Planning each story beforehand was slightly difficult. I tended to not really know what to expect and I was afraid of being caught up in the web of my own preparation and missing the real story once I was faced with it. So I did enough research to gain an overview perspective on the topic, without formulating my own preconceptions on the subject. This was not easy.
It was when I started being more flexible to the context of each story that I was able to do each story individual justice. Instead of subscribing all of them to a set formula I was open to the possibility of each story unfolding in its own way.
An example of this would be the 'Posthuman Race' story. Initially I had intended on basing my photo-story on Case Rijsdijk's Scifest lecture on 'Physics and Film' but after attending Professor Sandra Kemp's lecture, 'Human enhancement: Future designs and bio features', I realised that her lecture would make for a much more invogerating multi-media package, so I investigated that aspect of science and film.
Working with the information I had gathered in Prof. Kemp's lecture, I was able to research relevant material and reliable sources, and not waste hours surfing the internet whilst hoping for the best. My energies and resources were directed and therefore I believe I bore better fruit then I would have researching everything on the subject. And at this point I was starting to formulate an angle to the multi-media package.
So in this way, the newsgathering process was made less daunting.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Planning is always necessary. Most of the time you may not have the luxury of the creative interpretation of a brief if an editor tells you to get a particular take or angle on an event. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be open to surprise. If the situation requires you should be able to change tack - but you should always be ready to substantiate the reason for any deviation from an original brief.
I will be happy to consider the final PostHuman (Superhuman) photostory for posting after you have finished with it.
I also think that you should be really proud that you were able to put this story together largely on your own. This is not the standard working practice for multimedia journalists. While multimedia journalists are skilled in all digital aspects of newsgathering, reporting and production, they may not necessarily do it all when covering one story. They may be teamed with a traditional reporter or indeed another multimedia reporter in order to do justice to a particular modality.
Hey, Just a side note for when you write your blog entries, I know what this entry's background is, Jude does, and your class mates do. What about new readers, or regular readers. You need to set up the context before launching into your statements. Read your articles back as if you are someone who doesnt know that someone else suggested you write the entry. If you have a series of articles on the same topic you can link them back to your initial one for context (i.e. "We have been covering scifest (link to initial post), and i found setting up the stories quite difficult..."
enjoy the vac
Post a Comment