One week down, many to go

I feel a sense of relief that my story partner, Lindsey, and I were able to complete our first team story. I know it is only one week in, but I have already learned a lot about everything ranging from making phone calls to what to look for when taking photos to using new audio editing software.

I learned to be patient when waiting for people to call back, but to also be proactive while waiting--send e-mails, thinking of every person imaginable that could be contacted. Once I figured this out, I was able to obtain a lot more information much more quickly. Also, I learned that it is necessary to STAY in one place while taking pictures, so that you are able to get a better feel for the environment and the people you are trying to capture. Angles, many shots, and patience are the key to successful photos. I also had the opportunity to use the long lens, where I learned that distance and focus are important. We had some struggles with saving correctly in Adobe Audition and ended up voicing over at KBIA, which proved to be beneficial because we were able to familiarize ourselves the super nice staff and how things work at KBIA.

Overall, week one of stories was both a challenge and exciting. I am anxious to learn more about the intricacies of Adobe Audition, the long camera lens, and how to work those new video cameras, as well as continue to improve my interviewing skills.

Writing for video

It's actually really difficult to switch from writing for print and writing for a visual medium. You have to understand that people will get bored if a script has too much information that isn't interesting to the viewer. I think that many people have a much smaller attention span when they are watching a video compared to reading a print article. Because of this, it is essential to make the audio for videos interesting and brief in order to capture the viewers. I've also noticed that people sometimes just repeat what the interviews already say and that to me just seems pointless. I think that if you are going to do voiceovers at all in a story then it needs to be worthwhile and actually add something to the story! 

-Lauren Stine

Quealy's article

When reading Quealy's article I found myself completely agreeing with many of his opinions. Sometimes when you are constructing a website your brain runs faster and thinks of more graphics than you should really be putting on one page. You can clutter a page with too many graphics or too many interactive objects. In class when Lynda showed us the various newspaper websites the one with the waving american flag sticks out in my mind as a good example of this point. Quealy explains how to cover a topic and compile all of the information onto a webpage without over doing it. This will be useful information for all future convergence projects and really make me think before I create a new graphic or bury something 5 clicks deep into the page.

interactive-ness?

I believe that interactive graphics can add a ton of information to a story, allowing people to understand it that much better. However, more and more people are using interactive graphics for stories that don't necessarily need them, making the stories over-flooded with information that doesn't add anything to the story.

"...data alone does not make a graphic useful." That is something that most people forget when it comes to implementing an interactive graphic to run along with another story. Giving the audience too much information can confuse them when your main goal was to make it easy for them to understand everything.

Almost there

This work was a little confusing in terms of the focus of our story. We had to shift it midway because of some things we discovered when we were reporting. Lyndey and I were also trying to get a more personal aspect, but the interview we had fell through on Tuesday night. It still turned out alright and the two of us spent a lot of time at CMCA this week and really learned a lot.

I had a Missourian shift this week. Tonight I am going to the wine festival to do a video, so I hope that turns out alright. Other than that, Courtney and I will be doing a midwifery current tv story. It's the last week so I hope everything goes smoothly!

Don't be lazy!

In my opinion, interactive graphics are one of the best perks to come out of the new direction of news and the Internet. They are one of the few ways that news organizations have actually been able to make the news more, well, interactive. News has traditionally been a story told in a linear fashion; however, information graphics allow the reader to use the information that a journalist has gathered in order to tell a story that interests them.

The fact that readers now have more of a choice to decide what they get out of the news brings up an interesting question though; just how interactive should news be? The job of a journalist is to gather information relevant to a subject or event, and use it to tell a story. If journalists gather tons of raw information, but do not put it in perspective, then I do not believe they are doing their job. People read the news in order to find out why the things that are happening are important to them. I think that it is great to offer people the ability to discover things for themselves, but do not let this new ability take the place of good journalism. Interactive graphics are a great addition to any story, but it is not a substitute, and it is not an excuse for lazy journalism.

Infographics

From: MinLo
Just like the article mentioned, info graphics can be very helpful or extremely distracting. Prior to the article I hadn't really thought of info graphics as a deep database full of information. I want to be able to make them because I think it would be nice to have the ability to compliment a story with a graphic (and not have to ask someone to do it).
I think even a simple graphic could add something to an internet text story... I go back and forth though... I think sometimes we (as journalists) dumb everything down, and I guess that is our job, to make the information easy to digest. As a part-time pessimist, I can see the the quality (of information, not necessarily the look) of info graphics declining like television and everything else. Sorry, Debbie Downer moment.