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City School

2006-04-03T09:10:00.000-05:00

Hyperlocal Story - City School

Several months ago, I heard about a private school located in East Austin with a vision to provide a unique education to students from different cultural, economic and academic backgrounds. So I decided to check it out...

Hear an interview with City School Principal Karon Law

View photos of City School and "the Soto boys"

more on citizen photojournalism...

2006-03-27T08:25:00.000-06:00

I read an article written when Spy Media was kicking off. One thing I thought about as I read it was the idea of citizen photojournalism being used for more of the internet world of journalism than the print world. The article mentioned that although camera phone images aren't good for printing pictures, the resolution is good enough for the web. I guess this just made me picture a rise in online media; we may not necessarily see a lot of citizen photos on the CNN website, but like the article suggests, small towns may really pick up on this citizen photojournalism idea, and maybe we'll start seeing citizen photos being used to help small online papers. I'm starting to think this isn't such a bad idea... At first, it kind of made me frustrated because it seemed like normal citizens were "taking my job away from me." But I think it can really catch on, and as more people hear about it, I think citizen photojournalim could be a huge benefit to some communities.

Another thing the article mentioned that I thought was interesting was how citizen photojournalism isn't necessarily censored. I'm not sure what I think about the whole idea of ethics in citizen journalism, and the question of whether or not they should abide by the same code of ethics as regular journalists do. I guess, to me, if citizen contributions, whether it be stories or photos, are going to be used just as a normal reporter or photographer's work would be used, I think a code of ethics should be involved. I understand that a benefit of this New Media can be that good stories are being told that editors may not let run, but I think there needs to be some line, especially if we're going to call it citizen "journalism".

Citizen Paparazzi

2006-03-06T08:14:00.000-06:00

I read an online article about Splash, a picture agency, picking up on citizen journalism after seeing the effects and advantages of citizen journalism during events such as the London bombings or the 2004 tsunami.

Only Splash seems to be more concerned with celebrity photos. The article continues and talks about the money people can make from turning in any photo they have of a celebrity going to the store or walking down the street. Splash's co-owner, Gary Morgan, said "The right picture at the right time can make anyone's bank account a lot fatter." Some examples include Britney Spears wedding pictures taken by a witness which sold for $150,000.

I didn't like that these "paparazzi" shots were being discussed among the topic of citizen journalism. To me, that is not journalism. And Splash is definitely not the only photo company asking the public for their celebrity pictures - thesnitcherdesk.com and cash4yourpics.com are just two others that encourage you to cash in your celebrity photos.

My Photoblog

2006-02-27T08:41:00.000-06:00

So I spent most of last week starting up my photoblog. I've been searching through the existing photoblogs, and it's been interesting to see the variety of content and skill. Most that I've seen are really good.

It's also been interesting to look at the rated photoblogs on photoblogs.org. Some of the lower rated blogs look just as good as some of the top blogs. But I guess it's all dependant on how many people select the photoblog as a "favorite." So you can't really just be number 1 because you're a good photographer - people have to find your blog then mark it as a favorite.

Mine only has one favorite - me. Heheheh...

Podcasting and Vodcasting

2006-02-27T08:13:00.000-06:00

I first heard about podcasting after buying my new iPod video and seeing podcasting available on iTunes. I wasn't too sure what podcasting was, but after checking it out, it sounded basically like a radio talk show, and there were hundreds of topics to choose from. Then last semester in one of my journalism classes, a student played us one of his sports podcasts that he had recently recorded. It was pretty cool, but because I hate the sound of my voice, I figured I'd probably never do anything like that...

Anyway, I read this column about podcasting and vodcasting, and it seems like podcasting's relationship to MSM is similar to all other types of rising blogging techniques (blogs, photoblogs, etc.). The article gave some examples of how podcasting is being used, one being that they provide supplementary material to newspaper articles. Guy Ruddle, who according to the article left the BBC to become U.K.'s The Telegraph's first podcast editor, said podcasting allows people to "read" while driving, and he thinks podcasting can add value to the paper.

I guess it sounds interesting - the idea of reading something in the paper and then possibly continuing the story or learning more by checking out a podcast. But I wonder how many people would do that. Maybe once more people hear about it and actually get into podcasting, there will be more of an interest in listening to interviews rather than reading them. Who knows...

The use of podcasts just to announce a newspaper's top headlines doesn't seem too exciting either. As the article states, people can already get that from NPR or the Times, and of course online.

Vodcasting (video podcasting) sounds interesting... I guess I don't understand the difference between vodcasting and broadcast news, other than the lever of expertise. The article says a news vodcast is an "anti-TV newcast", and will be basically like a podcast only you can see the people. Hmmm... I think that may only work for small towns that don't have a local TV news broadcast, as the article mentions.

Technorati tag: podcasting, vodcasting

Citizen Photojournalism

2006-02-20T07:54:00.000-06:00

As a photojournalism student, reading articles about the changes in visual journalism was very interesting and a bit frustrating. Shaping the media with mobiles talks about the use of citizen cell phone images to cover the London bombings last year. The article talks about how newspapers are less concerned about image quality. One newspaper photographer states, "As newspapers, we're using grainy, coarser images that we wouldn't have used before."

So why start now? Is it ok to sacrifice the quality of an image for the content? Maybe I'm a bit biased since I'm hoping to make a career out of photojournalism, but it seems a bit frustrating to think of grainy pixelated images being used because the media is so "hungry for...eyewitness accounts." Don't get me wrong - there's definitely a difference in seeing action as it happens than just seeing the aftermath. This just seems crazy for some reason... Basically, everyone who owns a camera phone (which, now just about every camera can take pictures and even video sometimes) can become a journalist. These images would definitely benefit newspapers during unexpected events, but what about using them for everyday stories?

Another article I looked at gave a few examples of newspapers using photo-sharing services such as Flickr and Buzznet. The Boston Globe ran a story on a conference using photos from Flickr. DC Denison of the Boston Globe commented on using these services - "Pictures by a resident can mean a lot more than pictures by a photographer who just drops in for an hour or so." Well, if that's the case, why do we have journalists in the first place? We might as well go knocking on people's doors, give them a camera and a pen and paper and ask them to write the stories for us. But that would be crazy. A good photographer can capture the real story, and can (hopefully) manage to get both content and quality.

Technorati tag: citizen photojournalism

is this journalism?

2006-02-06T08:49:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of blogging being journalism.. I was reading Blogging, Journalism and Credibility , an article by Rebecca MacKinnon, which talks about bloggers and journalists sharing the same media space, and journalists "sharing the press with the public." It's hard for me to think of bloggers as journalists. Yes, they may be talking about news or "reporting", but to me, blogging is too different in key areas. For example, bloggers are free to write about whatever they want, however they want. They can be as biased as they want. How is that journalism? I guess taking several journalism classes has drilled the idea of objectivity in my head, and the importance of being fair and balanced. So to me, not necessarily having to be "fair" makes blogging very different from journalism.

The article states, "Journalists have been slow to understand why they owe a debt to bloggers. They owe a debt because the people who are developing the web as a medium for journalism are bloggers and people like them." Yeah, but they're people without any set of rules.

I guess blogging has its pros. If you want to read about something specific, you can probably find a blog dedicated to just that topic. In a way, a blogger is more like an "expert." But then the trust issue comes in...how do you know they really know what they're talking about? It seems like the only way you could know would be through time. And I'm sure blogging will change as well with time, and the kinks will be worked out, and maybe I won't be so skeptical.

Bye-bye Music Stores, Hello iTunes!

2006-01-30T08:22:00.000-06:00

Chris Anderson wrote a couple of weeks ago about music stores going out of business. True it's nice to own actually CDs and not just downloaded songs, but now, on iTunes at least, you get the CD art along with the song. So why you do still want the CD? I gave up on buying CDs a couple of years ago for a few reasons. One: I sometimes end up only liking a few songs on a CD, so why spend close to $20 on something I won't completely listen to? I'm a poor college student. Two: My CDs were stolen from my car twice in one year. I gave up on trying to rebuild my CD collection for a third time. I also lost faith in my car alarm helping me out when I need it most. Three: I'm addicted to iTunes, and even though I'm still poor, I search for extra bucks to buy songs and useless videos. Thanks to iTunes, I am now addicted to watching Lost. So good...

So, yeah, sad that music stores are going out of business. But I haven't been to a music store in years, unless you count Walmart and Target. I only visited Tower Records once since my move to Austin before it shut down...

Teen Bloggers?

2006-01-30T00:12:00.000-06:00

An article written last October referenced on Ari Soglin’s blog discusses the popular use of blogs and personal websites among teenagers. The article mentioned that young people ages 14 to 21 don’t really use the Internet to keep up with news. Instead, their blogs and websites are more like diaries, with fairly unimportant information that probably only matters to a certain number of friends.

The article said although teenagers spend an average of eight hours a week on the Internet, they don’t really use the Internet to keep up with current events. Young people are the ones growing up with their lives revolving around the internet; it’s sad to think that they’re so preoccupied reading about what their friends did last weekend, that they don’t really bother reading about what’s going on in the world. I don’t have a problem with the idea of using the Internet as a form of communication -- I actually have a sad little MySpace account as well -- but hopefully people can start using the Internet for more important reasons. (I guess myself included…)

It just seems like some people blog about “newsworthy” information, while others don’t…does this matter? Should blogs even be used as sources for journalism as they sometimes are? How do you know what blogs are “good” or reliable?

It Starts..

2006-01-25T09:48:00.000-06:00

I'm a first-timer at blogging, but I'm excited to learn more about this new form of media.