Problems with homepage assignment

Hey guys,

How's everyone's home page doing? Apparently, I'm having a problem with the resume site. I guess once you load all your files to mydrive, the .doc files are not recognized. Well, we are not supposed to link our direct .doc resumes anwyays, but here's my problem.

This was what I did. I uploaded my main page first, which works fine. But the resume link still shows the .doc file though, which upon clicking doesn't work. Anways, then I go back to my original template, edit the editable region and put my resume "there", save it again, as a template, AND as another html file. I also link the resume section to this page then. After I re-synchronize, and try to run it - it still doesn't work. It's the same home page as before. I am having resume page opening problems - it still shows the link to the doc file, which upon clicking doesn't work. Anyone else having the same problems? Any help on this will be appreciated. Thanks.

Priyom.

For those interested in video production...

...here's a little wish list compiled by the TeleArts DV Rebellion just before the holidays last semester. In it, you'll find everything you need to produce some great video footage, all on a fairly shoe-string budget for those without deep pockets. Consider it a DV survival kit, if you will, perfect for the digital video rebel in all of us, or for the everyday multimedia journalist-whichever title you might prefer.

Video Editing Battle

When trying to edit your video clips - downloaded, tv-tape-computer transferred, camcorder recorded - whatever it is, what software do you folks generally use? As of right now, the two biggest ones out there are Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid Xpress.

I personally have never used Avid Xpress, I have slight used Final Cut Pro previously. But Avid Xpress apparently is sure putting up a good competition with Final Cut Pro today.

Final Cut unfortunately is only available for the Mac, but there Avid Xpress is available for both Mac and PCs. The main question being asked if what is the difference between the two? The answer would be none, according to the information I have found online.

The author of the article Avid versus Final Cut: 2006, Patrick Inhofer, says that "they both get the job done on-budget, and on-time, but when it comes to how we approach our projects or how we interact with the software itself, there are some meaningful differences."

Check it out.

Priyom.

Class Connections

I get so excited when classes intersect subjects because for WMST and JOUR classes to relate is pretty rare sometimes. But low and behold! We watched a video in my Ecological Feminism class not too long ago that is a great multimedia example (I think anyways). It is a slideshow by Annie Leonard about The Story of Stuff - basically where stuff goes when we're through with it and who this might affect. Though you may not believe or find the information valid in this video, it is informative nonetheless and seems to be successful because of the various multimedia tools that it uses. From graphics, audio and video - I don't even know what else, but I'm sure there's more - this 20 minute show is especially fascinating to watch in terms of what they do to illustrate what Annie is saying (with all the drawings and such). Watching this slideshow makes me intimidated and want to learn more about how to do these types of things at the same time. What does everybody else think?

Cape Cod Times

I often find newspaper and other news websited cluttered. I find it difficult to focus on reading with dancing ads in the corners and too many things on the screen at once. I think the Cape Cod Times has a pretty clean, simple site that is easy to look at. The color scheme is subtle, and the site is easy to navigate.

They also have a pretty big multimedia section with videos, audio slideshows and photos.

Athens Banner-Herald goes video

I was talking to John Curry, the director of photography at the Athens Banner-Herald, last night and we got on the topic of video. I told him that it was great the paper was really stepping up to the calls of the industry for a push to video and he paused. He said that it wasn't all that great and I asked him why. John explained to me that he had been sending two photographers to events that he wanted to be shot for stills and video. (That made sense since it would be pretty hard shooting video and with a still camera.) This greatly exhausted his source of staff photographers and he mentioned that he was pretty understaffed this week since they were working on three separate video projects.

So that got me to thinking, should newspapers hire a separate video staff? Should they hire more photographers and teach them video? Where does video fit inside the traditional newspaper model?

p.s. Here's a video that the Athens Banner-Herald posted about the Gym Dogs and the idea behind the "pink out" last weekend.

Source to practice video publishing

I searched YouTube for multimedia journalism and I found a multimedia journalism project that students in Texas did. The video will make you a little seasick, but it reminded me of our discussion about how the Red & Black is not doing video journlism yet. If UGA adopts a Web site based on the Tennessee Journalist site, this would be a great means of training students to do video and other multimedia work for the Red & Black. It was mentioned in class that the Red & Black is really good for students in the job market, and I think that the volunteer-run, anybody-can-do-it site would allow students to practice these skills, post them, and be able to learn the skills to apply to the Red & Black (especially if the Red & Black is worried that posting badly done videos may hinder its reputation).

As our guest speaker, Jim Stoval, said, some of the video content on the Tennessee Journalist site is just students experimenting. He even admitted that not everything was good, but that it was great that the students were at least trying and experimenting and figuring things out for themselves. The example he showed really conveys this point.

Switch Audio Converter

Well, I think I found the free Switch audio converter that Mark was talking about. The one for Mac says it is unlimited in its restrictions, but the one for Windows says it "limits encoding formats after 14 days to mp3/wav." So maybe it will still be useful for our purposes.

-Rusty

Rocky Top

So I was really impressed with what UT is doing online. For those of you who weren't at the presentation, it is called The Tennessee Journalist. I hoped we could start trying it this semester because I am graduating in May, but like Mark said there are still things that need to be figured out. Would people be interested in starting something like it, but not promoting it? I can't believe I am plugging something from UT. To make myself feel better I am going to end with a song my dad taught me at an early age. It is to the tune of...big surprise... "Rocky Top"

"Rocky Top you'll always be 3rd in the SEC, Screw you Rocky Top, WHeW! Go to hell Tennessee."

The "Screw" part has been known to vary on years where UT beats UK.

camcording techniques

So I was watching another National Geographic video, and it's of an eagle hunting for a hare. I was curious to see how close the camera came in proximity to the eagle. Does anyone know how people or video cameras get so close to these animals? I mean, since birds fly, the cameras are right there along with them.

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif"http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/animals/birds-animals/birds-of-prey/eagles_golden.html"

Can't help me-self

Okay, so we haven't really started in with posting multimedia stuff, and I'm sorry if anybody wigs out about this, but I came across a Web site called Vuvox via Multimedia Shooter article. Though the article talks about the currently-in-beta-testing collage tool, I explored the rest of the site. It was interesting. You can basically produce little (hate to use this word, but it's the first that comes to mind) cutesy photo projects.

Anyway, here's an example of one of the simpler things you can do. Click the photos to get closer to them, click outside the photo to zoom out, and, yes, the photos move inside of the frames.



Fun stuff, right? Easy, too -- just create an account, and they'll take you through the process of uploading, editing and "publishing" your work. (I say "publishing" with quotations due to Tuesday's discussion.) Here's another version, a "photo tree" idea, which is more interesting virtually than in reality. In my opinion.



So far, I haven't found a way to edit any pieces post-publication, though that doesn't mean the ability isn't there. Accounts are free, by the way, so feel free to play.

Ciao, folks.

... huffpuffhuff ...

Last post ... don't forget we'll have Dennis Dimick from National Geographic in the lab at 11 a.m. on Thursday, January 31. 

Assignment: All About You

For Tuesday, February 5:

Please record a series of short interviews with yourself answering the question, "Who am I?" This will form the basis for a digital autobiography. Please also collect about 10 digital images of things that represent you - pictures of yourself, things you like, etc. I'll do quick portraits of everyone in class next week from which we'll build some title/splash pages. Anything you can think of, bring it in. There are flatbed scanners in the glass lab across the hall from our lab if you need to scan anything. 

We'll be using SoundSlides to assemble these, it's become the standard for audio slideshows. Free demo is available on the site if you want to play with it. Forums have lots of good info in them, as well.  

Assignments: Web Posting, Audio Editing

Two things to have done by 5 p.m. Friday, February 1:

Web Site: Please have your web site posted to your UGA location. Your main page needs to be saved as "index.html" in order for it to work right. (Browsers will default to displaying it if the URL is incomplete.)  You should have two pages - a main/home page and a resume page, designed off a template with text handled by CSS.

Audio File: Email to me an MP3 file of your dining hall/restaurant sounds. Aim for 30-60 seconds in length. After doing your edits, go to File -> Export as MP3. Make sure you know when you're saving it to. 

A note on Audacity: It does not like to have the project files moved around, so try to get this all done in one sitting.

If you want to do this at home, you can download Audacity from the web. Please follow the instructions carefully - in addition to the main program, there is a "LAME" plug-in you need. Not only do you need to download that, but you also need to go into Audacity's preferences and tell it where the plug-in is. Info is on the site. (Click on "Other Downloads" to get to Windows versions.)

TEST your file before emailing it to me. Nothing is worse then sending out digital stuff that's busted.

Email me or drop by if you have questions or concerns, I'm around almost all the time.

dogs dogs dogs

Right now Georgiadogs.com has a free video up, I believe it's with the gym dogs coach. Anyway, I'd like your opinions on the type of video the i-team has been putting together lately. I have my opinions but would really love to hear what you think as far as the quality and overall multimedia presentation. What are some differences you see between this and say online newspaper video. Also, normally you have to be a GXtra member to watch these videos which is interesting to me because most websites are showing these for free. Obviously its the tension on trying to make at least some money off of the internet.

Gaming Consol Modifications

For those of you folks that love video games and like to buy a lot of games specially, you might be interested to check this out. How many of you have heard about "modding your consoles"? Like have your PS2 or Xbox 360 modded to play pirated games?

If you don't know what this is, here's the explanation in brief. "A modchip (short for modification chip) is a small electronic device used to modify or disable built-in restrictions and limitations of many popular videogame consoles. It introduces various modifications to its host system's function, including the circumvention of region coding, digital rights management, and copy protection checks for the purpose of running software intended for other markets, copied game media, or unlicensed third-party (homebrew) software." - Wikipedia

So basically, what a mod chip manfacturers are trying to say is, if you can burn your ps2 games from a friend or from the store, or buy boot legs for $2, why not do just that instead of pay $50 for it? They are trying to getg you to buy there product, yet, you as consumer, technically will be saving LOTS of money in the future with this investment as you will not be spending the bulk on buying games anymore.

The website I came across is modchipstore.com

They currently have modchips for all video game consoles except the PS3. Let's see how long they take to figure out one for that.

Priyom.

Blogging done right

I was interested in looking for blogs that dealt with technology related material. Last year, I remember the editor of Wired magazine toured the school so I checked out their website and they have about 12 different blogs dealing with technology. I found the blog entitled Danger Room was especially interesting. It deals with technology in the military. There's a video of the fighting in Somalia posted that has been created by Noah Shachtman, the creater of the blog. It's pretty detailed and intense.

Ada Web

Not long after the first multimedia web browser was introduced, artists began using the web to promote traditional forms of art like painting and sculpture. However, soon they began to use the web as a medium for new art. In May 1995 ada’web was released to the world. Ada’web was a site where artists worked with computer technicians to produce works of art online. It was run like a gallery with a curator for several years and has since been acquired by the Walker Art Center. It is interesting to see what has been done in the past with online media. The site can be a little confusing to navigate, but it was created as an art site, not a traditional, informational site.

Each time you enter the site the page looks different. If you click on the the a, you will get to the index page, and you can navigate from there.

In the index under projects, I think "loaded 5x" and "blindspot" are really interesting.

http://www.adaweb.com/

A gathering in yonder mountains ...

So, up in the mountains, every year, a big group of photographers, editors and videographers get together and learn from one another. This is the first year that multimedia journalism was included in the mix at the Mountain Workshop. I think some of the pieces are pretty cool, though my computer might not be cut out for the layout/design of the site.

I found this through the Mastering Multimedia blog that I tripped across a while ago. I haven't really had the time to fully explore the site, but all I know is that the guy who runs it, Colin Mulvany, is the multimedia editor for the Spokane, Washington, Web site spokesmanreview.com.

take-away concerts

Some French people made this huge series of videos which are like mini-concerts on-the-go. There's pretty much no editing except in the beginning when they intro the band, and the camera is sometimes shaky and/or swaying but it's always in motion, but I think the informal way of filming goes with the informal way of playing, and it includes all the ambient noise of the bar or street or wherever as part of the show. I watched some of these at work today w/ headphones on and forgot where I was for a few minutes. They're very nice. I think there've been spinoffs of this idea but I haven't checked em out. Question. How sweet would it be if someone did this with Athens bands? Answer. Way sweet.

Beirut plays "The Penalty" in a bar


Grizzly Bear sings "The Knife" on the street

Arcade Fire plays Neon Bible in an elevator and Wake Up in a huge crowd

and I really like when
Vampire Weekend plays "Mansard Roof" in a van thing

Chattanooga Times Free Press reports on snow (and ice, oh my!)

A good friend of mine happens to be interning as a photographer up (and over) at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. As such, I tend to check their website on a regular basis in order to check up on mi amiga. As I was perusing their multimedia section, I spotted this great two-day package on the snow that hit the south a few days ago.

What do you think? I'm not too sure how I feel about the layout of the package, however, it is something that I've never seen before. Is it effective?

Yet another TNJN post...

As I'm sure everyone who attended the guest lecture today is already well aware, the TNJN website pretty much blew me away. All of the features it packs (multimedia support, clean and easily navigable interface, etc.) screams a certain level of professionalism most wouldn't expect of college students. This pic shows off one of my favorite features of the site-the photo gallery viewer. Though it may be fairly simplistic in design, I really haven't seen this type of photo viewing plug-in implemented in many other websites, particularly student-run websites. Click a photo to view, and it appears front-and-center in the middle of the screen while everything else behind it dims to provide emphasis. Simple...practical...genius...I'm liking it.

ASSIGNMENT: Audio, Web Pages

Assignments for Tuesday:

AUDIO: Detail, natural sound from a restaurant. Change into a register, sizzle of a griddle - things that would help tell a listener where they are without being told that's where they are. Also look for some ambient, background noise - something you could run quietly throughout a piece.

WEB: Two web pages, designed using templates with editable regions. One should be a main (or home) page, the second a resume page. Think about the navigation scheme, how it would expand to cover other pages (stories, photos, videos, etc.)

Hit me with questions. I'll be in my office Friday after about 1 until 4:30 or so if you have issues.

Today's Guest Speaker, and bringing this to UGA

I was looking over the Web site from our guest speaker today, the Tennessee Journalist, and I am interested to see what we could do with a Web site like that here at UGA. While the Red & Black may see the site as competition, I don't think the paper has a lot to worry about. For one thing, the Red & Black pays for most of their content, except for the opinions section. The student-run Web site would be a volunteer effort. One conflict I do forsee is that when you work at the Red & Black you sign an agreement that you will not work for any other publications. Would this Web site be considered such a publication--that we would have to choose between the two?

Grammar Girl Podcast

For those that don't know, Grammar Girl is a podcaster that talks about common grammar mistakes. It's pretty interesting because they are mistakes nearly everyone has slipped up on before, so it's a good listen. Sometimes she'll even talk about the origin of a particular word, and you'll almost always leave learning something new.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "But, Rusty, I freaking HATE grammar." Alright, I understand, but hear me out. In our field, almost all of us have to proofread or copyedit in some form or fashion, whether it's our own stuff or someone else's. In fact, everyone should browse the top 10 podcasts to see if there's anything they're not up to snuff on. Also, if you don't want to listen to her talk, you can simply read that episode's transcript.

What made me think of this today was a horrible ad in The Red & Black. I noticed it yesterday and today, and it may have been in there more days for all I know. Basically it was ad for apartments which read in HUGE print: "Athen's Best Student Living." Coincidentally, the most recent Grammar Girl podcast topic is apostrophe usage.

-Rusty

Lab Hours

Please note this semester's lab hours:

Monday, 3:30 to 6:30
Tuesday, 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

If you talk loud....

I am sure some of you have seen this, but hopefully this is new to some. The blog, Overheard in Athens, is a hilarious account of mainly college student's conversations around campus. Next time you're on the bus be careful! You never know who might be listening.

Ira Glass videos

Here are the links to the four Ira Glass interviews, they're each about 5 minutes in length. We'll talk about these next Tuesday.

Section 1
Segment 2
Portion 3
Episode 4

Presentation Schedule

Sked for your presentations:

Feb. 5: Jared, Hanna
Feb. 12: Krista
Feb. 19: Rene, Adam
Feb. 26: Beth, Sara
March 4: Rusty, Anna
March 18: Becky, Allison
March 25: Jake, Jake
April 1: Matt, Priyom

Found

Richard Koci Hernandez (whose book I brought in last week) had mentioned during his December trip to the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar that he was working on a video on found things. It's up, it's weird ... I like it ...

Is it journalism? Yes and no. There's a story, there's a curiosity factor that's sated. Does it mean anything? You decide.

NYTimes multimedia

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/photo/2007_YIP_FEATURE/index.html#washington

Thought this was interesting. For the multimedia projects, NYTimes has audio playing and the viewer scrolls through the pictures instead of it being played automatically...humm

Web design

Here is a website that might be good to look at as we are all coming up with ideas for designs for our own sites. It lists the top ten worst web sites of 2007 and some things not to do when designing a page. It's good to think about the design and aesthetic of other websites when trying to come up with ideas for your own. The worst sites are usually cluttered and not easy to navigate.

www.webpagesthatsuck.com

Geotagging with a purpose

Geotagging -- also referred to as "geocoding," is the process of taking a location on an online map and linking that location to an article or website. We've talked about it in various degrees in classes, and it's a pretty cool idea, but this is one intense way to use it.

Ushahidi is a Web site dedicated to tracking the violence in Kenya via geotagging. They allow people to update the map with icons designating everything from peace efforts and property loss to riots and rape. Keeping with the interests of my previous entry, people can update the site by getting online or by SMS.

The day after I finished reading In the Hot Zone, I turned on the television while making lunch, watched five minutes of news on the Kenyan violence, and got convinced the world is doomed. Seriously, I was this close to breaking down in tears ...

Planet Earth

This is for all of you Planet Earth lovers out there. Planet Earth, a television series on the Discovery Channel, proves to be just as amazing on the web as it is on TV. I came across this website and spent a long time playing on it. If you ever have a chance, I think it is worth while to do a little research on how the series was made. It took years, millions, and a lot of patience. Check this out, and more importantly watch the show on an HDTV. It will change your life!

ted and boogie

http://www.ted.com/index.php/
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. This is more in the IDEO train of thought, not so directly multimedia related - every year there's a TED conference where a diverse group of amazing people come and give talks on really cool ideas and this website has videos of all of them, fo' free! Speakers have included Chris Anderson(editor of WIRED), Jane Goodall, Bono, Richard Dawkins, & lots of people who aren't famous but maybe should be.

boogie
This is hard to explain with words. It's the website of a guy who does lots of intense documentary photography of people in urban settings. There's photos from NYC, Tokyo, Brazil, Cuba & other places, but they're all black & white, and the more arresting ones depict marginalized people living gritty urban lives. The main thing that amazes me is how he got access to all these places and got his subjects' trust - there's gang members, drug addicts, prostitutes... he just hangs out with them and takes pictures. here's an audio slideshow where he narrates about what was going on in a few shots. Side note, the audio thing isn't completely G-rated, and some photos on the site are kind of hard to look at as well.

From one thing to another ...

Okay, so I've really been getting into designing and making a Web site, and one thing I noticed was that the program I've been using has the ability to create sites/slide shows/basically-anything-you'd-really-want which can be sent via MMS, a descendant of SMS, and, yes, I will explain those.

र्गुना उन्न्फ़ ज्न्फ़ एव्तुग.

SMS, according to our dear friend Wiki, stands for "short messaging system" -- what we think of as basic text messaging. This led to the newer version, MMS, "multimedia messaging service." While SMS is just text, MMS is capable of sending video, photos and audio, as well as text. It's all lower quality than what one can get via a half-decent laptop, but it's also quicker and more readily accessible.

One use -- real estate agents can now use MMS to send virtual tours to peoples' phones. Another -- Pizza Hut is now letting people order via text message or mobile web. The New York Times does it, too, as does the Washington Post and the LA Times.


Now, back to the Web.

Jodi Levin

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/health/20080115_TRENCH_FEATURE/index.html

It's a voice audio slide show featuring Jodi Levin. She's a therapist that works with patients who have brain injuries. The feature story made me respect people with her occupation a little bit more because of the time and patience they put in to help others.

I just had to...

Just out of curiosity, I checked Wikipedia for "multimedia journalism." While I found nothing directly related, I did find a page about the Berkeley program that Sara wrote about. Hey, if they have their own Wikipedia page, we should have one too!

That aside, I was checking out the Berkeley page, and I found a tutorial called "What is a Multimedia Story?" that has tips about what sort of stories make good multimedia projects, how to make storyboards and what equipment a journalist needs to do multimedia fieldwork.

Washington Post Photostories

I've always been impressed by The Washington Post's online content. They take it to heart with audio slideshows, chats with reporters and videos. Here is a list of some of the photo stories they have done in the past. It's a great way to learn new things.

On a funnier note, and this has nothing to do with the class, but I was bored and looking through youtube videos. It's okay to laugh because no one was hurt or killed.

History of the Fortune Cookie

Multimedia journalism is not just limited to hard news stories. As you can see at the New York Times, you can create an audio slideshow about something as seemingly insignificant as the history of the fortune cookie. It's short, to the point, and interesting. While you should always try to set your sights on big projects, it's little pieces like this that seem like they would be easy and fun to complete, quickly racking up a huge library of audio slideshows.

-Rusty

About Mark E. Johnson

Hi guys,

I almost forgot about this week's post, things have been so busy. But I got reminded thanks to our instructor Mr. Johnson's email.

Interestingly, I decided to do a search on Mark E. Johnson, and I came across his website apparently. It contains a very nice biography, his resume, a gallery of awsome pictures. Hope you all will enjoy taking a look.

http://www.mejphoto.com/bio/index.htm

Tapeless Acquisition

I attended a post-production conference in New York this past October and one of the most exciting ideas presented related to the field of digital video production was that of tapeless acquisition. While the miniDV format has made possible the production of TV-quality video by even the most amateur user, the format isn't without its fair share of flaws. Drop frames are a huge problem that plague even the most experienced editors at one point or another, and sometimes the 60-minute tape length just isn't long enough for certain users. However, one of the biggest pains of working with miniDV is the amount of time required for capturing footage prior to editing. If you shot 30 minutes worth of footage and plan to import all of it into Final Cut, plan to sit there and watch your computer screen for a solid thirty minutes (not including the initial logging time) before ever getting a chance to start cutting the material. While DV is great on so many fronts, stories (from a journalistic perspective) only maintain their relevancy for so long, and thus the most efficient work flow requires the shortest possible time between when the footage was shot and the package is edited. With tapeless acquisition, such latency and downtime is eliminated altogether. You shoot straight to hard disk versus digital tape, and with a solid FireWire connection, your footage is on your computer and ready for editing in no time. This article from 2004 gives a fairly solid overview of the pluses and minuses of both the miniDV and tapeless work flows, and while it is somewhat dated, most of the facts remain accurate, with the exception of the price points listed for some of the hard disk drives (they're still somewhat pricey, but not nearly as bad as they used to be-and the long-term benefits far outweigh the initial investment, hands down).

If Berkeley Can Do It, So Can We

So I was searching on Google and I happened to type in "multimedia journalism" into the search tool. A slew of pages popped up, but one of them that caught my eye was the Knight Digital Media Center Multimedia Workshop offered to graduate students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

The workshop offers several courses in subjects ranging from reporting to video to photography (eh, I think they meant photojournalism), even web design.

I thought you all would like to check out it, especially considering we're all undergrads and we're learning the same stuff.

Kind of makes you feel proud, right?

Dreamweaver in SLC

Hey, so as per the topic of "is there dreamweaver in the SLC?", yes there is. In the digital media wing on the third floor, on the right wing of the SLC the computers all have Dreamweaver. There's a good plenty of them to go around, if you'd like to be using some of that sweet sweet HTML coding juice.

Circulation Numbers

So, you've found your newspaper in one of your states, how do you check the circulation to make sure it's small enough? You can look on the site (areas for advertisers might list it), call the paper to ask or head to the Drewry Room and find a copy of the Editor & Publisher's International Yearbook - it lists all of the circulation numbers you'll need.

It's hidden on the wall with the windows - fourth bookcase over from the left, second shelf up from the bottom. There's a series of them with bright red bindings.

(Since I was there, I looked up my hometown newspaper that, when I worked for them, was a 35,000 daily ... they're down to 24,000 ... yikes.)

Oh yeah, the class web page ...

Some of you have found this, some of you haven't, but in addition to this blog there's also a class web page that has links to the syllabus, the Journalism 2.0 PDF and some of the presentations from class.

Multimedia Piece about LOVE

Everyone experiences the good and bad of LOVE, whether it's a tiny crush to the real thing.
It took me a while to find something related to Multimedia that intrigued me, but I won't be surprised if this intrigues you too.

Photographer Jodi Cobb "scoured the globe to document how people define love and how it fits into their lives" according to National Geographic.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0602/feature2/multimedia.html

It's a presentation of her photos mixed in with her explanations of the certain country or culture she got to capture. Love really is different around the world. She explains love from it being impossible to possible, to how it changes, and even covers arranged marriages in India to bride shopping in China and to the "real thing".

It's pretty interesting.

Guest Speaker Jim Stovall - Thursday, Jan. 24, 11 a.m.

I had hoped to have him here on a Tuesday, but Thursday is the best we can do. This will run from 11-12 on Jan. 24 in the lab, hopefully most of you will be free and able to drop by.

Professor Jim Stovall will describe the Tennessee Journalist, the student news web site he created at the University of Tennessee. Prof. Stovall was the brainchild behind Dateline Alabama and runs JProf.com, as well. He'll be here to talk with us about student news web sites and is a jack-of-all-codes, so to speak, and can help us think about what we're doing in the Multimedia Journalism class.

This will be open to all students so invite friends from other areas.

For the star gazers out there

So...I look at the Astronomy picture of the day. I know, but it Facinates me! Here's what happened this year
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/year2007/?msource=mm122807&tr=y&auid=3279828

My last first post

So I've had my last first week of class, and already I'm behind. I believe this was supposed to be up last night...but such is my life. I also, just minuets ago, had to transfer funds into my account because I've been overdrawn for the past week. TMI? I'm normally a schedule fanatic - apparently I needed a wake-up call after my break. Well, I'm awake, and broke.

I'm a senior graduating in May with a double major in Publication Management and Sports Business with the Photojournalism emphasis. I work in the Sports Communications office as the sports photographer for all athletics at UGA and truly love my job. I can't imagine doing anything else, in fact... let's not talk about it.

I'm from Thomasville, a small southern town in west Georgia, and I'm pretty sure there's a news letter sent out by mother that fills the city in on my life. The requests people send me are pretty weird, but almost flattering in a "they think I'm really important and can do this for them" kind of way. I have developed a passion for photography over the past few years and am working on a way to convince Mark to let me borrow some equipment for my Europe trip this summer... it'd make a great multimedia peice.

Photo Essay

Continuing on the topic of the photo essay, which we touched on a bit last semester in Photojournalism, here is a good example of a photo essay on the war. I found it on the Time website, which frequently has good multimedia stories. It shows a lot of the elements that we as a class tried to master to make our photos effective. Look for framing, stop, pan, blur, and light in the pictures. I am hoping everyone in this class has taken Photojournalism!

Allow myself to introduce...myself

My name is Allison Tonini (Toe-knee-knee). I am from Louisville, Kentucky, which is home to the Kentucky Derby, Louisville Slugger Baseball Bats, and bourbon. I am a senior, majoring in Newspaper Journalism and minoring in English. My ideal job would be to work for a small daily newspaper in Colorado, after I graduate in May. I decided to take this class after hearing Mark talk about it in Photojournalism class last semester. I think it will be very beneficial to have multimedia skills in this ever changing field. I'm looking forward to the challenge of becoming less technologically impaired.

Troubles at Grady Memorial Hospital

I found my multimedia package at NY Times as well - you may already have read about how Atlanta's Grady Hospital is in danger of closing because of financial problems. I picked this just because the topic hits close to home, and I'm glad someone like the NY Times decided to cover this story. This is about a 3-minute slideshow with narration - this is kind of an obvious thing (never made an audio-slideshow before), but it made me notice the importance of timing and coordinating audio w/pictures, like shots of Pamela Vaughn working whenever Dewan mentions her.

Grady

Accopanying article

NY Times Multimedia Features

Ok, so I'm slipping in here by the skin of my teeth right now, but anyway. I'm so impressed with the NY Times Multimedia options and Features. They have made various slideshows under different categories like "National" and "Washington" to compile their "Year in Pictures". It is is unique to me because they have the actual photographers of these pictures they show talking about what they've seen, their experiences, etc. It gives readers the opportunity to get a perspective that they might normally never get (as I said in a comment to someone's post on the National Geographic multimedia features, which are equally as impressive).

My personal favorite slideshow on the NY Times site is the one covering "Iraq & Afghanistan".

My personal favorite slideshow on the National Geographic Magazine Multimedia site is the Bethlehem in 2007 A.D.

 

Myspace and HTML

I learned about HTML by posting on a video game message board when I was in middle school, and that was pretty nerdy back then and is just as nerdy now. But Myspace is less nerdy and is exposing its users to basic HTML. There are even Myspace help sites available for users who want to get really creative, like this site here. Just by playing around with some of the example codes provided on sites like that one you can learn a fair amount about how HTML works. Myspace is a strange place, but it's an educational place too and it's cool that it's teaching internet users from all walks of life, especially kids, HTML. We're lucky that this class is available to us journalists because I think we'll need it just to keep up with our readers/watchers/listeners.

Jake from Cohutta

My name's Jake Clark and I'm from Cohutta, a loose confederacy of fields in northwest Georgia just a few minutes from the Tennessee line. I enjoy playing around with computers and programs and I'm excited about taking this course. I just finished an internship at Creative Loafing last semester where I worked with their online production department, so I know a little about this stuff, but the opening powerpoint in class listed several programs that I am completely unfamiliar with.

I'm not too good at any one thing, both in general and regarding my chosen profession, so I like to call myself a jack of all trades. I think this class will boost my jack of all trades cred so that when I go to apply for a reporter job, if nothing else I can say that I have various levels of proficiency with several different tools of the trade. That's about as career-minded as I get, though. I'm really taking the class because it seems interesting and fun.

Introductory Piece

Hello...Hi, well, my name is Beth Cooper. I'm from the great speeding trap and cultural melting pot of Georgia. That would be Pendergrass, Ga. if you couldn't guess (I had faith, but I thought you might need a hint). Um, I'm taking this class because 1) it will (hopefully) give me an edge in selling myself to potential internship opportunities, employers, etc., 2) I need, I repeat, need to become more computer literate (I have procrastinated for far too long regarding technologies and such. Clinging to my computer retardedness, if you will,  is no longer a valid excuse I've learned - despite the fact that digital really scares me for some reason), and 3) although I hate the whole tedious process of learning new things and being an extremely slow learner, I think that this class will be one of the very few that will make me feel like I've really accomplished something and created something, well, creative and all my own, oh and I almost forgot 4) it catapult me (against my will) into the 21st century (I know - korny - but give me a break, ok?)  

National Georgraphic: Technology story

This is a photo story that I recently read in National Geographic. It deals with the disposal of electronic waste. I found it interesting. The story touches on the illegal world of people compiling parts and using them to refurbish older computers and televisions before selling them off in poorer countries. Also, the piece deals with the difficulties in recycling the materials.

Introduction

Hi my name’s Adam Lipper. I’m a senior majoring in magazines. I’m also majoring in sociology, mainly because I came in with a lot of hours and had no idea what to do with them, and minoring in German.

It seems at Grady there are numerous things the professors say you must do if you want to be journalist. You must spend half your days reading the newspaper, you have to have worked at five internships... Now it seems we must learn how to report on the web. While I’ve taken their advice to heart, I haven’t spent too much time learning how to report on the internet. I hope this class will provide me the sufficient skills needed to become a journalist or at least give me an advantage over other aspiring journalists.

Blu-ray: "Come with me if you want to live"

While this may only be loosely connected to our class, it looks like Blu-ray may have rounded up almost all the major movie studios to its side. Warner has already announced its alliance with the Blu Brigade, and it seems that's all that was needed to tip the scale. Now it appears as if Universal's exclusivity contract with HD DVD has expired, with no attempt on their side to renew it. Are we seeing the remaining studios follow in Warner's footsteps? If so, how long before DVDs go the way of the VHS and Blu-ray steps in to run the show?

-Rusty

Simple Web code

Antiquated though it may be, building your own website from scratch can help you get a better understanding of internet language. Although most cars now are automatic, those who drive manual still insist that they have better control and that it is more fun. The same idea applies to web design. The "view source" option is indeed very helpful for taking an idea you like from a website and making it your own—but only if you know what you're looking at. While it may be simpler to use a page builder, you'll have more control and be able to do more with your page if you understand what the page builder is doing. There are some codes that are very similar, but in some cases, one may be better than another. If your page builder defaults to a certain code, and this code isn't working out for what you want, it would be great to know how to manually tweak the code a little for that desired effect. These skills might not be necessary for basic blogging, but if you want to have your own website where you can host some of your work for others (including potential employers, etc.) to see, learning more web code can give you that pizzazz you need. That said, if you are interested in becoming more familiar with code, but aren't quite up for reading, say, HTML for Dummies, there are plenty of free web tutorial sites you can check out.
Kudos, Jake, on the hidden messages ;)
Some of these include EchoEcho and W3 Schools. You could read through the tutorials and take the quizzes and become an expert, or you could simply refer to some of the code charts, such as this one about HTML Hexcolors to get that perfect shade of blue you want.

Introducing... Rusty Bailey

Hello All. My name is Rusty Bailey and I'm a third year Magazines major. I'm from Hiram, Ga. and a devout video game fanatic. I came into college with the initial goal of landing a job at a video game magazine or Web site. I've now broadened my goal to working at an entertainment/tech magazine or the variety section of a newspaper. So far I've written for about 5 gaming Web sites, with the most current one being WorthPlaying.com. I also write for The Red & Black, focusing on gaming or geek related articles.

I decided to take this class because I enjoyed the time we spent in Photojournalism creating audio soundslides. I liked telling stories in a different way than just using words and I really wanted to do more work like that. And what better way than using video?

-Rusty

A Multimedia Story

I really enjoyed this multimedia piece about farming in Ohio. It is not on a news site, but it is an informational piece. I really like that it combines still photography, video and audio to tell the story. I am very interested in this kind of storytelling. The many visuals combined with the voices of the farmers themselves is a very effective way to portray the information.

Soil of Athens

Multimedia...

Here's a link to a section of the website for UGA's New Media Institute. This particular page features a number of informative public awareness pieces that were all filmed using cellphones with built-in video cameras. The film-shorts were then edited in Final Cut Pro and compressed down to much smaller sizes so as to optimize for distribution to mobile, video-capable devices and platforms, such as cellphones, PDAs, and iPods. The project, called the Mobile Media Workshop, was designed and carried out to show the new and powerful ways in which technology can be used to disseminate news and information, with emphasis placed on the growing importance of mobile video and the fact that improvements in technology allow us to no longer be limited to the TV or home computer in our search for video-based information and entertainment.

Get Your Multimedia Kicks Here

You must check out MediaStorm for all things multimedia.

In particular, you must watch The Ninth Floor by Jessica Dimmock

I grabbed the summary of the piece from their website, so here it is:

In 2004, anywhere from 20 to 30 young addicts lived on the ninth floor of an elegant narrow building overlooking Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The squatters had turned the sprawling apartment into a dark, desperate and chaotic place.

People hustled, scored, shot and smoked wherever they could. Friends conned each other for their next hit. They slept on piles of clothes on the floor. The power was shut off; the bathroom unusable; the kitchen filled with garbage. Anything of value was sold off.

For nearly three years, Jessica Dimmock followed this crew documenting what happened to them after eviction, how they fought to get clean, sank deeper into addiction, went to jail, started families and struggled to survive.

Intro Post...

Hey everyone,

My name is Jared Bargiel and I'm currently a 4th year student here at UGA, just now starting what unfortunately looks to be my last semester at the university (not quite sure if I'm ready or not for the "real world" just yet...scary and exciting these times are indeed...). I'm a Telecommunication Arts major and Film Studies minor, focusing the majority of my studies on film and video production and hoping to one day work as an assistant camera operator on various major motion pictures. Ideally, once I manage to get my foot into the door, I would like to work my way towards becoming a director of photography at some point. Big dreams...I know, but just remember my name for now...I can assure you it won't be the last time you'll be hearing/seeing it...I'm also a self-proclaimed video game junkie and an avid fan of electronic music, specifically trance (originally a guilty pleasure that I'm now no longer ashamed of...and I'm just now starting to produce my own tracks as well, so who knows, maybe one day I'll live the dream life doubling as a world renowned filmmaker and DJ). And for the record, though I'm originally from Ohio, I consider Alpharetta, GA my hometown.

The main reason I chose to take this seminar is simply due to the fact that UGA offers practically no interesting classes as far as general electives are concerned, and the ones that might be interesting are always booked full on day one of registration. That being said, I've grown tired of signing up for classes merely in exchange for the credit hours they provide. I'm the type that would prefer to invest my time and effort into a class I feel I can actually pull something away from, and this seminar seemed to fit the bill. Though I've done a fair bit a work as far as video is concerned, I'm really not as acquainted with other modes of multimedia production, such as podcasting and web design/development, as I would like to be. So my goal for this class is to enhance my overall knowledge and understanding of these various modes of multimedia content distribution, rounding out my current skill set and hopefully giving me a little extra edge once I'm out there and fending for my own on the job market.

Introduction

My name is Krista Franks, and this is my last semester at UGA. I am majoring in magazine writing and fabric design and minoring in Spanish. I am from Peachtree City, Ga.

Although I am most interested in writing, I realize that technology plays an important role in journalism, and I want to gain a basic background in the kinds of technologies that will help me in my career as a journalist. My goal eventually is to be a free lance writer, writing about art.

CNN supposed to be the most unbiased of all news sources?

Yeah ok, well that may have been the norm in the past, this clip should make one think again.

This clip shows how CNN edits an interview with WWE Superstar John Cena to get their perspective(CNN's) out strongly to the public, instead of actually giving out the true message.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8FXMxmNIhL8

Priyom.

My intro post

Hi guys,

I'm Priyom. My home town here is in Locust Grove, Georgia, but I am originally from Dhaka, Bangladesh, where I was born and raised.

I am a Telecommunications major along with a dual degree in Finance, and I am taking JOUR 5990 as an elective.

Let's all have fun blogging now. (I hope)

Priyom.

Allentown, Penn., Morning Call reorganizes

According to a memo posted on Poynter, it's a major upheaval, similar to what Gannett has been doing. Note this part:

"Reorganizing some functions within the visuals department to better support digital initiatives, including investment in more than 40 video cameras to be deployed this month in the newsroom."

Hey, video's important ...

Multimedia

One of those multimedia pieces that caught my eye and made me go "Dude, this stuff is so cool" is a piece on folks in a trailer park who are being moved because their landlord sold the land on which the trailers sat to developers. It's called "Uprooted."
Another interesting piece is called "Nawlz." Look it up.
It has a very cinematic feel to it, and seems very artsy at times, both to good effect. I really enjoyed this.

Howdy, y'all

My name is Jake Daniels, I'm a junior majoring in magazines with a photojournalism emphasis, and I'm from some vague area around the border of Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. I'm also in the documentary photojournalism class, 5370. Also, there will be, as far as I know, 2 Jake's in class and we're both taking 5990 and 5370. Confusion may ensue.
You found the secret text. Congratulations.
I got into photography in high school at the behest of a pair of my uncles, one an artist and the other a construction crew supervisor. I bought my first SLR that summer and have since had a camera within arm's reach at all times. Though I started out wanting to be a strictly still photographer, I've been looking at multimedia work over the past few months and find myself getting very excited about it. The excitement probably all stems from how much of a geek I am -- I love tech stuff, refer to most electronic devices as "toys," and get a kick from learning to make my computer sing and dance.
Look at more posts to find the answers.
It looks to be a fun semester.

Journalism 2.0

Here's the link to the Journalism 2.0 "text book" we'll be using. The PDF is about 2.0 MB so it should download down pretty quick.

Please go through the introduction and chapters 1,2,3 and 5 for Tuesday. You can always read ahead if you want.

Greetings Earthlings

Matt Mammola is my name, majoring in Telecommunications.

This course seems like it could turn out to be helpful in a number of ways. I haven't ever had the opportunity to wield one of those awesome still-cameras that you PJ folks get to rent during your PJ studentry (jealous of that I am) , so I am especially looking forward to getting to pretend for a short period of time like one of those is my own.

Introductory Piece

My name is Hyunah Oh, and I'm a 3rd year student pursuing a dual degree in publication management with an emphasis in photo journalism and speech communication. I plan to work for a fashion magazine. More specifically I want to be an art director of one, but if that doesn't work out, I might just go into law.

I really, really enjoyed the photo journalism course from last semester. I love taking photos and collecting different/unique cameras.
I'm taking this class because I was kind of put into it by the department. To be honest I wanted to take the documentary course; however, I'm looking forward to learning about multimedia. It's something I've never tried and should know. Sooo I guess I'll learn as we go. We are guinea pigs after all...

Introductory Piece

My name is Rene Lautenschlager--at least until November (when I am getting married.) I went to Peru this past summer with my fiance (we got engaged in Machu Picchu) and his family. I am 22 years old and I am from Athens, Ga. (Hopefully you know where that is.) I will be graduating this May, majoring in newspapers with photojournalism emphasis and minoring in Spanish and linguistics.

I am taking this class because I still don't feel like I've found my niche in life (career-wise), so I like to try new things and see what I can do with them.

Intro entry

Hi, I'm Anna Rodriguez from Columbus, Ga., which is around three hours south of Athens, and has a new restaurant like, every time I go home. Most recently, I ate at Red Robin with my cousin. It was pretty good.

I'm taking this class because although Intro PJ was intense, I really enjoyed it because it was a different kind of work (like, the not boring kind). I hope to do more of that sort of thing this semester. Also, I like experimental things in general, probably because I have trouble focusing for too long on one thing, or I guess in this case one method of storytelling. I like to think that this is not ADD, but a zeal for exploring all the tools at my disposal.

My name is Sara, I've got an "s" in my name....

I'm Sara Guevara (no blood relation to Che, however, he was my father-in-law's second cousin....go figure). I'm from Doraville, Ga., and if you've never heard of the place, let's just say I'm from Atlanta. I'm 22 years old and I'm studying magazine journalism with an emphasis in photojournalism. I'll be graduating in May (that's right, I'm a 4th year senior, bask in my glory). I've been shooting for a little over 5 years and I'm still learning everyday. It's my belief that when learning stops, so does life.

I guess I decided to take this course because I realize that I can't just hide behind my still camera forever. It took me a while to get into the digital age (yes, I have worked in a darkroom), but now that I'm here, I'm ready for everything technology has to offer. I've always wanted to learn how to shoot video, so here's my chance. Look out world, I've got a new toy.

Welcome notes

You're going to get an invitation to join the jour5990 blog here in a few minutes. You'll need to have a Gmail account to do it. If you don't have one, let me know and I'll send you an invitation for one.

Once you've signed in, please work on making two posts by Friday at 9 a.m. The first is just an introductory piece - who are you, were are you from, why you're taking this class. Once you're in the create-a-post section, you'll have to give it a title and there will be a block to type in. At the bottom will be a section called "labels" - one of the important parts of blogging is labeling stuff. For your intro post, type in your last name to create a label for yourself. Then, on all of your future posts, make sure you use that label and any other appropriate ones. (Each post can have multiple labels.) That allows readers to sort by any of those labels.

On your second post, you'll need to have a link to another site - something relevant to things we'll be discussing in class. It can be great multimedia pieces, tech stories - whatever you think fits. If there isn't an obvious label there already, make a new one. (I'll probably fill in some basic ones on Wednesday.) (Or post this email on the blog as a reference piece.)

To link to another site, highlight the text you want to be the link and in the tool bar above where you're typing you'll see a piece of chain - click on that and you can paste in the URL for the web site. That's all you need to do to link.

For the Mac users, Firefox works a little better than Safari on some blogs. This one usually works okay with Safari, but if it does strange things (like not showing you the tool bar), try it in Firefox.

Happy blogging.

-mej