Journalism That Matters

A friend sent me an interesting newsletter e-mail the other day that included this great post about Journalism that Matters:

Journalism That Matters is an evolving community and collaboration supporting pioneering individuals who are shaping the emerging information and news ecosystem.Journalism That Matters focuses on cultivating "healthy journalists" and lively, informative interaction between journalists, teachers, reformers and community members.

Journalism that matters in an interesting combination between old and new world journalism and Art of Hosting techniques, another community that I have been involved with in the last few years. Art of Hosting is all about bringing out the best ideas in the room or community to best solve a problem. It's a great technique for tackling big issues, like the future of journalism. Many un-conferences, like Podcamp Halifax, use art of hosting techniques like 'open space' to loosely plan an event.

Although traditional newspapers have slowed the rapid decline since the recession a few years that saw many papers shut their doors or drastically reduce staff, the message is clear: innovate or die. Journalism that matters looks like great way to discuss ways for the future while respecting the traditions that got us here.

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3 standouts from CES

The world's biggest tech show, CES 2012, wrapped up a few weeks ago after displaying all the newest tablets, TV's and cameras to a huge crowd hungry for the latest gadget news. It's kinda like being Tim the Tool Man Taylor at a Binford Tools convention – but for tech geeks. One day I hope to make the trip in person, but for now I'll have to be content to monitor it from the wings on the internet. This column is a little short to cover all the exciting products unveiled – but I wanted to focus on the cameras that caught my eye.

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Budget Conscious Royalty Free Music For Your Multimedia Projects

When you are producing your next video, multimedia project or slideshow and you want to have some nice music to accompany it, you just can't use the latest Katy Perry tune that you may have purchased. If an artist creates it, then it's copyright. Buying music on sites like iTunes only gives you right to listen to it, not use it in your work. Sites like YouTube often remove copyrighted music, along with whatever audio you might have had in your project.

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Working in Style

Had to pleasure to produce this multimedia piece for The Chronicle-Herald on Jon Gray, a local shoemaker. Reporter Bill Spurr and I were lucky to grab a few hours of Jon's time so he could walk us through the shoemaking process.

The video was a true collaborative effort....Bill did all the interviewing and weaved the narrative - I concentrated on the visuals and the editing. Our multimedia developer, Jayson Taylor, also helped with some editing suggestions. I love working in a team like this - your work only gets better the more people that you have to bounce ideas off of.

RAW vs JPEG (The Basics)

This image, with it's mixed lighting, would have been tough to shoot if the camera was set to record JPEG.

At some point when you are honing your photography skills, you'll ask yourself: is it time to get RAW?

You may have already stumbled upon this menu option sometime when you were out shooting, but maybe were afraid to admit, you just have no clue what it does. You're not alone. You might know that, yes, it is the highest quality your SLR or point and shoot camera can produce, but how is it different from the JPEG file we all know and love. More to the point: should you even care?

Yes and no.

(Click through for the full article)

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