Digital Journalist versus Integrated Multimedia Video journalism which one's the future?

It's a fairly provocative statement: Digital Journalist versus Integrated Multimedia Video journalism, which one's the future?

But it sits at the centre of the new debate about journalism and video journalism and in an age of multiplicity, contracted tech changes, journalism's loose footing, and the odd fad, it's worth considering.

To start you could fold integrated multimedia video journalism ( IMVJ) into Digital Journalism - which is a broad church definition, which also suggest Digital Journalism's supremacy.

The future of media is digital as opposed to analogue, so to the digirati, just like Cypher in the matrix, it's all just code, ones and zeros.

Some outfits however interpret digital journalism as video journalism so on a pedagogic level herein lies a crux.


What is video Journalism and how you build a VJ outfit from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Extract from the World Association of Newspapers shot by Robb Montgomery at VisualEditors.com

And then there's the brand name in itself; the word "digital" envelopes a profession, a magazine, a movement and its cutting edge, as in photography.

So where is IMVJ placed in all this? Video journalism is implicit as is multimedia, but the strong ideal is fathoming how they link together in myriad ways.

MTV's Pimp My Car might help explain:

There's the car, a vague name check of its creative team include: the designers, the engine's engineers, the body work specialist, the electrician's hotwiring one function to another e.g woofer bass to indicator, and then the car tester. Does the damn thing work better?

What if you could roll those into one?

We've seen it done in video: the editor, camera operator and reporter have become a single entity.


What is Video Journalism? from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Wonderful succinct deifintion of Video Journalism from a Cairo University lecturer, whilst David was touring hte region

But the 21st cycle of news dissemination embodies more than the legacy of TV.

The web, photography, multimedia, data, mash-up, coding, industrial vs minamilist design, public interfaces, mobile, blue tooth: these are just a few of the things affecting an evolving vocation/profession.

There are many who would argue, "Hey video journalism is difficult in itself where does it stop? "

It doesn't.

If you manage to pull out any of the newspaper cuttings from Vj's 1994 entry into the UK, the press and commentators then were vituperative to say the least.

How Michael Rosenblum must be allowing himself the last laugh.

And I don't believe anyone would say Journalism is a dead profession because it's always moved with the times.

Addison and Steele and their equitone language - a renaissance in journalism writing in the 1700s is testament to that.


Journalism's changing timeline
If you look back on Journalism's timeline you can afford a hearty chuckle, because at every bend, every crossroad where change is talked up, there has metaphorically been blood on the floor.

What we're doing now, a debate about what it is and isn't accompanied by civic and the odd perturbative comment is merely to confirm we are

a) creatures of history

b) Nothing's new

c) We indulge these debates; it's part of the learning process.

But as I say all the while in these debates: we have choices.

Future student factual media maker

What I'd like is for one of my ex students to be in a queue of candidates for a job and when his/her turn comes, they exhibit how to integrate, mash- up a single story into multiple strands and have a working knowledge of how the creative systems work.

I have seen many students take the reigns, and Tamer Al Mishall, now working for Al Jazeera is a firm example.

When he arrived from Gaza he'd already had a working knowledge of TV as a BBC producer. But what he took away from our university's program was a rounded knowldge of integrating multimedia and video journalism, and a passion and hunger to continue to learn.

When he left us the term hadn't even finished but he competed for one of the top jobs in the BBC's new Arabic Service, Gaza Correspondent, and piped correspondents and reporters twice his age. Tamer is twenty five.

An IMVJ approach has as part of its DNA a strong emphasis on pushing video journalism - the language - and if you were with us at Camp VJ in Chicago realising there are no rules in this visual medium.

Every single one of them is a guideline meant to be broken by you at some time.

"Tagging and Blocking" perhaps offers the most aggressive form of video journalism, understanding the arc and the subject-verb within a frame.


IMVJ Project

An interview with the BBC's Head of Multimedia News, Peter Horrocks, offers an idea of an IMVJ approach.

Here's the question: you've secured an interview with Peter, what do you do?

Here's my IMVJ approach, which encompassed FCP, After Effects, Dreamweaver, CSS, Photoshop, illustrator, Flash and some action scripting.

Since making this I have since learnt how I can give you more control using a custom made player. ( I'll change that soon)

And there are many many more examples, which I have come across on that awe inspiring site MultimediaShooter - now sadly defunct. I can't say whether the pieces I marveled at were made by one person and if they weren't that isn't ultimately the point.

The IMVJ way suggests an understanding of the work flow enough to comprehend the basics of what the chain is doing.


Specialism 1 vs broad knowledge 0
In 1999 I had lunch with a BBC exec; I had been referred by another senior figure. He mused over my CV and said: "Yes we must get you in".

It never happened, because of one overriding statement that would follow me into interviews: "What exactly do you do?"

In 1987 I started at regional BBC, leaRning to make packages and driving a Mk III desk when presenting.

IIn 1990-92 I was doubling up radio with TV as an AP producing reports.

IIn 1994 -At Channel One I turned to videojournalism and the web, building sites.

IIn 1997 - whilst doing any number of the aformentioned, I started working with an Ad design agency as a creative director creating interactive ads made with video and Flash. Remember quicktime hotspots.

By all accounts to many execs my CV back then was a mess: being a specialist was much more preferable.

Today? Well there's another debate!

IMVJ attempts to roll in disciplines from TV, Video Journalism, Radio, pod making, web writing, print, magazines, motion graphics, web and interface design within the ethos of sound story telling underpinned by fairness, accuracy, objectivity and ethics.

And that's just one part carved out within this expanding realm of digital journalism

The future of journalism from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Extract from The Outernet, David peers into a future of video journalism in this film shown in Berlin

Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert 1988 Wembley -BBC Report lead to over whelming response to

Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert 1988 Wembley -BBC Report
Thank you to your overwhelming response to this post two days ago

WANTED - Open all hours Video Journalists

WANTED - Open all hours Video Journalism from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

Not so much Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, but the real prospect of counter: counter journalism - open all hours

What happens when there are no secrects, when the art of news gathering boils down to simply going on the net?

What do intelligence buffs think? One respectable outfit advocates an open system for all: no more secrets.

He goes onto say 70% - 80% of clandestine info gathering is available on the net.

Here's open all hours in this Cine-VJ made trailer.

The trailer is also an illustration of cine-Video journalism's visual language, which I speak briefly about at the World Association of Newspapers.

I'll post bits from that presentation tomorrow.


National Press ClubAnd for a straight forward account of story telling, this video of the awards from the National Press Club.


The Knight Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism; from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

It's a basic cut and tell package as I was preoccupied with the event, picking up an award, so didn't have time to work the package to the sort of VJ reports I like doing.

Howwver, I couldn't resist the idea of sharing the day and this incredible place, The National Press Club in WAshington DC, with people I knew and obviously your good selves dropping by.

You can read more about these stories on viewmagazine.tv

p.s yes there's a typo LOL in the trailer- will have to repost.

Fighting the new media web 2.0 war - move on up

Napoleon must have known it, Custard, Marshall and other captains of armies and Industry e.g. broadcasters.

We can sustain some collateral damage, some!

So you see the game's up, if there ever was a game.

The CEO, Director General can now be fairly cockahoop, because everyone now gets it.

There's been some blood/tears/sweat on the floor, we lost 100 of our staff, but we've reconvened. That collateral was acceptable.

The greatest purveyors of new digital media are invariably now old media; in fact we've stopped using the term old.

Now that doesn't mean there aren't pockets of arid sand , where the CEOs doing a Canute: " Hey bob this video things, nah.. it's not going to take off".

But if everyone else now gets it , how do you break in to the field?

How do you become innovative? How do you exemplify the new new thing?

Does anyone care?

I saw a preview of the Financial Times' new business programme with academics from the prestigious international graduate business school in France INSEAD and we do care

We care about networks, career progression, and how to break the mould


Pie Slicing
There's still lots of pie left to slice, but it's still about being nimble and experimenting.

Have you every observed people at rush hour on their way to work.

Lesson 1
Those that are in a hurry move with a sea of people parting as they drive head on.

If you're fast and even if they see you coming, they'll move aside. BUT you don't have long.

Lesson 2
If you're coming from behind and in a hurry you have to scream, yell, plead with people to get out of your way as you try to get that designated train home.

Everyone works at a median pace, but once you've gone will plug the gap that you scythed through.

What does that mean for the innovators; I guess it's move fast, but don't expect an audience.

300 by Zack Snyder might provide some allegory to the new horizons of innovators: nimble, quick, resourceful and work as a team. An elite team of practitioners working together, networking and only then perhaps some chance exists of rallying up against the behemoths.

But then despite networking opportunities, there's still an inordinate amount of companies that work against - all attempting to get that piece of the pie.

There is no them and us anymore.

p.s Yes 300 as has been acknowledged is a distortion of the battle of Thermopylae, that wasn't my point

Watch this Video-journalism driven Nike advert

What's fascinating about this commercial is the references it spawns.

And as always I use the term Video Journalism as a generalisation: Vj is not so much about news, but its visual language.

It has a consistent point of view, a singular authorship - a child of its youtube time.

You never see the protagonist, but you understand the narrative by almost placing yourself in his position.

It is the equivalent of reading a first person narrative such as The Remains of the Day (1989) by Booker Prize winner Japanese-British author Kazuo Ishiguro or Hunter Thompson's Gonzoism.

Or better still mirrors Prodigy's banned MTV track Smack my B**ch Up. It's x-rated so I have not embedded the video here on account I have some idea of the age of some of Outernet's reader

And why I believe the Nike and Prodigy are so clever is they each contain strands of Video Journalism's DNA. A unitary point of view, the editing sequences are aggressive, and the plot ( variable narratives) unfold quite linearly ( though there's some work they could further do here in multi narratives for these multimedia times).

If you push this further it inhabits the MUD game world of Grand Theft Auto.

Could this be replicated across other genres?

With clever innovative directions, yes, and with video journalism becoming the Will Smith of media, I won't be surprised to see more viral driven first person narrative ads.

Footnote: Nike track is Eagles Of Death Metal - Don't Speak which contributes majorly to the ad. I'll look to see if I can produce something with a musical prodigy whose music I regularly use Nancy Ginindza


Nancy again- same song - but different visuals: next time I'll cut this to a POV

Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert 1988 Wembley -BBC Report

Six years on from the 1988 Mandela concert, I was in Johannesburg among other things as an Associate Producer for ABC News working as one of the producers with Danny Glover

Note added: 26th June 2008 The response to this post Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert 1988 Wembley -BBC Report has been overwhelming. Thank you for the interest you've shown, which has prompted me to set up a section in viewmagazine.tv which will feature some of my related work in the region, such as an interview with US Composer musician Quincy Jones and the First Time Voters series.

Is this really 20 years ago?

I was two years into my career as a radio journalist freelancing for BBC Radio Leicester and just about to complete my undergraduate studies in Applied Chemistry.

What would I do with myself?

Radio offered that solace.

Nelson Mandela, the great mythical figure was coming to London; it was his birthday, but it had also been billed as a pressure concert, a campaign to bring Western leaders to their senses about apartheid.

It would be another 6 years until that transformation would occur, when blacks would also enjoy full citizenship and be able to vote, or visit cafes which until then were designated for whites only.


What a gig
A huge concert with every conceivable star had been laid down for Mandela, or Madiba as he is affectionately known and I had a press pass to cover it for our station.

To say it was daunting, overwhelming, mind blowing would be an under statement.

Jesse Jackson wouldn't answer a question during his press conference unless you id'ed yourself.

I thought at the time, what's the fuss about?

Mandela's salvos were interpreted by commentators as a dig against PM Margaret Thatcher.

Britain's Prime Minister had resolutely objected to sanctions against South Africa during its apartheid regime.

1988 - what a year?


Music Mania

If you were there, I don't have to say anything.

The music was brill.

Aswad, Tracy Chapman, Anita baker, pop, rock, new romantics, it was simply wow.

The report for BBC Radio Leicester is a bit tinny; I'll have to locate the master file one day, but this gives a memorable account of the day Mandela came to London, to celebrate his birthday, 20 years ago.

Four years on I would be in South Africa reporting from the townships, witnessing the last vestiges of an inhumane regime.

Nine years on, like so many who've had the pleasure I would meet Mr Mandela; fleetingly, but memorable once again for a ground breaking programme we made in bringing two sets of journalists - from South Africa and Ghana together - in a programme called the United States of Africa.

But this post is for that concert, which will no doubt be matched, even outdone, with Mandela's 90th birthday party.

Viva!

End++

Here for post on meeting Mandela

p.s

Talking about South Africa, I have finally got down to locating the files and reports on Africa's Apprentice, so watch out for that. An extraordinary programme in itself in which I got a group of people together to watch and then ring the producers up and question them in Johannesburg.

The coolest most audacious video ever

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Where the hell is matt? I laughed so hard I cried. beautiful, fabulous, this man is a mega star

The oracle - inteligent web

Question and conspiracy theory 101

Is this it or is there another web we're missing? One that you and I can't use, because it's off limits. Imagine what that would do in our hands.

Digital Artists - The Digiratis - Future Innovators

Piece from Blue Print Magazine on the future of digital media, the digiratis

In Soho one of London's creative central hubs we called them the Digiratis.

They were artists-in-residence, at home, in the classroom, often non professionals.

Their doodles tickled friends, amused by-standers and often trickled into bigger commercial domains.

Before there was video journalism, there were video artists.

Their media included Art Film, community centres, public spaces and museums.

Salvador Dali, Peter Greenaway and their ilk; but it didn't start with them.

Journalism may change attitudes, but art asks kinetic questions, prodding, probing, working outside the bounds of factualness often procuring different results.

And all to often they (journalism and art) collide and produce something wonderful - artistry with a bent for saying something real to the artist.

Great cinematography, documentary with reconstructions and drama does this

Video Art Journalism
We could trace art film to a disputed point in our contemporary visual time line and Wikipedia under Art Film does a good job, though it omits Georges Méliès (December 8, 1861 – January 21, 1938), a stage magician who mastered artistic film making - a true original digiratis (below).


The digirati movement I capture an essence of in the article above: Ones and Zeros for that august publication Blue Print magazine offers a brief insight video innovators who have shaped an alternative video journalism movement - one you may not have be aware of. Here's a snippet:

"Television and film’s yearning for new talent and the holy grail of formats and new ideas produces a perennial round of in-house think tanks, yet outside the industry’s highly structured environment lies this veritable alchemic media community, experimenting with form and shape, talking a language that marries technology with creativity, strategy and delivery"

More

The skill using a camera and doing everything in the hands of journalists is seen as video journalism, but it has much, much wider connotations amongst the arts and artists.

And here, somewhere is it. The painter with video as both brush and medium breaking conventions and coded rules to produce a body of work which is uniquely theirs.

It is their creation, their creativity, their auterism and it often strikes a public chord, sometimes yielding degrees of controversy.

And when both art collides with journalism amongst the digiratis, we see the creation of form and montage, heightened in programmes such as After Effects, Combustion, motion and 3D studio Max, with results that can be as unpredictable as they can be wonderful.

So you see it might seem absurd to label video journalism as purely factual story telling, for the beauty of the video really does exist in the eye of the beholder.

The question is whether you consider yourself an artist, journalist of even both.

How the web ruined me - long live the web. A conspiracy !!

Media makers in Chicago networked up using stick cam. Pic by Ryan - link to be added

What were they thinking? But did they have a choice?

You're gifted this thing and told you can have it. It's free.

You ask what's the catch but can't find one.

The catch, you'll no longer have control.

Then you laugh. Not possible, Never!

If I were a conspiracy theorist, you could brew the simplest reason for Berners Lee creating the Net and giving it away for free.

"He was tired of hierarchies' control, he wanted to set people free." A Morpheus pre Matrix. Wishful thinking!

But it's brilliant. There is no such thing as a free dinner.

The very distributive model Berners Lee designed to make the Net work, to ensure one document could talk be pulled up on any screen, computer speak to computer, has now infected every walk of profession playing on the net.

You no longer have control, and the more people that use it, the less control you have.

It's taken nearly two decades for business to finally realise they're now paying for that free lunch.

The smoke screen is even more interesting.

Everyone offers a solution, but there is none. If anything it lies in human behavior. What people want they'll go after, so you'll either adapt a business model to this, or be one of the "people" to understand what you and everyone else wants.

Everyone's losing control. Some business are big enough to sustain serious blows to their health.

The beating is a wake up call; they regroup and figure out what everyone else knows. "IT'S NOT ABOUT US, ITS ABOUT THEM".

PLAY BY THEIR RULES".

The BBC, like most massive organisations presents an interesting case.

The last bastion of its control is a commissioning process, but its I-player and other stats/traffic tells it what people want.

A couple of years back I interviewed the BBC's Director General Mark Thompson at a time when the perception about the BBC was figuring out how and where to wire itself into the new media Matrix.

The DG knew what awaited. It had suffered huge fallls in numbers. The type of dip that would cripple many companies, but like the US troop surge, it cushioned the "what", redeployed and threw its weight around this new new thing.

It's not rocket science, but when you're a huge institution using public funds, you'll want to be abs sure how and where you're spending people's money.

Today's conference satged by the BBC at Alexandre Palace about the future of the web et al, shows the corporation's new confidence. " It know what people want and wants to lead by example again".

That's quite something because large corporations lead by their own example. They hire clever people to do clever things in-house, many times eschewing what's out there.

If it was good enough, we'd have it, they could argue.

You can't breath today without finding a conference offering you the latest thinking.

But the web's only a teenager. Where is the next big disruption? What will the next big change be? Will we be ready?

You'll get all sorts of feedback, but there is no constant.

Correction. There is one: that we'll lose more and more control and that being nimble, small, acting swiftly, assimilating and experimenting will be the order of the day.

Demo or die MIT coined. Change or die is more appropriate now.

Now lose control.

Video Interview: Howard Rheingold's vlog on what journalism students need to know

Howard writes: " In my latest vlog post, I interviewed Bruno Giussani, pioneering journalist and European director of the TED conference, and Pam Maples, Managing Editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, member of Pulitzer-winning team, about what journalism students need to know when they go out into the job market. I recommend Giussani’s “New Media Tells Different Stories.” [...]"

Responding to a post on Howards site+++


Enjoyed that Howard. Hi

And your opening premise about modules becoming redundant as fast as they get on the handbook is too true.

The role of organiser, facilitator, linker is one career journalists may feel uncomfortable with, as there's no prescribed formula for the sort of software and contentware they should/must organise.

As fast as you've learned the ways of tagging, something else crops up.

The very distrubutive model of the web has now enveloped those disciplines playing on it.

Talking of tagging some of the new video journalism film language borrowed from cinema uses tagging to heighten the sense of drama in a film - something that I have become a big fan.

In fact there seems to be parallels between the evolving journalist and lecturer.

In an interview with a UK University Vice Chancellor and Government advisor, Dr Geoffrey Copland spoke about the Lecturer of the future in a short film I made presenting at Digital Hollywood.

He was absolutely brilliant! In fact I laughed they'd been a role reversal: i was the one to sometimes talk up the future, only for friends to chime: "c'mon not that again David".

But here was the VC talking about students not requiring universities in the way they do now; how they'd choose their own modules; and how lecturers would be the filters of vast arrays of info.

Cheers

David

Time to play

Time to play. Come on

All in VJ day's work- the tech vs theory debate

Busy ! But I guess the following's all in a day's work.

Marking papers: It's been interesting to see the journey by students. We so often take what we do for granted, but their end-of-year reports reveal a consensus about this evolving new media way of doing things.

Being a Masters or trainee VJ student has its moments. Today, not only do you have to wrap your head around this new new thing, but you've got to be steeped in the ways of old and tried and tested.

Then there's an array of hardware and software packages you have to master and its not just what button does what but the theory that underpins these new habits.

So pity the editor in the middle quadrant of their life, whom with years of experience is utterly floored by this convoy of nonsensical events, which is why you'll want to get yourself over to as many conferences as possible.

And it's to the young that they look for answers. Oh yes, journalism may not be dead quite yet, but no one would deny it's something quite different to what they remember and it's those "young people that get this hyper media".

At Goteborg in Sweden, I saw some work from the media students covering the conference. Their films looked OK, but in two minutes of talking to them I fell into Lecture mode:

"People, you're producing something that's very safe, that the editors downstairs might find watchable, but this film is more than about them, it's about you. Give someone a reason to come back and watch these films because of yor signature".

I have a motto, that says do something that scares you everyday. To them I said go experiment and if you **** it up truth no one's going to chastise you.

Michael Lally a head honcho at RTE tells a story with a similar thread.

Michael gave over the evening slot to a community to broadcast their news on a designated evening. It was a bold and truly innovative experiment, which I advocate every broadcast manager repeat.

Only Mistake he says: the community aped their ( professionals) standards and methodology.


The woes of a lecturer
As a Lecturer there's a double whammy. You might have read Ullyses and indeed understood it, but can you assist a student seeking an action script code. And then, admit it, there's the super students who are so networked in you find yourself asking ever so often, "what's that?".

Flasha and too a less extent , has only just become part of the lexicon of an editor's attempt to come across all interactive.

Couple of years back I was informally boarded for an academic job.

My boss-to-be, a former manager at the BBC, asked me this question: What's Flash got to do with interactivity?

That was it. If the head of interactivity doesn't even know what Flash is, there's a er, well.....

Video journalism to go - tales from the UK

Prince turns 50 and this old snap and Marge below courtesy of Duncan is just peachy

And Marge, that's not how to do dance to YMCA

I'm quite happy answering queries which thankfully I get a few in my email bin, though ever so often one veers into the grey area of quasi-consultancy.

Thankfully!

Oh you know somebody's reading what is often published into a black hole LOL

Had an email from Nato wanting to look at what I call accelerated video journalism[ front page of viewmagazine.tv], but couldn't return to the sender - kept bouncing back.

Had a nice chat too with an NGO which wanted to understand the difference between VJism and TV Jism. "How long you gots?", could have been my answer, but we got there.

You know that saying: the more you know, the more you understand, the more you understand the more complex things become, then you realise the premise you started off from actually leaves you slightly baffled.

Yep.

Meanwhile over at News Videographer behemoth site in the US covering all things Videojournalism, the talented Angela Grant let me deface her site with this here scribblings: Tales from the UK.


Online E
The Online Phd session was a blast, for many reasons. The content aside and the raw energy of the speakers, it made me think about my own infalibility.

"Scotty I need more warp power", I hear myself thinking, so back to my drawing board to delve a little deeper. Latest book I have ordered should sort me out, Convergence....... by Henry Jenkins (MIT), whom the respect-commanding Howard Rheingold of Smart Mobs ( another brill book) describes as the contemporary McLuhan.

Haven't swapped emails in a while Howard so if this pings you, do expect a follow up.

Someone I was pleased to catch up with is Andrew Nachison from WeMedia, which just continues to grow and grow and is onto some new areas of innovation. Meanwhile from a chance encounter with David Brewer at Media ideas, now at Livestation, an opportunity to make a short "How to promo for Livestation.com".

David showed me a mock up page with a link back to viewmagazine. Oh very flattering.

David Heathfield one of our former students emails to say all is well, aboluely fab in his job as a Nato video journalist.

If you're from the BBC or ITN, where David's contact is over, I'd grab him, no ifs.

Mind you, I don't think Nato will let him go.

Avatars

Avatars are back on the menu, with a little something that may pop up next week. More on that later.

So the world of Vjism rumbles on, with a kick in the teeth of reality from looking at all the exam markings I am undertaking at present.

Help!
p.s pictures courtesy of Duncan - at the Press Association, and yes they are copyrighted.

Phd Seminar online - Smart lab

Awaiting Phd Seminar online with colleagues. See Screen Grab below at 16.02 FRiday 13th.



Accompanied by Video here

live event from dublin that we're tuning into. More details follow

Domestic Violence and Fashion WorkshopDublin Science Gallery 13-15 June 2008SafetyNET & SMARTlabTitle Page Image: by Ralph BorlandMAORI DOMESTIC VIOLE

speaker@16.56 according to Camille who's bloggin live from drupal
ONCE WERE WARRIORS A case study based on the film Dir. Lee Tamahore, 1994 based and Bestselling Novel by Alan Duff 1990 and paints a violent portrait of domestic violence

lizbeth from Smartlab says:
linked to 'stockholm syndrome' as in hostage abuse, where eventually over time the hostages

Aspects of violence relays Camille
Some of the most worrying are those that draw from arguments stemming from Biological Determinism which is the viewpoint that was used in the nineteen

17.14 camille:
FASHION AS SURVIVAL WEARFor effective protection until the Cycle of Violence can be breached it is possible to use techniques of Survival Wear as as combative methods that provide:• Invisibility• Protection• Subversion

lizbeth:
camoflauge technologies,. a form of augmented reality- a camera that take a pic
camille:
INVISIBILITYOptical-camouflage technology, University of Tokyo Augmented RealityCamera, reflective garment, specific observer position


.........lots gone on since including discussions on various clothing, heat resistant, gps enabled, camouflage, bakable - all within the sphere of development and towards combating violence/ violence related.

At 18.06 we're atill online and I have to say arguably one of the best e-online seminars I have experienced.

Webby Awards - welcome distraction

Word count - 10,000 odd words and growing. tip tip tap, tut tut.. ( sounds of me plodding on my keyboard

Feedback has been stimulating, so I'm rewriting the whole again with a paen to a more structured cause.

What am I talking about?

I have decided to share with you my private angst in my dissertation.

It's actually nnot as bad as it seems.

Pros
Reading large tracts of books and absorbing so much new stuff, a literary scavenger.
Penchant for taking in everything and thinking.. ah that's a chapter. Er No it isn't!
Finishing a longish rewrite and coming up for air.

Cons
Sit down, skip brunch, lunch and whatever else as you pursue a death march to finish.
Figuring out what to do when the well's dry and you've writers block.
Not priortising. Each bllog I write could have been spent expanding on theories.

Ah well, now you know. Truth you do it cuz you want to do it, and I am enjoying the process. Just finished a reread of the Futurists Cinema, pondering the similarities in that movement and today's Digital Video one.

But now a welcome distraction: the webby's.


WEBBYS
Some great sites, but three caught my attention

Firstly a great fabulous huzzah to the FT's Alphaville. It won the blog business catergory. The AlphaVille team are just so cool. They're almost anti trad business. It's a live blog that has some sharp humour and is woth a pit stop.

Secondly - a blog about secrets and boy are these razor. Winner in two catergories. You simply sign up and post. Free psychotherapy when you realise what you have in mind for that ***** when you realise some of the things other people have done.


And thirdly and finally, this is cookie brill - for self promotion and sheer playability Red interactive's world of wonder - that's my definition. Log on and chat to people you bump into and then do your matrix jump into space.

Back to the next chapter - help!

Always on - reports

Some interesting articles from the Always On team today: Youtube's times up.

Yes, yes, they've been saying that for a while, but that in conjucntion to that, the studios are back in control.

go peak

Why not to go to jail in Arizona - Tough Guy Sheriff

This was sent to me and makes for er, interesting reading. Don't know who to credit as it's doing the rounds, so if it's yours lets get your name on

USA JAIL - SOME INTERESTING READING TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO, HE IS THE MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF (ARIZONA) AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER AGAIN.


These are some of the reasons why:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio created the "tent city jail" to save Arizona from spending tens of millions of dollars on another expensive prison complex.

He has jail meals down to 20 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He banned smoking and pornographic magazines in the jails, and took away their weightlifting equipment and cut off all but "G" movies. He says:"They're in jail to pay a debt to society not to build muscles so they can assault innocent people when they leave."

He started chain gangs to use the inmates to do free work on county and city projects and save taxpayer's money.

Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only allows the Disney channel and the weather channel.

When asked why the weather channel, he replied: "So these morons will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs."

He cut off coffee because it has zero nutritional value and is therefore a waste of taxpayer money. When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."

He also bought the Newt Gingrich lecture series on US history that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series that actually tells the truth for a change would be welcome and that it might even explain why 95% of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record for June 2nd 2007), the Associated Press reported: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed wire surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.



On the Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing pink boxer shorts were overheard chatting in the tents, where temperatures reached 128 degrees. "This is hell. It feels like we live in a furnace," said Ernesto Gonzales, an inmate for 2 years with 10 more to go. "It's inhumane."

Joe Arpaio, who makes his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. "Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for parole, only to go out and commit more crimes so they can come back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things many taxpayers can't afford to have
for themselves."

The same day he told all the inmates who were complaining of the heat in the tents: "It's between 120 to 130 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to walk all day in the sun, wearing full battle gear and get shot at, and they have not committed any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!"

Way to go, Sheriff! If all prisons were like yours there would be a lot less crime and we would not be in the current position of running out of prison spaces.

If you agree, pass this on.
If not, just delete it.

Sheriff Joe was just re-elected as Sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona

Positive attractors - The game changers

Matteo who is spearheading live TV on the Net at high resolution

The conclusion to the day's previous posts to follow, but a few issues to juggle in the air.

One of the nicest things to come out from Viewmagazine.tv has been the chance to meet innovative individuals; people with this aura which leads you to steal glances at them, whilst they're not looking.

They ignite a spark, a passion, a something often undefinable around themselves and others.

The very nature of the web means ever so often a link will come in which I'll drill through to find an incredible person or organisation at the end.

There are countless; you know that yourself.

A sight detour first: my younger sister, an incredibly innovative children's teacher is one of them, a Patch Adams.

Once when inspectors came around her school to monitor her work, she left the classroom only to appear minutes later with a swimming mask, wig, flippers and a cape.

Hahahahah. Absolutely barking mad, but genius.

A couple of weeks later, one of the examiners reappeared as a teaching assistant and was so keen for my sister to do something out of the ordinary again, BUT this tme he wanted to be part of it.

The children in her class, just fall to bits, then she goes into her teaching plan.

Late in her career, she decided it was time to go to university. Whilst there one of her friends complained bitterly at trying to keep up with studying and looking after a child.

Joyce, teen-looking, who did not miss classes, leaned over and whispered: "I have got five!@%£^&*&"

That was the last time, she says her now best friend every brought up the subject.

I can't help but weep through joy and laughter when I talk about my sister Joyce, even now.


The gift of Inspiration
Being inspired is a gift, having someone inspire you is transaction no amount of money can buy. Being inspired is a positive attractor.

The three people featured on viewmagazine's front page are inspiring in what they're doing in different ways, but the end sight looks the same - something that little bit or a lot out of the ordinary.

Matteo's live television on the Net (Pic Top)

Duncan's software application which rolls several broadcast apps together.

Rania, a young editor of one of Egypt's English dailies, distributed within the pages of The International Herald.




Inspiring

p.s Listen to why Rania prefers to hire women - a good debate here

p.ss This piece on viewmagazine.tv is an example of a low level IMVJ piece. That is integrated multimedia video journalism, though a better example would be this video journalism timeline piece

The workflow is video journalism - FCP - After Effects - photoshop - Dreamweaver/ CSS
Flash CS3 and action scripting. Then Blog/facebook/ et al
I'm using three macs; I don't have to but each of them is performing a function just to cut down on the time.

One's fairly old an imac from early 2000, but it's a good workhorse. My laptop's doing all the design and css, whilst my tower's doing some heavy lifting in FCP and After Effects, which requires lost of RAM.

The new new media video thingy journalism !

A rewrite of an earlier post from way back when
I'd like to be involved in building a school for media makers; irrational ones who insanely believe they can make a difference.

To some extent they would be journalists, but I feel that's a redundant albeit necessary legacy term we're stuck with for a while.

Journalists ~ writing for a journal.. seems rather dated, just as we no longer rely exclusively on teleporting pictures - as in television.

Media makers are platform agnostic, they deliver to the journal, the TV, online, and all manner of sub constituents.

The advert would read: Only those with an absurdely irrational passion, who believe they can affect change need apply. Your purpose is to inform and interact. Anything goes. A petri dish of ideas which we'll use to push synchronous dialogue. Communities speaking to communities, countries speaking to countries, world speaking to worlds.

See told you it was cookie.

In the course of their growth, we would foolishly make them privy (electronically or otherwise) to that we feel uncomfortable, even shy away from reporting; poverty, abuse in families, racism, death, murder - all the while pushing them, testing to see where there is a higher sense of ethics that we could develop.

A fatally wounded coalition soldier, would you show the close up picture?

No?

Ok, does that need to be applied above the board?

If you've never seen death, strife, injustice at play, does that make you a lesser journalist?

Do you need to experience pain to understand pain? "Act my dear boy, act" the late lawrence Olivier told his co-actor Dustin Hoffman in the Running Man.

But there's no doubt, Walter Cronkite and many other journalists before and since have had their senses smacked when in Cronkite's case he returned from Vietnam.

We would also want to re-evaluate our relationship with the story. As a journalists we tell hundreds of stories.

Some stick, some don't some indeed are mediocre.

The Uptake.org's townhall weekend debate highlights more than any other event I have seen the schism between mainstreet journalism and grassroot, or as one mainstream producer claimed: "the far left".

It was journalist ambushing journalist: heaven's what's going on?

I asked Scott Rensberger - a 32 awards winning journalist, photographer, and possibly the first contemporary video journalist with a 20 year track record, what his favourite stories were.

Not supprisingly, he had many, and they were strewn across a wide geographical plate. There's something in that.

Bono and Geldoff ludicriously believed they could make a difference with music being a vehicle for change and change agents.

Financiers deluded themeselves many years back with The Marshall Plan and how we might rebuild a crippled dejected democracy and Europe.

Al Gore, we thought must have been barking mad when earlier in his environmental career he preached the mantra of global doom.

Of course I'm not any of the above, but there is an irrationality about how the media works.

It's unfathomable but every story they publish will have a banking purpose.

The net does that now with linking. So if I said this in 1994 I'd be even more deluded.

But our feat is to redefine the database for news and its agenda of hit and misses. I onced asked a delegate at one of my talks how many times she checked her stocks and shares. At least once a day, she replied.

It meant something to her, I concluded. It had value. But I added, today's news: Hurricane Katrina, The Tsunami, the Virginia shootings will soon fall of the agenda of our present "custodians" of the news. It may be inportant but something of more significance has come along to shift its from its temporal location. Never mind that. Someone's now saying, there's no possible way you can keep showing the same news every day.

No I didn't say that, but how do we pick and choose our news is something to look at and should we be blaming the news hosts for their lack of our choice?

The news would not be a showcase of us; perhaps there's no helping that, but the purpose would be seek a new discourse in how we tell it.

Concludes tomorrow....

Tin Reporters - The makings of a conflict video journalist

A number of aspiring young journalists go to war.

It is the most frightening experience they'll encounter.

For some it is overwhelmingly enjoyable, at least for those who know they only have a two weeks as embedded journalists.

For some its serious.

Because even though this is a simulated war: Nato's War Games, some candidates will find themselves as video journalists in some of the world's reported flash spots: Gaza, and Afghanistan to name a few.

This a film in progress, the trailer of which you can find here, called TIN REPORTERS.

It's a Dog's Life - Ahh

Duncan Raban, a friend, is arguably one of the most talented and innovative photographers in the UK.

You should see his "day in the life" with Tina Turner, Lionel Richie.. snaps with Prince and the equally breath taking "ordinary people".

He sent me this.. an everyone went Ahhh,



some days dave .......would you like to wake up and be a dog for a few days like my rupert here............as i would and a few recent feel good snaps




OH YES. OH YES. OH YES

p.s Now don't go pinching this snap, now.

Duncan's got some big gun's behind him as a senior figure at the UK's Press Association.

Video journalism combines the skills of radio, motion graphics, cinema, TV and online, so what's next?

If you could combine the skill of radio, the art of motion graphics, the eye of photography, the mis en scene and arcing of cinema with the compositional language of television, newspapers and blogs provocativeness, and behaviour of online, I believe we'd be closer to understanding Video Journalism.

The powerpoint for my talk goes up on WAN in the next week and hopefully it's self explanatory.

Sadly I couldn't expand on some of the underlying emerging issues, which may have had some interest.

Principally how video journalism and the language of video is under going it's own reforms.

The parallels are not far off from the changes to the written article world in the 1700s, when publishers Addison and Steele's equitone prose opened up the word to a voracious and brand new audience.

And yes there were other factors that played into their hands, but their style contributed enormously to their own success.

If you were to launch a television station today, then video journalism suffice nicely

There was an initial argument, which still holds about video journalism's intimacy and as such the depth to which semiotically a report could go.

Here's an example.

During the floods in Hull in 2007 that blighted huge communities, broadcasters were out capturing carnage and sufferings, but few were able to provide a tier of reportage which meant documenting a more intimate aspect by staying over with any of the families.

In part it was cost and logistics related. Also those huge beta cams aren't the most suitable cameras for closed confined, high risk-assessed spaces.

A videojournalist could have provided something very different, in the same way a photojournalist released from their studio plate camera provides a level of intimacy firstly in where they can place the camera, and secondly, how they compose the picture.

For the VJ, all this while writing the article, thinking up the narrative to the appropriate bed of these pictures.

However, the Net really does change everything.

As a film maker or lover, you'll recognise the enormous range of film styles that exist, and so these too are available to video makers.

We've really just started to dabble with video and its potential, so for the moment a point-and-shoot approach may just do.

But there's no getting away from the audience and their level of sophistication, not necessarily geared to high brow stuff though that's also the case, but in distinguishing between new styles, story forms and languages.

In film it could be styles of the 1920s - French Cinema - Von Trier's Dogme and then the more agitated film making of late in 24, Bourne, The Shield, where singular narratives entwine with multiple ones and the camera exposes multiple points of view.

All in all this is an over simplification, but the overall point is video journalism goes way beyond point and shoot and also the structural form of television journalism.

I'm not by any stretch of the imagination claiming its better; it's just different and well suited for contemporary media story telling

And finally this is Cornwall's video journalism

Really nice set of Beckam video's if you're a fan over at This is Cornwall plus a whole range of other stuff such as this survival special.




Well done once again to This is cornwall - proof that you don't need a huge amount of resources, rather talent and innovative approach to video making.

Well, mosee on down to thisiscornwall before I end up being accused of showing all their content here LOL

p.s Did I tell you I spent an enjoyable year at Falmouth doing my postgrad in media in the 1980s. Oh dear!

Web site awards - with strong video journalism, thisiscornwall - give it up

Ladies and gentleman, please join me in giving it up for Gareth Bartlett and crew at Thisiscornwall for being crowned Website of the Year at the South West Media Awards.

A wee bit of history, Gareth and I crossed paths and had a couple days of swapping ideas and doing some Gonzo VJ stuff.

In no time, after heading back to his outfit he completely transformed it with some stunning video journalism pieces.


Outtakes - I love the way they're not afraid to take the P*** out of themselves

There are some 369 pieces, a truly delightful with a twist TAGGING story, and long format series programmes.

Go take a look, why don't you?


Me thinks this one is the Adidas made advert, but there's some interview stuff ThisisCornwall did with Beckham

Gareth has one of those eyes for VJ, in which an idea is never replicated and ideas are built upon.

He's already trained a whole lota staff, had a format which has been praised by management as a potential roll out, and appeared in the Press Gazette for his "Unusual Suspect" video.

He's only been doing video journalism for about 6 months

Bravo, Bravo Bravo!

+++++

Here's what they said about thisiscornwall and I'm sure this is one of many awards to come.

The site, competing against thisisplymouth.co.uk, The Bradley Stoke Examiner and thisissouthdevon.co.uk/nigelgreen, was praised for its use of video and for transforming itself in a short time period.

The judges said: "Since devoting resources to online news provision for the first time in 2007, thisiscornwall has seen a significant increase in traffic to its website. Visitor numbers for the first quarter of 2008 were up 54 per cent, compared to the previous year.

"The judges liked its strong use of videos, with some footage of police and trading standards showing just about everything that had gone on.

"The winner is a website the judges felt is still developing – but which showed real potential for the future."

Digital Editor Gareth Bartlett, who took control of the site in October, collected the award with Editor-in-Chief Andy Cooper and Assistant Head of Content Suzie Smith from EDF's customer account services director Steve Hayfield and paralympic swimmer Giles Long MBE. Giles overcame cancer to win more than 20 major medals including Paralympic, European and World Championship gold medals.

The event, held in association with holdthefrontpage.co.uk, welcomed more than 150 journalists to Swindon's railway museum, Steam, for the event.

The awards took in print and broadcast journalism from across the region, which includes Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.

How to steal a mobile phone - but why?

I'm disgusted with myself and feel awful.

Why, I keep asking.

At the airport awaiting my plane I did some work.

Two PCs down a gentleman, besuited, with brief case was wrapping up.

Minutes later a woman, a journalist from Singapore sat next to me.

Someone asked her if she'd left her phone. I looked up. She shrugged her shoulders unconcerned.

I looked down again.

Minutes later someone else was at the terminal. I looked up to see whether it was the man whom earlier I'd caught a glimpse.

Truth I wouldn't be able to ID him, but the other man now seated was of a different nationality and his paper I noticed was resting on the phone.

A paragraph later, I looked up and he was gone and so was the phone.

I felt sick. He had just taken a phone.

Had he handed it in?

I'm not sure, but the paper over the phone, in hindsight, looked a good decoy to lift it.

I was pretty mad with myself.

Why didn't I pick it up?

Perhaps the lady to my left and whether she might think I was about to lift the phone?

Perhaps I hadn't thought swiftly enough?

I looked around for the thief; he'd gone.

Moments later, on the adjacent PC, this time a passport and ticket had been left behind

This time I wasn't taking any chances and duely picked it up and handed it to a nearby booth.

Seconds later a man appeared hovering around the PC looking for his phone.

I felt even more gutted and admitted to him: "I'm really sorry, but I think your phone's been stolen and I more or less saw what happened".

I'm not sure he understood me.

But all I could think was his contacts, all his work in that phone were now in the possession of someone else who had no use for them, other than changing the chip on a shiny flash-looking new phone.

Frankly I can't understand such actions and I'm more than certain, if a situation arose like that again, I'd take immediate action.

The other man got his Passport back. I saw him hug the booth salesperson and afforded myself a wry, but ultimately unsatisfying smile.

Media Industry and Cold Showers

Trailer - Prempeh College from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
We woke between 5.30 and 6.0'clock am.

Shower time was between 6-7. The water was freezin cold; there was no hot water and often as a junior, you'd shower last giving way to seniors.

There on followed a brief half hour spell of book studying, before morning assembly at 8. 0clock.

By then your bed had to be immaculately made, because during assembly, the prefects and housemasters would be roaming the dorms looking for the unkempt.

Punishment could take an assortment of creative tasks: weeding with a cutlas, painting a long patch of grass green, or even sitting in the baking sun.

First classes were at 8.15 ish, followed by breakfast (porridge) at 9...

And so the day progressed, a regimented flurry of dos and don'ts.

I remember it well because our old boys, school mates still meet up each month, about 50 of them to look at how we might help one another.

The cold showers always get a good laugh.

It's what traditional media is getting at the moment; a cold shower, and honestly it isn't pleasent.

WAN was brilliant for many things; the chance to learn, meet contacts and also be reflective.

It's also provided me with added zeal to find ways to make good of these "showers".

This new horizon does not seem to have expanded the agenda, the digital paradigm for learning and enacting upon new nwe things amongst us.

There are great ( haven't there always been) social issues that merit deeper, wider attention, that digital storytelling can nail.

I'd like to see more black/ ethnic activities in the digital ecosystem of mainstream , where we not just pay lip service to "unity but look towards greater innovation and sharing in the media driving discourses, rather than reacting to them.

We are about two/ three years based on current trends, and innovations waiting to break free, away from more disruptions.

And just as we said five years ago, "what video online, you're having a laugh".. we're ignoring the signals again.

Yep a cold shower.

I really looking forward to mixing it up with some of the peope I met and those from my Phd programme.

Only thing I'd say is: Don't bring a towel. This shower never finishes.

35,000 feet and rising

This picture rather had me thinking that at the rate we're soaring through the skies, now, probably exceeds 30-35000 feet.

Forlornly Yours, David Dunkley Gyimah, WAN, Newspaper Summit

Strewn debris across the matted carpet floor, the whirls of automated buggies, driven by men in black T-shirts mechanically de-WANnig the conference hall.

A forlorn look wraps itself around my face.

The badge hung imperviously around my neck, which 24 hours earlier provided me "access all" to any part of the Goteborg Convention centre is as useful as my bus pass.

Actually my bus pass gives me a place of origin; my badge just says my name.

I'd wanted to catch the video team, swap some files, view their last films, but their room has also be sanitised.

So I found a temporary spot to park my bags and tripod.

Bertrand, the main organiser of WAN's gathering, had nodded to the idea of me bringing all my video journalism kit.

It's still fairly compact, enough for an 8 year old to take to school without social services visiting the parents on account of child abuse, but saddled with a suitcase, and various other bits you pick up from conferences, I'm beginning to think "yep I should have"...

"There's a plane in the morning and one in the afternoon, but the one in the morning.. well I'm not sure.." said the tour operator.

"Nay mind I said chipperly, I'll take the afternoon flight".

Pity the poor souls, hahaha Illicco and crew from Reuters who have to be up for 4 O'clock, I thought yesterday as we saw off the last moments of WAN's gala with some impressionist band doing a "Kool and the Gang" number.

Well the last laughs on me.

They might have sleep walked to the airport, but they'd have shared the camaraderie of each other to swell their spirits.

And so they might have needed this.


At this time of the year, it gets dark around 11ish and first light breaks around 4.am.

I'm guessing they got back to their hotels after the gala dinner for 1 am

Yep you do the maths...

But here sitting like a stray in the hotel any semblance of a communion has completely disappeared.

Even the WAN2008 wifi connection I'm posting this on, can barely stay alive, ebbing between one bar and two.

I might even be considered a bandit surfer at this time.

And with no magnificent buffet in store; fish, fish, fish, which many delegates prized alongside the beef, duck and veal, I'm smacking my lips as I pass a red juicy apple in front of reception.

It's gone. One less in a fruit bowl: there's my lunch.

By now having fashioned this post on the fly as one does, Jodie, WAN's supreme organiser passes me by.

She's made up for the 14 hour days from the last week, I'm presuming as she shares with me how she relished the lie-in.

Bertrand I learn is on a newspaper visit, but may be back for lunch.

We both muse whether we should gate crash: Betrand does good lunches.

But by now, a few minutes of seeing a familiar face on what is tantamount to a deserted island, Jodie's off again.

One last errand, to hand in the local mobile phones.

Even she now has to ask for assistance from a receptionist, whom quizzes her about what conference she, jodie, is referring to.

"One, two, two, two..." a mic check to my left is perhaps a sign that I ought to bite the bullet and head off elsewhere.

Meanwhile zimmer frames stream past my right followed by able senior citizen.

Another convention, seemingly as far removed from the alpha pairings that gathered here in the last five days.

Oh Where would I go ?

Why the airport of course.

It's 12 O'clock.

Not enough time to go wandering around town, yet a bit too much time to be sitting in those coma-inducing airport lounges.

My flight's at 4O'clock.

Ah well, it was good while it lasted.

Back to marking masters papers tomorrow.

Mind you, my shared office won't do much to dim the memories of WAN.

How did I start this post..."Strewn debris across the matted carpet floor".

Yep lots and lost of post graduate papers....

The fall out of conferences invariably means you've stored up work awaiting you.

And that is a very forlorn thought.


Forlornly yours

David Dunkley Gyimah
WAN, Goteborg

p.s Ah my battery life has run out and there's my cab

Post WAN - World News Assocoation gathering

With a layout befitting VIP's - er wait a minute these were VIPs - WAN drew its curtain on its final day's event, a gala dinner for 1800 delegates.

The cost per person for the four day stay, some 4000 euros, travel and hotel included.

The WAN brand is doing well.

This year the number of attendants is up, whilst friends of old have returned.

In an ecosystem of must-attend media conferences on this planet every week, WAN doesn't have to hold its breath.

"What did Jesus tell his disciples at the last supper" asked former president of WAN Gavin Oreilly.

"Get this side of the table or you won't be in the picture?"

Point taken.

The morning, Alli from one of Nigeria's well know news agencies zeroed onto me.

"We're considering videojournalism..", his opening line went.

"Mmmm in Nigeria ?", I quipped.

In Nigeria you get arrested for filming

"Oh no, he replied matter of factly, not if you're Nigerian, but if you're a foreigner, there are security issues.

Well that's settled that then I thought.

Video journalism pitch - getting it right

The challenge for anyone presenting to a large audience is to strike that balance between the medium [ conference setting and delegates] and the message.

There, anything to squeeze Mchullan in.

And with 12 minutes to do that in, you've either got to extract probably three main points or keep you slides to single digits.

At the time the chair called 6mins, I thought ah well there goes half of it.

Afternoon talks
4.00 seminars have a double whammy awaiting you.

If you've had a good lunch, then the body's asking questions of you: potentially a heavy head and eyelids as you sit still for another two hours.

If you haven't had a good lunch, by the time the afternoon sessions come around, you're probably a wee bit maxed out.

I know this much, I think, from structuring lectures.

Use the morning for new ideas and the afternoon for group work.

But alas there are some things we can't control.

The previous night I'd also only managed a few hours shut eye and yes lunch was good.

Not good, not good.

So given the speed at which I raced through, here later on, I'll post the powerpoint.

The ppt
Broadly speaking it was a "how to", and its likely you're more than adept at building a new network from cans and rubber bands.

Never mind if you've never watched that pre-teen Brit favourite children's show called "Blue Peter".

The bits I wanted to delve into e.g. tagging, deep linking in video, more disrupts to video didn't get a mention.

So lots more to say in a later post, including: "the chums of reuter's" gathering.

If you ever get an email/ request from someone called Sophie asking you to meet up with a few people, drop everything.

Summary from WAN

With over 500 editors and senior execs from around the world, and back to back seminars, two days in and WAN's already taking its toll.

This morning was rehearsals for my presentation within the next hour, and truthfully I need to find some matchsticks.

No the talks have all be relevant and stunning, it's just me.

More on those soon.

But I have managed to shake some of the snooze dust.

Ex World Chess player, now politician Gary Kasparov spoke to WAN at a luncheon.

Two hundred people wanted in to the room, which could only seat 100.

More on that too later with some film clips.

Meanwhile I need a quiet place somewhere to run through my head how I'm going to show how to be a videojournalist in 12 mins.

What do you mean that's too long?

Funny! Haha

UK Video Journalism Timeline - Gonzo approach

The Daily Telegraph shows David and group around their studios with a fascinating Q and A from delegates. David will post that feature in the future.

On my way to WAN to talk about video journalism, a post that wraps up a broad project I have been building.

Video Journalism is about 14 years old in the UK

That much you would have gleaned from previous posts here.

And it's had fits and starts launches elsewhere, but unequivocally it's the long haul now and the ghosts of video journalism 1994 are causing real havoc to economic business models.

So here's my time line, with accompanying clips on Viewmagazine.tv. Click the words e.g. BBC, below the date time line to activate video clips

1994 Channel One TV - the promo to launch Channel One TV, with VJs using beta camera. I remember being the last person to be interviewed for the station, having just arrived from a stint as associate producer ABC News ( South Africa) freelance reporting for the BBC World Service

1997 C4 News - I was a regular freelance at Channel 4, where as a Videojournalist, I was more or less a second unit camera.

ITN was also trying out VJs as camera operators. In 1999 the clip showing I went back to South Africa to make a feature piece for Channel 4 News about the second general election. I shot that on a digi beta and vx1000.

1998 S. Africa - Former head of CNN/ Turner Africa Edward Boateng, a highly influential figure in African media, called me up. What we spoke about was one of the most radical and adventurous ideas in African broadcasting, and I believe we pulled it off.

Several journalists from Africa were destined for their first foreign trip to South Africa for a special one of programme made over a week.

Edward and I saw an opportunity and instead of one 1hour programme, I came back with 7 1 hours.

Before setting of for South Africa I'd arranged for two/three VX1000s to be delivered to our hotel.

That evening the group learned how to basically shoot in three hours.

2000/1 Washington DC/ NY - I'm in the US. By now I have become an independent producer working at an ad agency. But I have an interview in the US, which leads to an idea which BBC 3 show an interest. It involves interviewing James Woolsey, former head of the CIA (93-95) and a senior officer.

2001 BBC - The BBC's Nations and Regions, as opposed to BBC News and Current Affairs, adopts video journalism. Interviewing Channel 4 senior exec Stuart Cosgrove, C4 loses out to the BBC for the services of the father of Video journalism, Michael Rosenblum. No video clip here but an article for a highly rated magazine, Creation, which I'll post soon.

I have missed out a number of moments till 2005: Videojournalism with Lennox Lewis, Deep diving expedition in Gallipoli, and Nato's war programme - which all contribute to a first place prize at the Batten Awards for Innovation.

2005 PA Regional Press - Britain's regional newspapers take the plunge and video journalism now becomes part of newspaper's arsenal. The film of the videojournalists going through an exercise wins the international video journalism award for an independent in Berlin.

2006 In the summer, someone who has since become a good friend from the Wemedia summit. invites me to Cairo.
We have a unique opportunity to showcase what it can do.

We enter the state broadcasters studios - a rarity

Tarek is pleased: they would like to adopt video journalism

2007 FT - At an Online News Association meeting I swap ideas with the FT, who are busily transforming their outfit into a multimedia powerhouse.

The Telegraph's super trainee multimedia journalists exchange ideas at a Press Association gathering.

2008 Chicago - My Smart lab research looking at aspects of video journalism and multimedia is one of the excuses that leads me to spend a few days with Robb Montgomery's Visual Editors and some senior media folk in Chicago.

I produce my first blog butterfly in which a number of super bloggers from around the world will field questions to the BBC's head of multimedia newsrooms, Peter Horrocks. 9 interviewees hosted on a multimedia platform, with a behind-the-scenes shoot by an ex-student and wonderful VJ Don Omope

20xx Future- This video talks up IMVJ Integrated multimedia videojournalism.

There will be no distinction soon between media. You'll just do it - an integrated approach, that will yield any number of cycles of data.

What's next? Some metaverse stuff, and what I have wanted to build using the film Minority Report as the foundation, an outernet system - as seen on Apple