The inauguration of Barack Obama as President was historic not only politically but in the world of new media.
Conducted during normal business hours, the inauguration wasn't accessible via TV for most working people, who instead logged on and watched via live web streaming in record numbers.
Akamai, which provides bandwidth services for about 20% of the world's internet, recorded "unprecedented global demand for bandwidth" during the inauguration, according to Beet.tv.
The inauguration wasn't only about volume. Media companies took major strides in presenting streaming video in a more content-rich and user-controllable format.
As Kent Chapline describes on Lost Remote, the CBS O & O's offered a page with seven different streams, allowing the user to choose the perspective they wanted for the Inauguration. The page also included on demand offerings of the inauguration speeches of presidents back to FDR, and an embedded live Twitter feed during the event.
MSNBC's player also included past inauguration speeches with this great add-on: Each speech had a searchable transcript in the sidebar; click on a section of the speech in text, it cues it up to that point in video. Cory Bergman of MSNBC.com offers more details on Lostremote.com.
Overall, these digital media tools enabled large media companies to tell the inauguration story immediately with greater breadth and depth than ever before, all while giving more control over the content experience to...dare I say it...the media consumer.
For a complete review of all the major media companies' streaming coverage, check out the review by Dan Rayburn on Businessofvideo.com.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Mapping a story with geographic breadth
The recent flooding in the Northwest provided a good example of a situation where taking the extra time to MAP the news can add real context and meaning to a story.
Unlike the preceding winter storm, which was concentrated in well-known, urban areas, the flooding hit small, lesser known towns hardest. Many of these communities are places the average local TV viewer may not have heard of, or at a minimum would have difficulty locating.
On KGW.com, we wrote stories and posted photos and videos from the affected areas, as we would normally do. But we also created an interactive map using Google's mapping feature, situating the stories, videos and photos onto a map that the user can control and explore.
View Larger Map
The result is a highly visual way of putting the story in context, conveying the breadth of the storm and also educating users about the places where the damage happened.
Creating a quick where-did-a-story-happen map takes only minutes using Quikmaps. Creating a multi-media map that includes multiple locations and multiple tyoes of media content can take several hours but is well worth it when the geographic reach is part of the story, and where there are many content elements.
Unlike the preceding winter storm, which was concentrated in well-known, urban areas, the flooding hit small, lesser known towns hardest. Many of these communities are places the average local TV viewer may not have heard of, or at a minimum would have difficulty locating.
On KGW.com, we wrote stories and posted photos and videos from the affected areas, as we would normally do. But we also created an interactive map using Google's mapping feature, situating the stories, videos and photos onto a map that the user can control and explore.
View Larger Map
The result is a highly visual way of putting the story in context, conveying the breadth of the storm and also educating users about the places where the damage happened.
Creating a quick where-did-a-story-happen map takes only minutes using Quikmaps. Creating a multi-media map that includes multiple locations and multiple tyoes of media content can take several hours but is well worth it when the geographic reach is part of the story, and where there are many content elements.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Internet overtakes newspapers as news source
It's official.
A new Pew report confirms that the inevitable intersection between declining newspaper audience and growing internet audience has happened.
In the Pew survey, 40% of the respondents said they got most of their national and international news from the Internet in 2008 compared to 35% using newspapers. That internet share was 24% in 2007, so 2008 marked a dramatic leap for internet-based news.
While print reach continued to decline, newspapers could find hope in the dramatic growth in audience share for the online version of their content. Newspaper web sites drew 69 million visitors in October 2008, up more than 60 percent compared to the comparable period in 2004.
Overall, TV continued its long-standing dominance as the number one source for daily news, with 70% naming it as their primary source. However, the devil is in the details for broadcasters who might think they don't need to fear newspapers' fate.
That 70% share is a drop from 74% last year and a bigger decline from the 2002 peak of 82%. Foreshadowing the demographic-driven losses of newspapers, TV has fallen into a tie with the internet among those under 30, with an equal number citing TV and internet as their primary news source.
This year, 18-29, next up, 25-54?
A new Pew report confirms that the inevitable intersection between declining newspaper audience and growing internet audience has happened.
In the Pew survey, 40% of the respondents said they got most of their national and international news from the Internet in 2008 compared to 35% using newspapers. That internet share was 24% in 2007, so 2008 marked a dramatic leap for internet-based news.
While print reach continued to decline, newspapers could find hope in the dramatic growth in audience share for the online version of their content. Newspaper web sites drew 69 million visitors in October 2008, up more than 60 percent compared to the comparable period in 2004.
Overall, TV continued its long-standing dominance as the number one source for daily news, with 70% naming it as their primary source. However, the devil is in the details for broadcasters who might think they don't need to fear newspapers' fate.
That 70% share is a drop from 74% last year and a bigger decline from the 2002 peak of 82%. Foreshadowing the demographic-driven losses of newspapers, TV has fallen into a tie with the internet among those under 30, with an equal number citing TV and internet as their primary news source.
This year, 18-29, next up, 25-54?
Year in review, using multimedia storytelling tools
The "year in review" is a staple story of the news business. In the world of online journalism, it's also an opportunity to create a more rich, multimedia experience that includes text, audio/video and images from the big stories of the year.
Not long ago, only those with HTML and Flash coding skills were able to create high-end multimedia presentations. I've blogged before about one of my favorite examples, the Star Tribune's multimedia recap of "13 seconds in August", the story of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. The project is beautifully done. However, it took four months to create, and the most powerful elements required coding skills far beyond those of the typical journalist.
Barely more than a year later, much has changed. Web sites like widgetbox.com make it easy to create and embed widgets on a web site without any coding skills. And web sites have sprung up that enable non-techies to create multimedia content - for free - and embed that content.
Here is the Year in Review multimedia show I build for kgw.com in Portland using the free 'collage' feature on vuvox.com. The entire Year in Review page can be found at kgw.com.
Not long ago, only those with HTML and Flash coding skills were able to create high-end multimedia presentations. I've blogged before about one of my favorite examples, the Star Tribune's multimedia recap of "13 seconds in August", the story of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. The project is beautifully done. However, it took four months to create, and the most powerful elements required coding skills far beyond those of the typical journalist.
Barely more than a year later, much has changed. Web sites like widgetbox.com make it easy to create and embed widgets on a web site without any coding skills. And web sites have sprung up that enable non-techies to create multimedia content - for free - and embed that content.
Here is the Year in Review multimedia show I build for kgw.com in Portland using the free 'collage' feature on vuvox.com. The entire Year in Review page can be found at kgw.com.
Friday, December 26, 2008
2008 Year Ender, and New Media Predictions
2008 was a tumultuous year for those in the traditional journalism business: layoffs, bankruptcies, and reorganizations dominated the news - and this was all before the entire country was hit with the worst economic recession in decades.
What were the big take-aways from 2008, and how will the business and practice of journalism change in 2009. Here are a few of my thoughts, and a round-up of what other media bloggers are saying.
Frank's 5 for 2009:
1. Audiences will continue to shift toward consuming their news "on demand": online and, in 2009 more then ever before, via MOBILE devices. This will come at the expense of newspaper circulation; and, for the first time ever in 2009, more people will get their news daily from online than from local TV news.
2. Newspapers will continue to see declines in readership and revenue.
3. In 2009, with the election-year revenue bump behind them, local TV stations will experience the same kinds of deep layoffs newspapers have been enduring for the past several years.
4. Niche blogs and hyperlocal journalism will rise up, both as a competitor to and as a result of reductions at mainstream media outlets
5. Another year will pass, and we still will not have a sustainable business model answer to the question: How do we monetize the web?
Here's what some other media bloggers are saying:
On Poytner.org, Rick Edmonds offers journalists Four Reasons to be Hopeful about newspapers in 2009.
In newsless.org, Matt Thompson offers 5 Questions Worth Asking about journalism's future.
On his News After Newspapers blog, Martin Langeveld came out with his Predictions for 2009, then did a nice follow-up entry summarizing the other 2009 predictions by media bloggers.
What were the big take-aways from 2008, and how will the business and practice of journalism change in 2009. Here are a few of my thoughts, and a round-up of what other media bloggers are saying.
Frank's 5 for 2009:
1. Audiences will continue to shift toward consuming their news "on demand": online and, in 2009 more then ever before, via MOBILE devices. This will come at the expense of newspaper circulation; and, for the first time ever in 2009, more people will get their news daily from online than from local TV news.
2. Newspapers will continue to see declines in readership and revenue.
3. In 2009, with the election-year revenue bump behind them, local TV stations will experience the same kinds of deep layoffs newspapers have been enduring for the past several years.
4. Niche blogs and hyperlocal journalism will rise up, both as a competitor to and as a result of reductions at mainstream media outlets
5. Another year will pass, and we still will not have a sustainable business model answer to the question: How do we monetize the web?
Here's what some other media bloggers are saying:
On Poytner.org, Rick Edmonds offers journalists Four Reasons to be Hopeful about newspapers in 2009.
In newsless.org, Matt Thompson offers 5 Questions Worth Asking about journalism's future.
On his News After Newspapers blog, Martin Langeveld came out with his Predictions for 2009, then did a nice follow-up entry summarizing the other 2009 predictions by media bloggers.
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