"Journalism Next" Chapter 7

The goal of Chapter 7 is to show students about "making audio journalism visible."

Briggs offers compelling analysis of the current multimedia climate and advises prospective reporters on ways to utilize non-traditional media elements as a way of enhancing their storytelling ability and thus their final product:

• Podcasts:  Podcasts are non-streamed Web productions that are broadcast over the Internet and can be downloaded in MP3 form. Podcasts are the radio shows of the 21st Century; users can save their favorite programs to their iPods and listen to them at will. 
• Audio slide shows: An audio slide show is a happy medium between video and radio. These Web-broadcast  presentations not only carry a lot of information but are more cost-effective than traditional video journalism. 

Audio journalism is easier to do now than it's ever been; recording equipment is light and affordable, and in some instances can be integrated in your computer.

Editing is made simple with such programs as Windows MovieMaker, which can combine audio samples with pictures in addition to making films.

"Journalism Next" Chapter 6

Photography has long been an essential facet of journalism.

In today's world of multimedia reporting, visual storytelling is all the more important.

The right image can illuminate a topic for the reader in a way that a thousand words of text would not have been able to. Particularly now, with attention spans falling and the number of outlets exploding, ensuring that you have visual aids sufficiently striking to attract eyeballs is important.

After all, the value of journalism is measured not by what is said, but by how many people are watching.

Perhaps with enough brightly colored pictures, pandering or misleadingly scandalous headlines, and plug-ins to the newest popular but inherently worthless social media fad, you will be able to momentarily hold the fickle allegiance of a bare segment of the common masses.

At least until CNN posts video of a water-skiing squirrel.

"Journalism Next" Chapter 5

Mobile journalism is journalism on the go, facilitated by the critical aid of mobile devices like cell phones.

Briggs gives the example of Nicola Dowling, who was able to take pictures of a celebrity car crash with her cell phone and then e-mail them back to her newspaper before police had even arrived on the scene. Because Dowling was able to communicate share information in a mobile manner, she was a step ahead of traditional news organizations who sent professional photographers to the same site only to find that the authorities were keeping the press out.

The mobile journalist is always on assignment and always ready to report on what is happening around him.

"Journalism Next" Chapter 4

Microblogging is like blogging, but it requires more brevity.

Twitter, the largest and most used microblogging service, allows its users to use no more than 140 characters per post.

In the fast-paced world of modern technology in which readers will often jump across multiple blogs and news sites in a matter of minutes, microblogging allows journalists to communicate the most important information they have in a succinct form that their followers are able to digest.

Tech Blog: "How To Use A Simple Flip Video Camera To Generate Referrals" with That Interview Guy

Flip video cameras have made a major impact on video journalism. Whereas ten years ago a journalist who wanted to film an event would need a cameraman or possibly an entire crew, today video can be captured and stored on a camera that fits easily into a pocket.

Even I have been affected by the change; last summer I worked for George Mason's Office of University Relations and was able to enhance some of my public relations stories with video footage.

According to That Interview Guy, a technology blogger, interviews aren't the only thing the flip camera is being used for.

He recalls the experience of Shannon King, a real estate broker.


"Shannon, also known as The Road Warrior has figured out a way to brand affordable FLIP video cameras and then give them away to her clients.

Her clients in turn document the buying/selling experience using the video which creates quite the buzz amongst their family, friends and co-workers.

That buzz translates into Big Wows and more importantly … referrals and new business for Shannon."

King has capitalized off of the low cost and high quality of flip cameras to endear herself to her clients and generate a constant stream of near-free advertising. 

 

"Journalism Next" Chapter 3

The most important concept in Chapter 3 is crowdsourcing, which Briggs defines as focusing "an Internet community on a specific project and demonstrat[ing] how a committed group of individuals can outperform a small group of experienced (and paid) professionals." (Briggs, 69)

Chapter 3's essential focus is on collective journalism, which can be achieved through the incorporation of blogs, comments, Twitter posts, and feedback from readers. It is interactive journalism.

"Journalism Next" Chapter 3

Crowd-powered collaboration refers to the phenomenon of reporters using their audience not merely as a receptacle for journalistic material but as a vital source for information.

Particularly in the age of the Internet, when "citizens can do their own hunting and gathering [online]" (Briggs, 68), such collaboration is an essential component of modern journalism.

Crowd-powered collaboration consists of several important elements:

• Crowdsourcing: Focusing the "community power" of Internet users on a particular task or story
• Open-source reporting: Briggs says that open-source reporting "refers to design, development and distribution 'offering practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge).'" (Briggs, 69) This means allowing readers opportunities to utilize the resources traditionally available only to professional journalists. 
• Pro-am journalism: Pro-am journalism allows the audience to post in the same format as the journalists. By distributing the means of publication, journalists ensure that more voices, even those with no qualification whatsoever to speak on matters of journalism, will be heard, and that stories will be enriched and/or polluted by a diverse group of contributors, each with his own unique perspective/uninformed bias.    

My Media Pyramid

I recently signed up for an aerobics class at George Mason University.

The class wasn't necessary for my general education requirements, nor was it related in any way to my major (which, if you're interested, is government and international politics).

Rather, I felt the need, for the sake of my own health and wellbeing, to be educated about physical fitness.

My father thought I was being very silly about all of this.

"Ethan, why do you need to sign up for a class to be healthy?" he asked. "Just head to the gym, lift some weights, and hop on the treadmill. It's easy."

It wasn't that simple, though, I explained to him.

I knew of plenty of exercise options out there, and that in a way was the problem; there was simply too much to choose from, and I needed to find something targeted.

Hence, the aerobics class.

Now I report to the campus fitness center every Monday and Wednesday morning to learn about essential nutrients and spend exactly 30 minutes on a treadmill for a total run of 2.5 miles. It's regimented. It's structured. I know what's required of me.

It would be wonderful if everything were like that.

For better or worse, though, the world is not a course on personal wellness, and in diet as in other things an individual must be able to use his discretion to determine what would be in his best interests to consume.

Media is a good example of this.

In his 2006 article, "What Is Your Media Pyramid?", Eric Deggans compares the average person's daily media interaction to caloric intake. News and analysis, he argues, are the essential fruits and vegetables that many of us neglect, whereas entertainment programs and gossip websites are the fattening sugary treats in which too many indulge.

A forthright appraisal of my own media diet shows my green intake to be wanting.

The first website I visit each morning is my university's e-mail system, which I check religiously throughout the day, scouring assignments mailed in from professors, dubious greetings from potential roommates responding to an online ad, Facebook notifications, and project updates from muscially inclined friends.

I log into Blackboard, a site where university professors can post class materials, several times throughout the day to download readings or homework guidelines.

Of course, I wouldn't be a self-respecting member of Generation Y if I weren't multi-tasking; I'm listening to a song on YouTube while I write this and have also been conducting a Facebook Instant Messenger conversation.

In the afternoon I'll typically read personal blogs, sites with little political or news value that nonetheless provide me with an intimate view into the lives of others whom I've come to know through the Internet. Many of these men and women live abroad or in parts of the U.S. I've never visited, and I find their accounts of their day-to-day activities to be fascinating.

Every few days I upload photos to Flickr, but I can be counted upon to check my photostreams's statistics several times a day.

(As an aside, my most viewed image has been visited a total of 5,534 times. It's a picture of a house.)

The early evening is spent perusing Blackboard, CNN (with discrete trips to the main page and a larger amount of time spent lingering on the Politics section), The Onion, and perhaps more blogs.

In between all of this I have been known to sneak in some actual reading from a book. The tome currently sitting in my backpack is The First American, a biography of Benjamin Franklin. During the weekends I can easily clear a few chapters a day, but when school is in session I'm lucky to get in even ten pages.

I will occasionally watch the news at night, CNN for national events and the local channel for weather, before checking my e-mail once more and turning in.

It's not the worst media pyramid ever, but it's certainly not the best.

There's just a great deal to choose from out there, and much of it is pure garbage. The myriad of media options often makes me wish that there were some sort of filter, that, as in my aerobics course, someone could lay down the line and explain what's good for you and what isn't.

Then again, I suppose that's the point of enrolling in an online journalism class.

I'm learning how to be my own personal trainer.