HAM420 Convergent Journalism

Greg Ulmer Remix

Analysis of an online news site

http://theage.com.au

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/

http://www.abc.net.au/news

http://au.yahoo.com/

http://ninemsn.com.au/default.aspx

Answer the following with examples where possible

What is the structure of the front screen?

What categories is the news divided into?

How closely does the site resemble the print/broadcast entities associated with them?

What new media elements are present? How are they integrated into the site? Is content being pulled from other sources?

How is hyperlinking used? Internally? Externally?

How web aware is the site – use of XML, search customization? How well does it work?

Describe the use of layout, graphics, design, typography?

Describe the quantity, position and type of adverstising – how well integrated is it?

Shooting your video

In groups of 4, you are going to interview one member of the group about the findings of the class exercise.

This exercise is designed to get you used to the cameras you will be using in your assignments and to introduce some concepts in relation to video techniques.

After recording your interview, capture the footage to a computer using Movie Maker or iMovie (only available in the Mac lab).

Upload the footage to Youtube.

To retrieve the footage you can use, Vixy Converter available at http://vixy.net

Read this helpful tutorial between now and next week
http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/video/shooting_tips/

You can download a User Manual for the camera here

Welcome back (or just welcome!) to semester 2 and convergent journalism. Here’s hoping we can work together to create some interesting and innovative materials this year.

Your tasks today are as follows:

Visit each of the following sites

Our website: http://www.swinmc.net/motif/

Our blog: Yes, you’re already here but have a look around!

Our Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/convergentjournalism
Username: convergentjournalism password: ham420
Add a photo of yourself – I’ll have the camera ready!

Our del.icio.us account: http://del.icio.us/convergentjournalism
Username: convergentjournalism password: ham420
Add one link by next week

Create a Uniblog account for yourself

Go to http://uniblogs.org/wp-signup.php

Create an account and add the following information to your blog:
- who are you (background, interests, likes, dislikes, etc)
- what are you studying at Swinburne
- what are your strengths/skills
- what do you need to build on/want to learn
- post your notes on the reading here for discussion in week 2/3

Reading and viewing for next week:

Barons to Bloggers: Confronting Media Power The Alfred Deakin Debate book series, volume 1 (Class handout)

Media Watch Special on the Future of Journalism

Adrian Miles

Adrian miles is coordinator labsome honours studio RMIT university, where he specialises in videoblogging, networked literacies and pedagogies.

New Media Chap 8

Terry Flew, author of New Media: An Introduction has updated this title and here is a sample chapter

 Link for class http://www.swin.edu.au/sbs/media/motif/video/

Apple’s Guide to Getting Started with iMovie
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovie_HD_6_Getting_Started.pdf

Video Shooting Tips
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/multimedia/tutorials/shooting_tips/

This is a fantastic basic resource that covers all of the tech stuff you need to know – but remember, the best way to learn to is have a go! It’s never as complicated as the books make it sound!

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/interviews/sound.html

A more techie but very simple intro to sound, lighting, editing and tips for interviewing.

Online newswriting shares characteristics of newspaper, broadcast and public relations writing, three topics covered in many “News 101″ classes. Online journalists, whether professionals writing for http://washingtonpost.com or “citizen journalists” self-publishing at http://blogspot.com, also practice the fact-gathering and fact-checking skills learned in reporting classes, as well as the headline, caption and summary writing taught in editing classes.

Read more >>> 

A general guide for word/time length
Video – no longer than 10 minutes
Audio – no longer than 10 minues
Text interviews – no longer than 2000 wordsBlogging and news

1. Interview a blogger from a mainstream news publication (audio or video)

2. Interview an academic about blogging and news media (audio or video)

3. Undertake a 3 minute vox pop about blogging (audio or video)

4. Write a 200 word introduction to blogging and news

5. Create a timeline of key moments in the history of blogging

6. Compile a list of important sites/articles about blogging and news (10 minimum)

Some starting points for research

Just what is a blog, anyway? By Michael Conniff
Defining this variable form is not easy in the highly opinionated blogosphere – nor is it simple in the increasing number of newsrooms that are in embracing blogging.
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050929/

Bruns, A., and Jacobs, J. (eds) Uses of Blogs (New York: Peter Lang, 2006)

Hands-On Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting : Emerging Media Tools for Business Communication (see handout)

Citizen Journalism

1. Interview a journalist from a mainstream news publication about the rise of citizen journalism (audio or video)

2. Interview a key player in a citizen journalism project (audio or video or text)

3. Interview an academic about citizen journalism and news media (audio or video)

4. Undertake a 3 minute vox pop about citizen journalism (audio or video)

5. Write a 200 word introduction to citizen journalism and news

6. Create a timeline of key moments in the history of citizen journalism

7. Compile a list of important sites/articles about citizen journalism and news (10 minimum)

Some starting points for research

http://del.icio.us/tag/citizenjournalism

Bruns, A., Gatewatching: Collaborative Online news Production (New York: Peter Lang, 2005) and also his blog http://snurb.info/

Hyperlocal Journalism

1. Interview a journalist from a mainstream local news publication about hyperlocal journalism (audio or video)

2. Interview a key player in a hyperlocal journalism project (audio or video or text)

3. Interview an academic about hyperlocal journalism and news media (audio or video)

4. Undertake a 3 minute vox pop about hyperlocal journalism (audio or video)

5. Write a 200 word introduction to hyperlocal journalism

6. Create a timeline of key moments in the history of hyperlocal journalism

7. Compile a list of important sites/articles about hyperlocal journalism (10 minimum)

Some starting points for research

Margaret Simons is a former Age journalist and current research fellow at the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne. She is currently undertaking a project on focused around hyperlocal journalism.

http://del.icio.us/convergentjournalism/hyperlocal

Jay Rosen’s Press Think blog
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2006/08/08/pl_bass.html

New tools and new journalism

1. Interview a key thinker about the phenomenon of crowdsourcing (audio or video or text)

2. Write a 200 word introduction to crowdsourcing

3. Compile a list of important sites/articles about crowdsourcing

4. Interview a key thinker about the phenomenon of podcasting/videocasting and news (audio or video or text)

5. Write a 200 word introduction to podcasting/videocasting and news

6. Compile a list of important sites/articles about podcasting/videocasting and news

7. Create a timeline of key moments in the history of podcasting/videocasting and news

8. Interview a multimedia journalist from one of the mainstream media organisations (audio or video or text)

9. Interview a journalist about the changing nature of their work as a journalist (audio or video or text)

10. Interview a digital media producer about the possible uses of mapping technologies such as Google maps in news production (audio or video or text)

11. Compile a list of important sites about mapping technologies and news

Some starting points for research

Crowdsourcing
The Rise of Crowdsourcing
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html
Crowdsourcing: Consumers as Creators
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jul2006/id20060713_755844.htm

Videocasting/podcasting
Vodcast.tv directory
http://www.vodcasts.tv/category/18/News
BBC’s guide to vodcasting and podcasting
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/askbruce/articles/video/podcast_1.shtml

Multimedia Journalism
Interview with Tom Kennedy, managing editor for multimedia at Washingtonpost.
http://www.thepomoblog.com/papers/10Q6.htm
Interactive Narratives
http://www.interactivenarratives.org/
News University
http://www.newsu.org/courses/course_detail.aspx?id=ucknight_multimedia07

Mapping Technologies
Cool uses of Google Maps
http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/002626.php
Newsmap
http://marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/

EPIC 2015
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/epic

Interactive Narratives
http://www.interactivenarratives.org/

Society of News Design Award winners
https://www.snd.org/competitions/sndies.lasso

Online Journalism Review’s links to multimedia stories
http://www.ojr.org/archive.cfm?topic=multimedia

JLab’s Cool Stuff
http://www.j-lab.org/coolstuff.shtml

Join the News University
http://www.newsu.org/profile/

and take the Course “Steps to Multimedia Storytelling”

I have updated the Motif site and added your names to the motif team on the about page – as well as made some changes which we will discuss in class on Wednesday.