Don’t forget we’re journalists

Posted on June 18, 2007 by Melissa Worden

“The publishers have sighted gold in them thar video player hills. All the newspaper people have piled into the wagons and are heading west toward Video, in the hopes of striking it rich. Imagine! Those pre-roll ads get higher rates than banners! Let’s do video!!!! The rush is on!”

Sound familiar??

Chuck Fadely’s all riled up about the push for video, any kind of video, on newspaper Web sites. Get a cheap camera, throw it in the reporter’s hands, post it on the Internet, and sit back and watch the page views climb, right?

Not so fast, says Fadely:

“Here’s the bottom line: to get good narrative video, with clean audio, that is engaging to the viewer, requires a full time video person, who has spent a year learning all the technical stuff about audio, cameras, and video editing programs. It takes about $10,000 in video and audio gear and another $10k in computer and software.”

Yeah, I know, we’ve heard this debate before. I don’t think they necessarily need “expensive” gear, but his point, I think, is that if management wants video, they have to invest in it, too.

What struck me most, however, was this quote BEFORE he got to the bottom line:

“Video is an emotional medium that grabs the viewers by the throat and makes ‘em weep, laugh, and scream. … Does your reporter video fit into that “magic” category? Does your ‘random’ video make you weep? (It makes me weep, but not because of the story…)”

Sure, an expensive camera and editing software will help make your video polished, but it’s your skills at a journalist that will turn that video clip into a story. (And using the audio tips below that outline what makes a great story apply perfectly here.)

Filling up your sites with talking heads or VOSOTs can be done quickly and easily (and expensively, too!). But these videos become shovelware that readers will eat up voraciously during breaking news but only casually on a daily basis.

It’s the power of the STORIES (even short user-submitted ones like this) that can differentiate newspaper Web sites from YouTube clips of a Panda sneezing.

Comments

2 Responses to “Don’t forget we’re journalists”

Patrick B on June 19th, 2007 7:29 am

Does your ‘random’ video make you weep?

I assume this is a dig at the News Sentinel’s Random This? :)

I agree totally with your analysis though. The Web isn’t just a playground for silly video clips a la YouTube.

We need some serious, compelling content too.
Melissa Worden on June 19th, 2007 12:03 pm

Whosh … that one went right over my head before you pointed it out. Hm. Perhaps it was a dig?

I was thinking about this more this morning. Video such as Bakerfield’s “Cooking an egg on the sidewalk” might make him weep, too.

But then I remembered I worked on a Peeps audio slideshow that would have been a video if we had the proper equipment. So who am I to judge, really?

Seems to me, it’s really about a balance and playing to our strengths, which as journalists is solid (and it can be humorous, too) storytelling.