Quality vs. Quantity.
Video is as good as gold. This chapter does a wonderful job of explaining the importance of videos, and some of the pitfalls related to them. While newspapers started as text-only documents and were run as such for hundreds of years, the introduction of video has changed the realm of news forever. Sure, the medium arrived in the same period of time as the television, but more recently other responsibilities have come along when dealing with video.
The internet, as Briggs explains, offers journalists the chance to upload and disperse video instantly.
Paul Tenorio, sports writer for The Washington Post, stopped by a class of mine earlier in the week and shared some very interesting tips for reporting. In this social media driven news platform, video needs to happen fast. Tenorio explained to us that he will often have three things with him while covering an event. His Smartphone, Video Camera, and his laptop. All three of these things share one major quality. They come together to create the new journalist’s back pack.
Tenorio went on to tell us how a typical breaking news story might occur. First, you have to be ready. Second, the event happens. And third, you put your video online before anyone else.
What is most clear about video in breaking news is that its honest. If you capture video of a breaking story and upload it quickly, you are truly giving your audience what no one else has, the eye-witness point of view. Briggs explains that it is not necessarily the quality of the video, but the quantity, or speed in which the video is dispersed.
Quality does play an important role, however, and if you want to be a credited journalists, you should strive for video that can not be questioned. Many devices that capture video do so with a low resolution camera. This can create a serious problem when uploading the video to a larger screen format because the picture can and will be blurry.
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