Lighting the way to fresh storytelling

Posted on by CMSU Reflections

Chicago’s Magnificent Mile will light up for the holidays this weekend at the popular holiday Lights Festival. The annual event, always the Saturday before Thanksgiving, is celebrated by many Chicagoans as the city’s ceremonial start to the Christmas season.

During the event’s parade, starting at 5:30 p.m. CT, buildings and trees along North Michigan Avenue to the Chicago River will be awash in holiday lights, and thousands of spectators will take in all the sights and sounds.

What if journalists —rather than writing a recap of the festivities — could measure its sights and sounds and publish them?

It is possible.

The tools of sensor journalism allow reporters and even other nonprofessional storytellers to track the experience with a few inexpensive items and put a data-encompassing spin on an  annual holiday story.

On the internet, at websites such as SparkFun.com, interested trackers can purchase low-cost items such as a Luminosity Sensor ($5.95), which is “capable of measuring both small and large amounts of light,” according to the website. A perfect way to see the festival in a different light.

A Sound Detector ($10.95) might be fun to capture the roar of tens of thousands when they see parade Grand Marshals Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Some sensors, such as the LilyPad Temperature Censor ($4.95), measure body heat and could help determine where the most people convene on the Mag Mile — perhaps at the Chicago River Bridge, where an enormous fireworks display closes out the parade.

And since the fest occurs at a traditionally chilly time of year, a Weather Shield ($39.95) can track temps (forecast in the high 30s Saturday) and the evening’s wind speed/direction — a necessary tool in the blustery Windy City. 

Even a seasoned journalist would find a new, inviting way to tell a time-honored story.

Cubs in VR for the win

Posted on by CMSU Reflections

The Chicago Cubs World Series victory has the city of Chicago clamoring for all things cubbie.

A nostalgic look at the Cubs’ championship season, from preseason to Game 7 of the finals, would be a financial home run for a Chicago news organization.

An online documentary could feature elements of the baseball season in virtual reality, including an inside look at the legendary Wrigley Field and an insider’s ride-along in the post-World Series citywide parade and celebration at downtown’s Millennium Park.

Devotees would pay for this special access to the city’s favorite team.

Go, Cubs, Go!

Exploring new careers in 3D

Posted on by CMSU Reflections

Unlike most people, I’ve already had my dream job.

Being a journalist was what I wanted to do ever since I wrote for my high school newspaper.

My first interview — with then-astronaut “candidate” Dr. Mae Jemison, an alum of my Chicago high school — put me in the room with a history maker. I liked meeting the medical doctor who’d become the first African-American woman to travel into space, and I loved being one of the budding journalists to tell her story.

Since that time, my passion for news took me to places with interesting people I would never have known were it not for journalism. It was my dream, and I lived it for two decades.

To day, though I (sometimes) miss the pressures and priorities of a daily newsroom, I’m starting to dream of a new career path.

This road will — hopefully — take me to the museum.

Any museum.

As an ardent supporter of cultural institutions since my youth, my career (and personal) travels allowed me to visit some of the world’s greatest museums, including The Louvre in Paris, Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence and the Cairo Museum. Not to mention spending my high school and college days in Chicago and Washington, D.C., visiting iconic spaces at the Field Museum, Art Institute of Chicago and at most of the capital city’s Smithsonian Institution sites.

What captivates me there, I now realize, is what attracted me to journalism: storytelling.

And if museums are looking for strong storytellers who can also maximize innovative tools for sharing stories in new ways, I’ve found my new calling.

Smithsonian 3D, for example, would provide an extraordinary opportunity to marry my passions, my skills and my growing understanding of reality-capture storytelling in a career that could be as fulfilling as hobnobbing in high school with astronauts. My thirst for firsts could serve me well in 3D storytelling — and museums may well be the place of new dreams for me.