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Volume 3 Number 10
• Feature • NW News • TechNews • Events • Careers • JobsNW • Lighter Side |
This section is devoted to resources that enrich, entertain, and inform along the electronic super highway. We are always looking for fun, interesting, or informative sites to visit. Share your favorites, newsletter@proscenia.net. •Political Battles on the Internet. The current presidential political campaign has discovered the Internet and with an "anything goes" attitude. In the unregulated environment of cyberspace, we are seeing some of the edgiest commercials and pot shots not usually seen on television. Check out the George W. Bush page for unflattering adverts about John Kerry. On the other side you'll find John Kerry's web page adverts about Bush. Also check out the Republican National Committee's web site for more political action. And finally, take a look at MoveOn.org web site, a non-party oriented organization trying to unseat Bush. All of this content is designed as propaganda to pursued voters. As media producers it is a good time for us to do a little deconstruction of these messages to see how they are designed and just how effective they may be in getting visual and audio messages across to voters. Meanwhile, check out the authenticity of a political advert at the Annenberg Political Fact Check web site. An interesting article, Cyberspace is changing political advertising by Matt Stearns with Knight Ridder Newspapers, is available online. Read full Story
The following sites are reprinted from recent editions of the Scout Report, a free online publication. •Center for Digital Storytelling. There are many ways to tell stories about communities and individuals, and new developments in multimedia offer some rather compelling ways to do just that. One such organization interested in these types of projects is The Center for Digital Storytelling. In their work they offer workshops for organizations and individuals, along with providing a clearinghouse of information about resources on storytelling and new media. At the site, visitors can read about the center's work and view a number of case studies that exemplify the approach adopted and promoted there. These case studies include work done with the BBC, the W.K.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Kansas City Symphony. The site also includes some other materials on the process of digital storytelling, including several helpful interviews with practitioners in the field and newspaper articles on digital storytelling. [KMG] Scout Report. •Telling Stories: Narratives of Nationhood. How do nations tell their own stories? One way of doing this is by looking through the various images and representations created by a country's talented artists. Such an approach is adopted by the Confederation Centre Art gallery in its delightful attempt to tell the story of Canada's diverse and multicultural past. In total, the various thematic collections offered here contain over 4000 works of art, along with 400 lesson plans created by a team of educators. The thematic collections that are available to explore include such titles as "Questions of Canada: Politics of Culture and Community", "My Art: Personal Identities in Art", and "Canada's Many Voices." All of the materials presented here are also available in French. Macromedia Flash Reader required. Scout Report •NewsPageDesigner Many elements go into the hundreds of daily newspapers that are read across the United States each day, and everyone has their favorite section, such as the opinion pieces, world news, and of course, editorial cartoons. While all of these facets seem to receive some sort of peer recognition, relatively little attention is paid to the design of entire pages within each paper. This website, hosted by the Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine, fills that gap, as it allows news designers to share their work and ideas by posting various page designs online. Visitors to the site can browse through various recently posted pages, such as those designed to pay tribute to the conclusion of the television show Friends or summer travel suggestions. For those already in the field of newspaper and design (or those who would like to be in the future), there is a tip section that contains helpful suggestions on ideas for easing creative blocks, working with designs for smaller papers, and how to use typography effectively. Overall, the site is quite engaging, and will be of interest to those with a broad interest in graphic design. [KMG] Scout Report •AMG All Music Guide. The AMG All Music Guide website is designed to complement a line of books that provide extensive reviews of thousands of music recordings, organized by genre, such as blues, jazz, rock, and so on. This website is particularly helpful as it provides all of this material at no cost, and is relatively easy to navigate as well. Using the search box at the top of the screen visitors can look for various artists, albums, songs, styles, or labels. After returning results, visitors can browse through the material, and click on any number of available hyperlinks in order to make their way to related material, such as genre, related artists and the like. For example, if one were to search for Duke Ellington, the search would return a brief essay about his work, a complete list of his recordings (with reviews), as well as additional information, such as Billboard chart information, Grammy nominations, and artists who he influenced. The site is rounded out by a series of short essays on a plethora of musical styles, including garage rock, acoustic blues, and zydeco. [KMG] Scout Report.
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