In Class Speech review 4/15/08

Theresa Hogue Introduced New Technologies to Gazette Times

Theresa Hogue, 32, a features reporter and podcast editor for the Corvallis Gazette Times, introduced the idea of podcasting to her employer back in July of 2000. Hogue addressed an audience of 16 on Tuesday, speaking to an interested NMC writing class about her roles in new media settings throughout her career.

“I brought podcasting to the Gazette Times” Hogue said, 
claiming that the Gazette Times was the first newspaper in Oregon to use podcasting on their website. Hogue explained that she learned how to podcast from her earlier studies at Portland State.

Hogue graduated from PSU with a B.A. in English Literature and a minor in Professional Writing. She received her first e-mail address in 1995 while working as a copy editor and columnist for the PSU student newspaper the Daily Van Guard. “The internet was just getting started” she said, and went onto describe how she would introduce new technologies to the newspapers she later worked for. In Forest Grove, working for the News Times, Hogue showed the staff how to use the computer page layout software “Quark” after seeing they were using page layout technologies that were over 30 years old. The old layout process involved wax casting where you could make corrections by rubbing out letters. “I showed them how to use Quark” she said.

When she moved over to the Gazette Times in Corvallis, she proposed the idea of incorporating podcasting into the already existing web site. A podcast is a digital media file (audio, video, etc.) that is formatted to be downloaded and played on a portable media player or a computer. She received further training online, seeking out free tutorials and free software, and got podcasting up and running on the G.T. website. The corporate offices took note and started investing money towards training of new media technologies.

When asked about how the new style of reporting was received at the Gazette Times she said there was a hesitancy to go to podcasting and a resistance to non-traditional techniques, even among some of the younger employees. But, as the system progressed, podcasting turned into something fun. The teams were enjoying taking recorders out into the field and editing their audio later. When it became something fun, she didn’t have to push it onto the reporters as an extra chore.

“Everything online is to boost traffic” she said, and “having an audio or video component adds.” Hogue also writes a blog for the Gazette Times, following a wide trend of journalists as bloggers as well. She maintains a blog for the G.T., which she is accredited to, and also has a personal blog which she posts anonymously. “It’s in the voice of my Chihuahua” she said, “you can be fairly anonymous online.” 

“Most blogging I do [for the G.T.] is media criticism” explained Hogue. But, the blog is much more of an opinion piece than her regular G.T. articles. “I can do anything I want to on my blog” she said, which is absolutely not the same as her printed pieces. The reporters at the G.T. are not required to write a blog, but most of the staff can be read in the blog section of the G.T website.

Event coordinator, Pamela Cytrynbaum, said that Hogue is “a wonderful example of the kind of flexible and thoughtful reporter the industry demands.” 

“I found it really relevant” said Adam Schwartz, a junior in the New Media department. His sentiment was shared by fellow classmate Hannah Boekemann, who said, “As a journalism student I was interested to hear advice from a pro.”

New Media Beat Journal #2

To continue from where my last journal left off, we were discussing television online. In particular, The Daily Show’s website.

“I guess that’s why it says Beta up in the corner.”

The final line from my last blog is true, the Daily Show’s video streaming platform is still something that needs some work, but it looks like some of that work is being done. This week on the website (http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml) it’s easy to navigate straight to the videos from yesterday’s show. The slider approach to video browsing is gaining ground. I can browse all the way back to January of 1999, see the holiday jokes from 2003 or watch the videos from last nights broadcast. If I want to I can rate the videos I watch, or even list the videos from highest audience rank to lowest for a given month. Cool stuff.

What about the commercials? We hate commercials! How many commercials are there? Unfortunately, there’s more than none commercials you have to watch to see Jon and the crew. It looks to be every other time you switch videos you’re subjected to an advert. AND THEY DO ONE OF THE MOST ANNOYING THINGS THAT COMMERCIALS CAN DO: The audio on the commercial is way louder than the audio from the show. So when the commercial comes on, you’re blasted and you have to turn it dow, then when the shows back on you can’t hear so you have turn it up. SO ANNOYING! It’s an old TV trick that needs to die. As is the case with most web video streams featuring commercials, you get maybe 3 different commercials you’ll be subjected to repeatedly.

The worst killer of all TV streams, though, is crappy internet connection. When my home cable connection is sluggish or lagging, web streams are impossible. You spend 85% of the time watching the buffering graphic that pops up when the video lags. At least the Daily Show has a buffering graphic to keep us entertained….some sites don’t.

New Media Beat Journal #1

Beat Journal – Web Based Streaming Video

I don’t have a subscription to cable television in my home. But I do have the internet. I generally despise watching TV because of the low brow content, the redundant and intrusive commercials, and the bore of surfing around trying to find something interesting. I must admit though, there is some television content I do enjoy and wouldn’t mind watching. Luckily for me there is a plethora of TV content available online.

I have a couple staples I turn to in my times of boredness, The Daily Show and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, both of which are availble to watch online……sort of.

The Daily Show recently changed up their video streaming interface. Now they offer a slider type video search, wherein you slide the selector over a certain date (month, day, and year) to select the videos from that day. So far the system is not up to snuff. The newest videos are displayed on the main page for the site, but trying to seek new material via the slider doesn’t yet bring up the newest videos. I guess that’s why they say “Beta” in the upper corner.

Reader Responses 4/22/08

Reader Response – Average person spends more time using media than anything else

Another study full of confusing percentages and unbalanced fact giving, but interesting nonetheless. Focusing on how people spend their time during the day, I was looking for some counter facts to help the facts of time spent using a media device make more sense. The study labeled cell phone use, instant messaging and e-mailing as media usage. These are also forms of communication between people and groups. What I want to know is, how many hours a day did the 400 participants spend talking? What percentage of their day was spent sleeping? How often was the person multi tasking by having a conversation with someone while using a media device? I want comparisons!

Im also perturbed with the whole “average american” title that’s granted to tests and studies of a sample group. I know there’s some scientific formula that shows that the large group pretty much mimics the small group, but it still feels phony to me. I can understand how we may reflect the practices of a sample group into society as a whole, I don’t think this “average american” that only exists in charts and numbers really deserves it’s title.

Reader Response – Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War

These new school multi-media presentations are awesome. Reuters did a great job with this one.

A main feature that really stands out is the timeline function. Being able to click through a timeline of text, images and video that tells the story of the invasion of Iraq is quite compelling. Its an easy way for us to wrap our minds around the events that took place. 

Now jump over to the maps. More pertinent information displayed in an interesting and thought provoking way. This presentations use of graphics to convey information is excellent.

Reader Responses 4/15/08

 

Reader Response – The Public Bias Against the Press

 

Yes, we are cynical.  How can we not be? Our government misleads us, news publications are profit driven, extremely biased opinions come across on a news program that claims to be “fair and balanced.”  Of course we’re cynical.  That’s why we love The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.  They’re cynical too for the same reasons and they spotlight this cynicism in their reports on other news organizations.

 

The trust has been broken over the years.  The news outlets trust the reports from the White House as accurate.  We’ve seen repeatedly this may not be the case (think of WMD’s in Iraq).  We the people trust the news outlets to report to us the truth through investigation and facts.  We’ve seen that these things can be pushed aside to get the scoop and reap the profits (think of the Atlanta Olympic bombing).  

 

The media has also let us down in what they deem important to report.  Sex scandals, drug use, tearing down someone’s character and credibility.  How many stories have we heard like that in the past few years?  On the other hand, how many stories have you heard about your local government officials working to better help you in the past few years?

 

 We’re tired of the gloom and doom and we’re tired of scandals.  Give us hope, give us insight into what’s really going on somewhere without being trashy about it and without adding moral judgement.  These things will help positively shape our bias of the media.

 

Reader Response – What if there were an eBay for news?

 

This is an interesting proposition.  No longer would a news company need to hire journalists.  The editor could just buy the stories as they needed them.  I have some questions though.

 

What about local stories?  Would each city/county/state have its own sell-by-article site or would the mother site be broken down locally like Craigslist.  Maybe the market would decide that.

 

How do you check the facts?  Would this then create a new fact checker position at the firm?  Would their job be to check the sources of a story and verify it to give it  a green light or a stop?  Isn’t that what the journalist is supposed to do?  It does sound like a good check and balance system to me though.

 

What stops a civilian from simply checking this data bank of news articles rather than waiting for a publication to buy it and release it?  Sounds like it might be a great place to get information.  Then it leads back to who’s checking for accuracy.

 

They spoke about the site as being a way for a journalists reputation to build.  So is it back to individual reporters names and recognition rather than corporate names?  Do the media consumers simply align with someone they feel tells the story best according to them.  Is one journalist going to build enough rep. to be on the cover of many news outlets because they know the people want their story?  Is that a bit monopolistic?

 

Yes, an interesting proposition.  It seems, to me, to be another competition based forum, as many of our American systems are based on (i.e. capitalism), and I feel those competition based approaches lead not to the best, but to the most popular.  It’s easy to be popular, you just have to reference other popular things.  It’s not easy to be honest in the face of scrutiny.  I wonder, which articles will be bought, the most popular or the most honest in the face of scrutiny?

Soon to come…

Reading responses, beat journals, theme development and coverage… and a bit of my own opinion thrown in  here and there.