Journalism Architects at USF

Remember that video I embedded along with my first post? Well, after searching YouTube today I found some interesting responses to the questions the video posed, and thought one provided an interesting rebuttal, which has sparked whole conversations on YouTube about the future of how we communicate. Who do you agree with? Or do your thoughts differ entirely? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Essentially, the rebuttal’s author (CoryTheRaven) sees the original “The Machine is Using Us” video as an exaggeration of the truth. CoryTheRaven agrees that the web (or, more specifically, Web 2.0) has made the transfer of information almost instantaneous, but at the cost of true human interaction. It may make gains toward fully imitating real life, but it will never be as good as the real thing. We may have to rethink our concepts of communication thanks to these gains in technology (that’s where you budding information architects come in!), but as of yet, there’s no need to rethink ourselves and our existence.

The most outstanding part of all of this is that this video reply sparked its own reply, creating a video conversation of sorts. Check it out:

This series of videos just goes to show you how communication is currently being rethought, and how user-based it really is. In itself, it’s a case for information architecture, and multimedia journalism as well. The exchange of ideas has entered a new platform, and it’s time we take note and adjust accordingly.

If you type “journalism” into Monster.com, 1574 job listings appear. If you type “information architecture,” more than 5,000 pop up instantly. Narrow that search to just Florida, and IA receives 158 listings, whereas journalism brings in 74. For a field that nobody’s heard about, IA sure seems to be booming in the job market.

Similarly, when St. Petersburg Times news writer Kevin Graham spoke to The Oracle (the publication I work for) last month, he mentioned that he’s seen every section of his paper (and others) dwindle in numbers, but one portion is constantly growing: online journalism. If you can bring clean design and usability to a publication’s transition onto the web, you’ve got a job. And not just a temporary “create our site and get outta here” job — an actual career, as more and more people get their news online.

In fact, in a recent survey of 29 students (most attended USF, though a few hailed from St. Petersburg College, FSU and UCF), 52% cited the internet as their primary source for news. That’s compared with a mere 7% who turned to newspapers most often, and the 31% who relied on television broadcasts for the latest information. I guess that shouldn’t be too shocking considering that 48% of those surveyed spend 13 hours or more surfing the web. In comparison, only 13% read the newspaper one or more times a week, and 12% watched a news broadcast once or more per week.

Also, where do students turn to first when they’re unsure of the answer to something? Forget the encyclopedia or using a lifeline to phone a friend — 90% immediately look it up online. They’re already looking here for verification of facts (48% trusts about 75% of what they see/read online), so why not make every endeavor to provide the latest information in the medium they’re most likely to use?

We may have to explore alternative ways of presenting the news, however. Multimedia packages hidden away on news web sites may be great for people SEEKING specific information, but out of the students I surveyed, only 13% reported logging onto traditional news web sites at least once a week (which is comparable to print/broadcast mediums). So where do they spend all those hours online? Social networking sites take the cake with 31% reporting that they visit MySpace, Facebook or a similar alternative at least once a week. Another 15% turn to blogs.

• Discussion point: Should the news try to tap into social networking sites? Many magazines, especially those aimed at teens  (such as Seventeen and Justine) have their own MySpace accounts to connect with readers. Editors and interns will post news and thoughts on the account’s blog, which creates a stronger dialogue between readers and creators than simply mailing letters to the editor. It also provides the latest updates in a friendly, untraditional format, but could this blur the lines between fandom and journalism? Are those who befriend publications interested in the latest news, or simply breakroom gossip?
  • Do you think seeking alternative mediums such as this would help connect readers or undermine true journalism? How could we work around this for to achieve the best of both worlds?

Though this isn’t a large enough sample size to speak for Florida university students as a whole (or even USF students, for that matter), it does represent a microcosm of our society, and backs up the hype that multimedia journalism is the wave of the future. If your market is now online, what other choice do you have but to go online as well (presuming, of course, that you want to stay in business)? Once again, I’m certainly not suggesting that print journalism or telecommunications is a thing of the past; rather, I’m reenforcing my belief that internet journalism is not a flash in the pan, and that its roots lie in information architecture.

(You’ll note that I’m smiling while typing away at this entry in the photo above. That’s because I’m confident that the scope of journalism is growing – not shrinking – with the advent of multimedia journalism. We just have to master the tools to expand the reach of the news, and provide it in such a seamless way that the public relishes in its convenience, rather than fighting to find the information they want. Master that, and journalism will not only complete its fusion with IA, but it will also find a wider audience in the process.)

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While perusing Introduction to Online Journalism by Roland DeWolk, I came to some important things to keep in mind when writing for the web, so I thought I’d post them here. True to today’s “I-want-my-news-now-and-quick!” mentality, I sifted through the book’s 205 pages to glean its gems for you (and for my own personal reference). Here are the essentials, as paraphrased by moi:

• Be wary of animated gifs and videos. Sure, that frolicking bear is cute, but does it really lend anything to your story? Only include videos and animations that help tell the story. If that moving image says enough to spare you an additional 250 words (or more) of additional copy, then by all means, include it!
• Brevity is key. Keep it short and entertaining, or people will “X” out of your page before you can show off your sweet skateboarding accident slide show.
• People don’t “read,” they “scan.” Our eyes immediately search for the “nuggets” of a story, or the parts that will intrigue us.
• Make your point even faster than you would in print. It’s a miracle for people to spend more than 60 seconds looking at an article online.
• Think e-mail, not investigative clip. I especially have to keep this in mind. People don’t like to see loads of text, and they especially don’t want to have to scroll all the way through it. Break it up into sections for a greater ease of use, or simplify your speech even more than it already is. (Save the diatribes for your research papers!)
• Connect the dots of your story and photos. The human brain favors images to words, so your words will resonate better with readers if they reference the photos in your story. (It will be clearer in their minds.)
• Use pageturners! Or, in our case, link-clickers. End your story in such a way that it leads the reader on and makes him/her want to know more (and click that link to go to the next page).
• Just like high school, people will stereotype your web site. Its presentation will determine what people expect from your web site, just as people expect to be entertained with gossip and scandals by glancing at Star magazine’s cover, or expect serious news and educational features from Time’s rigid front page design. In order to create an effective web site (no matter what you aim on covering), keep these tips in mind:
  • Make sure there’s one central, eye-catching element on each page. (Like a dominant photo or banner across the top of the page.)
  • Eliminate any overwhelming elements on the page that distract visitors from the main point of the page. Our eyes stop on the biggest, most colorful part of the site, and you must decide what you want that object to be, and why it should be that.
  • Like print journalism, have a DOMINANT feature. Don’t let your readers scour the page, looking for something to focus on (they’ll be more apt to get overwhelmed that way).
  • Visual hierarchy: mix up the sizes/weights of photos and graphics in a story, lest you once again confuse your visitors.
  • Choose complimentary colors.
    • Time to bust out the color wheel:
    • Rather than explain the various color schemes that could work well together, check out this handy informational table.
    • Colors/tones should upkeep the mood and point of view of the story. (Remember, just because your story is somber doesn’t mean the page has to be doom-and-gloom shades of gray. That could just as easily turn your visitors away, if it’s visually unappealing.)

When I found the web site Make Internet TV, I immediately got excited. It’s essentially a tutorial for creating your own video feeds and uploading them online, taking you from explaining the best way to shoot whatever you’re interested in, what editing software you can most easily access, how to properly license and publish your work, to ways to promote your new video. My excitement dulled a little when I read the site’s tagline, however: You make the news.

That shouldn’t seem like a mood-dampener, but it reminded me of what I left out when discussing how the Tampa Tribune laid off 5 percent of its workforce: the rise of citizen journalism, and the resulting waning of professional journalism. It’s cheaper for big publications to promote “you choose the news” or “you create the news” features instead of hiring more reporters to cover the news in various areas. While citizen journalism allows the people to record and post the latest goings-on in their neighborhoods online, its empowerment often comes at the cost of others’ jobs.

Another problem with citizen journalism is that it becomes a tool for PR and often blurs the lines of what’s newsworthy. For example, just because John Doe thinks that his little princess’ Sweet Sixteen at the bowling alley is the biggest event of the year — nay, decade — doesn’t mean that it should be the lead story (or that the rest of the community wants to wade through post after post about it). In addition, it can easily become a way for PR to reach the masses, because all Pete’s Rib Shack or Joe Schmo’s Car Wash has to do is upload their business information and post it as news, and voila! Suddenly an advertisement becomes the “news.”

Information Architecture may be able to fix all that, by employing multi-skilled journalists who can aggregate this information and edit out the advertisements and bury the unnewsworthy material that’s submitted. From there, the journalists can view these citizen-submitted ‘articles’ as tips, or things to look into and create possible in-depth articles or multimedia packages out of them. (Who knows, maybe John Doe rented the entire bowling alley for his daughter’s birthday and all of her guests will knock down gold-plated bowling pins while sipping soda out of crystal stemware imported from Italy and listening to Justin Timberlake crooning in the background. That could be newsworthy.)

The bottom line? It’s not enough to know how to write and edit articles anymore. Skillsets must expand, for the scope of this profession is expanding dramatically. Employers need to stop seeing the limitations of journalists and the price-cutting techniques of citizen journalism, and start seeing the unbridled possibilities that exist by using information architecture to build upon one’s foundation of journalism to net a wider audience.

By the way, here’s some interesting information on IA, and how it can be overlooked in many professions. Please ignore this guy’s seriously creepy way of presenting the information, but note his discussion on how great information architecture is often overlooked because the web sites or projects designed flow so smoothly that nobody needs to take note of them (it’s a lot easier for the untrained eye to notice things that are going wrong with a web site than the intricacies of design and development that haven’t posed problems):

She may have nothing to do with the Gators’ national championships in basketball and football, but when it comes to helping the Gators excel in online journalism, she’s all over it. Since 1999, Mindy McAdams has served as a professor at the University of Florida, teaching undergraduate and graduate level courses on the subject. Before entering the Swamp, McAdams worked as both a content developer for the Washington Post’s first online newspaper, Digital Ink, and then as the web strategist at the American Press Institute.

I didn’t mention her though to revel in her resume, however. Her real accomplishments lie in the gains she’s made for multimedia journalism courses at UF. She’s authored the book Flash Journalism, which combines XHTML and flash coding with reporting to teach budding journalists how to create their very own multimedia packages.

She’s created a plethora of helpful web sites for beginning information architects (though they aren’t labeled as such, she’s still teaching visitors how to aesthetically design and organize data to display online), which can all be accessed through her main web site, MindyMcAdams.com. She also maintains her own blog, which features her thoughts and notes on online journalism, along with tips and tutorials to help visitors learn the latest digital tricks. She also regularly links other helpful web sites and blogs for learning editing styles as well as mastering digital media. Here are some tidbits from her recent postings that may be of interest:

• She explains how Flickr could help budding photojournalists’ careers because the program has made displaying digital photography available to all. That means that photo buyers (like those for newspapers and magazines) are now sifting through the average joe’s photos to purchase the pictures that fill their pages!
  • Discussion point: Although it’s great that this program has made it easier for people to enter the field of photojournalism and become published, couldn’t this also skew people’s idea of the professionalism of photography and become less apt to hire major photographers? Or does it have no bearing on the profession whatsoever? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
• Multimedia packages are so popular right now, simply because of their multi-faceted, in-depth coverage and cutting-edge design. I know that this is the way of the future, but since each package requires hours upon hours of work, I wondered how any publication could afford to consistently create those, and how tiring that process could be. Well, possibly without intending to, McAdams answered my question by making a post for people to compare two web sites honoring the recent Virginia Tech victims. One was created by the New York Times; the other, by the Roanoke Times. Though McAdams admitted that it seemed a bit insensitive to analyze these tributes, I must agree that by comparing them we’re also learning how to handle these situations — what works and what doesn’t.
  • From there she mentioned the possibility of using templates in the future for profiles of important people.
  • Discussion point: What did you notice about the two web sites, and what do you think works best? Would templates help simplify certain multimedia packages, or do you think they’d hinder the creativity that made them so cutting edge and exciting in the first place?
• Online innovation starts small. In one entry McAdams references Web.aan.org’s 5 keywords for bringing journalism (and other forms of communication) to the world wide web: “Small. Storytelling. Experiments. Collaboration. Workflow.”
  • Want to know what those words could possibly mean to you (and how you can implement them to create great things)? Click here.

It’s one thing to understand the overlapping concepts of information architecture and multimedia journalism, but it’s quite another thing to experience it. Some media outlets may embed videos onto their web sites for visitors to get a clearer picture of what’s described in the story. Others may create an online slideshow to display photos that a publication didn’t have the space to print. Some may combine all of the above.

The Naples Daily News, for example, produces a thirty-minute daily video rundown of the latest news that they upload and provide exclusively online. Meanwhile, the Journal & Courier offers soundslides (photographic slideshows that feature audio commentary or background music) on topics as far-reaching as ballroom dancing and taxidermy. The most prized of all, however, are the coveted multimedia packages. They combine podcasts, video, the article, slideshows, message boards and any other interactive feature journalists can think of into one web site that completely covers and analyzes one particular topic. A great example of this is the Sacramento Bee’s “The Weight” presentation, shown in a screenshot above. Carefully utilizing information architecture, this presentation separates the issue into four chapters as it follows the lives of three teens entering a weight loss boarding school. Each chapter chronicles the highs and lows of their experience, featuring traditional articles, statistics and photos juxtaposed with a broader story of obesity and weight loss programs in America — all framed by unconventional (and exciting!) methods of recording the event, like short videos and photo galleries. Each step of the way, a discussion board sits at the bottom, open for anyone’s comments. [Note: As an added feature, when you scroll over each of the students their image changes from a "before" photograph to an "after" to showcase the weight each student's lost while at the boarding school.]

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Like I said, it’s touching to read about an 80-year-old man’s struggle to move on with his life after his wife of 55 years has passed away. It’s heart-wrenching, however, to see the welling tears sting his eyes that he pridefully tries to wipe away on the sleeve of his shaking arm. Hearing the rasp of his voice and how he chokes and stammers to maintain his composure while describing her battle with cancer makes the scenario real. Online journalism provides for all of this. Where print is limited by being unable to produce sound or moving images, it can be found on the internet. Where television’s quite news bites won’t allow for in-depth coverage, the online medium provides unlimited space. While a person can easily miss such a poignant story if he/she forgets to turn on the television at exactly 6 p.m., or gets to the newsstand after all of that day’s papers have sold out, the internet makes that article available at any time of the day, and even archives it so that the reader may easily return to it months down the road if he or she chooses to.

Thanks to the internet, previous journalistic barriers are being broken down. The news is now available at every second of every day, and is constantly updated so that readers never miss an instant of what’s going on. Merging various forms of media into one overarching form of mass communications not only allows for greater viewer flexibility in choosing what they want to know and when they want it; it also tears down the wall that previously separated journalists from their readers. People can comment on articles they read, or post their thoughts on message boards and blogs. If they’re feeling old-fashioned, they could even e-mail journalists or the publication itself. (Honestly, who mails in letters to the editor anymore?) The news is now interactive. Don’t believe me? The USF Oracle is a prime example of this shift from simply reporting the news to creating a conversation with it.

The Tampa Tribune is laying off 70 employees and has announced that its circulation area will shrink, according to EditorandPublisher.com.

The Tampa-Bay-based publication isn’t alone, either. Newspaper readership across the country has been declining since 1990, and print publications have been downsizing over the years to deal with it. Before you aspiring journalists start curling into the fetal position and frantically calling your advisors to change majors, here’s one tidbit to keep in mind: despite shriveling staffs around the nation, one section of the media has been expanding each year.

Yes, that’s right — there’s still hope for anyone searching for a job in journalism, and it’s online. And that’s where information architecture comes in. As journalism schools nationwide turn out more and more graduates each year while the number of reporting and editing jobs grow scarce, you need skills beyond that of the average reporter to stand out to employers. Having great clips and knowing the difference between “leading” and “kerning” doesn’t cut it anymore — if you want a job at a major paper, chances are you’ll need to know how to maintain a blog, create and upload photo slideshows and use the web to fact-check your sources.

I remember my shock during the summer of 2005 when I picked up an issue of Seventeen magazine — then my guidebook for all things trendy — and found their forecast for the realm of reporting: tomorrow’s Lois Lane couldn’t just interview people who’d seen Superman and write about it anymore. She had to have  streaming videos of his sightings posted online, as well as a podcast featuring sound bites of those involved, and an interactive web site so that the citizens of Metropolis could access this information at any given time. Though Seventeen didn’t use the kitschy Superman analogy, they essentially said the same thing — the modern staff writer was being replaced by the multimedia journalist.

By harnessing and organizing new technology and forms of communication, the multimedia journalist becomes a sort of information architect — one that writes the rough draft of history as he or she presents it in the most widely accessible format(s) available. Today’s correspondent makes information instantaneous, but not overwhelming. Interactive, but not imposing. The facts are still presented, but they come in a greater range of perspectives, now that we have the resources to connect the farthest reaching places on the globe.

 A person will find more information in one newspaper today than he or she would gather in his/her entire lifetime in the 17th Century.

This was posted during a news feed during Blue Man Group’s How to Be a Rock Star 2.0 tour, and it’s echoed here. Let that sentence sink in for a moment — it’s kind of hard to wrap your head around that concept, isn’t it? I mean, how could we have reached an era where our daily intake of information surpasses that of another human’s entire lifetime? Welcome to the age of information inundation.

The sheer volume of data circulating the world can be a little overwhelming at times; especially when it comes to discerning accuracy, relevancy to one’s needs and recency. That’s where information architecture comes in. These technological architects give shape and form to this knotted jumble of data, aggregating and organizing it all for the average joe’s convenience.

Still not sold on the concept? This video should clarify Information Architecture’s role in society:

As you can see, thanks to today’s emerging technologies, we can transform this wealth of information into a set of bridges that connect people. By allowing for greater accessibility, that terrifying mountain of data suddenly seems more like a ladder — one that educates the masses and ultimately allows for a dialogue of ideas to pass through it. We’re simplifying the esoteric, circulating information so that higher education is more available to everyone. Are you ready to be the pulse of the world?