Sunday, November 8, 2009

Flip HD Camera and citizen journalism

For the Th!nk2 about it-competition on climate change, the European Journalism Center (EJC) gave every blogger a Flip Mino HD Camera to support the blogging. It's as big as a normal cell phone and produces videos of outstanding quality. The camera is especially good for interviews and picks up sound very well in a range of one meter, even if the environment is noisy. I recently used it on a trip to Trento (sorry Joe); have a look here to see the quality. Current market price for an HD cam (you want HD, not the regular one) is about 190 EUR in Europe, $160 in the US.

This camera offers new opportunities for euroblogging as well. Raymond Frenken of EUX TV has been using it for short reports in the car or from a train station. Furthermore, we've been at the election night in the European Parliament with a small webTV-team from Maastricht (even though we used a bigger camera then) and found a lot of interesting people to talk to. These people would normally never be heard. But through short interviews with the Flip Cam, the world of the grey suits in the EP or the Commission can be illuminated.

Some NGOs like the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) already use videos to enhance their communication. Some MEPs also use videos. The same is possible for a witty blogger attending a panel discussion in Brussels.

And if the quality of the video is decent and the message is interesting, the MSM might even take interest in your footage!


Update: My excuses for providing a wrong link to the "tricky situations"-video. The correct link has now been put in.

5 comments:

  1. Haha, no way! You should have said you would be in Trento! :-)

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  2. hehe I know...very sorry indeed! I was with a friend and she showed me the city. Lovely city, liked it very much!!! You must enjoy your studies there, don't you?

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  3. Yes, it's a great place to live and study! The region is such a great mix of Austrian and Italian influences - in the food, architecture and culture.

    How are you finding Milan?

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  4. nice city, very good to go out! a lot of things to do, movies, cultural events, theatres etc. University could be better though ;). And I can't stand the pollution. My next Th!nk post will feature Milan pollution... ;)

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