Poynter Reading

I found the reading for this week to be really interesting. It was all about online journalism, the type of project we are about to be working on ourselves, and the creation of Soundslides. For me, personally, I think that the concept of audio slideshows as a form of journalism is extremely interesting. I actually really like the idea. I think that a story can have a greater impact when told by both words and images.

I feel like this technique could very well be the future of journalism. The internet allows quite a bit of flexibility, and slideshows provide a way to present stories in a broader way which incorporates all different types of journalism.

I also really enjoyed reading the interview with Joe Weiss. I understand that the point of the interview was to find out more about his development of Soundslides, but I think that what I got much more out of were his comments about journalism, in general. I found that I could relate to a lot of the things that he had to say. Like, for example, what drew him to journalism in the first place and about how he liked the idea of connecting people to other people. I feel like this is an aspect of journalism that can get forgotten about so quickly, that it was just refreshing to see that people do still believe that. I also like the fact that he developed Soundslides for the sole purpose of helping out fellow journalists.

Also, I won't lie, I was quite drawn to the fact that Weiss was a photojournalist. I liked reading about someone who is doing exactly what I want to be doing. I actually gained a lot of insight into photojournalism as a result of the reading. I especially enjoyed what Weiss had to say about the hope that reporters and photojournalists could eventually work together to create slideshow stories. As much as I think that an image can often speak very well by itself, I also feel that the ability to combine a good print story with a good photo could be an extremely worthwhile talent to have.