Digital Eye

In a Skype conversation, guest Marianne Stefonowitz spoke about the site she works for, projeqt.com.

The site focuses on storytelling, in particular the personal story, or a digital biography of sorts.  “Your story is who you are,” the site explains, “and how your story gets told is just as important as the story itself.”

Stefonowitz, director of brand communication with Projeqt, explained how Projeqt works and what they hope to do with it.  Through Cloud, Projeqt has picked up many platforms, including RSS and Twitter, to help diversify the content and variety the platform consists of.

One interesting asset of Projeqt is the ability to include a story within a story.  What this does is add more flexibility and depth to stories, allowing the user nearly infinite possibility for how they tell their story.

Zite, Stefonowitz shared, was one of her favorite apps for social media.  Zite groups news and information by categories, taking specific news from all sorts of platforms (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and compiles them in an easy to use and navigate program.

Stefonowitz has found that, as users have begun working with Projeqt, they have found more options and uses to invite different kinds of work.  Anywhere from business advertising to fictional or photographic storytelling have popped up.

After looking at the versatility and simple format that Projeqt.com possesses, it’s safe to assume that this is most definitely a better storytelling program than something like Storify.

Andy Card with President George W. Bush

When Card was informed of the second plane crash, he immediately believed Osama bin Laden was behind it.  Card took charge, calling in the F.B.I. and several other sources he knew the President would want to contact as soon as he was done reading to the children at Booker Elementary School.

Asked about what roles he had in informing the President on vital matters, Card explained that,“the main job of the Chief of Staff is to tell the President everything he needs to know — not everything he wants.”

Card went on to discuss his personal relationship with Bush, and how they had to put a momentary hold on their relationship as friends when he was chosen as Chief of Staff.

Toward the end of the interview, Card revealed that — as Chief of Staff — he knew things even the President wasn’t aware of. He related this to threats to the U.S., and how in day-to-day life, there are constantly potential threats looming that never even reach the eyes and ears of the public.

Terrifying.

Working with digital media for almost 16 years between The Washington Post and now NPR, Mark Stencel spoke Tuesday of the changes in journalism, primarily with online media.

Speaking about NPR, where Stencel currently works, he explained how much of the funding NPR gets comes from donations by individuals.  NPR does well because of traffic.  Literally — driving and traffic help add and keep an audience for them.  Their one major problem with listeners and viewers was attributed to the lack of a working web presence.

By gathering new skills for digital online news, NPR has taken leaps in being a large news-breaking online presence.  Directing their attention to mobile space and news, NPR is a pioneer for smartphone news consumption.

News stations can put their audio to be shared with smartphone viewers, who can use it much like TiVo does for television.

All of the experimenting with new digital media has been akin to learning a new language.

The world of journalism is becoming more complex.  News groups are working together, and often share video, audio and images that force journalists and companies to make several ethical decisions: 

• Should they share x video with y news station?
• What images work where?
• Stories of different topics get different duration online

With science, a subject NPR focuses on, they use animation and video to help explain stories with difficult ideas, and can be made a valuable and relavent story.

Historically, NPR required great audio for them to put out good news.  Since they’ve gone online, however, they have to now produce good news in all media.  NPR, along with any other news source, wants to be the source people go to for breaking news, in any format or platform.

Don’t cover events — cover the implications.  -Matt Thompson

For 31 years, Brad Kalbfeld was a distinguished correspondent for AP in Europe, including in The Vatican and in Poland.  Author of the Associated Press Broadcast Style Book, Kalbfeld shared a wealth of historical information and the ever-changing world of journalism.

Kalbfeld discussed the use of technology in his coverage of the Pope back in 1982.  His laptop of the day was in fact a typewriter — a clunky device not quite as convenient or portable as his MacBook today.

His audio tape recorder of the day was clunkier, and even heavier.

He went on to show us the complicated and cumbersome laptop that was actually a big leap in utility and convenience for his journalism work, though to the more modern journalist it looked simply archaic and indiscernible.

Back in the day, Kalbfeld explained, the equipment for a journalist was heavy, expensive, and not easy to access or use.  These were all a huge contrast to his next example — his phone. The Iphone was his next piece of show-and-tell, and  showed just how fast and easy it is to work and communicate as journalists today.

This was all done to explain how the modern world of journalism has changed.  The new model for journalism skips out on many of the filters, editors, and other controls for what is shown or shared with the reader.  This has caused a scrambling from the major news corporations; and the editors that were once empowered are now at the mercy of the writers and even non-journalist writers.

The editors are no longer in charge of what’s available in news.

• How can the editors compete?
• Readers now judge what they read and drive the process
• Changes how news is spread and the quality of dissemination

We, the up-and-comings, the diverse, the readers and the fans are now the face of journalism.

• We make the judgements
• We have control of what is news
• We have power where the readers/viewers of the past didn’t

This is a one-click world, and news writers have to compete for their audience more now than ever.  One advantage to this is that people who once didn’t have the voice or ability to share their expertise now do.  There is source material from all sorts of people, both experts and those who share a great interest on the topics.

The citizen journalist brings a huge advantage to the dissemination of news simply because they are present.  News groups don’t always have such wide access — they only have a certain number of reporters.  Where these groups don’t have the ability to cover as much as they want, the citizen journalist is almost certainly there.

Judging where the news is coming from, the credibility and scope of the source, has become paramount to housekeeping for the expert journalists — and even how news is viewed in general.

A graduate from GMU and a comm major, BJ Koubaroulis has been named twice as Alumnus of the year.

As a journalist, most often you can expect you’ll start from the bottom, which is what Koubaroulis said is an experience valuable to a developing journalist.

After realizing he wasn’t cut to being a super-star journalist, Koubaroulis began searching for a way to excel and make himself stand out.

Video was his answer.

With the Washington Post, he didn’t feel he stood out to his editors until he began to really utilize video to illustrate his stories.  Making the video tell the story that doesn’t just regurgitate the writing adds depth and a different angle.

For him, the video production that he does which makes him unique is the speed with which he can produce it.  For the high school sports he enjoys covering, the video he puts up is generally there within two hours.

One video project BJ does involves the Capitals, where questions are presented to the players in the locker room.  What makes this interesting is that the questions are taken from fans who submit them.  This allows a great interaction between the audience and the Post.

The journalist of today needs to learn and have all the skills that the maybe five journalists in the past had.

• Video editing and production
• Reporting
• Writing
• Radio

Be everything! You are your most important tool.

Many video journalists work alone today, there is no longer the need for a second person to shoot video or find audio.  Anyone can be the full package with all the new technology today, and there are four vital points necessary for today’s journalist:

• a camera,
• a computer with multimedia software,
• a microphone,
• and the will to work hard.

One place to go to help find the tools to succeed as a journalist – B&H, Photo Video Digital Cameras.

Encourage yourself to jump into the media platforms you’re not used to – help yourself by using these for the final project!

With 19 years exploring the digital world, Mark Potts was a fountain of knowledge for our online journalism class.

Wikipedia is one digital source Potts opened with, explaining that, although it isn’t seen as your typical source for news, it is in fact a very reliable and informative source.  He stressed that it may not be the best place to go for a primary source, but it is definitely something that shouldn’t be disregarded.

The Washington Post has used Facebook as a means of storytelling, annotating certain pages and people to create a unique look at a story.

Potts deemed Storify as a sort of ‘flavor of the month,’ and it may not be the most suitable platform for all types of stories journalists write.

One good way to get the readers to participate and help journalists build a story is by crowd-sourcing.

• Find out what’s happening on the ground
• Ask the audience to give you their perspective
• Enrich your story with visuals that incorporate info from the reader

The hyper-local news trend is really exploding, due to the ease of blogging and online news sharing.  This is prevalent in sites like Patch and other hyper-local based news sites.

Patch is a very valuable experiment, but it probably won’t survive.

TBD news does a great job by aggregating all the blogs in the areas they cover and allowing them free reign, letting them know they’ll be linked to and attributed in TBD’s stories.

Many who blog within their community generally do so for respect from their community, and aren’t in it for the money.  A good number of these can be incredibly valuable sources for news.

People care about the broken window around the corner.

Some online news sites get the majority of their traffic from the data they have, not necessarily the stories.

RSS has been the most useful online tool for Potts, more so than even Twitter, which he sees as unreliable and often just ‘noise.’  For journalists in general, the smart-phones have become the most vital tool, hands down.

In a Skype conversation, Kevin Anderson spoke to the class from Doha, Qatar.  The social media over in this region has become important to disseminating all of the tumultuous current events, and Anderson explained how social media has helped.

Anderson works for Al Jazeera English, or AJE, and is looking forward to starting a new online news site in India.

Exploring new avenues of media and story telling can really jump-start one’s journalism career, Anderson explained.  Being able to apply for a job or internship with a good foundation and knowledge of different social media platforms and devices.

Concerning interviews and video reporting, putting the sounds and sights of whatever it is you’re covering, and putting yourself within the story, can really improve and build the quality of work.

70% of video is audio!

• Be persistent in obtaining good audio when doing video coverage
• Poor quality audio from interviews or videos can really put off the viewer
• Slideshows of pictures with a good audio clip can make for a very striking story

In modern journalism, Anderson explained network journalism.  Working with social media, a good journalist has to be able to distribute and connect with the readers, finding out where people go, and create a good presence.  To further add a voice to your journalism, its important to continually seek out new sources for finding your material.

Always be curious.

With over 30 years in the journalism field, Steve Buttry offered this vital message, along with many others to the online journalism class.

Looking at various audio and video clips, along with exploring the various platforms, Buttry shared an important lesson in the value of multi-platform media.

13 seconds in August shows coverage on a tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis.  It is also a vital example of how cross-platforming can make a good story even better.

Digital story-telling is a great way to share control of how a story is brought up, examined, and read.

With readers having more control with what they read and how they gather information, digital story-telling offers an exciting and engaging environment for the online consumer.

Buttry explained how offering your reader different ways to look at stories can send a more powerful message.

• A good paragraph may not be able to tell a story with as much depth or meaning as a good graphic can.
• You’re looking to give your reader more control, so what interests them is more available.
• People in the community and readers can become part of the story.

One of his greatest messages for the class was about how finding new ways to tell a story and knowing the limitless possibilities to do so.

Buttry went on to explain how not all stories can be devised in a complex, interactive digital platform, and how it’s up to the journalist to find what stories matter enough to do so.

Sometimes, as a journalist, you have to immerse yourself into new platforms and devices that may not initially be comfortable for you.  To better yourself as a journalist, however, it’s these new methods and technologies that can really evolve and expand your writing and story-telling.

George Allen, a former United States Senator and former Governor of Virginia, joined students participating from the George Mason University Video Studio along with Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-SPAN networks, and students from the University of Denver.

The distance learning course, which is produced by C-SPAN, is a unique opportunity for students to interview guests via video conference. The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.c-span.org/Distance_Learning/).

Along with Scully, students asked many questions that Allen responded to both enthusiastically and professionally.  Several topics brought up included: his run for election, government spending, energy, social media, and concerns about college tuition (particularly at GMU).

Allen came into the interview with a bold determination, which he displayed impressively and with a good sense of humor.  While discussing U.S. politics, Allen brought up his opinion on several matters:

• The Federal government has too much responsibility — which is the cause for the ballooning of our national debt.
• The U.S. shouldn’t be lenient to enemies.
• Defense funding needs to be increased, not cut.
• Overspending
• Research on different energy sources, such as liquid coal.

Concerning new energy sources, Allen emphasized the use of liquid coal as one of the most promising sources.  The idea is something the French have been working with recently, and with great success.

“If the French can do it, America can too!”

Taking current sentiment to the French in humor and in good spirit, Allen boisterously proclaimed the need for the U.S. to compete more intelligently with other nations for fuel sources and innovations.

“Defense wins championships.” Allen was particularly focused on discussing national defense, and related to its importance with tag-lines such as this.  Allen has had a lot of influence from sports, like his father George H. Allen, a Hall of Fame former NFL coach.  Speaking like an NFL broadcaster, he shared his views on everything he discussed, often relating them in some way to sports.  For example, Allen thought that the U.S. government should work on a “level playing field, just like with sports.”

In his upcoming run for election, Allen plans to use more of his sports-like competitive approach, along with a greater emphasis on social media, to help him back into the Senate.

• The George Allen of today is a much more serious contender for the Senate than he was before.

For a look at the full video interview, check it out here!

Jon DeNunzio came in to our Online Journalism class, discussing the different ways and importance of integrating social media into journalism.

DeNunzio made the decision back in 2006 to pick up digital skills for his news coverage and editing, which helped him both grow in his career and secure his job with the Washington Post.

He gave a few examples on how the Post is using multimedia, including Twitter and blogs.  One that stood out was a blog discussing ‘mean girls,’ within which was a Twitter feed that allowed users to share their own experiences based on the story.

Another platform DeNunzio brought up, which was new to our class, was Intersect.  This is a cool and interesting tool that allows the user to look for stories based on an elaborate time line which can be manipulated for specificity within a time, along with a map for location of news.

Social media, DeNunzio brought up, allows the journalist to better connect with and build a relationship with users.  Since trust has become more of an issue between journalists and their readers, it is vital that the journalist interact with them.

Third-party platforms aren’t the only way to succeed in dissemination as a journalist.  Marshall McLuhan was brought up because of his message on how  you don’t have to use social media to successfully gather news.

Remember the basics of journalism!

The main message Jon DeNunzio wanted to give to the class, I think, was how journalists, in the pursuit of success, need to focus on the fundamental skills we need to have as our foundation. In the ways the Internet has become so interactive, setting yourself apart as a journalist with unique skills in connecting to users is something that is becoming key in obtaining a job.