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 FBI and Department of Homeland Security put out a warning that “discreet use of cameras or video recorders” could signal the planning of a terrorist act.

Here we go again. When officials need help identifying or finding suspects, anyone with a camera can be their friend. But otherwise, just about anyone can be seen as a suspect themselves.

There have been too many incidents already of photojournalists being arrested for doing their jobs, not to mention the cases of citizens who have been detained and had their cameras confiscated after videotaping police action. But fighting back can pay off. 

Gemma Atkinson was handcuffed and threatened with arrest in 2009 for taking cellphone video of police in London when they stopped and frisked her boyfriend. She sued and won. Now, she’s used the money from the settlement to produce this animated video:

A useful reminder that it’s important to know your rights.

Photographer image via Shutterstock

Last year our news director challenged everyone to come up with new ideas for our newscasts. One suggestion I made was to recruit bloggers from the Houston community to do pieces on restaurants, lifestyle, and the arts. His response” Great idea. Why don’t you go out and do that?”

So, I did. And I decided that if I wanted  these stories to be exactly the way I wanted them, I was going to shoot, edit, and produce them myself.

I had already developed an interest in the use of DSLR equipment for news shooting, having seen it done more and more, especially by international news organizations like the BBC and Al Jazeera. And, I already had the equipment.

My basic setup:

• Canon Rebel T4i DSLR
• Canon 18-135 mm STM lens
• Rode NTG2 shotgun mic
• Tascam DR40 digital audio recorder
• F&V Z 96 LED light
• MacBook Pro 13″ w/ Final Cut Pro X

I now have a group of five local bloggers who suggest and set up stories that we air once a week on Fridays in our 9 p.m. newscast.

Most of my bloggers are food writers and many of the stories focus on restaurants and food events, although we have also done stories on everything from art exhibits to home design. The shoots usually take about two hours and it takes me about another two hours to edit the stories.

Here is what  I have discovered about shooting with this set-up:

Pros:

The cost:  For under $3500 I have a  set of gear that produces broadcast-quality video that also looks fantastic on the web.

The versatility:  With the ability to change lenses, I can create different looks depending on the story I am shooting.

The intimacy:  The set up is not nearly as intimidating as a full-blown broadcast camera setup. It allows me to work well in close quarters (like many restaurant kitchens). It is less intrusive when shooting a restaurant filled with customers.  I can see why several war correspondents use this type of setup to be quick, versatile, and not stand out in a crowd.

Cons:

Audio:  The built in audio in the camera is almost useless for any kind of serious shooting. There is also no easy way to monitor audio. You need an external mic to make this work. My two workarounds are either using a good shotgun mic plugged directly into the camera, or recording the audio separately on a digital audio recorder and then merging the audio with video during editing.

Speed:  I can’t see using this setup for quick turnarounds or breaking news.  Especially when I do interviews and record the audio using lav mics hooked into the digital audio recorder, it takes time to transcode the video and merge the video and audio before you can start editing.

Here’s a story I produced for Fox 26 using this gear:

I think anyone interested in having a low-cost option to produce stories that are not terribly time sensitive should look into shooting with a DSLR setup.  Especially in these days when there are more and more opportunities for  “entrepreneurial journalism” on the Web, the low cost of this type of setup allows people to strike out on their own.  Here’s an example. Daniel Klein of The Perennial Plate basically is a travel & food journalist who uses a setup similar to the one I use. He talked about his process in an interview with the New York Times

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 they can be understood more easily by the general public. Nothing wrong with that. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, for example, is a master at making complex science information understandable, as he did in a recent interview with the NewsHour about the meteor that exploded over Russia.

But much of what’s called media training doesn’t actually focus on helping professionals make the complicated clear. Take the email I received last week, for no known reason, from a DC-based media training and coaching firm entitled 3 steps to a successful media interview. Step one: Research the reporter and media outlet “to discover what the ultimate purpose [of the interview] is.” Steps two and three: Prepare three strategic messages and practice delivering them out loud at least three times.

The simplest way to prepare is to create a list of potential questions and answer each question out loud. The more you practice, the more you will be prepared to respond during an actual media interview. Practice your key messages and hone them down to their most powerful bits of information.

No wonder it’s so hard to get a sound bite that doesn’t sound canned or planned from some people. They’ve been rehearsing their responses, over and over. And you can bet they’ve been taught how to “bridge to message,” a technique for getting their point across no matter what they’re asked. You know you’ve been bridged when the interviewee says something like, “That’s an interesting question but the key issue is…”

If you expect to have any hope of knocking these folks off script, invest some time in developing a question or two they never dreamed you’d ask. And don’t be afraid to ask the same basic question more than once in a slightly different way.  You just might get lucky.

What annoys you most about media-trained interviewees? If you’ve succeeded in getting something spontaneous out of one, please let us all know how you did it. They’re sharing techniques with each other. Why shouldn’t we journalists share ours?

Viewfinder image via Shutterstock

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 Big Data Summit that she’s watching it all closely–everything from all-video start-ups like Now This News to the online news-talk channel Huffington Post Live. And she indicated that NBC plans to do more with original “web-native video content” over the course of the next year as it redesigns NBCNews.com as a “rich journalism destination.”

This is the interactive Schiller mentioned that shows gun deaths over MLK weekend. It’s an example of a story extracted from data that ties in to a network-wide project on guns in America.

Thompson shared his keys to efficient storytelling at the 2013 Kentucky News Photographers Association conference. Set yourself up for creative storytelling, he advised, by knowing what you need, how to get it and what to do with it. “It’s not how much time you have, it’s what you do with the time you have.”

1. Opening: Establish a setting, set the mood or introduce a character at the start. You want the open to grab attention, Thompson says, but he doesn’t believe in using the best video off the top. “I know it’s a philosophy in some newsrooms,” he admitted. “If you have a crying mother, that’s great video so you start with it. But who is she, why is she crying, what happened to her?” Use that great video later, when you’ve told the viewer more about the character. Thompson does believe in using natural sound off the top, however. “Track is contrived,” he says, “not natural to the environment.”

2. Intrigue: Thompson’s approach in the field is to shoot anything unexpected that happens, capture details and look for themes. When you put your story together, use what follows the opening to “establish that there is still something to learn.” Great advice! So many stories tell you everything you need to know right at the start. Why would anyone keep watching? Notice how Thompson draws the viewer in in this feature:

3. Development: At this point, you want the viewer to get to know the characters so you’ll expand on their concerns, problems, personalities and aspirations. To do this well, Thompson urges photojournalists not to settle for easy B-roll and to avoid head-shot interviews. “Interact with your characters,” Thompson urges photojournalists. “A lot of reporters don’t care about people, hate communicating with people. If they aren’t going to interact with the characters, you must.”

4. Climax:  Anticipate moments in the field, and in the edit, let pivotal moments breathe, Thompson advises. Don’t cover an emotional sound bite. Let it sink in. Above all, don’t leave your viewer with a fuzzy idea of what the story is about. “Clarity is more important than style,” Thompson says. “Emotion is more important than style, even if it’s not totally in focus.”

5. Closing: Always plan a closing shot that will help you wrap things up, Thompson says. Allow your audience to reflect on the story and “wave goodbye.” Don’t draw things out at the end. He compared stories that stumble around at the end to what happens to a conversation after one person has already said goodbye. Awkward, for sure. “You’ve hit the climax, so get it over with,” Thompson says.

Thompson and I were among the judges for the KNPA’s annual awards. I asked him what issues he noticed in the stories we screened.*

The bakery story was just one of several award winners in the annual KNPA contest.  It’s a natural sound piece that was shot by Chad Darnall of WPSD-TV in Paducah.

For more about Thompson, including his prize-winning story reel, read our earlier post on his work.

*I know, I know. Sorry about that light, but the hotel meeting room didn’t give me much to work with.

Other tools, like Vuvox, provide similar options for mashing up timelines and multimedia. Dipity also adds maps. Meograph might be a good fit for a broadcast newsroom’s online offerings because the tool makes it easy to add narration in short snippets, but the beta version has lots of issues that make it difficult to deal with.

A few limitations: Unlike Dipity, Meograph won’t let you use images from URLs. If you don’t have an image you can upload, you’re out of luck. The opposite issue exists for video. You can link to a YouTube video, but you can’t upload your own. On the plus side, you can easily trim YouTube videos to include just the part you want.

Something else to be aware of: you can only record 15 seconds of voice over using the built in narration function. Anything longer has to be recorded in some other program and uploaded. Not a deal breaker, but good to know before you get started. Meograph also requires you to save every “moment” as you go. Forgetting to do so can require lots of re-tracking. Other issues may be browser specific. I noticed in Chrome that adding a link to one “moment” added it to all others farther down the timeline, forcing me to go in to each one and add a blank link to get rid of it.

Here’s a quick tutorial:

If you’re willing to put up with the issues, the end result is quite attractive. You can see how it works in this demo Meograph put together to tell the Trayvon Martin story.

One final word of warning: the site went “down for maintenance” without warning while I was in the middle of building a presentation at 5 p.m. on a weekday–not something any newsroom wants to encounter on deadline.

I admit this review is not a rave, but Meograph is still worth a look. Let us know if you decide to try it out in your newsroom, and send us a link so we can see how it worked for you.

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 in one 24 hour period, when the storm was clobbering the East Coast.

But hashtags can also serve you well day in and day out.

Stephen Clark is a main anchor at WXYZ, the Scripps station in Detroit, who is the driving force behind the #backchannel, a Twitter conversation that’s been underway for a couple of years now. How did it get started? Here’s the way Clark tells it:

The #backchannel draws thousands of uniques every month, according to Chip Mahaney, senior director of local digital operations for E. W. Scripps. “It is a lively robust and significant conversation that wouldn’t have been built without the newscast, and they’ve leveraged that conversation into real world connections.

“I think it has grown their audience,” Mahaney said.

The bottom line? If you’re on Twitter, good for you. But if you’re not using #hashtags on a regular basis, you’re missing a bet.

We asked Zurik to share his strategies for finding and keeping track of stories while making the most of his limited time.

Request Records – Often

Most of my investigations are based on documents.  It’s hard for anyone to factually find fault with something that has been put in writing – in a public document.  So I spend at least a part of every week making requests and sorting through records I’ve received.

For me, it accomplishes two things.  First, the more I look at records, the more I am able to tell when something doesn’t look right.  When you see public entities that work well – that have a “clean” set of records – the problem agencies stick out.

Second, many times I will make a records request for some basic documents like salaries for all employees and then get an unsolicited call or letter telling me what I should be looking for.  I guess word spreads when records requests are filed, and when employees hear someone is looking into their entity it is an impetus to call me.

I try to request all of my records electronically.  It usually makes it easier for the agencies – they can send a simple email.  And for me, it’s a helpful way to keep my records organized.

Know the Law

A few co-workers joke with me – “You play an attorney on TV.”  I keep electronic files of relevant court cases and opinions from attorneys general.  I also keep copies of all letters our attorney has written on our behalf.  And I use them all – frequently.

When a public entity that doesn’t necessarily know the law rejects a records request, before I get any attorney involved, I fire off a letter myself – citing specific cases and opinions.  Most of the time, I get access to the records and save our station the money an attorney would cost.

Look at hidden entities

Brett Shipp, a terrific reporter from WFAA, spoke at an IRE Conference two years ago about investigating obscure entities and agencies.  That was possibly the best advice I have received.  I have had the most success as an investigative reporter looking into those entities.  The less sun that’s been shined, the more chance there is for abuse.

Here’s an example that won a national Murrow award:

Let your investigations roll

The more I do this, the more I think the key to most strong investigations is that they don’t disappear after one story.  While there are certainly examples otherwise, most strong investigations I see these days dig deeper than one story or two.  I think that’s the key to significant journalism that leads to action.

It can be a challenge, because less news viewing means many of your viewers haven’t seen some of your past stories.   A fine line exists between rehashing an entire story to update new viewers and telling a new story to loyal viewers.  You don’t want to alienate either.

Maintain a Story Board

One thing that helps me stay organized is keeping a dry erase storyboard.  I produce at least half a dozen stories every sweeps period and sprinkle in a few stories a month (most times more) out of sweeps.  My board has each sweeps month and stories I have planned.  So today, I have stories I am planning to do in November, February, and even May.  Obviously these change, but it gives me a good idea of where I am.  It also shows I consistently have multiple projects going at the same time.  Some are short range and others much longer.  Last May, we started airing a series of reports we called “Dirty Deeds.”  That was a project we worked on for two years.  We also aired a few stories in May on campaign spending.  That research only took a few days.

Watch your peers

I try to spend a few minutes every week looking at other investigative reporters work from around the country.  Twitter makes this easy.  It gives me story ideas and shows me how to tell better stories.  There are many great reporters around the country, but I never miss a story by Bob Segall (WTHR), Tony Kovaleski (KNTV), Stephen Stock (KNTV), Phil Williams (WTVF), Brett Shipp (WFAA), and Byron Harris (WFAA).  All have their own style, but all are tremendous storytellers and investigative reporters.

Join IRE

And finally, if you’re not a member of IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors) – join.  That’s how I learned to be an investigative reporter.  Until Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005, I was a sports anchor.  After the storm, my boss asked me to switch over to news.  That has turned into the best decision of my career.  I had some basic knowledge from my days as a student at Syracuse University, but no professional experience as an investigative news reporter.  I basically taught myself with the resources on the website (tipsheets) and IRE journals.

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 of KARE-TV in Minneapolis, a two-time winner of the NPPA TV Photojournalist of the Year award, has his own collection of gadgets and gizmos that make the job go well. But only two of them are on his absolutely-must-have list. And he really means it.

If he couldn’t have those two items, he says, he simply couldn’t work.

So what are they?

Here’s a hint: one is for audio and one is for video.

How do you get to be good at photojournalism? You know how to get to Carnegie Hall, right? Practice, practice, practice. “You’ve got to know your camera,” Malat says. “Be so confident in your gear that you go to the next level and worry about the story, you don’t ever worry about the mechanics.” Practice every day with VO/SOTs and V/Os, Malat advises, until the technical part of the job becomes second nature.

Here’s a story Malat shot that won first place in the 2011 NPPA national competition.

If you’re not a believer, consider a few facts courtesy of the Poynter Institute’s Regina McCombs:

• Facebook is now the second or third largest source of traffic to online news sites.
• Facebook users are more politically engaged than most people and therefore more interested in news.
• Almost half of all Internet users re-post photos and videos–maybe even yours.

What that means, according to Chang, is that a TV story can have a whole new life online thanks to social media. And the potential audience is huge. KARE’s DMA has 1.7 million TV homes; the KARE Facebook page has just 57,000 likes. But those fans have more than 8 million friends, so when a story like the one about bald eagles is widely shared, its impact is magnified.

Instagram, the photo sharing service recently acquired by Facebook, has grown rapidly since it launched in 2010. As of July 2012, it had 80 million users.

At KARE, Helmke expects everyone in the newsroom to be adept at using social media but it took a little convincing to get some veterans to buy in. Reporter Boyd Huppert, who’s been in the business for 28 years, admits he was reluctant at first.

So what are you waiting for?