Search
Advice & inspiration
Much to be excited about after Amsterdam’s “data driven journalism” conference
Last week, the European Journalism Centre and the University of Amsterdam organized “the first round table on data-driven journalism.” While their proclamation as ‘first’ may be debatable, there is definitely an increasing interest in this topic, as I just highlighted a similar seminar by The Poynter Institute back in July. I saw quite a lot of buzz about it (including a write-up over at Journalism.co.uk) so Mirko Lorenz, a free-lancing information architect mainly working for Deutsche Welle and organizer for the EJC, and I swapped some emails to learn more about what is being discussed around the world in regards to information visualization for journalistic purposes.
Infographic eye candy: Tracking Google’s acquisitions
As much as I love interactivity, sometimes a static infographic is just as impressive and might arguably tell the story even better than its flashy counterpart. I really enjoyed spending quality time with this infographic and I hope it proves that there are countless ways to visually tell a compelling yet complex story!
70 multimedia company websites to peruse for inspiration/internships/jobs
You may be wondering how I am selecting companies to feature for our new series “Company Spotlight.” Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret: For the last six months I have been keeping track of every multimedia company I have come across on a massive Google Doc. While I will try to feature as many companies as possible, there is no way to conduct Q&A’s with all of them. Thus, I decided to publish a portion of my list for you to peruse on your own in case you are looking for an internship, a job, or sheer inspiration. Before you get discouraged by the lack of multimedia jobs in the online journalism sector, check out these companies to see if they are hiring.
Steen Steensen publishes portions of dissertation as a series on “the promises of new technology”
Steen Steensen, senior journalism lecturer at Oslo University College in Oslo, Norway, just wrapped up an excellent series over at his blog “new journalism/new media” about the impact of multimedia and technology. You may have also seen it cross published over at Online Journalism Blog. Either way, if you haven’t taken the time to read Steen’s analysis, I highly suggest you do so now. The content was pulled from his thoroughly researched dissertation “Back to the feature. Online journalism as innovation, transformation and practice” (which includes 24 pages of references!).
“Datavisualization.ch Inside” provides postmortems of information visualization projects
If you are interested in data visualization and information design, I hope you already subscribe to Datavisualization.ch, the company blog of Interactive Things, a design and technology studio based in Zürich, Switzerland. Recently, they began a new series called “Datavisualization.ch Inside” where, similar to II’s “Behind the Scenes” series, they “look behind the scenes of interesting data visualization projects and present their development processes from the very beginning to the final product.”
10 digital technology blogs to start following today
I won’t lie to you – I am normally one of those people who always has 0 emails in my Inbox and 0 updates in my Google Reader. However, for some reason my RSS feeds have been overflowing lately, and the daunting 1000+ alert is driving me crazy. I assume it’s because I now subscribe to 121 blogs. How else am I going to find inspiration to pass along to all of you?! I thought some of you might be interested in my most recent subscriptions, so below are 10 RSS feeds that I have started reading in the past month and have enjoyed. What recent gold mine have you found that I might like?
Inside the 3D industry with 3D Guy Al Caudullo
In my quest to keep up with the rapid evolution of 3D stereoscopic TV and related technologies, I had the opportunity to contact a couple of knowledgeable people, and even took a trip to my local Best Buy for a hands-on demo.The first source for information about all things 3D was Al Caudullo. Al, known as the 3D Guy, was happy to respond with words of wisdom to my questions about this topic.
Blogging – a future for journalists or the death of newspapers?
There has been a lot of great discussion lately on the Web regarding bloggers and if we are the solution to, or the culprit of, the flailing newspaper industry. Mashable blogger Vadim Lavrusik wrote the article “Newspapers Are Still Dying, But the News Is Not Going Anywhere” and noted that the two roles (and distinctions) of journalists and bloggers “are merging and eventually we may no longer see the shallow and stereotypical references of bloggers who sit in their basements and write about what they had for breakfast.” Blogger John Einar Sandvand recently wrote a post titled “5 things journalists should learn from bloggers” where he started by saying that “In digital storytelling many professional journalists would be wise to study and learn from the best bloggers.” Spanish academic and blogger José Luis Orihuela also wrote an in-depth article discussing the potential of blogs – both what they are and what they are not – and allowed us to republish it here. Of course I am biased and fully believe in the power of blogging to reach a niche audience, but what do YOU think?
Recommended multimedia gear kits for low, moderate, and high-end budgets
Ok. Gear. I know this can be a controversial subject. I know there are passionate beliefs built up over years of personal experience. This list, like any list of its kind is bound to have some short comings. In the spirit of that acknowledgment, please feel free to leave additions or suggestions in the comment section. This list will inevitably be outdated within a year, so an updated comment section would be of real value to everyone. For this post, I’ve created three separate gear lists (budget, moderate and high-end) with three budgets in mind. I’ve done so because I think most of us have to be considerate of cost for various reasons. When perusing the gear, please keep in mind the following…
TCoder iPhone app simplifies note taking for the multi-tasking journalist
I have to admit that I do not own an iPhone or iPod Touch (shocker!) so when we learned about the app TCoder that simplifies the painstaking process of covering speeches and press conferences, I asked II Spanish editor Andrea Ballocchi to test it out on her iPhone. Overall, she noted that “it is a practical application that is simple to use and has a clean interface and easy navigation.” The app is currently available in French, Spanish and English and they have plans to roll out a version for the iPad, so it sounds like we can unofficially say goodbye to the old pad and pen!
Categories
- Academic Multimedia
- Advertising Campaigns
- Advice & inspiration
- Announcements
- Behind the Scenes
- Company Spotlight
- Documentary multimedia
- Innovative Individuals
- Interactive examples
- Internship & Job Openings
- Multimedia competitions
- Multimedia journalism
- Multimedia round table
- Philanthropic multimedia
- Programming tips
- Training opportunities
