Virgina Tech shooting coverage
Posted on April 19, 2007
Everyone’s blogging about this, and I’m emotionally spent from watching/consuming the news. Even down in Southwest Florida, we’re posting stories and AP multimedia.
But I do feel like I should mention such a tragic, huge news event.
Here are some good reads about the coverage:
>> Mad props where mad props are due, by Ryan Sholin
>> Virginia Tech shootings make case for citizen journalism, by Patrick Beeson (who found out about the shootings via Twitter!)
>> Hokies 4/16: A Memorial Project, by the Collegiate Times, the student newspaper at Virginia Tech
>> Not sure how I feel about these photos, by Meranda Watling
(Hmmm …. did the media has played right into the shooter’s plan to become a celebrity??)
>> WP’s Fisher: Why I support NBC’s decision to air Cho video, via Romenesko
>> Front Pages: Shootings at Virginia Tech
(Interesting how so many of these chose to report the “old” news as the next day’s headline)
Stop and smell the non-journalism roses, too
Posted on April 19, 2007
Overwhelmed sometimes? Sigh … all of us feel it in this fast-paced, information-overload, competitive world.
Student Daniel Sato and journalist Ryan Sholin admit they have felt it plenty.
Blogging is a great learning tool for me, but I’m finding it also means that since this is an extension of my job (as professional development) I’m taking even more work home, and I’m ending up living, breathing, dreaming about multimedia and online journalism. This is so easy to do when you have a passion for something.
But one of my take-aways already from this blog: Sheduled breaks have to become a top priority. :)
USATODAY.com redesign reaps big rewards
Posted on April 19, 2007
Many complained (um, yeah, including me), but readers apparently aren’t bothered, according to E&P:
“Traffic on USAToday.com is up 21% since the site was relaunched in March — and the number of registered users has more than tripled, USA Today said Thursday.
“USA Today said the number of registrations jumped 380% over February, and that readers are spending more time per visit. Nearly 40,000 user comments were posted in March, the paper said. Gaining the most traffic were the Sports, Money, Travel and Tech sections of the site, USA Today said.”
Free video tutorials
Posted on April 19, 2007
Don’t have a couple grand to spend on learning video? (I sure don’t.)
Check out this tutorial set I found via Bob Stepno’s del.icio.us links
Happy now, Beau? ;)
Travel Channel Academy
Posted on April 13, 2007
I found this a couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t have time to blog it: The Travel Channel is offering a four-day video class, May 10–13, 2007, in Miami that looks amazing. It’s quite pricey, though — $2,250.
But, alas, I just saw that the class is full.
“The Miami session (May 10–13, 2007) is full. To get on a waiting list for the Miami session OR to inquire about other sessions, please email us at travelchannelacademy@discovery.com.”
I see a celebrity
Posted on April 13, 2007
Sarasota is celebrating movies — and their stars — during a 10-day extravaganza — the ninth annual Sarasota Film Festival.
HeraldTribune.com has put together a page of blogs, video podcasts, photos and stories as we cover the parties and presentations (DotCom features editor Jackie Luper heads the efforts).
There’s been a lot of talk from many bloggers about photographer- and reporter-generated video. But interestingly in this case, the print page designers (from the Features section) have taken a keen interest in producing the video podcasts for this package (they tried it for the first time last year, and it was quite a success).
Since we have a 24-hour cable news TV station in house (SNN News 6), we get a lot of video coverage produced firstly for TV. I think the clips the designers create compliment our TV clips by being more “raw” (ie, no talking head with a stick mic) and hopefully giving the reader a sense of place.
A benefit of having a film festival in town are the celebrity sightings. Producers, directors and stars, such as Edward Norton, Dominic Chianese, Steve Buscemi, and Marcia Gay Harden are here this week, so I put together an interactive “celebrity sightings” map, using Atlas maps, which I’ve previously written about.
It’s a fun experiment (I seeded it with some popular locales) — I just hope people will use it!
ONA annual conference
Posted on April 13, 2007
Registration is open for the Online News Association’s annual conference, which takes place this year at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto, Oct. 17-19.
Here’s some more information from publicity chair Tiffany Shackelford:
You can now register online for the Oct. 17-19 conference and awards banquet. Reserve your hotel room now to get the ONA discount. The early bird fee for ONA members to attend the conference is $399. Early bird registration lasts until Sept. 16. After September 16, the fee will be $449 for ONA members. Fees at all times for non-ONA members are $549.
The Sheraton Centre, Toronto, is offering those wishing to attend the conference a rate of $191 ($229 CAD) a night. This offer is only in effect until Sept. 16. After that regular rates are in effect, which vary from room to room and night to night. You can register here at the Sheraton Centre Toronto or call (416) 361-1000. If you call, please tell the registration desk you are with the ONA conference in order to get the special rate.
**A passport is required for US citizens traveling by air to Canada. Apply here.
2007 ONA Conference and Awards Banquet
Oct. 17-19, 2007
Sheraton Centre, Toronto, OntarioJu-Don Roberts, WashingtonPost.com, Chair
Anjali Kapoor, Yahoo!, Co-Chair
Peeps show
Posted on April 7, 2007
I have to share this creative, funny, reader-interactive photo gallery from The Washington Post’s first-ever Peeps Diorama Contest. (I think “Peeping Peeps” is the funniest.)
The story has the artists’ comments; I’d love it if the interactive had included audio clips of them describing their work. It looks like this was produced for print and then pulled together for the Web.
Again, perhaps the best part is that washingtonpost.com dares to put this stuff in their main display spot on the front. It’s right next to their lead headline: McCain to Bet ‘08 Bid on Need for Victory in Iraq. Hm. I wonder which one will get more page views? ;)
We did a Peeps audio slideshow of our own at heraldtribune.com last week, where two Peeps joust in a microwave. Very, very silly, but it was fun and quick to produce. Self-critique: Next time we have a project like this (and the necessary equipment), we should use video to tell the story.
On a short hiatus
Posted on April 7, 2007
I’m interrupting this lapse in posting to let you know that I’ve been up to my eyebrows in a project at work and haven’t had a chance to update the blog.
I figure that has to happen from time-to-time, but I have been reading and updating my delicious links (which I pull in at the bottom right of this page, but I think there’s a way to have them added as a blog entry when I need to take shortcuts. Not to self: Figure this out).
Anyway, I’m not only creating interactive stories for this project (via Flash, video, soundslides, etc.), but for the first time, I’m designing and building the pages from scratch using CSS. These resources have been a huge help:
>> Patrick’s list of CSS books (this link is worth a second plug — thanks again!)
>> Spring into HTML and CSS by Molly E. Holzschlag (this is a great book for a newbie transitioning over to CSS and was recommended to me long ago by Andrew Kantor)
>>O’Reilly’s Safari Books Online
>> A few tips from coworkers (and a couple of aforementioned books borrowed from heraldtribune.com übercoder Charlie Szymanski)
I feel a bit behind that CSS is a learning curve I’m trying to conquer (the past year I’ve been concentrating on building the interactive components — audio, podcasts, slideshows, flash interactives, etc.) I wrote earlier about the benefits of self-learning; I’m so proud already of my accomplishments. OK … enough sap … I’ll be sure to post a link to the project when we go live.
I’ve got some post ideas I’m kicking around and will get back on track soon.
Good reads for 04.01.07
Posted on April 1, 2007
>> Gmail paper — from your inbox to your doorstep.
“Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re bringing it back.”
>> Howard Owens explains what journalists need to be entrepreneurial. This is a print-it-out-and-tape-it-to-your-desk post. Thanks, Howard.
(His post is in response to Mindy McAdam’s outline of “What do we mean by entrepreneurial?“, another good read.)
>> Cory Bergman at LostRemote wonders about the potential of local TV sites and user-generated video
“I’m beginning to believe that the only reason people would submit video to a TV site would be to see it on TV. And perhaps that’s even losing a bit of its luster these days because the people who submit the most video are the people who watch the least TV.”
>> Meranda Watling’s reaction to the AJR’s “Caught in Contradiction.”
“I just think we’re dealing with a finicky generation that demands what it wants, when it wants, how it wants and where it wants it. That’s how we’ve been raised and what we’ve been conditioned to expect.”
>> Scott Anderson thinks the facts speak for themselves when newspaper editors are asked to list their favorite Web sites (only one mentioned their own newspaper Web site).
>> Washingtonpost.com creative director Paul Compton chats with readers about the site’s redesign.
>> JibJab’s “What we call the news.” (link via Doug Fisher)
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