The madness and bonkers morality of media

A 13 year old makes a 15 year old pregnant. It makes headlines in the UK. Days later, a TV company and various other media want a piece of the action. Monies, how much, no one knows has changed hands.

The boy's parents have as a publicist one of the most astute operators in the business, Max Clifford.

Either way, this is a slow train crash. Welcome to the freak show. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying the boy, dubbed "boy dad, name, Alfie Patten,and his family are freaks.

I'm saying what TV will want to do with him to make him sell, both here and on the international market is akin to freakdom

So Alfie how are you going to take care of the baby and at 13 do you think you'll stand by the baby's mum to take care of your son?

But barely has the ink dried when two other boys 14, and 15, step forward to have their photos taken saying they are the dads. One says he had permission to sleep with the girl.

Now there's a DNA test in the works to prove who the dad is. Fame gone wrong. The madness and bonkers morality of the media.

The message is clear. If you have an 8 year old. Force him to make a girl pregnant and wait for the press and media to pay you up to 1 million pounds. People will tut tut but you'll be better off in the end.

Video Journalism at a Cinema near you soon -Brothers in Arms

The DVCam holder on the left of this shot, Jake Rademacher (JR), belies the fact he made this film exclusively on a HD Cam Video Journalism style.

A cinema film like this made by a VJ may well be the norm in the not too distance future, but that's not completely the point here.

The impression is not intentional; it makes a great poster shot for his film Brothers at War.

Jake (JR) has an idea, to make a film around his two brothers serving in Iraq. He has no military experience, so he's up against it. The brass won't let him in, he's a first time director which also means no one's going to back him financially.

But he prevails. I have teased some bits from the press pack, and what emerges from the trailer is an intimate, and harrowing account of one person trying to understand what's going on in Iraq.

This is the stuff of Louis Theroux, but more personalised and without any of the trade mark Louis setups as Jake embeds with combat troops. And that's why it paints a picture of where video journalism could go.

Press Clipings
Take this section in the press pack.

Q.Then came the work of filmmaking?
JR: Yes, Norman and I secured final permission from the Army. We then had seven days to do all the pre-production to prepare me and our two cameramen ( Marc Miller Conor Colwell) to film in a war zone. I'm talking cameras and equipment, body armor, immunizations.

Everything. At one point, I was running to my car after getting immunized and a policeman was writing a parking ticket. Without breaking stride, I yelled, “Write fast. I'm going to Iraq tomorrow.” She tore up the ticket.

The quick turnaround is video journalism workflow. I imagine he shot loads, whilst a VJ would have been more judicious, but Jake would have still worked on the premise - "let the story unfold" and roll with it.

And when that doesn't work, situate the lens [ direct] in some dramatic scenes, dovetailed against compassion - the classic movie arc. That's the VJ way of working, the compressed time scale.

Here's another section from the press pack.

JR: I sent the treatment to my cousin, Mark Bowden who wrote Blackhawk Down. He thought the idea had promise and put in an introductory call at a couple of
production companies. At the same time my voice over agent at William Morris put
in a call to the reality division at the agency. Everybody passed, so I started to pitch
television networks myself, who while intrigued, weren’t too excited about sending a first time filmmaker into a war zone.

Q.What did you do?
JR: I hired a film school student who I thought had talent to come with me to
Fayetteville, and film my brother’s departure for his 3rd deployment to Iraq. Then we worked together to cut this into a trailer. Conor eventually became one of our
Directors of Photography who I brought with me to Iraq.

A college student?
JR: Yeah, I got him back in time to start his senior year.

So a college student shot some of the sections. That's indicative of the new Video Culture.

Whilst the film is called a documentary, a reference to the outcome, the work flow and process is indicative of the new hybrid between documentary and feature news, video journalism.

The four camera shooters including Jake is what's referred to as "VJ swarming" which is necessary in order to capture multiple angles.

But the ambition is clear. It may not be on general release, but for the flag waivers of the new video hegemony, this means something. Mind you, a caveat, some powerful backers come onto the project, but Jake still had to fight for this to happen.

I'll be talking more about VJ's future at SXSW where I'll be presenting on IM Video journalism, breaking the process down at how VJ is part of the new accelerated cinema phenomenon and how you could push the movement-image cinema feel.


Cine-Video Journalism Anti Aesthetic II from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

IM6 VJ -Integrated Multimedia Video Journalism at SXSW

Just as you see here, and on viewmagazine.tv, the idea is for one person to be able to make the film, make the promo, build the accompany site, blog, SEO the articles and draw from other sites, make the multimedia package and the photos.

It's not uncommon for me to have AE, dreamweaver, photoshop, FCP, open exchanging files between them, each serving a different purpose of the IMVJ cycle.

It is not as complicated as it looks. In today's digital economy, it's one seamless work flow. Thus when you have four people with the same skills (the swarm, a military term in itself) you up the work ethic into a multi work flow pod.

In the case of Brother at Arms, his story making the film is equally engaging and could have been blogged/twittered, followed by clips that could have gone viral.

I did this as a creative working for Heavy weight boxer Lennox Lewis, releasing Flash promos of 224k that would download on broadband in seconds.

See you at SXSW, and if you're in Miami Wemedia Game Changer, lets talk there too.

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

Blogging with authority - linking matters.

Blogging on steroids - You Twit! Join me twitter.com/viewmagazine

Funny how something rather innocuous is a fav put down here.

Phd week next week and I'm knackered. That's when 40 plus cohorts and the supervisory team meet on campus at the University of East London to peer review, learn new theories of knowledge, and rebuild contacts and confidence.

That we all have different disciplines, from Dance, Virtual Worlds, to Art makes it extremely interesting. For often it's outside our own contained worlds that we pick on new ideas that influence our own.

One thing that has struck me regarding Phd submissions is the world of difference that exist between writing academically and journalistically. Though each requires attribution, in academia, rules such as Harvard's citation reference is a prerequisite.

In the blog world standards can be more loose, to the point that by dint of what we often say, every one's an expert.

We gesticulate, offer opinions to defend, as well punt our positions. I do it regularly. It is the commentators' prime armchair position, where one often feels emboldened by one's own knowledge.

Knol, google's equivalent of the blog, Wiki of course too, challenge those lofty spots we take. If it's not backed by a credible source forget it.

The most difficult aspect of writing for a journal if you ask media grad students is "attribution".

And while there's nothing wrong with commentatory, its credibility often comes with either years of experience from the writer or being privy to a unique birds eye view/ position of events.

Self authorship, the latter has become the web's standard, but if you are considering journalism as a career, you might want to consider honing reports about what others say.

If you're at wemedia in a fortnight, see you there. The line up is looking sick! as in really good!

Video Journalism Awards - winners announced

The Truth about Germans is they've rather gone off sauerkraut which is a bit like saying one day Italians will sneer at spaghetti, Americans will barf at apple pie and the Brits will call time on fish and chips.

Michael Wigger the man behind the series which pokes fun at the light and sublime - Germans can't dance - is the new kid on the block with the new comers award. His work added the kind of mirth needed for this years' celebration of video journalism.

That's solo video journalism- one wo/man band - and her distance cousin who brings in an editor and sometimes second camera to help.

"It's no longer this thing people laugh at uttered Sabine Streich, the awards' tireless organiser, who's notched up her fourth in 6 years this time in Mainz, but will no doubt take a hiatus as she's about to produce her own real-life project.


What's evident from the number of interviews I conducted is that Videojournalism is a big deal here, accepted by ZDF, their public network in the same gusto that the BBC had wanted to show its viewers before the governors pulled the plug on hyper local TV.

It's about story telling ultimately said the head of ZDF, but there are some stories that it comes into its own, namely one spine searing piece on an alcoholism.

Here a drunk ala "Leaving Las Vegas", without the glamour lives his wretched life in full glare of a camera and the frustration to near death of his family trying to help him, as he reaches for the nearest bottle under his desk is tortuous.

Gulp glug glug it's down, the whole gin bottle in one go as if it were water.

My own bit part performance involved handing out the award for the International independent division, a prize whose effects on my own career I know all too well from winning two years ago, reminded by the presenter.

The victor here, Frank, was a veteran radio, turned TV, turned Vj with a piece on Tuna.



More, a report using Southern Italy as a subtext for tuna fishing's woes, that is depleting stock, and the disharmony this may reap, when the community finds its dwindling catch destroying the cohesiveness of their community.

As Vj awards go, this year's compared to the one two years ago was a more intimate and compact affair; no cinema viewings and late night parties, but the truth is the Germans know how to show the rest of us what videojournalism's all about - even if they don't like sauerkraut that much anymore.

nb: I'll post video awards on Viewmagazine.tv

The Financial Times and Owning it.

I bolted out from bed on Sunday and for half an hour obsessively scribbled away. An hour later like a hard drive I'd dumped thought and could not recollect the arguments.

Luckily my notes will help regenerate a thread that was about Journalism looking for a way out.

Simply, if the acquisition of facts helps us shape what we know and if there exist a way to acquire a route to more knowledge to assist our decision making, then we must see the this new church of info generation and flows as a fundamentally good thing.

Journalism thus is not in crisis. It is in hypersleep, gradually being shaken out of its years of complacency. You could argue the revolution is all but over - bit late in the day to be talking about shake-ups, where have you been David?

But an email from a senior Apple exec and an exchange with that venerable net technologist Bill Thompson suggests we're still in a vortex, those winds will come back.

FT Time
I spent time with the Financial Times last year as they added new gears to their news cycle. What played in my mind then and resurfaced as a theme of conversation today was "own it".

The FT's muscularity in all things financial means turning on a web 2.o tap gives them greater options. When we set off to package the Bank of England's rate cut it was clear.

For now many of us turn to TV news for the visual pre and post analysis.

For now it's a broadcaster who's winning eye balls, but just as The Guardian Newspaper snatched an RTS from the jaws of broadcasters last year, it won't be long, I hedge before the FT will compete in video reportage with the broadcasters for electronic narratology.

On a more prosaic scale in universities and educational ecology's, a new generation has the wherewithal "to own it". Forge a voice, cut through the traditionalism to the contemporary, cut through the processing game and "own it".

Student voice - tale of two international journalism students

Two students standing over my shoulder as we were talking TV and Online, so I decided why not let them talk about what they've been up to and the experience of being here 1000s of miles away from home.
first up


Parishmita:
I am from the far northeast part of India, - these are seven small states - which is always in news for the wrong and the most happening reason i.e Terrorism. But there is more to North east than militants. To start with there is Tea (the famous Assam tea), beautiful lakes, river and mountains. I went to Maharani Gayatri Devi School Girl's public school in Jaipur (Pink city) in Rajasthan (land of desert)

David says:
( is this your intro ??) She's saying I can't do this.. ~Not here. she say's everyone will be reading. She says I'm being mean. We're having an interactive moment here. She wants to change this now.. the intro. Chinaka the other student says she shouldn't. She says I did not give her much time and that she'll look foolish (long sigh)...... [ all a bit of harmless fun] :)


Chinaka:
And I am from Nigeria...and South Africa...and Angola...one word...African. After doing an undergraduate course specialising in Publication Design, the desire to incorporate deign, photography and Film in one became very apparent. I arrived and found there was so much more to Journalism...

Parishmita:
Indeed, Chinaka. I was a journalist in India for three years but just a couple of months in the University of Westminster and it's like i have found the key to Pandora's box! The most enriching experience so far has been TV and radio. For more go here

I had no clue about film making but now i am out filming a current affairs piece with my colleagues. Phew! so far very taxing but i am enjoying every moment especially playing with the camera and practicing the 3:6:9 (David got these numbers in our brains so much that I dream of it at night).

David:
I have vowed not to edit anything out, irrespective of what they say.. Yeah even insults!!
[they're all now musing loudly how they could have put one to me]

Parishmita:
We have been continuously put under pressure and trust me, I worked in an actual newsroom in India but I never felt the pressure as much as I feel when I am working with David but that is the fun. David push you hard and you take it as a challenge and push yourself harder to show [ show him.. show him] YES you can do it.

I understand the divide between a print, tv and online journalist is narrowing down and the course that I am doing aims to churn the multimedia journalists, which is the need of the hour.

But if you really want to know about it ASK David! sometimes I wonder if times is moving fast or David's speed is faster than time. All in all, it's a privilege to get lessons from David and of course the rest of the faculty. The time, energy and ofcourse Money that i have invested in this course is after all worth it.
(I am not being nice to you David. I am just being truthful)

David:
I told her not to be nice, to be frank about her aims.

Chinaka:
Okay so I literally have like 2 seconds to briefly give an account of my experience so far here in London, studying at the University of Westminster.

I am doing an MA in International Journalism. I will not go into detail as to what the international in the name stands for, except perhaps the fact that there is not a single soul in my class of 40 from the UK. I

I remember the first time I arrived, during orientation, we have a lunch with the staff that would be teaching and guiding us for the next couple of months. I remember Gyimah asking me, “What do you want to get out of this course?”

One thing I have come to understand is that to be a journalist today, is to be a multiskilled journalist: I am currently, with a degree in Publication design, I am learning to make current affairs, TV news and features (pre prod, prod and post prod- final cut pro), radio news and features, Online journalism (learning the importance of blogging, creating websites with Flash, Dreamweaver, while incorporating design softwares such as Photoshop, Illustrator.

Due to the intensive nature of the course, you learn to understand the ways of the industry…well just a sneak preview but the hardest thing is ensure that I have not lost focus on what I want to get out of this whole experience.

It has been quite interesting to watch myself grasp information and do things that I did not think I could do. And also just being in London has given me a totally different perspective as a journalist.

A journalist can be an artist, and educator, story-teller, and I want to take this skill one day and contribute to the media industry in my country and continent as a whole.

I will continue my account in my blog...

David says I'll either trawl em back to talk more or ping you to their own blogs - if they have them running.. just joshing.. they say they want a right to reply. should I?

Downloading my brain

Sorry normal posts assume next week as right now I'm buried under 7000 word chapter for my thesis, plus a film to demonstrate the new realism of video journalism, which has taken me around the centuries 5th, 13th, 17th and 21st ending up on Henry Jenkin's convergence culture.

Preshoots for Masters coming along, with how to cheat at Current Affairs making.

Next week I'm in Berlin for a day, judging panelist meet the winners of the International VJ awards, and am looking to submit abstract for Journalism in Crisis.

Then there's a revalidation of a new course, not before a week of phd peer review supervision, then off to Miami for WeMedia.

Meanwhile publishers have touched base and so looking forward to that dialogue, But have to submit marks to grad office for 70 masters students.

Peron emailed me about coming to Brazil to lecture in video journalism. The energy to VJ anywhere in South America would be awesome. Just look at the talent of film makers emerging. We'll have to see though about that.

So back to the thesis, but I will be twittering. Circuit training 9.30 tomorrow. Bang goes my Saturday. If you're passing by Viewmagazine.tv the BBC feature from the 90s - one of the best BBC current affairs shows for young people is worth watching / reading.

They don't do it like that anymore.

It's a financial Time

It's been a FT [fab time].

James Montgomery, who played a leading role in steering the FT.Com through its digital transition is to leave his managing editor's post for new pastures within the FT.

Personally I wish him the very very best of luck. You couldn't meet a more charming, pro manager.

I worked alongside James in training a number of FT journos in the VJ way and also managed to get a few of our student's work placements there.

You'll be hard pressed to find a group whose approach, courteousness, robust questioning and absorption in multimedia is a model for new journalism.

Ft article on Viewmagazine features video, which will be updated with controls shortly

The FT write up on viewmagazine.tv happens to be one of the most pinged, which led me to rethink how I might present some added value on the page.

That now will come in the shape of a lot more unpublished video, pictures such as these and including their first ever VJ piece and how that package was made.

Photomontage within the FT and some

One of scenes features Rob Minta, head of multimedia querying the City of London Police's decision to ask him for his personal details and then issue him a notice for filming in the city.

Rob handles it well. Later that evening I asked the Press Association's lawyer Mike Dodd whether this was acceptable. He sought clarification from the City of London Press Office and replied, "No".

More recently I invited a team of police to talk to our masters students and this issue came up again. But more on that in another post

New posting name
In thinking of a name for a new post, I came up with: "We live in Financial Times" only to realise on googling it was already part of the FT's brand.

But what I did stumble upon, I so absolutely love.

I have seen this poster [above], but the Flash form is sublime art, design meets commerce. A minimalist futuristic metropolis, which on closer inspection appears to be pulling in xml data.

So for the new write up on the FT, It's a FT time will be the headline and based on the poster I'm spellbound by I'll create something Flash-based for the new micro site.

Journalism in Crisis

A conference organised by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Westminster in association with the British Journalism Review

London, 19-20 May 2009

Keynote Speakers

Professor James Curran, Goldsmiths College
Professor Todd Gitlin, Columbia University

Call for papers

News journalism is in deep crisis. Newspaper readership is falling, the audience for television news shrinking, and young people in particular seem to be less interested in traditional forms of news consumption. 24-hour news channels on shoestring budgets fight over tiny audiences while even well established and committed news organisations like the BBC and New York Times are cutting budgets and laying off journalists.

Those that remain complain of increased workloads, lack of resources, insecurity of employment, greater dependence on news agencies and PR handouts, and lack of training opportunities. There are accusations that serious journalism, with in-depth coverage of important issues that can hold the powerful to account, has given way to a toxic mix of infotainment, sensationalism and trivia.

Some, particularly the young, see online as the way forward. Internet penetration is high in most developed countries and growing rapidly in the developing world. The web offers a multimedia environment for new developments like citizen journalism and blogging, different kinds of news reporting and new approaches to current affairs.

But it also threatens the business model of newspapers as classified advertising moves online, while television suffers from fragmented audiences and the growth of time-shifted viewing. Many question whether user-generated content can ever be a substitute for well-resourced newsgathering carried out within trusted institutions according to established professional values.

This conference will review the current threats to the practice of journalism and examine some of the developing alternatives.

Papers are invited that address any of these issues. We welcome contributions on:

• The audiences for news
• The development of new media outlets
• Current practices in journalism
• The impact on journalism of changing economics and ownership
• New approaches to journalism, and
• The future of journalism as a paid occupation.
  

Many of the problems identified are specific to the advanced countries. The organisers welcome papers that address the different situation in developing areas, like India, China and Africa, where audiences for traditional media continue to grow and where online news has quite different implications.

NB:Reproduced from the University of Westminster page

Stop Video Animation - Student Video Winner

A simple idea for our youtube times which has many varsities participating, but John Hopkins in Baltimore can claim to be in the premiere league.

Its student video competition last year saw Stop animation vid, made by Robert Huynh and Noel Sanjuan, take first prize.

Called: "It seemed like a good idea", this would have involved a good degree of work and hopefully the students involved not having to miss too many lectures :)

The judges? The Dean, Susan Boswell and Emmy Award Winner Richard Chisolm and CEO of EMI Roger Faxon and Marketing Director Chris Cullen.

Films not to see

Films not to see. Only because few networks and viewers are interested.

Today Deborah Davies and award winning network TV Journalist spoke in an intimate setting about her work and latest film to students.

The film was about Congo's children and he harrowing plight of a people stuck in a brutal conflict.

I'll post more on this soon. In the talk, she notes how she and her camera man were 2 mins from being burnt alive by locals.

End of the world !! - worst snow storm in 18 years

Snow out London - 18 years worst ever from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.


No way out - The Snow's got me.

It's the end of the world in London; school's closed, buses canceled, trains left in their depot, commuters standing idly around pondering their next move.

And as understandable frustration grew at getting nowhere, trying to talk to someone, somewhere proved equally futile - my mobile phone, and others received that r2d2 bleep, accompanied by "congestion".

I started the day 7.20 a.m wanting to sort out a membership issue with my gym. That took me away from the station in almost knee deep snow.

Matter solved, and no I could not have rang in for resolution, time to head to the local train station.

8.00 a.m and the roads were fairly bare. What signs cars did roam the roads was evident from the odd groove carved like fjords in which pedestrians competed over for firmer walking tracks.

"If you're heading for the train station, it's cancelled" said one elderly gentleman. Adversary has a way of bringing strangers together.

No Trains and no sign there will be any trains

But I had to take a look myself. It's not just the trains aren't running, the ticketing booths were closed and the sign hanging, as commuters cranked their necks, was unequivocal.

"Due to blah blah.." I stopped reading at "Due".

Making my way back home, an over excited pit bull made a beeline for me. Perhaps he had every reason, as his owner hauled him back.

With the amount of clothes I have padded on I look like Wookiee, Chewbacca, practising my ministry of silly walks.

A foot and half of snow brings London to a halt, if it weren't so serious you can only laugh.

Recently added: context for the snow piece

The Snow piece, for a bit of background, was made off-the-cuff on my Canon IXUS 70, attempting to make my way to work. You know off to the station and back again. It took about 15 minutes to edit and put up.

One of the new areas of videojournalism is called “free-framing” where you shoot as a participant with little set ups. The snow piece is an example. You have the film in mind ans so shoot the "edit line". Chess Players do it all the time where they often tell you they can see as many moves ahead. This is really no different.

A lot of people have done this in the past but come from indie docs e.g Chris Marker.

Michael Jackson Thriller infuence

Just got back seeing Michael Jackson's Thriller in Shaftesbury Avenue. The production featured a young Jackson to the present; theatre was full of adults all singing along to his collection.

The Opening scene featured a deafening promo cataloging Jackson's achievements.

Gave me this idea when I got back.

VideoJournalism, Slum Dog Millionaire and some

Coming up later:

• Deconstructing a videojournalism piece about Mumbai's slums sent to me, and how to ride the zeitgeist. You've seen the film Slumdog Millionaire, now here's a slice of life captured by a video journalist.

• Could there be an emerging news net pathway for videojournalists, cycling stories?

• One day before judging completes at the International Video Journalism Awards - and I have found my winner. Will be twittering live from the awards ceremony on Feb 11th in Berlin, so you can follow the event.
  
• And Net neutrality, the possibility of paying an ISP for viewing content on the Net, draws a little closer with the governments Digital Britain czar saying he welcomes it.

Later on viewmag blog, and a review of some of the interesting bits in some of the broad sheets.

Solo VJ mini effort, max gain - the graft

It's easy to assume videojournalism is an easily acquired skill; it is, but if you've very little visual spatial skills, you're a shrinking violet and the last time you wrote something was for the school nativity play, you're on a steep learning curve.

Then there's the interpersonal skills. If you're a VJ of the kind I worked through, you've got to be as amiable as you are tough at making those split decisions [on your own].

Like any creative discipline, or for that matter any job, you've got to live through it and make mistakes. And you have to adopt a selfless and fearless veneer about failing.

Budding actors taking classes (did that) know a thing or two about how to fail, and getting to know themselves and those around you very quickly. There's something in that.

David in conversation with CNN's
Chritistiana Amanpour at the Front Line club

One reason why news discourse has moved very little in comparison to cinema's language or literature, re: the novel, could partially be put down to the entrenchment of news' classical episteme.

Just as an ill conceived and erroneous notion exist of journalists graduating from radio to TV, creatives within news, either move into docs or drama.

In its fifty years the dominant hegemony of news is to deliver the facts, thus rendering overt creative news programming as antithetical.

A fear of tinkering with this form or pushing any creative streak is eschewed. Blame the 70s/80s, with the number crunchers moving in and journalism realising its business acumen to turn a fast buck.

Thus if "You wanna be creative, go make movies!"

Thirty years later money making in news has shifted its heel into blatant entertainment e.g. Paris Hilton's new dog &^%$£@@!.

But as many social scientists will note, paradigms do shift, and the classical position can and is on occasion successfully challenged.


Videojournalism's changed news



There's a wonderful quote from Kubrick, where he says: "I want to change the form of cinema", and he did with what is acclaimed to be one of cinema's best film ending in Paths of Glory.

When was the last time you heard that from a news executive. There are so many factors at play here e.g. economic model, creative zone, historical habits that work against TV's half full status, exacted by some of its present 'gate keepers'.

This will likely change years down the line. History tells us that. We've only just experienced the birth of a new digital feisty form.

The auterism within videojournalism envelopes several iterations of many other creative forms.

Just as cubism is a sibling of surrealism, derived from impressionism rebelled against realism.

Videojournalism - painting with video - has its lineage.

It's one reason photographers, journalists, graphic designers, visual journalists have all found their own independent windows to enter the form and recreate their own magic.

Me, the peripatetic life I led as first a bi-media journalist/producer from 1987 within the BBC, (radio and TV) followed by employment in several different media companies, my educational background, and own personal interests have come to shape a strong sense of:

• How videojournalism works: TV versus Print Journalist.
  
• Its strengths moving forward, working in stations.
  
• Video film's emotive level.
• Videojounalism's technical vs the creative.
• Its flaws.
• Videojournalism journey.
• And more .....completing a PhD. You can find latest works here on my site viewmagazine.tv and Mrdot

How your past influences the present



From the BBC, I learned the purpose of the pre-shoot script, from the agency WTN, which would become APTV, I learned how to spot and cut-on-the-fly sequences coming from multiple satellite feeds demanded by broadcasters. The 'bird' - sat 41 was permanently fixed on the Mid East stories.

At ITN/Channel 4 News, how to play with words and produce in situ, whilst staying true to the journalism. From the many years of applied chemistry how to turn abstracts into the physical and embark on one experiment after another; LSE - the economics of course.

Whilst starting off as a videojournalist in 94 how to spot a story and carve it up several ways, then turn it around in a matter of minutes.



Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert 1988 Wembley - BBC Report with Peter Gabriel, Natalie Cole, Anita Baker, Neil Kinnock MP and Nelson Mandela


From Radio 4 and BBC radio presenting, the power of the voice as an instrument. This perhaps is one of the less recognised assets for a journalist. How to attenuate your voice range without seeming supercilious.

At ABC News, the American way of doing things; New Media, an appreciation that online it's all connected; with ex Saatchi head of TV Jon Staton whose agency re-active y re-active where I was a creative director, the emotional pull of the video and copy. The fewer the words, the better.

There's much we all bring from our past into our jobs and VJs blank status ( I mean its relatively short life span) means it can be directed into a number of routes.

But for that to happen, it requires practitioners stick their heads out, talking and sharing the form, discarding the dogma (we all sadly suffer those at times) that accompanies new skills and also enjoying the fruits of their labour in making public their work.

To rephrase Nike in relation to how you might get vj'ed up, means being reflexive about how the sum of your past add up. What is it? "Just Live it".

 Find out about Integrated Multimedia Videojournalism at Viewmagazine.tv with a number of how tos and interviews ranging from the former head of the CIA and Quincy Jones

Related posts - using Heidegger to comprehend an approach to videojournalism

Take one 84 minutes film

War photomontage - Iraq 24 frames

I placed this video on youtube sometime back and its attracted all manner of comments, usually passionate and often profane, which has led me to censor what gets published.

But this caught my interest, profound in thought. Why we fight is the disease and the panacea of our unsettling minds involved in dispute.

da9el1 has made a comment on 24 Frames in Iraq:

The pioneers of a warless world
are the youth that refuse military service.
-Albert Einstein -


They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting
to die for one's country.
But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying.
You will die like a dog for no good reason.
- Ernest Hemmingway

If those at war only knew what they was figthing for..
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David adds: Strong comments indeed.....
Pics by Yannis Kontos

The art of storytelling - video journalism

The art of cinematic videojournalism, David will be revealing his latest piece of work and the strongest link yet to videojournalism irresistible flair.

Video Journalism: We can do this one of two ways; the technical and you'll get something commendable or the creative and I can't tell you where that's going to end, but I can tell you it should not be predictable.

I'm currently going through video after video from judging this year's International Video Journalism Awards, and while I can't and won't say anything about the event, I'm reminded of the theory under pinning good, even great stories.

CONFLICT.

At SXSW where I'm scheduled to talk, I have something that makes that point and the new cinematic language of news telling. It will be something.

There is a story in anything, but to get there we/ you/ me must ask the right questions. If you're new to the game that can be daunting, if you're a bit long in the tooth, then you're forever probing for tensions, seeking the soft underbelly of the story.

It's the collision of attributes, the rub of consequences, the absurd vs normal.

I have to say that's one of the great things about working through the BBC, alongside editors who pushed you, who demanded more, because they believed they/you could deliver.

And that ethos then stays with you, like a bad/good rash, depending. But knowing the technical and even being creative is not enough. It's the kwa, and something else, the passion of it.


The Passion of VJ
Video journalism/ film is passion, a get down and dirty to deliver something out of your comfort, embracing the metronome, the heart of the subject with a peculiar synchronicity.

It works because it works. The technical is subsumed by a creative bent and that passion.

Some people are naturals, but most film makers go through the pain, years of the graft; there's no short cut, you have to make, and make and make some more and often come away feeling it was not good enough.

You're like a chef. Having learned the basics, you then start experimenting, and often that gunk ends up in the bin, but you try again until you know you're onto something. And then the inner flamboyance, the passion takes you because when you're confident you start to fly by the seat of your pants.

You're tempting failure each time you attempt something. Not because you're maniacal, but you want to push and push some more.

I love film and video. After 22 years I still approach it like hyperactive toddler and each time I see something in say, Man o Fire or one of those cutting edge one dot zero films, I exhale a "wow" and return to my Mac wanting to see if I can replicate the narrative and then redefine it for my own use.

The art of storytelling can be found in many books, but you've got to let go. "just let go". Pick up the bike, ride it, fall off, then get back on, ride some more and then when you're confident close your eyes and ride. It's hairy yet ultimately exhilarating.

Research shows News unaffected by the Net

The news agenda has not changed and blogs have had little effect on the news. These were the findings of one of the UK's major media research bodies, in the wake of a major and ongoing piece of research. ( see previous post)

Goldsmith's media is internationally renowned so this research involving extensive ethnographic studies and interviews is not to be taken lightly.

In the face of noticeably huge shifts in the way blogs, twitter and web 2,0 have impacted on news, the reality after the research by academics is it's business as usual.

Some noticeable results

1. Journalists were publishing more across platforms
2. They were over worked.
3. Traditional news set the agenda
4. The mainstream of blogging fed off traditional news
5. There is no real shift in a paradigm as we've been spurting.
6. There was no real participatory exchange between public and traditional broadcasters such as the BBC.

The academics expressed surprise behind their research, which yielded equal surprise from the floor.

Any research and its framing has merits and drawbacks.

That is whether one adopts an interpretive(this link looks at wikis) or positivist epistemology.

Equally the methodologies behind the data can vary depending on the frame work of the questions and who's asking. Social Scientists have wrestled with these two polars for as long as they've acknowledged the differences.

It may sound incredulous that the impact of blogs, twitter and readings from the likes of Dan Gilmor, Jay Rosen, Poynter and indeed Charlie Beckett on which the researchers based their premise, count for very less than what we've assumed.

We can't dismiss Goldsmith's research out of hand, but does it require further analytical research? Would the make up of a highly qualified and venerable team make any difference to the outcome?

Would the pool of interviewees and question framing have changed the results from the times they spent with more than 200 journalists and a number of institutions?

Or as the head of the University of Westminster's research Peter Goodwin asked, is this research too early to determine any significant change in the media landscape?

A point that still does not describe what many web 2.0 practitioners see as a shift in the way news is being orientated by technology.

In one way you're damn if you do and don't if you engage in research which marries new and old media.

I'm due at Wemedia in February, and these findings offer new food for thought, at least from a UK perspective.

Live blog New Media, Old News Journalism and Democracy in a Digital Age

I'm attending a presentation by Goldsmith Research Centre Spaces and blogging this live

It's reporting one one of five projects; Internet and Journalism. based on a 150 interview with journalists and ethnographers

James Curran is going through examples

• He says in 1982 Kenneth Baker tech and info minister said cable TV would have a huge effect in the future says James Curran. It was a flop he says.
• Interactive Digtal TV is another example - it would put the user in control. But only a minority have picked it up
• Local Tv also promised much but has not really delivered.
  

He says we must be cautious. So what did we find, says.

Yes journalism is better and quicker, it's connected journalists to new sources, its given rise to new voices, ezines, and grassroots BUT it has not fundamentally changed journalism - gatekeepers still there; blogs have not come up with new business model; dominant news brands are still the major news sites.

To their (the researchers) surprise somethings are worse. Journalists up against a blizzard of info and its become a follow the leader. The Net has also introduced more admin routines, news is longer, journalists are asked to contribute on diff platforms and there are budget cuts.

Summary
He says there are good and bad things and some things have not been changed. There is a hybridity. Curran talks about one chapter here: rise of ezine, nature of dialogue around the world influences dialogue.

But Ezines is largely a western model, driven by men, largely occupying privileged positions. The Net he says has not fulfilled some of the hopes.


Angela philips now talking

Utopians and pessimists she says underpin the sort of research on the internet.
She's talking about the more privileged reporters. She says she spoke to a number of news ed

Were journalists contacting new people for stories cuz the assumption is blogs open up new avenues for research etc. Is that the case? Only two incidents out of a 100 did she come across where a story had been discovered via the net, unsolicited making it into a news room.

She says the salient trend was cannibalisation of other news outlets. she says she was shocked.

She adds journalists are using the net to maintain contacts and are finding small groups of activists to get stories - a small margin of democracy.

She discovered that they are pressures of trying to find news stories and not being able to get out. She said it was obvious at the Times, in where it was based. But the telegraph in Victoria ( central London) should not have the excuse of not letting its journalist out.

All the journos she spoke to said face to face contacts generate original stories. She says young journo are chained to their computers.

She noticed there was very little debate going on about privacy. What she discovered was that power was moving to the hands of journo who can find people .

Questions over what is original content and what is a user. It's not the same as a piece of well researched info. If editors don't allow for original reporting they'll get shallower and shallower. Smaller sites feed of the big new sites - she concludes.
++++++++++

Aeron Davis now speak show bullet points and how his research was informed.

• Sennetts the cultures of the new capitalism
• Weaker social ties, a decline of craftsmanship and the specialist knowledge is being downgraded
• Carrier and Miller - and virtualisation - talks about abstractness.
• 9/10 people (journalist)they interviewed said they used the net for research.

Aeron talking about how journalists are expected to reproduce on several platforms - great expectations and politicians say they're swamped with info.

The drain of people's time is spoken about on the basis of the multiplicity of reportage, when quality time could/ would have been spent talking to people.

They (journalists) say a whole lot of things have changed.

• Slide: a conservative MP is talking about exchange of news. Websites used in the same one to many transactions in the way broadcast media works - still very traditional MP/politicians complaining about the volume of e mails they get.

Journalists says Dr Davis involves cannibalisation. Many journos/ politicians say they meet less and less.. There is a creeping feeling that the net has made gathering easier but there's overload.
----------
Tamara Witschge and Joanna Redden
The name of their research was A new News Order ? Online News content

They reviewed a number of traditional sites e.g BBC, The Telegraph and non traditional incl Current tv (CT), Indy media (IM) and Open Democracy (OD)

What they discovered assessing five main stories e.g Prince Harry in Afghanistan etc., is that there's a lot of recycling amongst mainstream. Alternative news sites OD and IM have far fewer news pieces but are unique in CT recontextusalises and IM provided multiple angles.

But this sites can't get a big audience. W hen you research google and yahoo for the big stories you don't see the alternative media.

She's concluding by saying there is a lack of diversity and homogeneousness of the web. Traditional TV is still running the news agenda, except she say on Youtube and Current TV, where main stream is being re purposed.

Only on these sites she says was there some blurring, but their research shows there's the same type of news online and they're similar and mainstream provides little room to participate. The potential for the net to open up news is therefore limited, even though there are slithers of unique contents.

--------
Joanna talking

Talking about the entire project and that it was huge ( my words). Says they interviewed a range 200 people, mainstream and non mainstream, plus a degree of ethnographies. It is a work in progress she says.

She's going through a number of points

• How journos make news depends on their environment. Social, political, technological.
  
• They ( researchers) wanted to explore all these different factors and hence how that influenced the news.

Says they were sensitive to journalists subjectivity.

Conclusion: News matters or does it she asks, but she says something emerged from their research that suggested journos were looking for something else.

• She disputes this golden age thesis of what they'd produced. She's asking what should news be in the age of the internet. What should journalism should be doing?
• There have been massive changes to news and how its performed (caveat she says they're not supporting tech determinism).
• News is a business and commercial pressures have led to cheaper news to the detriment of news. Almost impossible to talk to journos anymore say NGO. This fast and furious space is leading to less contact with faces ( said earlier) So much fodder around that UGC is not viable to be used in a constructive way. Journos talking about 2000 emails a day. They couldn't find the time to respond
• However there are spaces where the lines are opening, which they are trying to explore.

applause -
Dr David Gauntlett asks question about the basis of their research. James responds. Says they started of from the premise of Charlie Becketts (Polis) image of citizen journalism - a wonderful romantic image which isn't true, they say. Complete opposite researcher say they found.

I ask question concerning their framework and whether they were surprised at results.

Bloggers James says don't hold the attention of public - they're marginalised. There hasn't been a redistribution of network journalism.

Angela says Big news events will be covered by citizen journalism, but they're rare, However everyday journalism is done by journalists and bloggers respond to that. And that they were surprised.

Prof Steve Barnett is challenging their research and saying he is pleasantly surprised that the researcher started of from the 'lofty' image of Becket. ( loud laughs in the room).

What is 21st century journalism?. Did they embrace that question, he asks? Prof Barnett is challenging the epistemology and the ontological basis of their research.

Angela replies talking about evidence gathering and transparency. Joanna is saying journalists as truth seeker can be challenged.

Qu from the floor .American student asking what have we learned from the exceptional cases.
Aeron replies. Intensity of news, but not of real value to news agenda.

I ask is part of the question a half full rather than half empty, and not that journalism, traditional journalism has been eroded but that blogs have made a change

Q and A

Angela talks about the biggest change. TV and news bulletins are short and can be changed. technologically there has been a far greater amount of cannibalisation because of the Net. She says we're seeing wholesale steals of copy and stories. That's a worry.

This was an issue that has led to one US newspaper being severely criticised by a Jeff Jarvis.

Journalists, Tamara says, have a prob with writing in a different tone, particularly for blogs.

Maria asks whether Brit Journalism will go the way of US and become opinionated. Angela answers that it is far more opinionated. Steve interjects saying she meant broadcasting.

Paul Dwyer a senior lecturer, asks whether the use of the word democracy in their research in framing question thus shaped the answer.

Aeron replies that they could have looked at social networks, but the question arose for them are these news sites or entertainment sites. James says US media entertainment is at the centre of news says something about ignorant culture .. alludes to a poll saying US citizen 41 percent believed weapons of destruction had been found.

Broadly the panelists are defending the charge with the use of the word democracy, which Paul spoke about. Paul interjects saying there is a narrowing of the debate.

Peter Goodwin, head of research suggests isn't this research too early. That we're in an intermediary stage. If we look on in ten years time, asks peter, whether they will be the same ones or different ones.

james: says they're two responses.

Yes there may well be a transformation in the future, but the short term study is important.
Steve ends saying how do you differentiate between the economic change, the fundamental change in business and in the process of journalism.

Huge applause - end address. They're retiring to the staff room.