Last January I took you behind the scenes of “Africa to Australia,” a multimedia site by SBS Online. Their latest project “Goa hippy tribe” is another Flash-heavy, video-rich site that incorporates Facebook connect to personalize the experience. I was hesitant to blog about this site though due to the nudity and open dialogue about drug use, but then I realized that this is actually a great vehicle to discuss rationale behind telling these types of stories. So, I invite you to read the following Q&A with Darius Devas (Director), Nick Doherty (Managing Editor, TV Online) and Matt Smith (Designer and Developer), then I’d love to hear your thoughts on the site.
You might remember me blogging about the website “Powering a Nation” the past two summers. I was part of the 2010 team of producers, and it’s inspiring to see what the 2011 team did this year. Rather than covering a handful of stories like what was done the first two years, this year 11 UNC students focused all of their efforts on “Coal: A Love Story.” Furthermore, they strung the content together in an interactive interface – the result of which is a fun and engaging visual exploration of our obsession with coal.
Video journalism is an evolving field that has yet to cultivate an obvious identity for itself. Many companies have different needs and objectives and staff videographer positions will inevitably vary in their responsibilities. But there are a few skills that I strongly believe all budding video journalists should take note of as they begin their careers in multimedia production.
So consumers use their mobile devices to consume news – but what about journalists using these ever-changing devices to gather the content? These five applications can enhance any reporter’s breaking news story by adding a multimedia element or allowing for interactivity. And the major benefit of these apps? No bulky equipment. Video, audio, photo, a police scanner and more in one handheld device – can’t beat that.
Immediately after seeing Wall Street Journal’s recent interactive visualization “A week on Foursquare” I was eager to learn how it was developed. I sought out insights from Albert Sun, graphics producer at WSJ who was one of three producers on this package, alongside Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Zach Seward. Read on to learn how this project came together and the hiccups they experienced along the way.
Washington Post cartographer Gene Thorp recently published an interactive graphic detailing all of the battles and casualties during the four years of the American Civil War. Using a Google map API with a Flash timeline banner, this clean interactive graphic allows users to see multiple dimensions of the battles and casualties. I enjoyed both playing the timeline at an aggregate level, as well as clicking on specific battles to learn more about what certain ones had more casualties than another. I encourage you to spend some time with this interactive as well to see how a timeline and map mashup can enhance a data-rich story.
Earlier in the week The Guardian launched a really slick interactive timeline titled “Arab spring” detailing the numerous recent protests in the Middle East. Produced by Garry Blight and Sheila Pulham, this piece is definitely worth your time.
Eirik Wallem Fossan, Flash developer for the Norwegian media organization Afterposten, recently notified me of a project they recently launched titled “What caught the attention of US diplomats?” that “visualizes a word count of more than 200,000 messages between the US State Department and its embassies and consulates from 1966 though February 2010.” Impressed by the sheer scope of this project, I was intrigued to learn more. Here is Eirik’s account of how they obtained the data from Wikileaks, parsed it into a usable format, and battled the ethical considerations that underlay the publication of sensitive information. Read on and let me know what you think!
Perhaps you already have spent some time with “Victims of gang violence: The smoke clears, but pain endures” published by LA Times at the end of 2010. I have been holding off on promoting this piece because I was anxious to do an interview with Barbara Davidson, the main producer behind this compelling piece. Unfortunately, she is overcoming a concussion suffered from a recent car accident (but she’s OK!) so I wanted to go ahead and publish the piece to make sure you check it out before 2011 stories bury it.
Adam Westbrook, UK blogger, entrepreneur and media whiz, just released his annual media predictions in a quirky and inspirational video. Last year he made all 10 predictions himself, and this year I was honored to be a part of the fun and make one of the predictions. Check out the video and see if you agree with us – I’d love to hear what your number one prediction is for the year!
