Tag Archives: reporting

Videos from Jersey

Having missed my flight, waited a day for another flight, and then arrived here in Lisbon only to have my luggage misplaced for the rest of the day, there was lots of time to catch up on podcasts and especially new video content.

So while I try to figure out where the leak in my roof is coming from, I wanted to recommend one of my favorite new video podcasts (new to me): tvjersey.com.  Not only does it provide excellent segments about things happening in New Jersey, it does something unique… using photos instead of video, with audio to put those photos into context. In effect, these are news slideshows.

One of the lastest video-slideshows that I enjoyed was about a homeless-assistance center in Hackensack that is being shut down.  The images and the sounds from that center, and the voices of the people who work and go there, I get a real sense of what it means to them and what a dramatic turn of events it is that the city is pushing to close it down.

If you’re remotely curious about a unique audio-visual way to report news and tell a story, watch tvjersey.com, as you may find something about it interesting and educational.

Pain of Potential

It feels like May, to me, when frisbee season is in full swing and I’m playing three times a week or more and I run and throw for hours without noticing. It also means that new people join the our league here in Amsterdam, and that inevitably means all those questions that I can never answer properly about what I do.

What do I do? “I’m an internet journalist.” “I’m a podcast journalist.” “I’m a freelancer.” “I do a little of everything.” “I’m under-employed.” Or my personal favorite “I drive a red boat around town.” No doubt it has scared away a potential date or two.

And so this evening I’m reading up a bit on the wonderful Portuguese blog written by Antonio Granado about journalism and the internet. Recently he pointed out some facts about the online application known as twitter. If you’ve no idea what twitter is, I can summarize what you’re missing – Potentially great, amazingly useless.

Why so bitter? It is like many things in this life and on these internets, the power to harness creative energy and people through revolutionary communication…. used to broadcast complete nothingness.

Picture it, you go on twitter and you have a small collection of friends, a common thing with all the internet applications these days. And whenever you easily and quickly type in a 2 line message, all your friends can see it in a real time chronological list. NOW, ideally, this could be used for say… a group of journalists… or say gardeners.. writing brief updates about a project, problem, or pressing issue that collectively, the group could certainly benefit from hearing about and responding to it. The same has always been said for how blogging or lots of different online applications could be used.

So I joined twitter many months ago, loaded it up with 20 or so of my favorite videobloggers, podcasters, and those I consider internet activists.. concerned about understanding the world around them. I purposely do not add another 40 to 60 people, most likely some very nice people who I suppose want to hear my little messages, but whose messages I just do not want to spend time reading.

But whether it is on my list, or someone else’s list, most of what is happening is simply garbage. Occasionally I find that even I join in and write some useless garbage like “trying to figure out where the socks get lost in the laundry process.” Just one more in the pile of messages about who is bored. Who is eating. Who is watching TV.

So much potential in the hands of we who somehow don’t take advantage…don’t manage to get passed ourselves and our provincial thoughts or activities. And then we hear about how twitter is growing and how amazing it is and wow what an application.

Amazing indeed. Some guy just announced he’s going to sleep while another one is about to watch the latest Sopranos. Rest easy world, today’s internet user is highly complex and concerned about the problems of this world.

Theres a New Correspondent in Town

I wanted to bring over some spillover from a discussion over at Radio Open Source about the “Death of the Foreign Correspondent”. For anyone not familiar with the term, the Foreign Correspondent would be that person who appears either in print, audio or video reporting from some far away place telling us – the audience at home – what is happening there and why.

I haven’t listened to the show yet, by the initial post is about how more and more media outlets are closing down their foreign bureaus. This is, above all, to save on costs, but according to some.. it is also because there is a lack of interest for news from certain parts of the world. So they’re getting rid of the position or they’re merging with the foreign desk of another media company.

The post and the podcast ask the question, what are we losing as media consumers who want to know what is happening in the world around us… including in far away countries. Some of the comments bring up the point that we are losing alot, in terms of expertese and information, that the correspondents had long provided in ways few others could.

In certain cases I think this is a valid point, as historically there are great individuals who have played that role in media from far off places.

However I would say this is a great occasion for the rise of blogs, podcasts, and vlogs. This is the moment where we can and we will – fill in. Because, first — there will be a void, a void of information and understanding, and where else will people turn than the internet for information about places that their old media outlet isn’t giving them. second – because we are here and we want the world to understand what is happening where we are. By we I mean anyone anywhere. You sitting in Brazil are certainly a potential foreign correspondant to someone in the Netherlands. You there in New York City are a fine candidate for correspondent to someone in New Delhi.

Sure they will argue that you aren’t trained properly or that you aren’t reporting on the right issues.. but in the end.. that is up to the user to decide… the consumer.. the viewer/listener/reader. And furthermore, as someone who did extensive university level training in journalism, I- for one- saw that -in fact- this is no elite group of geniuses, plenty of people are capable of acquiring the necessary equipment, knowledge, and will..to start broadcasting their experience or the experience of something taking place right now, somewhere in the world.

These are the new foreign correspondents… and the best part.. is that they have the capacity to be better informed and more genuine than any sweet talking, khaki vest wearing, veteran news correspondent from super-giant-network news.