Valerie Chew
‘Aceh: One Year Later – Childless Village’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/custom/2005/12/22/CU2005122201141.html
This video by Travis Fox on the aftermath of the tsunami is thought provoking. It has excellent shots. However, more interviews with people who have lost their children would serve to paint the situation better. I could not help but wonder what life in this village of Blangme was like before the tsunami. Was the village filled with children? Or was it a small village with little children to start of with? Perhaps a ‘text only’ story could contrast the situation before and after the tsunami better. Then again, without video, we would have missed the expressions on the people’s faces and the sounds (or the lack of) that come from a place without children.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Video Story
By Carla Schaffer
http://www.suntimes.com/index.html#
The video that I watched was part of the video section of the Chicago Sun Times. The video story is about a man who was killed trying to stop two young adults after they stole from a Starbucks tip jar. The story is starts out as a story about a robbery at Starbucks but quickly turns into a profile of the hero of the story - the man who died trying to stop the robbers. The story works well as a video story, because it includes footage of the events up to, during, and after the robbery. It also shows the man that the story focuses on at the register leading up to the robbery. If this story was done as a newspaper/print story, the reader wouldn't get the same connection with the story as he or she does with the video. With the video story, the reader gains connection with the hero of the story by seeing his last moments before chasing after the robbers. The story could be improved by completing the robbery focus of the story. The video does a great job of profiling the story's hero and talking to friends and family, but it never gives detail about how authorities are planning to catch the robbers that ran the man over in their car. It would have been nice to know if officials were using the footage that they show in the story to find the criminals.
http://www.suntimes.com/index.html#
The video that I watched was part of the video section of the Chicago Sun Times. The video story is about a man who was killed trying to stop two young adults after they stole from a Starbucks tip jar. The story is starts out as a story about a robbery at Starbucks but quickly turns into a profile of the hero of the story - the man who died trying to stop the robbers. The story works well as a video story, because it includes footage of the events up to, during, and after the robbery. It also shows the man that the story focuses on at the register leading up to the robbery. If this story was done as a newspaper/print story, the reader wouldn't get the same connection with the story as he or she does with the video. With the video story, the reader gains connection with the hero of the story by seeing his last moments before chasing after the robbers. The story could be improved by completing the robbery focus of the story. The video does a great job of profiling the story's hero and talking to friends and family, but it never gives detail about how authorities are planning to catch the robbers that ran the man over in their car. It would have been nice to know if officials were using the footage that they show in the story to find the criminals.
A View of Russia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7260000/newsid_7268100/7268170.stm?bw=nb&mp=rm&news=1&bbcws=1#
This story was well-told through the visuals, it would not have been compelling without the visuals. Since it is about how another Cold War could happen as the military of Russia is being slowly rebuilt, it is important to the viewer to see this military, why it is considered strong. Seeing an enormous bomber airplane certainly makes an impression. True, a plane can be given in measurements in text, but seeing is believing to truly understand what there is to fear in a "strong Russia".
I thought the ending of the story was something that could be improved. The journalist decides to offer his opinion on the state of affairs. While I understand it is difficult to leave ones self out of the story just in what is selected to be told, etc., I did not understand why the journalist gave his opinion. Is he an analyst? Is he an expert? The sound quality on the video was also terrible, but I think that was just my internet. It is a shame that the BBC produces high quality things only to have them distorted on a different medium.
This story was well-told through the visuals, it would not have been compelling without the visuals. Since it is about how another Cold War could happen as the military of Russia is being slowly rebuilt, it is important to the viewer to see this military, why it is considered strong. Seeing an enormous bomber airplane certainly makes an impression. True, a plane can be given in measurements in text, but seeing is believing to truly understand what there is to fear in a "strong Russia".
I thought the ending of the story was something that could be improved. The journalist decides to offer his opinion on the state of affairs. While I understand it is difficult to leave ones self out of the story just in what is selected to be told, etc., I did not understand why the journalist gave his opinion. Is he an analyst? Is he an expert? The sound quality on the video was also terrible, but I think that was just my internet. It is a shame that the BBC produces high quality things only to have them distorted on a different medium.
Did A Doctor Rush Death?
by Chelsea Williams
I watched a video on CNN.com that questioned and investigated whether or not a transplant doctor rushed the death of a patient in order to obtain his organs. This video was quite effective because it showed footage of the patient before his death, as well as footage of the boy's mother mourning the loss of her son. These segments definitely triggered the most emotion, and allowed viewers to sympathsize with the boy's family. However, while these clips proved to be powerful, the segments with the accused doctor were fairly non-stimulating. While they spoke with his lawyer, it would have been nice to hear from him. I'm sure for legal reasons this would have been tricky, but they should have just shown less footage of him if we couldn't even hear his voice. There were too many shots of him just staring into space in the courtroom, which leave an impression initially, but lose some of their visual impact as they appear more frequently. A well-respected doctor's ethical judgement was questioned, and we didn't even get to hear what he had to say about it.
Had this been a text-only story, it would have been far more difficult to capture the strong emotion experienced by the mother. It is easy to read that someone is devastated by the potential premature death of her son, but it is downright difficult to see a mother sobbing, then flash to a shot of her son when he was alive. Text-only would limit the varying degrees of emotion that were captured via this video.
I watched a video on CNN.com that questioned and investigated whether or not a transplant doctor rushed the death of a patient in order to obtain his organs. This video was quite effective because it showed footage of the patient before his death, as well as footage of the boy's mother mourning the loss of her son. These segments definitely triggered the most emotion, and allowed viewers to sympathsize with the boy's family. However, while these clips proved to be powerful, the segments with the accused doctor were fairly non-stimulating. While they spoke with his lawyer, it would have been nice to hear from him. I'm sure for legal reasons this would have been tricky, but they should have just shown less footage of him if we couldn't even hear his voice. There were too many shots of him just staring into space in the courtroom, which leave an impression initially, but lose some of their visual impact as they appear more frequently. A well-respected doctor's ethical judgement was questioned, and we didn't even get to hear what he had to say about it.
Had this been a text-only story, it would have been far more difficult to capture the strong emotion experienced by the mother. It is easy to read that someone is devastated by the potential premature death of her son, but it is downright difficult to see a mother sobbing, then flash to a shot of her son when he was alive. Text-only would limit the varying degrees of emotion that were captured via this video.
Video Story
I watched a video on the New York Times webpage about the upcoming democratic primary in Ohio, (this was on Sunday before the primary took place) where an incredibly close race between Clinton and Obama is going on. This video looked at different aspects of their campaigns, as well as their families’ speeches and campaigning. It focused a lot on how each candidate is campaigning and showed footage from each of their advertisements and speeches. This piece worked as a video story because the reporter was able to talk about advertisements, for example, and then is able to literally show a part of the advertisement he was referring to in order to fully emphasize his point. The only problem I had with this story was that I think there could have been a way to make this issue more compelling to the audience, because this is an issue that has been covered and will continue to be covered for months, so it would have been nice if the reporter found a more interesting angle to focus on. This story would be a different story if it were a text story, because many of the aspects that made this piece work would not have been present.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Web video reflection
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm
I watched a BBC video on increased Chinese military spending. It began with a series of strong images of the military in action, which continued to be interlaced thought the rest of the piece. Nearly all of the story was voiced-over footage, save for two brief sound bytes from press conferences and a stand-up at the end. The stand-up caught me off-guard because the reporter was standing outside the Forbidden City, with a picture of Mao Ze Dong on the left third of the frame. I felt that to a reader who doesn't understand Chinese history outside of the main figures, that image behind audio about a growing military would have drawn up misleading fears of another Red Scare.
In terms of form, I noticed that the voice-overs were very direct, on the verge of being choppy. I feel that it would have been much more effective as a text story so that the writer could provide more of the context in which the spending increase was occurring rather than presenting what I considered to be a very shallow look at the subject.
I watched a BBC video on increased Chinese military spending. It began with a series of strong images of the military in action, which continued to be interlaced thought the rest of the piece. Nearly all of the story was voiced-over footage, save for two brief sound bytes from press conferences and a stand-up at the end. The stand-up caught me off-guard because the reporter was standing outside the Forbidden City, with a picture of Mao Ze Dong on the left third of the frame. I felt that to a reader who doesn't understand Chinese history outside of the main figures, that image behind audio about a growing military would have drawn up misleading fears of another Red Scare.
In terms of form, I noticed that the voice-overs were very direct, on the verge of being choppy. I feel that it would have been much more effective as a text story so that the writer could provide more of the context in which the spending increase was occurring rather than presenting what I considered to be a very shallow look at the subject.
Video vs. Text
Samantha Liss
“Conflicts Mount in South America”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22370745#23469241
Everyday multi-media journalists have the benefit to decide what tool in their journalism backpack would best tell a specific story.
As a visual learner I followed right along with the “Conflicts Mount in South America” story. I’m introduced with a map panning from North America to South America detailing where the conflict is in comparison to where I live.
The story then highlights and briefly describes the history of each conflicting nation, their current and former standing with one another and the United States. Adding to this sound bite is a picture of each nation’s leader and their written name underneath their individual picture. All the graphics keep me intrigued and allow me to understand a rather complex issue.
If this were in text format in either the web or a newspaper, I regrettably admit I would have given up a few paragraphs in to the article. Unfortunately, I would have become confused with where the event was unfolding in context to my current location and the relationships between each nation.
Although, this is a good piece of journalism and captures my attention, it needs to get to what would be the nut-graph of an article sooner. I need to know more about what exactly sparked tensions. This story’s nut-graph is a bit wordy and is not bold enough for an audience’s ears.
I would’ve like to hear a sentence saying,
“Colombia alleges Ecuador and Venezuela support Colombian rebel fighters.”
Instead of,
“Ecuador and Venezuela both deny Colombia’s allegations they support Columbian rebel fighters.”
It hardly seems like a difference on paper, but when listening to the second sentence in context with the video story it is too passive for my ears.
“Conflicts Mount in South America”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22370745#23469241
Everyday multi-media journalists have the benefit to decide what tool in their journalism backpack would best tell a specific story.
As a visual learner I followed right along with the “Conflicts Mount in South America” story. I’m introduced with a map panning from North America to South America detailing where the conflict is in comparison to where I live.
The story then highlights and briefly describes the history of each conflicting nation, their current and former standing with one another and the United States. Adding to this sound bite is a picture of each nation’s leader and their written name underneath their individual picture. All the graphics keep me intrigued and allow me to understand a rather complex issue.
If this were in text format in either the web or a newspaper, I regrettably admit I would have given up a few paragraphs in to the article. Unfortunately, I would have become confused with where the event was unfolding in context to my current location and the relationships between each nation.
Although, this is a good piece of journalism and captures my attention, it needs to get to what would be the nut-graph of an article sooner. I need to know more about what exactly sparked tensions. This story’s nut-graph is a bit wordy and is not bold enough for an audience’s ears.
I would’ve like to hear a sentence saying,
“Colombia alleges Ecuador and Venezuela support Colombian rebel fighters.”
Instead of,
“Ecuador and Venezuela both deny Colombia’s allegations they support Columbian rebel fighters.”
It hardly seems like a difference on paper, but when listening to the second sentence in context with the video story it is too passive for my ears.
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