Flashy Flash Journalism

Flash journalism is a great way to help deliver information. In our current age, consumers like to be in control of their news. I don't have a ton of experience with flash, but from what I've worked with, it can be a valuable tool. With a lot of flash journalism consumers can choose which things they would like to view with all of their options presented to them. It can also present multiple views of a situation. For me, sound slideshows are one of the coolest forms of media. Combining the voice of your subject with photos of their life is a powerful tool. Flash opens up so many options that can present the news in powerful and interesting ways. Telling a story with visuals is a crucial way to present the news. Amateur journalism is best presented in a visual way, and as more and more people shoot their own stuff it's important to have necessary outlets.

Flash Journalism

Jessica Malnik

Flash journalism has several advantages. Flash provides interactive elements that will help to keep the desired audience engaged and focused on the website. These interactive elements include everything from photo/audio slideshows to interactive graphics and maps. All these interactive elements provide more in-depth storytelling. For instance, audio/photo slideshows provide a more detailed and visual account of a particular story. Slideshows often add a personal touch to a story. On the other hand, interactive graphics and maps provide the readers with more information in a creative format. Flash journalism is becoming more and more prevalent in newsrooms, and I believe that it will become even more important and useful in the future.

Flash Journalism

Flash is really cool. It seems cheesy to say, but I never thought that I would ever learn how to do it in the first place. I think it provides an interesting and interactive way to get the point across. In the reading, graphics of the space shuttle Columbia were described. An explanation of why it crashed is more easily understood with a time-elapsed graphic than just a list of what happened. It provides a picture to the explanation that viewers can control themselves and can understand at their own pace. What's really great about Flash is that anyone can get it. Alas, the story is available all over!

Photo slideshows are pretty neat, too. I don't know what it is about them, but they always manage to be my favorite part of any presentation. I think they capture emotion in a way that video does not. The split-second image is so powerful, and when accompanied by the voices of the people in the images, it's like a double whammy.

I think the new advances in technology and online media are extremely helpful in spreading the news and having people receive it in an interactive and informative way.

Flash with convergence journalism

Flash journalism is one example of interactivity whereby the user can control what they want to see or hear on the Internet. It brought in a new meaning for websites. With flash, websites were no long just texts and still pictures. One can have video, audio, slideshows, sound slideshows and other multimedia elements such as interactive maps and pictures. With flash, convergence journalism was born.

Therefore, one of the things I set out to do for myself is mastering some flash expertise. As a convergence journalist, I am expected to be able to deal with all the multimedia skills. More than once, I caught myself being in awe of websites because of the magic they could created with flash.

My feeling is that one can also be too carried away with flash. Just like a simple website might do a better job than a fancy but complicated one, sometimes too much interactive stuff can be confusing. But its importance is impossible to ignore and anyone in this field thinking that they can survive without knowing how to deal with flash is certainly kidding themselves.

Basic Design Principles for Non-Designers

Anyone can create their own web page but this does not mean that the person will create an amazing cite that follows the alignment, proximity, repetition, and contrast. If people follow these four basic principles, the web page should look clean, neat, and professional. After reading and looking at the examples given in this reading, I realized that web sites really do not look good unless you follow these four basic principles. If you do not align everything the same way on the page be it be horizontal or vertical alignment or baseline alignment, your web page will look very messy. One thing that the article suggests is that you should be discouraged from using center alignment. The article say’s that by using the center alignment, it is weak. I’m not sure if “weak” is the best word to use to describe why you should not use center alignment. I do understand that it is important to have symmetry to a web site to create balance.

Flash Journalism Chapter one

In chapter one of A New Form of Storytelling, I like how the author says under Slideshows with Photos and Sound that “the slideshow format does not constitute a new form of storytelling. By itself, it is simply a new way to present or deliver photojournalism. It was interesting to learn that storytelling has existed since 1855 when Roger Fenton went to Balaclava to photograph the Crimean War. It would be interesting to see these pictures to see how slideshows has evolved over the decades. I also like how the author describes how audio adds another element to the story being told. It stimulates more than one sense that you get by just a picture.

Flash

When you think about it, flash journalism (and audio slideshows, in particular) is a relatively simple idea. There's nothing particularly new about it - it simply combines multiple elements into one running visual and audio product. I usually find it to be the most engaging and effective method of portraying a story, often times even more so than a video clip.

An audio slideshow is similar to video in that they both combine images, natural sound, and the voice of the subject and/or reporter. With the slideshow, however, you have more control over what the consumer notices. Still images are very powerful in the way they draw your eyes to a particular feature, and you are more likely to notice something in the background that you might otherwise have missed. By timing up the audio to mesh well with the pictures, the audience will be more likely to retain what is being said. Also, the viewer can go at a pace he/she prefers - it's a step by step, move-on-when-you're-ready medium.

Other forms of flash, such as an interactive map, are useful in their own rights. Such a map gives users the sense that they are in control of what they're absorbing; this is true of a website in general, but flash can draw attention to the information more effectively in a visual sense. There is no time limit, there is more room to be creative, and it becomes a two-way street in that the reporter is offering up the information and the viewer has to be engaged to choose what he/she is watching/listening/reading.

Flash Journalism

Tyson Sprick
Flash journalism is only going to be more widespread in the years to come. The current amount of interactive graphics and features on the web would have been unthinkable even five years ago. Any major news site has a multitude of photo slideshows, audio, video, and rollover graphics. Some may see the new gadgets as distractions, which is a fair judgment after looking at some sites. Mostly though, I think the technology only enhances the reader's news gathering experience.

I like how we are getting to a point in which all the mediums are combined into one, complete news source. Instead of just watching the nightly news and reading the newspaper in the morning, consumers can now get on the internet and experience the same story in a variety of different ways. Personally, I still like my tangible morning newspaper like a lot of the older crowd, but the Internet just brings it all together for me.

Programs such as Flash are an integral piece in this convergence process, as we learned last week in class by making an audio slideshow and rollover graphic. It gives the reader more than a newspaper can offer, and more news provides the people with a better understanding of what is going on. And that's our job.

Flash Journalism

As the readings point out, flash journalism has created a whole new means of interactive, in-depth storytelling. In the last several years, I've seen a dramatic increase in photo slide shows online. I agree with the author of the chapter one, that photo slide shows can often make good stories even more compelling.

Flash animation allows the user to control how much and which information they absorb at their own speed, which provides "clarity that could not have been achieved in any other medium."

The reading also addresses the importance of packaging and flash journalism. I think the biggest challenge of our final project will be how to organize a nonlinear story.

Week o' whoops

So in the excitement of Thanksgiving break, I totally forgot to blog. Then, I was forced to survive a weekend without any internet. It's harder than it sounds.

Anyway, forgetting to blog is not the only thing that went wrong this week. It started with us trying to add music to our FWB 'pod,' which didn't work out for Monday morning. Then, we had to submit investigative story ideas. Talk about burn out. How do actual reporters do it? I can't even come up with enough solid ideas to fill a semester, much less a whole career? And then the biggest whoops of them all, my Missourian shift.

So, I was supposed to go this MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) event where they were taking those old antique pictures of their kids. Preschoolers. Costumes. Cute, right? I talked to a MOP woman who told me it would be fine to come on Thursday at 3pm. Then, on Thursday afternoon she calls me and tells me that, no actually, I can't come that day, but I could come on Friday or Saturday. But my ride home was already checkin' out early on Friday morning. And the darn woman wouldn't call me back with an explanation as to why Thursday wouldn't work. So that shift went down the toilet.

I decided that I am cursed at the Missourian. Two shifts in a row falling through? That's not normal. Looks like I'll be spending my finals week at the Missourian doing make-ups.

Flash Journalism

Suekyoung Kim

Flash’s popularity comes from the fact that it provides an easy way to control the final look of the documents published on the Web. Its aspect as an interactive multimedia also contributes to its promising future. Interactivity is important because the ability to provide a real user-controlled experience is what it distinguishes online media from other news media. Ch 2 states that while television journalists use the word “package” to mean one finished story that airs during a newscast, online journalists use “package” (or sometimes “shell”) to mean a compilation or set of elements that are all related to one story. The definition of online package implies that journalism can be more flexible, modifiable, selective, and creative in the virtual spaces than in living rooms. This characteristic of online package allows news consumers to engage more deeply with the story and Flash plays a main role in creating online package with its many strengths. Flash has varied advantages for delivering graphical and interactive content online with the help of its large installed base for the Flash player among internet users and its small SWF file size. Flash’s ability to deliver high quality text, audio, video, and photographic images helps secure its status on the Web. Flash also allows its audience to see the content even before its SWF file gets downloaded completely and this means a lot to some impatient internet users as well as its compatibility with other softwares and operating systems.

Flash Journalism

Flash is almost the only form that allows journalists integrate text, still photos, audio, and even video into a single interface to demonstrate and express what they are experiencing to their viewers. For instance, through slideshow, a journalist can easily put photos and natural sound he has already collected or just music which can best match the theme. It is a more simple means than video but sometimes can be much more impactive.

Furthermore, flash allows the interactivity for the viewers. Designers can create elaborate (or simple) custom interfaces for flash movies, with buttons, sliders, and other controls that match the tone and style of the content package.

However, every reporter should make flash package very cautiously, because either music or natural sound may manipulate the viewers' emotion. That will certainly not meet the norm of journalism.

Flash Journalism

I think that flash journalism has a lot of potential in the future of the web. Chapter 1 of the readings mentioned online story packages. I think that these especially have a lot of potential because they provide such a variety of ways for readers to actively engage themselves in news stories. Readers can view photo slideshows, control animated graphics, and listen to audio clippings, among many other options. Interactive elements have a lot of power to attract audience members. While newspapers lose readership and broadcast news loses readers, I think that more people will turn to the web for its variety of ways of communicating current events.

The ease with which people can access flash content (since many people already have the flash player on their computers) also contributes to the popularity of flash content. Chapter 2 of the readings states that flash works equally well on Mac and Windows computers, so users of both types will be able to view flash content on the web. I enjoyed learning how to create simple flash graphics in class, and I think that the scope of creative range that the flash application provides to news organizations will secure its place in the future of the web.

Flash

- Erick Ward

Flash can be a valuable tool for creating any Web Site, but I feel that it needs to be used wisely on a journalistic site. On entertainment or other sites, flash is an amazing tool because it makes the site look really professional and its interactivity is perfect for holding people's attention. All of that is the same for news and journalism sites, but too much flash can take away from the reader's concentration on the news content.

That is not to say that we shouldn't learn as much as we can about flash and use it on our sites, it just means that we have to be careful to use it in the right places. Basic news stories, that are easy to explain and don't have any captivating visual images, don't need flash just to have flash. I think it takes away from the story, when you force a flash image on the reader.

Flash is most valuable in explaing complex images and stories to the reader. For one of my previous post I looked at a Web Site on the War in Iraq and it had a lot of useful flash media. A lot of the pictures were roll over images that gave a better description to what was going on in the image, or had video come up to describe the season. Flash made a complex story easier to understand and made it interesting and captivating to read about.

Flash Journalism: A Give and Take

One thing about the readings that interested me was how different people classified different levels of interactivity. In the end, the author noted that every definition mentioned that the user had some control of the package, but to what degree and whether that control was used positively was left up to the creator.

I see the issue of control as a major issue for web journalism. On one hand, flash websites can be engaging to the viewer and provide a wide range of multimedia to be devoured. Rather than appealing to people who only read, listen to, or watch the news, having a package on the web can appeal to those people while offering ways for the audience to get involved.

But at some point, I feel as though Flash sites can overload on the bells and whistles and the journalism gets lost, and that's where the issue of control comes into play. I feel as though the story should come first and the technical elements should enforce and play to the story, not overshadow it. I think one of the biggest hurdles in our group packages will be not only to produce technically proficient pieces that fit into an appealing Flash design, but to make sure the substance is not lost within the style.

Flash is super

There is a strong need for a knowledge of flash when producing a website. Even though I haven’t yet learned flash in class, I’m very excited about it so I can be able to use it in the final project. The relevance of this technology as I see it, is to make things easier for the viewers. Flash is often used in maps to bring up information about the locations. It is also used to break down harder concepts. Basically, interactive elements help readers connect to the stories and understand the issues. This is an example of animated infographics. Rather than a news package, flash animation allows a viewer to take in bits of information at her own pace. Also, the updates can be ongoing.

Flash adds a lot to websites. For example, flash helps to make websites look cool at the opening of a page. Also, the photo slideshows add a lot to stories to use the voices of those in the photos for a greater impact. The interactive elements are important for viewer response. It is important to realize that there are different ways to tell a story in an online format. The most important thing to do is to pick apart the story and decide in what form will tell the story in the best way. Flash adds to the experience.

Flash Journalism

Thanyarat Doksone

Even though, according to the reading, slideshow is not entirely a new form of storytelling, I still think it is the most interesting approach that convergence journalism can freshly offer. I believe there are countless situations that a slideshow with photo and sound can portray the story in a more compelling fashion than what is seen as the most powerful medium like video. Last week I attended the CPOY judging in the Multimedia Project category from the first till the final round. The top award went to a student whose work was purely based on a photo&audio slideshow.

Also at the judging panel, I had to keep reminding myself that the competition was for students, since I would say most of the works might have been done by professionals. Interactive features, animated infographics, slideshows, texts and videos were incorporated into fine pieces of reporting. Nevertheless, many of those presentations did not make it to the final round for different reasons.

Appealing design can harm your web pages if the viewers are more interested in the design than the story itself. Seeking a unified theme in each project, the judges crossed out many entries whose stories were too broad. Repetition could hurt, too, in terms of the similar patterns used to present the characters in the story.

As extensive as the capabilities of multimedia can go, there is one important issue we have to keep in mind: what is it that we really want to present to the viewers?

flash journalism and its advantages

One great thing about flash journalism is that it does not require as much hustle to get multimedia on the web and save the combined time it takes to produce a TV story, a radio story and newspaper story separately. While it seems that flash journalism still requires the number of journalists specializing in different aspect of reporting, flash journalism allows journalists to reduce redundancy and maximize the efficiency of journalistic work. Despite some features of multimedia, such as web video, cannot be compared to the audience's experiences with wide-screen television, flash journalism does not seem to have significantly reduced the quality of each multimedia component, and provide audiences an one-side-stop experience of news consumption. For the web, flash journalism means more accessibility, better presentation, and enhanced context. For the journalists, flash journalism is a great tool to get information out in optimized formats.

Flash Journalism

The more media consumers turn to the internet for their news, the more they expect, technologically speaking, from the internet. Photo slideshows, animated infographics, and packages are just three ways users can interact with the news in a more interesting way. Often, this means holding a person's attention longer, but it also allows he or she to consume news at his or her own pace and as often as one wishes. It also allows people to interpret many aspects of a story. Unlike newspapers that can only provide text and photos, flash journailsm provides text, visuals, audio, and interactive graphics that expand a reporter's storytelling capabilities and gives the user a complete account of an event.

Flash journalism

Flash journalism is perfectly representative of the evolution of the field of journalism. Above all else, it will allow for two of the greatest values of the Internet Age: Dissemination of greater quantities of information and more user control.

As described in the Mindy McAdams book, among other functions, flash journalism allows us to put together advanced slide shows online and place animated information graphics on the Web. Instead of a radio story or a set of photos in the newspaper, a slide show on the Web can combine photos and sound, allowing journalists to either present more information over the course of one story or to emphasize certain points more strongly than ever before by virtue of making particular points through both audio and photos.

Animated information graphics on the Web also allows us to more options than they do on television, both for journalists and audiences. Using rollover graphics and added animation, journalists can pack more information into graphics than ever before. Given that this added information will require more time to sink in for audiences, the viewer is often given control over how quickly he scrolls across the graphics and as such how quickly he sees the different parts of the animation. This allows audiences both to have more control over the amount of information they take in and how quickly they process it without missing a beat.

Overall, flash journalism will most certainly not hurt the journalistic industry. It has sizable potential upside both for journalists and their audiences, and as we experiment more with it, there should only be more of these advantages that reveal themselves.

Flash Journalism

Flash journalism is certainly a part of journalism that is here to stay about a part of convergence journalism and the future of journalism.

This type of journalism can make our stories so much more effective. Not only that but it can tell a better story for our readers to view and make opinions about. It was interesting to hear about the author's first time experience flash journalism and what an impact it had on him. I have to admit that I am often more drawn to stories with photos and audio is for sure a plus. It seems that many readers are expecting more and more of journalists these days and multimedia is one of them.

I like how the author says that flash journalism changes the experience of the viewer/listener and I fully agree. But photos and audio barely scratch the surface. The author also mentions graphics, which I am also attracted to because some times text is too overwhelming to me and a graphic can help simplify it.

I had no idea that flash started online in the early '90s. It makes me feel old and it feels like convergence is only really taking off. Although flash isn't perfect in terms of working and designing it, it certainly seems the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Flash journalism is part of the wave of future for journalism and certainly isn't going anywhere. Although it may have some technical difficulties, it helps create a better and more effective story for viewers.

Design

While there are certainly basic principles that are vital to good design (alignment, repetition, proximity, and contrast), the best web pages usually end up having a little bit of flair. Unorganized creativity can actually take away from a site - obviously, you can have the world's most creative site, but if it's not cohesive in any way then it becomes useless.

To be creative in design, the aspects of the site that will make it original and visually appeasing must come in addition to solid fundamentals. A flash design or a bright and bold header can't replace easy navigation, but they should work together. By the same token, extremely basic use of those four principles won't catch anybody's eye.

The key is finding a middle ground, where viewers can know what to expect but at the same time remain interested.
For example: A site like USAToday.com works well because it adheres to those principles, but does each in a creative way.
All of the columns are aligned, but they vary in size and flow nicely together. The repetition of colors corresponding to a particular section of the online newspaper allows the reader to recognize the topic of a story. Proximity and contrast are effective all over the site, in terms of size, color, and other aspects.

Good v. Bad Design

Sarah Orscheln

I think in a world where journalism is constantly changing, design is an important principle for the journalistic community to pay close attention to. Regardless of how good the news really is, audiences are not going to pay attention unless news is presented in a fashionable, approachable and accessible manner.

The four design principles (alignment, proximity, repetition and contrast) are taught in both studio art classrooms and web design classrooms as a guide for creating balanced and professional work that is not only pleasing to the designer, but the viewer as well.

It's easy to get caught up in bad design, especially when your the designer. Like in most fields, the creator is not the best critic of his or her own work. Basic design errors include clutter, mismatched color palettes and overly busy graphics that distract from the original purpose of the content.

I think the ongoing design struggle pertaining to journalism will continue to morph over the years. Further research will provide information on what the best methods for recieving information really are, and as journalists, we will have to adapt in order to keep our audience(s) engaged.

"Terrorists Google"

SO much to do and SO little time. This is kind of turning out to be the mantra of the semester. But in the midst of the craziness and sheer madness, I still think journalism is pretty beautiful. Insane and nuts, but beautiful.

Speaking of mantras...my team story for this week is about anti-IED training. IED stands for Improvised Explosive Devices (more commonly known as roadside bombs) and it's these things that cause the most casualties in Iraq. And basically, we're working with officers and soldiers from Fort Leonard Wood here in Missouri, and their mantra is, "Terrorists google." In other words, there is only so much information they can release to us because insurgents will go online and look in news media archives and learn about the techniques and tactics U.S. soldiers are using to counter-act their IED attacks.

Needless to say, this story is intense. We went to Fort Leonard Wood today and I learned so much about the military that I've never even had a clue about. Just being "on post" was a learning experience. They have a self-sustaining community, which comprises of multiple elementary schools, middle schools, a high school, hospital, grocery store, post office, gas stations, etc. You can tell who the soldiers are walking down the sidewalks even in "civilian" clothing - not by their haircut, but by their robotic, yet rhythmic gait. There's so much I could talk about right now, but honestly, after getting up at 5:30 in the morning to drive over two hours a day, running around with equipment on a military base and then getting back to campus 12 hours later, my brain is quite fried.

I just have to say that I have so much more respect for the men and women who are active duty and who are preparing to go serve in Iraq. We only really know the half of it here.

Bad fancy designs

I came across once a webpage which aimed at pointing out bad website designs. http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
Some of them tried to impress readers, but somehow they failed. I don't know what the others think, but I still respect them. Safe choices do not encourage creativity. The people who create these websites probably dare not experimenting. My newspaper has a very boring website layout. It has been used for 7 years since the newspaper was born without any change. It's hard to change it without displeasing some people among our readers. And even from the usablity perspective, the layout has some problems. But people are just too familiar with it.
So a good website, for me, should be one that manages to balance usability and creativity. You might argue : "Look at Google, their simple layout works". Sure, but they has a lot of creativity in that too. The fact that they dared to leave their whole page blank with only the search box and the logo on or the fact that they decorates their logo regularly which is considered a taboo for most web designers (I was told that logos are not supposed to be touched on on a website) are evidences of that. In short, they dare to be different, and that difference works.

Finding a balance

When designing a webpage you have to think about a lot more factors then designing, say, a magazine cover. When people use your webpage they need to be able to navigate clearly and thus a structure and purpose within the design has to emerge just as much, if not more prominently then the aesthetics.

I think this will be the main challenge for the class... Lots of us know how to design things that are pleasing to the eye and lots of us can design purely for function, but the task at hand is to find a balance between both and have a harmonious intellectual design that benefits the viewer.

A good clean website will be more productive then something caught up in graphics and colours, but it has to entice the reader. I am really looking forward to this challenge, it is something unlike anything I have ever done before and I think it will be a lot of fun.

Design

Tyson Sprick

I'm not looking forward to this. At all.
I think that the actual design part of the final project will be the toughest aspect of the whole thing. Really. If you look at a well-made web page, there are so many different pieces in just the right place doing just the right things, and I think that will be hard to create.
That said, I think common sense and familiarity with the World Wide Web goes a long way. Lynda (and the readings) gave us some simple things to remember when designing a web page, and I think at this level following those principles should almost be enough. Lynda made a good point in class, saying that in the "real world" there will be an actual web designer, so unless you're that person, you won't really have to worry about it. Thanks, Lynda, that made my day. But I will try to implement the CARP characteristics, use some common sense, and get some input. I think with that, I should be good to go. That alone will make it better than half the web pages out there.

Good and Bad Design

After reading through these two chapters, I guess our final web pages should be as succinct as possible. The more you want to show off, the more mistakes you will commit.

Those principles of web design are de facto all common sense. Basically we just need to conform to the rule that the web page is a tool for communication between us and viewers, so it has to be easily readable and understandable. If you find your web page annoying or too complicated to understand, your viewers will feel the same way.

But personally speaking, I would prefer some animation in my web pages, in order to make them more vigorous and fun. I noticed that in the “not-so-good” checklist, animations that never stop are supposed to be avoided. It makes sense because animations will detract viewers’ attention from the main points in a web page. But I have a question that how to make our web pages more attractive? If we just totally meet those principles, it is highly possible that our web pages will be sophisticated, but tedious.

In addition, I found it interesting that there are also some mistakes in those examples for good web design, such as the second one. It doesn’t conform to the principle of alignment. So does the fourth one.

DESIGN

Eric Durban

Good and bad design isn't really something that has bothered me in the past. Typically if I'm going to a "homemade" site I know not to expect great design and I'm really only there to get information. However, good design can sometimes make up for the lack or quality of the information. If someone is distracted by the cool graphics or sheekness of the page they could miss key errors. It can also drastically enhance great information or entertainment.

The "Good and Bad Design" article is somewhat scary to think about. There are design things that without seeing them in this article I may not have thought twice about using them on my own site. The checklist may also be very helpful. I am excited though to learn good design and keep enhancng my skills. The possibilities are endless.

finally...

ok so maybe it wasnt my idea...and so what if it took me 10 weeks...my group has finally not had to repitch...woo hoo...anyways on to business

I spent my first shift...finally...at KBIA. It was awesome. Everybdoy is extremely helpful...critical (and i am all about constructive criticism...its just part of the process)...but helpful. They actually liked my story idea, though they didnt use it, they just thought it was a little to...easy. So I spent the rest of my time tracking down head honchos at local universities in hopes of getting a comment on what they do when a professor passes away mid semester...exciting suff.

I am quite thankful that I know how to use cool edit and just a bout any other editing program out there...yes even the $40 you can buy at like office depo that have the really cheesie transitions (I used this for editing movies in high school). It makes like so much easier when I already know how to sit down and edit away at something.

well i'm off to ft. leondard wood...just a stones through away at a 2 and a half hour drive...good bye friday

until next time

Design readings

Jessica Malnik

I learned a lot from these two readings on design. These readings taught me that I still have several things to learn when it comes to producing an excellent website. For example, I need to become more familiar with Dreamweaver and its unique features and capabilities. I, also, realized that design can really affect a person’s view of a website. For example, good design must take into consideration how easy or difficult it is to navigate through the website. For instance a website can have tons of interesting and complex features, such as rollover graphics, but it could be almost impossible to navigate the page effectively. I will definitely take these readings into consideration when we are working on designing our website for our final project.

newbie gitters

Alignment, consistency, repetition and contrast, all flowing from the capstone of simplicity. It sounds easy enough. My concern is making it all happen in Dreamweaver. My lack of comfort with that program is astonishing.

I like simplicity. Thinking back, most of the projects from last semester - Doctor Doggy, the Apprentice and others - feel cluttered or complicated. When you first look at them, it’s like a puzzle your eyes have to decode before you can start interpreting the content. I’d prefer something that’s expressive even at a glance. For rank amateurs like myself, simplicity will always trump sophistication.

Now, if we can just figure out how to create a text that looks like it’s written in yarn.

Good design or bad design

Suekyoung Kim

“The Non-Designer’s Web Book” taught me many elements I should be aware of when web designing. The four basic principles that the book said were alignment, proximity, repetition, and contrast; and it was easy to understand why those elements become basic principles in web designing. By aligning all the text on the same baseline, the strip of links is neater and more organized. When I learned about the importance of alignment and saw some example of good and bad alignments, I could have a whole new different view of looking at web pages. I haven’t thought about mixing up the alignments of texts in a same page is so distracting and unprofessional before. I should keep it mind that everything on my web site has the same alignment –either all flush left, all flush right, or all centered. The book states, one of the elements of good web design is a lack of the elements that make bad web design. As an amateur in web designing, I don’t know much about the professional web designers’ world, but I can at least avoid to be awarded for my terrible web design if I simply go over the checklists in the book and try to stick to the principles. Every web page in the site should look like it belongs to the same site; there should be repetitive elements that carry throughout the page. I need some practice making myself look non-amateur in web designing.

Good Design vs. Bad Design

I am really glad that we got this reading. I am still an extreme novice at Dreamweaver and know that I have a lot of work to do in order to grow and develop in my design skills. The tips offered were very helpful in a fun way, without being preachy (like "this is what you HAVE to do in order to create a good website"). There are a lot of ways you can make a webpage look great and inviting and it seems the most important part is that you have a good eye for design. I realize that I don't have it yet for the web (and my previous Dreamweaver work has been nowhere up to these standards) so this project will definitely be a learning experience in terms of making a page that is both informative and visually-appealing.

Writing for the Package

After reading "Writing the Package," I understand just how important it is to reinforce your words with visuals and vice versa. Visual journalism is a powerful medium, and its strength lies in its ability to tell a story in two ways. This is especially practical since some people are visual learners and others are audio learners. As I worked on my own video package, I made an effort to show AND tell. By giving viewers both contextual clues to tell the story, you increase that article's appeal and understanding. Research shows that most Americans get their news from nightly or early morning broadcasts. This just shows how powerful the medium, if used correctly, can be.

Design: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Looking at the examples of "amateur" websites, I was reminded of all the homemade sites I visited as a kid. I also realized some major design no-nos on my convergence assignments page. The rules in these chapters seem basic and easy to follow. However, elements like clear navigation become a lot more complicated when creating a website for a convergence story. Thinking about the website for our final project, I'm still worried about constructing a site that flows from one aspect of the story to another. Many of the final project websites from last semester seem to reflect this same issue of organization.

Good Design, Bad Design

The two readings on good and bad design were truly enlightening. Often, I visit a web site and am impressed with the visual appeal of said site; however, I struggle to explain why I like that particular site over other less visually appealing pages. Now, after reading the chapters, I can confidently state that alignment, proximity, white space and typography are among the many things that set the good apart from the bad. As we head into our final projects and into our careers as journalists, I am glad to have this vital tool set and understanding in my belt. My page and my understanding of design is undoubtedly improved after reading the articles.

Tanya Sneddon

Good/bad Design

I'm glad that we were assigned these two readings before our final project websites really got off the ground because I'm a slave to so many of the don'ts mentioned in the readings. I've never given a thought to proper alignment, and on top of that I like to center text and use italicized fonts that are pretty but not practical. I learned a lot about the little things that help a website look professional, for example grouping text together in a logical fashion. The main lesson that I came away from these readings with is that most of the time simplicity will trump complexity in terms of web design. Many of the example websites that I thought were the most aesthetically pleasing were very simple and looked easily navigable. All of the tips in these readings will be especially helpful in these next couple of weeks.

Xenia Shih

Designing for the audience

In general, I think good design is like good writing: it should be able to connect audience to the messages and themes of the website.
Let's say, if you are to design for your personal weblog, the first thing you need to think of is how your weblog is appearing to your parents, friends or unknown visitors who share interest with you on some of the things you are going to write. Most importantly, you want to show your personality to these visitors of your website, without overwelming them with all sorts of distractions.
When designing a general news site, media organization should keep their audience in mind: they are not going to be able to see every link to the massive amount of content. Perhaps it is helpful to think of a visitor to the site as an old mom, who seldom goes online, has bad eyesight and only wants to know about the weather. By organizing and minimizing the amount of reading(processing) and navigation the reader has to go through, the website design has achieved its basic mission. Then there's the issue of website identity. Logos and names should be the most eye-catching content on the site, and repeat itself through out pages. The new york times logo might not be the most preferred font on the web, but sustains the sense of its brand. Good design should be able to sustain a brandname or a personality for average audience.

Design

By reading these two articles I saw how much of a difference that good design can have on a web site. Both articles are interesting becaus they show the same page with slight differences, and all of the changes make a big difference on the quality of the site. All it took was aligning text, moving pictures away from the side of the page or any other easy change and the page went from looking sloppy and hard to navigate to professional and easy to understand.

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 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?

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?"