Continuing on with archiving the digital artifacts from my Olympic experience and True North Media House campaign… here’s a photo essay by my compatriot Vancouver photographerKris Krug for PBS Media Shift blog in which he profiled a variety of people on the ground in Vancouver producing social coverage of the Olympics.
It has become second nature for people to capture experiences, events and news using their phones, cameras and computers. We live in a world were journalism is an action — and citizens have stepped up to answer that call to action.
As a result, the story of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games is by no means limited to the version being told by official media sponsors. Social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, WordPress and Tumblr are enabling citizens and independent media to provide real-time coverage of the culture, events and community that are part of the Olympic Games. More stories are being told than ever before — and most of them have nothing to to do with the athletic events.
Kris Krüg is a photographer with Static Photography and a prominent member of the citizen and alternative media community in Vancouver. He is out in the city covering the broad spectrum of events that are occurring during the Olympics.
This is his photographic recap of citizen and alternative journalism at the Olympic Games.
Citizen journalists John Biehler and Dave Olson hold up the media accreditation badge for theTrue North Media House. TNMH is a virtual and independent media house operating during the Olympics. It provides media accreditation to citizen journalists of all types and also aggregates their reporting.
Rebecca Bollwitt, a.k.a. Miss604, is a Vancouver podcaster, blogger and all-around social media maven. She has been covering the Olympics for her popular Vancouver community site.
Official media accreditation for the Vancouver Olympic Games is issued by VANOC, the organizing committee — and only the official Olympic media partners are eligible. But other forms of accreditation, such as the one offered by True North Media House, have also been created. Robert Scales, who runs the site Vancouver Access 2010, is holding up his British Columbia International Media Center accreditation badge. This center is created and maintained by the British Columbia government, and is home to a wide variety of Canadian and international media. A few spots were also offered to independent media and bloggers.
The PBS Media Shift blog followed the True North Media House campaign, Craig Silverman wrote a lengthy article about the various alternative reporting efforts in Vancouver during the Olympics.
Dave Olson, left, conducts an interview with Gord Rickards at Molson BRewery, Vancouver - Photo by John Biehler
The article sets the stage thusly about the changes in the media landscape compared to previous Olympics and offers the background of the TNMH campaign:
Well over 100 unofficial media folks are united under the True North Media House, a virtual media accreditation organization that’s aggregating content from bloggers and citizen journalists at the Games. The TNMH initiative also helps them coordinate and communicate with each other via a mailing list and #tnmh Twitter hashtag, while also serving as a point of aggregation for reporting and content.
{snip}
TRUE NORTH MEDIA HOUSE
Last Wednesday, an email went out on the True North Media House email list to let people know the group would be holding an “Olympic Hockey Tweetup” the following day between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. at a local club. “There will be an appearance by special guest Guy Kawasaki at about 8 p.m.,” the message said.
{Ed Note: The mentioned was just rebroadcast via True North Media House but was organized by another group}
Apart from a few organized events like that one, the people sporting TNMH badges have largely roamed Vancouver on their own, or in small groups. They go where they choose (and where security lets them) and report, photograph and tweet what they see. As a result, theTNMH news feed is an eclectic mix of content. It’s also spreading far and wide, according to Dave Olson, one of the organizers.
“What we’re starting to see now is people are getting their coverage up and out and distributed well before the mainstream media,” he said.
Now that the games are up and running, Olson said it’s a matter of letting the TNMH-accredited reporters go about their business, produce content, and see what happens. One surprise so far has been Aleks, a 5-year-old Vancouver boy who’s blogging about his Games experience with the help of his dad. He proudly wears his TNMH badge wherever he goes.
“We have people who four or five days ago didn’t self-identify as social media reporters, but they had a passion for photography or making videos,” Olson said. “Once the Games were on, they realized they see stuff no one else sees. A lot of people are just stepping up and saying they want to be a part of this.”
The reports in the TNMH news feed and discussion on #TNMH bring to mind the old saying that youth is wasted on the young. It’s hard to imagine professional media are bounding around with as much joy, delight and enthusiasm. Certainly, not having an assignment editor or producer harrassing you on deadline helps keep the TNMH crew happy. But you can’t help noticing how much fun they seem to having.
He continues to profile my compatriot John Biehler who produced exceptional quality and quantity of work during the Games:
BUSINESS ANALYST GETS ACCREDITED
John Biehler is an e-business analyst for an insurance company in Vancouver, but he’s also a self-described camera geek. He loves taking pictures and shooting video, and he shares his work on a blog and on Flickr.
Biehler booked off three weeks of vacation so he would be able to document the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, and now spends his days and nights reporting on everything from the torch relay to tall ships and zip line rides. His videos and photos are available in a special Olympic section of his blog, but they’re also showing up in the news feed of True North Media House.
Biehler proudly wears his TNMH media accreditation badge around his neck, and is often stopped by people who ask what it means, and where he got it.
“Some of the [people wearing the badge] have been able to get past security and get into venues because security think it’s official,” he said. “They don’t know we printed them out on a home printer and went to Staples and got them laminated.”
And Mr. Silverman shared my point (for which i am very glad) that grassroots content creation is for documentation as much or moreso than reportage or journalism.
DOCUMENTATION OR JOURNALISM?
Biehler is enjoying a unique experience because he has both a TNMH pass and an official one from the BCIMC. He is among the lucky few bloggers and folks from online media outlets granted access to the province’s media center. For the most part, he said, the professional media folks have been welcoming.
“They seem to work more hours,” he said of the pros, “and it’s been interesting talking with them about what I’m doing and what I’m working on, and comparing gear. Even if they’re working for a big company we’re similar in that we’re just trying to figure out the best way to do something.”
Olson said TNMH is more about documentation than journalism.
“But we’ve taken great pains to educate people about journalistic standards and how to tell a mixed media story,” he said. (The resources section on the website offers a wealth of useful information.)
The night we spoke, Olson was rushing off to meet a group of hockey fans from Latvia, an experience he looked forward to documenting.
“How often do you get a chance to meet someone who has come halfway around the world to your city to enjoy something that you’re also passionate about?”
To which he could have added: and then share that experience with the world.
Bio: Craig Silverman is an award-winning journalist and author, and the managing editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. Follow him on Twitter at @CraigSilverman.
My pal Dane Christensen of Strike 10 media (@altadane) and his cohorts create a podcast called “Naked Marketers” described thusly:
“We are the naked marketers. Hosts Pete Wright, Megan Strand, and Dane Christensen and guests are dedicated to pulling back the veil on marketing ridiculousness and folly, and helping communicators develop a strategy that is both effective, authentic, and fully awesome.”
Photographer John Biehler is documenting the Olympics as a BCIMC & TNMH accredited reporter covering protests, openings, cultural and hospitality houses, and other “besides the Olympics” events. He speaks about his workflow, public reaction and personal satisfaction.
John Bollwitt writes, “We were able to hook up John Biehler with a spot for suite night, and he made this great video snippet while we recording the last segment of this episode.”
Dave Olson ended the day with his talk and had the entire audience hanging on his every word. He invited people to sit up front and close since he wasn’t using the projector…and lots did. It was a great session to end the conference with.
I also wanted to play around with my Lensbaby Composer (especially in video mode on the D90) so here’s a quick video I shot during lunch where Lorraine was interviewing Dave for the live stream she was doing on FearlessCity.ca: Watch it in HD on Vimeo too.
