication whenever possible (either via telephonic means – skype or phone – or IM), and asynchronous communication when not possible (e-mail). Whatever means I use, I record the conversation, either by chat transcript or by recording the audio or video for future reference. The key thing to me is getting a record, so there’s no question of context or “misquoting.”

Fortunately, modern computer technology allows a bridge to fill the telephonic/written gap – videoconferencing via iChat or Skype. Of course, it takes some time to train some sources to understand these new, promising tools. But it is usually worth the effort.

Perhaps more journalists will begin using these means to conduct face-to-face interviews via Internet means.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Comments Off

← Previous Entries