Let me introduce myself

I am a journalism major at the Department of Communication at the University of Washington.  Here, you can find my resume and other information about me.

Key Points: Journalism 2.0

Chapter 7

1)  I appreciate the breakdown of recorders and mics and their cost/benefit of each.

2)  Podcasting = “Playable On Demand + Broadcasting”.

3) Vodcasting = “Video + Podcasting”.

4)  Breakdown of Audacity (wish we couldn’ve read this before our last project; would’ve made it Audacity much easier!)

5)  Ch. 2 (how to set up an RSS feed)

Chapter 8

1)  Pixel = PICTure Element:  A visual representation of data in a digital or graphic image (Think mosaic picture).

2)  Resolution is a measurement of pixels seen by human eyes.

b) High-resolution images should be compressed for Web site publication.

3)  Cloudy and partially sunny days are best for photography.

4)  Fill the frame (especially with people…don’t leave too much extra room).

5)  Focus on one thing (a person’s eyes will create the sharpest image).

6)  Take pic from multiple angles (move around and get closer).

7)  Use shutter setting at 1/500th of a second or faster for anything really like sports.

8)  Background is better darker than lighter, especially for people.

9)  NEVER edit the original of anything!  Open original and then “save as” and name different than original.

10)  To resize and compress for Web site or blog choose “Export” under File, then “Scale images no larger than” and enter desired width in pixels; click “Export” and save to desired folder.

Four great single photo uses followed with Four slide show photo uses.

This picture evokes the reader to know more:   http://so-smart.be/~t6x2i

This picture captures the viewer long after the revelation of it’s origin is known:  http://so-smart.be/~upfusl

The picture in the story allows the reader to visualize something that without it, a person wouldn’t be able to do: http://so-smart.be/~kqppoj

This picture tells the story of so many: http://so-smart.be/~k3jaud

This slide show of pictures made me so sad and will be something I won’t be quick to forget:  http://so-smart.be/~q9pq7x

Three examples of excellent photo storytelling through slide show w/o audio. http://so-smart.be/~zy0nm6

Three Examples of Good News Stories

       Somali Pirates on Hijack Spree Since Weekend (Yahoo.com) is a good news story because it incorporates both a full text article and video.  http://tinyurl.com/c4fvym

      Diabetic Brain Damage Risk http://tinyurl.com/d4kanf :  Informative and not long.

      IBC: Inflammatory Breast Cancer news story http://tinyurl.com/yocxxk :  Informative but must be 18 to view it on YouTube.

      Hurricane Gustav to Become Gulf Cost Monster? (National Geographic News, 2008) is good because the article is easy to read and makes deeper understanding easy by hyperlinks throughout the article; picture accompanies article. http://tinyurl.com/6fmw4v

       BlackBerry Users Experience E-mail Outage (from CNET, April 14, 2009) was informative because I am a BlackBerry user. The picture is probably the most important component because without it, I would’ve probably skipped this story; it wouldn’t have caught my attention.  I do recognize that non-BlackBerry users probably wouldn’t give the story a second glance without or without a picture.  http://tr.im/iQYE 

 

Three examples of “good” news site multimedia.

     Good News Multimedia   

       (1)     Top videos for “Dateline NBC”

Good because he archives several “NBC” clips that are easily accessible to anyone with an Internet. 

Combines both audio and visual components

·        National and international coverage.

(2)     CNN

·        Encapsulates print, audio and visual components. 

·        Coverage is both national and international.

·        The site is user friendly.

 

(3)     Google

·        It aggregates stories from major news outlets; allows user to easily navigate top national and international stories.

·        Stories are hyperlinked; user can find and read original story in its entirety.

 

Bad News Multimedia

 

(1)     Blogs

·        Most aren’t multimedia; typically one or two dimensional.

·        It’s difficult to decipher ethical journalism standards.

·        Difficult to track blogger’s credentials and sources.

·        No face.

 

(2)     Reddit

·        Visually unappealing; difficult to decipher one headline to the next.

·        Mostly print but doesn’t follow AP standard.

·        Too long and wordy headlines.  EX:  The frantic mother of a 6-year-old boy killed in this morning’s triple murder in Terrytown was subdued with a Taser gun by Jefferson Parish deputies at the murder scene. 

·        Articles are mostly from sites that aren’t known news organizations.  

 

(3)     Washington Post

·        This online paper as well as many others doesn’t utilize much past the written word and occasional pictures.   In an era where multimedia is thriving and newspapers are not, it would be nice to see these news organizations encapsulate all multimedia can bring to news items.  

·        Mimics much of the same content as competing online newspapers

 

Media Journal #3

It’s a terrible shame…no media in any form.  On vacation and doing much of nothing…YAY!  Oops, I lied; did Twitter. Learned about the horrible homicide/suicide by father in the Orting School District and North Korea’s missile launch.

Media Reflection

I do listen/read quite a bit of news but I’m not necessarily retaining a whole lot of it.  I’ve also learned that I love twitter!  I’m able to get news faster than those who rely on radio and/or TV.  As a journalist, I’m disappointed that I rely so much on digital than I do paper. 

Media Journal #2

Friday:  4-4:30 a.m. KOMO-Radio 1000 (local news, weather and traffic); 5-9 a.m. KOMO-TV live in studio; 7-9 a.m. Google News, BBC, Twitter (Father killed family in CA, Gov. said there are recourses available for families having economic hardships; most unemployed people in 25 years); 9-940 a.m. KOMO-Radio 1000.

Media Journal #1

Thursday:  4-4:30 a.m. KOMO-Radio 1000 (weather and traffic updates); 5-7 a.m. KOMO-TV live in studio; 5-9 a.m. Twitter, BBC & TMZ online and/or BlackBerry (posted story on Twitter: Killer Tuberculosis Epidemic Threatens The World: UN http://viigo.im/du6); 9:10-9:30 KOMO-Radio 1000 (commentary:  Episcopalian priest also Muslim); 11:30-11:50 KIRO-Radio 710 (commentary on how KIRO was first in new radio formats…not as many face-to-face interviews); 6:25-7:05 p.m. KOMO-Radio 1000. 

Readings

Read: Cluetrain’s Manifesto home page and Chapter 2 of Journalism 2.0 (pdf) was an interesting read.  Although I found Cluetrain’s Manifesto to be interesting, I thought Chapter 2 of Journalism 2.0 to be much more informational as an up and coming journalist.  I enjoyed learning how it is Google makes money through advertising…very innovative!  Also how Flickr and Delicious work.  As a journalist, I especially liked reading the section that discusses how digital technology is impacting and will continue to impact how journalists’ do there job; and why it is particularly important for me to pay attention to my attitude in learning such new practices. 

                                                                                  

Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable–Response

This article in conjunction with “What’s really wrong with newspapers” hone-in to what it believes to be the bigger problem with declining newspaper interest.  That as small community driven papers become conglomerates, it loses the community driven stories to impersonal wire stories.  Both article papers argue that news is not the blame for the failure of newspapers but rather, old business models.       

 

This essay delves into the drear economic position of newspapers in this country and the only thing that may save it will be the unthinkable and revolutionary.  It’s subtitle, “Why iTunes is not a workable model for the newspaper business” is an example of how news isn’t a niche like iTunes or Consumer Reports, and the business models working for them aren’t what’s going to work for newspaper. 

 

My favorite quote in the article is as follows:  “If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?…Nothing. Nothing will work, but everything might.”  This issue is not a closed book, the solution is out there and it will merge.