Online Journalism Practicum:J415

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon2/crayonsupreme/

There is the link for the 2nd multimedia project. For this assignment I decided to make short films on haunted places in Athens, Ohio. I ended up putting together two films made of photographs, special effects and voice overs using imovie on a friend's computer. I converted them into quicktime and then set up a web site on Angelfire.com. I also looked up HTML coding to play them within the web site. I loved putting these together. This was a great project.

One thing I learned while doing this was the importance of making everything sound professional. I caught a few glitches after my time to edit the movies was way past.

I also learned patience from this project. I kept running into road blocks; the first few times I tried to upload the movie files onto the oak server there were problems. However, there are always many different ways to get the same job done and I managed to learn new things about the internet I did not know before.

http://shoppinginathens.blogspot.com/

Here is the link to my multimedia project. For this assignment, I chose to profile different stores in Athens. I was able to go in and take pictures of some, as well as talk to the managers and owners to see what they thought their competitive advantages were, how they would describe their stores, and just get an overall picture of the stores' affect on the community.

I chose to set up a blog to display this information because I thought it would be an affective place to share it. I used a more citizen journalism approach for this story, and included my own opinions about the stores, so I thought a blog would be an affective and safe place to do that. Blogs seem to have become like the editorial/op-ed sections on some news websites.

I incorporated Flickr slideshows into the blog, which was interesting because I have not worked with Flickr before. It is a very useful tool and made the pictures look pretty cool!

My computer did delete the whole project once, so I had to redo it. That was certainly my biggest roadblock!!

Since I already have this weird obsession with shopping, I enjoyed this project very much. It is not quite finished, however, and I will update the list soon! I actually think this might be a fun thing to do on Spekeasy...

I packaged my article and multimedia similarly to how it might appear online. I have a vested interest in Speech and Hearing sciences because I've been working philanthropy-wise to support it for a couple years now. My piece addresses Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and localizes it by highlighting Sound Off Day at OU.

The multimedia itself does hit on the article, but provides a more visual and audio representation of the story. The lack of music, or sound at times, is intentional.

http://www.slightlypale.net/nihl/hearthis.html

http://www.speakeasymag.com/slideshows/tattoo_102505/tattoo.html

This project was most definitely a group effort.
I assigned the story to Meredith, one of our reporters who I knew would do a good job. I really only envisioned it as a quick overview of the new tattoo parlor in town. Meredith, it turns out, had been wanting to get a new tattoo anyway--and saw this as the perfect opportunity. She asked me if we could shoot some video to go along with her article. After her suggestion, the ideas started flying. We got in touch with our resident tech gurus, and we were golden.
Jon and I tagged along when she went to get the tattoo. He shot video, and I snapped pictures. We handed our media off to Michael, who put it all together into a package—based on the storyboard Meredith and I put together. I’m working at learning the flashy Flash he used to do it, but he’s slowly teaching me.

I would have liked to see the package run at the same time as the article (http://speakeasymag.com/index.php/limelight/article/limelight_101205_001), but it took too long to get the multimedia together. Hopefully in the future that process will run a little smoother—but I think it was well worth the wait. We also know there is a little issue with the “continue” button, and are working at making that a little smoother. Caren pointed out that for future multimedia projects, it would be good to have a template to frame them in to keep branding consistent. I agree, and am working on developing that.

http://www.scripps.ohiou.edu/news/real/2005-2006/clay2.mov

I had some serious issues with finishing mine, but I explained those details in an email that should be materializing in your mailbox within the next few minutes.

I explored the issues surrounding the community of the Read-Johnson Scholar's Complex -- and whether it actually constituted a "scholar's community," as the administration claimed/touted.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76523955@N00/sets/1222960/

I covered the Police Your Party event organized by Ohio University Student Senate. It provided an open forum for students and police to interact before the wild Halloween weekend. Many people are disrespectful and have unfavorable opinions about the police during Halloween weekend. Those in attendance had the opportunity to ask any questions about rules and regulations. It was also beneficial because it also showed that the police aren't out to get anyone in trouble, they just want everyone to be safe. I thought the event was great success and am certain others felt the same way.

I decided to cover the past weekend's event, Homecoming. I wanted to try video and took a lot of footage as well as some pictures but my computer was evil and ate my video. The post below is the pictures I have left and little about the weekend.

http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=smmack125

Ok, so another issue with mine that I didn't foresee as much--and definitely should have--is that it only works if the user/reader has the LATEST version of the Flash plugin. For those of you who had trouble with it (there should be scrolling text in addition to audio, a button on the top right that says "continue" and then a storyboard with video), my apologies--and lesson learned.

Bob —

I sent you an e-mail about how my Web site wasn't coming along as I had hoped, but that it would be done soon. I also wanted to send you the links to my two blogs:

http://kkondik.blogspot.com/

http://kdkondik.blogspot.com/

They kind of get updated off and on, but I've spent a lot of time on them over the past year.

The Web site I'm working on is:

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~kk134702/dekon.

— Kyle

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~kk134702/dekon

whoops.

Hi Bob,

Here is my assignment. It is slightly late due to some technical difficulties, i.e. a Trojan horse on my computer. Yippee.
What I learned this time around was how to format photos into my blog-turned-news story - it's harder than it looks.

http://jlsickels2.blogspot.com/

Jen

Hi Bob,

Here is my assignment depicting Nelsonville, Ohio, a town about 20 minutes north of Athens. Most people just drive through the town, but I decided to stop and look around.

http://bobcats123.blogspot.com

Steve

::Stories from Ecuador::

www.acspublications.info/ecuador

I already have a list of things I want to correct or change, but I had to call it "finished" as some point. I plan to add more stories during the break as well.

I hope you enjoy it.

I tried to create a news story that included photos and a clickable slide show. It's located within a blog at http://www.xanga.com/clrgrdcutie.

It's harder than it looks to get the pictures to appear as you want them to. :)

http://ohiouhelpshabitat.blogspot.com/

For my second multimedia project, I decided to cover Habitat for Humanity volunteers at a jobsite in Glouster, which is about 20 minutes away from Athens. I did a podcast and a slideshow so the reader could choose whether they wanted more or less information. I would recommend checking out both of them.

http://unifyou.blogspot.com/