Turnahm Green

Gone old on train

Before I visited London, I had the idea that Egypt has the worst transportation system ever. Egyptians spend from half an hour to three hours in transportaion per day. This is no bad for Londanians who spend like most of lifetime on train!

In my first day in London, I was wondering why is everyone holding his luggage and stuff? It seemed to me that all are travelling, leaving or just arriving to the city.  But when I experiended my self the terrible transportation system, I realized why is everybody packing up. The typical person living in London spends, if he`s an expert on tube and bus map, from 1 to 3 hours a day moving from one line to another.

Last weekend, I spent 6 hours on transportation, from train to train, from bus to bus and then to train again. At some moment I got the scary feeling of spending the rest of my life seacrhing for the right tube or bus to my destination at Turnahm green area.  When I finally managed to get back home, I was already exausted, fed up with this always-packed up city…

No more print?

I believe multimedia journalism has provided both the journalist and the reader with new opportunities, and redefined the relationship between both, helping journalists do their job more effectively and in engaging readers, as well as offering distinctive features that could not be published in print editions.

A video Journalist has the advantage of the ability to use words, images, and sound to tell true stories in an interactive, digital environment, because in that ever changing world, readers are no more satisfied with mere reading. They rather want to read, watch, interact, discuss and engage with people all over the world. So, journalists in turn need to know how to produce a story, using much more advanced medium than the printed one. In other words, at the time readers are willing to talk about what they watched, journalists need to embrace this new movement by producing news in the form of media that is more interactive than just text, a media that is visually stimulating and can bring people in a story to life, as well as providing readers with more choices to interact and be informed.

A multimedia journalist combines the best of print, broadcast and online journalism. In other words, it combines the writing skills of a print journalist, the eye of a photojournalist, the ear of a broadcast journalist, the sense of a cinematographer and editor and even the computer skills of a web producer, offering text, stills, audio, and video that allows the news consumer to choose which parts of the information package they want to experience, and how, allowing also for producing the utmost emotions that can be obtained from a news story.

The multimedia piece actually culminates into a packaged news presentation avoiding the text-heaviness and boniness of written articles and the restrictions and cinematic rules of documentaries, and producing pieces that challenge viewers to think and react through interactive exercises.

The stories thus become more enjoyable and may help some readers better understand an issue if they are aural learners.

Multimedia Journalism has in other words changed or redefined the relationship between increased readership and reader engagement by appealing to their visual as well as auditory senses.

Extending the previous argument, it is clear that video journalism has sharpened and redefined the concept of participatory media and cultural citizenship in contemporary new media contexts.

This emergent participatory culture supported by networked computers and social networks is diminishing the traditional top-down media Industry model of media.

For years, the newspaper industry has declined in profit and subscriptions. In the era of RSS feeds and constantly updating blogs, physical newspapers are no longer able to compete against the large volume of material and wide range of sources available to internet users, especially that the print morning newspaper does not have the ability to update news through the day like the news websites.

In turn, print media is now diminishing mostly due to the global financial crisis, and the growing number of internet users worldwide. The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Newsday, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and other smaller papers have downsized their staffs in recent months.

According to AP`s last year report on newspapers in the States, Media News publishes like The Denver Post, The Detroit News and 52 other daily newspapers have increased their cost-cutting efforts, including combining many operations of its papers near San Francisco.

According to the report, two Florida papers owned by The New York Times Co. said in August they were merging news and copy desk functions, design, layout and pagination. The McClatchy Co. papers in Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C., are sharing sports and political reporting staff.

With financial challenges, some international newspapers are using now webcasts of council meetings and information provided by citizen volunteers.

In October last year, in the first of what could be a series of print newspaper closings, a major development took place when the Christian Science Monitor has announced the end of its daily print format and its switch to a Web-based publication.

With its decision to go online-only, the Monitor actually has not only stabilizes its finances, for me it managed to enter its second century at the forefront of the digital revolution, declaring the evolution of modern journalism; a logical and progressive step in the direction many more will approach in the years to come.

Given today’s many alternatives, younger consumers have skipped the print media and migrated to other media forms for edification and amusement. Newspapers attract fewer consumers today and will attract fewer tomorrow.

However, the decline of newspapers is not to be confused with the decline of Journalism. Actually Journalism is just moving to a broader and more open definition and tools. Just like the cinema moved from narrow traditional definition of institutionalized filmmaking, to the avant-grade Dogme 95 filmmaking movement, suggesting that one can make a recognized film without being dependent on commissions or huge budgets.

3 NATO Helicopters Crash in Afghanistan, Killing 14 Americans

NATO forces in Afghanistan are reporting that three coalition helicopters crashed in two unrelated incidents Monday, killing at least 11 U.S. troops and three American civilians.

A NATO statement said one helicopter crashed in western Afghanistan after U.S. and Afghan troops raided a militant hideout and killed 12 suspected enemy fighters.

The statement said seven U.S. troops and three U.S. civilians were killed.  The injured include 14 Afghan troops, 11 American troops and one U.S. civilian.

The cause of the crash has not been determined, but NATO officials said they do not believe the helicopter was shot down by insurgents.

Also see: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iE5a5jcIaZFcspGpYcEDgOHnOkoQ

See the story How to sell your dreams

Deadly train collision in Egypt

At least 20 people die as a passenger train smashes into the back of another train near the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

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