@maxnewsroom
The tools for working the web are *still* not easy to use short of a lot of training and patience. Meanwhile, you are asking a reporter, who may have already put in a full shift covering the story you have assigned to him or her, and who had to come back to the station to turn it into great radio, to *now* take additional time and perfectly "storify" it for the web. As most people who have done it know, doing a good radio story is *not* the same as doing that story well for the web. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise hasn't done it, or has Hermoine Granger's little pocketwatch to compress time...
@kimbui
I'm not a radio person, but we've struggled with this. It is difficult to ask people who know how to write radio to turn a magic button and write for web, especially when they've got radio to produce. On deadline. Similarly, I think it's unfair to ask a web person to webify a radio story they have not done reporting on. That is ow mistakes and errors get added in. I have no answers, just wanted to point out both sides of this coin.
@tcarpowich
KPBS reporters write for all platforms and are quite successful. Maybe it's because we believe it is possible.
She offered this video that explains how KPBS made the move to multimedia.
The KPBS example is a great one. They've clearly put a lot of time and effort and thinking into their multimedia journalism. But short of big $$ and big staff, how can a less-resourced newsroom hope to do digital well?
First: Training. Don't just give your staff a camera (video or still) and expect them to know how to use it! When I got a FLIP camera last year I immediately took it into the field and recorded a video of an urban farm. It was a panning nightmare!
First: Training. Don't just give your staff a camera (video or still) and expect them to know how to use it! When I got a FLIP camera last year I immediately took it into the field and recorded a video of an urban farm. It was a panning nightmare!
At the very least I should have watched this video...
Better yet, I could have taken an online Visual Journalism class from the Poynter Institute.
Here's more Facebook advice from folks working in smaller newsrooms.
Martha Foley Smith We struggle with this. Now we have interns in very morning to help with the webification. I will say that having a fast, easy CMS (content management system) for reporters to use - that cleans up word processing "artifacts," finds photos, and feeds the archive automatically helps a whole lot when your making that argument. Don't all reporters want as broad carriage of their stories as possible?
Rob South I think it's a team effort. IMO you don't want good reporters and writers spending a lot of time on something an intern or a producer (or manager) could do. You want them writing and reporting. I'm not saying that they can't do the work needed to get a story online, I'm saying they should have help getting it there. I've spent many hours watching stories evaporate because I was too busy getting copy web-ready, while there were other people who could be doing it. On the flip side reporters need to help each other get copy on the web, so you have to know how to do it.
Rob South I think it's a team effort. IMO you don't want good reporters and writers spending a lot of time on something an intern or a producer (or manager) could do. You want them writing and reporting. I'm not saying that they can't do the work needed to get a story online, I'm saying they should have help getting it there. I've spent many hours watching stories evaporate because I was too busy getting copy web-ready, while there were other people who could be doing it. On the flip side reporters need to help each other get copy on the web, so you have to know how to do it.
When you're working in smaller markets I've always been a proponent of doing less and being great at it. Having worked in news rooms with four people and 14 or more people it comes down to "making do with what you've got."
ReplyDeleteI was always frustrated in smaller markets when we had to do spots, features and producing. With a small staff work on one or two of those things and do them great. Too often I see organizations stretching their people too thin. Once you do that then it's a matter of integrating your work.
When I went out on a story I had my marantz on my shoulder, a mic in my right and my Flip cam in my left hand. (Believe it I got good at that.) But, I would gather a bunch of sound then turn off the mic and snap photos and/or get video of the exact same thing I was getting sound of. Obviously I worked on my radio segment first then after I organized the pics and found the best ones. The video came last. I did that editing on my own computer and kept the videos to just 60 seconds. (Don't forget, people online seldom get through a whole story and videos need to be short because folks will skim right past the long stuff most times.) Also, I don't use multimedia platforms on all stories...just the few good ones. It's a challenge but it is possible.