Not your father's TV

I was noodling around a site with multimedia tutorials and blogs, a place where new creators learn from each other, thinking it would be a good resource for transitioning journalists who want to follow new storytelling paths. The site is MultimediaShooter, billing its role as "keeping track of multimedia so you don't have to."


In its tutorials section, you can link to Current TV's own production training page with sections on storytelling (what makes a good pod), journalism (case studies to learn from), to gathering and editing video. MultimediaShooter gives Current TV's video-editing section high marks. Current TV is an Al Gore effort in which one/third of what is aired comes from viewers. They call this VC2, or "viewer created content." Hence, the training modules to bring in work from The People. Up since August 1, 2005, "Current is the first TV network created by, for and with young adults."

Buck up

These journalism times are indeed unsettling, with shrinking newsrooms and all. So learning why one newspaper editor is optimistic is worth your time and trouble. John Robinson of the Greensboro News & Record has three reasons why he's optimistic now. Go read them yourself here, but the first one surely will make you sit up straight and feel good, so I'll tease with it.

1. The reporters are better. I'm speaking of reporters like this who are paid for their work and reporters like this who aren't. The professionals are smarter and quicker, and more fluid and more diverse than any in the 30+ years I've been in the business. They are innovative and open to change. We're in good hands. The widespread entry of non-pros is a splendid development, bring new eyes to old and new topics. When I was editorial page editor, it was a daunting challenge to write on complicated issues day after day, knowing that there were dozens of people in the community who knew the topic better than I. Now they have access to a megaphone to inform those of us who care. How can that be anything be a valuable complement to democracy?

The tip for this came from Jeff Jarvis' BuzzMachine blog, where he cites his own optimism and that of a few others. On a Monday, that's worth reading.

Consider reading this

"This" is a report from the Center for Citizen Media about how news organizations can forge tighter relationships with their community of readers. Download it here and give it a read. More after I read it.

The blogging-as-journalism debate

I found a post on the Cairns Blog that I thought others would find thought-provoking. Should bloggers get first amendment protection? The blog writer asks Kevin Blangston, a staff attorney for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, who responded:

“Yes. A blogger is a journalist if they are doing journalism.”

The writer notes that this shifts the inquiry away from who is a journalist to what is journalism. And he quotes Stanford University journalism professor Ted Glasser in support of this idea:

“We shouldn’t have a two-tiered First Amendment that gives more protections to some individuals than others,” he said. “We are much better off defining the act of journalism rather than who is a journalist.”

Read blogger Anthony Sanchez' full account here.

A bit of multimedia that Al's Morning Report highlighted recently. It is a Sarasota, Fl. Herald Tribune report on 150 teachers still in state school districts despite serious issues with their behavior around students. It's called "Broken Trust." Al likes the idea that readers don't have to scroll down the page to continue reading; they get to flip a page. Check it out for navigation ideas.

Nimble, a lovely word

The time sure feels ripe for training journalists. In one item below, a new study shows that editors world-wide want it for the reporters in their newsrooms. And per the next item, a different study, we learn that journalists have been yearning for training for up to five years.

First, the World Editors Forum, in conjunction with Reuters and another group, asked 435 editors around the world what they'd do to improve journalism.

Among other questions, they were asked "If you had to invest in editorial quality, what would you do first within the newsroom?".

Thirty-seven per cent said they would train journalists in new media skills, 23 per cent would recruit more journalists, 19 per cent would re-train in traditional skills, 10 per cent would add more opinion analysis writers, six per cent would replace staff with younger journalists, and 5 per cent would take another, unspecified, approach.

Second, a new book came out today that illustrates the path. Called "News Improved", it tells the stories of forward-moving newsrooms. A Knight Foundation-funded Newsroom Training Initiative over the last four years has infused $10 million into newsroom projects. The results are explored in this book, written with Knight money by Michele McClellan and Tim Porter. Among its points, journalists really want more training. Per one account of the new book's contents:

In 2002, a Knight survey of nearly 2,000 journalists found that eight in 10 newsroom staffers wanted more training than they were getting. An update to that study, "Investing in the Future of News," which was released today in the "News, Improved" book, reports that the number has increased to nine in 10.

Here's an assist to the working journalist. Take a short, 10-question survey on training in your own newsroom, and you can get a free copy of the book for your time and trouble, here.

Now about that word, nimble. I've always thought mid-sized newspapers were in a better position than big-city dailies. Their smaller size made them more flexible, able to adjust more quickly. It turns out that can be an important asset. Here's the guy who wrote the intro to "News Improved", Eric Newton, talking:

"Media evolution doesn't favor the big or strong," he writes. "It favors the nimble.

"Be nimble."

From "Sacred Facts"

I keep finding inspiration, or maybe it is even consolation, in reading BBC-head Richard Sambrook's blog, title in quotes above. In general, I'm against whining about these uncertain times. Hold on tight while the spasm of a revolution passes through your work world. Frankly, all you can do, and MUST do, is the very best you can. But I refer you to this comment, called "Modern Work," from a recent Sambrook post:

In a discussion about managing constant change two interesting observations were made.

1: "Most jobs are increasingly a series of projects". This is certainly true of mine and seemed to ring a bell with all the other senior managers gathered. So when did that happen and why? And while we're all diverted on projects, who's running things?

2: When discussing "change" with teams, it sounds like an admonition (as in "Changor Die!"). Is there a less pejorative word? Progress? Improvement? Future? Forward? They all sound like doublespeak.

A word on his blog title, this from his blog's "About" section. My guess is you will find it as inspiring as I do. He quotes from C.P. Scott:

Comment is free, but facts are sacred. "Propaganda", so called, by this means is hateful. The voice of opponents no less than that of friends has a right to be heard. Comment also is justly subject to a self-imposed restraint. It is well to be frank; it is even better to be fair. This is an ideal. Achievement in such matters is hardly given to man. We can but try, ask pardon for shortcomings, and there leave the matter.

Tipster for our times

Meet Mindy McAdams and her Website. She a professor and Knight Chair for Journalism at the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications. She's got a book out called "Flash Journalism: How to create multimedia news packages," which I've added to my toolkit list below. And her Website is host to lots of multimedia reporting information, from where the free tutorials are stashed, to ways of thinking about telling a multimedia story. Go there, browse, click and read. This is good stuff to learn, and she is generous with information. You could make a study of her "Online Journalism Examples and Tips." Go there. Do it.