Free resource: Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency

Noted journalism educator Mindy McAdams has collected 15 of her blog posts on multimedia journalism into the “Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency.” The free 42-page PDF document is available in English and Spanish and is “fully linked and usable online in most Web browsers, or in Adobe Reader, or in Preview on the Mac OS.” Invaluable for the next generation of journalists!

Good tutorial for adding audio clips to stories

Here’s a great little tutorial to help students embed audio clips in their online stories: “How to Embed MP3 Audio Files In Web Pages With Google or Yahoo! Flash Player”

Journalistic recording rules

Geanne Rosenberg explains the basic rules and ethical values of citizen journalism in regards to recording audio and video. Issues discussed include private property, privacy, public forums (places where journalist are free to record), government rules in dealing with the media, personal intrusion, and how to deal with children. Important facts about recording of phone conversations are included in the article. Rosenberg notes:

In terms of recording of conversations, some states within the U.S. are one-party states that allow a person who is a party to a conversation to record that conversation without the knowledge of other participants. Other states are all-party states that require that all parties to a conversation know about or consent to any taping. Eavesdropping and surveillance can also lead to criminal and civil sanctions.