Beyond the Litternet

"Look what I found! A litter version of the Internet!"   "This used to be something that could convert carbon dioxide to oxygen using only sunlight, water and a few nutrients. But now it's way cooler.   "It has two functions: You can either put little words on it, or crumple it up into a tiny ball and throw it..." -- ze frank

That first link goes to the WashingtonPost.com, a "newspaper" Web site that has won dozens of video photojournalism awards competing against broadcast TV news teams. The other link is to last week's PBS Frontline critique of a Seattle Spokesman Review investigative project full of controversy, scandal and ethics questions.

In response to Frontline, the newspaper (and its editor's weblog) published a rebuttal to the broadcast, and Frontline responded on its own online pages. Along with the professionals, readers and viewers have debated the ethical issues at length in blog comments. The combination makes for a great example of the interaction the Web adds to news reporting.

The Post's video, the PBS texts and the Spokesman Review blog discussion are among the things I hope to see students writing about in their own "what Web journalism can do" blogs as the semester wraps up, so I'm posting these links for final-stretch inspiration.

Multimedia memories: In another burst of serendipity coinciding with the class's textbook chapter on multimedia and convergence, a few journalism-focused bloggers spent hours last week exploring the idea of having newspaper reporters carry inexpensive pocket-size digital "snapshot" cameras that just happen to shoot video as a secondary feature.

Of course there's nothing new about having the "pencil press" double as photographers. As a reporter, I was paid the price of about 10 cups of coffee for every picture I took to go with my stories. (Coffee was cheaper then.) Over the years, I took one or two hudred photos that were at least good enough for the newspaper. As a result, I did come to appreciate jaw-dropping great photography by full-time photojournalists -- and to recognize how far I was from their league.

What I learned about "multimedia" from the experience: It's hard to juggle a camera, a notebook, visual ideas and verbal information at the same time. I took my best photos when I wasn[base ']t writing a story; I wrote my best stories when I wasn[base ']t taking pictures. Even using an audio recorder and microphone in an interview can be enough of a distraction to keep a reporter from listening carefully and hearing when to ask follow-up question.

That gets back to the blog discussion I mentioned: It started with Howard Owens[base '] suggestion of arming newspaper reporters with snapshot cameras that also shoot video. Along with the comments on Howard[base ']s blog, Flash-guru Mindy McAdams set out a numbered list of issues, then Brian Murley picked up the discussion and Howard added a bit more, with a few readers chiming in, myself included. The exchange may still be going on, ranging from discussion of "quality" and "professional standards" in visual reporting to camera-shopping suggestions for your Christmas list.

Even my 2003 Canon Elph, now less than $150 used, does sound and video that are surprisingly good for some online uses. For serious reporting, sound quality would be a bigger question, so I've been experimenting with a digital recorder and external microphone. See Mindy's report on inexpensive recorders, The folks at Rocketboom also have a useful summary of the video software they use, plus a list of sites with more video info.

YouTube? Me too? Personally, I suspect that online video by newspapers is still at the dog-walking-on-its-hind-legs stage. (The point isn't how well it does it, but our surprise that it can do it at all.) Or maybe it's at the "to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail" stage -- with producers playing "me too" to YouTube. But maybe that's the way we'll learn.

Some newspaper folks are getting the hint that video blogs are onto something -- not "television" as we've known it, not "broadcast news quality," but a form of expression that makes no apologies for having a personality or for existing in a low-rez four-inch window on a computer screen, like ze frank or Rocketboom.

Shopping for time? Should news organizations buy every reporter a camera? I'd rather have them buy reporters more time to do their jobs. (That is, hire more reporters to help carry the load.) Or they might spend the same amount of money on in-service training instead of a ton of soon-to-be-obsolete hardware. Offer classes to "word" reporters on how to take better pictures -- still or video -- using whatever vacation-snapshot cameras they own. That way, when they do see a Martian spacecraft land, they'll know how to get the picture and upload it before the heat-ray strikes... or before too many vloggers scoop them.

Burst of optimism: If today's students "multiprocess" as well as I think they do, they may be better at juggling all those multimedia tools... as they work their way into redefining journalism for the 21st century. Ace news designer Robb Montgomery dropped a good phrase about what news organizations (and journalism schools) should be doing online: creating and encouraging [base "]an innovative culture,[per thou] learning from blogs, social networking, MySpace, YouTube and whatever newer ideas come down the pike.

Ze Frank's new approach to storytelling inspired me to include his picture and quote at the top of the page. "Litter version of the Internet," indeed! But his   fast-cut video editing reminded me of something journalism professor Mitch Stephens suggested a few years ago -- that MTV-inspired rapid cascades of images could evolve into a new form of video storytelling, even for news. Mitch, who wrote a popular media history textbook too, pointed out that "television" is still younger than "printing" was when its most expressive forms evolved. It's more reading than I wanted to assign this semester, but I do recommend his The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word to anyone who wants a food-for-thought item to balance all the gadgets on that Christmas list.

© Copyright 2009 Bob Stepno. Last update: 7/27/09; 3:57:44 AM.