New Tools

At the always-electrifying Online News Association conference, filmmakers could learn plenty from journalists—including the fact that journalists think they need filmmakers.

Video was all over the conference, as one of the essential storytelling tools for the digital journalist. Whether in the rush to create little explainers, or discussion of maker tools such as those provided by Zeega and Treehouse (Interlude), or the chatter over the New York Times’ recent interactive video Op Doc, Kat Cizek’s “The History of High Rises,” video storytelling was clearly one of the darlings of cutting-edge journalists.  Todd Melby’s Localore project, Black Gold Boom, was an ONA award winner. Read more...

How did the filmmakers for "Give Up Tomorrow" leverage the film for political action and justice for the film's subjects? Filmmaker Gemma Cubero's research shows how a film's engagement strategies are just as important as the film itself. Read more...

Obama and Romney own 2012 – they essentially bought it – having spent record sums of money on advertising and campaign stratagems designed to magnetize our attentions and motivate them towards a desired set of actions. As year end features and retrospectives squeeze their way into our nation's newspapers, one worn out phenomenon will predictably dominate the annual backward glance: the election. Read more...

I recently spent a morning demo'ing a fascinating experiment in digital archiving of television (free login required). The Internet Archive, a vast and improbable digital library both of traditional and emerging media, has started a new project to use some of its immense and mostly dark archive of 24/7 television news from around the world. You might remember their showcasing of 9/11 television, which I participated in, and which has since become a resource for journalists scholars. Read more...

On this anniversary of 9/11, discerning journalists and scholars alike will be delving into a treasure trove of international television covering the event.  The Internet Archive’s “Understanding 9/11” video archive provides a record of international television news between Sep. 11-Sep. 17, 2001. Read more...