Notes From The Field

Hyperstyle or doing something different with the humble hyperlink

Let's face it, for online journalism any content management system that doesn't offer the possibility to add hyperlinks or embed multimedia content directly into the body of the text needs to be quietly packed off to the archives for the big sleep.

Still, they are plenty of media outlets using their same old CMS and my sympathies are offered to journalists working on them. But frustration often leads journalists to take matters into their own hands and go "off the reservation" to find more pleasant digital lands in the form of off the shelf blogs such as Wordpress. Perhaps not such a bad thing... why wait for something to happen if you have ideas for a multimedia reporting project?

However, if your CMS offers you a few tricks, maybe something more could done with the humble hyperlink?

I'm sure the deep thinking web designer set and code crew have been pondering such things far longer than your correspondent. Innovative ways of making multimedia within a page more dynamic or interactive is certainly already on the way with tablets and the iPad.

I'm actually thinking of something quite simple - a blend of style guide and multimedia. We can already produce a hyperlink in bold, italics or underline, or in different colours (maybe your media outlet has a style guide for applying hyperlinks?) So, why not use a specific colour or type of text to indicate to readers that there's something else going on there apart from linking through to more information on another page? For instance, a red coloured hyperlink on a key word might indicate that part of a story is live - say a link through to live-streaming video from a reporter. Or, it might indicate that the reporter has just updated that particularly point raised in the story with new information - a tweet, photo or a short Audioboo update.

Here's another possibility. Perhaps 'a slightly different shade of colour' in a direct quote might indicate to the reader that the hyperlink contains raw audio or video from the interview that was the source of the quote. A pop up, hover or active mouse-over function might be a useful tool in these cases - immediately playing the content when your mouse or finger rolls over that word - no actually clicking though. It's function that you often see on lots of websites or in flash presentations.

It's also common to see media websites adding value to a story page - by either embedding a clip or including related links at the bottom of a text story or in margins is a common practice. Depending on a website's CMS I sometimes find it a little bit of a chore to scroll all the way down a page to find links.

There is of course an aesthetic quality to consider as well. Is it pleasing to the eye and easy to read?

I wouldn't want to see, let alone read a text splattered with so much colour that made it difficult to read. But maybe a few well chosen hyperlink features might warrant an experiment or looking at your online style guide for hyperlinks in a new light.

Outside of flash presentations, I'd be curious to see any journalism examples of where hyperlinks or pop up hyperlinks are doing a little more on a page than linking through to more content.

Are you "tech-comfy" or "tech-savvy" ?

In a past life, chalk, talk and marking essays was my trade as a school teacher, so I was more than a little intrigued by Mark Pegrum's new book From Blogs to Bombs - The Future of Digital Technologies in Education. I also wondered if the book might offer some insight into the future of digital technologies in journalism. 

From Blogs to Bombs did not disappoint and proved it's not just a book for teachers or academics. In fact, I'd recommend this very readable book to anyone trying to make sense of the implications of digital technologies in our lives. Hacks too. And yes, that includes dear colleagues who might still be struggling to attach a document to an email or who haven't quite got around to all that social media and collaborative Web 2.0 stuff.

Mark Pegrum is an Assistant Professor at The University of Western Australia and lectures in e-learning. He stresses that education and digital technology is not just seeing education through digital technologies but must encompass education about digital technologies and their effects.

To help do this, Pegrum offers the reader a model of five "lenses" to view digital technologies - technological, pedagogical, social, sociopolitical and ecological. When teaching about digital technologies, Pegrum says educators have a responsibility to help students appraise new tools through these lenses - each lens revealing different storytelling possibilities and different limitations.

However, it was his chapter on the many forms of digital literacies and the technology skills both students and teachers should develop that made me sit up and see plenty of overlap from education into media and especially journalism training.

In education, Pegrum says there's an opportunity to combine the "greater technological literacy" of more "tech-comfy" students with the experience of a more "tech-savvy" teacher.

"To borrow two expressions from Gavin Dudeney, we need to distinguish between being 'tech-comfy' (which we might define as having the technological literacy to use a wide array of digital tools, especially for everyday social and entertainment purposes) and being 'tech-savvy' (having a grasp of technology's implications together with the range of digital literacies necessary to use key tools effectively for educational and professional purposes)."

Pegrum goes further (pointing to Mark Prensky's Programing is the New Literacy) and sets out the case for teachers and students to become familiar with reading, writing and modifying computer code. Those without code literacy Pegrum says, may well find themselves restricted to commercial or prepackaged options on web applications instead of being able to customize open source alternatives.

"This isn't about IT teachers and IT students. It's about IT as a core skill for all teachers and all students. It may well represent the biggest challenge yet for today's teachers and more than a few of today's students, but the literacy landscape of the future will be shaped mainly by those who can adapt - starting now."

One could well say the same for journalists or anyone contemplating a career in media. And membership of the Generation-Y digital tribe doesn't always mean you're an instant digital media ninja.

Flicking through apps on my mobile phone, and wondering about what digital tablets or the iPad has in store for journalism, From Blogs to Bombs has made me think again about what skills I may need to be "tech-savvy" as a journalist, content creator and trainer. Even more so as a freelancer - professional development is in my own hands.

From Blogs to Bombs is well referenced and covers Web 2.0 tools and significant events and the big discussions involving technology and social media up to mid-July 2009. It is also due to be released as an e-book and will be available for Kindle. Fortunately for updates, Mark Pegrum has a E-language wiki and tweets via @ozmark17 .

(Book cover UWAP)

Using the iPhone and FiRe audio recorder app

While I was in Iraqi Kurdistan in January, my scheduled return flight from Diyarbakir to Istanbul was cancelled forcing me to cut my trip short and cross the border back into Turkey. The upshot was I had a day spare to explore Diyarbakir, meet some Kurdish friends and pick up two kilims waiting for me near the big mosque. But, as it turned out, I also found a good topic for a short radio feature and to use my iPhone as a mobile audio recorder.

Shortly before lunch time on January 23 I spotted people gathering for a demonstration in the square opposite the Veni Vedi Hospital. My hotel was close by, and rather than lugging my large Sony Z1 video camera out on a rainy day, I decided to go mobile and take just a couple of lightweight gadgets just in case anything interesting sparked up at the demo.

So I grabbed a short Sennheiser ME-64 microphone and external mic cable to use with my iPhone 3GS and a small backup power pack. As usual, I also had my a Canon G10 compact camera in a hip pouch.

The demonstration was a good opportunity to talk to some Kurdish human rights activists I had previously made contact with and I asked them about the case of Muharrem Erbey - a prominent human rights lawyer who was arrested in December last year. They offered to take me to the offices of the local Human Rights Association and speak with Erbey's defence lawyer. It sounded like a good opportunity to find out more.

Thinking that I might be able to produce a short radio package, I launched the FiRe audio recording app on my iPhone, plugged in the external mic and got to work gathering audio materials as well as taking photos.

FiRe has a relatively easy interface to navigate through settings and can record in a variety of audio flavours. So far I've only used FiRe's most basic recording and playback functions but there are enough technical settings to tinker with to satisfy most audiophiles. For USD$10.00 it's not a bad app to think about if you're looking at the iPhone for a portable audio recorder.

As for the external mic, I find the Sennheiser ME-64 a little "hot" on sound levels with the iPhone and that took a little care to monitor in a loud crowd of chanting people with megaphones. It was also a windy day so I placed a Koala Fluffy MiniMax on the mic to prevent any wind distortion.

Later, recording interviews in the HRA office was no problem. And, despite making long interviews because I needed to capture translations "on tape", I still had plenty of power left in the iPhone.

The FiRe app offers the option to transfer or upload audio files via wifi to the FTP server of your choice or via SoundCloud. Both of those options are fantastic, particularly to FTP audio direct to a broadcaster. Another option is to use the app's browser access function via wifi. You can either transfer audio from the iPhone to your notebook over a local wifi network or create a 'computer to computer' network. I used the latter method with my MacBook Pro and iPhone in Airplane mode and downloaded the files via the Safari browser and Bonjour.

Back in Bonn, and wondering why I bought two kilims, I managed to file this piece for Inside Europe just a couple of hours before escaping to Japan and Australia for a break. In fact I was in such a hurry that I didn't bother to search for a printer but dashed to the studio and read the script direct from the iPhone. Overall it was another good test for using a mobile phone as a reporting tool. Together with apps such as Audioboo and FiRe, I'd certainly use my iPhone to gather audio material for broadcast in the future.

Click to listen

Living the American Dream in Iraqi Kurdistan

Ibrahim Abdullatif looks the part of a modern American businessman. Dressed in a suit and tie, he checks his email on an iPhone and drives to the large fitness centre he operates in a late model SUV. The 31-year old's cheerful accent speaks of Nashville, Tennessee, but the small Kurdish flag pinned to his lapel gives away why he's come from America to run a business in a country where others would not dare to.

 

Abdullatif was born, not far from Dohuk, in a cave where his parents took shelter while their village was attacked by the Iraqi army. Like many rural Kurds, Abdullatif's family led a traditional life raising goats. That changed in 1987 when Saddam Hussein's notorious al-Anfal campaign stepped up attacks on Iraq's Kurdish population. Abdullatif's family were forced to flee with thousands of other Kurdish refugees to neighboring Turkey. He was just 8 years old.

"Thinking about it, that is the time I remember the most out of my life," said Abdullatif about the dangerous mountain trek to Turkey. 'The more we walked, the more I asked my parents: 'Where are we going and when are going to get there?'"
From Turkish refugee camp to Nashville

To help his family survive as refugees in Diyarbakir, the enterprising young Ibrahim fetched ice to sell in the market, shined shoes and sold Kurdish jewelry and music on the streets. In 1991, after four years as refugees, Abdullatif's father weighed up the family's prospects and decided that the United States offered them the best future. Along with several thousand Kurdish refugees, the family made their new home in Nashville, Tennessee.

Abdullatif said he managed to master English at high school and quickly adapted to the American way of life.

"For me, everything that I am is because of America. Everything. Learning how to read and write. Not being oppressed. Going through a normal, happy life," he said. "Everything about America, if you only try, you'll get ahead and I appreciate that."

Returning to frontline Iraq

"Instantly I said I had to go... I was very passionate about giving something back to America."

When the United States began preparing in 2003 to invade Iraq, Abdullatif put his college studies on hold and offered his services as a translator for the US Army. Soon, he found himself on the frontline in Kirkuk.

"Several times we had close calls of being killed and I was fine with that," he said.
It was an emotional return to his homeland but he also saw the potential that the stability of northern Iraq offered for business opportunities.
Thanks to revenue from oil exports, Kurdish Iraq is thriving. The Kurdish Regional Government is actively positioning the region as a gateway for foreign investors into Iraq.

In 2007, Abdullatif raised enough capital with another Kurdish-American partner to open the Gerdun Fitness Center in Dohuk. The center boasts a modern weights studio, a swimming pool and a large snooker hall. Clients can work out on modern exercise equipment, steam up in the sauna, cool off in the pool or relax with friends at the "California Cafe" that offers an American diner-style menu.

 

"We set up a fitness and recreational center in Dohuk because the city needed one. People needed a place to work out and to have fun," said Abdullatif.

Making Iraqi Kurdistan fitter for the future

Kurdistan is often referred to as "The Other Iraq". People of different ethnicities and religions live together largely in peace in Dohuk which, like nearby Erbil and Sulaimaniya, is fast becoming a refuge for Arabs, Kurds, Christians, Muslims and Yezidis wishing to leave the violence of nearby cities such as Mosul and Kirkuk. However, Abdullatif's fitness center is also challenging conservative attitudes in Iraq, particularly toward women.The fitness center offers special women-only opening hours and is the only place in Dohuk where women can exercise in a gym and learn to swim.

"It has given women freedom from home and the opportunity to take care of themselves and become healthier," said the center's women's swimming instructor, Bishkoj Khosro Abdullah.

 

Abdullatif and his partner have also introduced modern American business practices. Staff at Gerdun are drilled in American-style customer service. But Abdullatif adds that his employees are paid well above average local wages and have regular work breaks - something his employees had never experienced.

"Our staff are more productive," said Abdullatif. "And other businesses are now following what we do."

Ibrahim Abdullatif is confident about investing in Iraqi Kurdistan. He and his business partner are now looking into developing a cinema and bowling alley and opening more fitness centers in Erbil, Sulaimaniya, and if security improves, Kirkuk.

(First published 14/03/2010, Deutsche Welle)