Facebook Live Broadcast: UT Finals
For my final project in my Integrated Media class, I shot a Facebook Live broadcast and interviewed University of Toledo students across campus to get their perspective on finals preparation and how their semesters have went. With finals week being just a week away, I figured the timing was perfect to get a glimpse into the eyes of a UT student and their preparedness for their final exams. It wasn't too early or too late to the point of irreverence. There was also a plethora of students to ask, being in the middle of campus during class hours. Many students could be found walking to and from classes; in fact, a lot of students weren't able to be interviewed BECAUSE they were running late to class.
I prepared for the broadcast by getting some practice runs on Facebook live through family events, just messing around and determining what capabilities Facebook live offered. This also gave me time to check out the user interface of the Facebook tool, so that when it was time to broadcast, I would be prepared. I also asked a friend for assistance to record (with the camera tripod for stabilization.)
During the broadcast setup, there were a few tribulations and errors. The auxiliary chord for the portable microphone wasn't big enough for me to use without it being uncomfortable, so the audio was strictly internal audio from the phone. There were a few issues with phone flipping that messed the first broadcast attempt and was later deleted. Lastly, a lot of people that crossed paths with me appeared to be camera shy and were hesitant to do an interview with me.
I would love to do Facebook Live again! There's something different about doing something live that adds a level of authenticity that you can't get with edited video packages. Everything is as it is and there's nothing to hide.
The Podcasting Experience
#UToledoIntegratedMedia #storytelling #photojournalism #mojo #smartphonepix
To prepare myself for podcast production, I listened to other podcasts and radio shows to reverse-engineer some of the methodologies of creating prolific podcasts. The first series I listened to was NPR’s Radio Lab. Radio Lab is a podcast that focuses on topics the general public might have interest in; mostly science based. The hosts effectively announce and have interviews and callers when it matters; but my personal favorite factor about Radio Lab is their use of sound effects for transitioning and creating the mood of each vibe they’re trying to create. Their use of SFX puts the listener in to the environment of the topic of matter. It really helps you feel like you’re there with them and whatever it is they’re talking about. I’ve also been listening to the radio station, WGTE to and from work. WGTE typically has talk shows about politics. WGTE tends to have a closer to neutral standpoint in politics and it appears as though they attempt not to be biased towards one political side or the other. The biggest talking point right now is Trump’s impeachment process after Trump’s political requests with the Ukrainian government. It is important to cover Trump’s impeachment process (especially with his trial happening this week,) but according to the Washington post, even democrats aren’t that interested in Trump’s impeachment and wish media sources put their focus in other categories of news. [source in the link below for more info]
I’ve created many podcasts before and have listened to thousands of hours of podcast content at work, so I have a strong idea as to how podcasts should work, but have some final thoughts about choosing quality or quantity and finding a happy medium. Podcasts can be longer or shorter, depending on what you want to cover. Some scenarios are different from others, but for my podcast, I prefer at least 45 minutes and longer. It really depends if the interviewee wants to talk longer or not and I don’t want to cut off interesting discussions early. The hard part about longer podcasts is the difficulty perfecting and editing hours’ worth of content (removing filler words, empty spacing, uploading.) If the podcast is your life career, you should definitely perfect each podcast as much as you can, if you think not perfecting it would scare away listeners. If you want the podcast to sound more natural and don’t have the time to make all the edits for longer podcasts, it’s okay not to make every minor edit. It would help however, to get better at not using filler words yourself, so you don’t need to remove the filler words or empty spaces anyways. Adding sound effects to create an imaginative atmosphere to your podcast is also a veteran-move and could be very effective. Again, this may be difficult for longer podcasts, but the extra hours putting in the sound effects really does add an effective factor to your podcasts that listeners can enjoy. One important thing to consider is how to go about marketing podcasts. The podcast producer needs to put their mind in the typical podcast listener’s head. What are they going to listen to? What tagged words should you put in that a listener might look up to find your podcast? Does your podcast have video, a cool logo, an interesting topic that catches peoples eyes, etc.? If you can’t get your podcast to an audience of listeners, podcasts are ALMOST pointless. I say “almost” because when you create podcasts, you still gain talking and mixing experiences, build networking, and have something recorded to look back on to critique your self and for nostalgia-sake.
Creating a Stellar story about UT Rockets on Steller
#UToledoIntegratedMedia #storytelling #photojournalism #mojo #smartphonepix
Last Tuesday, I was able to cover the UT vs Kent State Football game with my phone camera, video camera, and the app Steller. The experience was like a continuation of the things I’ve learned all mixed in to one final digital story to flip through in chronological order and reveal a stellar story. It was a unique experience in comparison to previous Mobile Journalism projects in the sense that different moments of the game were best fit for different forms of media. For example, videos were good for catching moments that were more difficult to catch on camera; like watching Kent go for a field goal and making it. Cameras were good at catching singular moments and giving the audience a wide perspective of the event through wide shots. Text boards were used for moments that may have been missed or unable to be captured.
Regarding technicalities, Steller has a couple unique features, but doesn’t stand out as much as I’d like it to when comparing it to more mainstream media; with “mainstream” being the first issue. Steller only has over one hundred thousand downloads in comparison to the similar Instagram app, which has over 1 billion downloads (on Google Play, according to Google Play.) This could be a problem if you want to get you media in front of an audience. If you have a smaller max audience, you reduce your potential of reaching an audience to that size. For example, I could possibly get 1 billion likes on Instagram but only 100,000 likes on Steller. Steller only has two differences that I’ve noticed when comparing it to Instagram. Steller has permanent stories in comparison to Instagram’s temporary stories (which you can save). Steller also has additional templates to add some flare to the story. This isn’t really enough for me to want to permanently use it to market myself to the public, unless updates or major changes were made. The one perk Steller does have is its ability to share to other social media. This is the only effective way to get the permanent story out to the public. Steller may not be my go-to app, but it still teaches the users important lessons, especially when comparing Steller’s concept to the Blade NewsSlide App. Steller teaches you to digitally tell stories through photos, videos, and writing. Likewise, The Blade NewsSlide app essentially does the same thing. Steller gives users the necessary tools to create a story similar to the newer digital methods of Newspapers like the Blade and its app. One flaw to Steller that taught me another lesson is that you can’t edit after the story is posted. This means you need to make sure your story is tweaked and perfected before posting. Likewise, I’m sure this is something journalists would have to do while working in their industry. Double checking work before making work public is essential. Working with Steller has taught me how to tell stories through mobile digital media through camera usage, video usage, writing, and post production.
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Fall Fest Photo Story
For my photo-shooting experience, I decided the best place to get the most meaningful shots was the Sylvania Fall Festival. The Fall Fest had so many events and things going on that it was hard to choose what to include and what not to include in my photo shoot story. I ended up using photos that caught the general idea of what happened at the Sylvania fall Festival. This included mascot appearances, the parade, the overall picture (crowd, tents, city view,) one of the few donut-eating competitions, and the superb dinosaur race. The best part about using my phone to capture moments was the fast rate of getting the camera out consistently. The one factor that limited this speedy process was my phone buffering. I have a lower budget model phone, which means it’s going to take longer to take multiple pictures and open the camera up on my phone. The closer pictures I took appeared more focused compared to the few photos that involved the zoom feature on my phone.
One factor that was difficult was trying to capture each moment. My budget friendly phone could only capture a photo every 4-6 seconds. Sometimes, opening the phone’s camera froze as well. This made it extra difficult capturing every moment I wanted my digital audience to see. Fortunately, there were a lot of moments to capture. If I had a top of the line phone (or even your average smart phone,) I would’ve been able to capture more photos, as well as more higher quality photos that could’ve had better zooming focus. Fortunately for the photography, it was overcast, which meant the photos came out crisper, not having to worry about the sun blurring any of the shots I took with my phones camera.
Posting the multiple photos to social media had some new thoughts to consider. I needed to decide which photo to display first. My first thought was having the picture that captured everything first, but I decided to post my best moment first. This best moment was a close-up shot of Rocksy the Rockette hugging children. I decided to put that general photo second. I also had some issues with Twitter. Twitter only allowed me to post four photos and I had to decrease the amount of characters in my post. My initial Instagram post had too many characters when I copy and pasted the post over to Twitter. It was challenging deciding what to include and not include for my Twitter post, while still including who, what, when, where, and why.
To sum everything up, the phone camera ended up working quite well, capturing multiple moments and showing off multiple events that happened throughout the day. A DSLR camera would have been helpful too, with it’s capability to zoom in without losing quality. The DSLR camera would have however taken up more space. Both the phone camera and DSLR camera are both effective products and should be used for the things they excel at.
#UToledoIntegratedMedia #storytelling #photojournalism #mojo #smartphonepix
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Battle of I-75 Mobile Photo-shoot Observations
For my mobile photoshoot, I figured the perfect place to get a quality picture of a popular local event was the Battle of I-75; more specifically the tailgate. I took the picture prior to the game, to get a glimpse of the environment before the start of the competitive matchup at BGSU against the University of Toledo football team. Some better moments that could have been taken would’ve included more action between a Toledo fan and a BG fan, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to identify any significant moments between fans during my time there; so, the next best thing is a picture that shows fans tailgating, Toledo / BGSU flags, a unique BGSU trailer, the Doyt Stadium in the background, and a commercial airplane promoting an advertisement in the background. All these features are things most viewers can relate to when observing my photo, which virtually puts the viewer into the photo’s environment.
Gathering the captions were pretty straight-forward. I didn’t have to ask around about what was going on because the tailgate event was pretty self-explanatory: WHO: University of Toledo and BGSU. WHAT: I-75 football Tailgate before the game started. WHEN: at noon. WHERE: at BGSU’s Doyt Stadium. WHY: hanging out before the game to have a good time and get ready for the rival game. After recognizing the five W’s, it was just a matter of combing it all in to the photos caption: “Hanging out today at BGSU’s tailgate for the Battle of I-75 football game! The game started earlier today at 12pm.”
I learned in the reading that journalists must also consider the platform the content will be posted to. For example, Instagram has a heavy focus on long-term visual/picture format, but Snap Chat focuses more on short-term visual/picture format. Twitter contains short and to the point posts, but Facebook can expand in to a longer formatted post. The best mainstream platform for my picture would most likely be Instagram because my content contains a photo and a short description of what the picture presents.
In the acquired reading, I learned how good story formats efficiently connect a grouping of words into a visual description of a scene within a community. When producing journalistic content, it’s important to tell the story in a factual, non-exaggeratory manner. It’s important to keep in mind how swift current events may change, and how creating a textual description of the event should be narrated in a way that won’t immediately become outdated. According to Paul Bradshaw’s Six Ways of Communicating Data Journalism, the base of the pyramid is “Utili[z]e” (typo error.) In order for the content to exist, there must be a reason for it to exist. In my picture for example, I’m presenting the information about the I-75 tailgate event. This is the base because without it, the other reasons couldn’t be stable and become meaningless. After Utilize is “Personali[z]e.” It’s important to present personally imagery in order for the audience to relate. The post must also be “Humanized,” to create a morally appropriate setup. Next up is “Socialize.” It’s important that your piece engages with the audience. Next is “Narrate” which is the captioning of the content. The tip of the triangle is “Visualize” which is what puts the audience in to your digital piece. All these factors balances the top feature, which is “Communicate.” In other words, you must have all these features at its specific levels to create a balanced form of communication to your audience.
#UToledoIntegratedMedia #storytelling #photojournalism #mojo #smartphonepix
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1st Amendment Analysis
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
After reviewing the 1st amendment primary source, textbook readings, and PowerPoints, I’ve refreshed my knowledge about the rights we have as U.S. citizens and how I can implement or restrict my journalistic approach for mobile journalism. In general, the 1st amendment gives me the opportunity to speak my mind and produce public media, as long as I’m not putting someone in danger or slandering.
Although under the age of 18, students do have protection under the 1st amendment at school. Students may not have the freedom of privacy at school (for safety reasons,) but students are able to learn about religion in class and have most other freedoms that every other citizen over the age of 18 has. Students at private schools may have a limited amount of freedom, regarding freedom of speech. Due to the school being private, they have the power to adjust rules that may normally contradict some of the rules of the 1st amendment. Such rules might include protesting or religious orders.
People may say whatever they want, as long as it’s not putting people in danger. For example, you can’t say a building is on fire if it isn’t, or that there’s a bomb in a designated area if there isn’t. This is because these words can lead to physical damage to property by the crowd’s reaction, as well as casualties. You also can’t threaten to hurt someone. Physical threats are treated as if you will follow through with your actions, so it is necessary to take the first step in preventing this by making it illegal to threaten to hurt someone. You can however have any opinion of your liking. You can say that you hate a group of people or that you want nothing to do with a certain race or gender. Although this is legal, it can restrict your capabilities of getting a job. If a recruiter sees that you hate Latinos, this would most likely create a conflict for the company you’re applying for, so the recruiter has every right not to hire you for that reason.
U.S. citizens are not allowed to publicly lie or slander someone, especially in media. By slandering someone, you could potentially be ruining their reputation, based on dishonesty or lies. A primary example that’s creating a lot of debate amongst the bipartisan government of the United States of America is calling President Donald Trump racist. A common rule in politics is not to call someone racist unless it is bluntly obvious, they are racist. This is a matter of definition. Different people define racism differently, but the actual definition of racism is “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.” – Google definition. When Donald Trump told some of his colleagues to go back to the country they came from, many interpreted that as racist; but a lot of colleagues also didn’t see this choice of words to match the definition of racism. So the main argument is determining whether or not President Trump is racist or not; because if he isn’t, calling him racist would be considered slander.
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Mobile Journalism Observations
After studying The Mojo Skillset (Steve Hill), making primary observations, and interviewing 4 individuals of varying demographics, I can abstract some finals thoughts about phone usage and how people are informed. The Mojo skillset discusses how mobile advancements are reshaping the media industry. It claims that new, innovative forms of technology are increasing the range of platforms and reducing the general intake of mass media. Because of this, traditional media platforms need to adjust to the rapid transformations of technology.
There were many signs of evidence noted during my public observations and interviews. I observed phone users at the University of Toledo’s Carlson library and the Student Union. Students were either glued to their phone or would casually check their phone every few minutes (most likely to check for notifications.) Older individuals tended to not check up on their phone as frequently as the younger demographic. After interviewing the younger audience, they mentioned how they constantly check their phone to stay up to date on personal notifications and catch a glimpse on what’s going on. They would also use it as a time-filler for short breaks (like between classes for example.) The older audience had mixed answers. The older man mentioned that he checks his phone pretty frequently while the older woman said that she barely touches her phone.
There were varying answers about how the interviewees receive access to their news. The younger audience uses their phone more to check up on the news through social media and news apps. The older audience usually gains their news through cable. One noticeable agreement amongst all demographics is the coverage of negative news to positive news. The ratio tended to average around 70% negative news, 30% positive news. BBC’s article, Psychology: Why Bad News Dominates the Headlines, explores the idea to understand why dark news appears to get more coverage than uplifting news. Experiments were conducted in McGill University that did conclude random viewers drawing more attention to negative news. It’s not necessarily that more negative news exists, it’s just what humans are more naturally attracted to. This could have something to do with our natural instinct and being aware of threats when visible.
All the observations I made and interviews received concluded to the statements made by The MoJo Skillset. Facebook is the primary social media platform. This platform was brought up the most when interviewing. Facebook also has the largest audience, giving it the highest opportunity to receive the most views amongst other social media platforms. Twitter Is a good platform to make a quick post or skim through your feed momentarily. Twitter can also be used to see what’s popular in what area in its trending section. Snapchat and Instagram tend to focus more towards the younger audience. Neither of the older interviewees claimed to use either Snapchat or Instagram. Another important stat to mention is the best usage for different forms of content. For example, video content is usually consumed through apps like Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo, but Photo consumption is best in Instagram and Flicker. Technology continues to allow more platforms to exist and requires content creators to adjust to the mainstream norm.
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