Learning innovation from the “Easy Raise”
In fourth grade, I had a brilliant idea that would completely revolutionize the future of elementary education. Okay, maybe not, but it was awesome! I decided to reinvent the “hand raise” using an ice-fishing flag and some suction cups.
This invention would solve a serious problem. Teachers wanted to encourage class participation, but young students struggled to withstand the dreaded wait required to ask their questions. Thousands of critical questions would remain unasked because of a simple, physical limitation.
My solution… the “Easy Raise.”
That’s right, the Easy Raise was an attention-getting device that could rise for hours without wavering. More importantly, this brilliant piece of innovation was going to win me the fourth grade inventor’s fair.
The revolutionary "Easy Raise" in action
Long story short… I lost! To what? The most ridiculous invention of all time.
I lost to a doggie backpack that allowed every dog to wear its poop. Not only that, but the same invention had won the previous year. How can you win an inventor’s fair using last year’s invention!? The future of education had lost to a poop pack.
It took me a few months to get over the loss. Then, three years later, I watched the Tonight Show with Jay Leno as five elementary students presented their winning inventions from the national inventors fair. Care to guess the winner?! It was the Easy Raise! Some dude, three years later, came up with the exact same concept and won it all.
I discovered something important as a young inventor. I was in the process of building something great, but I failed to understand its significance and find a way to make it work. I continued using the Easy Raise for the rest of the school year and quickly became my teacher’s new favorite student to answer questions. However, one more year of fine-tuning and my purple “participant” ribbon would have been gold.
What’s the point?
I feel like I’m performing at the fourth grade inventor’s fair once again. I recently started a company, Ewen Media, and have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. The panel, which is pretty much everyone, would rightfully assume that I am crazy and consider it time to move on. However, just like the Easy Raise, I think there’s something to it, which means this is no time to quit and join team “poop pack” before next year’s fair.
The most innovative ideas are usually met with the most resistance. Think about it. It’s hard to be inventive when there is another trusted alternative that has shown promise in the past. In today’s environment, re-inventing the “poop pack” isn’t going to cut it and it’s time to start moving toward true innovation. Most importantly, it’s time for the entrepreneurs to believe in their ideas strongly enough to carry them through.
I firmly believe that passion is the single greatest asset for any young journalist.
My generation is going to redefine the future of journalism. We are all applicants at the fourth grade inventor’s fair and presenting ideas to a panel of experienced professionals. Many of the ideas sound pretty terrible, but some of them will work and someone will succeed. So, the question is, will it be you or the poop pack?
Interactive multimedia from scratch
As part of my course work at the University of Minnesota, I wanted to produce an interactive multimedia project on the economic crisis. After following a couple other student projects, like Soul of Athens and Andaman Rising, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and had absolutely no idea how to do it. Three months later, I completed my first interactive web site, Times of Recession, and this is what I learned.
1) Make the project matter
The best way to learn a new skill is to work on a project that you truly care about. For me, I wanted to produce this site because it was something I enjoyed doing and I thought it could do some good. As a result, I picked up some new skills in the process. If you can find a project that you’re personally invested in, it becomes more rewarding to try new things and spend the time to make it great.
2) Software isn’t scary
It’s usually the technological limitations that prevent journalists from embracing new forms of storytelling, but that’s ridiculous. Too many journalists limit what they’re capable of learning by assuming the skills they need are out of reach. A couple books and a date with Lynda can even the playing field. It’s hard to imagine starting from scratch with a piece of software and making something that looks presentable, but similar skills from other platforms will carry over.
3) Target your weaknesses
Identify your weaknesses and work them into your next project. This will lead to a more well-rounded project and you’ll be a better journalist for it. If you’re not learning and growing, then you’re falling behind.
4) Set a deadline
Working on deadline is the fastest and easiest way to learn. I was fortunate to have an external deadline (a grade), but it also helps to pitch the project early. Tell you friends when they can see it and let them bug you until it’s live. There’s nothing that makes you move faster than a deadline.
5) Find an expert
With any project, it is extremely important to find an expert who is willing to help you through the project. This shouldn’t be used as a crutch, but rather a lifeline. There’s inevitably going to be problems and it’s important to find someone with the skills to get you through the rough spots. This person can help keep you on task and hold you accountable if you drop the ball.
6) Make the time
Finding spare time is tough so allocate the time you have accordingly. Set aside a couple hours each week to read or work on something new. Finding the time shouldn’t be a problem if you picked the right project.
7) Plan an attack
Producing an interactive multimedia site is great, but then what? How will you audience access the site? And how will you measure its success? Building a site and launching it are two different skills. Be prepared for both.
Think business
Try to think like a business major (in moderation). If you’re not, just fake it for a while. You might accidentally learn something extremely valuable. As an example, when I finished Times of Recession, I decided to market the project to local news organizations. I sent emails to online editors across the state and offered to sell them exclusive rights to the highest bidder. I was able to create competition between the organizations and help make the project more marketable. Thinking from a business perspectives can create new opportunities to do the work that you love.
9) Journalists can advertise too
Once you’ve identified your audience, don’t be afraid to advertise. I created a Facebook advertising campaign for less than $10 dollars that targeted online editors and multimedia producers (and places I wanted to intern). I was able to use a highly targeted ad campaign to get my site to the people with the power. The ad campaign left about 25,000 impressions on about 20 Facebook accounts. Pretty awesome stuff. In addition, many of the targeted users overestimated its distribution (because I was “advertising”) and were more likely to pick it up. Spending a few dollars on targeted advertising now will be worth it later.
10) Take a risk
Do something so ridiculous that people think you’re crazy. This doesn’t mean do something stupid, but make it a project that you can learn from. There has never been a better time to experiment. The biggest risks have the best rewards.
And #11, since every other list has 10…
11) Get started now
If you really want to “wow” somebody, it’s not going to happen in an email. Trust your instincts and be willing to learn. Plus, it’s a very different conversation when your boss knows what you can do. Many projects never happen because of the details. If the project matters and you can learn something new, then get started now. You can work out the details along the way.
The Other Future of News (2 of 2)
Please note: This is part two of a two-part post.
A couple weeks ago, David Brauer and Taylor Carik hosted the Other Future of News conference, a response to Minnesota Public Radio’s Future of News event in mid-November. The conference was divided into three sessions, including organizational change, tech tools and content. Here’s a couple brief highlights from the second and third sessions. Please note, I was only able to upload some of the presentations because of YouTube’s 10-minute limit and I didn’t make it for all of the presentations.
Programming for Robots
Julia Schrenkler (@juliaschrenkler), an interactive producer at American Public Media, emphasized the importance of data portability and searchability when uploading content on the Web.
“Everything you do has to be understood by robots… The search terms, the news robots, the robot editors, everything in the future is about the bots… Your data has to be able to speak to those bots.”
- Julia Schrenkler
Things to consider when uploading content to the web:
1) Communicating with robots
2) Easy migration to new tools
3) Stability of the code
4) Understanding the terms of service
5) Understanding user preferences
6) Fast and easy support
7) Adaptability to new technologies
Designing for readers
Matt Quintanilla (@blamedesign), a former print designer at the Star Tribune and current graphic designer at the Minnesota Science Museum, argued that the emphasis on design from printed newspapers has not translated to the Web because of technological limitations.
“When you’re talking about newspapers, magazines and really any news media, you really want to build for readers… The front page of the newspaper compared to the front page of the Web site of that newspaper is pretty much night and day.”
As part of his Paper News proposal for the 2010 Knight News Challenge, Quintanilla suggested a content and design framework that would allow news organizations to produce different layouts throughout the day. The proposal would be a Web-based framework, independent from each site’s content management system, that would allow news organization’s to easily re-design their homepage. In addition, it would allow for greater advertising potentially because commercial content could be placed where it’s most effective.
Paper News is an interesting approach to the future of news design and it could co-exist with “the robots” because it’s separate from the CMS. My primary concern with the proposal would be the additional emphasis placed on maintaining a “destination site.” Design is clearly important, but I’d like to see less focus placed on the homepage and more emphasis placed on individual stories that might serve as an access point to the site. For example, an excellent breaking news story could bring more people to the site if it were designed effectively. In addition, projects like the Star Tribune’s Liberia project and WCCO’s Bridge Retrospective could do the same if there was a framework able to produce similar stories more efficiently.
Albert Sun (@albertsun), co-founder of CoPress, suggested creating a set of open source Flash templates for his Knight News Challenge proposal (#KNC10) to allow more news organizations to produce extensive interactive graphics. Using a similar concept, there’s definitely potential for a universal framework to make interactivity more easy to implement with current content management systems and help improve the user experience.
Developing new audiences
Julia Nekessa Opoti (@Nekessa), freelance writer and publisher at Kenya Imagine, referenced a study by University of Minnesota professor Katherine Fennelly that said immigrants, specifically Latinos, Africans and Asians, will re-shape the state of Minnesota in the next 10 to 20 years. As a result, news organizations must appeal to these changing audience if they want to increase readers to keep the general population informed.
There’s an increasing digital divide, especially when it comes to information. We’re going to cut out a lot of people if we concentrate [too] heavily on the Internet and if we forget about the other small mediums.
This is an interesting approach to the future of news and something to consider. The type of coverage related to violence and crime in minority communities will need to change. There appears to be three approaches to the future of news that could resolve this problem:
1) More niche publications, such as small newspapers and magazines, could appeal to these growing audiences and cover issues important to these communities.
2) Traditional news organizations could alter their coverage to appeal to new audiences. Although this seems rather obvious, it would be somewhat problematic and difficult to implement. One of the current problems with mainstream news organizations is that they’re too broad and cannot capture a narrow advertising base. This would significantly expand the audience, specifically with a print publication, and make it more difficult to identify readers.
3) This appears to be a central argument for reducing the digital divide. News organization, foundations and/or corporations could help provide broadband to minority communities and develop new audiences with advertising potential. Any organization that decided to do this, such as Yahoo! or Google, would play a very powerful role in the future of news.
Curating niche content
Paul Schmelzer (@iteeth), editor of the Minnesota Independent, started a blog almost seven years ago called Eyeteeth: A journal of incisive ideas. The blog, one of roughly 30 independent art blogs, started broadly and developed a very niche focus. The site is most commonly known for its “Bits” segment that aggregates interesting links to relevant works of art.
Other #OFON presentations on technology tools included:
1) “Automating access to public data” – Steve Clift, E-Democracy
2) “Using Twitter” – Tom Scheck (@tomscheck), Minnesota Public Radio
3) “Mturk and Dapplr for reporters” – Ed Kohler (@EdKohler), The Deets
4) “Why your site design sucks” – Justin Heideman (@justinph), Walker Art Center
Other #OFON presentations on content included:
1) “Journalism cooperatives” – Jon Collins, Watch Cat
2) “Making the most of online video” – McKenna Ewen (@mckennaewen), Ewen Media
3) “Fitting in to a media diet” – Bennett Gordon (@BennetG), Utne Reader
4) “Entertainment and the news” – Jeff Horwitz, Minnesota Public Radio
5) “Immigrants and the changing media audience” – Julia Nekessa Opoti (@Nekessa), Freelance Writer
Learning online video from the "White Castle lady"
Here’s a link to my Other Future of News (#ofon) presentation on “making the most of online video.” Please take a look and let me know what you think!
The Other Future of News conference took place on December 12, 2009, and was a response to MPR’s Future of News event that took place earlier this year. Other videos from the event are available here.
Learning online video from the “White Castle lady”
This summer, on the first day of my third internship at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, I was assigned to produce a video on White Castle customer Ariel Wade. Wade was upset because she tried to drive her motorized scooter through the White Castle drive-thru after the dining room had closed and the employees refused to serve her. She contacted the Star Tribune’s Whistleblower team and argued that White Castle had discriminated against her because of her disability (degenerative arthritis). The story ran here with a short video.
Ariel Wade showed me the power of online video after the story ran. First, Huffington Post linked to the video, which is essentially every intern’s dream, and Wade quickly became a viral celebrity. Dlisted, a raunchy celebrity site, embedded the video and it took off. Other similar blogs picked it up and Wade became an “American Hero” who was “fighting the fight.” However, because the Star Tribune’s video player did not allow any sharing or embedding options, a user ripped the video from the Star Tribune’s site and uploaded it to YouTube.
To me, this story demonstrated the powerful potential of local news video to reach new viewers when the content can be emailed, embedded and shared with others. In this case, the primary audience for a White Castle drive-thru story might be on Dlisted rather than unique visits to the Star Tribune. The easy embeddability of the YouTube player allowed new viewers to see the story without any additional cost to the news organization. It also significantly expanded the potential viewing audience by targeting a new set of news consumers.
Shortly after the initial launch, the Star Tribune added the video to its YouTube channel and brought in an additional 25,000 video views, plus 20,000 video views from the previous user (who was asked to remove the video). From the YouTube channel, the video was embedded on nine different channels and even inspired a spin-off video.
In this case, YouTube appeared to be an effective way of distributing video content. However, if the Star Tribune’s video player allowed for sharing and embedding, the 45,000 views would have been added to site’s video traffic and helped maximize pre-roll advertising from the content. While loyal visitors might be easier to monetize, this example showed that this video’s value, along with many others, were not limited to a particular news site.
The best multimedia is the kind you can’t do – yet
Recently, when talking with multimedia journalist Jeff Achen, I was asked how young journalists could develop the skills necessary to compete in a new media environment. At the time, I wasn’t really sure. However, when I watched this video (see below), it all made sense.
As a Minnesotan, I was born loving Herb Brooks’s famous “miracle” speech. There isn’t anyone, even this kid, who can deliver the speech that he did. However, “Rizzo” made this speech his own. In the same light, when I look at the current journalism environment, I am always looking for ways to compete with traditional journalists by making these stories my own. I ask two questions:
1) How has this story been told?
2) How have I told similar stories?
Then, I do the opposite. These two questions have been very powerful tools for me. The first question is your competitive advantage in a given market. This defines the work that you can do that no one else can. The second question is your area for growth. I consider this the “wouldn’t it be cool if…” philosophy.
For example, “wouldn’t it be cool if a 4-year-old kid could imitate Herb Brooks on YouTube and become a viral sensation?” Yeah, I think that’d be pretty cool.
Individual journalists should think like publicly traded companies (I know… stay with me). If you’re not learning and growing, then you’re losing your marketability. No one wants to invest in last year’s Turbo-Man.
Most of my projects have been inspired by other journalists’ work. When I started college, I really wanted to produce a video piece similar to Lou Raguse’s “Road Trip (2004).” As a result, I started learning Final Cut Pro and similar video editing tools. Similarly, when I produced Times of Recession, I was first inspired by Ohio University’s Soul of Athens project (2007). So I always ask one more question:
3) Who’s telling this story better than I am?
There are a lot of innovative journalists out there who are doing really great stuff. There’s nothing more humbling and motivating than watching some of the finest in online multimedia. When I see great journalism, I study these pieces and learn from them. Then, I try to figure out how they’re made. That’s the fun part.
Lastly, here’s my “hit list.” These are works that are so amazing that they make me want to learn.
1) Choosing a President
2) Crisis of Credit
3) Charity Water
4) Times of Crisis
5) Auto-Tune the News (just because)
Storytelling done right
With the Upper Midwest Regional Emmys taking place on Saturday, I thought it would be fun to post some of my favorite video stories. I could probably make an entire post with just Boyd Huppert’s stories, but I thought I’d share the love. Add your favorites below!
1) Portrait of Compassion
2) High school wrestlers carry on
Two high school wrestlers, one blind and one with no legs, discover the meaning of true friendship.
3) Octogenarian holds her ground
When Seattle developers offered her a reported $1 million to sacrifice her home, 86-year-old Edith Macfield didn’t move a muscle.
4) The Animal Odd Couple
Steve Hartman visits an animal sanctuary where a dog and an elephant have formed a very lasting, and unusual, friendship.
5) Lemonade Kid
You could learn a lot about business from the suits in the high rises downtown. Or you could set your sights on the power-suited pre-teen bringing lemonade and second looks to a sidewalk stand near bustling 50th and France.
Add your favorites below!
Winning the (video) story
As of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about the best way for newspapers to compete with TV stations to win the big video stories of the day. When I started working with newspaper video, my goal was always to be first. Since the web offered an opportunity to upload a video at any time, I thought I could beat TV stations before their 5:00 and 6:00 deadlines. With the exception of breaking news stories, I soon learned that there’s not much of an appetite for the first story of the day compared to the best story of the day.
I don’t think newspapers can compete with the well-oiled TV machines at their own game. Instead, they can win the stories of the day by using their additional resources and context. The Knight Foundation’s Matt Thompson recently wrote five concrete steps toward improving the news. In the post, item number one said: “Don’t ‘win the morning.’ Win the story.” I think that mentality is the future of online video.
On Saturday, I covered the University of Minnesota’s first game in their new football stadium. The home opener took place around 6:00 PM with roughly six TV stations (including the Big Ten network), a couple online outlets and myself covering the video elements of the story. Each TV station had at least two videographers and one reporter covering the game and it finished around 9:00. During the post-game interviews, the TV crews stayed for the head coach’s press conference and then slowly started leaving to make deadline. The number of cameras in the room dropped from seven cameras to two (the guy live steaming and me).
The next day, I visited each station’s Web site to watch their coverage of the event. Here’s the best TV story that I could find online:
Did you notice how all the footage was shot before the game ever started? All of the TV stations had access to the field and could record the game, but they only had time to use a few of the big plays later in sports. So, what happened to all of that great footage that wasn’t ready for deadline? It sits on a shelf as part of history that most people will never see. To win this story, online news organizations need to consistently beat this style of story.
WCCO-TV did a nice job pulling together this nat sound story with game footage later in the broadcast. Also, here’s the story that StarTribune.com ran the next day:
Instead of running stories when they are suppose to run – newspapers can run stories when they’re ready. It becomes a whole new story when you hear from coaches and players at the 10:00 press conference, and see how the team actually did in their home opener. This online video environment provides an excellent opportunity to engage users in high-quality storytelling if organizations are willing to invest in the resources to make these stories possible.
UPDATE: Kare11 recently aired this story as part of their Extra segment a couple days after the stadium launch. Awesome to see a local TV station following up with a big story.
Nominated for an Emmy!
Ewen Media has been nominated for an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy nomination for its latest project, Times of Recession. This is the organization’s first Emmy nomination and a tremendous honor to be associated with some of the top journalists in the Upper Midwest region. This is a very exciting moment and it’s great to see that all the hard work to build this project has paid off.
The awards will be announced on September 26 as part of the Emmy Awards ceremony in Minneapolis. Thanks again to everyone who helped make this site possible.
- McKenna
Also, here’s a link to the press release and the other nominees.
Corporate sponsors for journalism
I recently came across this incredible video by Matt Harding. The video was both fun and creative, but after reading the back story on the project, it seems like there are a couple lessons that freelance journalists can learn from the video.
First, before pitching the project, Harding already started working on his idea (demos, not memos). He traveled around the world to record his “unique” dance in several countries and posted those clips to his blog. At the end of his trip, he cut the clips together and created his first video, a viral sensation. According to Harding’s site, Stride gum approached him after the first video ran and asked if he would be interested in creating a second video. This time, Stride gum paid for him to travel to 39 different countries over the next six months. After Harding returned home and completed his second video, he pitched a third video that would include people dancing with him (the version shown above).
To me, this seems like the smartest way to approach freelance journalism:
1) Prove you can do the work
2) Pitch the idea
3) Come back for more
Now, if Stride gum is willing the pay for Matt Harding to travel 39 countries for a YouTube video, why wouldn’t they pay for high-quality journalism? Major companies appreciate great storytelling just like any news organization. If journalists approach the right companies, I think they could be equally effective in getting major sponsorships for innovative multimedia projects. It’s a realistic way to finance high-quality journalism by partnering with the sponsors who can supply the resources.
