MURL Building Blocks Blog: WHYY Studio Visit

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

WHYY Studio Visit

Soooo, what did you all think about out visit to the WHYY studios? The datacasting presentation from Bill Weber, as always, helped me get a better fix on datacasting. And, believe it or not, I've heard the presentation several times. Each time I pick-up something new. Actually I thought your questions, and the responses from Bill and Ryan Dumont's made some things even clearer.
Any "take" on the video from the kids at the Congreso E3Center? Some tough situations.
On the templates...many of you had lots of great ideas.

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At 9:18 AM, Suhailah said...: The visit to WHYY studios was a very informative experience. I appreciated how easy our 'guides' made everything look. How interesting will it be when our subjects see themselves broadcast on the internet...I'm sure their perspectives will no doubt change. Also, I wasn't aware of just how much goes into this process and how much info can be sent, but displaying our hard work will definitely be the ultimate reward.

Datacasting will no doubt help us as a class illuminate areas of Philly that have never had any shine. We are going to hear the voices of the streets, the voices of youth, and the voices of the underprivileged. I say, bring it on. I'm so excited to be a part of this unprecedented journey of neighborhood discovery. As Craig Santoro led Shinji and I through WHYY, I began to wonder what our interviewees would think had they been there and been able to see all that we as a class can accomplish and the media outlets that they could have access to. It would blow their minds since most of them don't even have a community center such as the Congreso sites that they can go to when the troubling streets beckon. When the kids of Congreso spoke, I could almost feel uncontrollable helplessness ebbing from them and right away, I wished I could help. In a way, this class is enabling me to shed some light on their situation and it was most likely cathartic for them to tell their stories. Oh, and the rapping teen (I can't recall his name) put a spin on what could have been a really emotional broadcast. That is the power of multimedia.

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Welcome to the MURLbuildingblocks blog and the launch of our "Building Blocks" initiative.
The Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab (MURL) is the cornerstone of Temple University's Journalism Department and its mission to better tell stories in the under-covered and under-served neighborhoods of Philadelphia.

Central to the MURL mission is exploring ways to better tell stories in our under-served and under-covered urban neighborhoods. And, in the process, give some voice to those working to make their neighborhoods a more livable place. But to do it – “give voice to voiceless” - assumes the neighborhoods have a certain ease of access to technology and the means to pull-in multimedia content, “news.” We don’t make that assumption. Gut instinct and observation tells us something different. People are focused on survival; generated a decent income; and maintaining some balance in their world and with neighbors along the block.

This year in our MURL capstone class, and in partnership with WHYY-TV, we'll experiment with some relatively new technology - "datacasting" - to deliver hyper-local news content back into targeted Philadelphia neighborhoods. Our efforts are supported by a "New Voices" grant from the J-Lab at the University of Maryland. The J-lab projects are supported with grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

Over the next year, we'll select two neighborhood locations along Philadelphia’s “golden block.” In partnership with WHYY-TV and using the station’s “datacasting” system, MURL students will send out a hyper-local neighborhood newscast/program/stories targeted to that community. The “datacasting” technology will enable us to send the content directly over the air to rooftop receiving antennaes and down to desktop computer(s) located at the community centers. The program built by Temple University Journalism students - MURL students – will be a mix of multimedia stories and “service news” produced by students and neighborhood “news” stories as seen through the eyes of the residents themselves. Neighborhood residents will use a combination of disposable digital still and video cameras as well as low-end digital audio recorders to tell the multimedia stories of their neighborhood and their “block.” All of this will contribute to building a 360 degree media view of the neighborhood

This MURL brand of news provides a form of hyper-local coverage missing from our urban communities. In an environment of where Journalists are mistrusted and a media that sees the dark side of their neighborhood, a level of transparency is created by this project - we hope.

There it is. This is our start and a place to begin building blocks in the neighborhoods.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

WHYY Studio Visit

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