Editor’s Note: It was an honor to get to sit down at the Instant Messaging panel Friday to discuss getting started in multimedia with Mindy McAdams. McAdams is a professor at the University of Florida and holds the Knight Chair in Journalism Technologies and the Democratic Process. (Faculty Bio). When it comes to multimedia journalism, McAdams literally wrote the book - Flash Journalism. She also runs a weblog that dissects multimedia journalism projects and keeps up with digital happenings in media: Teaching Online Journalism. This is an edited transcript of the conversation, which was conducted via AIM.
Above all, I think the things McAdams talked about in our session Friday show both challenge and opportunity, if we are willing to seize the moment. And, there are some *great* resources (links) at the bottom of the article!
Murley: What sorts of changes have you seen in the journalism industry over the last 12 months related to how they use multimedia?
McAdams: The professionals seem to have very suddenly got the news flash that they need to start producing multimedia and lots of it. Why they never thought so before, I don’t know …
And why they suddenly woke up from a Snow White-like sleep, I can’t tell you. Whatever the reason(s), just in the last 12 to 18 months, it seems like they finally get it.
One more thing … This means they are now looking very closely at every new hire to see whether that person can bring anything useful to the online news product … AND they are spreading the news in their newsroom that a sea change is under way or coming.
Murley: That seems to be one of the things that we were hearing even back last Oct. - “we don’t need graduates with all this new media stuff,” but you seem to indicate that is changing.
When you are doing these training workshops with professionals, what’s the mix - more graphic artists? photographers? writers?
McAdams: I heard them say that for six years, and just this year, they changed their tune …
In training workshops, we do see a lot of photojournalists. They seem to be rising to the challenge in a big way. We see fewer graphic designers, but there are far fewer of them (than photogs) at most newspapers, so that’s logical. And we see people who have the job title “online producer” or “online editor” and even a few self-identified print reporters.
Murley: It’s interesting (and a bit sad) that the writers end up behind the curve on this, since they really have an ability to tell great stories (usually).
McAdams: But they became writers because they were good at writing, or liked it, or both.
Murley: true. I just always thought the whole package worked together - the whole is greater than the parts. So we sense that the professional ground is shifting (finally). What does that mean for college journalists? Even the print reporters?
McAdams: I have been hearing from the photogs that the reporters have never paid much attention to the photo desk. Of course, that cuts both ways. But the point I am getting at is that the reporters have traditionally been enveloped in their haven of words, words, words and thus they have probably undervalued the visuals and design elements and so on — all along.
What does that mean for college journalists? It means that someone needs to throw a bucket of ice water on the heads of all those students who think words, words, words mean anything to anybody. I don’t really mean to say that words are now useless. We have to use text and the written word to explain any number of things in journalism — text is often best, but text alone will not hold people’s attention today. Text alone will not explain adequately. Text that comes within a poor design is text that will never be read.
Murley: Assuming the readers are in agreement, where does a college media organization begin in using multimedia? Maybe address someone at a small college and also someone at a large state U.?
McAdams: Two things: (1) The overall design and production of the news Web site(s), and (2) audio and photos. …
(1) The majority of news Web sites are ugly and hard to use. They have been that way since Day One. Largely that is because of advertising crowding out all the editorial content and interfering with it. But apart from that crying shame, the headlines are small, and often incomprehensible too, and the arrangement of items on the page makes your eyes go around and never settle on anything. So …
(a) Design of the home page AND all interior pages needs to be retooled, usually from scratch. I recommend starting with CSS, Web 2.0 and accessibility. Hire a pro if you must. You can Google all of this online and get a clue …
(b) Design is often constrained by some horrible CMS that someone bought or built without having a good understanding of how it worked. (This happens among the pros too.) If you can’t work with the one you have, take the loss and scrap it. If you have to build one from scratch, use something open and adaptable such as TextPattern …
(c) And finally (for design), learn to tag, cross-link, and pimp your own stuff!!! Geez, links and search are THE keys to all Web traffic. You have a gold mine in college media if you can understand this one thing …
(2) Now for audio and photo: Learning to gather and edit audio is cheap and it is the easiest thing there is. Anyone can learn it. Even print reporters who don’t want to. So …
(a) start by requiring all reporters to gather audio and turn in an audio file BEFORE they file their story. If the audio is unusable, figure out what carrot or stick to use to get a better file next time. …
(b) Start insisting that writers and photogs GO OUT on assignment TOGETHER. Work together, talk together. Try to get the photog to shoot a bigger take so you can create a slideshow with audio. …
(c) Buy at least one copy of Soundslides. It’s only $40.
Murley: I like the idea that you point out about getting people to work together, and also getting the reporters to turn in audio BEFORE the story. Any other “management”-style suggestions about getting started? Training? etc?
McAdams: I am told that News U will have an audio how-to online any day now. Maybe it is already there. In the meantime, send folks to Transom.org, Radio College, the BBC tutorials, and even the radio people in the journalism department, if there are some. For photo, of course, any school should have at least one photojournalism prof. If not, call up the local newspaper and get someone to come in and give an introductory guest lecture about (a) shooting and (b) composition.
Finally (training), don’t be too quick to go to the computer science department. They do not teach design. They teach systems, networks, programming. You’d be better off nosing around in the graphic design parts of your art department.
Murley: Where should students go to attempt their initial efforts at multimedia? are there certain stories to look to for that type of treatment?
McAdams: Great question … Features really lend themselves to an easy-to-report, easy-to-build audio slideshow. However, the final appeal to a real audience might be LOW, and you want to avoid that. So I suggest that student journalists think hard about the enjoyability factor AND the potential audience. You would want to have a lot of people look at the multimedia piece. You would also want a lot of people to LIKE it. You could always do a wet T-shirt contest, but let’s try to come up with something that might have a bit more VALUE to the audience.
Features like the local bike club (if members are young) goes on a ride … the local rock gym … a kickboxing class for women — these can be valuable. People might say, “I’d like to try that!” or, “I didn’t know I could do that!” And if there is any controversial issue on campus or nearby, you can try your hand at streeters or “vox pop.” The BBC (I think) has a nice tutorial for how to.
Murley: In your experience training both pros and college students, what’s the biggest obstacle to beginning to work with multimedia? And how to do help people overcome that obstacle (s)?
McAdams: Fear. That’s it. Fear that it will be too hard and they will therefore feel stupid. Or someone will think they are stupid …
Also fear that it will take away from their “real love,” such as words, writing — or still photography …
Or fear that they will fail. Fear that they will miss the dealine, or hand in something that’s poor. In classes, it’s fear of a bad grade.
Overcoming it … We catch more flies with honey. You must give people space to fail, and time. You can’t say you want that audio thing to go on the home page tonight by 10 p.m. if it is the first audio thing the poor reporter ever made! That’s just cruel.
It’s like teaching a kid to ride a bicycle or a teenager to drive a car. You don’t try to make them feel bad. You do the opposite.
Murley: When I was first learning page layout, I kept my eye on the nearby Houston Chronicle, because they were doing some pretty good things at that time. Name five sites that are doing *consistently* good multimedia projects these days that students would do well to emulate, or at least keep an eye on.
McAdams: Well, they should always look at The New York Times and The Washington Post for multimedia, because they do a lot of it, and mostly the quality is very high.
They should look at the Web site of Terra Incognita because it will encourage them to consider NEW things.
And Second Story (same idea).
The Roanoke (Va.) Times - Not always perfect, but trying hard.
EP3 (in Spanish, but deal with it).
MediaStorm.net, which is not updated often, but there’s always some good stuff there.
Murley: And obviously, your blog keeps track of these things …
McAdams: Most newspapers are doing lame stuff 80 percent of the time, so it’s hard to give you news Web site examples. Oh, but one more excellent one … Sorry it’s taking so long … the stupid Minneapolis Star Tribune has GREAT multimedia and they have buried it so completely, I can’t even find any of it!!!!
Murley: if a multimedia story is produced and nobody can find it, does it really make a sound?
McAdams: I give up. All I can find is the stupid video from their TV partner and their blogs. I can’t even find photo! (Boy, are they going to hear from me!)
Multimedia that can’t be found is multimedia that no one will ever see.
I’m not looking anymore. Any other Q’s?
Murley: I’d love to ask about other issues, for those who are already versed in the basics, but we’ll save that for another time. As a final question, are there any other words of wisdom you’d like to pass on to people who are just beginning to experiment with this stuff?
McAdams: It takes time, but it’s so worth it!
Murley: Good deal. thanks for your time today, Mindy.
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