[powerpress]
This podcast is a preview for a project I’m working on.
(The quality in this ‘cast isn’t “all there,” I recorded it late at night in my closet without a filter)
I won third place for investigative journalism from the Illinois Collegiate Press Association last week for an article about greenwashing. I’m revisiting the project to turn it into a full digital journalism package. I’m looking to incorporate video, photo galleries and link narration.
I’m fired up. I think this will be a fun little distraction for me and a nice attempt at an independent journalism package.
Please, if you know anything about greenwashing or environment-based advertising, or know somebody that does, get in touch with me.
I’m definitely open to any ideas or suggestions.
If you think this is a cool idea, whether the story concept or the journalism concept, feel free to float a link around to your friends, I’d appreciate it.
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Good morning good afternoon and good evening, ladies and gentlemen! I’m Brandon bringing you the first “official” Walldo dot net podcast. I want to give you a quick preview of a project I am working on that I’m pretty excited about. It’s an investigative journalism package experiment. First, let me give you a little backstory.
About a year and a half ago I wrote an investigative article on “greenwashing” – basically deceptive advertising revolving around the premise of ‘environmental friendliness’. It was the final piece I wrote for my ‘newswriting’ class and I was pretty critical of it, as I usually am with the things I write.
We ran it in the school paper in December of 2008 and I pretty much forgot about it until this past fall, when we submitted it to the Illinois College Press Association’s annual awards for journalism.
Fast forward to last week, and the piece ended up winning third place for investigative journalism. I was shocked, but not surprised.
One thing I originally wanted to do with the piece was make it more than just a print article, I wanted it to be a multimedia project. That never really got off the ground, but the recent attention my article got has re-sparked the concept in my head.
So right now I’m sitting on a 2,000 word article, the basic foundation of the package. It’s not just going to be a wall of text, though. I am going to supplement it with link journalism – if I reference a quote or fact, I am going to try and link it to a source wherever and whenever possible. I’m going to include a list of related links and “further readings” on the topic. The idea is to build almost a miniature network within this package.
Beyond that, we start to delve into the “multimedia” aspect. Photo galleries and images are obviously a big part of the multimedia package and I intend to have those. There are a couple themes in the article that lend themselves especially well to photo galleries, and I’m excited to piece those together. I thought about doing an audio slideshow, but I don’t think running commentary would fit in well with the themes.
I have a bunch of short youtube videos that supplement the written word. Instead of just throwing a bunch of embeds into the article I think I’m going to have a go at editing them all together into its own little informative package. I’m toying with the idea of creating a podcast on the topic, a quick 5-10 minute podcast that summarizes the major points and incorporates sound bytes.
The project is still several weeks away from completion. The article is written, I’m just doing some basic revisions and clarifying some concepts. I’m about 40% done with supplementing it with links. I have a metric TON of images to sort through (its a big internet out there). The podcast and video are all theoretical at this point.
That about wraps it up. I’m excited about this project. Please, if you know anything about greenwashing or environment-based advertising, or know somebody that does, get in touch with me.
I’m definitely open to any ideas or suggestions.
If you think this is a cool idea, whether the story concept or the journalism concept, feel free to float a link around to your friends, I’d appreciate it. Thanks for listening in.
