Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Lights, Camera....Quality?
The most interesting thing mentioned in our last class, well second(shout out to Jables Fables)most interesting thing said was the concept of relevance taking the place of quality. Relevance is huge, it makes news news, but to equate it to quality, I am not sure I agree with that.
I associate quality with professionalism. When something is professional, especially with news, it requires my attention because I trust that it is not just true but there was thought put into the piece. I don't think there is a synthetic replacement for good reporting and for thought.
If I am going to watch something on the web, I want it to be professional; that for me trumps relevance. I want to feel like I am at the movies, not watching America's Funniest Home Video. I am used to quality, high definition, and for me to back track just to see something that is spur of the moment, like a car going off a bridge or cellphone video of a hanging, doesn't seem worth it.
I think shaking video, raggedy angles can be cool if the content of the video is amazing, I guess relevance would trump quality in the absolute extreme. The point and shoot camera does have spontaneity on its side, but that gets old fast. I don't think of news as entertainment, and shooting video for its sensationalism is entertainment. It has a place, but it should not be the only focus.
I think a reason why these amateur videos are so popular is because they are so accessible and so short. There is a hook in convenience, but convenience or relevance as quality will flame and die out. It is important, though I would imagine a difficult task, for reporters to be in multimedia mode, but they shouldn't sacrifice one piece for another and become a Jack of all trades: good at everything, great at nothing. The future of news is the great, it is in the quality.
I associate quality with professionalism. When something is professional, especially with news, it requires my attention because I trust that it is not just true but there was thought put into the piece. I don't think there is a synthetic replacement for good reporting and for thought.
If I am going to watch something on the web, I want it to be professional; that for me trumps relevance. I want to feel like I am at the movies, not watching America's Funniest Home Video. I am used to quality, high definition, and for me to back track just to see something that is spur of the moment, like a car going off a bridge or cellphone video of a hanging, doesn't seem worth it.
I think shaking video, raggedy angles can be cool if the content of the video is amazing, I guess relevance would trump quality in the absolute extreme. The point and shoot camera does have spontaneity on its side, but that gets old fast. I don't think of news as entertainment, and shooting video for its sensationalism is entertainment. It has a place, but it should not be the only focus.
I think a reason why these amateur videos are so popular is because they are so accessible and so short. There is a hook in convenience, but convenience or relevance as quality will flame and die out. It is important, though I would imagine a difficult task, for reporters to be in multimedia mode, but they shouldn't sacrifice one piece for another and become a Jack of all trades: good at everything, great at nothing. The future of news is the great, it is in the quality.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Ramble on
Maybe it was because, like Annie, my stomach was empty or maybe it was because I was anxious all day about slipping and falling (because no one had tapped UNH on the shoulder to say that a little bit of salt and a pinch of sand will return the iceways to pathways. If you need crampons and ice pick to get out of HamSmith enough said) but last night’s class scared me. Helen was right, what am I doing here? If everyone can write a blog and everyone can shoot a photo, post a video then who would pay me to do it? If everyone is a journalist, why have I spent the last three years learning how to be a print journalist? My schooling has basically been water downed to a couple of pre and post lit classes and germs 101.
What if new media is not a fix for the newspaper, but a stall for time? Is new media sticking gum on the crack in the dam? According to “The Nation” newspapers for the first time didn’t receive the largest share of online advertising. The article goes on to say that 23 percent of Americans cite the internet as their main source of election news and 26 percent name newspapers. What if people don’t have the taste for lead, nutgraf news in print or online? What if people only want to see Sudam Hussien being hanged? Young people according to this article have no interest in acquiring the habit of reading daily newspapers; daily readership for under 20 is one in five. If people don’t start in print, care about news, why would they follow the paper onto the Internet? They don’t have the expectation. Just because you can fix a street name online that was wrong in print doesn’t make the story online appealing. If the only appeal you have is speed, everyone has speed. What if the public is not loosing the appeal for the medium of print but the message of news? So you create a new animal with bells and whistles cut from the magic material of popular demand. What about the classics, I am training and expecting a realm that does not exist. Will I become a filer of information typing in html creating hyperlinks? I am not an amazing programmer will I get the chance to become an amazing journalist. I see this post online in my words I can’t hold that in my hands, I can’t tell you that it will be there tomorrow.
I think that there is an appeal to the dimension of a newspaper, of a human voice. I think that will always be appealing, but right now has dropping market value. You can get the internet in your car, on your phone, that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy AM radio, that you don’t want to sit outside with your paper and not a laptop or a phone where you are constantly looking the battery icon or struggling with a wireless signal. I have over 1,000 songs on my iTunes, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t fallen in love with my local classic rock radio station.
Have fun with it. I feel like I am skiing down a double black diamond (I never graduated from the bunny hill) going way to fast, repeating even faster in my head “This is fun. I am having fun. This is me having fun,” when I am just scared out of my mind. I can still write the long story with side media stories, run a commentary blog and people will read it. I should be okay right? Because people like other people and they don’t need lights and motion to get through a long story they need emotion. A cyber society works the same way right? Or like there being no Santa Claus and a South Pole, there really are no journalists and no newspapers.
Wow that was rambling.
What if new media is not a fix for the newspaper, but a stall for time? Is new media sticking gum on the crack in the dam? According to “The Nation” newspapers for the first time didn’t receive the largest share of online advertising. The article goes on to say that 23 percent of Americans cite the internet as their main source of election news and 26 percent name newspapers. What if people don’t have the taste for lead, nutgraf news in print or online? What if people only want to see Sudam Hussien being hanged? Young people according to this article have no interest in acquiring the habit of reading daily newspapers; daily readership for under 20 is one in five. If people don’t start in print, care about news, why would they follow the paper onto the Internet? They don’t have the expectation. Just because you can fix a street name online that was wrong in print doesn’t make the story online appealing. If the only appeal you have is speed, everyone has speed. What if the public is not loosing the appeal for the medium of print but the message of news? So you create a new animal with bells and whistles cut from the magic material of popular demand. What about the classics, I am training and expecting a realm that does not exist. Will I become a filer of information typing in html creating hyperlinks? I am not an amazing programmer will I get the chance to become an amazing journalist. I see this post online in my words I can’t hold that in my hands, I can’t tell you that it will be there tomorrow.
I think that there is an appeal to the dimension of a newspaper, of a human voice. I think that will always be appealing, but right now has dropping market value. You can get the internet in your car, on your phone, that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy AM radio, that you don’t want to sit outside with your paper and not a laptop or a phone where you are constantly looking the battery icon or struggling with a wireless signal. I have over 1,000 songs on my iTunes, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t fallen in love with my local classic rock radio station.
Have fun with it. I feel like I am skiing down a double black diamond (I never graduated from the bunny hill) going way to fast, repeating even faster in my head “This is fun. I am having fun. This is me having fun,” when I am just scared out of my mind. I can still write the long story with side media stories, run a commentary blog and people will read it. I should be okay right? Because people like other people and they don’t need lights and motion to get through a long story they need emotion. A cyber society works the same way right? Or like there being no Santa Claus and a South Pole, there really are no journalists and no newspapers.
Wow that was rambling.
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