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.

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.

US Election Picks

Now that the dust has settled on the US election, here’s a guide to some of the online coverage that caught the eye of commentators, bloggers and journalists.

The Look

If you want to see how the digital media reported the votes as they came in, student Gary Ritzenthaler spent the night taking screen grabs of websites from around the world.

Blogger and academic Mindy McAdams writes that the PhD student from the University of Florida has made these images public on Iterasi, an online bookmarking service for pages as well as links.

And guardian.co.uk has a collection of images showing how the global online media reported Barack Obama’s victory.

Blogs

An overview of some of the most popular US election blogs was provided earlier this month by TimesOnline.

Although the article is about websites rather than purely about blogs, most of its 25 picks either are blogs or have their blogging sections recommended.

The effectiveness of the pro-McCain and pro-Obama bloggers is discussed in this article by Judith Townend on Journalism.co.uk.

Meanwhile, the BBC adopted a three-pronged blogging strategy with Gavin Hewitt providing updates from the Obama camp in Chicago and Matt Price blogging from the McCain campaign headquarters in Arizona.

North America editor Justin Webb completed the triumvirate by offering an overview of the results via his regular blog.

Multimedia

The effectiveness and accuracy of some of the media’s fancy maps have been discussed on The Information Aesthetics blog, and the Australian resource also has lots of links to some of the most innovative ones.

And alternatives to the usual raft of red/blue maps dotting the online media landscape have been offered up by Mark Newman at the University of Michigan (HT - Martin Stabe.)

While the Washington Post combined mapping with its Twitter, blog and video reports through the multimedia fest called TimeSpace: Election.

Users could view news from chosen locations and use the timeline to filter reports by date.



On the video and slideshows front, plenty of journalists in the US hit the campaign trail and polling booths to produce some great little packages.

In her round-up for Poynter Online, Regina McCombs points to an audio-visual piece from the Nashua Telegraph where voters were asked to sum up why they voted in one word.

McCombs also flags up a multimedia feature from the Star Tribune asking local politicians and activists what the Obama victory means to them.

While the New York Times contributed with its documentary – Choosing the President – which combines audio, video and some very flashy graphics to produce an effective overview of the election from party nominations through to November 5th.

And in the UK, election news videos produced by satirical outfit The Onion News Network were featured on Telegraph.co.uk after the newspaper struck a deal with myvideorights.com.

Social Media

How Obama harnessed the power of social networking websites like Facebook is discussed in this New York Times article (HT – Nigel Barlow).

And among the news outlets taking advantage of image-sharing websites was Sky News, which posted photos of its election coverage activities to its Flickr stream (HT Journalism.co.uk).

User-Generated Content

On a grand scale there was the YouTube-PBS partnership project – Video Your Vote, which encouraged the public to record their voting experiences.

While among the small but innovative UGC projects was the Word Train feature from the New York Times which asked users to submit one word to describe their current state of mind on election day.

The most common words were then displayed across the webpage and visitors could also choose to view words from a particular time period or from Obama or McCain supporters only.

Further Reading


There are lots of other round-up posts around the blogosphere, such as one on the Online Journalism Blog from Paul Bradshaw and this from Laura Oliver on Journalism.co.uk.

[Pictures from top - Jonathon Colman on Flickr and Shasti O'Leary on Flickr.]

‘Embrace Video Or Die!’

Newspapers have to get to grips with online video if they want to survive in the future, according to Michael Rosenblum.

The video journalism visionary said reporters need to accept and embrace the new platform rather than hide away from it, reports Press Gazette.

Rosenblum pointed to comparative industries where the failure to harness new technologies has resulted in businesses going bust or falling behind.

He told the assembled audience at the Society of Editors conference: “As the web goes to video there’s a sort of Gresham’s Law - more dynamic media drives out less dynamic media.”

The former CBS producer added: “If you only have print or stills and your competitor has video, you’re going to get eaten.”

And he said there are no excuses for journalists to shy away from video now that the technology has become relatively cheap and easy.

“Any idiot can do this, making TV is not hard, it’s not complicated, it’s not difficult. The technology makes it incredibly simple.”

Rosenblum continued: “A nine-year-old can produce professional material and the cost is next to zero.”

Visit the Society of Editors site for further details on his speech, meanwhile guardian.co.uk has a video interview with Rosenblum on its Organ Grinder blog.

Readers Help Create Palin Gallery

A regional newspaper is supplementing its online coverage of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin with submissions from local people.

The Anchorage Daily News has created a constantly updating multimedia resource on Palin, who has been governor of Alaska since 2006 and a well known public figure in the state for more than 15 years.

And among its features is “Palin and Me” – a user-generated content initiative which invites local users to send in their photographs with the governor.

“Send in snaps you made at a rally, a barbecue, on the street, or any other encounter with our governor,” requests the Daily News.



The website’s Palin section has a wealth of material, including slideshows with audio and photographic footage from past interviews with the Daily News, videos such as the recent Saturday Night Live Palin sketch and numerous photo galleries.

It also has a biography of Palin and links to the latest news stories about her, which users can also receive to their inboxes via the Sarah Palin newsletter.

Google senior advisor Richard Gingras recently exhorted newspapers to take a leaf out of Wikipedia’s book and create “living stories” on their websites which readers can refer to over time.

And this resource regarding a local public figure who has come to global attention is a good example of regional news journalists putting that notion into practice.

Slideshows Tell Mother’s Story

A regional newspaper in California has used multimedia storytelling to create a moving feature about an everyday woman.

The Stockton Record’s Mother To All slideshows enable a local foster mother to tell the story of her life looking after over 140 children during the past 27 years.

And they also offer an insight into the adoption process as she opts to permanently care for one of her foster children.



The use of audio interview and photos really brings the whole story to life and provides a warm and engaging accompaniment to the traditional text piece.

Herald Strikes Gold With Daley Video

A local newspaper’s video interview with Olympics star Tom Daley has been seen by almost 190,000 users on YouTube.

The Plymouth Herald recorded the video in spring this year and saw views take off after the young diver became one of the most famous faces among the Team GB athletes.

Web editor Neil Shaw told HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk that the video simply wouldn’t have been seen by anything near the current total had it been placed only on The Herald's website.

He said: “The video is branded with The Herald’s logo so this success has meant our name is now known across the world and is associated with content people want to watch.”

Shaw added: “We started uploading our videos to YouTube a few months ago, as well as uploading them to our own video player, and find it to be a fantastic way to get our content ‘out there’ and have it noticed.”

As well as being featured on the YouTube homepage, the video has attracted over 450 comments and was made a favourite by visitors.



Another regional newspaper making waves with its multimedia coverage of a local Olympian’s success is the Mansfield Chad.

Journalists provided extensive coverage on the double gold medal haul of Mansfield swimmer Rebecca Adlington.

This included real-time updates during her final races as well as photo slideshows and video footage of her homecoming parade.


Further details on the Chad’s coverage can be found at HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk.

[Disclosure: The Mansfield Chad is a Johnston Press publication.]

SPOTLIGHT - PHOTOS & SLIDESHOWS

Hello and welcome to the latest SPOTLIGHT post where we’ll be examining the different ways that newspapers are using photographs in their online coverage.

Compared to the early days of text-only pages, today’s newspaper websites offer a veritable feast for the eyes with photos and graphics wherever you look.

This trend seems to be growing with many nationals, like the Daily Mail and the Telegraph, recently unveiling relaunched sites featuring heavy picture use on the homepages.



And thanks to multimedia tools, today’s photographers and journalists now have the option of using audio-visual slideshows as vehicles for their stories.

So in the light of all these developments, we’re going to take a look at examples of innovation in the field of online photojournalism.

We’ll also be seeing how newspapers are incorporating photos from their users in interesting ways and how they’re using slideshows as a new storytelling technique.

And we’ll wrap up as usual with links to some useful online resources for anyone who wants some practical tips.


1 - PRODUCED BY PHOTOGRAPHERS


First we’re looking at photographic content produced by photographers and journalists for their own websites.

Galleries

The majority of newspaper websites in the UK and US seem to have a picture gallery of some description, whether it’s a small selection of images accompanying an article or a mass array of photographs grouped by theme or place.

And newspapers owned by Morris Communications have made theirs distinctive with group branding and promotional activities.

The American organisation’s regional news sites have a Spotted section where visitors can browse galleries of pictures from local events.

Meanwhile, photographers hand out “You’ve Been Spotted” cards to people at community gatherings to encourage them to check the site.

And due to its success generating about one in eight page views of Morris’s newspaper web pages, Spotted has been featured as an audience building initiative case study.

Other newspapers feature galleries showing the week in photos, such as the Oakland Tribune, and use themed collections for visitors to browse.

Slideshows

These usually comprise a selection of photos with an accompanying narration or soundtrack and either play automatically or can be moved on by the user.

Slideshows are becoming really popular and there are so many examples of some really great ones that the following is just a tiny sample of what’s happening with this alternative storytelling technique.

The Pulitzer Prize winning feature from the Concord Monitor illustrates how slideshows can be used to tell moving stories as it chronicles the life and death of a young mother.

While this story of a seven-year-old preacher won the best audio slideshow award for the Roanoke Times at this year’s Best of Photojournalism (BOP) awards.

Also picking up an award at the BOP awards was the Chicago Tribune for its use of audio, visual and text to show the plight of today’s urban poor.

Other photojournalists are using slideshows to offer the audience a slice-of-life piece, such as The City Exposed from the San Francisco Chronicle.

In a similar vein is the New York Times’s Riding the Q Train, which shows a “New York Slice of America” on the city’s subway trains.

While others opt to document a moment in time, such as the Birthday Dream Comes True slideshow from Midland Daily News which shows a soldier surprising his young daughter by returning home on leave for her birthday.

According to Martin Stabe, the Michigan newspaper’s multimedia section is well worth a visit for this and other impressive slideshows.

Finally, some newspapers are also introducing some great interactive elements to their slideshows, such as the Top 25 Superbowl Moments feature from the St Petersburg Times.

Each selected superbowl moment is given its own slideshow with audio commentary from a well known sports announcer and users have to rank them in order of their favourites.


2 - PRODUCED BY USERS


Breaking News

It’s now commonplace for most newspaper websites to include user-generated content (UGC) in their breaking news coverage.


Often it can result in the publication of some extraordinary images - such as the users’ pictures from last year’s failed car bomb attack at Glasgow Airport submitted to the BBC.

Regional news sites are also now well versed in appealing for users’ photos and these can often form some impressive galleries.

For example, The Gazette in Iowa recently documented the effects of flood waters through compiling breaking news galleries of users’ pictures.

(Interestingly, a recent survey from the Project for Excellence in Journalism found a general consensus among editors that weather-related photographs are the most simple and effective forms of UGC.)

Galleries

For examples of some innovative UGC galleries it’s back to Morris Communications where its newspapers’ Spotted features have a You Spotted section dedicated to readers’ photos of anything and everything.

Another effective format for users’ photo galleries can be found at the Bakersfield Californian where registered users can display their pictures in their own photo albums.

While National Geographic has opted for a clean and simple approach with its Webby award-winning Daily Dozen photo feature.



Competitions

Internet-only photographic competitions are becoming more popular with both newspapers and readers.

For example, the Ipswich Evening Star held a contest last Christmas to see which reader had the best festive lights display.

Entrants had to submit their pictures to the website where fellow users would vote online for their favourites.

While the Bluffton Today website has a great little ongoing competition where each day a different readers’ photo is chosen as the site’s banner-head.


3 – COLLABORATION


This final section will look at some innovative projects where journalists and photographers are working together with the audience.


Crowdsourcing


Mentioned on this blog before but well worth another mention is the New York Times Polling Place Photo Project.

According to the NYT, the initiative is “a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that encourages voters to capture, post and share photographs of this year’s primaries, caucuses and general election.

“By documenting local voting experiences, participants can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.”

Another American example of a photographic crowdsourcing work is the Absence of Place project from the Miami Herald.



Subtitled “An Interactive History”, the project asked readers to take photos of buildings and landscapes that used to be the home of something different in the past of relevance to the photographer.

The resultant collection of photos and accompanying captions are displayed online and were included in an exhibition.

Social Media

Photo-sharing websites have become an extremely popular way for people to display and organise their pictures online, often for free.

Some newspapers and broadcasters are now harnessing the popularity and ease of use of sites such as Flickr to create a place where readers and photographers can display their efforts side by side.

For example, the BBC ran a weather watchers pilot project on Flickr with users from Leicester.

Others have simply set up their own group on Flickr and invited readers to submit their pictures of the local area.

The Wrexham Evening Leader did this and more earlier this year when it set up three Flickr groups, including one called Aspiring Photographers to act as a discussion forum for keen amateurs.

Other newspapers have also set up groups based around a particular theme or event, such as the Liverpool Daily Post which created a group entitled Capital of Culture 2008.

The group has attracted almost 300 members and displays some impressive photos of some of the city’s best known sites like the Anglican Cathedral and the Royal Liver Building.



Each photo also appears in the Daily Post’s online “Culture through your eyes” gallery on its own web pages.


RESOURCES

General

The web is teeming with information and resources for photographers so these are just a few examples of what’s out there.

Sports photographers may like to check out the Sports Shooter site dedicated to all things sporty.

The Digital Photography Review has plenty of practical advice and reviews of hardware while the Online Journalism Review (OJR) has a review of the best photo gallery software.

Slideshows

The Interactive Narratives website displays lots of the best slideshows created by newspapers, while judges for a National Press Photographers Association award recently gave their tips on how to create a good slideshow.

Again the OJR has some useful features such as a review of slideshow editing software packages and an article concerning a study about how users actually navigate slideshows.

Blogs

There are plenty of blogging photographers sharing tips and advice to their communities of readers.

Worth a look is the blog from Dallas-based regional press photographer Mark Hancock and this photojournalism blog from Michael Zamora in Texas.

Finally, for an international news perspective pay a visit to the Reuters Photographers blog.



So that’s it for this SPOTLIGHT post. As always, get in touch if you have any examples of innovation you’d like to share or there’s any areas you’d like to see covered in future posts.

CNN Launches Back Story Slideshows

CNN is producing slideshows to show the key developments in major news stories covered by its journalists.

The interactive BackStory allows users to see a summary of events and click through for more in-depth information.

And the first news story to be presented as a BackStory feature is the FBI investigation into the series of Anthrax murders in 2001.

Writing on the CNN blog Behind the Scenes, a senior producer explained the idea behind the slideshows.

According to Rachel Clarke: “Now, when we want to give history, context and background to a developing story, we go back through our archives to find ‘milestone’ events and then link those together in an interactive window.”

She added: “Readers can click through events to get a quick recap of how the story has evolved and how it has been covered on CNN.

“And we link to full stories of the time to give more details of what we knew then as well as to pages on key players.”

Further details can be found at Behind the Scenes and Journalism.co.uk.