Presentation given April 10, 2010, at Society of Professional Journalists Region 7 Spring Conference in Omaha, Neb.

1. Ron Sylvester
Legal affairs
Interactive News Reporter
The Wichita Eagle

2. Where I’m coming from
 1976: learned video in 1976 as an intern with
local TV station – on 16mm FILM
 1977-2005: Worked as a newspaper reporter
for the next 30 years, switching from
typewriters to computers
 2005: started producing video for Kansas.com
 First video took 5 hours to edit.
 It sucked.
 2008: covered first trial on Twitter
 2009: Began video blog
 I’m still learning: This is a conversation

3. Challenges for multimedia
 More tasks: breaking news online,
writing full-length stories and multimedia
(audio clips, videos, etc.
 Smaller staffs: fewer people, more work
 The learning gap

4. Be mobile
 Back pocket journalism
 Smart phone (web enabled)
 A laptop with production capabilities

5. Combine tasks
 Multimedia has to become as much a
part of your work day as a notebook
 Collect video, audio, photos while
reporting
 Record interviews
 Tweet your notes.

7.  Use crowd sourcing
 Twitter search (search.twitter.com)
 Location-based (FourSquare)

8. Sometimes stories write
themselves. Video never does
 Video (You Tube quality)
 Quick clips to add depth (compelling,
breaking news) Roeder arrest
 Easy to edit
 Quick output

9. Video storytelling
 Documentary style
 Longer tail
 More time consuming
 Like writing another story
 My blog

10. Audio slide shows
 Time spent: somewhere in between the
two video styles
 Works when still photos are more
compelling than action and when you
have good narrative audio.

11. First: decide which is the best
way to tell the story
 Concentrate on that first
 The video which became our biggest hit
story of the year.

12. The 102-year-old judge

13. Being creative with B-roll
 Your photo archive and AP server are
treasure troves for B-roll

14. Making your own b-roll

15. Multimedia text-based story
 Broadcast as long-form narratives.
MSNBC A 2,500-word narrative

16. Don’t’ do it if it’s already been
done
 Link, link link
 Use social bookmarks while reporting
(Publish2 or Delicious)
 Link to competitors and other relevant
news sources (Roeder trial)
 User generated content (the most
famous UGC of all time)

17. Stream it live
 Qik for I-Phones (Qik.com)
 Ustream (Ustream.com)
 Twitpic (twitpic.com)
 Cover It Live (coveritlive.com)

18. Time savers
 Download video while waiting for
callbacks
 Edit audio bed for video or slide show
between drafts of story
 Edit video or slide show while waiting for
first edits.
 Be flexible

19. Mark Briggs “Journalism Next”
 Gear up and get out there.
 Start small but start.
 Don’t wait for someone to tell you. Just
do it.

20. Links and info from this
presentation
 http://multimediareporter.blogspot.com/
 On Twitter: rsylvester