Jodie’s blog

As an avid reader and lover of books, I enjoyed the blog on the Frankfurt book fair on the BuzzMachine webpage this week.

Wikipedia classifies the Frankfurt Book Fair as the largest book trade fair in the world.

Jeff Jarvis, from BuzzMachine, attended the Frankfurt Book Fair to speak with the editor in chief of Zeit Online, Wolfgang Blau.

Wolfgang Blau. (Photo taken from: http://www.oecdministerialseoul2008. org/en/programmee/speaker_view.html?id=74)

Whilst there, Jarvis received a nice surprise when he discovered a pop art version of one his books featured on a wall at the book fair.

Jeff Jarvis and his book cover. (Photo taken from webpage: http://www. flickr.com/photos/16417087@N02/2952836342/in/photostream/).

This blog made a nice change from the economic turmoil that the world is experiencing and it was also nice to read a blog that didn’t contain the words Palin and Obama.

I watched with much interest on Monday as Channel 7’s Sunrise program introduced a new section to their show.

Each Friday Monte Dwyer will present a short piece on a place in Australia.

The interesting thing about this is that Monte will write, film, interview and edit the story for production.

Monte is travelling around Australia alone and with the aid of a MacBook Pro (that was released last week), editing software and the Telstra Next G network, he will be sending stories back to Sydney for broadcast.

It will be a studio on wheels.

It was fantastic to see the technology being utilised by mainstream journalists.

Watch the video here.

I was reading the headlines and articles on journalism.co.uk, the essential site for journalists, and a headline on USA multimedia, in the J-blogs section, jumped out at me.
Upon clicking on the link, I was transferred to Reportr.net where the full article was displayed.
After analysing 360 USA random newspapers, Professor Robert Bergland and a team from Missouri Western State University discovered that the newspapers were behind in the usage of multimedia tools that were readily available to them.
The research was released at the recent Convergence and Society conference in South Carolina.
The research clearly stated that the US newspapers had low usage of multimedia for audio, interactive graphics and podcasts.
Larger newspapers displayed more multimedia usage due to larger staff numbers with a variety of skills required to produce the multimedia.
In this day and age of technology, this research really surprised me. I thought Australia was behind in the speed and accessibility of the internet, which can effect who and how we use it.
I thought the USA would embrace multimedia, especially at the moment with the current electoral campaigns running.
This research was conducted over 2007 and I hope the figures have increased this year.
Along side this article was another post titled ‘US TV stations “don’t get” citizen journalism’.
This was also discussed at the same conference.
TV websites weren’t keen to allow citizen journalists to run stories on their the webpage.
How can the rest of the world be using citizen journalists to cover more stories and lower production costs, and the USA – the leaders of the world, be behind and not including this in everyday news.

Professor Robert Bergland from Missouri Western State University. (Picture taken from http://www.missouriwestern.edu/EFLJ/Faculty/bergland.asp)

I read with interest during the week ‘Citizen journalism ruins the world (again)’ on the BuzzMachine webpage.

I have frequented this blog before and read some interesting articles, sometimes not finishing them as the blog seems to drag on and also be uneasy on the eye.

That aside, I read the above article with interest since it was directly related to my current Journalism studies.

Jeff Jarvis writes on some attention-grabbing topics and I found this well written but was over 750 words in length.

Jarvis had been contacted about a rumour that the CEO of Apple had experienced a heart attack, which was published on CNN’s iReport.

Jarvis was asked to defend Citizen Journalism as the story spread and caused Apple’s stock to lose 10% of its value.

The story turned out to be a hoax.

Jarvis pointed out that the story may not have been created by a Citizen Journalist, but rather a clever individual who created the commotion and then collected some Apple shares.

A fellow iReporter released the following vlog expressing his opinions on what happened

(Video from iReport – http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-104216)

One thing I found interesting in the vlog is that iReport was correlated to YouTube.

CNN only assumes responsibility for the content when they select relevant stories and use them on their webpage – after fact checking I am sure.

With the current economic crisis in the USA, Apple didn’t need this type of publicity and the effect it caused.

I am sure we will hear more about this situation and how Citizen Journalists should be ‘controlled’.

All wired up and ready to go. Image taken from: http://souralba.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/on-reuters-mobile-journalism-kit/

So where do we go from here? As technology continually evolves so will the structure of how Journalists perform their tasks.

Journalists continue to evolve from pad and pen, to voice recorders and now they are equipped to be MoJos (Mobile Journalists).

A Mojo can reach a very large audience with their story and pictures or video.

Media outlets around the world are using this technology and the stories and visual online and in printed media.

Reuters in London have the MoJo concept working for them, even producing a website to publish their MoJo stories on.

MoJos exist in many forms using mobile phones with cameras or digital video cameras.

Using this equipment, which is more cost effective than traditional Journalism tools, means that more Journalists can be equipped and outside working.

In addition, the equipment does not weigh the Journalist down allowing them to move around much easier and get into places that may have been inaccessible.

I am very interested in Apple’s iPhone, but have refused to buy one until Australian internet providers offer a better deal for me to use the phone’s internet functions.

Other issues exist with internet coverage in Australia. I live in a rural area that lacks a variety of internet service providers with good deals.

For MoJos to work all around this great country of ours, we really need to update our internet structure, lower the mobile usage cost and catch up with the rest of the world.

‘Tools of the trade’. Image taken from: http://www.neighborhood-media.com/mojo.gif

 I really enjoyed reading “Five videoblogs that do it right” (by Jennifer Woodard Maderazo) and then I headed to these sites to see what the videoblogs were all about.

When I think of video blogs, I instantly think of websites like YouTube, which has an endless supply of videos to watch.

From my experience, some of the videos were not of the highest standard or the content interesting.

Therefore, when I opened Alive in Baghdad, I spent quite some time here getting to hear people’s stories about how the Iraq war is affecting them.

We all hear about the costs of war but not a lot of coverage is given to the Iraqi citizens – people just like you and me except they don’t know if they will wake up in the morning.

It was a revelation and a great use of a Vlog.

The other four sites (MobuzzTV, Ask a Ninja, Wine Library TV, Rocketboom) were also interesting, but did not hold my attention like Alive in Baghdad.

Maybe that was due to me always wanting to hear both sides of a story and this website allowed that to occur.

The equipment required to produce a Vlog has streamlined from what television studios require without losing on quality viewing.

Journalists can travel with high pixel mobile phones or smaller digital cameras to capture stories.

There will always be the need for TV news, but Vlogs are here to stay

Anyone can be a journalist. Photo by Jodie Grzeschka.

Mobile phones have not only made us more accessible to the world but the world more accessible to us.
Apart from the usual mobile phone capabilities of ringing and staying in contact with people, we are able to use other functions on the phone that help to contribute to our communities.
There is also the option of keeping up with breaking news when you are not able to use the internet or turn on a radio.
I can remember during the Schapelle Corby verdict, I was out of the office and wanted to keep up with what was happening – so what did I do? I subscribed to ninemsn news updates and had text messages sent to my mobile.
Many newspapers around the world, who are encouraging us to become citizen journalists, have grasped technology changes and are using it to benefit us and themselves.
Use the camera or video function on your mobile to capture news as it happens and then send it to online newspapers for possible online and print publication.
All news can be covered.
Singapore’s The Straits Times introduced STOMP (Straits Times Online and Print) in June 2006 and it has had overwhelming success.
Citizens are all wired up and ready to report on any issues that emerge during their day.
Using this form of technology has also allowed the younger generations to become interested in the news around them, encouraging them to take an interest in their society and in the media.
Younger generations will always embrace and utilise new technology and it is fantastic to see the world’s media as doing the same.

Image taken from STOMP webpage http://www.stomp.com.sg/

Vlogs, or video blogs, are videos assembled by anyone with the initiative of being published and viewed via the internet.

Vlog webpages, such as Rocketboom, are gathering audience numbers and therefore drawing attention from mainstream advertising.

Rocketboom has managed to capture an audience who want to watch 3-5 minutes of local and international news a day.

The stories may not be life changing, but are of human interest.

Rocketboom manages to acquire more than 300,000 viewers for each daily episode.

Not bad for a video made in the producer’s own apartment.

MoJos, or Mobile Journalists, is a term that covers anyone who records a video on their mobile phone then uploads it to the internet.

Today, a majority of mobile telephone owners play with the cameras and application on their phones.

We all like to capture moments and share them with friends.

Sharing can be via Bluetooth to another phone or by uploading to a website, like Facebook, where friends can log in and view your photos. They can even leave comments.

Blogging has become so popular that websites like Twitter are required to allow super-fast blogging.

Twitter is usually used for the live reporting of an event and the information is uploaded via a computer or a mobile phone.

ords are limited and each post is called a ‘tweet’. If you want to search these tweets, www.tweetscan.com will help you to perform this.

The internet is a huge wide world of information, but with the help of these search tools, it makes it a smaller world for journalists to navigate and find the information that they require.

Article in The Rolling Stone magazine on vblogging and Rocketboom:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/9961735/the_rise_of_the_video_blog

I also had a play with Slide photo gallery tool:

  Slideshow and photos by Jodie Grzeschka.

Image taken from moblogs.com.au

Haven’t we come a long way since the days of notebooks and pens to tell stories?

Today stories can be told across a range of different mediums: print, radio, tv, moblogs, podcasts, vlogs and blogs.

Anyone can report on a story as it happens and all you need is your mobile phone.

Phones today take amazing quality photos as well as being able to record video. This video can be of very high standard ready to be released to the public.

By loading this multi-media message from your phone to a website, you are creating a moblog (mobile blog).

You can update a blog even when you are on the go and not sitting at a computer.

Websites such as Youtube and Moblogs.com.au have become popular with the need for people to upload their video stories for the world to see.

Some of these stories are quite interesting and beneficial.

Podcasting is a brilliant idea. A podcast is a verbal blog.

You can set your computer to automatically download new podcasts as they are uploaded to certain websites.

You can then listen to the new podcasts in your own time, instead of tuning in at times set by the medium.

Another new form of reporting is the vlog or video blog.

All you need is a digital video camera or mobile phone.

Then point and shoot your story. Common video-editing software is used to pull the story together and then it is ready to be viewed.

It’s amazing how far we have travelled along the technology highway.

As technology keeps on evolving, so will the ways which journalists will be able to communicate with the world.

I look forward to seeing what the future brings us and what that will allow us to bring to the world.

Image of Oh Yeon-oh, founder of Ohmynews.com. (Image taken from ohmynews ‘About us’ http://english.ohmynews.com/english/eng_section.asp?article_class=8)

When the media is government controlled and you cannot get the real news out or even read about it, what do you do?

According to Oh Yeon-oh, from ohmynews.com, give the people the means to create and read about the news that is happening.

The need was there for independent and reliable news in Korea, so Oh Yeon-oh founded ohmynews.com in February 2002.

Today it even has an international link http://english.ohmynews.com/

Since the launch of the site, its daily visits attract more than 700,000 hits.

At some stages, this has reached 20 million visits in one day, depending on the stories being covered.

Ohmynews encourages the use of citizen journalism and was one of the first websites to promote it.

Citizen journalism is an added benefit for the webpage, readers and writers alike.

The webpage gets access to a variety of stories and reviews to use on the webpage.

The readers get to read about stories that may have been censored by other media formats.

Writers get the exposure that they normally would not if they were simply blogging their stories on a webpage.

They also have the opportunity to be paid for their stories by the webpage and from reader’s tips.

It’s a win-win situation. Citizen journalism works and is here to stay.

Are the best things in life free? Can you really get something for nothing these days?

Or as Mark Knopfler told us we can get our money for nothing and chicks for free?

I do not know about chicks, but I like the concept of accessing free information on the internet.

Should we be able to jump on the internet at any time and keep with the breaking news without paying a cent?

Today we take this for granted. Why pay when you can access news sites like news.com.au or the ABC news page.

We take it as a basic human right to be able to keep with what is happening locally and around the world.

TV news has set program times, whereas the internet is 24 hours a day access.

With this expectance of free access, how is it possible to pay for these stories and keep the website going?

Of course, there can be advertising on these pages.

It can be in the form of ads on your webpage to create revenue.

On the other side of the coin, you can even pay Google to advertise your web address on other webpages using Adwords, to drive traffic to your page. Adwords can even push you higher up the search engine results.

More traffic to your website makes it a more appealing choice to advertise on.

But where does this money come from to pay for products like Adwords?

Should subscriptions to websites be instigated? Would this discriminate against people who could not afford to pay but want the information?

We watch free to air television and listen to the radio without paying, so why should we have to pay to view the stories on the internet? Even though we pay to read newspapers?

Websites such as Facebook offer free access to their webpage. Once you sign up and start using the website you are targeted by advertisements.

How else would this webpage make any money and keep on running?

Image taken from Facebook, from my homepage. Image shows advertising on this page.

It is a juggling act. How much do we sell to cover costs? How much do we spend to create the revenue to cover the costs?

Webpages such as paidContent (sic) claim that we heading towards a digital only media future.

They have designed business models to help us survive and thrive.

As technology changes, I hope that journalism can survive and thrive as a free medium that everyone can access.