My prior experience with the programs Vuvox, Clevr and Gigapan are non-existent. To be honest, I’ve never heard of any of these programs before reading them on your blog. But I plan on trying them out since photography is something I love but haven’t had a chance to full explore.

For the class project, I plan on following the decline of the CD and its impact on all aspects of society. More specifically, I plan on discussing the reasons for it but also want to pursue the consumer’s prospective on how it will affect them.

One of the avenues I plan on pursuing is the effect this will have on consumer society. CD sales made up a large portion of the retail revenues 10 years ago but has singnificantly dropped over recent years. I think it will be interesting to study this previous year with the economic situation in the United States.

 Another important and vital avenue that I plan to explore is what are consumers supposed to do with their collections: they become this unpractical mess that is awkward to store and this media that is sustainable to scratches. For my multimedia component, I want to follow the layout of the Talking with the Taliban format and have a timeline with subheadlines. Examples of these headlines include: History of the CD, When the decline began, The players in the industry, The future, The digital medium, The impact of the IPOD, etc. I would like to follow the video format that the Globe and Mail did in the way  he delivered short video clips on the subject. I feel that this will make the piece more ‘meaty’ as well as provide imprtant information to understanding the story. (However, I do not plan on using grainy footage like they did just because this piece doesn’t really call for it.)

I also want to discuss the result this has had on the record labels themselves and how they are coping with this immense but slow change over to digital. I feel that this story has great potential to be a good multimedia story because music can make for great sound clips in both online and radio clips. And I feel that the print story will not suffer because the quotes that I hope to receive will be stimulating and informative.

As for my sources, since I have done a similar story in my televsion class, I have already contacted and spoken to a Montreal record label and their top artist,Concordia’s CJLO program director and a Montreal DJ about this growing problem. I plan on using some of the quotes for my online and radio piece since there are some very interesting statements made in the interviews.

In terms of equipment, I feel that I will need my camcorder to record as well as my digital camera if I would like to make a Soundslides presentation. I also have a digital recorder if I decide to do a radio piece for this project.

To conclude, my goal for this project is to make it as visually stimulating as possible through visuals as well as stimulating interviews that accompany the print story.

                                                                 -30-

The Taliban and the Middle East are often difficult subjects to discuss in North American media. People have their own pre-conceived ideas of these groups and sometimes racial thoughts. So when I sat down to watch The Globe and Mail’s Talking to the Taliban, I tried to separate all previous thoughts and notions on this complicated matter.

While watching this online documentary, I was captured by the simplicity of the film. It did not boast impressive technical elements like CGI but took on the more edgier, granual effect of citizen journalism. I found that the collage of the digital cellphone camera videos of Taliban members was interesting. I thought that it brought a “all for one” visual to the piece while Graeme Smith’s voiceovers repeated this idea. For me,this collage enforced the idea that most of the men/young boys that are part of this extremist group are unaware of the original of the group and its branches (i.e. finances).

I felt that the timeline for the series had very interesting ideas and titles. I would say the majority of the titles in the timeline address the judgemental thoughts North Americans may have and turned them on their head. It was very interesting to watch and see where my point of view fits in.

I also appreciated the locations of Smith’s stand-ups. They were often in areas that were once very dangerous and have substantial meaning in the Middle East. I also liked how his stand-ups were filmed: a long shot and him slowly advancing to the camera while it zoomed in. To me it represented how he wanted his audience to experience his mini-documentary: Us outsiders are ‘far away’ from the Taliban world and with the documentary, we are right in the middle of it, alongside the Taliban. He wouldn’t have been able to do that if he had written a print story on the Taliban but was able to take it to another level with television and the Internet.

I would have to say there were probably a lot of difficulties in producing this project. The biggest issue is trying to get these men to talk on camera. I’m sure it took a lot of persuasion and reassurance to get to talk to them. I would say that the major difficulty was the reporter and the production team’s safety. By the sounds of it, there were numerous times where their safety could have been jeopardized due to their location, nationality and/or subject matter. Also, it must have been hard for them to produce a film on a subject that not many people understand or want to know about. The media exhausted (and still does to some extent) the conflicts in the Middle East but very few took the outlook of the Taliban. It must have been hard going against that ‘media current’.

In terms of the people working on the project, I would say there must have been maximum 8 people working on the documentary. At the end of each video, the list was very slim and it seemed these positions had the members working mostly in Afghanistan. I think there was the best approach-even though highly dangerous- because you get reality in much more specific approach whereas if they were based in Canada, you would not get the same effect.

When comparing this piece with the mental health crisis documentary, the differences are automatically noticable. Firstly, the interviewees in the Talking to the Taliban piece are shown in a video (not their face however) whereas the mental health video didn’t show the subjects, only through visual shots. Also, there was no voiceover or timeline given the to mental health video but relied on graphics and the subjects to tell the stories. The results for both videos gave extremely different endings. Also, I felt that the mental health crisis took the same point of view as the Taliban video in the sense that they were both trying to expose a subject with a non-traditional viewpoint while educating their viewers. However, I felt that the Taliban video was a “day in the life of” film where we really learnt almost every angle possible on the Taliban but in the mental health video, we learned about the specific cases of individuals and how they have dealt with their mental health.

As for the audience, I would say that the mental health video is geared towards middle aged adults or adults suffering from a mental health disease. I felt it was meant to inspire and less about educating.The Taliban video was geared towards anybody and everybody and meant to educate the viewer on the subject.

Wow, that was a lot of journalistic work on Victoria Lim’s behalf. Pat on the back to her.

Even though I have touched on some of the issues and problems that were discussed in this exercise, I felt it very useful.The issues that can arise when filming an indepth piece like Lim’s fire story is crucial to the crux of a story and its outcome.

As a student in the Journalism specialization, I feel like I can truly value the amount of work and effort put into the three pieces Lim created. It has already happened to me that two different media classes (i.e. print and tv) have been put back to back in terms of assignment. It can become difficult to separate the rules and guidelines for each medium but in the end very beneficial. 

Even though she is clearly a television reporter, I felt that her written piece was equally as strong as the other two. It provided a different approach to the story and made it more fresh to the viewer.

I feel that the exercise was good because it made me think of the ways that I would approach this story. The part that interested me was the online segment. I found that it provided the essential information of this story (i.e. the Ohio study) as well as a ‘game plan’ for parents. Personally, I think that as a reporter, we should always provide addtional information to a story since it is never truly dead after it goes to ‘air’. And Ms. Lim did a great job of this technique in all three mediums.

The Mattel practice was equally as stimulating and made me expand my ways on approaching stories.I felt that there are so many angles to a story and that by listing it , made me narrow down my choices.

If I had to describe my history with technology in one word, I would say proactive. Since I graduated high school, I have always loved to learn about different digital programs and technology outisde the classroom. Sure, I learned the basics and the rules for these programs, but for the most part, I always tried to take it further.

When I was in grade school, I didn’t play video games except when at my friends’ houses. Heck, we didn’t even have cable until I was 11. It was only until 2 years ago that we got a gaming console and in my opinion, it is different than others. The Wii is in a genre all in its own. Now that we have it, I wouldn’t say that my family are avid gamers but more active. The Wii Fit (a newly acquired Christmas gift) is my favorite and I use it every day to get in shape. BUT, I’m not just that into video games other than that. I rather read a good book then sit in front of a tv.

My first computer was, once again, when I was in high school and it was very basic. We could play games on it and surf the Net (dial-up only) but it was mostly for our academic benefit. Even though the Internet was available to us, I rarely used its wealth of knowledge but merely as a way to talk to my friends outside the classroom. We enjoyed the launch of MSN Messenger and its Spaces but my surfing was pretty much on the surface.

I got my first ever digital camera about 8 years ago when we changed computers. However, I got my first camcorder as a high school graduation gift. This is where my passion for film really blossomed and where I began to experiment with technology. I started filming home videos  and  editing them with the camera’s software. I still have the camera and it is pretty decent still considering I received it 6 years ago.

When I am during a school semester, I find that I am online quite often. I would say 70% of my online usuage is school-related. The rest involves Facebook and checking my e-mail. I rarely surf the Net for fun unless I’m curious about a film’s upcoming release or some juicy celeb gossip. When I’m on school break, I find that my Internet time is very limited and primarily involves Facebook-ing and checking my e-mails.

As I have just mentionned, Facebook appeals to me. In the past, when this idea of social networking was still a newborn, I had a few accounts on different sites. For the most part, I use Facebook to quickly check up on my friends without having to endure a long and expensive telephone conversation. My friends are generally more networked than me but are not on Facebook 24/7. They enjoy a classic chatroom gab but for the most part, stick to the text messages.

In terms of text messages and e-mails, I would consider both equal in my world. I send both forms of communication but neither stands out more than the other.

My parents are still adjusting to the whole computer thing. They often rely on me to show them something as simple as scanning a document whereas I learned from practice. My parents prefer instructions whereas I prefer hands-on, do-it-yourself. For the most part, my parents are oblivious to the web. They check their e-mails once every two weeks maybe but do not completely enjoy the net.

Second Section

My interests in general evolve around film and music. I enjoy human interest stories which is why I decided to pursue journalism. I believe that everyone has an interesting story to tell and I’m hoping that with the skills Concordia will teach me, I will be able to find them.

In general, I have written about human interest stories. They evolve stories of passion or of what great things humans are capable of. I feel the most comfortable when I am writing print. I enjoy radio and television but find myself more comfortable with print, whether it be online or a hard-copy. Words are words. 

When I graduate, I hope to find myself working at a magazine, hopefully a pop culture one. They appeal to me immensely and I enjoy the constant motion of stories.I wouldn’t mind working for an online magazine either but as long as its pretty reputable.

                                                           -30-

Hi there! This is my first post and I’m looking forward to begin writing!

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