Detroit Free-Press uses Intersect to map and document Asian carp journey. My personal critique at 10,000 Words on Free-Press’ use of the storytelling tool. Overall, I don’t think it’s a good medium for the content type, but give them kudos for real-time, on-the-spot reporting.
Student views on modernizing j-education from Lauren Rabaino on Vimeo.
Students at the 2009 Associated Collegiate Press Conference in San Diego, Calif. discuss ideas on modernizing journalism education in the 21st century.
I saw a video on a news site tonight that made me cry.
I’m pretty sure that’s never happened to me before.
On the technical end, the production was nothing special. The editing was good, yet nothing out of the ordinary.
But the video told a story– a touching story about a deaf student on a high school wrestling team.
This is how video is so relevant to us as journalists. Our industry isn’t becoming a trade. A videographer is not equal to a journalist. A journalist gets people and tells their stories. And that incredibly powerful asset can’t be replaced by a million great flash designers or web developers.
So I’m setting a new goal: To produce a video that makes people cry.
Video found via Kobre Guide.
You all probably know from Twitter, but for those of you who don’t: I was chosen as the first intern for the Center for Innovation in College Media.
It’s a huge honor to be a part of the organization, but now it’s time to get to work. I have big plans (which Bryan said were perhaps over-ambitious), but I know I can follow through with it all.
In addition to interviews with media professionals and discussions with students, I have tutorials in mind which will be part of my “Nationwide Classroom.”
How it works
At the end of last year, Emily Kostic (web editor of Rowan University’s The Whit) wrote a blog post about New Years Resolutions for college newspapers. A few things struck me on that list:
That’s right: I said it. After a recent conference call with Adam Hemphill and Miles Skorpen of CoPress, it’s official. The Mustang Daily is switching to WordPress.
The switch away from College Publisher is something I’ve wanted for the Mustang Daily since before I was even a student at Cal Poly. Not that College Publisher is bad; it’s a great starting point for newspapers who are trying to learn the dynamics of the Web. We used to be that paper. Now we get it. Now we’re ready for new things. We’re ready to generate our own revenue and move on.
Plus, WordPress is open-source. College Publisher is far from it. If we want to make changes, we have a world of developers to turn to. With College Publisher, change comes in the form of submitting a query to their support team. That makes it less than easy to be innovative.
This summer I started seriously considering WordPress as a CMS and built a mockup. But there’s a huge difference between saying, “This is what I want to do,” and actually doing it.
Our former online editor created a Joomla mockup last year, just as I had done with the WordPress, and after getting the “Ok!” from our general mananger, his plans went nowhere.
Why? Fear. Fear of not being able to pass down an open-source CMS to future online editors. Fear of failing.
That was the same concern that came up when I proposed the idea of moving to WordPress.
To me, it’s a non-issue. If my future replacement doesn’t “know” the system, then he/she has to learn it.
We’ve all been new to it at one point. The fear of learning something new is possibly what got the journalism industry in the position it’s in now.
After news that CoPress would start hosting college newspapers, I had the final push the editor-in-cheif and I needed to convince our general manager that we’re done with College Publisher.
It’s really a great deal: cheap hosting (off-campus, so we don’t have to follow strict ADA rules and pay the school for space), a support network (so that we’re not relying only on me), and a solid relationship with leaders in college journalism.
Tentative plans set our launch date for March 14. Cross your fingers for us. We couldn’t be more excited.
With our big redesign come huge structural changes. With College Publisher, we were limited to posting stories based on the date of our print issue (although, to be fair, CP5 has improved). With WordPress, we’re ready to move to a 24-hour news cycle where we’re posting news continuously.
Even if your newspaper isn’t planning a major overhaul, you should still consider ending your shovelware methods.
It’s what your readers expect from you. Most students are getting their news online from the local paper, CNN, NYTimes, etc. They’re used to getting news updates all day long, and it shouldn’t be any different with a college newspaper. News doesn’t stop during the day just because the print issue isn’t done.
Of course, the change isn’t as simple as posting news updates throughout the day. The way our process is structured requires copy editors to come in around 5 p.m. to start reading over stories. With their red pens, they sit at a table and edit stories that have been printed out.
Hours are wasted between the first Word Doc printout and the flat printout. Copy editors aren’t done with the final changes until 10 p.m. each night (which is when I post the stories. That’s just wrong).
I have a few problems with this method:
Another way the Mustang Daily is breaking the rules this quarter is through implementing a “track” system for our reporters.
Because the Mustang Daily reporters are enrolled in a class (taught by student editors), they get credit for writing. So the syllabus is structured like any other class: you do a little of everything so you can be “well rounded.”
Traditionally, it’s always (and I mean forever) worked this way– Each quarter (10 weeks) every Mustang Daily reporter writes:
But now we’re breaking the rules. We’re switching it up. Reporters are now on a track system, which works like beats. We have sports writers, news writers, arts writers and general reporters. Each reporter will do two multimedia pieces for their respective tracks.
The system is seemingly common-sense. Reporters build up their contacts in their tracks and get story leads. They get the kind of experience they’d have in a real newsroom.
We made the switch because we had crap stories for our sports section. Reporters who knew/understood sports couldn’t write for the section because they had to fulfill news/arts requirements, and news/arts writers who knew nothing about sports were trying to cover soccer games. It doesn’t work that way.
Yet somehow, for uncountable years, the system continued. Not because it worked, but out of fear of change. Because the world supposedly wanted journalists who could cut out diverse clips to paste into their portfolios.
Well the industry is changing. Physical clips don’t exist (or at least they shouldn’t). Students need experience that reflects the real industry as close as possible. College newspapers need to mirror those industry changes, or even better — come up with innovative changes the professional industry hasn’t yet.
I challenge you to look at aspects of your newspaper that have always been the same, and ask yourself if those strategies still work. And even if you think they do work, come up with ways to make them work better.
Change is the only way to win. Are you up for it?
We dedicated out front page to the election all day, with continuous updates as it all progressed.
An overview:
We also had a live chat using CoverItLive.com which we kept open all night for students to talk about results as they came in. It was far more popular than I imagined it would be.
What I would change for next time:
If I had a team of Webbies it would have been so much cooler. When you’re a one (wo)man band, it gets tough. I also had three other classes on election day, not to mention my second job as a graphic designer. There are some days I wish being online editor was my only responsibility. I didn’t leave the newsroom until 3 a.m..
But enough moping. I’m proud of the Daily’s coverage. I’m shocked that reporters were actually willing to do so much multimedia.
Why it worked
I’m glad to have been part of such a historical election. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.
Guru: Teacher of wisdom, literally, one who takes you from darkness to light.
Richard Koci Hernandez seems to fit that description in the realm of multimedia.
I first met him at an ACP conference in San Francisco last spring. It was the most inspiring seminar I’d ever witnessed. He talked about breaking the rules and going against the grain. He shared his views on the future of HDV instead of DSLRs. His message was sincere and presented in a fresh way. Since the conference, I’ve kept a close eye on his blog and am always interested in what he has to say.
The following is the result of a recent e-mail interview with him:
Richard Koci Hernandez, an Emmy-winning multimedia photojournalist who just left the SJ Mercury News to work at Berkeley, said the switch from the newsroom to the classroom was easy.
“I was already teaching in the newsroom, so it was a seamless transition,” he said via a recent e-mail interview.
Newsrooms are a place where people are constantly testing their boundaries and learning new skills. And their teachers? The Web gods of the newsroom who taught themselves through online tutorials, books and seminars.
And the better the teacher, the better the quality of your content and your Web site.
In a college atmosphere, audio slideshows will probably be the starting point for any online editor who is trying to teach multimedia basics. Here are a few tips for how to do it without going insane:
Understand it
Teachers can’t teach if they don’t know what they’re doing. Make sure you know the basics first. Write out everything you know about audio slideshows. Take a look at a few of these resources:
Be clear
Don’t just briefly explain the concept to your new multimedia reporters. Sit down and really show them what an audio slideshow is. For the little extra time you spend initially explaining the assignment, you’ll save hours and hours later.
Start simple
Assign fluffy, arts-related audio slideshows to take your reporters’ multimedia virginity. Interviews/photos are generally easier to get, so the focus is more on the production end. Make sure it’s not a time-sensitive slideshow. There is nothing worse than trying to teach someone Garageband/Audacity on a deadline (ok, actually there are… just thinking about teaching Flash gives me a headache).
Go with them the first time
Or let them go with you when you’re covering something for a multimedia piece. Let the reporter get comfortable with the process of recording audio that will be used beyond simple transcription.
Editing: No such thing as too picky
Teach it right the first time. Don’t think that a reporter can get away with sloppiness the first time around. It’s hard to break a bad habit later.
Let the reporter control the mouse/keyboard
Be patient
