3 steps to great online video stories

In “Three Ways to Become a Good Documentary Journalist,” Kurt Lancaster examines a recent New York Times video story about a young artist living on $12,000 a year. Lancaster believes the video succeeds because it reflects “three elements of strong documentary journalism:.” In his view, they are:

1. Gives voice to the subject
2. Takes us into the personal life-space of the subject. d
3. Visually compelling. 

Lancaster’s analysis offers important lessons for anyone creating online video, no matter how much or how little training they have had in television journalism.

Social media guidelines for news organizations

In response to The New York Times’ announcement that it was naming Jennifer Preston its social media editor, Patrick Thornton of BeatBlogging.org offered advice to Preston. But Thornton’s advice is good for any news organization. He writes that “The whole point of social media is to be social. That should be the starting point for any journalist on social media.”

Thornton offers five guidelines:

Be Social
Transparency
Encourage every employee to experiment with social media
Make two-way communication a requirement of content producers
Build a bigger network of sources

Read the full post here.