Invest more in eduction for online journalists (Henk van Ess)

In a movie that summarizes a study of the NVJ and Radboud University about the use of internet by journalists, Henk van Ess (Investigative journalist and online reporter, see www.voelspriet.nl) argues that media companies and journalist should invest more in eduction so that journalists can make fully advantage of the possibilities of the web.

I agree with Henk. I'm very proud to have the courses online journalism and online research (CARR) included in the Master Program of the Lessius University College. In my opinion, this kind of education is essential for future journalist, and as a consequence for courses in journalism. Not only the online tricks and tools are useful, but also, and maybe more important, the knowledge and belief that better journalism is possible when being creative and innovative with the internet and in general new media.

Google maps in online news

Among today's stories on GVA.be, one receives my attention. In this article, the journalist inserted a google map feature (although made by somebody else) to illustrate a news story (an overview of different politicians who commited fraud). Although it is in fact a basic feature, this deserves a big applause.

Whiter shade of pale

Thursday, I'll welcome the students of the Master of Journalism on their first day of an intensive year that will be the finishing touch in their strive to become a professional journalist. I plan to start with some quotes of this essay written by Mark Deuze about the future of professional journalists. I wonder how many of the students' faces will turn a 'whiter shade of pale'.

Distinct types of multimedia features

In this article on the Online Journalism Review, different types of multimedia are highlighted:
1) animated infographics (how does that plain crash happened?)
2) infotoys (applications that let you play with data)
3) narratives (slideshow of pictures and voice)
4) you are there (detailed information based on consumer's choice)
5) bop's (big old packages, a complex story presented by the use of different modalities)

Three remarks:
1) So far I know, these kinds of multimedia-applications are not common in Flemish online news media. I'll try to motivate the students of my course to develop these new forms of telling a story, or at least be aware of the possibilities and the benefits it brings for the news consumer. As the article concludes: "the real winners are the news audience".
2) Is it? Are the online news consumers the real winners? Do they just appear to have a nicer 'surfing behavior'? Or do they learn better from these multimedia packages? In the spring of 2008, I'll try to include some multimedia packages in my learning experiments to find out whether there are some differences in learning outcome between a static and multimedia story.
3) The description of animated infographics touches a great issue of defining multimedia. The author makes the difference between a static graphic for print publication and the animated storytelling picture. What's in fact the difference between these two, apart from the fact that the latter is non-static? Pictures are not multimedia, moving pictures are multimedia? So the moving thing is essential? And what if the static picture was combined with a narrative voice-over? Should we label that static picture + voice as multimedia? I'll try to answer these questions in a paper/article I've been working on during the last few weeks in which I propose a redefinition of the concept of multimedia, a concept until today defined as the combination of text, pictures and sound but which deserves a better definition in this digital age.

User-news agenda differs from mainstream news agenda

A new PEJ-study reveals that the agenda of user-news sites like Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us differs from that of mainstream media. However I think it is difficult to define this kinds of user-generated of user-centered media as news media (many of the topics are not 'real news' but entertainment, advertisments, reviews, ...), this study confirms that citizens and journalists are driven by other personal, economical and organisational factors. One thing is clear: the existance of user-news and mainstream news is good for everybody, leading to a more pluriform and diverse news agenda.