ryan oliveira

Happy 2019! Here were our most popular posts from 2018

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2018 was a year of transition. At least it was for this journalist.

I experienced my first full year overseeing my own segment on WXIA-TV, and I entered my second year as a grad student at the University of Georgia.

Above all, I became a dad.

This greatly influenced my writing and podcasting in this space. I blogged more sporadically but tried to make my posts meaningful. Throughout the year, support came in comments, Tweets, and messages. Whenever I debated pulling back, I received some form of appreciation that motivated me to keep going.

Here are the posts you clicked on the most in 2018, with a passage from each:

PODCAST EPISODE 64: Catherine Steward, photographer, WTVF-TV: I rarely ask a Telling the Story podcast guest to come back for a second episode. I like to spread the audio wealth and interview as many storytellers and journalists as possible to provide a full spectrum of perspectives for my audience.

But when a previous guest wins a National Edward R. Murrow award with one of the most pristine slices of video I’ve ever seen, I can make an exception.

Catherine Steward has captured numerous honors for her work as a photojournalist for WTVF-TV in Nashville. This may be her biggest yet. She took the Large Market TV station Murrow for Excellence in Sound, and the winning piece was a solo effort. I asked Steward to deconstruct her story, scene by scene, nearly shot by shot, to give the rest of us a chance at producing something similar.

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PODCAST EPISODE #68: Noelle Walker, reporter, KXAS-TV

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The following podcast episode made me uncomfortable.

I communicate for a living, and my trade is words. I stare frequently at blank cursors on my computer screen because I haven’t found the exact word to properly convey an adjective, identifier, or emotion. I wade into controversial waters with caution, because I know how certain words can be interpreted in unintended ways.

So when I invited Noelle Walker, an extraordinary and accoladed reporter for KXAS-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, to discuss life as a woman in journalism in 2018, I knew it would require her to be vulnerable – and for me to join her.

I would need to challenge my own assumptions and choices, including with words. I would need to accept the ways in which I might be a part of the problem. I would need to avoid presuming to already understand what the problem might be. I would need to worry less about saying the wrong thing or using the wrong word and worry more about keeping my mouth shut and listening. I would need to live in the uncomfortable.

But I welcomed it.

I wrote earlier this year how equal representation in media isn’t just a task for the underrepresented, and I meant it. If I don’t use my position and platform to confront difficult issues and illuminate perspectives that aren’t my own, then I’m not doing my job as a journalist. That’s how I feel about my work on the air, and it’s how I feel about this blog.

That’s why I asked Walker to be my guest on Episode #68 of the Telling the Story podcast.

To be fair – and I mentioned this during our conversation – I could have asked Walker about any number of journalism-related topics and learned an inordinate amount. But I focused on this one because she just spoke at the Women in Visual Journalism conference in Denver, and I wanted to interview someone from that event about the lessons for all of us – specifically the younger journalists, women and men, who listen to this podcast. As expected, Walker offered tremendous insights and anecdotes, which one might expect from an experienced reporter who’s worked in numerous big cities and even freelanced at the network level.

(For an example of this work – and the process behind it – check out my recent podcast with Walker’s frequent photographic partner, Ryan Oliveira.)

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PODCAST EPISODE #60: Ryan Oliveira, photographer, KXAS-TV

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Late March and early April mark the start of awards season in TV news.

For me, they mark the start of grabbing my popcorn and watching TV news award-winners.

I love watching and learning from the best in my business. Last week I published my annual “5 lessons learned” piece from the first-place stories in the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism Video Awards.

This week, I interviewed one of the big winners for Episode #60 of the Telling the Story podcast.

Ryan Oliveira is a photojournalist at KXAS-TV, the NBC affiliate in Dallas/Ft. Worth which last year captured four National Edward R. Murrow awards and this week was named a Peabody Awards finalist. The station knows storytelling. This year, amidst a tremendously talented team of journalists, Oliveira stood out.

He did so with sensitivity.

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

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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.

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3 GREAT STORIES: Starring Cleveland, graffiti, & Moneyball

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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.

Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson says arbitration process keeps bad cops on police force (2/27/15, Cleveland Plain Dealer): As the city of Cleveland continues to face massive local and national scrutiny for the actions of its police force, its largest newspaper showed a great way this week of elevating the discussion with informative coverage.

The staff took what could have been a simple daily news story — the mayor holding a press conference and speaking out against the arbitration process on disciplined officers — and turned it into something deeper. In addition to the straightforward recap of the mayor’s comments, the newspaper focused on five specific arbitration cases and broke them down in a meaningful way.

News outlets are constantly looking for these kinds of “see for yourself” applications to major stories. The Plain Dealer included on its web site both summaries and the actual documents from the selected arbitration cases. This is empowering information for anyone who chooses to use it.

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