Category Archives: Multimedia
UNH journalists meet up with @johnherman
John Herman (@johnherman) came to UNH’s journalism department Tuesday evening to bring students into today’s digital world of news.
Here are some of his tricks for media illiterate journalists… and those of you who think you know how to tweet.
Numero uno, the key to getting people to read your stories online is through REPOSTING. This is really the only way people will find you today.
Online multimedia for journalists is truly invaluable. John Herman promotes the use of web video. This might not seem like anything new, but it is still worthwhile to highlight the power of web video for telling stories. Why? In short it is so much more engaging.
Something new on the horizon of journalism is the use of Geo-location. This can be seen in major newsrooms like the Boston Globe and their digital media lab, which is working on projects like a monitor of Boston featuring geo-tagged Instagram pictures (check out @globelab for more info). Geo tagging allows you to augment your reality with social media and give stories an even greater sense of place.
The biggest topic of the night was the dreaded COMMENTS section. But, get this guys, John Herman says that the comment section is a supplement to journalist’s work that can foster discussion surrounding your stories. To engender good discussions, even in the face of negative news trollers, engage with your readers through thoughtful responses when appropriate.
John Herman is kind of the king of Google+, which he says is really “the new hotness.” John Herman started hosting his own game show on Google+, which was featured on the main page of Google+. He also hosts a talent show. Be an early adapter: get on Google+! There is no effort to join, you can control your privacy, and it’s fun! The Dalai Lama even uses Google+. Enough said.
In other notes, Herman discussed a term most journalists in the room were unaware of, even though many are doing it. ‘Newsjacking’ is used as a way to inject your ideas into a breaking news story and generate tons of traffic on your own platform, i.e. your blog. Along those lines, the aggregator of all news aggregators is popurl.com.
And I’ll leave you all with this quote that Herman left us with:
“In fact, if you just think about it only as distribution, you’re not getting what you can out of social media, the most that you can, which is really about user interaction, engagement and news gathering.” – Liz Heron, The New York Times social media editor
Blog Log: The Daily Beast & Stereogum
THE DAILY BEAST is the essence of link journalism. Considered to be a form of Web “curation,” this collaborative website offers links to a selection of popular articles from a broad range of news sources. The reporting and opinion based website was founded by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
The main premise of the site is that of a “Cheat Sheet,” listing “must reads from all over.” The idea is that you can quickly identify what you want to read and what you would rather skip over. The blog continues this idea across different social network sharing devices like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, so that you yourself can link to… well… their links.
The Beast interacts with its community through multimedia such as “live chats,” videos, more linked blogs, and slideshows. But, what seems to be the most important aspect of the website is not necessarily a community group, but specific subsets of readers interested in art (Art Beast), entertainment (Sexy Beast), or books (Book Beast).
STEREOGUM was one of the first MP3 blogs. Created in 2002 by Scott Lapatine with a mission of focusing on indie and alternative music news, videos, photos, and of course downloads, it has since become one of the leading music websites on the Internet.
The site is set up to share not only news, which is displayed in their featured stories sections, but also who is sharing what. In their “social” drop down menu you can see what music is popular now and what your friends are reposting. Stereogum’s use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter makes the music community interactive on many more levels than just sharing MP3s, but also what people like and why.
With all of the multimedia in the form of music videos, audio recordings, concert photo galleries and new releases you would think that the writing would be sacrificed. The integration of the multimedia and writing serves well to the whole premise of the music beat. It’s comparable to reading a Rolling Stones album review, but actually being able to listen to the song and watch the band’s performance from the night before at Madison Square Garden. Its interactive nature makes the content that much more appealing.
Multimedia Land
Okay, so today my blog will be shifting focus as I begin a Multimedia course this term. The content will continue to be journalism related, but bear with me as I attempt to navigate my way around new media.
The class is being taught by a new faculty member at UNH, Tom Haines, who is a former Boston Globe travel writer. His blog, which is the homepage for Adventures in Multimedia Land, can be found at unhmultimedia.wordpress.com.
I imagine my future self to be some superhuman journo who is proficient in video, audio, photography, tweeting, blogging and the like… Wish me luck!
