Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Interviewers losing the plot...

Michael Parkinson talks to Meg Ryan. Sort of. "It's awkward," says Meg, who trained as a journalist at NYU (3 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blpq-Iwu25s

George Lamb interviews Ray Davies of The Kinks, somewhat insulting the rock legend. (3mins to conclusion of Ray Davies interview, 4mins 40secs including George Lamb 'justification').
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx5oGJD0QdE

Fox host Ainsley Earhardt's line of questioning is unsettled by author Uri Man’s flirtatious comments (2 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDq_qxMCh3g

Icelandic band Sigur Ros are encouraged to be monosyllabic by interviewer Luke Burbank asking an endless stream of closed questions (6 mins)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/bryantpark/2007/10/when_good_interviews_go_bad.html

The Sigur Ros interview broken down to its components (15 mins)http://www.npr.org/blogs/bryantpark/2007/10/anatomy_of_an_interview_gone_w.html

Tom Cruise interviewed on MSNBC by Matt Lauer. Cruise calls Lauer "glib" and tells him he should do his homework, taking control of the interview despite making nonsense claims. (6 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc_

Bill Grundy and the Sex Pistols - Today Show, ITV, 1976 (2 mins 40s). WARNING! Contains profanities!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p25SdQEnhHI

The Word. My word. Terry Christian demonstrates the fine use of 'dead air' interviewing Keanu Reeves live, via satellite, from Los Angeles (4 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBIKIQCwjKc

Very, very awkard interview with Jake Lloyd who appeared as the Young Anakin Skywalker when he was a boy but has since given up acting. If only the interviewer had conducted some research.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEmgio0VV1E

A 54-year-old mystery revealed by ABC News that, well, is still a mystery. How not to make gripping television!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUcaNzCmZtQ

NBC News - Bush keeps reporter in line (stop at 1 min in before Bush's war speech!)
"You want another follow-up? They've taken your mic away."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnJmKWaQ-WY

SKY NEWS - Bush kept in line by Sky News reporter Adam Boulton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj7osc9Ktn0

KTNV: And to conclude, how not to communicate with people in the street, even if your are a reporter and they are drunk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfrcn6lmN4c

Interview reminders:

  • The term 'off the record' is meaningless.

  • Interviewee's have the right not to answer a question, as much as interviewers have the right to ask.

  • Establish what is going on - is this interview live, pre-recorded, delayed?

  • Prepare!

  • Establish ground rules - remember who should be driving the interview.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

What’s the point of blogging?

  • A portfolio of work
  • A two-way method of communication – a conversation
  • Comments - allowing you to gain the views and experiences of other people
    Good practice in communicating with the outside world
  • An 'active' medium
  • A brand-building exercise
  • Allows you to demonstrate your expertise and prove your credibility
  • Regular updated, attracting visitors and drawing attention to your work
  • Providing up-to-date news to your audience
  • A thinking ground for ideas
  • A space for 'first drafts' and subsequent versions of your work and words
  • The storage of posts and, therefore, your history and experiences
  • Ability to integrate multimedia – video, audio, images, podcasts, vodcasts, slideshows – and widgets
  • An opportunity to write brilliant headlines
  • Whatever you want it to be

Writing and presenting information for web

  • Web users do not sit reading web pages. They scan them
  • Therefore, web pages have to employ scannable text
  • If people don't like what they see, they bounce right out
  • Users often read web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html
  • On an average visit, users read half the information only on those pages with 111 words or less (Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer: "Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use," in the ACM Transactions on the Web, vol. 2, no. 1 (February 2008), article #5)
  • The first two paragraphs are very important and need to be attention grabbing
    one idea per paragraph
  • Highlighted keywords (hypertext links, typeface variations and colour)
  • meaningful sub-headings that provide information that will lead people to read on
    bulleted lists
  • the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion
  • half the word count (or less) than conventional writing – 200-400 words a page/blog entry?
  • use of blog summaries with link to full content
  • credibility is extremely important for web users
  • use of high-quality graphics, video, audio coupled with good writing and the use of outbound links
  • no "marketese", which is akin to spam. Regular users of the web – the web literate - have been raised on free content, they do not want to be sold anything. Don't give people a reason to bounce straight out of your site

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Want an example?

Now that's what I call the future...
Digital Media Journalism?

News Orgs

BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/mihirbose/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/

Sky News
http://blogs.news.sky.com/

Bad? Telegraph text frenzy
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/
Telegraph's opionated bloggers
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/blogs/

Arts
http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/shenton/

Gaming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog

The Cartoon Blog
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/christianadams/

Social Commentary
http://www.ideabounty.com/blog

David Hepworth
Word editor
Blogger version
http://whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.com/
Embedded version
http://www.davidhepworth.com/html/hepworth_blog1.html

Jeff Jarvis - Buzz Machine
http://www.buzzmachine.com/

Cory Bergman (MSNBC)
http://lostremote.com/

Pete Cashmore/Mashable
http://mashable.com/

Beppe Grillo
http://www.beppegrillo.it/english.php

Gigazine
http://www.gigazine.net/

Travel
http://www.brooklynchowdersurfer.com/

Community
http://stroudblog.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/

Blogposts roundup at Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone/blog

Politics
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/best-of-the-politics-blogs

John Prescott
http://www.gofourth.co.uk/johns_blog

Iain Dale
http://iaindale.blogspot.com/

http://andrew-allison.blogspot.com/

Music
NME
www.nme.com/bloghttp://www.theregoesthefear.com/

The Hype Machine
http://hypem.com/

V-log - Amanda Congdon

http://sometimesdaily.com/

Perfectly branded hacks

Adam Westbrook
http://adamwestbrook.wordpress.com/

Sean Smith
http://seanxsmith.wordpress.com/infuze/

Jonathan Warren - Tog
http://jwarren.co.uk/blog/

Jon Bernstein (former C4 multimedia editor)
http://jonbernstein.wordpress.com/

James Woodcock (gaming & tech)
http://www.jameswoodcock.co.uk/

Andy Worthington
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/

???
Danuta Kean
http://www.danutakean.com/blog/

Sean McManus
http://www.sean.co.uk/

Does Controversial = Bad?
http://perezhilton.com/

Not quite getting it...
Cambridge News
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_blogs/

thepickenpackreport
ttp://thepickenpackreport.blogspot.com/

Bad journalistic video
http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/

Excellent examples of 'digital media journalism'

NY Times multimedia
NY Times - Breaking Through The Ranks slideshow

Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/bikie-wars/

Interactive Narratives

Audio Test #2

Station Tannoy

Audio Test #1