Multimedia, the net and journalism

I have learned a lot during the multimedia course and everything was new for me apart from the video.

I think multimedia journalism is definitely the future of journalism. In our age of technology, stories are just not enough to satisfy the public. They want videos, photos, sound and to be more engaged with the story. I think multimedia journalism is a platform that allows the audience to do that and have more access to information than traditional print or broadcast. It allows the best of both worlds, is economically more efficient and accessible worldwide.

It’s easier to generate readership, than if you were to launch a magazine. Websites like Twitter and Facebook are able to promote your website or blog, generating bigger audiences than those achievable when launching a new magazine.

Websites and blogs are free and easy to create and they are also free to read, making them an increasingly popular medium of choice.

I think multimedia journalism does exist but I think it’s still in the developing stages. Print and broadcast forms of journalism are primary money earners for the industry so more focus, time and attention is put on the distribution of news in this way.Multimedia, the net and journalism.

Going Online

I think the online part of the module was very useful. I enjoyed online journalism and blogging so much that I also did a blog for my SSIT module assignment. I’m someone who isn’t very good with computers so I felt like the online part of the module drastically improved my IT skills. I really wasn’t aware of websites like Twitter or Delicious, I had heard of Flickr but had never used it. After the course I have used Flickr a lot and it has proved to be a very useful website.

Blogging is something I enjoy and can now do really easily. Me and the rest of the faqfashion girls have decided to keep the blog going as a permanent thing and some of us have even chosen to do web journalism next year.

The Audio

I really enjoyed doing the audio project, as it didn’t entail as much stress as the video, this was after the deadline was extended of course. I’m glad we got more time because the audio project at first was very demanding time wise, which was extremely stressful and it was impossible for me to meet the initial deadline as I didn’t have access to a zoom box/mansa for a while.

I wanted to do another investigative piece, which was along a new journalism kind of style. For some apparent reason during fresher’s week, I was persuaded to join the socialist group. One idea was to do the podcast about the group, what they stood for, go to a protest with them and make this the basis for my podcast.

Then because of the short time we had at the beginning, I decided against the idea. They were not going to attend a protest till the 1st of April.

One of my friends is very enthusiastic about squatting to the point where she says it’s her dream to squat. I didn’t and never will understand why but I got the opportunity to go to a squat in elephant and castle and decided to interview a young girl who lived there. The idea was to present the podcast as a day in a life of a squatter. I wanted to educate myself and others and maybe get rid of stereotypes, which I hope I did.

I went in there thinking she was going to be a drug addict who had to squat because she spent all her money on drugs. That’s the stereotype my dad presented me with and I’m glad I learnt otherwise. I have to say getting the story was really tricky, the other squatters were really unhappy that we were there. The girls doing the video project were also there as they did their project on squatting and were visiting several squats. They didn’t wasn’t us to take any pictures or film and were having ago at our interviewee but we managed to do it secretly. The only downside is that it involved walking around a messy, slightly run-down house in the dark. It was however very fun and exciting even though I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could.

Audacity was never explained and I think we should have had a lesson where we were taught how to use the programme. Luckily the people who had already done the audio were nice and showed me how to use it.

I’m happy with my podcast but looking back I think I used to many pictures. I had a lot of pictures I had taken at the squat which were really good and so I was a bit too keen on using them.

The Video

Working in a group is difficult and proved to be most challenging when doing the video task. I worked in a three with Larisa and Diana and although we are good friends we found it very hard to agree on anything with each other. We did all agree on presenting the video as a news report that would typically appear on say the six o’clock news.

The topic of the news story was going to look at how the recession had increased the number of European tourists visiting London. It was in fact an investigative piece as we weren’t actually sure if this was the case. There were no news stories about it at the time but we had all noticed the sudden large number of Europeans wondering around London and thought it was probably because the pound was weak.

So we ventured into central with our camera and firstly had a trial run to see if we actually had a story. We asked some tourists their reasons for choosing to come to London and it did seem like the recession had a big part to play.

We were a very organised group and planned ourselves well. We got many interviews with tourists, a stall keeper who catered to tourists and we also managed to get an interview with a representative of the London tourism centre who presented us with facts and figures.

We also divided the work between us quite well although I felt some were not pulling their weight unless pushed.

I was the director and filmed everything without a tripod. All the steady shots were achieved just hand-held which was really hard work. Larisa was the news reporter and Diana did the voiceover.

Editing I found to be really hard, Imovie which we were not taught how to use, was really difficult to use. It took us a while to get the hang of it and was quite frustrating. We had far too much footage, we had around 40mins worth so a lot of time was spent editing to try and put our piece together.

I was happy with the finished product, we all put a lot of time and effort into it and I think I learned a lot from doing the task. Planning is essential, you have to have a lot of patience, always be positive and technology will almost always let you down at some point.