Powering a Nation

The University of Northern Carolina at Chapel Hill has launched this year’s Powering A Nation site, highlighting our country’s complicated relationship with coal. Throughout your experience on the site you’re introduced to miners who depend on the black rock for their livelihoods, local citizens who suffer from its adverse health effects, and everyday folks who flip on a light switch without thinking twice about what it takes to create that power. The stories in, “Coal: A Love Story” give you a new appreciation for the complexities surrounding the coal and energy industry. The piece represents an innovative form of journalism where the audience is given all sides of the story and allowed to explore the issues they care about through interactive graphics and source data. See for yourself at: http://poweringanation.org/

Continue ReadingPowering a Nation

MediaStorm Interview: John Temple

John Temple is the editor of Civil Beat in Honolulu. He was also the last editor, president, and publisher of the Rocky Mountain News in Colorado. While at Rocky Mountain News he worked with MediaStorm to produce a piece around the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He maintains an active blog called Temple Talk and was an attendee of MediaStorm's Methodology Workshop. Everyone in journalism seems to be talking about how much the industry is changing. What do you believe are the key trends in the industry and how do you believe journalism will adapt? I think the most important trend is probably an overall sense of disruption where there is no certainty that any approach that has been successful in the past will continue to be viable or support serious journalistic enterprises in the future. That's perhaps the largest trend, dramatic disruption of the traditional business model. And then related to that…

Continue ReadingMediaStorm Interview: John Temple

Three MediaStorm Projects nominated for News and Documentary Emmy Awards

Three MediaStorm projects are among the Nominees announced today for the 32nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards. Undesired, By Walter Astrada for the Alexia Foundation, was nominated in the New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Documentaries Category. In India, all women must confront the cultural pressure to bear a son. The consequences of this preference is a disregard for the lives of women and girls. From birth until death they face a constant threat of violence. See the project here. Crisis Guide: Pakistan, produced for Council on Foreign Relations, was also nominated in the New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Documentaries Category. Pakistan's stability is of great consequence to regional and international security. Crisis Guide: Pakistan examines the roots of its challenges, what it means for the region and the world, and explores some plausible futures for the country. See the project here. Airsick by Toronto Star Photographer Lucas…

Continue ReadingThree MediaStorm Projects nominated for News and Documentary Emmy Awards

Bruce Strong joins MediaStorm as first Professional in Residence

MediaStorm is excited to announce that Bruce Strong will be joining us as our first Professional in Residence this fall. Bruce is a multimedia storyteller who likes to work with cool people on awesome projects. Life is too short to do anything else. He has shot in nearly 60 countries, with Sudan and Liberia added to the mix most recently. Bruce was on staff at The Orange County Register in Southern California for 11 years and has freelanced for a variety of international publications and non-profit organizations. Bruce's work has been published in such prestigious publications as TIME Magazine and National Geographic and has earned numerous awards and two fellowships—The Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship at the University of Michigan and the Knight Fellowship at Ohio University. When he's not on the field, Bruce spends a lot of time helping others learn to tell stories that matter. Currently, he's an associate professor at Syracuse…

Continue ReadingBruce Strong joins MediaStorm as first Professional in Residence

Final Cut Pro X, it was good while it lasted.

This is the last in our series of MediaStorm producers responding to the new FCP X. If you missed them, you can check out Eric Maierson's thoughts here, and Tim McLaughlin's here. FCP X, it was good while it lasted. After working in FCP X for a week, I left on a Friday buoyed by the speed and efficiency at which the program runs. I had blazed through a weeks worth of work in just three days. But on Monday morning, my work was gone. I spent an hour on the phone with Apple. They asked me to run some tests. Several times I opened the project, made some changes, and closed it. Each time I reopened the file, it behaved differently. Think Memento. Sometimes the program “remembered” the changes correctly. Other times it reverted to a previously saved version. Other times it combined two previously saved versions to create a third!…

Continue ReadingFinal Cut Pro X, it was good while it lasted.