Multi-Media - hyperlocal news & podcasts 17/12/09

Well, at last. There are two podcasts, by me, on the website. After going through several pod hosting sites. I found podbean.com. They allow a larger file to be published AND supply an embed code which works with weebly.com. The link comes up with a 'Listen to podcast here' statement. I have to say I prefer the one Rich found, which is houndbite, looks more professional and 'funky'. So, to be able to use houndbite I've decided to keep all my podcasts to six minutes maximum so they fit in the same format. 

It does mean that some sessions will miss out on some of the information, but as long as the main points are there I feel it's fair to people who require an audio format. 

I looked on the Express & Echo website, which is a news/lifestyle website. http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk and noticed that they only have an abridged version of their stories, don't include all their stories and are mostly in text or video based formats. 

One element I was also interested to note was 'Anna's Campaign' - it has a picture, a link to a page on facebook and a video of her Mum talking about how she lost Anna, her 21 year old daughter. Anna was the passenger in a car involved in a drink driving accident. It's actually quite an emotionally horrific video, with photo's of Anna as a child, as an adult included. The point being that the campaign has brought together an annual campaign (drink driving) with a local human interest story (Anna's death) and combined it in a multi-media format on the local papers website. 

I've included a photo of the banner. I've included it here as an example of the hyper-local trend which is appearing on websites at the moment. Newspapers are hitting a bad time, as we all hear and many of the podcasts I see on Mediashift by Gorkana talk about the concept of hyperlocal that newspapers and news in general will obviously have a national context, but that it will also become more and more localised to smaller communities. For example in Exeter, that may mean areas like Exwick, Countess Wear, Pinhoe, Middlemoor, Heavitree would have their own news/websites etc. 

The local government has already started this trend by setting up PACT and My Neighbourhood groups which meet in the schools of the localised areas to discuss the problems in a relatively small area. The meetings attract members from the Council, Education, Police and local residents. 

Multi-Media Did it work on the website?? 2

Aargh, I've now recorded the 8 CV Must Have's Audio three times. First it was 22 minutes long, so then remembered it should be no more than 15 minutes long. I then recorded it and it's 9mins 48 seconds. I thought plenty of time spare. HOWEVER, after trying to load it three times. I looked at the site help and realised the file cannot be bigger than 8mb. Mine is 9mb. So, I'll have to re-record it and try to cut it down to 6minutes and see if that is less. The reason I can't just cut it up as I would normally, is that I'm not at college and I don't have the software to be able to do so. *Sigh* Take three!

Multi-Media Did it work on the website??

Hurray, houndbite works perfectly on the weebly website, as it has for Rich. So it is just that houndbite is not compatible with blogger. 

For now, I'm not worried. I'm just happy I can upload the audio's for the CV Tips etc. 

Multi-Media Did it work?? NO

A big fat NO. It closed down all of my 'safari' windows on the mac and chucked me out of blogger, houndbite and everything else I had open. Great. Oh well, I'm going to move on, come back to it later and see if it works on the website. :(

Here we go again, will it work this time.

This time, I've highlighted the text and linked it to the URL of the houndbite podcast. Will it work, will it work? 

Podcast for houndbite Test

No that didn't work either, as you can see. argghhh. This is what takes up all the time on this course. I know that's half the point of doing the course, but the advertising for the course gave me the impression I would be taught some of this type of stuff. Apart from in-design there hasn't been one taught package on this course and the college doesn't run courses to back it up. Bit pointless telling us to go away and produce multi-media products, websites, etc. without the giving us the tools to do so in the first place. In the workplace, if a new piece of software/technology was to be used under Management of Health and Safety at Work legislation from Europe we would have to be taught it before having to use it. Why is it that just because this 'education' that the leaves the college free from this legislation. I'm not saying that all new media should be taught, but at least the basics. We have to use final cut studio, photoshop, dreamweaver, indesign and various other packages, yet receive no training. Even though the college provided specific training for tutors. Why couldn't it be run in an evening or lunchtime and staff paid to teach these lectures. Instead we're left to find training in these packages on you tube or from a book. We just don't have the time with studying as well to do the background research and training that we need to do the course. I also rang at the beginning of the course to say what could I do to prepare myself for the course - NOTHING was said about needing to have prior knowledge of these packages. To me, it's just common sense and I guess that's why I'm so frustrated. If I was attending a proper university I'm sure I would be able to access a course at the university which I'd need for my course. 

Anyway, frustrated, whinge over. My moto - winning, not whining. Back to how do I load an audio podcast to my blog and to the Work Rest and Play website :D 

I might have found how to post it. Had to change the settings in blogger under the formatting tab to show links. Now when I'm posting a new box comes up which lets me put in the URL from houndbite. Let's see if it works lol. 

Enclosed: TEST podcast. 

Multimedia - Houndbite didn't work

For some reason I cannot copy and paste into the blogging post, so that won't work. I'll see if there's a way round it. It seems I'm able to upload video's, but not audio's. So I'll see if it works with this. 

No, tried to upload it as a video, as it is an mp3 file and the site says it will accept these files. It's not worked. This is what happens when I copy and paste. 

file:///Users/juliaoshaughnessy/Downloads/Julia-upload-5duxhf4rz6vd.mp3

that hasn't worked either. So now, I'm not so excited. The compatability of all these things should be considered. I'll try to put it into the website and see if it's just me or blogger that's the problem. 

Multi-media Group Project 10/12/09

Yeay, I've discovered how to embed an audio file into a website/blog using houndbite. Feeling really happy because I would like to do some of my evaluative log in audio. It adds to a multimedia feel and gives it more personality, but more importantly means we are able to comply with legislation such as DDA The Disability Discrimination Act and with W3C the World-Wide-Web Consortium WAI Guidelines. The Disability Discrimination Act is a piece of legislation that promotes civil rights for disabled people and protects disabled people from discrimination. However, it does not mention specifically websites. 

Most lifestyle/news websites such as ...... have podcasts and the audio files ensure the site is accessible to people: 

• with visual impairment 
• with low literacy and reading skills
• who's first language is not English
• Users who are dyslexic

I've also included a written version of the training session which allows people with a hearing disability to access the information. 

We've put the text directly into the website rather than downloadable PDF's because a lot of PDF's do not have a semantic structure. This means a screen reader cannot differentiate between text, headings, lists and therefore the user cannot get a feel for the structure of the document. It also does not pick up on tables or pictures within the document. If the document is inputted into the website screen readers and assisted technologies, such as Browsealoud, will pick up on the information. Browsealoud is a free plug-in download - see the following website for further information www.opsi.gov.uk/about/accessibility.htm . 

Here is the test houndbite audio I did initially to see if the process would work on the mac computer. I recorded this file with H4 Zoom digital recorder, downloaded the file to my mac. Then went to the houndbite site, uploaded the file and used the embedding code to input it to my blog. Which is what I will do with the training session audio's. 

http://www.houndbite.com/?houndbite=21685

FOJ 13/12/09

Interesting to read an article by Will Bunch about the death of Editor and Publisher. An opinion I hear repeated and repeated. Journalism isn't dead, just the print industry. Although having seen The Sun's advert today on the TV before X-Factor I don't think they're going to go down without a fight. Editor and Publisher were a company who based their principles on good old fashioned great journalism - asking difficult questions and not just accepting the official line. The finale to his article says: 

"It's a sad day, but in a strange way the death of Editor & Publisher gives me hope for the future of journalism. Because they showed us a blueprint, that size or technology is overrated, that a half-dozen people can make a difference just by asking the right questions and by not backing down. And if Greg Mitchell and the others could accomplish this at a small, shrinking trade publication, then I know that it can happen again and will happen again, somewhere else and in some other format -- that no-holds-barred journalism is possible even on these weird little newfangled tablets or whatever.

Because in the remarkable way that they died, Editor & Publisher showed the rest of journalism how to live."

Magazine Production 031209

I'm so pleased, I saw some photo's on a photoshop site, tracked the photographer to the Deviantart site and left him a comment to ask if he would allow me to use his photo in my magazine. He's emailed back. He's called Jesus Martin Miguel Constantine (how apt for a spiritual magazine). He's sent me 8 photo's that he's happy to use. He's sent them in a resolution suitable for web though 72 dpi and I really need them for cmyk 360 dpi if I want to get the magazine printed. 

I've emailed him back, of course thanked him, even if he can't then I could use the photo's for an online version of the magazine - which I'm now also thinking. I've done the usual thing - which could be all or bust, but I want a printed copy of the magazine, an ebook email version and a free meditation CD on the front. The ebook would have downloadable files attached for the CD. Reason behind this is that although print is in decline, the actual concept is not. People will always need information - information is power - whether that be for leisure, work or learning. The format in which this information is obtained is changing, yes. But, I feel if the print industry got on board with the mobile/kindle etc technology, they could save themselves a lot of money. OK, to date papers are finding it difficult to find a decent way to obtain payment from online content, BUT, I don't feel that'll go on forever. I feel the key is to provide content which people want to read - now which form of news values is that again, must look up my notes. Anyway, I digress. 

As I say, I want to provide the magazine/book in a 'pick up and read way' - whether people pick up their mobiles and read it on the train, download it to their computer or have a physical copy of the magazine - I want it to be accessible. This also is why I've been tossing over in my mind whether to have the magazine in A4 size or A5. I've noticed the women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour now have the option of either size on the shelf. The A5 is perfect handbag size, A4 as opposed to the slightly larger magazine sizes is perfect for fitting into folders, rucksacks, any magazine rack, etc. The A4 is winning at the moment as part of the way I want the magazine to look is full of stunning photo's. So that reading through the magazine/book is a visual experience. 

The reason I'm calling it a magazine/book/e-mag is because I've noticed that some magazines eg: Photoshop Advanced are charging £5.99 for their monthly magazines. Reason being is that they include tutorials/training. The charge for online/self taught psychic development courses aren't in the same ballpark as photoshop courses, however the interest in the actual product 'spiritual learning/psychic development' is probably much larger.  To make a monthly spiritual 'how to' magazine is a niche in the market that I don't feel is filled. Frequently, I find the 'spiritual' magazines Kindred Spirit, Chat Fate & Fortune, Psychic Times etc are filled with experiential interviews or advertorials for courses. EG. Mr/s X Reporter goes to a course and gives a description of how it felt, who taught it, perhaps a bit about the background, quotes from attendees and her opinion of, usually, how much s/he enjoyed themselves.  Personally, and it's only an opinion, I think this is lazy reporting. It's all very nice, but how useful is it, except for advertisement purposes? 

Anyway, back to Mr Constantine. He made me think today about the concept of the photography side of the magazine today. I like people who make me think. I'm being a bit harsh on myself, but I wonder if I had perhaps an image in my head of a lot of beautiful photo's of perhaps fairy-esque women, whether it be photographed or drawn to go alongside the writing. 

The photo's he sent are mostly of 'poor' people. There's a photo of an old woman standing in a que, with such character in her face and an internal verbal battle started.  'Great face .v. shame she's looking down' 'Want to include real photo's .v. made up shots are more pleasing to a commercial eye' etc etc. The main conclusion being is that I want the magazine to be real, whether reality is ugly or not, 'surely that's the whole concept of the magazine' - that there is beauty everywhere, that you don't have to go to Church or follow religious 'rules' to be a strong spiritual woman. So the magazine has taken a bit of a turn today. I had, without realising, started to get together what I consider 'fake' images of women, because I felt that's what the reader would expect and enjoy.  This is my one chance to put together something different from the norm as if it were being 'sold' in a commercial world.  I don't know if I'm doing myself justice either way. Commercial high gloss, 'pretty' - or a different look at what beauty is and take the chance to do something more organic, but less mainstream market? Hmmm? I don't have the answer right now and would find the images easier if I had more content, but these are just a few of my thought processes and an uncredited thankyou to Mr Constantine for making me think. 

I'm chuffed I've also found a site www. lulu.com which allows people to publish their ebooks/CDs for free and then publishing is only pay per order.  So the e-mag concept is looking possible for this project - yeay! This is the link to how to publish on Lulu and what it's all about. I also noticed that if people buy multiple copies they get a discount eg. 3 copies gives 3% discount, so small spiritual booksellers may be interested in stocking the e-mag. Also, this site has already a large stock of books for the spiritual industry, so it must already have a similar customer base. 

http://www.lulu.com/uk/publish/index.php?cid=en_tab_publish