This past Sunday I was watching “Reliable Sources” with Howard Kurtz on CNN, on which Kurtz reports about journalism and how the media covers world happenings. One segment on Sunday showed a video from BBC Four’s Charlie Brooker. Brooker’s video poked fun at the old video reporting techniques that journalists continue to use to tell their stories on the web and on television.

 

Kurtz casually made comments asking what is wrong with some of the traditional video reporting techniques such as “street reporting” and pointed out the techniques that he happened to be fond of. It seemed to be just the “lighter note” for the show before Kurtz got into the shameful and embarrassing (for journalists) story of Gerald Posner’s plagiarism and resignation as chief investigative reporter at The Daily Beast.

Despite the comedy behind the video, as a student journalist I think the subject matter is far more serious. Journalism students around the world are being taught that they must begin to develop their multimedia storytelling skills immediately in order to land jobs and create work that hold audiences’ interests. However, the latter is beginning to be neglected by news organizations that I believe are finding comfort in following standard formulas in reporting news. They are probably thinking, “If it worked for us before lets continue that. Besides, who has times in this fast-paced media world to be creative?” 

When I first started watching Brooker’s video I knew exactly where he was going because I had seen it many times on local news stations and shows like 60 Minutes and 20/20. Here is a 60 minutes video that is mostly an interview, but has many of these typical video shots Brooker is talking about.

Typical video techniques in 60 Minutes video:

• Repeated shots of the UBS bank sign get old pretty fast and serve no real purpose.
• There are also shots of people using their cell phones with their heads cut out of the frame. I guess that was supposed to signify Americans communicating when the subject of communication was being talked about in the story, but it just reminded me of the headless shots of people walking around city streets that Brooker included in his video.
• There are shots of the source doing some sort of work in an office or at his computer. That is like the sequence in the Brooker video of the man opening the envelope.

The overuse of those formats never stopped me from watching news programs that use them, but like one of the people said in Brooker’s video it does make you stop listening quite often.

Here is what I understand:

• Being creative is time consuming and with video reporting audiences expect the content immediately. Standards save time.

• Many print journalists are not even used to doing video at all, so whatever video content they are able to successfully create is an achievement in itself particularly if the video does an acceptable job of copying the techniques that television reporters have been using for years.

• Standard techniques can limit error

….but these excuses can’t last for too long.

Reporters and producers may have gotten away with continuing the basic storytelling techniques shown in Brooker’s video on television, but online audiences want to see something other than the typical news formats that they saw on the local news their grandparents had playing on the T.V. when they were younger. Creativity plays a significant role in online journalism.

However, because this creativity is still developing student journalists are using these uncreative formats as models. I know I do. This will be a problem for video journalism if journalists don’t speed up the production of works that set new standards of creativity for future generations.

The creativity should also be enforced by the j-schools. In this post, “Notes on Video Journalism: Ideas and Techniques of Michael Rosenblum,” the blogger and educator, Russell Chun claims that the techniques he lists are from an expert who is thinking outside the box of j-school education. I actually think these tips do the total opposite. Not only do the “notes” in that blog enforce old video reporting styles, but it also encourages the use of traditional film structures that even movie makers are trying to get out of. Movies can get away with tradition since just attracting someone to see a movie, whether it turns out to be good or bad, can make the film maker money. Unfortunately, for journalists one-time customers don’t bring in any significant cash. You have to produce news content that makes audiences come back for more.  

As I showed in one of my past posts there are some news organizations that are doing a great job in setting the standards for creativity. I wrote about Time magazine in that past post, and here is a more recent video showing Time’s ability to tell stories in a way that breaks away from the typical news reporting styles and approaches more documentary-like techniques. It was even able to achieve that with this common and not-so-newsworthy topic of Valentine’s Day.

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YouTube

 Aimee Hoyt wrote about the use of YouTube for news and media content delivery.

 Hoyt said that a blog called Mashable made a point that YouTube is becoming a star of the social media world. It makes the point that print publications are the competition for YouTube because they posting video on their own sites. I don’t agree with that point because YouTube is more about creativity being posted by non-journalists. Mashable was correct in pointing out that YouTube’s news content has not become very popular yet. I think that even if that area of YouTube remains unpopular it will not affect YouTube as a creative outlet for non-journalists.

 Hoyt also talks about an article written by Julia Boorstin of CNBC. Hoyt said that Boorstin wrote that YouTube could mean the loss of jobs for journalists. I do not see how this is possible. I think that as journalism education improves more and more journalist are going to have video reporting skills and people always seek out quality work when it comes to news and storytelling. Quality is a reflection of credibility for audiences. So, I don’t see amateurs taking over the news video realm.

 However, if amateurs do take over video reporting, I don’t see how that will cause journalists to lose their jobs. You don’t see many anchors/correspondents in the amateur new videos, and it is usually photographers behind the cameras of news organizations’ videos. Not journalists themselves. It may be more accurate to predict that photographers that work for news organizations may find themselves having to explore other outlets other than news; possibly more creative forms of media. But, none of that even matters because I don’t see YouTube taking over new video content. With all the ads that are starting to get incorporated in to YouTube and the new Vevo media (that many people are starting to complain about and hate), I see YouTube losing its buzz long before it causes journalists to lose their jobs and possibly being replaced with another social media video website.

 

Twitter and Text Messaging

 Ryan Bass posted about Twitter and Text Messaging in journalism. Bass said that the first article he read about Twitter said that it is a good outlet for delivering breaking news quickly.

 He also said Twitter allows journalists to track interesting event as they unravel. I agree with, but I think this use needs to be carried out with caution. Some stories don’t translate well into twitter coverage. I think sports are the best topics to be covered on Twitter. Sports are about action and change, so I think that gives a reason to be twitting about it.

 The use of Twitter as an interviewing tool was very interesting to me. I didn’t know that was possible and I would like to see a “Twinterview” in action. I think other people would too, so that could be a way for a new publication to be more transparent to its readers. I guess because you can change a Twitter Status it makes for quality control, but I think that is an element of the Internet as a whole. Usually when you post something you have the power to change it or take it down. There is still always the possibility that someone might print screen what you originally posted and circulate the incorrect information. Even Twitter doesn’t escape that risk. Also, as far as verifying information via twitter, I think that is risky because you don’t know who is posting accurate information. This is the case with verifying information any social networking site.

 Bass also said that text messaging is used by some publications to send out alerts to their customers and get breaking news to them as quickly as possible. I know this to be true because I am aware of my college newspaper, Central Florida Future, sending out text alerts.  This could help publications to continue to build readers’ trust as they reiterate that they can deliver accurate news first.

 

Blogging

 Andrew Kennedy’s blog discussed an article by Rebecca Blood that talks about blogging ethics. Kennedy said that the below six rules were outlined in Blood’s article and can help build blogger’s credibility and quality of work.

Blood’s blogging codes of Ethics (According to Kennedy):

“1. Publish as fact only what you believe to be true

2. Link to material online to reference it

3. Publicly correct any misinformation

4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed

5. Disclose any conflict of interest

6. Note questionable and biased sources.”

I think that it would be great if bloggers followed these codes, but right now there is no way to ensure that they are sticking to these principles. I just don’t see all bloggers embracing these rules unless they are journalist who already practice these principles.

The rules of online journalism that Kennedy talks about from The Online Journalism Review article make just as much sense as the Blood’s, but like I said non-journalist don’t get it for some reason. They haven’t had j-school to beat it in their heads. However, the “Don’t accept gifts or money for coverage” rule is one that I have seen broken at many publications. Not the money part, but I have witnessed publications accept thank you gifts from people they have written about. I would say newspapers (daily or otherwise) follow that rule the best. But my point is that each publication makes their own rules at the end of the day and I think bloggers will do the same. I do hope the need to maintain trust with readers makes them incorporate ethical codes.

Kennedy uses Mike Bianchi’s, an Orlando Sentinel reporter, blog as an example of ethical use of blogging. It would have helped if Kennedy showed us a non-journalists ethical use of a blog.

 

Reader Comments/Bulletin Boards

Jillian Krotki posted a blog about reader comments and bulletin boards. I agree with Krotki’s first opinion that publications allowing readers to make comments on their website does do a good job of making readers think their opinion matters to the publication. I also think it builds that trust again because some readers want to see that you are objective enough to allow a variety of comments, even if they criticize the article or publication.

 The article that Krotki looked at talked about the libel issues and risks that come along with reader’s comments was really interesting. I had never considered the libel risk of comments.

I do not think that publications should be held libel for comments whether they are pre-screened or not. People have freedom of speech and journalists are supposed to be objective. If people are posting relevant comments on a publication’s article and the comments aren’t threatening anyone nor calling people to hurt anyone then the writers of those comments have a right to have them posted if the publication is allowing comments. I think by now people know that comments represent the individual that wrote it and not the organization that is an outlet for the comments.

I know Krotki said that the libel risk should encourage editors to pre-screen comments, but I think doing that with a worry of libel on the mind may lead to a lot of filtering of many people’s opinions and I don’t agree with that. Pre-screening should weed out the comments that are spam and have zero to do with the discussion at hand. If libel is the motivation of pre-screening I think those publications should just not allow reader comments all together.

Krotki’s second article talks about anonymous reader comments. I agree with Krotki that anonymous reader comments are irresponsible on the publications’ parts. She thinks that at least the publisher should know who the reader is, but I don’t think any anonymous comments should be allowed. If you want to participate in a discussion you have to be able to stand behind what you say. What is the point of commenting in the first place? If the person is trying to be anonymous that makes me think they are saying something they are not proud of or shouldn’t be saying and that makes the comment lose all credibility as an opinion. If the comment could put the person in danger then maybe they should be telling the police instead of posting it online.

Krotki doesn’t seem to say that much about bulletin boards, but I think those are very social and I have not witnessed them being used that much in the journalism world. However, for publications that do use bulletin boards the same issues that apply to comments would apply to boards.  

 

Using Social Networking for newsgathering

Renita Frett looked at Kelly McBride’s article about gathering news and news sources using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. The quote Frett took out of the article was, “As a reporting tool, it’s easy to argue that Facebook, MySpace and Twitter instantly connect journalists to stories that in the past would have taken days or weeks to surface.”

I agree with the above comment because there are a lot of interesting stories out there that people are discussing on these social networking sites that journalists have not tapped into yet. I think social networking sites allow journalists to sort of eavesdrop on people’s conversations and get the scoop on the next big news stories. Also, as Frett points out these websites are a good way to gather sources to stories that would usually be hard to contact especially when they are regular people. I recall doing this myself while at an internship.

Allen shows photographs of the women of Camala as they search and find the remains of their loved ones in Chile. This is a photo from my phone of Allen during her presentation at UCF one Feb. 4.

Besides changing the way content is created, modern technology has made social networking websites an important element of how journalists’ articles and stories are being delivered across the Internet. People are not just going to their trusted news publications’ websites and reading the stories that catch their eyes. They are being constantly referred to news websites and publications during their everyday Internet browsing. Facebook and Myspace are two social networking sites that allow people to share news articles and content with one another. Below are summaries of two articles from the web that look at the role of Facebook and Myspace in journalism. 

“Facebook Journalism” by Rory O’ Connor on Huffingtonpost.com:

In this article O’Connor has conducted an interview with Randi Zuckerberg, who is a part of Facebook’s creative marketing organization. Since Zuckerberg communicates with news organizations in attempts to build partnerships between them and Facebook, O’Conner asked her questions pertaining to her take on the relationship between Facebook.com and the business of journalism. Here are the highlights of the points that Zuckerberg made in her answers:

Trust

•  People are more trusting of the content that their friends recommend to them than just what an organization tells them is acceptable information. There is so much journalism content available out there that people like to use social networks like Facebook to help them filter the content that is available with the help of their friends.
• More and more news organizations are building reader trust by encouraging people to share their content on sites like Facebook. Organizations are ‘taping’ into the trust people have for their friends recommendations in order to attract readers.

Embracing New Information

• Personal profiles on Facebook may contribute to self-promotion of individuals’ own ideas and opinions, but applications and groups allow people to exchange news content and information with each other.
• Facebook is a place where people are more likely to be open to new information and viewpoints that are displayed by their friends on the site.

Journalists’ Use

• Some journalists are resistant to utilize social networking sites because they don’t want to give away their hard work (articles, videos, photos, etc.) for free.
• “As I mentioned before, I don’t think expert journalism will go away – people will always want a trusted, expert opinion when it comes to news, politics, current events, and important topics – but people would rather get that content on a site they are already on, like Facebook, rather than traveling off to another site if they are already on Facebook engaging with friends and doing other things.”
• Many news organizations are starting to embrace the use of Facebook to share content. For example, CNN and CBS are now using Facebook Connect, which allows people to login into their Facebook accounts while on the CNN and CBS news websites and also see what activities their friends have on those particular websites.
• Facebook uses Lexicon to see how often people are using certain words or talking about specific words/topics on the website. This can in future be used by journalism organizations to determine what news is being shared the most among people all over the country.

“Found in (My)Space” by Jason Spencer

In this article Spencer talks about how journalists get use social networking sites like Myspace to find story sources and gather information about people. Here are the highlights of the article:

• People are sharing a lot of personal information on Myspace and there is a huge demographic of people on the site. As of August 2007 (when the article was written) Myspace had about 60 million users. “All kinds of people–millions of potential news sources–are corralled into their own corner of the Web.”
• Some news organizations use Myspace to keep track of what is going on with local soldiers who have been sent to Iraq. If the men and women in Iraq can’t be tracked directly, their friends and family can also be tracked to stay aware of what is going on with the soldier.
• Journalists can and do find story tips from Myspace pages especially when it comes to stories connected with young people. Some journalists make it a regular routine to check social networking sites to confirm background information for stories.
• Myspace has been used by journalists to determine gang related information in certain areas and the influences it may be having. Journalists can determine most of this from comments being made on Myspace pages.
• Myspace page content can offer details and “personal perspective” to news stories.
• Since young people (and other Myspace users) are so open to share their personal thoughts on Myspace, journalists are open to explore that content to get insight into these young people’s lives when necessary.

“‘A lot of times, the people that we’re writing about are not famous, are not well-known. They’re just average people,’” said Meg Jones, a general assignment reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.”Before you had the Internet, it was hard to find out a lot of the details about them. And now, that’s provided for us.’”

• Though Myspace can be a useful tool to get information journalists still need to verify and check information because what people post on their profiles can easily be false. One cannot even be sure who has created the page or posted the information.
• A journalist can tell the legitimacy of one’s Myspace page by its activity. The more activity the more chances are you have found the correct page of the person you are looking for.
• The same basic journalism skills apply: You have to verify information and make ethical decisions about personal information of others you choose to share.
• Sites like Myspace can allow journalists to gather people’s reactions to certain events such as someone’s death.
• Important tips for journalists using Myspace: (1)”Double-check everything.” (2) “Always cite the page.” (3)” Keep in mind the information on a person’s social networking page is self-selected–and that “facts” on such pages aren’t necessarily solid.” (4) “Don’t be surprised to find angry children creating false sites about a teacher they don’t like, or angry adults doing the same about a politician they disagree with (though sometimes the bogus sites themselves can be stories).”

An Example of ‘Facebook Journalism’:

CNN has clearly been the leader in embracing the use of social networking sites in journalism. They have used it to gather information, add creativity to reports, and deliver and share content. The deliver and share content part seems to be the one they do best.

On Facebook, CNN has created a profile page that allows the organization to update its status constantly with information and links to stories they have recently posted on their website. CNN regular shares its content on this page and allows “fans” of the page (other Facebook users) to make comments on the news content. CNN is not only using Facebook to attract people to their own sit, but they are using it help get people discussing their content. Readers like when they are able to interact with the organization in some way.

CNN even goes beyond that by also having applications such as CNN Breaking News, which is another way of delivering content to Facebook users and making CNN a go to news source for the users. On top of that CNN’s top TV personalities also have profiles on Facebook that people can befriend or become fans of. That allows the audience to get to know these personalities more therefore build trust of the content they are reporting. As Zuckerberg said in “Facebook Journalism” interview, people trust their friends more than a company.

World news events always have smaller stories that make up the primary situation, and as most journalists should be aware by now the earthquake in Haiti is no exception. This is a story that has an unavoidable focus on people and their experiences. However, what I have noticed from the online media’s  multimedia coverage of Haiti are photos and videos of many faces but no stories.

Many respectable news publications are reporting what has happened in Haiti and the struggles the people there continue to face. The problem is that after 13 days these publications (which I rather not specifically call out by name) are still telling the broad story. Their ’What’ is clearly answered, but the ’Who’ still simply remains Haitian people. I don’t think multimedia journalism is just about putting up whatever video you can relate to an article. This certainly should not be the case at publications that have the resources to go beyond that. Once a happening becomes old news readers want the details and personal stories. The publication I have witnessed do this best with the Haiti story is Time magazine.      

I have watched two video posts related to the Haiti earthquake on the Time website: “Pain and Hunger at Port-au-Prince’s General Hospital” and “Haiti Rescue: Saving the Man Who Saved My Life”. Both of these videos, with contributions from Nicholas Weissman and production from Craig Duff, tell specific stories and even allow the ‘experiencers’ to tell their story themselves. The first video I mentioned covers the starvation and lack of medical supplies the survivors are facing by telling the stories of people in one specific hospital. This video doesn’t just show a bunch of hurt people at different hospitals lying around while a voice over tells you that they are starving. A mother in the hospital tells the Bed-Stuy volunteer herself that her new born baby has not eaten since it was born the day before. A man tells the volunteer how the young child lying next to him with an amputated leg is crying because he has no medication to ease the pain. Then the volunteer follows that information with his reaction. This piece of multimedia, does exactly what video is suppose to do…lets you see and hear the news for yourself as if you were there gathering the information like the reporter. This is the type of video reporting I hope to one day learn to make.

The second video was a combination of audio, video, photo, and even a graphic. Every element played its part and nothing felt unnecessary. And like the other video it told the greater story by focusing in on one experience. The video consisted of an American author, E. Benjamin Skinner, talking about his going to Haiti to save a Haitian man that had cared for him when he suffered from malaria. The video simultaneously told both men’s stories with connection to Haiti. The end even brought it back to the conjecture of how saving the skilled and helpful can help other Haitian people during this crisis. This type of detailed storytelling to present broader issues is an effective form of video reporting.

Multimedia continues to grow in popularity, but I think it needs to be utilized more as an outlet for people to tell their own stories while the journalists simply document it. So far, I see Time effectively setting the example of how storytelling should be done in video journalism.

Today being Martin Luther King Day it was obvious that there would be articles circulating the web and publications across the nation about the man and his legacy. However, as an American I am tired of hearing the same old story about King’s life and contributions. On the other hand as an African-American I fear that MLK day is just becoming a time off of work for people across the country. To avoid the notion in my personal life, I sought something that would take my remembrance of the Civil Rights leader beyond the surface. What did that for me was an article on TheNation.com, How Barack Obama is like Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Nation article, posted by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, discussed how people have compared President Obama to King or have distinguished Obama’s election as a manifestation of King’s dream. It also covered viewpoints that question the strength of Obama’s stance on the issue of race, particularly since his own race is major part of what made his election ground breaking and historical. This article was certainly bringing a new and current angle to the regular MLK Day discussions.

The authors of the article argued that despite what some African American intellectuals such as Michael Eric Dyson are saying, Obama is not unlike King in his strategies to address problems at hand. In order to make this point, the writer broke down some of the false views of King that Americans may have and shined a light on the political decisions King made that may remove him from his pedestal.

The article was honest and it reminded me of things I already knew but simply dismissed over the years. For instance, the examples of how MLK felt a need to go against others’ efforts in the Civil Rights Movement in order ensure success in his focus on race and ending of segregation (Ex. Bayard Rustin and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party) were not news to me. I had forgotten about such things because I have yet to learn about a leader that hasn’t made sacrifices in order reach a certain goal.

King refused to take a stance on discrimination that women were facing during his time and even within the Civil Rights Movement itself. The authors report that this was a part of King’s effort to maintain focus on race and desegregation. This strategy brings my mind back to the fact that when women as a whole were fighting for suffrage in the 1920s many of the Caucasian female leaders were unwilling to put up a fight for African-American women’s rights because they argued it could slow down the movement for women all together. The situation was just flipped with King’s actions as a leader and political strategist. I’m guessing the idea was ‘one step at a time.’

I’m sure you are thinking as I was at this time in my reading, ‘What is the point and how does that make Obama more like King?’ The authors of the article are not attempting to taint the MLK image, but painting a clear picture of the activist we admire so that we understand the positions that our current leaders are in. King seemed to face the same criticisms that Obama deals with today, but King was still able to accomplish a great deal. The authors said they are grateful for Obama’s potential for change despite his imperfections.

With this, I think only time will tell. I don’t think comparisons of Obama’s work and King’s work can even be made at this point since one is over and the other is just beginning. And as the article points out Obama has a lot more people he has to please as president and more problems he must target simultaneously within a four year time limit. On the other hand, the end of Obama’s presidency may not even be the end of his leadership. He, like Al Gore or Jimmy Carter, may find causes to stand behind long after the height of his political career. In the meantime, a comparison of Obama and MLK may project successful outcomes under the current president’s leadership. I’m just delighted to find an article that makes this day more about critical thought and less about parades and the day off.