Online and Digital News

The Pew Research Center has a comprehensive survey report on the online and digital news consumption of Americans. During the last decade the general public has shown a 24% increase in using the Internet for news. Overall the channels for acquiring news have increased over the years and Internet, cell phone and other technologies are becoming more dominant.

The popularity of online news is prevalent among college graduates. They comprise of 61% of the population compared to 44% of college students and 19% high school or less educated users. Interestingly, the top two sources for news are web portals - Yahoo (28%) and MSN (19%). While CNN, Fox, New York Times and other traditional media sites stand much lower in the list. This amazes me because Yahoo and MSN use wires and other news sources to post news. Overall the reliability on print media websites like New York Times (4%), Wall Street Journal (2%) and Washington Post (2%) is very low.

On the other hand the use of search engines to look for news stories has grown from 70% in 2004 to 83% in 2008. There is also a fair amount of general web users (23%) reading blogs on politics or current events.

Good news for magazines like Slate and Salon; a very small amount (5%) of population goes online to read them. Though news videos on Internet is gaining popularity with 33% of Americans watching news programs online.

It is no surprise that the social networking sites have become popular. The survey says, “Fully 65% of people 18 to 24 - 82% of those who go online - say they have a profile on MySpace, Facebook or another social networking site.” But the SSNs haven’t been a popular source to get news. The survey also reports, “Three-in-ten of those who have social network profiles say they regularly (10%) or sometimes (20%) get information about local, national or international news through social network sites.”

While social network sites remain a sluggish source of seeking online news, email (35% in 1995 vs. 68% 2008) is a rapidly increasing form of sending or receiving news story to friend of associate.

In conclusion search engines, web portals, blogs and emails are different channels within the web that people acquire their news from. The common theme here - none of these are actually responsible for creating or reporting actual news. Traditional news reporting and writing is losing its essence gradually and if the online and digital news continue to invade (which it will), the presentation formats might become smaller and headlines will become entire story. In a way newspapers and news channels will have majority of its operation online and the original format will take a back seat.

A deep inclination towards Soundslides

Some soundslides are more effective in communicating the message than videos. It’s true that pictures say a thousand words. I think in online newsrooms, soundslides have become a creative channel in giving facts about the subject without being boring or dry.

Online journalism is a growing field and even while we sleep at night, some new software or interactive design feature is being introduced proving that the effort to innovatively and resourcefully communicate to the reader is continuous.

For now, within soundslides there are various options to bring the pictures to life through sound and text. Our Midland has balanced soundslide mix of nature, news features, sports, entertainment and many other genres.

In class we have been working with Audacity - sound software used to edit sound files that can be merged in soundslides. But again my knowledge is basic.

The Birthday Dream Comes True on Midland has a combination of interview voice and natural sound giving a real feel of the environment.

There are so many touching stories on the site worth a visit. Most popular news sites including New York Times, L. A. Times, Democrat and Chronicle etc. are offering new and different news formats of online news. It’s good thing that I am getting a lot of classroom practice before I get to showcase my journalistic talents in the newsroom.

Beyond the basics

My Multimedia Journalism class is getting deeper into audio soundslides and news videos. We are taught the basic camera angles and given a few pointers on how and what to shoot for the B-roll. For example, it is always a good idea that the subject is not looking directly at the camera.

Working with the camera and editing the videos on Adobe Premiere has been a starting point for me. Meanwhile, I was back to surfing for some good work on web. I know it will take a while to produce quality online news videos. The difference in our work and theirs is, they are extremely skilled, planned and effective in communicating the message.

Wired has a multimedia section showing a variety of slides and videos. It's obvious that there are professionals behind the camera but the composition looks fairly simple. The Clover Coffee Machine video is a standard interview. The man is showing the features of the coffee machine and the camera is moving with the instruction.

For a complicated machine like that, it makes it better for the viewer to see what the machine can do while the subject is explaining. Many times while doing the story and being a beginner at the camera, you often forget what composition will work best to tell the story.

I know as students we are not expected to achieve great camera work, but it’s important to get the right message across. Just like the simple story told about making chocolate in the How to Make Chocolate video.

Getting to know Photography

This week our multimedia journalism class at VCU has been all about photography and audio soundslides. Prior to class, my knowledge on the subject was limited to casual pictures taken while traveling. The need to learn and better about this art has got me looking into various corners of web for better exposure.

A good place to learn would be Soul Of Athens, which has a great treasure of quality audio soundslides and videos. The design and content has been featured in very attractive way with plenty interactive elements keeping you indulged. The slides are spilt in four categories namely spirituality, environment, creativity and youth.

Little Mountains in the Environment section plays like a book. Once the picture on the left fades out the next one shows up on the right. In class our skills have been limited to making the soundslide, adding our voices, throwing in some background music or natural sounds and giving movement of the pictures. The work on Soul Of Athens combines lots of these elements adding more features.

Love In The First Person (in the Spirituality section) is a combination of audio soundslide and video. The flow of the story through pictures with bits of video gives it a documentary treatment. It shows a couple talking about a new event in their life that will bring a lot of changes in their relationship. Needless to say, the pictures tell most of the story.

Their Submit Some Soul section has an image gallery of users submitting their work. If you’ve been to Athens and have some photography that you want to share then this would be the place. But I am guessing their standards for judging are very high.

A healthy online relationship

It’s a satisfying experience to read a good book or an article. Just like getting information you are looking for. I think the Health magazine has a nice mix of information and interesting facts that keep you indulged.

You don’t need to have a disease to browse and read. Though it doesn’t hurt to know about back pain and how to prevent it or surprising causes of it. If your body has been reacting in an unusual way, the Symptom Checker will be quick way to find out what’s wrong. Just type in your symptom and the results will show up with a list of connecting symptoms.

Next to Symptom Checker there is a Drug Finder, telling everything you need to know about your current medication. In the same section there is an interaction icon which helps you know the risks involved, if you combined your current drug with another one.

On a happier note, there is diet guide with a laundry list of different diets. Choose any three for comparison. For example if you are looking for the best diet out of Atkins, The Zone and Jenny Craig then select and enter, a comprehensive chart will show up listing what involves in each diet.

Along with this there is a How To Cook, Nutrition Advice, everyone’s favorite Weight Loss section and endless tips on diet and shopping. Next comes beauty addressing hair, fashion, skin, and makeup care.

There are plenty useful features on Mind and Body that will catch your interest. And yes yoga is beneficial for you. Health may not be rich with multimedia elements but it has a complete guide on what you need to know about your mind and body. I finally found a healthy online relationship.

Is silly always funny?

Here’s a confession. I will watch anything funny. I mean anything. There is an extra gene woven in me to seek humor. But it’s the silly humor that needs to be consumed in small dozes. The TBS (Dept. of Humor Analysis) site falls in that silly category. But the multimedia elements in it really raise the bar for goofiness.

Right from the word go, there are crazy pop ups and surveys making you explore more. Old tricks and tools like creating funny faces by adding weird beards are also part of TBS, but the flash tools and colors are worth making the trip. For a few laughs, the Take A Survey section enables you to upload a picture and fool around adding crazy elements.

The Table of Periodic Laughter section has A to Z funny sounds. Just click on your ten best and form a composition of funny noises. The Movie Maker provides the same option of selecting a video and background score with a variety of sound effects (naturally silly ones) you can drag to the track list to compile the entire movie.

The downside is, it’s good for a few chuckles but gets boring in a few minutes. You probably wouldn’t want to revisit. Here’s an observation (for Seinfeld fans) from its Funny Shorts section that will make a long-lasting impression:

The Seinfeld show became funnier as Kramer’s dark hair grew higher.

Music on my mind

Last weekend, for my college sound slide assignment I took some pictures of an old music store. It got me thinking if lazy bodies like me could find something online for music browsing and listening. Sure there are plenty download options but last.fm, an online music store, has a complete solution for finding, listening, watching and buying music.

Somewhere I feel bad for the music stores. They suffer in business, because we choose convenience over making the attempt to visit and physically hunt for albums we desire. The online option is so readily available making it very tempting to browse.

There are times some number is stuck in your head and you probably don’t remember the artist. For minor dilemmas like these, there is YouTube, Lime Wire and many similar others but here at last.fm, you can just get your song and get options to listen to the rest of the album. There will be other options like other albums by the same artist and artists’ of similar genre. This means that you can discover new artists and share it with your friends (send tags).

I found Eagle Eye Cherry while listening to Train. For the more inquisitive ones, you can sail along with other users and see what they are listening to, and get weekly top videos and top tracks.

Overall the experience is more organized and easy to operate.