The Durango Herald multimedia critique…
November 9, 2009
La Plata County H1N1 Flu Clinic
I thought this was a really nice multimedia package. It was all complimentary information, but not redundant at all. The video was well shot and edited, the still photo was different than the video shots, and the accompanying article was also different, though related. The majority of the interviewees were different as well. I think this is the most important and also easily overlooked aspect of a multimedia package. TV news Web sites are particularly guilty of redundancy with their multimdia. They always seem to post a TV package and then an article that seems to basically be the script with minor style changes. I thought The Durango Herald did a really nice job, especially considering the small size of the town the paper serves.
Final Project Outline…
November 9, 2009
My final project is about voter apathy in the U.S. The main 500 word story will talk about voter trends, the percentage of voters in burgeoning democracies versus our own, what voting can accomplish, debunking reasons against voting…(my vote doesn’t matter, etc.) I’m going to have charts and graphics, as well as a video with man on the street interviews regarding voting. I’ll have a link to a web page that tells you who your representatives are when you put in your zip code.
The four vingettes deal with key reasons voting is important by discussing how people are effected by decisions made by those we elect.
-Health Care Overhaul
Sharon Loftiss was dropped by her insurance after being bucked off her horse and suffering serious back injuries. Will include photos.
-War in Afghanistan
John doesn’t want to disclose his full name, but he’s a soldier in the army who is on leave from Afghanistan this month. Will include a map and maybe some charts.
-Gay Rights
I’m going to interview a gay couple who are friends of a friend of mine about the gay rights movement and their part in it. They recently protested during the Rainbow Lounge debacle. Will include photos.
-Recession
Bigwigs say it’s over, but Ted Dunham had to go back to waiting tables to get by after his small business welding iron patio furniture failed to bring in the bucks. He says the restaurant industry’s suffering right now too. Will include photos.
Chicago beating spawns national effort to reduce youth violence
October 8, 2009
More than one in 10 adolescents across the country reported being assaulted at least once last year, with more than 10% of those injured according to a Justice Department report.
Derrion Albert, a Chicago teenager, was killed in an after school beating last month. It was caught on a cell phone video and then broadcast. The incident has spurned a national wake up call about youth violence.
Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan went to speak on the subject in Chicago yesterday. Duncan worked in Chicago public schools for seven years.
“Money alone will never solve this problem,” Duncan said. “It’s much deeper than that. It’s about values, it’s about who we are as a society, it’s about taking responsibility for our young people.”
The Justice Department plans to spend $16 million to boost school security around the country.
One seventeen-year-old walks by makeshift memorials on his way to school every day. Jermaine Farreed worries about survival day to day. He says he doesn’t think there’s much police or schools can do to make him feel safe.
The incidents calls values into question. The conversation needs to be had across the country. What can we do to help?
Multimedia storytelling…friend or foe?
October 8, 2009
Friend. Multimedia is great. It’s using every tool we as journalists have availiable, to get the information to the consumer. Journalists should be careful to have everything neat, organized, and NOT overwhelming. But, in the right package, it’s beneficial. Like everything, its good in moderation. Tools are there to be used. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Crowd Sourcing
September 29, 2009
The Houston Chronicle’s Web site has section below the fold entitled Your Stories & Photos. There’s also an option to share “your videos,” in the video section. Although this isn’t a specific article, I found it interesting that the paper has an entire section devoted to “crowd sourcing.”
“Our World”
September 24, 2009
Perhaps it’s my preference for traditional media outlets, but “Our World” seemed much too ‘gimicky’ for my liking. I don’t want my news mixed in with comic-book type artwork and rock music.
The show also seemed to assume not only that all young people are liberal, but that they also want their news to have a political slant.
I think a “cool” young teen would be irritated by the attempted forray into today’s youth culture. I also believe young people are more intelligent and with the program than adults give them credit for. I think they can see through this facade of a news program.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate what the show is trying to do. Teens and young adults are a huge market and do need to be informed, educated citizens. I’m just not sure this cheesey method is the way to go.
Why not discuss important local and national issues that will/are actually affecting the group? I’m talking about environmental policy and social security, things like that. Why not do it in an objective way, without music and artwork that jades the story? And since when is a model an internationally respected blah blah considered a journalist?
In Class 9-17
September 17, 2009
Stimulus money for baseball
Some of that TARP money is going to chip in to pay for a new spring-training baseball complex on East Vally tribal land.
The complex will be the new home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community applied for $30 million of the estimated $100 million may come from a financing program that’s part of the federal economic-stimulus plan.
The government says it has loaned them $22.56 million for the complex outside of Scottsdale. That’s the most the tribe was eligible for since the government received more applications than expected.
The community’s treasurer, Anthony Farese said, “It’s not free money.”
The tribe is using new rules for tax-exempt financing created by the stimulus package that increase borrowing limits and redefines projects that can be financed this way.
The 140-acre complex will have an 11,000 seat ball park, 12 practice fields, training facilities, and an office.
Soda tax makes sense, specialists say
People in the fight against obesity are targeting sugar-sweetened drinks and say the government should tax them. New England Journal of Medicine researchers will be giving commentary on the subject online today.
Obesity specialists say sugary drinks lead to weight gain
The role of blogs in journalism…
September 17, 2009
Adapt or die. Journalists have got to accept the evolution of the information age and use it to their benefit rather than poo-pooing the notion that they should roll their sleeves up and get involved. Done well, a blog can be a journalist’s most dangerous weapon.
The abililty to have such open lines of communication with news consumers adds so much to the purpose of journalism. Journalism is about communicating the truth to the public. It’s about standing up for people who cannot stand up for themselves and providing a place people can go to for facts about the two candidates in an election. It’s about informing the public when there’s danger, arming them with the knowledge they need to better serve their community.
The internet brings out the best and the worst of people. It’s more important than ever to have trained professional journalists out there on the Web, participating in the process. We live in an age of viral e-mails that spread horrific lies about people and issues. The recipients of those e-mails deserve to have a place to go to by the click of a mouse that will disseminate fact from fiction.
The commentary on blogs may be the most powerful tool. Faster and easier than mailing a letter to an editor or calling a station manager, more people are compelled to put their thoughts out there. One of the first things they teach in journalism is to find out who your audience is. What better way than this?
I also feel that honest civil discourse is key to democracy. Blog commentary (when monitered and kept on the level) is a great outlet for this. The health care overhaul, for example is a highly charged issue with legitimate viewpoints on both sides. It’s possible that rather than closing themselves off from any other opinion, people might open up and come together to form honest, intelligent ideas that could lead to a solution.
In addition to simply getting a feel for your reader/veiwer/listner-ship, you have an endless supply of story ideas right at your very fingertips. That is invaluable.
A potential problem with journalists blogging is knowing where to draw the line between injecting a little personality and spicing up one’s writing style a bit, and delivering subjective viewpoints on issues. It’s very important to walk a delicate tight rope here, and not fall off on the side of losing journalistic integrity.
News Web Site Critique
September 3, 2009
KRLD.com has a good layout. I like how the day’s stories are laid out in a list by headline, from most current to least current. I do think, however, the list is far too long. It requires a lot of scrolling. The advertisements make the site look busy, but they are on the side columns, so the format is still neat. There is an awkward white space at the bottom. It is a site for a radio station, so they have streaming audio. But they also incorporate video, graphics, and photos. They also have a poll of the day which allows the listeners to interact.
