If your skills need a makeover…
Many journalism educators and mid-career journalists are anxious these days about the aging state of their skills. They want to know more about audio, video and interactive tools, social networking and managing “citizen journalists”, etc. But there are no weekend spas for such makeovers. In this piece, Steve Buttry, director of tailored programming at the America Press Insitute, offers practical advice for people who want to update their skills on their own. It’s followed by lots of additional advice from other mid-career journalists and trainers, including Bill Dunphy of Toronto’s Metroland newspapers.
Many journalism educators and mid-career journalists are anxious these days about the aging state of their skills. They want to know more about audio, video and interactive tools, social networking and managing “citizen journalists”, etc. But there are no weekend spas for such makeovers. In this piece, Steve Buttry, director of tailored programming at the America Press Insitute, offers practical advice for people who want to update their skills on their own. It’s followed by lots of additional advice from other mid-career journalists and trainers, including Bill Dunphy of Toronto’s Metroland newspapers.
November 26, 2007
Those of us in the Golden
Those of us in the Golden Horseshoe tend to think of Bill Dunphy as Hamilton Spectator, not Metroland. One of the things that I do love about the Spec is Dunphy’s “Poverty Blog”, part of their multi year Poverty Project. It’s an interesting exercise to compare the straight, neutral reportage that Dunphy does in the newspaper with the more personal approach found in his blog.
The same can be said about Nicole Macintyre’s “Hall Marks” City Hall blog.
Having two different but complimentary approaches makes the work of both reporters more interesting, and much more nuanced. The blogs also generate some very good response from readers.
http://poverty.thespec.com/
http://hallmarks.thespec.com/
From Buttry’s article “… Today most news organizations seem to think it’s a one-C formula and that somehow giving video cameras to mo-journalists will make everything OK.”
So true. The Spec also began adding little video clips to their site. The local TV stations are not at all threatened. If a print operation wants to add media they really should have a clear idea why they’re doing it, and be willing to invest in both equipment and skilled professionals to create the content.