Hi all, I’m writing this post to tell you more about my projects with new media.

I’m graduating in a couple of weeks and I’ve been thinking, obviously, of what to do after that. What I know is that I love writing, I love sound, video, photography and I don’t want to have to focus on one of these media more than on another. The web not only supports all of them, it also allows for them to be mixed and used simultaneously. It also allows for interactivity, which is a great tool to tell stories. Plus, we already now that the future of the news is online. I also love to tell stories (in documentary formats though, I’m not really a daily news person.)

So, my plan is to be able to conceive multiplatform stories. How exactly, I’m not sure yet, and that’s why I need your help.

What I’m thinking about right now is to create a multimedia production company where I would collaborate with web developers, videographers and other specialists to put together the stories. Someone suggested that the best way to finance these projects would be through new media grants.

Others have told me about their wish to create an online newspaper/magazine that would produce original content. I’ve thought about it as well, but that seems to be an enormous task, and I’m not sure that we’ll ever have the resources to do that. I think it would probably take a long time to create some solid content, attract the public and make money out of it. I’m still very open to the idea, but I would have to be convinced.

Whatever I’ll end up doing, I can’t do it alone. These projects have to be built through collaboration. This is a crazy time for journalism and everything still has to be (re)invented: business models, reporting methods, storytelling, etc. I can think about it as much as I want (and I do, night and day,) but this is just too big for me to be able to think about everthing it involves. I need your help to share ideas, talk about journalism and maybe create something together!

So, if you’re interested in talking about it, or if you know someone who would be, let me know.

Thanks!
Flavie

Here are some examples of things that are being done right now:

Mediastorm

i c u web series

Silent Shame

Video haiku: the campaign in moments

New York Fashion week

Waiting for death

Photographers Journal: James Hill in New York

This one is very cute:

Our last show is online! Watch Backstage, a special edition of Concordia Reports. In this show I was the packager, which means that I was responsible for assembling all the stories and the intros together into one 20-minute piece, checking the sound levels, creating the opening and end credits, the bumpers (that involves finding the graphics, images and music for them.) I also shot the final story (the trapeze lesson,) the interview with the firebreather and part of the interview with the ice skaters.

We were very lucky to be able to shoot the hosting part at the TOHU, without even paying. This was a great experience and I had a lot of fun spending about 20 hours in the editing room (although I definitely won’t pursue editing as a career!)

However I’m a bit frustrated by our technical limitations. Our teacher asks us to be creative in terms of format and content, but we’ve always been trained as reporters and nothing else. We have been taught very basic lighting techniques, we know almost nothing about camera work and we don’t know how to arrange a set, for example. Moreover, we’re very limited in terms of the equipment we can use, although this equipment is available to Communications students. The hosting, for example, was shot with wireless mics only, whereas a broom would have been greatly appreciated. As a results the show is often very cheesy, but I think it’s as could as it could be.

Enjoy!

Devimco Inc., the company in charge of the massive redevelopment project in Griffintown, announced its plan to scale down the project due to the current economic crisis. The first phase, which was supposed to cost $400 million, will be reduced to $200 million. Last November, the developers had already announced that it would push the start of the work to 2010 instead of this year. This raises several questions:

• Can we trust Devimco when they say the financial crisis is the cause of the modification of the project or is there something else going on with regard to its viability that the developer doesn’t want to reveal?
• Considering that the project is heavily based on consumption (it originally included 200,000 square feet of big box stores, hotels and a cinema complex,) is it safe to go ahead with it if people can’t shop as much because of the crisis?
• Should the modified project be submitted to public consultations?

More information in these two Gazette articles: here and here.

Will the New York Times survive the crisis afflicting the newspaper industry? It broke one of its strictest rules last week by placing an ad on its front page. An article published in the Guardian last Sunday analyses the situation of the newspaper. What is a stake is not only the future of the Times but also the health of the American democracy. Even if newspapers and other media (NPR laid off 64 people) survive the crisis, what about the amount of reporting that will be lost? Can new business models support reporting in quality and quantity?

The New Yorker has a huge profile of Journalist Naomi Klein in its Dec. 15 edition. There’s an interesting passage about what she thinks of Barack Obama:

Because Klein doesn’t expect much from any politician, she doesn’t spend time wishing Obama were more progressive. “I don’t want to appear too cynical, but when I first saw the ‘Yes We Can’ rock video that Will.I.Am made, my first response was ‘Wow, finally a politician is making ads that are as good as Nike’s,’ ” she says. “The ‘Yes We Can’ slogan means whatever you want it to mean. It’s very ‘Just Do It.’ When you hear it, you catch yourself thinking, Yeah! We’re gonna end torture and shut down Guantánamo and get out of Iraq! And then you think, Wait a minute, is he really saying that? He’s not really saying that, is he? He’s saying we’re going to send more troops to Afghanistan. He’s telling regular people what they want to hear, and then in the back rooms he’s making deals and signing on to the status quo. But if people don’t like where Obama is they should move the center.”

Let’s not forget that Klein wrote the brand bible No Logo. CBC Radio’s Ideas had a whole section on the Yes We Can thing tonight. Obama’s message is indeed full of hope, which is what people need, but change has always been brought by popular initiative; the government just follows when it has to.

As Quebeckers prepare to go to the polls for tomorrow’s provincial election, I decided to post a column that I wrote for a class after the federal election (my teacher really didn’t like my Halloween rant, by the way. She prefered this one.)

As Americans voted massively last Tuesday to elect Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States, Canadians watched and commented avidly, as if it were our own election. Or rather, as if it were not.

We snubbed our federal election a few weeks ago and failed to exercise our democratic duty. But that doesn’t mean that we have become apathetic and uninterested in politics. Our interest in the events unfolding south of the border has shown that our leaders have failed to generate and maintain attention in Canadian public affairs.

The facts speak for themselves. On Oct. 14, voter turnout reached a record low with only 59.1 per cent of Canadians casting their ballots. On Nov. 4, about 64 per cent of eligible citizens voted in the United States — the best turnout rate in the last 44 years.

Why such a difference? To begin with, the American election was a crucial one. It came at a time of uncertainty, while the country is facing a major economic crisis and is involved in two wars. After eight years of rigid conservatism, Americans felt the responsibility to initiate the change they deemed necessary and a majority of them didn’t belive that the McCain-Palin team could adress those issues.

This election was also a historic one since Obama will be the first African-American president, although race played less of a role in the voters’ decisions than age, according to exit polls.

But the biggest factor that contributed to this huge voter turnout is certainly Obama’s personality, as well as the remarkable campaign that he led during two years. He concentrated his effort on unifying the American people behind his message of hope and change and attracting certain demographic groups who historically have never bothered to cast their ballots. Blacks, for example, accounted for 13 per cent of the electorate, up two percentage points from 2004. They overwhelmingly gave their vote to Obama at 96 per cent. Sixty-seven per cent of Latinos and 63 per cent of Asians voted for him.

Obama made a tremendous effort to attract the youth vote, notably by relying heavily on the Internet to deliver his message, in a way that had never been done before and that will shape election campaigns around the world for the years to come. As a result, voters between 18 and 29 represented 18 per cent of the vote and about 68 per cent of them chose Obama.

By comparison, our federal election looked bland. We knew from the beginning that it didn’t have the potential to change significantly the Canadian political landscape, it was never about that. What Harper wanted was just to geta majority for his government.

We also knew that we were tired of going to the polls (Quebeckers are getting ready for their fourth election in three years) and that we were not interested in gratuitous attack ads featuring birds defecating on a candidate’s shoulder — Obama proved that the best campaigns are run with dignity. By calling an election, the prime minister abused the democratic system. We shouldn’t be surprised that so few people went out to vote.

Canada is capable of doing better, though. Our highest voter turnout, reached in 1958 when 79.4 per cent of eligible citizens participated in the election, is well above our neighbour’s (65.7 per cent in 1908.) But the leaders are responsible for that kind of reaction just as we are. Show us the way, and we will follow.

Watch this video about BC doctor Ernie Murakami. It was aired during CBC evening news in Vancouver on Nov. 18.

“Leslie Rae Wermers, 41, died in her sleep on November 2nd from complications of Lyme disease,” as announced on the blog of the movie Under Our Skin.