Advancing the Story

This post is not an anti-Twitter rant, instead it’s a cautionary tale.  By now, we’ve all heard stories about newsrooms sending out inaccurate tweets and then paying the price for it.  Take the case of WFTV in Orlando, for example, where back in April the station tweeted about the state’s first swine flu case with information that turned out to be wrong.

Now, according to the Florida News Center, we  have a GM and news director at WPMI in Mobile, Ala. who have been suspended for a week without pay following an inadvertent tweet on the station’s electronic billboard, which features the anchor team and a Twitter feed from the station.

There may be more to this billboard story than we realize, but the incident reinforces a couple of important points:

1.  News organizations are going to make mistakes when using new technologies (think gyro cams on news helicopters and some of the privacy issues raised with those).

2. Because the technology is new, those mistakes will be magnified by the critics and used by them as evidence that the journalists involved are being reckless.

Knowing this, newsrooms and individual journalists would be wise to go above and beyond their usual verification and pre-publication checks.  Continuing to educate themselves on both the potential benefits and drawbacks of these new tools is important, too.

Filed under: 08. Producing for the Web, 11. Multimedia Ethics | No Comments »

According to the latest Nielsen research, Facebook is now the third most popular place to watch video online in the world!  Of course, YouTube is still dominant, but Facebook’s rapid growth is worth noting.

According to Nielsen’s latest VideoCensus numbers, which look at the number of video views in October, YouTube serviced over 6.6 billion streams. In a distant second, Hulu offered up over 632 million video streams. But it was Facebook with over 217 million streams in October that easily beat out Bing, Yahoo, and several other online sites. In September, Facebook was ranked tenth in total streams.

Also interesting, Nielsen says the amount of time social media users are spending on video is up 98% year-to-year.  But have TV newsrooms taken notice?  One of the most popular local TV news pages I’ve seen on Facebook is that of WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida.  With it’s 5,600+ fans, it regularly features meaty posts and good community-building interaction.  But a recent check of the page found just one video post.  Even the links back to the station’s Web site seemed to favor slideshows (for more hits?) and text stories.

It may be that TV newsrooms are still unsure about the value of sharing their video freely.  (For more thoughts on this topic, read our previous post Online video for TV journalists.)  It seems to me, though, that this is another area of opportunity for news organizations to disseminate content to expanded audiences.

Technorati code 652UZRRFH4U7

Filed under: 08. Producing for the Web | No Comments »

An independent non-profit due to launch early next year will enlist students at the U.C. Berkeley graduate school of journalism to expand local news coverage in the San Francisco area. The Bay Area News Project, funded by a $5 million grant from a local philanthropist, will produce news primarily for the Web and mobile delivery, in collaboration with KQED public radio and television.

The project is hiring a professional staff but expects to involve students as well as faculty at Berkeley. The J-school already produces hyperlocal news sites in the Bay Area, including Mission Local and Oakland North, which presumably could provide some of the content for the new site.

This kind of collaboration makes a lot of sense for journalism schools and their students, and it could provide jobs for some laid-off journalists. In some ways, it’s similar to the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University and the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, which also combine student input with professional supervision.

But let’s face it, these kinds of projects can’t begin to re-employ all of the reporters and editors who have lost their jobs in the last couple of years. The project’s Web site says that 500 professional journalists now cover the Bay Area, compared to 900 back then. Collaborative projects provide a great opportunity for students to build their resumes, but they probably won’t make it any easier for J-school graduates to find full-time jobs in the news business.

Filed under: 12. Getting Ready for the Real World | No Comments »

As more and more journalism professionals find themselves working both in front of and behind the camera, many are looking for suggestions on how to do it all well.  Marc Schollett of TV7-4 in Traverse City, Michigan could be the poster child for this dilemma. Schollett not only shoots his own stories, he anchors three newscasts a day as well.

On AR&D consultant Bob Kaplitz’s blog, Scholett offers this advice to other multimedia journalists:

1.)   Don’t think of your video as an afterthought. Good video might save a story, but poorly shot wallpaper video will certainly ruin one.

2.)   Don’t complain about carrying gear. There are hundreds of darn good reporters out there who are carrying resumes right now who would kill to be carrying gear.

3.)   Don’t forget what it’s like to be a viewer. See each day’s story as if you were watching it from home. Did you get the take home message across? Did you like video? Did it all make sense? Would you want to watch it again? Would you need too?

4.)   Don’t rush the writing. That’s where real mistakes are made.

5.)   Don’t use being a one man band as a crutch or an excuse. It’s the wave of the future and a great skill to have.

You might also want to check out Schollett’s advice for managing time as an MMJ – anyone who can physically survive anchoring three shows and turning a story every day has got to know something about time management, right?

Filed under: 01. The Multimedia Mindset, 03. Multimedia Newsgathering | 2 Comments »

3G, WiFi, WiMAX, LTE or Skype.

No, those letters are not the result of fingers run amok on a keyboard, they’re all now part of the multimedia journalist’s toolkit. 

An article from TVNewsCheck does a great job of describing how wireless broadband is changing news reporting, specifically what each option can and cannot do.

The trick to using wireless broadband is understanding its capabilities. It requires “a constant juggling between how much time you have and how much quality you can submit,” said Fred Fourcher, CEO of Bitcentral, a digital media management and content distribution management vendor.

Here are some highlights from the piece.

• 3G – Good for news stories that are not time sensitive because the upload time for a large video file could stretch into hours.  On the plus side, it’s available almost everywhere, even in a moving vehicle.  In addition, companies like LiveU have technology that can combine up to six 3G feeds to increase the bandwidth and upload speed.
• Wifi – Faster and potentially cheaper than 3G, but not always available.  Wifi can be tricky to use for a live shot since there’s often a lot of competition for bandwidth.
• 4G/WiMAX/LTE - coming soon, the article calls this “wireless nirvana.”  In theory, upload time is supposed to be up to five times faster than 3G.  The idea is that you could take a camera enabled with WiMax and use it to broadcast live.  But WiMax is public like Wifi, and without a dedicated link, it could be risky for a live shot.

For more on these technologies, LTE and Skype, check out the full article.

Filed under: 12. Getting Ready for the Real World | No Comments »

The best advice I’ve seen lately on how to do better interviews can be summed up in those two words: Pay attention. That may be easier said than done if you’re shooting your own video, but it’s critically important. Once the interview begins, you can’t be worrying about white balance or focus. Don’t mess with them once you’re rolling so you can pay attention to what really matters–what’s being said.

Chuck Fadely of the Miami Herald definitely subscribes to the “pay attention” school of interviewing. Here are a few of his best interviewing tips from an online discussion group:

* pay attention! You need to know what you’ve got on tape and what you still need for the story
* pay attention! You need to know what the story is and stay on track
* pay attention! You’ll need to go shoot b-roll of what they’re talking about

Photojournalist and teacher Cyndy Green reinforces that last point.

My #1 rule is to always listen to what the interview subject is saying and make mental notes about visuals that will tie in what they talk about. So if you’re doing a story about drug houses and they mention how run-down the yards look or how there is always someone on the lookout for cops…those are visuals you can try to get to enhance the story.

Green’s second rule is all about paying attention, too. “Keep eye contact with the interview subject…let them know you are interested in what they have to say.

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You’ll notice that both Green and Fadely expect you to interview first and shoot later. That’s generally good advice when you’re working alone, but only if you’re not covering breaking news. If you are, check these tips from WBFF’s Darren Durlach.

Filed under: 02. Reporting the Story | 2 Comments »

If a journalism school offers real world experience, should the students who participate be protected by reporters’ privilege? That’s a key question in a case involving a professor and students at Northwestern’s Medill J-school.

David Protess runs the school’s “Innocence Project” in which students investigate old crimes looking for wrongful convictions.  In the past decade, the school says, “[they] have uncovered evidence that freed 11 innocent men, five of them from death row.”

Protess and his students believe they’ve found another wrongful conviction and Northwestern’s legal clinic has filed a petition for a new trial. But local prosecutors are suggesting that the students may have been under pressure to prove the case in order to get a good grade in the class. As the Associated Press reports, the prosecutors have subpoenaed the students’ grades, private emails, notes, unpublished memos and expense claims. That kind of information would typically be protected by the state shield law but the prosecutors claim the students aren’t journalists, so they’re not covered.

The case raises concerns for all students who do “real world” journalism as part of their course work. And it underlines the need to bring shield laws up to date in today’s multimedia world when anyone can be a journalist. The latest draft of a federal shield law does just that, by covering anyone who does journalism, even if they don’t get paid for it.

Filed under: 04. Reporting in Depth, 11. Multimedia Ethics | 1 Comment »

Okay, I admit it. I’m a grammar-and-spelling nut. And I think it’s critically important for journalists to get it right. In my view, “little” mistakes on the air, in print or online matter because they can dent our credibility. After all, if we can’t manage subject-verb agreement, what else might we be getting wrong?

College journalism teachers tell me their students often need remedial help with the basics because they never mastered grammar in high school. Even schools that require a passing grade on a grammar exam for admission to journalism school find they’re up against some deeply ingrained bad habits. And it’s tough to convince students they need to break those bad habits, especially broadcast students. We want them to write conversationally, of course, but we don’t really want them to write the way they would speak to a friend. If we did, we’d be okay with a script that reads, “Her and a friend arrived just before the shooting.”

It doesn’t do much good to suggest that people who speak this way consult a style guide when they write. If they don’t have a clue that what they’re saying is wrong, they probably won’t bother to look anything up.

Practice can help, and there are plenty of online resources available, like Newsroom 101, with free exercises in grammar, usage and style. But if those exercises feel like drudgery, take heart. The funny folks at The Oatmeal have come up with a guide to one of the most misused punctuation marks ever, the apostrophe. Check it out and never confuse it’s and its again.

Filed under: 05. Writing the Story | No Comments »

Be respectful, listen politely and stick up for the little guy.

That doesn’t sound much like the advice of a hard-hitting investigative reporter, but Steve Andrews has been righting wrongs in the Tampa Bay area since 1985.  The investigative reporter for WFLA has uncovered stories ranging from corruption at the courthouse to sub-standard bridge construction to critical failures within the state agency charged with protecting children and the elderly.

Now, with TV stations around the country cutting back on investigative units and letting veteran reporters go, Andrews has continued to work on holding the powerful accountable.

For example, Andrews learned that a major water reservoir in the Tampa area wasn’t built to plan specifications and the 3-year-old reservoir was developing huge cracks in the walls.

Filed under: 04. Reporting in Depth | No Comments »

“A video should be as long as it needs to be absolutely compelling.”

Andrew Fitzgerald oversees the online news efforts for Current TV. His view on video for the Web was echoed by the AP’s Kevin Roach and YouTube’s Olivia Ma. All three took part in RTDNA’s “Video-Free-For-All” webinar.

One of the fundamentals expressed is that the Web is changing audience expectations for video online or on the air. These days users and viewers seem to be more accepting of lower quality video, if it’s truly compelling. As one speaker put it, “It comes down to what camera you have in your hand at the time the news is happening.”

Case in point is the video shot by a bystander as demonstrators set up a barricade in Iran back in June.

Roach, who runs all U.S. based news operations for the AP, says they’ve found tremendous value in posting raw video online and says there’s no more waiting for the next newscast to get great video published.

“It’s really simple, first wins,” Roach said.

Camera quality

The panelists also reinforced the notion that inexpensive cameras are a major boon to news organizations, referring to $200 dollar Flip cams as “an insurance policy.”

Roach told the story of a “text-only” AP reporter who had the presence of mind to stop at a Radio Shack to buy a Flip camera on her way to track down South Carolina’s governor, Mark Sanford.

“Having a Flip cam in every reporter’s hands is not a bad idea,” Roach said. “And while you’re it, the GM and every engineer should have them, too.”

Roach says that if the subject matter is strong enough and you have “the only shot that exists, it’s acceptable.”

Cameras mentioned include:

• Flip camera      $150-$250
• Canon HV30    $1,000
• Sony Z1U           $3,500
• Sony EX1           $7,000

Sharing video

The speakers also questioned the wisdom of news organizations that refuse to share their video. 

“Right now, the AP video player is on 2,000 sites and that number continues to grow.  It’s not about getting people to your Web site,  it’s about discovery,” Roach said.  “A good chunk of our video is on YouTube.  We get more than 50 million streams a month, and the ads go with it.  Even if the video is streamed on another site, AP gets the ad revenue.”

News manager for YouTube, Olivia Ma, said local newsrooms that share their video on YouTube are also reaching audiences they ”might not otherwise have access to.”

In addition, Ma described a new service called YouTube Direct.  According to Ma, the service will provide local newsrooms an easy way to create assignments and solicit content from users.  No launch date was mentioned, but it sounds like something worth checking out.

Filed under: 06. Visual Storytelling, 08. Producing for the Web | 2 Comments »