Majin pisoar

My work

majaprettner — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:37:30 +0000

I’m publishing my last video, that we had to make for our course Multimedia Production. If I had more time and more space (cause we were limited by the topic and duration of the video) I would probably cover the topic more thoroughly. We were given a topic “Uni brennt” and I decided to ask insiders (Austrian student) and outsiders (Erasmus exchange students) how do they feel about students protests and if the demonstrations affect them at all. Here is my work:

Google goggles – How far will it go?

majaprettner — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:03:22 +0000

I just found out about a new application Google goggles by Google. I was once again stunned about what new technology offers.
http://komplettie.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/google-goggles-lets-you-search-what-you-see/

Goggles lets you search internet without words, just by using your Android device’s camera. It should work with well recognized object, paintings, logos, books, etc. So basically, you can take picture and Goggles gives you information about the object instantly. There are certainly some advantages about being able to find out about interesting stuff if you for example can’t remember how some statue in the middle of nowhere is called, but you have it on the picture. But that made me think about future development of technology and these kind of devices. How far will it go? Will our own photos also be recognized? Will we have public records so that everybody will be able to find out where did you had your lunch, when did you go to toilet and how do you treat your goldfish? Will everything be traced? Thank God I haven’t done any serious felony, because I could be busted immediately .

I’ve added a video so you would get a clue what I’m talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhgfz0zPmH4&feature=player_embedded

Best Blogs 2009

majaprettner — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:17:55 +0000

TIME makes its second annual list of the best blogs in the world, spanning politics, housekeeping, astronomy and everything in between. They published the list of 25 the best and the worst blogs.

I’ve looked through the couple of them and I am going to try to follow those wirters in next few weeks, just to figure out what kind of qualities made them to the TOP chart.

Here are the few links of those that i like:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/ (The best blog in 2009 by TIME magazine)

http://lifehacker.com/

http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/

The last one is really interesting because the writes comes from a totally different cultural bacgroound than i do. She was born in Cuba in the ’70s and ’80s, and marked by schools in the countryside, Russian cartoons, illegal emigration and frustration tells a different kind of story, about a life that we can’t even imagine.

They are not all journalistic blogs, but they are worth reading for!

European Young Journalist Award 2010

majaprettner — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:30:23 +0000

The competition for Europe’s best young journalists is on. Enlarge your vision and contribute to the dialogue about EU Enlargement. The EYJA 2010 challenges you to engage with EU Enlargement by using your journalistic talent to hone in on the impact, and multi-facetted potential, thereof.

http://www.eujournalist-award.eu/

You can also check out last year’s winners which impressed the national juries with their relevance in relation to the topic, treatment of the subject, ability to grab interest, depth of research and quality of journalism.

Slovenian winning article from Veronika Gnezda:
http://www.eujournalist-award.eu/previous-awards/winner-articles/articles-2009/slovenia.html

Be creative!

Online writing: Part II

majaprettner — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:29:37 +0000

I’ve wirtten about a few disadvantages of online writing, but now I will try to think of its postitive effects and advantages. One of the advantages is definitely the ability to hear many different opinions and voices and then you can decide which of those to listen and to follow.
But as a reader and a writer you should always be able to maintain basic values of honesty, fairness and accuracy of information. Internet is one of the fastest growing media, that’s why publishing misleading information can have even bigger and disasters consequences, because it can spread even more rapidly.
Other media (such as TV, newspaper) can take advantage of the internet, publishing and announcing events and news faster then they could when using only their primary media. They can publish more pictures, videos and have forums, where they can find out more about readers’s preferences.
Often online writing lets writers have more freedom and gives us the opportunity to read more »irresoponsible« and daring texts. New media can fill the gap that is caused by other media when reporting »to politically correct«.

One of the good examples of combining different types of media:
http://www.nytimes.com/

Online writing. Publishing just for the sake of publishing?

majaprettner — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:29:00 +0000

I am not really in favor of everybody having the feeling that they could be writers or journalists. On the internet this is often the case. There are forums, blogs, »twitters«, »facebooks« and other virtual communities that give you the opportunity to express your opinion. Which is not bad at all, but sometimes it really gets hard to find good articles, interesting text and constructive comments among all the »trash« being published. Basically it works something like this: Virtual communities give you the opportunity to hide behind your nickname and usually they give you the chance of not being responsible for the things that you publish. Internet is the best tool for individuals who are often insultive, judgemental and are publishing something, just for the sake of publishing, without any prior knowledge or facts. But there are also a lot of quality writers and I will try to pay attention to them rather than those who are often trying to »cut the grass that sticks out«.

More about quality journalism online:
http://www.concernedjournalists.org/quality-journalism-online-forum-summary

What makes a good journalist?

majaprettner — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:28:17 +0000

Every journalist puts a piece of himself in his writing. That’s why talking about objectivity is often illusionary. But one should try to be as much close as possible to objectivity when writing texts from which subjective opinion should be excluded. So we could say that having the ability to decide when to put our own opinion in the text and when just bare facts could be one of the characteristics of being a good journalist.
But actually it is really hard to define what makes a good journalist. Like a mentioned in my previous post: Does it count how much articles do you publish or how many prizes did you get? Maybe how many important people you interviewed?
Criteria for good journalism changes and is based on different circumstances: society, target group, type of media, genre of writing and of goals which certain kind of media wishes to achieve.
But we could say that one of the main things is having the talent, or having the feeling for writing and this is a characteristic that just a few individuals posses.
“You can learn new skills but no body can teach you a great attitude.”

Read more about the skills that a good journalist should have in a article from Kevin Bakhurst, head of BBC News 24:
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=38495§ioncode

majaprettner — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:27:51 +0000

This blog is dedicated to everybody who want to get a peek inside my universe. Let’s dig inside togehter and find new planets and comets!

Inspiring Journalism

majaprettner — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:27:12 +0000

It is really hard to start a blog when you’re not use to exposing yourself daily and so widely. And then it is even harder to focus on just one topic, because there is a lot of stuff that you would like to write about. But on the other hand than can be a chalenge too. So I’m giving it a try and taking the assingment that was given to us.
So in these few weeks I am going to to write about different ways and types of journalism. From news reporting, to online and newspapers publishing, etc. I will also try to find journalists and writers that are insprining, different, quick, efficent or have any other interesting charateristics that distinguishes them from others.
And further more point out some journalists, which have throughout the history left their permanent prints and changed the further development of journalism.
What makes a good journalist? Does it count how much articles does he publish or how many prizes does he get? Or maybe how many important people does he interview? Which characteristics does he have to have? I will try to answer these kind of questions through my future blogs.
But at the end of this post, I’m going to conclude with an interesting statement that a well recognized Slovenian journalist Šlamberger once told me:
»Journalism is a way of living and not just a profession that brings money«.

Never say never…

majaprettner — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:15:43 +0000

Dear Blog,

As a part of my assignment in course Online writing I’m creating my first blog. After being sure that I will never publish text/personal frustrations/confessions on the web, I’m publishing my first post. Never say never…