KobreGuide Award Winners Announced for Best Videojournalism of 2009

After sorting through hundreds of excellent finalists, we're happy to announce the winners of the first annual KobreGuide Awards for Best Videojournalism for 2009 -- in 28 categories.

Grand prize goes to New York Times videojournalist Erik Olsen (pictured), who we're delighted to anoint "Videojournalist of the Year." The impressive quantity and quality of his work serves as a beacon to his professional colleagues and to videojournalism students around the globe.

As you can readily tell from Olsen's videos, which are frequently selected for inclusion on KobreGuide.com, they represent excellent video technique, excellent journalism, and excellent storytelling. He has covered stories from Alaska to Haiti, and has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to tackle both serious issues and lighthearted fare.

Olsen has been a New York Times videojournalist since 2005. He helps select others' online videos to showcase on the Times' invaluable Lens blog every Friday. Previously he served as an off-air producer at ABC News, where he developed several of the first Web-only video shows for a major news organization. He contributed a feature article, "From TV News Shooter to One-Man-Band VJ," to the special videojournalism edition of DigitalJournalist.org, which was guest-edited by the KobreGuide staff.

Olsen's prize is one week's lodging in a charming village in Provence, France, where he says he has yet to visit -- so we look forward to seeing visual documentation of his vacation there!

KobreGuide Awards recipients represent a diverse array of journalism Websites, including the Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, St. Petersburg Times, Kansas City Star, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Reading Eagle, and Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Here are some of the top prizes, below. A complete list of the winning videos can be accessed on KobreGuide.com :
http://www.kobreguide.com/content/First_Annual_KobreGuide_Awards_Prizewinners

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VIDEOJOURNALIST OF THE YEAR:
Erik Olsen
(New York Times)

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BEST VIDEO:
Molly's Run
(Las Vegas Review-Journal)
A 52-year-old woman takes on the 131-mile Badwater Ultramarathon through Death Valley in 125-degree heat -- "the world's toughest footrace."
Video by Justin Yurkanin
http://kobreguide.com/content/Mollys_Run

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BEST VIDEO PACKAGE:
Fallout: Brookhaven
(Newsday)
Survivors from an H-bomb test are sent back to radioactive Rondelap island to be used as guinea pigs for research. A 9-part investigative series.
Produced by Thomas Maier and John Paraskevas
http://kobreguide.com/content/Fallout_The_Legacy_of_Brookhaven_Lab

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BEST AUDIO SLIDESHOW:
Battle of the Blonds
(Los Angeles Times)
Two Marilyn Monroe impersonators compete for attention on Hollywood Boulevard.
Photography and Audio by Mel Melcon
http://kobreguide.com/content/Battle_of_the_Blonds

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BEST STUDENT PROJECT (SOLO):
Neverland
(Soulalpha.com)
Heartwrenching stories of Appalachian women who are struggling to escape from tragic lives of poverty, domestic violence and substance abuse.
Video by Yanina Manolova
http://kobreguide.com/content/Neverland

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BEST STUDENT PROJECT (GROUP):
Living Galapagos
(UNC-Chapel Hill)
Student-produced collection of multimedia stories explores the balance between man and nature in the Galapagos Islands. (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Executive Producer: Pat Davison
Multimedia Project by UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Journalism & Mass Communication:
http://www.kobreguide.com/content/Living_Galapagos


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BEST STORYTELLING:
Letters from Iwo Jima
(New York Times)
WWII vet Frank Hobbs seized an envelope from a fallen Japanese soldier and returned its contents to the man's daughters ... 65 years later.
By Erik Olsen & Lizette Alvarez
http://kobreguide.com/content/The_Letter_from_Iwo_Jima

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BEST ADVOCACY VIDEOJOURNALISM:
Nicholas D. Kristof
(New York Times)

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BEST HUMOR VIDEOS:
Joel Stein
(Time)

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A complete list of 2009 KobreGuide Award winners can be found here:
http://www.kobreguide.com/content/First_Annual_KobreGuide_Awards_Prizewinners

Congratulations to all winners.

HBO Documentary: 'Reporter' Nicholas Kristof Takes Us to Congo. Can He Make Us Care?

HBO is airing a documentary about one of our favorite videojournalists this Thursday (2/18, 9:30 p.m.). It's called "Reporter" and it's about the New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning Nicholas Kristof. You get to see him in action as he mentors two American proteges on a 2007 perilous and heart-wrenching reporting trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) -- a wartorn country whose ongoing tragedies he has aggressively documented for years.

The documentary follows them to Congo's villages, refugee camps, and dangerous jungle hideouts for Tutsi leaders who have imported their violent form of warlord justice from Rwanda.

Kristof famously focuses on stories of individual victims as a means of shining a light on -- and calling international attention to -- the unfathomable 5.4 million Congolese who have been killed in the past decade, and to the suffering of countless more Africans who have been raped, tortured, orphaned and uprooted.

"Reporter" was made by Eric Daniel Metzgar, a Brooklyn-based filmmaker with two previous documentaries under his belt. Writes Kristof: "It conveys the texture of the kind of reporting I often do." It also incorporates commentary from his professional colleagues and admirers.

"Nick knows that statistics deaden his readers' interest and compassion. So to get the world to care, he goes in search of individuals whose stories will reflect the country's desperate crisis and mobilize readers worldwide. He journeys through ravaged villages and displacement camps, and makes a harrowing visit to Congo's reigning rebel warlord, General Nkunda, at his jungle hideout."

Metzgar appeared on PBS Now last Friday to discuss "Reporter," in an engaging interview with host David Brancaccio, "Caring About Congo."



Listen for the fascinating discussion of the morally ambiguous role of journalist as intervener in individual catastrophic situations, with footage of a particular scenario that raises significant ethical questions.

Even with the recent outpouring of support for earthquake victims in Haiti, Americans' attention span for global crises is usually very short. But is there a way to keep American audiences from tuning out important global issues of violence, poverty, and catastrophe far beyond their backyards?

Kristof also brings news of his bestseller, "Half the Sky," co-authored with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, on his 'On the Ground' blog:

Sheryl and I taped an evening called Half the Sky Live, in honor of International Women’s Day, and it will air in theaters around the US and Canada on March 4. You can find a local theater at halftheskylive.com. The show includes an amazing new song by India Arie; the premier of a short film about an Ethiopian girl named Woinshet who is in our book, and a brief panel discussion with various eminences...

LINKS:

Nicholas Kristof's 'On the Ground' blog

"Reporter" Website

"Reporter" trailer

"Reporter" HBO info

More HBO documentaries

Nicholas Kristof on KobreGuide.com

Win a Trip to Africa with Nicholas Kristof

For the fourth time, New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof is inviting students to enter an essay contest to win a reporting trip with him -- this time, to Africa next spring, "to cover issues of global poverty -- and their solutions." (Watch his video here.)

It's a rare opportunity for an aspiring journalist to be mentored by one of the best in the business, at a time when good mentors are disappearing fast.

As his legions of fans are aware, Kristof is a world traveler extraordinaire, whose adventures have taken him through many of the planet's developing countries, and have been documented not only in his columns but also his excellent videojournalism reports (which can be sampled on KobreGuide's New York Times channel).

Kristof's penchant for Third World treks began early; in the photo above, he is traveling in Sudan while a grad student. In short, contest applicants should not expect five-star luxury accomodations.

It won’t be comfortable or glamorous. Maybe we’ll interview a president, but far more time will be spent squatting in thatch-roof huts, listening to villagers.... This contest reflects my conviction that the best way to open minds and hearts to the world’s challenges is to see them, hear them, smell them.... If you win, you won’t be practicing tourism, but journalism. You’ll blog and file videos for nytimes.com, and you’ll bring a powerful reporting credential that I can’t: fresh eyes.

Only one can win, but as Kristof points out, "any of you can put together your own journey."

Some past entrants, frustrated by my own poor judgment in failing to select them, have consoled themselves by buying an air ticket to Uganda / Thailand / Bolivia. ...If you don’t win my trip, go ahead and win your own.

LINKS:

Contest info.

Contest video.

Enter the contest here.

Upload video here.

Listen to 'Half the Sky' Authors Kristof & WuDunn

If you missed them on 'Oprah,' you can hear Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, husband/wife authors of the acclaimed new bestseller, "Half The Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," on this wonderful hour-long Blog Talk Radio segment.

It's hosted by the South Asian Journalists Association, at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, and moderated by Newsweek International contributing editor Vibhuti Patel.

The trio address the book's theme: the emerging role of women in developing countries.



Kristof's topnotch New York Times videojournalism, often about women's struggles in Third World countries, has been frequently showcased on KobreGuide.

Here's a sampler:

* Acid Attacks
Women in Pakistan are being subjected to an alarming kind of terrorism, often inflicted by their own husbands.

* The Face of Slavery
Meet Long Pross, a teenager who was tortured and forced into sexual slavery in Cambodia. She's recuperating now, but how can we rescue other girls like her?

* A Dirty Job
Compared to scavenging in a toxic garbage dump, working in an oppressive sweatshop can seem like a cherished dream.

* My Personal Foreign Aid Program
Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof travels to the Dominican Republic to assess the merits of his Plan USA sponsorship of a local child.

New York Times University?

For the first time, New York Times columnists are participating in the newspaper's three-year-old "Knowledge Network," an adult-education program operated in partnership with local universities.

Can this become a legitimate revenue source for newspapers?

According to Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab:

The courses taught by Nicholas Kristof and Gail Collins, both op-ed columnists, include a “live, interactive Webcast,” three written lessons, and a message board where students can interact with their big-name instructors. For that, the Times is asking $185. Kristof’s course is on the exploitation of women in developing nations; Collins’s deals with the history of American women’s rights since 1960. Wine columnist Eric Asimov’s course, for $125, is a single session that students can attend in person or online. (Booze not included.)

The participation of Kristof, Collins, and Asimov could be a precursor to the membership model the Times is considering in its search for new revenue streams on the web.

Naturally we're wondering how online video technology and storytelling can be incorporated into these lessons.

List of all courses here.

Journalism courses here.

YouTube Reporters' Center Offers Free Journalism Training From Top Pros

YouTube has launched yet another initiative to encourage this bizarre phenomenon known as "citizen journalism." Apparently in response to criticism, such as ours, that journalism should be the purview of professionals, and average Joes who contribute cellphone video clips of airline disasters are properly called "eyewitnesses," YouTube has now taken it upon itself to provide free journalism training to the masses. Naturally, it takes the form of short instructional video segments, housed in its brand new Reporters' Center.

The upside to all this is that the teachers are not just any J-school profs, but CBS's Katie Couric ("How to Conduct a Good Interview"), Washington Post's Bob Woodward ("Investigative Journalism"), New York Times's Nicholas Kristof ("Covering a Global Crisis"), NPR's Scott Simon ("How to Tell a Story"), PBS's Tavis Smiley ("How to Get More From Your Subject"), Arianna Huffington ("Citizen Journalism"), and a few dozen more top pros.

Ever captured a natural disaster or a crime on your cell-phone camera? Filmed a political rally or protest, and then interviewed the participants afterward? Produced a story about a local issue in your community? If you've done any of these things or aspire to, then you're part of the enormous community of citizen reporters on YouTube, and this channel is for you.

The YouTube Reporters' Center is a new resource to help you learn more about how to report the news. It features some of the nation's top journalists and news organizations sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting.

In its true spirit of Web democracy, YouTube even enables everybody -- yes, even YOU -- to join the ranks of Couric, Woodward, et al in teaching journalism: "If you have experiences on reporting the news yourself and would like to share your tips, feel free to submit them for inclusion on this page."

There's no denying the entertainment value of hearing someone as brilliant and accomplished as Nick Kristof (a favorite contributor to KobreGuide's New York Times channel) discourse about covering global crises. He strikes a tone that's alternatively serious and tongue-in-cheek, addressing topics ranging from safety tips ("The first rule is to make sure you get back alive. Never argue with people with large guns. There's no point in getting a great interview with a warlord if afterwards he kills you and takes your video.") to basic storytelling pointers ("Personalize the story. Americans don't care about thousands of people starving, but they can be made to care about one individual, and, through that person, about the larger problem.")

Steve Myers at Poynter Online provides thoughtful coverage and commentary... and the most generous interpretation of YouTube's goals:

The project is part of a larger effort to make YouTube a destination for video news and to cement it as the meeting place for people who witness important events and the organizations that need their accounts.

Meanwhile, below is an overview -- and a few sample "lessons" -- to help you draw your own conclusions about the project's merits. If nothing else, there's definitely an abundance of journalism wisdom in these tutorials. News purveyors and consumers alike stand to be enlightened by the collective lessons contained therein.

But, as always, we can't help but wonder if folks would be as motivated to devour video tutorials from leading cardiologists in how to perform your own heart bypass surgery.

Win a Trip With Nicholas Kristof

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, whose video reports are proudly showcased on KobreGuide, invites students to enter a contest for a reporting trip to Africa this spring.