Another site of collaboration

Some pretty good journos, including Meghann Ackerman, have compiled a collaborative site "after quitting my job a few weeks back, I got involved with some friends who started a site where we're putting up video, photos and stories that we've decided are worth telling."

Sweet Group Photo Project

Here's a link to A Photo A Day's blog posting about a group photo project on cyclocrossers in Portland by some rockstar photogs. They not only have a fantastic site but they compiled a book out of the sweet images. Just may have to see if there's a way to create such a project here in the 303. Not on psycho-crossers per se, but something with a passionate following.

The funniest Star Wars video ever

A video mashup of the plot and storyline based on a girl that has never seen the original Star Wars trilogy. Gotta watch this if you like Star Wars even just a little.

Exactitudes

Really interesting sociological documentary project using simple photos. Gotta look at the design and visuals of the site as well as the complex yet simple idea of people.

Finally a step in the direction

I get asked all the time what I intend to do when I get done with graduate school at the University of Denver. I really haven't been able to show anyone an example and I struggle to constructively describe the creations in my skull.

Here is one of the few examples I can point someone to when they ask that question again. The Las Vegas Sun has been making some of the most complete and creative multimedia experiential productions that I have seen. Many outlets seem to feel that putting video, text, audio and photo galleries into a page will be effective enough. And while that could be argued, they are all just stand-alone elements in the same coral. Thirst in the Mojave takes all those elements and makes each one act and react from the others.

One of the producers, Zach Wise who is now at the NYTimes, posted on his blog about the production as well. He was the brains behind Soul of Athens as well.

Obama's People

Here's a really interesting multimedia piece done by the NYTimes. As usual right? There's a gallery of the portraits made of the officials that will make up the new administration, but there is also a gallery documenting the creation of the portraits. There's some great photos all around and the premise is pretty fun.

Now if I only had an army the size of the 3rd Regiment to pull something off like this as well.

Front-Row View

Here's a NPR interview with Pete Souza, who has been announced as the the official chief White House photographer, talking about covering Barack Obama during the last several years.

Has a nice photo gallery as well.

Lawrence Lessig vs. Stephen Colbert

Really interesting argument about copyright from a recent show. It's funny as hell.

I see aspects of both sides of the battle. I'm not sure that one side or the other is absolute, the future is most likely a blend of something in the middle. And it will be based on the type of the content and the content producer.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Lawrence Lessig

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Found this via a photography business blog that is hellbent on copyright protections.

One in 8 million

Really nice multimedia player from the interactive gurus at the NYTimes that is set to be updated weekly with a short piece on one of the 8 million people in New York. Everyone has a story and an opinion, it should be interesting to see what characters are found.

Fresh sparks from being a "one-man-band"

A good interview with CNN photojournalist Bethany Swain talking about how she and some colleagues created an outlet for natsound pieces on all the CNN platforms. No "talent" standing up yammering in front of the scene or someone talking over good imagery.

Just good storytelling.

End Times

A really solid story on the eminent tsunami of newspaper deaths to come, probably sooner than we expect.

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If you’re hearing few howls and seeing little rending of garments over the impending death of institutional, high-quality journalism, it’s because the public at large has been trained to undervalue journalists and journalism. The Internet has done much to encourage lazy news consumption, while virtually eradicating the meaningful distinctions among newspaper brands. The story from Beijing that pops up in my Google alert could have come from anywhere. As news resources are stretched and shared, it can often appear anywhere as well: a Los Angeles Times piece will show up in The Washington Post, or vice versa.

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Kobré's Top 20 Video Productions of 2008

Haven't had a chance to view them all yet, but I'm sure there are a few that are pretty well done looking at the names of the outlets. 

I'll be curious to see what the average length of all the videos after reading Mindy McAdams' post this morning.

Tools for News

A pretty good beta database for all kinds of journalism tools to use. Register and you can add to the growing list. 

One last hurrah for newspaper competition

An awesome story about how an intern at the Chicago Tribune won a Chicago Sun-Times contest.

Too bad in the decline of competing newspapers we don't get to see great ideas like this anymore. Radio doesn't even do this much anymore considering they are all owned by the same company these days. Too bad, might be one way to increase readership. You know, actually competing on stories that the community wants to know about rather than sharing the same freaking content.  

Seattle P-I Year in Photos

I always love the P-I's YiP. The staffers pick their favorite 10 images and explain the back story to the photos. It's always fun to learn a little more about why or how a photo was made.

Photojournalists get the job done

A NYTimes story about the Mumbai attacks detailing how two working photojournalists had the images and reportage that mattered. Though there were many "citizen journalists" posting photos on Flickr, Twitter and other social networks as the attacks unfolded Sebastian D’souza and Vasant Prabhu have hundreds of images documenting the events and ability to describe some details they witnessed.

Granted these two put themselves in dire situations to make the resulting images, the point is that a citizen journalist is not going to willingly put themselves in danger for the sake of journalism. We could then get into the credibility debate as well, but that would take hours. A working professional has a base of experience and knowledge to work from in tough situations that most citizen journos won't. When you need something done right, best to use a professional.

10 Questions for Journalists in the Information Age and info-overload

Here's some great notions to consider in this overwhelming era of easily accessible information. Having the right information available in functional and engaging access points will be a major component of successful journalism. Too bad most newspapers just shovel all their content into a big bucket on the web and expect readers to "find" what they need to know. Newspapers were barely able to accept the notion that television was a competitor by the time the Internet began to steal even more of their audience. Glacial pace won't work in the instantaneous realm of the Information Age.

Boston's BIG Picture year in photos

This is only the first of three gallery pages. Gotta love those GIANT photos. Looking back at 2008, you will find several newspapers that "borrowed" the Big Picture idea and turned their daily galleries into similar productions.

MSNBC's Year in Photos for 2008

Good blend of audio and visuals from the year. MSNBC always puts together good multimedia. Just wish they would go easy on the music sometimes. But when you go back and see what photos are the most popular, you will understand what the major audience type is. Still good stuff to look at.

2008 Year in Pictures by NY Times

Nicely done gallery with full-screen mode. Lots of photos that you really don't get to see when you just read the stories on the web.