Tom Kennedy's Evolution as a Visual Journalist

Tom Kennedy consults on, speaks about, and trains others in visual journalism. He was managing editor for multimedia at The Washington Post and, before that, director of photography for National Geographic magazine. He has created, directed, and edited visual journalism projects that have earned Pulitzer Prizes, EMMY, Peabody, and Edward R. Murrow awards.

Kennedy is currently the Resident Professional at the University of Miami School of Communication’s Knight Center for International Media. He recently gave a 95-minute talk there on "The Evolution of a Visual Journalist," imparting professional lessons he's learned along his celebrated path.



This semester, Kennedy is "working with visual journalism graduate students to create an innovative website that will evaluate the State of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals in seven Asian and African cities... His project will become part of the Center’s current anchor project: Our City. As a component of the project, graduate students from the visual journalism program at the University of Miami will work with faculty and students at journalism institutions in Africa and Asia creating local stories about global issues like poverty, environmental sustainability, HIV AIDS, maternal health and primary education."

What Does a NY Times VJ Do?

Here's an illuminating first-person behind-the-scenes look at being a New York Times videojournalist, by Brent McDonald (right).

Reporter. Camera operator. Sound technician. Lighting technician. Writer. Narrator. Editor. Those aren’t seven jobs. They’re one. Mine. Oh, yes, I also carry up to 100 pounds of gear. (That’s right: add Sherpa to the job description.) I’m a VJ; a video journalist.

Today, The New York Times has nearly a dozen full-time video journalists and an expanding network of freelancers producing stories from all over the world, for every section of the newspaper and Web site. We don’t have beats. Our basic role is to provide a visual and emotional lens into stories, from sports profiles to investigative exposés. The journalists in our group have contributed to work that has won a Peabody Award, an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and a Pulitzer Prize.

And yet, when I tell people I’m a VJ, I still often get the same questions I did when I started four years ago. (1) What? The Times makes video? (2) What does that mean, exactly? The answer to the first question is self-evident. The best way to answer the second is to describe some stories I’ve worked on recently...

Read the rest here.

(Photo by Nicholas D. Kristof/NYTimes)