Week 6: Clear Images, Audio, Video

MULTImedia!!!

All of the concepts presented this week in lecture were clear. I am a multimedia journalist. Let's face it, every journalist today must be, or will be in the future. Especially the photographers. I am photojournalist first and foremost, however, I have to be adept at videography, audio and putting journalistic multimedia packages together for the Web. The College of Journalism and Communications just recently just opened its multimedia portal for students called CMIR.

I normally upload my photographs in iPhoto, however I want to get Aperture and I have heard great reviews on Adobe Bridge as well. So, I may switch over. I edit in Adobe Photoshop, which you can buy as a student and get the student discount. The format I mainly use is jpg. Even though it is a lossy format, which compresses the image and loses a little bit of data every time, it is still the standard format in the photojournalistic world.
For audio Audacity is a great, free software program. I have used it many times to edit audio for slideshows, to make recordings and to produce some great audio for my multimedia projects.

In video I am the least proficient, so it was interesting to learn about the inter-frame compression. This is a lossy format that transfers only the moving data from frame to frame. It is quite efficient because it does not transfer that static pixels. If there is a stationary object, and someone jumping around. The pixels are not moving around the stationary object so they are not transferred but the jumper is. It is called macroblocked. Only one block of moving data is transmitted. This helps in sending compressed videos.
Also, the standard now is to save your videos with the H.264 format so that it can be viewed more easily on mobile devices. Let's face it, we are a mobile world and businesses are mobile as well. So, you must cater to clients and partners who want to view your videos with ease.

Businesses rely on multimedia heavily. If it is only a slideshow on their web site or a commercial slot in the SuperBowl multimedia represents a company in today's world. It shows who they are, it can demonstrate a product, aid in a presentation, land that giant client or allow them to expand their markets.
The journalistic world relies on multimedia now more than ever. Our world is compressed just like the photos, video and audio because of the way we share things through multimedia. Think if the news didn't use multimedia. We would still be sitting down every morning to go through the print newspaper. Multimedia enhances our productivity and allows us to reach across the globe.

The Video above demonstrates what multimedia is. You have probably already watched it, but I thought it was useful to demonstrate all the amazing things that can come out of just photos, video and audio.

Below is some of my multimedia.