vacation

Digital mojo and I will be on vacation for the rest of this week.

Check out a cool, for me, Flash package at the WDT this Sunday.

word for the week

Finishing up on the word for the week: creativity.

Richard Koci Hernandez and the crew up at the San Jose Mercury News put together a fun slide show package on the Amgen Tour of California visit to town. Photographed by Joanne Ho-Young Lee, Patrick Tehan*, Maria J. Avila-Lopez*, Pauline Lubens* and Nhat V. Meyer and sound recorded by the folks denoted with an asterisk. The photo editing was done by Geri Migielicz and richard and then richard produced the packages.

What I like the most are the ways to add cinematic effects to the slide show itself. The opening sequence is great and some of the triptychs inside work,others I would do differently, but that is me and the beauty of the art form.

What is really impressive is doing this on deadline and the solid use of audio and background music.

I like how much Richard (we have never met) pushes boundaries and I picked up a few tricks myself that might have added some sparkle to my boxing piece.

explanation

Yesterday I posted two fun links, one about Line Rider and the other about machinma.

So as to not belabor the point, I did not explain why I thought they might be of interest in the world of journalism. So here we go...

Firstly, I think journalists should have more fun, both doing their work and with their work. Obviously some subjects preclude this approach, but how much fun is your brother who is always serious, honestly, not a lot.

Secondly, these are great examples of how consumers/viewers took something and made it their own, customized content and were creative with content. If you take the time to watch a number of Red vs. Blue episodes, there is some great commentary on gamers, but even deeper an interesting take on war and fighting.

Somewhat related to this is the idea of audience participation. We are so used to providing content via a newspaper (one way transmission), that we don’t take the time to understand YouTube and other sites, similar phenomena online. Flash packages and multimedia are the first advances into providing news consumers the power to explore stories their own way.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, these are great examples of imagination. People can do some really neat things with stuff that we might not think about them doing with our stuff. So perhaps news organizations, formerly newspapers [ NOFN ( as an acronym it looks like no fun doesn’t it?) ] need to be more willing to provide ways and means for consumers to do things with our content in ways we cannot imagine and hold on for the ride. Talk about revolutionary.

fun

Today’s word is: fun.

I know, I know, journalists should not have any fun.

If you are not aware of Line Rider check out the site.

If you want to see some examples of what you can do with too much free time, visit YouTube for some people's neat projects.

Slate's package on machinma [definition: movies made with characters and graphics from videogames] and article are interesting. The best known, and well written example of this genre is Red vs. Blue.

beating tv

New York Magazine has a fun piece titled,'You Must Be Streaming: In a sudden reversal of fortune, newspapers have taken to online video and might just beat TV news at its own game.'

The general idea is that news organizations, formerly newspapers, that are evolving, are starting to the kind of work that TV could do, used to do, or don’t think audiences will enjoy. (Watch Good night, and good luck if you haven’t already, Edward R. Murrow is far more eloquent than I.)

This article just continues to underline some of the many threads on this blog. Do good, quality work, evolve, tell interesting stories and who knows, you might be around when the printing press becomes obsolete.

flash roundup

Some very cool food for thought today:

Isabel Chang, a self-described web artist has a very cool piece on the God’s of Chinatown. The interface and navigation is very cool.

The Star-Tribune has a great piece on Liberians in Minnesota that navigates very easily, integrates Flash, video, html story text and audio sound slides very seamlessly.

Finally, Will Yurman has a clean, simple appearing package on women’s self-image called My Body MySelf that is a nice piece of journalism.

edward r murrow

I finally got around to watching 'Good night, and good luck.' This film about Edward R. Murrow and his taking on Senator Eugene McCarthy made me look up some interesting quotes from the man who apparently saw more of the future than people think.

'The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.'
Edward R. Murrow

'The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.'
Edward R. Murrow

'We cannot make good news out of bad practice.'
Edward R. Murrow