Power Performance E-Book

Tony Silvia

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 635

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

This book is a unique and definitive guide to the skills necessary for on-camera journalism and offers an invaluable behind-the-scenes look at the profession. * Tailors the traditional skills of writing, reporting, and producing to the needs of journalists working in front of the camera * Includes chapters devoted to the role of the storyteller, reporting the story across multiple platforms, and presenting the story on-camera * Incorporates profiles of leading multimedia journalists and public relations practitioners * Addresses the key ethical issues for the profession * Offers practical advice for putting presentation skills to work * Storytelling skills covered can be applied to a variety of traditional and new media formats including television news, radio, and podcasts

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Table of Contents

Title page

Copyright page

About the Authors

Foreword

Introduction

1 The Role of the Storyteller

What is Multimedia?

Newspapers and Broadcast News

Public Relations Professionals

Today’s Citizen Journalist

An Inventory of Needed Skills

Adapting to New Media

Cross-Platform Influences

2 Reporting Stories across Media

Platform Advantages

Finding the Story

Journalism’s Enduring Values

Human Elements of Storytelling

Building a Story

Stories as Conversations

Storytelling Formulas

Crisis, Conflict, Resolution (CCR)

Good Writing as the Foundation

How Storytelling for Multimedia is Different

Research: When is Multimedia Most Effective?

Using Multimedia Tools

Revisiting Power Performance: Keeping the Promise

Multimedia as a State of Mind

3 Writing the Story for Print and the Web

Today’s Print Media: Changes and Challenges

Newspapers and Television: More Alike than Different

Learning a New Vocabulary

Visual Writing for Newspaper People

KISS (Keep It Short and Simple)

Relating to the Audience

Initiating Interaction

Social Media for Print Storytellers

Make the Reader a Partner in Your Story

Writing a Blog

Cell Phones as Storytelling Tools

Web Writing

Writing with Additional Elements

Putting the Pieces Together

Maximizing the Web Experience

User Polls

Thinking it Through

Web Considerations

Promoting Print Stories in Other Media

Synergized Storytelling

The Backpack Journalist

4 Video Storytelling on the Air and on the Web

Video Story Formats

Video Script Forms

Story Focus

Compelling Sound

Interviews

Shooting the Interview

Writing the Script

More Style Rules for Narration

Use of Graphics

Writing in and Out of Sound Bites

Beware of the “huh?” factor

When in doubt, leave it out

Editing your video

A package script

Live Reporting

Review: Check-list for Live Segments

Telling vs. selling: teases are different

Just Do It

5 Presenting the Story on Camera, on Air and Online

Driving the Story

Rule #1: Time Management Is Part of Your Power Performance

Rule #2: Develop a Multimedia Voice that is Casual, Comfortable and Connected

Rule #3: Make the Most of the Voice that You Have through Awareness Training

Rule #4: Relax, Breathe and Speak from Your “Poochy” Stomach

Rule #5: Check Your Posture to Clear Your Airway and Place Your Feet Firmly on the Floor

Rule #6: Talk as if You Are Speaking to Someone Who is Only Ten Inches from Your Face

Rule #7: Allow Time for a Sound Check

Rule #8: Speak in a Way that Can Be Understood by Your Intended Audience

Rule #9: Warm Up Your Mouth, Lips and Tongue

Rule #10: Take Care of Your Voice and Your Hearing

Rule #11: Mark Your Script to Identify Potential Problems Before Your Performance

Rule #12: Obey Punctuation Traffic Signals for Inflection, Pauses and Breathing

Rule #13: Establish Your Emotional Connection to the Story on the Best–Worst Scale

Rule #14: Keep Up the Pace and Slow Down Only for Emphasis

Rule #15: Include a Prompter Check as Part of Your Preparation

Rule #16: Use Your Script Properly to Enhance Your Performance

Rule #17: Develop a Consistent Voice that is Part of Your Personal Brand

Rule #18: Make a Good First Impression on the Viewer through Non-Verbal Communication

Rule #19: Use Your Body Language Aggressively

Rule #20: Use Natural Gestures to Enliven Your On-Camera Delivery

Rule #21: Visualize the Content of Each Story and Allow Your Facial Expression to Naturally Reflect It

Rule #22: Maintain Eye Contact with the Viewer

Rule #23: Viewers Should Notice the Person, not the Hair, Clothing or Makeup

Where Your Preparation Pays Off

6 Practicing Public Relations in a Multimedia World

What is My Message?

Owning Your Message

Who Is the Audience for My Message?

Control the Message

Drive Your Own Story

Unfiltered Access to Your Audience

Viral Media

Interview Placements

Interview Preparation

Kinds of Stories

Image Builders

Image Makeovers

Crisis Management

Social Media, Front and Center

Leading the Way in Storytelling

The YouTube PR Campaign

Use it All

Directing the Audience

Beware of Backfire

7 Ethical Journalism in Multicultural Media

The Basic Principles of Journalism Ethics

Ethics in a Global Context

Media and Politics: A Changing Landscape

Dangers Facing Journalists

International Principles of Press Freedom

Avoiding Conflict of Interest

News vs. Advertising

Engaging in Political Activities

Transparency and Disclosure

Slander and Libel

Social Networking

Ethics in Public Relations

Civic Journalism: Beyond the Press Release

Investigative Reporting

When Disaster Strikes

Reporting in Conflict Zones

Respect Community Standards

Journalism Across Cultures

8 Putting Your Skills to Work

Preparing to Enter the Job Market

Working in Student and Community News Media

The Importance of Internships

The Multimedia Portfolio

The Home Page

Submitting Print and Online Work Samples

The Video Demo “Reel”

The Importance of Networking

Entrepreneurial Journalism: Being Your Own Boss

Telling Your Own Story

Index

This edition first published 2011

© 2011 Tony Silvia and Terry Anzur

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Silvia, Tony.

 Power performance : multimedia storytelling for journalism and public

relations / Tony Silvia and Terry Anzur.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

 ISBN 978-1-4051-9868-4 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-4051-9869-1 (paperback)

 1. Mass media–Authorship. 2. Broadcast journalism. 3. Reporters and reporting. 4. Public relations–Authorship. I. Anzur, Terry. II. Title.

 P96.A86S55 2011

 070.4'3–dc22

2011001827

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is published in the following electronic formats: ePDFs (97814443406170); Wiley Online Library (9781444342192); ePub (9781444340624)

About the Authors

TONY SILVIA

courtesy melanie marquez

Tony Silvia is Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, and the author of four other books, two of those titles, Student Television in America and Global News: Perspectives on the Information Age, published by Blackwell. He is a regular presenter at national conferences, consults with newsrooms, corporations, and non-profits, and is a frequent contributor to seminars at the Poynter Institute. His career in television news spans more than two decades, as a general assignment, political, consumer reporter as well as anchor at local stations. In addition, he regularly consults with newsrooms and non-profit organizations on issues like effective storytelling, media ethics, and diversity. His work has appeared on CNN, where he served as a features correspondent in the network’s science-technology unit. He holds both a master’s and doctoral degree from the University of Birmingham, England.

TERRY ANZUR

courtesy bob lasky

International journalism educator Terry Anzur consults broadcast and online video outlets on talent development and is a news anchor at KFI-AM in Los Angeles. She developed her coaching techniques while on the faculty of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. She holds an AB in Communication from Stanford University and was a Benton Fellow at the University of Chicago. Her on-air experience includes a national talk show on the network that became MSNBC, as well as anchoring and reporting for KTLA-TV in Los Angeles and CBS stations in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and West Palm Beach. She has reported from Washington for the NBC-owned stations and has anchored at local TV stations in Houston, Miami, Atlanta, Providence and Charleston, WV. She began her career in print journalism at the Trenton Times newspaper, United Press International and the Associated Press. She is a Fulbright senior specialist and was the lead consultant on the Maldives Media Training Project. For more information, visit: http://www.terryanzur.com/.

Foreword

LESTER HOLT

NBC News/MSNBC

courtesy nbc

Job: Co-anchor, Weekend Today

Anchor, NBC Nightly News, Weekend Edition

Market: National, based in New York City

Hometown: Sacramento, CA

Education: Attended California State University, Sacramento

Career Path:

Internships: KCRA TV and local radio, Sacramento, CA

Radio reporter and weekend anchor, KCBS-AM San Francisco, CA

Reporter, WCBS-TV, New York

Weekend anchor and reporter, KCBS-TV, Los Angeles

Weekend anchor and reporter, WCBS-TV

Anchor and reporter, WBBM-TV, Chicago

Reporter, CBS News magazine, 48 Hours

Anchor, MSNBC, Fort Lee, NJ

Anchor, NBC, New York

I started working in the news business while I was still in high school. I worked at a radio station in Sacramento and I was interning at a TV station. In 1979, when I was just starting my junior year of college, I left school to take a job at KCBS-AM news radio in San Francisco. It was one of the first broadcast stations to have a computerized newsroom. I was a morning drive reporter and I anchored on the weekends. They had a little promo for me. It said, “Breaking news with Lester Holt, the fastest mike in the West.” I loved breaking news; I was always the guy with the scanner in the car, chasing police cars and fire trucks. Later, when I moved to New York, that experience translated into being very comfortable on TV in front of a live camera and at the anchor desk. You become more conversational because you are telling people a story as opposed to just reading it.

How I deliver the news as a network anchor came from years of doing live coverage on a pay phone or a two-way radio. On the Today show, I spend most of my time preparing for interviews, doing my homework. There’s a lot of adlibbing because that’s the nature of the show. For Nightly News, I write quite a bit in the first block of the show. I go through every piece of copy. My days as an anchor on cable at MSNBC taught me to read up on stories and be ready for anything. Suddenly a story breaks and you have to be an instant expert. My preparation is to be aware of the stories we are doing but also scan the wires, read the papers. Be aware that a story that has been bubbling on the back burner of the stove could suddenly flare up. I am constantly making sure that I understand the stories and their bigger meaning. I tell students that one of the most important things we do is give perspective and more information. It’s not just the words, but your tone and what you choose to emphasize.

One thing I’ve always missed about radio was the immediacy. I could push a button on my walkie-talkie and be live. I could drop a dime at a pay phone and be on the air. For much of my career, television has been very cumbersome. Your report depended on whether there was a live truck or a satellite truck available. With multimedia tools, the world has shrunk considerably. I was in Haiti not long ago, making the drive from the Dominican Republic to cover the earthquake. I took my BlackBerry and pointed it toward myself, shot video and began to give narration as we were driving through the country. I emailed it and I was on the Today show a few minutes later. I didn’t need a crew, I didn’t need a producer. I didn’t need anybody. Blogging and tweeting add another dimension. It’s another way to add perspective. Sometimes you can’t fit everything into a 90-second Nightly News spot. But you can offer more texture, or still photos, in a blog or a tweet. People know we’re out there and it’s added value. I’m a big proponent of the multimedia revolution because it allows us to do our job better and more efficiently.

Technology enhances storytelling. With tweeting and blogging we can be a bit more informal. There’s something about the TV camera that implies more formality. We choose our words more carefully because it’s a big stage. But then we get on our BlackBerries or iPhones and start tweeting and it becomes a more personal reflection on the story, what it smells like, what it feels like. It can give people the background and the texture for the entire story. Shrinking resources are the new model. We see people having to do more than they used to, because there are fewer people in the newsroom. I really love what I do. I love telling stories. The thrill has never worn off for me. I work with a small group of tight-knit people. As we draw down in terms of resources we become more focused and rise to the challenge of getting the broadcast on the air. In a war zone or a disaster zone like Haiti, you have to become creative. I’ve used Twitter, cell phone video and Skype. I probably wouldn’t think of those things when doing a story in Manhattan. But when you’re in a difficult place, you start thinking out of the box and realizing you have a lot of tools in the box. You eventually find the right digital outlet. We have a lot more ways to get the story out, even if it’s just a tweet.

I always tell people that if you want to be an anchor, you have to love reporting. You have to enjoy that moment of being the first to tell somebody something.

My son is anchoring weekend mornings on a station in Florida and he sent me a photograph from the control room, with him in one monitor and me in the other, competing with each other. I talked to Stefan a lot before he got his first job. I tell all journalism students that they are learning the actual tools of the trade. You no longer go to college and they teach you stuff, and then start a job and find out that none of it applies. If you are shooting on DV and editing on Avid or another computer program, you are doing what the professionals do. I told Stefan that it’s hugely important to be coming out of school with all of the tools. All you are lacking is the experience. When Stefan was looking for a job, I told him that you want to end up in a market where there is room to grow and where there are people with experience to be your mentors. You want to be a small enough fish in a big pond where there are people to look up to.

I also feel strongly about respecting the people we cover. If I ask you to do an interview, I owe you respect. It doesn’t mean I will avoid the hard questions, but I don’t believe in badgering people or looking down on them. At one point, Stefan thought he might be going to Haiti. He asked me for some advice. I told him to remember that you are not better than the people you cover, simply because of a cultural or socio-economic difference. Just because we’re the media doesn’t make us special. It’s crucial to respect the people that we cover and talk to them as equals.

The book you hold in your hands is a fine step in the direction of making the news business better. The authors, both highly respected for their work in the industry and as journalism educators, help provide a strong foundation for the next generation of storytellers. The ability to adapt as new technologies develop, to use what we now call multimedia skills to tell better stories across more media, is at the heart of Power Performance. Both those now in the classroom and others already in the newsroom can benefit from the advice given and the skills taught in the pages ahead. As it takes me back to my own beginnings in radio, I’m reminded that we all have to get our start somewhere. This book is a great place to begin.

Everyone says the news business is in trouble. It’s not. We just have to learn to adapt. I believe there will always be a need for people who can put words and information with pictures. Whether people will still be watching it on television 15 years from now, I can’t say. The screen could be on a refrigerator or a mobile phone. But the need for video/audio content won’t go away. We need good people and good storytellers. If you are coming out of college now, all you have known is shooting and reporting your own stories, but it’s not so different from back in the days when I was a beat reporter on the radio in San Francisco with a tape recorder playing audio through the telephone. At the end of the day, it’s basic, raw reporting. It means asking the tough question. Technology allows you to go more places and be better. Don’t get discouraged. You’ll figure it out.

Introduction

The constantly changing universe of multimedia is the focus of much study and endless debate. This book is about what does not change: the basic human need for a good story. As a storyteller in the present day, your tools may be a camera, a microphone, and a computer. But you are carrying on a tradition that dates back to the first person who used the wall of a cave and piece of charcoal to draw pictures that might point the way to a successful hunt, or the first sculptor using stone as a tablet to record the outcome of an epic battle. From the beginning of human history, we have depended on storytellers to pass on our legends to the next generation, to share practical information needed for survival, to encourage our sense of community and to inspire our faith in something greater than ourselves. And, yes, we also want to be entertained while we are being informed.

Effective storytelling has long been a blend of words, sounds and pictures. In the days when most people could not read, religious stories often came to life through images and music in a house of worship. Wandering minstrels spread the news of the day while performing their songs. Playwrights and actors gave us insight into the human condition by portraying archetypal characters and dramatic situations on a stage. The printing press made it possible for storytellers to reach a wider and more educated public, leading to the development of worldwide mass media in the present day. What all effective storytellers throughout history have in common is the ability to engage the audience, not merely capturing attention, but challenging the users, viewers, listeners or readers to process information and apply it to their own lives.

We recognized the need for this book because of the way in which multimedia has broadened our own experience in the newsroom and the classroom. There are many textbooks that address the fine points of writing and reporting for the page or for the airwaves, but they are often limited to “how to write the news in English for an American audience.” Today’s multimedia storytellers must think globally while they are reporting locally. A local story on a community web site can be downloaded by someone halfway around the world.

Even in many countries where the official media is government-controlled, student journalists can view global media online and via satellite. They not only watch CNN, they can also upload their own reports. We hope that this book will give all students – and especially those in emerging democracies – the tools they need to tell their unique stories to the world. We also hope to remind those in a free society not to take for granted their right and responsibility to tell the truth. In a worldwide marketplace of information, where all journalists face the challenge of developing a business model that will support their passion for reporting the truth, storytelling skills are vital.

While traditional journalism texts often downplay or ignore public relations (PR), this book presents PR as the other side of the multimedia coin. The best public relations practitioners think like journalists when pitching stories or crafting a client’s image and journalists must acquire the public relations skills needed to manage their own brands. All must be accomplished storytellers across multiple platforms, including social networks. Future careers in multimedia communication will likely incorporate elements of both journalism and strategic public relations.

In writing this book, we are trying to pass along the best traditions of print and broadcast journalism to a new generation of multimedia storytellers. Each chapter contains at least one example of what we call a “Power Profile.” These profiles are structured in the form of a social networking page, with some basic information, followed by questions and answers. We’d like to think they simulate the experience of having each of these outstanding professionals appear as a guest speaker in your classroom. Because we are still in the transformative stage of multimedia, writing a book about a moving target was no easy task. Illuminating the conversation about change with those who are in the middle of it every day is, we believe, a good starting point.

We sincerely thank those professional journalists and public relations practitioners who shared their insights. Their work exemplifies the ways in which leading storytellers have adapted to new technologies and multimedia platforms. NBC and CNN were especially generous in allowing their journalists to participate, while ABC, CBS and Fox News declined. Along the way we discovered numerous local TV journalists and web casters, print and radio reporters, and public relations practitioners who are developing their own brands, whether they are freelancing or working as staff members of a major media organization. They stand as excellent role models for future journalists who are still finding their voices.

You may be reading this book for a journalism course, or you may be a citizen journalist learning the basics of the craft on your own, or a professional multimedia storyteller who is ready to take your journalism and power performance to the next level. Our goal is to give you the skills and insights needed to identify, gather and present compelling stories, whether your audience is one person or the entire multimedia universe. As the great broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow once said, “Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”

1

The Role of the Storyteller

It’s one day after the death of Michael Jackson, June 25th, 2009. All across the country, newsrooms have expended the level of resources once reserved for covering political conventions, presidential elections, and the passing of heads of state. In our burgeoning celebrity-first culture, that part is not surprising. What is remarkable is the path the story takes, not through any one news medium, but across many: newspapers, radio, television, the Internet, and social media.

The first contact with the story of Michael Jackson’s death was, for many, through social media followed by the web, then radio and television, and, finally, newspapers – and by extension, other print media, such as magazines. Within an hour of the pop icon’s death, the message was being received and relayed by people with cell phones, Facebook or MySpace pages, and Twitter accounts. For the current generation, there will always be the memory of where they were when they got the news that Jackson had died; in many ways, it is similar to those of another generation who will never forget the details surrounding how they learned of the death of President John F. Kennedy over four decades earlier.

For the news media, the difference was palatable. It wasn’t so long ago that when a major news story broke, the path to an audience was first and foremost through a traditional medium: print, radio, or television; then and only then would thought be given to posting it for the web, and social media weren’t even on the horizon. Now it’s web first. Just ask Mark Douglas of Tampa’s WFLA-TV. Douglas, a 30-year veteran of television news, would think television first. Not any more. “I sometimes joke that I’m a web reporter who every once in a while does television,” he says. In fact, a 2010 story Douglas wrote about a regional coyote infestation “broke” first on the station’s web site and didn’t end up on its TV newscast in a different form until weeks later.

His parent company, Media General Corporation, also owns the Tampa Tribune, WFLA radio, and the news web site tbo.com. Their “converged newsroom” concept dates back to the 1990s when theirs was one of the first newsrooms in the country to adopt a multiplatform approach to newsgathering and storytelling. It is illustrative of the very different demands placed upon journalists today. In a word, these demands can be summed up as “multimedia.”

What is Multimedia?

First and foremost, it’s an approach to storytelling that bestows new power, both on the storyteller and the audience. Control over the elements of a big story is no longer the exclusive domain of the print reporter, the broadcaster, or even the web journalist. It’s the domain of the storyteller, the person whose skills and judgment contribute to a story that has maximum impact both for and with the audience. We call that level of storytelling Power Performance, because it harnesses the power of today’s multimedia to tell the story in a more compelling way. It involves every aspect of the storytelling process, from print to broadcast to web. It invites the audience to be part of the process by including them through all forms of social media. There is much misunderstanding about the role of multimedia. Is it just applying new technology to old skills? Or is it an entirely new form of storytelling that requires a whole new set of skills? In many ways, that discussion is framed by the rapid development of online media compared to the adoption rate of traditional media. The Internet is unique for its exponential growth over an incredibly fast period of time.