Page 40 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

THE MULTIMEDIA ASSIGNMENT EDITOR AND PRODUCER

newsroom, the video and stills should immediately be ingested into a
server for everyone to use.
Crew 2 (three people) covers the meeting. This crew also has a
video camera and still camera. At the meeting, one person can gather
the information for all the media. The other person gathers the sound
for radio using a video camera and the stills. Because of tight deadlines,
two reporters will probably be needed. One can work on Web and
print materials, the other on radio and television.
While these are the only two crews in the field, people back in
the newsroom will need to be working on the graphics, Web design,
and infrastructure and building story elements. In realistic terms, it
will probably take at least 8 to 10 people to cover this story for all
media.

Covering Breaking News

Breaking news requires a different way of thinking. In this situation,
30 the “super reporter” idea works better. Armed with a cell phone and
video camera, one person (or a two-person crew) could cover this for
all media. A cell phone camera doesn’t take print-quality pictures, but
the quality is suitable for the Web in a breaking news situation—and
they’re instant. The technology has improved so that you can take
still frames from video that can be high quality for the Web or print
purposes.
So one person can take and transmit cell phone photos for the Web,
call the information to a writer in the newsroom for TV cut-ins (where
the cell phone pictures could also be used) and a brief for the news-
paper, and call in a breaking news radio spot. For later coverage on
the same story, the assignment editor and producer may decide to allot
more resources to cover the story better for each medium. Examples of
good work are shown in Figures 2.2 and 2.3. Notice the rich additional
content of Figure 2.2. Coverage was worked out between print, broad-
cast, and Web newsrooms before the story was covered. This provided
the most complete coverage possible, without last-minute glitches.
In Figure 2.3, one medium’s newsroom got the tip about the story,
but separate newsrooms then shared information. Because of the loose
deadline schedule, the reporter had the chance to write the story for
several media.