Page 121 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

Web Sources

Video organization and still organization are different. The field of
DV or “platypus” journalism is still in its infancy. How the field will
continue to evolve is still in question. One thing to consider is that the
current storytelling forms are different for video and still stories.
Look at how Sports Illustrated covers an event. With long lenses,
their photojournalists capture the feral look in the athlete’s eye as they
close in on the player’s sweat-drenched, tightly framed face. Compare
that to the way the television covers the same event. Most of the shots
are far wider. When was the last time you saw live television cover-
age of a game that showed those close moments that the SI audience
treasures? NFL films approach the intimate drama with their docu-
mentaries. They employ high-speed cameras and playback in slow
motion. They can intercut tight shots that don’t have a place in the
live coverage.
One thing is clear. The role of the picture editor will become ever
more important. More images mean more skill and work to organize
those images to tell stories. Still images or video images or whatever
might come next will require a strong hand to organize the photogra-
phers and a strong eye to organize the content. 111
Regardless of the source, still images retain their power of freezing
moments in time. That power frequently transcends the power of the
moving image. Still images will be key elements in the storytelling
process for journalists and others into the future. There will be a place
for still photography side by side with motion photography until a new
medium exists that can combine the strengths of both.

Web Sources

Examples of good photojournalism, both still and video: http://www.nppa.org/
competitions/
Hypertext version of Jacob Riis’s book How the Other Half Lives: http://www.yale.edu/
amstud/inforev/riis/title.html
Information on the Farm Security Administration: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
fsowhome.html
Information on Dirk Halstead’s advocacy for digital video journalism: http://www.
digitaljournalist.org/
Information on Roger Fenton: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/251_fen.html
Information on the giants of photojournalism: http://www.masters-of-photography.
com/index.html
Photography history from Kodak: http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/kodakHistory/
index.shtml