Multimedia Reporting Fall 2022

Hello, and introductions.

Let’s quickly go around the room—tell me what school you’re representing and what elements of multimedia you’re hoping to do more of at your publication. I’m also curious what equipment most of you will be working with—do you have cameras and recorders, or are you mostly using your phones?

Good photography/videography is more about the photographer/videographer than it is about the camera, so there’s no reason you should feel limited by shooting with a phone camera if that’s what you have to work with. And sometimes they even give you an advantage—people are more comfortable with having an iPhone right in their face than they are having a DSLR camera with a big lens right in their face.

How many of your publications have active social media accounts? This can be a great opportunity to show some behind the scenes of the stories you’re working on, or you can also do some stories and features that are explicitly for social. These can be a little easier to produce and more informal with faster turnaround.

What does “multimedia” journalism mean and how is it changing?

The old forms of traditional media still exist, but they have adapted to new methods of delivery and consumption.

Radio stories on the air –> downloadable/streamable podcasts and web versions of stories with photos

TV news –> online video (compositional framing changes, video length changes, formatting optimized for mobile)—and the bar for web video is getting higher and higher (cinema cameras, drones, higher production value, etc.)

Newspaper-style photography and landscape orientation –> Instagram and the rise of medium format (square) and portrait orientation (contains more information)

Traditional forms like writing, radio and broadcast have moved online and can complement each other when it comes to telling a complete, dynamic story.

Intro to Photojournalism

Intro to Radio

Intro to Video Journalism

An evening at home.

I think because of the threat the tribe faces, convincing them to tell their story to an organization such as National Geographic would not be that difficult since they’ll raise the awareness, I’m sure they need. One of the residents even said, “it’s important to record because then you have a weapon.” However, it takes a lot for anyone to stand up to a ruling government but in this case since it’s a matter of their livelihood then I think it’s important to do.
The scene with the loggers cutting the trees and burning it was interesting to me. I wonder how brave the videographer must have been to be running besides fire, putting his life at risk to capture such scenic moments. Capturing the indigenous peoples’ moments of despair, I think was not easy to witness. Hiding in the bushes to get shots of the van driving on the road, and just temporarily residing in the forest is such a huge sacrifice for a story that came out to be phenomenal.
I think getting to shadow the natives during the regular day must have been a challenge at first. While it might be excited for them to see outsiders with lots of cool looking camera equipment, being filmed would create an awareness and maybe influence how one acts since they know they’re being watched, and the world will see them one day. However, the video felt organic and the raw moments sleeping, eating, traveling, etc. is what told the story in a real way.

https://www.flexclip.com/share/21577543000154c920ed0d90f3bf0252531e87f.html

https://www.flexclip.com/share/215775443f1e7bcd99071e68e1871ca5fc4def0.html

Script:

Host Intro: In NYC, many neighborhoods are considered “food deserts”, which are urban areas in which it is difficult for people to acquire affordable good quality foods. A community garden is a local plot of land that is used for the neighborhood’s local residents to learn how to grow and harvest some fresh fruits and vegetables while providing them with free access to the garden. To understand the importance of these community projects, I spoke to a local resident in Woodside, who is a frequent volunteer and contributor to their neighborhood’s garden.

ACT: Angela- Hey, so my name is Angela I am 26 years old and I’ve been volunteering at my local community garden since its opening in I think it was May of 2022. I’ve always kind of been aware of community gardening just through my other you know organizer friends but never really took the initiative to go and actually volunteer for this past year my neighborhood got its very own community garden right on 68th Street and it made it a lot easier for me to get involved.

Track: I followed up by discussing her interests in the garden, and why she decided to spend her time contributing to this community project.

ACT: Angela- Yeah, so I grew up in a lot of different parts of queens and I still live right here in Woodside you know, I also spend a lot of time in Manhattan obviously for work and other things and I think that all of us living here in this in New York can kind of notice the start differences in what’s readily available to our communities versus theirs and you know I think maybe the situation has gotten a little bit better throughout the years but still if you look in our local bodegas and you know these are places where our community’s residents and kids frequently visit when they’re looking for food and other things are largely filled with like heavily processed foods and there isn’t really as much fresh fruits and vegetables available as you might find in stores in Manhattan, so you know that’s kind of the first thing that really drew me into volunteering with the garden was the fact that they were going to provide the community with free access to the space and the things that we harvested so that in itself was a big interest for me since you know as part of volunteering we were learning how to grow things like lettuce kale tomatoes peppers tomatoes eggplant and you know things like that and so it was really cool that we were able to give back to our own community and you know that everyone can access these things for free and another aspect that kind of drew me into the garden itself was being connected with my neighbors. I was able to make a lot of friends through this experience and have gotten to know people from a lot of different cultural backgrounds who actually just live a few blocks away from me.

Track: I asked Angela if there were any personal benefits that she feels she gained from this experience. 

ACT: Angela- Yeah so I was completely new to gardening when I first started so it was a huge learning experience for me. I think that learning new things, especially as an adult is always special and important I personally found gardening to be very meditative and even spiritual in the sense that you feel kind of connected to other living things the connection and friendships with my neighbors were also something I considered very personally uplifting for me and of course being able to you know contribute to the Community Harvest where my neighbors and I could all enjoy delicious and fresh vegetables or fruits was also a really good feeling. I really recommend you to find and get involved with their local Community Gardens if you can you really get to meet new people you get to meet your neighbors, you learn a new skill, feed people and learn things like patience, consistency and care.

Track: After speaking with Angela, it is clear to me of the importance of these community gardens, and just how significant they are to these neighborhoods and their residents. And with that, for JRN 3510. I am Norbu Sherpa.

Living in Section-8 Housing NYC.

This was an incredibly captivating story and film with cinematography that puts you in the moment and makes your heart race. The film shows multiple perspectives which really helps paint a full picture, and I could not help but side with one of them. I still cannot believe how this was all shot live and over the course of three years.

In terms of getting access to a story like this, I think one really has to live with the people before even finding out about this. Talking to and working with the locals, then eventually you will be connected to a story like this. Trust also has to be built, for them to take you everywhere and for their behavior to remain authentic. Not only that but as you live and interact with people you will find out about stories that you could not if you were on the outside, they are their own cultures and societies and you must be a part to access it (unlike in first world countries where everything is accessible online).

Personally I was most captivated by the mixture of the story with the shots of nature, which fit just so perfectly. As for the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people, it was truly inspirational how much they cared and took action. It was their whole lives, and for them their whole world to take care of their culture and their land,