July 12, 2010 in College Media, Student voices
Suzanne Yada, formerly of the San Jose State Spartan Daily (which is now housed on a “portal” site for SJSU media), offers advice for college journalists: reporters, editors, designers and online editors.
The entire list is worth a read, and too detailed for an excerpt to do it justice. Go read the whole thing.
April 12, 2010 in industry news
Mathias Dopfner, CEO of Axel Springer, a German publishing powerhouse, was interviewed about the Magical Unicorn Device (aka iPad) on “The Charlie Rose Show” last week.
Since “The Charlie Rose Show” apparently hasn’t figured out the concept of embedding videos on other sites, you’ll have to go to this link to watch the interview.
There’s been quite a bit of discussion among journobloggers and other publishing types about whether or not the iPad (and similar tablet devices) will “save” the media industry, but none quite so over-the-top as this:
I spent a couple of days with a family in Miami and on Saturday morning I went to the Apple store on Lincoln Road and played a little bit with the iPad and then bought one with my son. And I think this is really starting a new era.
And I think every publisher in the world should sit down once a day and pray to thank Steve Jobs that he is saving the publishing industry with that.
I think the iPad is really delivering what we were all waiting for. It’s a device that enables you to visualize content in a very emotional way. It is an easy-to-use device. The price is a mass market price.
(Emphasis added)
I’ll have some more iPad related thoughts later today. But for now, watch the video. (thanks to colleague James Tidwell for the heads-up)
Also, here are some other people who’ve been fixating on the Magical Unicorn Device:
UPDATE: Check out the responses from five student bloggers at N.C. State about their use of the iPad.
Joshua Benton, Three iPad design choices that will influence how we read news online.
Daniel Eran Dilger, Five Tremendous Apple vs. Adobe Flash Myths.
Steven Johnson, NYT, Rethinking a Gospel of the Web.
And, here’s Xeni Jardin from Boing Boing gushing about the iPad on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC:
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April 5, 2010 in industry news, Training, video
Colin Mulvaney writes an excellent post on his blog: Video at newspapers needs to improve – that I want to highlight because it’s as good a summary as any of the ways that newspaper-produced video needs to go to reach the storytelling heights that still photojournalism has reached in the past.
He identifies the following problems with much of newspaper video:
Some of these problems stem from the obvious fact that newspapers are still trying to figure out what works for online video, and still photographers are still learning the basics of video storytelling. And when some of the best newspaper videographers get shown the door, or land in academia (Hernandez and Gitner), or must shift careers for personal and geographical reasons, and others (like Mulvaney himself) get pulled off video duty, figuring out what works and indwelling those skills within newspaper staffers just gets that much harder.
A lot of this mediocrity is doubtless self-inflicted. Stories that work in print don’t work so well in video. Stories that benefit from video don’t always get the time they deserve to get it right.
But the greater point is that people (especially student journalists) who want to be videographers for newspapers need to spend a lot more time honing their craft. That includes paying attention to broadcast videographers. While I firmly believe that web-based video necessarily is different from broadcast video, the fact is that broadcast videographers have a lot to teach in terms of video storytelling.
Some of that honing of skills should come through classwork. But a newspaper journalist might only get a few weeks of video training in an intro class. The rest must come from practice and DIY learning (including some of the workshops Mulvaney mentions in his post above). To that end, below are several sites I’d recommend for more advanced DIY training:
Edit Foundry: Shawn Montano’s site hosted by NPPA focuses very sharply on the depths of video editing. What I like about the site is that Montano breaks down a concept – say, Video editing transitions – complete with detailed commentary across the entire video, along with screen grabs.
News Videographer: Angela Grant continues to explore videography from a newspaper veteran’s viewpoint, despite her career developments. An excellent resource.
Mastering Multimedia: Mulvaney’s blog is another excellent resource, which takes a more theoretical approach to multimedia storytelling. Even though he spends less time shooting video, his thoughts are worth the time to absorb.
Multimedia Shooter: Originally set spinning by Richard Koci Hernandez, this site is chock full of tutorials, advice, and inspiration. Not just about video, but a range of multimedia (see Multimedia Rules to Live By and Seven Steps to Train Yourself).
I’m sure there are other excellent sites around the web that focus on video gathering and editing. These are some I’m familiar with and enjoy reading. There are also some excellent sites (Mindy McAdams, among others) who devote some time to video, but also examine a much broader vista of multimedia and online journalism.
Got a favorite site for learning video techniques? Please let us know in the comments.
March 29, 2010 in Academics, career talk, hope for the future, industry news
As promised, I’m embedding the audio from the “Future of Journalism” panel discussion held last Wednesday at EIU.
Panelists were: Will Sullivan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLToday, John Foreman, publisher of the News-Gazette of Champaign-Urbana, Ill. and Nancy Foreman, executive producer at WCIA-TV3 in Champaign. Jeff Lynch, interim dean of the EIU College of Arts and Humanities moderated.
My apologies in advance for the quality of the audio, which was recorded from the audience, not from the sound booth. As you can tell from the discussion, I had several disagreements with John Foreman about the value of online journalism, citizen journalism, and hyperlocal content.
March 22, 2010 in hope for the future
As I mentioned in the previous post, this Wednesday I’ll be participating in a panel discussion on “The Future of Journalism.”
Panelists include: Will Sullivan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLToday, John Foreman, publisher of the News-Gazette of Champaign-Urbana, Ill. and Nancy Foreman, executive producer at WCIA-TV3 in Champaign. Jeff Lynch, interim dean of the EIU College of Arts and Humanities will moderate.
I have some thoughts that I’m gathering for the discussion, but I’m curious about what you, faithful readers, think the future holds for journalism. You can add your thoughts in the comments, via Twitter to @CICM, or via e-mail to scmurley -at- gmail.com and I’ll add your 2 cents to the discussion.
This is sort of an experiment in showing some of how social media can affect the journalism of the future. We will obviously be touching on the economic outlook, advertising, employment prospects, and new forms of media.
Foreman wrote an opinion piece about the death of newspapers that is worth reading for some background.
