Books Journalists Should Read, Maybe

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad follows a similar story-line as Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Instead of someone going to kill Kurtz, as is the case in Apocalypse, the company has sent a steamboat to retrieve Kurtz in Heart of Darkness.

Conrad's Heart of Darkness is at the same time the jungle that surrounds the river and the person that Kurtz has become in the wilds of Africa, miles from civilization. Africa itself becomes a verifiable character in the book, closing in on the crew, killing those with a weak resistance and coming alive with sound, light, darkness and deadly natives hidden in its depths.

While Marlon Brando's hoarse mumblings of the phrase, "The horror. The horror;" make for a much quoted part from the movie Apocalypse Now, the setup or interpretation of that famous quote comes later than when the quote is uttered in the book.

Kurtz has just died, and the narrator Marlowe is commenting on life:

"Droll thing life is--that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself --that comes too late-- a crop of inextinguishable regrets. I wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be."

Marlowe contends that he was within the last breath of life and realized that he would have nothing to say, which is why he admired Kurtz, who uttered the famous line before dying. When Marlowe visits Kurtz's intended, he lies and tells her that Kurtz's last words were her name. In this exchange, we see that Marlowe has escaped the heart of darkness, taking into account another person's feelings instead of the dark truth, providing Kurtz's intended with the humanity with which Marlowe protected Kurtz's image.

In the end, is the heart of darkness within the geographical heart of Africa, or is it within each of us? Conrad seems to say that the latter is the case,but each of us also has the capacity to spread light, much like Marlowe did in the conclusion of the book, sparing Kurtz's intended's feelings and preserving Kurtz's image.

Back to Basics: Writing Across Media

This semester, I presented a quick lesson on choosing your writing styles to fit across media at the Fort Worth International Association of Business Communicators luncheon. In June I attended the International Conference in San Diego, and the most widely attended sessions were about writing. I thought I could bring some of the information home to Fort Worth. Hope this helps you, and check further down into my blog to get great tips on multimedia and where to acquire royalty free sounds, photos and software.

Back to Basics: Writing Across Media

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I Want Your Phones On During Class!

During the Spring semester, I asked my students in News Reporting to use their smartphones to report. Today at the Poynter Institute's Teachapalooza, I'm learning some basic and more advanced ways to use smartphones in gathering information for reporting.

Look out Fall semester students. You'll need to bring your smartphones to class every day and learn how to use them to create content and stories. That goes for PR and journalism students. Smartphones aren't just for budding journalists to use professionally.

Marketing Your Student Media

Gandhi’s Grandson Brings Message Of Peace To Fort Worth « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth If you follow this link, you'll see that The Rambler's photo editor, Meisa Keivani Najafabadi, is credited with taking this photo and so is The Rambler. That's branding folks. Not only did Meisa take wonderful photos for The Rambler, she also had her photo used by local professional media. Way to go! And she thought far enough ahead to mention The Rambler. Excellent! Journalists, this is the kind of marketing you need to do for yourself and your media outlets. Wouldn't it wonderful if someone comes up to Meisa at the First Amendment Awards banquet on Friday and says, 'I saw your Ghandi photo online. Would love to see some of your other stuff too.' Sounds like the beginning of a career.

How tos of convergence draft

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

How tos of convergence draft

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Free Training Available for Multimedia and Convergence Journalism

Now that you have your free software installed, what do you do with it. Try some of these training sites to help you get your feet under you:

• Knight Citizen News Network: http://www.kcnn.org/resources/journalism_training_sites/
• Knight Digital Media Center Free Tutorials: http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/
• Ourmedia Learning Center: http://www.ourmedia.org/learning-center/
• Poynter Institute News University: http://www.newsu.org/
• Center for Social Media: http://centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use
• Journalism 2.0 Download: http://www.kcnn.org/resources/journalism_20_pdfs/
• UC Berkeley’s Multimedia Training: http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/
• OJR: The Online Journalism Review: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/wiki/
• Nieman Reports—Visual Journalism: http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/issue/100060/Spring-2010.aspx

 

And don't forget to practice often. If you don't use it, you lose it.

 

 

Free or Cheap Software List for Convergence or Multimedia Journalism

In preparing for a presentation at the annual Texas Intercollegiate Press Association convention, I came across this list of free or cheap software that journalists or anyone can use to create multimedia content. The wonderful folks at the Knight Citizens News Network made this list possible...Check them out at http://www.kcnn.org/resources/journalism_training_sites/.

In the mean time, here's there list:

For Slideshows:

 

• Photo Peach--Easy online slideshow creator that rivals Soundslides. Upload photos and MP3s, then add effects to create audio/visual presentations. Free. http://photopeach.com/
• SoundSlides-- What many professional journalists use to create audio slideshows. A good tool, but the cost can be a burden. $39.95 or $69.95 for plus. http://www.soundslides.com/
• SlideShare-- An embeddable way to share presentations (PowerPoint, Keynote, etc…) online. Free. http://www.slideshare.net/
• Animoto-- Animoto creates music videos from your images and pictures, using free music. Free. http://animoto.com/
• VUVOX-- VUVOX allows you to create interactive slideshows and presentations from photos, video and music from Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, YouTube or Facebook. In beta. Free. http://www.vuvox.com/
• Animoto-- Animoto creates music videos from your images and pictures, using free music. Free. http://animoto.com/

For Photosharing:

• Splashup--If you’re used to Photoshop, you’ll love Splashup. With its similar layout and large range of tools, it’s a great alternative to paying for the real program. Free. http://www.splashup.com/
• FotoFlexer--Fotoflexer/Photobucket is a Photoshop-like service that allows you to crop, resize, rotate and flip photos, adjust hue, saturation, lightness and contrast, as well as apply various special effects. Free. http://fotoflexer.com/
• Photoshop-- The free version of Photoshop requires registration, but provides 2 GB of storage and all of the basic editing tools and effects of the full program. Free and paid. http://www.photoshop.com/
• Gimp Shop--A free version of Photoshop with not so many bells and whistles. Free. http://www.gimpshop.com/
• Dr. Pic-- Originally called Pic Resize, DrPic has a small range of basic, quick photo editing tools and effects. Free. http://www.drpic.com/
• Snipshot-- Options: resizing, cropping, enhancement features, exposure, contrast, saturation, hue and sharpness correction, rotation, grayscaling. Free. http://snipshot.com/
• Rsizr-- No fancy tools here - just cropping and resizing. Free. http://rsizr.com/
• Flickr-- Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. You can create a group for you community. Free. http://www.flickr.com/
• Picasa-- Picasa, like Flickr, is a software that helps you organize, edit, and share your photos. Powered by Google. Free. http://picasa.google.com/mac/
• PhotoFiltre-- Editing software that lets you crop, resize and apply effects to photos. An inexpensive alternative to Photoshop. Free. http://photofiltre.en.softonic.com/
• Sumo Paint-- Photo editing software, much like PhotoFiltre. Free. http://www.sumopaint.com/home/

For Audio Editing:

• Audio Editor-- Completely free PC software allows you to edit audio files visually, record audio from a microphone or any other available input device, apply various effects and burn audio CDs from MP3, WMA, WAV, and OGG. Free. http://www.free-audio-editor.com/index.htm
• Audacity--Free, open-source software for recording and editing sounds. It works on Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. Free. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
• Wavosaur— Free software for editing, processing and recording sounds. Free. http://www.wavosaur.com/
• Reaper-- A powerful audio editing software. Costs$50 non-commercial; $225 commercial. http://www.reaper.fm/
• GoldWave --Audio editor, recorder, converter, restoration and analysis software. Cost $49. http://www.goldwave.com/

 

Royalty-Free Music and Sounds:

• Incompetech--The Incompetech blog hosts royalty-free music for a wide variety of movie themes. Though everything on the site is free, donations are accepted. Free. http://incompetech.com/static/music/
• Flash Kit-- Flash Kit is a large archive for royalty-free audio loops that can be used in any Flash project. The site also allows you to submit your own loops and offers Flash tutorials as well. Free. http://www.flashkit.com/loops/
• Public Doman 4U--This huge database of public domain and free-with-artist-permission music includes its own last.fm radio station. Free. http://www.publicdomain4u.com/free-music-listings/
• Musopen--Musopen is a non-profit focused on improving access and exposure to music. It offers classical music files and the sheet music, available for free download. The database is searchable by composer, instrument, period and form. Free. http://www.musopen.com/
• Soundsnap--Soundsnap hosts content from the creators of Batman Begins, Million Dollar Baby, Ali, Happy Feet, Star Trek, The Addams Family, Tron, The Hunt for Red October and more. Free to browse and preview. $249 annual fee, unlimited sounds. http://www.soundsnap.com/
• FindSounds --From ferrets to Monty Python, you can search this enormous selection of over two million sound clips and effects in multiple file types and channels. Free. http://www.findsounds.com/
• Soungle-- Type any keyword into the search box to find a range of free, downloadable sound effects for use in audio and video projects. Free. http://soungle.com/
• Sound Jay-- Sound Jay contains a collection of free-of-charge and royalty-free sound effects - for personal use only, not further distribution. Free. http://www.soundjay.com/
• SoundClick-- You can find bands and full-length songs here to use in producing slideshows or video. All songs are available in streaming audio and most of the songs are also available as free legal MP3 downloads. Free. http://www.soundclick.com/
• Jamendo --Jamendo is a huge platform for free and legal music downloads. Available in seven languages, it offers the largest catalog of music under Creative Commons licenses. Free. http://www.jamendo.com/en/

 

For Video Editing and Converting:

• JayCut-- You can upload video from a camera, webcam or mobile phone and edit it on an easy, iMovie-like program. The finished video can be hosted by the service, downloaded to a PC or embedded on video social networks. Free. http://jaycut.com/
• VReveal-- VReveal, the second generation of FixMyMovie, allows you to stabilize, brighten, sharpen, add fun effects and more to your videos. For more effects and fixes, buy the premium version. Free.
• http://www.vreveal.com/
• Squared 5-- A powerful video converter, it gives users the ability to change one file type to another. It can also play and edit videos for both Mac and Windows. Free. http://www.squared5.com/