An Evening at the Post October 26, 2008

Chet Rhodes, Assistant Managing Eidtor for the Washington Post Online

     We recently took a trip to the Washington Post’s multimedia department where we met with Assistant Managing Editor Chet Rhodes. Rhodes oversees the production and editing for WashingtonPost.com. Contrary to popular belief, the The Washigton Post and the Washington Post.com are two separate entities (for now) housed in two completely separate locations.

    We begin our discussion by talking about the Post as an news organization and how its divided. Washington Post Media owns Washington Post.com and Washington Post (the paper). Being that we are becoming mulitmedia  journalists, We visisted the buidling that houses Washington Post.com.  The traditional Washington Post is where you would find the traditional reporters and editors but Washington Post.com is where you find the video journalists and web producers. The Washington Post currently has about 600 reporters and the job of the online division is two package the information found by the traditional reporters at the Post. 

     The types of video being produced in the interactive media division ranges from short quick videos to full length documentary styles. Rhodes puts each of the videos they produce into categories, which he refers to as tiers. 

             Tier 1: Short videos of a scene or event, usually referred to as b-roll. This video must work with text because otherwise, viewers may not understand the context of the video.

             Tier 2: a little longer b-roll that uaually also incorportes an interview, which can also be referred to as a VOSOT.

             Tier 3: Longer narrative, documentary style formats.

Rhodes has also been a part of the initative to help train print journalists becime familiar with video cameras. As newspapers continue to loose thier flare, they are constantly looking fot new ways to gain more audience interest. Rhodes said the biggest battle he is fighting is in changing people’s perspectives of the newspaper industry, more specifically the Washington Post.com. His ultimate goal would be for people to stop thinking as the WP.com as a place for just text stories but a place that provides them with video and also text. Here’s a video I found of Rhodes talking about his new intiaitive of training print journalists.

http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2008/chet-rhodes-talks-about-washington-post-video/

He also showed us another multimedia resource that the Post has actually incorporated into some of their own work. A website called vuvox.com. It allows you to incorporate images, graphics, videos, and texts into an interactive presentation. Here’s an example of how it can be used.

http://www.vuvox.com/collage/detail/0ae00a98a

October 19, 2008

I guess it’s expected that when you even venture into the territory of learning a new skill, things will go wrong, especially when it involves technology. One of our assignments were to begin and maintain a portfolio website. For some reason, this has been the most difficult assignment for me for one simple or not so simple reason… technical difficulties.  So what do you do, when you don’t know what to do and no one really has the answers you need… You research!!! After all that is our occupation. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, we are using dreamweaver. We were taught the basics, but little did I know, that in order to maintain a professional site. There was a lot more I needed to learn.

So I found a great resource online by Adobe that goes through the basics of introducing users to CSS.

http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1481v1421

The link above is the first lesson, which you can then use to follow the subsequent lessons. The trainer does an excellent job of explaining Dreamweaver from the bottom to the top. I have definitely learned that while you  may not know all the answers there is someone out there who does and an answer to almost every question can be found on the web. Happy surfing!

Ethics and Multimedia October 12, 2008

We’re bombarded with ethical mention in our journalistic lifestyles, whether we encounter it personally or hypothetically. As journalists we should constantly be concerned with ethics, however, the waters get a little more murky as we tread into the realm if multimedia. The problem or maybe the caveat of the web is that information is never really lost, it’s will always be available or archived in some way to be called on at a later date. 

However, the concern with the archiving system of the web is that as more and more news organizations begin to use the web, at times some stories may only appear on the web only.  Most stations enforce the rule that corrections must be featured on the platform they were first disseminated. This is probably a just decision, but discrepancy comes when the same inaccurate article may be pulled back up without finding mention of the accurate article. Also another concern would be when older information is not correctly dated and gets confused as current information. This recently happened after a newspaper published information that United Airlines was in danger of bankruptcy, ultimately leading to a massive drop in the company’s shares. We definitely need to be careful when using the web as a source.  You should always check the date published as well as making sure its a credible site. We can also help contribute to the solution by making sure that all of the material we produce for the web is clearly and correctly dated.

We also need to be careful when allowing users to comment on our work or the context of our works. Users generated comments although they may not be a direct representation of your sentiments can alter people’s perception of you as a journalists ifs mentioned on our under your work. Be careful to monitor what you allow people to post on your websites and you may even want to limit what users can say.

Privacy is another concern on the web. I’m not even sure if anything is truly private on the web because there will always be someone able to hack into confidential information on the web. Be careful what you publish, publishing can even be what you transmit in an e-mail. You should always be extra conscientious on the web because your personal information may prove to be not so personal after all.

Web Design Basics October 6, 2008

Dreamweaver is Adobe

As multimedia journalists it is important that we have a basic understanding of web design. As the field of journalism continues to evolve into a multimedia medium, its important that, at the very least, we know how to put content onto the web. One of the requirements of our graduate program is that we create and maintain our own personal websites to house and showcase our projects. While this was a great idea, it was also a lot more difficult than most of us had expected, considering that we’re amateur web designers.  There is a lot of thought that should go into designing a website even before one begins the process.

The first thing I suggest before even attempting the design process is to think about some of your favorite websites you’ve seen in the past and what makes these websites stand out in your opinion.  Some of my favorite websites include cnn.com, as far as professional websites go. As for amateur websites, Wall Street Journal’s reporter Elva Ramirez portfolio site is an excellent example.  What makes these websites great, are the simplicity of the site. Simplicity tends to give sites a more professional feel. After you have evaluated in your mind, what makes a good website, you know have a basis for establishing what you would want your website to look like.

The next thing I then do, is design a dummy page in photoshop or even using pen and paper, that illustrates the design I have in mind for my website. Its much easier going into the design process with a plan you’re trying to achieve.  We are using Adobe’s Dreamweaver software to design our websites and it’s pretty user friendly whether you know html or not.  There are also other web design software available and google is the best source for finding answers to unanswered questions.

A few rules to consider when preparing to design a website is:

1. Simplcity is key

2. 3 Click Rule: users should be able to find what they are searching for in 3 clicks or less.

3. Global navigation: Its good to have a global navigation on each page so that users no where to look for your links. In addition to this, repetition and consistency is key.

4. Have fun and be willing to try things, it can always be changed and altered later.  Exploring is the only way to learn.