The New York Times just published an article called “Abuses Found at Mexican Institutions for Disabled.” The article is a summary of a report released by Disability Rights International (DRI), a Mexican human rights organization.  New York Times writer Randal Archibold briefly touched on issues of Mexico’s mental health care system covered by the main 93-page report.

Archibold tapped on issues including the conditions of patients, lack of care from staffers, and the conditions of the facilities, among other problems.  The materials for the article are the key ingredients for a great investigative story, similar to the kinds of stories “20/20” produces.  Journalists are trained to write objectively with no bias or slant, and to be neutral and fair and balanced throughout each story, but other than a few descriptions of conditions, he didn’t take the route of crafting his article in a way to make it more interesting.  He literally just created a nutshell of information.  I’m mainly disappointed in his choice of writing style.  What I was looking to read was an investigative story, something more narrative like that of a novel, and what I got was basic information.  This article would have been much more gripping of told in a feature style of writing.  Perhaps he could have taken the one direct quote from the female patient who was raped by a facility staffer and made her the center of the story, without giving up her anonymity.

Though, I must give him credit for narrating the video he contributed.  I’m glad there was some sort of multimedia involved in this story despite the critical care to keep the patients anonymous.  It’s hard to report on subjects that must remain private and/or unnamed.  The video is great because makes up for what the text portion of the story lacks by going further in depth to show the patients themselves living in the deplorable conditions.  However, it still would have been even better if The New York Times had added a photo gallery or slide show to emphasize the emotional feelings patients endure while living in those conditions.  Even though journalists must remain objective, they still need to remember that their stories must be compelling.  Archibold’s story wasn’t compelling enough because he only touched lightly on everything instead of breaking it down in detail and making it more human related.  It’s kind of ironic considering this story is about humans and human rights.

I almost feel guilty sitting here critiquing yet another story in The New York Times, when obviously, no other news site can compare to the content and quality of the majority of stories on this site.  From visual graphics to photo galleries and multimedia packages to plain old text articles, The New York Times has it all, and covers it all well.  Even though the front page layout of the website isn’t exactly the most colorful, it still conveys the message that The New York Times is the news and for that, I applaud The New York Times for its coverage.

Provided by The New York Times

 

The “will he or won’t he?” question was finally officially answered today.  It was officially announced that Prince William is engaged to longtime girlfriend and college sweetheart Kate Middleton.  According to The New York Times and other news sources, royal speculators have been waiting for that answer for a long time.  At a UK press conference, video provided by MSNBC, the newly engaged couple stood in front of blinding flashes of lights and cameras during their question-and-answer session.  The sound of the flashing was so loud, the viewer can barely hear the two speak, or the reporters asking their questions.  The media frenzy proved that this is huge international news.  In terms of multimedia, which news source covered the story better, The New York Times or MSNBC?

MSNBC showed a video of the entire sit-down interview of the happy couple.

The New York Times instead had a podcast, but NOT of the couple.  (Instead, it was between New York Times reporter and a foreign correspondent relaying the information.)

MSNBC had video of the press conference.

The New York Times has a still shot of the couple (shown above).

MSNBC had video archive of the 1981 engagement announcement of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana.

The New York Times has a related text article and blog.

MSNBC had related video on Prince William and Kate engagement rumors.

And the winner is MSNBC!

I don’t think The New York Times ever disappoints.  There isn’t any kind of online news story-telling media tool The New York Times hasn’t used when covering a story. For every assignment my JO 540 class at Boston University has tackled so far, The New York Times website has already been there and done that.  From stories told using nothing but still photos and captions, to text stories with visual graphics, to slide shows with subject interviews as audio, The New York Times always has perfect examples of  stories using different multimedia tools.  Apparently, the news source also provides great video stories in their Magazine Playlist video library, for example, “Games Theory,” a story about a one-year-old public middle school in New York City, called Quest to Learn, whose curriculum uses digital tools like video games to teach children game design aside from basic education.

Click here to watch “Games Theory.”

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/bcvideo/1.0/iframe/embed.html?videoId=1248069030957&playerType=embed

The producers of the story, Zach Wise and Miki Meek, put together a great feature piece, interviewing some of the kids, their parents, the founder of the school, and a teacher at the school, as well as interviews from a New York University professor and a child participant of an NYU study.  I’m glad the producers took the initiative of going to NYU to tie in another angle of the story that also gives it some balance.  Though, it would have been great if the producers could have gotten interviews with people who are against the idea of kids learning from video games at school.  I’m sure there are plenty of parents who would object to sending their kids to that particular school.  Because of this reason, I have to wonder if this is considered more of a documentary-style story because as a general rule of thumb in news stories, there is always at least two sides to every story, and the focus of this story is debatable.

I was not pleased with the reporter’s voice over narration.  Although this story is based on education, the story doesn’t need to be narrated in a lecture format.  Yes, she filled in the gaps, but it was a little bland.  I’m glad she only used the narration sparingly and instead mostly used the interview subjects as the main narration for the bulk of the story.

With the exception of not having an establishing shot of the school, most of the video shots were great.  They synchronized well with the audio.  I like the tight shots of the hands typing on computers and the depth of field that was used.  There were some pans, which are not the most creative, but the composition and lighting made up for it.  I noticed that it seems like the only time a tripod was used in filming was for the interviews.

With the audio as the most important, I loved how ambient sound of the kids interacting in the classroom was laid underneath the interview narration audio, but quiet enough to not disrupt the main audio.  I also loved the natural sound popped of kids playing games.  It gave the story much more texture.

On Tuesday, November 2, 2010, I along with my Boston University College of Communication classmates, set out to cover the 2010 midterm elections all throughout the day.  I had the role of talking with voters after they cast their votes at polling places in Brookline, Mass.  Here’s what some of them had to say.

Dave Fredette, Brookline resident, cast his vote on the evening of election day.

 

Aaron Bartel, undergraduate student at Tufts University and Brookline resident, believes it’s important for all college students to vote.

 

Jim Lockwood, resident of Brookline, Mass., is happy to share that he is a proud Democrat and cast his vote.

 

Tony and Gillian Carcia came to vote after dinner. Tony Carcia did not want to say which party he voted for.

 

Virginia M. Trainor, 90, resident of Brookline, Mass., still continues to come out every election day and cast her vote.

 

Geoff Belle Isle, resident of Brookline, Mass., is proud he cast his vote for the Republican party.

 

Joan Schwartz, resident of Brookline, Mass., voted Democrat.

http://comsites.bu.edu/AD/dduguay/FreedomTrail1/

As a student at Boston University living not far from campus, like most greater Boston residents, I take the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), often referred to as the “T,” subway to get around town.  When riding it every day, though, I don’t normally think about the history of the T and how long it’s been operating.  Boston is known for its rich history during colonial times, but that was long before the subway system was ever built.  Now I’m curious after watching a slide show in The New York Times on the history of the subway in New York City called “The Subway in Pictures.”

 

New York City Subway, The New York Times

There are 90 photos altogether documenting decades of the city’s subway system dating all the way back to 1917 up through today.  Most of them are in black and white, but what’s strange is that the first picture in color isn’t until one shot in 1995.  Even the pictures in the earlier 90s and the 80s are still shown in black and white.  Why, I’m not sure, but the pictures are still amazing.  For every photo, there is a caption listing the year and what was taking place, whether it be a crash or a train car getting washed.  By looking at the oldest photos first, we learn that New York City’s subway system originally was built above ground, with tracks hoisted above the streets.  Being that the photos are  listed in chronological order, it tells the story of how the system first operated and how today’s underground subway was constructed.

It’s interesting to see not just what the old train cars used to look like, but it’s the people in the pictures that give this story a more human interest.  Without pictures of people in the stations and on the trains, this slide show could easily become boring. For example, photo 22 of 90 taken in 1958 shows a clown by himself waiting for the next train after missing the first one.  The way he is standing with his feet crossed and hand on hip shows he is angry, which brings humor to the story.  Photo 35 of 90 taken in 1976 shows two undercover cops, a caught robber, a woman on the ground, and onlookers, all in an underground train station.  This one photo captured the scene immediately following the attempted crime.

The first picture of the 2000s is one taken of the subway underground seemingly weeks after the September 11th attacks in 2001.  It would have been nice if The New York Times used a picture of the subway on the day of the attack (if photographs of the subway were taken that day).  My other complaint is that there is absolutely no audio to go with this slide show.  Being that there are so many pictures and they’re divided into decades, The New York Times could have used some audio of sorts, even if just to introduce each decade, or highlights in the timeline, natural sounds of the subway and passengers, or soft instrumental background music…or all of it put together.  There’s so much more they could have done with this to make it a bigger project, but perhaps they kept it silent for reflection purposes.  Because there are 90 photos to click through, which is a lot, it’s easy for the reader to lose interest.  Audio would help give texture to the story and keep the reader’s attention.

 

Esther “Faity” Tuttle, 99. Alex di Suvero for The New York Times.

At 99 years old, Esther Tuttle is living a more active lifestyle than I am now at 27 years old.  Despite being a cancer survivor who currently has an artificial breast, a pacemaker, hearing aid, and contact lenses, and osteoporosis, the woman’s got me beat, tenfold.  The big question is, how does she do it?  What’s her secret?  In The New York Times article “100 Candles on Her Next Cake, and Three R’s to Get Her There,” Esther Tuttle shared her secrets to a long life with the author Jane E. Brody.  According to Brody, Mrs. Tuttle’s lifestyle is comprised of three main R’s: resolution, resourcefulness, and resilience.  She’s been through a lot and still takes good care of herself.  The text of the story mainly focuses on Mrs. Tuttle with statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and Boston University’s New England Centenarian Study. Go BU!  Brody also interviewed experts from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York as well as from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania to gain information on contributing factors to longevity.  Yet, the most compelling part of this feature story is hearing Mrs. Tuttle and seven others who are at least 100 years old tell their stories in an audio slide show called “Secrets of the Centenarians.”

Click here to listen

 

Phil Damsky, 100. Alex di Suvero for The New York Times.

The contributing photographers took some really great photos of Mrs. Tuttle and the centenarians. Each picture can tell its own story, but the audio helps bring each story to life.  For the most part, the chronology of the pictures synchronized well with the audio of each interview.  The audio in each interview is already edited, so I couldn’t really jump around in that, except for pausing periodically, but for me, it wasn’t that big of a deal. My only complaint is, while on the main menu of the slide show, when I hold the cursor over each interviewee’s picture, there is no pop-up showing his or her age.  Being that this entire story is based on their milestone ages, it would have been a nice extra added feature to make it even more interactive and simpler for the reader. I do like how the main menu of the audio slide show presents each person’s story in a way where I don’t have to listen to the first one in line.

Hazel Miller, 100. Raymond McCrea Jones for The New York Times.

Each story promotes a different emotion for the reader every time.  Some stories made me laugh. Others made me cry.  Some were depressing while others were enlightening and inspirational.  Plus, every storyteller has his or her own reflections on their pasts and different perspectives on their present lives at the ages they are now.  They each have their own secrets to living a long life.  Aside from Brody’s provided statistics and expert interviews, it’s Esther Tuttle’s and the others’ audio interviews that really bring human interest to this whole story.  It’s been said that the elderly often share their wisdom.  The audio slide show proves that to be true.  As for Esther Tuttle, who is featured in the text of the main article, it seems like her continuation of keeping good health and optimistic attitude towards life is what’s keeping her going strong at 99 years old.  It inspires me to want to be happier and live a healthier lifestyle.  Maybe if I do, I can live to be 99 or 100 (or maybe older).

Click here to view Flickr slideshow with captions

For more information on Habitat for Humanity, Greater Boston, check out their website.

In honor of our current assignment due this week for my Online Journalism class, I wanted to find an article in The New York Times website that depicted a story through a slide show of pictures and displaying the details with captions.  “Smugglers of Drugs Burrow on Border” is the main article, but I would like to focus on the related slide show titled “Trafficking in the Southwest Goes Underground,” which tells the story of drug-smuggling tunnels in the city of Nogales, Arizona, which lies at the Mexican border.  There are nine pictures altogether showing a range of tunnels, border patrol agents working on the job, as well as the border crossing between the U.S. and Mexico.  This story is of interest to me because earlier this year, I visited El Paso, Texas, which borders Juarez, Mexico.  Every night on the local El Paso TV news, there was a story regarding drug smuggling across the border.  What I found strange was how the El Paso locals kept reminding my friend and I that the city of El Paso is safe even though Juarez is extremely dangerous, despite the two major cities being geographically located so close to each other.  Still, my friend and I made sure to stay as far away as possible from the main border for our own safety.  These pictures remind me of the video I saw on the news those nights. This is a critique of the pictures in the slide show.

Kevin Hecht, U.S. Border Patrol agent, investigating smuggling tunnel. Photo taken by Joshua Lott for The New York Times

The first picture is of a U.S. Border Patrol field operation supervisor standing in a tunnel.  It’s a great birds-eye-view shot of him looking up and talking to someone standing outside of it.  It’s at a nice angle and shows how deeply involved Border Patrol agents are on the job.  The lighting, focus and color are perfect.

Storm drainage pipe used for smuggling across U.S. border. Photo taken by Joshua Lott, for The New York Times

The second shot is mainly a tunnel.  I love the composition on this one, but it looks like it could have been cropped to fit the Rule of Thirds.  The center of the black hole sits off-center towards the top right-hand corner of the frame.  I’m wondering if extra lighting played a role in showing the length of the tunnel.  The parts closer to the camera are more well-lit to show the darkness further inside the tunnel.  If someone had shone a flashlight through the tunnel hole, it would have looked completely different because we would be able to see what’s inside.  The lighting is a little harsh on this one.  The caption on the side gives details on different types of tunnels.  This tunnel is shown as an example of one of the tunnels used by smugglers.

The third picture is another birds-eye-view of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, this time standing next to a storm drainage.  The focus in this picture is of debris, mostly comprised of old clothing and garbage.  I think a ground level shot would be a better angle to show the pileup.  The photographer could have climbed down the ladder and experimented with it a bit more (if not instructed to stay above).

The fourth picture shows a channel running the region to describe how the geography of the region plays a large part in cross-country smuggling.  To me, this is not the most compelling picture.  It acts as more of either an establishing shot or extra information.  It conveys no emotion and does not show any humans.  The caption on the side is definitely needed to explain the purpose of this shot.

I really love the fifth picture of U.S. Border Patrol agents on the job at the U.S. border crossing.  The photographer made a great way to emphasize their power as agents by focusing the patch on the one agent’s jacket.  It looks like natural sunlight hitting the patch at just the right angle.  The shadows play a huge role in this picture in that you can’t see the full facial expression of the second agent (towards the left).  However, it looks like the image was cropped to make sure that viewers can’t see the full facial expression of the first agent either, but his face is cut off so that you can only see his chin and part of his mouth.  The sunlight is shining bright on the border-crossing lanes in the background which was blurred.

The sixth picture is pretty self-explanatory and not much is needed in the caption.  The agents are inspecting a vehicle as part of their job.  I like how they are in action.  One thing I noticed is that the license plate was not blurred in any way.  I’m not sure if that should be a concern.  I don’t know if that is considered classified information.  On reality TV shows, if the video photographer is filming in the car with the star of the show while he/she is driving, on the aired (edited) content, I believe other license plates of anonymous citizens’ cars are blurred.

In the seventh picture, there is a pole in the way of the main shot of an agent investigating a tunnel from ground surface. There is no special angle in which the picture was shot.  However, the photographer blurred the pole to emphasize that the agents in the background are the main subjects.  I’m glad the editor didn’t try to omit the pole.  I do think a more interesting and creative angle would be for the photographer to get inside a tunnel himself and take a picture of an agent looking down into the camera.  In this picture, you can’t even see the hole that’s being investigated because it is not in the shot.  It was either not taken in the photo at all or else it was cropped out.

The eight picture was slightly rotated counter-clockwise.  Why? I don’t really know. I don’t know if that’s the work of the photographer or editor.  But I like how a direct quote from the agent is used in the caption. To me, it makes the photo of him standing halfway into a tunnel more active.  The tunnel becomes a living thing because he’s describing what kinds of smuggling activities occur inside of it.

The last picture shows the actual U.S./Mexico border crossing.  It’s a wide shot.  The composition of the photo shows the border crossing lanes in the bottom right-hand corner of the frame with the Mexican flag at the top left-hand corner of the frame.

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Yes, I am on Facebook. I’ve never really been tech-savvy, but my newest fascination is with Skype, a relatively new phone/Internet service that allows users to make free “calls” over the Internet. The New York Times recently reported that Facebook and Skype will be partnering up together through Facebook Connect in the article “Facebook and Skype Plan Integration,” written by Miguel Helft.

This is great for anyone who wants to communicate with their long-distance friends.  To use Skype, as long as two people have Internet access and most importantly, web cameras hooked up to their computer, they can log onto Skype at an arranged time and talk to each other while being able to see each other through their computers. As for Facebook, the closest it’s come with users being able to talk with their friends online is through its “Chat” feature, similar to instant messaging.  Yet, they can’t actually see the person “in person.” When friends call each other on the phone, they can talk live, but again, they can only “hear” their friend on the other end.  Personally, I think the integration of Facebook and Skype is proof that social networking is growing more rapidly than ever before and taking full advantage of all the different formats of communication.

According to the article, the integration of the two sites is still underway and has yet to be officially announced by each company. The way it’s supposed to be used is that members can use their Facebook log-in information to log into Skype and they can see and talk to their Facebook friends and call each others’ landlines.  I’m excited because I have long-distance friends on Facebook that I haven’t seen in awhile and would love to be able to actually see them when we talk to each other.  Basically, I mainly use Facebook for the sole purpose of keeping in touch with old friends and my family.

The article also states that Facebook is interested in partnering up with mobile phone services sometime in the near future as well.  It makes me wonder what new form of communication will pop up next and what is in store for technology in the next ten years.