Improve Journalism

[flimflamm]

 

Sometimes while cloistered in whichever department reading well written news feeds can be entertaining, informative, and immersive, but the amount of work that it can take to pull it off makes it too infrequent an occurance.

 

Here are some suggestions of possible alterations that could make journalism great:

- Change newscaster sprites to something that advertises "NEWS" rather than the dull green sprite

 

-If possible, have the newscaster sprite flash depending on the available news feeds (to indicate existent content)

 

-Get rid of the RNG news feeds which detract from the existence of player made news

 

-Increase the prevalence of "entertainment monitors" and give them a more alluring (or a "now broadcasting") sprite (to encourage live broadcasting). Alternatively, combine entertainment monitors into an all in one newscaster.

 

If there is a lot of interest in journalism, then perhaps a new role could be created ("Press") and extra journalism facilitating mechanics could be implemented. For instance (and this might be OP), the press could be given access to a security camera monitor console (with access to some but not all cameras) and additionally the monitor console could be given the power to take photographs. Other things, like some way to eaves drop on security channels could also be given in order to facilitate actual news production.

 

On one hand keeping the crew informed through news is inherently immersive, and sometimes very entertaining depending on the quality of the content. But on the other hand if the journalists can spy too easily the, antagonists might wind up being caught too easily and too frequently.

 

Ideally I would like to see several journalist or press role slots available so that on larger shifts an actual news team could swing into operation. If journalists could break evidence based (photographs, testimony, etc...) stories even ahead of security (or before security or command is willing to tell the station), then they would serve a pretty interesting function shift to shift.

 

Thoughts?

 

[Farya]

 

You can make photos already that way. Just use camera in hand while you peek through any camera.

But making journalist better would be cool. Maybe even give him unuque blue armour vest which can hold photo or video camera in suit slot?

 

[flimflamm]

 

You can make photos already that way. Just use camera in hand while you peek through any camera.

But making journalist better would be cool. Maybe even give him unuque blue armour vest which can hold photo or video camera in suit slot?

 

It' awesome that cameras function over camera monitors! Didn't know!

 

As far as giving a "journalist" role access to a "press vest" goes: yes! I would also give them access to the first security doors and the ability to pass police tape (maybe with something we could call a "press pass"?). Additional things like access to security and medical records could help too!

 

To be honest though I truly think the main things holding news back are the fact that the newscasters A, look uninteresting and plain, and B, because they're always yelling about random fake news. We really need to put an end to all this fake news on the station and get a newscaster that actually pulls in readers!

 

[flimflamm]

 

Spent a few rounds *trying* to do hard information news (as opposed to very in-depth stories or periodicals) which consisted of me trying to get "scoops" and photographs to go along with them. The actual writing of the news comes quickly and easily to me, but the gathering of it not so straight forward.

 

Running around the station with a digital camera so far has been my main method of gathering information and photos, and it works, but it is a lot of work.

 

I found out that the detectives camera monitor has special ID-free access to all or most cameras. By convincing them to let me in to use it, I was able to collect photographs much more easily.

 

I also learned that live video camera feeds (entertainment monitors) produces only an all black photograph if you try to take photos off of them.

 

A team of two or three newsmen could really pump out a lot of stories if one pressman with a video camera could act as a mobile and live photo gathering unit while the other two monitor feeds, take photos from them, and produce the stories.

 

During a nuclear invasion I was trying to get photographs of the nukies, and while I managed to get several perfectly framed photos several times it cost me quit a bit in damage. If I had access to the detectives camera feed, or could have taken pictures from the guy who decided to "live stream the invasion" with a video camera, then I could have given a steady stream of updates on the operatives and he would not have died in vain. Thinking about how most nuclear invasions feel for average crew, having a constant stream of news updates with photos would really make you feel immersed and actually be useful information.

 

Here are the consolidated suggestions that I've now compiled in the interest of journalism

 

- Create a "journalist" role or perhaps rework the library role by adding additional slots and "reporter" titles.

 

- Give the library a duplicate of the detectives camera monitor, and place it behind a door secured with librarian ID access privileges

 

- Give the library an entertainment monitor to go with the camera monitor

 

- Enable or fix photographs being taken from the entertainment monitor console (live video camera broadcasts)

 

- Re-sprite the newscaster to look something similar to the alert monitor (I.E flashing red or blue bold "NEWS" logo, possibly flashing when new content is available)

 

-Get rid of the RNG news because I'm fairly certain nobody reads it and that many consider it so irrelevant that it actually is un-immersive. They distract from real news.

 

- Add a "Header" field while submitting news stories so that individual articles can be more properly titled.

 

[Jguytriple5]

I play journalist a lot and always do crime news. I'm always able to get great pictures by roleplaying my way into certain rooms and putting myself on the front line of crime fighting. I see no need for changing anything, other than other players' view of the newscaster channels and the work some people put into it.

[flimflamm]

 

I play journalist a lot and always do crime news. I'm always able to get great pictures by roleplaying my way into certain rooms and putting myself on the front line of crime fighting. I see no need for changing anything, other than other players' view of the newscaster channels and the work some people put into it.

 

If you truly put yourself on the front lines then there should be a pretty good chance of you being killed or captured and your news channel going dead.

 

For instance, I was trying to get a photograph of a shadowling in maintenance which of course inexorably lead to me being a thrall. If I could have sent in a vidiographer and monitored his feed for good snap shots then between the two of us we could have done really solid and up to date reporting. Even if my camera man gets captured or killed, I would still get the most epic photographs unless the assailant turns off the camera. (anyone ever seen nightcrawler?)

 

Like you I'm interested in publishing news while it's still new, and so toward that singular end a camera monitor would be absolutely perfect for getting snap shots for the more insignificant stories like what the chef is cooking, how RnD is doing, and how many people are dead in medbay. Enabling photos from video camera feeds would allow journalists to work together or for journalists to hire freelance vidiographers and really pump out a high volume of up to date and relevant news.

 

 

If you can do a good job with no access, and old fashioned camera, and completely on your own, just imagine how much more epic you could make journalism if you had co-workers to pitch in.

 

Ask yourself this question: after a long shift of news making, how much actual content have you produced? How long will it take a person to read through your entire news channel (on average?).

 

Right now my news feeds run at about 1 - 2 minutes complete reading time; how about your feeds?. I would like that number to be higher (5 minutes of news from a 2 hour shift seems right to me).

 

I will also say that after looking at the newscaster code, it seems like it is very sophisticated (thinking about my interactions with newscasters, the newscaster has zero lag and never bugs out; it's beautifully implemented). A heck of a lot of work went into the newscaster and it seems to be a serious chunk of code, so we really owe it to ourselves to make it as effective as possible.

 

[FoS]

PDA's should honestly just get an overhaul to be able to read news on them. It would also be nice to be able to check entertainment feeds via pda as well.

[BiberDark]

 

Maybe the PDA is able to keep track of the newsreaders ( counter )

So you can see if your investigative journalism is honored by the crew.

 

 

Your Story : "The Captain is a Changeling" was read by 56 Persons ( 31 voted good / 10 voted down / 15 no comment)

 

[flimflamm]

 

PDA's should honestly just get an overhaul to be able to read news on them. It would also be nice to be able to check entertainment feeds via pda as well.

 

People would probably abuse that by communicating on news channels when the coms network goes down, but possibly a purchasable PDA cartridge could give newscaster access. It would also make newspapers and newscasters obsolete.

 

[flimflamm]

 

Maybe the PDA is able to keep track of the newsreaders ( counter )

So you can see if your investigative journalism is honored by the crew.

 

 

Your Story : "The Captain is a Changeling" was read by 56 Persons ( 31 voted good / 10 voted down / 15 no comment)

 

That is a good idea but might not be that impactful on how well journalism can be carried out. Perhaps if a journalist role were created their job objective could be to acquire a certain number of views on one of their channel feeds.

 

[flimflamm]

I was making newspapers the other day and found them to be wanting. They have a dismal sprite and you are forced to include the standard RNG news, such that the player created news gets shunted to the third page. If the RNG news was deleted then two player feeds could go onto a single paper in addition to station announcements rather than just one. If a more visually appealing sprite were created (instead of shades of grey, white and black with a color headline or logo), then people might actually spot it as something possibly interesting to examine.

[FoS]

 

PDA's should honestly just get an overhaul to be able to read news on them. It would also be nice to be able to check entertainment feeds via pda as well.

 

People would probably abuse that by communicating on news channels when the coms network goes down, but possibly a purchasable PDA cartridge could give newscaster access. It would also make newspapers and newscasters obsolete.

 

Oh. I didn't mean pdas should be able to be used as newscasters. Just reading things, not submitting or creating news. You'd still need to use a newscaster to submit stories and stuff.

 

[flimflamm]

 

PDA's should honestly just get an overhaul to be able to read news on them. It would also be nice to be able to check entertainment feeds via pda as well.

 

People would probably abuse that by communicating on news channels when the coms network goes down, but possibly a purchasable PDA cartridge could give newscaster access. It would also make newspapers and newscasters obsolete.

 

Oh. I didn't mean pdas should be able to be used as newscasters. Just reading things, not submitting or creating news. You'd still need to use a newscaster to submit stories and stuff.

 

Yea that would help, but there still might be a lingering issue. When the coms go down the newscasters still work because they have their own network. Someone could upload a news story from a newscaster as soon as the coms go down, informing them of exactly who or what took them down.

 

For instance if nuclear ops take out the coms satellite only to have their position constantly published by a journalist then the whole point of taking out the coms satellite is somewhat defeated.

 

This would also defeat the purpose of newspapers. Maybe we could have a new item created called something like "digital newspaper" which itself functions as a mobile newscaster reading device. There are really a lot of options

 

[flimflamm]

 

So I re-sprited the newscasters (very simply and for the sake of being more visible), but I'm hesitant to attempt to make a PR because i don't want to mess it up.

 

The path of the relevant sprite file is Paradise / icons / obj / terminals.dmi

 

The sprite file is uploaded and attached to this post. I would appreciate it if someone could make a PR and have it reviewed or otherwise clarify the process of doing so for me.

 

I created a fork of the main paradise repository. At this point to I modify my repository to contain my altered sprite and then make the PR by comparing the paradise repo to my forked repo?

 

I would upload samples but since they are animated sprites you kinda need to view the file to see them.

 

Edited January 18, 2017 by Guest

[flimflamm]

 

Here is roughly what the edited newscaster looks like (made text white and photo's colored)

 

http://i.imgur.com/JIldy0R.gif