blackandbrownnews.com

blackandbrownnews.com

As we learned in class online journalism is made up of not just text on the screen or on your digital media device, it has multi-media elements. These elements can consist of a photography, info-graphics, video, sound recordings, etc. There seems to be no limit to how you can cove a story in the new world of online journalism. For this newborn child of media the field is wide open. So how does an online media outlet traverse this new arena and deal with this fast changing landscape of digital media? Even more than that how does a online media outlet that serves a minatory community deal with it? For an answers to that other questions and more I turn to Blackandbrownnew.com and it publisher and founder Sharon Toommer.

As journalism evlousi   some people see blogs as the voice of the community as community in a sense. How do you think that is going to fit ?

Sharon: Not all blogs are equal some are escordinary well written well information pieces. Always what our concern is and what my concern is not just with blog but with new in general I see journalistic outlets doing it, the passing around of bad information. But I think there is place for voices that we never heard from before.  

Why separate yourself (blackandbrownnews.com) from a blog?

There are principles of journalism. We have writers that write stream of consciousness and that’s what   bog is. But we go thou the steps of vetting and not all blogs do that. Blog you can just in front of you computer and write whatever you want and its your fact. But its not really your fact, you did have al the information you didn’t check with as many sides as possible. In opinion is different from reporting. There is editorial and there is reporting I think reporting is still a necessary part of the democracy.

Who is doing it well?

We have writer that I like a lot Dádìsì Idọwú Ọlùwátọsìn and I like him because he is very careful. He is an option writer he write commentary but he treats it as very important rule and so he is careful in not what he say or how he says, if he is citing facts he has done the do diligent. If he is making statements he is backing it up. I think all of that is very important partially with a community that suffers from to much bad information. We are inundated with a lot of lifestyle like entertainment so we need creditable information. You know be creditable.

What biggest lesson you have learned via technology?

Always stay I mean this notation of putting it out there and just seeing how it goes. Always be looking be nimble be really flexible flexible and not so wedded to any one thing, because things are rapidly changing. I hear it referred to as the wild wild west and it is. So if your stagnate you just become irrelevant. So always be open. Even if it’s something I would wan to do I always have people that say way we should do it and that helps us to stay relevant.

A lot the rules of online journalism are still be written. How is this effecting what you are doing?

I stick with the core (principles). Yes you have a online publication and you can publishing ever hour. But we don’t have the capacity for that.  There use to be a time back in the olden days when people would get their news once week. Hence we have the Brooklyn town crier. But I think if you stick with these core principles then there is so much more that you can toy with and that you always keep the reader best interest ahead of yours. Any example is that we are not going to get the story first but we do want to get it right.  We might be a day late but we don’t want to be the once correcting what we wrote the day before.  And that is more challenging in this arena of  it happened a minute ago and its already out there. An example was and this is relatively old example was Michele Jackson’s death. We kept on hearing conflicting reports is he dead or is he alive. So we didn’t post it until the medial examiner (said he was dead). Not when TMZ put it out but when the medial examiner. Not saying that TMZ doesn’t get it right because a lot of the time they do.  But how they get their information. They pay for their information that is not a principle of journalism. But you know we are moving into that arena where these intuitions are paying. But you have to question when exchanges (hands).                     

FUNDING Part 1

             FUNDING Part 1     

      

Project funding was the topic of the April 10,2012 StoryCode Immersions at the Film Society Lincoln Center. The immersions hosts were Mike Knowlton of StoryCode and Sparrow Hall Author and New Media Innovator.  Done in two parts, Knowlton’s presentation was focused on the providing an overview of funding, Hall jumped in for part two of the immersions talking about brands. That being said I’m going to break this blog posting into two separate posts so I can cover both aspects of the immersion adequately. Lets start with first kind of funding anyone ever has self-funding.

SELF-FUNDING

Just as the name says self-funding come from you. You are taking your hard earned money and putting it into a transmedia project. When self-funding consider putting together several different budget. Really learn how to work a budget. Ask other people that have self-funded projects about what the have learned about how to use their own money. Sharing what you doing in a open source, meet up environment is all so help to self-funders.

CROWD SOURCE

A new trend in funding is Crowd Source funding. This is when you get a group of people that you don’t know donate money to your project’s goal. You have a certain amount of time to reach this goal. If you reach the goal amount in the allotted time you get the money. If you don’t you get nothing. Two of the biggest crowned sourcing web sites are indie go-go (indiegogo.com) and kickstarter (kickstarter.com).  A first glance they both look almost the same the theoretically. But big different between the two are how much money they take from you’re the funding.  Indie go-go takes 9% if goal not met; 4% if met. Kickstarter only funds if met, at 5%. But you really need good strategies to get people to notice you project. One is to ask people early in the week. Researching, having a team, an amazing video, having your campaign come out in phases, partnering people that make you project more visible is also effective.

INVESTORS/ VENTER CAPITALS (VCs)

When using investors/VCs remember that it is more about value position and less about story. Perfect your elevator pitch to take advantage of sudden opportunities. Preparing an investor deck will show that you are thinking with an investors/VCs mind and will separate you from others. Investors/VCs are less likely to fund experiments so business model is paramount. Showcasing any new technology that you inventing is always attractive especially if you can use in any future projects.

MARKETS

Markets are events where you pay to shop you project for funding to possible funders. Examples of markets are Power to the Pixel - Pixel Market and the BANFF Co-Production and Co-Venture Business Market. When dealing with markets you should expectations that a realistic. Have Headphone if you plan on playing you trailer or video.

CONFERENCES

Now I know the sound crazy but your goal at conferences are to increase your contacts so you can follow towards setting up meeting that could get you funding. This is also a good place for your evaluator pitch. Some upcoming conferences included StoryWorld - SF in 2011, LA in 2012, Ad: Tech - Fall NY / Spring SF, Digital Hollywood - Fall NY / Spring LA, and StoryCodes own Hackathons - TechCrunch / StoryCode in May 2012.

GRANTS / LABS

Getting funding from grants and Labs are very difficult in the U.S. doe to stiff competition. Canada and Europe on the other hand has government allocated   funding transmedia projects so you should consider bringing in a Canadian Co-production. Some leads for grants are http://creative-capital.org, Tribeca New Media Fund, Sundance New Frontiers. If you thinking about going the Canada and Europe route you can information on the  http://kulturvulturz.tumblr.com/post/12332547408/where-i-correct-the-rumors-regarding-transmedia-money blog.

In Funding Part 2 I break down Sparrow Hall's half the Immersion where he talks about funding working with brands.