Journalism posts: Summary II

It’s been a busy few months on here! Here’s a wrap up of the journalism related posts since my last summary back in April.

Image: LynGi (Creative Commons Licence)

The future of journalism

This is why we’re entrepreneurs :: an inspiring video which makes any creative want to leap off their seat, start a production company. NOW!

Why Journalists Deserve Low Pay :: Richard G Picard’s article makes me realise the utter foundations of journalism have changed and are no longer economical

Life After Newspapers? :: the newspaper journalists who are reinventing themselves after being made redundant

Future of Journalism presentation :: in June and July I gave a couple of presentations outlining the crisis in journalism and it’s possible future. You can watch it here.

Noded working: a new way to do journalism? :: how noded working can help the new generation of freelance creative entrepreneurs

Introducing: the journalist of the future :: some of  you said it was great, others naiive, others optimistic; others said it was rubbish. Whatever you might think, if you haven’t read it yet, here’s my picture of the skills and abilities of the journalist of the future.

The Journalist of the future: your reaction :: a neat summary of what some of you guys said about that article

Multimedia Journalism

Learn From The Best :: multimedia producers Duckrabbit shows me the importance of a damned good photograph (they’re still doing it, here)

One Week In Iraq :: how I put together my small multimedia piece reporting from Iraq

History Alive! :: two brilliant examples of how multimedia can be used to bring history to life

Choose your multimedia, wisely :: a look at the individual strengths and weaknesses of video, audio, images and interactivity. Now choose it wisely!

Open Source for multimedia journalists :: a brief skit over popular open source software the multimedia journo should have in their armoury

What does #digitalbritain mean for journalism? :: why Lord Carter’s Digital Britain Report is a massive FAIL for journalism

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Open source for multimedia journalists

I love the concept of open sourcing. It has many forms, but open source software is the most common use, when software developers make their code publicly available for all to explore and change.

It’s led to the creation of some amazing software very useful for journalists on a low budget; and of course, it’s free! Here are some highlights:

Web browsing

Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome have both revolutionised internet use – don’t get bogged down with Internet Explorer!

Writing

Open Office – is ropey in places, but otherwise a faithful and very useful alternative to Microsoft Office

Audio

Audacity is a highly reliable (if not very flexible) audio editor. And try Songbird for a free audio player.

Video

Miro is a very promising internet video player and video podcast player.

Images

With Photoshop being too expensive for many users, Gimp provides a free (and equally complicated alternative). Google’s Picasa is great for simple image edits.

3D graphics

Blender is the free tool for creating 3D animations and even whole films