New York Times Video Rant
As part of their redesign, the New York Times has included a rather significant section of original video stories. Well they are almost video stories... They are rudimentary clips with rather ham-handed production value. It reminds me of what I see on high school web pages. The stories are constructed very simply: a talking head with still photos chopped in to illustrate a point. I am guessing there are no dissolves either because: a) the number of key-frames needed to stream a dissolve exceeds the bit-budget for their files, or b) the intern editing these stories has yet to discover the effect. These stories appear to be a natural evolution from the effective Flash audio/photo packages they have been creating for the past few years. But it appears the folks at the NYT are quickly discovering that while making TV is not that difficult, making good television should best be left to the professionals.
Three examples from today's postings include:
1) Reporter Linda Greenhouse discussing the Padilla case while seated in front of a dreadful photograph of generic file cabinets. The lighting on this looks somewhat like the Spanish Inquisition (or at least the way the lights would have looked if they had electricity in the 15th Century.)
2) A concert by 17-year-old songwriter Sonya Kitchell. I am sure this seemed like a great idea initially. Give a little sample of her music by taking 3 consumer-quality cameras and videotaping the show. The only problem is only one of the operators appears to have ever used a video camera before. The exposure is different from shot-to-shot, some of the framing could best be described as curious and someone needs to introduce one of the camera operators to a tripod. The interview is well lit, but they did it in a noisy room and some of the background clatter makes it hard to understand her interview over my computer's speakers. A user isn't going to view this on a television, and the audio mix should reflect the technology most likely used for display. The editing is better with sound-ups and cross fades, but the slo-motion section in the middle is a clumsy cheat for not having video to cover the song they are playing.
I3) n the "Vows" section we get a story about how a couple met, reminiscing as they prepare for their imminent nuptials. The interviews are lit well, and (mercifully) they used a tripod, but after watching the story I was left with the question, "Why do I care?" This is a home movie posted on the New York Times. Its placement gives it the same gravity as the Padillia case, where clearly it is little more than a wedding video.
As with any new technology, there are bound to be growing pains. But what pains me is this is an example of an organization feeling compelled to ignore the narrative structures and production values that have been evolving for 60 years. They are not breaking the paradigm with a new voice, but instead they are ignoring the basic tools the audience expects for effective and engaging content. If I were Leonard Apcar, I would seriously question if this feature was adding value to my paper.
OK, I'll stop ranting now.
Wasted Bandwidth
OK, this has nothing to do with school so feel free to skip this post.
If you are still reading then perhaps, like me, today you have too much time on your hands. Washington Post tech writer Rob Pegoraro noted a few clever and well crafted April Fools Day jokes from the internet. Here are three favorites:
1) Google Romance A tour of this online dating service explains how it all works. The FAQ is particularly funny:
"When you do a Soulmate Search, your deeply personal and potentially life-altering search results are produced solely by computer algorithm, without human intervention of any kind. Note: Depending on your personality, you may or may not find this reassuring."
I think the best part of the site is the self-effacing humor about the ads in Google.
2) Not unlike the send-up for Google Moon where as you zoomed in closer you discovered it is really made of cheese, the folks at Google also planted a treat for users of its Google Earth software. Pegoraro instructs us to search for "Area 51," zoom in, pan to the left until you see two fighter jets on the tarmac, and you'll also spot two friendly visitors. (If they have removed it by now, this blog post has screenshots.)
3)The last one I am afraid must be gone by now. Pegoraro writes that,
“The prolific tech-news site Slashdot made itself over for the day, changing its traditional dark-green banners and heading graphics to a shade of hot pink. Its usual ‘News For Nerds. Stuff That Matters’ motto was replaced by ‘OMG!!! Ponies!!!’”
The entire article is worth a quick read.
Finally, I would guess many of you saw the Openoffice.org announcement that Microsoft (BillG, specifically) had purchased the application. For those Linux users who were a bit slow on the uptake, the mailing lists were buzzing with the news.
Everybody's Got A Story to Tell
Stories
A good story for me is about the human experience, the trials and travails of making a contribution to the human race. Native American storytellers, autopsy instructors, Vaudevillians from the 1930s, authors, radicals, mothers, fathers, even transients… everyone has a story to tell. Some are tragedies and some are little victories, and a few, very few, are triumphs. For me, a story is a story if it captures the spirit of a life well lived.
The genres that capture me are history, culture and politics. But current climate of politics in America is so toxic I can’t imagine finding the passion to tilt at another windmill. So my third choice would be human interest feature stories. OK, I know, every story should have some element of human interest. Otherwise, who would read it? But these are stories told in the first person by people on the cusp of a decision.
For History I usually read a rather academic site called HNN (The History News Network) run by Seattle author Rick Shenkman. Rick is a former managing editor for KIRO-TV and a wonderful bestselling author. This site acts as a sort of aggregator of news and opinion, with pointed reflections of how current events are shaped by our past. The essays are usually well crafted stories about the ever changing fabric of America.
Culture and the arts usually starts at the New York Times. Granted, some of the writers craft articles that are very elitist, but on the whole, if you are writing for the Times you know how to write.
And finally, for human interest on a truly global scale I love The Witness Project. This is an organization teaching folks from oppressed countries (in often hostile environments) how to document their lives and turn their stories into documentaries for a worldwide audience. From Vigilantes at the Border of America, to Torture and Displacement in Northern Uganda, to Forced Labor in Burma, Witness opens a window in worlds untouched by corporate media.
CMS
Content management seems pretty clear to me. Like anything, you have to have a plan before you start. Spending the time up front imagining how the data will be leveraged by both the users and the creators is critical. My CDs are listed alphabetically and cross referenced by genre, my photos are sorted by type and organized by date, my car keys hang by the door; the user base is small (me) and I can find what I need quickly. Fortunately, very few others need to access the data, and when they do I can act as the content manager. Consistency in naming and organization is a must, because writing an application that will cull through your data needs to be simple, and including a list of special exceptions as to how it finds the data would be a train wreck. The two points made in our reading that made me smile was: 1) the admonition that if a CMS solution requires you to reformat your data something is wrong either with the folks selling you the solution, or how you organized the data in the first place; and 2) your CMS broker needs to have the ability to time when pages will be added to the site. I sure wouldn’t want to be up at 2am loading pages. Ugh.
Spring into COM586
The first post I write for this class
Will be something that could be quite quite crass
It won't really be clever
You'll all say, "I never!"
This poem will be just a morass.
I fear we will do too much reading
Some Visene is what I'll be needing
Just oodles of text
Will keep me perplexed
My garden will still need some weeding
For class we must write about change
But it can't be "Home on the Range"
Like something that worsens
Or things, place or persons
Or maybe the currency exchange
The homework’s a monster to feed it
I don’t know if Kathy will read it
I’ll make up some verse
‘Bout topics diverse
Uh, Canis meus id comedit
