Tim Gruber and Jenn Ackerman use both photography and video to tell stories for editorial and commercial clients. 
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Read this post by an intern blogging about the layoffs at The Tampa Tribune and while you’re there check out the 145 comments.
I only have one question. When did journalists become such a divided and bitter bunch?
As I do most mornings I spent a portion of my time checking my RSS feeds. Besides the print edition of the NYTimes and NPR it’s how I get most of my news.
So the question is when will newspapers finally understand you can’t take your content from the printed page and just plaster it to your website? The web is a community that thrives on linking and commentary and not cut and paste journalism.
Reading my RSS feed for the Louisville Courier-Journal this headline caught my eye:
Flurry over a photo prompts explanation
Apparently there was an outcry from readers over an image that ran on the sports page after Louisville beat the University of Kentucky in men’s basketball the day before. I couldn’t tell what the photo is about since I can’t seem to find it anywhere on their site. A search of the archives turns up nothing as it wants me to pay for the article with no guarantee the story will include the photo I’m looking for. Browsing through their 4 photo galleries (scroll down to 01/05/08) from the game turns up nothing. This image was good enough to run as their lead on the sports front, but doesn’t find a home in an online gallery of over 100 pics? I see one image that looks like it might be the one, but it comes from the second half and not the first as the article states.
There will be no apology. However, I think an explanation is in order because it encompasses what’s involved in selecting photos to illustrate stories — and what can happen if context is lost on, or not apparent to, the news consumer, which is what I think happened in this instance.
Apparently they also forget about context for their online audience since we have no way of seeing the image that sparked the public editor to write this column and address their readers.
One of their readers get it:
Here’s what makes me mad: writing a long essay about a photo, but not showing it online or providing a link to it. I have no way to make my own judgment, because the C-J isn’t showing me the picture in question. I’m out of town and did not see the original publication…..To my original point… why should readers have to dig up this stuff? See, there’s this thing called the Internet, and it has a feature called “links” by which you can actually show us what you’re writing about. Cool, huh?
Rant off.
Not all is bad in the online world. Check out the new look of the Las Vegas Sun. Refreshing.
Melissa Worden, a multimedia producer at The Herald Tribune in Sarasota, FL, recently used my clown video to highlight an important point on her blog. In a post titled: If you don’t want to play, move out of the way, she writes:
Watch out reporters and photographers, future journalists set to join newsrooms full time in the next couple of years (if they stick around) are producing some nice online stories.
Her post is mainly directed at staffers working at newspapers, but as students there’s a lot we can take away in what she wrote.
The biggest being that editors at newspapers are going to be looking to us as students to not only understand and know a variety of tools, but quite possibly be able to educate and lead their newsrooms into using these new storytelling mediums. My girlfriend, Jenn, is interning out at The Deseret News in Salt Lake City. She’s the only one there who knows how to shoot and edit video. Here’s a recent piece she shot. Not only is she the only on shooting video, but they’re looking to her to give them advice on the type of equipment they should buy. Sure she can and does capture great still images, but there’s a staff of shooters that can do the same. She’s making a name for herself in the newsroom by having a diverse set of skills that extend beyond the printed page.
For students this isn’t a question of if and when you should be doing video. You should. You can pout, kick, whine and fuss all the way to the editing lab, but unless you have a change of heart quickly you might find yourself selling coffee instead of telling stories. Your new media skills are the biggest commodity you can bring to your resume. The clips and photos in your portfolio no matter how strong they might be will be diminished by the work of students who show diversity and a willingness to use and understand every possible tool at their disposable.
Newsroom staffs are already full of people that use and understand the printed word and photograph well. You’ll never match their experience. What they have on you in experience you can make up for in your willingness to learn and grow.
This was confirmed for me earlier last week when the editor here in Roanoke took all the interns out for lunch. One question I asked was, If you were looking to hire someone today what would you look for in that person? Carole responded by saying she’d want someone with a willingness/hunger to learn and adapt as our industry changes. (not her exact words, but it sums up what she was saying.)
So as students it’s essential that we continue to push ourselves to grow and learn. Isn’t that why we’re in school? We are the future. Embrace it.