Send to Friend

From	To
Email: * First Name: Last Name: Send a copy to myself	Email: * First Name: Last Name:

Proposal from knightcontest.com

Message Text:

Flash Storytelling Templates

Primary Contact Name

Mr. Russell Chun

Describe your project

Flash is an authoring platform used to create interactive, multimedia features on the web. However, independent, freelance multimedia storytellers, new graduates from Journalism schools, and students often lack the Flash programming and development support required for them to create their stories. Although they may possess the conceptual skills and an understanding of the multimedia tools and processes, actual hands-on production within the Flash application is limited—and for good reason, as their focus is on the narrative and not the tools. But for the independent multimedia journalists, hiring a Flash programmer is prohibitively expensive. Subscription-based commercial services that enable template-driven Flash content (such as Brightcove’s Storymaker) is difficult to access. Many rely on an assortment of free online widgets to integrate media, such as YouTube for video, or Picasa for slideshows, which are not specific to the journalist. Other online tools that are marketed for the journalist, such as SoundSlides or SlideShowPro, offer limited solutions to the problem. We propose to address this need by establishing an online site for Flash storytelling templates that is free, open-source, specific to the needs of the multimedia journalist, and based on community participation and collaboration. The templates will be geared for the journalist with a working knowledge of Flash. Users will not create Flash content from a web interface or from a stand-alone application, but will download source files to manipulate and use directly in the Flash environment. The site will provide opportunity for the community to comment on existing templates, suggest new ones, contribute their own templates, and showcase work that was created with the templates. Although the site will be national in scope, the templates would be used and modified at a local level, allowing journalists within specific communities to have access to multimedia storytelling tools and bring to life those “smaller” stories.

Primary Contact Email

russell_chun@yahoo.com

Organization or Business Name

Columbia U. and CUNY Grad School of Journalism

Who would want to use it and why?

Independent journalists and journalism students would benefit most from this online resource. Smaller community news sites and ethnic presses would also use the resource. They don't have the Flash development support that comes with working in a large corporate setting or newsroom.

Why are you the best person or organization to develop this project?

As Adjunct Professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, I teach multimedia storytelling and online skills. I've also taught at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, trained mid-career journalists at the Knight-sponsored new media workshops, and have been a multimedia consultant and Flash trainer for News21 2007, a nation-wide initiative to improve journalism education. Based on this extensive teaching and consulting experience, I know the kinds of interactive and media templates that students and new graduates need, and the form in which it could best serve them. Moreover, I've written five technical books on advanced Flash, so I have the knowledge to develop the templates.

U.S. State

Country

United States

What potentially bigger thing might happen if everything went perfectly and the stars all aligned?

Two outcomes would happen. First, as more journalists and budding journalists use these Flash templates, I expect more sophisticated, interactive, and media-rich stories that otherwise would not have had a chance to see the light of day, be developed and posted on the web. Smaller, community news sites or ethnic news sites would now have access to tools to explore the issues that interest their readers, and give them a voice in the multimedia sphere. Second, as the site aggregates the feature needs and desires of the community, we can advance the functionality of multimedia templates—moving beyond the standard staple of preloaders, audio players, and slideshow tools—to explore novel ways to tell stories.

How will you be able to measure whether or not your project has really made a difference?

We would measure success by the number of visitors to the site, the number of downloads of our templates, the number of comments on the templates, and the amount of postings that showcase the use of our templates in real stories.

Web site

http://www.russellchun.com

Requested amount from Knight News Challenge

$90000

What unmet need does your proposal answer?

Independent, freelance multimedia storytellers, new graduates from Journalism schools, Journalism students, and smaller news sites do not have access to Flash programming and development support required for them to create media-rich stories. This proposal answers this unmet need. This proposal provides the multimedia templates that help the smaller, independent, and local organizations and individuals.

Total cost of project, including all sources of funding

$90000

What specific, unique opportunity do you see that will make this project more successful than others trying to fill that general

There are no other initiatives trying to fill this need. Sites that provide Flash templates are expensive subscription-based Flash content generation and hosting sites that serve larger corporations (National Geographic, Showtime, Discovery Channel, etc.). Other sites that provide templates and tools are not free. The remaining templates that are free are not geared specifically for the journalist or storyteller. Moreover, the sharing and community-feedback model that we propose will make our solution unique.

Expected amount of time to complete project (in whole years):

1years

How will people learn about what you are doing?

Primarily through the academic community, as I teach at the Journalism schools at Columbia and CUNY, and have connections with other major Journalism schools (Berkeley, Northwestern, USC). My students would be the first user group.

Do you have any other funding or investment? We’re interested in knowing who else is interested in your project.

I have no other funding or investment.

Are you working with anyone else to complete this project? If so, please give names and what they would do?

Currently, I am working alone to start this project.

Who else is working in this area? How does your work fit into the larger context of work in this area?

There are many journalists and news organizations using Flash, as it is the de facto standard for presenting multimedia packages, video, audio, and slideshows. However, very few journalists are adept at the programming and design aesthetic required to build custom projects from scratch. At many journalism schools, including the ones I’ve taught (Columbia, Berkeley, and at CUNY), we’ve recognized the importance of learning the Flash application, but struggle to maintain the right balance of conceptual new media skills (the mind-set) and the technical information (the skill-set) while still providing core journalistic practices. This proposal addresses this larger question of “how much Flash does a journalist need to know?” by providing a “middle-ground” solution—templates that can be used, understood, and modified by journalists that have a basic knowledge of the program.

What do you guarantee will happen if you complete the activities in this proposal?

I guarantee that there will be a website established with free, downloadable Flash templates for journalists (primarily students, freelancers, and small local or ethnic organizations) to use to produce multimedia packages. The website will provide opportunities for the community to comment, rate, and share their own templates, showcase uses of the current templates, and make suggestions for improvements and new templates.