New Media Technologies and Reporting the News

Some links to share innovative ways – particularly innovative visual ways –  that the online media have been reporting the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

The New York Times has interactive guides to the problems that have developed with nuclear reactors in Fukushima here – very clearly presented visual guides with clear brief captions making complicated physics simple to understand.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has a series of before and after photographs of the disaster scenes with a very innovative way of moving between the two here.

Several media organisations are ‘liveblogging’ the events, running a constant feed of news stories which update with every new piece of information that arrives. These liveblogs are rich sources of links – before the web news would have been reported minute by minute on television and the radio with journalists interpreting information and reading out press releases – now you have the chance to go and read the original information yourself, and even comment on it or ask questions directly to the experts. The latest edition of The Guardian’s liveblog on the earthquake and tsunami is here.

And of course there is lots and lots of video out there, here for example.

Falling Skies

There are now so many multimedia strands to cinema and TV releases that keeping up with them all becomes increasingly more difficult.

The web-only ‘Becoming Human‘ alongside the latest series of ‘Being Human‘ on BBC3 (now sadly at an end) has been a regular treat.

There is also the latest Spielberg TV offering coming in June. ‘Falling Skies‘ is an alien invasion series that looks very interesting. It features a webcomic that is produced every two weeks (now nine chapters out of sixteen in) and bridges a gap between the series and a hard copy comic release. Made by Dark Horse Comics it shows the collaboration that is increasingly popular between the moving image and print. See the Predators prequel comic for example.

As Mr Fletcher sagely pointed out, though, there is nothing new under the sun …..

 

Product Placement

If you watched ITV’s This Morning this morning you may have noticed a certain Nescafe (cue fingers in shape of cross) coffee machine. This is the first case of product placement legally existing on British TV. From now on you will see endorsement happening in any drama or show of any kind. The rules stipulate that this will not be allowed in news, current affairs or children’s programmes – or for alcoholic drinks and foods high in salt, sugar and fat. It will also not happen in BBC programming. And finally under Ofcom regulations, broadcasters must inform viewers by displaying the letter ‘P’ for three seconds at the start and end of a programme that contains product placement. Simon Cowell must be rubbing his hands with glee and thinking even more about his swelling bank account.

Oscars 2011

All rather predictable in the end I think. Even down to Inception clearing up the cinematography, visual effects and sound effects gongs. This was a closely fought campaign for the leading honours and the main prizes were shared out. Yes, The Kings Speech was the main winner but Natalie Portman and Christian Bale testify to the strength of The Fighter and Black Swan.

All the leading winners can be seen at The Guardian or the Academy site.

Bafta Awards

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Here are the main winners from last night:

Best film The King’s Speech

Best director David Fincher, The Social Network

Best actor Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

Best actress Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Adapted screenplay Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Original screenplay David Seidler, The King’s Speech

Fellowship Christopher Lee

Cinematography Roger Deakins, True Grit

Animated film Toy Story 3

Supporting actor Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

Supporting actress Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech

Outstanding British film The King’s Speech

Outstanding debut Chris Morris, Four Lions

Film not in the English language The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Short film Until The River Runs Red

Did you guess right? What/who do you think should have won?

How TV Ruined Your Life

How TV Ruined Your Life

This is the latest vehicle for Charlie Brooker and his usual cutting wit and observational humour. This is the second episode (out of eight) and is available until 12th February. It is well worth a look for a historical look at representations of age in TV over the last forty years. They are all worth watching but this is particularly excellent.

Superheroes on Screen

Want to find out what is happening with all the latest film adaptions of our comic book heroes? Is the film likely? Or is it in development hell? Check out IGN Movies that has a guide to all the latest news including information about a Fantastic Four reboot. Not bad when the original is barely six years old!

Everything That Ever Was – Available Forever

There was a time when the National Grid had to make special arrangements during the advert break in Coronation Street or the ITV ‘Morecambe and Wise’ Christmas special. People would ‘en masse’ leave their living rooms and put the kettle on for a cup of tea so they wouldn’t miss any of the show. Those days are long gone. We are now officially in a digital age where everything that ever was is indeed available forever (ETEWAF). Box sets, iPlayer, Love Film etc has meant that we can get whatever we want whenever we want it. Missing a programme like you could once do is now virtually impossible.

There is a really excellent article in The Guardian all about this phenomena and whether there are now so many box sets that it would be impossible for someone to get through them in a lifetime (I know for a fact I have have enough even in my paltry collection to last several weeks). The main effects are that there is now a necessity for us to be very selective in our viewing but even more importantly we can no longer talk collectively about TV viewing experiences like we can with film. Chances are that your friend, partner, spouse etc will be watching at a later date or time. Bit of a shame that.

Boardwalk Empire

This starts tonight at 9PM on the new Sky Atlantic channel (for those lucky enough to have it of course). With Martin Scorsese at the helm and Steve Buscemi as the lead, this looks very interesting. Read all about it at The Guardian.

BBC Media Show Podcast

The Media Show on the BBC Radio 4’s Podcast page is worth a listen, to get into the habit of keeping up-to-date with current developments and news. There is lots of evidence to show that students with a good knowledge of media developments get better marks in the exams than those who do not. There are not many better ways of painlessly gaining this knowledge without having to trawl through media pages of newspapers. They last only half an hour each week, are completely free and you can subscribe via itunes. This weeks podcast has the following description:

“As the BBC announces substantial cuts, Steve Hewlett talks to the Director General Mark Thompson about cuts, job losses, the licence fee settlement and the corporation’s strategy; Maggie Brown and Tim Suter discuss the BBC’s future; Stewart Purvis, the former Partner for Content & Standards at Ofcom, looks at the recent Ofcom report into News Corps bid for BSkyB.”

All very topical and relevant to your studies.