Missed it! It’s an awful feeling. You’ve been waiting and waiting for a specific shot for a story and when it finally happens, you hit record just a wee bit too late. Maybe you’ve captured some of what you need, but it’s going to be hard to edit. If only you could turn back time. [...]
by Geoff Roth, executive producer, KRIV, Houston 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 [...]
The iPhone has become an essential part of many if not most journalists’ tool kits, in part because so many free or low-cost apps make it easier to report with an iPhone than other smart phones. We’ve written about some of these apps before, but not lately, and things obviously change fast. So it was a pleasure [...]
We’re starting the New Year here at NewsLab by looking back at the year before–just as we did at this time a year ago. In 2012, our readers not only wanted practical tips, they also gravitated toward posts about the state of the news business. Here are our top ten most viewed posts, in case [...]
What can you do when the network sucks up all the air time on Election Night? Convinced that cut-ins twice an hour just wouldn’t cut it, anchor Amy Wood expanded her station’s 2012 coverage online using a relatively new video chat tool, Spreecast. The result? “Nine hours of live streaming coverage. No live trucks. No [...]
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 [...]
It’s an age-old question. How can you be sure the information you’re getting is accurate? That basic task of every journalist has become more difficult in today’s digital world, when data can be so easily manipulated. But as we’ve noted here before, technology also makes it easier to detect manipulation. And one very useful piece [...]
It’s no secret that television newsrooms are expecting more production from everyone on staff. And there’s nothing really new about reporters being expected to file multiple times a day for multiple outlets. Heck, I did that 30 years ago at CBS, filing for radio and TV. But a recent story on TVNewsCheck about this new reality [...]
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 [...]
Lots of news stories are here today, gone tomorrow. But many come back again and again, stories that have twists and turns, a history and new developments that need to be reported. Here’s one example: A crime, an investigation, an arrest, a trial and a verdict. Now consider how those stories are most often covered [...]
Forgive the apocalyptic headline, but when two columns cross my desk the same day warning broadcast executives to wake up or face extinction, I pay attention. Technology-driven threats to the broadcast business model aren’t new, but these columns suggest a bazillion-channel future is closer than many may think, leaving little time to prepare. Let’s begin [...]
A new mobile app aims to give YouTube a run for its money in the “citizen journalist” assignment game. Rawporter is the latest competitor to YouTube Direct, giving newsrooms the ability to request and rebroadcast video from anyone who happens to be at or near the scene of a news event. What Rawporter offers that’s [...]
Beginning a new year by looking backward is a time-honored tradition among procrastinators and (true confession here) I can procrastinate with the best of them when I’m not on deadline. So herewith, a look back at the posts that got the most traffic at NewsLab in 2011, in case you missed any or would like [...]
Who’s counting? Everybody, it seems, at this time of year. Everywhere you look, there’s a top 10 list for the year’s best and worst, so why should journalism be different? And why reinvent the wheel? Instead of creating our own 2011 rundown, we’ve put together a meta-list with a few additions and comments. This was [...]
What do you get when you put two terrific storytellers in charge of a PR shoot? A great story, that’s what, and some useful lessons on how to capture stunning video with compact, light-weight equipment. “The Sewing Machine” is a video produced by former NBC reporter John Larson and one-time NPPA photojournalist of the year Lisa [...]
It’s the latest “must have” gadget for TV news, or so it appears from all the references I’ve heard lately to the GoPro camera. Small, rugged and light-weight, it shoots in HD and sports a wide-angle lens so it goes where other cameras can’t. It’s often used for “point of view” video, which is what it [...]
“Everyone should have a smartphone in the future; it’s baseline gear,” says Damon Kiesow, senior product manager at Boston.com. Speaking at the Excellence in Journalism convention in New Orleans, Kiesow said newsrooms have to get more “intentional and strategic” when it comes to mobile. “It doesn’t work to just go buy 20 iPhones and tell the reporters [...]
Let’s say you’ve been a journalist for a while but you feel a bit out of the loop when it comes to using social media and multimedia. OK, not just out of the loop–totally overwhelmed. And you’re worried some kid just out of college is going to steal your job one day because they have [...]
Anyone with a smart phone knows that it’s difficult to read a standard website on the screen. Sure, you can zoom in, but then you have to scroll around to see the rest of the page. I’ve known for some time that we should offer a mobile version of the NewsLab site. But with no [...]
When NPR’s David Folkenflik called me for an interview last week, I wasn’t sure I could oblige. The usual routine involves my going to their DC studios for taping and my schedule that day just wouldn’t allow it. Turns out I didn’t need to, as long as I had an iPhone. NPR sent me a [...]