Connecting text to visuals

A common mistake I see many journalists make is that they write a visual story without watching the visuals in front of them as they write. Too often, a video or slideshow story is not connected to the visuals. A good story is hooked to the visuals and audio. In broadcast, disconnected shots are referred to as wallpaper video, meaning that the story could be told without the visuals.

So that means that students or people should have the visuals in front of them when sitting down to write. If you do not have video to address a specific aspect of a story, then delete that aspect or keep it short. If someone says, “Look over there” on camera, you can incorporate that chunk of audio into your writing.

For example, “Look over there” (audio). Alice Thompson watches a humming bird while eating dinner (narration). And we should see a visual of her watching the bird.

Think about adding pauses, adding sound, and really think about your visuals when writing. Visualizing is a part of visual writing and adding too much text can sometimes drown your story. The National Press Photographers Association has some nice examples of visual writing.

Free video editing software options

There are a lot of inexpensive video options out there, and there is no reason why a newsroom or a person should not include video online. A Flip video camera can be purchased for as little as $129, and you can even buy a tripod for the Flip camera for $15. The Flip camera limits your creativity when shooting, however the Flip is comparable in quality compared to a professional camera, as shown in this blog post.

Many video editing software applications are free as well. iMovie is a Mac-based program that is popular in newsrooms, and Microsoft’s Movie Maker is a free application that is commonly used by PC users. However, there are few other video editing programs that you may not be aware of including Yahoo’s Jumpcut, JayCut, Wax and Avid’s Videospin. About.com compares the first three applications.

The drawback of free editing systems is that they tend to be less precise when making edits and they have fewer correction and exporting options. If you are looking for a superb editing system at a low price, think about Final Cut Express. Apple sells it for $200, but you can purchase it for less if you are a student or educator. It has almost all of the same features as Final Cut Pro. And you can buy it on eBay at a less expensive price.

Journalism should reflect more than the usual suspects

As a teacher, I challenge my students to go beyond event-based reporting. I push my students to focus on an issue, get great visuals and sound, seek out an unofficial person to represent an issue, and encourage them to incorporate useful information in their stories. This process truly challenges student to go beyond the university’s events calendar, press releases and stories found in local publications. Researchers estimate that 25% to 80% of traditional news media stories contain information from public relations officials or press releases. Research has not only demonstrated that a significant portion of information stems from press releases, but news stories also tend to be identical in the framing and the wording of press releases.

I have been pushing the incorporation of the previously mentioned components for years, but I was struck by this post by Jack Lail is managing editor/multimedia for The Knoxville News-Sentinel. Lail argues that journalists should include information in their stories that is value to readers.

“If you don’t think your business is being useful to your users/readers/viewers, then I would suggest your journalism is failing.”

I believe that many successful bloggers use their blogs for this purpose. I love to learn, and I encourage my students to construct content that provides useful information in both their blogs and in their stories, and I encourage you to push your students to go beyond including the usual suspects in their stories as well.

Glen Terrence Cameron, Lynne M. Sallot, and Patricia A. Curtin, “Public Relations and the Production of News: A Critical Review and a Theoretical Framework,” in Communication Yearbook 20, ed. B. R. Burleson (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997), 111-55.

Lynda Lee Kaid, “Newspaper Treatment of a Candidate’s News Releases,” Journalism Quarterly 53 (1976): 135-57

Encoding & exporting video advice

Few resources exist addressing the best approach to exporting and encoding video for the web. This post is based on my experience and the expertise of others including Nancie Dodge, webmaster of Arizona State University’s Cronkite Zine, and Dave Cornelius, Stardust High School Journalism Program director. I also cited a resource that Angela Grant pointed to in her blog, News Videographer, related to this topic.

1. It is best to shoot steady quality video because it “reduces the number of pixels that change from frame to frame, giving you better quality at higher compression rates (lower data rates),” according to Adobe.
2. You must choose a media player. It is best to export to a Flash Player because 98% of the population has a Flash plug-in installed on their computer, while 59% have a Windows Media Player and 62% have a QuickTime player. If you have more up-to-date stats, let me know. The simplest route is to upload your video to YouTube and use their player. I have provided a handout on uploading video to YouTube on my teaching page. However, if you do not want the YouTube logo on your screen. Here are your options:

If you choose to export using QuickTime, it is best to export your media as a MPEG4 and select H.264 for HD. Selecting H.264 also helps with the resolution and audio quality. Here are the steps needed in Final Cut Pro (FCP).

1. After your video is edited in FCP, choose File > Export > Using QuickTime conversion
2. File Format > Select MP4
3. Use > Select Broadband – High
4. Ctrl-click your .mp4 movie clip > Open with QuickTime Player

There is a drawback related to exporting to a Flash player, it requires Flash software. And YouTube stopped accepting .flv’s six weeks ago.

1. After your video is edited in FCP, choose File > Export > Using QuickTime conversion
2. File Format > Select QuickTime movie
3. Use > Select Broadband – High
4. Open Adobe Flash CS3 Video Encoder
5. Drag .mov to Encoder window > Settings > Flash High Quality > Start Queue
6. Open your .flv
7. Import video > Continue > Progressive download from a web server > Continue > Select skin and color > Finish
8. Control > Test Movie > Produces a .swf

I also put this information in a handout on my teaching page under Video including information on compressing your media clips using Apple’s Compressor, which is a part of Final Cut Pro. This post was getting too long. Compressor is a media compression and encoding application. I suggest trying these different approaches to see what works for you. And if you have suggestions, please let me know.

Tips on promoting your blog

I started blogging almost two months ago. It has been a learning process. As I had predicted in my first blog post, it is addictive, time-consuming, and fun. I wanted to share with you some tips on how to promote your blog.

1. Ask a blogger to review your blog before announcing your blog. Write a few posts to ensure that it is ready to go public.
2. Sign up for Feedburner to allow people to subscribe to your posts via RSS. RSS allows people to read your subscriptions on readers such as Google Reader, Netvibes, My Yahoo, or Bloglines without having to bookmark. To do this, you have to add the URL produced from Feedburner to your blog before people can subscribe to it. In basic WordPress, you have to copy and paste the URL in Widget, go to Edit > RSS Widget > Paste URL
3. Always provide an About/Contact section
4. Add your blog URL to any web page with your name on it (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Faculty web page).
5. Facebook is not only about socializing, but also promoting. Post your posts on Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon and any other social networking site. My friend Tom Johnson does this with his blog.
6. If you have blogger friends who write about your topic. Let them know about you. They may write a post about you or they may add you to their blogroll. This will increase traffic and exposure to your blog.
7. You can cross-post to promote your blog and to reach a wider audience on a blog such as Open Salon or the AEJMC blog.
8. Add your blog to Wikipedia under external links. Think about what key words people would use to find the topic that your blog is about.
9. Sign up for an account on Technorati, BlogPulse and other blog search engines to add your blog to their directory.
10. Allow people to comment on your blog.

I have ten more tips on my teaching page under Promoting Your Blog. The Innovation in College Media blog listed several blog tips as well.

AEJMC policy on providing access to online studies

I wrote in a previous post that I was contacting organizations regarding their policy about providing access to journal articles for the public. Unless you pay, the public does not generally have access to recent journal articles for a one year period. This pay-to-read policy will also affect my ability to write about research found in a greater number of journals. AEJMC holds the copyright on Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, and Journalism Monographs. AEJMC’s Executive Director Jennifer McGill shared with me the reasons behind their policy:

“We do not allow online full-text of articles during the first year to protect our subscriptions, which cover the bulk of the cost of publishing the journals. Without that subscription income, we could not produce the journals. We do allow classroom use of any article — at no fee — to promote the use of the research. The journals (on a one-year delay) are online through commercial groups who do charge. So it would be hard to link to the articles on their sites.”

McGill says that AEJMC uses this approach to share research with professional journalists.

“For several years now, AEJMC has provided a “Research You Can Use“  section. This provides a press release and a copy of the full article for articles that the editor of the journal (Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly) believes would be useful to working journalists.”

However, the site only provides access to a PDF abstract and press release of the study. You have to contact the researcher to obtain a copy of the study. It would be more helpful for journalists and researchers if the organization posted copies of the articles on this page. The most recent set of abstracts are from Summer of 2007.

However, AEJMC has recently begun providing full access to recent Newspaper Research Journal articles, a division journal of AEJMC.

I think it would be beneficial if AEJMC leaders got together to discuss alternative/innovative ways of sharing research with professionals and non-journal reading academics in order to promote the informational value of journals beyond an audience of publishing academics.

Creating a Panorama is easy

I absolutely love how much easier it is to create cool online informational features. I want to share with you an easy way to create a Panorama in Photoshop.

1. Set your camera on a tripod or hold it very steady and at the same height. Take pictures slightly turning in one direction. You want the photos to overlap one another. You may even want to take two pictures per shot as back up. It is best to shoot in a location that is larger, rather than a smaller location such as an office because it will be difficult to capture the entire room when standing in one location because you cannot zoom or move to fit each shot in the frame. You also want to pick a location that is even in lighting, or you can fix the photos in Photoshop.
2. Place pictures that you want to keep in a newly created folder. Place them in the order that they will turn in the room.
3. In Photoshop, go to File > Automate > Photomerge
4. In dropdown menu, select Folder, rather than File > Select Browse > Find your folder > Okay
5. Then you will export your Panorama into a player: File > Export > Zoomify
6. Select a background color > Folder (create folder) > Select quality (8-10) > Select browser size option (650X400 for larger) > Okay
7. Find your file in the location you saved it. The .html file is your panorama, but you will want to keep all of the files to incorporate the panorama into your Web page.

I have incorporated this information in a handout on my teaching page. My student, who loves photography, also provided some additional advice. He said that it is best not to shoot zoomed all the way out, but instead shoot medium shots when shooting a panorama. Also, he said not to shoot scenes with a lot of detail such as fruit stands with lots of fruit because the pictures will have difficulty stitching together. This can be fixed in Photoshop, but it will take time. Also, Mindy McAdams included some links to panoramas in a blog post.

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