When photography is treated as a crime

When photography is treated as a crime

What’s the connection between photography and terrorism? Apparently, it depends on where you sit and when you ask the question. Just after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, investigators urged anyone who’d been near the finish line to share photos or video they’d taken around the time of the explosions. But the very same day, [...]

The downside of media training

The downside of media training

Are some of the people you interview sounding a little rehearsed these days? More and more officials, professionals and business executives are being coached on how to deal with the media. And while that can be a good thing, it isn’t always. Many doctors and lawyers have been advised to avoid acronyms and technical language so [...]

Is your Web video mostly just repurposed TV?

Is your Web video mostly just repurposed TV?

Of course you have video on your website. Doesn’t everyone? But what is it, exactly? Putting TV clips on the Web is a no-brainer, says NBC News chief digital officer Vivian Schiller, but it’s not a game changer. What is? No one really knows yet, but there’s lots of experimentation underway. Schiller told the Beet-TV [...]

How to put a TV story puzzle together

How to put a TV story puzzle together

Can you be a good TV photojournalist and a lousy storyteller? Absolutely. Fabulous images alone won’t tell a great story. Award-winning videographer Nathan Thompson thinks of each story as a puzzle with five main pieces. If any one of them is missing, he says, the story won’t hang together. Thompson shared his keys to efficient [...]

Storytelling in 4D

Storytelling in 4D

It’s a map. It’s a timeline. It’s photos and video and text and links. But that’s not all you get from the new online tool Meograph. You can also add a voice-over to tell a complete story, with the bells and whistles providing context–the fourth dimension, according to the founders. Other tools, like Vuvox, provide similar [...]

Hashtag conversations on local TV news

Hashtag conversations on local TV news

This isn’t a new idea, but it’s remarkably successful and so, worth revisiting. Local television stations that are smart about using #hashtags on Twitter can build their audience and amplify their coverage. That’s obvious when it comes to big events like Hurricane Sandy. By one count, there were 3.5 million tweets with the hashtag #sandy [...]

Tips for investigative reporting

Tips for investigative reporting

Organized chaos. That’s how Lee Zurik of WVUE in New Orleans describes his work days. And no wonder. He anchors two prime time newscasts every night and also serves as the station’s chief investigative reporter.  How does he manage to keep producing award-winning work? We asked Zurik to share his strategies for finding and keeping [...]

Must-have equipment for video journalists

Must-have equipment for video journalists

Great photojournalists are sticklers about their gear. They check it thoroughly before and after every shoot. They supplement the standard-issue package with specialty items, from dimmers to clothespins to GoPros. They experiment and improvise, always on the hunt for new accessories that will save time or give them an edge on the competition. Jonathan Malat [...]

Tips for VJs on writing fast

Tips for VJs on writing fast

Video journalist Anne Herbst firmly believes in preparation. She does research on stories before leaving the newsroom. She shows up to assignments early so she can meet people and figure out in advance who might be a strong character. And she writes fast–an essential skill when you’re working by yourself and you have to do [...]

Video journalism tips from a pro

Video journalism tips from a pro

Darren Durlach left television almost two years ago to try something new. He’d won two consecutive NPPA TV Photographer of the Year awards and, unbeknownst to him, was on the verge of winning a third. He’s now senior multimedia producer at the Boston Globe, where he shoots and edits stories both alone and in collaboration [...]

Commitment, characters key to prize-winning photojournalism

Commitment, characters key to prize-winning photojournalism

From part-time, overnight camera operator in market 83 to best TV news photographer in the country in just six years: How did Nathan Thompson do it? Natural talent? Not at all, Thompson told NPPA’s News Photographer magazine. Instead, he credits hard work and a deliberate, methodical approach to learning on the job. When he started [...]

Investigating the state of investigative journalism

Investigating the state of investigative journalism

Ask an entire generation of journalists what inspired them to go into or stay in the news business and the answer often comes down to one word: Watergate.  Forty years ago this month, two young reporters at the Washington Post filed their first stories about what a White House spokesman described as ”a third rate burglary.” [...]

The ethics of staging

The ethics of staging

I know this is a touchy subject. Maybe I’d be smarter to leave it alone. But a piece in the new issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism  and a recent exchange I had with a freelance photojournalist have me thinking again about this apparently age-old question: is staging ever acceptable in TV news? First, [...]

Quick thinking gives iPhone telephoto lens

Quick thinking gives iPhone telephoto lens

Police invariably keep journalists so far back from crime scenes that it’s almost impossible to see what’s going on with the naked eye.  That’s the situation KTUU’s Jason Lamb faced earlier this month, as police prepared to search a frozen lake for the body of a missing woman. Photographer Mike Nederbrock had a decent shot [...]