It’s easy to skip a standup in a story about bike paths, but KSBY-TV/San Luis Obispo multimedia journalist Ariel Wesler found a clever yet simple approach. There’s alot more you can learn about effective storytelling in this video, which celebrates successes and points out opportunities to raise the bar.
More and more multimedia journalists want to learn about promotion. Specifically, what goes into a strong spot and the role they can play. It’s consistent with our recommendation to learn as much as you can to play a valuable role in stations’ new business models.
Here’s a good example of a strong promo created for a strong story from WRGB-TV/Albany news director Lisa Jackson and her team. To get the most benefit from the video, feel free to stop it after every key point. Notice how different this proactive journalism is from the typical reactive approach any stations default to.
First watch the promo as it ran, then look for my comments at the bottom of the screen.�
With storytelling at the core of powerful communications, we can learn alot from listening to a youngster. Tara’s assignment: Find out what concerns parents the most about their kids.
Tara has improved her storytelling after this first try. She contributes stories to KRNV-TV/Reno as a community correspondent. She provides helpful information to safeguard kids from predators in this report:
You’ll find more learning videos by clicking on Recent Posts to your right.
Unhappy with the stories you’re assigned? Join the club. Many multimedia journalists complain to us about that alot.
One solution: Generate your own stories. Look to break stories to build your reputation. A hot topic is where Uncle Sam has spent tax money to create jobs. Call the local people in charge, get video of the new jobs, and dig into how wisely the money is spent. You won’t be able to turn the story today, but it’s a good day just to make a few calls to get the process going.
The Wall Street Journal reported a few facts you might find helpful.
Here’s a story idea and a strong example of serving as viewer advocate — a great way to set yourself apart from the competition.
Greg Floyd is an anchor-reporter at WRGB-TV in Albany, NY. He delivers a franchise called “You Paid for It.”
Brush up on your tease writing. Learn from the persuasive power of these 60 Minutes teases in a recent open.
Getting all sides to be fair and balanced is what this KVOA (Tucson) multimedia journalist did. He begins by going the extra step — accompanying the woman responsible for enforcing a sign ordinance on a night time mission.
Since new MMJs say it’s difficult to shoot your own stand-ups and craft good questions, you might appreciate this story from KVOA-TV, Tucson:
The assignment: A retired school teacher handing out dictionaries to school kids. Not very exciting, right? But watch what KSBY’s (San Luis Obispo, CA) multimedia journalist Danielle Lerner did to engage viewers.
Ms. Lerner attended a three day on-site workshop for multimedia journalists produced by AR&D.
Fine tune your storytelling skills by learning from this example. You’ll find several strong elements — including a great question — as well as ways to raise the bar. For example, how to get two stories from one by “unbundling.”