Monthly Archives: May 2012

Future of journalism profession lies with mobile, not newsprint

Amid the string of sad news about big-name newspaper folding or cutting jobs, I finally saw hope and proof for a bright future of journalism profession – people still demand journalism contents, on mobile.

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One, and only one, CSU campus offers a multimedia journalism program

Among the 10 California State University campuses that have an accredited journalism program, CSU Long Beach is the only school that offers a multimedia journalism program. This is what I found out when updating the list of multimedia journalism programs in … Continue reading

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Comparing two free tools for online multimedia story presentation – without having to learn web design and flash

Tent City in Lakewood, New Jersey has been a temporary, makeshift settlement for many homeless people. It also poses a touchy issue for city officials. The reason I chose to work o this story is it’s close to where I work, and a few of my students have volunteered there. Continue reading

Posted in Multimedia production | 6 Comments

Critiquing student audio slideshow projects

The good: a variety of close-up shots showing details, which adds to the visual variety of the slideshow; the producer also paid attention to matching the photos with interview narration – for instance, when the girl says in the interview … Continue reading

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How to shoot photos for an audio slideshow

A recent post at Poynter lists out the five types of photos that make for good visuals in an audio slideshow: the scene setter, the medium shot, the portrait, capturing details, and capturing action. While these are good observations, they … Continue reading

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Use Storify as a teaching tool in video and multimedia production classes

Sorify, a popular content curation tool that pools together relevant web and social media contents on a topic, also lends itself to presenting multimedia materials for a lecture in journalism production courses. I have started converting some of my PowerPoint … Continue reading

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Journalism should be learned by all communication students

“Journalism should be learned by all communication students. This is more important than ever because the new technology allows everyone to act as journalists.” This is a remark by Eric Newton, senior adviser to the President at Knight Foundation, during … Continue reading

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How to teach multimedia journalism? An analysis of 30 syllabi

The common components in a typical multimedia journalism course are blog, video, audio, audio slideshow, social media, photography, data visualization, and web writing. This is what I found in a study of 30 syllabi of multimedia journalism courses.

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Writing for the web is different: Print-style article needs re-focusing, rewriting and/or re-formatting

Web writing requires a straight “inverted pyramid” style – the first paragraph needs to provide the key information for the readers to quickly get the gist of the article, and to decide whether he or she wants to read on.

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A conversation with media professionals on multimedia journalism education

I want to share the conversations I had with two media professionals about my post, “What is a multimedia journalism course?” I shared this post on LinkedIn in the Online News Association group, and had an interesting and thought-provoking conversation … Continue reading

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Multimedia journalism education in U.S.: What is a multimedia journalism course?

Unlike courses in a conventional journalism concentration where course titles are more or less standardized, multimedia journalism courses come in a variety of titles – so diversified that one may have difficulty ascertaining the nature of the course just by … Continue reading

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A sample interactive audio story and some thoughts on journalism curriculum

I came across an interactive audio story by New York Times titled “The New Generation of Pizzerias.” Whenever I see something of interest, such as this one, I always try to figure out how my students can create something similar. … Continue reading

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Will Facebook fail in the web 3.0 era?

In 2000, when Yahoo was in its heyday, no one would ask “will Yahoo fail in 10 years?” In 2012, Yahoo has been struggling to stand on its feet. In April, in a latest move, Yahoo announced it would lay … Continue reading

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Student works in my video production classes

Jursy Wallace is a student in my video production class last semester and broadcast journalism class this semester. I noticed that he uploaded some of his video assignments to his Youtube channel, I can see the improvements in the videos … Continue reading

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What to teach in a multimedia journalism course?

The textbook I will use for a multimedia journalism class, “Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling,” focuses on the following skills for multimedia storytelling: Video production: camera basics, camera exposure and handling, light and color, shooting a sequence, non-linear editing. Audio production: recording … Continue reading

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