Final Project: Universal Hub

So it turns out finding other (better) coffee bloggers in the area isn’t easy. I couldn’t actually find a decent one, to be honest.

Instead, I am going to do the project on one of my favorite Boston blogs – Universal Hub. Run by Adam Gaffin, this website has posts from things overheard on the scanner to bizarre photos on the T, but is a great source of information for Boston news junkies. In addition to his website, he has a fantastic Twitter feed with over 11,000 followers where he retweets random wonderings of Bostonians (ex. I heard sirens here – what’s going on?), tweets what he seems to hear on the scanner, and of course links to posts on the site.

At this point, I’m unsure of how this will develop in terms of the structure between the video, photo stream, and story, but I think he has a large enough web presence to make each element interesting and unique. Maybe he’s a secret coffee junkie as well … you never know.

Kristen Lombardi addresses class

Last week, one of our professors former colleagues from The Boston Phoenix came and chatted with the class about the future of nonprofit journalism, and her experience as a reporter at the Center for Public Integrity.

Kristen Lombardi is currently a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, and I’m excited to hear her speak again this weekend at the 2012 Christopher J. Georges Conference on College Journalism. At the Center for Public Integrity, Lombardi has worked on in-depth, long term stories most career journalists will never get to experience. Spending at least a year on projects, Lombardi shed light on sexual assault on college campuses and dangerous mining styles in Appalachia.

The biggest takeaways from her talk for me were two aspects: how nonprofit journalism works and its uncertain future, and the presentation of long form, investigative journalism.

Personally, nonprofit models like Lombardi’s employer and ProPublica have always appealed to me as a future career asperiation – the idea of working for an organization that works for no one and wants to serve the public interest and fix large, institutional problems is something I can only dream of while in J-School. However, I didn’t understand quite how it worked. Lombardi talked about how she will have to go to fundraisers and talk about her projects, and in addition to a reporter act as a fundraiser. But this is how she has the freedom to work on one story for 18 months, and let it naturally develop instead of feeling the pressure of arbitrarily imposed deadlines. For me, I think the trade off would definitely be worth it, and despite some doubts about the current business model, I think with enough effort this will be more than just a phase of journalism.

Also, I had never given much thought as to how to convey the information uncovered to a larger audience. The idea of partnerships with larger organizations and regional outfits seems to be really effective – enabling smaller news organization to take the information she uncovered and then localize it makes sense to have the biggest impact. The concept of sharing the information for the greater good makes a lot of sense, and is beneficial to everyone involved. Additionally, breaking up the story into different segments to make it more easily digestible is something I hadn’t given much thought, but when reading her work it made a lot of sense.

 

Mapping Project: Trinity Church

Trinity Church, a set on Flickr.
A standout of historic Copley Square, Trinity Church of Boston is one of the most significant buildings in the city. Built between 1872-77, it was the first major work by American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, and was the first internationally acclaimed building in America.

In terms of its significance, the building remains in the American Instutite of Architects 10 most important buildings in America, and is the first time arts and architecture were viewed as a unified whole, explained Kathryn Acerbo-Bachmann, Director of Art & Architecture Programs at the church.

“I like to think of it as stepping into a painting,” she said. “It’s an important destination for anybody interested in architecture … You really need to come visit the church to have the full experience.”

The exterior of the building is a classic gothic cathedral of sorts, and when you step inside your idea of the church is flipped upside down. With classic large, painted glass with religious figures as well as 21,500 square feet of murals by American artists, there is a lot to take in. While the church pews have been updated, the chancel and alter are close to what I imagine it was when originally constructed, and there is a strong attention to detail in the molding, murals and even floor.

Even the base of the church remains intact – fixed on top of 4,500 wooden piles, similar to telephone poles.

The style used by Richardson was emulated worldwide, and just 10 years after the churches construction the architect died at age 43.

206 Clarendon St, Boston, MA 02116,  (617) 536.0944, trinitychurchboston.org. At Copley T Stop. Guided tours vary by day, self tours at all hours. $7 for visitors, $5 with student ID.

Handicap accesible, open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9:00 am–5:00 pm; Wednesday, 9:00 am—6:00 pm; Saturday 9:00 am–5:00 pm; Sunday 1:00 pm–6:00 pm.

Mapping as journalism

With the emergence of online media, engaging the new audience is absolutely essential. There tends to be an onset of ADD when someone sits down at a computer, clicking back and forth between social media, work, surfing the web and listening to music.

Because of this, I think mapping is a fun way to engage readers in an unconventional manner and inform them in a new way that’s more appealing to the web mentality. Each reader can have a different experience with interactive media based on their interests, which I think is invaluable.

The concept behind See Click Fix, a website where residents can report specific problems in their neighborhoods, is journalistic in the truest sense. It gives people an easy way to report civic problems instead of going through the usual channels of government, and in turn tells public officials what their constituents care about. Then, it enables journalists to see what are hot button issues in their range of coverage they may not have been aware of.

Also I think some interactive maps are the best way to portray certain information, that may be weird as a story. For example, this Wall Street Journal map shows the top 50 circulation papers in the country, what their largest problems are and what has happened to them over the past 3 years. This is perfect for the web because it is targeted, and something that would be a straight numbers story. Also by having the chart below with the same information displayed in a more traditional way, the WSJ enabled more traditional readers to get the information they want.

My only problem with mapping is when it isn’t well done or purposeful. I think it can look like you are trying too hard if the map doesn’t give an experience a reader couldn’t receive in a more traditional fashion. This National Geographic map of America’s best adventures is boring at best. All you can do is click the dots, and once you do a picture, vague headline, and link to the story is all that is provided – which redirects you to a brand new webpage. By doing this, I don’t think the reader gains anything more than if you made a list by region or state.

With more innovative and original ideas, I think mapping has a lot of potential in online media, but the industry needs to be purposeful when using this medium.

Heirloom Coffee: Video

After weeks of cultivation, I have turned 2 hours of video into 4:37 minutes – all about Heirloom Coffee’s brewing seminars.

I had the hardest time deciding what to use, and deciding to cut out a portion of interviews completely, even though it was more visually interesting.

Filming was fun, but because I had never worked with video before (well, that’s a lie. I shot terrible video of a turkey in Brighton for boston.com) I didn’t know what would be necessary and what would make good b-roll. When I sat down to edit, I had entirely too much from the interviews, and barely usable b-roll. Because I went out to Medford and the trip on public transit is over an hour each way, I couldn’t do much about it.

Getting the hang of iMovie was another thing, and I kept accidentally deleting sections or parts of the video I had selected. It was a lot harder because I had a bunch of long video, rather than segments of 3-5 minutes. But by the end of the project, I was moving through iMovie relatively seamlessly (at least the aspects I understood).

Though I had no idea what b-roll to use or when it was appropriate, I think the video is at best viewable and informative. I’m just happy I was able to branch out and not completely fail, and I know better for next time – shoot absolutely everything, and keep it short.

Also, I never want to be in front of a camera again. The stand up was terrible.