2013-05-19T15:39:28-04:00 Dimple Vijaykumar http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=dimple-vijaykumar Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Dimple Vijaykumar Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1607419 2012-06-19T21:40:29-04:00 2012-08-19T05:12:08-04:00

Dimple Vijaykumar http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dimple-vijaykumar/
Interview questions increasingly revolve around one's social media presence: do you have a blog? Are you familiar with Photoshop, or HTML? How popular was your latest tweet?

The heralding of the information age has brought with it a revolution in the world of news. No doubt, journalistic practices have been given a real shake-up, and the marriage between journalism and technology continues to be celebrated in newsrooms everywhere.

Why? Because breaking news uploads, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and the influx of other digital networks are not killing journalism, but enriching it.

However, this huge shift from print and broadcast to online is ongoing, and for reporters to survive this transition, they need to possess a bigger toolkit of job skills. Journalists may now be required to talk to - not at - audiences of millions, and must be able to define themselves as multimedia experts, capable of crafting many narratives for one story.

In essence, news outlets suggest that it is no longer enough to be able to write or know your way around the AP Stylebook, and call for employees to seize the power of digital storytelling.

The influence of Twitter

Twitter has levelled the playing field for all reporters. As long as you have Internet access, you can easily break news. Although Twitter itself cannot be classed as 'journalism', it has proven itself to be an efficacious device, aiding journalists everywhere.

Ryan Sholin, the director of news innovation at Publish2, was one of the first to put together a simple guide on how to gather and report news with Twitter, whilst Mashable have also created a more thorough guide on Twitter's potential as an important journalistic instrument.

Both authors express the belief that it isn't just about having a blog or possessing a Twitter feed, it's about how journalists use such mediums to engage with their audiences and connect with their sources.

Nevertheless, the legitimacy of Twitter in the world of journalism is still questionable.

No doubt, our tenured j-school professors would still ask journalists everywhere to verify tweets and investigate all the evidence before breaking news or publishing content.

Hackers and hacks

Today, there seems to be some consensus surrounding the skill du jour for journalists: programming.

"I would argue that today, every journalist ought to understand basic principles of programming to know what's possible," states Rich Gordon, director of digital innovation at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

As we fundamentally begin to think differently about the way in which news is presented, adopting new, unique skills as a reporter will eventually pay off in the long run. However, the main reason to learn programming as a journalist is not just to add another line to your CV.

When covering stories, one also has to deal with information overload. Huge quantities of data need to be sifted through, and tracking the most popular news trends can be very difficult. Such tasks can seem daunting, but applying your programming skills here can be tremendously useful.

Roland Legrand over at PBS suggests that when journalists are able to establish a link between programming and the content of news, they can "start looking for data structures, for ways to manipulate data (in a good sense) to make them work for your community."

Legrand goes on to argue: "You'll see data everywhere -- from the kind that floats in the air thanks to augmented reality, to the more mundane version contained in endless streams of status updates."

Although not all reporters will necessarily benefit from learning to code, there's no doubt that as technology advances, so must our understanding of it.

Essentially, journalism now also involves enhancing the visual side of information, and incorporating interactive tools into stories requires an interest in web design.

As we devote more time to creating non-linear narratives, acquiring a basic knowledge of CSS, HTML and Java Script is fast becoming invaluable. Even possessing only an amateur level of coding means you already have a sharper skill set compared to others in the same newsroom.

Constructing multimedia narratives

Whilst the written word continues to underpin blogging and tweeting, in order to produce the most thorough of news reports, design plays a crucial role in digital storytelling.

Neal Ungerleider is a reporter for business-focused magazine, Fast Company, and specialises in 'covering the intersection of science, technology, society, and geopolitics.' In his own words, he states: "The more technical skills a journalist has, the more adept they are at telling stories... and the better career prospects they have."

He is part of the growing number of journalists who believes that as reporters find new ways to unearth scoops and spot news, they must also continue to practice a process of story development.

So, what about the lesser known digital media platforms such as Pinterest or Bundlr? In light of Ungerleider's advice, how can they help journalists today?

In essence, both can be used by journalists to bookmark and organise interesting or relevant content. Pinterest almost makes practicing web journalism an art form; reporters are able to discover trending news stories, create virtual storyboards, exhibit their work or produce a portfolio.

Users are allowed to generate visually-appealing pinboards, which can document important news through images or videos; this feature is vital in making the news more accessible and interesting to the average news consumer.

And, according to freelance journalist Alexandre Gamela: "Bundlr wasn't intended to be a journalism tool but journalists can take advantage of its features for their everyday work. Besides gathering different social media and online contents like photos, videos and tweets to present in a single page, it can be used privately for research and brainstorming to write articles."

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Pinterest and Bundlr already have real potential as tools to aggregate dynamic and newsworthy content, and both continue to gain clout in the world of social media.

It seems like the possibilities for digital storytelling are almost endless: organising data visualisations, uploading interactive charts, maps, audio and video clips, sourcing reliable infographics, the list goes on.

John Bracken, director of Journalism and Media Innovaton at Knight Foundation, recently declared that "print is the new vinyl." Bracken may have a point.

Journalists must come to understand that as new technology emerges, our methods of communication only continue to expand. And those who cannot adapt may be left behind.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1380211 2012-03-27T19:00:00-04:00 2012-05-27T05:12:02-04:00

Dimple Vijaykumar http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dimple-vijaykumar/
Back in November 2010, the late Marie Colvin wrote a speech on the importance of war journalism, in which she addresses how "journalists covering combat shoulder great responsibilities and face difficult choice." She argues that "our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice" but at the same time, "we always have to ask ourselves... what is bravery, and what is bravado?"

Combat reporting is the backbone to a free press as it seeks to bring events of unjust conflict to the public's eye; and its necessities as well as its dangers have been dramatically highlighted in the wake of the Iraq War and the Arab Spring.

A war journalist is no ordinary hack. Whilst they may take every precaution to ensure their safety in the combat zone, donning bulletproof vests and helmets, what happens in the chaos of warfare is completely unpredictable.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-profit organisation dealing with the rights of journalists and promoting press freedom internationally, have compiled reports on how many journalists and media-related professionals have been killed 'in crossfire/combat' since 1992.

According to their findings, they put the number at 159, with 85% of these deaths having been attributed to war. A further 108 have died whilst on 'dangerous assignment', and 22% of these fatalities are also due to covering wars.

That is over 250 people killed as a result of being caught in a conflict they were not a part of, with the number rising every year. They were not the enemy, they were simply the spectators.

Dealing with demons

Ideally, professionalism for war reporters is being unbiased as their job is to neutralise the propaganda of politicians; journalism should not take refuge under the umbrella of patriotism.

From a personal view, when covering conflicts, war reporters are meant to be realistic, not cynical, neutral but not naive, and have room to empathise whilst maintaining an objective context. Becoming a voyeur of human suffering is part of this experience; but it can have a dangerous impact on one's state of mind.

In 2007, Men's Journal, a men's lifestyle magazine based in the US, published a profile of the CNN journalist, Anderson Cooper. Cooper had apparently become desensitised to the grotesque images of the Rwandan Genocide; the violence he witnessed on a daily basis had become almost mundane, and the body count became less and less significant.

It was only when a colleague showed him a photograph of him taking a picture of a dead woman, his face showing visible fascination rather than repulsion, that he realised his perspective had to change.

A study published in the Columbia Journalism Review found that out of 170 correspondents, war journalists were revealed to have "more post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and psychological distress." The graphic images of life in a warzone often do not make it into national newspapers or onto television screens, due to editorial sensitivities or for fear of the public backlash; but war reporters never receive the chance to turn their heads away.

They are forced to look at human suffering in the eye, but driven by a sense of social conscientiousness to record history as it unfolds.

Anthony Shadid, a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent, was known for focussing his stories on the lives of ordinary citizens who had been greatly affected by their political or social circumstances. He attempted to connect to the people, and understand their way of life, which differed so greatly from his own.

Shadid felt compelled to document the events unfolding in Syria, simply because his journalistic intuition begged him to highlight the extent of the injustice of the Syrian government, and its involvement in the killing of its own people.

When debating on whether or not Shadid should attempt to sneak into the country a second time, he sent this in an e-mail to his editors: "It's just nuts. I feel like no one there is telling the truth now. We have to get the details."

Shadid later did succeed in entering Syria secretly in order to cover the civil war.

And in February 2012, he died there.

To hell and back

Both a soldier and a journalist serve their countries on the front line, but for very different reasons.

Both must juggle their gear as they roam the conflict zone, and make quick decisions under extreme pressure, whilst also evading streams of artillery shells, dodging gunfights and avoiding military air strikes. Both risk their lives to achieve their goals.

But on the battlefield, the weapon of choice for a war journalist is not a gun, but may be a camera. They do not shoot an SA80 rifle, they shoot footage. A soldier may aim to capture the enemy, but a war journalist must always intend to capture the truth.

The difference is this: soldiers are mainly men of action, whereas war journalists are people of reflection.

Covering stories in war zones, against the backdrop of raging firestorms, involves tremendous courage, the gumption, the versatility, and a lot of luck.

The next time you read or watch a news story where a reporter is covering the ongoing bombings in Syria from the city of Homs, or is documenting the political turmoil in Palestine slap-bang from the middle of the Gaza Strip, consider what the reporter is going through to obtain the facts.

They may be putting their bodies in jeopardy, or brushing shoulders with death, and not even realising it. ]]>