Final Project Assessment

San Diego Water Shortage Stories

Story

Photo slideshow

Audio show

Reporter's Synopsis

All three stories that I reported on for this project were related to the impending water shortage in San Diego County. Each story touches on a different angle of the problem. The first story, which was written in a standard format, explained the situation and the different elements that contributed to the shortage. The second story, which was a slide show, recapped the situation and also explained the impact the water shortage would have. The third story, which was an audio show, focused on one popular solution that was being explored: recycled wastewater. This included an explanation of what recycled wastewater is and why it is controversial, and included some examples of popular opinion about the program.

Multimedia Experience

Improving understanding of online journalism

The experience of reporting on these stories using various genres of online journalism was most beneficial in that it expanded my awareness of the different ways to report, and the different media uses that could be implemented for a given story. I am a “print” journalist and so my first instinct in reporting is usually the written word. But people are easily bored by print stories, and they usually don’t want to take the time to read words one by one. I think that my slideshow provided a better and more concise explanation of the problem, and is more likely to stick in people’s minds. The audio story provided a unique way to create images in people’s minds as well — drinking recycled toilet water is made more disturbing if you hear the sound of a toilet flushing in the background. Using these different media was more efficient and interesting to my audience, and an online format is unique in its ability to deliver that.

Application of design principles

The design principles we learned during class guided my layout of the story pages I put together. I made sure everything was properly aligned and spaced in order to create a visually pleasing and navigable page. I created a hierarchy using the placement of my links, as well as using headers and subheads to guide users throughout the pages and allow them to “jump” around the content as they wished. Contrast was used to ensure that the page was readable, as well as a way to create a visible difference between various areas of the page — to distinguish between the navigation bar and the content area, for example. Consistency was mostly achieved in using a consistent color scheme of similar “water-like” colors, though the consistent use of fonts also aided in this.

Implementing the appropriate techniques

I made sure to use the appropriate techniques with the appropriate story. For the design assignment and the first story, I made sure to chunk the information into paragraphs for easy scanning. I included links to additional sources for further reading at the bottom of my written story. For the photo story I made sure to edit the photos properly, which in some cases included adding text. And I made sure to get proper permissions from the photographers whose photos I used. For the audio story, I found that I had to cut out a lot of unnecessary “uhm” and “uh” sounds, and other fluff that I was not aware people said as much as they did. My cutting was not always perfect, and sometimes I had to rearrange the words of my subjects who rambled, so that they would make more sense.

Ethical considerations

The biggest ethical consideration I faced was getting permission from the various photographers whose works I used for the slideshow, because I was not able to go to northern California or get a picture of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger myself. It’s very important to give credit where credit is due, so I made sure to get permission by contacting these photographers via email. Making sure to report the truth, creating a forum for public criticism, and making the significant interesting and relevant were also elements that I took special care to include in my reporting and information gathering.

Overcoming challenges

I faced some challenges in getting enough people to talk to me — a lot of people in positions of power are unwilling to talk to students, because they consider it a waste of their time. I was familiar with digital cameras and Photoshop, so the slide show wasn’t that difficult, but the audio was completely new to me. I was not familiar with the difficulties of collecting good audio and editing the samples to be listenable. The audio editing program Audacity was also unfamiliar to me, and thus comparatively difficult.

Choosing amongst various formats

Most stories that are in written format can also be done in a more visual format, be that video, slide show, audio, or some combination of the three. Using written format is best when you need to focus on accuracy and precision, like examining the exact words of a document or law. In most other cases though, another format can be used to tell the story better. You can use the audio format to bring specific people into the story and give them personality by hearing the way they talk — in my audio story, Frankie Stahl has a charming drawl that makes her commentary much more interesting to listen to. You can use pictures to show your audience what they mean rather than waste time explaining it, like in my slide show, when I used a picture of the San Joaquin River Delta, since most people don’t understand the magnitude and complexity of that area.

Ensuring accessibility

My projects are accessible in large part because of their frequent use of text and alternate text for browsing devices. I also made sure that the navigation was in the same place for every page, aside from my intro page, and I made sure that I included navigation links on all the navigation bars.

The best part

I most enjoyed explaining this story to people so I could hear their perspectives on it. Most people are not aware of the water situation in San Diego or how it affects them. I used some of the perspectives I gathered in my audio story. It’s always interesting to hear other people’s points of view, and their different ideas for solving the water problem.