Reviewing the Reviewers: Video Tutorials

Video tutorials can be an easy and quick way for online journalists to gain new skills; we viewed and reviewed several great and not so great guides to pod casting, blogging and html.

The only blogging tutorial we reviewed was most vividly described on Katriona Lewis’ blog as “laboured heaving nasal slur” that “pushes the boundaries of the ‘Dummies guide’”. Benedicte Nylund was less critical, calling it “perfect for people that do not have a lot of experience on playing around on the web” while also considering it “very basic”.

The two HTML tutorials (1, 2) we looked at do not receive much acclaim either. While Luca Saviozzi seemed relatively positive and discretely indicated that “the narration is a bit clumsy and it doesn’t seem to follow a prepared structure” most reviewers were less subtle in making their point. Daniel Triplow - who wrote an exceptionally well presented review of the second HTML tutorial - was very to-the-point with his criticism and advises enthusiasts to visit a better one.

Podcasting was also represented in two tutorials; one for Mac users and one for PC users. Most reviewers were generally positive about the video about Podcasting with iTunes. Ceci Anesi's blog gives a clear, balanced view on its contents.

Sam Park best explained the PC video, which demonstrates how to distribute large amounts of images through Podcasts. Sarah Dean, who also wrote a Mac review, recommends another tutorial for Microsoft users.