This week’s informative blog introduced me to five vlogs of varying worth… and made me seriously question why I put up with crappy commercial television every night (aside from the ABC, of course. I’d never knock my beloved ABC).
I adored the Alive in Baghdad vlog, which puts faces to the statistics bandied about on the news every night. This citizen journalism project is first-class and worth a look.
Likewise, MobuzzTV impressed me with its slick, TV-news-style production. The only difference? The content was actually interesting and not at all predictable like the daily news bulletins.
I thought Ask a Ninja was stupid, Wine Library TV didn’t appeal to me and Rocketboom loaded poorly with stilted images (but interesting and satirical content).
This small taste of vlogs really opened my eyes to the wide variety of high-quality video information out there. It seems online video is gaining speed as a story-telling medium, which I reckon spells good news for journalism. I’m all for an even playing field!
– Koren
PS – I decided to give vlogging a go. In the spirit of mojos, I used my Nokia 61-something. Unfortunately its measly two megapixel camera compromised the quality and I’m sure Jennifer Woodard Maderazo would hate me for introducing yet another crappy quality, not very interesting vlog to the world.
STOMP and OhmyNews aren’t the only leaders in the forward-thinking “now media” market.
The Philippines’ inquirer.net, led by editor-in-chief JV Rufino, has a strong multimedia mindset. Journos are given mobile phones and digital cameras and can file news from on the run, beating Manila’s traffic jams.
The Brisbane Times is the only totally online newsroom in Australia and it beat competitors’ website traffic within four months of launching.
This week I discovered the Straits Times online mobile and print (STOMP) site. In some ways this site, which complements the more serious and staid Straits Times, mirrors the OhmyNews phenomenon (see my Week 5 post for more on OhmyNews).
But STOMP cleverly merges user-generated content with traditional journalism in a different way. It allows ordinary citizens to send in photos, news tips, even whole stories (in almost any format you can imagine), which are then re-worked by qualified journalists/producers.
The STOMP crew even allow the tipster to review the story and make changes if necessary. This idea freaked the hell out of me – in many cases where I’ve allowed someone to “check” my story they have taken it as an opportunity to nit-pick the crap out of it, resulting in tons of emails and phone calls back and forth.
Yet STOMP editor Jennifer Lewis says the initial petty complaints have slowed and the option creates a new kind of power in reporting. I guess it would be nice to know one could achieve 100 per cent accuracy with a little help from citizen journos.
But the truly great things about STOMP is its unassuming attitude about what constitutes news. The ‘about us‘ page puts it simply:
“We want STOMP to become a forum of lively discussion – whether the topics are weighty national issues or where to get the best bak chor mee.”
Now there’s a way to appeal to all.
UPDATE (SEPTEMBER 26): For a more scathing (and rather funny) look at STOMP, check out this post by ALJ301 student Michael.
This week I took a squiz at a comparative study of free online photo gallery editors by the Online Journalism Review.
The information provided was just begging for me to have a go, so I did. But why bother with the duds the OJR identified? I went straight for its chosen star, Google-owned Picasa.
And the process is almost as easy as one-two-three. In fact, the hardest part was finding relevant pictures (which those featured below obviously are not).
The technology – which makes Flash-style photo galleries in minutes – is brilliant, another step towards making the internet an even playing field for all.
But as Stephen Quinn explains in Newtools for reporting (can’t seem to find a link for you, sorry), some entrepreneurial journalists are using these latest technologies to scoop the opposition, find great stories and actually save time.
I’ve seen how handy RSS feeds (“really simple syndication”/”rich site summary”) can be when job hunting: the jobs come to you! For time-poor, information-hungry journos the concept is brilliant. Spend a few hours hunting down some decent blogs and then sit back and wait. As simple as checking the emails in the morning.
Of course, the big beef with blogs and homemade sites is whether they’re authentic. We even have some sneaky marketing companies masquerading as citizen journos to peddle products (”astroturfing“). Never fear, whois is here! Of course, the database of registered domains requires a little technological know-how and does take away from the quick and ease of an internet find.
But no one wants to end up like poor old Terry Lane… He sure could have used this.
– Koren
Oh – and if you’d like to see an interesting YouTube video on a solo journalist and his escapades in war-torn countries, armed only with a video camera and laptop, head here.
