So, it may seen a little arrogant to assume that our blog can act as a barometer of the journalism industry, but what the heck. If you look at the five most viewed posts of 2012, it seems reasonable to…
Top journalism skills in 2012
Tag: Storytelling
Video journalism tips from a pro
Darren Durlach left television almost two years ago to try something new. He’d won two consecutive NPPA TV Photographer of the Year awards and, unbeknownst to him, was on the verge of winning a third. He’s now senior multimedia producer…
Bob Dotson’s elements of great TV news stories
NBC’s Bob Dotson says he sent out 525 resumes when he was first looking for a job. “I got three responses and two of them were no,” says Dotson. In the decades that followed, Dotson has produced thousands of stories…
Tips for planning a TV news story
I’m of the belief that planning makes stories stronger, and I often talk about planning as the step that comes between reporting and writing that is too often skipped. An outline like the one on the left–just a few words…
Five steps to better TV stories
“It’s not about the beer,” says Boyd Huppert, describing an assignment to profile a successful local brewery. Instead, Huppert’s story focused on the family behind the business — tapping into a universal theme. “My goal is to go out and…
How to write a compelling TV news story
Jason Lamb is a Murrow Award-winning TV news writer from Anchorage, AK. Earlier this week, he shared how meticulous logging of video is one of the building blocks of effective storytelling. Lamb says another key component is taking time to…
Telling great TV stories
One of the best things about awards season is the chance to see incredible work produced by some of the best reporters and photographers in the business. This year, the Sigma Delta Chi Award for large market TV feature reporting…
Get creative with your video storytelling
If you’re new to video, you’re probably spending lots of time just trying to master the camera, remembering how to shoot sequences and following the rule of thirds. Now, here’s one more thing to remember — finding an angle is important in both…
Structuring a multimedia story
The problem with many news stories is that they’re not really stories at all. They’re a jumble of facts, often in no apparent logical order. What stories need, as we note in the book, is a focus and structure: beginning,…
Learning what holds viewer interest
Many individual journalists and news organiations use YouTube to host their videos. But how many are using the Insight tool on the YouTube site to get a feel for how effective their videos are? Writing for his blog on the…