predicting the future

Don’t be (just) your business card

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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.

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5 reasons for hope for journalism’s future

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I realized it the other day: I started the year by highlighting a sobering story for any storyteller.

I linked to a brilliant piece by Andrew Marantz called “The Virologist”, which profiled a web site/content creator who aims for clicks and money without any nod to ethics or storytelling. Sites like this — think Buzzfeed, but even more calculated — drive on the highway of journalism without getting into the lane of journalistic responsibility. Marantz gave an absolutely brutal assessment of the landscape of the Web.

The piece, to be sure, started the year on a low note.

So let’s take it back to a higher one.

Let’s use this space to talk about what excites us for the new year — and the future of journalism and storytelling.

Here are five things that give me hope: (more…)

PODCAST EPISODE #10: Rachel Hamburg, Stanford Storytelling Project

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At the end of a lengthy and optimistic answer about how young journalists can succeed professionally, Rachel Hamburg — a 2011 Stanford graduate — took a step back.

“As a 25-year-old hoping to make a career out of this, I think it’s a little bit scary,” she said. “And it’s OK to be scared.”

Then she broke into laughter — the type that occurs when, looking at the difficult journey ahead, all you can do is laugh.

The majority of young storytellers and journalists face the challenge of channeling their enthusiasm and skills into a stable, long-lasting career. Many industries have obvious and time-honored career paths; journalism is not one of them. It is a constantly changing field where new tools and vehicles pop up almost annually.

Hamburg is off to a great start. She freelances with innovative storytelling programs like Mashcast, and she currently serves as the managing editor for the Stanford Storytelling Project, which provides storytelling training for students in any field.

She is also my guest on the tenth episode of the Telling The Story podcast.

I chose Hamburg as a guest because she represents a unique viewpoint. She produces traditional media, in a sense; the Stanford Storytelling Project team regularly delivers episodes of an hour-long, “This American Life”-style podcast called “State of the Human”. But she also has relationships with cutting-edge journalists and does not limit the power of journalism to its traditional forms. She is a new college graduate who also, through her job, advises current students.

And she does all this while trying to figure out her own future.

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3 GREAT STORIES: Starring the new iPhone, Netflix, & the Apple Store

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Every week, I shine the spotlight on some of the best storytelling in the business and offer my comments. “3 Great Stories of the Week” will post every Monday at 8 AM.

I have always been fascinated by how big-name corporations try to predict the future.

This is especially true when it comes to technology.

With the tech world changing so rapidly, I continually find myself interested in how the big names in that business try to stay ahead of the curve. Some — like Apple — always seem to be on the right side of that wave. Others always seem to be playing catch-up.

I read three articles this week that offered an enlightening window into two major companies: Apple and Netflix. If you use their products, you will enjoy these pieces.

The secret of iOS7  (9/19/13, I, Cringely): The best tech writers are able to present their own visions of the future. In this case, technology journalist Mark Stephens — known by his pen name, Robert X. Cringely — delivers his predictions about Apple’s predictions.

Cringely dissects the release of Apple’s new iPhones and iOS7 operating system, positing a beautiful theory on where the ground-breaking company might be headed next:

Here’s what I think is happening. At the very moment when Apple critics are writing-off the company as a three- or four- or five-hit wonder, Apple is embracing the fact that desktop computers only represent about 15 percent of its income, making Apple clearly a mobile technology company. As such, it is more important for Apple to expand its mobile offerings than its desktops. So Apple in a sense is about to make the Macintosh deliberately obsolete.

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