Flying High, Saving Lives

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November 19th, 2012

I’ll admit, this is a story I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. This is a sound slideshow profiling the lead base aviation manager of the ShandsCair program, Mark Womack, at Shands Hospital in Gainesville. Womack oversees all the bases of ShandsCair, as well as the program’s pilots and technicians, and he loves to fly. He spoke with me about what he does, how medevacs work from the point of view of the helicopter pilot, and why he loves his job. He also let me tag along for a flight, and snap a few pictures.

I picked this story because it has intrigued me for a while. Driving down Archer Road, it is easy to spot the ShandsCair helicopter taking off or landing either from the ground or from the top of one of the buildings in the Shands complex. I was curious to learn more about the program, and about those who are involved with it.

Great Temperatures for Data Harvesting

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October 25th, 2012

This chart shows the high temperatures seen at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2011, and was created using several techniques used by data journalists. The source of the high temperatures is wunderground.com; on the pages of each location, a “history/almanac” section displays information of weather conditions seen at that location in the past. Using this part of the page, I modified code created by Nathan Yao, author of Visualize This, to “scrape” – go through the page of each day of Atlanta Airport’s weather history in 2011 on wunderground.com – the maximum temperatures. After doing that, I imported the information into Microsoft Excel, where I entered it into a spreadsheet, and created a line chart from it.

The process of scraping the data was the most difficult; though I did take and thoroughly enjoy an AP Computer Science class in Java in high school, it was quite different than anything I had done before. Yao had already written the program in his book, which did make things easier, but I did have to know which areas to modify for this exercise. Working with Excel was very easy; but I’ve worked with Excel a lot in the past, both to organize numbers and to create charts.

Should Coding Be Added to the Journalists’ Program?

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October 22nd, 2012

Yes, journalists should learn how to program. No, not every journalist should learn it right now -- just those who want to stay in the industry for another ten years.

— PBS Mediashift's Roland Legrand

A major topic of discussion in the journalism industry is whether journalists should be learning how to code. The discussion represents the digital age as well as the evolution of the field itself. While there are arguments both in favor of and against having journalists learning to program, it appears the general consensus is that journalists should have at least a basic understanding of programming.

Poynter’s Steve Myers discusses this question in his analysis of Developer Jeff Atwood’s post, Please don’t learn to code. Atwood argues in his post that coding is not an essential skill to have for most people; instead of having people learn to code, Atwood says, they should focus on solving the problems they are charged with handling. (He uses the example of having the New York mayor focus on solving budget problems rather than developing code to solve them.) Myers doesn’t discount the whole argument, instead saying journalists should take a more balanced approach:

Some journalists should learn how to code; others should learn enough to communicate with the smart people in the office tasked with building news apps; more should take a data-centered approach to their work, and pretty much everyone should understand how computers and the Internet work so they can properly explain things to their audiences. -Steve Myers, Poynter.

Northwestern’s Knight News Innovation Lab’s Miranda Mulligan echoes this point in her discussion of the importance of journalism schools teaching students how to code. She argues for more learning of programming than Atwood does – she says it should be taught every semester, every year in a journalism program – to enhance a journalist’s online presence. Again, she does not argue for “fluency” in programming, but enough of a familiarity to know how browsers work and how to develop programs to solve problems.

For me, there’s only one response to this: Journalists should learn more about code.Understanding our medium makes us better storytellers. -Miranda Mulligan, Northwestern Knight News Innovation Lab

Finally, PBS Mediashift’s Roland Legrand makes the case that journalists should learn programming because more and more information journalists need and can use to tell stories is being digitized. Additionally, since people have less time to read a story, it becomes more important to grab their attention with interactivity. As we continue in the digital age, he says, these skills will become more important for journalists to have:

Yes, journalists should learn how to program. No, not every journalist should learn it right now — just those who want to stay in the industry for another ten years. -PBS Mediashift’s Roland Legrand

I found these arguments in favor of learning programming persuasive, but I’ll admit I’ve always been intrigued by programming. The skill appears to be a rare one among those looking to go into the news industry, and it’s my opinion that if one can invest time in learning a rare skill, that makes the person more valuable in a news operation, and provides them with greater job security, and compensation. Besides, our reliance on computers is only going to increase, so having a unique ability to work with them to solve problems is certainly going to become more important.

These are the articles cited in this post:

Walking for the White Cane Law

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October 15th, 2012

  • White Cane Walk 1 Alachua Lions Club President Don James welcomes everyone to the 2012 White Cane Walk.
  • White Cane Walk 7 Lions Club member Orien Hills guides Jack Varnon along during the White Cane Walk.
  • White Cane Walk 9 Alachua Lions Club member Patti Breedlove guides blindfolded Boy Scout Everett Melvin along the White Cane Walk.

Every year for the past 12 years, the City of Alachua chapter of the Lions Club holds the White Cane Walk – an event aimed at raising awareness of Florida’s White Cane Laws. These laws require drivers to yield the right of way when a visually impaired person with a guide dog or a white cane crosses the street. The walk spanned from the old Alachua city hall area to the Lions Club building across the current Alachua City Hall. Walkers included blind and visually impaired participants, as well as sighted participants.

At the end of the walk, there were several activities for sighted participants to take place in. To be done while blindfolded, these activities helped the sighted participants to see what it’s like to do typical everyday activities for a blind or visually impaired person, like unlocking a door, counting money or pouring a glass of water.

The walk was started 12 years ago by current Assistant City Manager Adam Boukari when he was a Boy Scout.

This photos story ties in with several concepts discussed by photojournalist Kenneth Kobré in Photojournalism: The Professionals’ Approach, in his chapter on photo stories. The blind and visually impaired individuals photographed would fall in the category of “one person representing an abstract topic”; as they represent the larger blind and visually impaired population. In addition, the photos of a Boy Scout doing daily activities while blindfolded  falls in this category, since he represents the larger sighted population, which does not readily understand the difficulties faced by those who are blind or visually impaired. Visual consistency is present in the collection of photos with the same few people, with the generally same mood (everyone’s excitement to be in the walk is apparent), and theme (the White Cane Walk). It is also a narrative story as well, as it shows everyone being welcomed at the start of the walk, going on the walk, and doing activities at the end of the walk. Kobré discusses the ideas of complication and resolution; the complication could be going on the walk, as it is a challenging journey for the blind and visually impaired and for the sighted individuals who chose to do it blindfolded. As the subject was a single event, it doesn’t seem to have parallels with the photo stories included by Kobré in the chapter.

More photos of the walk are here. Interviews with some of the participants are below:

 

Jack Varnon is Second Vice President of the Alachua County Council of the Blind. Here, he shares an experience that led him to try to raise awareness of the White Cane Law.

 

Adam Boukari is Assistant City Manager with the City of Alachua. He also played a central role in the creation of the White Cane Walk as a Boy Scout. Here, he discusses how the idea came about, and what it means for him now.

 

Everett Melvin is a Boy Scout who participated in the White Cane Walk blindfolded and participated in some of the activities after. Here, he talks about the experience.

A Snapshot of Photograph Variety and Ethics

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September 23rd, 2012

In his book, Photo Journalism, Kenneth Kobré talks about what makes a great photo. Two major points he discusses include use of visual variety, including overall/wide shots and close-ups. There are examples of these in NBC’s Week in Pictures for September 13-20. First, Kobré talks about using an overall shot to set the scene for the audience. This is seen in photo 2, “Spray on fence”. The protester standing on the wall is clearly the subject here, but the audience needs to see the rest of the protesters below and the torrent of water to understand this is part of a larger protest. Additionally, Kobré talks about close-ups – an example is photo 6, “scary situation” – Kobré says using a special lens to decrease depth of field allows for getting close-ups without having to get too close to the subject, by decreasing depth of field and thus blurring everything but the subject. In this photo, the raw emotion of the woman and her children stands out to the audience.

Kobré also talks about multi-layer images – images in which the photographer places the subject of the photo in the middle of the frame to include something related near the frame edge. This allows the audience to look at the subject and its relationship to the additional element. An example of such an image is photo 8, “resisting eviction”. The two people being evicted from their home, and the one swat officer closest to them, are all the subject of the photo, but the photographer also included two officers at the left edge of the frame. The inclusion of the other two officers highlights the isolation of the two people.

As Kobré discusses later in his book, framing a shot isn’t the only concern on the mind of a photographer – ethics is another concern. One such issue is covering tragedy – taking pictures as people cry over the death of a loved one at an accident or at a funeral is a very delicate task for photographers to carry out. While it may be important for the world to see the grief resulting from a tragedy, a photographer must exercise caution to make sure he/she does not cause additional grief to the relatives of the victims of a tragedy.

Another ethical concern relates to the graphic nature of some photographs, and whether certain graphic photographs should be published or witheld. One such case involves dead bodies – audiences are generally intolerant of seeing them in photos. In cases where editors choose to run pictures with dead bodies in them, they will usually place a warning before, so sensitive members of the audience may look away. One example is on the NBC’s Week in Pictures for September 6-13, photo 13. Before running such a picture, an editor must consider if a greater good is served by doing so – in the case of this picture, the greater good may be increased awareness of the importance of factory safety protocols.

Dissecting a Cell Biology Audio Story

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September 9th, 2012

This weekend I listened to “The Cell’s Mystery,” an audio story by independent producer Sara Robberson. In the piece, she tells the story of Japanese scientist Dr. Shinya Inoue, whose work helped to significantly advance the understanding of how cell division takes place. Dr. Inoue did much of his work in Japan during World War II, which posed significant challenges since the country was being bombarded regularly.

From a technical and professional standpoint, the piece is very well done. All the interview subjects are very clear and easily understood and there is no background noise. I noted that Robberson included a second or two before Dr. Inoue’s bites of him taking a breath and sounding like he is gathering his thoughts; this helps to humanize him, and paints the picture of him remembering events from long ago. There isn’t nat sound in the piece, but there is music underneath Robberson’s tracking and the sound bites at the beginning, when Robberson begins talking about how Dr. Inoue’s mentor  challenged him to investigate cell division (at -6:08), as well as near the end (-1:40).

In terms of sense of story, the piece can be a little hard to follow at times because of the scientific nature of the subject. Listening to the piece several times is necessary to fully understand Dr. Inoue’s work. Nonetheless, Robberson did a good job of simplifying the topic. She allows the more elaborate concepts to be explained by her sources. This is better than trying to explain the concepts herself since her sources have more credibility in the science than she does. They do a great job explaining it – for example, at -2:40, Dr. Gary Borisey explains the cell division process by comparing it to a chair in the room; this explanation makes it easier to grasp the concept. The only caveat I can identify in terms of the story is how briefly Dr. Inoue’s theory on the mitotic spindle was covered – it was described, and at -2:00 Kenney said it was proven correctly 20 years later. The listener never learns of how it was proven correctly or of the struggle to prove it right; it feels a little abrupt.

In terms of editing decisions, I felt the piece was very solid. The music, again, adds a nice touch to the piece; without it, the piece would definitely need nat sound of some sort, and it doesn’t seem like this particular story has an opportunity for nat sound. All the bites flow together seamlessly.

Dr. Inoue makes a great choice for this audio story, because his work was crucial in the field of cell biology, yet few people outside the field know who he is. His story is a powerful one, having worked in Japan during World War II and overcoming that challenge. Now, at his old age, this story is like a look back at a significant and successful career.

NPR Air Traffic System Story Flies ‘Beyond Radio’

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September 3rd, 2012

For this assignment, we were required to listen to an NPR story online and comment on how it relates to to Chapter 18, “Beyond Radio”, from Sound Reporting, by Jonathan Kern. The story I picked was “Could The New Air Traffic Control System Be Hacked?“, and it aired on All Things Considered on August 14.

The audio version/transcript and the web version of the story are similarly structured – indeed, some parts of the web version are written verbatim as they are written in the transcript. However, it is interesting to look at how the web version is broken up into short paragraphs; in listening to the audio story, such breaks aren’t always clear or required. As Kern indicates, the shorter paragraphs make it easier to scan the story and get the main points out of it, since important details are usually found in their own paragraphs. For example, “The old system is getting overwhelmed” stands alone in its own paragraph, as does, “And recently, ADS-B [the new system] has caught the attention of hackers.”

At the same time, the web version has several aspects that make it uniquely “beyond radio”: first, and what I found most interesting, was the inclusion of an embedded YouTube video that shows a fake plane signal mixing with real air traffic. In it, the fake plane makes all sorts of bizarre turns and movements over an airport, all shown on a Google Earth map also showing real air traffic. The video’s value is enhanced by how, as the article points out, the fake signal could have been sent to a real airport if the demonstrators had set up two additional pieces of equipment.

The web version included an embedded video showing a fake signal mixing with real air traffic.

Finally, the web version of this story exemplifies one of the biggest advantages of preparing stories for the web: the inclusion of additional information. The web story includes details from the FAA on how NextGen will be able to verify signals. The audio story/transcript does not have any information on how the new system would verify signals, other than the FAA’s comment that the new system would be able to do so. Perhaps the additional information from the FAA came after the story aired, or perhaps the audio story’s time constraints prevented its inclusion. However, the fact that the web has no time/space constraints and can be modified after publication prove to be major advantages in this particular case.

I felt NPR did a good job of moving beyond radio in this story, but additions that could have been made to take advantage of the web dimension could have been more background on NextGen and more visuals. The story describes at some length how NextGen will work and how it compares with the current system, but it could have discussed the differences a little more. There also could have been more photographs and graphics used in this story; perhaps graphics would have been a good way to describe the differences between both systems.

Response to “Why I Blog”

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July 16th, 2012

For this assignment, we were asked to respond to a blog post by The Atlantic‘s Andrew Sullivan, in which he talks about how he became a blogger and reflects on the differences between blogging and publishing, which was what he primarily dedicated himself to.

One of the first things he uses to describe the blog is a ship’s log, in which the crew of a ship kept track of the distance the ship sailed. By looking forward in the log, one essentially moved backward in time as he/she followed the ship’s travels. I found this comparison particularly fitting, since blogs work in the exact same way – posts are organized from newest to oldest. A blog on politics could make a good history book of sorts because it would detail the events in the political sphere with every development. One could get a similar result from looking at the daily newspapers for a period of time, but as Sullivan also points out, bloggers are expected to respond to developments immediately – as Matt Drudge told him, blogs are broadcasts, not publications.

I was also intrigued by the differences in accountability Sullivan describes between blogs and newspapers. In the case of newspapers, writers, he says, are usually accountable to their editors. When articles are published and mistakes are made, corrections are printed in a less-prominent area of the newspaper. Additionally, the writers do not always get feedback from the readers directly. (Though that is definitely different now that articles are posted online and have the ability to receive comments.) With blogs, on the other hand, it’s very different – readers respond immediately and apparently ruthlessly. The blogger receives feedback right then and right there, from experts and average readers alike. The fact that some readers are harsh in their criticism does not come as a surprise, as that’s how most comments online are, but it is interesting that bloggers are thus held to a very high standard, possibly higher than some writers are, if their editors are not very stringent. This increases the credibility of the blogosphere, since the mediocre blogs will lose readership and relevance, while the reliable ones will be constantly kept honest by their readers and attract more readers. It is also an interesting comparison Sullivan makes when he says newspapers can print corrections in small corners, while bloggers must post their corrections in the same prominent places they post the rest of their material.

He also talks about the personality of the blog, which stems directly from the personality of the blogger. Here, he describes the clear difference in tone between a print writer and a blogger – print writers do not allow their true selves to appear in their writing; rather, they take special care to keep themselves out of their writing. In blogging, however, it’s the opposite – bloggers must allow for their personalities to characterize their writing. This is a major difference – as Sullivan says, blogging is “rich in personality”.

Finally, there is the difference in branding – blogs are branded by their bloggers. Even the blogs on many online journalism sites, he says, are branded based on the writers. He uses Daily Kos and Drudge Report as examples of independent news sites named after the bloggers who started and maintain them. Blogging thus becomes a more personal medium, in which the readers are interacting not with a publication, but with the writer of a publication. One gets this feeling simply by reading almost any blog – often the descriptions are written by the blogger in the first person.

It is interesting to read Sullivan’s perspective on blogging and recall how, at the beginning, he was a real novice when it came to blogging. He even needed someone else to upload his posts to the site. I think it’s telling – blogs are ever more important but are, in essence, simple.

How to Set a Restaurant Table

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July 10th, 2012

I know this isn’t usually what I post, but it is a pretty interesting clip, and it’s right up the alley of my blog’s topic. It shows how to set a restaurant table. Next time you have guests over, you can impress them with your table-setting savy!