omg You may know him from Oz. His repertoire boasts the best of, and his just the salt of the earth guy who you'd sit down to a beer to.


So.. I'm walking and see this figure fleetingly. Now, I'm not a star struck kinda person. I remember last year odd standing next to Jay-Z and thinking er! I guess if you work in television you can become blasse. But ocassionaly I will go wide eyed like a saucer and I couldn't resists stopping Eamon Walker who's playing Othello at the Globe, London.

We spoke for about 10 minutes and he was so incredibly nice and humble. Frankly on the odd ocassion someone's come up to me... yes I have been humbled..but I'm not sure what to say.

Anyhow I'm going to go and see Othello. Do come along if you're in London and lets hope I can catch Mr Walker at The Globe for an interview. Judging from what we spoke about, it should be a cracking one.

What are personal sites for

When I worked as a daily journalist and producer I often found there was nothing more frustrating than to present an idea and for it to be rejected. There were a myriad reasons; quite often that idea in hind sight was not editorially suitable, though having said that I reckon I had more hits than missess.

In programme commissioning, it's like pulling the teeth of a big white, ALIVE! I once remember the ebullient former Head of BBC 3 Stuart Murphy agreeing to a meeting after we exchanged emails at length. We had one of those marveous meetings - going on 2 hours. So what happened afterwards? Er nothing. I'd been passed down to managers who had no vested interest.

You soon learn commissioners have their own set ideas - of course they've got to - and you're either a name to help them or you're an irritant. And this came after working/freelancing for the likes of Newsnight, Channel 4 News, ABC News, BBC World Service... and so on. Mind you having worked for those organisations doesn't guarantee I know what I'm talking about.

But if like me you had a fair few ideas swilling around in your cranium what were you to do?

One evening I started toying around with whether I could get some of the programmes I'd made independently out on the net. Why not, what else was I going to do with them otherwise.

viewmagazine.tv was my outlet. I wanted to combine several elements: videojournalism, a fresh look at online design; Flash movies, audio files, video hyperlinking files and possible if I could my newphew's pet dog Scotch.

Some people got it and were deeply encouraging asking questions that I always tried to reply. Others hurled abuse - woops, what have I done.

I can't navigate your site
It's crap what 's it about
It's somethig the cat threw up
your files are too big

There's really not much you can do here, an I gently tried to bring to the attention of those that this wasn't a publicly funded site and that with some humility you do have a choice. The site was built around ideas I had, perhaps some of them stubborn. But yes I understood what some people were saying, particularly if they'd been reccommended to the site and thought... what the heck is this? It breaks all the conventions.

I guess if we deign to produce anything new rather than derivative of something else you're heading for some public humiliation. Viewmagazine isn't perfect.. ohh noo! But it's still my attempt to offload issues I have come into contact with.

And that to many students of journalism is the only bit of advice I can pass on. The medium and profession is changing. More and more managers are likely to look for someone with net skills. In ten years time heavens knows what journalism will look like, but I am certain, there will be a stronger component than now online.

Publish and be damned. Let tose ideas go. Learn CSS. Learn Final Cut. Learn Flash. Learn After Effects. Learn Photoshp. Learn how to use the camera as a journalist and the psychology of how we consume all this.

And yes you'll be criticised. In some ways that's a good thing. Once in a while a genuine commentator will add to site, by making a salient point. But in many ways you'll control your own media. We are about five years or less away from broadcasting taking the biggest batering.

It's questionable whether it may even survive in its present state. Hopefuly you won't have that to worry about. You'll already be a jack of all trades and master of many. That much I'm going to be telling delegates gathering at Bilbao - where 400 odd TV stations meet as part of CIRCOM.

See you there.

beware the ptc glitch

woops BBC TV's 10 Oclock news featured a double take Evan Davies, Econs editor delivering a piece to camera... stopping and doing a retake. Ouch! someone forgot to edit that out. The look on the newsreader Hugh Edwards after! Me thinks the editor or producer might have to explain a few things to the programme editor.

We know what it's like.. and at some point we've all been on the end of such er, howlers, particularly on news shows with fast turn arounds working right up to the wire. ;-)

Turnaround

I got talking to a UK national newspaper. We've been talking for a couple of months and met in Kensngton for a coffee etc. I was a fruitfull meeting and I'm hoping to see if I can spot emerging talent in their selection process.

One of the execs said something that on reflection I noticed I get asked time and tme again. How do you do this?
Sometimes it's translated as why I do it? This isn't self aggrandisement. Oh no..

I was always a big fan of the Sunday Times Business section profiling people who had a built a business because you could always come away inspired. There was always a nugget. And so what I'm about to say, I see in the same vein.

How do I do this?
Because often I see the end story quite quickly from the strands of pieces in front of me. Otherwise I tend to think what would make the story stronger and go hunting for it. A friend, an award wining composer once told me, when she is composing, she sees images. I laughed: when I shoot I see music.

Part of this is practice. It's the second nature of anticipating the flight of the ball, from the torque of the racket and body shape of your oponent. It's the old mantra. What's often at the end of a ball bouncing into the road.. a seven year old streaming behind.

Instinct plays a huge part, which in itself is often habits now maquerading as impulsive thoughts. If I'm interviewing and I get short answers and a restlessness from the interviewee, I know to cut straight to the question I need to know, even if it's quite blunt.

We tested this in Norway, for a four minute interview, it took a further ten minutes for its to be edited and ready, and with that I'd also managed to shoot further drop-in shots.

This thing we do.. TV, Video, the Media.. It's not rocket science, but in defence of some throwing the baby out with the bath water, you still need old hands, wise heads around to make decisions swiftly and firmly.

So.. why do I do this.. because I can. This is my allotment, my garden shed, where I experiment growing new produce.. There is no substitute than to get your hands dirty after some training. And then break the rule book. Nothing is sacred.

Why do I do this... because no one, no one, as we may all rather attest is entitled to anything and the only way we get there is by wanting it. Want it

Guns and assailants

Dirk Coetzee wss part of South Africa's apartheid government's death-squads. He commited countless atrocities, the most prublicised was murdering Griffiths Mxenge, the human rights lawyer for ANC personnel.

"We stabbed him 35 times and then burnt his body ... while that was happening we were having a brai ( barbeque) nearby... " Coetzee would later tell me.

I was at the Holiday Inn in down town Joburg with friends eating when a senior South African broadcast manager spotted him. "I want to talk to him. I have alway wanted to talk to him", I said. Whilst I was a freelance correspondent based in South Africa 93-94 the opportunity never arose. Now here I was some years on (98) and he was in talking distance.

It sounds so long ago, but seems like yesterday

"Why don't you go and ask him?" was her reply.

I approached hands in the air talking courteously but loudly so he could make out my English accent. At his table, four friends all packing and his son stared up.

Then he agreed. A journalist who had never held a dvcam in his life was given the camera and a few instructions and then we started to film. I'll post the interview on viewmagazine.tv

What are some of the things his done?
Why did he do what he did?
Did he not feel any remorse?
Is he a free man? ( Coetzee got amnesty for talking to the Truth and Reconcilaition Commission) But is he a free man?

Then after 30 minutes we wrapped up, chatted off camera for a while and the star formation his son and colleagues had formed around us eliminiating any blind spots from a potential assailant dissipated.

What did I get from the interview? The unique opportunity to hear a calm rationale of why he killed and what he felt. He talked about being a reformed person, a Christian. I felt I could have asked him anything and he would not have shirked from it. It's one interview I wil never forget. You can see the unedited version soon.

Footnote: this is one of those incidents that shows videojournalism strengths. I had a camera, sa an opportunity for a story and within minutes had a remarkable film, and because it was on dv, its physical integrity has held well.

Reporting mass events

The Virginia multiple murders will fill anyone with sorrow. As new reports more and more details, I have found myself rooted to TV screens, radio bulletins and surfing the net. Such scavenging for information has become the norm. My appointment with TV for its schedulled news is unwavering at these times.

Here also at these times, I find myself screaming at the crassness of reportage defaulting to something almost bordering on postering. It's perhaps not that blatant. May be I need examining.

During the UK's 7/7 I used my blackberry as a note pad incessantly typing in the indiscretions of reporters saying things they were not in a position to say e.g. ..the ambulance and fire services got to the scene very quickly... rather than, the ambulance and fire services say they got to the scene very quickly. The first rule of journalism; attribution. Then there's the reporters being emotive with language when a cool restrained approach would facilitate greater understanding.

I feel so profound about this. So while there are fingers being pointed at Virginia's authorties for something akin to a lack of professionalism - clearing the campus - I believe media outlets we so trust should take a closer look at themeselves to evaluate language and approach in such delicate and tragic circumstances. After all these are real people, ordinary people, people who the previous day were a family, but are now grieving.

The job of reporting tragedy is a huge responsibility. It bears resemblances of war. Don't embellish the copy, cut the adjectives. Let the story tell itself with facts and figures. That much I have held to from a former BBC Correspondent, the late John Harrison whom I so admired. Reporting tragedy is one of those pit-in-the-stomach experience I had while a full-on reporter. Asking people how they felt in order for them to open up is a well known technique, but it is equally deeply intrusive. What do you do?

Our language and use of specific words is one of my greatest beefs. In reports submitted by students, if anything comes close to a cliche, a tired expression wheeled out to impress, inadvertantly or not, it finds my red pen.

It's crass, but today across the media I watched. The old adage that reporters report to compete with one another came back.
Words which sounded more like iambic phrases were sprinkled throughout reports... "an evil has visited this community..."
"Their dreams of a future has become their worst nightmares"..

Why do we do this? I can think of a master of reportage who eschewed the aforementioned and should be studied as we study great books of learning: Charles Wheeler -a BBC Correspondet of phenomenal ability to make the complex appear conversational. Watch him talk about the Watts riots all those many years ago.

We, they, reporters must surely do better. Online journalism removes any personality to the journalism. This is not the solution, but online at least offers an opportunity to bury for news without being pre-occupied with the obstacles I mention.

Most networks spend a lot of money rehearsing the big stories - the death of the Queen, a Prime Minister etc. But it appears there may well be a need to study the way one reports such tragic events.

A community will be besieged for a couple of days, people grieving will say things, and then a week later they're gone and people are left to pick up their lives... pick up their lives ( yuk)... then a week later people are left to make some sense of what's happened.

As South Africa celebrated its first all-race election, I stood in a township taking in this massive indelible event. I had just posted to a unit in the BBC World Service, but felt a tinge of anger. Days, maybe weeks later, back in the surrounding areas of Melville the media was decamping. News had reached of murder in Rwanda. South Africa had seen of any blow-up and was deemed no longer news worthy.

There is no rule book that says bad news only sells, otherwise inspiring positive stories would not have a place. It is in the way we package, adhere to principles perhaps are deigned still worthy. In a mature 21st century, of further deconstruction of media, we may appraoch a turning point when we find empathetic ways of sharing knowledge, of reporting, or making the narrative easier to digest. I do look forward to that point.

Talking bout a revolution

Too much to say in too little time.

Very buoyed by the VJ gathering and range of speakers. Will write a report for viewmag and pass on to a few of the publications I write for. Firstly thanks to everyone for being so hospitable, to Tord for inviting me, and the Institute etc... Acceptance Speech done.

Not quite, and to the many attendants who dragged themselves out of bed on Sunday after a night of hedonism and much drinking to take in some VJ tips at the Master class.

I hope you found it interesting; it was like cramming four days into one hour, so it might have come across as dense etc. I have got the elements for a VJ package so I'll try and post that soon..

Back to marking and other things, but some deeply interesting things to emerge from the gathering.. if you go to the front page of viewmagazine, you'll see a clip of a wonderful robo_VJ contraption and a crane-like device to hold your camera . Sublime..

Gunnar, Tord thanks for the info from the blog. Here's Gunner's take www.videoreporter.blogspot.com

VJ in Norway

I thought I'd provide a running account - as much as I can - for the videojournalism event in Fredrikstad at the Institute of Journalism

Just seen a presentation from one of the country's most experienced VJs, Magnus whose work is simply superb. Very artistic and creative. He's been a VJ for about seven years and I loved what I saw. Looking forward to us collaborating on something.

Magnus' touch combines a hand held whip pan element with a creative narrative and even though it was in Norwegian was visually strong to easily follow the narrative.

...just looked up from my screen to watch a heart-touching reuniuon between father and son in a story by one of Norway's foremost award winning investigative journalists. I'll get his name in a bit.

One thing that is evident is that videojournalism has a strong relationship with broadcasters e.g. NRK - which is Norway's equivalent of the BBC. And contrary to what attendants have been saying the movement appears robust.

It could be down to the gathering ie a concentration of people in one place, but I'm not completely buying that VJ hasn't got deep routes.

I can't for instance name any VJ that reports nationally for a news-type programme and makes their own long format item. Alistair Leathhead (?? - must check name) a correspondent for BBC files VJ reports from frotlines et al, but that seems like the total of it.

Tim who's speaking later will likely expand on the BBC's interest in Vjism and the 800 plus vjs it has amassed.

Are newspaper journalists the only ones who can do video journalism?

Interesting post from Anon. Thanks

++++
I see you write about video journalism where newspaper journalists are VJs. What about writing journalists for internet publications, or former tv journalists? There are a lot of VJs with background from broadcasting..We've worked in team with a photographer before, and now work alone. Do you mean that videojournalism is primary for former newspaper journalists?
+++++

Nooooooo on the contrary videojournalism isn't exclusive to any one group at all. And I's so aware of the many talented individuals in the industry

I'm in the midst of training an estate /Housing project (US parlance) to be videojournalists
I have trained African TV Journalists ( South Africa and Ghana) where they used it to produce their first co-production and possibly a first State-to-state coproduction on the contient, though I shouldn't be so presumptious
http://www.viewmagazine.tv/africatalks2

My TV Masters students gain an insight into videojournalism
I have trained photographers whom I know make great vjs as they already possess that 3rd eye and Videojournalism is photojournalism with a movie camera anyway.
And yes I have trained TV broadcasters - who seem always to find the process incredibly liberating. I started off in radio before going into TV and trained myself to be a VJ back in 1994.... so why newspapers?

Perhaps it presents the most interesting challenge, perhaps as my original trainer told me:" If you're a TV person, you're probably going to have to wrestle with a few beasts as VJ undoes the structure so trechantly acquired in TV production". But yes many have bought into it, whilst many also remain unconvinced. Video journalism isn't just DVCams and shoot/edit on a laptop, it's a fresher language , in many ways it subverts the ws/ms/cu. In many ways its become a child of the Net age
Perhaps also I am yet to get into an ecosystem of TV, Net companies and photographers where I can share/exchange thoughts. I'm in Norway next week where their industry has embraced Vjism (TV,photojo,Net creatives etc)

An aspect of videojournalism I teach incorporates web promo making http://www.viewmagazine.tv/webpromos.html so I have employed it working in the Ad industry as a creative director www.re-active.net

As a language videojournalism - all of its ten years in the UK and a few more added on in the US - is still in nascent form, and so is going through huge transformations, much in the same way that every other creative industry has been given a shake e.g. film -dogme; music-multi-skillers; publishing- desk top; literature -gonzo

Skype me on daviddunkleygyimah and lets have a chat

p.s I'm seeing one of the BBC's flagship programme editors about videojournalism in a few weeks, I'll keep you posted.

Al Jazeera - best fun with your clothes on

So I met up with a mate at Al Jazeera. Frankly I could meet up with a fair few mates at Al Jazeera as the whole of the news broadcast industry is there: former BBC, ITN, CNN producers and correspondents, so I'm bound to know someone.

Morgan, is the creative director of AJ. We've done a fair bit of curries et al with Riz Khan, another friend.

I passed around their knightsbridge office, joined by Patrick - a veteran BBC/ Adland producer for a whizz round the park. You know chew the fat, no particular agenda.

Morgan's great. I remember when I showed him viewmagazine about two years ago and he in turn passed it onto a designer who would use it to mould AJs web site, so he tipped his hat.

What followed was grown men talking passionately about the changing face of the media, and how viewmagazine.tv was functioning, or could function as a news driven site.

The overiding question perhaps could have been, why is Viewmagazine.tv not making money? Or could it? I read about Rocketboom's producer lamenting the same thing, and mirror his comments that viewmag leverages my public standing, enabling me to talk etc at conferences and produce for others.

Question: If you're an independent site owner making a clear turnover please contact me to tell me how. Presumably yes advertising, but are you selling content from your site?

So we tood and froed on that. User generated content is a great vehicle for attracting eyeballs, that in turn become your content and bring in the geen backs.

But viewmagazine as Morgan pointed out doesn't do UGC. Why not? I guess it's because I'm not in possession of a behemoth server and more to the point, I think there are good UGC sites that I'd be ill to want to take on.

That's not to say I underestimate viewmagazine, it's just that I believe I know where my stengths are.

Now as we kicked around a few more themes, I admitted yes, Viewmagazine.tv can be at times "a bit out there", but in truth that's the left sidedness of viewmagazine.tv. For me it's the site for the schoolboy and girl to gaze out of the class room window and wonder why planes stay in the air. Or to be more precise why the media works in the way it does.

With 20 years behind me in the media across tv, radio, advertising, and digital media, you begin to get some idea and then you're left with a choice. Run with it or see if you can find new angles to explore and push the conversation either forwards or sideways.

Viewmagazine's principle areas are video journalism, video hyperlinking, the outernet and grey areas of new reportage and new forms of doc making.

And that means for some people the conversation stops now. What the **** is the Outernet? For others it's a chance to engage and share their thoughts.

TV by its very convention is fixed in a paradigm that entertains very little 'extremes'. It's bound by a fixed narrative.

Video journalism purports to offer something new. And it does. Showing Morgan some of the work made by newspaper journalists may not impress TV bods, but the leap is that these are newspaper journalists now shooting video.

In a break from TV, they may have upped the game in picture composition, but yes to make some sense on their sites they will follow, but not exclusively, the model template of TV.

Now here's where the fun begins. Video journalism end game is a divorce from the construct. At its best, anything goes. It is auterism. It is mini film making, dogme , bauhaus, disruption...

And those are some of the areas I find exciting that I write about. The disruption but comprehension of the narrative, that has bound us for the best part of a century with reference to film etc.

At a point in time, which Patrick ( yep I'm still in the board room at Al Jazeera) and I waxed on, might we approach a new year zero? User generated content is as raw as you get news footage, but can we effectively learn coherent randomness, no randomness period; Charlie Parker, Miles Davis in news. Mmmmm.

It seems absurbed, but in the new language of digital media, hurtling light years away from news corp, will we emerge with what is in essence "back to basics"? Strip all the promos, Gustav Holst's intros, garish graphics, to simply tell a story with mood and tempo

I remember seeing Homicide for the first time in the 90s and being in awe. It was rough, ready, torn, a departure from the norm. And it was designed to look like something shot by your nextdoor neighbours toddler, but it worked. Lowbrow, high art.

The question is will news go that way? Could a youtube for news produced in a dscordant, "Homicide - the US series" fashion become a new movement?

In the next couple of weeks, I'll be producing pieces that further open up this debate. In-your-face news productions, with the warts n' all. Basically unsanitised, the remnants of zoo-radio, fades and dissolves replicating the human eye...

And so 5.30 dawns and it's time to leave, but the interaction has become a slow burning beacon, not to reign back on some of the esoteric aspects of viewmagazine, but to explore further those things that allow us ask the question, for which so far we have very little answers answers.

what blogs are for?

I only write this because of the article I'm about to post in viewmagazine.tv If anything my blog is an incoherent pastiche of thoughts - a writers draft of what i inted to buid, xpand upon in more constructive articles.

They're havens for impassioned idea dumps and that's what I'm about to do in the next blog.

Apple!

Apple sent me a 15 inch notebook Huzzzah!

The article for their site about the work I'm doing here grabbed 18,000 sessions in the two weeks of its release. I think they were pleased with the traffic.

Meanwhile the podcasts which I've gradually been teasing from viewmagazine.tv's ste, as well as producing new ones has picked up wide interest. It's highly likely that if I ever wanted to work for The top British news programmes, despite starting my career with Newsnight as a researcher, I'd fail miserably in convincing the editors.

So it tickled me somewhat to see that listerners' annotation compiled by user tracking behaviour read:

"Listerners [to this podcast] aso subscribe to The Today Programme, From Our Own Correspondent, and Newsnight." Herein is the power of users deciding what works etc.

Hail the Net.

Master cohorts

University of Westminster Masters students coming to the end of the core skills in the Net and Video reportage.

It's a one year intensive course and asks a lot from students. Definately not for the meek. Looking forward to assessing their work and seeing how it sits with national work from other media universities in my role as one of the quality assessor for the Broadcast Journanalism Training Council.

The BJTC is the body that links industry and media universities and its kite mark is much sought after by tertiary education establishments and broadcasters hiring media students.

Some of the skills on offer from the prog this year included:

* Technical writing for the web with attributable good sources
* Using google rich-link phrases to attracted rankings
* Using matrix stats and user behaviour to plan PR and pitch articles.
* Podcasts, compression and Video User Behaviour for the podcast producers
* Design aesthetic and balance

All of which are assets much prized by the business and media world. Meanwhile if you'd like to see the students online efforts here you go

http://www.thesnowballmag.co.uk
http://www.interviewmag.co.uk

What is the Outernet?

The outernet, video hyperlinking, and Mi2videojournalism - The video is now up - key note speech in Norway
here .

It's in 2 parts. Not many people know what the outernet is. You've got to see it to understand it

letter from Norway

Hi again David

I was just reading your thoughts from the weekend at SKUP. You don't only use your camera as a pen. You know how to write well on the keyboard too. I really enjoyed your story - and your encounter with Maria:-)

I thought your presentation at SKUP was very good, and I hope you had a good time!

I am alone in a hotel room in Bergen in between two lectures. Not very funny to see the insides of hotel rooms, as I recall we talked about during dinner Friday evening...

Maybe we'll meet when you come to Norway next time for the VJ-conference. Make sure Tord show you the "old city" in Fredrikstad, where the conference is.

Best regards
Stale

_________________________________________________________________________________

Hello David

Just read your piece on Skup. Very nice - escpeially since Ståle and I helped Trond doing the reseach on police chief . Thanks for the pat on the back :-)


Cheers

Tord
_________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you everyone for making my stay in Norway so warm. I'm back in Norway over a weekend in a couple of weeks looking at Vjism.

If you'd like to see the piece I wrote with the accompanying video presentation of the outernet here it is
http://podcast.wmin.ac.uk/weblog/schoolofjournalism/

David

Ghana and its independence

So I'm watching CNN and this lavish affair - the first collaboration between CNN International and CNN local to celebrate India's standing with its next generation.

Meanwhile on the Euro front, in Berlin, celebrations are in motion to buff the treaty of Rome - 50 years since it was signed. Will they won't they, that is apologise for slavery? - The world, the UK in particular, marks the abolition of slavery with a series of programmes. In April Larry King CNN's venerable chat show host celebrates something of sorts.

Then, blink and you might miss it, but Africa's first state to gain independence 50 years ago has just spent a shed load of money to commemurate this event. But then you probably missed it.

I have a vested interest in the latter: my parents are Ghanaian. My mother in fact half German - the result of early traders looking for new pastures. And I have spend considerable time in Ghana.

So to the celebrations or thereabouts. Ghana couldn't have picked a worse time to proclaim its jubilation for being set free. The BBC carried a slice of news, tucked away on its web site. There was an interview with the president HE John Kufuor on Radio 4 and a smattering of news packages here and then.. and then that was it.

In our teutonic news driven world, there's a lot to be said about how proactive one has to be to gain column inches. And sadly a proactive news agency is one thing the Ghanains are lacking in the UK. Notwithstanding the absence of any lobbying, why, you could ask, rely on the big news sources anyway.

Perhaps because the big news beasts still matter on the international front. But that doesn't negate the Ghanaians from forging their own documentaries to underscore the year. Sadly that doesn't seem to be the case. Browny points to the good people behind What's on Ghana for putting a series of gis together.

Please help me

I have been lazy.

In the 90s I was an avid reader of all things techy from magazines such as New Media Age, Production Solutions, Digit, Create Online etc. In fact I have spent a small fortune getting my head around such laudable questions as "Is TV dead?" and "Creating your own TV Station".

Somewhere along the way, I read and reread about how broadband at 8mb download represented a digital rubicon. That the data rate of TV runs at 8mb, so once broadband crossed that threshhold we could attain DVD [mpg2/4] quality films via the web.

I have loftily taken this as fact in the way it spews from lectures. It might well be, but now feel strongly that I need to delve deeper. I rifled through some of my old archive copies of the aforementioned magazines, but guess they're being recycled into 24k diamonds

8 mbit was a huge area of disucssion at a time when we ran on 56k modems. But trawling the net, I'm coming up short finding anything on this.

What I do understand to quickly avoid any public blushes is that bit rate of video is different to bandwidth transmissions.

So is TV really 8mb as generalised or is it that 8 meg download is the key for streaming [live or progressive in the nature of VOD]?

There are ome some knowns: greater bandwidth allows for the transmission of better quality video and IPTV -Internet protocol TV will be a huge player.

I also said at a conference how I favoured Flash over Windows Media Player and was in the habit of advising clients about using the FLV player because of its aesthetic. A further clairification might help. When it comes to image quality, Flash, Quicktime, Windows Media player run on similar principles. What you put in, you get out. Meaning, it's up to you. If it looks bad on your newspaper site that's because whoever encoded the video did so with a heavy hand, and would probably muck up Flash all the same.

No my real leaning to Flash is its aesthetic, that I can devise my own play back controls and that they are not visual comparison for Windows clunky less ergonomic displays, but then that's a personal opinion.

The video journalist Decree

In my 15 years as a video journalist, I have fought many battles, witnessed many things. I have worked in Apartheid South Africa; my doc was the only non-South African feature played during their historic election. I would be introduced to Nelson Mandela. I worked for Lennox Lewis with with his fight against Tyson.

I produced South Africa's first African co-production. I have dived with specialist divers and military personnel on an open sea expedition to the ruins of WWI, almost buying a one-way ticket. I have been shot at. I produced a promo within 24 hours aired on CNN. I shot designer Ozwald Boateng's first promo.

I have been in prison - the notorious Wormwood Scrubs - talking/filming Life inmates. In each event I have had my camera with me. Each time, that which I seek to do I have been told can not be done.

The professionals will tell you, it is impossible to be multiskilled. But everything we do is multiskilled. Before the ubiquity of the motor car, professionals would tell you, mastering this vehicle was a job alone in itself. Before the mass production of the stills camera, we were told only the professionals can take pictures.

Before the industrial revolution, the technology revolution, the very job you are doing now would have been seen as impossible. The only thing the professionals would like you to believe is that you can't understand what they know.

In Britain, before Journalism was gentrified, before it became white collar, for 100s of years in the back streets of London, East End "blue collar's peddled news slips and gossip.

Here therefore is my emerging manifesto - the decree of the video journalist.

The video journalists Manifesto.

WHATS' NEVER BEEN DONE AWAITS TO BE DONE

1. I am a video journalist: I crave creativity, loathe that which is predictable. It is my job to look for truth.

2. I can move alone in any terrain. Experience is my blanket. Swarming (groups of Vjs coming together) increases my range.

3. I will be told by those who believe they know best that it can't be done. I must accept that they don't understand my job, my limitations. Nothing is impossible.

4. When they look at a blank piece of paper they see nothing, when I look at a blank canvas, I see the orgins of motion graphics, film and information coming together.

5. I start a dialogue. My packages can be open ended, begging further questions and dialogue. My work is never done. Each thread leads into a new tapestry of ideas and dialogue, which I relish. Herein lies the possibilities of deep video linking

6. My greastest allies are the hundreds of contacts I am yet to meet. I am surrounded by ideas, people, who have a story to share. And I often shoot-on-the-fly, unrehearsed; news in unpredictable.

7. Failure is an option. I must be allowed to fail. I do not court it, but is is a precondition of creativity. I am a researcher with a camera, experimenting with the template which has driven news production. I write my story as it unfolds and sometimes I know, just like a newspaper journalist, I may have to spike my story. Visually it just didn't work.

8. I am lean. I carry no excess weight or baggage. I am a specialist. I kill only that which I can eat, lessening the load and burden which others artificially absorb. There are some shots such as court and "big game" reportage where I may be unsuitable. There are risks as a solo journalist, but discretion is on my side.

9. My job is never done. My camera is my third eye. My camera goes where I go.

10. Like an actor I crave new parts, Like a footballer I make endless runs into the goal mouth searching for scoring opportinities. My work rate is phenomenal. But I'm trained to undershoot so my work load is made lighter.

11. I am a child of a bygone era. There were others before me. The first film makers were VJs [ Victorian VJs] I respect and build on their skills. My fall back is history, convention; my milestone is the future.

12. I am a designer, an editior, a producer, a director, a reporter, photographer an designer. I am a jack of all trades and a master of them.

13. I represent a new discourse in story telling and journalism blurring the boundaries between technologist and artisan, the net and TV, a writer and visual blogger.

14. I hear pictures, see sound, absorb words and can visualise music -all of which makes me a more attuned VJ.

15. Mi6 Video journalism allows me to strip a story bare: the podcast, blog, article, video, and multimedia

16. The tools of my trade: a powerful laptop, editing software, rugged rucksack, collapsable tripod, High Definition DV Cam, water, pen, firewire cable, external 200 g hard drive.

17. My software includes: Final Cut Studio, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, In design, After Effects and Flash

18. It's all in the story. My job is to craft it visually.

19. The Net - the most powerful broadcast media-in-waiting is my natural home.

20. The benefits of video journaism are many; but the ink definning video journalism is not dry. It is many things to all people. To me its is an aggressive, sometimes stealth way of shooting where the results of my labour will outdo those of bigger crew.

21. The work of Claudio Von Planta, Scott Rensberger, Rosenblum, Naka Nathaniel, Ruud - just some of the doyens of videojournalism illustrates the aforementioned point.

22. This manifesto is not complete

23. Belatedly added. Videojournalism is but another thread sowing the tapestry of our many stories, but what's next? What will come to define in our contracted timeline the new discourse and new tools. Qu how might videojournalism evolve?

Belated addition to the decree

24. Create alternatives to the convention ~ that may surprise you

25. Experiment or expire - a run on demo or die from MIT

26. Acknowledge that online the environment is interactive, your package can have multiple entry points.

27. Think expansively, shoot lean. Think like a detective entering a crime scene. If you think too narrowly, too traditionally, you're in danger of missing the new story, the new clues.

28. Videojournalism, blogging, photography are daughters of multimedia which may well require a multi modal language approach i.e. you could be the one to better define the new language.

29. Mi6 VJ says you can shoot and strip a package 6 ways,. You're a conductor controlling the play of any instrument at any time in unison. But you'll need to appreciate the capabilities of the instruments.

30. Add value to the visual conversation rather than exclusively always seeking a reaction. There is a difference. Being confrontational does not always lean towards resolution

31. It's not multimedia that is impossible. it's how you're conditioning your thinking.

32. It is an evolving language atracting jack of all trades and masters of all.

Design event submission to minister - news and design

This is a precipe of my talk to an influential design group, which is preparing its submisssion to the minister wo overseas this sector


THE OUTERNET - 21st century internet.

My talk focused on the Outernet – a manifestation of an emerging era of the internet which will have far reaching implications beyond that of the net itself.

We’ve seen glimpses of it in science fiction movies like Stephen Spielberg’s Minority Reports, where electronic billboards react with the user, where screens had the ability to recognise individuals via a number of arrays e.g. voice, iris ideintification, which are indeed a reality and today.

The Outernet is an outward front facing internet in public spaces – a html/css driven televisual medium delivering bespoke video programmes and ideas for the deliverer to end users.

It will be is possible because broadband at 8mb plus enables the streaming of DVD quality programmes.

Thus the biggest revolution to communications is the next crossroads of download speeds – an optimum 8mb. It’s also the biggest threat to the existence of television.

Imagine that: a council, an estate, a shop, an individual responsible for a “web site” with moving image information and advertising. There will be no OFCOM rules to navigate, no licenses on broadcasting. Decency and impartiality will be in the hands of the beholder.

We’re seeing early signs of this already in UK political site 18 Doughty Street, Al Gore’s US teen site Current.tv and perhaps even my own work viewmagazine.tv

As a news broadcaster, designer and video journalist, there are a number of facets to reconcile.

• A fundamental shift in the design of web sites; sites will look increasingly like TV screens and vice versa e.g. BBC
• A shift to database as opposed to time-tranistion programme. This has already contributed to the success of Youtube.
• A much more streamlined and cost effective way of programme making. This will involve video journalists – one person news crews – working more closely with subjects. This has been the path the UK newspaper industry is taking, which I have been involved in as a consultant and trainer.
• A fundamental shift on news and hierarchy. We should no longer entertain the artificialness of the news agenda which supposes news and programming should be centralised. One of the most exciting ideas to emerge is some work I’m undertaking with a senior government advisor on crime. The community we’re entering will, with a number of safety measures intact, be making programmes about the social impact they’re experiencing – which will be of interest to other groups attempting to find solutions. We’re experimenting on placing outernet screens within the estate.
• Gametheory: embracing new paradigms to combine journalism and design. The work we produced, The Family, for Channel 4’s digital awards is an example of this and one which I integrate into my lectures as a senior University lecturer
• A greater embrace of designers and information flow producers
• An examination of video hyperlinking and new technologies to strengthen our understanding of information.

I believe all the above is doable. The work I have produced in the US and Germany, both of which have won prestigious international awards demonstrates the need for looking at complexity, and Initiatives such as 'Designing for the 21st Century' to enrich all communities.


David Dunkley Gyimah
www.viewmagazine.tv

BBC - Youtube deal

Times reports the big one. If you're an independent, be afraid be very afraid. The BBC may have been slow in catching up with the new media thing but this news from the Times is enough to make any newspaper and broadcasting exec throw their coffee on the cat.

Landmark
BBC -Youtube deal "Executives at the Corporation believe this is the best chance for the BBC to “crack America” while Google — the owner of YouTube — say that it is the largest content partnership it has struck in the website’s short history

Wired Magazine's feature in January looked at whether Youtube would usurp traditional media. I doubt it, but the future is data base television.

But the BBC's has been busily trying to strike all manner of deals including a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft which should be interestng to watch.

When I interviewed the BBC Director General at the WeMedia summit, it was obvious then that Mark Thompson believed the corporation should be doing a lot more to exploit the future and attract the next generation.

I'm looking to write a more expansive feature on viewmagazine, together with an insider view of London Underground's Cross Track Projection ( XTP).

Meamwhile, there will be lots of jubilation within the pastel covered walls of the BBC's exec media land.