Commentary

The following are reflections on the evolving world of journalism, my experiences in the business, and the future of storytelling.

I just worked remotely with a world-class photojournalist. Here’s what I learned.

Commentary, , , , , ,

Three months ago, I did something that would be considered blasphemous to the storytelling gods:

I blew off an invitation from Boyd Huppert.

When a 100x-Emmy winner reaches out to collaborate on a story, you should respond within minutes and say, “Absolutely, and where can I send the fruit basket to say thanks?” Boyd is not just a fabulous storyteller; he has been a constant source of inspiration, a guest on my podcast, and the author of the foreword for my book, The Solo Video Journalist. But on this day, I had to blow him off.

I had a good reason, though: my wife was in labor with our first child.

A day later, when our daughter had arrived and I had gained a few minutes to scroll through my messages, I saw Boyd’s note again and responded. He had discovered an extraordinary story involving a family in his region (the Twin Cities) and a 50-year-old man in mine (metro Atlanta). He proposed a video swap: I would shoot in ATL, and his team would shoot in MSP. When I realized I could shoot my part upon returning from paternity leave, I leapt at the chance.

Why? Of course I welcomed the opportunity to team up with Boyd. But I got especially excited about getting to work with his photographer. Boyd’s pieces for KARE-TV’s Land of 10,000 Stories segment are both poignantly written and immaculately shot, by photographers who regularly rank among the best in the country. I delighted at the chance to peek under the hood, use their footage, and study their techniques.

I got what I wished.

Boyd worked on this piece with Kevin Sullivan, a multiple finalist for NPPA Photographer of the Year and a recent Regional Edward R. Murrow winner. (He has since left KARE-TV to take a job with the Mayo Clinic.) Sully is a tremendous talent, and I dove into his video the way a child shovels through packing peanuts to get to a gift. I found treasure after treasure, from impeccably framed shots to beautifully captured moments. Here are three lessons I’ll take away for my own work as a photographer: (more…)

Don’t be (just) your business card

Commentary, , , , , , ,

This year I began writing regular columns for the NPPA’s News Photographer magazine. Here is my first piece, discussing how my journalistic efforts have never been restricted to my work in the newsroom.

My business card says I’m a reporter. So does my voice when I call a potential interview subject. I want to introduce myself with the simplest, most authoritative description of what I do for employment. “Reporter” meets that threshold.

But it doesn’t feel complete. Like most of my colleagues in journalism, I stopped doing one job long ago.

Yes, I am a reporter. For nearly nine years, I have produced packages, presented live shots, and covered everything from the city council to the Super Bowl for WXIA-TV in Atlanta.

But I am also a photographer. I shoot my own stories and have done so since entering the business as a one-person sports department in Sioux City, Iowa.

I am an editor. I have swung from tape-to-tape to Avid Newscutter to Edius 8.0. I can prepare a 90-second report in 20 minutes, but I’d rather spend hours – and sometimes days – poring over a four-minute masterpiece.

I am a graphic artist. For years, Photoshop intimidated me. This past year I pushed myself to learn the basics. Same with After Effects. I produce animations and creative presentations that slide into various stories.

I am a social media user and digital advocate. I need to be. Facebook didn’t exist when I entered the business. Today it delivers more than 90% of my station’s page views, so I must include it in my workflow. And it pays off.

The roles continue outside of the newsroom. I am a blogger, writing weekly entries about the journalism world for my Telling the Story blog since 2013. I am a podcaster, clearing 60 episodes of long-form interviews with luminaries in the field. I am a student, working towards an MFA in narrative nonfiction at the University of Georgia’s journalism school. I am a speaker, giving presentations at multiple conferences and workshops every year. (I also co-directed one – the NPPA Southeast Storytelling workshop – in 2016.) I am even an author. I spent two years writing, editing, and finding a publisher for The Solo Video Journalist, a how-to guide for one-person crews that has become required reading for broadcast classes at various colleges.

With this piece, I add another title: magazine columnist. I did not envision it, but I welcome the privilege and opportunity to reach and spotlight my peers and fellow NPPA members.

(more…)

I’m a new dad, back at work. And I have already missed a milestone.

Commentary, , , , ,

The day my daughter first rolled on her back, I left for work two hours early. I set my alarm for 6 AM, dragged myself out of bed without waking my wife, and tiptoed out of our midnight blue bedroom. Leaving before sunrise is easy … or at least easier. I can kiss Olivia’s cheeks, stand over her crib for a minute, and see only her eyelids. This means I can avoid her open eyes and their enlarged pupils, which beam even in the dark with innocence and – I hope – adoration.

I left before dawn so I could record dawn. I’m a reporter for an Atlanta TV station, and I had scheduled a full day of shoots for a story that would air a day later. I planned to profile a local DACA recipient who paints murals on Buford Highway, our city’s famed 20-mile stretch of international cuisine and culture. I wanted to capture the highway at sunrise, when adults and children spill out from their apartment complexes and await their various buses.

But I was slow to get out of bed, which meant I was slow to leave, which meant I arrived at Buford Highway minutes after the pink and orange blasts of sunrise gave way to blue. I missed the moment, and while I still got many of the shots I wanted, I wasn’t sure how I would fit them into my story. I asked myself, “Why did I leave my wife and daughter to get a few halfway-decent shots that most viewers will barely notice?”

But I know why. And the answer is now its own question I have yet to resolve.

(more…)

5 lessons from the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism 2017 winners

Commentary, , , , , , , , , ,

In the five years that I have captained this blog, I have written this post four times. It remains one of my favorite annual pieces to pen, because it involves one of my favorite annual traditions: watching the winners of the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism video awards.

Every year I sit down, click on links, and marvel at the winners. And every year I take away new lessons that, I hope, will boost my own work. This year I was named a NPPA finalist for three of my stories, and I won the association’s prize for Solo Video Journalist of the Year. But I found, in the Best of Photojournalism winners, work that inspires me to improve and compels me to keep crafting.

Here are five lessons that will stay with me – and perhaps you too:

THE STORY: Light Will Prevail, by Ryan Oliveira (KXAS-TV, Dallas)
THE LESSON: Sometimes the best treatment for raw emotion is restraint behind the camera.

A mass shooting last fall at a baptist church caused a crush of media to descend on the tiny town of Sutherland Springs, Tex. Residents struggled to grasp with the horror and loss, and they didn’t hide their emotions.

In this story, which took first place in the category of General Hard News Photography, Ryan Oliveira of NBC5 in Dallas met the rawness with distance and technique. He largely kept his camera back, focusing instead on framing and lighting exquisite shots to capture the intensity. I cannot say enough about his sensitivity here, and the same goes for his teammate on this story, reporter Noelle Walker. I have no doubt they were moved by what they saw in Sutherland Springs. It showed in pieces like this, that eschew boldness and instead show tenderness and sympathy during a tragic time.

(more…)

Five years. 400 posts. 100,000+ views. Thank you.

Commentary, , ,

This will be a short post.

Maybe my journey into parenthood has caused me to appreciate brevity and efficiency. Maybe I don’t need much space to say what I need to say. But I am excited to publish this blog entry with celebration on my mind.

This is my 400th post for Telling the Story. It also marks more than five years since I launched the site.

I started the blog with two goals. For my own ambitions, I wanted to write more, challenging myself to produce two posts a week of narrative strength and thematic clarity. More importantly, I wanted to develop and contribute to a climate of inspiration and collaboration among my fellow journalists. I aimed – and still aim – to encourage us to think big about this profession. In my introductory post, the Storyteller’s Manifesto, I wrote, “I am excited to tackle the concept of storytelling. It is the one part of journalism that is not going anywhere.”

That hasn’t changed five years later, even as so much has.

(more…)

I’m a new father. And I’m aching to control time.

Commentary, , , , ,

Last month I became a dad. I wrote this journal entry seven days later and felt it encapsulated my feelings a week into fatherhood.

***

Time moves too slow. A new father sits in the dark, his three-day old daughter in his lap. It’s 2 AM. His daughter cries in minute-long spurts and tries to worm her arms out of her swaddle blanket. Dad counters each move while trying to keep his daughter calm and, more importantly, quiet.

Time moves too fast. Yes, I wanted Olivia to stop crying and start sleeping. But even in a half-open-eyed slumber, I wanted to savor the moment.

Mom is sleeping in their bedroom, he hopes. They spent the previous hour pacing around the apartment, cycling through potential causes of the high-pitched pierce they’re sure has awakened their neighbors. But they don’t both need to stand guard. One can sleep while the other sits. Dad volunteered to sit. He wills his eyelids to stay up.

Everything about parenthood so far has been a fight for control. My wife and I have tried in vain to develop a routine. We have scraped together hours of sleep, first at the hospital and now at home. We have learned on the fly how to feed, clothe, change, and swaddle a tiny human who three days earlier existed only in the womb. We should want to fast-forward through this time and get to the good stuff: walking, talking, eating pizza, playing soccer, going to the prom. But then I look at Olivia, and I want time to freeze. Even when she cries, she seems perfect. She is untouched by the world and cocooned by her parents. At least that’s how it feels.

(more…)

Equal representation in media isn’t just a task for the underrepresented

Commentary, , , , , , ,

Representation is what counts. I hear this all the time from people whose communities lack it in politics, entertainment, and media. And in my field, I support that cause fully.

Newsrooms need voices that represent their communities. We must surround ourselves with people of different backgrounds and encourage those people to raise their voices about issues that affect them. This applies across the spectrum, from race and gender to political party, sexual orientation, and religion. I promote this in my work, from ensuring a diverse guest list on my podcast to encouraging younger journalists to understand their power. In the short and long term, representation matters.

But in preaching this message, I worry that we assign too much responsibility to the underrepresented. Yes, we should prioritize finding a diversity of voices, but we should not absolve journalists in the majority of understanding those voices.

The fact is, if you are a journalist, you will be required to cover people who are not like you. Maybe they don’t look like you. Maybe they don’t follow the same faith as you. Maybe they don’t share any number of beliefs and values that affect perspectives and perceptions. But stories will arise that will place you on unfamiliar ground. You must be willing to take the extra step. Beyond that, you should not only seek stories from those with common backgrounds. You should work to connect and build trust with other communities, especially if their stories too rarely get told.

Journalism is an imperfect science. We must turn unfamiliar assignments into accurate, compelling, relevant stories, often in a matter of hours. We won’t always get it right, and we should forgive ourselves for the occasional slip. But we cannot avoid the responsibility or expectations of our positions. One shoddy, superficial story can inflict massive damage to a reporter’s credibility. Each piece requires the same grind and outreach, no matter the barrier.

This brings me to my latest project, KOREATL.

A manager approached me with the idea in the fall: “There’s this huge Korean community in metro Atlanta that no one knows about, so let’s use the Olympics as a springboard to focus on it.”

It awoke my appetite. I had spent time in the community on an assignment over the summer, and I saw the potential for a powerful segment about identity and integration in immigrant communities.

I came back to my manager with a structure. I pitched a 20-minute mini-documentary that would explore those themes and could be broken down into two Olympic weeks of on-air segments. He loved it, and I got to work.

My first step was to seek out voices. My producer and I met at bakeries, made phone calls, and held a month’s worth of conversations before shooting a single frame. We digested what we heard and discussed how to present it. Then, during my various shoots, I kept my ears open and resisted to impulse to make judgments and blanket statements. I did not want to paint a community with one brush. I wanted the individuals to provide their own perspectives.

I also made an early decision that, in my mind, became crucial to the project: I kept my own voice silent.

For the first time in my career, I produced a long-form story that didn’t include my audio track as a reporter. This made my job much more challenging; in the end, I shot 15 hours of video for a 20-minute clip. But the work paid off in clarity and mission.

I take great pride in the work we produced, mainly because it has received unanimously positive reaction from both inside and outside the Korean community. The mini-doc went live Monday and became one of our most-watched YouTube videos of the week. I hope it will continue to inspire conversations and expand perspectives.

Representation matters most, but it should not simply be outsourced to the underrepresented. All of us in this field must prioritize it, with an empathetic ear, an open mind, and a willingness to not always seek the easiest path.

svj-cover-2

The Solo Video Journalist is available for purchase. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the publisher’s web site.

Matt Pearl is the author of the Telling the Story blog and podcast. Feel free to comment below or e-mail Matt at matt@tellingthestoryblog.com. You can also follow Matt on Facebook and Twitter.

Covering the Super Bowl means staying focused amidst the circus

Commentary, , , , , , , , , ,

I landed last night from the Twin Cities wondering how I would answer a frequently asked question:

“What’s it like covering the Super Bowl?”

I never know how to answer, because a week at the Super Bowl brings experiences that seem so detached from each other.

Covering the Super Bowl means arriving in Minneapolis, stopping at the hotel, and driving immediately to the Mall of America. As a tourist I had never felt compelled to visit this seven-stadium-sized monstrosity. On this trip it hosted the main media workspace, so it became a hub of press conferences, interviews, and live shots. I ate six meals there in eight days.

Covering the Super Bowl means developing on-the-fly routines to keep track of equipment. At home I lean on muscle memory; on the road I quickly formed mental checklists so I didn’t lose any of the cameras, microphones, and accessories that filled two checked bags and a carry-on. (I did lose a pair of a headphones, but I have made peace with that.)

Covering the Super Bowl means using public spaces for critical business. I sought shelter at a nearby Starbucks between sub-zero live shots outside US Bank Stadium. I interviewed a major Atlanta official in the lobby of a Doubletree in Minneapolis. Two days later I used the dining room of a Doubletree in St. Paul. And I wrote and edited several stories from the comfort of my hotel bed.

Covering the Super Bowl means having in-the-room access to company heads, billionaires, and even the NFL commissioner … and noticing the force field of PR reps and media relations workers surrounding each one.

Covering the Super Bowl means attending the press conference for Justin Timberlake’s halftime show and realizing the loose definition of “press”. One entertainment reporter led the room in singing “Happy Birthday”. An ensuing entertainment reporter regretted she couldn’t top such a performance. Timberlake took ten questions, none of which posed controversy and all of which seemed pre-screened to prevent it.

(more…)

I’m back in J-school. And I’m back to being unsure of myself.

Commentary, , , ,

I arrived on the University of Georgia campus with a steadily growing to-do list.

Pick up paper towels. Run to Target. Try to go to bed early. Check my work e-mail in case of an emergency.

I had just driven 90 minutes from midtown Atlanta to downtown Athens. I work full-time as a TV reporter but this past August began a 2 ½-year MFA program in narrative nonfiction at UGA’s Grady School of Journalism. Each semester kicks off with a mandatory weeklong residency on-campus; this past Sunday, we all converged on campus from across the country. The program directors threw us a welcome dinner, and on the walk back, I asked a classmate about his plans for the night. He said he would head to the hotel bar and hang out as late as anyone wanted.

Not me. I planned to make my Target run and retreat to my room for a hopeful eight hours of sleep.

My classmate shook off that idea. He heralded the week as a chance for us hungry writers to revel together in our ambitions, to encourage and inspire each other. He closed with a line that would flatter any hopeful Hemingway: “This is like Paris in the Twenties!”

I needed to hear that … because my first semester felt like Times Square at rush hour.

(more…)

Pondering over pancakes: a story of gratitude to open 2018

Commentary, , , ,

I could have eaten anywhere.

I could have walked a half-mile to the birthplace of General Tso’s chicken. I could have hopped on the D train to America’s oldest pizzeria. New York City overflows with restaurants, and I had just touched down. But I left my hotel, walked to 57th and 9th, and opened the door to an old friend.

Morning Star Restaurant does little to stand out. Its white awning and blue lettering seem faded. Its pancakes require a healthy pour of syrup. But one summer, 16 years earlier, I ate there repeatedly. I popped in before, during, or after my shifts as an intern at WCBS-TV.

In college I deified New York. I lived with my parents in suburban New Jersey and itched to someday call The City my home. For three months, three days a week, I traveled 40 minutes by bus and 20 minutes on foot to reach the station. I passed the bars on Eighth Avenue and envied the adults on the other side of the glass. They drank, smiled, and percolated in perfectly tailored shirts and ties. They had “made it”.

I couldn’t enter the bars. But I could wolf a stack of pancakes at Morning Star. Sixteen years later, I felt the urge to do it again, this time in triumph.

(more…)

BECOME A STRONGER STORYTELLER!

Enter your email and keep up to date ...