Magzalez’s eyes on media

The Alligator has a weekly entertainment section called the Avenue. It is a silly section, but I’m sure a lot of people read it. There is an over-the-top sex column along side book, cd and movie reviews. Honestly, I don’t think the paper puts enough work into the section, but that is only because the section does not put enough work into the paper.

Either way, I edited — and I used the term lightly today — a video shot by avenue-write Bailey Park. It is just a silly supplement to her story about a new store in Gainesville that I won’t bother plugging by putting its Web site here.

She shot the whole interview/tour in one take. It’s shaky; It’s crazy, but the information is actually pretty interesting, and it is a good example of how, if done right, even a simple video tour shot by a reporter can be a great supplement to a story that needs visuals.

Really though, the most important thing to come out of the video is the new Alligator logo that is going to appear at the end of all the videos. Exciting!

Here is a video I did this weekend for The Alligator. I’m kind of upset that I haven’t been proactive enough to get more of these done so far, but I have a LOT on my plate for this first half of the summer–lots of work, lots of school and lots of Alligator.

This video was about a memorial the Gainesville, Fla., chapter of the Veterans for Peace and some volunteers put together for memorial day. The memorial consisted of rows of four cardboard graves. Each row was 48 inches apart. All together, the memorial came out to be a mile long–more than 4,000 dead.

The video came out alright. My thinking behind the way I edited it was that I started off with a shot of me and my cousin driving down this mile-long memorial to all the soldiers that have been killed during the war on “terror.”

It took a little more than a minute to drive down and see the entire memorial, so I edited the video around that. I made that shot my base track, so that it pops back up from time to time. The idea was for the viewer to see how long the memorial was by realizing that all those interviews were seen in the span of time it took me to ride along the entire memorial. It was a fun idea, I thought. Let me know if it translated well.

There was a print story that went along with my video that my classmate, Chris Hayes, wrote. He’s also going to be working in the online department at the Alligator this summer.

The fall 2007 semester is coming to a close, and it is time to look back on what I have learned. I took a light load this semester, only four classes.

Two of my classes were for my minor in Portuguese. É meu prazer poder dizer que tudo vai bem em minhas aulas de português, mas isso não é o tema deste blog.

I’d like to talk about the key things I learned in my journalism classes. One of those classes was Newspaper Editing. The general idea of that class is a good one; everyone needs an editor. That holds more true than most new media journalists are willing to admit. In my own experience in internships and such, I’ve seen that as an online journalist there are less editors available to you, so you need to scrutinize your own work and actively seek others’ opinions.

As far as what we did in my editing class, we edited copy for concision and clarity and checked facts. We wrote headlines–a very important practice for Web producers–and cutlines.

My other journalism class, Reporting and Writing for the Web I sort of took a step backward in learning online media. It was a sort of review of some of the tools and ideas necessary for a new media journalist that I thought I had a firm grasp on. As always, there is always room for improvement.

In class, we worked with Soundslides, gathering and editing audio and such, took a look at video journalism–something a select number of my classmates and I got to delve deeper into this semester, but more on that another time. We also did some mapping.

But the most important thing I went over was definitely alternative story forms. It is the real concept that I’ve embraced from the class. Every time I approach a story or some information I now think about different ways to tell the story, whether it be through a photograph, video or in print–through words might be a better description.

The lecture we had on alternative story forms, which included a visit via Web cam from UNC-Chapel Hill’s Andy Bechtel, and the lecture on making media packages were the two most important lectures of the semester for me. Combining the information from those lectures now makes me think twice about going with a conventional narrative. Lists, maps and Q & As all come to mind now. Lists especially tickled my fancy. Check back for a future post on the use of lists on the Web.

All in all, this semester has brought three points to light:

1. I have to check my copy line by line, word by word
2. We need to come up with fast, new ways of presenting our information to a fast, new breed of readers
3. Este cubano precisa praticar muito seu português

So, what do you think? Como está meu português?

If you’re a South Florida sports fan, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Dan Le Batard. He’s a polarizing figure. A lot of people love to hate him, but I love to love him.

Le Batard, a now-infrequent columnist for The Miami Herald, the host of The Dan Le Batard Show on 790 The Ticket and a frequent guest on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, is one of the newest big names in sports writing.

I consider him to be the best sports columnist out there today, trailed closely by Greg Cote, another sports columnist at The Miami Herald.

I enjoy Le Batard’s view of sports as just another entertainment fixture. He’s willing to take an unpopular view on different subjects and admits when he’s wrong. But more than anything, he’s funny as hell.

Le Batard is an interesting twist on the mutli-platform journalist. He started as a writer in 1991 with The Miami Herald, though his impact in writing has gone back to his days at the University of Miami where he once published then-Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz’s phone number in The Miami Hurricane and encouraged readers to call all week leading up to the game to distract the coach.

In 2004 Le Batard, along with co-host John “Stugotz” Weiner, started The Dan Le Batard Show. It was an instant success. Le Batard’s quick-witted sense of humor and the quirkiness prevalent in his columns translated well to radio, winning him accolades along the way. The Le Batard show also gives long-time readers insight into his thought process while writing a column. Though he won’t say it, a prevalent sports theme in a week’s worth of shows will most likely make his almost-weekly columns. I must add though, Le Batard is known for not talking about sports just as much as talking about them.

Le Batard has most recently expanded his skills to television broadcast as a frequent guest host on ESPN’s ever-popular Pardon the Interruption.

All of the love I have for Lebby leads me to ask, why not go online? I’ve seen a slide show or two with his name buried in the credits but not much else. Why not blog? I wouldn’t mind pulling up a fake sports blog a couple of times a week. But alas, you can’t do it all.

Columns:

• Pats are better in every way imaginable
• A hopeless romantic could love this team

Radio:

• Retired guest, Fake Pavarotti, singing about Dolphins QB Trent Green
• Dan Le Batard interviews Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe one day after Marlins president David Samson remarked that Ichiro Suziki’s new contract would ruin baseball

*Visit this blog’s new location*

Here are the numbers from The Princeton Review:

Career: Journalist

• Number of people in the profession: 70,000
• Average hours worked per week: 55
• Average starting salary: $28,100
• Average salary after five years: $44,600
• Average salary after 10 to 15 years: $69,000

You’ve got to love the job because it’s not a huge money maker. Here are some more numbers by PayScale.com.

Jim Sullivan of Journerdism.com, with some unofficial research, concluded that the median income for a multimedia or online journalist is about $45,000. In a recent blog post, Sullivan gave some tips about the business and its money. The most interesting thing I read, he said he learned from his parents:

“People seem to not ask for raises or something. My parents are awesome; they taught me many things, including: 2 percent raises are costing you money. In an average year, inflation is 4-5 percent. If you’re not getting that much, you’re actually loosing money working for the same company. 3 percent standard wages are costing you money. Do not accept this malarkey.”