Tomorrow's Journalist
Last night I went to the Clatsop County Fair to cover a panal discussion on tsunamis. What made the evening interesting was not the conversation, but what I carried on my back.
At one time I would have said the only tools a journalist needs is a pen and paper - we're frequently told we should never be without them. But at the fair last night I carried almost as much equipment as our photographer at the Astorian. Along with my pen and paper I hoisted around a digital camera and a large bag holding audio recording equipment.
As I walked around with my multi-media tools slung on my back I kept thinking, "I love this job." Where else am I given the space to research and really write on a subject while I get to excercise my audio media skills as well.
The advantage I see to newspapers is that, despite the ad space we devote, we have the room to really develop a story. The television news, though it's quick and relentless, has just minute to get each news event out. With a newspaper, we have inches and paragraphs in which we can set the scene, get out the detail and really bring the reader into the story.
What we're learning in newspaper journalism is that the Internet allows us the best of both worlds. With audio and visual media, we can take the story that much further. We did this last night. Along with a story discussing the meeting at the fair, we were able to look closer into one aspect of the story.
As much as I would have liked to focus on him, my story sadly had to neglect one individual, a geological researcher from the University of Washington who recently made Time Magazine's 100 most influential people list. I could have written a story entirely about him, but that went beyond what we needed for this story. What's a print journalist to do?
Cram a microphone in his face and make him talk about himself for a while, THAT'S what a journalist is to do... Along with the story trying to explain the difference between "distant" and "local" tsunamis, we can now take a closer look at the researcher that learned so much about how these tsunamis affect the Pacific Coast.
Along with that, I'm a big freaking geek, and trucking around with a big ol' microphone in hand and a couple hundred dollars worth of audio equipment strapped to my back is my bread and butter.
But the point is, yesterday's best journalist needed little more than a paper and pen. They needed to be inquisitive and persistant. Today's journalist needs that too, but today's best journalist is also going to have experience in many different media, so we can continue to prove that we can take a story that extra inch of depth.
What I did last night was hardly revolutionary, but imagine what we could do with this stuff when an actual tsunami hit the area. How much could we do for the community if we expand what it is we call "the newspaper."
At one time I would have said the only tools a journalist needs is a pen and paper - we're frequently told we should never be without them. But at the fair last night I carried almost as much equipment as our photographer at the Astorian. Along with my pen and paper I hoisted around a digital camera and a large bag holding audio recording equipment.
As I walked around with my multi-media tools slung on my back I kept thinking, "I love this job." Where else am I given the space to research and really write on a subject while I get to excercise my audio media skills as well.
The advantage I see to newspapers is that, despite the ad space we devote, we have the room to really develop a story. The television news, though it's quick and relentless, has just minute to get each news event out. With a newspaper, we have inches and paragraphs in which we can set the scene, get out the detail and really bring the reader into the story.
What we're learning in newspaper journalism is that the Internet allows us the best of both worlds. With audio and visual media, we can take the story that much further. We did this last night. Along with a story discussing the meeting at the fair, we were able to look closer into one aspect of the story.
As much as I would have liked to focus on him, my story sadly had to neglect one individual, a geological researcher from the University of Washington who recently made Time Magazine's 100 most influential people list. I could have written a story entirely about him, but that went beyond what we needed for this story. What's a print journalist to do?
Cram a microphone in his face and make him talk about himself for a while, THAT'S what a journalist is to do... Along with the story trying to explain the difference between "distant" and "local" tsunamis, we can now take a closer look at the researcher that learned so much about how these tsunamis affect the Pacific Coast.
Along with that, I'm a big freaking geek, and trucking around with a big ol' microphone in hand and a couple hundred dollars worth of audio equipment strapped to my back is my bread and butter.
But the point is, yesterday's best journalist needed little more than a paper and pen. They needed to be inquisitive and persistant. Today's journalist needs that too, but today's best journalist is also going to have experience in many different media, so we can continue to prove that we can take a story that extra inch of depth.
What I did last night was hardly revolutionary, but imagine what we could do with this stuff when an actual tsunami hit the area. How much could we do for the community if we expand what it is we call "the newspaper."
posted by Aaron Burkhalter at
8:18 AM
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