Thoughts for a first post on my new blog

I have been working in television news for more than 30 years. And I have gone from a TV reporter/photographer/editor(film and tape)/ radio newscaster to my current job as a producer for NBC News Channel (the affiliate services branch of the NBC News network) in Washington, DC. And in all of those evolutionary changes - I'm reminded of the adage - "everything old is new again". One man bands - though they have new names like "MoJo's", "Digital Journalists" and "Video Journalists" - are back again. But in many ways - it's a completely new ball game.

Last semester I was taking a class called "Journalism Upside Down". And as a final project - I put together a video on how the Internet is changing the way people get their news and information. And how those changes - are being felt in the world of journalism. There are a few people in our "Managing Multimedia Projects" class who have already heard about this project. But if any of the rest of your are interested in seeing it - here's a link to part one - I "published" on YouTube. (Part two is in column on the right. I had to break it into 2 pieces because it was longer then 10 minutes - whole thing is about 14 minutes. )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QF5tvIwptY&feature=channel_page

In my gathering phase of producing that video, I found myself confronted with many new questions about these "new tools" in journalism today. One came from a speaker for the Journalism Upside Down class - Jose Antonio Vargas. He has a very interesting background. And to say he's tied into the new media - is an understatement. He works for the Washington Post. And one of his jobs there is to screen interns who will work for the paper. He said one of the things he was disappointed about in these intern candidates - was that the journalism programs they were enrolled in - were NOT teaching them WHEN to use the various tools.

- When should you shoot video to tell the story?

- When is it better to take still photos and get some nat sound clips
from interviews to tell the piece?

- Or are there times when just writing copy - is the best way to go?

Based on the syllabus, I expect to be able to answer those questions much more efficiently by the end of our class.

But I also expect to figure out when you need to incorporate other players in the news organization into your multimedia projects. And let's not forget our friends in sales. When I started out - sales people were not allowed to come into the newsroom. Let alone discuss coverage ideas they had that might tie into advertisers. Now, once again, it's a whole new ball game.

One of the next dilemmas for me (and many others) is trying to figure out how to "monetize" news on the Internet. And making a living, if you are going to do news reporting, is a good thing. The sales people can work with us - to an extent - to help accomplish that goal. it's that "to an extent" part that I still need to get use to.

Just some starting out thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

Sheila