Selected Readings

Newspapers Online: I liked Kurt Anderson's observation that there's no point in newspapers putting video online if they're not going to "use" the medium. Online videos should do something news print cant' -- it's easier for journalists to "show" the story in video, as opposed to telling; in print you can only show a story through quotes. Print journalists who are moving to the online video format accomplish nothing if they just read from scripts that could've been published in a newspaper (and its obvious when they do).

I didn't like Anderson's assessment of "amateur" journalism. YouTube is no longer a novelty. I think it can serve a legitimate purpose in the news industry. The YouTube debates are an example of this; they weren't just a stunt CNN pulled to get viewers. Anderson underestimates the role and value of citizen journalism in society.


Video Storytelling: "When he was out on the scene, interviewing people, discussing options with the photographer, Speake surely had a lot of ideas about the potential for this story. But in the end, he must defer to the visuals. He has to consider what the pictures show before he writes, before he thinks about what to write."

This is what I have trouble with. I usually know what I want to write before I finish interviewing -- sometimes before I even start interviewing. I usually wait to develop story angles until after I do some background research on the topic, though. Still, I know that I need to be more openminded in the interviewing process. Instead of asking questions that will help me develop the story I intend to write, I need to be confident that the story -- the real story, not the one I'm fishig for -- will come to me.


Online Storytelling Forms: The main idea of the piece and the part that stuck with me was that online news should be layered. It should be easy to swallow. In feature writing, for example, it seems like the journalist takes a whole lotta information and throws it at the reader. He soaks in this information and, hopefully, the important parts stick in his mind and he understands why the story was important and why the reporter did the piece. In online journalism, reporters seem more likely to choose the main points for the reader and expand upon them only slightly. What's more important is hammering those main points into the reader's/viewer's brain -- by telling, showing, and demonstrating one thing point in several ways. It takes less work on the part of the reader/viewer. That's good...it serves a purpose, at least.