Newspapers are for the editor and broadcasting is for the producer. To the extent that these statements are true, we can say that Internet is for the journalists. The internet offers a broad spectrum of capabilities like interactivity, on-demand access, user control, and customization. Using the tools available in the Internet, online journalists can tell stories using whatever modalities and communication features are needed and appropriate for their story. On the other hand, audience can receive personalized news that places each story into a context meaningful to her or him. The only real limits on the Internet as a journalistic medium are bandwidth, connectivity, and credibility of content.
There’s a new form of news that is emerging, it is best described as contextualized journalism. It has five basic aspects, (1) breadth of communication modalities; (2) hypermedia; (3) heightened audience involvement; (4) dynamic content; (5) customization.
Communication modalities include text, audio, video, graphics, and animation, as well as emerging capabilities such as 360-degree video. These modalities enable the journalist to tell each story in a way uniquely suited to it, no longer constrained by the limited modalities available in previous analog media.
Online Journalism has only slowly begun to incorporate many of these multimedia capabilities. There are several reasons for this. First, except for many television network-based sites, most online news operations do not have extensive traditions in creating multimedia content; neither do they have a culture or set of resources to begin producing such multimedia content easily. Second, some news operations tend to view online reporting as merely an extension of their existing activities, and if they are print based, they tend to not view video and audio as terribly relevant. Third, many operations do not have staff with multimedia capabilities and backgrounds and are likely to hire reporters similar to those who have worked for the parent print operations, where the emphasis is on the written word; graphics, images, audio, and video are not part of their training.
A room with an omnidirectional view. Video-and photojournalists, cinematographers, and other videographers have used the frame of the photographic lens to define the linear narrative of visual storytelling. Three fundamental developments have made possible a paradigmatic shift in visual storytelling. First, digital video, it is set to become important not just in production but also in storytelling. Second, a new generation of image and sound acquisition devices will open up the possibilities available to those creating images and video, offering options ranging from panoramic views to three-dimensional immersive environments. Third, the growth of network media, including today’s internet and tomorrow’s digital television, will furnish a wide range of creative and interactive alternatives to visual storytellers.
Columbia computer science professor Shree Nayar has invented a camera with an unusually large field of view, Omnidirectional Camera. This camera employs a CCD camera (a camera with a charge-coupled device) and standard lens but records light gathered from the surface of a specially crafted parabolic mirror. Nayar has also developed an omnicamera formatted for the World Wide Web and accompanied by a Java applet that permits multiple viewers simultaneously to pan, tilt, or zoom anywhere in the field of view. Omnicamera involves no mechanical or moving parts; the view is controlled by software. An omniview camera can survey an entire scene with virtually no blind spots. An omnicamera permits multiple viewers to survey different parts of a scene.
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