From Instagram to Open Journalism: Towards Public Space Online

http://stearns.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/from-instagram-to-open-journalism-towards-public-space-online/

Why the Internet is killing print journalism- Online article.

My job as a newspaper reporter is giving me a front-row seat to the debate over whether the Internet is killing print journalism. From my perspective the Internet isn't the only challenger, but it's definitely the one getting the attention.
Print journalism has faced a number of challenges for years. The cost of ink and paper continue to increase, cutting into a newspaper's profit and forcing changes such as the reduction in size of many newspapers. This reduction has led many readers to believe that they are getting less news while being asked to pay more for the newspaper.

With the Internet newspapers can publish numerous articles online without necessarily worrying about the cost of materials such as paper. Photographers can publish photo galleries with dozens of photos instead of the one or two that may accompany a story in the print product. A reporter can upload the text of a new city law so that people can read the law for themselves, not just read the reporter's description of it.

Journalists are also vying for the public's attention. Mass media has offered a fast food version of distributing information that can rival and often beat the radio and television. It fits into today's on-the-move society and lets readers pick and choose what information they desire rather than scan the newspaper for the stories that they find of interest.

In turn this is changing how journalists report the news. Reporters are now told more than ever to write tight. While there used to be some room for creativity in telling the news, nowadays the focus is getting the facts out quickly. That doesn't often leave room for anything other than the basic information, which enables the Web junkie to move onto the next page.

It also makes the news in the next day's paper even more old than it previously was. A newspaper's competitors often include its own Web site. While the Web stories are supposed to be shorter and to leave something of value for the next day's newspaper reader, such as more detail, this isn't always the case.

There is also a cost factor. While newspapers are increasing in price, people can often read their news for free online. Efforts to charge are hampered by the common perception that news should be free online. Companies such as Yahoo and America Online paved the way for such delivery, and people are not as quick to change when the money's coming out of their own wallets.

While the Web is delivering some stiff competition to print, it isn't necessarily fair to say that it is the death of newspapers as well. Their survival is pinned on how well they can adapt to an online world. That survival depends not only on reporters but on  representatives who must convince businesses of the value of advertising online.

It also opens up a wide range of tools for the newspaper journalist. Instead of just relying on our words, we can bring in audio and video and a variety of other formats.

We must master a curve of technology that goes a bit beyond our notebooks and word processing programs. But for those who are successful, a brand new world exists.

Film Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Release Date: January 21st 2011.
Director: Sean Durkin.
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy.
Running Time: 102 Minutes.
Distributed By: Fox Searchlight Pictures.

The film is both plot-twisting and genre bending. When you first start to watch it you think that you know what is going on straight away, but then as the film progresses you find out that what you once thought to be the general idea of the ending and substance behind the film, was totally wrong.

It starts off with the introduction to a girl. She is seen going out of a house that would be classed as possibly poverty ridden- lots of people sharing one room, farm-type location and all the people sharing everything they have. When the girl runs towards the forest, a man comes out the house and shouts "Marcy May, where you going?" This name is later contradicted, when she has escaped the forest and rings her sister, she is referred to as "Martha." This causes a sense of mystery, as the enigma of why is she using different names, is planted. The name "Marlene" is used later on, both in a flashback where she is still in the house, and when she calls them, whenever the phone rings, they use that name to ensure that the peoples identitites is kept hidden.

We later find out a string of shocking revelations about where she lived previously. The events seem to have scarred her mentally, making her exhibit some types of behavior that her friend she goes to live with, gradually begins to almost resent her for. The film is set out in a rather hectic manner, you see a lot of flashbacks from the various places that she has lived in before, and then the aftermath, what she behaves liek as a result of the things that she has dealt with.

The film ends with her friend offering to get her some kind of professional help, she agrees somewhat reluctantly. Then, at the very end of the film, she is sat at the back of a car, going to get said help, then the film abruptdly ends, with her fate yet undecided. This leaves a lot of space and room for you to decide what happens to her next, as the audience.

In my opinion, i think that the film was quite good because not all of the answers were given to you, and so you sortof had to piece the mystery together, and you kept getting contradicted, so you were always kept on the edge of your seat so to speak.
Rating: 3/5

Album Review- Priorities

Artist: Don Broco

Video Title: Priorities

Date of Release: 2nd April 2012

Don Broco had remained a fairly unknown band for a very long time, even though they had toured with well-known bands such as The Used and Four Year Strong as support acts, they still had to work hard to get their music out there and to get people listening to them. Previous to this album they had one out already, entitled ‘Big Fat smile’ which was released in February 2011. However, this was the debut album that dragged them out of the shadows and into the light- giving them tons of opportunities such as the popular Reading and Leeds festival, and touring a headlining tour as the main act.

The video starts off with the band in the middle of an abandoned warehouse type place, before the first twenty seconds are over they have shots of each band member, with their name in large lettering flashing up on the screen. This is to establish each member and remind the old fans, and maybe advertise them in a way, because if you know their names then you are more likely to look them up. The next section of the video, and probably around half of the video, is the band performing the song. 

On the other side to the video is all different scenes; in one of them one of their friends leaves them to go home with the pizza delivery girl, in another the band put on masks and walked out of an elevator, all the way through there is reoccurring shots of the pizza delivery girl and the man. I think all these shots break up just watching them perform, it makes the video a lot more interesting to watch, and gives it an edge of confusion- making you watch more because you do not know what is going on in the video.

Towards the end of the video we see the man getting arrested whilst the girl runs away, then the band are running around the warehouse getting chased by the police, the same shots that established them earlier on are then shown again. I think this is a very good effect because it puts together the questions you have been asking yourself throughout the text, and now you know the full story.

In my opinion, I think that it is a very good first professional video for them. It shows all the band and their names, doesn’t reveal too much or too little, the video has a good storyline behind it, and too be quite frank, the song isn’t half bad either.

Rating: 4/5

Gig Review- Tracer 25th September 2012

Artist: Tracer

Location: The Cockpit, Leeds

Members;

Andre Wise- Drums

Patrick Saraceno- Guitar

Micheal Brown- Guitar

Support Band: Virgil and the Accelerators

Rating 4/5

Upon arrival to the venue, it seemed rather deserted and dead, but nevertheless, my friend and i stood at the front for around half an hour to ensure complete certainty that we would get a good viewing place. The support band 'Virgil and the Accelerators' opened with a violent, deafening noise that seemed to be more actual noise than a band that already has a record out previous to the tour. It looked as though they had a technical fault, as the instruments were much louder than the vocals and this meant most of the time you had no idea what they tracks they were performing. The rest of the crowd also seemed to have similar problems as they were mainly unresponsive and barely managed a cheer upon their arrival. The guitarist however, amused me by watching his rather original facial expressions as he played guitar.

When Tracer finally did take to the stage, after many minutes of the the drummer awkwardly trying to begin the set while the background music of the club was still blaring in the background, and a false start where they came on without getting into their stage clothes, and then leaving after a minute to get changed and come back, they kicked in immediantly to one of their most popular songs. (Their setlist can be read below.)

They played tracks from all of their albums, and this seemed to please the genrally morbid crowd, including their hits 'Devil Ride' and 'Too Much.' The whole stage presence of the band was brilliant, they seemed to be utterly at ease with the many complications that occured during the set- the drummer, Andre had a pair of painful looking blood blisters on his thumbs, making it difficult to play, and then when all seemed to be under control, Micheal split open his finger on his guitar strings! (A rather impressive picture of his guitar body after the mishap can be found above.) He remained perfectly calm however, and simply walked of stage before the encore to go get a 'Band-aid.' They remained throughout the entire set, an absolutly amazing band to see live, and i would fully recommend the gig to everyone, purely because of their stage presence alone.

Test Article

Band: The Used

Album: Vulnerable

Release Date: 26th March 2012

Record Label: Anger music group/Hopeless records

Despite the previous albums of a more hardcore approach, this time around have less of the angry, angst-ridden lyrics colliding with the screams of Bert McCracken, and more of the slower, heart wrenching ballads that fans alike have taken too. When the band first came into the rock scene in early 2000, they were quickly accepted and their reputation grew quickly, this was due to their rather unforgettable frontman and also their quick friendships with bigger bands from the Projekt Revolution tour such as My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Taking Back Sunday. Three albums, two DVD’s and an EP later, and here they are with an album that very much differs from the typical and slightly more comforting style of The Used.

The first track 'I Come Alive' is far from the band's more usual tracks such as 'The Bird and The Worm' and 'The Best of Me,' but it does still have something about it that still clings onto the general feel of The Used, which is usually angry, and screamed. Then, the next track 'This Fire' surprisingly feels more fitting, and you can hear something in McCracken’s voice that hasn't been present in quite some time. 'Hands and Faces' with its powerful bass lines and drum beats, exhibited by the ever pleasing Jeph Howard and Dan Whitesides. By the time you are at track number four, 'Put Me Out' and 'Now That You're Dead' you almost feel as though you are listening to the amateur, but amazing first self-titled album, which many fans really clung onto.

Amongst all of this, they threw in a few ballads that exhibited McCracken's voice in a way that hadn't really been touched on before. 'Give Me love' 'Moving On' 'Getting Over You' and 'Hurt No One' are songs that hold the same value, and message as the old music, but are presented in a whole different way, with less anger behind the words, but a more nostalgic outlook on the issues raised, no doubt taken from the bands rough lifestyles and experiences. Then there’s 'Shine' which using lyrics such as 'Make a choice. Shine on.' and 'It's my time to shine, do it my way, cause it's my time' really enhanced the bands development as not only musicians, but people. In the middle of all these ballads, it would seem rather strange to have a heavier, angry 'Kiss it Goodbye' but I think it was so they made the point that anger can still be incorporated and be a good song amongst all of these.

The album ends with the track 'Together Burning Bright' which between McCracken’s heavenly voice and the complimenting guitar by Quinn Allman, made for an amazing song. The most known lyrics are 'We are only sparks, but together burning bright' which does make the whole album seem like a journey through something, all the problems, and then at the end, the whole thing is solved.

All in all, I think that the album is very much on par with the other ones the band has made, the only thing that has changed is that they have tweaked the sound a little, but it is still recognizably The Used.

Research

I have begun to research the different types of music journalism- i have looked quite a lot about reviews. I looked at three different album reviews for an music album that came out earlier this year, and looked at the different ways to set our a music review. One of them had wrote their opinion track by track, which i thought was very useful because it gave the reader a better insight into the album, and how the tracks reflected the meaning. of the album. Another review was slightly more vague, it looked only at a few key tracks on the album and focused a lot more than the last one on the band members and what the writer had thought about their participation on the tracks. I think this was just as useful if not more than the previous one i had looked at because it looked at all aspects of the album, not just the music, but the composers as well. The last one i looked at did a lot of just finding things to fault the musicians for and going off track, not really talking about the actual tracks on the album. This, i think was pretty much a waste of time because all the writer seemed to do was complain about the musicians. When i plan to write a review, i think i will write one using the layout of the second one. This is because i really liked they way the writer didn't just rant off about just 'this one song he really hated,' he wrote about most of the tracks- how they flowed, how they matched whatever one came before and after them, and how they were compared to previous albums. I also liked the way he talked how much the band had changed from the transition from the previous album to the current album, and how the members style had changed throughout this too. But, i also think i would incorporate the depth that the first reviewer went into to describe the tracks.