This cat can fetch (or when multimedia training catches on)
Posted on September 7, 2007
A few weeks ago I wrote about how teaching your newsroom to create Web content may feel like training a cat to play fetch. Another way to get your newsroom excited about multimedia: Let a convert preach its benefits.
Steve Echeverria, Jr., a features reporter at the Herald-Tribune, gets it. He sees how multimedia can build upon his storytelling and better serve the reader.
And he’s sharing his knowledge with colleagues. A couple of weeks ago, he attended the NABJ 2007 annual convention and was a panelist in the session “Podcasting Your Way to 1A: Enhancing Print News with Podcasts.”
The session’ summary:
As newspaper circulation continues to fall nationwide and the news hole shrinks, newspapers are faced with an issue: how do they compete with the immediacy of television news while continuing to offer the depth of print journalism? The answer lies in audio and video technology.
Steve has been proactive in his multimedia storytelling and was among the first to record audio and video podcasts for HeraldTribune.com. And despite a lack of time and resources, he was the first to edit on his own, rolling up his sleeves and learning Audacity and iMovie. And he consistently sees these storytelling tools as part of his journalist’s toolkit.
I briefly spoke with him this week about how his presentation went, and how attendees responded. When he showed them samples of what we and other papers have done, their jaws dropped, he said. And they couldn’t wait to try it out themselves.
Love it. A multimedia producer can’t ask for much more than that.
You can watch a summary of Steve’s presentation here:
Tell the story so you can see it
Posted on June 18, 2007
In Al Tompkin’s latest Poynter Centerpiece, he interviews Valerie Geller about how to write visually — an essential component to good audio storytelling. Geller should know; she’s worked with more than 500 radio stations in 27 countries and teaches radio journalists about visual writing. Here’s what I see as some of the highlights that we can apply to audio podcasts, slideshows and online video:
Says Geller:
“Many people do not think of radio as a visual medium. But a talented storyteller who writes with dazzling detail can tap into all of the imagery and emotion stored in the listener’s brain and make him feel that he really is “seeing” the story. While telling a story in just a few words is key in writing powerful news copy, the visual element is important to keep listeners engaged.”
What makes a great “story”?
“WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY, WHEN, HOW, but also:
>> HOW does this story affect my listener?
>> HOW can I describe things more visually?
>> HOW can I make someone care about this?
>> HOW, or in what way, do I care about this?
>> HOW come I am putting this story on the air?
>> If a problem is presented, HOW can it be solved; what are the solutions?
>> HOW did this happen; could it have been prevented?
>> HOW else can I tell this story?
>> HOW would I tell it to a friend?
>> HOW can I make it better?
>> HOW would I tell it if my very life depended on not losing a listener?
>> and HOW would I put this on a demo to get another job if I needed one?”
And men and women don’t hear the story the same way, she explains:
“Visual descriptions are especially important to men. Brain research shows that men are more stimulated by visual details, and language that describes events with accurate visual elements tends to make them pay closer attention to a story.
Women, on the other hand, are emotive. If a woman can “feel” an emotional connection to a story, she is more likely to listen closely and take in the information. For a story to appeal to both men and women, it should deliver information using both visual and emotional language.”
Quote of the day
Posted on June 11, 2007
One of the best parts of my job: Introducing the world of multimedia to print reporters.
Last week, an experienced reporter said to me as she handed me her first audio clip:
“Now that I know how to use my recorder, I’m in love with it. I’m going to take it with me everywhere.”
Music to my ears.
Audio ethics
Posted on June 7, 2007
I met with photographers at my paper last night as they all gathered to talk about their photos. The discussion several times moved to how they could turn their projects into online audio slideshows/galleries/projects, which is so great for a multimedia editor to hear.
An interesting debate came up at the end of the night: What are the ethical guidelines to editing audio?
These are some issues they wondered about:
>> Do the photos and audio HAVE to match in time? For instance, if you record a prayer one night when you’re visiting a church group but you get the best photos the second week you visit that same group, is it OK to use that original recording?
>> If something rattles loudly in the background while recording, or the person you’re interviewing gets caught in a coughing fit, can you ask them to repeat themselves?
>> Is it OK to leave background sounds in the background, even if those sounds weren’t occurring when the interview happened?
Herald-Tribune Director of Photography Mike Lang found this link to the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) Code of Ethics. One section says:
“TRUTH: Professional electronic journalists should pursue truth aggressively and present the news accurately, in context, and as completely as possible.
Professional electronic journalists should:
* Continuously seek the truth.
* Resist distortions that obscure the importance of events.
* Clearly disclose the origin of information and label all material provided by outsiders.Professional electronic journalists should not:
* Report anything known to be false.
* Manipulate images or sounds in any way that is misleading.
* Plagiarize.
* Present images or sounds that are reenacted without informing the public.”
I searched today to see if there are any ethical guidelines for sound. I found a slideshow tip sheet put together by Josh Meltzer, of The Roanoke Times, and Scott Sharpe, of the News & Observer. It has some great tips about how to get the interview, including the following:
“Transfer good photojournalism ethics to recording audio
o NEVER ask a subject to do something or say something
o NEVER edit your project in such a way that is no longer accurate to what you observed
o Indicate who is talking when needed
o NEVER edit someone’s words to make them say something with a different meaning from what they actually said”
At the bottom of the page, someone asked exactly what we were wondering last night:
“It’s a given not to ask a subject to do something or say something for you, but, can you ask them to repeat something if someone sneezed or something distracting happenend in the background. Comment by Jeff — June 5, 2007 @ 10:26 am”
Obviously we’re not alone in this debate/questioning. Any advice from anyone out there?
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