Changes needed…

The days of long  scrolling text and short story size new scripts are over. We’re in a new age and era where the reader won’t sit around for over 5 minutes to read more than 8 paragraphs. It’s time to move past the “Journalism is Dead” stage and look and prepare for the coming times.

The key to this new generation of journalism is the Internet. It sounds obvious but newpapers are still struggling to maintain their overcrowded sites which often see the worst writing of the news room. You’ll find only text, which averages at least 3 page lengths on each story.

What the news companies need is to write quick 4 paragraph sum-ups accompanied with audio and video on EVERY story. In times where a 10 year old knows how to operate a camera a reporter should be able to balance a quick story and video at the same time.

Also, it seems that  when reporters actually shoot video they never find it necessary to do a voice over.  Voice overs are essential for the viewer to understand footage. Even a simple intro on what you’re seeing makes the video so much better. However, if your voice isn’t broadcast quality and the footage is extremely good make an exception.

Imagine if you went onto a top news site and under an article on a new revolution of ideas you found this:

Would you go back to the site for more?

Firefox over Chrome…

After recently moving back to the states I bought a new computer along with a top speed internet access that enabled me to search through the web a lot faster. With this gained time I was able to try out each main PC internet browser.

I began by using the recently created Google Chrome. I was at first amazed by how simple it was to use, due to the lack of clutter that I had become oh so use to in Internet Explorer. The all in one search bar and pre-opened tabs were a delight to someone who had to wait 15 seconds for my Yahoo! homepage to load.

Google Chrome is insanely fast, it beats every other web browser with its legs tied. I was really enjoying myself until I began to become more and more involved with the tech industry and blogging/Twitter. I found that Google Chrome was severely lacking in apps and was forced to maintain numerous amounts of tabs, cutting down my time to a computer. After opening so many tabs, Chrome began to feel more and more cluttered and would often shut down on bad days.

My friend, noticing my dilemma  suggested Firefox. At first I was hesitant because I had a special feeling towards Google Chrome as I was using it the first day it came out but after I became fed up when my tabs would repeatedly close up I downloaded Firefox. I wasn’t disappointed.

The amount of apps and helpful features that I can use astounded me, sure I noticed a slightly slower load time but the applications made up for that in no time.

Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious and Gmail suddenly became so much easier to use with the applications and I gained a ton of time to learn more and update my blog.

Chrome may be faster but in the end Firefox won the race.

I keep in mind however that Chrome is still in a beta stage, hopefully they’ll learn from the success Firefox has had and I’ll be the first one to return to it.

Here’s a video that times the two browsers for you to be the judge:

What is your favorite Browser? Please Comment Below:

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And you thought you knew movie reviews…

You’ve seen Siskel and Ebert, read long and wholesome reviews in the the paper and have watched reviews online . But in this bustling world who has the time to read long  movie reviews? Well never fear Haiku is here! Haiku is a style of Japanese poetry ( taught in High School) basically three sentences long giving the three main points of really anything in an artistic manner. Here’s the full meaning on wikipedia.

MG Siegler, an immensely popular tech blogger for Venture Beat has created a movie review site all in Haiku format, here’s a look at his review of the Oscar’s Best Picture:

Now if that isn’t time efficient what is? An added plus is that you can always impress people by telling them you’re an avid reader of the Japanese Haiku. Make sure to follow ParisLemon (MGSiegler) on Twitter who is an consistent poster with a ton of great information.

One of my favorite movie review sites  is Spill.com. Their whole review is basically a host of 4 animated characters, 2 white guys and 2 black guys (and sometimes a computer) basically  tearing a movie apart holding nothing back, it can get pretty raunchy but the funny thing is is that most of what they say is true. Sometimes their reviews are better than the movie itself, like this one on 10,00 B.C.:

In between laughing all I could think of was how they hit that movie right on the spot.

5 Sites to Use Instead of YouTube

In a previous post I explained why YouTube is falling apart. Here are five good alternatives to post and share your videos online.

1. Facebook Video

Facebook video is my new favorite because it immediately promotes the video among your contacts. Instead of having to promote your video which can take a while and often be unfruitful you can link it to friends and even if you don’t it still comes up on their Wall. The upload times are fast and and setup is simple. Plus you don’t have to visit 2 sites for socializing online and uploading your video.

2. Vimeo

Vimeo is what Youtube should have grown into. The interface is easy and inviting. You’ll also find a better community and quality of videos (in the artsy way). The downside is that to upload your videos it can take around an hour and twenty minutes. When you’re on Vimeo it feels more official, you feel like your a part of something new and exciting, which Youtube has lost.

3. Veoh

Veoh and Vimeo are really similar in upload times and ease of use. The quality you can have on the video is really good, but you have to wait for an an hour and twenty minutes just the same. What makes Veoh unique is that you can watch full length TV shows and even movies on the site. This takes away from the community feel but it’s still an awesome way to combine TV and user video on one site.

4.Viddler

Viddler feels a lot like YouTube in it’s older days, a little messy but still sweet. It has an ultra fast 29 minute upload that beats YouTube and is really simple to use. A downside is the sloppy advertisements and design but if that isn’t a factor Viddler is a great site for an alternative of YouTube.

5. Blip.tv

One word describes Blip.tv: Stylish, You won’t be finding really any sloppy looking graphics or excessive advertising on the whole site. Blip.tv is in essence run by a few core “shows” that even advertise on the site. This is a great video up loader if you’re planning on doing something that looks professional as the site is catered for such. But stick to the above if you’re just doing the run of the mill type video.

YouTube Needs Help

YouTube since the beginning was the center for user rated video. It was the new generation of filmmakers posting their videos to be seen and appreciated by the world. It’s affected the world as we know it today, as the Super Bowl ads proved. But when YouTube sold itself to Google, it began to lose the originality that made it so popular, becoming more and more like a company and less and less like a community of filmmakers.

YouTube is now advertising all over its site, even on videos that takes away from the originality it once had. But what is really killing YouTube is that they now allow companies to have super accounts that let them post High Def videos for however long they like. C-SPAN recently posted President Obama’s Adress to Congress that lasted almost an hour. Here it is:

The video, along with another one from C-SPAN was featured on the the YouTube Homepage. Since when does an hour long video become featured on YouTube? In a way it’s sad how low YouTube has gotten. They have to know that the average web surfer isn’t going to watch an hour long video on YouTube, especially when it begins with over 2 minutes of just clapping. That’s insane.

YouTube either needs to get it’s priorities straight or someone else is going to have to take over the online video market.

Rebirth of Journalism

If one was to visit a blog or forum about journalism they would be likely to find numerous articles and comments talking about the end of Journalism. It gets almost to the point that one wonders if they might see one of these “doomsday prophets” on a street corner clad in a white rob yelling to alarmed onlookers about the end of the world. A compilation of such comments was made by the stupendous blog 10,000 Words on the site  journalism-is-dead.com. Here’s a quick look: 

“Just in case no-one told you, printed newspapers are dead. We know it, they know it; we’re just pretending they’re doing fine to be polite.”

– @jearle

And indeed some of these people have a point, journalism as it has been known for years is over.

But does that mean that Journalism is dead? Of course not. The “doomsday prophets” are referring to the collapse of the printed newspaper as even the titans such as The Union Tribune and New York Times are falling apart.  But does that mean journalism is dead? 

Saying journalism is dead is like saying that transportation was over when people stopped buying horse and buggys to move around when the automobile became popular. Journalism isn’t dying, it’s modernizing itself with a highly advanced generation.

Journalism is alive and well, even growing. The days of the printed newspaper are over, they’ve been over ever since our grandparents became too old to read. Of course many recieve the paper every morning but with over packed schedules who has the time to read it?

Not to mention that it takes considerable skill to open a newspaper and read the story you want squished among countless others and then half way having  to go to the back section to finish the story. And this is suppose to be successful when all one has to do to get instant news is turn on a phone? 

Journalism is going to become essential, it’s not going to be confined to a thick paper wasting copy but to anything and everyone. The age where scruffy old journalists dictate what the crowd sees is over. The rebirth of Journalism is here, and all that we can see people going to is a funeral. 

Oh and apparently Harrison Ford is one of the reasons behind the demise of Journalism, take a look: (I think bdjfilms wasn’t referring to the guy drawing with chalk, but rather what happens 1:00 mark don’t worry I didn’t get it either.)