Multiplatform Journalism

Here’s what should be up on your blog by next Tuesday:

1.  Revised story pitch that you will be graded on.  Hopefully you’ve all read my responses.  I’ll be offline on Sat and Sun, so if you have questions, fire away before then.  Most of my suggestions are straightforward: some of you should be doing some more research, while others need to think more about multimedia, some of you are pretty much on target.

2.  A post about your experience with one of these photo tools: Clevr or Gigapan, both panoramic photo tools with a Web 2.0 interface, or Vuvox, a slideshow tool that’s like a Web 2.0 version of Soundslides with some extras thrown in.  All of them will require you to upload your own photos. Clevr and Gigapan will also require you to shoot a panorama (check out the instructions: it isn’t complicated), while Vuvox will require a series of photos with a narrative associated with them (I am not expecting you to have images for your proposed project yet, so use photos from another shoot (don’t use family shots — if that’s all you have, try out the panorama software instead).

What I’m looking for is a brief post (a paragraph) about your experience with the tool AND an example of either a panorama or a Vuvox embedded on your site (it’s fine if it’s not a particularly brilliant example: I just want you to experiment with the software as a journalistic tool).  If you have questions about embedding, look at the Edublogs guide from the beginning of the semester.

P.S.: Not convinced that Vuvox would be useful for journalists?  Check out this and this and this to see how journalists are using this software.

This is the photo release that you’ll be using to get permission from the subjects you photograph.  You must get a release from anyone who is not at a public event such as a political rally or sports meet.

For those of you who Twitter, this post gives a list of 10 Twitter users that journalism students should follow.  And, in case you don’t know about it, Twhirl is a great desktop client for Twitter that keeps you aware of (or distracted by) your feed as you work.

Another point several of you made about the two Globe and Mail packages was that the depression package had a much higher level of direct audience engagement.  If any of you are thinking along those lines, this piece about the Washington Post provides interesting food for thought.

Many of you commented on the differences in video quality between Talking To The Taliban and the Globe and Mail’s package on depression. We’ll talk more about this in class, but for those who are interested, here is a link to a recent post from MediaShift which frames the discussion nicely.

More advice on the story pitch:

1. You are welcome to use material from a prior class, but make sure your pitch provides a plan to do a semester’s worth of work to augment that material; ie, having a video clip does not mean that you have already completed part of your project.

2. Feel free to draw on each other’s expertise: you can help each other with video and audio projects if you’d like, as long as you are clear in your projects about what you did and did not do, and as long as the help provided does not take the place of your own substantial work on a project.

3. I will look at the pitches and make suggestions about what seems feasible given time and resources, but you may want to briefly acquaint yourself with Soundslides (visit their site) and with some of the tools in the “Tools” section as you plan what you will be doing.

As far as Tuesday is concerned, we will spend the second half of class working on Audacity and trying out the Edirol: those who have familiarity with both should come to class with digital cameras, if they have them.

Let me know if you have any questions: remember, I’m expecting you to revise the pitches for next week, so don’t worry if you feel like you’re still feeling tentative about what you are doing.

Another item that I wanted to bring to your attention: a new column by Mathew Ingram at the Nieman Journalism Lab.  If you don’t know about the Nieman Foundation, they, like the Poynter, are a good resource to know about — affiliated with Harvard, concerned with the future of journalism.  Ingram’s introductory piece is short, but it looks like he’s going to be talking about changes in the industry and new media from a Canadian perspective — thus providing a needed dimension to the conversation about the recent changes in the industry.

This is not an an assignment post: I just want to share selected articles that have come to my attention this week, all of which are quite relevant to the class.  If you’d like to comment on any of them on your blogs, that would be great, but it’s optional.  I do encourage you to read all of them, however — especially the piece on the times.

• Article from Read Write Web on the integration of social media and news media during the online inauguration coverage

• Article about CNN and the inauguration; really about the success of CNN’s online venture, which notes that online is the largest growth sector at CNN
• As long as we’re talking American politics, here’s a video which quickly shows a time-lapse of the NYT’s online election night coverage – a great visualization of the news cycle in online media
• And as long as we’re talking about the New York Times, a great article in New York magazine about the info-graphics folks at the times, responsible for bringing Times readers things like this.  If you’re really interested in these guys, you can contact them here until the 23rd: they are answering email questions related to the article.
• Had to add this from the Post: using a timeline as your media navigator…

Some of you mentioned digital cameras in your blogs, but I should collect the information in a more systematic way. Please either comment on your post or send me an email telling me

1.) If you have a digital camera (or easy access to one)
2.) Whether it shoots video

I’ll be posting later today with a update on the schedule for next Tuesday — but to remind everyone, we will be switching Week 6 to Week 4, so the only thing due for next week is your story pitch.