I was contacted recently by a woman from University of West Scotland who was doing an assessment on the role of journalists in multimedia newsrooms, and she wanted to get an educator's perspective. She sent me the five following questions. I thought my responses might have broader interest, so I decided to use them in this week's blog post.

Djamila Grossman, staff photographer for the Odgen, Utah Standard-Examiner, produced a compelling video story, accompanied by a text story, of Damon Conrow, a young Heroin addict who made the drastic decision to plead to a higher criminal charge in order to enter the Central Utah Correctional Facility's substance abuse treatment program. 

Djmila used a variety of techniques to amplify ...

The iPhone 4's new HD camera and iMovie app are a potent combination. The iPhone can be a serviceable web video camera in breaking news situations or unplanned interviews.

Free interactive timeline tools can occasionally do more harm than good. Know the difference between a timeline and chronology.

It's amazing what a group of determined journalists can create in one week of intensive multimedia training. Multimedia projects created by our March 2009 fellows are now available for public viewing, and include coverage of The Center for Independent Living, Games of Berkeley, The Alameda Point Collaborative, and Urban Ore.

A collection of some of the industry's best work can now be viewed at a site that recently re-launched. Interactive Narratives, sposored by the Online News Association, was set up to preset groundbreaking multimedia stories and interviews with some of the journalists pushing and playing with new forms and new media. The site will feature interviews and allow viewers ...

The Newspaper Association of America has a really good report on how newspapers are and should be using online video. Lots of interesting data and examples, advice on how to shoot video and recommendations on cameras and accessories.

Former staffers at the St. Louis Post Dispatch are launching their own online newspaper - the St. Louis Platform. Here's a story about it in the Chicago Reader.

We're beginning to see a trend here - reporters and editors quitting their newspaper jobs or taking buyouts and launching online alternatives to their former employers. MinnPost, founded by a former Minneapolis ...

The Knight Foundation has announced a $35 million project to expand broadband access in several dozen communities around the United States.

This could provide an opportunity for experimenting with more sophisticated multimedia and social networking ventures, especially in under-served communities. Some details are in the Knight press release and at the web site for the project. I'll post more ...

A lot of news organizations are debating whether it's better to shoot lots of video for their web sites or focus instead on using a camera and audio recorder to produce photo slideshows.

The answer we give in our multimedia workshops is simple - let the story tell you the medium in which it's best told.

What we mean ...