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Archive for the 'Multimedia' Category

Kent Ward-By-Ward … Idea: A+, Execution: B-/C+

Saturday, May 5th, 2007

OK. I know I talk a lot about the Daily Kent Stater, even now. For a long time, my life revolved around it, and watching StaterOnline continue to bloom is a favorite hobby of mine, especially as I watch students I worked with, and in many cases hired and trained, grow into awesome journalists.

I also know many of them are reading this blog, and therefore I’m going to preface my discussion below with the disclaimer that my criticism is only to help me understand what I did and didn’t like about the Ward By Ward project, and also perhaps give you a little guidance on what could be improved upon for next time.

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Scratching my head about ABJ video

Friday, April 6th, 2007

OK. I haven’t seen much video coming out of the Beacon. I haven’t been watching as closely lately because I’m not around as much and primarily just skim the front page online and in the RSS feed. But, today a little video icon caught my eye so I clicked on this story: “Middle school student charged with groping teacher

My first impression when I clicked was, wait, where’s the video?! Then I realized it was there. It was just a text link. No screen capture. No images. Just the text link just below the byline. Did you see it? I probably wouldn’t have if I wasn’t looking for it.

Then, I was kind of confused by the video itself. It’s surveillance with some guy (he’s never identified!) talking about it at the end. OK. But it has commentary in a voiceover on it. Whoever is talking (the omnipresent narrator is never identified), it sounds like something I’d hear on, like, Real TV or something.

It’s different. I’m not sure how the approach worked. I mean, it was helpful to have an explanation of what was going on in the video. And it was professionally recorded and edited, I suppose. But I’m kind of left scratching my head at a number of things: why the video link was just text, who the guy talking at the end is and how he’s relevant and who the person narrating is, why he was randomly talking about the kid’s past at the end without any context around it, to name a few.

:shrug: Still. It’s good to see them doing some video work. I know that was an area they wanted to move into, and were training staff members for. This seems atypical newspaper video though, and maybe that’s a good thing. Or maybe it’s completely normal and I’ve just been looking at the wrong news sites. Either way, something to watch.

Kind of an OnBeing rip-off, but I’ll take it…

Wednesday, March 7th, 2007

So, it is a little soon to be ripping off the OnBeing idea from the Washington Post. But I saw the “Stater.You” link on the site and clicked.

Not as pretty as the WP or as artsy, but it is something different. And I’d be willing to bet, outside Taylor Hall the number of people who’ve heard about or seen OnBeing is a few dozen at most. So the readers won’t hold it against them.

I’m not sure I’d have chosen those subjects (for one thing Karl Hopkins-Lutz used to be a Stater columnist, though it has been a few years) or that location to jump off the project. But if the idea is to offer random snapshots of people around campus, it succeeds.

This is definitely thinking beyond the printed page. And it’s a good example of why student newspapers are great places for experimentation and trying new things. Don’t waste months, which could mean semesters, which means staff turnover in the world of college newspapers, testing and tweaking to perfection something before launch. Just go for it. If it doesn’t work, ditch it. No harm, no foul.

interactive renter’s guide map

Monday, March 5th, 2007

Just saw this at the Stater: Interactive Renter’s Map.

It’s part of the annual renter’s guide. It’s a great example of when a map like that is actually a worthwhile addition not just an addition for the sake of having something interactive. Also, these buildings won’t be moving any time soon, so this is very much evergreen content that can and should be left up and linked all year. By plotting the local apartments, I can easily see where each is in relation to the university campus and get key information (address and phone number) for each complex. The only thing I’d do to improve this, would be to include links on this page/within each point(if possibel) to all of the stories the reporters wrote about each of the complexes, with photos of the rooms if possible and if not at least of the buildings. Those stories should also include a break out box with key information (the address, phone number, Web site and a range for the amount a student should expect to pay each month and also utilities/cable included, etc.).

With those simple changes, I’d say this would be an excellent resource. This is something every college newspaper should be doing. It’s so simple and would drive tons of traffic.

Medina Gazette multimedia

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

I have to say, I am impressed by the multimedia the photographers at the Medina Gazette are undertaking.

Medina is the county just west of Summit, which is where Akron is. It’s mostly rural. The paper is about 15,000ish circulation, if I recall correctly. I know a few people who’ve worked their part-time or as interns, but I’ve never really looked at it or its Web offerings. Today, I saw one of the projects linked at MultimediaShooter. Although I liked the presentation of that story, I was also impressed with the way they’ve collected their multimedia. It’s very streamlined and user friendly.

I just checked it out. It says Rami is their photo intern and web designer. He’s a KSU student. (Not sure if he’s graduated yet?) Seeing his name makes sense. He’s definitely talented. He was the CyBurr webmaster who preceded me my freshman year. But, as you’ll notice, he rocks (and knows Flash and has photo skills I only dream of). And I well, have a long way to go.

StaterOnline add-ons

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

I just noticed some additions to the right sidebar on StaterOnline. Ryan and crew have been busy trying to add content and features.

Not sure when they added this (a simple call could answer it, but I’m feeling lazy)… But down the side they now have a Featured Photos, Featured Video and Search Kent function. I’d probably throw up the latest post in each of the blogs there, to promote them, and call it a day for now. They really need to advertise those blogs online. One link in the sidebar isn’t going to cut it, especially as you try to grow the audience.

I like the ideas, if not the presentation.

My only gripe is… The featured photos have no cutlines or credits. I clicked on one of them to see if I could get some context and instead it just brought up the static .jpg as its own page. Sad, because I was really curious why a posed group picture would be one of the featured photos. Who are those people? Granted, we had issues with the college publisher slide show feature all along — how weird is it that it will put your cutlines and credit so they block half your photo?! — so maybe this is a kink being worked out. Instead of linking me to the photo url, put me through to the story so I can read about what’s going on in the photo.

I do like that they seemed to have dropped the college publisher video function (which was not working well for us) in favor of YouTube. In addition to expanding the audience beyond Stater readers (and potentially bringing in other non-readers to the site), it is also a platform students are very familiar with. It also opens up the possibility they could respond directly to the videos, and who knows maybe even add their own video responses?

And finally, what’s up with the “Intramural Sports” section being above everything else on the front page including News? I’m thinking it’s a glitch. But maybe they’re trying something new?

Teaching myself Flash

Saturday, February 10th, 2007

I am playing with Flash this weekend, which is partially my reason for not updating more. Though I have no real excuse. There is plenty to comment on and say, and I will probably do so on a few items that caught my attention this week later on tonight.

For now, though, I’m teaching myself how to embed video in Flash and creating a silly series of videos from my collection of Stater clips.

As I have previously said, my Flash skills leave a lot to be desired. I’ve decided to beef up on them. So, little by little I’m going to try and learn how to do some basic things. I wanted to learn the video bit first just because it is something cool I can look at immediately and say, “Hey, I did that and I didn’t know how to an hour ago.” :) I’m finishing off encoding and adding the last of the three clips right now. If it doesn’t look too bad and none of them is too incriminating, I’ll probably post the project here later tonight.

And, if anyone has good tips for Flash tutorials, please pass them along.