Plan ahead and multi-task

 Because a solo journalist is responsible for everything from transportation to transmission, another time saver is to map the route to each location before leaving to avoid backtracking and other delays. Navigation systems like Garmin or Nuvi are must-haves for many VJs.

Multi-tasking behind the wheel is part of almost every VJ’s day. “While on the road, I make phone calls to interview subjects,” says Torres. “It’s still legal to talk on the phone while driving in Colorado.” He also works in close collaboration with KUSA’s assignment desk editors, who will make calls for him while he’s shooting.

Find fast, free WiFi

Torres says it’s a good idea to search the Web in advance for locations with strong WiFi signals to save time feeding in the story. “The reason I file by WiFi is because the transfer rate is usually faster,” says Torres. “My favorite place to transfer from is a hotel. I’ll usually set up in a lobby and log in to their WiFi for free.” Witha phone company air card, Torres says it usually takes about 40 minutes to send a 1:40 package. Using a WiFi connection and the free FTP program FileZillait typically takes about half as long. On a really fast connection, Torres says, he’s fed packages in as little as 3 minutes.

Torres often works the late shift and it’s part of his job to cut a separate V/O-SOT on his story for the morning news. Instead of feeding that piece in from the field, he’ll save time by putting it on a USB thumb drive and taking it back to the station.

Solo journalists also learn to save time by asking for help when they need it. Some VJs have been known to enlist a bystander to find people to interview so they can keep shooting b-roll.

Torres has been a backpack journalist since 2004 and he’s worked hard to become a better photographer. You can see the result of his effort in this story, which just won an honorable mention in the NPPA regional competition for best solo video (in depth).

Sourced from: NewsLab

That’s what multimedia guru Stephen Quinn believes.  Quinn, who teaches at Deakin University in Australia, shared a bit of his enthusiasm about mobile journalism at the World Jounalism Education Conference in South Africa.

Quinn calls mobile phones a “Swiss army knife” option for journalists.

“They’re compact, light and discreet,” Quinn said.  “Using cell phones forces journalists to think differently.  This new notion of mobility changes the way you perceive and operate in the world.  It’s all about connection.  Reporting involves thinking about how to find wifi, you have to be thinking about battery power.  And our concept of news is broadening – if I can get there, it’s news.”

Quinn says these new capabilities also change audience expectations.

“They know we can get there and expect to get the info,” Quinn says.  Plus, he believes it will help us reach new audiences.

“Mojo appeals to different demos; it appeals to younger audiences,” says Quinn.

Quinn says mojo is part of a change in visual standards, too.  He believes people become more accepting of low quality video, if the content is something they find compelling.

Quinn shared a list of free software programs that mojos can use in live reporting:

• Qik
• Kyte
• Bambuser
• Shozu
• Flixwagon
• Livestream

Quinn says his favorites are Qik and Bambuser for their ease of use.  He also likes the relatively inexpensive tools created by Vericorder.

When it comes to its uses and limitations, Quinn says right now the technology has not evolved enough to make mojo useful for long-form journalism.  However, Quinn says mojo is great for breaking news as evidenced by cell phone coverge of  protests in Burma, elections in Iran, the Jakarta hotel bombings, Haiti quake and the Moscow subway bombings.

Still, Quinn urges journalists not to get all caught up in the “shiny.”

“Pocket journalism is powerful, but needs it still needs a brain behind it,” Quinn says.

The producer, Ramaa Sharma, also wrote a bit about what she and others at the BBC have learned about using these cameras.

 The limitations were obvious: contrast and stability, for example, were drawbacks and our natural tendency to want to follow our subjects didn’t make for comfortable viewing.

But, that hasn’t kept folks there from finding plenty of uses for the small cams.

Radio 5 Live journos took them to the US elections and found they were great for getting good vox pops. They said people spoke more freely when filmed by a smaller camera. While presenters were also equally chuffed – for not having to grapple with complicated tech.

Again, it’s all about the right tool for the right story or story element.

He pointed to a recent piece in which the band Vampire Weekend was interviewed by fans who had sent in video questions.

“What’s better, an interview with Vampire Weekend with some reporter asking the same old  questions or questions from passionate fans?” Toppo asked. 

Of course, using viewers or readers to ask the questions is not exactly new, but Toppo says he’s trying to empower the journalists who work for him to look at each story they cover and then determine which tool will help them tell that story best.  For example, Toppo says he was delighted when an associate producer produced this piece within hours of Apple announcing the name, iPad.  All it took was Skype and some initiative. 

“Without ever talking to me, she and a co-worker got on the phone, got the interview, went into the control room and did the whole thing,” Toppo said.  “That’s what I like to see.”

Toppo also said that “video is not right for every story.” He pointed to a piece about teenagers overdosing on methadone as an example of a story that became more powerful through the use of audio and stills. 

At other times, CNN.com becomes an aggregator of content, according to Toppo, creating an “explainer” for users by pulling together content that’s already available else where online, such as a Web package on the “New Jews.”

Perhaps this is the start of the next chapter for journalism — with more journalists becoming more adept with more tools, the quality of storytelling may improve, if we can keep the focus on selecting the right tools for the right stories.

Research by RTDNA and Hofstra University finds the use of VJs has indeed gone up for the past several years but it hasn’t skyrocketed. About a third of local stations now say they mostly use VJs. Three years ago, it was a little over one in five. And the number of stations that don’t use any VJs has gone down sharply, from 29% in 2006 to 18% today.

But researcher Bob Papper says the real surprise came in answer to this question: Did you use VJs more or less in the past year? Only 12% of news directors said they used them more, while 29% said less. Those numbers aren’t at all what you’d expect in current economic conditions, and even less so given that the survey was in the field during the depths of the recession. Yes, almost half of the news directors who responded said they expected to use VJs more in 2010, but that’s what they always say. “Every year, expected use of more goes up way faster than the actual use,” said Papper.

The VJ experience

So if the numbers don’t suggest a “VJ revolution” just yet, has the increased use of solo journalists made a difference in television news? Mary Angela Bock, a former local television journalist who now teaches at Kutztown University, has been trying to figure that out. She interviewed more than 70 journalists and news managers about their experience with VJs, and her findings don’t support the claims often made about solo journalists.

Specifically, Bock finds little evidence that VJs produce stories their stations wouldn’t get any other way, either by expanding coverage or approaching stories more creatively. On the contrary, she writes, solo journalists tend to “pre-conceptualize” stories ahead of time.

Because they work alone, VJs will be more apt to look for quick and easy access to story elements and they will be less likely to stray from their pre-conceptualization. Instead of the smaller cameras and simpler software making it easier to take chances, television VJs see themselves as having less freedom to take chances with their stories. That‘s not to say that video journalism is not opening possibilities for new sorts of narratives; newspaper VJs are trying to break new ground. VJs who do not produce a story a day can be flexible. But organizations that demand daily filings on tight deadlines are less likely to foster innovation.

The VJs Bock talked to complained that they’re often assigned to easy, one-location features instead of hard news. And that can leave them at a disadvantage when they start looking for the next job, because their resume reels are stuffed with fluff.

It’s probably much too soon to reach a definitive conclusion about how the increased use of VJs has affected local television news, but as Bock writes, “the data…indicate that video journalism can simply be a way for organizations to cut costs without enriching the product.”

Sourced from: NewsLab

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?

Chip Mahaney is director of digital content for Scripps TV stations.  He says that Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools can be used in three ways:  1) Newsgathering 2) Dissemination and 3) Engagement.

In terms of newsgathering, tools like Trendsmap.com allow you to do real-time mapping of Twitter trends in your area.  Much of the time, it may be drivel, but in a breaking news situation, it could be invaluable.  Facebook, for example, is often used as a means of finding friends or relatives of newsmakers or as a tool for finding people affected by a particular issue or development.

And though journalists are tweeting about the stories they themselves are covering, Mahaney thinks they could be doing more to capitalize on the content that Twitter provides.

“Twitter is open,” Mahaney said.  “They are giving information away for free.”

He suggests that news organizations can create custom feeds for their sites on particular topics.  For example, Mahaney believes TV stations should try to grab Twitter names like “Atlanta traffic” or “Houston weather.”  If you can engage the audience on those topics and get them to contribute, think of how valuable those feeds would be in the case of a massive pile-up or a severe weather situation.

In addition, Mahaney feels news organizations and individual journalists could be doing more to engage their followers.

“Call out someone  in a tweet,” Mahaney said.  “Let one of your followers know you are following them or send a message to let that person know you’ve read what they’ve written.”

Mahaney says the trick to getting more people to follow you on Twitter is to follow them first, and he says another good engagement strategy is to re-tweet what someone has written.

And if you want to check out the impact of your own tweets, log on to TwitterCounter.com, which allows you to track your Twitter name’s effectiveness.  Or you might try Twitazlyzer.com , which looks at how much junk versus real information your tweets provide.

“It’s a chance to see what kind of clout your Twitter name has,” Mahaney said.  “It allows you to check on your brand.”

Victor Hernandez, director of coverage, says it’s because they’ve had trouble finding people who meet all their criteria.

Speaking to a crowd of broadcast journalists at an RTNDA workshop, Hernandez said he’s looking for people who exemplify four core attributes:

• Strong editorially
• Technically superior
• On-air presence
• Exceptional mindset

Hernandez says the mindset is most important of all.  He  wants their APJs to be platform agnostic.

“I want them to look at storytelling content and not be beholden to precedent and the way things have always been done,” Hernandez said.  ”It’s the ability to look at each story and figure out the best platform.”

The reporters they’ve hired so far are not working on “day turns,” rather they typically have several days to develop a single story.  The goal, too, is to hire people with a unique style.

“It’s really the ’anti-TV’ reporter in terms of look,” Hernandez said. “We want someone free-spirited, off-the-cuff, interactive.”

 The APJs have to be very comfortable with digitial technologies as well says Hernandez, for example, he wants them to already know Final Cut Pro.  Though they will get some training, they have to come in the door with tangible skills.

That’s because they’re going to need to work with an extensive multimedia toolkit and to feel comfortable trying out technological set-ups that may have never been used before – like the system CNN designed for getting high-resolution still photos back to the newroom online and in just minutes.

CNN All Platform Gear:
-Sony Z1U HD camera (changing to EX1/EX3) 
-Canon still camera
-Flip cam
-MacBook Pro
-Smart phones
-Air card
-Sat phones

 Hernandez says the technological advances are making amazing things possible.

“Anderson Cooper was live for an entire week in Afghanistan through IPTV,”  Hernandez said.  “There was no traditional satellite equipment.  We did it all through Skype and other internal apps.  The  quality was almost indistinguishable from what we see from a satellite, but the cost is about 1o percent.”

Hernandez hopes these new  tools can help energize his own news operation, help journalists to think differently about what might be possible, even in tough economic times.

“I want us to get that start-up mentality,” Hernandez said.  “You know, that ’find the next thing or you won’t eat next week’ approach.”

Consider these excerpts from a job description for an “Interactivity Editor” at Gannett:

• Adept at all forms of social networking, interacts regularly with audience to respond to concerns/questions; able to spot trends in responses and direct information to appropriate editorial staffers for action; able to serve as the audience’s voice in editorial meetings.
• Mines readership and census data; visits communities regularly; reaches out to audience through blogs and forums for insight; develops social media strategies for creating community interaction.

Few of us could have envisioned a job like that even just a few years ago, but now terms like “crowdsourcing” and “scanning for tweets” are part of everyday conversations in some newsrooms.  At the Future of Journalism Conference in Cardiff, Wales researchers from around the world gathered to talk about what the next few years might hold for the profession.  Social media invariably became part of the discussion whether the topic was economic challenges or ethics.

Alfred Hermida from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada has been researching Twitter and the role it’s beginning to play in journalism.  He speaks of it as an “awareness system” – a term he’s borrowed from computer science to describe the way Twitter makes people aware of other people’s activities and connections.

But Hermida also believes it may be leading to a new form of newsgathering that he calls “ambient journalism.”

“It’s multi-faceted and fragmented,” Hermida said.  “Each tweet is limited on its own, so you have to try to see them as a collection, a system.”

Hermida used the Iranian election coverage as an example.  At its peak, there were 200,000 tweets per hour coming out of Iran.  As isolated fragments, the information wasn’t all that valuable, but as a collection of information, it was all quite useful.

Hermida says what journalists need now are better tools to evaluate the flow of information coming from Twitter and other forms of social media.  He pointed to twitscoop.com, which tries to identify Twitter trends, so you can see what topics are getting the most discussion.

Then there’s nowpublic.com, which allows you to search for “conversations” – often on breaking news topics – and find related photos, video and links to more information.  Checking the site while writing this post, the topic was Pittsburgh police ordering marches to stop at the G20 summit.  The information compiled included  60 photos and three related videos.

Still Hermida calls these tools rudimentary and believes we need more means to analyze and contextualize Twitter and other social media systems.  As journalists begin to act more as curators of information, the ability to sift  through tweets and posts and other social media sources will become more critical.

Great photographers know this and they work hard to get the sound they need.  Here are some tips from the pros:

Listen closely at all times: To make sure you collect the sound you’ll need to tell the story, former NPPA editor of the year Brian Weister advises closing your eyes. “Listen, and then go shoot it,” he says.

“I drive with my windows down, listening for good stories,” says former NPPA photojournalist of the year Corky Scholl. When he finds them, he makes an extra effort to get great audio. Obviously, Corky cares about photography, but he says, “I would take a great sound bite over a nicely composed shot any time.” Another former POY, Ted Nelson from WTVF in Nashville, often rolls just to capture sound, and shoots video later that he can use to go along with it.

And then there’s this essential advice from Seattle photojournalist Tim Griffis: “Wear headphones or an earpiece so you don’t miss a moment.”

Get close: Put a microphone right next to the action. Wireless mics make that easier, but you can do it with any microphone. In one story, Scholl put a mic on a birdfeeder, and captured the buzzing sound of a hummingbird’s wings. “It makes the shot more compelling,” he says. Nelson often uses a wireless shotgun mic to get in close. “I don’t see any reason why somebody would look up from their food” for a story that’s just track-bite-track, says Nelson.

In breaking news situations,  former KPNX photojournalist Julie Jones often asked the reporter she was working with to wander with a wireless in search of sound while she shot the scene. “Let’s say the fire captain is frantically telling the reporter that they are concerned with the other side of the building,” she says. “Boom! Got your sound, got your information you need to keep shooting this thing.”

Time shots for sound: Nelson makes sure the reporter he’s working with knows when to ask questions to get the best usable sound. In one story, he framed an interview subject with a backyard baseball game in the foreground, and told the reporter to ask a question as soon as the ball was pitched. The result: a shot that begins with the crack of the bat, followed immediately by a soundbite.

Use what you get: Nelson logs natural sound while the reporter writes, and often builds a nat sound sequence or two while he’s waiting for a script. He’ll tell the reporter what elements he’s using so they’re both on the same page. As an editor, Weister says his niche with the station’s producers is giving them more than they expected. His specialty is turning “just a V/O-SOT” into a 45-50 second natural sound mini-package that tells a more complete story in just a little more time.

Let sound dictate edit: Weister uses sound differently, depending on what type of sound it is. He’ll cut directly to a sharp, crisp sound like a hammer hitting a nail, but he’ll bring up a droning sound like a circular saw 20 frames ahead of where he wants it up full, and then will fade it back down. And don’t think of natural sound as something to break up narration. When you capture good sound, says Griffis, use it to glue your story together, like “mortar between bricks.”

Sourced from: NewsLab