Sadly, timelines on news sites are too often nothing more than text, like the one the Sporting News posted chronicling the Penn State sex abuse scandal. It has all the dates and facts but it’s not in the least bit engaging. Why not take advantage of the medium and add images and links that users can navigate for themselves? That’s what the Seattle Times did in the run-up to an exhibit about the iconic grunge band, Nirvana.

That timeline was created with Dipity, a free online tool anyone can use. You don’t have to be a graphic designer or know anything about code to produce a sharp looking timeline that can be embedded on any site. Trust me. Here’s how:

Another free online tool that can be used to create timelines and more is Vuvox. The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin, used it to create a minute-by-minute account of the race to save a stroke patient. Projects created with Vuvox look and function a lot like a slideshow and there are lots of options for customizing the content. But a simple timeline or “collage” is easy to produce. Trust me (again). Here’s how:

Remember, the basic editions of both Dipity and Vuvox are free. So there’s really no excuse for posting dull, text-only timelines, is there? Let us know if you try either of these free tools, or if you’ve tried others we should investigate. And have fun!

One strategy when faced with a non-visual story or a story that would typically be told with predictable images is to think of an analogy that can bring the story to life. What does this situation or process remind you of? Ask your sources for ideas. Can you compare it to something that people are already familiar with?

One of my all-time favorite stories illustrated this way explained the physics behind a NASCAR crash. The driver survived because his car hit a wall with a glancing blow, not head-on. WGHP’s Bob Buckley showed what happens when a tomato hits a wall the same way–splat for a head-on collision, but only a split skin for a glancing blow. Trust me, it was both visual and memorable.

The same basic strategy–comparing something you can’t really see to something you can–helped NPR produce a memorable story when the earth’s population reached seven billion. Instead of relying on the usual images of babies and crowded streets, NPR found a great analogy and produced a video to illustrate it online.

The reason this strategy works is that it employs what I like to call the velcro theory of news. News is just information unless it sticks to something you already have, at which point it becomes knowledge and understanding. Try using an analogy for a non-visual story, if you haven’t already. And please point us to more examples of stories that put this principle to work so we can share them.

Using Facebook for a TV investigation: Proof that social media are great reporting tools.

Digital note-taking tools: A review of free and low-cost software to help you keep track of information.

How to learn social media skills at mid-career: A three-point plan for getting up to speed on social media.

Is there any hope for quality in local TV news?: Review of a documentary that paints a gloomy picture.

Why journalists should learn to love data: Tips and tools for working with data that can lead you to great stories.

Do-it-yourself interactive graphics: How to use ManyEyes.

Recommended journalism textbooks: Originally posted in 2008, an updated list leading off with the second edition of Advancing the Story.

Secrets of the TV stations of the year: The shared newsroom culture and personal connections behind the three 2011 winners.

How to interview children: A tip sheet on how to talk to kids on camera.

Resolve to be a more enterprising reporter: What is takes to turn better stories (posted on New Year’s Eve 2010).

What did I learn by looking back at this list? It seems pretty obvious that tips and how-to posts are most popular with NewsLab regulars, so one of my goals for this year is to bring you more of what you’re looking for. If you have specific requests, please let me know.

In the meantime, here’s to a terrific 2012.

When did videotaping become a crime?

Several recent incidents suggest a disturbing new trend: public safety officials targeting photographers, including professionals. “Cops don’t want to be identified,” says Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “They don’t want their pictures taken.”

The relationship between journalists and police officers has always been tense, of course. “They’re both aggressive professions, and sometimes they get in one another’s face,” says John Timoney, former police chief in Miami and Philadelphia.

But something clearly has changed. “It used to be guys with a reputation for not following orders” who wound up in confrontations with police, Dalglish says. “These days, it’s folks keeping their mouths shut and doing their jobs.”

In the Milwaukee case, Fillinger was charged with obstructing a police officer after he objected to being forced back “for safety” while members of the public were allowed to stay put, watching the house fire from across the street. His boss concedes that he used an expletive and raised his arm when the officer closed in on him, but says the arrest was not justified.

“While the language was coarse, I truly believe Clint had no intention of touching the officer, and the whole thing certainly did not rise to the level of being dropped to the ground and handcuffed,” says Jim Lemon, news director at Milwaukee’s Fox affiliate, WITI. “It was a bad spur-of-the-moment decision made by the police commanders on the scene.”

Two recent cases in Suffolk County, New York, reflect similar bad decisions. In late July, a photographer for a local TV news service was arrested while videotaping the end of a police chase. An officer ordered Phil Datz to leave the scene, even though he was standing on a public street with other people. When Datz asked where he was supposed to go, the officer responded, “I don’t care where you go, just go away.” After Datz set up in the next block and started shooting video again, the officer jumped in his squad car, raced up to Datz and arrested him for obstruction. The charges were dropped.

A few weeks after that incident, an emergency services official in the same jurisdiction manhandled a photojournalist for New York’s NBC-owned station, WNBC, as he tried to videotape the cleanup of a chemical spill. The official grabbed the photographer’s camera and tried to wrestle it away.

What’s different now, some say, is the proliferation of cellphone cameras on the street combined with heightened concern about terrorism. “I think that post 9/11 police treat everyone with a camera as suspect,” says Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association. “In certain instances, news photographers are singled out because of their high visibility.”

Photojournalists aren’t the only ones who have been targeted. Cases are pending in several states against citizens who have been arrested and had their cameras confiscated after videotaping police action. And the arrests keep coming, even though the police keep losing in court. The latest ruling, from an appeals court in Massachusetts, said the First Amendment “unambiguously” protects the right of citizens to videotape police officers performing their duties in a public space. Journalists clearly deserve the same protection.

“The press may have no greater rights than those of the general public,” Osterreicher says. “They certainly have no less right of access on a public street.”

Police officers should know better than to run anyone in just for taking pictures. “We tell them constantly at the academy, ‘Take it for granted, you’re going to be on camera,’” Timoney says. “Everybody has a camera and they’re entitled to use it. We police have to suck it up.”

Journalism groups say officers need training to make sure they understand the rights of professionals and citizens alike to take pictures of police activity in public places. But Timoney doubts that more training is the answer. “If police don’t understand this now, all the training in the world isn’t going to help.”

Piling up victories in court probably won’t help either. When charges against photojournalists are dismissed, as they inevitably are, the police officers involved pay no penalty and face no sanctions. Suing for false arrest might make a difference, Dalglish says, by hitting the police department where it hurts – in the budget. But it’s unlikely any cash-strapped news organization would be willing to shoulder the cost of a lawsuit just to make a point.

So what’s to be done? Keep shooting, I say. Nothing makes a better case for the First Amendment than good video of a police officer behaving badly.

Originally published by American Journalism Review, December 2011

Some of you may know that my dad recently passed. He was my hero and defined the words gentleman and optimist. When he was stationed over in France for the war, he and his Army buddies loved to read Shakespeare. Growing up in Iowa he quoted Shakespeare all the time. (I thought it was normal that dads did this.) One of his quotes stuck with me over the years and I wanted to share it here…

“Nothing is but thinking makes it so.” Read those words again. Nothing is but thinking makes it so. In essence, our actions are defined by our thoughts. We manifest what is on our minds. The popular book “The Secret” is all about manifesting our thoughts into reality. I recommend reading it.

Think of it as self-talk. Professional athletes do it all the time. So can we. My own self-talk when I am out telling stories is very simple. “Wide, medium, tight, super tight, get the moment.” I say it over to myself a hundred times while covering a story. I am hyper-focused on it. We manifest our thoughts. We really do. Dave (Wertheimer) and I brought this simple storytelling philosophy to KSTP when we were there.

Great storytelling doesn’t require some deep hidden secret or some magical formula, it’s as simple and fundamental as this statement: “Wide, medium, tight, super tight, get the moment.” What is your self-talk while out on assignment? What’s running through your mind? Lunch? Well, that’s not a bad thought as lunch is important. Maybe you are grousing about the story. (We’ve all been there.) Remember: It’s an honor to tell stories. Your story and the people you are covering need your best commitment.

We know that the building blocks to a great story are wide shots, medium shots, tight shots and super tight shots. It does not get much more elementary than that. Edited together they make for a wonderful sequence — just as the eye sees life. Life is a series of wide shots, medium shots, tight shots and super tight shots. They are like pieces to the puzzle. Life is NOT a series of medium shots cut together. Your self-talk heavily influences your outcome. If you are out complaining about your boss or whatever negative thought you may have while on assignment, your story is going to suffer. That is baseline reality.

When we are focused on this kind of self-talk (WMTST) all of a sudden we are aware of all kinds of gorgeous wides and tights. Why, (I’ll say it again) because we manifest our thoughts. Plus, when we record a variety of wide shots, medium shots, tight shots and super tight shots, your editor will LOVE you for having your bases covered. In the end, we all edit faster and hit our deadlines quicker when we have all the pieces to the puzzle. If you don’t believe me, try to edit a story with all wide shots.

On top of shooting wides, mediums, tights and super tights, remember the moments. Moments, moments, moments! If Elvis is running naked along a corn field, what are you going to do? Set up a tripod, wait for the clouds to pass or the color temperature to warm up (well that would be nice) but moments are fleeting, just get the dang shot. Shoot and move. Be nimble on your feet. Anticipate. Don’t be afraid to go handheld if you need the moment. If it does not exist on tape or a digital file, it does not exist for your viewers.

Moments are simply emotional scenes. It may be laughter, sadness, happiness or suspense. It could be a simple smile. The emotion is what people remember. Rarely do people remember what we said or what we did, what they remember is the emotion, how we made them feel … the moments!

WMTST makes your story air-able. Moments make your story memorable.

“After 45 years of chasing news professionally, I realize I cannot be first on the scene with a camera unless I am the first one on the scene,” says WCVB photojournalist Stanley Forman in the latest issue of NPPA News Photographer magazine.

The problem [is] that as a long-time news photographer, I cannot beat the competition any more. The competition is anyone who has a cell phone, smart phone or any other portable device that takes still or video. The other problem is that practically everyone has the technology and knows what to do with it.

Forman says this new reality has changed the way he approaches breaking news. He still tries to beat the other stations to the scene and shoots the best video he can right away. But now, he has an additional task: Find the best images other people have shot and secure them for his station.

“I do well on the search for the best stuff available because my station sort of allows me to make offers to the owner of the images with a financial reward,” Forman writes. Right there on the spot, he screens what others have shot and decides if it’s “good enough” to offer to purchase it.

Has the new reality changed the way you operate in the field on breaking news? I’d be curious to know how.

“If you don’t really love doing it, you’re not going to do well,” she said in an NPPA interview. “It’s such a monster that you battle every day. You have to be so many things in a day.”

Here’s one of Michael’s prize-winning stories, a story that she says changed her life because “it showed me a lot about what people are willing to give up and do for other people.” It’s also an example of the value of listening. Michael says she met the man in the story when he demanded to see her ID as she entered a government building. She had to put down all her gear to find it. She wasn’t all that happy to see him again on her way out, but when he asked if she wanted to hear his story, she stopped long enough to hear what he had to say.

Michael does plenty of stories like that without a stand-up, but when she does decide to include one she spends a great deal of time setting up and shooting it. The result is often a multi-part stand-up, like the one in this story.

Did you count the number of shots in that stand-up? How long do you think it took Michael to get that done, working alone? Here’s the answer, in a behind-the-scenes look at how she produced that stand-up:

Thanks, Michelle Michael, for sharing your work and showing what it takes to do it well.

Donahue’s is just one of the voices in a new documentary, “Running on Empty: The Brain Drain in Local TV News,” produced by two Quinnipiac University journalism professors, Karin and Bill Schwanbeck. If it sounds like an unrelievedly gloomy look at local television news, that’s about half right. Former reporters and news directors paint a grim picture of a business content to replace experienced journalists with cheaper, less capable rookies–a business that largely refuses to invest in quality. According to the Schwanbecks, only four of 40 stations in the top ten markets give investigative journalists time to cover stories in depth: WFAA and KDFW in Dallas, and KHOU and KTRK in Houston.

The film doesn’t stop there. It also examines some efforts to change the paradigm, including non-profit journalism centers and online sites. But it’s clear that those efforts alone won’t fill the gap.

Producer Karin Schwanbeck says she hopes the documentary will spur some change, possibly an effort by the FCC to hold stations more accountable. But she admits she’s not optimistic. “I’m not sure if it’s too late,” she says. “The genie is out of the bottle and I’m not sure if we can put the genie back.”

Given that assessment, why is she still preparing young would-be journalists for jobs that might not exist? Because, Schwanbeck says, she hopes they’ll be the ones who might be able to make a difference. “As Dan Rather would say, ‘You have to learn to write and you have to learn to fight.’”

Stand-ups can be an effective way of explaining complicated issues or concepts, especially if you can find a simple analogy to illustrate the point. How does a retention pond work? Kind of like a coffee filter. Show-and-tell stand-ups can compensate for a lack of video. Where did the children first see the bear? Right here, next to this tree. These kinds of stand-ups aren’t for every story, every day, but used judiciously, they can help viewers make sense of difficult subjects.

They key word is “judiciously.” Joanne Stevens of Stevens Media Consulting says it’s important to remember that a stand-up is not all about you. “More and more I feel I’m being distracted by reporter stand-ups rather than being further edified about the story,” she writes on the RTDNA website.

You are not in a contest to bring back the most clever or viral standup.  Ideally you can show us something interesting in your standup, or you may ‘just stand there’ and explain where you are and why it’s significant. You are on camera to communicate with us personally, not to assume the Shakespearean role of  ‘I’m on TV and you’re not.’

Another way of adding visual interest to a longer stand-up is to shoot it in multiple takes. This allows you to walk your viewer through a complex process by illustrating individual steps in a visual sequence. Create a simple storyboard in advance to ensure that you’ll have everything you need for editing purposes.

Can you do this as a solo journalist? Absolutely. KUSA’s Kevin Torres does it all the time. The short stand-up in this package is made up of three shots, all framed differently:

“Try to add some natural sound in your stand-ups,” Torres suggests. “This helps break up the piece a lot and helps with the flow.”

Too many stand-ups are an afterthought, thrown together at the end of a shoot just to get something in the can. A stand-up should be an essential part of your narrative, adding new information and moving the story forward. A little forethought and some critical questions can make all the difference:

• Why would I want to include a stand-up in this story?
• What information would I convey in a stand-up?
• Do I have something to show or demonstrate in this stand-up?
• Where and when might I do this stand-up?
• How will the stand-up fit into the finished story?

Before you shoot any stand-up you need a clear idea of your story structure—not a complete script but a mental outline. Sometimes, it’s helpful to shoot more than one version in case that structure changes. But if you wind up with a stand-up that really doesn’t fit, resist the temptation to use it anyway. Then promise yourself that tomorrow, you’ll plan and execute a stand-up that really works.

It’s often used for “point of view” video, which is what it was designed for, after all. Two of the top-selling models are the Helmet and Motorsports versions, cameras the company bills as “wearable” and “mountable.”

WJZ reporter Mike Schuh is a recent GoPro adopter. He’d never used a GoPro until he was sent out on a story this fall about firefighter training that involved working in very tight spaces. Having seen what he was up against, Schuh ordered the camera on the spot and used it to get shots he never could have captured with a full-sized camera.

Photojournalist Brandon Whitworth of WKYT in Lexington, Ky., used a GoPro for the first time last week for a story about the hazards emergency responders face on the road:

How did he get all those angles? “I was shooting inside the cab, and I had one GoPro that I mounted on the various spots on the truck,” Whitworth said. “Every other time we stopped I changed its location.”

People who have used the GoPro say the key is to use the video shot with it sparingly. “Sometimes the angles are too different and call attention to themselves,” says KGO reporter Wayne Freedman.  But he also says the camera comes in handy at times. ”Due to the wide angle, it can capture some very unique, up close perspectives.”

Freedman used a GoPro to get the opening shots in this story:

Reporter Garvin Thomas, who works for KNTV in San Jose, used a GoPro in an underwater housing attached to a light stand to get some key shots for this story:

Photographer Dan Fox of Citizen Pictures, formerly with KCNC in Denver, notes that the wide angle of the lens depends on the HD mode, which is selectable on the latest model GoPro2. “In 1080 mode, the angle is not so extreme. In 720, it’s fisheye, so for mounting on bikes, cars, surfboards, etc, it’s useful, but in 1080, it’s a more normal looking image.”

Bottom line? “GoPro doesn’t make your story better,” says Detroit Free Press photojournalist Eric Seals in an article in the latest NPPA News Photographer magazine. “It adds a visual hook to your story.”

If you’re thinking about getting a GoPro, here are some additional tips from Seals and other photojournalists:

• Use top-of-the-line SD cards to ensure a good capture
• Shoot sparingly so the download doesn’t take forever
• To improve the audio, remove the camera’s plastic housing
• A monitor is essential if you want to see what you’re shooting
• Other accessories worth considering: a chest-mount harness and a rollbar mount

The GoPro isn’t the only small HD camera photojournalists are using in the field. Others include the Canon G12, the Sony Cybershot DSC-WX9, the Canon Elph 300hs, Contour and Iconix.

Are you using a small HD camera to shoot elements for TV news stories? Please share your experiences and tips!