nppa southeast storytelling workshop

I never thought much of journalism workshops. Then I attended one.

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This entry initially appeared on the Telling the Story blog last year. I rewrote and expanded it for 2018, and a version will appear in the next edition of News Photographer magazine.

My first experience at a journalism workshop was, well, not good.

I was a new college graduate, looking for my first job in TV. I had won a national college radio award and was invited to accept it in Las Vegas, at a side convention connected with the enormous NAB Show. At the time I didn’t drink, didn’t gamble, and didn’t dip into the types of nightlife and debauchery for which Vegas is most known. So I ate at a few buffets, caught a concert by a Beatles tribute band, spent ten minutes accepting my award, and meandered around NAB Show unable to access anything of value.

I didn’t need to see the latest camera lenses and production trucks. I needed a job. I wasn’t going to find one here. I left unimpressed with the workshop experience. For the next eleven years, I never considered attending another.

That was a mistake.

These days I sound the clarion for workshops. When I get asked to speak, I rarely turn them down. When I don’t get asked to speak, I sometimes go anyway and always encourage others to join. Why? I love the passion and enthusiasm that always emerge.

Rarely does our business make time for education. We are expected to learn on the fly and develop our skills while making all of our deadlines in the daily crunch. This is not unreasonable; in fact, I have always found I learn more by doing than watching.

Maybe that’s why I once balked at workshops. Yes, my Vegas experience left a stain, but my entry-level bank account didn’t compel me to drop hundreds of dollars (and valuable vacation days) to listen to a few people who I wasn’t sure I’d value anyway. I prized my own independence and unique viewpoint as a storyteller. I didn’t want to learn how to tell stories like everyone else.

I don’t deny any of these reasons. And as a new father who now funnels much of my money and spare time toward my daughter, I remain stingy and selective with my workshop dollar. I also still prefer to learn by doing.

But I find great value in watching. And I realized that value eleven years after Vegas, when I finally dipped again into workshop waters.

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PODCAST EPISODE #55: Justin Hinton, reporter, WLOS-TV

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It was a pretty cool moment.

At last year’s NPPA Southeast Storytelling Workshop, one of the loudest ovations came for someone in the audience.

One of our speakers was talking about the innovative work being done at his company, and he showed a live shot from a reporter and photographer who happened to be in attendance at the workshop. During the shot, for a story about a suspect who left a fingerprint at the scene, the reporter smudged his thumb on the camera, and the photographer panned toward a light that enabled the thumbprint to appear on the camera.

Check it out:

The workshop crowd erupted … because the reporter and photographer had made the extra effort to conceive and execute a compelling and eye-catching live shot.

Fast forward a year later, and that reporter — WLOS-TV’s Justin Hinton — has gone from attending a workshop to presenting. He will be speaking with coworker Evan Donovan at the 2017 Sound of Life Storytelling Workshop.

Hinton is my guest on Episode #55 of the Telling the Story podcast.

Check out this episode for a great discussion of how to strengthen one’s live shots, which often veer to the extremes of either sameness or gimmickry. Hinton also talks about the moves he made in college to catalyze a strong start in the business.

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PODCAST EPISODE #42: Ellen Crooke, TEGNA; Scott Livingston, Sinclair

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If you work — or wish to work — in local television news, you will want to hear this hour of audio.

Last month John Kirtley and I hosted and directed the NPPA Southeast Storytelling Workshop, at which a sold-out crowd heard from a bevy of the best storytellers nationwide. One of the highlights was a panel discussion featuring two people of tremendous influence at the nation’s largest broadcast media groups: Ellen Crooke, VP of News at TEGNA, and Scott Livingston, VP of News at Sinclair.

I have known Crooke for more than a decade; she has hired me twice, and I fully admit to being a tremendous admirer of her passion for storytelling and desire to change the landscape of TV news. I met Livingston for the first time at this workshop, but I am a huge fan of his photojournalistic mindset and the storytelling culture and teamwork that exists at many of his stations.

During this panel, both offered tremendous insights into:

  • the current TV news landscape and what’s being done to improve it
  • the ways in which both enterprise and in-the-mix journalism can be done better
  • the types of journalists who stand out to them, and the ways in which young journalists can make themselves valuable in a newsroom

Among the highlights:

  • Crooke on the state of local news: “There are times when we look at our local news product and say, 80% of it, I’m not interested. Twenty percent of it is extraordinary, but there is too much that is the assembly line and the factory, and we’re experimenting with ways to break that assembly line.”
  • Livingston on building a storytelling culture: “It is a privilege to tell stories that matter. It is our responsibility to tell a story that’s relevant. So we go back and ask, ‘What’s the ‘why’? What’s the ‘So what’? What are the questions we need to ask?'”
  • Crooke on what journalists can do to position themselves for the future: “Embrace ambiguity. We are going into a new territory in our industry, and it’s the people that forge into the ambiguity that are going to change our industry and move our industry forward. If we only do what we know and what we’re comfortable with, we will never change.”
  • Livingston on building trust and establishing transparency: “We want to be transparent. We want the viewer to be able to watch the piece, go to the web, and here’s the PDF; here’s the court document so you can see for yourself.”
  • Crooke on one thing every newsroom gets wrong: “I see us hiring people from outside our business because we want to be different … and then we suck them into our vacuum of sameness. We don’t let them change us. I just see it happening over and over again.”
  • Livingston on what keeps him up at night: “It’s our future in late news. In morning news, we’re doing great. But with late news, because of all the devices, everything thinks they know everything before. Also, I think we all need to be prepared for the post-network world. That’s why we are trying to touch people on other platforms: so we create such a sense of belonging with our brand that our network lead-in becomes irrelevant.”

I hope you enjoy this segment called “A Look at the Landscape”, and I urge you to leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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NPPA Southeast Storytelling Workshop: Day 2 (and Awards) Recap

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This past weekend, along with my good friend John Kirtley, I had the privilege of directing and hosting the NPPA Southeast Storytelling Workshop, which brought 200 attendees and more than a dozen renowned speakers to Atlanta to discuss visual storytelling and meaningful journalism.

Here is a Tweet-by-Tweet look at the presentations, advice, and all-around festivities of Day 2 of #NPPASE:

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.

NPPA Southeast Storytelling Workshop: Day 1 Recap

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This past weekend, along with my good friend John Kirtley, I had the privilege of directing and hosting the NPPA Southeast Storytelling Workshop, which brought 200 attendees and more than a dozen renowned speakers to Atlanta to discuss visual storytelling and meaningful journalism.

Here is a Tweet-by-Tweet look at the presentations, advice, and all-around festivities of Day 1 of #NPPASE:

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.

PODCAST EPISODE #40: Boyd Huppert, reporter, KARE-TV

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At the end of this podcast, I joke, “I can retire the podcast now!”

Don’t worry … I don’t plan to retire it. But I probably could, now that I have interviewed one of the most revered and decorated storytellers ever.

My guest for Episode #40 is Boyd Huppert.

The feature reporter for KARE-TV in the Twin Cities is known nationwide for his absorbing and touching stories, which regularly find their way to NBC Nightly News and the Today Show. For many in local TV, Huppert is an idol — the man whose career and talents we all dream of having. I can’t think of a single storyteller who does it better.

In recent years, Huppert has also become known as a teacher. He works with stations worldwide, speaks at conferences, and last year even gave a TED Talk:

Huppert will also, I’m proud to announce, be the keynote speaker at this year’s NPPA Southeast Storytelling Workshop, being held in Atlanta June 10th and 11th. I am organizing and co-hosting the conference with photojournalist (and one-time podcast guest) John Kirtley of WLOS-TV in Asheville. We welcome anyone looking to improve as a storyteller and receive inspiration from some of the best in the country, particularly our keynote speaker.

Click here to learn more and register for the conference, Feel free to e-mail me with questions at the address below. In the meantime, enjoy this podcast with a legendary storyteller who speaks about his background, offers advice for getting the most out of workshops, and gives his insights and tips for young journalists.

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PODCAST EPISODE #39: John Le, reporter, WLOS-TV

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Before you listen to this podcast, you need to watch a video.

This video.

This is a snippet from an interview with Will Ferrell, where host Katie Couric plays a clip of the actor’s work in college as an aspiring sportscaster. At the 42-second mark, you see Ferrell pontificating about a beauty pageant, deadpanning about the contestants while a co-anchor nods graciously and holds Ferrell’s microphone.

That co-anchor is John Le, and he is my guest on this episode of the Telling The Story podcast.

We all know what became of Ferrell, but his sidekick in that clip has developed an illustrious career of his own. Le is regarded as one of the top feature reporters in the industry and has won five regional Edward R. Murrow awards along with a rising stack of regional Emmys. He is a finalist for this year’s NPPA national Best of Photojournalism award for Reporting.

He is also a hoot. Perhaps Ferrell’s comedic instincts rubbed off on him (or maybe it was the reverse?), but Le is an effervescent presence whose personality more than stands out during this podcast.

On another note, Le is one of the many tremendous speakers at this year’s NPPA Southeast Storytelling Workshop, being held June 10th and 11th in Atlanta. I am organizing and co-hosting the conference with photojournalist (and one-time podcast guest) John Kirtley, who works with Le at WLOS-TV in Asheville. We welcome anyone looking to improve as a storyteller and receive inspiration from some of the best in the country.

Click here to learn more and register for the conference, Feel free to e-mail me with questions at the address below. In the meantime, enjoy this entertaining — and, I hope, informative — half-hour with one of the best writers around.

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PODCAST EPISODE #38: Chris Vanderveen, reporter, KUSA-TV

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Sometimes we forget the cold hard potential of what we can accomplish in journalism.

Chris Vanderveen is a good reminder.

(As evidenced from his photo above with the Most Interesting Man in the World, he also knows how to keep good company.)

After more than a decade as an award-winning general assignment reporter for KUSA-TV in Denver, Vanderveen applied for a job within his station to join the investigative team. He got it, and he has been throwing journalistic haymakers ever since.

Specifically, Vanderveen has produced stories and led movements that have changed laws.

He brings a storyteller’s sensibility to the often tough-to-digest world of investigative journalism. I-Team stories tend to come across as an overload of numbers and data, except when in the hands of a reporter who can give viewers a reason to care.

Vanderveen is my guest on this episode of the Telling the Story podcast.

He is also one of the many tremendous speakers at this year’s NPPA Southeast Storytelling Workshop, being held June 10th and 11th in Atlanta. I am organizing and co-hosting the conference with photojournalist (and one-time podcast guest) John Kirtley of WLOS-TV in Asheville. We welcome anyone looking to improve as a storyteller and receive inspiration from some of the best in the country. Vanderveen has the hardware to back up his credentials, including recently being named a finalist for NPPA Reporter of the Year.

Click here to learn more and register for the conference, Feel free to e-mail me with questions at the address below. In the meantime, enjoy this look into the power of investigative journalism, with great tips on how to do it right.

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