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This weblog was developed and is supported by the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, Baruch College, CUNY
Apr
21
Trouble brewing on the field
Posted by Vera Haller on Apr 21, 2008 under: blogs, multimedia, newspapers, online news, sports, video | 3 Comments
A New York Times article today describes an interesting battle brewing between the sports world and the news world. Developments in the way sports stories are reported is causing tension between the teams and the news organizations covering them.
According to the article, with bloggers detailing every word and news Web sites posting slideshows and videos, sports executives are looking to limit this ever-growing coverage - and drive fans to their team Web sites.
So the Times asks, “Who owns sports coverage?” Some sources in the stories suggest that these disputes may end up in court.
Apr
7
Citizen journalism at CNN
Posted by Vera Haller on Apr 7, 2008 under: community journalism, online news, television, video | 3 Comments
As I trolled through various Web pages looking for an item for this blog, I clicked into “iReport,” off of CNN’s main home page on the Web. The headline was too tempting to resist, “YOU take control of the news.”
I went to the site where I was as greeted with more strong words, “Unedited. Unfiltered. News.”
After a bit of Internet research, I found that iReport is a special Web site being developed by CNN to promote citizen journalism – that meaning reporting done by non-professional journalists.
A recent article on Information Week’s Web site gives a good summary of what CNN is looking to develop. According to the article, anybody who registers can upload video, photos and stories to iReport where it is posted “unfiltered.” Then the best reports are linked to CNN’s Web site.
When I checked, the iReport site had video and many good photos up from the Olympic torch protest in Paris.
Not a bad way to encourage the public’s involvement in the newsgathering process, but still keep some editorial control over what appears on a news organization’s Web site.
Mar
26
Aggregating the news
Posted by Vera Haller on Mar 26, 2008 under: multimedia, newspapers, online news, politics, television, video | 3 Comments
An area I haven’t touched upon yet in this blog is the ability of the Web to aggregate news by subject matter. This may seem very obvious to some of you, but I wanted to draw attention to the way it affects traditional news Web sites.
More and more people are using searches such as Google and Yahoo news, which organize the news by topic and then list links to stories written by different news organizations. When you can see the top news stories from a selection of outlets, why go to just one site for your news?
This means that people are entering news Web sites through larger search engines, not by going to the home page and seeing what the editors have posted and chosen as the top stories. It also means people might not have the same attachment and loyalty to “their” news Web site like they used to have to the local newspaper. Just another example of how news consumption is changing.
Another type of news aggregator to watch are sites such as digg.com, which post stories, photos, videos and podcasts based on the number of times they are recommended by readers. I find these lists interesting but often skewed heavily with stories about technology, politics and the weird and whacky.
Mar
18
Checking the pulse of online news
Posted by Vera Haller on Mar 18, 2008 under: blogs, community journalism, multimedia, newspapers, online news, television, video | 6 Comments
Each year, the Project for Excellence in Journalism releases a report that analyzes the status of journalism in the U.S. So obviously, I clicked straight through to the section abut news on the Web.The findings aren’t surprising. More people are going online for news, more people are watching video online and no one has figured out yet how to make a lot of money off of news Web sites. News about foreign events (particularly the war in Iraq) filled a larger news hole on major news Web sites than in other news outlets.
The editorial part of news organizations were credited with being innovative in finding ways to use new technology. The report criticized Madison Avenue for not moving more quickly to find ways to make advertising pay on news Web sites.
The section on the major trends identified by the study is important reading for all who work - or those of you looking to work - in the news business.
Mar
11
When a big story breaks
Posted by Vera Haller on Mar 11, 2008 under: multimedia, newspapers, online news, video | 5 Comments
That blockbuster of story – the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal – has spurned a million stories, blog entries, photo galleries and interactive features.
As an exercise, I scrolled through the local online coverage and pulled out a few links that illustrate how the written word was augmented by many online features.
If anything, the breadth of coverage shows how a big story gets covered in the digital era.
Interactive timeline: Milestones in an Ambitious Career
Audio: Back story with Sewell Chan
Write your own Post headline (not censored)
Video: Spitzer’s apology
Photo gallery: Political career
Poll: Should Spitzer resign?
Video: Reaction on Wall Street
Photo Gallery: Inside the Emperor’s Club
PDF: Criminal complaint about Client 9
Predict the New York Post’s headline
Mar
4
A must-read
Posted by Vera Haller on Mar 4, 2008 under: multimedia, newspapers, online news, television, video | 6 Comments
A new poll shows that younger people (those under 30) are increasing turning to the Internet for their news. No big surprise, but this survey on the state of the news industry by Zogby International really drives home the point.
Mar
4
When video makes the news
Posted by Vera Haller on Mar 4, 2008 under: foreign news, online news, television, video | 3 Comments
Anyone who has followed the news on television knows that decisions can be influenced by the type and quality of video that reporters bring back to the newsroom. For example, dramatic footage of a car accident or a police chase might make the air even if there is not much of a story to back up the video.The Web is no different. Yesterday, any number of news sites with a national reach had links on their homepages to video that an amateur videographer took of a near plane crash at Germany’s Hamburg airport.
Fox News and The New York Times in its blog, “The Lede,” were among those with stories and links to the video. When I looked on Google News for the story today, I found 247 links.
While the video is dramatic (it shows the plane wobbling and almost crashing right near the runway and then swooping up again), the incident would never have made news if that person with the video camera hadn’t been taping the landing.
The plane ultimately landed safely. No one was injured. So was it news? This story illustrates how – in the digital age — a good video clip can make news, not just on a local TV news station but on news outlets around the world.
Feb
12
Bringing the story home
Posted by Vera Haller on Feb 12, 2008 under: blogs, foreign news, multimedia, online news, video | 1 Comment
What is sometimes lost in discussions about the current state of the news industry is how the shift to the Web has created opportunities for powerful storytelling. The ability to report using words, images, video and audio means news organizations can draw people into a story like never before.
To find compelling coverage on the Web, take the story in Kenya. For many people in the United States, a news story from Africa may seem remote and, perhaps, not of the highest interest. But spend time on the YouTube channel created by NTVKenya, a television news station, and the importance of the story will be driven home. There are heartbreaking reports such as this one about children being separated from their families because of the violence.
Other interesting Web coverage is being done by a young photographer/blogger, Lameck Nyagudi, whose photos are featured on the BBC’s Web site. Nyagudi also has a blog and supplies photos to africanews.com.
Feb
5
Go online, get involved
Posted by Vera Haller on Feb 5, 2008 under: community journalism, newspapers, online news, politics, video | 6 Comments
A lot of news is happening in the city today. People are voting in the presidential primary, helping the Giants celebrate their Super Bowl victory at a ticker tape parade downtown and maybe even taking in a show at Fashion Week at the tents in Bryant Park.
In this day and age, there is no reason for anyone to be just a consumer of news. News Web sites in the area are providing plenty of opportunities for readers to be part of these stories.
The Daily News has a cool feature in its fashion coverage called “Hot or Not.” Readers click to a page with photos from the catwalks and they are able to vote on which outfits they like and which outfits they don’t.
For Super Tuesday, The New York Times rolled out its ongoing “Polling Place Photo Project,” with a link off the homepage. Readers are asked to upload photos of their polling places and provide a little bit of information such as how crowded a polling place was at the time of the photo. These photos are hardly scintillating, but people seem to be getting into the project
A little more raucous were the videos of Super Bowl celebrations posted by readers on NJ.com. The site, which gets its news from a group of New Jersey newspapers including The Star Ledger in Newark and The Times of Trenton, had a pretty good selection of reader-posted videos. The site was soliciting photos and video from today’s parade so it may be worth a look this evening when people have had a chance to get home and upload their coverage.
Jan
14
Network news and the Web
Posted by Vera Haller on Jan 14, 2008 under: online news, television, video | 6 Comments
Network news shows seem well positioned for the future of online journalism, if only for their output of high-quality video. In an effort to play off this strength, NBC’s Brian Williams launched a new homepage for his “Nightly News” show on Jan. 9.
The whole top of the page is now devoted exclusively to video clips. An embedded video player sits to the right and a selection of videos to choose from runs down a column to the left. The video is not just repurposed clips from the traditional broadcast.
One such blog had Williams doing a report from the Consumer Electronics Show in