Do Journalists Really Want to Be Poor?

We're delighted that videojournalism pioneer Michael Rosenblum has taken the time to compose a thoughtful response to our question about whether modern-day journalists need to add "entrepreneur" to their growing list of required skills.

(See: "Now You Have to Be an Entrepreneur, Too?")

We encourage you to read his comment below our original post, and also his expanded essay on his own Rosenblum TV blog.

His title says it all: "Entrepreneurial Journalism: Do We Even Have to Ask?" He sees it as a self-esteem issue.

"The biggest mistake that journalists for the last 50 years have made," he writes, "was to wrap themselves in this glorification of poverty."

His argument is that lots of businesspeople have amassed extraordinary wealth from their Web pursuits, leaving in the dust the very people who excel at gathering, organizing and disseminating the information the Web is built upon -- journalists!

The Internet happened on our watch. It happened to our business, and it happened under our noses.

The Internet is the single biggest technologically driven transition of an industry since Gutenberg put ink to movable type. And billions have been made in the Internet Revolution – billions, but not by us.

Which is both strange and tragic because we were here first!

We should own Google and Craigslist and Facebook and a thousand other very successful sites.

But we don’t.

We don’t because we missed the entrepreneurial boat.

And why did we miss the entrepreneurial boat that sailed away right under our noses?

Because we have a love and a passion for poverty. We love to see ourselves as poor and struggling.

Personally we don't think it's quite that black and white. True, the image of the journalist as grizzled underdog had been overromanticized in books and movies (ranging from non-fiction "All the President's Men" to the fictitious "State of Play," pictured). But most journalists we know in real life aren't deliberately gravitating toward financial destitution. It's just that their passions tend in the direction of reporting and storytelling -- not spreadsheets and projections. Perhaps j-school grads aren't striving for their first billion with the same zeal as their MBA confreres, but at the same time they're not lusting after low-paying gigs for the sheer bohemian thrill of it.

More to the point, their motivation for pursuing journalism may not be the same as the motivation of a high-charging empire builder -- but, to our thinking, that doesn't necessarily translate to the presumption that journalists think "money is evil."

And, back to our original point, it can't be assumed that people who possess the skill sets required to become accomplished journalists should also be able to excel at entrepreneurial endeavours such as sales, marketing and promotion.

Ultimately, we believe the solution will lie in collaboration -- the formation of partnerships and collectives that consist of pros whose individual strengths and talents can be combined and leveraged for the benefit of the common good. Microcosms of lean, mean newsrooms -- but without the dead weight of middle-management layers... and rooms.

And while that may not make us all filthy rich, it will be a far cry from the "ink-stained wretch" image that understandably makes Rosenblum cringe.

The Big Cheese Doesn't Stand Alone

Another controversy is broiling over a digitally manipulated news image on a magazine cover.

This time it's a photograph of President Obama standing alone on a Louisiana beach, for The Economist's June 19 cover story on the BP oil spill catastrophe.

Except in the original unaltered image, by Reuters photographer Larry Downing, he's not alone. By cropping out Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard (routinely acceptable) and Photoshopping out Charlotte Randolph, a local parish president (highly questionable), it appears that he's "looking forlornly at the ground," as a New York Times blog item accurately describes it.

The Economist violated Reuters' own strict photo-editing policies. In its defense, deputy editor Emma Duncan declared (in an email to the N.Y. Times) that cropping Allen was justified, and that Randolph was "removed not to make a political point, but because the presence of an unknown woman would have been puzzling to readers. I wanted readers to focus on Mr. Obama, not because I wanted to make him look isolated. That wasn’t the point of the story."

Still, that was indubitably the net effect -- all the more proof that any photo editing that fudges reality is bound to create more problems than it solves.

Now You Have to Be an Entrepreneur, Too?

There's a growing expectation that videojournalists need to embrace and master a dizzying array of skill sets.

There used to be a time when newspapers and TV news teams would consist of at least a reporter/interviewer and someone behind the lens of a camera -- and each field unit would have the support and input of editors back at headquarters. Now all those duties -- finding and researching a story, conducting interviews and amassing facts, shooting and editing audio and visuals -- are expected to be accomplished by the same person.

The likelihood of that individual excelling at such a diverse set of journalistic and technical tasks is exceedingly slim.

Now add to that an entirely new expectation.

Given the miserable state of the economy, the downsizing and collapse of media institutions, nobody is hiring journalists. Those starting (or trying to piece together the shambles of) their careers are being advised to not even bother jobhunting. Instead, they're being instructed to redefine themselves as "journalism entrepreneurs" and create their own economic opportunities.

So in addition to being able to interview, report, write, shoot, and edit (text, audio, stills and video), you need to be able to master product development, sales, promotion, advertising, marketing -- and all in a digital context, which implies scaling the heights of social media, conquering search engine optimization, and slaying 'em in the aisles with your tutorials and seminars on the workshop/lecture circuit. Oh, and be sure you can write killer applications for foundation grants.

Any one of these pursuits had traditionally constituted a fulltime career unto itself. Now if you can't bat, catch, throw, run, and exude enough charisma to be a commercial spokesperson -- well, don't look back, because everyone else is gaining on you.

Understandably, journalism schools are in a funk trying to figure out what exactly to teach students to prepare them for the workplace. While it's always a good idea to get a well rounded education that acquaints you with multiple aspects of a profession, students and professors alike naturally wonder whether it's better to focus on mastering one thing well -- and worry whether that one thing will even exist in the future.

Our stance is that technology will always evolve -- and it's vitally important to stay abreast of those changes -- but the fundamentals of excellent journalism and great storytelling will remain as constant in the years ahead as they have for the centuries preceding us.

What we're less sure about is how critical it will be that reporters, writers, editors, photographers and videographers become entrepreneurs. Arguably, many of the "brand name" stars in each field have taken that route -- though it's unlikely they thought of themselves in those terms. Unfortunately, the skills and activities that make you shine in one arena don't necessarily translate to the other. Still, if your traditional jobhunting quest is not going well, it couldn't hurt to consider the advice of those who are successfully pursuing the entrepreneurial path.

In the vanguard is Adam Westbrook, a British videojournalist who last month published an ebook on that topic, Next Generation Journalist. He was recently interviewed by Andy Bull, UK author of Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide, for his Write, Edit, Blog blog. The topic: How to make money from a range of journalism activities and enterprises, by developing what Westbrook calls "a portfolio career."



We'd like to hear your thoughts. Do you think it's practical for most journalists to repackage and giftwrap themselves as entrepreneurs? Does this sound like something that would suit your skills and sensibilities? Does the prospect of being an entrepreneur enhance or diminish your enthusiasm for being a journalist?

Ed Kashi Joins VII Photo Agency

Photojournalist Ed Kashi has joined VII Photo, the prestigious Paris and New York-based photo agency, as a co-owning member.

In the British Journal of Photography, Olivier Laurent interviews Kashi about his latest book, Curse of the Black Gold: 50 years of Oil in the Niger Delta.

Kashi's multimedia work on that topic has been published by National Geographic and showcased on KobreGuide.com (pictured).

In this in-depth Q&A, Kashi reveals how he obtained both access and funding to accomplish the task of visually documenting such a gargantuan topic.

Here's an exchange regarding Kashi's pioneering foray into video that we found engaging:

Q: You’re a big proponent of multimedia, using audio for decades, and mixing stills with videos in projects such as The Sandwich Generation. Increasingly, with the development of video-enabled digital SLRs, video is gaining in importance in a photojournalist’s work. Are audio and video complementing still photography? How important are these storytelling tools for you? Is still photography still a powerful medium or does it need to be associated with other media?

Ed Kashi: Still photography will always exist because our brains are wired to ingest still images. The fact our brains are being rewired might change that equation down the evolutionary road, but for now still images continue to be powerful forms of communication and enlightenment. Mixing still imagery with moving imagery, audio, graphics, ambient sound, music and most importantly the voice of our subjects is exhilarating and has only enhanced our abilities as visual storytellers to tell our stories in new, dynamic ways that can reach broader audiences and break the space logjam that print media has always forced our work into.

Regarding his new partnership with VII Photo, Kashi crows (on Facebook): "The future looks bright and I am looking forward to working with such a great group of photographers and staff at an agency dedicated to so many of the values and goals I am also committed to."

LINKS:

* BJP interview with Ed Kashi

* VII Photo

* Ed Kashi's Website

* "Curse of the Black Gold" on KobreGuide

5 Online Sources for Soundtrack Music

Adam Westbrook reviews five online sources of free or inexpensive music you can use for your videojournalism or multimedia soundtrack:

1. Audio Network
2. Jamendo
3. Musopen
4. Mixcloud
5. Soundcloud

He gives you the details on types of music available, ease of search and download, and price structure.

Check it out here.

Fourth of July Sale on KobreGuide Goodies!

Hey, every media organization is scrounging for revenue sources, so why should we be any exception? So the only surprise about our holiday weekend sale on official KobreGuide t-shirts, coffee mugs, keychains, baseball caps and, yes, even neckties, is that they're even available in the first place!

But look at KobreGuide publisher Ken Kobre and managing editor Betsy Brill sporting their snazzy KobreGuide garb, suitable for occasions all over the globe -- in this case, Sequoia Grove in Yosemite. (Guaranteed to fend off grizzlies.) Check 'em out and tell us you're not lusting for a KobreGuide t-shirt of your very own.

This weekend only, take advantage of our patriotic 17.76 percent discount on all orders! (Use the code ZAZZLEUSAUSA. Sale ends Monday. Note: the Zazzle photo watermark does NOT appear on the actual products.)

Proceeds help fuel KobreGuide's daily search for the Web's best videojournalism -- a monumental undertaking that we perform for the benefit of students, practitioners, and consumers of high-quality visual journalism.

Start your KobreGuide shopping spree right here.

http://www.zazzle.com/kobreguide

Have a safe and fun holiday weekend!

The Kagan Hearings in Time.com Lapse

The Time.com multimedia team has leveraged its toolkit to create an impactful time-lapse video of the first day of Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. It compresses the entire session into a fast-forward two-and-a-half minutes.

What could have been a facile visual stunt has been laboriously executed to give viewers a memorable and meaningful summary of the day's events.



Producer Craig Duff reveals that he and Mark Rykoff used more than 2,000 images by photographer Brooks Kraft, who locked down the camera in a corner of the room (though the piece is artfully punctuated by closeups as well). The video is bookended by the participants and observers assembling and recessing -- so before and after the main event, we see the room quickly fill and then empty.

The soundtrack consists of highlights of Kagan's inquisitors, both laudatory and adversarial, and her responses -- with slight audio overlap that quickens the pace without sacrificing content. Note how background music is subtly and selectively used to draw and keep your attention. What sounds like a solo cello adds urgency, dropping out to accentuate Kagan's concluding statement, and then returning for a brisk finale.

For part of the sequence, a zooming effect was created by progressively enlarging each individual image in post-production. "Labor intensive," Duff reveals (on his Facebook Wall!). "But I got into a kind of Zen rhythm."

If you've seen other meritorious examples of time-lapse photography used for videojournalism stories, please share them with us.