Echo Readers Create Unique Gallery

Life in Dorset is captured by the impressive collection of photos posted in response to an appeal from the Daily Echo.

The Bournemouth newspaper is encouraging readers to contribute to its Flickr group - A Dorset Year - as part of its aim to create a gallery showing a year in the life of the county and its residents.

All the photos are also published on the Daily Echo website and selected pictures feature in the newspaper.



Digital project co-ordinator Sam Shepherd told HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk that the gallery represents the newspaper’s efforts to interact with people in the area.

“There are so many people out there on the patch using Flickr so it was a way of getting them to engage with us,” said Shepherd.

So far, the group has attracted over 1,000 photos to its photostream and has more than 150 members.

Asylum Piece Wins Multimedia Award

A multimedia report revealing the plight of refused asylum seekers in the UK has won a photography award.

Still Human Still Here by freelancer Abbie Trayler-Smith has received first prize in the multimedia category of the Press Photographer’s Year 2009 competition.

The video uses still photos, moving images, text captions, audio excerpts from interviews and a soundtrack to tell the story of some of Britain’s most impoverished people.

All the elements work together to produce a captivating piece of photojournalism, which was posted to video-sharing site Vimeo four months ago.

Still Human Still Here - Refused asylum seekers in the UK. from panos pictures on Vimeo.

The report was produced by independent photo agency Panos Pictures and will be on view in an exhibition of all the winning entries at the National Theatre this summer.

Among the other 15 category winners were photographers from the BBC, Manchester Evening News, Getty Images and the Daily Mail.

[HT - HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk]

Mirror Launching Footie Site

A website dedicated to the beautiful game is set to be launched this year by Trinity Mirror.


The standalone multimedia site will feature text, video and photographic content from matches, reports the Guardian.

It will have a breaking news feed, blogs, and plenty of special features, such as a weekly video report from the ever popular Robbie Savage and a daily soccer show.

Fans will also be able to access a treasure trove of Mirror Group photographs capturing the highs and lows of English football over the decades.

MirrorFootball.co.uk is scheduled to go live this summer, in time for the start of the new season.

[Photo by Atomic Shed on Flickr.]

Guardian Crowdsources Plinth Project

Readers are being asked to help the Guardian capture every moment of the Fourth Plinth project in Trafalgar Square.

Designed by Antony Gormley, the public artwork will see human statues take to the plinth every hour for the next 100 days.

Photographic coverage of such an event represents a “massive undertaking”, said the Guardian, and therefore crowdsourcing is the newspaper’s chosen method for tackling it.

A Flickr group - Plinth Watch 2009 - has been created so users can post their pictures alongside those taken by Guardian photographers.



The editor’s picks of these readers’ pics will later be published on Guardian.co.uk and some could possibly be printed in the newspaper too.

Reporters have also set up a Twitter feed dedicated to updates about events on the plinth throughout the day.



In an article appealing for content, culture editor Alex Needham pointed out that the crowdsourcing approach reflects the spirit of the work itself.

Needham said: “One and Other is a work of art which will be created by the general public.

“It would be brilliantly apt if our coverage of it could be made in a similar spirit of mass participation.”

NPR Crowdsources Who’s Who Pic

The audience is helping American reporters identify political lobbyists from a series of photographs.

National Public Radio (NPR) decided to crowdsource the task after finding it hard to identify many of the people representing health lobby groups at a senate committee meeting.

Spokesperson Andrea Seabrook told Poynter Online that the photographs were taken with the original intention of enabling journalists to pick out faces.

However, when this only resulted in several identifications, the audience was called on to help.



“We’ve been watching various groups use crowdsourcing to mine and process data, and when it turned out to be harder than we’d originally thought to ID lobbyists ourselves, we thought we’d give it a shot,” said Seabrook.

She added: “We’re very glad we did. It seems to be making the story more interactive and engaging for our listeners, and we’ve already gotten quite a few great leads.”

The crowdsourcing effort forms part of NPR’s Dollar Politics series, which is looking at the impact of lobbying on US legislature with regards to healthcare, banking regulations and energy.

Music to Your Users' Ears?

Music is a powerful and pervasive part of our culture, and it offers an opportunity to add an extra kick to a visual story.

No, wait. Music can be emotionally manipulative, and it hurts credibility to attach it to journalists' stories.

The Poynter Institute's Regina McCombs recently offered some guidelines for online journalists who agree (or disagree) with both arguments:

* In general, you should not add music to what was gathered from the scene.

The authentic audio, video or photography gathered in the field is the most important storytelling material a journalist has. Adding material that was not gathered through the reporting process must be done with great caution and skill. Natural sound can be just as powerful.

The BBC is among the organisations that have decided against using music in news stories. "You are changing what you're representing, and if you're changing it, it shouldn't be there," said Fiona Anderson of BBC Newsgathering. "I think this whole issue of enhancement is really dodgy."

* In the rare cases in which you add music, it should be used to enhance or further the narrative, not to compensate for incomplete reporting.

Brian Storm of media production company MediaStorm says music works best when the photojournalism carries the storyline and contains the narrative -- not because narrative is missing. Music "doesn't make a piece work," he said. "All the elements have to be working. It's like another gear you have."

"Music can get in the way, it can control the pacing, it can put it on rails. It becomes like an amusement park ride, presented so you become passive," argues documentary editor Jonathan Menell. "It tells the viewer you're going to handle them and control the emotion."

* All stories are not equal.

Just as writers don't approach feature stories the same way as investigative pieces, the standards for adding music may vary within story genres.

In general, the American Press Institute says, the more serious or sensitive the story, the more careful you should be in using background music.

* Music is not a universal language.

A breathtaking aria to one person is grating noise to another. Because people's reactions to music are subjectively influenced by their personal tastes, music and mood, you can never be certain how you affect a story by adding a piece of music.

* You must understand the craft of scoring music if you add it to stories.

Most of us are not skilled in the use of music with video. As with photography and writing, incorporating music well requires a lot of craft, both in selecting the music and editing it.

McCombs offers several examples of how music can affect reaction to a story. The bottom line, she says, is that music should not lessen our stories nor be used to manipulate viewers' emotions. If you're considering adding music to any piece, you need to be cautious and thoughtful. And you must respect the integrity of the story.

Google Earth - Opportunity For Journalism?

Poynter Online’s Amy Gahran believes Google Earth and Street View could become useful story-telling tools for reporters.

Gahran suggests that online newspapers could create multimedia stories using Google Earth’s satellite pictures and photos from the controversial Street View service.

Writing on Poynter’s E-Media blog, she says journalists could use Street View to “show the effects of a disaster such as a flood, hurricane, earthquake or tornado”.

She adds that Street View pictures could also be used to show “the effects of a redevelopment project or environmental cleanup”.

And Google Earth’s historical images could be used with current photos to “create a sense of transition from past to present”.

Gahran concludes: “Seems to me that Google Earth is a field ripe with engaging journalistic opportunity - especially considering there’s a Google Earth iPhone application.”

Launched in the UK this year, Street View can be accessed via Google Maps and is available for cities including London and Manchester.

The below video shows you what it is and how it can be accessed.



[HT - Editors Weblog]

NYT Readers Capture Hard Times

People are sharing their experiences of financial hardship via a new user-generated content initiative from the New York Times.

Picturing the Recession asks readers to submit photos which capture the signs of economic troubles in their homes, neighbourhoods and towns.

The result is an extensive gallery of interesting and often moving photos showing the effects of the global financial crisis on people’s everyday lives.



Subjects vary from empty fridges to closed shops, boarded-up houses and make-shift homes in tents and under motorways.



Pictures are grouped into categories - Business, Home, Sacrifice, Family, Work and Transportation.

The NYT invites submissions from users around the world and asks potential contributors: “How do you see the recession playing out in your community? What signs of hardship or resilience stand out? How are you or your family personally affected?”

[HT – Journalism.co.uk]

10 Social Media Ideas To Save Newspapers

Social media strategist Woody Lewis believes that newspapers can help save themselves by engaging with the social side of the Web.

He writes on Mashable: “Social media gives any business an interactive channel to communicate with its current and future customers.

“For newspapers, that channel can increase the chances of survival in a market where commoditised information has diminished the value of individual brands.”

And to drive the point home, he has produced a list - “Ten ways newspapers are using social media to save the industry”.

Here are some of his suggestions:

*Online-only Events

Lewis points to Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as an example of this. The newspaper recently promoted a novel by streaming content of an actor reading aloud passages from it and then encouraging users to discuss it via forums.

*Twitter Headline Channels

He singles out the New York Times for praise on this one as it has also set up feeds for sections such as movies and books.

*Publishing APIs

Again, the NYT is singled out for making application programming interfaces available on its website for developers, who can then use them to create new social media tools.

In the UK, the Guardian has opened up some of its content to software developers through its Open Platform project.

*“Promoting and monetising UGC”

An interesting example supplied by Lewis is CaptureCincinnati.com, a local photo-sharing website created by the Cincinnati Enquirer.

The Enquirer then collected together the best photos and made money from them by putting them on a DVD and in a photo collection book.

*All-Out Online

Basically, this means totally quitting the print world and producing web-only content.

“Unfortunately, this isn’t the most agreeable method for many, but social media applied to a smaller, virtual organisation might be the way of the future,” writes Lewis.

See the rest of the list on Mashable.com.

[HT – Editor & Publisher]

Sun Becomes UK’s Online No.1

The Sun online has become the most popular national newspaper website in the UK after attracting more than 27 million unique users last month.

Year-on-year comparisons show thesun.co.uk increased traffic by 118.2%, a leap which saw the News International title move from fifth to first in the order of most visited online newspapers.

The release of ABCe monthly data shows that guardian.co.uk fell from first to third, Telegraph.co.uk remained in second and Times Online and dailymail.co.uk are fourth and fifth respectively.



Speaking to Press Gazette, The Sun’s online editor attributed the site’s growth to a number of factors.

Pete Picton said: “It’s a combination of things - great stories, great content, increased promotional activity and increased site optimization.”

“If you’ve got great content, it’s being linked to by a lot more places than it was,” he added, in reference to the site’s increase in referrals from social media sites like Digg.

Picton also pointed out that the user-generated content zone MySun and the Sun Woman section of the site saw record traffic last month.



Several high-profile stories also helped thesun.co.uk to break web traffic records, including the exclusive about an alleged baby-faced dad and the ‘bong’ photo of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

Read more about this story on guardian.co.uk.

[Graph from Press Gazette]

How To: Audio Slideshows

Creating successful slideshows is the latest topic in a guide to multimedia journalism from academic Mindy McAdams.

Her tenth blog post in the series – Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency – provides an introduction to the Soundslides program and offers tips and tricks for producing effective content.

According to McAdams, Soundslides “is a simple tool that builds simple audio slideshows.

“That’s all. But that’s actually quite a lot - especially because Soundslides is almost ridiculously simple to use.”

She adds: “There are many examples of elaborate, cinematic Soundslides online, but even a print reporter can combine an interview and some on-the-scene photos to produce a story with both audio and images.”

The Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency series has so far included posts on blogging and RSS feeds, effective photography, recording and editing audio.

Visit McAdams’s Teaching Online Journalism blog for the full post.

Codebook Updates MySpace Advice

New advice on using pictures found on social networking websites such as MySpace is included in an update to The Editors’ Codebook.

The revised version features a new section in relation to coverage of a spate of suicides of young people in south Wales, some of whom had profiles on social networking sites.

Before using such material without the family’s consent, the codebook advises that newspaper editors should voluntarily consider the effects its publication could have upon the bereaved.


According to the Press Complaints Commission, this second edition of the codebook has been launched in order to “reflect the rapidly changing media scene”.

It includes the latest landmark cases which have occurred since the first edition in 2005 and a pdf version is available on the website of the Editors’ Code of Practice Committee.

[HT - HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk]

Herald Opens Social Media Platform

The Plymouth Herald has installed a new channel to its site enabling users to upload and share their own content.

Creating using the KickApps social media platform, iHerald allows its members to submit photographs and videos as well as create their own blogs and comment threads.

And the channel has already resulted in leads for stories for the print version of the newspaper, reports Press Gazette.



Web editor Neil Shaw said: “The site goes to the heart of our online strategy, not lazily duplicating our print product online, but interacting with our users so thisisplymouth and The Herald combine user-generated content with live input from our audience.”

He adds: “It is a constant dialogue differentiated from and contributing to our print offering.”

Shaw also commented that the platform has attracted significant interest among readers and the recent snowstorms resulted in an impressive array of user-generated content.

Phelps Photo Draws Record Traffic Boost

A photo of swimmer Michael Phelps inhaling from a ‘pot pipe’ produced a dramatic spike in traffic on the News of the World (NOTW) website.

The image, showing the multiple medal-winning athlete appearing to inhale from a glass pipe, attracted over a million visitors within 24 hours.



Associate editor Gary Thompson told Press Gazette that the story saw NOTW.co.uk record its “biggest-ever boost” in terms of web traffic.

Much of this traffic came from the US, helped by a link to the article being placed on The Drudge Report.

And Thompson believes the impressive traffic stats support the editorial decision to publish the exclusive online rather than wait for that week’s print issue.

He said: “We judge each story on its merits - and would normally break the biggest exclusives through the print edition.

“On this occasion, we had spoken to the Phelps camp and other third parties and we knew it might not stay exclusive for very long, so we put it up.”

Blanket Snow Coverage = Traffic Records

Online coverage of this week’s dramatic snowfalls has attracted record audiences for some websites.

Press Gazette reports that Times Online recorded some two million unique users on Monday, according to its assistant editor Tom Whitwell.

The newspaper offered extensive reports on disruptions to traffic and travel on its website and also featured several photo slideshows displaying the light side of the snow.



It was photos and other content from users that made Monday a record-breaking day for the BBC, which received probably its biggest ever response to a news story.

Newsroom chief Peter Horrocks revealed that more than 35,000 people submitted pictures and videos of snow-frolicking during the course of Monday.

Writing on The Editors blog, Horrocks stated that the BBC website saw its fair share of visitors too with 5.1 million unique users just from the UK.

BBC.co.uk offered a host of multimedia offerings in the wake of the heavy snow, including this video capturing a cameraman’s drive to work.

Regional news sites also offered plenty of coverage of the white stuff, for example the Croydon Guardian featured a gallery of user-generated content.

Plymouth’s Western Morning News created a slideshow from wintry photographs and thisiscornwall.co.uk used an interactive map to display its readers’ pictures.

And it’s not just the UK that has been experiencing some visually stunning snowfalls, the US has also seen snowstorms which have prompted some journalists to get busy with social media.

Poynter Online highlights the coverage on the website of The Oklahoman, which included a live blog and an open Flickr channel enabling readers to submit their own photos.



Visit Poynter for more on NewsOK.com's reports on the snow.

Audio Slideshows – Do’s & Don’ts

The secrets behind great slideshows are revealed by Boston.com editor David Beard.

Speaking to Poynter Online, Beard suggests that the basic ingredients required for an effective audio slideshow are “outstanding images, distinctive voices, pace”.

And he points out that despite the popularity of video, sometimes a photo slideshow with an accompanying audio track is the right way to tell a certain story.

For example, he says that it is sometimes the case with video that “the single best image of a subject may not come with the single best sound bite”.

He adds: “In the rush to Flip cams and upper-end HD video, we recognise that each story has distinctive multimedia platforms - and that in some stories, going old school still works best.”

But there are some pitfalls and here are some of Beard’s list of do’s and don’ts:

DO:

Vary the rhythm

Cut out any filler – with the photos or on the soundtrack

DON’T:

Include boring audio that drones on

Record someone simply reading aloud their story

Rotate the same photos in order to fill the audio time


Check out Beard’s handiwork on Boston.com, including this audio slideshow leading up to Barack Obama’s inauguration.

NY Plane Crash On Twitter Pic

A Twitter user is being feted for his picture taken at the scene of yesterday’s plane crash in New York.

Janis Krums captured the dramatic scene on the Hudson River using his iPhone as the ferry he was on moved towards the plane to rescue people.



Posted to Twit Pic, the photo could then be accessed by a link from his Twitter feed where the accompanying Tweet read: “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”



According to the New York Daily News, Krums has now become something of a Twitter hero after he sparked the “Internet firestorm”.

The photo has been viewed in its original posting spot over 100,000 times so far and has been displayed on photo-sharing site Flickr by several users.



It has also attracted a deluge of comments from admiring viewers and fellow Twitterers.

Car Crash Mobile Pics Go National

A regional reporter has highlighted the value of mobile journalism as her first-on-the-scene pictures of Cristiano Ronaldo’s car crash made the national news.

Manchester Evening News journalist Nicola Dowling used a mobile phone to take photographs and video footage of the footballer’s wrecked Ferrari at the scene of the accident near Manchester Airport.



Holdthefrontpage.co.uk reports that the resultant content was used by the MEN, local TV station Channel M, and syndicated to national media including the BBC, Sky News and The Sun.

Dowling captured the exclusive footage using a Nokia N95 mobile phone, which were distributed to all MEN journalists in 2008.

“In a situation like this where you have got to get something in a short space of time they are invaluable,” said Dowling.

MEN editor Paul Horrocks added: “It proves the worth of reporters with some training using a mobile phone as a video camera in the way Nicola did.”

Bild Recruits Snap-Happy Army

A German newspaper is offering cut-price cameras in an attempt to build a network of ‘citizen journalists’.

The tabloid Bild has partnered with supermarket Lidl to sell pocket-sized cameras to the more active elements of its home audience and participants in its reader-reporter initiative.

With a 2GB memory and USB port, the camera can be used to shoot both still photos and short video films.

According to a spokesman, the company hopes that people will use the £60 cameras to produce visual content for the Bild website and provide shots of events that the newspaper’s journalists can’t cover.

“We think it is an advance for journalism,” said Michael Paustian, a managing editor at Bild.

He added: “We’re not YouTube ... every contribution will be viewed, reviewed and journalistically evaluated.”

The media group has not yet revealed whether users will be rewarded for these contributions with cash or prizes.

Read the full story from the Associated Press here.

NCE Includes Video Exam For Snappers

The industry’s main exam for established press photographers now includes a video component, reports Press Gazette.

Photographers taking the NCE assessment will have to produce a video package to required standards.

Five local news cameraman have already sat the video exam, which asked participants to create a short film (3 to 5 minutes) featuring at least one interview on a given topic.



According to the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), producing good video is now a necessary skill for press photographers.

“The board believes it is vital for press photographers and photojournalists to be able to shoot video in a creative way for the web,” said Steve Phillips, chief examiner for photography with the NCTJ.

“Videos must be much more than talking heads to compete with the rest of the media and photographers who already have high visual skills are ideally placed to produce high quality footage for their publications.”


[Photo from brianz photostream on Flickr.]