Page 36 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

THE MULTIMEDIA ASSIGNMENT EDITOR AND PRODUCER

At the right end of the model is full convergence, the stage in which
the partners cooperate in both gathering and disseminating the news.
Their common goal is to use the strengths of the different media to
tell the story in the most effective way. Under full convergence, hybrid
teams of journalists from the partnering organizations work together
to plan, report, and produce a story, deciding along the way which
parts of the story are told most effectively in print, broadcast, and dig-
ital forms. The teams gather and produce content for specific projects
and then disband. New teams form as additional projects present
themselves.

Advantages of Each Medium

Producers and assignment editors can no longer think of stories for one
medium exclusively. They need to determine the best ways to tell a
story. Here’s a quick look at the advantages of the media that these
individuals have at their disposal:
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• Print—portable and permanent. You can take it with you. Print
allows reporters to go into great detail with both text and
graphics because the space exists. If readers miss the details the
first time, they can go back again and again. There can also be
multiple stories taking various angles on the same topic. Finally,
from an archival perspective, the permanency of newspapers
provides readers with a historical document and record of the
day. But newspapers are not perfect: Space is limited, it needs to
be delivered, and content is static. Once a newspaper has been
published, you cannot update it, so people often read news
that’s already a day or two old.
• Television and radio—immediate and emotional. News can be
brought to viewers and listeners live as it happens. When
reported well, audio and video can help bring viewers a lot of
information in a little bit of time. People feel like they witness
the news when they can see and hear it. Radio and TV have
weaknesses, though. They are passive, so it’s easy to miss
information when you get distracted. Unless you’re recording
the news, once it’s over, it’s gone. Time limits also limit the
number of stories covered and the amount of time devoted to
each one.