Thursday, September 30, 2010

Fire Factor 2010

Today we made our first attempt at writing a feature, complete with voice-over for our coverage of Mizzou's Annual Fire Factor. We might have aimed a little too high. First of all, the video editing applications are not all up to par. Neither ReelDirector or iMovie have multi-track editing, and thus, we had to just import the voiceover from our iTunes accounts. There is no way to adjust the sound on the audio or readjust the timing. For more on ReelDirector, click here. Secondly, some of the video editing tools didn't work as seamlessly as we would have hoped. Some of the applications closed on us. **Correction - this event was the tenth annual, not the ninth as stated in the clip.

Here are our videos -

Using ReelDirector, a stick mic with an XLR adapter from VeriCorder and a mini tripod: (Jennifer Elston)

Fire Factor 2010 from Jennifer Elston on Vimeo.

(September 29, 2010) Mizzou's annual fire safety event.

Using iMovie and a mini Mic from VeriCorder: (Amanda Heisey)

Fire Factor 2010 from Amanda Heisey on Vimeo.

Using 1st Video, a Gorillapod and Blue Mikey: (Drew Dumas)

Here are some photos taken during the event. All of the photos were edited with the iPhone Photogene application.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Expert Testimony: Stephen Quinn

Mobile Journalism Expert, Mainly in Southeast Asia and based in Australia
"People who make the decisions, editors, chief-of-staff don’t know enough about the technology to see what’s possible."

"I don’t know what the future (of mobile technology) is, really it depends on the imagination of the people using the technology. You can come up with uses no one else knows about. There's so much potential here, and it is only limited by the breadth of our imagination."

Friday, September 24, 2010

Expert testimony: Tiffany Campbell

Multimedia Producer for Seattletimes.com
"We’ve learned a lot by trial and error. I would say we’ve had times when the technology failed or when we were stymied by the wrong or inappropriate equipment."

"I hate to make predictions. I will say that the technology and expectations are headed in the direction that mobile will be expected and not unusual. As in, you’ll file and report using whatever tools/means are necessary and make sense for the journalism."

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Expert testimony: Ray Meese

To get started, we interviewed several people who are experts in the field of mobile journalism. We will be featuring a few on this site.

Visual Editor, Ventura County Star (CA)
"The only real limitations we face right now pertain to image and video quality. While the iPhone4 has improved video quality, it still falls short as a video camera in many ways."

"When it comes to fires, big wrecks… that sort of breaking news, people seem to care less what the quality is like - they just want to see it and they want to see it right after it happened. To this extent, I think mobile journalism will really flourish."

"In general, I think newsrooms are still far behind where they could be."

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Meet the team

We are a team of senior multimedia journalism students at the University of Missouri. We hope to find the best practices for mobile journalism. To do this, we will test multiple tools for reporting and content creation. After we have completed using various types of equipment, we will train fellow journalists with the tools of mobile journalism. Hopefully, we will create a sustainable and long-term resource guide for the industry. From time to time, we will include examples and inspiration of this work being done currently in many different cultures. In the end, we hope to open people’s minds to the potential of mobile journalism.

For more information of who we are, visit The Team page.