SXSW people talks new mobile computing

SXSW talking gadgets from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

Introduction to SXSW

SXSW from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Just got to the arena of SXSW and signed in and did this short introduction video blip.

Apologies. I'm using the A1 Sony's mike. I hadn't set up and then realised I need new battery for me Wireless.

More stuff soon.

This took me 15 mins to put together.

Roger Mosey BBC Sports Chief speaks Olympics to Westminster

The BBC's head of Sports Roger Mosey has painted a gloomy picture for the future of journalism at a talk at the University of Westminster.

Addressing some 50 students Mr Mosey spoke about the worrying context of journalism and the lack of plurality in British Journalism.

A strong regional and national journalism network is good for the BBC he said, but he lamented that the situation in British journalism looks to get worse.

Mosey spoke about the idea of working with its competitors fearing that the market could lead to the disappearance of regional journalism.

The BBC's the only game in town he suggested, on the basis that the license fee supports the BBC journalism, but it wasn't a position that brought cheer.

He spoke about the number of newspapers in the US under threat and how disappointing that was.

In more buoyant mood, Mosey talked about the BBC's recent triumphs in negotiating the Masters contract, Football and bringing formulae One back to the BBC.

Making a string case for free to air, Mosey made the point that 42 million people watching the olympics was indicative of how the free- model should not be discarded.

jobs, digital and futures

Nick Davies, author of Flat Earth said as much that when the banks emerge from the credit crunch they'll be stronger, but journalism has yet to undergo its own reforms.

There's no business model yet that shores up the loss of revenue in both sales and advertising.

Years ago when I was a struggling journalist, it was very different.

I'm putting an animated CV in Flash today and noted that in the space of my 15 out of 22 broadcast years, I'd worked or freelanced fora dozen or more outfits - some like channel 4 News for a considerable period.

I'm not sure whether to say, in spite of the hardships, and there were many as I told an audience at the NUJ last Saturday, if you preserved enough, you'd find something.

The BBC then was the main repository for new talent and there was enough diversity to ensure, if you sent enough letters out you'd find someone looking for a researcher.

But times have most definitely changed. The jobs are still there, but you need to be more equipped, and there are a lot more grads vying for the 2000 or so turn over jobs that apparently become available each year.

So why did the student, and an extremely talented one whom I met last Saturday, seem so unsure of her chances?

She spoke Five languages: Spanish, French, Italian, English and Flemmish. She had an assured demeanor, and an engaging personality.

But she confessed to knowing little about the new unsure world of journalism, where key word search engine scripting gets you more eyeballs than mellifluous measured words.

One audience member lamented at the bizarre nature of the digi-ecology. You can't make money from blogs, twits and the rest - well broadly- but you're expected to know and practise all this.

In Miami, talking to the very talented students at the knight Foudation the same theme arose. But here they accepted what was the norm, even if it was a forced one.

The lowest denominator in media making is now so univerally acknowleged that there is no mystique over what was a revered art.

Then too we had heroes e.g. Charles Wheeler, Kate Addie, Magenta Devine, Eddie Mair, Tom Brokaw.

Today's market is so fractured that the stars still command their place amongst the legion of traditional admirers, but journalism has plunged into a world of celebrity or get-there-quick.

Deference is a word in the dictionary behind deadbeat.

What does this mean? Not much if you want to get existentialist about it. The market will sort itself out, new jobs will emerge from embers, a new crop of writers, visualist, story tellers will chart a path, unfamiliar to traditionalists.

Prime jobs for presenting to a broad audience will become even more scarce. A front cover of the BBC's mag says the future is small. Like Nick Davies said Journalism needs its own reforms

Gap Man Videojournalism@viewmagazine.tv - hahaha

Forgive me the indulgence, cuz I won't repeat this. All a bit surreal this, but I expressed an interest to capture an urban, grunge style of videojournalism.

At various talks I have always called videojournalism, getting down and dirty, the photojournalist with the movie camera.

Then David Berman from Sitbonzo, an amazing photographer, with his equally astounding crew stepped in. [ HIRE HIM.. HIRE HIM]

I'll be profiling David and his work soonish. I managed to sneak a few video shots during the shoot. And apparently during a break in the shoot when I wanted to move my car, for fear of it being nicked, plus it was freezin, so needed a jumper, David and crew recorded a message on my camera. Haven't seen it yet.

So back to David and crew. David's got that arts director eye, works extremely fast and with the crew we had a fab time as I pretended I was Jay-z.

So Yeawh Phrew I became the model. Go on laugh. I did, a lot.

If you can ignore the bloke in the middle, which negates the point of the shoot [Oh you you know what I mean] this is Gap man goes video journalism.

p.s Hey I'm wearing Nike's [ product endorsement... product endorsement... No I didn't get paid.. Nike email I'm not expensive LOL)

If you're going to be at SXSW, See you there. Otherwise this morning I'm speaking at the NUJ.



Pictures copyright courtesy of David Berman

Viewmagazine's Videojournalism image by Sitbonzo

Sitbonzo - a group of creative photographers with years of experience and an amazing aesthetic have completed a shoot with me looking like I work for gap clothing.

I'm hoping to use pics as part of a presentation about videojournalism at SXSW et al. So I'll post when I see em.

All a bit of a laugh really, though it was freezin and shooting under railway tracks is a lot filthier than you can imagine.

Viewmagazine - did you know

That these were the first regional journalists, from the Hull Daily Mail, Liverpool Echo and Press Association in the UK to learn videojournalism in a programme devised by David of Viewmagazine.tv


That James Wagner was the first dedicated journalist to report from Second-life, here talking at a summit in Sweden. Sadly, Second Life seems to be no longer in vogue.


When Reuters reported to journalists at the Online News Assoociation their findings being the first journalism outfit to equip reporters with the Nokia N95, Viewmagazine captured the discussion.


Christiane Amanpour, the venerable CNN Correspondent was more than a little surprised to hear about some of the advances in webournalism reportage and that branding herself online with blogs and tweets would open her up to a new audience.


At the premier on Dreamgirls Viewmagazine spent a cold evening interviewing the stars, and left the camera rolling so you could see waltz and all. (video to be re-loaded)


When the BBC provided info about its trials over embedded video Viewmagazine.tv captured it here.

Creative ideas - Obamania

Sometimes the very mention of the idea brings you down in a cold sweat. Actually it's mixed emotions. First you think wow, and talk at rapid burst speed.

Then, in a moment of clarity, by yourself you ponder and think er, what have I done.

We all do it. I said to some journalists there are broadly two types of people, which you can guage from an easy experiment.

Place a tennis ball in the middle of a room and in clear site out of the way a bat. Some people that file in will make a beeline for the ball, then cite the bat. Others will go about sitting down where they were told to.

A much better more tested experiment comes from Prof Winston who presented the highly entertaining child of our times - a programme that looked for clues about how children develop.

Some children are random - fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants. Others need structure and safety. I guess we all do in some measure, but I often can't help make a decision based on the thrill.

In 1992 I did something really stoopid. I boarded a plane to South Africa for the first time, with the hope that a person whom I'd corresponded with in one letter would meet me at the airport.

If he hadn't shown.. well that would have been curtains.

So in a long winded way, back to what have I done. A friend, a super talented composer, described by the press and all manner as being an exciting contemporary composer has been asked to score something for one of the supposedly many official 100 days Obama fests in the UK.

So she leans over and says can you do the visuals. Yep sure I say. Half an hour later, "Oh dear what have I done".

I guess it's that fly feel again. Why do I do it !@£@!!%^^%.

Here's Shirley, and a site I was building for her, which is not finished and will be scraped with a new one when I can get the time. But just listen to some of the music.

Shooting drinks at the RTS Awards -Profile Don Omope

Profile Don Omope:

Don in full directorial flare shot some footage from the RTS Awards, which will be used as a package soon.

It's a behind-the-scene film before the announcements of the nominees and winners, and Don gets to show us the au natural look.

I'll post a bit of the footage this week.

Don started out as a TV and Film Undergrad before going off to Goldsmith to earn a Masters in Broadcast Journalism.

I met him at Westminster and we've stayed in touch and done quite a few shoots together. I don't know whether it's mentoring, but it's been good to see how far he's come in confidence and TV making skills.

His doccie from Nigeria is the stuff of nightmares. He dropped by my house with hours to go before boarding the plane and I gave him chapter and verse about what he may face and then the rest was one calamity after another.

The doc was fine, ( it was a grade just short of a First) but the assaults and intimidation he suffered; his driver was beaten, one of his cameras stolen, leaves you feeling lucky to be able to go about your filming business in London.

A couple of the shoots I really admired him for were:

• Dreamgirls - the red carpet. It was mad and bloody cold. Not though he says as cold when he had to spend 11 hours filming in a cemetary.
• Vlog Butterfly - an interview with Head of BBC Multimedia News Peter Horrocks, Don captured the making of the documentary behind the scenes.

Don writing now:

There is no better time to be a video journalist than at present, with cheap equipments and an abundance of stories to tell ... especially when working for and with David one of the 1st video journalist around. The RTS was one of those shoots you attend and you get reminded of how much more ethnic minorities are absent in our media sphere.

And this very much ties in with the current debate taking place next week. You'll kick yourself if you don't turn up.

Calling all Digital Journalist, ethnic journalists in London etc.

Photo: a couple of years ago Programme maker and academic David Dunkley Gyimah hosted B3 Media's "Breaking, Entering and Staying in the Game" at the ICA Cinema with Nelson George (US' Filmmaker, writer), Catherine Johnson (Screenwriter, Bullet Boy, and author), Ray Paul (Executive Producer 1 Xtra, Specialist & Live Music programming 1Xtra), and Maxine Watson (BBC commissioning executive)

'New Media, Diverse Platforms' - NUJ Black Members' Conference
Will new media mean new opportunities for Black journalists? All ethnic minority NUJ members welcome. Speakers include David Dunkley Gyimah, international award-winning journalist and lecturer. Light lunch. Saturday 7 March 2009, 11.15pm-4pm at NUJ HQ, 308 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8DP. To register email joannef@nuj.org.uk.

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A couple of days ago this (below) was posted on the Press Gazette's website. It concerned a major newspaper group for ethnic minorities folding and then finding a buyer. I'm speaking at the above NUJ gathering next week so felt this post apt and timely. Here's the thread. See what you think?

Press Gazette reports

New Nation saved from closure after buyer is found

New Nation and two other Afro-Caribbean titles have been saved after a buyer was found by administrators.

Last month, the Ethnic Media Group – which ran New Nation, Eastern Eye, and other ethnic titles – went into administration. ......(more - the link is further down).

It led me to post a response, which was replied to by Haile Dube Yaas who said

David, the fact is the mega-websites of The Guardian and Telegraph are loss-makers but are subsidied because they believe that is the future. The black media do not have the resources of these giants and need to break even today, not tomorrow. .......

I then replied to Haile.

The absence of any press which has had a relationship with readers, let alone ethnic, in communities establishing and developing their identities is likely to have consequences. This shouldn't happen I say, so what's the strategy?

Why you need (ethnic) media. In some cases it acts as a counter balance to the perceived status quo. When BBC 3 ran a populist but highly controversial programme: The Trouble with Blackmen, it caused an outrage within the press. I set about remaking my own version interviewing people like Doreen Lawrence. More here

Ethnic Journalism in trouble.

Please do take a look and see what you think. Here's the whole thread on the Press Gazette, but before you link of there, this below provides further chill winds.

From the US from New Media America: No Tears for the Chronicle. and from the editor:

Editor’s Note: The San Francisco Chronicle is teetering on the brink of collapse, if it cannot find a buyer or further slash its staff and operating costs. Bought by the Hearst Corp. in 2000, the newspaper lost more than $50 million last year and its readership has steadily declined. NAM editors asked ethnic media journalists and media observers what life would be like without the city’s major daily.

NAM Staff Comments on News of Possible Closure of SF Chron from New America Media on Vimeo.

What is the solution because there are some damn fine writers here, the US and elsewhere finding it hard. Not because of them. But because the dynamic has changed.

No one would have said the Monks of Valencia circa 1600s were not superb as they handcrafted the scriptures, but Gutenberg's press changed the dynamics.

So what do you do. Just what do you do. Do something or do nothing?

BTW if you're from the NABJ or similar it'd be great to hear from you. I have attended NABJ gatherings on and off since 1994- the Big Unity in Atlanta.

Who would have thought back then of this crisis. A crisis indeed for all, but acute for smaller business and ethnic press.

Newsnight shows a future of journalism

Newsnight's triumph at the RTS Journalism Awards for its programme 10 Days to War, has a larger resonance in television news making.

You can't win em all. In this case me, as whilst I was enjoying 70 degree weather and mixing with the folks at wemedia, I had also forfeited my invitation as a Jury member to the Awards night.

There's a lot I'd like to tell you about this award, and that Viewmgazine.tv has footage from the event, shot by video journalist Don Omope.

That should be up by Monday. See you then.

The new mediaists - photos

Pics from wemedia.

Brian Storm of Storm Media with Jessica Stuart, Project manager and Tom Kennedy, formerly Head of Multimedia at the Washington Post. Out of shot, you can just about see his hand is Rich Beckman - often referred to as the Yoda of multimedia [ I heard that]


Pic of Tom and Jessica free framed by Chad of Wemedia. That is Chad's not looking through the camera and just firing off shots. Free framing is the new in thing now. Produces natural and sometimes beheaded shots.



I so loathe posed shots, but I was more than up to taking a snap with some of the figures I revere in this emerging profession. The facial expression is me barking at Chad, who's just free framed and is now having us count down for the shot.

Chad it's digital, blow film :)

Donna Shalala's thoughts - Wemedia

Always refreshing to hear someone articulate thoughts and spiels you've preached and in this case they don't get any bigger than the former secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, now president of Miami University.

Ms Shalala, being interviewed at the WeMedia gathering spoke about the curricula, she uses to lecture her students.

It's a paperless environment, with knowledge being shaped online on Blackboard.

And it's a changing curricula. By the year end she noted as and when new things happen that gets pulled in.

Classes are blogged, and there is a heavy reliance on Facebook, which is monitored.

Importantly in this instant society, students she said have to be more aware of what they do and say.

New Multimedia report

What's interesting about the film, which has DNA similar to Mike Figgis' Time Code, The Usual Suspect and the daddy of them all Rashomon - about a female assault from four different angles. etc is the multiple narrative approach to unravelling/piecing together a story.

The web site also sets up a playable game which no doubt will be translated to market research.



Photo/painting courtesy of the 1st-art-gallery.

I wrote about this some time back, but it continues to concentrate my thoughts and sets up an interesting question.

Can multimedia also infer multifocal or multimodal?

By its very nature and multiple delivery of assets, the PC is a multimedia tool, but how much bearing does that have on a lingua franca of "choice reportage - perspectivists approach"

In a videojournalism report I'm now compiling, what's clear is the multifaceted nature of term "multimedia" across disciplines from modern day founding father Vannevar Bush to today's graphic design community and the media.

there's an interesting moment in the film when we're at the Telegraph's hub being shown around by a senior executive and somebody asks how the newspaper and its web version reports are constructed. It's one of the hidden arc segments of the film, so you'll have to click on the film to access this

In itself there may be little to fuss about, but in semiotics this will have a bearing on the nature of the narrative in reportage.


To get a sense of this obvious focal story, what part do others in the picture play?

Before Broadcasting
Before the language of broadcasting was refined, a legacy, but not quite a whole lift from newspaper reportage's equitone from Addison and Steele, how robust and expansive was the storytelling language?

We might now easily take that for granted, but centuries ago, there was a different discernible paradigm in play.

Broadcasting, 60 years old, brought its one set of rules; the ever expanding web culture has its own.

Multimedia Reportage AD
A hypothesis: the bible - one of the oldest and most popular tombs lays a claim to multimedia reportage.

Matthew, Mark Luke and John - four differing perspectives towards one event and to fully comprehend the Bible the reader is required to cover all four gospels.

Some 500 years before this painting at the top by by Luca, Giotto di Bondone one of the greatest Italian Renaissance painters did the extraordinary with visual narrative and lines of perspective and focus.

By jumping through the periods you begin to get an idea that our way of doing things now is not so sacrosanct - time and change move very slowly over periods of decades rather than centuries.

So to this painting again and the original piece I wrote, as I get back to editing this multimodal report.

See you at the Cultural Exchange.

I stood there mesmerized for ten minutes, just studying the piece.... read original piece

The arc of film making in studios

The video Journalism arc - the point of techncial film making...

Unless it's compelling and Obama's campaign manager David Pouffle touched that in parts when he spoke about how he ran Obama's campagn, but in truth unless a number of variables collide, film making in a studio is asking for trouble.

The guys at Ted Talks do a good job, but these are not acceptance speeches but ideas quickstepping on stage. And, they've workled the rehearsals. Other things, it's a multicamera shoot, so visually you're stimualted by the shot changes.

With sound, they're also plugged into the 'boom box' via their xlr jacks, so no compromise on sound.

Wemedia's setting offers some of the challenges, prevalent in many studio shoots. It's a venue to make participant's feel as comfortable as possible, low lights, curved auditorium - no blind spots and so on.

Conversely it offers challenges for video journalists. But I have learned from experience, so
first thing I do when I have a shoot is to scope out the room to eliminate or work around some of these variables, which is what I'm doing now.

Zogby - it aint all doom and gloom pollster says

John Zogby kick started wemedia 2009 with a detailed response about the attitude of the 18-29s.

Dubbed the globals, Zogby a renowned pollster and publisher of The Way We'll be tracking young people's behaviour says they're far more optimistic, than might be the presumed thought.

Many, far more than previous generations have passports, have travelled, can count friends beyond their own neighbourhood, will hold down many jobs, are pro choice, and are likely to be democrats.

Asked two years ago he says about what the US would look like many cited Obama, even before Obama was well know.

John was being interviewed by Andrew from wemedia.

I'll be posting a series of tees and bees from wemedia with vids etc.

Posting video blip soonish of Dale and John talking, -shot on Simple point and shoot Canon IXUS 70.

Marc Andreessen _net guru speaks. Listen

Highly, highly informative interview with a giant of the net. Marc Andreessen interviewed by Charlie Rose

Watch those recommendations for the CV

Looking for the next job, then just how valuable are CV recommendations?

Aaaah C'mon.

Steve emailed me. Came across a recommendation on Viewmagazine.tv and said given how things are, I should keep it quiet.

Well I don't advertise it, but hey there was a time when if you said you worked for The UK Prime Minister's brother, in this case, Andrew Brown, as one of his political producers that was a real kitchen-party filler.

What's he like? What's the goss in which I'd always say I don't know. The other name that stirs such comments is Jon Snow, whom I worked with on several projects during my 4 years continuing freelance work at Channel 4 News

Really nice bloke, Andrew, the editor of a show about politics who later move into Public Relations - one of the city big ones. And Jon Snow is just Jon Snow, no airs or graces.

His CV recommendation came at a time when I was making another transition, a new career. I'd tied up my last job as a full on broadcast producer or reporter.




Broadcast's narrow field

It was great, but the broadcast industry is a small one, bound by sometimes what seems like masonic codes.

You're only as good as your last job. Your first job as a graduate may be a reason to celebrate, but it's the second job that feels like a bridge too far.

And then after your upteenth job, you find you're in no better position than when you started. Nothing is guaranteed.

This year media grad applicants for studies are said to be up, there's a crunch and jobs are being shed. It does not bode well.

I recently bumped into an old acquaintance. A once prodigious producer at ITN, who could keep up with the pace no more, the relentless meetings, the indecisions, and has thrown in the towel.

In his forties, he now drives a taxi and is retraining to become a lawyer. I so wish him all the best.

The new horizon in front of us gives new purpose for the digital journalist, the digi-native to colonise new lands, new openings.

It's not going to be easy, and there's still going to be more blood on the floor.

But there's no reason why as a start-up journo or dye-in-the-wool, we can't think about being ambitious, about turning ourselves into that we can only imagine uber Journos.


The VJ Manifesto

As the VJ manifesto I've been formatting says, something that hasn't been done is waiting to be done.

Its theme also underpins an idea which good friend Rachel Armstrong a writer, multimedia producer, and general medical practitioner from The Bartlett has been talking about to a couple of think tanks in Norway.

Unlike a decade ago, your greatest showcase for work now is your online portfolio and the links and feedback it generates.

We live in far more interesting times now and perhaps today's recommendations, and I don't deny we're always need them, but perhaps we won't place as much much store in them as we did many years ago.

Digital Creatives - multimedia video journalists

Digital Creatives - multimedia video journalists. - The tools, how to be a multimedia journalist on viewmagazine.tv



More Coming Soon

Joys and Images from Phd Away week

Smart lab is a trans discipline outfit within the University of East London, which runs one of the most unique practice-based Phd programmes in the UK.

Three times a year we gather for away days - a week of intensive seminars and papers.

It's a chance to catch up with one another, observe the development of ground breaking work and learn ourselves about issues frankly we might rarely come across.


Each morning we start with a warm up exercise which sometimes incorporates a problem solving task. Here, Smart Lab staffer Deveril is getting us to feel our space and self. In effect it's not too disimilar to Tai Chi warm ups.

Bruce Damer, Pioneering virtual realist, ex Nasa, talks about his Phd research work, creating an evolution grid in virtual realitiy. His intentions to create artificial life in VR mimicing real life.

The implications for medicine and discovery cures, he says, could be huge.



Fabulous exercise in problem solving in a group by Deveril.
1. Write down a pressing problem.
2. Pass it onto someone. You remain anonymous who provides a solution
3. The anonymous person passes it onto a third person, who attempts their own solution.
4. The original problem and solutions are read out; then put on table for all to read.

My favourite solution to a problem was this ( the bottom paper, above)

"Coming through Customs, the officer asked me how I managed to acquire "stay" status in the UK. Why did he ask that? Was he allowed to?"

The response was

"Keep focused get through customs".

Taey, an artist, performer and writer presents in her 30 min slot "Dictee and the Travelling Language" - an analysis of Theresa Hak-Kyung Cha, the basis of her Phd research.

Flaneurism, dream sequences and the influences of the little well known, but hugely significant Theresa Hak-Kyung Cha are laid out. A mental journey, and so layered was my thoughts.

Behind the camera about 20 or so Phd Students are listening providing critique feedback and questions

The image behind Turliff s Captain Jane way of the the star trek ship Voyager. She's asking the computer to materialise a cup of tea. That's the reality Turliff is working to for his Phd.

He passed around a 3d object which was created from a 3d printer. The computer conceives the constituents of the substance, then sends it to the printer. Human Tissue is one of the areas on Turliff's radar.



Sapna preps for her presentation, a documentary maker. She's researching the cause-effect of people with disabilities engaged in interviewing and doc making. Sapna is situating herself at the centre of this research, as someone with a disability herself.

Below she demonstrates in a ground breaking performance how she is able to play an instrument through eye movement on a device called Mytobii. (vid coming soon)

I'll post some more from the extraordinary people at Smart Lab in the near future.



David Dunkley Gyimah is researching the Outernet and innovative programme making at Smart Lab, looking to build on his own theory of film originally posited by Delueze