Editors' Blog | Journalism.co.uk » multimedia

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to perform integrated storytelling

Rachel McAthy — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:09:14 +0000

In this podcast Journalism.co.uk’s technology correspondent Sarah Marshall finds out some useful tips on the different ways journalists and news organisations can use a multitude of publishing tools to tell integrated stories, across text, audio, social media and video.

The podcast features advice from the integrated storytelling panel at news:rewired – connected journalism: multimedia producer Adam Westbrook, co-founder of Storify Xavier Damman and executive producer for Guardian.co.uk Stephen Abbott.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.Similar Posts:

Beet.TV: Vook on working with ABC News to produce video books

Rachel McAthy — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:37:13 +0000

In this video interview on Beet.TV Matthew Cavnar, head of product at Vook, a company which creates video books, talks about its collaboration with ABC News to produce a ‘vook’ which combines its text and video reporting of significant events.

Recent publications produced by Vook and ABC News, which Cavner claims offers the “360 degree experience of a news story”, includes the capture of Osama Bin Laden and the royal wedding in London.

Cavner added that while the company is looking at extending the platform out to partners, for now it is concentrating on its uses in-house.

Right now we’re really focused on going to a media company, going to a publisher, and saying we’ve got the platform … come work with us and create 50, 100, 1,000 titles because we’ve got the ability to do it.

… We think we’re basically cornering that market of scalable quality.

Related content:

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How to: Make online video storytelling work

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Creative Commons on YouTube

Joel Gunter — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:13:27 +0000

Following on from yesterday’s tip of the day, which looked at using YouTube’s in-house video editing tool, today’s tip is about accessing creative commons content through the video site.

We often use Creative Commons images on our site, and there is a lot of video under a CC license out there too. It’s often difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for under CC, but the library of content is growing and it’s a valuable resource.

The new CC tab on YouTube allows you to easily search for and attribute content, as well as marking your own content with a CC license.

See more on the YouTube blog at this link.

Tipster: Joel Gunter.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.Similar Posts:

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – edit videos in YouTube

Joel Gunter — Tue, 31 May 2011 14:37:21 +0000

YouTube has its own video-editing tool with a host of basic functions, allowing you to rotate and trim, adjust the brightness and contrast, add stabilisation, transitions and audio, and more.

According to 10,000 Words, the tool was soft-launched in 2010 but has been “tweaked and refined over the past few months” to add new features.

A convenient and simple way to do basic editing without having to leave YouTube.

Click here to try it out.

Tipster: Joel Gunter.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.Similar Posts:

Press Photographer’s Year Award 2011 opens for entries

Sarah Marshall — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:57:20 +0000

The Press Photographer’s Year Award 2011 is now open for entries from photographers working for UK media organisations.

With 14 categories, including a Multimedia category and an overall Photograph of the Year prize open to submissions in all other categories.

The competition closes for entries on 17 April, and an exhibition of the winning images will be held at the National Theatre.

Last year David Bebber of the Times was named Photographer of the Year for his image of Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi standing behind protective glass during a military parade to celebrate his 40 years as head of state.

See all the winning photographs from 2010 at this link.

The award was one of two major photography awards to open for entries at the weekend, with the AOP Photographers Awards also inviting submissions.

All photographs entered must have been taken between 1 January 2010 and 31 March 2011 inclusive, but they do not need to have been published.Similar Posts:

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – multimedia tools

Rachel McAthy — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:10:32 +0000

Multimedia: Adam Westbrook has compiled this list of free tools for journalists working in multimedia, from recording and editing programmes to frame counter and video transcoder technology. Tipster: Rachel McAthy.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.Similar Posts:

Poynter: Online video proves big traffic generator for Miami Herald

Caroline White — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:45:52 +0000

The Miami Herald site has seen a 25 per cent increase in visitors as a direct result of using video – making movies the second biggest driver behind its stories.

And it claims part of its success is down to getting rid of reporters and replacing them with videographers.

Visual journalist Chuck Fadely, interviewed on Poynter.org, says having a designated video team frees up reporters to get on with writing and improves the quality of the video output:

Three or four years ago we were training reporters, but we discovered it was like teaching a pig to sing; it annoys the pig and frustrates the teacher. Back then we had a couple of reporters who got it. Since the staff reductions they don’t have time to work on videos, and the quality level was lower, so we’ve basically given up on reporter-produced videos.

While many news sites dismissed video as ineffectual and expensive, the Herald decided to use it to consolidate popular subject areas, increase the time people spent on the site and engage them in new ways.

After showing video for six years it found that sport and breaking news attracted the most viewings, so it concentrated on these areas rather than experimenting. It also started partnering with TV stations to expand its brand.

See the full story on Poynter at this link.Similar Posts:

BBC News launches collaborative multimedia project based on British soldiers

Rachel McAthy — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:57:08 +0000

A collaborative project between the BBC’s video-on-demand team, online graphic designers, journalists, newsgathering reporters and the BBC News channel was launched on the BBC News website yesterday.

The special multimedia report, ‘Life with the Lancers’, follows a year of filming with four Army soldiers from the Queen’s Royal Lancers regiment.

They were given cameras to gather video-diary material, took stills as well, and talked to BBC correspondents at different stages during the year about their experiences. The Army’s combat camera team also provided material.

In a blog post discussing the report editor of the BBC News website Steve Herrmann said the aim was to understand what the daily experience of UK troops serving in Afghanistan “in more detail than headline news reports allow”.Similar Posts:

#WEFHamburg: Staff training in multimedia need motivation, direction, goals

Rachel McAthy — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:01:46 +0000

There has been plenty of discussion about moving digital journalism forward at the World Editors Forum this week, and the first panel debate today looked at the state of new media training and how editors can improve the teaching of their staff to enable full exploitation of the new media environment.

Announcing the results of a survey mainly of North American journalists by the Poynter Institute’s News University, Howard Finberg told the conference that while reporters felt more proficient in multimedia than five years ago they need to be motivated to learn.

The number one motivator for success is “I need to learn”. You need to tell staff there is a reason why you’re getting the training, it’s because we need to move the organisation from here to here. Give them the reasons to learn, give them the background.

He added that “training cannot stop”.

We do not have the luxury of declaring victory and moving on, this is not mission accomplished. What your staff are telling us is that they need direction, they need goals.

Up next was Joyce Barnathan, president of the International Center for Journalists. In her speech she gave four recommendations to editors in summary below:

Train your staff to engage your readers. In her example of Malaysiakini.com, the site found that whenever citizen journalists posted their videos on the site “the web traffic would just shoot up”. Now the site relies on its citizens to surface stories and editors are able to cover under-represented communities.
Train your staff to use new tools – “let me tell you that the benefit of a free web is that there are free resources that you can take full advantage of to make your website more interactive. Don’t have to have a huge budget to gain access to the technology” e.g. Factual, Dataviz.org, Google fusion tables, Wordle.
Train your staff to be experts in areas of intense interest to your readers – Expert reporters are able to find great stories in their field that others may not.
Use the web to train, such as the ICFJ is doing with ICFJ Anywhere which enables the training of journalists in places where it would be difficult to send trainers.

She echoed Finberg in saying that media training is “a moving target”.

You can feel that you’ve learned the tools to get by today, but there are new tools coming out tomorrow. Journalism can be enhanced in this technological area and we can be better journalists if we embrace the new tools and new partnerships.

Finally the conference heard from Tarek Atia, media training manager for the Media Development Programme in Egypt which organises donor programs which have helped to train more than 4000 journalists in four years.

His lessons to trainers were:

It helps to be a journalist.
Certificates matter.
Be patient – “if we had thought after the first 10-20 workshops on the idea of local media, this isn’t working, then we wouldn’t be where we are today, which is that all of a sudden after two or three years of these courses, in late 2008, suddenly there was a breakthrough and several newspapers started producing local editions.”
Breakthroughs happen (see above).

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#WEFHamburg: Multimedia newsrooms vs. online-only outlets

Rachel McAthy — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:56:43 +0000

Multimedia news organisations or purely online outlets – which has the most sustainable model? This was the question posed in this morning’s panel discussion at the World Editors Forum. But before the debate could even begin, the question itself was quashed by Raju Narisetti, managing editor at the Washington Post.

The idea that one of these models is more sustainable for the other is a false choice for those of us in traditional media. It isn’t like we can just dump that and go to the purely online model. It’s an issue of legacy and mindset, the legacy is we all have fairly profitable newspapers to manage in addition to what we do online. We have to embrace the legacy and deal with it, we can’t walk away.

Comparing the models of each newsroom he outlined what he perceives as a different mindset behind online-only ventures which contrasts with that of traditional media.

Most traditional journalists talk about themselves as gatekeepers telling readers what they need to know. Some feel our job ends once we publish. But the online players have a very different mindset, their DNA is different. Their speed is not once a day as some of us are used to. They don’t think of themselves as gatekeepers, more like gate openers. They are much more metrics focused. (…) But there are different standards (…) I am happy to be held up to a higher standard.

Speaking next was Benoît Raphaël from LePost.fr, a news site subsidiary of Le Monde. He explained the theory behind Le Post’s model, which features news curated and aggregated from other sources.

You have to write about the most important topics of the day, so this means that 80 per cent of your newsroom are rewriting news stories everybody else is already writing about and that users can find in real time on Facebook and Twitter. So we felt the best service was to curate these stories from the media and web and then save time for unique stories. Users can help you as you don’t always know how to write stories, but they are experts in their hobbies (…) and this helps us to collect and then add value by finding the angle.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, he added that the model of digitised content is the future for all newsrooms, regardless of the platform or tools used to present it.

You have to focus the production of the news on the digital world, so you have to digitise all of your newsroom and then you can display it and organise it using different tools. A website is a tool, a newspaper is a tool – it’s just an offline browser.

The good question is how can we learn from each other.

More on Raju Narisetti’s comments during the debate at this link.

Click here for more information on how to follow the World Editors Forum with Journalism.co.uk.Similar Posts:

BBC: 100 days of government in 100 seconds

Rachel McAthy — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:23:06 +0000

As the coalition government enters its 100th day in office, the BBC has created a 100 second video slideshow documenting events so far.

The slideshow begins with David Cameron’s speech outside Downing Street as he steps into the role of Prime Minister, before moving through a string of events covered by the broadcasters, from the resignation of David Laws and the “unavoidable” budget to Cameron’s recent visit to Pakistan to discuss the terrorist threat.

See the full piece here…Similar Posts:

California journalism students to be provided with iPads

Rachel McAthy — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:22:37 +0000

Journalism students at a US university will be given iPads during their course to help them learn to file multimedia news stories from the latest technologies.

According to a release on the University of Southern California’s website, students on the Specialised Reporting course will be given the device as part of training to prepare them for reporting from various locations.

Course professor Bill Celis says the students will be encouraged to “push the boundaries” of the device in their production of multimedia journalism.

“Students can file stories from the field that include audio and slideshows. I’m teaching the same vital journalism skills I’ve always taught while ensuring the students have experience in the latest and emerging technologies.”

Hat tip: phoneArena.comSimilar Posts:

Conde Nast appoints new chief technology officer

Rachel McAthy — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:39:36 +0000

Magazine publisher Conde Nast has a new chief technology officer – whose first task will be to manage the expansion of the group’s publications, according to Wired.com.

Conde Nast, which is the parent organisation of Wired.com, announced the arrival of Joe Simon, formerly chief technology officer at Viacom, yesterday. Wired.com says the new recruit will be faced with the job of extending the company’s portfolio onto multiple platforms.

Periodicals of all stripes are staring down plenty of challenges these days, due to the massive proliferation of alternate entertainment and information options in these connected times. But they’re also faced with a major opportunity: to expand beyond the paper and website formats. The iPad is clearly a step forward in this regard, and looks fairly innovative now. But it’s by no means the final word on digital magazine publishing, according to Sauerberg, Jr., who hopes his new hire will expand the company’s reach potentially to dozens of further platforms.

See the full post here…Similar Posts:

Survey attempts to track the changing skills of online journalists

Rachel McAthy — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:57:27 +0000

We know that many journalists today aim to have a finger in every multimedia pie – a ‘print’ journalist wants to understand how to communicate by video or audio, while online reporters should be prepared to build and manage online communities.

The Online Journalism Review is running a simple survey to measure this changing skillset of modern-day online journalists.

A few points, before we get to the vote: First, I’m just going to assume that everyone’s got basic reporting, text writing and copy editing, so those aren’t listed as options. Next, I do not wish to infer that everyone needs to develop all of these skills. Many journalists continue to work in newsrooms where they are expected to specialize. And even independent journalists often can rely on networks, contractors, vendors and open source solutions to cover many of their publishing needs. So if you don’t want help with a particular skill, just leave the box next to it blank.

But the more skills you develop, the more freedom and flexibility you have as a journalist in the online publishing market. I know personally OJR readers who’ve mastered each of the skills listed below, so if you do want to add more to your journalism repertoire, your fellow readers have the capacity to help.

The results already make for interesting reading, with the growing importance of good images and strong communities online reflected in the statistics – so far rated the two top skills mastered by journalists during their career

See the full post here…Similar Posts:

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – multimedia kit list

Rachel McAthy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:00:09 +0000

Video journalism: MediaStorm offers the ultimate kit list for journalists working in multimedia, from cameras to memory cards. Tipster: Rachel McAthy.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.Similar Posts: