During Week 6 we talked about your crime stories. Most of you did excellent jobs at finding crime stories in your communities to cover and blog about, with original reporting.
The idea here was to realize how a phone call, a visit to a crime scene, even an email to a cop can open a new window to the world and create a new dimension for your work. Aggregating can only get you so far. The next step is old-school reporting. Use both and you could really beat the competition.
Some of you even threw in original video and photos.
We talked about how using Google Maps can add a lot of content to your reports without too much effort. A crime story, for example, could look back at similar incidences -- say reports of robberies in a small geographic area like parts of the Westside -- and pinpoint each report on a Google map, giving readers a rich graphic.
That map can be embedded in your story and add context. Here's an example that pinpoints the locations of some recent and very recent robberies on the Westside:
View Westside Robberies in a larger map
We also talked about using smartphones in the field, and I did a demonstration in which I interviewed student Frank Alli, a TV news veteran, about using video effectively online. I actually took notes for most of what I wanted, but then I asked him to repeat an interesting point, and I whipped out my iPhone, turned on its video function, and recorded a quick clip of Frank -- less than 30 seconds worth.
I sent the video directly to my YouTube account, which you can do with an iPhone. But you can also email it to yourself, download it to your desktop, then upload it to YouTube. YouTube can be accessed with a Gmail / Blogger account.
Using the YouTube embed code, you can then put the video in your post.
The results are here.
A smartphone can also be used to record audio. I suggest the same technique: Use the phone only to record quick soundbites that supplement your text. Send the audio to yourself, download it to your desktop, and upload it to a sound host such as Soundcloud.
An example of a Soundcloud clip in a story is here (although I recommend embedding the actually graphic soundwave interface, which looks kind of cool and can break up your text in a good way. An example follows).
Jerry Brown's voicemail message by dennisjromero
Can you blog from the field with your iPhone or smartphone? It's possible. I did it here. Many blog platforms are represented in apps. But it's still difficult to type everything out, add photos, and correct mistakes. I would recommend a laptop or a tablet.
We briefly looked at the ways two media-intensive sites use video and audio. We compared CBS2, the number 3 news site in the L.A. market, to KPCC, a public radio destination that posts a lot of audio.
We found that both didn't exactly exploit their resources to the fullest. CBS2 often appeared to post wire copy with its on-air video packages which, at least, were embedded instead of linked (a la KTLA). KPCC did the same, but with audio. It didn't seem to take advantage of having reporters at the scene of events (photo, video and original writing are all possible).
Our homework was to make a video and post it to your blog. The video can be either a soundbite from a subject you interview or a shot of an event you attend. It should be set up with some text.
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