Reporter Moten's Blog

Convergence Capstone

ramvd7 — Sat, 08 May 2010 18:02:22 +0000

For our last capstone class before finals my group and I got together to meet to discuss our final presentation and paper for next week. As we went over the guidelines for the paper and presentation we noticed that the paper can help us reinforce and give us structure to how we can outline our final presentation. Also we went over what we could have as visuals and attention grabbers in our presentation. As a group we were also trying to complete two more stories each, whether they were interviews or just background information about the person on the bench to add more to what we already have on the trail.

Another thing that has been great thus far is the publicity this project has received. Recently, Clyde and one of the group members got interviewed by the News Bureau about the project on the trail. They plan to use that interview and send out in their press releases.

Convergence Capstone

ramvd7 — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 07:39:38 +0000

This past week my capstone team and I had the opportunity to present the progress of our project to faculty and others who came into town this past Monday with the Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow. We discussed what were some of the reactions we received from our interviews, who we worked with through the city and the engineering department to get the signs posted along the trail, the chart showing how many people utilized the audio project before advertising and the amount of people who did use it after advertising, and what this sort of project means for the future of journalism and social media.

Now our group plans to work on putting all the research, observations, and work planned out for this project into a final presentation by the second week of May.

Convergence Capstone

ramvd7 — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:28:40 +0000

This past week my group and I finally met with the head person for our project. We are able to iron out some of our differences about why certain aspects of the project were not complete or things that we may have been struggling in obtaining the stories we needed for the “Voices from the Past” audio tour.

A majority of the signs for the stories we completed were placed on the trail and we began our advertising to different outlets. Although we do not have as many stories as we expected to have, the number of people utilizing the project has been pretty good so far. We made sure the benches corresponded to the right number so that when people dial the number he/she would get the correct audio story.

The Missourian, KOMU8 News, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch has commented that this a great project. We look forward to seeing what the results turn out to be towards the end of this semester before presenting a final presentation to faculty and staff. But before that presentation our group presents to the other people who will be coming in to see if their should be more money placed into this project for future commitment.

Convergence Capstone

ramvd7 — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:17:20 +0000

This week as a group we have been trying effortlessly to get interviews with other people for the benches. This I would say this has been one of our biggest challenges as a group in completing the project. We’ve planned to place signs up on the trail this week for people to utilize while on the trail with the stories that we do have finished for certain benches and will try our best to get more stories up to 10-12 within two weeks.

Another issue that we have run into is one of the interviews that my group member has completed a source has called and stated the family no longer wants the story in the audio tour. My group member has decided to not put it up and now we are still working to get even more stories now.

What I do not understand why family members would regard this project as messing up the purpose of the trail, like the one family member mentioned to my group member. The main purpose is to show why the people or groups on the bench are worthy of dedication and to tell what type of impact they left on the city.

Convergence Capstone

ramvd7 — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:46:59 +0000

This week we gathered half of our stories for the Columbia audio project. We still have to get another seven to eight stories and we are hoping to begin to hear from others who may have benches, but we could not contact, that want to tell the story behind that person’s life. Next, as a group we have set a deadline of when to place the signs up throughout the trail explaining the purpose of the audio project. After that we planned to see how many people will actually be interested in listening or learning more about the person’s story who had a bench donated to them. This would entail two testing trial periods: one without advertising that this project is available to people on the trail and one period where we do advertise of the new audio project on the trail. We would like to see if there is a difference in the number of people who utilize the audio project. We hope that both test trial periods will get people more interested in wanting to know about these people on the benches as well as find more stories of the people on the benches who were not interviewed initially.

Convergence Capstone

ramvd7 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:56:53 +0000

This week our group has been pushing at getting a lot of stories completed. We have interviewed a variety of people and are in the stages of putting together 90 second audio pieces for each person we interview. The logos for the signs have been designed and we are in the process of getting the an Engineering student to assist us with getting them ready to place on the benches. We are really on deadline for getting those signs completed because next week there is a big competition they compete in that will have them busy. Besides the signs and the stories, we just need to begin the trial periods of testing out the audio stories on the trail without and with advertising.

Convergence Capstone

ramvd7 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:01:44 +0000

This week there was an interesting discussion about creating our electronic portfolios. Some of the websites that allow you to place your work in templates are Weebly, WordPress, and some others. What I learned new about creating websites for after after graduation or for employers is how some feel that it doesn’t matter what program you use to develop your website versus those who may say the Dreamweaver program is not the best for designing websites.

There were discussions that Dreamweaver has it’s advantages and disadvantages depending on the type of job you may be trying to get in the journalism market. If one is applying for a design job, he/she may want to design their website from scratch to show their design skills. But if one is applying for a reporter/writer position, the website may only serve for purposes to present to the employer their skills they display as a journalist through the web.

However, for a person who may not be applying for a design/web journalism position, designing a website from scratch and making it look presentable and allows the employer/viewers to interact with the different web pages can impress your potential employer.

With the website that I have created from last semester it portrays that I am a multimedia journalist. I like using Dreamweaver because it allows users to utilize the design and code window simultaneously. Because I have worked with code before I understand the reason why the design formats and appears a certain way especially with clickable buttons. For my website I utilized Photoshop for my navigation buttons and banner. There are some major kinks I plan working out for my website such as how the navigation buttons appear, how the banner reflects new multimedia journalism, and the how the page sections appear, and transferring the website to a server that I can use for free or pay a small amount to use per year. Other small things on the site that I plan to work on are updating my journalism work in my portfolio, using Vimeo possibly for my videos that I post, and changing my photograph on the about me page to a professional photo.

Convergence Capstone-Week 6

ramvd7 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:53:59 +0000

This past week my group and I actually gathered our first interview for the audio project. Based on the database we have from Parks and Recreation of those who donated memorial benches I was able to get a hold of one of the people I was to contact. As a group we decided to all go together to the interview and I saw that there are a lot of interesting facts about the person’s stepfather. The stepfather was a doctor just like the stepson is a pediatrician.

Based on this interview we conducted I believe with each interview we arrange in the future we will have to narrow down what we choose for the person’s audio story. Also my group and I look forward to more interesting and in-depth interviews this next week.

Convergence Journalism- Post#3

ramvd7 — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:45:11 +0000

This past week as a gorup for our project we were able to meet with Clyde and iron certain issues we ran into with our project. From this project we are learning as students to continue to think as journalists and not merely as students no matter what part of the project we are working on. Even though there is a research component to this project before going into the part where the journalistic skills kick in, our journalistic skills can still help us throughout the entire capstone project.

For example, one of the issues we ran into regarding in contacting people to talk to about why benches were donated in honor or memory of person are the benches are outdated, the contact number is no longer working or wrong, or those who donated the bench may not seem to have a story behind it.

Clyde reassured us that another way to dig deeper as journalists would be to Google them or even find out how the person was socially involved in Columbia because most of these people were active. We could go through an organization or church that they were apart of and find out what others knew about their lives. Besides what we were given there are many other ways to getting background information regarding the type of live they lived.

Another thing we discussed was coming up with a title for our Columbia Audio Project. After brainstorming a while we decided to have a main title and then a by line to attach with it (this would give more of a creative theme of what toursits could look forward to with the project while on the trail).

One of the other major things we discussed was having a prototype created by the end of this week for our project so we can have something to move forward in regards to setting up the audio part. We also have been brainstorming on who would be the best fit to create the signs we want to place throughout the trail (far as the size of it, where to place on the benches, on kiosks, and posts at entrances of the trail).

So far as the production and research part, we have our work cut out for us.

Convergence Capstone-Blog #2 (Technology)

ramvd7 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:13:30 +0000

From this past week it seems as we continue to analyze where our technology is taking us as a society, it seems that we are getting further away from the connection of communicating or doing for ourselves. What I mean, even as a journalist, advanced technology is making us as humans more lazy by the minute.

Personally I have adjusted as time has progressed to use certain technology for different activities pertaining to communication and compiling journalistic stories for viewers. However, it seems to me that technology is getting to the point that most people will no longer have any privacy and average citizens’ business will be exposed to everyone. Whether it is the new iPad Apple has created or the latest social network discovered, technology is providing everything at the palm of a human’s hand with the press of the button on a phone. I believe we are placing too much reliance into these technological advances and depending less on human efforts to get work done.

It is also the thought that not only are backpack journalists taking advantage of this and inventors, but news organizations are also taking advantage of these advance technologies. This is to keep up with the latest trend daily citizens are using to deliver information and continue to reach a mass audience. I really do not have a solution for what news organizations should do, I just feel that as a society we are beginning to rely too much on technology to solve all of our issues even if its beneficial or not.