Egypt's protest down to good ol fashion 1st gen social media - Television

David training videojournalists in Cairo on a 3 year programme

As a journademic - an academic and professional onliner/ videojournalist I shouldn't be so hasty, but as I write this, hundreds of academic papers are about to be set in train.

The subject matter- prescribing Web 2.0 and social media as the agent for change in Egypt. It's time to be cautious.

For the last three years I have been in and out of Cairo;  last year also taking in Beirut training professional journalists in videojournalism and an understanding of online media.

The latter has spawned a citadel of an industry and while there's no denying the impact blogs, FB, Youtube and Twitter have had, yet often we fail to realise perception like belief is interpretive and selective. This is an Aristolean notion.

David speaking to the Deputy Dean of Communications at Cairo University about the impact of 

social media

The way we see the world is formulated through our own framework of perception. Empirical studies might tell us otherwise, but collecting that data is often difficult to come by.

But this set of stats did catch my attention. Its January figures revealing the Middle East becoming an engine for social media and twitter.

It requires rigorous examination before SM advocates attach cause and effect towards the recent demonstrations.


Television
The protests that emerged in Egypt, a very likely catalyst from Tunisia and the ousting of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years in power, I would suggest were the result of that old first generation of social media - Television.

What's my hypothesis.  Firstly and less we forget television is still a dominant media and social glue, certainly in particular territories around the world.

It's not uncommon to pass by a diner in Cairo and find swathes of people, mainly men, gathered around the television in the corner, discussing politics and football.

This shot here is of one my trainee videojournalists shooting in an eaterie which has a television and no doubt would have been on to show the Tunisia's events.

Videojourmnalists shooting in the streets

More pertinent, as this picture below illustrates, television is as common place as the homes they're attached to. This shot was taken from the 27th floor of Nile TV - state Television.

It's a restricted floor, but on my last training assignment we were given access. What amazed me as one of the journalists outlined, was the level of sat dishes in areas, including the deprived zones in down town Cairo.

Sat TV City in urban deprived areas of Cairo

Social Media Mk1
International Networks such as Al Jazeera and a host of others are the viewing staple, at least from my observations. This coupled with the mobile phone makes for a powerful social media.

And social it is, for it's around the campfire of the television and mobile phones (temporary immobile) where big society is discussed.  The Net I contend is the echo chamber, at least for the web savvy.

So my hunch from the twitter stats earlier is not that SMers were gearing up for a mass online campaign, but that that more and more users (young or savvy) are discovering Social Media ( a tipping point)  at a rate faster than in territories such as Europe.

That's not surprising as the latter territories reach saturation.

For young people I have come across at the American and Cairo university, yes social media has its currency, but it doesn't appear to possess the same dependencies with other groups as might be the case in advanced net democracies - where you can say what you want.

That's not to say Egypt doesn't have some of the most savvy social networkers around and mobile phone photography is not embedded, but, that if you were a social media trainer, you'd find attentive ears educating outside of the student classes.

David teaching social media to programme makers and graduate producers  at Nile TV

Curiously then in shutting down the net, the authorities had failed to realise TV had done most of the initial work. Postings to the web took the campaign past the geo-locations of Egypt into advanced user bases, where Net content is aggressively shared and played back on television as seen on Sky, CNN, Aljazeera and BBC  TV.

Google and Twitter's voice to text strategy at making the web a linchpin is an interesting case of social media reacting quickly to integrate events but in reality, again it's mainly the student/urban classes.

Here's an interesting question then. If you're a TV network exec and you know this, how do you  maintain the level of interest in television at a time when apple and google are looking to get in on sat platforms with net videos et al.

Because there's still strong evidence that television's narrative of informing, rather than YouTube's pick and mix is still a big draw, particularly for those who find wading through videos for something appropriate a bind.

Is there a future therefore for social media and videojournalism in what I might call fixed and opt in programming? One that can work just as well on the television set as it does online?

More on that in my next post.

How good do you think you are and how do you know?

Here's a thought? How good do you think you are at what you do?

It's one of those squirmish questions human resource often inflict on unsuspecting candidates, who must then straddle a line between deprecation and the avoidance of arrogance.

That is, if you are good.

But spare a thought for those whom you might say are not very good at what they do.

John Cleese sums it up as follows - the same cognitive skills that allow you to know you're good at something, can also illustrate how poor you are at recognising how bad you are.

It's long winded, but put simply. If you're bad at something, often you lack the skills to understand how bad you really are. You see it all the time at open competitions, say the X-factor.

Cleese got me thinking more deeply though, because often the act of knowing something boils down to the science of knowledge and how to learn.  This is captured exquisitely in Don Schon's the Reflective Practitioner.

The philosophy of knowing
In Don's book he takes us on a journey of how we learn and how we might qualify that learning process.

Do something, fail, and do it again, reflecting on where you went wrong.  As such, even acts considered futile by others may have merit.

I demonstrated this when I showed a group of students an object and asked what it was. It was an apple, but how could they prove that.

They needed by negation or what Don refers to as hypothetical testing disprove it was anything other than the object in question. They needed to traverse a reflective journey articulating and discarding thoughts.

I often in my first video classes give a camera to clients asking them to go out and shoot. Many students return often embarrassed or disgruntled that they were not given instructions.

I point out there is no formality in what to do. Were I to abandon them at that point, then their fears would be justified, but I then begin to explore their natural ability, untainted learning, around the exercise.

Some will demonstrate natural talent; others will in despair do very little crippled by the fear of not knowing and not wanting to explore.

Which experimenter are you?
Schon devises his experimenters into the following

• Exploratory experimenters
• move testing experimenters
• Hypothetical testers
• and my own interpretation non-testers occupy these realms.

Explorers are what I call jumpers;. They'll take the leap into the unknown with often little guidance, backed by their own fierce temperament.  Move-testers need to see the next link in the chain. If it's not obvious they'll not move.

You meet them in Chess all the time, when you literally have to pull their finger.

Hypotheticals scratch an itch. They've thought about any number of tangible outcomes and will eliminate by active thinking what to do. Non-testers lack the spirit to move in an alien environment.

Child Psychologist Dr Desmond Morris' extensive work with children - the subject of a BBC programme gave some clues. Some toddlers in an experiment were quite at ease playing with foreign objects; others would stand by non-committed.

Perhaps it is preprogrammed, explaining why those who aren't as good at what they do often have no idea about this. But it does help if you're in a safe environment where you can explore your concerns.

This is something that I try and foster in my work. Creativity craves safe environments to work without fear before you let the genie loose.

Providing a safe place and getting people to work together, whilst encouraging the first three aforementioned often helps bring along the non-committed. It's a complex process of behaviour, but often it works. Age, background, self esteem all play a part.


Daring exploits
In 1992 with little more than a piece of paper and a scribbled name I travelled to South Africa for the first time. I was met at the airport by someone I had swapped a letter with. Yes, no emails and mobiles during those days.

It was a huge risk, but he met me and is still a firm friendship today. The fact it turned out he was one of South Africa's up and coming theatre directors adds another layer.

In this world of continual change, the tools- this onslaught online - is only part of the key to innovation. Steven Covey, author of the galactical best seller The 7 habits of highly effective people, provides an insight into interdependency.

It was true back when his book launched to become a best seller then as it is now.

Often it's not the subject that stymies us, but the process of how we acquire and process knowledge that needs greater critical thinking.

And here in a world being levelled by consensus whilst we have the opportunity for collective thoughts - a good thing- we must also be mindful of not losing idiosyncrasies and a sense of inddifference to consensus.  That's not the same as not knowing, more the explorer at their best.

We need more explorers.

The Videojournalist ~ Cinema

Inspired by assignments that included through out the course of his broadcast and videojournalism career, which include:

• Deep diving with Turkish Navy
• filming Special Forces in Ghana
• Interview with Fmr CIA chief James Woolsey
• Global think tank - the Royal Institute of International Affairs
  
• Out with Nato forces in Norway
• And Inside Beirut.

Viewmagazine.tv's International videojournalist takes you through a visual journey Bourne-style.

Cut to a driving score from Steve Cooney, Robbie Perry and Nasar, this short promo illustrates the cinematic style of a brand of videojournalism practiced on www.viewmagazine.tv.

Today David trains others to be able to turn around reports swiftly and into engaging films.

Videojournalism - I'm not the camera guy

Memo from Director of Programmes after leaving the UK's first and only Videojournalism- driven programme

The phone call from the news desk gave the location. An event- an accident - and could you make into a package.

The package is the unit of a broadcast report comprising different interviews and locations. Then there were other times, usually an event of such insignificance that I'd wrestle how and what I would do with it.

Two things emerged. If you're a broadcast or newspaper manager who's never packaged yourself as a videojournalist then you ought to. Videojournalism does not start or finish with news gathering.

Camera men and women have their own gripes, within the pool room. Slow news days can be torturous as another "cat in the tree" story emerges.

Fifty grands worth of camera gear, a remortgaged house, years of experience and it boils down to this.

Reporters too often don't get off lightly. At some point you will begin to curse your manager's ineptitude at planning that story. Another "cat in the tree" package.

It's not that you wouldn't want to show moggy being rescued by the fire services, but that "cat in the tree" is a metaphor and even when it is the real deal, there are only so many ways you can package this singularity without seemingly adopting a supercilious tone or being cliche-ridden.

Years on the job and you're still stuck with: .." and so as Molly the cat is lured into the arms of his anxious owner to applause, due credit to Notts firefighters. Molly may be safe now, but she truly has lost one of her many lives".

Groan! Next time a friend stops you in the pub to say how exciting your job is you can tell em to go blow.


The bad luck of videojournalism
Videojournalism gets it in the neck even worse. That's because to management you're life's stenographer: a lonesome, couldn't cut it as a camera operator, working minimum wage.

When it comes to chasing ambulances, you're the person with the bright orange cap. Your manager will dump on you, the camera crew have found the person who's going to take all the drudge stories, and the reporting team can walk tall knowing, "you get Molly next time".

These circumstances are not. But the present predicament stems from the misnomer classifying videojournalism; that it's cheap and a poor substitute of television.

You're not a real journalist, they'll say. Laugh loud now because soon you won't be able to.

Think it through. You want to become a film making. In the past you researched, associate-produced, produced, produced/directed, directed a series, waved goodbye to executive producing, then sought out your first independent film.

Now, you research with the caveat you must be able to use a camera, then you associate produce with the use of a camera, then if you're lucky you're made a videojournalist. Then you're stuck there for life.

Forget the idea you have producer qualities. To management you're rapid deployment. Don't think, do. So, OK there are a kerzillion ways of becoming a film maker, but many will have recognised the aforementioned route with the odd changes here and there.


Videojournalism's stuructural flaws
Videojournalism doesn't come with a career structure. As yet there's no such thing as a senior videojournalist, chief or maestro videojournalist. Once you're known as the guy or gal with the camera, every walking zombie of a piece of so-called-news is yours to be sent off to scavenge and make sense of.

Most outfits still understand when to use the big band and when the trio with the synthesisers can take centre stage. The BBC for instance does not let its videojournalists ambulance-chase.

Yep that's official so I'll say it again: no ambulance chasing.

Sky News recognise videojournalism, but won't be using it any time soon, with minor exceptions for particular projects. Yep that's official as well. I got that last week visiting Sky.

The best videojournalists often have backgrounds as camera operators or photographers and for that you'll be equipped with a technical proficiency that most can only wonder about.

White balancing, black balancing, back focus, light rigging, reds, blondes, may be terms that are a little unfamiliar and without the prospect of interchangeable lenses, you're not quite in the league of camera operators. That much they'll tell you. That much I always got told in the early days circa 1994.

Truth is if you had your way, why would you want to be called a videojournalist? The most recent tweet I RTed from @yemisiblake was "The art of photography is imagining. It’s very related to poetry. Suggestive and fragmentary."

I then suggested film and videojournalism be added.

Where do you want to be
There's never going to be a consensus. Videojournalism will for a forseeable time be the low hanging fruit. I don't work in the news machine any more, so I can naively state my luxuries.

And for me, man or woman with a movie camera is an artistic practice; a multidisciplinary agent which if used well can yield high gains. And artistry requires motivation and intelligent perception of what the outcome should be.

That's the message in the Zero Principle.

Sadly, we're a long way from where we want to be, yet and by dint of having a camera,will still be asked to grab footage of Molly the cat before she loses another life.

+End

Videjournalist David Dunkley Gyimah is an artist in residence at the South Bank Centre

Videojournalists who are they, what's their background?

Some people can be quite sniffy about videojournalism so I thought I'd drop in my background to give you an idea of how I got into it as a practitioner and trainer. If you like to contact me for a chat training etc you can here


David Dunkley Gyimah
2010 - publishing book deal
2009- Artist on Residence South Bank, PhD Candiate SMARTlab
Senior Lecturer, Digital Journalism University of Westminster devised online module - IMVJ Integrated multimedia videojournalism which involves css/html/xml dreamweaver site building story telling combined with design/SEO writing, site architecture and behaviour, Flash, AE, Photoshop and Director with short , feature length and long format free framing videojournalism - in which I made a few stories for Channel 4 News based on my foreign affairs background as a member of Chatham House. I channel those into making features, as well as training like this one from Beirut etc.

You'll find a good example of IMVJ being my site www.viewmagazine.tv and soon I'll post the current installment from my International Masters students (I'm currently marking) which is just superb work.

- other work at Uni. launch team ( Editor in the field) NATO War Games conflict training programme

-Co designed interactive news training programme, further developed by colleague, sold onto BBC Journalism College.

-co developed with Press Association their first videojournalism programme

- Developed news futures. Multidiscipline project with students presenting to the BBC about the future.

-consulted with The Financial Times training on the videojournalism programme

Juror member: International Videojournalism Awards (Berlin); Royal Television Society for innovation in Broadcast (London)

Sample of talks/training given: Press Association/Telegraph Newspapers; Chicago SunTimes (Training); SXSW (Austin Texas); Miami WeMedia; Flash on the Beach (Brighton); Apple stores (Regent Street), Journalism conference (Norway) World Association of Newspapers (Sweden); Annual Media conference (Egypt), Consulting ( Beirut) Online News Association (New York) Batten Awards ( Washington Press Club) MWASA/ SAUJ (South Africa). More here Press and Comments


Up to early 2000s Independent Producer and Videojournalist working with a number of outfits:Creative Director for Ex-Saatchi breakaway agency headed up by its former
head of TV, Jon Staton ( developed XTP movement for TV stations on London underground.
PRODUCTIONS: using camera/editing/and or reporting
° Riz Khan Production - working with Riz Khan ( CNN) on BBC WS Production, The Hajj Pigrimage, edited and posted using digital laptop technology
° Intelligence and the New World Order, ICA. with Jon Snow.
° Videojournalist for Lennox Lewis with his World title with Tyson in Memphis.
° Corporate promo video producer for Washington-Based UN Lobbyist,
broadcast on CNN International, and Nobel Peace Prize recipients, MSF

(UK General Election) Political Producer – Power House (Channel 4’s Political Show) Producing programmes which audited key policies of the main
parties using accountants BDO Stoy Hayward e.g. Pensions, Tax, Crime. Online reference from Editor, Andrew Brown (brother of Prime Minister)
Freelance Producer - Channel 4 News/ITN, BBC Breakfast News
Produced long/short format news items for broadcast. Made South African election film “The Second Generation”, from Johannesburg looking
at the country’s new social community of urban professionals.

Senior Producer - Global Media Alliance (US media agency managed by Turner International’s head of Africa region) specialising in international programmes. Examples of work include producing and directing expedition film on British/Turkish return to Gallipoli – TX: OUTLOOK, BBC WS.
Consultant and Producer/ Director - first international African states co-production (see online www.mrdot.co.uk/David for cuttings)

Mid 90s Television Producer - World Wide Television News, (WTN) Camden
° Producing news and feature stories for global clients.

Videojournalist - Channel One TV (Associated Newspapers) Produced 500 stories per year
° Multi-skilled TV Station where producers/VJs shot on Betacams, edited on AVID and voiced their own reports. MD was Nick Pollard (Sky News)

Early 90s Freelance Radio/TV Correspondent and Producer in South Africa
e.g. of work, director/producer Through the Eyes of a Child - experiences
South Africa’s young before the election.
° Presenter, researcher BBC Radio 4 documentary, First Time Voters – 4 young South Africans vote in their first election. Associate Producer
for ABC News Journalism training with MWASA and the IFJ: Training the Trainer –
programme to teach senior media managers about learning outcomes

Early 90s BBC TV & Radio and Training
° AP/ Reporter – BBC Reportage, BBC 2 Television
° Presenter/Producer - BBC GLR Magazine programme/ BBC Radio 5
° Researcher – BBC Newsnight

1987-89 ° BBC Radio Leicester Freelance Reporter.

Education
Digital broadcast technology at The London Institute.
Distinction Modules in International Relations at the LSE International School
(1) Politics of Global Finance (2) Emerging Economies
Post grad Journalism/ TV production - Falmouth School of Art & Design

BSc Applied Chemistry, Demontford University
Alevels: Chemistry, Physics and Biology (9 O levels)
Spent 8 years in Ghana. Speak the local languages


Membership Director, Broadcast Journalism Training Council
Member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs since 1994.


Awards/Commendations
2009 Wemedia (Miami) for multimedia, 2006 International VJ Awards/Wemedia (American Press Institite) Fellowship, 2005 US Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism, First Place, 2001 Interactive current affairs Co- Finalist 2001, C4 Digital Awards Unleash the Talent Inside.

Press/Publications David’s work has been featured in a number of publications: Economist
BLUE PRINT – Digital technology and Film Making
THE PRODUCERS – New World Order in Digi Film making
ICA – New aesthetics in digi film making,
CREATION MAGAZINE – War Cameramen and Videojournalism…working in the West Bank
EVENING STANDARD
TRANSITIONS – Hollywood digital filmmakers manual on digital editing
BBC ARIEL (BBC in-house magazine) – Dispatches in South Africa. Also, THE TIMES/SOUTH AFRICA TIMES….

Video Journalism overall muscle power-speed

Vjism - nimble, less load, small, if you're not fast, what's the point?

It's not that as a videojournalist you'll necessarily be quick. The project has a lot to do with it and I believe so does your experience, which comes from developing a critical eye c.f Cahiers du Cinema.

Truffaut et co studied so much cinema, that they were ready to go it alone sans baggage.

There is no substitute for experience and bloody mindedness. The film isn't finished until its finished and then some.

If you've never done a TDB, till day break, you're missing something.

No I'm being facetious. But a televisual mindset heightened by VJ practice, knowing appropriate short cuts and techniques goes some way in alleviating deadline nerves.

In part and I've had this confirmed by many of the former C1 videojournalists, shooting 2 sometimes 3 stories a day over years, varying from politics to crime quickens the senses.

And there are praxis exercises I use in advanced videojournalism e.g. Track & Rushes, Image-syntax etc. for those who already know how to shoot and are looking for speed.

In Norway, as an exercise approaching an interviewee cold, it took 9 minutes in total from an initial meeting to the interview being online.

Here's one I demoed in Podgorica - Macedonia

Untitled from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

And here's the result with effectively little editing

Results - How to create a multiple angle interview in 3 mins from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

Now there's no bravado in speed if that compromises professionalism. That's not what this is about.

Tomorrow I'm going to test that theory for the umpteenth time again. The Obama Video I have made for the Orchestra will have to be redone in a matter of minutes, as new stronger material has been pledged.

Recent Updates (August 2010)
Lots of interest in this short piece, so I wanted to update you.

The Obama Piece took three hours to do before the main orchestral performance. You can see that on viewmagazine.tv after the preview on the site illustrated below


The issue is a balance between the premeditated which TV often subscribes to; the researched item must fit the shoot, and looking for and interpreting fresh material.

I remember reading a review of Japanese actor-director Takeshi Kitano and his fim Brother in which actor Omap Epps said he was amazed at how many scenes they'd get through in a day. Kitano, shot one scene, got his cover shots and moved on.

Similarly if you liken cinema to a language, as James Motano in How to read a film does, you can begin to understand how n improves ones skills. I have spoke about this at length on other posts. Also see the Matrix Lecture for approaching a subject sideways

So, as I write this, I'm rarely making any mistakes and crossing them out; as I speak to a friend I'm able to string together coherent sentences.

There is no difference, only that constructed in the wilderness of semitotics to the way we may think when we arrive at a scene. I consider myself the same as a newspaper copy editor, able to spot the buried lead.

Speed at the expense of accuracy is one thing; speed; the artists' temperament is quite something else. See you on Viewmagazine.tv

EAT from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

Eat

Get Rewired -Transform your journalist brain

 

Rewiring the brain and changing habits and attititudes to fit the postmodern journalist: the uber journalist, the multimedia journalists.

--

Zinedine Zidane, the retired French maestro of football says he misses the greens of the pitch. We miss him too. He had a great football brain.

The late Stanley Kubrick is recognised by Spielberg et al as creating the best ending to a movie in Paths of Glory. He possessed a marvelous film brain.

Some of the greatest journalists of our times: Vitali Vitaliev, Cronkite, Dimblebee had remarkable journalist brains. But what do we mean by that?

And what about now? Is there such a thing as a multimedia journalist brain? I suspect there are two different types of journalists in this web 2.0 era and I'm not talking radio verses TV.
 

Autoself On
I studied Applied Chemistry, which amounted to many years prior of studying the Sciences, but I was also interested in Art and the Arts. I took Art "O-level", and only gave up afterwards, because I needed to make a choice.

The episteme of the arts and science occupy polar schools of theory and knowledge. Art employs metaphor and image, while science utilises numbers and equations, says LeonardShlain in Art and Physics.

In student common rooms both set of students tend to dress differently, work differently and exhibit different demeanors. That, much I know from hanging about with Art students.

Then I went to journalist school. In journalism it was about the rigour. There was process. We might have been creative in the story construction at Channel 4 News, but the canvas was hemmed into the parameters of what we define as news.

Auto self Off - The Multimediaist

The Internet out of its net- The Outernet from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

Multimedia embraces technologists, artistry and media. You'll debate around the houses about where and when it was first used, but I'm opting for a contemporary peg from the works of F.TMarinetti and the manifesto of he futurist cinema 1916 .

When Marinetti says

"We shall set in motion the words-in-freedom that smash the boundaries of literature as they march towards painting, music, noise-art and throw a marvelous bridge between the word and real object."

He might as well have been speaking about multimedia, though this statement is attributed to Cinema.

Technologist Vannevar Bush's 1945 essay "As we May Think" is a vastly painted ambitious world of tomorrow's unfolding multimedia.

Gibson (Neuromancer) puts multimedia as an ongoing discovery of how things ( mind and universe) fit together. It's not an invention, but a development. Then there's MIT's Media Lab.

In a research film I'm yet to put together the positions of different camps within multimedia come across are clearly.

ZDF, Mainz, (public service TV) which has fully embraced multimedia programme making.

In processing, reading taxes the left side of the brain, whilst images (TV and PC) the right.

So here's the big question. Could it just be that in spite of our attempts and successful ones in many cases, there is fundamental aspect of multimedia training, which does not start on a two week training course, but way before?

It embraces behaviour, psychology, attitude, creativity, work flow - an unfolding meme. The advance maths of my degree allows me to see multimedia as calculus (see image below). What's more it's arguable traditional journalism and its reliance on the word is at odds with a mash up pop culture of art and images.

The analogy of multimedia ( some journos just can't see it)

By way of an analogy, consider the difference between the digital native and digital ignorant journalist and I'm thankful to my good friend Barry Sandland from MSF for this thought-bubble.

The digitally ignorant journalists sees their work as a process of discovery and division of labour. Furthermore they can't and won't reconcile any notion of the validity of ablog/tweet/vj piece/ongoing thread, and that it adds value to new journalism, even when its subjective.

The digitally native, sees no distinction between the tools and process. Am I digitally native? I knew a world before the net, so don't fall neatly into the marketeers social bracket.

But I did know when I was diving 50 metres into the sea in 1999 in search of a forgotten war ship that it would merit multimedia packages: a radio piece for the world service, a video package, a Flash promo, a website and an article and diary, which I posted online. For me this whole process was merely the circulation of ones and zeros.

But back to the real (emotive word) digital native. Who are they?

They'll twit; pass you onto to their blog, which will subjective and describe behind the scenes; write the article which will be objective; make the video; build the pod; shoot of the promo, with SEO; and build the site; and then some (watch for the next app).

They'll do this because it's as normal as reading the papers. And each iteration will be different, adding context to background, to news - that you can use.

CNN says "Kill what you can eat". The Digital Native Multimediaist says "Eat anything there is to sustain you".

David sees a mathematical representation of multimedia via Integration.

And the future multiamediast won't be tied to traditional journalist outlays. There's a new world opening up, if we trend extrapolate, which traditional journalism will have to respond to or surely atrophy. But that's a different post altogether.

-
NB this week I'll be reporting from Miami's WeMedia. Also hopefully tomorrow, I should be in a position to sort out some archive I have just discovered for Viewmagazine.tv, which includes an extended interview with Louis Farrakhan, Ertha Kitt.

Videojournalism is not a one-size-fits-all medium'

Videojournalism is not a one-size-fits-all medium'

Posted: 17/11/08 By: David Dunkley Gyimah
email this story | post a comment

Tom Donaldson of Pencil Technologies has seen tomorrow: a Bluetooth device which sends a message by proxy, flea-hopping to contacts in your network.

As a group of us observe this technology at a London research gathering of The Smart Lab I can see other apps: a Star Trek moment of literally calling up video to your desktop; and video hyperlinking [linking videos together in the same way as a hyperlink] to extend the timeline of the story - an area I have been researching.

But that's for tomorrow.

Here and now it is video that continues its mushroom cloud expansion online and videojournalism rising upon the crest. It's a far cry from writing in this column almost two years ago when video on broadband was found a tad wanting.

Some interesting observations are unfolding: videojournalism's pervasiveness yields passionate debate with online you'll find stern voices defining its genius and standards of production and delivery.

Continues on Journalism.co.uk