Mobile Journalism blog

Alexis Thompson Columbia College Chicago journalism student. blogging from here, there & everywhere (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-49487850-1', 'loudmouthlex.com'); ga('send', 'pageview');

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#ChiMayDay 2014 Recap

On Thursday, May 1, hundreds of protestors participated in a march and protest on the anniversary of the Haymarket Riot. The march began on Desplaines at Haymarket Square and ended at 101 W. Congress Pkwy at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building. The issues of the day were immigration reform and workers rights. Marchers could be heard chanting "Si se puede" which means "Yes we can." 

Below is a Storify that includes media I captured from reporting live on the scene. 

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Start-up Interview Questions

Elissa Beckman, Director of People, www.bellycard.com

I did some research and see that your education is in business and law. How did you end up working for a start up versus a more traditional position?

What is it like working for a start-up versus a more established company?

"Director of People" is not a traditional job title. Can you tell me a little bit more about what you do?

What is the most challenging part of working for a start-up company?

How does mobile technology affect Belly's business model/contribute to success?

What makes Belly successful?

Do you see yourself ever going back to work for a more established company?

What would you say to someone reluctant to work for a start-up?

[sadgaytweet]

And so, the Blue Line train crash memes begin.

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Clever.

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Passenger from derailed train shares experience

There was a loud boom, as the train went completely dark and her body flew across the car.

"Oh, Jesus, I got tossed so bad," said Overton, a 26-year-old employee for the Transportation Security Administration. "I got tossed from one end of the train to the other end of the train."

She landed awkwardly on her arm, with a pain so sharp she said she couldn't move at first. When she heard other passengers screaming "Oh my God!" over and over again, she forced herself to get up and flee the car in the fear it would catch fire.

(source: Chicago Tribune)

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NTSB News Conference on Blue Line Train Derailment

On Thursday the CTA announced that the Blue Line O'Hare stop is expected to reopen this weekend. A train derailment that happened on Monday left the stop inoperable for the duration of this week. 

Since the news first broke, updates and stories on the issue have been pouring in. Photos of the damage began popping up immediately on social media. Apart from wanting to know if anyone was injured, the first question that came to my mind was, "What caused this to happen?"

At noon on the day of the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board held a conference to address questions.  The video below is courtesy of NBC Chicago.

Signal specialist Tim DePapae mentioned a number of things to consider that could have potentially contributed to the accident:

Was the signal system operating properly?

Were the operator's actions appropriate?

Were there mechanical issues with the brakes, etc?

At the time of the conference there were no definitive answers as to what caused the crash.

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Blue Line Train Derailment

Early Monday morning, news broke that a Blue Line train had derailed and as a result, trains would not be operating at the O'Hare stop.

First Twitter mention of the incident came directly from the CTA.

Blue Line trains are not stopping at O'Hare due to a derailement.

— cta (@cta)

March 24, 2014

Soon after, media coverage of the accident began, providing details and photos from the scene.

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Chicago's Birthday Scrollkit

Making a website is no easy feat. After all, HTML is literally another language. For people like myself who are barely proficient in hypertext markup language, there is Scrollkit.

Last week my classmates and I attended Chicago's 177th Birthday celebration at Daley Plaza. We used the Scrollkit to create a multimedia "birthday card" of sorts. You can check that out here.

We found that although there is a bit of a learning curve, Scrollkit is user friendly and yields a good looking final product that looks like a freestanding website. 

My only criticism is about the lack of an autosave function. 

[ajtechknow]

Bringing an extinct species back to life sounds like the plot of “Jurassic Park,” but the real-life science is more complex and controversial. Learn how researchers could use genome editing to bring a creature like the woolly mammoth back from extinction on Sunday’s TechKnow, 7:30ET/4:30PT.

[newsweekscience]

Bitcoin ATMs are coming to Seattle and Austin.

[newsweekscience]

(via Lack of sleep blights pupils’ education)

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Interesting and informative read. It’s interesting to see how technology negatively affects sleeping habits. It’s also kind of frightening to see how early those bad habits are formed.

Sleep deprivation is a significant hidden factor in lowering the achievement of school pupils, according to researchers carrying out international education tests. It is a particular problem in more affluent countries, with sleep experts linking it to the use of mobile phones and computers in bedrooms late at night. Sleep deprivation is such a serious disruption that lessons have to be pitched at a lower level to accommodate sleep-starved learners, the study found. The international comparison, carried out by Boston College, found the United States to have the highest number of sleep-deprived students, with 73% of 9 and 10-year-olds and 80% of 13 and 14-year-olds identified by their teachers as being adversely affected. In literacy tests there were 76% of 9 and 10-year-olds lacking sleep. This was much higher than the international average of 47% of primary pupils needing more sleep and 57% among the secondary age group.

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It Totally Affects You: Open Internet, the FCC, and Net Neutrality

Not too many of us know or care how the internet works. It only matters that it works and works quickly. As easy as it is to remain blissfully ignorant and apathetic, now is probably a good time to start paying attention. Last month it became legal for internet service providers to further capitalize off of consumers’ demand for quick and unrestricted internet access.

The big news: A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet Order. This decision means that companies like AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon—which brought the lawsuit —are now free to block or slow down any website, application or service they like. —freepress.net

If you don't know much (or anything) about the FCC's Open Internet Report and Order, get familiar. The commission describes Open Internet as "the internet as we know it" and it has three main criteria:

transparency

no blocking

no unreasonable discrimination

The court's ruling doesn't seem to have any affect on transparency, as it's pretty clear what's going on. It's the second and third criteria that are being circumvented for the internet providers' benefit, and ultimately the consumers' expense. Instead of requiring a neutral system—hence the term "net neutrality—the market becomes an unfair playing field where companies can legally pay their way to the top.

What does this mean for every day people? There's no way to tell just yet. But I can think of a few problems off the top of my head:

Ironing out hierarchical kinks: Let's say the Wall Street Journal pays internet service providers more money to make their website load quicker than other newspapers. Will New York Times be able to pay a fee that makes their site load as quickly as WSJ's or will the new preferential payment system be tiered with an exclusive number one spot?

Consumers eat the additional costs: Imagine that a company like Hulu wants to provide quicker video streaming than Netflix. If Hulu pays extra money internet service provider like Verizon in order to provide quicker video streaming, it is likely that Hulu will charge its customers extra money.

Lack of options for consumers: Slow internet is the pits. So is censorship. Without some sort of net neutrality regulation, I imagine an internet wrought with slow loading times and roadblocks that can only be overcome by coming out of pocket.

It makes sense that as the internet evolves, the ways that we use and pay for it will evolve as well. But the evolution should not include practices so reminiscent of racketeering.

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Response to "If it doesn't work on mobile, it doesn't work" by Brian Boyer

As a habitually clumsy person I have a propensity for breaking things. Most unfortunately my tech devices are usually what and up getting destroyed or misplaced. In December I lost my iPhone and that loss threw me way off kilter. I had no device to track the bus or listen to podcasts during my commute; no way to text or check Google maps for directions or scroll my Twitter timeline. Though often surrounded by people, I absolutely felt detached and disconnected. My primary means of receiving and transmitting communication had taken a huge hit. Even though my computer works just fine I can say that I’m a part of the growing demographic prefers using a mobile device—phone or tablet—to access the Internet. It’s just more…well, accessible! My phone is always near me and turned on. More than anything, though, the feel of the phone in my hand is less clunky and cumbersome than a hunk of metal and plastic sitting on my lap. It makes tons of sense that there is a growing preference for using the internet on mobile devices versus a traditional computer experience.

Boyer points out that mobile doesn’t necessarily equate to a cell phone, but any sort of nontraditional desktop computer experience. His team’s motto, “If it doesn’t work in mobile, it doesn’t work” might be off putting to some, but it’s a forward thinking and productive way of thinking. Mobile isn’t just the future, it’s the present. Mobile is happening RIGHT NOW. Even though Boyer’s team approaches responsive design by starting with mobile and then working on the desktop design, their method is blazing the trail for what comes next. It’s the best and most effective way to design for multiple platforms. I really enjoyed this article.

http://hackerjournalist.net/2013/09/25/if-it-doesnt-work-on-mobile-it-doesnt-work/

DUE THURSDAY BY 2 PM

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Test Post

I wonder how this looks on a smart phone

[edit: looks pretty good!]