With the final project we had a chance to apply all that we have been learning this semester.  It was a chance to use audio, video, slide shows and the web to tell a story.  For me the most important part of this project was covering the story itself.  I tend to shy away from hard news, but this was a chance to experience it first hand.  The experience was something that I wont forget.  Recording first hand someones most tragic experience was very taxing and difficult to cover.  Now that it is over I am glad that we were forced to cover a hard news story so that I had the chance to get a glimpse of what journalists do on a daily basis. While the story itself was taxing, getting to combine the different forms of multimedia was a lot of fun.  With every new technique we learn, we a another powerful way to tell a story or another aspect of that story.

Death from Blogging

Journalist new and old are discovering the importance of blogging. This outlet to release breaking news has created a new field of journalism. A field that requires long hours and constant stress. The pressure of producing breaking news stories to earn money to eat and sleep has had a profound impact on some of the leaders of this field. This article, found in the New York Times, covers the death of two prominent bloggers that died from heart problems generally associated with high pressure, lack of sleep and generally unhealthy lifestyles. It reveals a problem that has become noticed in the field of Blogging. A problem of creating an unhealthy lifestyle in pursuit of possible financial rewards generated though blogs.

I suppose I have different tastes that this journalist, but I felt that this feature was dreadfully boring. I do not understand how it managed second place. It was very slow and seemed to be too long. I noticed that a tripod was not being used but there was still minimal camera shake, except when walking. I did notice sequences but I did not like how they were edited together. Also, the 180 degree rule was not followed in this story. I did not find anything that particularly reached out to me. The audio was simple and did not help drive the story and the pictures, while in video form, were very generic. There was nothing that differentiated it from all the other stories about Katrina. For a journalist that carries their camera this much they really need to use a glidecam to steady it when moving. Overall I did not find this an appealing feature.

Below is the link to the story:

http://cdn.washingtonpost.com/podcast/071107-11v.m4v

Today many of us had the opportunity to listen to Aaron Chimbel, a mobile journalist, or a mojo as he called it. It was an opportunity for us to hear from a journalist in the field. A chance to see the persona of what we are learning. Much of what he said was relevant to what we have been learning. The video with his cell phone was something unexpected. Now I’m excited to try that for myself. Something that I took aside from the obvious was his opinion of his video camera, how he preferred having a smaller lighter camera. Overall the entire experience was something to be learned from. Aaron, if you happen to read this, thank you for taking the time to talk to us.

Multimedia is changing the way an audience absorbs information. No longer are people limited to being simply a passenger along for the ride. Now with current multimedia capabilities, audiences can read text, view photographs and video and become interactive with simulations.

In BBC’s Supervolcano, which is devoted to informing the reader about the supervolcano residing under Yellowstone National Park, the audience can read information pertaining to the subject. One can navigate through a photo gallery showing glimpses of what the event might look like. In addition to the information about the volcano, one can play an interactive game that gives a time line of events where you must decide the best way to handle the disaster.

The entire site is more that just multimedia, it is an expansion on a learning tool. Now people do not have to rely on simply reading to find information. Now one can see and even experience the event to help learn the message that is trying to be presented.

The link for Super volcano: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/supervolcano

Here is another example of what multimedia can bring to an audience. For many, learning is not as simple as reading chapters out of a book. It is about the experience and the images that can be associated with a topic that brings knowledge and the ability to remember a subject.

In this site, one can navigate through photos from dozens of subjects throughout history. Once a photo is selected, a brief explanation of what is happening at the time of the photo , giving the reader the context of the image.

It is an brilliant expansion on the power that photography has. Imagery has alway been a useful means to portray the emotion of an event, but with this, one can connect that emotion to the context and understand and more importantly feel the event.

The link of EASE History: www.easehistory.org

I have come across no better subject for multimedia than automotive journalism. It is impossible to get an understanding about what a car truly is by just reading the statistics. This is where multimedia comes in. Finally, there is a way to bring the emotion and excitement of a particular car to an audience that hasn’t had the opportunity to drive it.

Here is a perfect example of what I mean. This is Fifth Gear’s review of the 2008 BMW M3. No longer is one suck with just comparing facts and figures to other cars. Here an audience can see how it handles on the road as well as the track. Even more, the auudience can hear the hum of the engine, the roar for the exhaust note and the screaming of the tires.

I cant remember the hair on the back of my neck standing up from reading the latest article in Road & Track. With this you might just have more than your hair start to rise.

Sitting in my home in relative security, it is hard to imagine a world full of violence and hate. Medias do help to bring that realization into my life, but it is still difficult to comprehend the magnitude of violence that is prevalent in so many parts of the world. Here is video of a public service announcement that is shown on Middle Eastern TV.