It’s important for an online news website not to be a “replica of the print version,” as Layton puts it. People come to a news website expecting to see innovative content that they can’t find in a print newspaper.  They want to feel like they are present as the news is taking place, and video affords just that opportunity.  Often, video can tell a story better than a print article, even if the journalist includes all of the details.

As Layton points out, there are problems that go along with this. Under pressure to meet deadlines, journalists may not produce very high-quality video.  However, a low-quality video is better than no video at all, and the public expects to be updated on breaking news the minute that it happens.

I began studying journalism with the intention of becoming a print reporter.  In today’s rapidly changing journalism field, that may not be enough.  I want to be, at the very least, competent in gathering audio and video (and this class has helped me get to that point).  Evelio Contreras expresses my new-found attitude toward learning how to incorporate online media into print journalism: “‘I didn’t want to be someone who just wrote stories and only did that because that’s the only way I know how. I see a journalist being able to write, to shoot video, collect audio… Or, at a minimum, a journalist should know how this whole thing works.”‘

In a world where people expect to read and watch the news for free, it becomes problematic when news organizations begin charging for their services.  Some news services have tried to draw in revenue through advertising, but this can be problematic. Many readers (including myself) often overlook ads on a page.  In addition, the ideas of click-throughs and stickiness shouldn’t be the sole factors editors consider when they decide what features should be on their site.  Just because a person clicks through a site or stays on it for a long time doesn’t necessarily mean that they are paying attention to the content.

The idea of subscription fees becomes problematic as well.  What should readers have to pay for?  Should they pay for archived material, or for multimedia content?  What privileges will subscribed readers get over unsubscribed readers? The essence of this problem lies in whether or not charging subscription fees will even be beneficial in the long-run.  Once loyal readers who formerly accessed the content for free realize that they have to pay for the same material, they may stop visiting the site.  In this case, online journalists may instead end up losing money.

This is a dangerous situation, as online journalism is struggling to pay for itself.  Hopefully they figure out an effective method to draw in revenue before we lose this interactive, convenient news source.

Blogs can’t exist without the mainstream media, because they would lack a source to draw post ideas from.  Without blogs, the public would receive the news, but they would lack a venue for different opinions and discussion. During my internship, I checked the news first thing everyday to gather ideas for my blogs.  Sometimes my blog ended up bringing more publicity to an issue, or simply considering the story from another angle.

Many journalists have started their own blogs in order to further develop and comment on stories.  I think this is a great way to help readers see the details and angles on a story that didn’t necessarily fit in with the new piece.  It also is a great way for journalists to develop more of a personality online.  Not everyone agrees with this, as Brun points out:

Such conflicting approaches to news coverage are not always resolved happily: while many blogger/journalists use their blogs effectively, to fill in the back stories for their news reports or to offer additional information and commentary, some of them have been rep­rimanded or even sacked by their news organizations for posting material which was seen as detrimental to the publication’s public image; many tradi­tional news organizations, it seems, remain highly reluctant to allow their journalists a personal voice even in fora outside their main news publication itself.

I agree with Brun’s solution to this dilemma — that bloggers shouldn’t be considered journalists in their own right, but they should be considered participatory media, people who highlight and frame the news reported by journalists.  That way, bloggers will have a little more freedom in what they are allowed to public.

Yes, some blogging does have a journalistic quality to it, especially in those cases when citizen journalists break a news story.  But it’s problematic to associate opinionated blogs written by ordinary people journalism, although they do sometimes enhance the news.  The line needs to be drawn somewhere.

This class helped me to learn just how much time and effort goes into producing a media package.  It takes a while — several attempts — to put together audio, video, pictures and a written story.  After visiting the same sociology and physics classes several times, I think the students and professors got tired of me, but that’s just part of the job.

The most tedious part of the project was the work with Audacity.  After listening to the same recording 100 times, I thought I was going to lose my mind.  However, once I put it all together, I was proud of my work and couldn’t stop listening to it!

I know some of my pictures and video throughout the semester haven’t been the best quality, but I am still learning and am eager to improve.  I do know one thing for sure though — I’ve come a long way since January and I’m excited to keep producing online media in the future.

My Kodak Zi8 flip cam has never left my side since I purchased it in January, and that will not change.  More audio slideshows and videos are to come from me — hopefully this summer!

These videos could be a bit better quality, but I’ll keep taking more and pick the best ones.

The Video Basics text taught me that if I want my videos to be more professional-looking, there are several factors that I have to keep in mind.

Video is a close-up medium, so when I shoot video for my story idea, I have to focus on the main event and only include background action if it helps to tell the story more vividly.

I learned that it’s better to move the camera closer to a news story that I’m covering instead of zooming in because it keeps the picture in focus and maintains a higher depth of field.  This wide-angle position is better for capturing the details of the scene and keeping the event in focus than the narrow-angle position that a zoomed shot would produce.

Another important factor to keep in mind is leaving enough leadroom and nose room for the subjects of my video.  There should always be enough space in front of a moving object so that it doesn’t seem like it’s about to collide into the screen.   Also, when shooting someone’s face on an angle, their nose shouldn’t look like it’s about to collide with the edge of the screen.

Photographers should also remember the idea of psychological closure –when shooting a close-up, they must capture it in a way that enables viewers to easily mentally put together a complete image.

With these guidelines in mind, I still have a lot to learn, but at least I won’t be producing shaky, out-of-focus “vacation videotapes” anymore.

Mainstream journalists are beginning to hop on the social networking train and update their Twitter as soon as a breaking news event occurs in order to inform the public.

As Bret Schulte points out in his article, “The Distribution Revolution,” this was the case for Wilmington, North Carolina’s Star News in the wake of Hurricane Hanna.  It was also the case for the Spectrum during the Lockwood Library scare last month.  As he investigated the details of the reports, our editor-in-chief updated the newspaper’s Twitter account with new information.

Social networkers often feed off of news reports and discuss the latest headlines, but more and more, the reverse has been occurring.  Journalists often first hear about stories through Twitter and Facebook postings.  These networks are key places to find article tips.

It’s easy to assume that using Facebook and Twitter can attract attention away from mainstream news sources, but this is not the case.  Journalists often attract viewers to the paper’s main site by providing a link on Twitter or Facebook.  In many cases, this increases the Web site’s viewers.

There is one drawback to these networks, though — they can be rumor mills.  Who’s stopping people from posting unconfirmed information on their Twitter accounts?  Journalists cannot simply take this information at face value — they must speak to experts before publishing anything.

Social networking and journalism are practically inseparable in the 21st century, so journalists must be willing to set up Facebook/Twitter accounts and join the conversation.

arnd pralle, a physics professor, explains the clicker question to his class once all of the students have entered their answers.