Normally in Cool Kit we examine some of the latest equipment and tools currently available to photojournalists for their work.
But this time we are looking further into the future, where multimedia offers exciting new possibilities to photojournalists.
Today just establishing a basic website to showcase work and gather commissions is quite challenging enough for many photojournalists.
But ever-faster internet broadband in many countries means story-telling on the web is no longer confined to text and still images. Audio and video is often added, along with graphics, maps and animation, to build into sophisticated multi-media presentations.
In the newsroom at the BBC in London, for instance, text journalists are also
expected to be able to edit, size, crop and process pictures as well as handle
sound and vision. And, away from base, photojournalists submitting to big news
agencies like Reuters, The Associated Press and Magnum Photos have for sometime
been asked to provide extra media too, to compliment their images.
No-one is yet expecting every lone photojournalist to produce Stephen Spielberg-quality content. But times are changing and just as those who report and photograph are having to understand what is needed, traditional media organizations – particularly newspapers and magazines not currently rich in multi-media – are embracing this new journalism.
A good example is a recent report from Iraq, mixing still, video and audio, called A Deadly Search For Missing Soldiers from The New York Times. Less polished, but interesting nevertheless, is another package - Terrorism Express from The Pittsburgh Tribune Review. There are links below to both and other sites mentioned here.
Take a look too at some of the work on display at the website of New York-based MediaStorm, which shows just what is possible.
Much at MediaStorm is collaboration between photo and video journalists and multi-media specialists who put together the final product.
“Part of our overall mission is to educate and hopefully inspire others to create in-depth projects for delivery across multiple platforms – the web, broadcast, print – so that those projects reach as wide an audience as possible and generate the necessary revenue to support long-form, in-depth journalism,” says MediaStorm’s founder Brian Storm.
As leading players in UK media pointed out in a recent article, the future of news is increasingly visual.
Says Andy Cowles, editorial director of IPC Media, publisher of many of the country’s leading magazines: “There will be convergence of platforms, but there will also be convergence of craft. To be able to produce images, create video, control layout and manage color will be just as important as good writing.”
So – how does today’s photojournalist start to exploit these new opportunities?
Some are already tackling video. Others, whilst sticking to stills for the time-being – or possibly forever – can use new technology to tell stories in new ways, often with movement and video-like elements.
Still others are starting small by livening up their own websites with Flash technology. This has the advantage that almost all modern computers have the software to play Flash material as standard.
Some are mixing and matching all these elements.
And do not forget sound. Good video and audio editing needs experience but
there is nothing to stop photographers adding simple recorded commentary to
their images in the appropriate software, as long as they remember to use the
language of their target audience which they must be able to speak well enough
to be understood. Otherwise, find someone who does.
There are many software packages that allow photo and video journalists to assemble impressive work. Flash, by Adobe, can be difficult to master quickly but there are third-party programs to allow authoring without too much experience. Swish is one used by many professionals.
Soundslides is cheap and can produce good content.
Video-editing packages, as well as being ideally-suited to moving pictures, can also be used to put together impressive packages of stills photographs and audio. Some professionals use Adobe’s Premier Pro although the firm favorite for many – especially Mac users – is Final Cut Pro, which Brian Storm recommends.
Although there may be some photographers who can master all the elements of the new multi-media journalism on their own, it is likely that most will become part of a team, providing images to specialists who will work their magic to create top-quality content. Not unlike the newsrooms of old but using new technology.
Neil McIntosh, head of editorial development at Guardian Unlimited in London, says “There aren’t many big news organizations yet that have applied this (new) technology and can still tell a story interestingly. Digital journalism, like so much digital development, will be about teams of specialists working together.”
Concludes Brian Storm: “The ideal, multi-disciplined team brings together experts with various skills – visual, cinematic, audio, motion design, music, and interactive code – all collaborating to create projects.
I’m hopeful that many media organizations will see the value in expert skill-sets working together and that they will see that the team approach doesn’t just provide a higher caliber result, but it’s more efficient and therefore more economical over the long run.”
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