Design for Non-Designers

Though I found both pieces helpful, I felt the basic principles really helped give definitions and context to what a good design looks like. We've all been to pages with annoying animations, jarring colors and graphics spread all over the page. A lot of times it's easy to tell when a site looks bad and what constitutes bad design, but I never put a lot of thought into the principles behind good design until I read this.

The most helpful thing I found was the concept of alignment, that a vertical line should be able to unite the elements on the page. It was interesting to me because design can look good without being perfectly aligned, but the element of having it all set to one vertical line makes it so much more professional looking. I also like the idea of having white space, because it gives the media on the page much more power and can help direct the viewer's eye.

Design for Non-Designers

I enjoyed how straightforward the author was about web design. No beating around the bush; just examples of things to do and things to avoid. They talked not only about the specifics of web design, but also about the importance of a well designed and well maintained site as a testament to good work.
The one thing that I understand, and that they continually emphasized, was sideways scrolling. It is getting harder and harder to find on sites, but nothing is more annoying than having to scroll more than one way.

I also like the emphasis on simplicity, and I feel this way about the print medium (newpapers, magazines, etc.) as well. I think this idea of simplicity as being compelling and elegant carries through quite easily to the web.

I learned that the 640x460 pixels model is important for many basic luxuries of web surfing, such as no sideways scrolling, no having to scroll down for important features such as the navigation bar, etc.
Who knew?

Andrea Stark

Good design is (not) hard to find

Thanyarat Doksone


Good design is not at all hard to find in the realm of World Wide Web. However, for beginners whose first encounter with Dreamweaver just occurred at the beginning of this semester, to build a web page with good design, let alone a website, is definitely not an easy task to accomplish.

Nonetheless, the reading does give a great portion of Do's and Don'ts for web design, most of which we think we already know but end up doing what we should not.

One of the significant features of a web site that novice creators like us might fail to consider is consistency or repetition from page to page. When presenting stories from different media in the site, we have to make sure the web pages share similar elements.

With other items listed in the guideline, I hope at least to put up a web site that is neither stylish nor creative, but rather a simple site that does not contain any undesirable features. Hopefully.

Web Design

Web design can make or break a website. Good web design can make a website more interesting and easy to follow which is important for corporate and media websites especially. Users need to be able to navigate a website without hassle, otherwise they are turned off. Media websites have to especially have good web design otherwise users will think they are not reliable or professional. Bad web design can cause people to lose focus on the news and get distracted by the bad design.

CNN video story example

I watched a video by CNN about how a couple is selling a home that comes with “sellers” and a “money-back guarantee.” I was very confused after I watched this package on CNN.com because what they talked about did not match to the video clips or b-roll. They start out by saying something along the lines of “Here’s one for the real estate books: whoever buys this lovely 2 story brick home will get four bedroom, 3 and a half baths and Bob…” Instead of showing a wide-angle shot of the house to show that it is a 2-story house, this package shows the front door and only the front door. I would have liked to see a wider shot of the house and maybe a shot of bedroom or bathroom before we see Bob. Once Bob comes on in the video, they placed him right against the refrigerator with the corner protruding through the top part of his head. They should picked a better place or told him to take one step further away from the “wall” and tightened up on the shot because there is too much space around him. I do not think that this reporter did a good job at writing the voice over for this package either. Bob, who I presume to be the owner of this house, told us that the house had been sold twice. The reporter told us that this house had never been sold. If I am interpreting this wrong, the report should have clarified this so that the viewers do not assume the wrong thing. I think that this story would be better as a text story because more information could be given as to what exactly this story is supposed to be about.

Clean design

I felt like the reading helped clarify what I do when I look at a page. I am a fan of clean design. Through the four elements (Alignment, proximity, repetition and contrast), I feel like I can achieve this myself. From looking over the previous classes’ websites, I saw that color plays a prominent role in how I view a page. For example, a bright green or yellow or even black does not make it easy to read. For the final project, I would like to have a unified page with colors that bring out the colors in the photos and aid in a unified project.

When designing our page for our final project, I would also like to keep in mind the focal point of the story including a hierarchy of information. With the examples we looked at in class, I saw that I look at the biggest font first. For page design, we should make it easy on the viewer to see the most important information first. Images drive reader entry and I would like to have a great photo to get the readers’ attention. Once we have more elements for our story, we will be able to achieve this.

Overvaluing good design?

At the risk of committing some sort of journalistic sin, I’m really not sure how much I buy into the idea of the importance of web design. Don’t get me wrong; I understand that it can make the aesthetic value of a site take quantum leaps forward or backward depending on what quality it is, but truthfully, it just doesn’t mean much to me as a web viewer.

As someone who enjoys writing on the Internet and who spends hours every day searching for basketball-related pieces over the ‘Net to link to at my site, I have never once thought about the design of any of the sites I look at on a daily basis, even though there is quite a disparity between some of them when I think back to it now. If I see content that interests me, I read it. If I see content that doesn’t interest me, I’ll save myself the time. Call me naïve, but I still believe that if you can put out great content (which should be our primary focus as journalists), you will earn yourself an audience. If you can’t, you won’t. Undoubtedly, having a well-designed page makes your site more appealing to on-the-fence viewers, but I’m just not sure it is the deal-breaker that we sometimes make it out to be.

All the same, the tips in the “Basic Design Principles for Non-Designers” of the book by Williams and Tollett are indeed all relatively simple and don’t appear to require a major time investment to implement. That being the case, if simply paying a few seconds more attention daily to alignment, proximity repetition and contrast can make a positive difference for my work, I’m happy to do so. I just remain wary of overstating the value of these actions in the minds of our audiences.

Visual Medium

Writing for a visual medium has both its similarities and differences than compared to tradition print. I'll start with how it's the same. Obviously, since they are both different elements under journalism, they have a common goal: to tell a story. And both use the same principles in doing so such as the who, what, when, etc... However, the differences are there as well. In tv/radio pieces, there are those extra elements like nat sound, medium shots, close-ups. Basically, nothing you would ever in print.

Non Designers

I like how the chapter starts out by telling you that you won't become an expert designer by reading this but you will learn some basic designing principles to help your craft. This made me more comfortable and made the subject a little less scary and daunting.

It simplifies concepts and defines them in a way that a non-designer would understand. It resembles a quick do and don't list for designer and it can help pros and amateurs like me.

The alignment concept seemed almost obvious and it catered to me since I like organization and structure. I liked how the author gave image examples so we amateurs can get a better since of what good alignment is. Proximity is a subject I think many designers could work on. I can't even count how many times I have been to a site and related items and topics aren't by each other so you have to go hunting for them.

Repitition is also an important concept for designers. Keeping the same logos, styles, wordings etc. is important for design and consistent structure. And finally, contrast almost reminds me of a lead for print articles. It is designed to bring and leader in only for a site instead of an article.

Writing for a visual medium

Honestly, when editing together the videos, it wasn't that much of a leap from writing an article. Maybe it's just the way I think, but arranging the elements of a story together, no matter what the medium, still requires a focus, a theme, some sense of where the story is going and possibly an angle. Of course, there's an extra dimension when you add images and/or sound, extra things you can do to enhance the story, plus learning about accepted practices such as framing shots, varying close-ups with medium shots, etc. Sometimes the voice of the "narrator" can cease altogether to let the images speak for themselves. Ultimately, though, there's always a mindset of "statement-quote-statement-quote," or more roughly, "statement-proof-statement-proof."

Getting the Story Told

Tyson Sprick
There were some good points in the Poynter article by Doug White, and perhaps the best one was "focus." With our assignment we are not really on a strict deadline (we have a whole week), but with breaking news it will be imperative that you go into the interview having a focus of the story. That's not to say that you can't learn and adapt during the process, but you'll probably have better luck going into it with an idea of the final product.
Interviewing is a skill that is very important in visual storytelling. To get quality video you must ask pertinent questions. A tip here is asking unusual questions; it leads to sometimes unexpected answers that will surprise and inform the audience at the same time.
Finally, when taping it's important to show and prove everything you say. A good way to do this is showing "genuine" moments, which build a bridge between the subject and the viewers. Also, surprising footage will draw viewers in engage them in the story.
Most viewers probably don't realize all the planning an decisions that go into a news story, but I'm sure they would notice if it was lacking.

Writing for video

One of the things I learned in the Platypus Workshop this week is that the camera writes better than pen. Dirck Halstead noted that the sequence for selecting story-tellers in a visual medium should be: 1. video camera, 2. microphone, 3. editing room, 4. pen. It should come as no surprise that pictures speak louder than words. Good stories very much tell themselves before anything should be written down. That said. There are situations when good videos are not available---most commonly happening to people like me who have just begun to shoot videos----and there are times when deadline pushes people to take shortcut of doing more narration than video. In these cases, narrations are hole-fillers of the story, and it is necessary to render them in a clear, easy ways, (the MOM priciple). In most cases, I think writing for visual media should be brief and straight-forward. It should be able to cut between the scences and make fluid transitions between shots.

Writing the Package

This is a very useful article for us, who will make their own package for the first time.

From the instructions in this article, I learned that we need to do something, and also avoid something. First, voice-over cannot be simply the description of your image. That is to say, if your audiences can understand the idea very easily from your images, then you don't need to tell them again. For example, in the healthy food story in this article, when your image is that children are eating apples, pears, etc., then you don't have to narrate that children are eating fresh fruits. What you need to do is not simply explain the image, but use images to prove your idea. This is my second point, images are based on ideas and voice-over. Before I read this article, I thought after shooting the video, we should edit images first, in a pleasing sequence, and then write the script for the package. But actually, we need to establish our idea first, and use images to prove our idea. Our idea and focus are the frame of the package. That is the point.

Good luck everyone! :)

Convergence killed the video star

Eric Durban

Writing for a visual medium differs from newswriting on a number of levels. First of all, you have to be much more succinct. That would seem to be the toughest challenge. For someone who is so used to writing for a paper or the internet, using short, powerful sentences could be a challenge. When the images are coming quick, the writing must be short and engaging. Another challange is syncing your writing and the video so that the story flows. For the average person, it would seem easier to pick out mistakes in images, rather than a newspaper story. Good writing for the visual medium can help ground a story if the video isn't particularly special. Another hard part is making sure that your writing not only reflects, but builds off of the images. As we saw in the pollution video it can be tempting to just write on the images.

Story-in-a-sentence

I related to what Doug White had written. Often at times I think that people tend to get caught up in trying to work the technological aspects of an interview and forget to figure out if the storyline is working.

The notion of story-in-a-sentence is something that I will definitely be able to take on board and use , not JUST every time I go out and shoot but every time I am doing a piece of writing or a fictional story piece too.

I think his number 4 point about genuine moments is also something to remember. All too often we tend to want to control every moment of what we capture. I personally need to try to remember that yes silence is okay and that I should just let them do some impromptu things to change up my stories a little bit. They could take you in a direction you could have never thought of yourself!

video killed the newspaper star

Mark Lewis

No amount of technical skill can improve the shoddy work of a lazy broadcast reporter. It’s a story first and foremost. It’s not too dissimilar from print. At its best, it tells the story in a concise, complete and engaging way. The difference is that visuals tell the story. Compared to the work of the camera, the reporter is a distraction or a tour guide. That gives me hope. Not all journalists are destined for greatness in print.

I enjoyed Lindsey’s criticism of the readings. It’s true, I think, that the format should be variable to some degree. Still, the basic elements would always be the same – an intro, an outro and what lies between the two. It’s up to the journalist at the scene to make the story sing. It seems counter-intuitive that a journalist would put off writing until returning to the studio with footage. Planning prevents pressure.

Writing for a Visual Medium

Sarah Orscheln

Writing for a visual medium includes many more elements than the average eye might expect. I think this is because if a story is done well, it emulates the human experience and the way the human brain processes information. The challenge is therefore important for the reporter who is trying to cover not only a story, but a story that has animated visual elements that can strengthen the sensory experience.

The Poynter article on writing for a visual medium strenghtened my opinion on the many steps and elements that go into the mere writing for a visual medium. It takes a lot of dedication to the details in order to successful recognize all of the many pieces that make up a compelling whole that will reach a destined audience.

Webcast Post

20/20 did a Webcast story, that was also on television, about a young woman named Louise from Mt. Washington, KY, who was working at McDonalds when she was tied up and sexually assaulted in the restaraunt. Now Louise is suing the Golden Arches for 6.1 million dollars.
This webcast is done well and it is far more effective than a webcast because of the fact that the torment and assault is caught by surveillance camera. This video, coupled with the girl's testimony and interview with the reporter, cuts back and forth the whole time and is offered as undeniable evidence to the viewer. It's done in a way where the viewer gets to choose what they think is right and wrong, amazingly there is room for debate because the manager in charge of Louise at the time claims to be innocent of any blame, we get to see this woman, named Summer, and hear from her as well.
Cutting from person to person, along with showing the details of where all of this happens and some graphics, makes this a compelling story that gives the viewer faces and environment to go along with a powerful and disturbing story.

Writing for a visual medium

Suekyoung Kim

The half of the semester slipped past, and now I know how much time and effort are needed to make a 1 or 2 minutes of outcome. I expected things will get easier as time goes by, but I was wrong. It’s getting harder and tougher to get an assignment done, not because I didn’t take an assignment seriously before, but because now I know way more than before and realized there are still many things to learn and think about. Writing for a visual medium requires thorough preparation. Efficient reporters first create a blueprint or structure for their packages. Ideal thought process is to concentrate on the main story idea first, then on images, and finally on words. To tell the story effectively, one must first understand one’s story. This sounds pretty obvious, but I know it’s not as easy as it might sound to me. In the assigned articles, there were many valuable tips for writing for a visual medium, but “know the story yourself first” part was the most compelling to me. In class, I learned that I needed to be able to name in one sentence what my story is. It would be too late to think about what the main point of my story is after shooting videos and interviewing sources first. With this in mind, I’m going to work on my TV story. :D

The challenge of visual medium

As a print journalist, I have never had to write for a visual medium. Today, I went to Dirck Halstead’s lecture and he talked about how he made a documentary about an Italian movie mogul who married a beauty who was younger than his daughter. He talked about how managed to capture a lively debate between the guy and his little daughter about what made a good film producer. Dirck could capture that scene because of his closeness to the man. And that scene is probably the best part of the film, to me. Like a photojournalist, a video journalist needs to be able to get close to other people and shoot such intimate details. A print journalist does not have to do that. He/she could have used a witness’s words, for example. In telling the same story, a video journalist’s job seems much more challenging.

I was a little daunted when I thought about the next assignment. How am I supposed to carry that heavy camera and the tripod at the same time? What kind of difficulties am I going to face when I shoot people while interviewing them? Some agree to be interviewed, on the condition that their faces are not photographed or put on film. But then, that’s the excitement of being in journalism, I guess. There are always unexpected things waiting for you.

Writing for a Visual Medium

After reading this week's articles, I wish that I had had these resources while I was putting together a TV news story with my group for J2100 just a couple weeks earlier. "Television Field Production and Reporting" introduced a lot of terms and techniques necessary for the production of a TV news story. It helped reinforce some of the things we learned in class on Wednesday. The pictures in the article were also very useful because it helped me visualize some of the techniques that I had a hard time grasping through the article's explanations alone.

I thought that "Writing the Package" was especially helpful because it broke down the fundamentals of a solid TV news story step by step. I never would have thought that a one to one and a half minute long news story could consist of so many elements. The one part of the Poynter article that really caught my eye was NPPA president Clyde Mueller's list of five things he tries to do in every story. I feel like his list very concisely summarized the important points from all three of this week's readings.

Xenia Shih

Writing for a Visual Medium

Unlike written or audio stories, a project created for video generally comes with constraint in terms of time and detail. Therefore, we have to be more creative as to how we get the story across inside these restrictions. Mainly, we have to get the maximum amount of information (without overloading info onto the viewer) into a short amount of time.

The advantage, however, is that we can pair up images and sound, and present a full picture of the story. The Poynter article explains how to properly go about creating a storyline - most importantly, we always have to keep the heart of the story in focus. While there may be several interesting side ideas that would be entertaining, it is important that they connect to the main concept of the story. Whenever a story is chosen to be covered, there is a general idea that is supposed to be conveyed to the audience. We have to be careful that that idea isn't lost in the shuffle of some smaller details.

Also, interviewing plays a huge role. I think the most important (and often most difficult) concept is prompting people to give more than "yes" or "no" answers. A lot of this depends on how a question is worded - the more open-ended the question can be, while still having a clear direction, the more likely the interview subject will be to give an original and comprehensive answer. If this happens, the interview can form the core of the story.

Writing the Package

Although this reading clearly laid out a formula for packaging broadcast pieces, I am unsure how all stories can fit into three or four main points. I wish the main example had not been a very simple story about common sense nutrition. How do stories with multiple figures and issues fit into this blueprint?

While planning a story ahead of time is never a bad idea, journalists should always be ready to drop the "planned" for actual news. Reading this chapter, I was reminded of all the campy local news packages I've reluctantly consumed over the years. I realize there is a formula to clear communication, but this chapter leaves little room for the storytelling that constitutes good journalism.

Writing for a visual medium

I thought that this week’s reading assignments were very helpful. I never realized how much work goes into writing for a visual medium. In particular, I found the “Writing the Package” article to be the most informative. In writing a television package, you have to first come up with a focus for a story. Then, you have to choose which video clips you want to use. Each story has to have a clear beginning (the lead), middle and end. You, also, have to make sure that the whole story flows well together and has logical transitions.

I think that when I have to do my television story next week, it is going to be very challenging. While I am shooting the video, I will have to think about what clips I will need to effectively convey my story. This will require a lot of planning. Editing the video into a concise television package will be just as difficult. Even though I know that writing for a visual medium is difficult, I am eager to get out and write my first television story.

Writing for a Visual Medium

A one-man video story involves a lot of work: getting natural sound and video footage, interviewing sources, gathering background information, and editting the footage. What I didn't know is how much writing visual mediums require in order to organize a story or that there was a systematic way to plan what a story should look like.

I really found "Writing the Package" very helpful for the detail it went into about the actual task of writing the story and doing the story. Although I feel the process is open as to how and when the story comes together, knowing how to plan the story before I go out on the field is amazingly helpful and helps me see the product as a story with a beginning, middle and end instead of film put together in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Writing the package

Su Jing
The article “Writing the Package” does a good job to explain how to write for a video story. I learn from it that a visual story should include a focus statement, a beginning or lead, a middle section with three or four main points and an ending or close.
Among all the elements in a visual story, I think the most important one is the focus. Before go to the spot to shoot, a reporter or a photographer mush have the idea that the story want to communicate, then begin the search for images and words that will most effectively tell the story. This point is very helpful to me.
I think the problem in my last video assignment is that I have no focus, because I didn’t think about what I want to tell. I just shot the things I saw.
Next time when I do a visual story, I will try to summarize the main idea of my story in one sentence.
And another tip in this article is also useful—when arrive at a spot, begin search for a story close shot. I always don’t know when to turn off the video camera. This tip will help me know how to end the story.

Writing for Television

After reading "Writing the Package," I get the feeling that being able to write for television takes a lot of practice and good planning. I think the only way to write a good package you need to have a lot of background information to fall back on, both on the subject that you are covering and how to create a good package.

I think it is important to really understand your subject because it seems like it is helpful to know the story going into shoot. The more you know about the story, the more you can narrowly focus on the subject. That is extremely important when you only have a minute and a half to tell a story.

For me, this will take some practice because I have a problem with focusing on one aspect of a story. Even though I have never done this before, I am excited to begin.

Writing for a visual medium

First of all, this week's readings reinforced my belief that videography is the hardest journalistic skill to learn, as
it entails the most significant sense that has a huge impact on the viewer's perception: visuality. To learn how the different shots function together in a sequence is simply the beginning; a reaction shot, a cutaway, a transition shot, a false reverse and other features follow through once we get our hands on the camera.

Interestingly, these skills we try to learn and master have sometimes come to overshadow what the goal of our assignment is. We often unknowingly shift our focus to the medium and techniques, instead of holding on to the core task of reporting and telling stories to the viewers the way they can understand it right away. The learned ability of video shooting and editing should help journalists tell the stories in a more effective fashion, not to sway the viewer's attention to the flashy styles of camera angle or movement.

I do like what Al Tompkins, a Poynter's broadcast group leader, said in response to a comment about the power journalists have in their hands. He reminded the workshop participants that "You can't allow technical expertise to remove you away from people. ... I urged you to improve your storytelling without compromising everything else. Connect your eye, your heart and body to journalism."

For me, this is indeed the first notion everyone should have in mind before looking through a viewfinder of video cameras.

Writing the Package

Throughout our assignments and my preliminary work in the field of journalism, I’ve found the most important part of a good story happens before you even begin reporting. As chapter nine states in the reading, “planning is essential.” Without good planning, it is hard to work from video taken without a specific idea in mind.

I also agree that it is important to understand the topic. Good lead-ins, good video, good natural sound are useless unless it is clear the reporter knows what they are talking about. A package can be ruined if the viewer doubts the reporter's knowledge of what he or she is presenting.

Visual Medium Writing

The pieces provided to read were very helpful to me, who has a fairly small knowledge of shooting news packages. The "Television and Field Reporting" chapters were extremely informative in giving the technical terms of shooting. After reading, I found myself critiquing my flash video that I shot for the recent project: "This is what I could've done better", "If I had done this a little differently..." There is definitely a lot more to shooting than I thought, and will take this information and apply it to my future shoots.

The "Writing The Package" piece was also very informative, in an application sense. This reading took the information from the first (which was a bit overwhelming) and gave real life examples in order to reinforce understanding. "Writing The Package" was a lot easier for me to follow and provided good examples for help in the next project.

I liked the Poynter piece because it gave good tips on how to really get good information/video/quotes for a story, simply by just focusing and listening. It really just means that it is up to us to get a good story, and then be able to incorporate technology in order to share it with other people.

Writing for a Visual Medium

Andrea Stark

After reading, I feel like organizing a visual package for my story is something attainable, rather than entirely threatening. "Writing the Package" did a good job of breaking down the news story into an order that made sense. Thinking back on watching news stories, this is generally the structure they take, yet usually they are so seamless that I never noticed it before. It was good to read a basic "how-to" on this kind of stuff. The article also provided useful examples to help me understand the concepts even further.

The other article, "Characteristics of Broadcast News Writing," was a good accompaniment in that it teaches the technical parts of the actual writing, like writing informally and using contractions. Very helpful.

This next assignment is essentially just telling a story, but also using gripping, fitting, and appropriate images and sound bites to make the story entertaining and to drive my points home.

Writing for a visual medium

From what I understand of writing for a visual medium, it certainly seems as though finding and keeping a narrow focus will be half the battle. This will be particularly difficult regarding my soon-to-come TV package for my project on campus evangelism.

Right now, the project falls under the blanket of “impacts of and reactions to campus evangelism in Columbia.” Sure, that’s all well and good, but condensing it into two minutes will be a challenge for me. Through my interviews for the project thus far, I have seen a variety of interesting perspectives regarding the work done by Brother Jed and other campus evangelists at Mizzou, but trying to superimpose them all into one piece will most likely marginalize each of these viewpoints. I think I’ll have to pick one particular angle and create the story from that perspective, with plans to focus on the views of others in future packages.

Visual medium

I am very excited to start my broadcast project. After learning about what didn’t work for my short one -minute edited video, I now have an idea of where I want to go to make a good story. The key for mine will be to focus on what will best tell the story. For my one minute video, I had a lot of images of people standing around. Instead, I will go back and capture the students in action, constantly moving and acting. Also, by approaching the video as the same way as the photography, I will get close ups, medium and long shots for a sequence. What will really make the story pop will be the narration and writing.

What I learned through the readings was how to compose a script. I can get the images, but without knowing what to say or how to organize my work, then it will be pointless. I like the idea of opening with natural sound and using it throughout. Also, by referencing to the natural sound and shots with words, this can greatly improve my package. It was helpful to learn how to log video and find a progression in the story by writing a concise lead and ending. Also, I thought the idea about getting three interviews was helpful in order to not have to much from which to work. I really enjoy telling stories in a visual way. I just hope that I am able to do it effectively with powerful writing as well.

Sliding Sound, Altered Images

In “Sliding Sound, Altered Images,” I agree with the NPPA Code of Ethics: “it is wrong to alter the content of a photograph in any way that deceives the public.” If you alter a picture, you are taking away the truth of the story. It does not matter if you have everything else in the story accurate. When you intentionally change something, you are deceiving your audience and this is not ethically right. Your actions can cause you your job and your viewing audience. I like how this site listed guidelines or standards that journalist should follow. The standards are do not add something that does not exist, be judicious in your use of music and special sound effects, use special editing sparingly and carefully, exercise extreme care when altering an image, and use file tape sparingly. With your music, you can create your own music with using software like Soundtrack Pro or Garage Band but it can alter the meaning of the story. My suggestion to people who would like to add music to their package is to seriously think about adding music and seeing if it would alter the meaning of your story.

How to Focus, Interview, and Get the Story Told

In “How to Focus, Interview, and Get the Story,” I liked what Regina McCombs said about storytelling. She said, “In multimedia storytelling, or any story for that matter, it’s so easy to get off track…but when working on a tight deadline you really need to be clear before you know what you’re going for.” I think that this is very important because I have been the who has gone into an interview with no idea what I was going to ask the interviewee or what my story was going to be about. Sometime I could pull it off, but sometimes I could not. When I could not pull off the on the spot interview, I ended up with a crap interview and a crap package. Once I realized what my story would be about after the interview, I realized I did not have the rights shots for the package and sometimes I would have to re-shoot the package. If I would have spent some time framing my questions in a way that encouraged feedback, ask unusual questions, thought of a theme for my story and other things I would not have been embarrassed asking my interviewee to allow me to interview again.

Writing for a Visual Medium

I completely agree that in writing for a visual medium you need to have focus for your story. And this is true in most journalism instances, visual or not. It is easy to get off track when there is so much going on and you want to capture everything. Making sure you have a focus is often done when a journalistic tells their story in one sentence as Poynter mentions.

Clyde Mueller, experienced in photography and video, gives five excellent tips of what to do in every story. I found the tips very helpful and being a magazine major, I thought they related to print writing too without the visual element.

Obviously writing for a visual medium or not, accuracy is of utmost importance. And as the article puts it: you can't let technology get in the way of connecting with your readers in the story.

Also, I never really thought about it but there is so much detail that goes into a TV package. It is so much more than going to shoot something; it's a detailed craft and somewhat of a science. You are combining the event with photos, natural sound, narration, interviews, etc. Coming from a print world it's good to know that I can still learn and expand in journalism but also somewhat overwhelming at the same time.

Video Story Telling

Eric Durban

I watched a piece on CNN.com about an Oral Roberts scandal. Similar to a written piece, the video provided both sides of the story, as well as third parties. I think the video told the story, while still allowing the viewer to make their own decisions. Oral Roberts is a very religious university and I think that made a difference between reading and watching this story. The emotion shown by the university president is not something that someone could accurately portray in a written news piece. The video showed him speaking in their weekly chapel, which showcased a packed house in support of him. Graphics in the video piece displayed key statistical information that helped to give more depth to the story. Since this is a legal preceding, a written piece will be more suitable to spelling out all of the legal jargon. A written piece with allow for more in-depth analysis, while providing links to other documents that could help tell the story. However, if this were only a text story, the emotion shown by the president and the university students would be lost. The video seems to allow the story to become much more personal even if I have no connection to the precedings.

Sports' Fallen Heroes

Tyson Sprick

I recently watched an MSNBC piece about Marion Jones who, among other athletes, admitted to using steroids to enhance athletic performance. It began with a clip from seven years ago that showed Jones adamantly denying the use of such supplements. While writing an article about how she lied gets the point across, showing actual footage of an interview in which she lies to the face of a reporter conveys a much deeper meaning. It shows her blunt lie up close and personal.

The piece goes on to discuss her five gold medals she won while showing footage of her competing in the Olympics. Actually seeing the video makes viewers think back to watching that event or any other competition and puts doubt in their mind. It makes sports fans wonder how many of the amazing feats they have been watching over the last several years are truly legitimate. Footage of Jones smiling makes the viewer resent her and other cheating athletes.

Nowadays, you read all the time about athletes caught using performance enhancing drugs. But showing the video of a cheating American Olympic athlete supposedly competing for the glory of her country conjures up some strong emotions---stronger feelings than a print article could generate.

Waiting for a Hobbit

So this is late...

But in good reason. On Friday at 5pm I was out in Williamsburg, Mo. with Beth interviewing the family for our "Enchanted Doors" story. Yes, enchanted doors. If you aren't an 'A' person, you have no clue what I am talking about. Enchanted doors are little wooden doors you put in your garden (or where ever you want I guess) to attract fairies, hobbits, and other magical creatures. I was a bit relieved to find out that the people who make them don't actually believe in this, they just enjoy the woodworking. However, they did give me and Beth free doors. I know we should not accept gifts, but they insisted. I put the six inch door on my dresser, but no sign of hobbits just yet.

Also, this week was my KBIA shift. I tagged on with a Broadcast 1 student to do a photo slideshow of the opening of a playground at Boone County Family Resources (as did Beth with KOMU, weird). Anyway, due to some complications and an impromptu trip back to Saint Louis, I haven't had a chance to finish it yet. Thank god for no 8am this week, so now I can work on it ASAP tomorrow morning. I'll blog again after I see how my first journey into the world of Soundslides goes...

critique of a journalistic webvideo

I watched a 2:30 minute webvideo on MSNBC.com with ZeitGeist anchoring "the stories that can't be used". It featured three stories, one with anecdotal shots of pony-tailed judge and a guy shouting in support alongside the official announcing O.J.'s release, one telling Britney Spear's Fan calling for people to "leave her alone" and the other telling a domestic violence story. What I feel is that there's too much anchoring for a webvideo story that is supposed to be seizing the audience with exciting pictures. Most of the part the anchor was telling viewer what has happened, instead of letting the camera show them. The stories, significant or not, should be put in single videos, because multiple unrelated stories in one video will not only get people confused, but also has little effect in keeping them watching it. My opinion is that few people would follow through a series of unrelated stories (presumably only one or two interest them) on the web as they do on television. If the stories are rendered in text, they are less interesting, because there are nothing in particular in those stories that commands viewer attention without nice video and audio. However, "text only" story can work if these stories are rendered in just one or two lines. That will work even better than having an anchor talking all the time.

Buddhists in the heartland

Suekyoung Kim

I watched “Buddhists in the heartland” from NBC nightly news. The video was about the growing population of Buddhists in America especially in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The video included some exotic sounds (a song sung by monks). The orange robe that monks wear contrasts well with green lawn. The video also included several interviews and well showed the atmosphere of temple. I’ll say the video was well done. Enough amount of context that helps viewers to understand what’s going on in there was given at the right time with right visual images.

If the video were a “text only” story, readers may go through hard time to imagine what the story is telling about and how the scenes are like since the subject of the story is not very familiar to many Americans. When a video camera captures a golden statue of Buddha, the process of meditation, the spatial settings of the story, the American Buddhists in the temple, and the monks in orange and burgundy robes, viewers may understand better than just read a written form of the story. The effect of visual medium is great when it comes to a matter of telling a story. A well-made video can be excellent at sending a message since it truly reflects things it captures while written words can distort the reality or fail at fully explaining things due to some linguistic properties.

Video Brings Tragedy into Bedroom

Myanmar's crackdown is shocking the whole world. The related coverage seizes the front page of the New York Times everyday. But online video brings the tragedy into our bedrooms.

Today when I watch the CNN Video, the scene of the Japanese reporter's death on street almost stuns me. I guess that the scene is shot by a person who were standing in a tall building about 100 meters away from the street. The camera shot is not stable at all, but very scary. When the military started to shoot on citizens, the Japanese reporter, a 50 years old photo journalist, was working on the street. He tried to run away, but suddenly, he was shot down. In the video clip, he lied down onto the ground, and weakly waved his two hands to call for help. But no one came to help him. That is the cruel reality.

I have not learned much about this journalist, but as a wannabe journalist, I feel deeply regret and also respectful for him. He commited to his career, and devoted his life to journalism. He was recording the history. Also, I think we should thank the one who recorded these scenes. One day it will become precious history of the development of democracy in Myanmar.

Humor and warmth

In CNN’s story about a woman who hiccupped for 20 years, there are wide shots to set the scene and then a focus on the woman’s face. The video began with the close-up of the woman hiccupping, which is a nice beginning to the story. The sounds of her hiccups are sometimes used as the accompaniment to the narrator’s words. (Example: Narrator said: “It has been a constant ailment for the last 20 years”. Woman’s hiccup). I also like the way they included her singing, which is her usual short cue for hiccupping, in the video. There was also a scene of the woman and her little granddaughter holding hands, and a detailed shot of the two hands holding each other, the wrinkled hand of the grandmother and the young hand of the girl.
A "text-only" version might not be convincing as a video, when the viewers can see the real person and what problems she is having.

It is difficult to find fault with the video, other than the fact that sound cuts seem sometimes too tight.

Simplicity and Sarcasm at the Post

The video I chose is “Washington Sketch: Gen. Pace’s Military Sendoff,” which appears on washingtonpost.com. Like most Post videos, it uses no-frills camera technique and a reporter/narrator who does voiceovers and talks to the camera. The overarching effect is that of simplicity. Pans are at a minimum, and are used only when the subject, typically Gen. Pace or a marching band, is itself moving. At 4:44, it feels uncluttered and well-paced. Regarding composition, I think it’s perfect.

What’s most interesting about the video is its content and angle of coverage. As it often does, the Post presents the material in a flippant, almost sarcastic way. For example, the reporter says, “the security is tight, three magnetometers, snipers at the ready and eight porta-potties…the administration has a history of bestowing its most lavish ceremonies on those who have suffered the greatest public humiliation.” The reporter later narrates from in front of the porta-potties. Clearly, the video is a sharp criticism. The Post is a publication unafraid of interpreting the significance of news and poking fun at Washington’s absurdities.

To see some other video work that’s really interesting, watch the Post series “On Being.” It has to be the coolest video on the Web. It’s far more feature than news, however. Still, I think it illustrates some interesting and innovative camera work.

CNN.com story

The piece I watched was "Women Wanted" found on CNN.com. It was about a town in eastern Germany where the female population is rapidly leaving in favor of areas where they have greater opportunities. I thought it was pretty interesting because former Soviet satellites aren't really talked about today. It's pretty much "Alright, no more communism. Have a nice life!", so it was nice to see what life is really like (not just the textbook version).

This was a good video piece because throughout the footage shot, there are very few women, demonstrating the point that they are all on their way out. The piece works well as a video, because it would be hard to explain the lack of women in print. It's showing versus telling: seeing there are few women in the town makes more sense than reading "There aren't a lot of women here."

I would've like to have seen a few more statistics of the alleged "brain-drain" going on and also the reasons why the men stay in the town but women don't. Altogther, I found it very interesting and informative. It was definitely not something I would've expected in a "Westernized" country.

USATODAY.com video

Xenia Shih

The video I watched was titled "Elmo helping kids cope with Iraq war" on USATODAY.com. The first thing I noticed was that the background of Sesame Street characters interacting in the beginning completely overpowered the voiceover when the voiceover began. In fact, whenever there was natural sound in the background, it overpowered the voiceover. Therefore, I think that the video could have been improved if the natural sound were toned down a notch. Also, the video ended really abruptly, so I think that there could have been a smoother transition in the end.

The story would have been far less interesting if it had been text only. The visuals were really engaging throughout the video, and the Sesame Street voices gave the story life. The video also showed clips of the episode in which Elmo helps kids cope with the war. Had the story been text only, the audience wouldn't have had the benefit of seeing an example of the way Sesame Street is attempting to address the Iraq war. Therefore, this subject made for a much better video than text only story.

WWW Video Example

I watched a two minute long story titled "Women Wanted" that appeared on cnn.com on October 4. In this piece, an American reported explores the problem facing many small Eastern European towns: women leaving and men staying. Women, according to one source, are better students and more highly educated than the men in these towns. The women, who desire more prospects and career opportunities than their towns have to offer, have been moving to Western countries. The men, on the other hand, are staying behind. The lack of women has become so severe in some towns that the mayors are offering to pay women to stay.

One way that this video story could be improved is by simply making it longer. It is a complex issue that is packaged into a two minute quickie and leaves the viewer with many unanswered questions and no place to go for answers. I believe this story would have been more effective as a written or multi-media piece than as a video story because it is not necessarily a visual event. I would rather read more into the politics and the turmoil being caused by this lack of women than see the streets of a man-filled town. Also, for a video, the amount of natural sound was not satisfactory.

Tanya Sneddon

CNN Video

Jessica Malnik

I watched the CNN video, “Special cheerleaders’ dreams come true.” Overall, I thought the video was excellent. The video was easy to follow, and had smooth transitions with lots of natural sound. It, also, had sound bites from the team captain and the cheerleaders' coach. The video, also, did a nice job of tying what was being said with the images on the video. For example, when Samantha, the team captain, commented on how it was her dream to lead the squad, they showed a clip of her leading the rest of the girls. However, the video lacked the perspectives of other students at this particular middle school. I would have enjoyed hearing what a student athlete or spectator thought of this “special” cheerleading squad. Finally, I do not think that the story would be as appealing if it was a text-only story.

Controling The Tail Spin

Often times I feel as if my life is just in a flat tail spin, and this can mostly be contributed to stress. However, I do try and keep in mind that I am sure I will look back 15 years from now and wish i was dealing with this minimal stress instead of flailing about in the real world with real bills and a a real job and what not. But hey, this week, accept for monday, was all in all a success. I, for the most part, felt that I was able to control the tail spin of life and go about my day and actually contribute to society, as well as to the journalism school.

now on to my most continual frustration...STORY IDEAS! I hate them and they seem to hate me. which works out just fine. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that i could not come up with a decent story idea even if i were standing at the golden gates of heaven and st. pete merely mentions to me that all i have to do is come up with one decent story idea and BAM eternal bliss, but i would undoubtedly stutter and stumble some ridiculous story that has OBVIOUSLY already been done a BILLION times over and find myself hitchhiking down the high way to hell, and with no AC/DC in sight mind you. Anyways, hopefully I will be able to once again put out something worthy of being a story and then be able to form it into something resembling a grade better than a B-.

Anyways...here is to the next week of struggles and stress in the endless struggle to become a journalist.

Video from NYTimes.com

Thanyarat Doksone


I watched a video report produced by NYTimes.com about how the dry northern region of China attempted to make use of the excessive water supply in the South. The piece was neatly created, the clips flew with the script and additional still images were added when necessary.

In video, you can what is going on in real size without having to use your imagination, which can frequently be wrong. Like this report, the reporter talked about a water transfer project from the North to the South of China, titled to be the biggest one in the history of the world. Had I not seen the construction site shown in the video, I could hardly estimate the immense size of the project. While the text script only described the effect they faced from a toxic water resource, the video also gave visual images of the way the villagers in the dry North lived.

I also think the reporter did a great job in adding some map images to explain the river directions and the project line to let the viewers understand the story better. I think it is really important that this type of clarification presented to the viewers in the context they may not be familiar with.

Video from Nytimes.com

I watched a video from nytimes.com about the 50th anniversary of Sputnik's launch. Considering it is a reflective piece and not news with new footage, it was really well orchestrated. It flows well in between interviews from a science reporter at the Times and a man from the National Air and Space Museum. They also layered the audio from these interviews over older footage and stills from Sputnik's launch. Using this historic footage rather than trying to write about what this meant 50 years ago gives the viewer a more real sense of the importance of Sputnik and the beginning of the space race.

The New York Times is one of the only papers to have a regular science section. Based on this video, the times should routinely use multi-media to explain the often complex stories contained with the Science Times section.

CBS News Video

The video that I decided to critique stuck out to me because of its dramatical intentions. The story is about actress Holly Robinson Peete, who has had a lot of roles in her career. However, her family, more specifically, her son is the subject of this video. Her son has autism and Holly has been there every step of the way to help with his continuing struggles.

In my very important opinion, the story was good, if you're looking for something depressing. But really, it was a story that forces the audience to appreciate their health. The feel-good part of the story was just showing a good Mom in action. Holly has sacrificed so much for her son, giving up most of her acting career. The love shown in the video was very apparent.

In no way, shape, or form would this story have the impact in text that it does in video. The emotions that are shown by both Holly and her son could not be expressed in text.

No Video Video

I watched a video link on The New York Times online edition on the issues surrounding Mukasey's confirmation as Attorney General. Although the piece worked well as a supplement to the written article, I had a few problems with it as a stand alone piece.

For one, there was no video except for an interview with a political journalist. All images of Mukasey were pictures that had already been shot by several publications and wire services and pieced together to go along with what the journalist was saying. Another problem I had was it was the bias shown by having one source whose only qualification was that he reported in Washington.

Frankly, I think it is a waste of the Times' online resources to upload video features that do not include video or interviews with sources close to the story. We have discussed in class that most online publications have not successfully converged online, video, and print and I think this is a prime example of this. There was no reason why this piece couldn't have just run as a slideshow with the audio of the journalist playing. Why did we need to see the video of him talking and no video of anything else?

National Geographic Video

Su Jing
I watched a video on the National Geographic website. The headline is Giant Fish Faces Big Trouble in China. It is about the endangered status of Chinese sturgeon and Chinese paddle fish.
I think the video story does a good job to combine sound bits, news copy and footage together.
At the beginning of the story is the footage about the appearance of the Chinese sturgeon. The detailed pictures of the sturgeon’s mouth and fin and how it breaks loose from the biologist’s hand are very interesting. And the news copy here matches the footage very well, which reads “biologist Zeb Hogan of the National Geographic Society's Megafishes Project takes a close look at the powerful fish”. The ending of the story shows a good match of news copy sound and video also again. At the end, we see the footage of the biologist looks at a paddle fish specimen in a museum and hear the news copy sound: ”This may be the closest we’ve ever got to see the Chinese paddle fish again.”
However, I don’t get the purpose of some of the footage, such as three scientists lift a cover on the motorboat. I don’t understand the meaning of the shot here. Maybe other shots need to be added here to make it more clear.

Video

I watched a video on chicagotribune.com. It was taken from CNN and it was titled "Wasps attack National Guard unit in Afghanistan." The video showed hundreds of wasps flying around in circles around the camera, and at times going straight towards the camera. Then at the end of the video, there is an explosion in the background that comes out of nowhere. There is no audio over the video, but there is a lot of natural sound with the wasps hitting the camera and other things around it.

It is a cool visual, because it is shown in a first-person perspective and you are really close to the action. The only thing that I disliked is that there was no description of why this was happening. I understand why they wouldn't have someone do a voice over, because they don't want to ruin the natural sound, but I would think that they would have some description around the video.

After I watched the video on chicagotribune.com, I went to cnn.com and they said the reason for the wasps attacking and the explosion in the background was because this unit was clearing a path for their vehicles. That is information that I would have liked to know. When I watched the video the first time my initial reaction was, "what was that explosion?"

Video on Bridges Opening

I watched a video on KansasCity.com about the reopening of three bridges downtown. There was good natural sound, and you don't see or hear from one reporter, which I liked initially. There was good stock footage that was used during the audio of the lone interview (something I didn't like). I didn't like that there was no reporter to keep the pace of the story, however. The piece was only 50 seconds long, and seemed a little hurried because of the large amount of information coming from the interview in such a short amount of time. Some of this sense of hurry was probably conveyed by the voice of the woman being interviewed, and could have been assuaged by a reporter slowing things down.

video on GM strike

Andrell Bower
I looked at a Post-Dispatch story on a strike at the GM plant in Wentzville, published Sept. 24 at http://www.stltoday.com/multimedia. I thought the story was poorly done. The video was a montage of a small group of workers picketing outside the plant. Whoever was shooting the video had access to the workers, but the story did not include a single soundbite. A further problem was the reporter who spoke throughout the entire video was awkward and seemed to stumble over his words.
The content suffered as well. Anyone viewing the story could have deduced most of what the reporter said just by reading the caption and looking at the video. His last words in the story were, "there's not a lot of information out there."
I'm not sure of the benefit of offering this story as a multimedia piece. I didn't find a text version anywhere on the site. If this story had been in print, the reporter would not have gotten away with pathetic information, no quotes and bad writing.

staging

Andrell Bower
David Wertheimer began his article on staging with an example of photographers taking unstaged photos and the television reporter shooting staged video. If someone had asked me a couple years ago whether I thought television or print news was more likely to be staged, I would have said television. After working at small Missouri newspaper, I'm wiser. The photographer there would frequently stage "candid" moments. I was a new reporter and wasn't sure of asserting myself on the subject, but I was mortified. Even the editor above me seemed to be more concerned with getting a compelling shot than the ethics of using staged photos. Of course, I never once witnessed the reporters for the local television news staging anything. It seems to me that the points Wertheimer and Al Tompkins make about staging are mostly no-brainers, but apparently even some veteran photographers don't get it.
Of course, there are some gray areas, especially with putting audio and video or still photography together. I already ran into this issue with my Big Canoe radio story. I had done an interview at a member's home several weeks before the assignment was due, but I needed some natural sound gathered from one of their farming activities. Of course, this person wasn't going to be at the farm before I needed audio, so I simply went to the site and recorded the outdoors without him. When it came time to decide how to use the natural sound in my story, I figured I should not place it behind the voices of my interviewee because the interview did not take place at the site. So, I just put it behind myself.

ESPN Lacks Video

My biggest issue with the video, Inside the Huddle: Injuries Hit the Colts and 49ers, on ESPN.com, was the lack of video images. There was no footage of the players discussed in the package, which happened to be two injured Indianapolis Colts and one injured 49er. The only images were of two reporters, one who quickly introduced who they were going to discuss in the form of a question, and the reporter who answered the question. The answers to the questions were long, so long that they should have had footage of the players in question played over them. File footage even could have been used. It was very upsetting to see so little effort put into this package. At first glance it appears to be good journalism, as the reporter answering the questions is knowledgeable about the subject he’s speaking on, but the lack of production effort is atrocious. There is no point in having this be a visual story, it would have been a better radio piece. If this were a text only story the questions would not have been posed and the lead in would have been a lot better than it was. There would have been less concentration on analysis and more on the bigger picture. But basically this story wouldn’t lose much by being a print story because the lack of visuals was so upsetting. There is no point in staring at a reporters face while they talk about someone else for a minute and a half.

I watched a video from AP about a sinkhole in San Diego. I thought it was informative and a good story, but it could have been improved with an interview from a nearby resident. The story explained that the houses around the sinkhole are in danger, but we don't hear from any of the neighbors who I'm sure have an interesting point of view.

Still, the story has a bigger impact by being a video that includes pictures of the sinkhole. The viewer can psychically see how close the sinkhole is to the houses. That makes the story much more interesting. If it were text only, it could not have as much of an impact.

Oldest Inmate is Ready to Confess. Sort of.

The video story I chose is from the NYtimes.com about the oldest prisoner in a New York state prison. Charles Friedgood, 89, has been in prison for years for giving his wife an overdose of medication 32 years ago. He is now suffering from a "catalogue of diseases," including terminal cancer.

There is an accompanying article which says essentially the same thing as the video, but I think the video adds depth to the story. The narrator is Sam Roberts, the New York Times reporter on the case. The video alternates between the voice over/interview of the reporter, and the words of Friedgood.
Friedgood's explanation, about a crime he committed 32 years ago, also give the story a more human element.
The video story is also aided by images of the prison, both banal and intense, as well as great audio of the cell doors closing. I think this gives viewers insight into the world of Friedgood, and other prisoners like him, way more than mere words could.
The coolest thing to me is how the story ended with "I'm Sam Roberts of the New York Times," followed by the closing of one final door. It gave the piece closure, and also added to its eeriness. Overall, I think the piece was very well done--both informative and entertaining.

SouthTown Peanut vendor

By J.J. Bailey

The video story I chose was done by the South Town paper in Illinois. The story focused on the job of a single young man, who has been a peanut vendor at U.S. Cellular field for 6 years. The story was presented well and the footage was interesting. The camera was used well with different points of view, different framed shots, different audio. The audio was rich with natural sounds and the main storytelling device was the subject's interview. That is the one area where I thought the story could have been better. I would have liked the reporters voice and perhaps one or two more subjects. However, the story did a good job of providing information and perspective on the life of a vendor.

Current TV

We are working on a Current TV story that is really interesting about married couples in college. The hard part is going to be that Anderw F wants us to spend more time with an interesting couple. That just means that we are going to have to keep working after our deadline. We are all really excited about the story, so we will keep going, but before we submit to current its going to take a lot more work. I am also still working on the pinball story edits and the Missourian graphic but the editor has not gotten back to me yet. So, its going, but its just going slowly and with a lot of effort.

Solid video work from ESPN

ESPN.com recently posted a journalistic video regarding the New York Mets’ announcement that Willie Randolph will stay on as manager despite the team’s epic collapse over the last month of the baseball season. Truth be told, I loved the way the video was done. Just loved it. In a total of 46 seconds, without the voice of any reporter, ESPN allowed Willie Randolph, Omar Minaya (Randolph’s boss) and a lot of really good images to tell the story.

There was a caption atop the video that read “Randolph will remain Mets manager.” Beyond that, it was all speech and images. ESPN understands that those web surfers going to watch video at its site are largely more-than-casual sports fans who don’t need a ton of background information. Thus, the need for any sort of stage setting by a reporter was eliminated. There were two or three image cuts to Randolph and Minaya standing at the podium during the press conference for the announcement, and the rest of the video focused on images that perfectly encapsulated the Mets’ saga over the past month. Several different shots of players, fans and mascots were used, all depicting either the players screwing up or the reactions of various parties to the aforementioned on-field disaster. Audio from Randolph and Minaya ran throughout the video montage.

I have no complaints about the job ESPN did with this video. It was succinct and captivating both from an audio and visual standpoint. At ESPN.com, there was also a link to a text story about the Mets’ decision to retain Randolph, which, as predicted, delved into greater detail regarding the collapse itself and the history of Randolph’s tenure for the team. For a less knowledgeable fan in need of a bit more background information, the text story was the way to go. For the sports fanatic in need of a quick baseball fix before moving on to the next story in the world of professional athletics, the video did the job perfectly. Kudos to the folks at the Worldwide Leader for doing a great job on this one.

Journalism video from the WWW

I watched an AP video about how most of Mick Vick's dogs can be saved (http://usatoday.feedroom.com/). The story was pretty basic and I would only make minor changes. The reporter's voice was often muffled out by all of the dogs barking. So I would lower the audio level of the dogs so you could hear the reporter's voice and story better.

Also, this is picky and doesn't have to do directly with the video but I had to watch an advertisement before the video. I guess it's the wave of the future, as journalism needs someone to pay the bills. Now it's just online. I hope it doesn't deter audiences from watching the videos.

The story would be fairly similar if it were a text only story. But I do think it's important that I saw this as a video story. It brought more emotion to the story because you actually got to see the dogs that Vick abused. You can't express that in a story. The video helped make the story more humane.

Sure, a text only story could get the point across but it would be missing images of the dogs which give the story a different feeling.

I looked on CNN.com for a story for which I could respond. I decided upon a story about a Topps beef contamination where a girl was hospitalized for ecoli (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/10/02/candiotti.mystery.at.sea.cnn) This story touched on many techniques, and I could see room for improvement. The sourcing in this package was very well done. We heard from the attorney, the girl, her mother as well as a woman form the Center for Science in the Public Interest about meat trends. During the interview of the girl and her mother, the shots were very close up which was more intimate and gave a good emotional background.

I was disappointed with the diversity of shots. I saw a lot of buildings (almost every building involved in the story). I also saw a lot of the same hamburger package in several different shots. The one good shot was in the Topps processing plant and there were more opportunities for moving images here. I also thought that the reporter used a nice split frame between the three shots of the sources of the contamination. This provided a nice visual element to bring the story a bit more to life.

The story got the job done, but it lacked the elements to make it pop like more interesting shots as well as natural sound. There were not many opportunities for it in the story, but the reporter did not capitalize on the opportunities that he had. If this was a text only story it would have been pretty similar, but it would not have had the emotional element of the girl and her mother. Since these were used only at the beginning and very briefly, the impact of a text-only versus this story would have been pretty similar.