tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043205732620798632025-07-26T00:57:11.555-07:00Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-15925678339781336682012-01-14T10:21:00.000-08:002012-01-14T10:21:28.060-08:00

When I first began this journey into multimedia journalism, I wanted to use a combination of text and video to tell stories. My goal was to create a text story that would replace printed quotes with videos, so people could actually watch and hear soundbites from courtroom testimony, attorney arguments or judges' rulings. I never got around to it, for one because it was too time consuming, and I

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-79507621420066714802011-07-27T18:32:00.000-07:002011-07-27T18:38:06.590-07:00

It's really been an incredible summer. Amid 10 days of triple-digit heat in Kansas, I've received a few signs that maybe I'm starting to do things right. Like video. When I started this blog in 2007, there were few places to learn how to add multimedia to your work day. I searched the web to learn video and found Angela Grant's News Videographer blog. I sent Angela my videos and she critiqued

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-76839491596130294142011-02-23T18:56:00.000-08:002011-02-23T18:56:31.112-08:00

It’s going to happen eventually, if it hasn’t already. Newsrooms are going to start handing out flip cameras to reporters. It doesn’t have to be an actual Flip cam. Hopefully, it will be a Kodak Zi8 or something else with an audio input, where you can connect a microphone and get decent sound. There will be snickers from some in what was formerly known as the photo department. People will

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-37222117079324286052011-02-17T10:12:00.000-08:002011-02-17T10:12:18.931-08:00

At 3 a.m. last Sunday, I put the final touches on the multimedia project I’d been working on for months, squeezing it between daily assignments. “Presumed Guilty,” was live on the web. It’s about Ronnie Rhodes, who’s spent 30 years in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit, and the disturbing nationwide exposure of wrongful convictions. For the first time, I had spent more than a year

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-41226640355685048422011-01-04T18:55:00.000-08:002011-01-04T18:55:47.646-08:00

Over at my work blog, I've been working on this investigative report of a 30-year-old murder that has sent a man to prison for a crime he claims he didn't commit. In the course of those posts, I've been using multimedia to tell the story, but it's produced its own particular challenges. There aren't a lot of visuals left from a crime that happened in 1981. But I did land a phone interview from

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-69921200478492778332010-11-08T07:26:00.000-08:002011-02-16T20:47:57.291-08:00

My colleague Jaime Green has inspired and encouraged me in my pursuit of multimedia storytelling over the past several years. Jaime does videos for work at the Eagle, but she also does them for fun, to document her life. So when she suggested I do a video for the craziness that is Halloween on the street where I live, I took her up on it. Note: We have about 3,000 trick-or-treaters on our

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-36332960739081269442010-10-18T10:11:00.000-07:002010-10-18T10:42:34.687-07:00

This past weekend, my old employer and hometown news source instituted a new policy on comments -- for its staff. I thought it odd that in 2010, editors would have to encourage reporters to monitor the comments on their stories. We should be doing that already. But working in a newsroom in a city roughly twice the size of my hometown, I'm one of the few reporters who actively comment on their

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-1987198031714219552010-10-11T08:53:00.000-07:002010-10-11T09:04:19.822-07:00

Andy Bull has set up a course on producing multimedia reports with an I-Phone. It begins Oct. 15. Andy said it will cover both the tools and apps with the I-Phone as well as creating a platform to showcase your work. (via Sonya Smith at Mojos Unite!) Get a good head start on hardware and apps to turn your I-Phone into an essential multimedia tool, courtesy of Multimedia Shooter.

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-29722902725057870792010-10-08T21:02:00.000-07:002010-10-08T21:09:06.082-07:00

NO PLACE LIKE HOME, KS -- The SPJ Convention has been over for days but people are still talking and blogging about what they learned. And we can catch up on the sessions we missed. Among them: Deb Wenger reports on a talk by CNN International's Etan Horowitz: Used to be, broadcasters tried to put TV on the web. Now they put social media on the air. Wenger also adds info on Victor Hernandez’s

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-57397678149123905702010-10-06T21:08:00.000-07:002010-10-06T21:14:16.142-07:00

LAS VEGAS -- After blowing up their silos, CNN began hiring All-Platform Journalists, or APJs. They do about everything, but don't call them one-man bands. That'll just rile up Victor Hernandez, who thinks it makes them sound like a carnival act, instead of the innovative, hard-working reporters they really are. Hernandez talked a lot about being "platform agnostic" at the SPJ National

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-1678668184502071782010-10-06T09:01:00.000-07:002010-10-06T21:47:32.721-07:00

Updated LAS VEGAS -- The struggle is one felt in newsrooms across the nation. The demand to change is there. We hear it from our audience. They consume news differently than they did. They want more. They want different. But newsroom structures and old habits are difficult to overcome. “We’ve always done it this way,” becomes a mantra. Those who try to innovate may face hurdles from their own

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-84435195234524234222010-10-04T12:35:00.000-07:002010-10-06T21:45:22.282-07:00

LAS VEGAS -- Even as Twitter becomes more popular among journalists, a lot of people still have problems figuring out just how they should use it. Some insist on posting only links and pushing out information, not engaging in the conversation. Others have questions about including both professional and personal information. In his session this morning on social engagement for journalists at the

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-61015191069924770522010-10-03T08:13:00.000-07:002010-10-03T08:13:53.239-07:00

I'm headed to Las Vegas today for the Society of Professional Journalists National Convention.  I'll blog what I'm learning, and I always pick up some valuable tips. SPJ provides some cutting edge sessions. You can also follow the #spj10 hashtag on Twitter to see what everyone is talking about. If you're in Vegas, send me a message on Twitter or stop by the 60 Sites in 60 Minutes session

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-92162283256090766772010-10-02T13:30:00.000-07:002010-10-02T13:30:00.258-07:00

Today, I covered a drowning in the river that runs through our downtown.  I did the normal coverage of an event. I sent updates to the web and tweeted it. Our photographer had a good vantage point on the other side of the river, but I knew he had no way to post. I held up my Blackberry and took a picture, then sent it to our online team. It wasn't a great photo, and I couldn't crop it on my

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-44429205816862000662010-10-01T12:07:00.000-07:002010-10-01T12:07:00.192-07:00

It started out as the easiest "web extra."  That's what our bosses used to call it in the ol' days of the 1990s. What can you put on the news web site that increased the value of the print story? Links and source documents, of course. Links to relevant material and .pdfs of research documents to show people we just weren't making all this up. The links caught on. People made careers of

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-70120742138018175722010-09-27T13:00:00.000-07:002010-09-27T13:00:01.160-07:00

I used to have to have only a notebook and pen. Now, I need a video camera, an audio recorder, Blackberry, and various headphones and battery chargers. My desk is a mess, and I sometimes find myself tripping over wires and tangled up amid the mess that is my desk. Shuffling papers is one thing. Untangling wires consumes my time. Anyone have ideas for controlling my tangled life?

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-8375287891449517822010-09-24T16:31:00.000-07:002010-09-24T16:31:46.967-07:00

For the past year, I've been trying to find the best way to get decent audio from the courtroom for my video blog. I thought I'd get a free lesson earlier this year, when the murder trial of a local abortion doctor drew national attention. I asked the audio experts on the production crew for CNN/Court TV their secret. The answer: they wire the courtroom with a dozen microphones. So much for

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-42354370348635809522010-08-18T16:26:00.000-07:002010-08-18T16:26:47.201-07:00

I’m really not one to talk about staying with the basics. As this blog shows, I love new tools. I love the gadgets available to us as journalists. But one piece of this I haven’t lost is the love of reporting and telling a good story. That transcends technology, whether scrawling pictures on a cave wall or putting together a multimedia package. Marc Cooper makes the point again that, as this

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-83170726421339609792010-07-07T12:31:00.000-07:002010-07-07T12:31:00.206-07:00

After using twitter to cover live events, such as trials, I’d been thinking about what it would be like to have an investigative report unfold online as it happened. Those kinds of reports take time, however, and you can go weeks and months with nothing happening. Sometimes, it takes months of pre-reporting in your spare time to find out if a story is even worth pursuing. Banging it out 140

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-18664083148417514192010-06-29T19:43:00.000-07:002010-06-29T19:43:36.849-07:00

Ever see Twitter posting minutes after you’ve tweeted? May be something with the API. Hear folks talking about cloud computing and not sure what they mean? Create a Google Doc, and you’re doing it. Wonder what the hell I’m talking about? Poynter has the answers with a “Digital Journalist Survival Guide: A Glossary of Tech Terms You Should Know.” It will help you understand what your web team.

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-24342759719825019732010-06-26T13:15:00.000-07:002010-06-26T13:15:00.595-07:00

I signed up for Tumblr about the same time I signed up for Twitter three years ago. But basically I’ve just used the tumblelog for personal musings. It’s another great platform for microblogging, including photos, videos and short text posts, and people can comment quickly, “liking” your post, as on Facebook, or “reblogging” it to others. Now, Chris Cameron reports, larger news outlets are

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-19554868917050722112010-06-11T12:49:00.000-07:002010-06-11T12:49:16.739-07:00

I participated community session on blogging with colleague Carrie Rengers and Bobby Rozzell. Bobby has a great project, where he's indexed our city's blogs. I've posted the slides from my slice of the presentation, with links and videos to the multimedia approach I used with the development "Common Law" video series of our court system. The slides include various links and examples used in the

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-75342627550854784022010-06-07T19:01:00.000-07:002010-06-07T19:01:00.471-07:00

Reading Danny Sullivan’s “How the Mainstream Media Stole Our News Story Without Credit,” my first thought was: “Dude, I feel you pain: about 30 years of it.” I can’t count the number of times I’ve busted my butt to turn out an exclusive story, only to see a broadcast outlet swipe my hard-earned facts, with no new reporting, and use it as their own. Without credit. Then there’s the age-old

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-64800596586346029582010-04-13T12:15:00.000-07:002010-04-13T12:15:00.375-07:00

Here’s a useful new tool that fits in your pocket: a USB loaded with software you may need while working on computers in other places. Josh Sprague, writing for Mediactive, has compiled an interesting list of applications for both consuming and producing media, that fits on a USB drive, and he shows you how to load up your own. An interesting workaround to problems you might encounter working

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-504320573262079863.post-12401748137190250072010-04-11T10:40:00.000-07:002010-04-11T10:40:06.630-07:00

Below is a copy of my presentation weekend at the Society of Professional Journalists Region 7 conference in Omaha, NE, One thing about PowerPoint: it’s easy to share them later, via SlideShare. All the links work. The videos don't, although I was able to upload the one about the lawyer searching for witnesses in Africa. It will play if you click past the slide to the next slide. Here is the

Ron Sylvesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03943156756252055774noreply@blogger.com0