These three things dominated my time while working at KOMU this past Thursday.
With our new Flash skills, Liz and I took a map outlining the counties of Missouri and attempted to transform it into a rollover graphic highlighting the car sales per county. After a couple hours of failed attempts, we decided to create our own version of a would-be flash map on the white board using red and blue markers....Randy duly noted that one county Liz drew happened to look more like the state of Illinois than anything. So, after a few laughs, we popped back onto the computer and voila!...a magical thing happened: we remembered how to create a working button. : )
While Liz made more progress on the map, I continued to cut packages, create images and save them for Stephanie Stouffer to put on KOMU.com as my computer didn't have ACM. (By the way, I'm thinking I'll suggest that we re-organize the computers behind the new desk...the one that is most useless happens to be smack in the middle, where the more helpful one is jammed in the corner, giving little room for a chair and/or person to efficiently upload work through ACM.) Anywho, that's all to say I realized I did not remind Stephanie to add my name to the stories I worked on...and now, go figure, I can't remember the stories that aired during my shift. Even after scrolling through KOMU.com searching for February 19, I wasn't able to find anything. I did however, work specifically with Kirsten Mims and Paula Smith to help bring their stories to the finish line. In general, it seems the broadcast reporters are beginning to get the hang of their new reporting duties and how to work on ACM. That's encouraging!
Also, as far as this week goes, I'm hoping to set up an interview or two to create some original content for moneycommons.com. Last week I spoke with a married woman who has 5 kids, lives on a tight budget and shops mostly organic while looking around Columbia for the best deals and steals...and she said she'd most-likely be willing to share her tips with us for a short video. I'm going to finalize that sometime this week and hopefully get some reporting done as well!
This will be another busy-busy week, but I'm just reminding myself that Spring break is less than one month away!! Praaaiiise the Lord for some sun, a cool Grandpa (who we call "Bumpa"), my best friend from London and a beach. Oh yes. : )
Monday, February 23, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Craziest Week of My Life
...well, maybe not of my life, but of my semester thus far.
I have to say though... I learned LOTS during my shift at KOMU this past week. Since I was flying solo on the web for the first few hours on Thursday, I was able to do much more in terms of video. It was interesting to actually see how video from Avid News Cutter transfers (or fails to transfer at times) into ACM, which gave me a dose of insight into how to troubleshoot the problems that occur.
Something I've also enjoyed over the past couple weeks has been working with the broadcast students. It's fun to be in a leadership role where I'm able to guide others and help bring their stories to the finish line effectively. Working with 10 o'clock reporters is where this happens most, as it's a much more calm shift where one-on-one time is with the reporters is easier to come across.
And of course, I love images, so searching through video for the lead photo (when the reporters don't have time to - which is usually most of the time) is always enjoyable. One of my favorites this past week was the image I chose for the short piece on the swimming Grand Prix. Not sure if the image is still available directly on that page, but it was of two swimmers near the pool wall as another splashes to tag the wall as well.
Two other stories I worked on were on the NAACP and Autism.
It was also great to help Liz write titles and captions for some of the images in her post-ice storm piece...she was super-exhausted after two long days of reporting and little sleep, so we had a fun time trying to make her captions more coherent than what she was actually saying/thinking.
This week, our moneycommons team is also going to be working on getting in contact with actual sources. I think it was helpful that Liz and I met to create an outline for stories and that we posted that to googledocs for other reporters to see as well. It's exciting that Newsy wants to partner with us in this endeavor as well!
Time to run, but am looking forward to seeing what the rest of this week will bring!!
I have to say though... I learned LOTS during my shift at KOMU this past week. Since I was flying solo on the web for the first few hours on Thursday, I was able to do much more in terms of video. It was interesting to actually see how video from Avid News Cutter transfers (or fails to transfer at times) into ACM, which gave me a dose of insight into how to troubleshoot the problems that occur.
Something I've also enjoyed over the past couple weeks has been working with the broadcast students. It's fun to be in a leadership role where I'm able to guide others and help bring their stories to the finish line effectively. Working with 10 o'clock reporters is where this happens most, as it's a much more calm shift where one-on-one time is with the reporters is easier to come across.
And of course, I love images, so searching through video for the lead photo (when the reporters don't have time to - which is usually most of the time) is always enjoyable. One of my favorites this past week was the image I chose for the short piece on the swimming Grand Prix. Not sure if the image is still available directly on that page, but it was of two swimmers near the pool wall as another splashes to tag the wall as well.
Two other stories I worked on were on the NAACP and Autism.
It was also great to help Liz write titles and captions for some of the images in her post-ice storm piece...she was super-exhausted after two long days of reporting and little sleep, so we had a fun time trying to make her captions more coherent than what she was actually saying/thinking.
This week, our moneycommons team is also going to be working on getting in contact with actual sources. I think it was helpful that Liz and I met to create an outline for stories and that we posted that to googledocs for other reporters to see as well. It's exciting that Newsy wants to partner with us in this endeavor as well!
Time to run, but am looking forward to seeing what the rest of this week will bring!!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
To furlough or not to furlough...
Definition: Furlough: (from Dutch: Verlof) - A temporary leave of absence; sometimes involuntary because of work conditions
This was one thing University of Missouri System president Gary Forsee was set to discuss Friday, February 6 in his first State of the University Address. So basically, while working at KOMU News during our Thursday shift (and after discovering one of the reporters spoke with Forsee about furloughs earlier that evening for another story) we decided to preview the following day's address: "One on One with Forsee."
Also, "twittering" turned out to be quite interesting... We gave a countdown on the social networking site, Twitter, until our story was officially published on KOMU.com, to hopefully grab peoples' attention. Then we decided to ask questions about furloughs to our "followers." And we had one response... Victory! The comment came from a woman who said she'd rather have a furlough than a pay cut. No doubt why.
So, as someone who put effort into publishing and twittering Forsee's furlough preview, it was interesting to see a conversation - short and sweet though it was - actually take place via Twitter. It was quite funny when we saw the "tweet" from this lady... Liz and I got pretty excited someone actually responded to us!
Aside from this little experience, one thing I've especially enjoyed during my KOMU.com shifts has been editing images in Adobe Photoshop. I'm definitely thankful for the photo editing experience I've had through previous convergence stories, as I think it's given me a leg up in this process. It's obvious to me that a little TLC to the images makes a big difference. I definitely enjoy making the KOMU.com News page pretty through photography.
Oh yeah, real quick update... As of Friday, Forsee was given authority to furlough campus workers if needed.
This was one thing University of Missouri System president Gary Forsee was set to discuss Friday, February 6 in his first State of the University Address. So basically, while working at KOMU News during our Thursday shift (and after discovering one of the reporters spoke with Forsee about furloughs earlier that evening for another story) we decided to preview the following day's address: "One on One with Forsee."
Also, "twittering" turned out to be quite interesting... We gave a countdown on the social networking site, Twitter, until our story was officially published on KOMU.com, to hopefully grab peoples' attention. Then we decided to ask questions about furloughs to our "followers." And we had one response... Victory! The comment came from a woman who said she'd rather have a furlough than a pay cut. No doubt why.
So, as someone who put effort into publishing and twittering Forsee's furlough preview, it was interesting to see a conversation - short and sweet though it was - actually take place via Twitter. It was quite funny when we saw the "tweet" from this lady... Liz and I got pretty excited someone actually responded to us!
Aside from this little experience, one thing I've especially enjoyed during my KOMU.com shifts has been editing images in Adobe Photoshop. I'm definitely thankful for the photo editing experience I've had through previous convergence stories, as I think it's given me a leg up in this process. It's obvious to me that a little TLC to the images makes a big difference. I definitely enjoy making the KOMU.com News page pretty through photography.
Oh yeah, real quick update... As of Friday, Forsee was given authority to furlough campus workers if needed.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Gorilla Warfare - not "Guerilla"
The link at the bottom is to a piece I wrote for Newsy.com - an international news organization that takes perspectives from news outlets around the world to discuss one story...thus, attempting to tell the whole story, rather than just a biased viewpoint of it.
While working for a start-up news company such as Newsy.com, I've learned an incredible amount about what it takes to get people to actually notice the work we're doing. We could be writing phenomenal pieces with compelling angles and perspectives, yet if the site itself and our work are not marketed properly, it's all in vain. Now, I'm working on the reporting/writing side of things at Newsy so am not exactly focusing on marketing, but it's really all intertwined.
Basically, the stories we write have to have the MOST compelling bits of information (content uniqueness, visual appeal, contrasting viewpoints, etc.) within the first 5-10 seconds of our piece, or else we've lost the fickle online viewer. This obviously makes sense, but is quite challenging as we're pulling from a variety of sources with unique and interesting points of view. So, choosing the top 4-5 sources (all with different perspectives) AND balancing that with accurately/effectively telling the story itself is a pretty challenging task. Also, for online journalism and marketing that journalism, it's essential the headline be creative, yet not too abstract. In some cases, creativity is encouraged...in others, it's important to stick to the "meat and potatoes."
Working in an environment where we're constantly innovating, creating, re-vamping, eliminating, correcting, experimenting and learning is an amazing opportunity for a journalism student right now... specifically as the Internet seems to be throwing the communications world a massive curveball.
Anywho, here's the link to a story I wrote on Gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a shocking story of their survival during rebel violence and warfare. Any comments/feedback from this piece and/or others on the site are always appreciated! : )
http://www.newsy.com/videos/gorillas_and_warfare/
While working for a start-up news company such as Newsy.com, I've learned an incredible amount about what it takes to get people to actually notice the work we're doing. We could be writing phenomenal pieces with compelling angles and perspectives, yet if the site itself and our work are not marketed properly, it's all in vain. Now, I'm working on the reporting/writing side of things at Newsy so am not exactly focusing on marketing, but it's really all intertwined.
Basically, the stories we write have to have the MOST compelling bits of information (content uniqueness, visual appeal, contrasting viewpoints, etc.) within the first 5-10 seconds of our piece, or else we've lost the fickle online viewer. This obviously makes sense, but is quite challenging as we're pulling from a variety of sources with unique and interesting points of view. So, choosing the top 4-5 sources (all with different perspectives) AND balancing that with accurately/effectively telling the story itself is a pretty challenging task. Also, for online journalism and marketing that journalism, it's essential the headline be creative, yet not too abstract. In some cases, creativity is encouraged...in others, it's important to stick to the "meat and potatoes."
Working in an environment where we're constantly innovating, creating, re-vamping, eliminating, correcting, experimenting and learning is an amazing opportunity for a journalism student right now... specifically as the Internet seems to be throwing the communications world a massive curveball.
Anywho, here's the link to a story I wrote on Gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a shocking story of their survival during rebel violence and warfare. Any comments/feedback from this piece and/or others on the site are always appreciated! : )
http://www.newsy.com/videos/gorillas_and_warfare/
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