MASTERCLASSES

Sunday 31 October 2010

How privacy case law has developed, from Gary Flitcroft to John Terry

We don’t have a list of things you can say about a person without intruding on their privacy.

There is no check list of what is acceptable and what is not.
Courts judge what is said, and why, on an individual basis, taking account of the character and behaviour of the complainant.
The courts' view of what is and is not acceptable has changed over recent years.


Listen!

You'll find more on privacy case law here:
or here: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1100http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1100
and
The full law essential update masterclass, as it is published, here
or here: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1096

Saturday 30 October 2010

Privacy law is new and evolving - here's how to keep up with it

From Gorden Kaye to Naomi Campbell

Key points in the development of privacy law


Listen!
We hear a great deal about privacy cases now, and privacy is something that must concern every journalist, but how have we got to the point where it is such a burning legal issue?

Privacy law is new, says Duncan Lamont

In the clip he points to three key points in its development
1 Gorden Kaye
2 Human Rights Act
3 Naomi Campbell

Follow the full masterclass here: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1096

Friday 29 October 2010

Law: Essential update from Duncan Lamont

 Law textbooks go out of date fast

One area the law is moving too fast for those textbooks is that of privacy.

This video introduces an essential update on this aspect of the law, and flags up the areas covered in the full masterclass, which is with media lawyer Duncan Lamont.


The full masterclass goes live from October 30 at www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/masterclasses , with a new element added each day

Friday 22 October 2010

IPhone for Journalism: the full masterclass now online

Our comprehensive guide on how to become a 100 per cent mobile, multimedia journalist is now live for subscribers.

It shows you how, with the addition of a few inexpensive gadgets and apps, you can turn your iPhone into a really professional multimedia tool.

Infact, the phone is really all you need to publish and broadcast text, stills, audio and video.
What you certainly don't need is an office.

The links below take you to the sections of the masterclass at Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide
iPhone for Journalism overview:This is a slideshow version of a talk I gave to journalism students at Kingston University. It's here

Gadgets: how to maximise the performance of the iPhone. It's here

Broadcasting platforms: Where, and how, to publish your multimedia content. It's here

Text: Overcoming the shortcomings of the iPhone’s qwerty keyboard with the help of a Bluetooth one. It's here

Audio: The best apps reviewed, explained and demonstrated.  It's here

Stills: The iPhone as a stills camera. It's here

Video: The best apps for live broadcasting, and recording It's here

Video and audio editing: How to use VeriCorder 1st Video, the first professional-standard in-phone editor for creating video packages, audio, and audio slide-shows. It's here

How to subscribe All you need do is buy the textbook (Amazon has it for £25.05)
With the book comes the code you need to access the full, complementary website.

You get not only an extensive site that fully complements the textbook, with a wealth of multimedia examples of the principles explained in the text, you also get full access to all the masterclasses, in which industry experts explain the latest developments in mobile, multimedia journalism.

Forthcoming masterclasses will cover: A non-coder's guide to creating apps and websites; The secrets of successful data-based journalism; Location-based content for local journalists, and Real-time reporting using social media.

Wednesday 20 October 2010

How to take and edit professional-quality stills on the iPhone

You might decide that the phone's own lens is absolutely fine, and it is certainly good enough for snapping mug shots and other straightforward pics to illustrate your text articles or to drop into simple slideshows, or as still frames in your videos.
But you can add a gadget that hugely improves on things, and you'll fidn more on that here: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1064
The iPhone4 has built in flash, so it’s much better for low light conditions that the 3GS, which I have.
Some professional photographers are dismissive of the iPhone, saying it is just not up to the job. However, others enthuse about the phone's pic-tacking capabilities
Here is an example of what a professional photographer can do:

That's a grab from this photography blog:
http://boingboing.net/2010/06/22/iphone-4-photography.html
Fidn out more at 

Tuesday 19 October 2010

How to get your podcast onto iTunes

We look at recording and broadcasting audio using the integral Audio Memos app, plus the benefits of AudioBoo.

This section of the masterclass includes:
  • How to publish audio instantly online
  • How to create a podcast feed that users can subscribe to
  • How to embed an audio player in your website or blog
  • How to  get your podcast onto iTunes 
  • Find out more here: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1060

Monday 18 October 2010

Tips, tricks, apps and gadgets to improve on the iPhone's qwerty keyboard

Most of us find it a nightmare, trying to type fast on the iPhone's virtual keyboard. But not all of us.
Take a look at this:


How to get faster

If you aren't as fast as that, here are some tips on speeding up

If you’re not that fast then to my mind the only solution is to get hold of a portable keyboard, ideally one that will fold up and slip in your bag, and hence makes sense for the mobile journalist.
Find our more here: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1059

Sunday 17 October 2010

Establishing Posterous as your multimedia publishing and broadcasting platform

Where to broadcast to - Establishing publishing platforms

The basics: filing to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
Most apps offer you options to file to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. It's dead simple; when you have your material you just press the right button.
That’s fine a lot of the time. But it can be disjointed.
You get bits of coverage, and if you are covering an event with stills, audio, video (some streamed live, some edited) it gets filed all over the place and you can’t create a coherent multimedia report.
So what you need is one place where all your material for a story appears together.
Various platforms allow you to post via email. The main blogging ones, such as Blogger, and other platforms such as Tumblr, do that.
I’ve tried them, and the one I find works best is called Posterous.

Posterous - all your content, in any medium, posted together in one place

I like Posterous because I can file everything to it, whatever the medium, via email.

In one email you can include various media: text and stills; text and video; text, stills and video. What you file appears together in one post.
Find out more here

Friday 15 October 2010

All you need to know to become a 100% mobile, multimedia journalist

The links below are to each key aspect of Masterclass 14 at Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide: iPhone for Journalism
They will go live, one a day, from October 15. They'll each be outside the paywall for 24 hours, after which they will remain available for subscribers to Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide
iPhone for Journalism overview:This is a podcast / slideshow version of a talk I gave this week to journalism students at Kingston University. It's here
Gadgets: how to maximise the performance of the iPhone. It's here
Broadcasting platforms: Where, and how, to publish your multimedia content
Text: Overcoming the shortcomings of the iPhone’s qwerty keyboard
Audio: The best apps reviewed, explained and demonstrated
Stills: The iphone as a stills camera
Video: The best apps for live broadcasting, and recording
Video and audio editing: How to use Vericorder 1st Video, the first professional-standard in-phone editor for creating video packages, audio, and audio slide-shows

iPhone for Journalism: All you need to know to become a 100% mobile, multimedia journalist

Part 1: The context

The context for multimedia journalism: the coming of smartphones, apps and Web 3.0.
This is the first part of a talk I gave to journalism students about using the iPhone for mobile, multimedia journalism. See part two for a practical guide to broadcasting with the iPhone.

 For the full masterclass, plus a second video, go here: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1056

Friday 8 October 2010

iPhone for Journalism: a preview of Masterclass 14 at Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide

This masterclass is about using the iPhone as a reporting tool.
It’ll be available from October 15 available as text, video or audio here

Video introduction

To demonstrate use of the iPhone on the move, I shot this in the car while travelling to a job. This was a live broadcast which I subsequently uploaded to YouTube for onward distribution to Facebook, Twitter and Posterous, and which is intended to illustrate how easy it is to create slightly rough-and-ready but serviceable video on the move.

Audio introduction

Listen!
I’ve also done an audio version of the introduction to this masterclass as a further demonstration. This was recorded as on Audioboo, one of the apps we’ll take a look at later, and shared from there via iTunes and other distribution platforms

Text introduction

We will cover both:
  • the iPhone as a news gathering, editing and transmitting device, and
  • how to establish publishing platforms for the material you create

Why the iPhone is good for mobile multimedia reporting

First the basics. The device itself is good because it has built-in the things you need:
  • a camera for stills and video,
  • a Voice Memos app for recording audio,
  • a qwerty keyboard for writing text
  • GPS to pinpoint your location and enable you to link your reporting to place
But that’s only the foundation of what makes for a very good mobile, multimedia device.  What to my mind makes the iPhone unbeatable are all the apps that have been built for it, and which transform its performance.
We’ll look at a range of apps for audio, video and text to see which of them are better than what you get built in.
Then there’s the phone’s broadcasting capabilities. Because gathering the news is one thing, having a place to publish it is another.
The apps make it simple to broadcast video, audio and the rest to social networks such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, but that’s very basic.
There is a danger that, in simply broadcasting snippets – a video clips to YouTube, a tweet to Twitter and a picture to Flickr – you end up with coverage that is highly fragmented.
Your users may catch some bits of your reporting of a particular story or event, but miss others.
What you really need is one platform on which your reporting – text, stills audio and video, can be gathered and presented as a coherent whole.
So we’ll look at the best ways of doing that, creating platforms that not only present your multimedia well, but which also autopost it on to the various social networks we need to have a strong presence on.
But the iPhone is by no means perfect. There are several significant things wrong with it that limit its potential as a reporting tool, unless we find ways to compensate for them.

Why the iPhone is not so great

  • Battery life is poor. Half a day at most if you are using it intensively.
  • The signal can be poor away from wi-fi hotspots.
  • The built-in mic is prone to wind noise in even the merest breeze
  • Trying to edit video on the built in app is a nightmare.
But we can sort most of that.
There are now apps available, some free, the rest dead cheap, that vastly improve things – particularly video and audio editing, which can now be done to professional standards with the right £5.99 app.
So, here’s what we will cover in this masterclass.

The links below will go live here on October 15 for subscribers to Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide

Gadgets: how to maximise the performance of the iPhone
Broadcasting platforms: Where, and how, to publish your multimedia content
Text: Overcoming the shortcomings of the iPhone’s qwerty keyboard
Audio: The best apps reviewed, explained and demonstrated
Stills: The iphone as a stills camera
Video: The best apps for live broadcasting, and recording
Video and audio editing: How to use Vericorder 1st Video, the first professional-standard in-phone editor for creating video packages, audio, and audio slide-shows

Tuesday 5 October 2010

MMJ Masterclasses: iPhone for Journalism, Essential Law Update, Apps for Non-Coders and latest Developments in Video Storytelling

Here's a preview of mastercasses at Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide schedued for October and November. Find them at www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk
October 2010

Masterclass 14: iPhone for Journalism

Smartphones are a highly convenient way for the multimedia journalist to publish instantly

We'll look at how to turn your iPhone into a fully-enabled multimedia reporting device, so you can file text, stills, video and audio instantly to a custom-made blog, to a mobile-enabled multimedia site, and any combination you like of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and a huge range of other platforms.
We're concentrating on the iPhone, but what we cover is also applicable to other smartphones.
Going live: October 16

Masterclass 15: Media law is changing fast, are you keeping up?

What do you know about the developing de facto law on privacy in the UK?

Puzzled about sports stars, data protection and super-injunctions?

Ever wondered why what your law textbook says on defamation and contempt seems out of step with how the media actually behaves?

Then this Masterclass is for you. Media law expert Duncan Lamont talks about how the law as it relates to the media is changing, and explains how the law is interpreted in real journalistic life.
Going live: October 30

November 2010

Masterclass 16: App-building for non-coders, website building for non-coders

How to build a iPhone and Android-compatible app, and a Drupal website without being a web-developer

We'll cover basic html in a later masterclass, for now, here's how to get your really professional mobile app up and running. Also, building on existing MMJ course and masterclass content, we'll look at how it is now possible to create a website on Drupal, on open-source web dvelopment platform that is the basis for many websites, including the one you are reading now.
Going live: November 13

Masterclass 17: Video storytelling

The latest on what works best in online video, and how to get it right

Our understanding of how best to deliver online is developing rapidly. We'll build on existing MMJ course content by looking at what the BBC has learned, and see how to put it into practice. We'll also take in the National Council for the Training of Journalist's requriements in its video storytelling option at Diploma in Journalism level.
Going live, November 27