Hello, hello! Please do not judge my incoherent sentences right now. It is quite late, the only thing keeping me awake are the Avett Brothers. I’ve been all around Tuscaloosa today. The last few hours of my day were spent in an empty Reese Phifer in 301. And being the only human being in Reese Phifer late at night is quite creepy.

Anyways firstly — look at this guy’s website: Matt Mallam’s Photography. I found it bookmarked in my browser. I think Andrea showed his to me once. His photos are beautiful! Look at his blog, too.

Alright so thanks to Dr. Lowrey’s little list thingie, I decided to take a look at the Center for Digital Storytelling. The CDS is a non-profit organization that tells stories internationally using digital media. They’ve told stories all over the U.S. and all over the world and collaborate with different projects. The way they go about telling these stories is beautiful — they let the people in the stories tell them. I know that sounds like what all journalists do, right? But this is really different. The projects (at least the ones I took a good look at) allow those in the stories to create their own presentations and share their stories in their own way.

First, click the stories tab. These stories are beautiful. One man shares the emotions sofas evoke from him. A woman shares her love for farming, and how she’s always felt connected to the earth. A journalist delves into his family history to learn more about his grandfather and the adventures he had. Each of the stories are slide shows and a question and answer blurb is at the right of the video, which is very cool. But really… look at these stories!

A case study that really caught my attention was The Y.O.U.T.H. Training Project: Current and Former Foster Youth Offer Unique Tangible Help to Social Workers. Click the link to the project’s page after reading a bit of the summary, and be sure to look at the Digital Stories. These are the youth who actually went through the foster care system, and they submitted the pictures and they put together their own presentations. So not only is this project sharing the stories of these people, but they are empowering them — they’ve learned story techniques, too.

The only small criticism I have is that I think they could feature the projects on their main page instead of requiring the reader to click a few links before actually getting to see the results of the collaboration of the CDS and these individual projects. Also, I mean, they could always use more pictures. I know that might not be the ultimate goal of the site, but maybe if they featured a photo from one of the stories or what not … I don’t know. I’m so visually driven. It is a very clean layout though. I mean don’t get me wrong. It is nice.

So yeah …

Stories I’m working on:

* For my assistantship with CCBP, I’m doing a story about the Rural Scholars Program. It’s a program at UA that recruits students from rural parts of Alabama that are interested in practicing in rural hospitals. I got to talk to the founder, Dr. John Wheat, about the program this morning. The idea is that they raise homegrown doctors, since most medical programs turn people into city folk, as he put it. The type of training doctors in rural areas receive is unique, too. I’ll show the final product when I’m done with it.

* For my Bragg story, I’m writing about Donna Scott, a server at our IHop here in Tuscaloosa. She’s a beautiful, sweet woman who was gracious enough to share her story with me.

Oh I’m impressed with myself. I wrote a lot. See you all in the morning!

Two posts in a row!

Nonprofit group comes to homeless family’s aid

From Latimes.com: Bessie Mae Berger, 97, and her son Charlie in their Chevy Suburban. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

This story isn’t exactly current. It’s about a month old. But I came across this original story of 97-year-old Bessie Mae Berger, who was homeless. The story and the video especially brought tears to my eyes as I imagined this woman spending every night in the front seat of an old car, longing for a warm bed, while her two sons who take care of her sleep in the back. (The video is also quite well done. I guess I enjoy more than ever looking at videos and slideshows thanks to our Media Production Tools class.) I searched the story online to find it again, when I found that thanks to the story, the three of them did find a home. Even though their living arrangements are temporary right now, it’s just a lovely reminder of what telling someone’s story can do.

This woman’s life should be made into a book. Imagine living through so much.

npr.org: 'This I Believe' [Eve Birch on 'The Art of Being a Neighbor

Anyways, I saw my boyfriend browsing though this page though I can’t remember why he was, and it caught my attention. The ‘This I Believe’ collection of essays — though they’ve stopped producing them, unfortunately — are personal accounts of morals and values, why people live life they way they do. The show was originally aired in the 1950s and hosted by Edward R. Murrow. Public figures, including Helen Keller, Jackie Robinson, and Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as people cab drivers, secretaries and other members of the community shared their personal philosophies, according to thisibelieve.org.

In 2004, This I Believe, Inc. was founded as a non-profit organization. And personal essays were shared each week until its last broadcast was aired in April of this year. Still, archives are online of recent stories and interviews from when the show was originally aired, from an author sharing how he’s inspired to write; to Eve Birch’s story on how she lost absolutely everything, made a home for herself in an abandoned shack, and relied on the love of her neighbors; and how a 12-year-old girl took comfort in The Beatles after the loss of her father.

npr.og: Macklin Levine shares her belief in The Beatles.

The Beatles/ Getty Images -- npr.org

What I like so much about this page of NPR’s site is that they encourage educators to use these essays in their curriculum. There’s an middle school, high school, and college guide for educators. Also, each story has a radio broadcast and a print copy of the essay. And if visitors to the site would like, they can click through old archives of the show. The only thing about going through the archives is that I can’t seem to figure out a way to search to find an interview, though they’ve put very interesting ones on the first page. Also, of course it would add more to the story if more pictures could be available. Most of the time there’s just a mug of the person telling the story.

This is a wonderful idea for community journalism. Allowing members of the community to share their beliefs can unite them. It brings us closer to understanding each other — which I believe is one of the goals the media should have within a community. I think any community newspaper could truly benefit from a series like this one.

I wish this series was still going on, and I’m sad I discovered it so late. But if you have the time to browse through these stories, I think you might really enjoy it.

Gail Albert Halabam/ NY Times

I stumbled across this unique story in the New York Times about what it’s like to live in a stack of apartments in New York City, while observing the people who live on top of you, below you, and right outside your window. I liked the story, but I really enjoyed the slide show. The photos are beautiful and it’s really well done. When you go through life seeing the same people every day — people you don’t talk to — it’s so easy for them to sometimes become… less real, if that doesn’t sound too horrible. It is as if they are just another component of your day, just a familiar face along the way. But I think this story sort of helps remind us that we all have our own things to do, our own lives to live. And just watching people for a short while lets us learn a whole lot about them.

During my research for my history paper today (topic: Coverage of Crime in 1955-1965), I came across this interesting fact in a footnote. A 1964 Chilean law attempted to curb “sensationalistic” crime coverage by forbidding any coverage that “gave prominence to crime or criminals,” articles that exceeded 500 words, headlines that spread over more than three columns and that were printed in larger type OR in different color type from the rest of the paper. Radio and TV weren’t allowed to allot more than three minutes of news on a crime story per hour of broadcasting.

Oh, and jail sentences for violating this law were up to three years. My goodness.

Here’s the Soundslides presentation for my story on Galilee Baptist Church and the work they are doing in their community after the church was burned to the ground three years ago. Galilee was one of nine rural churches that fell victim to arson in 2006.

Galilee Baptist Church — Soundslides Presentation

After a long day of history homework, finishing a theory critique, and editing a Soundslides project in the 301 lab, I have crawled into the warm refuge of my bed, peacefully listening to the beautiful sounds of the website Folk Songs for the Five Points — http://www.tenement.org/folksongs/client/

I know Dr. Lowrey showed us this site in class the first week of media production tools (I actually can’t believe how long ago that feels now. It’s hard to believe this semester has happened as quickly as it has), but I wanted to revisit it, because I’ve found myself revisiting this site several times.

This is truly an innovative way of digital story telling. The main page is a map of New York City’s Lower East Side. There are five points that are highlighted on the map, but you can drag them to wherever you like. Each point features a sound — whether it’s an elderly resident sharing her story, a leaking fire hydrant, a folk artist strumming a guitar, or a family-owned deli — that actually do come from those locations on the map.

This is one of a few Folk Songs projects created in association with the Tenement Museum’s Digital Artists in Residents Program (http://www.tenement.org/prog_darp.html). I’ve also discovered sound maps of five different cities in Portugal and one of Manchester, England.

The ultimate goal is to explore immigration. Their goal, as the Folk Songs for the Five Points site says, isn’t to provide answers, but to “celebrate the unexpected richness that confronts you at every turn.”

And Folk Songs encourages interaction on their site. They want to know if people have any sound recording to contribute, or ideas for recordings if they lack the equipment. They also allow people to save their own mixes they’ve created, and a list of some of their favorites are in a link under the “Get Involved” tab.

This site does not indicate that these are professional journalists running it, or anything, or that they are seeking to uphold any journalistic standards in their storytelling. This isn’t a place where you’ll find hard-hitting journalism, but its goal is simply to tell the stories of the people around us, which I think it accomplishes effectively.

While this site does focus on sound — which, when you think about it, isn’t usually the way we observe a culture, by simply listening to it—  it does incorporate some visual aspects. When you click on the points across the map, an image will show up on the right side bar with a bit of information about the location. One thing they do very well is the diversity in the sounds they collect. Also, they don’t have regulated times for each of the sound clips. Some are longer than others, to give each sound “its own pulse.”

If only we could do this in Tuscaloosa. And I say that with all seriousness. I would love to delve into a project like this. Imagine sounds of students on the Quad, interviews with people riding the Tuscaloosa Trolley, plates heavy with miraculous food being set onto tables at the Waysider, the wind brushing through the trees by the Black Warrior River, a train chugging through the middle of town, and locals browsing for fresh fruits and vegetables at the farmers markets.

I think the Folk Songs Project has found a truly inspiring way to capture the beauty and the diversity of culture and society. And I think doing a project like this in Tuscaloosa would reveal to so many people how unique the culture is here.

The second annual Community Culture Fest was held yesterday in Downtown Northport. Though I didn’t get to stay too long, I took some pictures of everything. Here’s the Tnews’ article: http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20091102/NEWS/911019961/1007?Title=Culture-Fest-draws-crowd-to-downtown-Northport

Volunteers spun cotton candy, children bounced down moonwalk slides and created their own art at Kentuck for Kids, while families gathered and listened to the musical stylings of the Alabama Blues Project. There was a whole assortment of music, including a Mariachi Band, which, unfortunately, I could not stick around to hear, free food, art and information on outreach programs for the  community. Last year the event was held at the newly-opened McKenzie Courts and drew a huge crowd with Ruben Studdard as the headlining act. There was a lot of diversity in the music they had this year. And Downtown Northport is a beautiful place to have an event.

My friend Andrea had (has?) this as her Internet home page: A Photo A Day

It’s a place where photojournalists can exchange images daily and they feature just one a day that is particularly fabulous.

Glimpse shares pictures of travels like this one (though this was actually taken by me and is not published on Glimpse), the Ex-Carcel in Valparaiso, Chile — an ex-prison now covered in art.

It’s pretty easy for me to put off other things I have to do once I’ve stumbled onto Glimpse (www.glimpse.org). It’s a National Geographic site that allows writers to share their experiences in other countries to sort of provide an understanding of different cultures. Anyone who gets chills learning about the different ways things are done across the globe can certainly devote a good amount of time to the stories, photos and blogs on this website.

What makes Glimpse so effective as a digital storytelling medium is how interactive it is. It hosts bloggers. Anyone traveling abroad for at least 10 weeks can apply to be a blogger. They must submit clips, a resume, recommendations and a cover letter, and it’s a pretty selective process. Blogs from travelers in different areas are archived so someone interested in a particular country can find them. Users can comment on blogs and respond to questions on forums.

What Glimpse does well:

-       It’s visual. Check out the winners of their Cultural Explorer’s photo contest. Some of those images are just spectacular. They put you where the picture was taken, and they help you understand the culture just a little bit better. Most feature stories are accompanied by slide shows, too.

-       It fuels conversation. Glimpse will propose ethical dilemmas while abroad, like how to handle cultural differences from religion to dating to manners, etc. Also they tackle some journalism topics, like how to go about taking pictures of people, for those who aren’t trained in journalism ethics.

-       It’s interactive. An interactive map allows one to find stories by location. If you’re interested in learning about Thailand or Argentina or Morocco just click on the country to delve into the culture about that particular area. Also, all over the site are users encouraged to contribute themselves. Glimpse has also embraced Twitter and allows users to follow them there.

What Glimpse could do better:

-       It could include more video and sound. While it’s likely many of their contributors aren’t trained in these areas, surely there are some that are. They could require their bloggers to have that experience so sound and video could add some more depth to the stories they have.

-       Journalists do not necessarily write the stories. Glimpse says they look for those who have a “knack for story telling.” So it’s likely certain ethics aren’t always being practiced.

-       The stories will more than often highlight people, places, and personal experiences, and focus less  on issues within those cultures. They might touch on some issues sometimes, but the primary goal of the site is to simply create an understanding of other cultures. Trained journalists might tackle these issues a little more in depth.

Overall I think Glimpse takes a neat approach in storytelling. Their goal is to get first person accounts of experiences, and they feature stories of writers who get connected to certain people or issues. They are selective in the material they publish, so the content is not completely dictated by the users.

And if you’d like, read this beautiful photo story I found about cartoneros — Chileans who sift through trash to collect recyclables so that they can make a living.

http://glimpse.org/stories/view/the-upstanding-citizens-who-rummage-through-my-trash/