Ccccarrie's Blog

West of Richmond Avenue Final Video Project

ccccarrie — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:10:49 +0000

Production Update

ccccarrie — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:29:46 +0000

I needed a new topic. Not that I didn’t enjoy all my time talking to homeless people.. believe me that was interesting. But, homeless people were best covered through photos and audio, which I found out by doing the slide show. So I realized that I needed to do something else. I chose to do my video project on the West side, more specifically the area west of Richmond Avenue because it was convenient since I live on the West side and because it always frustrates me that the difference one block makes, much like the area East of Main Street, is so drastic. That dividing line can determine your fate in Buffalo especially since the levels of poverty are so intense. I found someone who happened to be a friend who lives on the West side of Richmond who happens to have strong opinions about the area and it just happened from there. I am very proud of my video project so far and I think it is far better than my slide show. The only thing that is hindering me is the music. I cannot find anything that I feel fits with the piece. I don’t want to ruin it by just throwing something in that ends up being a distraction, like I did for the slide show, but I have to find something. I guess I should get back to sifting through the royalty free music…

Video Basics

ccccarrie — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:21:12 +0000

Shooting video is difficult. To start, you have to have an idea… something to shoot that would be most effectively shown through video. Then there are so many things that go into composing the actual shot. Similar to composing photos, you must think about framing, depth of the shot and light, however if you don’t get it right the first time you may not be able to go back and try again. A photo is over in a split second – if it sucks just shoot another. If you are in the middle of filming an interview and the light isn’t quite right or the camera moves there is a chance that your piece will be ruined. In “Video Basics 3,” Herbert Zettl gives many tips for getting a video just right. These tips came in handy during my video shoot however, I found that the in class interviewing helped the most. It gave us the chance to work on framing and lighting so when it came time to shoot the video it came out just right.

Oh, Economics. How You Make the World Go Round

ccccarrie — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:18:11 +0000

Ever since I learned that any career possibility in journalism would most likely be in the online field, I’ve been very skeptical about how I would make any money. If every time I read the news online I am doing in for free, how do they manage to pay their writers? If no one really reads newspapers anymore where will these media moguls get their profit? Chapter 12 of James Foust’s “Online Journalism” definitely did not answer any of my questions. Basically, the journalism world has no idea what they are going to do about making money. The largest problem is that everything started off free. People expect everything to be free because of that. They’ve tried advertising but no one really pays attention to it, they tried charging for some of the media content, or all of the media content – no luck. You cannot give something to someone for free and then tell them years later that they have to start paying. So here is the problem – if online journalism has been molded into this constant in all of our lives, what would happen if the money disapeared, which I’m sure is slowly happening, and they could not put the content up anymore? I, personally, think that if there is no way to fix the economic issue, than blogs will be all that is left. The online media world will be full of people writing and producing as only a hobby.

Checks and Balances

ccccarrie — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:52:18 +0000

I really liked the image of blogs and journalism being in a symbiotic relationship where they both feed off of each other at the opening of “Gatewatching” by Axel Brun. I have found in this class as well as in previous journalism classes that this is definitely the case. This is what is so great about blogging. It gives the opportunity to get information that you are an expert on out into cyberspace where people can learn from you and use your expertise. From that, journalists have the means to research further into topics or get other sides of the story that you can read and maybe learn about your expertise a little bit better. One of the questions posed in Brun’s chapter is whether blogs should be considered journalism. There apparently are many different answers but I believe that perhaps the most important fact is that blogs serve a purpose. Whether or not they are of journalistic quality will be an everlasting debate, but they definitely have the ability to benefit journalism. Even if they are simply keeping journalists on their toes as the literary quality of the blog increases. It seems like they can be used as a check and balance system so the quality of “real journalism” stays at the top.

Video Gives New Journalists a Chance to Compete

ccccarrie — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:22:11 +0000

Media has truly made way for multimedia. This is very apparent in Charles Layton’s “The Video Explosion.” Online content can no longer simply be photos and text. In order to hold up in this quickly changing market a good web site must utilize video. Apparently even veteran journalists are realizing that this new phenomenon has become something that they will need to learn and be able to use in order to keep their jobs. Those journalists must make the extra effort to succeed in the video world because their college and grad school counterparts are learning these skills from the very beginning. It’s really a shape up or ship out situation. This gives me some hope for a possible career in the future. I have been given the fortunate opportunity to get these skills out of my college education. I will be directly competing with those veteran journalists who did not grow up with this new technology. I’d like to think I have the upper hand in that category – I’ve seen my mom use a computer… it’s scary. This technological shift that has brought multimedia packages to the forefront of journalism is a blessing… for new journalists at least.

Videos

ccccarrie — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:34:26 +0000

For some reason the sound isn’t working in my videos… but, what I am intending to do for this part of the project is show some of the obvious signs of poverty in Buffalo. I want to juxtapose that with the wealthiest parts of Buffalo so it is obvious that the distribution of wealth is not right. I think this adds to my story about homelessness because much of the problem with homelessness is due to this unfair distribution. I wanted to start by getting some moving shots just so it was obvious that many places are boarded up and in conditions that are impossible to live in comfortably. However, I still don’t know how I am going to pull it all together.

slideshow

ccccarrie — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:46:36 +0000

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~cjm49/publish_to_web/

Different Ways of Covering the Same Thing

ccccarrie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 03:09:48 +0000

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been covered in so many ways, probably because they are lasting for so long. But, it definitely gives journalists the opportunity to experiment with different ways of doing things. Of the three different perspectives that we looked at, my favorite were the black and white images from “The Long Haul.” I felt like these photo’s were very powerful and they were presented in a way that the viewer was not distracted by the colors. Everything was drab like their experiences waiting around for firefights. I also liked the video from Danfung Dennis because it showed exactly how close and personal these journalists are getting to the front lines. The “Sides of the Wire” piece was a little different as it showed the other side- the civilian side of the war. I thought all the photos were very beautifully done but the photos from “The Long Haul” were my favorite.

Project Update

ccccarrie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 02:01:17 +0000

I am so glad I signed up for this class. Before taking this, I knew about print journalism, a little bit of TV journalism and some radio journalism. I guess I knew a tiny bit about online journalism… but I never really took the time to think about what exactly I was looking at. I never distinguished between slide shows or critiqued what e more I saw. Now I don’t think I can ever look at it the same. I am glad that I picked a topic that involves Buffalo directly and I am so excited that I got to talk to the people that I did. Learning about what it is really like as a homeless person in Buffalo is truly eye-opening and I think the best way of presenting it is definitely through a slide show with audio. Bev (the homeless woman) has a very distinctive voice.. you can hear what she’s been through and you can experience her personality just through her voice. Although the interview I got from her is not perfect, it is flawed just like she is and I think that will make it all the more authentic. I am a little disappointing in some of the photo quality… the zi8 just doesn’t take the greatest pictures, but luckily the rest of the project is coming along okay, so hopefully that will make up for it! I hope that the result of my project will be that some of the people in the class will see that homelessness is a problem and just because they may live at UB and be from somewhere else.. they are still a part of the Buffalo community and they should want to improve it.