Magzalez’s eyes on media

I was a little late to the whole RSS thing. I never realized how helpful it could actually be. Whenever I see other people’s RSS I always see hundreds of feeds with thousands of posts. I just figured it would be a clutter.

When I was interviewing for my job at the University of Florida Web Administration office, I was asked how I look at blogs and my favorite sites. I knew what they wanted to hear. I told them that I did not use RSS however. After that I got to thinking there was something I was missing out on. And, of course, I was. So, here is my very short list of RSS subscriptions. I like to keep it compact and manageable:

Online Journalism:

• Online Journalism Blog: Paul Bradshaw’s comments and analysis of the going’s on in online media
• Teaching Online Journalism: Mindy McAdams’ advice and comments about online media with a special emphasis on media production
• Ponto Media: António Granado’s Portuguese-language blog about online media; he provides plenty of interesting, helpful links

Sports:

• Dolphins in Depth: Armando Salguero has been a Dolphins beat writer for The Miami Herald forever. This is his not-very-well-written-but-still-interesting blog.
• Random Evidence of a Cluttered Blog: Greg Cote’s very funny and very entertaining Dolphins blog
• Tennis Served Fresh: this is the closest thing I have to a good Tennis blog; I am still looking for one great Tennis blog. I’ve only just started reading this one; I need to give it more time.

Other:

• Noel’s Scene: my girlfriend’s blog about music and artsy fun stuff in Gainesville, Fla.
• Reeling with René Rodríguez: The Miami Herald’s senior movie critic’s blog
• Super Smash Bros. Dojo: Daily updates on the comings-along of Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Is there anything else you might recommend?

*Visit this blog’s new address*

A lot of people become journalists because they want to do something different everyday. They want to drive to work not knowing what is going to go on that day. But the truth is journalism can get monotonous and most of the time we’re reporting on day-to-day life. So why not try to spice things up?

One thing I’ve always thought is that journalism needs to become more creative. In the newspaper, the everyday story could be peppered up with a creative lead, interesting quotes, etc. Photographs could convey what they need to convey with the bonus elements. Video could take some techniques from the movies and try something new from time to time.

One newspaper that just gets it is The San Jose Mercury News. I mean, really, these guys get it.

Just take a look at this video, “Friday Night: Custodian.” The visuals, the sound, the characters, they’re all perfect. What is really an uninteresting idea–a story about a woman who has been a custodian in the same place for more than 15 years–kept my attention because of the masterful video and audio techniques implored by the journalists at the the Mercury News. Dai Sugano’s name keeps coming up when I see a good video.

Some newspapers need to stop taking my viewership for granted and take a page out of the Mercury News’ book and start making more interesting, intricate, in-depth video.

Here are a couple more interesting multimedia pieces from the SJ Mercury News and others:

• “Long Snapper,” a look at San Francisco 49’s long snapper Brian Jennings’ pre-snap run down (SJ Mercury News)
• “Spring Glow,” made for spring fashion 2007, awesome, uses stop motion and many other cool techniques (SJ Mercury News)
• “Becoming a zombie,” out-of-the-ordinary good for The Gainesville Sun.
• “The Vault of Terror: Davie family transforms home into haunted house,” (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

In continuation with my last entry, here are some other newspapers trying to do what the Sun-Sentinel has done. None of the examples match up to the fun, broadcast style of Sun-Sentinel videojournalist Tiffany Ellis’ “Harvey’s Highlights.”

• The Denver Post’s Jim Armstrong gives it a try with JimmyTube. It has potential. I could not find any record of videos prior to the one taken after the Denver Broncos’ last preseason game. It looks good. Let’s see if The Denver Post can spice it up and keep it going.
• The Kansas City Star decided to post slide shows with audio (bottom left of the page under “Training camp: photos with audio”) after some of the Kansas City Chiefs training camp practices. The photos are nice, but did they think I wouldn’t notice that all the slide shows have the same audio? What I can say is that the Star’s Adam Tiecher has been doing a video blog for the last couple of months about the Chiefs, but it lacks proper production and style.
• On StarTribune.com, aside from player interviews, they provided a video analysis by writers Kevin Seifert and Judd Zulgad for the upcoming Minnesota Vikings season. It is very informative but also very awkward (like in the pit of your stomach kind of awkward). The player interviews are fun but exactly what the NFL has been monitoring. These videos may be taken down soon.

The trend of these “stand-up” videos is sure to grow. News outlets will do anything they can to get their readers their news through the best medium.

Here is a story from The Washington Post about the NFL’s new rules. They can explain it much better than I can.

Let me preface this with a rundown of the National Football League’s new rules on using NFL-related videos. Basically, the NFL wants to drive viewers from their local newspaper’s Web site to the brand new NFL.com. They are doing this by allowing only 45 seconds worth of NFL video per day on your local newspaper’s Web site.

“NFL video” is basically defined as any video of players or coaches taken inside an NFL team’s facility or at an NFL sanctioned event including games, practices, locker room footage, etc.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a newspaper out of Broward, Fla., which I had the privilege of working for as an online media and video intern this summer, has found a way to keep bringing new visual information to the Dolfans of South Florida without breaking the NFL’s new rules. Tiffany Ellis, a videojournalist at The Sun-Sentinel, decided that a Dolphins beat writer should give a rundown of recent Dolphin activity while photos, stats and short video clips cut across the video in interesting ways. Ellis’ production coupled with Sun-Sentinel Dolphins beat writer Harvey Fialkov’s impeccable timing and presence in front of the camera have produced gold for their South Florida readership.

Check out some of Ellis’ videos on the paper’s Web site.

I thought it was a slap in the face of the football fans across America that the NFL would take away the most interesting aspect of hyperlocal sports coverage–video. I am glad to see that there are smart, young journalists like Ellis who can keep bringing readers their news in new, interesting ways. Her Dolphins videos are viewed thousands of times a day showing that her efforts and originality are much appreciated.