Mobile Journalism on our news floor

This short movie was filmed on a mobile phone. Put together by Remy Hersbach, intern at our brand new Digidesk. He is a student at my old school, the very superior Fontys Hogeschool Journalistiek in Tilburg. He shot this thingie as an example for the Mobile Phone Festival in Groningen.

Click on the pic for the flick

The ‘real news story’ came on the Eight O’Clock News. Reporter Robert Schinkel covered the Festival and of course did that on his mobile (Nokia N95). I think he did a marvellous job. See for yourself. He writes about his experiences (in Dutch) on the New Media Blog of the NOS Website. Funny detail, he reveals that NOS sent a satellite truck so he could upload his piece on time for the early edition. Mwah.

Click on the pic to see the flick

Blogging as if there’s no tomorrow

Lots of fun things happening these days. The NOS has started blogging seriously, and oh boy, it’s great to it all come alive. A wide variety of developments. Enthusiasm, rejection, contamination, misunderstanding, jumping on the bandwagon, falling off the bandwagon, writing, filming, responding, spamming, it’s great. Check for yourself by clicking on the pic, and let me know what you think.

Multimedia Math in Utrecht

That’s Youtracked, if you want to know how not to pronounce the name of this city in The Netherlands. Don’t bother trying the Dutch if you’re a non-native speaker.

But that’s not the point.

RTV Utrecht works exclusively with camjo reporters (video journalists) nowadays. Inspired and trained by Michael (I’ve been about anywhere on the media planet) Rosenblum, this regional network decided to go all out. Editors and reporters know how to pick up a camera, shoot some stuff and prepare it for broadcast.

I can’t vouch for the quality, since I don’t watch their news programs, but I am intrigued by the numbers they came up with. Managing editor Wim Kramer in Dutch media magazine Spreek’buis: “In the old situation four people would work on one story: Producer, reporter, camera person and an editor. Adding up their work hours one item would take 15 hours. A camjo reporter would need an average of 9.3 hours. A difference of 5.7 hours, which is 38.5 hours a week.”

Again, this is just number crunching. But don’t we all look at the bottom line nowadays? Click on their logo up here to see for yourself. And also, don’t forget to take a peek at their User Generated News site Unieuws.nl. Proof that national networks sometimes don’t set the pace. A lot of exciting stuff going on at city and regional level.

Breaking News from London Headquarters

We tried something new. Breaking News via the webcam. And it has to be said, I was quicker online than on the radio.

See for yourself and let me know whether this is a commendable attempt to be really quick, to the point and begs for more, or totally stupid and should be banned.

Click on the pic for the story and the webcam-video

Getting there, one blog at a time

Are we there yet? No.

Are we there yet? No!

Are we there yet? No, damnit. Shut up.

But are we there yet?

Well, we’re on our way. I wrote a while ago about the new beta-blogs for NOS Dutch public broadcasting. We’re still live without having told nary a soul, so hardly anybody knows. That’s okay, because several nagging glitches remain. Gives us time to practice, and I think this particular entry comes close to what it should all be about.

De Prins is Koning van het Geduld

It has text. Audio. Pix. Video. Interaction. Links.

Let me know whether we’re there yet.

A blog is for now, a book is for ever

Who will be reading this blog ten years from now? My kids?

Naaaaah.

So hail to the book. I wrote one in 1997. A biography of Dutch NBA player Rik Smits. Not for sale anymore, but hey: Ten years on people still read it, since it’s in the library.

This morning I received a financial overview for 2007.

NINETEEN people took it out. So how much did I make?

Book price (12.93 euro) x point value (0.009163) = gross payment (2.25 euro)

Got that? 2.25 euro!!!

But wait. Expenses for administration (5%) are 0.11 euro

Then the V.A.T. (19%) on top of that, which amounts to 0.02 euro

So soon to be cashed, a check for 2.12 euro. Long live literacy!

Fifty years later…

My favourite joke in my politically incorrect Dutch childhood: Where do you go when the worlds comes to an end?

Answer: To Belgium. Why? Because they run fifty years behind.

Ha ha.

Since this week the tables are turned, at least new media-wise. See for yourself how the Belgian public broadcaster (VRT) stepped into the online future. NOS should be ashamed.

Click on the pic to enter the site

You don’t need to understand Flemish. The site speaks a universal online language.

I would do several things very differently, but hey, who am I, and besides, that’s a whole other story.

In her New Year’s message, Mieke Berendsen (VRT New Media director), explains the future.

(By the way, in an innocently heated discussion with a Belgian friend, who shut me up when I questioned her about great Belgian historical figures upon which she consequently rattled off a whole list, I learned that the saxophone (yes, the instrument) was invented by Adolphe Sax. Hats off to our southern neighbours.)

For your eyes only

Depending on what time zone you’re surfing in, we have gone live or are about to go live (or might have crashed already).

A new chapter in the NOS blogosphere, about which I wrote recently (in Dutch) on the site of De Nieuwe Reporter.

Well, the moment has come, and here’s a preview (for your eyes only):

Click on the picture to go to the NOS Blogs

It’s a beta version. (Remember, also NASA had practice before Neil Armstrong made his big leap for mankind.)

I don’t intend to proclaim that NOS has discovered a new media planet, but hey, we’re moving along.

So tag it, link it, bitch about it, spit on it, embrace it, laugh or cry, and best off all, blog about it: http://weblogs.nos.nl

Are you bl**ging serious?

We’ve been doing it for ten years now. We blog at NOS Dutch public broadcasting. But next month it’ll be bl**ging serious. No sh*t.

Blogged about it on (Dutch) new media blog De Nieuwe Reporter.

Click on the logo for my blog blabbering. 

Signing off for now, packing up, and heading for the U.S. Will be sitting on the couch for most of the time, watching football and plotting a silent revolution.

Stay tuned for what a co-conspirator calls ’a quick fix’.

Student (not Mom) knows best

Twenty students from my alma mater, the very superior Tilburg School of Journalism, sent me some feedback on a recent multimedia production in Wales.

They were very polite.

Very honest, that too. Ouch.

(Check for yourself, albeit in Dutch, in the comments below the entry on multimedia math.)

I find it vitally important nowadays to hear from journalism students. We teach them how to become responsible journalists (values when telling the story), they teach us how to become responsive journalists (valuable ways of telling the story).

On that front, check out what Mindy McAdams is doing at the University of Florida. (Click on the pic.)

Mindy McAdams (photo Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University)

On her college website she shares her syllabus on multimedia journalism for students. We also see some material from students, taking their first steps as multimedia story tellers. Exciting stuff, that proves one thing: Students and teachers learn from each other more than ever before.