Happy Halloween!
Posted on October 31, 2007
Here’s some multimedia fun to start your day. I hope everyone has a safe holiday.
>> Sarasota’s Fright Factory audio slideshow, by Chip Litherland, HeraldTribune.com:
(Note: Joe Weiss has a great tool to let you embed slideshows in blogs and such, but unfortunately this soundslide is too wide for this page! So please click on the image to view the slideshow.)
Photo by Chip Litherland
>> A behind-the-scenes look at a haunted house, by Alex Garcia, ChicagoTribune.com (I really like their intro bumper):
>> Viewers submitted their videos for Ghost Whisperer’s Scariest Story Ever Told, by CBS.com (what a fun idea):
>> And what’s Halloween without some fur-baby costumes?:
Worth repeating
Posted on October 29, 2007
Busy week, so until I can post again, I thought I’d share this video that saw on Mindy McAdams’ blog (where she compared “the shelf” to “Page One”):
Good reads for 10.26.07
Posted on October 26, 2007
>> Data is the new black. Roanoke.com has launched DataSphere, a compilation of databases on topics from “schools, crime and politics to Virginia Tech football and trophy freshwater fish.” Patrick Beeson has posted an excellent review.
>> Jon Stewart is today’s Socrates? Hm. Sam McManis thinks so: “Just as Socrates’ and Diogenes’ reason-over-emotion doctrines served as an antidote to the sophists and rhetoricians of their day, Stewart’s nightly reports combat the dissembling of politicians and the blathering of mainstream media’s so-called ‘chattering class.’”
>> Stephen Colbert is the next U.S. president? Double hm. Comedy Central may be thinking so: “The network has consulted a top Washington election law firm and appears keenly aware of the strict election law provisions that could be triggered by Colbert’s satirical campaign,” reports Politico.
>> Don’t count newspapers out, says Richard Siklos, Fortune editor-at-large: “What is often overlooked is where newspapers rank, at least for now, in overall spending in the pantheon of media industries fighting for dollars from consumers and advertisers. They are number one, ahead of TV networks, magazines, billboards, you name it. And it’s instructive that no legacy medium has been obliterated by a new technology: consumers simply adjust and adapt. In the era of DVDs and downloads, we still go the movies and listen to the radio.”
>> Intriguing online approaches to the California wildfire coverage. That’s what Amy Gahran calls the list of efforts she’s drawn up. I particularly like the Twitter updates by KPBS. I’ve seen several news sites playing with Twitter, and this just shows how newspapers can take advantage of technology and own it in the readers’ eyes.
Howard Owens has posted some more links to media coverage, too.
>> 5 things to tell the students. Mindy McAdams asked a group of 40 journalism students: “How much time did you spend online yesterday and today? (Pause.) Compare that with how much time you spent reading a newspaper or a magazine.” She then proceeded to give them a kick in the butt they need and outlined five ways they can get moving on learning online skills.
I’m continually shocked that students are so unprepared. I have a degree in architecture, and back in the day, we didn’t learn Computer Aided Design/Drafting because the professors said we would learn that in the field — we were in school to learn the fundamentals of design and structures. Thank you, but my colleagues had a difficult time finding a job, even with a master’s degree (I opted for journalism right out of college, so didn’t face that problem). But what’s going on in journalism today is even worse, I think. They’re not teaching the technical skills, AND they’re not teaching the fundamentals in online storytelling.
>> Are you producing videos for your newspaper Web site? Andy Dickinson of the Department of Journalism, University of Central Lancashire, wants to hear from you. He’s put together a short survey to find out how video is produced and who does it. He’ll post the results on his blog.
Countdown clocks, going green … and lots of Anderson Cooper
Posted on October 21, 2007
I was watching CNN Friday and noticed the station’s logo has turned green. I figured that it had to do with their new “Planet in Peril” series that at the time was scheduled to run in 100 hours, 30 minutes and 08 seconds.
Yes, they actually had a countdown clock for this show four days ahead of time. I wish I had snapped a photo of the TV — but you can see one over on this blog. Interestingly, the PIP promo now only says “Tuesday 9 PM.”
Here’s what they said about the color change:
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, how about this? You may have noticed something a little different about what you’re seeing on TV.
See that little green logo down there? Well, CNN is going green because we’re digging deeper on environmental issues, covering stories that affect all of us from the air we breathe to the fuel we use. It all coincides with the premiere of “Planet in Peril,” a special report from Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet ’s Jeff Corwin.
That is next Tuesday and Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.
What they failed to mention on TV is that they have a “Planet in Peril” section on their Web site, too.
And they’re advertising it just as heavily online. “Planet in Peril” is now a part of the masthead, minus a green CNN logo. Come on … at least be consistent in your gimmickry!
Anyway, the section is flashy at first glance, and I like the rotating globe as a navigation tool (except when I have to wait for it to turn to get to a new link). But the site is a letdown once you start clicking around because it’s clearly a commercial for the TV show.
It’s FULL of links that take you outside of this pretty section, videos set on autoplay, headlines to older stories, fuzzy sneak peek videos and trailers, outtakes with penis jokes and journalists forgetting their lines, and photos of Anderson Cooper modeling.
Can’t get enough of McStudly? You can even download those pictures and post them on your very own computer as wallpaper …
Multimedia journalism defined - part 2
Posted on October 20, 2007
You can learn the most about how jobs are evolving through job postings. I found two openings at MSNBC.com (via Ryan Sholin’s del.icio.us tags).
I share these here because:
1.) I think this is an interesting differentiation between an “interactive” and a “multimedia” position, and
2.) well, if you’re looking for a multimedia/interactive job, here are some options (full listing with video positions can be found here):
Interactive Editor
MSNBC.com is seeking an experienced interactive developer to join our team. The interactive team is a small group with an enormous audience and huge ambitions. We’re out to fundamentally change the way news is presented online.Think of it as storytelling: We use interactivity and multimedia to bring depth to news. We make data move. We make current events, important concepts, trends more relevant, richer and reactive. We innovate in a fast-paced environment. And we do it on a site with a billion page views each month.
What we need: an expert-level Actionscript coder/rockstar with significant dev experience (CS or equivalent background preferred). If you’re there, we’ll assume you have at least a few other languages in your tool belt, you can sling JavaScript and have mastered CSS/HTML, natch. You probably have a database-driven application in your portfolio as well.
We like: Information architecture and interface design experience, data mining and visualization skills, project management know-how. A media background isn’t strictly necessary, but it helps to have sensibilities about consuming media and how news should be presented.
Position available in the Seattle area. Please send a link to a recent portfolio site along with your resume.
Multimedia Editor
MSNBC.com is seeking an experienced Multimedia Producer / Picture Editor in the NYC area. We are looking for an individual who can collaborate with internal teams, parent companies and content providers. The Multimedia Team supports all section of the site by editing compelling photojournalism and multimedia on a daily basis and on bigger projects. Proven news judgment, high ethical standards and interpersonal skills are necessary. A successful candidate will have broad knowledge and curiosity about news of all kinds and show a keen eye for spotting interesting and newsworthy visual content. An innovative spirit, passion for digital media, and the ability to solve problems in a fast paced, sometimes hectic environment are highly desirable.A BA degree in Photojournalism, Multimedia Journalism or other disciplines that emphasize visual storytelling and multimedia production and/or editing is required. Strong candidates with equivalent experience or education will be considered. A minimum of two years experience producing or editing visual content for newspapers or online news is essential. Further knowledge of broadcast production, audio/video editing and/or Macromedia Flash is a plus.
Must be organized and able to manage daily and long-term projects simultaneously. Must be a self-starter but be able to work in a collaborative team environment. The ideal candidate will be flexible with their time as this position will include some night and weekend shifts.
Multimedia journalism defined
Posted on October 17, 2007
A well-said explanation by Tom McKendrick, multimedia producer at The Age:
“[Multimedia journalism is to] take all the different aspects of traditional journalism and to merge them into a whole package … true multimedia journalism is something where you have lots of different media all converged in one place. You have video and audio and photos and text and blogs and whatever else you might have in there all in one place.
“A multimedia journalist has to have a rare balance between the technical skills — the craft skills — and the journalistic skills — or the news sense.”
Virtually at the ONA conference
Posted on October 15, 2007
Speaking of conferences, since I already spent my travel allowance this year, I’m quite disappointed I won’t be able to attend the Online News Association conference in Toronto, which starts Thursday.
But once again, I’m so happy I can still keep up on what attendees are talking about and learning. Twenty-one students will be covering the event by blogging, video taping and writing news stories and features.
Also, on the ONA conference’s opening night, CBC news will host “The Future of the Future of News,” a panel discussion that will be streamed live at 6 p.m. Can’t save the date? They’ll archive it for later viewing, too.
Want to talk about the future? Post your thoughts on CBC’s forums.
SND impressions and some Flash(y) lessons
Posted on October 15, 2007
Richard Koci Hernandez has put together a video of his trip to the SND Boston. I didn’t get the opportunity to go, so once again, I’m so grateful that the conference and attendees are blogging about lessons learned.
Definitely take a look at Hernandez’s video for tips on nice shots and how to tell a story:
Creative and engaging and leaves me wanting more … perhaps this is a video “splash page“? ;) I jest … it seems to have perfectly fulfilled its point — to give a taste and a fun review for attendees and even those who weren’t there. He promises to publish “more multimedia goodness,” so check back at his site during the week.
For more meat, check out the SND update blog.
Not a whole lot here about online, but I’m impressed by the topics they chose to present. Videos and .pdfs are/will be available for more details.
Of the online/multimedia offerings, I particularly like the post about Adrian Holovaty’s presentation, Making Data Web Savvy.
And there’s a series of posts from the New Media session that taught participants Flash and some ActionScript:
Post I: Greetings from the New Media course shares a newbie’s perspective:
Biggest impression thus far: Stop fearing Flash. We’ve put it off after hearing tales of its complicated nature. Hey, even Quark seemed daunting at one time.
Of course, getting an intro in a classroom environment certainly helps. You’d want a pretty killer tutorial program to learn this stuff on your own. This is the fourth New Media course of the year, and based on our experience and those of friends who have gone through other courses, it’s a worthy investment. Convince your organization to cough up the cash for a session when the tour is near by.
Post II: Flash projects take longer to produce than a novice would expect:
As managers, we need some basic knowledge of what can be done; from there we can assign out projects and set realistic deadlines. So, while we may never be scripting experts, at least we can set folks up to succeed at certain projects.
Post III: They “climb deeper into the wormhole that is Action Script coding in Flash”:
Well, that “this isn’t so hard” feeling from the first half of the New Media session has been replaced with a “What the Deuce?!” vibe.
Post IV: “Your word of the day: Concatenation”
Dive in. Figure out a way to break off time to spend with Flash, either for yourself or your staff. The classroom environment was fantastic; opening up Flash all by yourself could get overwhelming quick.
I also like this piece of advice:
Also, talk turned to how much time a project involving coding should take. Simple:
1/2 your time should be planning, storyboarding, gathering information, etc.
1/2 your time should be actual Flash production - scripting and programing
1/2 your time will be spent debugging your code, especially as you just get startedHuh? That’s more time than is available.
“These projects will always take you more time than you thought they would.”
Is the splash page a lazy design solution?
Posted on October 14, 2007
Ever been tempted to put an intro on your multimedia presentation?
I confess I’ve done it many, many times myself. Mostly either to set a tone, as in this package about the five-year 9/11 anniversary and this package about Bantu refugees in Roanoke.
Another time I used it to show off a cool feature, as in this package about the new Herald-Tribune building.
But here’s some food for thought when you’re creating your next large or medium-scale multimedia project: Smashing Magazine questions whether we really need the “splash page.”
Designers use splash pages in their portfolios to impress potential clients with eye-candy. Companies tend to make use of them to draw users’ attention to their latest products. And users literally can’t stand them, because splash pages usually take a long time to load and provide (almost) no navigation options — except of “entering the site”.
They go on to show “How to lose your visitor” case studies and samples of splash pages used for advertising, disclaimers, to showcase designer talent, to choose a language/site and to tell what the site is about.
Even done well, are they necessary? Perhaps five or even two years ago they were essential in educating the user on how to navigate Web sites.
But today as more people of all ages are using the Internet, have splash pages become beautiful designs (as seen in the samples in the Smashing Magazine story) but lazy solutions?
One reader comments: “Interestingly, I think sites that usually have an “enter here” splash are usually created by designers originally from the print media who are maybe more used to slapping a front cover on things.”
Here’s what another one says: “… if your site has a splash page specifying a resolution, you need to redesign your site. If it has instructions on how to use the site, you need to redesign the site. If the splash screen is telling the visitor they MUST download Flash to continue…you need to redesign the site. The only place I want to see a Splash screen? On a porn site.”
Good reads for 10.13.07
Posted on October 13, 2007
>> That’s a wrap for Roanoke.com’s TimesCast. Lots of comments about the end of its era going on out there:
The official Roanoke.com announcement says: “We learned a lot of lessons in the two years since the work on the TimesCast began. We’ve applied those lessons to other Webcasts and to broader video efforts. It’s because of those Webcasts and our plans to do more with video produced in the field that we’ve decided to move beyond the TimesCast.”
Former producer and on-air talent Patrick Beeson reflects on the experience and how it affected the newsroom and the entire industry. He also speculates why it may have ended.
Lucas Grindley was never a fan and is only surprised it took so long for them to throw in the towel.
Bryan Murley disagrees and says two years isn’t too far off of the yardstick.
Mindy McAdams wasn’t a fan either. She does, however, give a nod to Roanoke.com for it’s cutting-edge idea, and says: “Maybe this move is a (good) sign of things to come — maybe a lot of other news organizations will realize that the television people have already failed at this, and there’s no earthly reason for newspapers to make the same mistakes.”
>> Online producer = journalist. Really. If we EVER want our news organizations to survive, we have to stop this us vs. them outlook. Meranda Watling says one of the reasons the online department at her newspaper isn’t in the newsroom is “because the online people are more techies and personalities don’t mesh with the word folks in the newsroom.” (Words of others at her paper, not hers.)
>> Need some design resources, tips and samples? Check out Smashing Magazine. I’ve referenced their stories several times. Danny Sanchez provides some reasons why the site is so great .
>> More reasons to Facebook. Steve Outing provides a very nice argument as to why your newspaper should seriously think about spending resources on developing Facebook apps.
Outing writes: “Facebook users are experiencing social interactions on the site, and “you don’t have to jump too far” to go from a Facebook user interacting with his/her friends to the user interacting with content from an organization that he/she trusts, Stutzman says. The key is to understand that the Facebook experience (and of course this extends to other social networks) is about connections. And this can apply nicely to news.”
What are you waiting for? Go make some apps.
>> ABC is reproducing the Evening News for the Web. Says The New York Times: “ABC is the only major broadcast network that is using the staff of its evening newscast to produce a separate and distinct daily program for a Web audience. The 15-minute Webcast often features Mr. Gibson in the anchor chair, but the similarities end there: the segments can run long, and they purposely look raw and personal, as if they were made for MTV rather than ABC.”
Only thing missing from the story is a link to the Webcast. Unfortunately, it was difficult to find on ABC’s page, even. You can watch it here.
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