Why is the content for online journalism different than print or broadcast? And why are journalists confused about what work should be entered in which contest?
The assumption that text, photos and videos are merely the “same content” online as they are in print is part of the mindset that has helped cripple U.S. paper’s online efforts. The change in thinking has been considerable in recent years, but these paradigms still surface in the award season.
The monopoly on information is no longer ours alone. The business models for monopolistic control over distribution and eyeballs is busted, too. That much we can agree on now.
Still we see comments from photographers that somehow wished that online worked like a medium they know already.
But why are we segregating what we do for print versus what we do with the Internet? Why isn’t the BOP (Best of Photojournalism) Web video judged against/with video produced for TV? Aren’t they the same product?
- Will Seberger”> posted on Wired Journalists
Why is the content for online journalism different than print or broadcast? And why are journalists confused about what work should be entered in which contest?
Web video is not Television!
That is a seminar topic I have been delivering for two years now around the world. Why have so many editors and publishers been looking at the wrong models for Web video journalism? Because they haven’t come to terms with the dynamics and story potential of the new tools and user expectations yet.
e.g. YouTube is the model for the user experience and look at how smartly YouTube lets users scale up a video when THEY want to. Embed it share it, group it, rate it. How many of you let your users do this with your media?
The Web also makes excellent use of is a thumbnail gallery interfaces. Click on a thumb and get a slideshow or larger image. Done. Users get this.
If you are producing the same content and merely porting over - you can’t succeed. Online works differently, the media user is in charge of the experience.
The Web is about ‘now, not six months from now - when you decide to post up your ‘Emmy award-winning’ video project. Who will be watching that work then? Contest judges? Maybe. But probably only if you tell them about it. Full-screen-only, bandwidth hogging HD video projects - who is that for - to impress the board of directors? The shareholders? The Pulitzer committee? Ask first - whose ego are you serving?
Placing undue emphasis on the work that is, let’s be brutally honest, produced to impress primarily other journalists (AKA the stuff we produce to enter in contests) is harming our transition to meeting consumers’ expectations. Why is it that we think that the big, time-consuming, far-flung, High-Def, special-section work is the best work we can accomplish?
Whenever I hear journalists praise the design or Flash quality of a big, expensive “award-winning” online project, I first go to the reader comments. l often see a huge disconnect from the people producing the work and the people who are supposed to be consuming it.
You’ll be lucky to find many reader comments at all for some of the most celebrated stuff. Sometimes you’ll be lucky to even find where the comments section is at all. Again, the complete opposite of the the YouTube video experience. If you are not connecting with your community then you are producing journalism in a vacuum and, tell me, why should that work win any awards at all?
We are in a transition and transitions are bumpy and disorienting. Getting to the point where newsrooms are producing everyday multimedia is the only foundation I know of that will accomplish the goals of getting to the promised land and still be able to produce a range of stories including doing large-scale projects.
It’s just that in my world, the super-excellent, nine-month enterprise piece should run first online WHILE it is being reported and then perhaps a year later as a documentary film at Sundance. And in between the story gets better, it gains traction in the community because of the online engagement. Why can’t newsrooms think like this? Awards? How about a chance to win an Oscar with your visual journalism? Hmm, Pulitzer or Oscar next year . . . . Is that enough drive for you to produce a new brand of “award-winning journalism?”
Great, I will be looking forward to seeing you on the red carpet.
Well said. My husband is the online editor for a newspaper site. He gets it; his colleagues and company for the most part do not!
He used to be in radio and I was, too. Online journalism is more like radio than broadcast tv journalism in it’s immediacy and and it’s deadline every minute.
Hard to convince a staff that is used to one 5 p.m. daily deadline to send you stuff before they’ve even written their print stories; one sentence can go in “breaking news” online and really serve an online audience!
I have a very simple solution, on where to enter you video journalism-pieces coming from newspapers or blogs or conventional TV. I’m sorry this comes so late- I just noticed the topic doing some research.
Yours
Albert
4th International Video Journalism Award
Germany, Mainz november 28 and 29, 2008
The International VJ Awards, held annually, showcases the best of the
international Video Journalism community. With an expected submission of
over 1000 , the festival screens over 50 documentaries, short films, and
news reports. Now in its fourth year, the festival has grown into a
world-class event, uniting “VJ’s” with critics, scholars, (film, TV,
News masters), and the public.
The festival awards eight prizes:
international video journalism award
TV production – broadcast reports (2000 €)
A journalistic or documentary report with a maximum duration of 15
minutes, produced by one or more videojournalists/video reporters, and
which has already been broadcast.
independent video (2000 €)
A journalistic or documentary report with a maximum duration of 15
minutes, produced by one or more videojournalists/video reporters, but
which has not necessarily been broadcast.
german video journalism award
TV production - broadcast reports (2000 €)
A journalistic or documentary report with a maximum duration of 15
minutes, produced by one or more videojournalists/video reporters and
which has been aired by a German-language television channel (please
indicate the station and broadcast date). All genres.
independent video (2000 €)
A journalistic or documentary report with a maximum duration of 15
minutes, produced by one or more videojournalists/video reporters, but
which has not necessarily been broadcast.
Reportage (2500 €)
A feature report in the German language with a minimum duration of 15
minutes and a maximum duration of 29 minutes, produced by one or more
video journalists/video reporters, but which has not necessarily been
broadcast.
newcomer video journalism award (1000 €)
A journalistic or documentary report with a maximum duration of 15
minutes, produced by one or more videojournalists/video reporters. The
applicants must be under 28 years of age or currently enrolled in
an institution of higher education. Those productions will be considered
for awards whose appeal lies in a unique style of content or
cinematography and indicate a great potential for the applicant.
online and audience prize (500 €)
Video journalism is one aspect of a global movement. In view of this
fact, all entered videos that fulfill the eligibility requirements and
are released by their makers are to be put online under
http://www.vjawards.com and made available for viewing by all those
interested in video production. A specially developed open online voting
system will allow the users to cast votes for their favorite entries.
special prize of the Jury
The jury will award a special prize for an extraordinarily innovative
video production.
Videojournalists today play a decisive role in the media. Technical
innovations offer new and easier ways of producing. This means that
today almost everybody can be his own filmmaker. A growing sphere of
videoplatforms in the internet like „YouTube“ demonstrates this
development vividly. The Award shows films made by professional
tv-journalistst next to production of free film makers. In addition to
this the Award constitutes a stage for establishing ties between
international video journalists and technical innovaters and developers.
The festival reflects what’s happening in the internationale VJ-scene today.