scott w. gray's Open Salon Blog

Multimedia Training for Freelance Journalists - Bursaries

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:11:31 -0500

I have posted before about how much more progressive the UK has been in its adoption and development of multimedia journalism, and today found another example.

Whether through examples like the Guardian’s new media content, the way that UK-based media outlets have embraced the reciprocal loop of feedback with their readership, or the general acceptance of multimedia journalism becoming more ubiquitous, there seems to be a greater integration of multimedia journalism into the wider fabric of society in the UK than we see here in North America (and great deal deal more than we see in Canada, currently).

On that front, Journalism.co.uk posted today about Skillset (a training body for the UK creative media industry) offering multimedia training bursaries for freelance journalists. The inclusion of freelancers is probably a very astute business move given the current economy, but as a freelancer I must say that I am jealous that the opportunities for high-quality, multimedia skillset upgrades exists so readily in the UK and so rarely here in Canada.

These training opportunities seem to mirror the level of acceptance of the shift to new media content in the wider media. Which is to say, in Canada, media outlets are largely still in a holding pattern - debating how multimedia journalism will evolve and impact us all - while other countries adopt new techniques and narratives, and even offer professional training to push the craft further.

For a country as vast as Canada, and that formerly had one of the most advanced telecommunications networks in the world (alas, not any more), seeing the multimedia opportunities in foreign media is doubly frustrating.

Perhaps I could just commute…

Recommended: William Hoffman’s anyoneeverything Site

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:11:14 -0500

So much of the emerging wired world (and web!) is so highly designed that we sometimes lose sight of the substance in all that style.

This morning, I spent some quality time on Multimedia Shooter and was directed to the short films of William Hoffman. His work is a revelation to me, as it pulls at the edges of fiction and non-fiction, and creates a momentary pocket where the real subject matter seems to be our shared humanity. What a gift, to be directed to something that makes you feel more you while simultaneously feeling so everyone else.

I recommend checking out Hoffman’s Moments and Parabolas pieces as a great intro to his work, but perhaps the Everyone Forever Now series would be the most journalistic option for Fauna Corp readers.

Finally, you could have a look at this post to read a bit about Multimedia Shooter, and a few more multimedia journalism websites that I think are totally indispensable. Each shows that style is great, but style plus substance is a combination that puts us in touch with the deeper truths about our selves.

Very cool stuff.

Lest We Forget - WWII Slideshow

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:11:22 -0500

Like a great many Canadians, I am deeply effected by Remembrance Day. Like millions of others, my family was touched, turned and torn by WWII, and in some ways the vivid memories of what my parents saw have been passed on to me and altered how I see the world.

Appropriately, a friend and colleague alerted me to a Flash-based timeline on the Guardian website that shows the march to World War Two from its nascent beginnings at the end of World War One.

While the timeline does re-purpose the same photos several times over (odd, given the archives the Guardian must have at its disposal), the information is solid and the break-out articles by George Orwell, Edward Murrow, etc., provide an eye witness context we seldom receive from our vantage point in history.

The Guardian timeline is recommended by Fauna Corporation, not only because of its journalistic / new media integrity, but because of its ability to remind us of the sacrifices our soldiers made for freedom.

Looking 5 Years into the Future of Journalism

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 12:11:44 -0500

When speaking about the future, it seems that 5 years is the most popular milestone for people. Not far enough off to suggest silver hover-cars and jet packs, yet distant enough that we’ll accept some fantastic possibilities (especially if we consider Moore’s Law and it’s rate of acceleration), the 5 year plan allows us to see the road immediately ahead and plan for it.

The unfathomable future - Suddenly Fathomable!

This past week I found two informative pieces about the future of journalism that suggested what trends will become important for the media in the next 5 years. While everyone can predict the future, and every megalomaniac can build a 5-year plan, I thought these pieces were great food for thought for multimedia journos.

The first piece comes from (the awesome) ReadWriteWeb site, and features a brief excerpt of an interview with Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google. The 6-minute segment discusses the role of video, non-English language communications, social media and bandwidth in the coming age, and also offers a fascinating look at how Google predicts media trends (non-separation between consumer and enterprise applications, for instance).

The excerpt on ReadWriteWeb is most pertinent, but I also watched the full 45 minute piece on YouTube and, while less relevant to journos, it was still informative. Check it out.

The second piece about the future of the web comes to my attention from Will Sullivan’s Journerdism site, and he draws it in from Noupe. Noupe’s piece asks “where will the web be in 5 years” and then presents 15 trends to consider. The Noupe article is pretty detailed, with examples, pundits (both pro- and con-), further reading and what I think are some pretty hilarious photos in support of their arguments.

Highlights include a prediction that consumers will gravitate toward web experience as the centre of their media world, where social media, net-based entertainment, mobile apps, and collaborative tools all become a core set of entertainment, education and creative tools for consumers. Essentially, the web (and its apps) will become stronger and we, in turn, will become more fluid in our integration of this experience into our lives.

While not Nostradamus or the Mayan Calendar (shout out to the 2012-ers out there!), the 5-years-into-the-future predictions are popular, and the two pieces cited above contain some excellent ideas to consider. Part of considering the future of journalism is intrinsically linked to considering the future of all consumer and enterprise media, and the articles in Noupe or ReadWriteWeb offer a great road map for next-gen-journos.

Review: Anderson Cooper's Dispatches from the Edge

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 23:11:44 -0500

On a recent trip I picked up Anderson Cooper’s memoir, Dispatches from the Edge, and read it on a long flight home. Equal parts “war stories” (ie: tales from the field that journalists share with each other over drinks) and autobiography, Cooper does an excellent job of giving context for his journalistic decision-making while also pulling back the veil a bit on his (very) private life.

The son of Gloria Vanderbilt (which was news to me) who lost his father to heart attack and then his older brother to suicide, Cooper decided to pursue a career as a Foreign Correspondent seemingly to compensate for the pain these deaths caused in his life. By surrounding himself with the suffering of others, he was both excused from publicly investigating his own pain, while also being given the external stimulus that could allow him to grieve for his personal losses.

Reading Dispatches from the Edge so soon after losing my own brother was both painful and therapeutic for me. I could see why Cooper decided to throw himself so heavily into his career, but I could also read the toll that this decision took upon his mental and emotional well-being.

While not a perfect memoir (after a certain point, Cooper begins shifting between conflicts and emergencies so quickly that they all blur together - possibly a deliberate technique, but one that inhibits the deeper understanding that most of his journalism looks for), Dispatches from the Edge still offers a lot to journalists, whether professional, freelance or Citizen-styled.

Of particular note was Cooper’s early decision to arrive in a foreign country in the midst of a civil war, with no command of the language, no flack-jacket, no contacts, no media outlet supporting him, and only a fake press pass and a Hi-8 camera as his defense. While he acknowledges it was a stupid decision, it should also be noted that this led to his big break in journalism. Is there a lesson here for you?

Dispatches from the Edge is recommended by Fauna Corporation. It can be found at most major bookstores, but is also available from time-to-time used, should you need to save up your cash until you can buy your first Hi-8 camera and a one-way ticket somewhere.