1. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is any good multimedia project worth its salt.

2. You want to do video? You're gonna have to pay for a decent video camera.

3. Every story doesn't require an elaborate Flash project.

4. No, Twitter is not a bird, it's the next wave of journalism.

5. Waiting until a story has run in the paper first isn't just ridiculous; it's a recipe for failure.

6. If you're going to triple my workload, you're eventually going to have to pay me more.

7. Sure, the local blogger posted the story five minutes before we did, but we'd rather be accurate than fast.

8. The web is not a dumping ground for stories.

9. Time to wise up to the internets buddy, before you're laid off too.

10. Being an "online news director" requires a thorough understanding of online news.

11. Multimedia skills don't just appear; you gotta pony up the dough for training.

12. I'm not surfing the internet, I'm doing research.

Labels: news on the news

The recent launch of Apple's App Store mean millions of iPhone users will have hundreds of handy applications available at their fingertips. Many of these apps make it easier bloggers and reporters to work on the go. For those that don't have an iPhone or the newest incarnation the 3G, perhaps its time to considering purchasing one.


1. SpeakEasy Voice Recorder
Average Rating: 3 Stars Price: $4.99

From the developer: Record and playback notes, reminders, or just about anything from your iPhone's built-in microphone. SpeakEasy gives you a recording studio that fits into your pocket. Intuitive and fun, SpeakEasy is the premier voice recorder for your iPhone.

• Record voice memos, reminders, lectures, meetings, or anything you wish.
• Add a title, comments, or even a photo from your photo library or camera while recording.
• Group and organize your recordings by category.
• Interruption protection lets you pick up and continue your recording after a phone call interruption.
• Pause and continue recording with a single touch.
• Playback and quickly scan your recordings with the touch slider.

2. Writing Pad
Average Rating: 4 Stars Price: Free

From the developer: Store notes and send email using ShapeWriter on your iPhone. ShapeWriter is a revolutionary text input technology that enables you to enter text into the iPhone by tracing word shapes rather than typing letters. Each shape traced on the soft keyboard with your finger is recognized as a word. Error correction is fast and easy. For rare names and acronyms, type only once and you will be able to shape write the next time. Shape writing is many times more efficient than letter-based handwriting recognition.




3. WordPress
Average Rating: 3½ Stars Price: Free

From the developer: Robust but simple to use, the WordPress for iPhone Open Source application allows you to create and edit content on your WordPress blog(s) with support for offline use. The app includes the following features:

• Support for WordPress.com blogs and self-installed WordPress blogs (version 2.5.1 and higher)
• Embedded Safari for true previews of posts
• Full support for tags and categories
• Photo support for both camera pics and library photos
• Support for multiple blogs
• Ability to password protect a post, save as draft, or mark for later review
• Auto-recovery feature recovers posts interrupted by phone calls

4. TypePad
Average Rating: 3½ Stars Price: $4.99

From the developer: Update your blog and share pictures with the world from wherever you are with TypePad. Built to connect with the award-winning TypePad blogging service, TypePad for iPhone and iPod touch enables you to...

• Write new posts for your blog in just a few seconds.
• Post photos to your blog from your iPhone's camera or photo albums.
• Alert your friends when you post to your blog by automatically updating Twitter.

With TypePad on your iPhone or iPod touch, you can share your ideas and photos as they happen, from wherever you are. And since it integrates with TypePad on your desktop, you get all the great features of the world's premier blogging service.




5. Twitterific
Average Rating: 3½ Stars Price: Free

From the developer: A fun application that lets you read and publish posts (called "tweets") on the Twitter social network. Stay connected with friends, family, and co-workers through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?




6. Kyte Producer
Average Rating: 3½ Stars Price: Free

From the developer: Use your iPhone to instantly share photos and slideshows with your friends on Myspace, Facebook, or any website, blog or mobile phone.
Instantly broadcast pictures as you take them, or create slideshows from your iPhone's picture gallery. You can even chat with your audience in real-time!




7. EverNote
Average Rating: 3½ Stars Price: Free

From the developer: Evernote helps you remember everything from your real and digital life using whatever device or platform you find most convenient.

Evernote for iPhone is part of the Evernote service. With it, you can take notes, snap photos, create to-do lists. and record audio. Everything is seamlessly synchronized with the web, and made available across all the devices and platforms you use, including iPhone, Evernote for Mac, Evernote Web, and Evernote for Windows.
Snap photos of any thing from whiteboards to business cards to wine labels, and Evemote will make the text within those images searchable.

Need something from last week or last year? Evernote instantly connects to the Evernote web service so you can get what you need. Find what you're looking for by searching or filtering by tag, date, location. and more.




8. NetNewsWire
Average Rating: 3 Stars Price: Free

From the developer: NetNewsWire is an RSS reader for iPhone — you can read news from the millions of weblogs and sites that publish RSS feeds.
Because NetNewsWire syncs with all of NewsGator's free RSS readers, if you read an item on your iPhone, you don't have to read it again on your Macintosh or other computer. It's automatically marked as read everywhere.
You can also save items for later via the Clippings feature, and any item you clip is available on your other computers. It's an easy way to save something to read when you have more time.




9. Jott for iPhone
Average Rating: 3 Stars Price: Free

From the developer: Jott for iPhone is the ultimate mobile notepad that turns your voice into notes. Capture your to-dos as quickly as you can say" Get strawberries for dessert. "We transcribe your voice into text and place the resulting notes in your lists. When you complete items, just cross them off with a swipe of your finger.

All of your lists are backed up on Jott.com, where you can manage them when you are at your computer. For existing Jott customers, your lists and notes will load after you've downloaded the app (may take a minute if you have a lot).




10. Lonely Planet
Average Rating: 2½ Stars (Spanish) to 4½ Stars (Vietnamese) Price: $4.99

From the developer: Want to never be at a loss for words, no matter where you are in the world? With your iPhone, and a little help from Lonely Planet, you'll have the local lingo licked.

Lonely Planet, the world's leading travel company, now offers its 10 most popular phrasebooks in downloadable audio format, specially tailored to make the most of your iPhone. Don't just skim the surface on your next trip; with 530 spoken (and phonetically written) phrases in each guide, you can shop, socialise and shout like a native.





And a few worth copying by other news organizations...


Fox News UReport
Average Rating: 3 Stars Price: Free

From the developer: FOX News wants you to report the news. The uReport Application for iPhone allows you to do just that. You can easily take or select pictures of news happening around you and send them directly to FOX News Channel from your iPhone. If we determine your submission is newsworthy, your photo could appear online or even on air!




MLB.com At Bat
Average Rating: 3 Stars Price: $4.99


From the developer: MLB.com At Bat from MLB.com, the official site of Major League Baseball, delivers real-time scores and in-game video highlights of every game directly to your iPhone.

You'll get each highlight moments after the play happens so you never miss the important action. The application will automatically detect your network and play video encoded for either EDGE/3G or Wi-Fi bitrates. MLB.com At Bat will provide this breakthrough service for the remainder of the 2008 season - including playoffs and World Series. It's a whole new ballgame!




Now Local
Average Rating: 3 Stars Price: Free

From the developer: NowLocal is the best way to find news that's happening around you. Using the iPhone's location services, NowLocal automatically delivers you news from the best local sources, wherever you are. So as you move from place to place, it's easy to quickly check what's going on around you.




For more news iPhone news apps, click over to Mindy McAdams.

Labels: audio, blogging, mobile, photos, rss, social networking

As part of the "Multimedia Shootout" held at this week's UNITY conference, I created a project called "Chicago, in Color" aimed at celebrating diversity in Chicago. I knew the obvious story would be to go to Chinatown and barbershops to interview local residents, but I wanted to give a voice to those who couldn't speak for themselves: the monuments and statues of the Windy City. The entire project was created in a span of 48 hours.





And here's how I did it. I found that there was no easily accessible existing resource on Chicago public art so I went to Flickr and searched for "Chicago statues" and "Chicago monuments." I whittled down the list to four: The Chicago Mural, The Spearman/The Bowman, Benito Juárez and Willie Dixon's Blues Garden. All four are mapped on an interactive Flash map (download FLA here). The accuracy of the map was created by using Photoshop to trace over an existing Google Map which was created in 5 minutes with MapBuilder (download PSD here). The icons were also silhouetted in Photoshop.


1. Chicago Mural

All the photos for the project were taken with my iPhone. Although the mural seems like one seamless photo it is actually stitched together in Photoshop (not in camera) using layers and the cloning tool. The sliding element was created in Flash (download FLA here) using one of my favorite tutorials from kirupa.com on interactive image panning.


2. The Spearman/Bowman

The rotating effect used in this interactive image was created by taking a photo at the time with the iPhone and taking a step to the left or right to create the intervals. Because the photos didn't line up accurately, all of them were layered on top of each other in Photoshop (download PSD here) and resized and color corrected to ensure continuity. All the photos were then imported into Flash and distributed over several keyframes (download FLA here).



3. Benito Juárez

The Flash slideshow of the Mexican leader was perhaps the easiest facet of the project. The photos were taken with the iPhone, only one of which was (badly) color corrected, and uploaded into Flash (download FLA here). The audio was recorded with a $450 Olympus recorder in an empty room in my hotel, but could have just as easily been done with an El Cheapo recorder. The track was edited for pauses, ums and ahs in about ten minutes using Adobe Audition.


4. Willie Dixon's Blues Garden

The backlighting in this photo project could have been corrected with a more high end camera, but one was not available to me so I simply used the same technique I had used for The Spearman...click, step, click, step. The photos were also aligned in Photoshop and imported into a simple Flash slideshow (download FLA here). The music (and this is a big NO NO) was stripped from YouTube using online file converter Zamzar. It was then edited in Audition and uploaded into Flash. This is a likely violation of copyright law (even though the clip is less than 30 seconds), but in this case was only used for demonstration and will likely be pulled some time in the very near future.


Design

The design was created in Photoshop and exported as one big background image with a hole for the Flash projects (a big design no no, but less time consuming than coding the necessary CSS). The menu on the right is actually a Flash project with transparent buttons overlaid on top of the Photoshopped background (download FLA here). The whole thing was cobbled together in Dreamweaver.


Needless to say, this was the only project of its kind submitted for the Multimedia Shootout which was both a blessing and a curse. The project, which mirrors what a mainstream news outlet is likely to produce, stood out from the other 20 entries that were simply slideshows or video. I acknowledge that everyone doesn't have such a varied skilled set, but this type of project can be put together with the right team and the right tools.

Labels: audio, flash, maps, photos

This post is one in a series covering the multimedia sessions at the 2008 UNITY Journalists conference

A few minutes ago, I walked out of a session I intended to cover called "Adventures in Multimedia." When asked why by a colleague, I responded that I can't stand multimedia journalism theory. One can hear said theory when media professionals discuss the state of the industry and its decline and that multimedia is its savior. They discuss how we need to bridge the gap between print and online through video, Flash and other multimedia elements.

But what the panelists and some talking heads fail to impart is the practical tools to make this happen. Often newsrooms talk about convergence without equipping their reporters with the proper knowledge of online tools, either through training or workshops. The best multimedia journalists are sometimes those who take it upon themselves to learn the various tools in a multimedia journalist's arsenal, without prompting from a supervisor or employer.

The online revolution in journalism will never happen unless news organizations make a financial commitment to training their existing staff and making an investment in the future of the company.

Labels: news on the news

This post is one in a series covering the multimedia sessions at the 2008 UNITY Journalists conference



1. Remember the rule of thirds.

2. Use a tripod every time.

3. Same goes for headphones.

4. Use a wide shot to set the scene.

5. White balance before every setup.

6. Lay off the fancy transitions.

7. If you can get closer without zooming, do it.

8. Always shoot B-roll.

9. And pre-roll.

10. Rock and roll.

11. Use an external microphone whenever possible.

12. Remember video on the web is seen on relatively small screens.

13. Lose the auto focus.

14. Experiment with your camera's features...before you shoot. Be sure to restore settings after.

15. Bring extra batteries.

For more check out this previous post.

Labels: video

This post is one in a series covering the multimedia sessions at the 2008 UNITY Journalists conference



1. Use the correct microphone (ex: cardioid, omnidirectional, unidirectional).

2. Take notes for reference to ensure quicker editing.

3. Don't talk over your subject.

4. Use headphones!

5. Expensive doesn't always mean best when it comes to recorders.

6. Leave the noisy jewelry at home.

7. Hold the mic 6 inches from the speaker.

8. Wind is your enemy.

9. Garage Band and Audacity are your friends. Your free friends.

Labels: audio

This post is one in a series covering the multimedia sessions at the 2008 UNITY Journalists conference


When speaking of multimedia journalism, many people reference video, audio, photo, Flash, and any other number of new age instruments for telling a story. But text is sometimes an afterthought. At a session on multimedia storytelling, I came to a sudden realization that as much emphasis as we put on the more visually stunning technology, good text will always be the foundation of any website, news or otherwise.

Text is what pulls in search engines and, in turn, visitors. If they don't like what they are reading, whether it be a story, blog post, or caption, they won't return. Be sure to check your text!

The rest of the web knows how to link: if you get information from another site, common courtesy indicates you should link back to the original source.

But many online journalists haven't quite adopted that reasoning. There is still a prevailing theory among many journalists that the blogs we ransack for leads or story ideas are not actual news sources and do not merit attribution. Add to that a resistance to linking to any outside site for fear that visitors will be led away from the page and the result is a slew of professional journalists who are linkphobic.

Back in February, Robert Niles wrote a helpful primer on how, and where, to hyperlink a news story. Clearly, some people never read it. Recently, there has been an outcry from bloggers who are seeing mainstream publications source their original content without attribution.

The SEO Company has an informative table that shows which online media powerhouses are linking to sites outside of their own. Interestingly, many sites only link in their blog posts and not in their main stories. SEO makes a good point about linking out:

We believe that linking to useful websites doesn't "leak" traffic - quite the opposite in fact. Offering useful links actually makes visitors more likely to return to see what other interesting websites they might find in the future[...] Mainstream media websites are, with the exception of the BBC, business entities with shareholders and an obligation to maximise profits. It's understandable that they are reluctant to send valuable page views elsewhere.

Here is the cardinal rule of internet journalism: A link should be added to any story if the information is based on that from another site, even if it is from a blog. Anything else is plagiarism and just wrong.

Web journalists should also link to sites that readers may find useful. For example, if a theatrical production is being reviewed, a link to purchasing tickets may be helpful. Or if a Crime Stoppers-like organization has more detailed information on a crime suspect, provide a link for readers to follow.

Hyperlinking can be a form of journalism itself. Two excellent blogs, Journerdism and shiner.clay, both provide collections of links to stories that may be interesting to readers.

To those who are still apprehensive about the whole linking thing, do not be afraid that readers will leave your site. If you continue to provide, well-written, one-of-a-kind content, readers will keep coming back.

Labels: blogging, news on the news, site management

Here at 10,000 Words, I discuss a lot of online tools and their journalistic applications. But what tools do I actually use? The long list begins here:


Online tools

Zamzar
Sometimes I'm stuck with an audio or video file that isn't in the format that I need. A quick conversion through Zamzar and I'm ready to go. Also great for converting YouTube videos to MP3s.

Google Reader
At last count I subscribe to 75 blogs, ranging from journalism and technology to entertainment and hometown news. Google Reader helps he keep them all organized and it's star feature helps me save longer posts for later.

Google Docs
I use the online documents to organize blog posts and future story ideas. Accessible from any internet-connected computer.

del.icio.us
Before a potential blog item or link is added to Google Docs it is organized through del.icio.us. Also used for great examples of design and various personal items.

FM Atlas/Map Builder
My two tools for creating Google Maps like this one here. The former I use for speed, the latter for versatility.

iStockPhoto
Most of the glamorous clip art seen on 10,000 Words comes from iStockPhoto. It can get a little pricey, but I know I can always find exactly what I need. I also use the site when I need to cut corners for a deadline project.

definr
Quick dictionary tool.

Flickr
My use of Flickr Is twofold: to upload personal and family photos and to search for Creative Commons photos for use on 10,000 words or elsewhere.

Photobucket
Most of the images and photos you see on 10,000 Words are hosted here.

cl1p.net
Copy and paste tool previously discussed here.


Software

FastStone Screen Capture
The simplest screen capture tool I've ever used and, besides Notepad, the program I use most frequently.

Final Cut Pro
The best video editing software money can buy. I can still haven't mastered half the things FCP is capable of.

Adobe Audition
Screw Audacity. I'd rather pay a little extra for an audio editing program that won't give me a headache.

Photoshop
Whether it's designing stories for Entertainment Weekly, or touching up personal photos, this is my go to program.

Andrea Mosaic
To create mosaics like the ones seen here and here, I simply put the photos I want into a folder and Andrea does the rest.

Image Video Machine
The software extracts still images from video and is useful in creating montages or screenshots for work-related projects.

Internetcalls
My VoIP of choice, particularly because of the 300 free minutes a week for local calls.

Flash
An important tool in the multimedia journalist's arsenal

Dreamweaver
See above.


Social Networks

Wired Journalists
The site reminds me that I am not the only multimedia journalist in the world and that there are others struggling with the same issues I am.

Visual Editors
Just joined at the behest of all-star journalist Martina Stewart. Looks good so far.

LinkedIn
Helps me stay in touch with coworkers and other journalists. I will even write a recommendation once in awhile.

Facebook
It's my virtual yearbook and a way to stay in contact with friends.

MySpace
Somewhere out there my MySpace still exists. I rarely check it though and the only reason I haven't closed it down is because I once had a potential employer contact me through the site.

Technorati
Besides Google Analytics, this is the way I find out who is linking to 10,000 Words and in the process, I discover some great blogs.

StumbleUpon
Quite simply the best tool for discovering content I didn't know I needed.

Twitter
I am using a Twitter in conjunction with 10,000 Words from now until July 27, the close of the UNITY conference. Because I spend so much of my time online, I know that I could fall prey to Twittering every detail of my life, something I'm not ready to commit to.


Miscellaneous

Phone My Phone
I lose my phone a lot. I mean way more than the average person. Phone My Phone helps me locate it in even the deepest crevices.

Naked Alarm Clock
When I just want to fall asleep at my desk or remind myself to step away from the computer, I use the Naked Alarm Clock. Its loud alarm clock works every time.

Jango Radio
I use to listen to music on Pandora while I was at work, but I now appreciate the fewer restrictions I find at Jango.


I'm sure I have a missed quite a few, but I will edit this post as I remember.

Scientists have made amazing discoveries about the human body over the years, but because journalists and scientists speak two different languages, trying to explain those discoveries can be difficult. What better way to explain the complex processes of the body than through new media?

Specialized Bicycle Components has put together an amazing interactive Flash animation to demonstrate how bicycles, and more specifically the company's products, interact with the human body. The centerpiece of the project is a figure stripped down to blood, bone and sinew that mimics the different movements of a bicycle rider. Users can toggle between a number of bike moves, including the spin and the hammer, and simultaneously isolate several systems in the body, including the nervous and circulatory systems.




The next presentation isn't for the faint of heart (pun intended). Hybrid Medical Animation, in order to present the viewer with a clearer understanding of the beating heart, has created the Hybrid Interactive Heart. Users can toggle between the opaque tissue of the organ and a "glass" version that shows the inner workings of the heart. The result is absolutely mind-blowing and somewhat hypnotic. A similar video animation shows the beating heart with blood flow.




As part of its Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit, the Museum of Modern Art hosts a project entitled The Inner Life of the Cell. According to the creators "We follow a macrophage as it patrols the wall of a capillary and encounters a chemical signal from a capillary cell indicating that an inflammatory event has occurred in surrounding tissue." In layman's terms, it is a visually stunning video that shows with scientific accuracy what's going on beneath the skin.




(Note: The next site is admittedly a little morbid but is totally safe to view at work.)

Interactive Autopsy, as it's name suggests, allows visitors to go through the steps of performing an autopsy, including removing and weighing the internal organs and cutting and stitching the body. In the middle of the interactive is a brief video of a forensic pathologist who discusses the removal of the brain. At the end of the project is a link to read more about the instruments used in autopsy that, honestly, rival those used in any Hollywood horror movie.

Labels: flash, video

I will be in Chicago next week at the UNITY: Journalists of Color conference where I will speak on multimedia storytelling. All next week, I will be either liveblogging and/or video blogging the conference and as many multimedia journalism-related sessions as possible. I will also be Twittering about UNITY starting July 21 (Follow me here!). I promise to leave no new media stone unturned.

I've written about liveblogging before and am considering using either CoverItLive or ScribbleLive which I have yet to test. If time permits, I will also post a conference day wrap up on YouTube and embed the video here. All in all, it promises to be an action packed week.

Labels: blogging

In this digital age it is a must that every journalist have a personal website that demonstrates his or her work. The following journalists are incorporating interactivity, blogs, video, audio, photos and more into their personal sites — all of which speak volumes more than traditional résumés.


Poh Si Teng
Freelance journalist, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia





Daniel Sato
Staff Photographer, Des Moines Register





Meranda A. Watling
Education reporter, Journal & Courier





Rachel Youens
Staff Reporter, Community Impact Newspaper





Brett Roegiers
Multimedia journalist, CNN.com





Lam Thuy Vo
Multimedia journalist, Wall Street Journal





John D. Sutter
Staff Writer, The Oklahoman





Drew Tewksbury
Multimedia Journalist, Los Angeles, California





Eric Ulken
Editor for Interactive Technology, latimes.com





Richard Cornish
Interaction designer, World Online/Lawrence Journal-World





Steven King
Multimedia Journalist, Chiang Mai, Thailand





Christine M. McKenna
Web producer/Consultant, WNET/PBS.org





Nick Trost
Journalism student, Seattle, Washington





Kelly West
Staff photographer, Austin American-Statesman





Tyson Anderson
Visual journalist/Graduating student, University of Missouri-Columbia

When Photoshop, GIMP or similar image editing programs aren't an option, there are more than a few online alternatives that will help make simple changes to your photos and images. No wacky morphing tools here; just the features journalists need.

1. Fotoflexer/Photobucket

Crop; resize; rotate; flip; hue/saturation/lightness; contrast; various Photoshop-like effects

2. Photoshop Express

Requires free registration; 2 GB storage; crop; rotate; resize; auto correct; exposure correction; red-eye removal; retouching; saturation; white balance; sharpen; color correction; various other effects

3. Picnik

"Auto-fix"; rotate; crop; resize; exposure correction; color correction; sharpen; red-eye correction

4. Pic Resize

Resize; crop; rotate; brightness/contrast; conversion; other effects

5. Snipshot

Resize; crop; enhancement features; exposure, contrast, saturation, hue and sharpness correction; rotate; grayscale

6. rsizr

For quick cropping and resizing

7. EasyCropper

For quick cropping and resizing

8. Pixenate

Enhancement features; crop; resize; rotate; color effects

9. Splashup

Requires free registration; Flash-based interface; resize; crop; layers; flip; sharpen; blur; color effects; special effects

10. FlauntR

Requires free registration; resize; rotate; crop; various effects



11 more imaging tools after the jump

11. LunaPic

Similar to Microsoft Paint; many features including crop, scale and rotate

12. Wiredness

Resize; crop; exposure correction; rotate; flip; color effects; brightness/contrast; sharpen; blur

13. 72photos

Requires free registration; 200 MB storage space; rotate; crop; effects including blur; picture enhancement

14. myImager.com

Resize; crop; rotate; flip; brightness/contrast, color adjustment; sharpen; blur; various effects; line drawing; border

15. Cellsea

Resize; crop; rotate; flip; blur; sharpen; color effects; various effects

16. VicImager

resize; flip; mirror; rotate; brightness/contrast, color adjustment; conversion; various effects

17. Onlinephototool.com

Similar to Microsoft Paint; many features including resize, crop, and filters

18. Online Image Editor

File conversion; crop; rotate; flip; color correction; border

19. Piccyfix

Rotate; flip; crop; colorize/tint; brightness; contrast; various effects; border; resize

20. pixer.us

Resize; crop; rotate; flip; brightness & contrast; saturation; color effects; blur, sharpen

21. FixPicture.org

Resize; crop; rotate; mirror effect; adjust brightness, contrast; various effects including sharpen and grayscale




Flickr photo by HailieJade used under Creative Commons license. Have a favorite non-Photoshop image correction tool? Share it in the comments.

Labels: photos

Coming up with lower thirds/chyrons/astons for the man on the street can be a challenging, but humorous process. Mike Sacks knows this and has put together a hilarious collection of "Photos of TV." Check it out, if only to end the week with a laugh.



For more Friday fun, check out mental floss' 10 Things I Learned from the AP Stylebook.

10,000 Words was created in response to a training workshop I participated in with editors from some of the top newspapers in the U.S. At the end of the workshop, the question was asked "Where can we go for more multimedia tutorials?"

There are several sites that provide tutorials for multimedia tools, but not in a journalistic context, and several multimedia blogs, many of which lament the state of the industry, yet don't showcase the tools to make multimedia happen. And thus 10,000 Words was born.

Here are the top 10 most read posts this year (Note: Google Analytics was only installed four months ago so this list favors more recent posts):


1. Wise words from a wise man

The posts that become popular are never the ones that I think will do so. I was very tired the day I began to craft this post, but I didn't want to not write anything altogether. So, I took one of my favorite quotes that had been at the top of my notes and found a few more Albert Einstein sayings to go along with it. The result is by far the most popular post in the history of this blog, mostly due to some insane (and ongoing) traffic from StumbleUpon.

2. 8 Ways of visualizing the news

3. Selecting the right font

4. 12 Creative uses of time-lapse photography

5. Barack Obama: political candidate, muse?

6. 8 Beautifully Designed Maps

7. 7 Gadgets for the eccentric journalist

8. 12 Useful online tools for journalists

9. How to make the most of your journalism internship

10. Essential social networks for journalists


And the first post ever on 10,000 Words: Cool v. Innovative Journalism. Now that I work at an entertainment magazine rather than a daily newspaper, a lot more "coolness" has been injected into my work. I still believe, however, that we as journalists should strive for innovation and function over flashy and cool.

Friday's launch of the iPhone 3G means that millions more people will change how they interact with their cell phones. The iPhone represents a growing opportunity for news organizations to take on the mobile web and to recoup tech savvy consumers who have shunned old forms of media.


Gone are the days of waiting for the evening paper or the 7 o'clock news to find out about the day's events. The iPhone provides instant information at the tap of a finger which gives users the ability to pull up any factoid in a matter of seconds.

This means even shorter deadlines for reporters, and even quicker turn around on blurbs that can be posted to the web immediately. It also means consumers will be more receptive to mobile video which, on the iPhone's predecessors, had to be viewed on a screen the size of a postage stamp. The phone currently has built-in YouTube access for those videos hosted on the video sharing site, but it puts a greater demand on Apple to create Flash compatibility on the phone so news sites can provide video in a central location.

If consumers continue to favor smartphones for newspapers, it spells the demise of the 100,000 word story that, let's be honest, no one but the Pulitzer Prize committee is reading anyway. Flowery language and intro paragraphs will eventually give way to succinct stories that can be read and digested quickly.

The iPhone's increasing popularity also means a definite increase in citizen journalism. Ordinary citizens can use the phone's built-in camera to take photos of news as it happens and email it to their local or national news outlet. Or, as more users become familiar with the phone's unique typing interface, they will post their own news in whatever manner they want.

Flickr is already seeing a rise in photographs submitted from iPhones, and several Twitter applications are making it easier to send news directly from the phone.

Many media companies, like the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and NPR have already acknowledged the technical capabilities of the phone by creating mobile-friendly sites. This is tame compared to the possibilities the iPhone holds.

The GPS-enabled phone is an untapped space for news organizations to provide extremely hyperlocal news directly to the reader by mapping news events happening directly around them. Imagine being able to access a map and know that a fire is happening right down the street from you.

The great barrier to mass adoption of new technology is often price. But now that the cost of the iPhone has dropped significantly (and perhaps even more in the future?), the number of iPhone and other smartphone users is likely to grow dramatically.

As technologically advanced as the iPhone is, it still lacks obvious features that still haven't been addressed in its latest iteration. But as the phone and other similar technologies grow and develop, the opportunities for new and innovative journalism will arise.

One can only hope that these developments will occur in the near future, but, as has been shown in the past, the field of journalism is slow to catch up to available technology. Journalism shouldn't be catching up to technology; it should be at the forefront of its creation.


For a list of iPhone development resources, visit Positive Space.

Labels: mobile, news on the news

In a continuation of 12 Useful online tools for journalists, here are 12 more tools for getting the job done.


Gcast
Computer-free podcasting

Who needs thousand of dollars in equipment (okay maybe hundreds) to record a podcast, when Gcast lets anyone record a podcast by calling a toll-free number on their phone? The recording isn't exactly broadcast quality, but it is useful for recording in the field.


Listen and Write
Improve note-taking

In the last post, Learn2Type was suggested as a means of improving typing skills. Well once you have the keyboard mastered, it's time to visit Learn and Write and practice recording skills while listening to actual news stories.


wikirage
Find out what's going on

Wikirage lists the pages in Wikipedia that are receiving the most edits per unique editor over various periods of time, according to the site. This means journalists can find out what's popular (or controversial) on the web and the world without leaving our cubicles.


Urban Dictionary
Speak the lingo

Language changes all the time and if you're covering teens and preteens, or just very cool adults, Urban Dictionary will help in translating those unheard of words. The dictionary was especially useful in helping a former editor understand the word homothug and whether it should be used in print.


Tablefy
Compare data

Tech savvy journalists love a good Excel spreadsheet, but if more of us use Tablefly, a useful tool for comparing one or more things to each other, then Excel may go the way of the dinosaur.


Alerts.com
Manage appointments

The free service makes it easy to juggle multiple appointments with sources, editors or whomever, by sending alerts directly to you by email, phone or text. The site can also send traffic and weather alerts, baseball scores and gas prices, or updates about your favorite websites.


Hey!Spread
Video distributor

Journalism is all about getting as many eyes on a story as possible. Hey!Spread makes it easier with their tool for distributing video to almost 20 different video hosts, including YouTube, Google Video and DailyMotion. P.S. It's not free.


SimplyNoise
Block out distractions

Newsrooms can be a noisy, raucous affair that makes it difficult to concentrate when writing a story. The white noise generator from SimplyNoise will block out your surroundings with just a slide of a little orb.


FindSounds
Find sounds (yes, it's that simple)

Producers, especially those in radio and multimedia, will appreciate this online search tool for finding all the booms, clicks, bangs and dings that make audio projects sing.


eufeeds
Stay in touch with the world

Eufeeds is a one-stop shop for finding out what newspapers around the world are reporting. Its front page can be used for quick scanning and reference or click one of the almost 30 countries to read several of its newspapers at once.


The Alphabetizer
Sort your lists

The aptly named Alphabetizer takes any lists and sorts in alphabetically in just a few seconds.


Time and Date
Distance calculator

Journalists, present company included, love to say this place is about X miles from this place. Instead of pulling out a ruler and map, use Time and Date's distance calculator to get a more accurate number. The calculator came in handy in this post when determining the distance between England and Israel.


And one bonus tool:

Tell Zell
Resignation form creator

For our colleagues at Tribune Co. properties, including the Los Angeles Times, this handy form will let you craft your resignation letter with just a few drop down menus. This would be hilarious if the situation wasn't so dire.

Labels: audio, video

Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, Katie Couric. All beloved American journalists. All on TV. Will there ever be a multimedia journalist to rise above the pack and become a star reporter? The field of multimedia journalism has it heroes: Dan Gillmor, Rob Curley, Adrian Holovaty, etc., but many of them are unknown to the mainstream public.

America is obsessed with celebrity and there is nothing to say a non-traditional journalist can't be the apple of America's eye. If newspapers are to go the way of the dinosaur, surely there will be a maverick new media journalist who will become America's sweetheart.

As I write this post, the first contender to come to mind is Kevin Sites of Hot Zone fame. Sites is an incredibly talented and resourceful backpack journalist, but judging by the swooning graduate students at his visit to the UC Berkeley J-School some time ago, you would have thought he was a rock star.

On the other hand, what makes one journalist more starworthy than another? What separates Ted Koppel from say Steve Edwards? That's up to America to decide, I guess.

Do you know any rock star multimedia journalists? Should the nation idolize the people behind the journalism? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Labels: news on the news