The Producing Hat Trick
In this day and age, the world is all about convergence. Especially in news, there are no longer specified jobs, rather multimedia journalists or one-man bands who can do it all.
Same goes for behind the camera. Producing just for TV isn't enough. You have to think about how you can create original content for the web and social media.
Before we discuss the best ways to use these platforms, we should probably differentiate between them. TV news is short and sweet. Take SOTs for example. Sure we try to let our sound breath on-air, but you only want to pick at 15 second bite for your newscast. On the other hand, on the web you can have the entire unedited interview, simply because there is no time restraint on the internet. As for social media, Twitter keeps users to 140 characters per thought, so you have to be precise in your wording if you want to send a successful tweet.
So how can we use these different mediums in the best way possible? By playing up their strengths. TV is a great way to distribute news. You give visual elements to your viewers that give them a good summary of the story. For example, with all of the Typhoon Haiyan relief projects going on, we were able to produce original sound and video about the disaster aftermath with shorter sound bites and good video.
Web's strenght is that it really doesn't have a time limit. You can write as much as you want and add as many interactive elements as you want. For example, the New York Times posted a great interactive map during the 2012 Presidential Election that gave up to date statistics of how each state was voting. You can also use the web to gather information. Looking at other stations websites to see which sources they talked with can be a good jumping off point if you're stuck on a story.
As for social media, while it's hard to develop a story in 140 characters, the instantaneous factor paired with it's enormous audience make it the best way to gather news. People out on a story can tweet back with photos, videos or updates about the news event they're at.
What you have to realize, is that each medium is different, but crucial to be a successful news organization. You can't have a team full of quarterbacks, just like you can't rely solely on TV. It's important to draft a good mix of elements that can help you report effectively and efficiently on news.
