MM #3: What You Did

Okay, so here's the video/blog/tweet recap, posted in the order in which they were received. I ask that you please look at EACH multimedia package and read my comments for EACH MM package (not just your own!), so we can learn like we've learned from each other throughout this semester. If you're not looking at the work of others and the related comments, then you are not learning from this exercise.

Also, examine how the mediums complement each other: the preview does just that; the tweet stream allows you to follow what was previewed, as it actually happens; and the recap wraps it all up.

BTW, unless you received an email from me noting a specific grade, your grade for the Web posts, video and Twitter exercises was 4.0 on each.

One more thing: a number of people did not turn in this assignment at all. I need to warn you one last time that not turning in any assignment will do damage to your final grade. Not turning in many assignments will do much damage.

Here we go ... 


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Courtney K.: online dating video and blog preview and recap and tweets #onlinedating

Lots of hyperlinks! You can never have too many. 

*****

Rachel B.: Common Core video and blog preview and recap and tweets # ccssatmsu

We're missing a lede tweet that would let people know what they're about to read about. With the video, we were missing attribution/identification for several sources and the B-roll was too repetitive.

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Hallie A.: Teen moms video and blog preview and recap and tweets #pregnantinschool

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Kenedi R.: crime video and blog preview and recap and tweets #lowerdetroitcrime

The video is entirely missing B-roll to show what is being talked about: B-roll like a cop car rolling down the street, and officers walking around a neighborhood and engaging citizens, and the outside of police headquarters, etc. We need to show what is being talked about in video, a format which demands visuals.

*****

Nadia L.: homelessness video and blog preview and recap and tweets #toneyhigh

The blog posts are nicely written but are entirely missing embedded hyperlinks, as shown in the other blog posts we've seen sofar. I very much like what the tweet stream did here: it took one component of the story and highlighted it, even including a short embedded video so we could see what was being tweeted about. The video sorely needed B-roll showing what the subject was talking about regarding his daily routines. Yes, that would have taken a lot of time but that's the point: we do the work for the viewer.

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Shannon K.: urban renewal video and blog preview and recap and tweets #dinneronthedock

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Kamen K.: boating safety video and blog preview and recap and tweets #alcoholboats

Very weak B-roll here: the video is about boating safety and the B-roll is of boats on car trailers and an empty lake. If it's a story about boating, then we need to show boating. If you lack B-roll of the main point of the story, then you don't really have any B-roll.

***** 

Natasha B.: road work video and blog preview and recap and tweets #sterlingbecomingnew

Two things with the video: first, I don't expect technical expertise but I do expect people to be presented right side up. One source was shown sideways. Second, the video would have flowed more smoothly if we had all the comments about the road work in one section, and then on general improvements in another. Third, for video we only need an attribution for a source's first appearance; after that on video, the source's face is the attribution cue.

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Aundreana J.-P.: mentoring youth video and blog preview and recap and tweets #mentoringyouth

Good use of both video B-roll and still photos as B-roll to show what is being talked about, as someone is talking about it. We see and hear simultaneously. That's what B-roll does best.



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Sakiya D.: college choice video and blog preview and recap and tweets #goodchoice

Blogging does not mean we are allowed to be more careless with fact-checking. There's no excuse for the one post when we say "chose," when in fact we meant to say "choose." Regardless of medium, we have to be just as diligent in fact-checking as we are for writing a traditional print story. Wrong is wrong in any medium, and equally damaging to your credibility.

With the video, the B-roll segments in-between interviews were way, waaaay too long. Transitions should only last a few seconds, at most. It's just boring dead time that doesn't say much in terms of the story. Plus, B-roll should be used DURING interview segments; we start with the talking head; while keeping the talking head's audio we show B-roll that shows what the person is talking about; and then we go back to the talking head shot. That breaks up that boring face shot with something useful: actions representative of what they are talking about, while they are talking about it.

*****

Rachel F.: campus living video and blog preview and recap and tweets #msuliving 

B-roll doesn't have to be video or even still pics. Here, we use charts that show the statistics behind what each speaker is talking about, as they talk.

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Meghan C.: live entertainment video and blog preview and recap and tweets #liveat8 

The blog posts are entirely missing embedded hyperlinks, like those included in most oft he previous blogs. It simply isn't online journalism unless you are providing hyperlinks to your sources that allow the reader to further explore your subject via hyperlinks without having to go anywhere else, like Google, to find out more.

With the video, I liked the back-and-forth nature of toggling between and back to sources, making the vid more conversational and like a discussion in tone. But we could have used more B-roll, and we need to remember that if we're shooting for a horizontal screen, we need to hold phones horizontally while shooting, and not vertically. 

*****

Kevyn C.: starting college video and blog preview and recap and tweets #schoolsinsession

The biggest video miss is the absence of B-roll: the student hanging out in her childhood room, or her looking at a college brochure or her college's Web site, or her interacting with her mom. In videos we need to be able to visually show the story, and not just show interviews. Plus, the best way to identify interview subjects are through captions that offer attribution.