Multimedia news has boomed in the past decade, even in the past five years. Youtube. Twitter. Facebook. Blogs. Live video feed. Digital cameras. The World Wide Web.
Sure, there are a lot of things circulating out there on the Internet that we wouldn’t exactly call newsworthy. Any idiot with a Facebook account and a digital camera on a weekend night can snap half a dozen pictures of her drunken friends at a frat party and call herself a “photographer” now. And it seems like nowadays anyone with a blog and an opinion can call themselves a “journalist.” But I guess I’m just skeptical. I don’t really care what some washed-up actress is tweeting on her Twitter account nowadays. And I start to question the direction of humanity when “Dramatic Chipmunk” gets 23,276,586 views on Youtube.
But the Internet has its time and place. And for the most part, the Internet and multimedia have undeniably redefined how people get the day’s biggest headlines.
Real multimedia is being a direct witness to history in the making. It’s witnessing gritty black and white images of Neil Armstrong softly land on the Moon’s white dusted landscape. It’s seeing the flooded streets of post-Katrina New Orleans. It’s seeing the Twin Towers crumble before your eyes. It’s hearing Obama deliver his inaugural address at the steps of the White House.
In our first multimedia class, we started exploring this idea. It’s scary to think how many times a day you are photographed, video-taped, and generally being recorded from surveillance cameras to someone’s iPhone. It’s not that I’m out there doing anything deviant and I’m not a superhero in disguise with a secret identity to preserve, but I’m not keen on stalkers having it easier. And I’m not a fan of having little to no privacy. It kind of makes me paranoid, or if not full-out paranoid, a little more on edge. It’s like Big Brother is watching you. 1984 stuff.
Sandy showed us some of the pieces of technology that can be used in multimedia: phones, cameras, Apple products and… a Barbie?
I think I’ve seen it all now. Its Video Girl Barbie doll and she records up to 30 minutes of AVI video through a camera lens discreetly disguised as a necklace. I thought five-year-olds texting on cellphones was obnoxious. Now, these same five-year-old girls can videotape you without you even knowing it?
Creepy? I think so.
But the Video Girl Barbie brings up a good point. Technology is an age-defining staple of our everyday lives now. Even little kids are getting in on it.
And that’s why, in the end, this technology is important. I’m looking forward to this class, even if I’m not the most tech-savvy journalism student on campus, but I’m hoping to expand my repertoire of journalistic skills and multimedia is going to be a big part of that process. Let’s just hope software doesn’t crash or a digital file is mysteriously lost. Because my computer likes to have meltdowns and that’s something I can’t have happen to me this semester. Technology can be fast and convenient sometimes. But it can definitely be a pain other times. We’ll see how I fare.
And for the difference between a $1800 Canon DSLR camera and a Video Girl Barbie? Check it out.
Sure, there are a lot of things circulating out there on the Internet that we wouldn’t exactly call newsworthy. Any idiot with a Facebook account and a digital camera on a weekend night can snap half a dozen pictures of her drunken friends at a frat party and call herself a “photographer” now. And it seems like nowadays anyone with a blog and an opinion can call themselves a “journalist.” But I guess I’m just skeptical. I don’t really care what some washed-up actress is tweeting on her Twitter account nowadays. And I start to question the direction of humanity when “Dramatic Chipmunk” gets 23,276,586 views on Youtube.
But the Internet has its time and place. And for the most part, the Internet and multimedia have undeniably redefined how people get the day’s biggest headlines.
Real multimedia is being a direct witness to history in the making. It’s witnessing gritty black and white images of Neil Armstrong softly land on the Moon’s white dusted landscape. It’s seeing the flooded streets of post-Katrina New Orleans. It’s seeing the Twin Towers crumble before your eyes. It’s hearing Obama deliver his inaugural address at the steps of the White House.
In our first multimedia class, we started exploring this idea. It’s scary to think how many times a day you are photographed, video-taped, and generally being recorded from surveillance cameras to someone’s iPhone. It’s not that I’m out there doing anything deviant and I’m not a superhero in disguise with a secret identity to preserve, but I’m not keen on stalkers having it easier. And I’m not a fan of having little to no privacy. It kind of makes me paranoid, or if not full-out paranoid, a little more on edge. It’s like Big Brother is watching you. 1984 stuff.
Sandy showed us some of the pieces of technology that can be used in multimedia: phones, cameras, Apple products and… a Barbie?
Creepy? I think so.
But the Video Girl Barbie brings up a good point. Technology is an age-defining staple of our everyday lives now. Even little kids are getting in on it.
And that’s why, in the end, this technology is important. I’m looking forward to this class, even if I’m not the most tech-savvy journalism student on campus, but I’m hoping to expand my repertoire of journalistic skills and multimedia is going to be a big part of that process. Let’s just hope software doesn’t crash or a digital file is mysteriously lost. Because my computer likes to have meltdowns and that’s something I can’t have happen to me this semester. Technology can be fast and convenient sometimes. But it can definitely be a pain other times. We’ll see how I fare.
And for the difference between a $1800 Canon DSLR camera and a Video Girl Barbie? Check it out.
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