December 2004 Archives

I originally enrolled in the 694 class, my fourth campus media, because I wanted to take advantage of every opportunity I could while at the University of Kansas. I have been involved in The University Daily Kansan, KJHK and KUJH-TV News. My classmates and I were the first to live in the Multimedia Newsroom and were guinea pigs in this experiment.

I got the impression we would start as inexperienced little guinea pigs and end the semester as webifyin', online producin', super guinea pigs ready to run an entire news operation single handedly. It didn't happen like that. Sure, we all learned how to produce online packages and blog like nobody's business, but what really shined were the individual talents we brought in and used to lay the groundwork. These are skills we have been honing in our years in the School of Journalism. One semester of this class didn't make us Web geniuses. Each of us shined in our area of expertise and that is what makes a newsroom work, whether it is a newspaper, television or multimedia newsroom.

I don't like the idea of ONE person playing every role in a newsroom. That person does not exist. News quality benefits from multiple perspective in all phases of production.

I appreciate what this class has done and has tried to do, but we need to realize that it isn't going to be fluffy clouds, pretty rainbow and unicorns. We have to deal with the reality of our role in the school and the profession. We're going to have to deal with multiple media because no matter how much PR the school releases, we are still at the first phases of convergence.

The future 694 students must provide solutions instead of demanding, "Well why aren't you doing it this way?" In that aspect, if we really care about making changes we should actively try to implement some of those ideas. Case in point: Everyone in 694 this semester had plenty of comments about kansan.com, but after the 2005 Spring web editor (Donovan Atkinson) visited class and encouraged people to apply, no one did.

To sum up my experience in the Newsroom, I can say that it was enlightening yet frustrating at times. I got to know Rick Musser and Staci Wolfe, have fun with my classmates, blog and, oh yeah, the bagels were awesome too.

After the presentation today, it is clear that everyone who has contributed to building the KUJH-TV website should be very proud of their work. Going into the course I did not think that I would learn how to put together a website and be given the role of having to develop the majority of the content for the news site.

Throughout the semester the course took on a variety of forms. Professor Musser was able to combine textbook readings to teach us about web convergence and online journalism. Practical use of this knowledge came each week through our blogging. I never would have thought that blogging our responses each Friday would actually become so important to learning about web journalism.

Now that the semester is over the course has come full circle and laid the foundation for the future of the KU Journalism School. The potential for expansion of the groundwork that has been laid is endless. If the motivation is there the website could one day encompass the numerous ideas that the online producers have come up with combined with the vast space that the web offers.

This semester has been full of frustration and hard work, but today when we presented the project to faculty members, it was clear that numerous revisions, unclear ideas, and endless possibilities came together to create the framework of the KUJH-TV website. There is still a lot to be done to make the website a success. Over the next semester the execution of the plans that have been laid will be crucial to the success of the work that has been done this semester.

I hope that next semester I am able to help the students coming into 694 realize the importance of the groundwork that has been laid. I now have a confidence in my ability to understand the work required to make a website a success and what it takes to use the technology that is available in the multimedia newsroom to get maximum benefits.

Next semester I will continue to be a part of the continued development of tv14.ku.edu. (Constantly fighting for the sports presence on the site.) 694 has allowed me to use my strengths and develop my weaknesses. The class has taught me so much and I am glad I took that chance to try something new.

As the wheel continues to spin the possibilities for online journalism will continue to develop. The journalism school will no doubt be pushing that wheel.

1. Being able to change my work -- on the web, ink is NEVER dry :)

2. Finding words that rhyme with blog

3. Working with other people who think starting a "Flash Club" is a fun idea

4. Gilmore Girls rehashing

5. Bonding through blogging

6. Talking in code/numbers/jargony words that only make sense to the chosen ones

7. Using the Web during class (I swear 99% of it was related to work)

8. Creating new words and using them legitimately (i.e. webify)

9. The green color scheme that stimulates intellectuality

10. Bagels

Now that the semester is over, I am catching up on some reading.Today, I searched poynteronline.org for "tv web sites." Not much out there, but I did find, "TV-News Sites Not Much to Look At?" by Steve Outing. It was dated March 2004, but I still believe it is relevant. After all, I haven't seen any major changes in TV web site designs in the last nine months.

Outing pleads to TV news executives, "Stop presenting to viewers and start involving them." Oh so very wise a statement, Mr. Outing. But, what does he mean? I hope that our new KUJH-TV web site will prove more interactive.

Outing also quoted blogger Cory Bergman, executive producer at KING-TV in Seattle, whose Lost Remote blog, "takes issue with the status quo of television. Technology is changing fast, and a new generation of TV viewers is demanding more." He's right, I think. TV viewers are demanding more (Or they will be soon). Things just can't continue like they are. TV and the Internet are more alike than they are different, in many respects. For example, they can both present text, still images, audio, and/or video. Both the TV and the Internet are "on demand" media. Although, until the arrival of TiVo, TV was more passive; whereas, the Internet has always been defined as "interactive."

sigh If we could only get our act together.

Over a dozen faculty and staff members of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications came to the Mulitmedia Newsroom Thursday to hear a presentation from students working on the new KUJH-TV News Web site. Professors who specialize in all different types of media listened intently while students presented the plan for taking KUJH-TV News online, which will tentatively begin at the start of spring semester.

Okay, that's a press release lead. Let's get back into the medium.

For me, this project has been a journey through television, technology and convergence. I felt we met our goal when Dick Nelson, KUJH-TV Newsroom Supervisor, told me after the presentation that he could only think of very small things to change. Whew, the client's happy! After reading our plan, Bryan Wilcox, our programmer, gave the 694 class a B+ on understanding what the technology can do -- I consider that pretty good for as little as we, students, know/knew about the world of technology.

Much of what we are doing now is behind the scenes work to get the Web site ready for its launch. Kris Baxter, Bryan Wilcox, Staci Wolfe and I will be working over winter break to get the KUJH-TV Web site ready for the students to start cranking stories out in the spring.

I will be keeping you updated throughout the break on the fun we're having in the Multimedia Newsroom.

We saw a short web video in class last Friday which was a "history" of the blogosphere and web journalism, culminating in the collapse of the New York Times somewhere around 2015. This dystopian view of the future ended with a pointed question straight out of H.G. Welles: something to the effect of "Or could there have been another way?"

I think the "dystopian" mood starts to set in for those of us who want to be journalists when we think about the inherent democratization of the web. If anyone can now be a writer, publisher, journalist, what does it mean to be a professional anymore? Will anyone value our hard work over that of say, Matt Drudge, or anyone else chattering away in the vast blogosphere? Will anyone want to pay us?

There is no simple answer to this problem, but I think as long as we in the field maintain high standards of objectivity, there will always be a demand for "real" journalism over the amateur stuff. Of course, recent scandals have indicated that many so-called "professional" journalists are not doing their jobs as well as the bloggers, so these categories remain fluid.

On the other hand, most of our in-class discussions on these issues have had a more "utopian" feel, and I myself, though somewhat of a hidebound traditionalist, have found myself caught up in this spirit.

I have rhapdodized in my blog about the seemingly endless possibilities for web journalists. The web, with its ability to encompass all the traditional media and offer unique features of its own, frees the journalist from the rigid confines of the TV story, the radio story, the print article. The journalist is now free to think about the story in its own terms. If the traditional newspaper format doesn't do the story justice, no problem: we can include any number of still or moving image formats to bring it to life much more vividly than on dead wood. Not a good visual story? No problem: we can take as much space as we need to paint a picture with words, using documentation, charts, graphs, or maps. In other words, we can do as much or as little as the story needs, no longer reliant on the demands of the traditional media.

I hope in creating the new KUJH web site we are providing a vehicle for J-School students to experiment with web journalism, to explore their creativity in this new medium while still learning the basics of print and broadcast. If we can convince them of the value of this opportunity, I think they will all want to participate.

Coming into the 694 class I had one goal to accomplish: I wanted to learn about convergence. I succeeded. Now that I know what I know, I'm ready to be a journalist in a cross-platform environment, or at least think I'm ready. Until I graduate in another year, I'll be watching the curriculum in the School of Journalism and listening to the professors carefully, not just for my sake, but for theirs.

There are too many brillant people -- students, staff and faculty alike -- in this school who, unlike me, have not been hit on the head with the apple of the Information Age. Not that I'm a genius when it come to computers, but these folks make me look like Einstein. People are downright scared of technology. Scared of pushing a button or playing around with a software program. Scared and reluctant because a voice in their head is saying you might fail or mess something up.

I believe in the law of diminishing returns for both successes and failures. You can only fail so many times before the fear of failing doesn't bother you anymore. Likewise, you can only succeed at something so many times before you can't feel the jubilation.

There came a time in this semester that I stopped saying, "I did code by myself!" It was no big deal; it came naturally. I had to jump bigger hurdles to get that feeling of astonishment and pride. Those feelings came again when I turned Susie Cable's in-depth content into an interesting Web page. Then, it was on to information architecture for the KUJH-TV Web site.

I'm ready for convergence in the real world and feel that I'm far more knowledgable on the subject than many students like me. Taking 694 gave me confidence in my ability as a Web journalist. It has also given me enough ego to tell people when their perceptions, inhibitions and knowledge base needs to change in order for convergence to work here.

Rick and I, along with Malcolm Gibson (Kansan General Manager), Andrew Vaupel (spring 2005 Kansan Editor) and Tim Sears (Kansan Systems Administrator), recently walked through a demo of the Lawrence Journal World CMS. This system runs the backend of lawrence.com as well as the recently launched, lansingcurrent.com and other similar sites.

Wilson Miner, was our tall, soft-spoken and articulate guide. It was informative and inspiring. The way their software works is nothing short of spectacular. Wilson showed how the system could drag and drop photos into any spot in a web story. No knowledge of ugly code is needed.

The LJWorld system is great for organizations who have to pump out so much information on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis. On the other hand, I do know that too much "automagic" technology can limit online journalists' creativity (Our programmer, Bryan hates that word, "automagic." Sorry Bryan). Or as Rick says, "We want the page to look like this, and this, and-then-the-magic-happens." My goal is not to perpetuate the automagic. I want to arm our student journalists with knowledge, and arouse their curiosity just enough so they begin to question the automagician behind the curtain.

It took a semester, but after working with the brilliant and talented individuals in 694, after seeing many of them go from knowing nothing about code to complaining they don't have enough control over the "look and feel" of their online content, I've realized that, sometimes, it's okay --€” no, necessary --€” to build a story from scratch.

Not every journalist on the web needs to know --€” or even to care --€” about html. However, I think that people who call themselves online journalists still need to learn web skills. They have to understand how the medium is unique.

Creativity is valuable to journalists. Journalists, by trade, design information, give meaning to words, tell stories. In the end, doesn't the future of journalism boil down to preserving an important part of human expression and helping to facilitate the continued evolution of our profession and maybe even our culture? Nah. That is way too deep.

Back to reality.

Conversations with Miner and The Kansan have also made me realize that the same low-tech solutions to our high tech medium they are struggling with, we struggled with this semester. The marriage of television to the world wide web still needs a lot of relationship counseling. Both media come from digital families, but we are still a long way away from realizing the true potential of a happy digital marriage in TVland.

photo by Adam Sechrist (cell phone camera)

It was supposed to be Waffle Friday (in honor of my friends and collegues at my former employer -- ZymoGenetics). However, when the idea was first conceived by my partner-in-crime, programmer/sys admin extraordinaire, Bryan Wilcox, he insisted that Tuesday would have to be the day for making waffles. Apparently, Tuesday mornings before 10:30 are the best time for him because there's no conflict with his class schedule.

Waffles aside, this is the week. The last week of classes. Stop Day is Friday. Finals start on Monday. The semester is drawing to an end, and I feel like I should have something profound to say. After all, we've asked the students to post their final thoughts this week, shouldn't I wrap things up as well?

We've come so far. We've learned so much these past 5 months. I've been spending a lot of time lately, staring at the over-sized dry erase board in the training room. We've done the research; carefully laid out the plans; now, all that is left is to build the KUJH-TV Web site. The only thing I wish we could've done differently is hired a professional designer.

*Note: We will be seeking to invoke a permanent Waffle Tuesday ritual in the newsroom starting spring 2005.