Teaser: The most inspiring speech was the final session of the day
Patrick Farrell, The Miami Herald
The general session by photographer Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald was really moving to see the images he shot for the paper in Haiti following the devastating earthquake. That was huge news and he was capturing some graphic images. Something he really didn’t get into a lot was about if there was a debate whether his images should get in the paper because of the gruesome images he captured (it was inevitable).
SESSION 2 was “The easy way to do multimedia” by Osayi Endolyn, SCAD Atlanta. SCAD Atlanta is a smaller school with less than 3000 people. Their radio station streams online-only and their newspaper is also online-only. They talked about best practiced for covering stories on multiplatforms.
Some of what they said:
- Radio & Newspaper should work together and they’re all online
- Quotes from newspaper interview should play on radio to tease story
- Take photos while you interview/event on your cell phone and tweet it. Tease the story to come later in the week.
- Build anticipation- change website background to promote events.
- Have a designated PR person to be on social media and to interact with people commenting.
- Create brand awareness posters and stickers and fliers.
- Find ways to tell students what we’re doing and how to participate.
- DONT USE 10 EXCLAMTION POINTS!!! On Social Media.
- Audio recording can be used for radio/podcast
- Photos can be used for slideshow videos
- Videos can be used for breaking news on DSLR/phone
DREAM PACKAGE—the best you could possibly do is:
Instant coverage on social media- crowd source
Post any info you get online
Photos captions to the web
Audio on radio breaking news
Go back and look at what you have and decide in depth at the end
What is USAToday college that they referenced?
SESSION 3 was “The word is…Convergence,” by Edward Arke, Messiah College; and
Brad Arendt, Boise State University. Some of the main points that I took away from that talk was that Q30 and the Chronicle should act like a daily media source—not weekly.
Maybe we should do a shorter one minute show daily instead of 30 minutes weekly show. I think that would do well with students and online. Cover the campus, not the world. The World is covered by CNN; we’re the only campus QU news source.
SESSION 4 was “How to cover breaking news,” by Kate Jacobson, E-I-C of The Michigan State University paper. Some of her main points were:
- Make press badges and you’re legit. The police will be okay with that
- Police scanners are useful, and find them online to listen to crime if police won’t talk to you.
- They have a lot more crime at MSU than we have at QU so most of this information doesn’t help me.
- It’s a big deal when they remove papers from stands…it’s illegal or at least against statement of operations.
SESSION 5 was my favorite and really got me most excited and motivated. It was called “One man band journalism,” by Steven Johnson of Stevejohnsonmedia.com. He is an entrepreneur, and he has been since he was very young. He works as a freelance photographer for ESPN, Sports Illustrated, New York Times, Maiami Herald, Apple and more. Oh yeah, and he’s 21. He’ll be graduating college soon. He is so epic. He is a guy who I’d like to be. I want to be important and trusted like him at a young age. Being my own boss would be great too. I really enjoy that. This session motivated me to get working, work harder and really reach for what I want—I am not too young.
“Get an hour out of every second,” he said. And when I am not wasting my time, I believe I do that. I work 24/7 on so many things, I am always multitasking and working on 100 things at once every minute. He reminds me a lot about myself. As far as the business aspect of it he said to write off everything for a business expense by forming an LLC. I am currently doing that so I feel ahead of the game.
During the Gulf Oil Spill his job was 2 stories, 2 galleries, 1 multimedia every day. That really shows how much work load journalists have nowadays.
Organize and create a network with people and sources. Leave business cards everywhere, he said.
Do more than just be a photog. Ask to do more. He suggested wokiung on perfecting my own workflow that will work perfectly for us.
“I’m traveling the world because I made a business and I have a backpack.” He said the equipment in his backpack costs about $30,000.I plan to contact him soon as pick his brain. He shared his contact info: stevejohnsonmedia@gmail.com .
