New Media Workshop

Text Editor, Margaret. For general stuff.
Hi Vincent,
Here are my text edits for your story - marked to show edits. Feel free to use what you’d like.
Margaret
(Aiyahenator)
Text Editor, Margaret. Specially for the interview with Sung Po Wa on page 2.
Here you go Vincent! Suggested edits attached.
Margaret
(Texts changed according to the text files attached, as suggested)
Hey Vincent, really enjoyed your pictures. thanks for not using multimedia at all :)
Cheers,
Sun Jie
Hi Vincent,
Here are my two cents.
1. “Why or why not live in halls at HKU?”
I think you can consider moving the trophy photo near the beginning of the article. So reader can be clear on who this interview is about, thus become more interested in reading it further. Perhaps before the question: “I see, so what are your objectives then, as Cultural Secretary of your hall?”
The committee photo can move a little bit further down, near the end.
The caption looks a little out of place at the moment. Would you like to try using the caption function?
2. Hall Life Photos
I really enjoy the photos you’ve got on the last few pages. I think they will look more attractive if you have a format for the pages. At the moment, they are a little all over the place.
One suggestion is to make them aligned to one side. Or you may consider making a slideshow at the end of the paragraph.
Hope this help.
Cheers,
Hilda
(I changed according to the suggestions Hilda made in the first section, but not the second. I don’t think putting every aligned to one side is a nice idea, cause it does not seem to be more interesting, and a slideshow would be more ‘detached’ and less impressive than viewing all photos at the same time)

Well, I have gathered almost everything I need. Yet I am still looking for interesting video clips to be included.

I have got forty something pictures, from various events, ranging from interhall competitions, joint hall performance, interfloor competitions, hall events and also floor events. Photos are edited into webpage size, and text and captions will be included and ready before the deadline comes.

For the video stuff, I got two short ones from some kind of performance at the hall festival. They were not really very nice taped but as what we have read, we are not looking for artistic materials, rather materials with a sense of journalistic value which reflects the actual facts would be good enough. Yet, funny video clips are always good to attract a larger number of audiences.

So I will be uploading those materials starting from this weekend, and hopefully everything will be ready before Sunday ends, and after receiving feedbacks from our classmates the final editing process will be launched.

My topic is about hall life at HKU.

Simply I cant cover everything inside, therefore I plan to cover some of the major events that I have also been to. These include the Orientation Camp, High Table Dinner, Hall Festival, Interhall Hockey Competition, Joint Hall Dance Performance, which are shared by most of the halls.

Apart from that, there will be another section introducing what hall members do on ordinary days. Like what they play together, where they go for ‘late supper’ or ‘morning tea’, etc. This little section will depend on how much time I am having for the time being.

For videos, I am still puzzling what to shoot. I don’t think I can shoot many of the above events cause much have passed already. Besides, I want to ask if it is possible for us to use some of the materials not produced by us, yet we have the consent of others?

At last what I have managed to do is to get myself some photos about the topic.I have uploaded some to the Flickr account. Later this week or two I will be focusing on gathering more photos and probably videos, and in later times I will be adding captions to all those materials explaining how they work.

I planned to do my final project on the topic about “climate change in the past decade of Hong Kong”. At that time I thought this would be an interesting topic to me on one hand, and meaningful one on the other. But then as time goes by, I have realised that it is so hard to generate pictures and videos and etc from this topic. Because this topic should be best presented with graphs and text.

So now, before the deadline for changing topic approaches, I have to make a critical change without a choice. Yes I would have to gather the needed materials again, and that takes time, but on the other side of the coin, I could try and use techniques which I have learnt from the course, including searching tags in Flickr and uploading video clips. I think I could manage such a shift.

My new theme is about a hall life at HKU. I am currently staying at Weilun Hall, an off-campus hall located next to Queen Mary Hospital, because of this, I think I could manage to finish the final project neatly with a meaningful aim, that is presenting to others what hall life really is, and maybe criticising some of the dark sides of it.

Photos and text would be what I use much, and also some videos. Although I may not be good at taking videos, I think what Foust mentions in his book is right, that we are not trying to present something with really high artistic value, rather we are aiming at presenting with journalistic one. Despite the fact that users sitting there watching the video might not be that patient to watch the whole thing, which McAdmas warns us, I think it is still crucial that some kind of video production is needed for this project, because videos is a ‘motion of pictures’ which shows much more than merely a series of pictures.

From Why Photojournalists Should Gather Audio, it says that “Audio interviews give the subject a voice, which complements the photojournalist’s taking of a photograph.” This is quite true, and it is a tool showing one is making full use of the internet resources, and distinguish internet ‘packages’ from magazine one. But then in this case, I think it will not be useful to me, because my interviewing subjects are not famous people who are likely to give soundbites good enough to be recorded in audio format. I prefer quoting them in text if I am fortunate enough to have some.

A more detailed plan of my project will be as follows.

I will be focusing on daily hall lifes, and also functions like Joint Hall Dance Performance, Interhall Atheletics Competition and Interfloor Football Competition.

Text

Text will be needed in introducing all the topicss listed above. It will also be needed in the form of captions for some of the pictures.

Photos and Graphics

Photos will be used to illustrate those topics in visual format. Captions will be added and I hope to make it a package alongside with text introducing what is going on for each of the topics.

Audio or Video?

I prefer video in this case, as discussed above.

Interaction

Interaction is also crucial for this project. Hyperlinks, which we have learnt fromt he course, and also allowing comments to be made on video and text will be the main interaction format I would like to include. As McAdams warns us, that “many discussions deteriorate if there is no moderator”, I think I will not include this way of interaction, because nobody is authoritative enough to moderate the discussion.

As far as I know, there are some MJ students also staying at hall, and some do like the hall life they are living with, while some don’t. I think they will like to express their ideas on this matter. Besides, I think some BJ students might as well want to comment on this, together with these, other hall residents might also be invited to give their comments, as long as it suits the whole idea of the “HK stories project”. I think Foust’s line would be useful to conclude this little parapragh, that interaction “provides many potential new sources and points of view for stories”.

In this week, we will have to do the following.

1. the audio file; 2. a picture of the classmate; 3. a picture he or she took related to his/her topic; 4. Approximately 200 words describing the classmate’s topic and motivations for doing the topic.

So, here is the audio file.

And, a picture of Wilson’s.

Also, a picture of what he is doing.

True Meaning of Life, Buddism

“Buddhism starts from home. As a way of life, the teachings of Buddha can be found in the smallest unit of a society - family. It takes great determination to achieve great wisdom, forgiveness, mercy and compassion but one thing - do it the natural way - should be relatively easy, my mother says.” Wilson said, in explaining why he has chosen to work on such a topic.

While to Wilson, Buddism is more than a religion, rather, it is somewhat a philosophy, enlightenment, etc. And basically, it differs from other religions. If you are not sure whether heaven exists, and if you do not think you are born with sin, probably you will stay away from religions like Christain.

Anyways, here her mother is, reading peacefully a bi-weekly publication Buddhist Compassion given by Mr Ko of Buddhist Philosophy Bookstore. Surprisingly, Mr Ko is a friend Wilson has made with through tagging. Want to know more? Listen to the audio clip above.

(Something I really wanna say is that when I am happily uploading and tagging photos in my Flickr account, suddenly I am told that I have reached the limit of 200 pictures. I am not told whether the pictures will appear next month, when the limit will be reset. I am really depressed about this, cause Flickr is actually providing more functions than less professional online photo albums like what xanga does… Well, I have no other way than giving up this Flickr account then…)

My topic is about how and why HK is seriously affected by Global Warming. These pictures pasted here explain some of the majore reasons behind.

Here is the link to my Flickr page.

In picture ‘7′ and ‘6′, it shows some common scenes in halls at HKU. The former picture was taken at late night when nobody was actually at the pantry, yet the TV set was not turned off in such a case. Similarly, when students leave their rooms, they tend not to switch off their computers, and it is what the latter picture is trying to say.

For picture ‘5′ and ‘4′, it clearly shows the light pollution in HK. The two pictures were taken at MongKok. An environmental group has told us recently that a lot strong lights are turned on in places like MongKok even when there is only just a few people in the streets. This is the case, and the problem is also that it wastes much energy for apparantly no reasons.

Picture ‘3′ was taken at a shopping mall at ShaTin, on the eve of the first day in the Lunar Calendar. In the past, HK citizens have to wear much on that day, but specifically this year, as we are having the warmest Feb ever since in history, we did not wear much.

In picture ‘2′ and ‘1′, it shows that the new generation is actaully more aware of this matter, unlike the general society, particularly the government and local business groups. Display boards are introduced at universities. But actually not many students were reading the boards, it tells us that maybe we need to do more and try new methods in handling the matter.

In an internet era, it has always been a question for journalists to use materials available from the internet properly.

Foust’s main idea is that we should first assume everything we see online as something that belongs to others, just like any ordinary goods. In that sense, we will not accidentally break the law and get into trouble. It is a rather good principle to be taught and learnt, and even if we are in a hurry for out stories, we should follow all these instructions. The same rule applies in daily lives, that even if you are hungry, you will not steal from others, though others may probably not know something has been stolen from them.

And, we have measures to avoid that. For weekly publications, it is not a problem after all, because most needed materials are downloaded and saved from pre-paid organisations. Therefore, actually those working in daily publications are the ones who need to pay more attention on this matter. Following this procedure is a feasible way to achieve in some sense. And in the worst case, simply leave out the photos, I think it is always better to have a time or two not having a relevant great photo alongside with the article, then to get yourself and your working organisation into trouble.

However, to Lessig, he uprights the idea that “every important sector of big media… was born of a kind of piracy”. In fact, he is right. Printing techonology allows the free flow or information, and the next is the radio braodcasting and then TV, now the internet is going to bring a new wave to the current stage. And, internet is a convergence of all these means of communication therefore it is expected to “be born of a kind of piracy” which would strongly impact the current copyright system.

I agree that we should try to make full use of all these opportunities in dealing with the matter, as internet this specific media really helps us a lot in gathering information etc. But before everything is settled, we could not just uphold such an idea that as “something is be born of a kind of piracy” so that we act according to it. I know he does not mean that after all, anyway, I agree to Foust’s idea, and I think we should work faster in solving the problem, which allows us to make full use of the internet resources.

Heavens describes that he would put all photos not being bought onto Flickr, it is a rather nice idea to me, and probably to most journalists. In the past, journalists have nowhere to share stories and pictures not suitable or ‘good enough’ to appear on the newspaper, even if they do have a chance, it does not last long.

With this Creative Commons, Heavens does get some freelance opportunities, why not others then?

Besides, Creative Commons is really a nice idea to welcome as it is a way to ‘release’ materials owners willing to share with others. Traditional way of copyright could not really match with the tight schedule in an internet era. Therefore, it not only creates an opportunity for journalists to ’sell’ themselves, it also allows news organisations to find materials they needed in an much easier way.

 Well, tonight we have a nice class about photo-editing and uploading.

We are taught how to do the basic photo editing procedure, including resizing, cropping, changing the brightness and contrast, etc.

Then we are taught how to upload them, especially with Flickr which allows us to tag them, and also the concept of Creative Common.

And here are two pictures that I have taken and edited in the class.

Another thing we have learnt this evening is that we know eventually how to wrap a picture with text which has always been an uneasy task for some of us, including me myself.

Therefore, I am really excited now. I gonna update my Flickr account. Visit me? vinetal.

Pieter’s and Miu Chow’s delicious page are closiest to what I am doing. 

And for the subcriptions, I have subscripted to the feeds on climatechange and globalwarming from Flickr and Technorati.

First, two leads are chosen from the students’ delicious feeds, Sarah Liao’s presentation and Trading Solution for Pollution.

In Liao’s speech, it says, “The declining trend of local emissions over the last 16 years is evident from the concentrations of air pollutants measured at our monitoring stations and reported on our website everyday (Figure 1).”

Probably I could now go and check the greenhouse gases emitted for the past ten years from the website.

And in the other, the whole lengthy piece simply talks about the air pollution control, without a single word about global warming and greenhouse gases that has been focused on in the past, need not mention in the near future.

It could be a good example to show out lack of attentions towards this globally acknowledged problem.

From Technorati, two articles are found useful, first contributed by Fred Pearce and the other the editorial board, both from the magazine NewScientistEnvironment.

Fred says that “David Wasdell, an independent analyst of climate change who acted as an accredited reviewer of the report, says the preliminary version produced by scientists in April 2006 contained many references to the potential for climate to change faster than expected because of “positive feedbacks” in the climate system. Most of these references were absent from the final version.”

This is actually quite an important issue because it suggets “climate to change faster than expected”. Perhpas I would find something interesting after going through the whole article, or at least why does he suggest so, especially the fact that how he comes into such a conclusion, is that information he has in the past few decades that proves so? Or what?

In the second, it suggests that the “positive feedbacks” that could accelerate climate change, such as methane bubbling up as permafrost melts turns out not happening. Again, it might well affect the climatic pattern of Hong Kong in the past decade. Was urban heat island effect a major reason to HK’s abnormal termperature in the past decade, other than the global trend? If “positive feedbacks” did not exist in the way we used to think of, what the reality is?

Finally I am tagging articles, a year or so after my friends are doing so.

Indeed, unlike most classmates, except several like Christina, I do not like tagging at all, nor do I prefer opening a blog account for one course after another.

In the old days, I used to live on my browser, my Favourites saved in my own pc and thats all. Now I have a dozen of blog accounts which each of them has its own account name and passwords. It is so frustrating when I have to go to Wordpress and Uniblog and Delocious and etc etc in order to do something I have always managed well.

The most mysetrious part of tagging to me is that why don’t I just add the page I consider useful to my Favourites? Yes maybe someone will prefer reading what others are reading, but not me, nor do I like the fact that any other could easily get all kinds of materials that I am reading. I don’t like to share the readings in this way.

Anyways, for academic purpose, it is rather a good way for research and so on.

Here is my delicious page.

My topic is about temperature change in HK for the past decade.

Ok, so I started to search climatechange on Technorati. Guess what, the first blog post appeared is one of the Windows Live Spaces called Michaels’s space, and the scond, Macro’s Blog which I simply couldn’t assess how much he knows about the topic. Authorities may not always be the right places we refer to, but still some kind of credibility is assured. Therefore, while some students suggested that while Google is hit-oriented, Technorati is quality oriented. I totally doubt this.

When I search with the exact wordings in Google, the first articles was that from BBC, the second from EU and the third, EPA from U.S. Obsiouly, if one is working on a formal and serious reasearch and so, he should use Google in that sense.

Anyway, as discussed in Foust’s text, all these new technologies are actually providing different ways for journalistic research. In fact, while large scale and commonly discussed topics like climatechange could we rely more on Google and other similar search engines, we should also note that for smaller scale ones, or something new, probably those materials will appear first in blogs. If that is the case, tagging would be an ideal method to be used.

One thing some of us also concern is that what kind of wordings should we use when we are searching stuff. HongKong or Hong Kong or HK? Yet this is something technical, most probably in the near future all those different ‘HK’ would direct users to the same category. Therefore it will not be something we need to worry much.

Besides, for individuals, we should also pay attention to the fact that there are more opportunities provided by the tagging system. As Rebecca told us in last lecture, news organisations searching materials for specific topics may eventually come to something uploaded by individual journalists. In such cases, an individual may well be contacted and work as a freelance journalist in some way.

Tagging? Honestly, I prefer using it occasionally than contributing to it constantly.