Can the Susan Boyle video be considered a story?

After watching the Susan Boyle video again, and reading a frame-by-frame analysis which can be found here, I find it difficult to classify the video as a journalistic news/feature piece.  Although the video does tell the story of Susan, who comes on to the stage of “Britain’s Got Talent,” and delivers an amazing performance, I feel that edited clips from the television show cannot tell the whole story. 

The video relies on the general public’s knowledge of the show, somewhat similar to the immensely popular “American Idol,” and the fact that the notoriously harsh critic Simon Cowell is featured.  The video does not put into proper context why the story is significant.  There is no information on Boyle’s background, the steps she has taken to appear on the show or whether or not this is an unusual occurrence on the talent show.

I think that a more journalistic approach would cover these topics which require more research, and then only use some bits and pieces from the actual performance, which is long and becomes boring.    The clip itself is interesting, and I will admit to watching it before this assignment, but a journalist story or feature on Susan Boyle’s remarkable performance would require more content.

Examples of exemplary video news stories

When looking for excellent video news stories, the most crucial element is the story itself, and the way it lends itself to video.   A story with interesting visuals will lend itself to video well.  Also, excellent video stories can use voice overs and interviews to convey information to the viewer.  Some of the stories I found that were high quality used a mix of still shot images, moving images and even info graphics to explain what was going on.

1.  The first story I found was from CNN and focused on the possibility of a space shuttle rescue mission.  The video was effective in telling the story, using a moving info graphic to demonstrate how astronauts in space would be transferred from an ailing space shuttle to the rescue shuttle.

2. The second story I found was also from CNN, and was about an orangutan that escaped from an Austrailian zoo. The story used images of other orangutans at the zoo, a voice over and eye witness reports to tell the story of the orangutan’s break-out.

3. I also found an interesting story from Dateline NBC, which focused on an 8-year-old girl who raced cars. I found this story to be the perfect example of video serving an interesting topic, because just reading the headline made me want to visualize what it looked like. The video used the combination of a voice over, interviews and images to tell the story effectively.

Twitter Update

I am now following these additional people on Twitter:

1.  maddow / Rachel Maddow is an MSNBC anchor and hosts the “Rachel Maddow Show” on that network.
2.  KINGJoyceTaylor / Joyce Taylor anchors the Seattle KING-5 morning show.
3.  SIFFNews / SIFF provides news, information and show times for the Seattle International Film Festival. 
4.  SEA_Mariners / An unofficial Seattle Mariners Twitter feed, which provides information on the Mariners and in-game updates.
5.  king5eveningmagazine / Evening Magazine, gives information on the KING 5 program, which is the only TV magazine show in the Seattle area.

Red Square photography summary

While doing this assignment, I realized that Red Square has a lot of interesting things in it that one wouldn’t notice just walking through it. I really didn’t find a story to tell while taking pictures. I was taking pictures yesterday around 7 p.m., and the clouds were starting to roll away, letting the sun come out. This allowed me to take some interesting pictures of the contrasts between light and dark in Red Square, along with some interesting pictures of shadows. I meet a couple of long boarders while I was there and they wanted me to take a very pictures of them as well. My goal was just to take some photographs of a decent quality. I don’t have a lot of experience shooting pictures, so I was trying to keep the fundamentals in mind while I shot.

The challenges that I encountered really stemmed from a lack of experience with the equipment I was using. I rented a Canon Digital Rebel from the STF program on campus, and it came with three different lenses that I tried to experiment with. During the project I learned that I should have taken more pictures of people. I felt too uncomfortable to ask someone if I could take their picture, and it seemed even weirder to just start clicking away without saying anything to them.

Effective uses of Infographics

For this assignment I set out to find three examples of effective uses of Infographics.  I decided that a good Infographic must aid someone in figuring out what is going on with a particular issue.  It should present high-quality illustrations and graphics in order to convey information and statistics.  Also it is crucial to find a balance between the aesthetics and functionalityof the graphic because they are both equally important when creating an effective Infographic.

-The first graphic that I found focused on the swine flu from the New York Times.  This Infographic was effective because it gave detailed information on the outbreak of the flu, and provided a click-able map which highlighted the number of suspected and confirmed cases in that area.

-Another effective Infographic that I came across focused on rising college costs.  Also from the New York Times, the unique feature of this graphic is the user has the ability to insert his own data, and then calculate the cost of college based on those figures.

-The third effective Infographic I found was from TIME, and focused on the first 100 days of Barack Obama’s presidency.  The graphic is unique because it uses photos to represent each significant occurrence, and allows the user to click on each picture for more information.  It breaks the 100 days into three sections, making it easy to use.

A glimpse into the life of a fraternity gardener…

For the audio story assignment, I originally did my story on a member of my fraternity, Adam Garrison, who was recently appointed house gardener.  As one might imagine, the plants outside of the frat have historically not been taken care of, and most were in terrible shape or dead at the end of winter.  Some parents volunteered to plant new plants outside of the house at the beginning of spring, and Garrison has pledged to make sure their efforts do not go to waste.  In the audio story, Garrison describes his initial interest in gardening, having to balance school work with his gardening responsibilities, and the unique challenges of taking care of plants at a frat.  He hopes that through his hard work, he can encourage future residents of the house to take pride in its appearance.

In terms of reporting challenges that I faced with this project, it was difficult to find time to ask Garrison some questions.  When I originally did the interview, he was not available to do the interview.  Since I was working with a deadline, one of my friends familiar with Garrison’s work filled in, but he could not offer the same level of expertise as Garrison, which detracted from the story.  If I had a chance to redo the assignment I would work on getting more ambient noise into the project.  I tried to get the sound of a hose spraying the ground, but I think that the sound is difficult to identify.  Other than that I would redo a few of the recordings of myself.  Some sentences could have been more succinct and recorded cleaner.  In doing this project I learned that properly telling the story is extremely important, and I also got some good experience with editing audio.  Overall, I am pleased with the improved quality of this story versus the first one I did.

Audio Story: File Size 2.95 MB; Time 0:03:12; Download

Journalism 2.0 (Chapters 7 and 8)

After looking at Chapters 7 and 8 of Journalism 2.0 (the whole text can be found here), I came across some key points and techniques for using digital audio and digital photos.

-In Chapter 7,  the author makes the point that since the introduction of cheap digital recorders, reporters can use audio to add another element to their stories, and thus enhance the reader’s experience.  The reporter should be conscious that virtually any computer can play audio clips in MP3 format.  Also, the chapter detailed the advantages and disadvantages of several recorders, and different types of mics to use while recording.  It briefly went over the basics of editing with Audacity, and touched on the ways that newspapers are increasingly turning to podcasting.

-Chapter 8 focused on shooting and managing digital photos.  As with the digital audio recorder, the rapid increase of digital cameras means that photos are always an option for news stories.  Some advantages of digital cameras are you can take as many pictures as you want, and instantly preview them.  Those pictures can be uploading and shared on the Internet, and the photographer no longer has to buy film and print pictures, which can save money.  The chapter also outlined basic shooting tips for amateur photographer.  When it comes to editing photos digitally, the author suggested editing only a copy of the photo, not the original, and gave brief overviews of different software to choose from.

-What I took away from both of these chapters are the way the technology has truly leveled the playing field for journalists.  This cheap technology that has become widely distributed can be used by amateurs to produce good-quality work, something that was not necessarily possible in the past.

Excellent use of photos in storytelling.

Photos can capture aspects of news stories that print stories are missing. As a consumer I am always curious what a particular event or scene looked like, and it is always helpful to identify people in the story. Pictures can portray the mood or tone of the story as well. I found three examples of single photos which added to the storytelling for those reasons.

-The first example was a photo from a Seattle Times story about a ride that collapsed at the Puyallup fair Friday night, where 12 children were injured. The picture is of workers dismantling the ride, which is laying on the ground.  It shows a stark contrast between the fun of the carnival and the reality that these rides do break down.

-On MSNBC.com, I found a story on an attack on a Mexican prison convoy, which left 8 police officers dead.  The picture with the story illustrates the brutal attack, showing a police car that is basically destroyed, and people reacting to the news of the attack in the background.

-In some cases, the photo can be the story.  A picture from CNN showing President Barack Obama laughing and joking with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has drawn some heat from critics.  Sen. John Ensign said it was “irresponsible” for Obama to act friendly to the dictator.

I also found three examples of good slide shows from various web sites. 

-From the New York Times I found an interesting story which included a slide show about the growing threat of black carbon produced by millions of villages in India. The article says the carbon, “is emerging as a major and previously unappreciated source of global climate change.” The slide show goes well with the story because it has several pictures of the pollution rising into the air, and gives an idea of the degree of poverty that is facing these small villages all over the country.

-Another slide show  that was effective at storytelling was one I found at the LA Times site, about the Coachella music festival that happened this weekend. Instead of reading a story about the performances, in this case it is more interesting to see the photos of the different performers and the crowds.

-The last slide show that I felt went well with the story was from MSNBC.com and looked at how the Columbine massacre survivors are doing, as the tenth anniversary of the tragedy approaches. The slide show was able to being with photos from the initial shootings, and progress through the memorials, the students eventual return to the school, and current photos of the survivors. It basically told the story from beginning to end with images.

Listening for good audio stories on the Internet

After struggling a bit to find any audio stories on the Internet, I was able to find three which I found to be interesting and well done. An audio story can be a better suited medium for a story than print when it benefits from interesting interviews or unique subjects.

1. The first audio story I listened to was about Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, who passed away on Monday. Fidrych, was an eccentric pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, who at times would talk to the baseball and earned his nickname “The Bird” from a resemblance to the Sesame Street character “Big Bird”. “The Bird” had his best big league season in 1977, winning AL Rookie of the Year, but injuries would plague the rest of his career. Audio was able to serve this story well because NPR was able to use actual interviews and music, including the sound “The Bird.”

2. The second audio story I found was about Cuban-Americans being split over the new rules the Obama administration has put in place on Cuba. Cuban-Americans are now allowed to travel to Cuba, and can send money back to family members living in the Communist country. What made this story well done is the number of different interviews the reporter was able to include. One Cuban-American was becoming emotional because she now had the opportunity to see her sick mother, something that would not have made the same impact in print.

3. The third audio story I looked at looked at the Portuguese water dog, the type of dog that President Obama recently brought to the White House. In the story, an expert gives the opinion that this relatively unknown breed of dog will become a hot commodity. NPR even throws some puppy noises in the background as the story ends.

Examples of “good” and “bad” multimedia news sites

When looking for examples of “good” and “bad” multimedia news sites, I first decided that I needed to come up with some criteria that distinguishes the two. To me, good multimedia includes diverse options, easy access and it is seamlessly incorporated into the site.

The first example of good multimedia news sites I came across was from the New York Times multimedia page, and I was impressed by the diversity of content. The page features video, photos, interactive features, slide shows and audio slide shows. The Los Angeles Times homepage also provides access to different forms of multimedia, such as audio slide shows and videos to go along with the print stories. The Associated Press website has stories available in photos, audio, video, pod casts and can send them to your phone.

Examples of bad multimedia websites were a bit more difficult to find because of how critical multimedia has become to relaying news on the Internet. While I am looking at Seattle Times homepage, I can find only one link to a story that goes along with video, the rest are links to print stories only. CNN’s website has links to only 4 videos which go along with stories, and it is a news network. MSNBC has more videos, but there still are predominately print stories. One of the videos is of a woman being attacked by a polar bear at the Berlin zoo, which is mildly entertaining.