Journalism Aids-Comm404

Mark Briggs brings up some very interesting points in his book Journalism Next.

With the dying market of print journalism, as some might call it, it is important to go above and beyond normal practice to pull in readers and maintain readership. Briggs mentions something called audio journalism. Audio journalism is the "invisible medium" according to Briggs, and if done right can be just as powerful as a journalism tool as anythign else. With audio, the same things can be accomplished as with the written word you may see in a newspaper. Mobile phones can also be used to aid journalists, especially when on the road. Most phones these days are capable of video and audio recording, which can then easily be uploaded to almost any site or sent as an email to a publisher, editor, fellow journalist, etc. Audio is the new wave of journalism that allows an audience to not only read what is going, but to hear it as well. Emotion is key when covering news breaking stories or even human interest stories. With audio, the audience is able to hear that emotion from the journalist reporting from the scene and gets a sense of what it is really like to be there with the natural noise in the background. Reading about the sirens blaring around a house on fire is one thing, but to hear them while also hearing about the story will help the audience feel closer to what is going on and tug at the heart strings.

Briggs also mentions video when reporting. Of course, there is broadcast journalism, but I took this chapter in his book to mean video as an aid, not as your main source of news. Video will also bring in the audio part of journalism as well, but now the audience can see a clip of those sirens passing by the journalist instead of just reading or hearing about it. Every hour there is 20 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube, and while I am sure that these are not news pieces, it is astounding how much video footage is out there and how many people are really looking at it. Video is a great way to reach out to people because they are more apt to watch a quick 30 second video than they are to read your 13" story in a paper, depending on the person, of course. Video journalism also puts the world of journalism into anyones hands that has a video camera. People can do this from home, as is obvious by the video posted in this weeks blog, and can be done in just a few short minutes. Like audio, video can be sent to anywhere in the world and can be used on news programs without the person actually having to be there. In print, the writer has the first sentence, the lead, to suck the audience in. With video, Briggs says the journalist has 20 seconds to suck the audience in...it's a trick, tricky business, and with all these new ways to use technology, there is no way journalism is going anywhere any time soon.