When I first began this journey into multimedia journalism, I wanted to use a combination of text and video to tell stories. My goal was to create a text story that would replace printed quotes with videos, so people could actually watch and hear soundbites from courtroom testimony, attorney arguments or judges' rulings.
I never got around to it, for one because it was too time consuming, and I would have to include the quotes anyway for print versions. But I still thought there would be a way to take multimedia content and put them together to tell a story.
Storify came along and solved those problems. Developed with the help of a former AP reporter, Storify was created for journalists by journalists. You take content from the web, via Twitter, YouTube, Flickr or other social media sites, and place it on a timeline. Storify gives you text boxes to write headlines, a lede and transitions. As with any story, the reporter drives the narrative. The quotes are taken from real-time social media. You can even make embeds of specific URLs.
The perfect story hit our newsroom recently, when the office of the Kansas governor impulsively reacted to a critical tweet from a high school senior. The story exploded.
The day after my colleague Suzanne Tobias broke the story, I mentioned that it would be perfect for Storify. She had never used it before, so I gave her a quick walk-through. Within minutes she was building her Storify account that truly captured the reaction happening across the Twitterverse. It would end up nominated for Storify's Story of the Year, along side stories about arrests at the Occupy protests and the chronicling of uprisings across the Middle East.
I had been using Storify to document community reaction throughout the year spurred by our coverage of sex trafficking in Wichita.
The Storify timeline is simple. You search for content in a panel on the right side of your screen, then when you find what you want you drag and drop it into the timeline at left. Hit "publish." You can then grab the embed code, as you would for a video, and drop into a blog post or a story file for your web site. If you look at the metrics on Suzanne's storify, you'll see most came from the embed from Kansas.com.
Tip: It will save you a lot of time if you identify your story early and begin grabbing tweets or other content. Storify search only goes back a day or two. I began the story related to our human trafficking project months ago, grabbing key bits throughout the year, even though I didn't publish the final product until last month.
Although Storify has a place to pull content off Facebook, I've found that to be difficult and kind of clunky, probably because of various privacy settings.
There's now even a Word Press Storify plug-in that works from directly from the dashboard.
If you're not using it, you're missing out on a valuable tool for online journalism, and an simple way to turn tweets, blog posts and other web content into a cohesive, long-form narrative.
Showing posts with label web reporting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label web reporting. Show all posts
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
This is also CNN: getting out of the way of innovation
LAS VEGAS -- After blowing up their silos, CNN began hiring All-Platform Journalists, or APJs. They do about everything, but don't call them one-man bands. That'll just rile up Victor Hernandez, who thinks it makes them sound like a carnival act, instead of the innovative, hard-working reporters they really are.
Hernandez talked a lot about being "platform agnostic" at the SPJ National Convention, and it's something we all need to start taking much more seriously -- finding the best way to tell stories, instead of digging ourselves in where we're most comfortable. If video is the best way to tell the story, use it, instead of falling back on text, because there's a news hole somewhere that needs to be filled. If text provides context and explanation, then tell it that way, even though someone still thinks there has to be a video over a talking voice.
Or use both. Text with video.
Journalists are listening. I hear a lot less whining that "I'm a newspaper reporter, so I shouldn't have to learn this video." The multimedia presentations this week were packed. People were eager to learn to work on all platforms.
Hernandez said the skills are developing, but there's still one piece that needs work:
Some examples:
Or look what APJ Sarah Hoye did on a multimedia project on natural gas fracking with CNN Money's Steve Hargreaves. It included this video, which follows more of a documentary style than the typical TV formula:
Of course, inspiration for following a different path remains print icon Jimmy Breslin, who wandered off from press pack covering the funeral of John F. Kennedy to interview the man who dug the president's grave.
So as we left the convention, we carried the question: Are we moving toward the future or living in the past?
At least that's what Mark Briggs wondered, while leaving Las Vegas to the tune of John Mellancamp:
"If you’re not part of the future then get out of the way."
Hernandez talked a lot about being "platform agnostic" at the SPJ National Convention, and it's something we all need to start taking much more seriously -- finding the best way to tell stories, instead of digging ourselves in where we're most comfortable. If video is the best way to tell the story, use it, instead of falling back on text, because there's a news hole somewhere that needs to be filled. If text provides context and explanation, then tell it that way, even though someone still thinks there has to be a video over a talking voice.
Or use both. Text with video.
Journalists are listening. I hear a lot less whining that "I'm a newspaper reporter, so I shouldn't have to learn this video." The multimedia presentations this week were packed. People were eager to learn to work on all platforms.
Hernandez said the skills are developing, but there's still one piece that needs work:
Some examples:
Or look what APJ Sarah Hoye did on a multimedia project on natural gas fracking with CNN Money's Steve Hargreaves. It included this video, which follows more of a documentary style than the typical TV formula:
Of course, inspiration for following a different path remains print icon Jimmy Breslin, who wandered off from press pack covering the funeral of John F. Kennedy to interview the man who dug the president's grave.
So as we left the convention, we carried the question: Are we moving toward the future or living in the past?
At least that's what Mark Briggs wondered, while leaving Las Vegas to the tune of John Mellancamp:
"If you’re not part of the future then get out of the way."
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The technology of storytelling
I’m really not one to talk about staying with the basics. As this blog shows, I love new tools. I love the gadgets available to us as journalists.
But one piece of this I haven’t lost is the love of reporting and telling a good story. That transcends technology, whether scrawling pictures on a cave wall or putting together a multimedia package.
Marc Cooper makes the point again that, as this business changes at a whirlwind pace, we need to stop and reflect on how to use all the tools at our disposal to tell the best story.
We have a tendency to want to stick with our old comfortable forms. As an old newspaper guy, I still like to craft a good narrative text. I know broadcasters who are more comfortable in front of a camera than behind a keyboard.
But as Cooper points out, some stories are better in some formats than in others. We need to ask ourselves: is this piece better in video? Audio? Do we need to let people see and hear the experience themselves? Or is a descriptive story better?
We also need to be prepared to do it all. That’s why I try to record everything. Get the phone interview on mp3. Carry the video camera with me, and use it.
Then at the end of the process, I can choose which are the best pieces to use and how to use them.
That happened recently with a story about sex crimes against children.
A key element was getting a spreadsheet of addresses to show on a map how these crimes span neighborhoods in our community. But the map by itself had little context.
I used my social networks to help find the girl and her mother quoted in the story. I recorded audio, and even shot video on an interview with the prosecutor. I was prepared.
In the end, a text story and the map seemed to be the best way to go.
Still, none of it matters if we haven’t done solid reporting along the way.
But one piece of this I haven’t lost is the love of reporting and telling a good story. That transcends technology, whether scrawling pictures on a cave wall or putting together a multimedia package.
Marc Cooper makes the point again that, as this business changes at a whirlwind pace, we need to stop and reflect on how to use all the tools at our disposal to tell the best story.
“New multimedia tools, now reproducing themselves exponentially, provide reporters and editors with sometimes awe-inspiring ways to tell our stories. Learning to master these tools and when to choose them, however, can be as important as which tool a surgeon requests for a certain procedure in the compressed atmosphere of an OR.”
We have a tendency to want to stick with our old comfortable forms. As an old newspaper guy, I still like to craft a good narrative text. I know broadcasters who are more comfortable in front of a camera than behind a keyboard.
But as Cooper points out, some stories are better in some formats than in others. We need to ask ourselves: is this piece better in video? Audio? Do we need to let people see and hear the experience themselves? Or is a descriptive story better?
We also need to be prepared to do it all. That’s why I try to record everything. Get the phone interview on mp3. Carry the video camera with me, and use it.
Then at the end of the process, I can choose which are the best pieces to use and how to use them.
That happened recently with a story about sex crimes against children.
A key element was getting a spreadsheet of addresses to show on a map how these crimes span neighborhoods in our community. But the map by itself had little context.
I used my social networks to help find the girl and her mother quoted in the story. I recorded audio, and even shot video on an interview with the prosecutor. I was prepared.
In the end, a text story and the map seemed to be the best way to go.
Still, none of it matters if we haven’t done solid reporting along the way.
Monday, June 7, 2010
'Link journalism' means remembering the links
Reading Danny Sullivan’s “How the Mainstream Media Stole Our News Story Without Credit,” my first thought was:
“Dude, I feel you pain: about 30 years of it.”
I can’t count the number of times I’ve busted my butt to turn out an exclusive story, only to see a broadcast outlet swipe my hard-earned facts, with no new reporting, and use it as their own. Without credit.
Then there’s the age-old strategy of The Associated Press – take a story from a member newspaper, write a new lead, and move it across the country.
But I’m not only the victim in all this, I confess to being a conspirator. I think all of us have had an editor at one time or another run up to us waving a story from a competing news organization, saying, “We need this story. Go out and get it.” What they mean is, go out and get a story just like it and don’t tell anyone we got the idea from another organization.
Not one to argue with the person who provides I paycheck, I comply, although I’ve always tried to add depth, context or new reporting.
But Sullivan makes great points in tracking how his story about a woman suing Google over its walking directions.
With link journalism, we need to be more cognizant of crediting sources by linking back.
From when I first worked for a newspaper that decided it needed a web site – in 1998, and we thought that was behind then – grabbing links of research has been a practice. Editors would always ask for “web extras” and reporters would shrug and say, “What’s that.” A list of links found during research worked to give readers context and more information.
Then came upload source documents, as Sullivan did, so people could see where we were getting our information.
Now with delicious and Publish2, it’s easier than ever to save those links. Download the browser tool bars, click and save. Then share the list with your web team and they can run it, or embed it into the story.
Old news, you may say? You know this already, don’t you?
Well, read Sulllivan’s post and you’ll realize that while this may be basic online journalism, too few people are doing it.
“Dude, I feel you pain: about 30 years of it.”
I can’t count the number of times I’ve busted my butt to turn out an exclusive story, only to see a broadcast outlet swipe my hard-earned facts, with no new reporting, and use it as their own. Without credit.
Then there’s the age-old strategy of The Associated Press – take a story from a member newspaper, write a new lead, and move it across the country.
But I’m not only the victim in all this, I confess to being a conspirator. I think all of us have had an editor at one time or another run up to us waving a story from a competing news organization, saying, “We need this story. Go out and get it.” What they mean is, go out and get a story just like it and don’t tell anyone we got the idea from another organization.
Not one to argue with the person who provides I paycheck, I comply, although I’ve always tried to add depth, context or new reporting.
But Sullivan makes great points in tracking how his story about a woman suing Google over its walking directions.
With link journalism, we need to be more cognizant of crediting sources by linking back.
From when I first worked for a newspaper that decided it needed a web site – in 1998, and we thought that was behind then – grabbing links of research has been a practice. Editors would always ask for “web extras” and reporters would shrug and say, “What’s that.” A list of links found during research worked to give readers context and more information.
Then came upload source documents, as Sullivan did, so people could see where we were getting our information.
Now with delicious and Publish2, it’s easier than ever to save those links. Download the browser tool bars, click and save. Then share the list with your web team and they can run it, or embed it into the story.
Old news, you may say? You know this already, don’t you?
Well, read Sulllivan’s post and you’ll realize that while this may be basic online journalism, too few people are doing it.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Photo galleries show cool way to display writing, too
Photographers love photo galleries. It really shows off their work. Online editors love photo galleries, because it builds up page views with each click.
Now writers can use galleries to great effect. See what MSNBC did with a gallery in telling the narrative of one of the richest, and most reclusive, women in the America.
The photos themselves may not have been strong enough to stand lone themselves. But with strong words, they play off each other, like a picture book.
The Times Herald-Record used a similar approach in the story of a man who spent decades in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
I see all sorts of uses for this kind of story-telling, with evidence photos from court, or to spice up zoning and development stories. The photos help set up a sense of place and drive the words.
Now writers can use galleries to great effect. See what MSNBC did with a gallery in telling the narrative of one of the richest, and most reclusive, women in the America.
The photos themselves may not have been strong enough to stand lone themselves. But with strong words, they play off each other, like a picture book.The Times Herald-Record used a similar approach in the story of a man who spent decades in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
I see all sorts of uses for this kind of story-telling, with evidence photos from court, or to spice up zoning and development stories. The photos help set up a sense of place and drive the words.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Why I was the only reporter allowed to tweet from the courtroom during the Roeder trial
From the World Series to murder trials, the bigger the event, the tougher it is to cover. I’ve done both a seven-game World Series and murder cases drawing national attention.
You always have to find space to operate between all the reporters, and in both events, everyone is seeing the same thing and it’s tough to come up with a fresh angle. As the reporter pool grows, there are more restrictions.
In the recent trial of Scott Roeder, the judge decided not to allow laptops in the courtroom. That meant no live tweeting from the courtroom, only a media room two floors away. Well, for most reporters that was the case.
Cell phones were allowed as long as they made noise, and from the time I started covering cases on Twitter, all I’ve used is a phone. I call it the laptop in my pocket.
My phone and Bluetooth keyboard always draws curiosity from the other reporters, which reminded me that I should probably explain it again, because the set-up comes in handy, when you want to travel light.
The current edition combines a Blackberry Curve with a Freedom Universal Keyboard2. The keyboard saves your thumbs and is small enough to go unnoticed. It’s allowed me to tweet from federal courtrooms, and in trials where judges think a row of clacking laptops would distract jurors. But I can see this setup being used in other events. It still leaves room to take notes.
The keyboard connects via Bluetooth, and is much more reliable than the old infrared devices I used to pair with a Palm phone. You can find a Bluetooth keyboard for just about every kind of phone, except for an I-Phone and Android. I really wanted a Droid, but I needed one that worked with a keyboard. I went with the Blackberry, because I liked the feel of the Freedom Keyboard and it was made for the Blackberry. Plus, Blackberry has a lot of apps available similar to the I-Phone and Droid.
It proved quite the soldier during the Roeder trial. I tweeted with the keyboard for eight hours in court each day, including checking the Internet throughout he days for replies from Twitter followers. At least one day after the trial, I then went to the gym and worked out for an hour while playing Pandora. I still had battery left when I plugged in to recharge it at bedtime.
Can your I-Phone do that?
You always have to find space to operate between all the reporters, and in both events, everyone is seeing the same thing and it’s tough to come up with a fresh angle. As the reporter pool grows, there are more restrictions.
In the recent trial of Scott Roeder, the judge decided not to allow laptops in the courtroom. That meant no live tweeting from the courtroom, only a media room two floors away. Well, for most reporters that was the case.
My phone and Bluetooth keyboard always draws curiosity from the other reporters, which reminded me that I should probably explain it again, because the set-up comes in handy, when you want to travel light.
The current edition combines a Blackberry Curve with a Freedom Universal Keyboard2. The keyboard saves your thumbs and is small enough to go unnoticed. It’s allowed me to tweet from federal courtrooms, and in trials where judges think a row of clacking laptops would distract jurors. But I can see this setup being used in other events. It still leaves room to take notes.
The keyboard connects via Bluetooth, and is much more reliable than the old infrared devices I used to pair with a Palm phone. You can find a Bluetooth keyboard for just about every kind of phone, except for an I-Phone and Android. I really wanted a Droid, but I needed one that worked with a keyboard. I went with the Blackberry, because I liked the feel of the Freedom Keyboard and it was made for the Blackberry. Plus, Blackberry has a lot of apps available similar to the I-Phone and Droid.
It proved quite the soldier during the Roeder trial. I tweeted with the keyboard for eight hours in court each day, including checking the Internet throughout he days for replies from Twitter followers. At least one day after the trial, I then went to the gym and worked out for an hour while playing Pandora. I still had battery left when I plugged in to recharge it at bedtime.
Can your I-Phone do that?
Monday, February 1, 2010
Textual healing: The Roeder trial ends with a shot for out web site
As I said last week, I was assigned to report for web only. Another reporter took care of the print story. I did what I had been doing for the past two years of court reporting, using Twitter for my dispatches.
I’ve received attention for tweeting trials before. But this time, more people than ever were watching my twitter feeds. And we learned even more how valuable it was to driving traffic to our web sites.
Web producer Eba Hamid said early in the trial that every time I tweeted a link to a courtroom video, it got double the page views.
At the end of every trial, I routinely ask people for feedback, and I got 11 pages of responses.
Among them:
- @lummox_ict: @rsylvester Thanks for the tweets! Could you do the same thing for Avatar.
- @JenWPortraits: Thanks again to @rsylvester for lowering employee productivity all over Wichita this week. Great job!
- And @ryansholin (who introduced me to Twitter): @rsylvester’s tweets from the Roeder Trial kept me engaged with a story I’d usually only read as a headline from a national news org.
Back in the newsroom, Eba and content editor Lori O’Toole Buselt took my tweets and crafted them into text blocks for the daily trial updates. I would tweet links to those throughout the day, so people could catch up without having the read thought a bunch of tweets, scattered in the timelines with the rest of their Twitter friends.
Without rewriting the day’s events for print, however, I found myself missing one important element of what I do: writing and storytelling.
Sure, I always say Twitter helps you right tight. With a 140-character limit, there’s no room for wasted words. And people like you to filter their information. We are journalists, after all, and that’s what we do. But it’s just not the same as crafting a good story.
I'd been totally shut out of print for this trial.
Did it matter? Well, it was the No. 1 read story today on Kansas.com. It drew more readers, comments and reactions than the weekend’s basketball game between the University of Kansas and Kansas State, the local Wichita State basketball team, and an online database of traffic tickets that had dominated the top spot with readers for weeks.
It also shows people will read a story, no matter where it's told.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Reporting for web only during the Scott Roeder murder trial
My first day as a web-only reporter ended promptly at 5 p.m. – a rarity in my three decades of journalism. That’s when court let out in the Scott Roeder murder trial in the shooting of a Wichita abortion doctor. It has been receiving national coverage.
I had been accustomed to staying late after court to rewrite the day’s events on the web for print. But for this trial another reporter is handling the print story, which also appears online as the day-after report.
Despite leaving early, I was exhausted. A courtroom deputy commented on how my fingers were flying across my Bluetooth keyboard with my Blackberry. One of my Twitter followers posted a picture of me taken from a screen grab of the television coverage, as I frantically filed updates. Note: I need to learn to sit up straight on those wooden court benches.
I was actually writing two updates. In addition to the filing Twitter updates, which were coming anywhere from 1-5 minutes apart, I was filing longer dispatches for our web site, which they were posting time-stamped, blog style. Online wanted those every 10-15 minutes.
All fed onto our trial page. We know some people watch the Twitter feed from our Kansas.com page, without ever having to go to Twitter. For people who don’t want to watch the up-to-the-minute tweets, they can come back to the page every so often and catch up with what’s going on, while having the Twitter stream available to see what’s happening at that minute.
For additional multimedia, we have a still photographer in the courtroom, and a laptop in the pressroom downloading the video pool stream. Travis Heying, at one point, was shooting stills in the courtroom and running into another part of the courthouse on breaks to edit and upload video from his Mac. Later in the day, Mike Hutmacher took over as the still pool reporter in the courtroom and Travis took care of video.
Also notice our links section on the trial page. We are linking to other local and national coverage, including blogs and commentary on the case.
Inspiration for the links came from a session at the SPJ National Convention last year called “All the News That’s Fit to Link.” If you’re an SPJ member, you can hear an audio download of that session.
Bill Adee, editor of digital media for the Chicago Tribune, spoke in that session about the success his staff saw when they started linking to other coverage within their own.
“People aren’t going to stop reading when they finish your story,” he said. They’re going to get on Google and search out other information. Why not be the launching spot to guide them.
After all, as Adee and panelist Scott Karp pointed out, knowledgeable humans ought to be able to put together a better list than a Google bot.
With this trial, we’re trying to put together all the learning we’ve been doing about web reporting over the last several years and put it into practice.
I’d love to hear what others think about our efforts: what you like, what you don’t like, what we’re doing right and what we could do better. After all, the news is always an evolutionary process.
I had been accustomed to staying late after court to rewrite the day’s events on the web for print. But for this trial another reporter is handling the print story, which also appears online as the day-after report.
Despite leaving early, I was exhausted. A courtroom deputy commented on how my fingers were flying across my Bluetooth keyboard with my Blackberry. One of my Twitter followers posted a picture of me taken from a screen grab of the television coverage, as I frantically filed updates. Note: I need to learn to sit up straight on those wooden court benches.
I was actually writing two updates. In addition to the filing Twitter updates, which were coming anywhere from 1-5 minutes apart, I was filing longer dispatches for our web site, which they were posting time-stamped, blog style. Online wanted those every 10-15 minutes.
All fed onto our trial page. We know some people watch the Twitter feed from our Kansas.com page, without ever having to go to Twitter. For people who don’t want to watch the up-to-the-minute tweets, they can come back to the page every so often and catch up with what’s going on, while having the Twitter stream available to see what’s happening at that minute.
For additional multimedia, we have a still photographer in the courtroom, and a laptop in the pressroom downloading the video pool stream. Travis Heying, at one point, was shooting stills in the courtroom and running into another part of the courthouse on breaks to edit and upload video from his Mac. Later in the day, Mike Hutmacher took over as the still pool reporter in the courtroom and Travis took care of video.
Also notice our links section on the trial page. We are linking to other local and national coverage, including blogs and commentary on the case.
Inspiration for the links came from a session at the SPJ National Convention last year called “All the News That’s Fit to Link.” If you’re an SPJ member, you can hear an audio download of that session.
Bill Adee, editor of digital media for the Chicago Tribune, spoke in that session about the success his staff saw when they started linking to other coverage within their own.
“People aren’t going to stop reading when they finish your story,” he said. They’re going to get on Google and search out other information. Why not be the launching spot to guide them.
After all, as Adee and panelist Scott Karp pointed out, knowledgeable humans ought to be able to put together a better list than a Google bot.
With this trial, we’re trying to put together all the learning we’ve been doing about web reporting over the last several years and put it into practice.
I’d love to hear what others think about our efforts: what you like, what you don’t like, what we’re doing right and what we could do better. After all, the news is always an evolutionary process.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Don't wait until the end of the reporting to think multimedia
When it comes to multimedia, journalists should think out a story in an inverted pyramid. But we don’t, especially in investigative or enterprise stories.
We’re used to digging for the story over days, weeks, and months. Yes, some of have spent years on a story. We’ve got piles of documents, stacks of notebooks, and we’re ready to write. Then the online producer asks, “What else have you got?”
Too many times, multimedia and the web packages become an after thought. Unlike the normal path ofinvestigative stories, when you’re ready to write, it’s often too late to be thinking multimedia.
Mark S. Luckie, whose blog 10,000 Words provides a great resource for multimedia journalists, says investigative reporters need to think in terms of how the web can help them tell there stories.
But we have to think of them as we report the story, not at the end.
As we gather documents and notes on a story, we ought to be thinking in terms of video clips and recording audio during interviews that we could turn into multimedia later. Also, keep feeding your web producer bits that could make an interactive map or timeline.
I’m in the middle of a long-term investigative project. As with these kinds of stories, I’m not certain where it will lead. The other day, one of our interns was helping with research. She had gathered a mountain of papers. Somewhere in all that paperwork, we expect to find the story. I pulled out a video camera and shot a minute of her working with all that paper.
We may never use it, just like we don’t use a lot of the notes we take. But I’ve filed it away in a box where I will keep multimedia for the project, just in case.
Update: ProPublica has a great example of how web tools can exaplain complex information with its map on the unemployment insurance drain.
We’re used to digging for the story over days, weeks, and months. Yes, some of have spent years on a story. We’ve got piles of documents, stacks of notebooks, and we’re ready to write. Then the online producer asks, “What else have you got?”
Too many times, multimedia and the web packages become an after thought. Unlike the normal path ofinvestigative stories, when you’re ready to write, it’s often too late to be thinking multimedia.
Mark S. Luckie, whose blog 10,000 Words provides a great resource for multimedia journalists, says investigative reporters need to think in terms of how the web can help them tell there stories.
“The web serves as an all-encompassing platform for publishing interactive maps, multimedia stories built in Flash or other software, video, audio and other forms of media besides text,” Luckie wrote on The Muckraker Blog for the Center for Investigative Reporting.
But we have to think of them as we report the story, not at the end.
“The responsibility, however, requires the judgment to know which media is appropriate for a particular story. For example, interactive maps are great, but they aren't appropriate for every story,” Luckie writes.
As we gather documents and notes on a story, we ought to be thinking in terms of video clips and recording audio during interviews that we could turn into multimedia later. Also, keep feeding your web producer bits that could make an interactive map or timeline.
I’m in the middle of a long-term investigative project. As with these kinds of stories, I’m not certain where it will lead. The other day, one of our interns was helping with research. She had gathered a mountain of papers. Somewhere in all that paperwork, we expect to find the story. I pulled out a video camera and shot a minute of her working with all that paper.
We may never use it, just like we don’t use a lot of the notes we take. But I’ve filed it away in a box where I will keep multimedia for the project, just in case.
Update: ProPublica has a great example of how web tools can exaplain complex information with its map on the unemployment insurance drain.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Getting videos even your photographer buddies will think is cool
Face it, as reporters we are still on the low end of priorities when it comes to video.
Yes, it's now a requirement for us to know how to shoot, capture and edit video stories in a multimedia world. But try arm-wrestling for equipment, and you're going to lose to the real photographers in the newsroom, whose jobs are increasingly dependent on video expertise. And they should.
I'm not one to sweat the small stuff. Online video is still an open adventure, and to be truthful, most web surfers would rather watch "On A Boat" (33.8 million views and counting) than any serious piece of news you're going to produce (200 views and hoping for more).
For the new video series, I'm using a Canon Elura 85 that our newsroom bought in 2005. I don't think they even make the model anymore. Our photo department long ago graduated to Canon HD cameras.
So I'm using the old camera no one else wants, and I'm okay with it. But it's funny, when I started asking for feedback from people I know and respect, everyone complimented the production values of the new courts vlog.
My main mentor, Stacey Jenkins, who taught us video two years ago, said I've got my lighting right. One of our most prolific videographers, Jaime Oppenheimer, said it was "awesome."
That's the beauty of this DV camera: you have control over the settings, so I can adjust exposure to the low-light situations that sometime plague the courtroom. No matter what the price, try to get one where you can switch to manual in a pinch. Also important is a jack for an external microphone. If you've got those, you can really do some good work.
What is most important for reporters shooting video, is capturing decent audio. And let me just say, the audio on your beat is better than mine. Courtroom acoustics tend to really suck. Even the television guys, who've been doing this for years, complain about courtroom audio.
I'm still working on perfecting the audio, but for the meantime, I've got a wireless mic set on loan from the photo department. It was one they're not using. Scored on that. Another tip, show an interest and work hard, and you'll have friends who will help you out, such as pointing out the good equipment that no one else is using (thank you, Jaime)
I'm still also carrying the $10.99 Nady microphone I bought two years ago. It still works great for interviews. I also pack an Azden shotgun mic I found collecting dust in a closet, which can pick up sound from across the room. My next experiment will be to use both the shotgun and the wireless to collect even better audio from court hearings.
I'm hoping not using this camera forever. We're holding out hope for some more higher resolution video cameras for reporters in the next budget. In the meantime, I'm using what I have. And I'm not complaining.
I'm finding it matters less about being a gear head and more about what you're collecting with the equipment you have. I mean, in the old days, I don't remember ever hearing good reporters complain about what kind of pen they had.
What are you using to shoot video for your stories?
Yes, it's now a requirement for us to know how to shoot, capture and edit video stories in a multimedia world. But try arm-wrestling for equipment, and you're going to lose to the real photographers in the newsroom, whose jobs are increasingly dependent on video expertise. And they should.
I'm not one to sweat the small stuff. Online video is still an open adventure, and to be truthful, most web surfers would rather watch "On A Boat" (33.8 million views and counting) than any serious piece of news you're going to produce (200 views and hoping for more).
So I'm using the old camera no one else wants, and I'm okay with it. But it's funny, when I started asking for feedback from people I know and respect, everyone complimented the production values of the new courts vlog.
My main mentor, Stacey Jenkins, who taught us video two years ago, said I've got my lighting right. One of our most prolific videographers, Jaime Oppenheimer, said it was "awesome."
That's the beauty of this DV camera: you have control over the settings, so I can adjust exposure to the low-light situations that sometime plague the courtroom. No matter what the price, try to get one where you can switch to manual in a pinch. Also important is a jack for an external microphone. If you've got those, you can really do some good work.
What is most important for reporters shooting video, is capturing decent audio. And let me just say, the audio on your beat is better than mine. Courtroom acoustics tend to really suck. Even the television guys, who've been doing this for years, complain about courtroom audio.
I'm still working on perfecting the audio, but for the meantime, I've got a wireless mic set on loan from the photo department. It was one they're not using. Scored on that. Another tip, show an interest and work hard, and you'll have friends who will help you out, such as pointing out the good equipment that no one else is using (thank you, Jaime)
I'm still also carrying the $10.99 Nady microphone I bought two years ago. It still works great for interviews. I also pack an Azden shotgun mic I found collecting dust in a closet, which can pick up sound from across the room. My next experiment will be to use both the shotgun and the wireless to collect even better audio from court hearings.
I'm hoping not using this camera forever. We're holding out hope for some more higher resolution video cameras for reporters in the next budget. In the meantime, I'm using what I have. And I'm not complaining.
I'm finding it matters less about being a gear head and more about what you're collecting with the equipment you have. I mean, in the old days, I don't remember ever hearing good reporters complain about what kind of pen they had.
What are you using to shoot video for your stories?
Monday, June 4, 2007
Bringing it into autofocus
Angela Grant alertly saw where I was heading with this thread, and as usual is a step or two ahead of me, aptly asking: “But what were you thinking of using that audio for?”
I have been harping on audio from the outset of this young blog, because I was most comfortable wading into multimedia by collecting source documents and audio. Reporters have been recording interviews for years, and with some attention to detail and extra equipment can begin doing that almost immediately.
But Angela is correct: we can’t live by audio alone. Sooner or later, everyone is going to have to pick up a camera – still, video, all of the above.
The Invisible Inkling, Ryan Sholin, explains why in “10 Obvious Things About The Future Of Newspapers You Need To Get Through Your Head.” As Mindy McAdams says, “I agree with Ryan that they are, in fact, "obvious," that doesn't mean that everyone in journalism knows these. Sad but true.”
Pay attention to No. 6:
· “Reporters need to do more than write. The new world calls for a new skillset, and you and Mr. Notebook need to make some new friends, like Mr. Microphone and Mr. Point & Shoot.”
In the accompanying link: the Inkling tells us what exactly we will need to keep working in the ever-shrinking newsrooms of the future:
“If I were in a position to hire a reporter, I’d be looking for a solid writer with Web skills.
- “I would want someone who knows enough HTML to write their own Web update into a content management system without needing training.
- “I would want someone who has no fear of a digital camera, a video camera, or an audio recorder.
- “I would want someone interested in using databases, maps, and public records as source material.
- “I would want someone who knows how to tell a story.”
But as Ryan points out, we're going to be asked to do more, and on the daily grind of a beat, we need to have a point-and-shoot camera in our bags. We need to learn how to use it. We need to learn how to compose a photo and set a white balance. And then take a bunch of pictures.
Ask your friends in the photo department for help. Be prepared. I’ve been accused of creating slide shows so bad they to drive traffic from our web site that would never return. But you learn from criticism.
My friend Jaime Oppenheimer has encouraged and given me courage to spread out and try new things that I would have been terrified of a year ago. Brian Corn, our editor of visuals, now happily hands me a point-and-shoot and tells me to go forth and multimedia..
I’ve started taking a point-and-shoot still camera and video camcorder on every assignment. I’ve even received a couple of photo credits in our paper from frame grabs off the video. Granted, they were static and ran just slightly larger than a postage stamp, but it's a satisfying baby step. I’m betting the overworked photographers in most newsrooms will go out of their way to help you, just because you’re a reporter who’s not afraid of a camera.
I know I’ll never shoot photos like Jaime. But I’m gaining confidence that I can, on a good day, give a feel of what it was like to be at an event. If you shoot enough, you can create some cool, stop-action effects in slide shows. And I’m learning that people are less likely to notice the crappy pictures if you don’t leave them on the screen very long.
I also have something to go along with the audio. And even in a changing world, I can still conduct a killer interview.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Our first multimedia project
I learn by example and improve through feedback.
I’m getting much of the former but too little of the latter, since I ventured into an emphasis on multimedia journalism. When writing stories for 1A, I could get feedback by going out for breakfast. People would be talking about the story at the diner. Readers would e-mail me.
Multimedia is new enough to local audiences that readers are searching to find it – or more accurately not looking for it at all. Few people are going to newspaper sites looking for video or anything that moves. I know this, because Howard Owens quoted another Kansas guy - Rob Curley’s research saying it takes about 18 months for people to find a new feature. We’ve been providing videos in earnest, if not in consistency, since January. About this time next year, maybe people will notice.
There's no shortage of examples. I scour the web looking for learning opportunities, not to copy them, but to try to learn style and form and I can go out and incorporate what I like into what I do. Same way I’ve always covered a beat or written stories.
But there’s not much feedback.
That’s why I love Angela Grant’s critiques of my video. It helps me grow. Angela, thank you!
It’s also why I offer this: our first multimedia project.
It just launched on Kansas.com. Katie and I compiled this as the first project for our newspaper that is web-centered – not a part of a story for the print version. We’re going to continue to add galleries and hope people discover it, while providing some evergreen content to our site.
How we did it: Friday nights are always a strain on staff: busy sports night, too few people. Ever suggest to a newspaper person, reporter or photog, who has to already work weekends and holidays to give up a Friday night? If we were going to do this, it was up to us to shoot it.
Rule No. 2 of Multimedia Reporting: Don't let them hear you whine. Don't complain about not having the right gear, the right talent, anything.You might end up getting buzzed. Do whatever it takes to get the job done. For print stories, I've taken notes on the back of napkins.
We did these first slide shows with a Nikon Coolpix point-and-shoot digital camera. We picked up sound with our Canon Elura 85 video camcorder - which turns out to be the best audio recorder we have - using our inexpensive Nady external mic, discussed in a previous post. We extracted the sound in I-Movie and edited it in Audacity. Brian Corn, our director of visuals, was pleased with the outcome. "Awesome," I believe was his word.
I provide examples of my work, not because I think they’re particularly noteworthy, but to document where I am at this stage of the learning curve.
And to get feedback. That’s the only way we will improve.
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