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Illustration to accompany an article for The Hollywood Reporter on the differences and divide between the working habits of the new, young reporters and the established 'old guard' in busy newsrooms.

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Illustration to accompany an article for The Hollywood Reporter on the differences and divide between the working habits of the new, young reporters and the established 'old guard' in busy newsrooms.

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Inside newsrooms around the world - in pictures

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Inside newsrooms around the world - in pictures

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Noel Bowler photographed some of the largest newsrooms across the world, exploring the physical spaces that house our modern press. With declining readership, reduced advertising and persistent questions about 'truth' and relevance of newspapers in the 21st century, the structures of print media are in a state of flux. This is a glimpse into the places that are separated by geography, culture and politics, yet linked by the commitment to informing an ever-more distracted public

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Where the headlines are made: inside newsrooms around the world - in pictures

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Noel Bowler photographed some of the largest newsrooms across the world, exploring the physical spaces that house our modern press. With declining readership, reduced advertising and persistent questions about 'truth' and relevance of newspapers in the 21st century, the structures of print media are in a state of flux.

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Product Vs Service | Differences Between Product And Service

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Malcolm Tatum Last Modified Date: February 07, 2023

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A news cycle is the amount of time that passes between the release of one edition of a news outlet and the follow up edition. The…

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MEAA estimated that over the course of 2020 at least 1000 jobs disappeared from the Australian media industry, with journalists at rural and regional media outlets the hardest hit.

By comparison, in 2017, when appearing before a public hearing of the Senate select committee inquiry into Future of Public Interest Journalism, MEAA said that the global financial crisis between late 2007 through 2008 had led to 700 editorial redundancies.[i]

The loss of jobs has been dire for the industry. In March 2021, MEAA told the Senate inquiry into media diversity in Australia that, according to MEAA's analysis, there are now fewer than 10,000 recognised journalists serving Australian consumers. "We believe their number has fallen by around 5000 in the last decade."[ii]

Many of the job losses can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated fall in media outlet revenues from the decline in advertising and social and sporting activities that would normally encourage consumption of news. However, it is clear some media employers took advantage of the pandemic's restrictions on economic activity to cynically restructure their businesses, imposing mass layoffs among their employees and ruthlessly closing media outlets at the expense of the local communities they served.

Layoffs, Inequity and COVID-19: A Longitudinal Study of the Journalism Jobs Crisis in Australia from 2012 to 2020[iii], a paper by Nik Dawson, Sacha Molitorisz, Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and former UTS journalism practice professor Peter Fray, found that while there was "a marked upswing in news consumption in Australia" during the COVID-109 pandemic.

"In Australia in 2019, 56 per cent of Australians accessed news more than once a day; by April 2020, three months after the first local case of COVID-19 was confirmed, that figure had jumped to 70 per cent."

But while the demand and consumption of news was up, "news outlets found it even harder to make money, as advertising dried up even further... On March 25, 2020, The Atlantic ran a story under the headline, 'The coronavirus is killing local news'. The author urged people to subscribe: 'Among the important steps you should take during this crisis: Wash your hands. Don't touch your face. And buy a subscription to your local newspaper'."

"In Australia, there were widespread closures and job losses before the pandemic, but COVID-19 compounded the problem. In late March, Rupert Murdoch's publishing business News Corp warned of 'inevitable' job cuts and the closure of regional titles. Soon afterwards, News Corp - Australia's biggest publisher - suspended the print editions of 60 Australian newspapers, including the Manly Daily and Wentworth Courier in Sydney, the Brisbane News and the Mornington Peninsula Leader in Victoria. In May, News Corp confirmed that more than 100 of its local and regional mastheads would either switch to digital only or disappear completely. These cuts came in the wake of a dramatic drop in advertising from the entertainment, restaurant and real estate industries, the titles' main revenue sources.

"The global pandemic is ongoing, and its lasting impact on journalism remains to be seen."[iv]
Government support
As the pandemic began to bite into the Australian economy, MEAA urged the Federal Government to "unlock $40 million in funding to keep regional and rural newspapers alive during the coronavirus crisis".[v]

On March 25, 2020, MEAA said it had written to Communications Minister Paul Fletcher urging him to release the money to regional publishers. "The money has already been allocated to a Regional and Small Publishers Jobs and Innovation Package but must be repurposed into a survival fund to prevent local publishers from closing their doors.

"The Federal Government should also provide additional funds as needed to support this essential service, which has suffered a devastating advertising downturn since the introduction of public health restrictions on activities such as eating out and entertainment. Federal and state governments can also help to make up for some of the lost revenue by placing public health advertising with regional and small publishers."

MEAA Media Federal President Marcus Strom said: "This is a time when the public needs accurate and information about what is happening, and people naturally turn to local, national and international media expecting this. Local publications are lifelines for their communities; they know them intimately. We are concerned about what will fill the void left by their closure. In such a vacuum, misinformation and 'fake news' can flourish.

"While most of the rest of us are locked in our homes, many journalists will still be out risking their health to inform the community.

"This is an essential service, and governments should be doing all they can to ensure that it can continue... Newspaper proprietors must also do their part. They must explore alternative avenues to keep their communities informed rather than take the drastic and unacceptable step of shutting down publications, as has begun happening in regional Victoria.

Strom added: "We understand the financial pressures publishers are experiencing and offer our help to negotiate ways of easing this burden but closing the doors at this time would be a betrayal of their workforce and a betrayal of their communities."
Australian Community Media
On April 30, 2019, Nine Publishing sold the former Fairfax regional newspapers' group, Australian Community Media, to investors Antony Catalano and Alex Waislitz's Thorney Investments. At the time, MEAA said the new owners must commit to investing in journalism at the ACM group so they continue to provide a genuine service to local communities.

Australian Community Media titles in 2020 Image: The Canberra Times

MEAA expressed concern about what the change of ACM group ownership will mean for independent journalism and the group's 160 community, regional and rural publications around Australia, and for the jobs and conditions of Fairfax regional employees.[vi]

On May 1, 2019, The Australian reported: "Antony Catalano has vowed to invest in regional newspapers including The Canberra Times and The Newcastle Herald and believes he could more than double his money after snapping up the former Fairfax's 160-plus regional mastheads for a bargain $125 million."[vii]

The reported quoted Catalano as saying: "You don't prune a rose bush right down to its roots and then hope you'll suddenly get all this growth. That just is not part of what I have done in my business history. There will be a focus on finding where we can grow the business. That is what we have done. I have a history of taking underperforming old media assets and turning them around. That is what will try to do here."

MEAA responded: "There are about 650 editorial staff employed across the country by the ACM group. It is essential that the individual audiences for each of the group's mastheads be respected. The business model that Antony Catalano introduced at the Fairfax Domain group was to combine the editorial of several mastheads into near-identical content. Editorial cutbacks meant that genuine local reporting was gradually whittled away in favour of bland vanilla news stories shared across several mastheads, regardless of what individual audiences wanted."[viii]

"These titles... provide vital coverage of local courts, councils and politics to an audience of more than four million readers every month. Maintaining independent coverage of local issues is vital for our democracy."[ix]

However, by mid-April 2020 ACM had begun winding back on its print publications. MEAA said the change had been made without adequate consultation and was disrespectful to loyal editorial staff, adding that employees had been kept in the dark by management and only became aware of the decision at the same time as the public.[x]

MEAA responded by saying it is weighing up whether to take ACM to the Fair Work Commission for failure to consult about the changes, in breach of the company's enterprise agreement. "ACM management is legally required to consult with staff representatives, including MEAA, before undertaking any major changes to operations.

"That hasn't taken place and all management has done by this announcement today is create more uncertainty among employees about where cuts will be made. Management needs to detail as soon as possible where the cuts will be felt.

MEAA added that the Federal Government could no longer ignore the crisis in Australia's regional media. "ACM is Australia's largest owner of regional and rural publications, and for a company of this size to be closing down mastheads is more evidence, if any was needed, that the future of regional media in this country is under threat.

"Advertising revenues have been devastated by coronavirus, and we have seen close to a dozen mastheads close in the last fortnight while the Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has sat on his hands. More than ever, rural and regional communities need trusted sources of news and the government must provide emergency funding so media in country Australia can survive."

A key issue would evolve over the ACM actions would be access to the Government's COVID-19 JobKeeper wage subsidy and information for employees on whether they would be suspended during to the pandemic downtown or whether their jobs had been made redundant. "MEAA also finds it difficult to reconcile how a company can take such drastic action and yet not be eligible for the JobKeeper income subsidy. Employers should be exploring all avenues to retain staff rather than making people redundant. We are urgently seeking more clarity from the company about the grounds on which it claims it is not eligible for JobKeeper."

On August 24, 2020 MEAA called for greater oversight of the Federal Government's regional media support fund as redundancies continued in companies that received the taxpayer support. MEAA said that the week before Southern Cross Austereo, a recipient of $10 million under the government's $50 million regional media support package, announced 38 jobs would be lost due to a restructure of its radio operations. The company blamed the challenges of the COVID-19 environment. Australian Community Media, which owns more than 170 regional media mastheads, has shut or closed multiple titles with the loss of an undetermined number of jobs. It too is a recipient of government support."[xi]

MEAA Media's federal president Marcus Strom said: "How is it that big media companies can access millions of dollars in government funding while making staff redundant? It seems that the Government package is supporting shareholders and boardrooms rather than the working journalists who deliver news and information to the communities they serve. The Government needs to reset its priorities to better serve audiences and the taxpayer.

"While any support is welcome the government support to date is inadequate, misdirected and time-limited. There is no doubt that all regional media businesses are doing it tough but smaller media outlets are closing down and others may never recover."

The government's Public Interest News Gathering initiative (PING), much of it is money repurposed from other projects, was targeting only larger regional media businesses with a history of providing public interest journalism and that have been in operation for more than a year. The support is only available for 12 months.

Support was denied to regional media start-ups - the very outlets that are struggling to maintain an essential service to their community. "The loss of small media outlets is dire. The provision of news and information is an essential service during the pandemic. More must be done to provide an ongoing lifeline to keep local media operating," Strom said.

MEAA's Western Australia regional director, Tiffany Venning said greater diversity in media ownership is crucial, and regional media deserved better support from government. "That's the issue here, the investment in journalists and journalism," Venning told the ABC. "I do think they should be properly funding regional journalism, in particular. Not only is it important to the community, but it's also where a lot of journalists get their training."

MEAA's Western Australia regional director, Tiffany Venning said MEAA had repeatedly asked for information regarding the masthead closures at ACM, which had "repeatedly been met with silence", Venning said.[xii]
ABC
On June 24, 2020 the ABC announced 250 jobs would be lost - the inevitable result of funding cuts imposed by the Coalition Government.

MEAA noted that by 2022, which will be the end of the third triennial funding period during which the Coalition Government has been in power, the total funding cut from the ABC will be more than $783 million.

"The cumulative impact of these cuts, which began at the 2014 Budget, have been to strip the ABC of newsgathering capacity at a time when Australians' reliance on the national broadcaster has been greater than ever before.

"The cuts announced today as part of the ABC's five-year blueprint are a direct result of the indexation freeze on the ABC's operating revenue imposed by then-Treasurer Scott Morrison in the 2018 Budget which was effectively an $83.7 million funding cut over three years.

MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy said: "The Coalition Government's war against the ABC since it was elected in 2013 amounts to nothing less than vandalism of one of Australia's most trusted and valued public institutions."

"These vindictive cuts have been ideologically motivated to undermine the ABC's independence and its news gathering ability. In real terms, the ABC's funding from government is now 30% below what it was in the mid-1980s. The result is that ABC staff are doing more with less.

"Over the past six months, the ABC has again demonstrated its value as an essential service providing comprehensive and vital news and information from across the breadth of Australia and around the world about bushfires and the coronavirus pandemic. Yet, once again, ABC staff will be asked to continue producing high quality and trusted journalism with ever-diminishing resources.

"As more and more journalists are forced out the door, those left behind face increasing workloads, leading to concerns about quality, burnout and the wellbeing of news and current affairs staff."

MEAA Media Federal President Marcus Strom said: "These cuts have a real human cost with 250 people facing unemployment in the middle of a recession and a constrained job market for media professionals."
News Corporation
On the morning of May 28, 2020 News Corp Australia announced the closure of mastheads and resulting job in a huge blow for communities in regional and suburban Australia.

MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy said: "We are still waiting for clarity from the company on how many editorial staff will be affected by these changes across the News Corp network. We are determined to see proper consultation and fair treatment for any affected staff.

"The closure of so many mastheads represent an immense blow to local communities and, coming off the back of hundreds of previous regional closures during this period, it underlines the seriousness of the crisis facing regional and local journalism," Murphy said.[xiii]

There were more jobs lost at News Corp with an announcement on November 27, 2020 that News Corp would embark on a round of redundancies that would see photographers and editorial production staff lose their jobs. About 25 jobs were lost - 16 photographers, six in centralised production and three editorial roles in Hobart.

The decision to cut more jobs came just six months after News closed mastheads and restructured its local community and regional newspaper businesses.

MEAA Media director Adam Portelli said: "When so many redundancy rounds follow hard one after the other, it creates a climate of uncertainty and fear for the staff who remain. It also piles on the pressure as they try to cope with the inevitable increased workload.

"Losing so many photographers whose images tell their own powerful stories, means many years of experience and particular skills will be lost. Also, production staff are the gatekeepers of quality in a newspaper - at a time when media credibility is vital to retaining valued readers, any loss of key production roles is deeply regrettable."[xiv]
Border Watch Newsgroup
The closure of South Australia's Border Watch Newsgroup announced on August 19, 2020 was another example of a local community left without a key source of regional news and information. MEAA said: "The closure once again illustrates the dire state of regional media as COVID-19 bites hard, causing many country mastheads to suspend operations or close down entirely.

The company's directors announced on Facebook that they had decided to shut operations. Their decision to close The Border Watch (Mount Gambier), South Eastern Times (Millicent) and The Pennant (Penola) cost the jobs of 38 staff.

The then MEAA South Australian regional director Angelique Ivanica said: "Enough is enough. This group has reported on 159 years of local history and now with the biggest health issue to hit our country in a hundred years, it's having to close.

"It's now or never for regional media. The Federal Government must step in with urgent additional funding to keep regional media outlets functioning during the pandemic. The loss of advertising is crippling these outlets. Without revenue they cannot fulfil their responsibility to provide an essential service to their local communities.

"What's more, it's extremely disappointing that there is no detail on the efforts that should have been made to keep the mastheads going. Giving staff and local communities just three days' notice is insulting to loyal workers and readers alike," Ivanica said.[xv]
Our Communities, Our Stories
MEAA recognised the crisis that was unfolding in rural and regional Australia as local media outlets shut down or closed permanently. While COVID can be attributed to much of the damage, the actions of media companies at a time of great regional need following bushfires and amid the pandemic, also contributed to the crisis.

On June 5, 2020 MEAA launched a campaign to raise public awareness and support for rural and regional media. MEAA's Our Communities, Our Stories campaign noted that more than 150 regional and community newspapers had ceased printing. "This is on top of the 106 local and regional papers that closed over the previous decade.

The campaign said: "Many of those papers are more than a century old. Many may never reopen.

"It shouldn't be this way. The stories of regional and rural Australia are important: our stories matter... The local paper is the heartbeat of the community. It provides local news that the big cities can't and/or won't provide. While the Government has announced a $50 million Public Interest News Gathering (PING) program to support regional journalism, more needs to be done."

MEAA has called on regional community leaders and councils, as well as local and federal MPs to fight for greater funding.

"Regional media outlets are the lifeblood of local communities. They ensure voices are heard, vital news and information is shared; community events are promoted and celebrated. They scrutinise politicians and the powerful, and they play an essential role in our democracy," Strom said.

In a statement on August 24, 2020 to highlight the urgency of support needed to keep regional media alive, MEAA Media director Adam Portelli said: "Big city-based media companies need to put the interests of the communities they purport to represent front and centre. Closing their smaller mastheads and consolidating them in a regional hub or centralising news from a capital city does not fill the gap when local news outlets are shut down."

MEAA called on new initiatives for regional media to include tax incentives and funding support for start-ups; greater transparency and accountability for how government support is distributed and spent; and government advertising to be directed to local media.

Strom said: "The need for greater support is now. Jobs are being lost, businesses are closing down, communities are losing their voice. Misdirected funding, poorly targeted support and a lack of accountability for how funds are spent will do irrevocable damage unless urgent action is taken to save regional media."[xvi]

On April 14, 2021, a year on from when the Federal Government announced a $50m Public Interest Newsgathering Fund, the ABC reported that Western Australia is now left with only 28 regional newspapers, 18 of which are owned by the one company, Seven West Media, with another four owned by ACM and six are independently run.[xvii]
Australian Associated Press
On March 3, 2020, the major media organisations that were shareholders in the Australian Associated Press (AAP) news wire agency and photographic service announced that they intended to close the business they created, with the loss of up to 180 jobs.

The AAP operation provided "more than 500 stories, 750 images and 20 pieces of video each day across news, politics, finance and sport to about 200 subscribers who use it for newspapers, radio news and talkback programs, television news and websites."[xviii] AAP was established by Keith Murdoch, a founding member of MEAA's Australian Journalists Association section, in 1935 to syndicate the cost of international newswires between Australian news publications.

The AAP MEAA house committee said in a statement on March 2, 2020: "MEAA members at Australian Associated Press thank media colleagues and those from outside the industry for their messages of support following an article written about the company's future.

"It is heartening to know the levels of appreciation for AAP's work, especially given so much of it comes without attribution.

"AAP management have relayed to employees that the story is speculative. As such, AAP's staff are hard at work, as usual.

"For 85 years, AAP has provided important, reliable reporting of courts, politics, sport, general news and photography to a diverse range of subscribers including regional and metropolitan newspapers, websites and broadcasters.

"Now more than ever, an independent, non-partisan newswire is vital in an increasingly fractured media landscape."[xix]

The following day, on March 3, 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 would cause immense damage to media outlets, AAP announced it would close its AAP Newswire business in June and its Pagemasters sub-editing operation in August; the Medianet and Mediaverse divisions would be sold. The closure would represent the loss of 600 jobs, at least half of them editorial positions.

MEAA called the decision a gross abandonment of responsibility by AAP'S shareholders - major media outlets News Corporation Australia and Nine Entertainment. MEAA called on the investors to recognise that they cannot fulfil their duty to inform the community without delivering a solution to fill the enormous void left if AAP is not available to perform its function.

After months of uncertainty, on June 5, 2020 a consortium announced it would purchase AAP Newswire. MEAA said the decision was in crucial recognition of the vital role AAP plays in the Australian media ecosystem.

MEAA Media section federal president Marcus Strom said: "The proposed purchase will see the retention of editorial jobs that just a week ago looked to be lost. Unfortunately, this change of ownership as a result of the decision of Nine Entertainment Co. and News Corp to no longer use AAP's services will still lead to a loss of a number of jobs.

"AAP plays a very necessary role in news coverage for all Australians. Had we lost AAP, then we would all be the poorer. AAP Newswire provides journalism coverage in the areas that the other major news outlets either cannot or choose not to. Without it, our communities would be less informed and vital stories - from the courts to sports, images and breaking news plus many other areas - would not be told," Strom said.

MEAA said that it was short-sighted for AAP's major shareholders to not fully appreciate the importance and value of the business they had owned for decades. "It is fortunate that there were others who did recognise AAP's worth which has led to today's announcement," he said.[xx]
Network 10
On August 11, 2020 Network 10 announced it was embarking on a round of redundancies that would strip newsrooms and deprive audiences of local news.

MEAA said the loss of jobs, particularly editorial positions, would limit the amount of essential news and information available to the communities the network is supposed to serve. The decision to cease weekday news bulletins from Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide and replace them with bulletins originating in Sydney and Melbourne showed enormous disrespect to viewers.

MEAA Media acting director Adam Portelli said: "The end result of these cuts is that viewers will simply seek their news and information somewhere else.

"When the network was taken over by ViacomCBS three years ago this month, it was hoped that Network 10 would finally enjoy stability and an injection of new ideas. Despite the best efforts of staff who have constantly struggled to do more with less, we are now seeing deep cuts that have cruelled the hard work done by so many loyal employees.

"Concerningly, under the restructuring being introduced by management, we now have the prospect of sports journalists having to film their own news stories. That's a slippery slope that presents a real danger for news presentation in Australia," Portelli said.[xxi]
The Adelaide Review
MEAA said the announcement that the Adelaide Review would close on October 2, 2020 indicated just how much local and community media outlets were hurting during the COVID-19 crisis. The Review had announced that its 488th edition will be its last.

MEAA's South Australia and Northern Territory regional director Angelique Ivanica said: "The Adelaide Review has been a stalwart of South Australian publishing for almost 37 years. It has shown a fierce determination to be independent, attracting a strong and immensely loyal audience across South Australia. It is a long-loved publication that has buoyed the entire South Australian arts industry and promoted local writing talent. Its demise is representative of the depth of the devastation to our arts community and another blow to diverse media caused by the COVID pandemic.

"The closure of so many media outlets, with many never to reopen their doors, will leave local communities without important access to their own news. Right now, we should be encouraging more media voices, not allowing COVID to silence local media."[xxii]
Bauer Media
Up to 240 Bauer staff were laid off by the magazine group during the COVID pandemic. The German family-owned publishing group's troubled years in the Australian market culminated in its Australian operations being sold to private equity firm Mercury Capital on June 17, 2020.

Days later, on July 21, 2020 the new owners announced they were closing eight mastheads Harper's Bazaar, Elle, InStyle, Men's Health, Women's Health, Good Health, NW and OK! citing the difficulties of the COVID pandemic.

Earlier, on May 5, 2020, MEAA described as callous the way that Bauer Media' staff learned that up to 60 jobs would be lost and another 15 people would be stood down just three days after Bauer had completed a $40 million acquisition of Pacific Magazines which had 160 employees. Bauer had closed its entire New Zealand business on April 2.

MEAA said: "It is a particularly cruel way to treat people. Yesterday was the first day on the job at Bauer for the former Pacific Magazines' employees."[xxiii]

In September 2020 the Bauer publishing business was subsequently renamed Are Media.

[i] "MEAA opening remarks to Senate select committee inquiry into Future of Public Interest Journalism", MEAA, May 18 2017 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/meaa-opening-statement-to-senate-select-committee-inquiry-into-future-of-public-interest-journalism/

[ii] "Opening statement to Senate inquiry into media diversity in Australia", MEAA, March 12 2021, https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/opening-statement-to-senate-inquiry-into-media-diversity-in-australia/

[iii] "Layoffs, Inequity and COVID-19: A Longitudinal Study of the Journalism Jobs Crisis in Australia from 2012 to 2020", Nik Dawson, Sacha Molitorisz, Marian-Andrei Rizoiu and Peter Fray, University of Technology Sydney, 2021 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2008.12459.pdf

[v] "Unlock regional publishers funds now to keep newspapers alive", MEAA, March 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/unlock-regional-publishers-funds-now-to-keep-newspapers-alive/

[vi] "New Fairfax ACM owners must honour commitments, says MEAA" MEAA, April 30 2019, https://www.meaa.org/news/new-fairfax-acm-owner-must-honour-commitments-says-meaa/

[vii] "Catalano, Waislitz swoop on Nine's regional papers", John Stensholt and Lilly Vitorovich, The Australian, May 1 2019 https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/catalano-waislitz-swoop-on-nines-regional-papers/news-story/31b4d9768b40f4eaf6f602192ff27c1b

[ix] "Candidates urged to back local newspapers". MEAA, May 6 2019 https://www.meaa.org/news/candidates-urged-to-back-local-newspapers/

[x] "ACM management must consult with union and staff before making cuts" MEAA April 14 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/acm-management-must-consult-with-union-and-staff-before-making-cuts/

[xi] "Regional media support needs accountability", MEAA, August 24, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/regional-media-support-needs-accountability-meaa/

[xii] "Esperance marks one year without a newspaper, as absence of funeral notices takes toll" Emily Smith, ABC, April 14, 2021 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-14/esperance-express-newspaper-one-year-funeral-notices-missing/13301290

[xiii] "News Corp cuts are a massive blow to communities: MEAA, May 28, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/news-corp-cuts-are-a-massive-blow-to-communities/

[xiv] "MEAA concerned at more jobs going at News Corp", MEAA, November 27, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/meaa-concerned-at-more-jobs-going-at-news-corp/

[xv] "Closing SA's Border Watch group abandons local communities", MEAA, August 19, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/closing-sas-border-watch-group-abandons-local-communities-meaa/

[xvi] "Regional media support needs accountability", MEAA, August 24, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/regional-media-support-needs-accountability-meaa/

[xvii] "Esperance marks one year without a newspaper, as absence of funeral notices takes toll" Emily Smith, ABC, April 14, 2021 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-14/esperance-express-newspaper-one-year-funeral-notices-missing/13301290 s

[xviii] "AAP to close after wire service tells staff it is no longer viable", Amanda Meade, March 3 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/mar/03/aap-to-close-after-wire-service-tells-staff-it-is-no-longer-viable

[xix] "Statement by AAP House Committee" MEAA, March 2, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/statement-by-aap-house-committee/

[xx] "AAP's survival a vital win for the industry", MEAA, June 5, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/aaps-survival-a-vital-win-for-the-industry-meaa/

[xxi] "More jobs go at Network 10", MEAA, August 11, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/more-jobs-go-at-network-10/

[xxii] "Adelaide Review's closure shows how local media is hurting - MEAA", MEAA, September 9, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/adelaide-reviews-closure-shows-how-local-media-is-hurting-meaa/

[xxiii] Callous treatment by Bauer", MEAA, May 5, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/callous-treatment-by-bauer-meaa/

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A thousand journalist jobs gone as COVID bites

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MEAA estimated that over the course of 2020 at least 1000 jobs disappeared from the Australian media industry, with journalists at rural and regional media outlets the hardest hit.

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Disruption caused by digital technology to journalism 

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Disruption caused by digital technology to journalism 

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How disruption in news media is creating better opportunities?

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Disruption has gone a long way with the rapid use of technology as it has transformed the way the news is produced, delivered and consumed…

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Disruption in the media industry – an Australian perspective

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Disruption in the media industry – an Australian perspective

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"We have shifted to a 'video first' world... ...a world that does not include a lot of reading, but watching." (Forbes, September 2017)

'Disruption' is an over-used word in business at the moment, but the shift to 'video first' really does mean disruption in the media industry.

Whether you're a broadcaster, filmmaker, production house, agency or marketer, things are changing. New technologies. New competitors, using new business models.

So much is changing, it's hard to make sense of it all. The Moving Images Moving Landscape survey, which we ran earlier this year, gives some insights. Here are some sneak peeks.

Content creators are under pressure

It's easier and cheaper to create content than ever before. We all have cameras in our pockets.

Is it easier to create good content? Unlikely. But expectations are higher and there's an urgent need to demonstrate value.

Survey results sneak peek

46% of those who fund their own projects say funding is getting harder.
52% of those who work for clients think budgets are getting smaller.
'Clients expect TV quality for an online video budget.'
Entertainment media moves beyond film and TV

In the 1950s we wondered whether cinemas would survive the spread of TV. Now TV is under threat.

Netflix investment in original content is US$6 billion per annum and growing. It plans to release 80 films in 2018 - around twice the amount of any established Hollywood studio.

Web series have come of age. In 2017, four submissions to the Melbourne WebFest had seven figure budgets.

In 2017, the top one-seventh (14 per cent) of new releases took a whopping 86¢ of every dollar at the Australian box office.

What does that mean for the rest? Box office distribution is not the only way to monetise. Online streaming has the potential for a longer tail. Consumers can watch what they want, when they want. So productions for niche markets may be more viable. One factor behind the documentary boom?

Survey results sneak peek

36% of those making entertainment/infotainment content have created content for streaming services like Netflix and Stan.

Video advertising moves beyond film, TV and online

Out of home advertising is increasingly digital - and increasingly video.

Shopping centre TV channels. Video advertising at train stations and bus stops. Even doctors, dentists and hospitals have their own streaming TV.

Out-of-home offers precise geographic targeting for local businesses. It also lets larger brands pinpoint areas where their target market gather.

Survey results sneak peek

Almost 1 in 3 respondents is using video in out of home advertising - it's fast catching up with TV, used by 40% of respondents.

In fact, out of home ranks in top three channels for spend more often than TV does (possibly because some of our smaller respondents just don't do TV), but TV ranks higher for effectiveness.

There's a lot to learn about managing digital content

Looking after your content IP is becoming more and more complicated. There are many factors combining into a perfect storm.

With more people creating more content than ever before, it's harder to know what you've got. To collect it in one system and use metadata so you can find what you want quickly.

More partners in the production chain make security more complicated.

Higher quality cameras mean more data volume and place a strain on storage. Some of the 8K cameras now available can capture over 60TB of data every single hour.

With more distribution platforms come more formats.

Reversioning and re-use of content are also on the rise.

Are policies and processes keeping up? Our survey suggests they're not.

Survey results sneak peak

Managing content (filing, searching etc.) takes on average 25 days a year.
37% have no formal policies or processes for looking after content.
A whopping 12% of respondents have lost content completely, at least once.

The pace of change is fast and furious. The future for the Australian media industry is uncertain, but exciting. It's vital to keep on top of technology, trends and opportunities.

The full report from the Preferred Media Moving Image, Moving Landscape survey will be published next month. If you'd like a copy on release, get in touch and we'll add you to the list.

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Disruption in the Media Industry | An Australian perspective

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Digital & business disruption in the media industry is as great now as in the 50s when TV was born. What's the impact for producers, broadcasters, agencies and advertisers? Early results from our Australia-wide Moving Image Moving Landscape Survey bear out some trends we had already noticed.

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The media is no longer a civil service. It's a business.

Yes, this statement would have Walter Cronkite turning in his grave. But sorry Walter-the glory days of the stoic newsman presenting a fair and balanced view at 6pm are over.

These days, news is less about journalism and more about bending to our deepest, darkest fears. Because here's the dirty little secret, people: Bad news sells.

Think of the events where we all consumed news pathologically-the Global Financial Crisis, September 11, the Brisbane floods or the most recent bird flu outbreak. They all had a common theme, didn't they? They took over the entire front page of the newspaper, the morning news shows raced to the scene so they could broadcast "live from the disaster zone", and every night there seemed to be another TV special about them.

The world's media moguls know bad news sells significantly more than good news. People's interest in news is much more intense when there's a perceived threat to their way of life-especially their money.

So why are we talking about how news is reported in the media? Well, it's a perfect example of what's known as the negativity bias.

You see, there's part of our brain called the amygdala. Developing as part of our human evolution, it's our "danger detector". It quickly works through all the information in front of us and identifies anything that could put us in danger. It's how our ancestors avoided being preyed on by dangerous animals.

We may not have to worry about tigers pouncing on us too much these days. But that "danger detector" still plays a huge part in our daily lives, particularly how we deal with money and the potential loss of it.

Over the past couple of weeks, you've probably seen articles telling everyone that the end of the world is near.

Don't believe everything you read.

There's nothing wrong with consuming the news in times of distress. We do it religiously for our clients. But take everything you read with a grain of salt. By understanding the psychology and the vested interest behind what you're reading, you'll be able to make decisions with your head instead of your heart.

The days of the media helping you understand the issues at play are over. All it's interested in is selling copies, increasing ratings and increasing their advertising income by getting more people to click on their articles.

And that's the danger you should really be looking out for.

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Selling Fear: Why the media makes every financial news story sound scary | Plenary Wealth

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The media is no longer a civil service. It's a business. Yes, this statement would have Walter Cronkite turning in his grave. But sorry Walter-the glory days of the stoic newsman presenting a fair and balanced view at 6pm are over. These days, news is less about journalism and more about bending to our deepest, [...]

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Changes to Sharing and Viewing News on Facebook in Australia

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Changes to Sharing and Viewing News on Facebook in Australia

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We're pleased that we've been able to reach an agreement with the Australian government and appreciate the constructive discussions we've had with Treasurer Frydenberg and Minister Fletcher over the past week. We have consistently supported a framework that would encourage innovation and collaboration between online platforms and publishers. After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognize the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them. As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days.

Read an additional statement from Campbell Brown, VP, Global News Partnerships on our Facebook Journalism Project site.
Originally published on February 17, 2021 at 10:31AM PT:
In to Australia's proposed new Media Bargaining law, Facebook will restrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content.

The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content. It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter.

This discussion has focused on US technology companies and how they benefit from news content on their services. We understand many will ask why the platforms may respond differently. The answer is because our platforms have fundamentally different relationships with news. Google Search is inextricably intertwined with news and publishers do not voluntarily provide their content. On the other hand, publishers willingly choose to post news on Facebook, as it allows them to sell more subscriptions, grow their audiences and increase advertising revenue.

In fact, and as we have made clear to the Australian government for many months, the value exchange between Facebook and publishers runs in favor of the publishers - which is the reverse of what the legislation would require the arbitrator to assume. Last year Facebook generated approximately 5.1 billion free referrals to Australian publishers worth an estimated AU$407 million.

For Facebook, the business gain from news is minimal. News makes up less than 4% of the content people see in their News Feed. Journalism is important to a democratic society, which is why we build dedicated, free tools to support news organisations around the world in innovating their content for online audiences.

Over the last three years we've worked with the Australian Government to find a solution that recognizes the realities of how our services work. We've long worked toward rules that would encourage innovation and collaboration between digital platforms and news organisations. Unfortunately this legislation does not do that. Instead it seeks to penalise Facebook for content it didn't take or ask for.

We were prepared to launch Facebook News in Australia and significantly increase our investments with local publishers, however, we were only prepared to do this with the right rules in place. This legislation sets a precedent where the government decides who enters into these news content agreements, and ultimately, how much the party that already receives value from the free service gets paid. We will now prioritise investments to other countries, as part of our plans to invest in new licensing news programs and experiences .

Others have also raised concern. Independent experts and analysts around the world have consistently outlined problems with the proposed legislation. While the government has made some changes, the proposed law fundamentally fails to understand how our services work.

Unfortunately, this means people and news organisations in Australia are now restricted from posting news links and sharing or viewing Australian and international news content on Facebook. Globally, posting and sharing news links from Australian publishers is also restricted. To do this, we are using a combination of technologies to restrict news content and we will have processes to review any content that was inadvertently removed.
For Australian publishers this means:

They are restricted from sharing or posting any content on Facebook Pages

Admins will still be able to access other features from their Facebook Page, including Page insights and Creator Studio

We will continue to provide access to all other standard Facebook services, including data tools and CrowdTangle

For international publishers this means:

They can continue to publish news content on Facebook, but links and posts can't be viewed or shared by Australian audiences
For our Australian community this means:

They cannot view or share Australian or international news content on Facebook or content from Australian and international news Pages
For our international community this means:

They cannot view or share Australian news content on Facebook or content from Australian news Pages

The changes affecting news content will not otherwise change Facebook's products and services in Australia. We want to assure the millions of Australians using Facebook to connect with friends and family, grow their businesses and join Groups to help support their local communities, that these services will not change.

We recognise it's important to connect people to authoritative information and we will continue to promote dedicated information hubs like the COVID-19 Information Centre , that connects Australians with relevant health information. Our commitment to remove harmful misinformation and provide access to credible and timely information will not change. We remain committed to our third-party fact-checking program with Agence France-Presse and Australian Associated Press and will continue to invest to support their important work.

Our global commitment to invest in quality news also has not changed. We recognise that news provides a vitally important role in society and democracy, which is why we recently Facebook News t o hundreds of pu blications in the UK.

We hope that in the future the Australian government will recognise the value we already provide and work with us to strengthen, rather than limit, our partnerships with publishers.

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Changes to Sharing and Viewing News on Facebook in Australia | Meta

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We're pleased that we've been able to reach an agreement with the Australian government and appreciate the constructive discussions we've had with Treasurer Frydenberg and Minister Fletcher over the past week. We have consistently supported a framework that would encourage innovation and collaboration between online platforms and publishers.

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Interested in starting a media industry business in 2023?

We put together 55 of the best media industry businesses you can start in today.

For each business idea, we'll show you real-world examples of other media industry businesses to help you see what it really takes.

Here's the full list:

1. Start a tv show ranking business ($15.6K/year)

Steve Sanders from Lisle, IL, USA started Episode Ninja about 6 years ago, a tv show ranking business.

2. Start a film production company ($18M/year)

Hope Horner from Los Angeles, California, USA started Lemonlight almost 9 years ago, a film production company.

3. Start an animation business ($84K/year)

Mike Doyle from Raleigh, North Carolina, USA started drive80 about 12 years ago, a animation business.

So here's how I got into working for myself:

From 17 - 22 I was in a punk band called Lanemeyer. We toured 8 times over 2.5 years. Then we broke up because we were a shit show.

When I turned 22 I moved to LA to figure life out. While working at a P.F. Chang's in Woodland Hills, a buddy of mine had a clothing company called Down Apparel. I decided that I wanted to start a clothing company, bought a Gateway PC for $1,300, and started designing. I got a cracked version of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator not realizing these programs were scary as hell. I moved back to NJ and put myself through a technical school to learn graphic design.

4. Become a proofreader ($24K/year)

Lenny Bron from New York, New York, USA started The Blog Proofreader almost 7 years ago, a proofreader.

This business idea was born in 2016, but the journey really began in 2014.

After working for a company for 8 years, I hadn't really gotten far financially and felt stuck. I decided to find a job with better financial prospects and the possibility of advancement. After 6 months of searching, I was hired at a new employer and managed to double my salary in one fell swoop!

Just start! That little voice inside your head giving you doubts will always be there. Push through that voice and keep going until you reach a point where you're lost.

5. Start a niche web design business ($300K/year)

Scott Bishop from Boston, Massachusetts, USA started Up And Social almost 9 years ago, a niche web design business.

I began my business career with the family in-store sampling business, C.A. Courtesy, in the 1990s, while at the same time attending college at Johnson and Wales University, where I pursued a degree in Web Management & Internet Commerce.

I've always had a knack for marketing and technology, and when I left C.A. Courtesy, I was the Vice President of Marketing and Technology.

People don't remember what you say as much as they remember how they felt when you said it.

6. Start an online video editing business ($72K/year)

Sabba Keynejad from London, England, United Kingdom started VEED over 4 years ago, a online video editing business.

7. Start a stock photography business ($0/year)

Serban Enache from Brentwood, TN, USA started Free Stock Images about 11 years ago, a stock photography business.

8. Start an online newspaper ($0/year)

Filip Poutintsev from started Honest Pros & Cons over 3 years ago, a online newspaper.

9. Start a consulting business ($0/year)

Liz Illg from Phoenix, AZ, USA started Liz Illg about 4 years ago, a consulting business.

10. Start a blog ($60K/year)

Chhavi Agarwal from New Delhi, Delhi, India started Mrs Daaku Studio over 4 years ago, a blog.

Amanda Shepherd from Las Vegas, NV, USA started Social Media Manager Society over 2 years ago, a social media consultant.

12. Create an online course ($1.44M/year)

Rasmus & Christian Mikkelsen (or Mikkelsen Twins) from Chester, New Jersey, USA started Mikkelsen Twins almost 5 years ago, a online course.

13. Start a video production company ($1.99M/year)

Henry Finn from San Francisco, California, USA started Luminous over 9 years ago, a video production company.

I'm a filmmaker and that's where my passion is. I'm an artist from my balls to my heart and I only became a producer and use my head because I also hate working 9-5s and I wasn't interested in moving to LA. So I realized pretty quickly if I wanted to be free doing something I loved I would have to learn the business side.. which was really hard for me in the beginning.

I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of hard lessons because as an artist you don't care about a lot of things that corporations care about (namely learning to look at a project as a product for capitalistic needs over self-expression) and also have to add a lot of components to your knowledge like branding, marketing, etc.

Luckily the fear of letting the corporate machine suck my soul out forever (I used to be in banking) outweighed my cynicism, so I sucked it up and made a business for myself.

But actually, the moment that really changed my perception of reality was when I accidentally started one of the world's top modern art sites (at the time) with a group of friends way back in 2005 or so.

We were originally going to make a collaborative portfolio site to try and get clients for our businesses (filmmakers, photographers, graphic designers, etc.) and I was trying to solve the problem of how to get someone to come back to our website once they've visited it once.

So I had this hypothesis that if instead of making a simple portfolio site, if we actually made a blog and just shared dope art we love with the world, it might give people a reason to come back.

14. Start a podcast agency ($204K/year)

Tom Hunt from London started Fame over 3 years ago, a podcast agency.

15. Start a freelance writing business ($0/year)

Eva Gutierrez from Los Angeles, CA, USA started Eva Gutierrez about 6 years ago, a freelance writing business.

16. Start a web design & online marketing business ($900K/year)

Francesc LTW from Barcelona started La Teva Web over 20 years ago, a web design & online marketing business.

17. Start a language learning app ($224K/year)

Alex Chernikov from Berlin, Germany started Gikken ago, a language learning app.

18. Start a journal brand ($1.8M/year)

Ollie Aplin from London, UK started MindJournal about 7 years ago, a journal brand.

I've personally kept a journal for 10 years now, ever since I first went into therapy to recover from PTSD. My mum took her own life 2 years prior to my breakdown, and I never really got to grips with my emotions or how to process everything that had ever happened.

When I started therapy I was still stuck in the mindset that talking about how I felt was not something I should do. So talking therapy was the most unnatural experience for me. So to help, my therapist recommended I tried journaling - as a way of privately thinking about how I felt and what was on my mind. It was a game-changer of a moment for me.

My mum took her own life 2 years prior to my breakdown, and I never really got to grips with my emotions or how to process everything that had ever happened.

19. Start a wordpress template business ($132K/year)

Sam from Kalamazoo, MI, USA started Sam Munoz Consulting, LLC about 5 years ago, a wordpress template business.

20. Start a desktop publishing tutorials business

Examples of a successful desktop publishing tutorials business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a desktop publishing tutorials business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a desktop publishing tutorials business ➜
21. Start a short story vending machine business

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a short story vending machine business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a short story vending machine business ➜
22. Start an e-learning apps business

Examples of a successful e-learning apps business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a e-learning apps business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting an e-learning apps business ➜
In 2000, Luis von Ahn was starting his PhD in computer science when he attended a talk and happened to learn about one of Yahoo's biggest problems: automated bots were signing up for millions of free Yahoo email accounts, and generating tons of spam. Luis' idea to solve this problem became CAPTCHA, the squiggly letters we type into a website to prove we're human. He gave away that idea for free, but years later, that same idea had evolved into a new way to monetize language learning on the web, and became Duolingo. Today, the popular app is valued at $1.5 billion, and is seeing a big spike in growth while people are confined to their homes.

23. Start an online journalism business

Examples of a successful online journalism business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a online journalism business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting an online journalism business ➜
24. Start a copywriting business ($144K/year)

Examples of a successful copywriting business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a copywriting business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a copywriting business ➜
25. Start a youtube channel

Examples of a successful youtube channel:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a youtube channel:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a youtube channel ➜
26. Become a graphic designer ($360K/year)

Examples of a successful graphic designer:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a graphic designer:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a graphic designer ➜
27. Become a freelance journalist

Examples of a successful freelance journalist:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a freelance journalist:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a freelance journalist ➜
28. Become a music tutor ($840K/year)

Examples of a successful music tutor:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a music tutor:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a music tutor ➜
29. Start a business directories business

Examples of a successful business directories business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a business directories business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a business directories business ➜
During the dot com boom of the late 1990s, Jimmy Wales was running an internet search company. That's when he began to experiment with the idea of an online encyclopedia. In 2001, Wales launched Wikipedia, a website where thousands of community members could contribute, edit, and monitor content on just about anything. Today, the non-profit has stayed true to its open-source roots and is the fifth most visited website in the world. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," how Florence Wetterwald created Blabla dolls - eco-friendly knitted dolls made in Peru.
Read the full story on npr.org ➜
30. Start a record label

Examples of a successful record label:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a record label:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a record label ➜
31. Start an e-book writing business

Examples of a successful e-book writing business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a e-book writing business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting an e-book writing business ➜
32. Start a voice over service ($480K/year)

Examples of a successful voice over service:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a voice over service:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a voice over service ➜
33. Start a billboard rentals business

Examples of a successful billboard rentals business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a billboard rentals business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a billboard rentals business ➜
34. Start a dance reality show business

Examples of a successful dance reality show business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a dance reality show business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a dance reality show business ➜
35. Start a tv show program

Examples of a successful tv show program:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a tv show program:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a tv show program ➜
36. Start a speech writing business

Examples of a successful speech writing business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a speech writing business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a speech writing business ➜
37. Start a sports radio station

Examples of a successful sports radio station:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a sports radio station:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a sports radio station ➜
38. Become a sound effects producer ($600K/year)

Examples of a successful sound effects producer:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a sound effects producer:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a sound effects producer ➜
39. Become a ghost blogger ($147K/year)

Examples of a successful ghost blogger:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a ghost blogger:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a ghost blogger ➜
40. Start a shooting video games development business ($1.2M/year)

Examples of a successful shooting video games development business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a shooting video games development business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a shooting video games development business ➜
41. Start a theater productions business

Examples of a successful theater productions business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a theater productions business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a theater productions business ➜
42. Start a jingle writer business

Examples of a successful jingle writer business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a jingle writer business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a jingle writer business ➜
43. Start a 360-degree cameras business

Examples of a successful 360-degree cameras business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a 360-degree cameras business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a 360-degree cameras business ➜
44. Start a comic writing business

Examples of a successful comic writing business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a comic writing business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a comic writing business ➜
45. Start a music writing and production business

Examples of a successful music writing and production business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a music writing and production business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a music writing and production business ➜
46. Start an ad film making business

Examples of a successful ad film making business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a ad film making business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting an ad film making business ➜
Victoria founded Viewst, a no-code ad design, and automation tool. They earned +$56k in 2 months and are confident to reach $1M ARR in 2021.

Examples of a successful social media influencer:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a social media influencer:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a social media influencer ➜
48. Start a video arcade business

Examples of a successful video arcade business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a video arcade business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a video arcade business ➜
49. Become a sports news anchor

Examples of a successful sports news anchor:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a sports news anchor:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a sports news anchor ➜
50. Start an aviation tv program

Examples of a successful aviation tv program:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a aviation tv program:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting an aviation tv program ➜
51. Start a catalogues business

Examples of a successful catalogues business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a catalogues business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a catalogues business ➜
52. Start a sports PR business

Examples of a successful sports PR business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a sports PR business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a sports PR business ➜
53. Start a campus newspaper business

Examples of a successful campus newspaper business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a campus newspaper business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a campus newspaper business ➜
54. Start a Digital Printing Business ($12M/year)

Examples of a successful Digital Printing Business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a Digital Printing Business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a Digital Printing Business ➜
55. Start a drive-by broadcasting business

Examples of a successful drive-by broadcasting business:

Here are some great videos on how to get started with a drive-by broadcasting business:

For further info, check out these books and products:
Learn more about starting a drive-by broadcasting business ➜
Want to find more ideas that make money?

Hey! 👋 I'm Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story.

Get our 5-minute email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.

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55 Media Related Business Ideas You Can Start Today [2023] - Starter Story

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Interested in starting a media industry business in 2023? We put together 55 of the best media industry businesses you can start in today. For each business idea, we'll show you real-world examples of other media industry businesses to help you see what it really takes. Here's the full ...

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Apple News is an app that aggregates multiple news sources, blogs, breaking stories, video publications, magazines, and newspapers into one feed. Users can follow different outlets and have them appear in the news feed, which is sorted by topic and publisher. The app is also home to News+, Apple's subscription service for premium news content.

● Human-curated news
● Personalized news feed
● Unique and exclusive format
● Audio version of articles
● Zero data sharing with third parties
● News+ Subscription for premium content
● Available across all Apple devices

Get Apple News Directly in Your Inbox

AppleInsider may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made through links on our site.

Apple News debuted with iOS 9 as a replacement for Newsstand. Using RSS and publication feeds, the app gathers articles from across the web and sorts them into a news feed.

The service is available as a native and pre-installed app for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

Users can subscribe to their preferred publications, like or dislike articles, and save stories for offline reading. Apple prides itself on offering a private and human-curated news resource for its users.

What is Apple News?

Where RSS ruled the early days of the web, news aggregators stepped up to take over by offering users algorithmic news feeds. This approach requires the user to invest less time finding what they want to read.

Apple took a specific approach to this and created a new format, Apple News Format, to specifically cater to iPhone readers. Device-optimized articles, rich media, and uncluttered reading were all key components of the new platform.

Apple offers some advertising in the app, but it's otherwise a clean feed of articles sorted by topics. Apple's human editors select Top News sections, and relevant topics will surface based on the reader's history of reading, liking, and saving.

The app gathers the data with a random identifier that can be reset at any time, so users don't need to feel like they are being tracked.

The app has several sections, which are presented differently depending on which device you are using. On iPad and Mac, all the different areas are in the sidebar, and on iPhone, there is a small navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.

The Today tab shows your personalized news feed. From here, you can see all of the articles sorted based on your interests.

Sections like For You offer specifically curated information based on what you like. Editors curate Top Stories to offer an overview of what's happening right now. Channels and topics show up as individual sections, containing all the relevant articles to that topic, even if they oppose each other.

News+ is its own tab, containing all the subscription services content. From here, you can choose to follow certain magazines or newspapers and browse their content.

Premium articles and magazines display in an optimized format with rich media throughout. Other publications that do not follow the news app format will show up as full-page scans of the magazines. Apple News+ is a premium service and costs $9.99 per month for a family subscription.

The Following tab shows you which channels and topics you follow, and what your saved stories and history are. From here you can manage what shows up on your Today view or see a specific channel's page with only its articles showing. Saved Stories act as a repository for your favorite articles. However, it does not save them for offline reading.

How to personalize Apple News

When you first start out using Apple's news app, it displays content based on popular news and publications. To start seeing curation, you will need to follow several of your favorite publishers and topics. When reading an article, you can like it to show that you find it relevant, or dislike it to see fewer articles from that topic or channel.

From the Today view, press and hold an article to access the share sheet. From there, you can perform further tasks like blocking channels or reporting spam or broken stories. The share sheet from within articles works the same way.

Apple wants its news service to avoid fake news and information bubbles, so don't expect to see the same views represented throughout.

By default, the app shows you all the content it can in an abbreviated format to get pages loaded quicker. These can be changed in settings to gain more control over the feed. De-select "show story previews" to always launch directly into the story and avoid the reduced preview screen.

If you only want to see the news publications you follow and avoid any world stories or politics, for example, toggle on "restrict stories in today." This will make the Apple News app function a little more like a personal RSS reader, rather than a full news app.

Apple News in the news

Apple has slowly shown more and more interest in not only curating news but participating in it. Its editorial staff now writes articles in the Newsroom quite frequently, and Apple has a dedicated team writing stories in the App Store.

Apple has tried its hand at hosting large political events like the 2018 midterms. During the midterms, Apple News had a prominently featured section dedicated to midterm election updates. During the 2020 election and its aftermath, the Today feed permanently displayed Electoral College tallies and links to collated election coverage.

Apple News has also been somewhat controversial. Apple wants publishers to be on the platform but offers little incentive. The app offers curation via human editors, but this means a story can live or die based on what they choose to feature.

Major publishers see decent reader numbers, but because of the lack of heavy advertising, revenue isn't especially high. Smaller publications don't find a lot of traction on the platform, and revenue is sparse.

Despite all of this, Apple continues to boast that its news service is growing.

Timeline

In 2011, Apple launched Newsstand, an app that presented magazine and newspaper subscriptions in a skeuomorphic bookshelf. This replaced the many individual apps that publishers had been designing for iPad. Apple's goal was to help users manage all of their subscriptions in one place.

One problem was that these publications still needed to develop and support apps, which they would have to pay developers to make.

In 2014, Apple acquired Prss, a company that created a web app for creating digital magazines. It also allowed the digital issues to download in much smaller sizes. This acquisition led directly to the creation of Apple News format and the app. The News app launched with iOS 9 in 2015. In 2018, Apple acquired Texture, a digital magazine service that the company appeared to use as a foundation for Apple News+.

The Apple News service saw fast adoption, which was unsurprising given its status as a built in-app. Just one month after its release, Apple claimed 40 million active users. This number continues to climb each year.

Apple News and its design haven't significantly changed since the 2015 release. Apple added the app to macOS in 2018 as one of the first Mac Catalyst apps, and since the update included a system-wide dark mode, the News app got it too. iOS and iPadOS released with system-wide dark mode in 2019 as well, adding it to the Apple News app, and making the design uniform across the ecosystem.

In July 2020, Apple added an audio component to its news platform in several areas. A new daily news brief called "Apple News Today" hosted by Shumita Basu is available from the app in a new audio tab and on Apple Podcasts.

Along with the daily briefing, professional voice actors read premium articles from several News+ publications. Apple's editor-in-chief of Apple News, Lauren Kern, is excited about the work her team has done for the audio feature.

"Apple News showcases so much great journalism, and we're excited to help bring it to life in new ways with Apple News+ audio stories and a new daily news show, Apple News Today. We also greatly value our many local news partners - our new local news feature highlights their work for readers who live, and are interested, in those communities."

A curated selection of local news will begin being served as well. It is unclear how far the local news segments will spread, but the initiative will start in larger cities like Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.

Apple has also added the News app to CarPlay. The audio segments will be available from the app while driving.

It is yet to be seen if Apple News+ will be a success, given its struggle to retain users and its relatively high price. Despite low subscription retention rates, publications on News+ still saw more traffic to their content. This increased traffic did not increase revenue, however, due to how Apple pays participating publishers.

AppleInsider may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made through links on our site.

Apple News debuted with iOS 9 as a replacement for Newsstand. Using RSS and publication feeds, the app gathers articles from across the web and sorts them into a news feed.

The service is available as a native and pre-installed app for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

Users can subscribe to their preferred publications, like or dislike articles, and save stories for offline reading. Apple prides itself on offering a private and human-curated news resource for its users.

What is Apple News?

Where RSS ruled the early days of the web, news aggregators stepped up to take over by offering users algorithmic news feeds. This approach requires the user to invest less time finding what they want to read.

Apple took a specific approach to this and created a new format, Apple News Format, to specifically cater to iPhone readers. Device-optimized articles, rich media, and uncluttered reading were all key components of the new platform.

Apple offers some advertising in the app, but it's otherwise a clean feed of articles sorted by topics. Apple's human editors select Top News sections, and relevant topics will surface based on the reader's history of reading, liking, and saving.

The app gathers the data with a random identifier that can be reset at any time, so users don't need to feel like they are being tracked.

The app has several sections, which are presented differently depending on which device you are using. On iPad and Mac, all the different areas are in the sidebar, and on iPhone, there is a small navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.

The Today tab shows your personalized news feed. From here, you can see all of the articles sorted based on your interests.

Sections like For You offer specifically curated information based on what you like. Editors curate Top Stories to offer an overview of what's happening right now. Channels and topics show up as individual sections, containing all the relevant articles to that topic, even if they oppose each other.

News+ is its own tab, containing all the subscription services content. From here, you can choose to follow certain magazines or newspapers and browse their content.

Premium articles and magazines display in an optimized format with rich media throughout. Other publications that do not follow the news app format will show up as full-page scans of the magazines. Apple News+ is a premium service and costs $9.99 per month for a family subscription.

The Following tab shows you which channels and topics you follow, and what your saved stories and history are. From here you can manage what shows up on your Today view or see a specific channel's page with only its articles showing. Saved Stories act as a repository for your favorite articles. However, it does not save them for offline reading.

How to personalize Apple News

When you first start out using Apple's news app, it displays content based on popular news and publications. To start seeing curation, you will need to follow several of your favorite publishers and topics. When reading an article, you can like it to show that you find it relevant, or dislike it to see fewer articles from that topic or channel.

From the Today view, press and hold an article to access the share sheet. From there, you can perform further tasks like blocking channels or reporting spam or broken stories. The share sheet from within articles works the same way.

Apple wants its news service to avoid fake news and information bubbles, so don't expect to see the same views represented throughout.

By default, the app shows you all the content it can in an abbreviated format to get pages loaded quicker. These can be changed in settings to gain more control over the feed. De-select "show story previews" to always launch directly into the story and avoid the reduced preview screen.

If you only want to see the news publications you follow and avoid any world stories or politics, for example, toggle on "restrict stories in today." This will make the Apple News app function a little more like a personal RSS reader, rather than a full news app.

Apple News in the news

Apple has slowly shown more and more interest in not only curating news but participating in it. Its editorial staff now writes articles in the Newsroom quite frequently, and Apple has a dedicated team writing stories in the App Store.

Apple has tried its hand at hosting large political events like the 2018 midterms. During the midterms, Apple News had a prominently featured section dedicated to midterm election updates. During the 2020 election and its aftermath, the Today feed permanently displayed Electoral College tallies and links to collated election coverage.

Apple News has also been somewhat controversial. Apple wants publishers to be on the platform but offers little incentive. The app offers curation via human editors, but this means a story can live or die based on what they choose to feature.

Major publishers see decent reader numbers, but because of the lack of heavy advertising, revenue isn't especially high. Smaller publications don't find a lot of traction on the platform, and revenue is sparse.

Despite all of this, Apple continues to boast that its news service is growing.

Timeline

In 2011, Apple launched Newsstand, an app that presented magazine and newspaper subscriptions in a skeuomorphic bookshelf. This replaced the many individual apps that publishers had been designing for iPad. Apple's goal was to help users manage all of their subscriptions in one place.

One problem was that these publications still needed to develop and support apps, which they would have to pay developers to make.

In 2014, Apple acquired Prss, a company that created a web app for creating digital magazines. It also allowed the digital issues to download in much smaller sizes. This acquisition led directly to the creation of Apple News format and the app. The News app launched with iOS 9 in 2015. In 2018, Apple acquired Texture, a digital magazine service that the company appeared to use as a foundation for Apple News+.

The Apple News service saw fast adoption, which was unsurprising given its status as a built in-app. Just one month after its release, Apple claimed 40 million active users. This number continues to climb each year.

Apple News and its design haven't significantly changed since the 2015 release. Apple added the app to macOS in 2018 as one of the first Mac Catalyst apps, and since the update included a system-wide dark mode, the News app got it too. iOS and iPadOS released with system-wide dark mode in 2019 as well, adding it to the Apple News app, and making the design uniform across the ecosystem.

In July 2020, Apple added an audio component to its news platform in several areas. A new daily news brief called "Apple News Today" hosted by Shumita Basu is available from the app in a new audio tab and on Apple Podcasts.

Along with the daily briefing, professional voice actors read premium articles from several News+ publications. Apple's editor-in-chief of Apple News, Lauren Kern, is excited about the work her team has done for the audio feature.

"Apple News showcases so much great journalism, and we're excited to help bring it to life in new ways with Apple News+ audio stories and a new daily news show, Apple News Today. We also greatly value our many local news partners - our new local news feature highlights their work for readers who live, and are interested, in those communities."

A curated selection of local news will begin being served as well. It is unclear how far the local news segments will spread, but the initiative will start in larger cities like Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.

Apple has also added the News app to CarPlay. The audio segments will be available from the app while driving.

It is yet to be seen if Apple News+ will be a success, given its struggle to retain users and its relatively high price. Despite low subscription retention rates, publications on News+ still saw more traffic to their content. This increased traffic did not increase revenue, however, due to how Apple pays participating publishers.

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Apple News is an app that aggregates multiple news sources, blogs, breaking stories, video publications, magazines, and newspapers into one feed. Users can follow different outlets and have them appear in the news feed, which is sorted by topic and publisher. The app is also home to News+, Apple's subscription service for premium news content.

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How everything get connected (Short film)

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How everything get connected (Short film)

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This film was created in 2013.

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Ordering a Pizza in future. VERY FUNNY!!! MUST WATCH!!!

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How to raise funds for your independent media startup

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How to raise funds for your independent media startup

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You have an innovative idea for a media startup. You have sharp and useful content the public needs and wants. You've designed a logo, and you have a team working in their spare time. The only problem: You've got no money.

Financing independent media projects is not easy, but with a little creativity, you can make it work. Here are some funding streams to explore and examples of startups that are proving what is possible.
Crowdfunding journalism
Crowdfunding campaigns raise money from everyday citizens with a vested interest in stories or projects that may otherwise be overlooked. To raise funding, journalists can make an appeal by explaining how the money would help to create or sustain the project. Homicide Watch DC launched two years ago as a digital platform for reporting every homicide in Washington, "to improve community understanding of violent crime and raise the level of conversation about homicide." Earlier this month, it raised more than US$47,000 to train journalism students and sustain operations via a campaign on Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects.

Spot.us is a platform for raising money to report specific stories. Finished content is published either by a partnering organization or by Spot.Us. The platform often works with local news organizations to get content distributed in as many places as possible.

The GlobalGiving Foundation's Open Challenge helps nonprofits crowdsource donations, then rewards those who raise a certain amount. The Bhutan Center for Media and Democracy entered the challenge to seek funding for its Youth Voice Lab, a state-of-the-art digital media lab for youth. If the project raises US$4,000 from 50 donors by Oct. 1, it will be permanently featured on GlobalGiving's website, where the project can attract attention from a new donor network and get access to additional fundraising tools.
Philanthropies and foundations
A wide variety of foundations help new media ventures get off the ground. For example, the McCormick New Media Women Entrepreneurs award provides US$14,000 in funding to women who want to start their own businesses. The Knight News Challenge funds "breakthrough ideas in news and information."
Events
Hosting an event lets you connect with people interested in your mission and show them what you have to offer. The nonprofit news organization Texas Tribune is connecting their public service journalism with events to make money, like a weekend festival of ideas for people interested in local government. "Events are journalism - events are content," says Evan Smith, the Texas Tribune's CEO and chief editor. "And in this new world, content comes to you and you create it in many forms."

At News University's 2012 Revenue Camp, Rebecca Lovell, chief business officer of independent tech news site GeekWire, said a third of the company's revenue comes from events including summit meetings; an awards ceremony; a "Wantrapreneur" event for those thinking about starting a business; and a ping-pong tournament. Aside from revenue, one of the pros of hosting events, she said, is building long-term relationships. For more, here's a Storify of her session.
E-books
Technology has made it easy to create new products at a small cost. For example, U.S. nonprofit news outlet ProPublica has put 90,000 ebooks on the market for less than US$2 each. Even at a low price, the revenue adds up.
Professional services, consulting
Does your team have knowledge or skills that other people would be willing to pay you for? Read, for instance, about how the digital division of the UK's Northcliffe Media launched a full service digital marketing agency providing for small and local businesses.

New Chilean data journalism startup, Poderopedia, will launch the Poderomedia School before the end of this year to teach independent media, journalists, citizens and civic media in Latin America about news applications, computer-assisted reporting, open-source tools and more. It will also provide other training activities related to Internet, design and business.
Membership/subscription models
If you have valuable, niche content, don't underestimate what people will pay for it.

"It's powerful to be in people's inbox," says journalist Rafat Ali, founder of online media hub paidContent, which covers the business of digital media and was bought in 2008 by The Guardian. For instance, Plant Closing News provides updates on manufacturing plants that are closing, and offers a 12-month subscription for US$999.

Don't rule anything out

A South Wales postman has turned copies of regional newspapers into handbags at £75 each.

More resources for entrepreneurial journalists can be found here.

Learn more about crowdsourced journalism at PBS Media Shift.
Photo courtesy of Epsos under a Creative Commons license.

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How to raise funds for your independent media startup

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You have an innovative idea for a media startup. You have sharp and useful content the public needs and wants. You've designed a logo, and you have a team working in their spare time. The only problem: You've got no money. Financing independent media projects is not easy, but with a little creativity, you can make it work.

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Every time you hear us, or most agencies, talk about search, we are generally referring to Google. People often ask why this is, so we thought we would write a blog to explain why Google is the search engine of choice for both customers and agencies.

Firstly, let's look at why users use Google... I have tried to boil this article down into simple sections, as this topic is a pretty chunky one, to say the least!

1. Speed

Google is generally quicker than the other search engines at bringing back results. It is able to deliver millions of results in 0.19 of a second. This is down to their technical infrastructure, which is much better than the other engines. Google once had a fire at one of their server warehouses and although it destroyed everything hardware-wise, their service wasn't impacted at all. Nice.

2. Choice

Google has a lot more sites in its index. It picks up new sites faster than any other engine, so you are able to search the latest news, latest sites and just loads more sites in general. Technically, you should have a better result if you have more to choose from.

3. Relevancy

Google's algorithm is much more sophisticated than the other engines. They should be better at determining which sites are the most relevant and which ones aren't - especially with continous updates to their algorithm to keep up with ever-evolving digital behaviours. Google have their fingers in many data pies, which the other engines don't. Subsequently, with more data they can make more informed decisions, somewhat scary when you hear of them being able to know what you are going to type before you do!

4. Branding

You can't overlook this aspect of Google. They are everywhere! They didn't do a lot of advertising previously, and they don't really advertise their search offering currently however they do advertise a lot of their other services which are all "Google" based... so naturally, you hear the name a lot. That said, I am not sure about their company motto "Don't be evil", I will discuss this in another post/rant.

And why do agencies like Google?

5. Market share

Well, 86% of the UK population use Google so it certainly makes sense to put your efforts into the dominant company as you are likely to get a better return for your investment of time.

6. Platform and tools

When looking at the advertising section of these engines (Google Ads/Microsoft Advertising (previously Bing Ads)) there is no comparison. Google is years ahead. You can set something up in minutes on Google, and hours/days for the other platforms. Google also provides a good toolset for you to use, which includes Analytics and WebMaster Tools to name a few. They obviously don't tell you specifics, and leave us to work out how to adapt things accordingly!

7. Support

Well, for us, we're a Google Premier Partner which means we have access to a whole host of benefits and resources to help our clients and partners. Google's customer support is out of this world, and who doesn't like a good experience with customer service?

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Why Is Google The Most Popular Search Engine? 7 Reasons Why

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Every time you hear us, or most agencies, talk about search, we are generally referring to Google. People often ask why this is, so we thought we would write a blog to explain why Google is the search engine of choice for both customers and agencies. Firstly, let's look at why users use Google...

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Formerly known as Neva Labs, Dublin-based Kinzen is a news app that aims to sift out junk and promote expert-led news and information from around the web.

t plans to do this through the service's users, around whom the system is based. Experts in their field will share and discuss 'quality' news links in what amounts to a top-down, 'curated' organisation.

The service will be structured in a way to allow for a personalised news feed, backed by artificial intelligence and algorithms, that will be based on a user's preferences and what experts are interested in.

Users' motivation for being 'curators' and leading conversations might be borne of a sense of expertise or community. A subscription model is also being considered.

The website will be free to use for the first few months. Early next year, the app will be launched on a basic subscription basis: €5 per month is a likely fee level, in tandem with what is commonly charged on systems such as Patreon. The service's founders are emphasising a clampdown on false news and dishonest sourcing. However, they say that they will not police the tone or content shared or discussed within the app.

With no ads, it is being styled as an antidote to social network news delivery which, Little and Kerr say, is based on grabbing and holding a person's attention for as long as possible, regardless of content.

The founders, who worked together at Storyful, also say that current news publishers may be interested in Kinzen, possibly in subscription partnerships.

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Formerly known as Neva Labs, Dublin-based Kinzen is a news app that aims to sift out junk and promote expert-led news and information from around the web. t plans to do this through the service's users, around whom the system is based.

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Racket is a writer-owned, reader-funded website founded by a group of former City Pages editors in 2021.

We trade in the same fun and fearless journalism CP specialized in since 1979: Twin Cities news, politics, music, arts, culture, civic oddities, food and drink, and theater, plus local angles galore. And we do it in a way that doesn't suck to read.

Why? Because it's a super bleak time for media. Because there's nothing else like us out there. Because you can never have too many outlets representing workers, artists, and independents. Because the Star Tribune is owned by a billionaire and the Pioneer Press is owned by a vampiric hedge fund.

Racket is owned by four journalists who live in Minneapolis: Jessica Armbruster, Jay Boller, Em Cassel, and Keith Harris.

We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to make this thing work. (Here's where every dime went in Year 1.) It's money that goes directly to our writers, editors, photographers, and artists-not some billionaire in a boardroom.
Get in on the Racket.

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Racket is a writer-owned, reader-funded website founded by a group of former City Pages editors in 2021. We trade in the same fun and fearless journalism CP specialized in since 1979: Twin Cities news, politics, music, arts, culture, civic oddities, food and drink, and theater, plus local angles galore.

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Welcome. I'm the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Puck, a new media company focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood: that rarified and overlapping world filled with moguls and strivers, powerbrokers and disruptors, behind-the-scenes players and ubiquitous C.E.O.s, alike. Notably, we're building our business atop a new kind of model aligned with the massive and exciting potential of the creator economy. Our journalists aren't simply the core animating spirit of our business; they are also owners in our company.

I first began imagining Puck sometime in 2019. Part of it was personal. I'd begun my career nearly two decades earlier, in the heyday of the magazine business, working under the tutelage of Graydon Carter, the legendary editor of Vanity Fair. In those days Graydon's office was a bustling operation-manuscripts came in hourly for top-editing, handwritten notes to politicians and executives and writers had to be dispatched, the commercial side of the business needed to be managed, as did the egos and vicissitudes of photographers, stylists, and illustrators. All while the phone rang endlessly- David Geffen, Sue Mengers, Barry Diller, Annie Leibovitz, Fran Lebowitz, Sidney Poitier, David Halberstam. The most important part of the entire enterprise, however, was that Graydon always put the writers at the center of the business.

But the business as we knew it then was all starting to change. During my subsequent tours at the Times, Bloomberg, and eventually co-founding The Hive, I saw the irrevocable transformation first hand. Just as Napster had deconstructed traditional albums into individual songs in the aughts, social media platforms were unbundling magazines into articles. And yet I was optimistic that there would be a new heyday to come. After all, the music industry had boomeranged back in the streaming age by leveraging the powerful connection between artists and their audiences to create a subscription-based business model, which helped listeners to discover other artists that they might like along the way. Journalists, perhaps the original influencers, were due for the same transformation.

After I left V.F., I began making calls and assembling a team to help bring the vision to life. We wanted to create a brand focused on the inside conversation-the story behind the story, the details and plot that only the true insiders knew. And we needed to marry the complementary powers of a new generation of prescient media executives, those who understood the new distribution streams and the power of the creator economy, with generationally talented journalists, who themselves were excited to lean into this new world and express their talents across channels-via articles, sure, but also newsletters, podcasts, conference calls, Zooms, and (soon enough) live events.

I teamed up with an incredible group of media pros. I was introduced to Joe Purzycki, a natural entrepreneur and start-up veteran, who had helped pioneer Vox Media from a few employees into a colossus before his star turn at Medium. Most recently, Joe had co-founded an innovative podcasting platform called Luminary. I was also connected with Max Tcheyan, a marketing and strategy savant who had helped build Bleacher Report before masterminding The Athletic's industry-defining growth strategy. And I reconnected with Liz Gough, my former colleague from Conde Nast, who had formerly been a star at McKinsey and Warby Parker. We all represented different paths in the media universe-content, product, subscription, brand-and yet we were thrilled to share a new vision about the path forward, one that encouraged elite creators to band together with all the important furnishings of the old world (brilliant editors, legal vetting, art direction, and so forth) along with talismans of the new era (growth marketing, a product-mindset, and iterative strategy). We decided to call our company Puck, after the ever omniscient and devilish Shakespeare character, who always seemed to know what was going on, with just the right ratio of acuity, splendor, and mirth.

We knew that, in this new media age, the creator is the heart of the business equation. And so the founding team endeavored to build our business around elite, genre-defining journalists-pros in the prime of their careers who saw their subjects and audiences at an eye-to-eye level.

For years I had admired the work of Matthew Belloni, most famous for his brilliant stewardship of The Hollywood Reporter. Matt, by every measure, is the greatest and most compelling bard of modern Hollywood. I became obsessed with his stories about the various definitions of the participation pools (he'd been a lawyer in a past life), his extemporizing on the studio executives, and what was really going on inside the agencies. The Hollywood that he described was more compelling than any HBO show. He knew everyone, and he knew everything. And he explained it all in a lucid and impartial manner that was exclusive to an insider and yet accessible to a veritable outsider. He was our very first hire.

I also reached out to Julia Ioffe, who I worked with for a brief spell earlier in our careers, right as she was becoming a rising star at The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. She always represented that rare mix of graceful stylist, elegant humorist, and fearless journalist. And furthermore, she understood how Washington really worked-wide-grinned on the outside, sharp-elbowed on the inside-and wasn't afraid to write about it like Jane Goodall in the political jungle. I knew that we had to hire her so that she could cover Washington -not politics or policy, but the town itself-with all her wisdom and talents.

I quickly reunited with Benjamin Landy, my longtime deputy at The Hive, who had moved on to become the executive editor of Fast Company, to serve as Puck's executive editor. Isabella Lichauco was brought on to help us create the look and feel of our brand. Scandinavian design visionary Orn Olason was able to translate our ambitions into a modern and elegant design, replete with our signature salutary swash. Product geniuses Paul Ford and Vicky Volvovski, from Postlight, architected the bedrock beneath the vision to make it come to life.

Meanwhile, my surveying of the market for elite Silicon Valley journalists always led me back to Teddy Schleifer, whose work focuses on that unique axis where tech meets politics and you can't always tell the difference between beneficence and influence-peddling. His work always reminded me of how Silicon Valley was quietly remaking everything-media, finance, and now politics-in its own image. He was the perfect guide for the upheaval.

And then, of course, there was William D. Cohan. Bill understood high finance better than any journalists I'd ever worked with, and for good reason: in a past life, he'd been an M&A banker for nearly two decades. For years, I had been mesmerized by his mastery of the dealmakers who roamed his orbit. They called him and texted him around the clock because, it seemed, they realized that he was one of the few journalists out there who really got what they were doing.

Soon enough, I was able to persuade Snap's Peter Hamby that we were the right domain for his exclusive interviews with politicians and acerbic reporting on the political media elite. Baratunde Thurston has a singular voice on, as he puts it ironically, "the easy stuff": figuring out how the hell our generation is going to make progress on the essential topics of race, tech, climate change, and equity. I've never read a more cogent, thoughtful, and hilarious voice on those topics. Over lunch one day this June, I made an impassioned plea to Tina Nguyen, to leave her prestigious gig at Politico and cover Trumpworld and its discontents for Puck. We were both gnawing on overpriced rubber chickens that afternoon, which made me laugh since the article that put Tina on the map was a piece about how Trump Grill was possibly the worst restaurant in America.

Lastly, just before launch, we were thrilled to hire Dylan Byers, whose singular expertise on the Venn diagram of the tech-media-entertainment ecosystem has made him a must-subscribe talent for both the mogul class and the concentric circles of aspirants around them. I used to wake up every morning excited to read Byers Market, in part because of his understanding of how individual personalities and egos moved the needle in our overlapping industries. I have always admired his dual ability to cover the change in media while living it, too.

Three months after our launch, we added Eriq Gardner, the country's foremost expert on entertainment and media law: who was suing who, what was really at stake, and the seminal issues with the world's biggest deals. And only a few months later, we added Tara Palmeri, the one-of-a-kind political reporter who used to co-author Politico's vaunted Playbook newsletter. Tara's mandate: to cover the real inside conversation inside the West Wing, on Capitol Hill, on K Street, and within the media institutions that cover them.

I hope that in the coming weeks and months you'll discover in Puck a unique new voice-insightful, inquisitive, elevated, always informed but equally curious, and never ever boring or dull. I also hope that it helps you do your job and make informed decisions by offering unique access into an elevated world.

In the meantime, here are some useful notes about what we are offering. Puck is a paid product built around connecting elite journalists to their community of followers. Every day, we will send subscribers an email, The Daily Courant, offering our most important piece of journalism. One day it might be a story by Dylan, another Tina. And I'll be sending an email every Saturday resurfacing some great work that you might have missed, in addition to offering the backstory about an important article, our team, or our company-the stuff that journalists used to have to save for the bar after deadline. Meanwhile, you can customize your settings to also receive emails directly from your favorite authors, when their work is right off the presses. I highly recommend subscribing to Matt's private email, What I'm Hearing... this way.

Lastly, members of our inner circle can look forward to certain unique privileges, such as off-the-record conference calls and Zooms. Our member benefits department will be emailing Inner Circle members directly to keep you abreast of events.

Meanwhile, we hope that you are enjoying what you are reading. There's so much more to come.

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Welcome. I'm the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Puck, a new media company focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood: that rarified and overlapping world filled with moguls and strivers, powerbrokers and disruptors, behind-the-scenes players and ubiquitous C.E.O.s, alike.

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I'm a 30-year-old graphic designer and AR artist making filters for TikTok.

My effects have over one billion views, but I don't get any compensation.

Effect House is an AR tool used by TikTokers who want to create filters for the video-sharing app.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 30-year-old Ilias Pistopoulos, a graphic designer in Greece who creates viral filters for various social media platforms. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm a graphic designer with a degree in engineering, and for the past four years I've been creating augmented reality effects - also known as filters - for Facebook, Instagram, and most recently TikTok.

For me, AR is the most powerful technological evolution. Last year, I had the opportunity to be a part of a private beta effects test for Effect House, an AR tool used to easily create effects for TikTok, so I've been with the platform from the beginning.

It has helped me create viral animal filters like "Maxwell The Cat," "Maxwell In The Sky," and a "Capybara" filter based on the popular sound on TikTok. The filters are free to be uploaded to the app once they're approved, but I make no money from it.

I get most of my inspiration from trends on my TikTok "For You Page," and I research different media to find the best ideas for filters. After I have my concept, there's a lot of software involved to create the design, and it requires some 3D modeling to know how it will look in the real world.

I have a 9-to-5 job at a marketing firm, but I spend time after work scrolling TikTok and working on effects. Three months ago, I worked on "Maxwell The Cat" for hours before it was ready to be submitted for review on Effect House. I found the cat, which is from a video game, and a sound, and I thought, "Yeah, this definitely needs to be an effect."

Now, my effects have been viewed over one billion times on TikTok, and the whole world is using my creations. I may not get paid for it, but the benefits are exposure and the chance to grow my audience. Thanks to these effects I've been able to grow my TikTok following from 200 to 27,000 in a matter of months.

My viral effects have helped me grow my AR business FAM because big brands have reached out to work with me and being a part of Effect House comes with a community of creators learning and sharing information.

I think it's really cool to see how others can be creative with it, and I can use those analytics to show how well my effects are doing. Branding is everything, so that's what I try to keep in mind when sharing my effects with the world.

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I make funny animal TikTok filters that have been used over 1 billion times - I haven't made a cent but it's been great for my brand

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I'm a 30-year-old graphic designer and AR artist making filters for TikTok. My effects have over one billion views, but I don't get any compensation. Effect House is an AR tool used by TikTokers who want to create filters for the video-sharing app.

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Calls to ban TikTok in Australia over suspected sinister links to China | 7NEWS

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The best stories will be published in The Global Citizen

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iPhoneography isn't only for quick snapshots of your lunch and your pets. Many professional photographers are now using the mobile device as a secondary-sometimes primary-camera. Smartphones are easy to use, are generally always with us, and they make sharing the photos instantaneous-there's no wonder so many pros and amateurs alike are embracing the technology.

Watch as Ben Lowy documents how his iPhone allowed him to capture shots for some of the world's most well-known news outlets:

Ben has covered multiple wars, natural disasters, and a slew of other newsworthy events throughout his career. He was at the forefront of it all when the rise of cell phone photography started. Check out some of the incredible images he was able to create just shooting from the hip with his iPhone:

While not everyone agrees on the usefulness of an iPhone when it comes to professional photography, Lowy has his own feelings on the matter. He believes the affordable devices make photography more accessible compared to the more expensive DSLRs that are commonly used in photojournalism.

"One of the good things about social media is you get to choose who you want to listen to."

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iPhoneography isn't only for quick snapshots of your lunch and your pets. Many professional photographers are now using the mobile device as a secondary-sometimes primary-camera. Smartphones are easy to use, are generally always with us, and they make sharing the photos instantaneous-there's no wonder so many pros and amateurs alike are embracing the technology.

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John Lehmann: iPhone Photojournalism 101

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A big Chicago daily pulls the plug on staff photographers.
Photo: HypeBeast

May 31, 2013: The Chicago Sun-Times fires all 28 of its photographers, with the goal of training its staff to shoot photos using iPhones instead. Pulitzer Prize winner John H. White is among those who lose their jobs.

The move is significant not just because of what it says about the declining newspaper industry. It also spotlights the iPhone's growing acceptance as a professional camera.

iPhone camera transforms photojournalism

After the mass firing, the Sun-Times told its reporters they would receive "iPhone photography basics" training to produce their own photos and videos. "In the coming days and weeks, we'll be working with all editorial employees to train and outfit you as much as possible to produce the content we need," managing editor Craig Newman told staffers in a memo.

It's certainly true that iPhone cameras were getting significantly better by mid-2013. At that time, the iPhone 5 featured an 8-megapixel iSight camera. Although far lower-quality than a professional DSLR camera, it was much improved from the crappy 2-megapixel camera of the original iPhone less than a decade earlier.

The number of photo-editing apps in the App Store from 2008 onward also boosted iPhone photography. Suddenly, anyone could give photos the kind of post-production sheen that once required a specialist multimedia computer - or, before that, a darkroom - to achieve.

iPhone for photojournalism

By 2013, the iPhone was starting to be used for news reportage, partially as a result of its portability. For instance, when Hurricane Sandy hit New York City in late 2012, reporters for Time used the iPhone to take photos in the field and upload them to the publication's Instagram account. Even the cover photo used on the corresponding issue of Time was taken on an iPhone.

Still, many viewed the Chicago Sun-Times' slashing of its photo staff negatively.

Sun-Times photographer Alex Garcia argued that the "idea that freelancers and reporters could replace a photo staff with iPhones is idiotic at worst, and hopelessly uninformed at best."

The downside of democratization of tech

For me, this event was important because it showed the flip side of Apple's democratization of technology. Since Adobe PageMaker on the original Mac, Apple products have been giving creatives powerful tools that produce pro results. These days, people can achieve in their front rooms work that once required professional facilities to accomplish.

The iPhone camera did the same. Apple certainly wasn't the first company to build cameras into its devices. However, Cupertino did make a serious effort to improve iPhone cameras each year. By 2013, Apple was running ads to promote the iPhone camera as a tool for budding photographers. Apple continues to do so today with its successful "Shot on iPhone" campaigns.

The ubiquity of the iPhone also makes it an indispensable tool for photographers. By 2013, the number of photos shot on iPhone far surpassed those taken on DSLR cameras like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II on photo-sharing site Flickr.

Combine the iPhone's continued popularity with the immediacy of online news and the decline of traditional print media, and you've got a recipe for a revolution. Old-school photographers seem unfortunately expendable.

Are you a photographer who relies on, or actively avoids shooting on, iPhones on a daily basis? Do you think the presence of smartphone cameras in everyone's pockets has improved or worsened photography? Leave your comments below.

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Today in Apple history: Newspaper replaces photo staff with iPhones

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May 31, 2013: The Chicago Sun-Times fires all 28 of its photographers, with the goal of training its staff to shoot photos using iPhones instead. Pulitzer Prize winner John H. White is among those who lose their jobs. The move is significant not just because of what it says about the declining newspaper industry.

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"Yes, intern positions are still available. Please send over your resume."

For the college student eager to dip his or her toe into the work force, those last five words can be nerve-wracking. As a communication and media studies major, having a resume that shines amongst the rest is vital. Because jobs and internship positions within the media industry are especially scarce and competitive, employers are looking for candidates with some edge. Media studies professors at Fordham stress that simply listing "above-average writing skills" on your resume isn't going to cut it; employers want multifaceted reporters and journalists. This includes experience in all areas of journalism-writing, reporting, online forums, and photography.

However, the Chicago Sun-Times sent a different message this past June when they decided to cut their entire full-time photojournalism staff, including a Pulitzer Prize winner. This sparked the argument: with a high-quality cell phone camera found in nearly every pocket, do we really need photojournalists? Are photography skills even necessary or relevant?

The answer is a definite "yes." Despite what editors at the Sun-Times may believe, photojournalism is a crucial part of effective communication. It is irresponsible for a major news outlet to leave the visual side of news in the hands of unskilled, smartphone users. The Sun-Times reasoned "business is changing rapidly," and audiences are "seeking more video content with their news," rather than still photography. The paper continued by arguing that "the technological shift has caused more people to rely on their personal computers and mobile devices," and therefore, the public is fully equipped to submit content. Cameras on the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 are 8 megapixels, and the Nokia Lumia 1020 has a 41 megapixel camera sensor; all three of these popular smartphones have high enough resolutions to be published by print and digital media outlets. In theory, newspapers can efficiently cut costs and make up for the monetary losses from the decline of print media by laying off their photo staffs.

Yet, it's not exactly that simple. While the paper's comment regarding the importance of multimedia certainly stands true, just because anyone with a smartphone can submit content to news outlets doesn't mean that photojournalists are replaceable. The term "photojournalism" is defined as "the art or practice of communicating news by photographs, especially in magazines." With any art, there is a lot of skill and strategy that goes into capturing an image powerful enough to accompany a story. Some of the most compelling photographs can cover an entire story without any words needed-think of Steve McCurry's iconic photograph of the green-eyed Afghan girl during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or the striking photos taken by Eddie Adams of the Vietnamese refugees. As Jean-François Leroy, founder of the Visa pour l'Image Photojournalism Festival in France, puts it: "If you are a photographer, you rarely make a picture by accident...you worked to get into the position where you could make that picture, you are trying to tell a story. You are a journalist, someone people can trust. The world needs that. I need that."

After applying for my own fair share of internship positions, I have two media internships under my belt. They are completely different-one involves food writing, the other revolves around fashion-but during the application process, both internships made it clear that they were looking for an intern who had a wide range of skills. My resume boasted proficiency in WordPress, InDesign, Microsoft Office Suite, and-thanks to my photojournalism course at Fordham-photography. Because both internships were social media-based and required a contribution of content for their websites, the final skill listed on my resume carried a great deal of weight. Simply possessing an iPhone wasn't enough-my internships wanted to hire a person who could appreciate photography settings, filters, angles and lighting.

The fact that we are told that the media industry wants applicants with a variety of skills but then a major news outlet completely dismisses an entire field within journalism is troubling. If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, that responsibility should not lie in the hands of just anyone with an iPhone. We need professional, trustworthy journalists behind the camera.

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"Yes, intern positions are still available. Please send over your resume." For the college student eager to dip his or her toe into the work force, those last five words can be nerve-wracking. As a communication and media studies major, having a resume that shines amongst the rest is vital.

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Digital Third Coast | Digital marketing and search agency

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Who to Pitch in Local News to Get Digital Coverage

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Local news can be an elusive beast for many content marketers and digital PR experts. With our inside knowledge, we break down who you should, and shouldn’t, pitch in local newsrooms.

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All marketers need to try to capture the media's attention in order to get free traffic so they can gain subscribers and sales. One of the most effective ways to do this is to pitch a story to a particular editor of a publication that is a good fit for your niche or industry.

Editors get dozens of pitches every week. Here are 7 ways to grab an editor's attention and boost your chances of success.

1-Study the publication before you pitch

Read several issues of a magazine, or a few weeks of a newspaper or blog and makes notes on style, length of the story, and topics covered. Do you see any topics you could add to or any gaps they should fill? Identify their audience and cater to it. If they accept ads, ask for their rate card and demographic information to help you plan the kind of content their target audience really wants.

2-Personalize the press release

Do NOT BCC dozens of people with the same media pitch. Address the editor or blogger by name and spell it correctly. If it is a large publication, be sure you have the right editor for your niche or industry. There should be a byline on their writing or their name listed as staff. Check via phone or email if you have any doubts so your efforts don't go to waste.

3-Craft a great headline/subject line

Editors get tons of emails every day, including story pitches. Make sure your headline grabs the reader's attention. It should pique their curiosity so they will be willing to open the email and perhaps even to accept your story pitch.

4-Have a hook

A hook encourages the editor to want to read more. It commands attention and offers the promise of a really interesting story.

5-Be sure it is newsworthy

Your story should be real news, not just marketing hype. Editors are not in the business of trying to help you sell things, but rather, to offer the kind of content their target audience really wants.

6-Keep it short and simple

Don't write the whole story. Just pitch them the idea of the story. Keep it to one paragraph, so you can add a couple of more elements to the pitch.

7-Describe your expertise briefly

Who are you or your company, and why should they be interested in your story? The more you can position yourself as an expert, the more likely you will get media pickups.

8-Offer extras

Include high-quality images, video, interviews, and more to support your story and make it more compelling for a blogger or online editor who wants their content to stand out. Note: do NOT include these as attachments or else your email might not get delivered. Just list them as available for their consideration.

9-Show you know their deadlines

Different publications have different deadlines and lead times. You need to understand these and time your pitches correctly. Too early, you might not get picked up. Too late, you will also miss out. If you are pitching to magazines, know the closing date for each issue, usually 3 to 4 months prior to it hitting the newsstands. Be sure your story will still be newsworthy if you are angling for magazine coverage.

Call us today to speak to one of our PR specialists: 1-800-713-7278

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9 Ways To Grab An Editor's Attention With Your Story Pitch

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All marketers need to try to capture the media's attention in order to get free traffic so they can gain subscribers and sales. One of the most effective ways to do this is to pitch a story to a particular editor of a publication that is a good fit for your niche or industry.

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This is a recollection of advice from over 30 freelancers who all asked the same questions at some point. Hopefully, and following the site's ever-present statement, this can serve as guidance for you as well.

Index

What's a pitch?

Things to keep in mind (subject lines, length, structure, introductions, clips)

What's an angle, how to find and explain it

How to pitch features and ask for interviews

How to pitch guides

How to pitch reviews

Follow ups (when to follow up, time in between, what to say)

Where to pitch/how to find someone's email

Where to look for ideas

Payments and Invoices

How to best use Gmail (scheduling, tags)

Scale of rates

COVID-19

Useful links

FAQ

Advice Snippets

People to reach out for further questions

What's a pitch

A pitch is an idea you're trying to sell to a site. It can be anything: an opinion piece about how Super Mario Sunshine is the greatest 3D Mario game, a reported piece about how community managers deal with increasingly toxic fanbases, or a researched-based essay about microtransactions and how they've evolved in a specific genre.

Pitches should be succinct yet filled with enough information to show that you have a strong grasp of the topic you're pitching. They should be no more than 2-3 paragraphs, include informational links to other reading in case the editor wants to know more, and start with a strong and identifiable hook. Here's a quick example.

You should look at a pitch as the beginning of a story. The work you do to research and draft a pitch should go directly into the final piece.

You can find three other examples below. The first is about a community story:

It feels like Harmonix's weird and ambitious card rhythm game has been out forever, but it hasn't even been two years already. Only that during that time, despite the efforts from the community to keep it alive, its strange and confusing marketing with Hasbro along with expensive booster packs ruined its otherwise clear potential.

Last year, Dropmix's logo was erased from the studio's official Facebook page, though one developer assured that they still have plans to support the app and the service. I'd like to reach out to both Harmonix and Hasbro for comment, along with diving into the community and speak to players that remained active hosting tournaments with the resources they have.

The Discord server is still active with hundreds of users, and it would make for a great story to see how they're keeping DropMix alive, especially considering the fact that, even with its digital component, it's still pretty much a board game that needs players on the same place. But many are also playing it either solo or in parties, sharing their creations online and looking to either trade or spot a deal on rare cards.

The second is an opinion piece:

My time with Death Stranding felt like a never-ending process, travelling in the worn boots of Sam from point A to B reconstructing America while he put literally everything from himself. Luckily, private rooms are perfect to sleep, go to the bathroom, and take a shower after a long day of work. They are also a perfect place for emerging stories, watching the protagonist being tormented by lucid nightmares and understanding how devastated he was with environmental storytelling.

The hall of Racoon City's Police Station is the safest place during your first few hours in Resident Evil 2: Remake, but it later becomes unsafe, while the only sane person in there is finally taken over by the infection.

Silent Hill 4, I think, it's the one that played with this concept the most. From the very beginning the room feels much safer than the horrors you find on the outside of the hole in the wall, but it becomes more hostile as time passes. By the later half of the game, navigating the space becomes a living nightmare. The house is no longer a home.

Rather than diving into the history and purpose of safe rooms, which has been done more than a couple of times, I want to explore the times in which these supposedly harmless places deceive the player, and when the mundane becomes an enemy.

Lastly, a pitch about how indie developers have been making use of streaming platforms as a way of playtesting:

Ever since Hades was released on Steam a new popularity surrounded the game, which came as a surprise to Supergiant Games. This roguelike is now making waves on Twitch, counting several streams on a daily basis and almost 20k followers as of today, while still being in Early Access. It makes sense for the studio to find this completely unexpected considering they're exploring a new territory, but it made me think of how streaming is now being taken into account during development.

Other indie games like Slay The Spire, Risk of Rain 2 and Darkest Dungeon saw a huge impact on Twitch during early access. The fact that they all carry a replayable value in which randomized elements rule each time is key to understand the value for streamers, but also for the developers themselves. They can spend months play testing procedurally generated games and never run out of bugs and aspects to tweak, but if they have hundreds of players doing it already, this changes things considerably. In addition, the fact that they are able to witness all kinds of characters experimenting with builds, weapons, or coming up with new metas is huge.

I want to reach out to these indie studios and ask how their games have been benefited by streamers, how much dedication they're putting on taking feedback from broadcasts alone, and if this could become a new way of play testing in the near future. I think the line between these two mediums is becoming even more thin as time passes, and it's a great time to explore how devs are thinking and evaluating this new channel of information to make changes in their on-going developments.

Things to keep in mind

Pitches need to be short and concise, but also provide all some necessary details about you:

Feel free to include a very short intro about yourself after the initial greetings, which shouldn't be longer than a sentence long. Unless you're using links to your social media in a signature, this can be a good way to include one or two. For example:

"Hello Editor,

I'm Diego, freelance journalist from Argentina published in X, X, and X. It's great to meet you!"

As a second option, which is the most common way of doing it, you can leave your intro for the second half of your email. Meaning, there should be as less information as possible between your greetings and your pitch. Your idea should be the first thing that your editor is able to see; they'll ask for any additional info later, or rely on your introduction in the second half.

Keep this short and simple, too, and always include clips (links to already published articles you have, whether from a publication or a personal blog), along with your portfolio. One neat and clean way of doing it is the following:

To keep it even shorter, especially if you have relevant clips that showcase a previous expertise/coverage on the topic you're pitching, you can also intertwine clips in the second paragraph of your pitch using keywords.

Here's a cool example (thanks Jay):

"I've previously done interview focused esports pieces, for example about [Brawl Stars esports], as well as this overview of the troubles Overwatch League is facing at [Polygon]. You can find my portfolio [here] if you like."

What's an angle, how to find and explain it

An angle is how you approach a story. It can be considered the "theme"

Examples include:

Writing about game design degrees through how expensive the American education system is.

Looking at a specific esport through how it's broadcasted.

Looking at representation in Animal Crossing by drawing from personal experience playing as a black character.

Reporting on a local movement/activity/project/trend

Angles are usually one of the first things you find about the story, they are the biggest part of what makes a story interesting. You use it as the hook in the pitch, in many cases. You should be able to explain your angle clearly if you want to convince an editor to accept your idea. The thumb rule for this comes down with subject lines for your pitch email: you should be able to condense your idea to a short sentence - in general, subject lines read as "[PITCH] Here goes your concised idea."

Finding an angle can still be tough, but it's likely one of the most important parts of crafting a pitch and story. The best way to find it is by picking a topic you want to explore and then reading and researching that topic. Look for what pops, what's interesting. If you read or hear something that you'd like to know more about, then it's worth looking into as a possible angle.

Here are some clips for reference:

How to pitch features and ask for interviews

Features are the bread and butter of the industry. They profiles, interviews, reporting, long form pieces with multiple interviews diving into an specific topic, oral histories, retrospective pieces, and more.

Along with opinion pieces, features make for great first pitches. You can talk to an independent development studio about an awesome game that more people should know about, or tackle how gaming and technology are intertwining with our modern cultures in interesting ways.

Our previous examples focus on features already, so you might already have a general grasp of how to structure them. But, there's a common question that we wanted to address in this section, which is whether you should contact the interviewee or the outlet first.

Well, there's not an easy answer for this. The thumb rule is that indie developers tend to be more willing to do interviews (their busy schedules notwithstanding) than, say, AAA studios and publishers. In this case, if you approach them with a secured outlet already, there's a chance that they'll be interested in taking part of your work. Of course, they can say no for a number of reasons, and if they were essential for your piece you won't be able to do it.

Editors will usually understand, but just to be safe, something common to do is to reach out to developers before you send over your pitch, indicating that you are asking if they'd be available for a potential interview with X outlet. Variations of this can be something along the lines of "I'm interested in covering X about your game/talking to all of you about the project, and will be pitching this to X, X, and X. Would there be availability for this?"

Oh, and we know that interviews might sound scary at first, but people are always more than happy to talk about their work. And there's also a chance that you'd end up doing an interview via email instead (sending over questions), but if you have the bandwidth for it, Skype calls are a great way of developing your interview skills.

How to pitch reviews

There's a saying that outlets don't tend to commission many reviews, since they're usually covered either in-house by the staff. While this is usually true, publications still need help from time to time. Don't be afraid to pitch them, especially if an editor has done a call on Twitter or actively expresses that they're always on the lookout for freelancers.

If you want to pitch reviews, this is a template we tend to use. Just add your own voice to it! The key info that always needs to be on your pitch is your expertise on the games you're looking to cover, why you would be the perfect person to do so, or any interesting angles.

"Hello [editor's name] / Hello [outlet name's] team,

My name is X and I'm a freelancer for X, X, X. It's a pleasure to meet you!

Since we're approaching [month], I wanted to pitch a few reviews for [outlet].

Game (release date, platform): explain a bit of the game, and why you're a great fit to do it

Repeat this as many times as needed (best try is two indies, one mid-big game)

Here are a few examples of reviews I've done, along with my portfolio. Please, do let me know if I can provide any further info.

Clip
Clip
Clip
Portfolio

Thank you very much for your time!

Best,
X"

Be mindful that sites schedule reviews ahead of time, and may or may not have a pool of freelancers to reach out already. Don't let this discourage you! But pitching nothing but reviews isn't advisable. These should coexist with features, opinions, guides, and such. Moreover, if you have a review assigned, you can ask about guides or pitch them somewhere else to make the most of that early access, along with opinion pieces after you've played it.

How to pitch guides

If you want to pitch guides, you can follow a similar structure to review pitches, whether you're just sending an introduction detailing your availability and genre preferences or listing upcoming games. These are preferably pitched before release, but if it's a live service game or a big update is coming to a popular title, you should make the most out of these opportunity windows as well. In addition, Google Trends might help you to find interesting angles to pitch, but in most cases editors are the ones who suggest them (which can go from a top X tips list to a collectibles guide).

Following up

Following up is an essential part of being a freelancer. In many cases editors will not reply to you. They might be busy, out of office, or they might not be interested in the idea at all. You won't know until you follow up.

There is no rule defining when and how often you should follow up. There is no rule defining when and how often you should follow up. If it's not timely (not tied to a current event or game release) one week is advisable, otherwise 2-3 business days are a good rule to follow. If an editor doesn't respond after three follow ups then it's safe to consider that a rejection. You shouldn't follow up more than that.

Follow ups should be simple. They are friendly, quick, and offer a quick reminder of what the pitch is. Here's an example:

Hi Dave,

I'm following up on this pitch about how indie developers are getting locked out of PPP benefits (COVID relief), can you let me know if you're interested? I'm planning to send this pitch elsewhere on Thursday.

Thanks,

Aron

Quick and harmless. You don't want to take up an unnecessary amount of an editor's time.

Here's another example:

Hi Editor,

Hope you're keeping up well.

I just wanted to do a quick follow up on this and see if it still might be of interest. Do let me know if you have any questions or would rather hear a different idea, and thanks so much for your time!

All the best,

Diego

Where to pitch/how to find someone's email

If you're thinking about pitching a site or editor you haven't worked with before, the main thing you'll need to do is find an editor to pitch. This will be the managing editor or the editor of a specific section (like video games) in most cases. There are a few ways to track it down if their email isn't clearly posted somewhere:

Check for an author profile on the site to see if an email is listed.

Check for a 'Staff' section on the site to see if an email is listed.

Search for the editor on Twitter and see if they have a profile. It's ok to DM or @ them if you find them but they don't have an email listed. They aren't required to respond to you, though.

Check if the editor has a personal site with an email listed.

Check LinkedIn.

Some sites have pitching guidelines to follow. If they are not clearly visible on the site, searching for the outlet name + pitch on Google might just do the trick. Just keep in mind that guidelines aren't the norm, and sometimes they might be outdated, but it's always best to double check before sending over a pitch.

Where to look for ideas

Ideas can come from anywhere. You can browse forums, subreddits, Twitter, and Facebook to find different communities and then cover what they're doing. There are groups of Animal Crossing hackers on Facebook, communities for every game on Reddit, and constant discussions happening on Twitter. Follow them and they will help jumpstart your brain when thinking of ideas to pitch.

You can also read other writing from sites all around the industry (Kotaku, Eurogamer, VICE Gaming, etc) and build off the type of stories they write. Ideas can also come from conversation or playing a game. Never disparage an idea before you pitch it (let them say no to you!) and also, consider other places outside from games as well. You never know what might give you an idea or that missing angle.

Payments and Invoices

Invoices are how you get paid. Invoicing procedures differ from site to site, but they are the documents you send to your editor (or a sites account department) once work is complete. They usually include your name, address, email, banking info, work completed, along with whatever information the site requests. Many sites will give you a template to use, but you can find your own on sites like Zoho. Here's an example:

Check with your editor to see how the site handles invoices before you send one. And don't worry, most editors are more than willing to help you regarding this, especially if it's your first time, so send over all questions you might have.

If you need a quick example of an invoice template you can make on Excel or Google Sheets in a couple of minutes, you can follow the template below:

One thing to keep in mind if you're based outside of the US or the UK is that not many sites will offer PayPal as an option. Only a few do so, sadly, and you'll need to have a bank account if you're planning to make this a profession. In addition, unless it's stated otherwise, you're going to need to fill a W8-Ben form instead if you aren't on the US. Always ask your editor for one during the onboarding process if they haven't provided with a copy already. Don't be afraid to consult on what you need to add depending on where you're based.

Lastly, and this isn't meant to scare you but it's best to know beforehand: payments will be delayed often. The usual is always 30 days, but these can be extended exponentially, or just be delayed for different reasons. Don't be afraid to follow up on this, and never give up on a payment even if it's been months since you finished the commission. In addition, and whenever possible, you should always sign up an actual commission document before starting working on a piece. Just keep in mind that not many sites will give you this document in advance, though.

How to best use Gmail (scheduling, tags)

Gmail (and other email tools) is your best friend and worst enemy. It'll be where you pitch editors, how you get in contact with many sources, how you invoice, and possibly how you track your stories as they progress. It's important to keep your email organized.

We recommend starting a new email and dedicating it mainly to freelancing. Don't subscribe to promotions or newsletters with this email. Keep it as your contact for PR, editors, studios, and other professionals.

If you inevitably end up using your personal email for freelance work, at least in Gmail, enabling the social and promotions tabs will help to keep things organized. Some PR emails may be automatically filtered, mind, so make the habit to whitelist them whenever necessary. Also, check your spam folder periodically. You can thank us later.

For further organizing, we cannot recommend tags/pins enough. Classifying your emails in categories will even make the general reading way more easier, as you can just recognize colors on a quick glance. Some common tags can be: pitches, interviews, PR, invoices, events, reviews, feedback, and anything in between.

Mark every email as a "to-do", or if you're in a rush, mark every important read email as "unread" again.

Scale of rates

Talking about rates isn't common practice, and chances are that you won't find out how much a site pays until an editor is interested in your idea and offers a commission. It's up to the publication to either disclose their rates or not, but we wanted to share a scale of rates of what you should be expect writing and covering video games.

There are a number of independent sites that are self-funded thanks to Patreon or similar crowdfunding platforms. Rates here are usually on the lower side of things, ranging from $10 USD to $50 USD. For this, you should check out Uppercut and Unwinnable, along with having us in mind of course.

Some pieces in that range will usually be less than 1,000 words long. Above that, you should expect for no less than $100 USD, with the usual being around $150 for short to mid features, reviews, and guides. $175 to $200 are preferable depending on the work, and it can be found in some sites, while $300 to $400 are less common, but again, depends on the outlet and the type of work you're pitching.

The best cases scenarios we've encountered offered $1 per word, or around $500 to $700 for features. Depending on the outlet, long form guides can be around the $250 to $500 scale, but it's more likely that you'll instead get multiple $100 or $150 commissions for individual guides on a particular game.

Sadly, we are not able to disclose rates for specific publications, and if you find a public spreadsheet on the internet, that one is sadly outdated. That being said, if you're curious about an specific outlet, feel free to reach out to us for additional information.

Keep conversion in mind when working with international outlets. $150 USD for your work can be very different if you're not based on the US, either lower or higher. Take this into consideration when you're offered a commission, looking at how much you'd end up getting directly on your pocket (taxes, conversion, and bank fees will also affect this).

Lastly, avoid publications that offer pay-per-view (meaning that you will only get paid, usually a low amount, depending on how many thousand clicks your piece gets on the site after publication), and don't write for free in exchange of exposure (a word you will be hearing often when starting out).

This should be a conscious decision on your end, either a choice once you're established and perhaps someone invites you to write a short GOTY list for them or similar, or if the editor of a volunteer publication isn't gaining any money with the work they're doing, but offers great feedback on your work. Editors will always welcome clips that are just posts on your personal blog (either hosted on WordPress or Medium, to give some examples), and you should be pitching and getting paid for your work as soon as possible. There are many sites out there who will exploit you for their personal gain.

Avoid them like the plague, and reach out to other freelancers if you have questions.

COVID-19

Yes, COVID-19 has been affecting freelancing as well. There's several outlets that aren't commissioning at the moment, and the remaining ones have been super wary of their budget with the increased demand. It's tough, but it's still feasible. Do keep in mind that this is only temporary, and everything will go back on track rather sooner than later.

Don't hesitate to reach out to any of us for any further inquiries. Most importantly, prioritize taking care of yourself, whether freelancing is your primary income or a secondary activity. Working from home is already isolating, and not being able to go out only makes things worse. Rely on your peers, reach out to other freelancers for support, and stay safe. We're all on the same boat, but we'll get through it together.

FAQ

Should I pitch during the weekends? - Some folks have gotten lucky with pitches during the weekends, but it's not advisable at all. Editors have a weekly schedule and work routine to follow, and weekends are, well, their break. You won't get a higher chance of receiving a reply, and whether or not they might actually get back to you, it's always best to be mindful of everyone's time. This is true for holidays as well.

What's the appropriate time and day to pitch? - Regular business hours are the safest bet. One quick advice is to always keep editors' timezones in mind (you don't want to send over an email at 10 pm or 2 am their time). Some editors will always reply during the morning, while others vary greatly. As long as you're reaching out during a reasonable time, you should be good. As a side note, editors receive hundreds of emails per day, so be mindful and patient with their time (but don't be afraid to follow up!)

I have a timely pitch, how should I address this? - Start your email's subject line with "Timely Pitch", followed by a short description of your idea as usual.

Someone on Twitter said that my opinion doesn't matter and should focus on reported pieces instead, is this true? - No. Games criticism is invaluable in the industry, whether it's in the form of an opinion piece about the latest AAA title, an essay, an analysis of a trend, or anything in between. These are great to shape and let your voice be heard. It's thanks to diverse perspectives that criticism is elevated and pushed forward. That being said, the reality is that most outlets will be more inclined on accepting a feature with interviews rather than an opinion piece. Not all of them, and some even have dedicated editors for it, but the disproportion is sadly a reality (rate-wise especially). Always try either way, and if they tend to run many of them, make sure to read a couple pieces to get a feel of what they're usually keen on.

My idea got rejected, should I just give up on it? - Not at all. There's multiple reasons why your idea might have been rejected, but you shouldn't let that discourage you. Updating and refining it to better suit a different publication is just common practice, and something you'll be doing a lot. If your gut tells you that your idea is worth it, then keep shopping it around.

I introduce myself as an aspiring writer/journalist/critic/freelancer, is this okay? - If you're already writing, then you're a writer. There's no such thing as an aspiring writer.

Useful links

The Thesaurus: The #1 way to not use the word "plot" 30 times in an article.

Write or Die: A site/app that makes you write or you have terrible consequences. WRITE!

Cold Turkey Blocker: An application that blocks productivity ruining websites for blocks of time.

Write or Die 2: So you don't spend 2 hours looking at cats instead of writing.

Grammarly: Take this one as a suggestion. It's not perfect, and many writers avoid it, but it may prove useful. The free version is pretty worthwhile, and you can decide whether or not to obtain the premium version later on.

Boomerang: An extension for Gmail that can have your e-mail get scheduled to send at later times, have them come back in your inbox if you get no response, etc. ( keep in mind that scheduling emails is now a native option for Gmail).

Checker Plus: If you use Chrome, lets you know when you get an e-mail. Pray it's from an editor and not Costco for the 45th time.

Animal Crossing Music: Relaxing Animal Crossing music to soothe your writing sessions.

Google Keep: One application that can be used for keeping track of pitches. Good for getting down quick thoughts, voice to text, and saving links for later use.

Trello: Another website/application that's good for tracking pitches. Great for storing your better-formed pitch ideas (so not just the random ideas you'd put into Keep) and keep track of where pitches are in the writing process.

Sejda: An HTML to PDF site. Essential for saving work on sites that are getting shut down, though it's always advised to have a backup of everything you write.

Muckrack: A portfolio website. You need a portfolio, this one is the easiest to use. Journo Portfolio is also really great, and free to use for up to 10 articles.

Advanced Renamer: Quickly rename files and set up rules for renaming. Great for renaming a million screenshots!

Top 6 Audacity Apps: Apps to record interviews if you're using Audacity.

Dek/Subhed explanation: Not many editors ask for them during pitches, but it's useful to know what they mean as early as possible.

Advice Snippets

I'd say the number one pitch tip is just fucking hit send! Also, in the grand scheme of things, editors care about the strength of your idea, and not your background or bylines. There's no narrative arc to your career, don't be afraid to pitch the big sites early with your best ideas - the worst thing they can do is say no! - Jordan

Two short paragraphs. Start the first with an "attention grabber," something that hooks them. Make it a lead in for the info of your pitch- use the first paragraph to give context to your idea and explain why it'll be interesting/explain your angle. At the end of that paragraph, put your thesis, your core idea. Paragraph two is where you break down HOW you're going to write the piece. Word count, what points will you hit, where will the piece go? Give a brief outline of it all - Dylan

Just because someone doesn't like your article doesn't mean no one will. I don't write a lot of timely pieces for a lot of reasons, but there are places for me in the industry. Get your shit out there, and remember to rest - Liz

Social media is a necessary evil. Twitter, in particular, is a valuable tool to have. If you read something that you enjoyed, the author's bio at the bottom will display their Twitter username most of the time. Give them a follow, tell them you enjoyed their piece. Build significant relationships with other freelancers. At the same time, follow publications and their editors. They will often tweet calls for writers on specific topics, or just in general. Keeping up with these opportunities is key. That being said, social media can be rough to stare at 24/7, so don't be afraid to take breaks, mute, or unfollow people. Curate your own spaces with your well being in mind - Diego
Interviewing/podcasting tips:
Someone suggested to me once doing your recording as a video (just turn your phone face down on the table) and uploading it to YouTube and then downloading their auto-captions. Apparently it's pretty accurate, though you'll need to clean them up obviously - Jay

"I use OBS to record calls on my PC if they are over the phone, I just put them on speaker. Skype Recorder is great for Skype. Then I use push to talk on Discord" - Aron

"I usually have OBS setup to record my mic and my desktop audio, which will put both into the same video. Then I play it back at half speed and speak into Google Doc's voice transcription.

-Open Google Docs
-Play your recording at half speed or slower
-Open Docs' speech to text tool
-Repeat what's being said in the recording
-Clean that shit up cause it'll be rough
-Hell yeah you got it" - Dylan

"Don't trust Google Meet, run a quick test with a friend first" - Diego
Writing tips:
When typing out words with annoying accents or capitalization (like Pokémon, or NAtURAL DOCtRINE), just type the name normally throughout your piece, then Ctrl+H the corrected version in. Saves a ton of time! I also used it when I was in the habit of double-spacing after each sentence to remove the double space so editors wouldn't kill me - Liz

In a list (especially ones that start with verbs!), every statement in that list needs to able to finish the stem at the beginning.

So: "I adore petting dogs, taking walks, and eating ass" is good

But: I adore petting dogs, taking walks, and people love it when I eat their ass" is bad

It may seem obvious in shorter lists, but in longer ones with intricate phrases, it can be easy to forget. It helps to look at each piece of the list and match it to the stem to see if it's right - Alyse

If you need to download an image from a Google Doc, right click, save them on Google Keep, and wait for the right sidebar to open. You'll see the image displayed there - right click and open it on a new tab - Diego
Job tips:
You don't owe sites anything. Respectfully extricate yourself if need be, don't throw out blunt truths - Dylan

Hot accountant tip since I saw this one too many times in job opportunity threads: your new job will usually assist with relocation, including monetarily. If they don't, you get to write it off your taxes. Too many people being like 'but it's expensive to move' while living in the same country like, apply bitch - Liz

Don't have a scanner? Google Drive has a 'scan' option for uploading docs. Take a picture of a sheet of paper on your phone, and Google will attempt to scan the page in. It's not flawless, but if you don't have easy access to a scanner, it saves a lot of time. You can also press the + button to add multiple pages to one file - Liz
Words of wisdom from us (and others):
You don't need to be selling tons of pitches every week - prioritise being good to yourself and write when you can - Cian

If the outlet wants you to do coverage that requires video capture, know your worth. If they want footage, tell them you want to be paid extra on top of the written - Kyle

In my view, a short, well-written review beats an overly-long, overly-detailed, overly-repetitive review every time. Give me the essence of the experience in as few words as possible, and then let me worry about whether or not I want mountains of more detailed information - Kyle Orland on the topic of exhaustive, ornately detailed reviews.

You are not your next gig. Or the gig after that. You've accomplished things that most people would die to do. We take our careers for granted. Journalists are mean to themselves. Like, really really mean. It makes taking that next gig even harder - Lindsay Goldwert on a thread about media layoffs.

I know impostor syndrome is a thing and I get it too but my 2020 wish is really for everyone to just value how fucking great they're doing - Jay

We have to be braver with our writing - Jason

Let them say no to you - Jay

if ur hesitant about sending a pitch, just follow the wise words of our lord and savior, pitbull........dale - Natalie

People to reach out for further questions

If you have any following or rather specific questions, feel free to reach out to the people below. Just be mindful of everyone's time, please!

Diego Nicolás Argüello: diego6arguello6@gmail.com / @diegoarguello66
Jay Castello: jaymcastello@gmail.com
Molly Bloch: molly.astral@gmail.com
Jordan Oloman: olomanjordan@gmail.com
Stacey Henley: staceydhenley@gmail.com
Lauren Morton: lauren@comradecupcake.com
Jack Yarwood: JackGYarwood
Ben Sledge: sledgebj@gmail.com / @BenSledge
Dylan Bishop: @dyl_byl
Chase Carter: chaswritesthings@gmail.com
Andrew King: andrewckingwriter@gmail.com

There's also some additional links that could prove useful:

Haywire Magazine has hosted a guide to freelancing for a good while now.
Critical Distance has a great resource page with outlets you should keep in mind.
Javy Gwaltney put a really interesting guide together a couple years ago that feels as true as it had been written yesterday.
Janet Garcia also has some interesting posts over at her blog.

Best of luck out there.

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When you're reading or listening to the news, are you able to describe the different parts of every news story?

1. Masthead

When you're talking about the news, a masthead refers to the banner with the newspaper's name and logo, found at the top of the newspaper's front page.

"The media company decided to change its masthead after it was renamed."

2. Headline

This refers to a short phrase at the top of an online or printed article. A headline summarises or draws attention to a story to encourage people to read it.

People often choose to read a few headlines, rather than full articles, to get a quick sense of what's going on in the world when they're busy.

"I usually read the headlines on the way to work."

3. Byline

The byline is the name of the reporter or writer of the article, usually found at the beginning or end of the story.

"He searched for the byline as he read the report to make sure it was written by a person and not a robot!"

4. Lede

A lede or lead is the first sentence or paragraph of a news story. It summarises the point of the story and encourages people to keep reading. Usually the most important part of the story is mentioned here.

"The lede got us all hooked to the story."

You might hear the phrase " bury the lede". That means to not emphasise the most important part of the story.

"You need to listen to the speaker carefully. She may bury the lede."

5. Caption

If you're talking about a caption in an article, it refers to the text placed below or beside a picture in an article to describe it and identify its source.

But when it comes to video, a caption refers to text superimposed over video describing the content.

"You can watch the video without sound. Just follow the captions."

6. Subtitles

Subtitles also refer to text superimposed over video that translate the dialogue in a video.

"I need to watch foreign films with subtitles. If not, I cannot follow the story."

7. Quote

A quote refers to exact words of a person that are reported in a story. Quotation marks are used to show what was said hasn't been paraphrased by the reporter.

"The minister was quoted in the news report last night."

8. Vox pops

Vox pops are short video interviews with members of the public, shot in real-world settings. Vox pop is short for vox populi, which means "voice of the people" in Latin.

"The news team did some vox pops this morning to capture reactions to the appointment of the new prime minister."

9. Advertorial

An advertorial is word that combines "advertisement" and "editorial". Advertorials are ads that have been written to look like articles.

I read a story about how a particular brand of cough medicine cured the writer's cough. Then I realised it was an advertorial when I read the disclaimer at the bottom of the story."

10. Sponsored content

A story that's explicitly sponsored by a company in order to advertise is known as sponsored content. The company can benefit from having its name at the top of a popular story.

"Bloggers and social media influencers often make money by accepting sponsored content."

Visit the ABC's Media Literacy website for fantastic free resources that help you critically evaluate the news, and find out how you can get involved in Australia's first Media Literacy Week (10-16 Sep). For daily English language lessons and tips, like our Learn English Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Describing different parts of a news story - ABC Education

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When you're reading or listening to the news, are you able to describe the different parts of every news story?

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It could have been a coincidence and nothing more.

On December 1, 2003 Louise and I were watching the Chris Matthews Show on MSNBC; Chris was interviewing Vermont Governor Howard Dean, who'd recently appeared on the front cover of Time magazine as the front-runner in the Democratic primary to take on George W. Bush in the next year's election.

"There are so many things that have been deregulated," Matthews told Dean, warming to Republicans' favorite thing to do when they get political power. "Is that a wrong trend and would you reverse it?"

And that was when Howard Dean spoke an extraordinary and powerful truth that had not been heard on network news shows in decades.

"I would reverse it in some areas," Dean replied. "First of all, eleven companies in this country control ninety percent of what ordinary people are able to read and watch on their television. That's wrong. We need to have a wide variety of opinions in every community. We don't have that because of Michael Powell and what George Bush has tried to do the FCC."

Matthews appeared shocked: here was the leading Democratic presidential candidate, on his air, talking about breaking up or regulating Chris' employer. He blinked, and said, "As a public policy, would you bring industrial policy to bear and break up these conglomerations of power?...How about large media enterprises?"

No doubt Matthews thought he'd give Dean some space to back away, but instead Dean plowed right on.

"The answer to that is yes," he said emphatically. "I would say there is too much penetration by single corporations in media markets all over this country. We need locally-owned radio stations. There are only two or three radio stations left in the state of Vermont where you can get local news anymore. The rest of it is read and ripped from the AP."

Matthews, now apparently figuring he'd give Dean all the rope he wanted, kept with the topic. "So what are you going to do about it? You're going to be President of the United States, what are you going to do?"

Dean answered the question directly: "What I'm going to do is appoint people to the FCC that believe democracy depends on getting information from all portions of the political spectrum, not just one."

"Are you going to break up the giant media enterprises in this country?" Matthews, whose MSNBC was then owned by GE, asked.

"Yes," Dean answered directly, "we're going to break up giant media enterprises. That doesn't mean we're going to break up all of GE. What we're going to say is that media enterprises can't be as big as they are today...To the extent of even having two or three or four outlets in a single community, that kind of information control is not compatible with democracy."

At that point, as I mentioned on the air the following day, I leaned over to Louise and said, "Dean is going down. I don't know how, but the corporations that own the media won't let this stand."

It took about six weeks, a "decent interval" in television news.

Dean was giving a speech in the Val-Air Ballroom in West Des Moines, Iowa, a state he was heavily favored to win. He ended it by saying:

"Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we're going to California and Texas and New York. And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And then we're going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House. Yeah!"

At that point, the crowd was yelling and applauding so wildly that Dean, to be heard over them, had raised his voice and put the unidirectional microphone (it only hears what's a few inches in front of it, to prevent feedback in the room) hard up to his face.

His entire riff sounded perfectly normal to the crowd in the room, but in the control rooms of the big networks his voice had gone up a half-octave and gotten louder. It just took a moment for them to isolate, clip, and push that "scream" out across the nation, proof positive that the country's leading liberal had gone flat-out bonkers mad.

The "Dean Scream" was put on repeat across the corporate-owned media landscape that Dean had, just a month earlier, put in his own presidential cross-hairs. Over the next four days the "Dean Scream" was played 633 times on network and cable news programs; Dean's campaign never recovered.

Contrast that with how the media treated Donald Trump, who definitely had no intention of breaking up media empires that were owned and controlled by non-media companies.

The former NBC "Apprentice" reality show star got so much coverage during the 2015/16 primary that then-CEO of CBS News Les Moonves told an investor call:

"I've never seen anything like this, and this going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It's a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going. ... It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS."

As Emily Stewart wrote about Trump for The Street:

"The real estate magnate got $4.96 billion in free earned media in the year leading up to the presidential election, according to data from tracking firm mediaQuant. He received $5.6 billion [in free media] throughout the entirety of his campaign, more than Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio combined."

Moonves' statement to his stockholders highlights the crisis of news in America: turn on any newscast on radio or TV and you'll find the same five or six stories a day, recycled ad nauseum, usually with a complete lack of context, history or meaningful examination of their impact on our lives.

Instead of getting news, America is fed a daily stream of for-profit infotainment. It is designed to be easily read on a teleprompter and understood by the country's lowest common denominator, and its only real purpose is to establish a viewing audience that can then be sold soap or pharmaceuticals or scam Medicare Advantage polices.

Gone are the Walter Cronkite types of reporting, where story after story is shared and given meaning. Now a "news star" will "set up a topic" with a news lede and then invite 2 or 3 "guests" - former Republicans, preferably - to opine as if they were Delphic holders of All Knowledge.

Everything is presented in a "both sides' arguments are equally legitimate" frame of "your team versus my team."

Opinion has replaced news, and the opinion rarely reflects the actual concerns or opinions of the majority of voters. Instead, it shapes rather than reflects public opinion, as you can see from the coverage of the Virginia and New Jersey governors' races.

Outside of a few diehards like Amy Goodman and the BBC, news is dead.

And it is destroying our democratic republic.

This touches, as Howard Dean pointed out in 2003, the core of what's wrong with news in America: it is being run as a cash cow largely by companies that are not even in the news business.

CNN is owned by AT&T, the company that reportedly funded the creation of a rightwing Trumpy TV network. MSNBC and NBC are owned by Comcast, one of the nation's most aggressive opponents of Net Neutrality and anti-trust laws. ABC owes their allegiance to Disney. CBS is owned by entertainment giant Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures.

Every one of these companies has an agenda that, first and foremost, serves their bottom lines. None are primarily in the news business.

As a result, the American voting electorate is largely uninformed on actual matters of vital public interest, and often so misinformed that they vote for candidates who are patently working against America's best interests...but who agree with the networks that antitrust laws and the FCC should never, ever be strengthened.

A similar situation plays out with radio and TV stations and newspapers all across America. Increasingly, they're owned by huge, multi-state corporations that bleed dry their news divisions, or simply kill off local news altogether and instead carry nationally syndicated content produced by billionaire Rupert Murdoch's Fox "News" or one of the entertainment or internet giants listed above.

Prior to 1996, pretty much every radio station of any consequence in America had a local news team: I was part of one from 1969 until the mid-1970s in Lansing, Michigan. Most all have vanished on the altar of improving profits for the companies that have taken ownership of the nation's radio stations.

Have you heard a single word about the long-promised right-to-unionize PRO Act that the big media giants so oppose? How about an honest discussion of the Medicare Advantage scam that's such a cash cow for TV and radio networks? Or some decent reporting on the actual famine that is beginning now in Afghanistan?

And while you haven't heard word one about these actual, vital topics, odds are you've heard a lot about Critical Race Theory (although odds are nobody ever bothered to point out that it has never, ever been taught in any public school in America), the tiny slice of Americans who refuse to get vaccinated, and Brown People at the Border!

We're stuck in a media cycle of dopamine addiction. News these days is like speed or sugar: it gives a temporary high and jolts the attention mechanism of the brain, but provides no actual nourishment whatsoever.

Neoliberal deregulation policies brought us this disaster.

Prior to 1996, there were specific caps on how many radio stations, newspapers, and TV stations an individual family or company could own and in how many states they could operate. The result was a vast diversity of programming and voices on radio and TV, and multiple competing newspapers in every state and large city.

When Bill Clinton jumped aboard the neoliberal deregulation binge and signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, that all came crashing down, as Howard Dean pointed out to Chris Matthews.

It is time to re-regulate the media.

Companies that make movies, sell telephone service, run social media or deliver the internet shouldn't be running network news: all that leads to an uninformed populace and believers in things like Trump's Big Lie. That should be left to standalone corporations that do news first, last, and everything in between.

Under the Fairness Doctrine, which Reagan stopped enforcing in 1987 and Obama removed from the books altogether, radio and TV stations had to "program in the public interest." That was widely interpreted to mean that the "cost" of maintaining a radio or TV broadcast license over the public airwaves was that real news had to be presented every hour on radio and for a full hour every night on TV's prime time.

The Fairness Doctrine only required "opposing views" when station management or ownership was putting editorials on the air, something is now almost never done as there's no more significant local ownership. That widespread misconception aside, it didn't and wouldn't require "politically balanced" programming.

But it had a huge impact: it is why, until the Fairness Doctrine was blocked in 1987, ABC, CBS, and NBC all lost money on their news operations that had correspondents and bureaus all over the world: it is what they had to do to make far more money hand-over-fist on their dramas and comedies. The year of Reagan's change, CBS was the first to demote their News Division from a separate standalone operation fire-walled from advertisers and put it under their VP of entertainment programming. Others followed suit within the year.

Thus was born infotainment.

Media monopolies need to be broken up, as Dean pointed out over a decade ago (it is only gotten worse since) and we must both bring back the Fairness Doctrine and undo the damage of Clinton's Telecommunications Act by reversing its ownership provisions back to what worked so well from the 1930s to 1996.

Hedge funds shouldn't be allowed to squeeze the last dollar out of small-town newspapers, often gutting their staffs and frequently even bankrupting the business after they've sucked it dry. Nonetheless, they own about half of all newspapers in America. As Edward Helmore noted in The Guardian a few months ago:

"More than 70 local newsrooms have closed over the past 15 months, with hundreds of media jobs lost, as the already difficult financial conditions in the industry intensified during the crisis. By some estimates, a staggering 2,100 local newspapers, or one in four, have closed in the US since 2005."

Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1831 in Democracy in America, "The power of the periodical press [in America] is second only to that of the people."

That power should not be in the hands of any organization that is dedicated first and foremost to anything other than providing the American people with news.

News is too vital to democracy to be left to the "free market." It needs to be taken from the hedge funds, movie makers, and merchandise sellers, and returned to the hands of journalism professionals who understand and care about it.

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Journalism vs. Infotainment: News is too vital for democracy to be left in the hands of corporations | Milwaukee Independent

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It could have been a coincidence and nothing more. On December 1, 2003 Louise and I were watching the Chris Matthews Show on MSNBC; Chris was interviewing Vermont Governor Howard Dean, who'd recently appeared on the front cover of Time magazine as the front-runner in the Democratic primary to take on George W.

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The definition of juxtaposition is placing two things together in order to show a contrast. In photography we use composition, clever use of forced perspectives or carefully placed props to convey the contrasts in the image. Photographs can also rely on cultural ideas and identities of the viewers.

Juxtaposition photography is a very powerful tool. It can show seriousness or convey a comical representation of a scene, setting or concept. For more information on how to capture images like these, read our article here. This article gives you a good range of juxtaposition examples to start you thinking!

1. Animate vs. Inanimate

Yes, it is Picasso. It has Picasso sitting at a table, and bread rolls take the place of his hands. What makes this image work, is that it is subtle at first, as your focus places itself on his eyes where his attention is going.

What makes this a juxtapositional image, is that we see the unexpected. We see hands in the corner of our eyes, and it is only when we focus our attention that we notice the conflict.

2. Big vs. Small

A very basic juxtaposition example is to provide two conflicting ideas in one image. We can do that with something as size differences. One big and another small. And we can strengthen this through the relationship of the subjects.

Here, a father holds his child's hand.

3. Big vs. Small (Post-Editing)

Another way to show size differences between two objects is creating the effect during post-processing.

Here, a photograph of a young boy is superimposed on top of an image of Rome. He becomes a Godzilla figure, terrorising St. Peter's Square.

4. Black vs. White

Colours are a great way to show juxtaposition. And there are no two colours that contrast better than black and white. This is because black and white have significance beyond their role as colours.

5. Fat vs. Skinny

Another simple area to look at is the physicality of fat and skinny people. This can work with other objects, as long as you single them out in an otherwise busy image.

Visually, the contrast and juxtaposition in this image is very obvious.

6. Emotion vs. Emotionless

Photographers use the difference between foreground and background all the time.

Here, we are using the foreground and background interactions as the juxtaposition. There's the couple on the billboard kissing in the background while the two people in the foreground are facing away from each other.

7. Healthy vs. Harmful

You can change peoples' perception of something using props. Here, the pomegranate has been turned into a grenade. This idea is very simple, both objects look very similar as spherical shapes. But the meaning has changed.

Does the photographer want to convey that pomegranates are deadly? They are in the Greek myth of Persephone. They may be simply showing us the contrast between something healthy and something harmful.

8. Human vs. Machine

Juxtaposition can touch on the surreal. Here, we have an aerial photograph making use of patterns and juxtaposition.

The gap in the puzzle breaks the pattern since we expect to see another car. And the nude person creates a contrast between the natural and the manmade.

9. Lines vs. Circles

Shapes and forms serve as great ways to bring interest into an image. They are inherently contrasting. Here, the shapes are not only from the holes in the ceiling, but from the shadows hitting the multitude of lines on the walls.

10. Mixed Concepts Juxtaposition Examples

We can't always find juxtaposition examples in the world around us. Sometimes, we can create it during post-processing.

Here, a picture of a tree and an atomic bomb mushroom cloud have been merged. Death and life in one image.

11. Nature vs. Man-Made

Our world consists of manmade and natural objects. It is only fitting to show these contrasts in our daily life. This image below has a few juxtapositions, which make it a visually striking image.

It shows us the manmade structure, with very clear-cut lines and perfectly repeated rectangles. This is in contrast to the bumpy curves of the tree. It also presents us with an idea of repetition. Every rectangle is exactly the same, yet each branch is unique.

12. New Technology vs. Old Technology

Technology is another great way to show juxtaposition examples. Our world creates and develops technology so fast that it quickly outdates all past mechanical objects.

Showing the difference between the old and the new tells us something about our society. The story behind the image is powerful.

13. New vs. Old Architecture

Architecture is almost inescapable. It tells us so much about the place and time of the taken image. Consider the image below.

We see the array of different architectural styles in the foreground. The huge skyscraper in the background overshadows these. Out with the old and in with the new.

14. Young vs. Old People

Nothing tugs our heartstrings more than images that show old and young people. We see the passing on of information, of cultures and traditions through their interactions. A gentle reminder that life is fleeting and time flies by so very fast.

15. Patterns and Colours Juxtaposition Examples

Patterns and colours are a very basic but striking way to show juxtaposition. In the image below, the photographer managed to capture a scarf that resembles the environment in the road work barriers and tape.

The colours and patterns may be the same, but the juxtaposition comes from the use of the objects.

16. People vs. Warfare

Documentary photographers are constantly finding ways to incorporate people and their settings to form a story. Here, children play around a disused and abandoned artillery weapon.

An object of death and destruction has become an object of play, laughter and joy.

17. People vs. Perception

This is one of my favourite photographs. It makes people think. It is a very simple image, captured from the air, showing a man holding onto a ledge for dear life.

After a few seconds, we realise the obvious background. It is a tennis court and we have been caught out. Again, the setting has been repurposed, changing our idea of the area and using it for different means. Bravo!

18. Wealth vs. Poverty

One area that many photographers like to cover is that of wealth vs poverty. It is social commentary at its most basic, and most powerful. It is something that we can all acknowledge, as it is a worldwide problem.

This photographer aimed to show these contrasting elements through aerial photography. You can see the difference of the densely populated area vs the sparser, and greener area to the left.

19. Poverty vs. Idealism

Billboards, as we see, are great ways to show the state of the country the image was taken in. They serve as backdrops to products, services and public announcements.

Here, the billboard proudly states that this country has the 'world's highest standard of living'. And in the foreground, one sees many people queuing for food. Otherwise known as a breadline.

And the happy people in the background are all white, whereas the entire breadline is made up of people of colour. This screams volumes.

20. Repurposing Juxtaposition Examples

This image is amazing. The photographer extends his arm and places a cutout version of a trumpet in front of the lens while photographing.

He repurposes the object in front of him into something different, while simultaneously showing us how he did it. We see both objects separately, but also together, creating a new and third object.

21. Role Replacement Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition doesn't have to come from what is in front of the lens. It's often about the concept and story of the image.

Here, we see a little girl preparing food by peeling carrots. It suggests that the girl has taken the role of mother, in preparing food for the younger sibling seen in the background. We expect to see an adult doing that job. When the girl takes the adult's place, we read much more into the image.

22. Straight vs. Curved

Simply put, lines can be very effective. Here we see a very minimal image of a straight and taut line juxtaposed with the curved line of the water.

The colours and atmosphere of the image also work as a contrast to each other. The black line sits on a lighter background, whereas the white from the water exists in a darker area.

23. Power vs. Weakness

I love images with single subjects, as they help to give the scene a sense of scale. Without this little boy, we wouldn't have a clue about how big those steps are, and if they are in fact steps at all.

The boy looks at the first step, where we see many more ahead of him. It is a powerful image of the strong and prominent lines in contrast to the small boy, momentarily too small and weak to climb them. Some day, kiddo.

24. Vintage vs. Modern

We are in love with vintage objects and scenes. If you don't believe me, look at fashion, art, architecture, music. You name it, we have a retro version of it. It teaches the younger generations what life used to be like through objects, styles, colours and patterns.

Here, we see two boys in modern era clothes look around a vintage room. The furniture and the atmosphere feel very old, and without the two boys, it would be a timeless image.

25. Past vs. Present

This image of Terence Stamp, a renowned stage and film actor, is one of power. We have his modern portrait on the left, while a younger version of him sits on the right.

He is using an old image to both hide and present the other part of his face. We can compare and contrast the differences in the two parts of his face, seeing how life and old age have treated him.

26. Expected vs. Real Size

Here we have another juxtaposition example of expectation. We see the object as a real, life-sized car, not a toy. On closer inspection, we look at the environment and deduce that these are twigs, meaning that the car is in fact smaller.

The narrow depth of field helps to create this effect.

27. Stereotypes Juxtaposition

Every culture and group of people in the world use stereotypes. These can be about gender, colour, culture and traditions of other groups of people. This image serves as a heavy concept in a very simple image.

Here, two men are handcuffed but we don't know the story. Many people would see the white man as the authoritative, police officer and the man of colour as the criminal.

There is no way of telling, but it can be interesting to evoke these thoughts in your viewers.

For more creative photography inspiration why not check out our articles on minimalist photography or photography styles.

A note from Josh, ExpertPhotography's Photographer-In-Chief:

Thank you for reading...

CLICK HERE if you want to capture breathtaking images, without the frustration of a complicated camera.

It's my training video that will walk you how to use your camera's functions in just 10 minutes - for free!

I also offer video courses and ebooks covering the following subjects:

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Thanks again for reading our articles!

Craig Hull

Craig is a photographer currently based in Budapest. His favourite photographic areas are street and documentary photography. Show him a darkroom and he'll be happy there for days. As long as there are music and snacks. Find him at craighullphotography.co.uk and Instagram/craighullphoto

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27 Juxtaposition Photography Examples | Definition | Ideas

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The definition of juxtaposition is placing two things together in order to show a contrast. In photography we use composition, clever use of forced perspectives or carefully placed props to convey the contrasts in the image. Photographs can also rely on cultural ideas and identities of the viewers.

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https://preview.shorthand.com/cxZITS4CNZspPWKU
By Xuan Cao

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How do you say no? It's a question we hear frequently from content managers and strategists who regularly publish material submitted by internal stakeholders.

How do you say no to the braggadocious post about a pet project that is being pawned off as a "think piece?"

How do you decline an overblown data visualization that is all looks and no substance?

How do you pass on a piece that just doesn't fit with the overall strategy of the channel you are in charge of?

These are difficult questions for anyone who is concerned with maintaining consistency and quality within an organization's publishing operation. And as platforms and channels continue to multiply and change the way that target audiences interact with your organization's storytelling, maintaining that quality and consistently is increasingly important.

Our recommendation is to take a page from the journalism industry and assess the relative merit of a contributed piece according to a set of news values.

News values are the elements of story that journalists have used for decades to quickly assess and determine whether an idea or event is worth sharing - and if so, how prominently.

There are seven news values that journalists typically consider in order to make coverage choices, and any organization that produces content can apply them as a starting point and rule of thumb when assessing contributed content.

In no particular order, here are the seven news values:

Timeliness

An event is more newsworthy the sooner it is reported.

Proximity

Events are more newsworthy the closer they are to the community reading about them.

Impact

Events are more newsworthy when they affect a greater number of people.

Prominence

Events are more newsworthy when they involve public figures.

Oddity

Events are more newsworthy the more out of the ordinary they are.

Relevance

Events are more newsworthy when they involve an issue that is top of mind in the public.

Conflict

Events are more newsworthy when they involve disagreement.

Adobe Stock

A story that hits on all seven of these news values would be incredibly compelling. But it is not necessary for a piece to check every box in order to be considered generally relevant. In fact, different organizations might place deep importance on certain values while considering others less important.

For example, a nonprofit that is focused on community issues might value stories about impact much more than it would stories about conflict. The important thing is that the organization has a shared understanding of the values that matter to its audiences.

By documenting these values and codifying them as part of a content strategy, publishers who rely on contributed content have a tool for helping internal stakeholders understand what the necessary elements are for a great piece of content.

These news values are a great tool for anyone who not only needs to decide what and when to publish but who also must explain to contributors why and how it must be done.
Jim Walsh is director, editorial, at Atlantic Media Strategies, the digital consultancy of The Atlantic magazine based in Washington, D.C.

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These 7 news values can help you make smarter content choices

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How do you say no? It's a question we hear frequently from content managers and strategists who regularly publish material submitted by internal stakeholders. How do you say no to the braggadocious post about a pet project that is being pawned off as a "think piece?"

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The emergence of new media, the Internet, and social media has brought a different dimension to storytelling. These new forms of media and new platforms such as Steller, Wattpad and Atavisthave incredible implications for storytelling.

Multimedia storytelling conveys a narrative through multiple forms of media such as; text, audio and video. Multimedia stories are able to convey emotion and build empathy in ways that single-medium stories cannot.

Incorporating various types of media into a story allows readers to engage and explore. This interactivity is an important feature of multimedia storytelling that allows you to engage your audience and seek their input and feedback. Inserting clickable quizzes, comment boxes, and graphics provides an exciting way to get the audience to participate in the story experience.

The best types of multimedia stories include action, exposition, strong characters and powerful emotions, all of which can be conveyed through different forms of media. In order to have a successful multimedia story, it needs to have several elements that come together to play an important role.
What does multimedia storytelling mean for Journalists?
Multimedia features have increased over the years, allowing journalists to experiment with what audiences react to when it comes to digital storytelling.

"Multimedia journalism is define by the use of different mediums - such as text, photos, video, sound, and/or graphics - in a single piece to tell a more compelling, well-rounded story" - Shaun Swingler, 2017.

Multimedia storytelling gives journalists the chance to allow readers to actively engage with stories in a completely different way than before. This innovation has also provided a platform for deeper and more complex stories to be told.

"Sometimes, elements of stories can be lost when trying to convey them in only one medium. Approaching stories from a multimedia perspective allows journalists to use more innovative ways of telling these stories and bringing in readers" - Media Updates, 2017.

In 2012, The New York Times released 'Snowfall', a multimedia feature by John Branch. It told the story of the Tunnel Creek Avalanche through text, animated graphics, photography, and videos. 'Snowfall' opened the doors for journalists, making way for an abundance of other incredible pieces of non-fiction multimedia storytelling, with the Professor of Journalism Jay Rosen calling it, "a breakpoint in online journalism".

The UK's most prominent news publication involved in multimedia storytelling is The Guardian. Their Seven Digital Deadly Sins piece in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada is amazing! Released in 2014, the piece is a depiction of modern day technology use, showing both the good and bad aspects of it though video content, animations, illustrations, and photography.

Another effective multimedia example would be Women Are Making the Best Rock Music Today, an artistic and edgy multimedia piece by The New York Times. It's a seamless combination of audio, full-screen video, creative slideshow layouts, and effective user-interaction story-scrolling.

Although multimedia storytelling offers a variety of benefits for journalists, it is argued (Memarian 2017) that good quality journalism is still essential. In many cases, stories are based on text and complemented with photos, videos or audio.
My experience with multimedia storytelling
In August 2016, Instagram introduced 'Instagram Stories'. A feature that allows users to share a narrative with their followers in a more personal and direct way than a post. Thus, due to its interactive nature, I created Instagram stories as an engaging way to promote my blog.

"Instagram Stories are a combination of images and videos that work together, along with any necessary commentary overlay, to tell today's story" - Influencer Marketing Hub.

As seen in my Instagram story below, I engaged my followers by using a mix of visuals and giphs. I made sure the story was simple as I know how quickly users flick through stories on the app.

Example of my Instagram Story (1)

Example of my Instagram Story (2)

Stories are an effective tool that can be used to directly link to your site. Celebrities, influencers and journalists usually include a swipe up link on their story which acts as a hyperlink to their website. However, in order to use this tool you need 10k followers which unfortunately, I don't have - never say never! I used a link in bio giph as a way for my followers to click the link in my account bio as a way for them to gain access to my blog.
Looking forward...
I thoroughly enjoyed creating Instagram stories and found that the engagement on my blog increased because of it.

Multimedia storytelling gives journalists an opportunity to bring their stories to life! Journalism is constantly evolving, and as the industry evolves, I'm certain journalists will continue to seek new methods to tell stories effectively. It will be exciting to see where the industry is headed in 2019.

For more updates on the issues and challenges involved in entertainment and celebrity journalism follow @MicaelaBUBlogs on Twitter or my Facebook page.

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The emergence of new media, the Internet, and social media has brought a different dimension to storytelling. These new forms of media and new platforms such as Steller , Wattpad and Atavist have incredible implications for storytelling. Multimedia storytelling conveys a narrative through multiple forms of media such as; text, audio and video.

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Tutorial: Multimedia Storytelling: learn the secrets from experts

Not all stories make good multimedia stories. The best multimedia stories are multi-dimensional. They include action for video, a process that can be illustrated with a graphic (e.g., "how tornadoes form" or "how this new surgery works"), someone who can give some pithy quotes for video or audio, and/or strong emotions for still photos and audio. Most multimedia stories require that the reporter go into the field to report the story face-to-face with sources, rather than doing a story entirely by telephone. To learn more about multimedia storytelling and get hands-on practice with creating video, photos, data visualizations and more, consider attending one of our workshops.

What is a multimedia story?

A multimedia story is some combination of text, still photographs, video clips, audio, graphics and interactivity presented on a Web site in a nonlinear format in which the information in each medium is complementary, not redundant.

Nonlinear means that rather than reading a rigidly structured single narrative, the user chooses how to navigate through the elements of a story. Not redundant means that rather than having a text version of a story accompanied by a video clip that essentially tells the same story, different parts of a story are told using different media. The key is using the media form - video, audio, photos, text, animation - that will present a segment of a story in the most compelling and informative way.

Here are some examples:

When news organizations take full advantage of two other important characteristics of storytelling on the Web - context and continuity - multimedia stories are wrapped in a story "shell" that provides background information on the story. This could include everything from databases, timelines and infoboxes to lists of related stories, links to other resources and online forums. The information in each shell gives the reader a sense of the context of a story and where it fits in with other stories on the same topic.

Each story shell, in turn, is part of a broader issue or beat shell at a news site that defines the more general context for each story - politics, foreign policy, education, crime, etc. And those issue/beat shells are wrapped in a general shell - usually a home page with its navigational menus - that defines what a journalism organization stakes out as its territory.

Here are some examples of how news organizations have wrapped stories in the different layers of shells:

What isn't a multimedia story?

Sites such as CNN, the Washington Post, NPR and MSNBC.com are multimedia sites. They have text. They have video clips. They have audio. They have still photographs. They have interactive graphics. But the main stories on these sites are often linear and produced in either text or video or audio to stand alone. The text is often augmented with photos, as it would be in a newspaper or magazine. The video is usually the same version that appears on television. Rarely are video, text, still photos, audio and graphics integrated into the same story. Usually, they are stand-alone stories, each produced for a different media about the same subject, that are then aggregated into multimedia packages.

Reporter-driven vs. editor- or producer-driven stories

There are two basic types of multimedia stories:

- Those in which a reporter is in charge of putting the story together. The story is usually a daily beat story, a feature or part of an investigative series or special project. The reporter - sometimes called a "backpack journalist" - goes into the field and uses his digital video camera as a multimedia reporter's notebook. He gathers video clips, video from which to grab still photos, audio, and information that will go into text and graphics. The story is in his head, and he makes the basic decisions on how to assemble the pieces that make up the whole. Joe Weiss' " Touching Hearts " is a reporter-driven story.

- Those in which the editor/producer is in charge, generally breaking news or special projects. The editor assigns individuals to produce pieces of a breaking news story, e.g. tornadoes damaging a city. She asks a photographer for photos, a reporter to go into the field to do interviews, a videographer to go into the field and film the destruction, another reporter to gather information by phone, and a graphic artist to produce maps and illustrations. The story's in her head, and she makes the basic decisions on how to assemble the pieces that make up the whole. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune's " Local Heroes " is an editor- or producer-driven story.

This course walks you through putting together a multimedia feature story on your own. But the skills you derive from doing this story can be used to assemble a team to do a breaking news multimedia story as well.

How does convergence fit into multimedia storytelling?

When you report a story for print - using a reporter's notebook to write down information from interviews or what you see or hear - what you gather is useful only for print. When you report a story for television - using a video camera to shoot only interviews or events that will be visual elements in a clip - what you gather is useful only for television.

But when you report a story for the Web - using a video camera to shoot interviews or events, as well as using it to grab still pictures, record audio and collect information that can be used in text or graphics - what you gather can be used to produce a multimedia story, a television story, a print story or a radio story.

In a converged newsroom, you can do a multimedia version of the story for the Web, but also produce different versions for a print publication like a newspaper, for a television newscast, for a radio program or even a pure text version for wireless applications.

Choosing a Story

Not all stories make good multimedia stories. The best multimedia stories are multi-dimensional. They include action for video, a process that can be illustrated with a graphic (e.g., "how tornadoes form" or "how this new surgery works"), someone who can give some pithy quotes for video or audio, and/or strong emotions for still photos and audio. Most multimedia stories require that the reporter go into the field to report the story face-to-face with sources, rather than doing a story entirely by telephone.

The story used in this course to illustrate how to do a multimedia piece has action, process, and a person who can give pithy quotes. It's about the "dancing" rocks of Death Valley National Park. Rocks, some as large as boulders, move across a dry lake bed in a remote section of Death Valley and leave trails, some as long as half a mile. Since the rocks were discovered in the early 1900s, people have offered many theories on how they move. This story follows a high-tech geologist as she solves the mystery. Gathering Preliminary Information

Before you venture into the field to shoot a story, gather as much information as possible to put together a rough storyboard - an outline of the story that lays out the multimedia possibilities. This means doing a preliminary interview with the source or sources for background, getting a basic idea of what to expect in the field, and looking up anything the sources have published in print or on the Web. Then collect as many available visuals - photos, videos, maps and graphics - as you can from your sources or from the Web to get an idea of what the story's components may be. Track down any previous stories on the topic - print, video, radio or Web.

Here's the information available about "Dancing Rocks."
Dr. Paula Messina's Web site
A print story about the Dancing Rocks

A telephone interview with Paula Messina

View the final Dancing Rocks story & Web site

Storyboarding

The Storyboard

A storyboard is a sketch of how to organize a story and a list of its contents.

A storyboard helps you:

Define the parameters of a story within available resources and time

Organize and focus a story

Figure out what medium to use for each part of the story

How to Do a Rough Storyboard

A multimedia story is some combination of video, text, still photos, audio, graphics and interactivity presented in a nonlinear format in which the information in each medium is complementary, not redundant. So your storyboard should be put together with all those elements in mind.

The first thing to tackle is the part about the story being nonlinear.

1. Divide the story into its logical, nonlinear parts, such as:

a lead or nut paragraph, essentially addressing why this story is important

profiles of the main person or people in the story

the event or situation

any process or how something works

pros and cons

the history of the event or situation

other related issues raised by the story

Instead of thinking "first part," "second part", "third part", "fourth part", think "this part", "that part", "another part", and "yet another part". It helps to avoid linear thinking. The home page comprises a headline, nut graph, an establishing visual (can be a background or central photograph, a slide show or a video), and links to the other parts, which are usually subtopics of the overall story.

Next, divide the contents of the story among the media - video, still photos, audio, graphics and text.

1. Decide what pieces of the story work best in video. Video is the best medium to depict action, to take a reader to a place central to the story, or to hear and see a person central to the story.

2. Decide what pieces of the story work best in still photos. Still photos are the best medium for emphasizing a strong emotion, for staying with an important point in a story, or to create a particular mood. They're often more dramatic and don't go by as quickly as video. Still photos used in combination with audio also highlight emotions. Panorama or 360-degree photos, especially combined with audio, also immerse a reader in the location of the story.

3. Does the audio work best with video, or will it be combined with still photos? Good audio with video is critical. Bad audio makes video seem worse than it is and detracts from the drama of still photos. Good audio makes still photos and video seem more intense and real. Avoid using audio alone.

4. What part of the story works best in graphics? Animated graphics show how things work. Graphics go where cameras can't go, into human cells or millions of miles into space. Sometimes graphics can be a story's primary medium, with print, still photos and video in supporting roles.

5. Does the story need a map? Is the map a location map, or layered with other information? GIS (geographic information systems) and satellite imaging are important tools for reporters. Interactive GIS can personalize a story in a way impossible with text by letting readers pinpoint things in their own cities or neighborhoods - such as crime or meth labs or liquor stores or licensed gun dealers.

6. What part of the story belongs in text? Text can be used to describe the history of a story (sometimes in combination with photos); to describe a process (sometimes in combination with graphics), or to provide first-person accounts of an event. Often, text is what's left over when you can't convey the information with photos, video, audio or graphics.

7. Make sure the information in each medium is complementary, not redundant. A little overlap among the different media is okay. It's also useful to have some overlap among the story's nonlinear parts, as a way to invite readers to explore the other parts of the story. But try to match up each element of a story with the medium that best conveys it.

8. Interactivity means giving the reader both input and control in a story. By making the story nonlinear, you've introduced an element of interactivity, because the user can choose which elements of a story to read or view and in which order. By including online forums or chats, you give readers input into a story. Some news sites have included interactive games so the reader can construct his own story. One newspaper let people help plan a waterfront redevelopment project with an online game in which they placed icons on a map of the waterfront showing where they thought parks, ballfields, restaurants, shops and so on should be located. For more examples of how news Web sites are including different types of interactivity, check out J-Lab - the Institute for Interactive Journalism.

When you're done breaking a story down into its elements - both in terms of its content and the different media you could use - you need to reassemble all that into a rough storyboard.

On a sheet of paper, sketch out what the main story page will look like and the elements it will include. What's the nut graph? What are the links to the other sections of the story? What's the menu or navigation scheme for accessing those sections? What multimedia elements do you want to include on the main page as the establishing visuals, whether video or pictures.

Then do the same for the other "inside" pages that will be the other parts, or subtopics, in your overall story. What is the main element on each page and what other information should be included there? What video, audio, pictures or graphics would best tell this part of the story?

A rough storyboard doesn't have to be high art - it's just a sketch. And it isn't written in stone - it's just a guide. You may very well change things after you go into the field to do your interviews and other reporting.

What storyboarding does is help point out the holes in your story. It helps you identify the resources (time, equipment, assistance) you'll need to complete the story, or how you have to modify the story to adjust to your resources. A good way to learn storyboarding is to take a newspaper feature story and sketch out a storyboard of all the elements in it, the multimedia possibilities if it were more than a print story and how you might break it up into a nonlinear Web presentation.

Example - Dancing Rocks Rough Storyboard

Here's a rough storyboard for the "Dancing Rocks" story.

From the preliminary interview in which Dr. Paula Messina explained what she does in the field, her Web site, and a review of an existing story, the content - existing and anticipated - broke down into:

Nonlinear parts - Home page with four inside pages. The four parts are the quest (research), a bio (of Messina), the rocks (how they move), and the site of the dancing rocks, Death Valley's Racetrack Playa (its colorful history).

Video - Anticipate video from the field trip: Messina mapping the rock trails, assembling her gear, the trip to and from the playa.

Audio - Anticipate audio from the field trip: Messina explaining how she works, what the gear does, and why she does what she does. Maybe what the Racetrack Playa sounds like.

Still photos - Available from Messina's Web site, and professional photographers, if necessary. Anticipate grabbing still photos from video of wide-angle shots of the playa, rocks and trails, maybe Death Valley National Park rangers.

Graphics - Existing aerial photo, maps and rock trails.

Text - History of research, history of the Racetrack Playa from interviews with Messina, other researchers, and the park rangers.

This is a sketch the rough storyboard (click for larger versions):

Home page - Background photo of Messina and sliding rock in Racetrack Playa, with headline and four links to inside pages.

The Quest - Research history and application in text, how Messina did her research in video, and a competing theory in text and photos, if available.

Bio - Messina background in text, why she does what she does in video, day-in-the-life-of-a-high-tech geologist in photos grabbed from video and text captions.

Rocks - Pick up graphic from Messina's Web site and use text blocks to explain in more detail than research page how rocks move. Maybe highlight a couple of rocks to show trails - photos, graphics from Messina's Web site.

Racetrack Playa - History in text, map placing it in Death Valley, and photos of playa, perhaps park rangers on patrol.

Fieldwork

The Complete Equipment Guide for Backpack Journalists

Whether you're driving across town to interview a zookeeper or flying to Alaska to interview a bear tracker, the basic equipment list is the same:

Laptop computer loaded with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, iMovie or Pinnacle Studio 8 (or Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere if you're doing advanced video editing), Flash and a text editor such as Word.

Video camera and accessories (lenses, filters, microphones, headphones, batteries, cables, tripod)

Digital video tape (more than you think you'll need - tape's cheaper than missing the most important shot of the story)

Lens cleaners (brush, tissues, solution - clean your lens before every outing)

Absorbent soft towel (for emergency lens cleaning)

Duct tape (if some part of your camera breaks, as mine did in a Moscow subway station)

Pocket knife (remember to put this in your checked luggage when traveling)

Rubber bands (you never know)

Extra batteries for microphones (replace these every few months)

Camera and microphone manuals (unless you've memorized both)

Plastic bags for camera (as emergency protection if you don't have a raincoat for your camera, or if you're moving between extremes of heat and cold and need the camera to adjust slowly)

Plastic bags, small and zip-lock for used DV tapes

Water bottle (for you)

Power bars (for you - you never know when you're going to skip a meal)

Pens (if nothing else, to jot a quick ID on the tape you've just shot)

Small notebook (of course, your camera is your reporter's notebook, but a small notebook is handy for writing down shots that you don't want to forget, especially if it's raining and you can't read what you've written on your hand)

Backpack journalist vest with many pockets (you don't have to go the extreme of still photographers with their 87 pockets, but it's more efficient to have towel, batteries, DV tape, notebook, pen, knife and duct tape within easy reach)

All main equipment should fit in a camera/computer case that works for you, one that is configured as a backpack, preferably, especially if you also have to carry a satellite phone. If you're flying, never check your camera bag - always carry it with you. You may have to check your tripod, so buy one that fits into your suitcase.

The Backpack Journalist at Work

Memorize your rough storyboard, or have a handy reference to it, before you start gathering information in the field. Always work with your storyboard in mind. Is this a part that's going into video for sure? If so, then shoot a series of sequences (see Sequences in the Shooting Tips tutorial). Is this a part that works better in still photos? If so, then pay more attention to framing and setting up the shot, with close-ups and extreme close-ups that will likely be used as still photos.

Consider doing interviews twice: once while the person is actually doing the action that will be depicted in video clips, and another in a quiet, controlled area to describe again the action and comment on the implications of the action. The reason is that the sound in the field may be contaminated with airplanes overhead, lawnmowers being used nearby, protestors, etc., that mask the words. You may get enough in the action shot for part of a pithy quote, and then overlay the audio from the controlled setting to explain the action.

Be flexible - opportunities for unanticipated video, stills and other interview materials suitable for text are likely to pop up when you least expect them. Go for them - don't hesitate. Tape is cheap. Visuals aren't like print - if you miss the shot, you can't use the phone to fill in the gaps. The only thing you can do is describe it in text, or put a talking head on camera to describe the action, neither of which is as effective as getting the real action, either in video or stills.
If you have to file multimedia stories daily:

Review your tape and grab still photos and potential video clips as you go. Write detailed information on your tapes, such as the tape number, date of video, main subjects, important sequences, your name and phone number (in case you lose the tape).

Make notes on the story elements as you go through your tape - send a nut graph and rough storyboard to your editor, if necessary. Usually, if you're filing daily, you and your editor will have designed a couple of templates to choose from that will lay out some basic schemes for including video, photos and text on a Web page.

Edit still photos and video clips in the field (rather than deferring to judgments of the editor back home).

Send still photos (sending video clips from the field can still be dicey, so send photos, which take less bandwidth, first).

Write accompanying text blocks and send them in.

Send video clips (this often takes some time to process, so it's a good opportunity to prepare for the next day).

Send appropriate graphics if available (scientists especially often work on their own laptops and may have information to give you).

If you're not on a daily deadline:
The strategy's a bit different if you don't have to file until you're back at your desk, especially if you're working on a longer feature story.
In the field:

Review and label your tapes every night

Transcribe interview material that's likely to go into text blocks or captions

Make notes on the shots and information you need to get the next day

Review your rough storyboard and make adjustments if necessary

Back in the office:

Review your tape, grab obvious photos and video clips for later editing

Do a detailed storyboard

Gather the rest of the information you need for the story (graphics? maps?)

Start assembling the content for the pages, rough text blocks first, then the visual elements. It's likely that you'll be working with your immediate editor and graphics editor at this point, so you may be doing some back-and-forth on photos and video clips

Above all, remember this: don't panic, and take a nap whenever the situation presents itself.

Example: Dancing Rocks of Death Valley

The fieldwork for this story took five days: one day of travel and four days in the field. Three days were with Dr. Messina on Racetrack Playa; one day with park rangers Dillenges and Forner.

Camera: Canon XL-1, comes with good shotgun microphone. Purchased separate wide-angle lens - couldn't have done the story without it.

Additional microphone - Lectrosonic remote lavalier

Mini DV tapes - brought 10, used 4

Computer - Sony VAIO (eventually switched to hardier iBook, and now have Powerbook G4)

Editing

Refining the Storyboard

Now's the time to make decisions about exactly what information is going into video, audio, still photos, graphics and text. For this you need to refine your rough storyboards, figuring out what's changed from your original vision of the story, and mapping out what you media have and what should appear on each page. Here are some general guidelines about using the different media:

Video - Keep videos short - three or four minutes, tops, and preferably around 1 or 2 minutes. Keep talking heads to a minimum - a few seconds - and then switch to "B-roll" (any shots other than the on-camera interview of your main subject - such as action of the subject while he or she is working or playing or whatever the individual is doing when not being interviewed by you, as well as the environment that person moves around in, whether micro - office - or macro - city or country). Usually, the video screen isn't large enough and the frame rate isn't high enough on the Web to capture the nuances of emotion that make some talking-head interviews on television compelling (think "60 Minutes" and Barbara Walters' interviews). Make sure the B-roll is specific to what's being addressed in the interview. This is different from television. For example, if you're doing a story about a research discovery for television, anything that lights up or moves, whether it's directly related to the research or not, is fair game. However, for the Web, the video should act more like the content of a still photo in a newspaper - the visual specifically illustrates an aspect of the story. And action shots with a lot of movement usually display poorly on the Web, with its low frame rate.

Audio - It's got to be high-quality. Unless it's the long-lost and only recording of the Abominable Snowman, there's no excuse for poor audio. (An exception is really old recordings, but then those have to be scratchy and tinny, by definition.) Don't be afraid to use subtitles with the audio if necessary (see Oscar's Story in Joe Weiss' Touching Hearts series for an example) to get the point across and you have no other options. Subtitles also can be used to reinforce an important point. Unless it's pertinent to the story, avoid using music as a background.

Still photos - The Web is a VISUAL medium, so be sure to include photos. Use them to replace 1,000 words, not as accessories to words. If used together, text and photos should complement each other visually, as well as in their content. Don't be afraid to use Photoshop to put text directly on your photos, either. Photos can be used two ways - individually, to set a mood or introduce a story or section of a story; and sequentially, to tell a story via a "slide show".

Graphics - Make them interactive and/or animated (with Flash). Used with GIS (geographic information systems), you can let readers personalize the story by selecting a geographic area (such as their neighborhood) and getting information related to it. Don't be afraid to use graphics as the centerpiece of a story or part of a story, and, in that case, make the text secondary. Most crime reporting as it exists now and much of international reporting, for example, can be presented as graphics with text blocks.

Text - For headlines, captions, with photos in a pas de deux, for history, and for first-person descriptions. Watch out, print folks - this is your comfort zone, the medium you fall back on when you can't think of anything else to do. If you've got a page that has a lot of text, ask a graphic designer or a photographer or a videographer for ideas for another approach. This is not to say that some stories shouldn't be text - op-eds, many political stories, analyses, and short updates work best in text. But this is a multimedia story you're doing. Text is what's left when you've put as much information as possible into every other medium.

Here are examples from the Dancing Rocks story of how the media choices and layout change from the early rough storyboards to the more refined storyboards (as well as some notes on how things were further refined in the finished product):

Editing the Content

In print, you generally write the story and then find or assign photos to illustrate or augment the text. In television, you pick out the best visuals, write a script, then begin adjusting each until they work together.

In multimedia, the best approach is to put together your refined storyboard first, and then:

grab the pieces of the video for the stills, clips and audio you've decided to include

edit the video, photos and audio and assemble the graphics for each page

finish by writing and editing the text (captions, text blocks, headlines and nut graph)

Assembling Your Story

Why does a reporter have to assemble a story?

While a multimedia reporter will use storyboards to map out a story and then pull together all the different elements to be used, the final design of the multimedia site is likely to be taken over by a publication's Web designer. However, as outlined in the Editing section, it's important for you to decide the parts of a story, the flow of a story, and what's most important in each section of your story. For example, deciding what visuals need to be the centerpieces of the story and displayed prominently, vs. what visuals are just ancillary.

It's similar to what a print reporter does in deciding how to organize the story - usually putting the most important parts of the story toward the top, identifying which people and places are the most important to be photographed, reviewing graphic information to see if and where it fits into the story. Just as graphic designers then take all that information and develop a layout for print, so they can improve your rough multimedia story layout to make it more pleasing to the eye and help communicate better what you're trying to convey.

After reporters complete a few multimedia stories, they can work with graphic designers to develop a selection of templates to be used for inside pages. A unique home page usually should still be created for each story, but then the layout of inside pages can be selected from several templates developed beforehand. Dropping story components into templates saves time, since the reporter can put her effort into helping design the home page and the interactive elements. And having a variety of templates to choose from will reduce the predictability in design that can bore readers.

Example: Dancing Rocks of Death Valley

I originally did the Dancing Rocks story for Discovery Channel's Web site, Discovery.com, in 1998. This was an expedition, so I filed four stories from the field. There was no fast way then to send video from the field, so the story was presented only in text and photos, much as most news organizations present stories on the Web today. After Discovery.com was redesigned in 2000, the story was removed from the site.

For this online course, I reconstructed the Dancing Rocks of Death Valley story as a new Web site. I re-interviewed Dr. Messina, updated the text, redesigned the site as a nonlinear feature story instead of a chronological expedition series, and added video clips.

This whole story as you see it today took me about two weeks to complete. In 1998, I spent four days in Death Valley National Park and two days in travel. In 2003, I redid interviews with Dr. Messina, redid the rough and refined storyboards to change them from a chronological expedition story package to a new nonlinear feature story package, edited three video clips, chose different still photographs from those I used in 1998, and rewrote the text and headlines. I used Photoshop to put most of the pages together (photos, text and headlines). Then I worked with our Web designer, Scot Hacker, for four hours to put the pages together in Dreamweaver. He then spent another 10 hours tweaking out the bugs.

Here's what went into each page:

Home page: The elements of this page - text and still photos - were put together in a single Photoshop file that was converted to a jpg and embedded in a Web page as an image. The hotspots on the trail that link to the inside sections were added by Scot when he put together the Web page.

Onthemove page (How Rocks Rock Out): The elements of this page - text, aerial photo/graphic, photos of the rocks and the navigation bar - were put together in a single Photoshop file that was similarly converted to a jpg. The links to the video and rock trails were added by Scot.

Playa page (The Eerie World of Racetrack Playa): The headline and locater map were combined with the aerial photo in Photoshop. This again was converted into a jpg file and inserted into the top left column of a Dreamweaver table. The text on the right side was put into a form using Dreamweaver that lets the user scroll the text without disturbing the placement of the photos and text elsewhere on the page. The photo of Dan Dillenges was dropped into the left column (with text wrapped around it) and the photo of Ed Forner was placed in the right column at the bottom of the table. The links on the aerial photo (locater map, other photo/text blocks) and the image nav bar at the bottom were added when Scot built the Web page.

Profile page (For the Love of Rocks): This is another Photoshop file that was turned into a jpg and dropped onto the page as an image. The links to the video clip and the nav bar were added by Scot.

Research page: This page was also constructed in Photoshop, after a disastrous try in Dreamweaver, in which, on some browsers, text and images overlapped and appeared in unexpected places on the page. It also had an additional headline that looked okay on the storyboard and in my head, but made the page much too busy. So, that headline was yanked and replaced with a smaller subhead that became the link to the video. The entire page was constructed in Photoshop, and the pop-ups and links were added when Scot did the Web page.

Hopefully, this all has given you a good idea of how a multimedia story is put together from beginning to end. You've seen all the different elements that go into a multimedia story and the various steps and stages needed to pull everything together. I hope you also have some appreciation for the challenges and last-minute glitches that invariably arise

Now it's time for you to go out and start doing your own multimedia projects. To help you along, use the tutorials listed in the menu on the left. There you can find step-by-step instructions on how to use a video camera, video shooting techniques, and how to edit photos, video and the final Web project. Let us know if you think we need to add anything else. We'd love to hear your suggestions.

Print Story about the Dancing Rocks

Heed the words of Robert Frost one day and take a road less traveled by, one that will make all the difference. Go northwest from Furnace Creek in Death Valley, between the jagged rim of the Grapevine Mountains and the peaks and canyons of the Cottonwood Range. Turn south-southwest past the vast bowl of the exploded Ubehebe Crater, and take a rocky unpaved track for twenty-five miles until you descend into a broad desert valley. Slow down now, rest your rut-and-boulder-shaken frame. Around one last bend in the water-gouged and gulleyed road, prepare for a sight the like of which you have never imagined: the tracks of the sliding rocks of Racetrack Playa, a sight unique on Earth.

Only 2.8 miles from north to south and about 1.3 miles wide, the tan-colored Racetrack is arid, devoid of vegetation, and so flat that the north end is less than two inches higher than the south. Near that north end, the Grandstand, a small island of bare rock, looms dark against its light surroundings. Dozens of rocks, some weighing hundreds of pounds, rest on the surface of the playa. Each rock is at the end of a grooved track incised into the hardened clay of what was once an ancient lakebed, now dry except for rare flooding after heavy rain that makes it dark and slick.

Tracks may be long or short, some half-a-mile, others mere tens of yards. Engraved straight as a ruler, or curving and sinuous, adjacent trails may be parallel with each other or cross and cross again. Some veer abruptly more than ninety degrees from their original route. Here and there, groups of two or three loop back on themselves, leaving trails that remind you of the paths of dancers in some stately, elegant minuet of centuries past. And like dancers, some of the rocks must have spun as they moved, leaving wide and then narrower tracks, then wide again.

The rocks themselves may be as small as a fist, or as large and blocky as an ice-chest. They weigh anywhere from a few ounces to more than seven hundred pounds. Of the 162 recorded recently on the playa, more than ninety percent fell from a bed of rock known to geologists as the Racetrack Dolomite, which forms a steep promontory at the extreme south end of the Racetrack. From that birthplace, most of the dancers on the playa have progressed to the northeast, winding and cavorting for hundreds of yards across the flat surface.

Take a walk out onto the Racetrack and you can imagine that the sun-cracked hexagons beneath your feet are the perfect cobbles on some medieval street in Europe. As you walk, your feet crunch into curled clay cereal-flakes and break a silence that is almost absolute, save for the sound of air moving past your head as you walk. And if you venture a few yards up the slopes around the Racetrack, you can trace a trail made thousands of years ago when this valley was filled by a lake, and when the indigenous people walked its shores. In the shimmering 120-degree heat of the desert summer you may still see a lake in this valley, but only as a mirage.

Since the turn of the century, prospectors, scientists, and the merely curious have traveled here to see the moving rocks and their trails. On foot or horseback, by automobile and even by aircraft-for the flat valley floor makes a perfect runway-they come from all over the world. The visitors are mystified by what they see, and guess that the rocks rolled onto the playa, or were dropped there in a fraternity prank. No one has ever seen one in motion, and only since 1948 have scientists made serious attempts to explain what makes the rocks move.

In that year, two U. S. Geological Survey geologists suggested that erratic whirlwinds known as dust-devils could have caused some of the rocks to trace serpentine paths on the playa. Dust-devils flit across the desert southwest during summer, when air heated by the hot surface rises, twisting skyward, and creating miniature but powerful tornadoes of dust that is picked up as the whirlwinds move. To create his own wind, one enterprising geologist flew a plane onto the playa in 1952, soaked the clay surface to make it slick and then made movies of rocks that he blew about in the propeller wash of his aircraft. He was mimicking in a small way what nature showed him on the Racetrack. That same year came a different suggestion, when George Stanley of Fresno State College in California mapped some parallel trails, and, knowing that ice did occasionally form during winters in the mountains, concluded that the rocks became frozen in ice-sheets that floated about on shallow water.

This served to stimulate two other geologists to try to settle the matter once and for all: Was it ice, or was it only the wind that moved the rocks? Robert Sharp of California Institute of Technology and Dwight Carey of the University of California at Los Angeles watched 30 of the rocks for seven years between 1968 and 1974. Coming back twice a year, they recorded the movements and mapped the paths of the 28 rocks that moved. As he and Carey worked, Sharp began a whimsical tradition. "The first time I visited Racetrack Playa, I was with a friend," Sharp said. "His wife Mary Ann was along. Later once we started monitoring the rocks, we found one with a beautiful trail and named this first one after her." He and Carey then named others after secretaries and laboratory assistants, all women. "Jean was my wife's name and Grace was named after my aunt," Sharp said, "who lived to be 103 years old and was one of my favorite people."

To test the ice-floe hypothesis, Sharp and Carey made a corral of stakes around some of the rocks, reasoning that ice frozen against the rocks would also be fast to the stakes, preventing any sliding or dancing. If there were no ice, any rock that moved would do so with the aid of wind alone. On two occasions, a lone rock sneaked out of the corral, leaving others still trapped. Another time, one rock joined a cluster of some others that were undisturbed. To Sharp and Carey, this indicated that although ice may play a part in some movements, it is not the only means by which Mary Ann and Jean and Grace danced their minuet on the Racetrack.

As often as they went there, Sharp and Carey never saw a rock move, nor were they able to say conclusively that wind and wind alone was the cause. In a rare bit of levity-and an expression of their frustration-Sharp and Carey wrote in the Geological Society of America Bulletin that "Some immutable law of nature probably prescribes that movements occur in the darkness of stormy moonless nights, so that even a resident observer would see newly made tracks only in the dawn of a new day."

By the middle seventies, when Sharp and Carey finished their study, the U. S. National Park Service was making serious attempts to protect the Racetrack, vulnerable to vandalism by scientists and tourists alike. Already in 1969, they had dug a ditch along the west side of the playa to prevent vehicles from driving on its surface, for tire tracks last years in the arid climate. Rangers regularly inspected the place, removing rocks that had been placed for curiosity, cleaning up debris that visitors left, including shell casings and ammunition clips. Some researchers left stakes hammered into the surface, brought in extraneous rocks, and painted or carved numbers and symbols on the original residents. The rangers noticed, too, that some of the sliding rocks had been stolen as souvenirs.

The latest research has produced two strong opinions, almost defined by the gender of the scientists. For John Reid, Jr., of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, the rocks move in lockstep, rigid in a sheet of ice that floats on shallow water when the playa is occasionally flooded. As the ice is blown about by the wind, the rocks scrape parallel trails in the fine mud of the playa surface. Paula Messina, professor of geology at San José State University, sees the rocks, individually or in pairs and small groups, as being more free-spirited, responding to the wind across the wet and slick mud. The rocks seem to dance their individual paths, sometimes in delicate loops and twirls like performers in a minuet. Messina continued Robert Sharp's tradition of using female names as identifiers, keeping the ones he had used, and adding the names of people in her own life. This delighted Sharp. "He felt like he had found his lost children. He was just thrilled."

Between 1987 and 1994, Reid took some of his students to the Racetrack to measure the force it takes to move a rock and then calculate how much wind speed is necessary to provide that force. It was hundreds of miles per hour, far greater than was realistic. But Robert Sharp is skeptical, because the finest dust on the playa-the clay particles that are the slickest when wet-is soon blown away after it dries, and probably was not there during the experiments. The wind speeds necessary are therefore much lower.

As for the trails, Reid used a geometric way of measuring how parallel they were, reasoning that the further apart parallel tracks were, the less likely it was that the wind had formed them, and the more likely that ice slabs were involved. Seven tracks made by movements in the 1980s were very similar, as were six tracks formed in 1992-3. "For the wind to move two rocks several hundred yards apart and make exactly parallel lines," Reid says, "would be the equivalent of setting a bunch of monkeys down at typewriters and have one of them produce a Shakespearean sonnet."

Messina does not agree. In 1996, she began a complete survey and analysis of every sliding rock on the Racetrack. It was a combination of the traditional geologic methods of walking and careful observation, and modern technology: satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) and computer-based geographic information system (GIS). With GPS she could map all the trails quickly, and to an accuracy of less than a foot, and with the computer she was able to superimpose her maps on images of the terrain, and then integrate wind data to see how the rocks and the winds interacted.

" No one had looked at the big picture," Messina explains. "I wanted to see what the playa was saying." The playa was saying some surprising things, for although there are some parallel tracks, the vast majority are not. Pamela, Amelia and Cynthia showed the spirited moves of accomplished dancers, progressing to the northeast, then rotating, turning this way and that, back to the northwest, finally parading together to the southeast. Julie and Jacki came closer and closer in their minuet, eventually turning and twisting southeast, northwest, then southeast again, making a grand loop back to the northwest, another to the northeast, with a few quick steps and turns back and forth before parading to the southeast as Pamela, Amelia and Cynthia had done. Helen was evidently a solitary dancer, looping a complete circle first counterclockwise, then clockwise, before ending her dance in a straight path to the southeast.

" Reid's plots are remarkable. They are stunning," Messina says. "But I'm not sure you can look at only those few trails and conclude that ice is necessary for all the others. The overwhelming number of trails don't show parallelism, so you can't rule out wind alone." After studying them, Paula Messina was satisfied that the dancers had not been locked together in ice. They were too free, too idiosyncratic. And she showed that the complicated patterns were traced where strong winds from two directions merged on the playa to create dust-devils, with their powerful winds in a vortex, whirling across the playa and making the rocks dance.

Modern technology could easily resolve the controversy. Install small transmitters on the rocks to monitor their movement, and install a weather station to record the rain, the wind and the freezing of the playa. If we can track animals, we can surely track rocks. But the entire Death Valley is now a national park, an International Biosphere Reserve designated by the United Nations, and carefully protected. The regulations say there can be no "perturbation of natural features" on the Racetrack because it is a wilderness area. That means that nothing can be moved, nor anything-like markings, labels, scientific equipment-added. It belongs to everyone, not only curious scientists, although some of the other visitors are curious in their own way.

Dan Dillenges is the ranger responsible for protecting Racetrack Playa. He has worked in Death Valley since 1977, full-time since 1984, and has watched the strange behavior of people visiting the sliding rocks. Apparently, the very uniqueness and isolation of the Racetrack induce a freedom of expression that is not available in the everyday lives of many visitors. He has seen them dance around naked on the ancient lakebed. Nudity, however, is not a breach of national park rules, at least not in the naked desert. On one occasion, Dillenges heard the beating of gongs in a Tibetan religious ceremony on the Racetrack. On another, he apprehended a man who had been driving on the playa, insisting he was being chased. Shown that there was only one set of tracks on the playa, the man confessed he had not taken his medication.

The Racetrack's remoteness and smooth natural runway made it attractive for drug-dealers and their transactions. To this day, you can see the faint tracks of twin-engined aircraft on the playa, and although regular surveillance by Dillenges and his colleagues has reduced the likelihood of it being used now as a clandestine landing strip, they have to be careful. Tipped off one night that someone was taking a generator and lights up to the playa, Dillenges prepared for the worst. "It appeared to us as though they were drug-dealers," he said, but as he and another ranger sneaked closer, they were surprised to see the Grandstand illuminated by hundreds of tiny lights flicking on and off.

" The whole place lit up like a damned Christmas tree. They were all drunk, but just normal kind of folks," says Dillenges. He sobered them up by having them work all night to remove the lights and wires, and sent them on their way. Racetrack Playa is an affecting place, as Paula Messina can warrant.

" My first glimpse was one of those pivotal moments. It was so unlike anything I had ever seen before," she says. "You come around the bend in the road and you see this perfectly flat area with a mountain sticking up out of its north end. It just looks so beautiful." She was instantly captivated. "I could not believe what I was seeing," Messina says. "I had to come back and see the place again."

Both Reid and Messina plan to continue their researches, for the Racetrack draws them both. "My students and I love going out there so much that we are going back to figure out the subtler parts of the process," says Reid. And Messina hopes to show that the rocks can move in the summer storms, when no ice is possible. But if she isn't able to confirm what she believes, Messina won't mind. "I like the idea of sleuthing and trying to figure things out," she says. "But I prefer that something remain a mystery, for if you know too much, the work is no longer romantic."

Solving the mystery or not, she and Reid will separately take that road less traveled by. In the light of an ending day, they will leave the dark mass of the Grandstand fading into the long evening shadows. On the playa the rocks will sit, waiting for that combination of rain and then high wind or cold that will set them moving across the Racetrack. And out of sight of human eyes on one moonlit night, as Robert Sharp imagined, Pamela, Amelia, Cynthia, Jackie, Julie and all the others will begin the second or third movement in their elegant but mysterious minuet in the desert.
Reprinted with permission of author.
Phone Interview With Dr. Paula Messina

She's agreed to let a reporter go with her when she does another trip to Death Valley to update the movement of the sliding rocks of Racetrack Playa.

The mapping will take three days, maybe four. She's planning day trips from a motel in the national park. She leaves two hours before dawn to get to the Racetrack Playa just before dawn. She has lunch there and leaves mid- to late afternoon.

The Racetrack Playa is very remote, and there's nothing within 30 miles except a dry lakebed and rocks. Bring plenty of water and food, enough for two or three days if the car breaks down, which is possible on the very rough, unpaved road. It might take that long for a park ranger or another visitor to appear.

Once on the playa, Paula will use her maps to identify old rocks, and GPS equipment to figure out if they've moved since the last time she visited. If she comes across new rocks, she'll map their trails and take their measurements. She will identify or map every rock that she finds.

She will email contact information for other researchers who have worked on trying to solve the mystery and park rangers.

She suggests checking out her Web site for background information, photos and maps, and reading a Smithsonian article about the sliding rocks.

About this Tutorial

Tutorial presented by Berkeley Advanced Media Institute at the University of California, Berkeley

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This content may not be republished in print or digital form without express written permission from Berkeley Advanced Media Institute. Please see our Content Redistribution Policy .

© 2020 The Regents of the University of California

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Multimedia Storytelling: Learn Secrets From Experts | UC Berkeley AMI

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Not all stories make good multimedia stories. The best multimedia stories are multi-dimensional. They include action for video, a process that can be illustrated with a graphic (e.g., "how tornadoes form" or "how this new surgery works"), someone who can give some pithy quotes for video or audio, and/or strong emotions for still photos and audio.

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As you plan your multimedia story, you have to decide which tools would best tell each part of the story. Here are some guidelines for choosing different media.

Still photos are the best medium for emphasizing a strong emotion, for staying with an important point in a story or for creating a particular mood. They're often more dramatic and don't go by as quickly as video. Still photos used in combination with audio also highlight emotions. Panorama or 360-degree photos, combined with audio, also immerse a reader in the location of the story.

Good audio makes still photos and video seem more intense and real. Bad audio makes video seem worse than it is, and it detracts from the drama of still photos. Whenever possible, try to add the transcript of the audio.

Video is best for depicting action, for taking a reader to a place central to the story, or for hearing and seeing a person central to the story. 360-degree video can also immerse a reader in the story.

Maps can give a location or be layered with other information.

Animated graphics show how things work. Graphics go where cameras can't go: into human cells or millions of miles into space. Sometimes graphics can be a story's primary medium, supported by other media.

Text can be used to describe the history of a story or a process, or to provide accounts of an event. Text often is used when the information cannot be conveyed with other media.

Taken from Five Steps to Multimedia Storytelling, a self-directed course by Jane Stevens at Poynter NewsU. Take the full course Have you missed a Coffee Break Course? Here's our complete lineup. Or follow along at #coffeebreakcourse.

Support high-integrity, independent journalism that serves democracy. Make a gift to Poynter today. The Poynter Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, and your gift helps us make good journalism better.
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Vicki Krueger has worked with The Poynter Institute for more than 20 years in roles from editor to director of interactive learning and her current...

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How to choose the best multimedia elements for your story - Poynter

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As you plan your multimedia story, you have to decide which tools would best tell each part of the story. Here are some guidelines for choosing different media. Still photos are the best medium for emphasizing a strong emotion, for staying with an important point in a story or for creating a particular mood.

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Seth quoted that "there is a big difference in capturing daily life in a random way ans actually using visuals to communicate throughout the multimedia platform." Multimedia Storytelling Story Structure 2 5 The setting of a short story is the time and place in which it happens.

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Tips, tools & guides for multimedia storytellers

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Tips, tools & guides for multimedia storytellers

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It's the new year, and you may already have plans for multimedia projects over the coming weeks and months.

So to help you on your mission to tell beautiful stories we've compiled a selection of resources to help kick things off, including tips and tools for capturing and locating great visual assets, and links to relevant studies and research to help inform your approach.

Use the top navigation to jump to a particular section, or keep scrolling to dive in from the start.

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Tips, tools & guides for multimedia storytellers

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It's the new year, and you may already have plans for multimedia projects over the coming weeks and months. So to help you on your mission to tell beautiful stories we've compiled a selection of resources to help kick things off, including tips and tools for capturing and locating great visual assets, and links to relevant studies and research to help inform your approach.

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Ghaisany Hadi

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The University of Melbourne

Do you know that the University of Melbourne is the second oldest university in Australia?

Not to mention, it is the oldest one in Victoria. It opened in 1853 in Parkville, short distance from Melbourne CBD.

In 1853, the Victorian Parliament established Melbourne University. In the first year of classes, 1855, there were three teachers and 16 students. On October 3, 1855, Sir Charles Hotham, the Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Victoria, formally dedicated the structures.

At first, every structure had a gothic revival look. The current eclectic assortment of university buildings may be traced back to the 1950s, when modernism was initiated as the new "house style."

(Fun fact taken from Kids Kiddle website)

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The University of Melbourne Do you know that the University of Melbourne is the second oldest university in Australia? Not to mention, it is the oldest one in Victoria. It opened in 1853 in Parkville, short distance from Melbourne CBD. In 1853, the Victorian Parliament established Melbourne University.

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Same tree, different season.
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By Xuan Cao

Requires approval

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By Luhan Li

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2015 vs 2023
Runren Zeng

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roosted meat

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CMY is a not-for-profit organisation based in Victoria, providing specialist knowledge and support to young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Our vision is that young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds are connected, empowered and influential Australians.

We love to hear from candidates who can demonstrate how their skills and experience show a commitment to making a difference in the lives of the young people we support, and who can share their passion and motivation for ensuring young people are empowered.

How to apply

When applying for a job at CMY, the following documents must accompany applications:

Resume / Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Document addressing each Key Selection Criteria mentioned in the Position Description (this can be detailed in your cover letter as well)

Please note, all applications documents must be in MS Word or PDF format.

applicants that are successful in the shortlisting process will be notified by CMY, approximately within two weeks of the application closing date.

Please refer to the following documents to assist with your application submission:
CMY takes Child Safety seriously and shortlisted candidates are subject to child safety screening and assessment against child safety standards as part of our thorough recruitment process. All applicants must have the right to work in Australia.

Current vacancies

Student placements

From working directly with young people through intensive case work support, to creating leadership opportunities for young people to be heard, we are constantly looking for ways to put young people at the centre of this change-making process.

CMY can assist youth sector organisations to create placement opportunities for students who are undertaking Youth Work, Community Services, Community Development, Communications and Marketing degrees and diplomas, to ensure they are able to do the 100 or 250 hours placement that they must undertake to complete their qualification.

If this is this something that your organisation may be interested in, find out more about student placements.

Working for Victoria initiative

The Working for Victoria (WfV) Fund is part of the Victorian Government's $1.7 billion Economic Survival Package to address the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The Fund supports the creation of new short-term roles, and has partnered with Sidekicker to support job seekers to find work. Find out more

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Work with us - Centre For Multicultural Youth

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CMY is a not-for-profit organisation based in Victoria, providing specialist knowledge and support to young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Our vision is that young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds are connected, empowered and influential Australians. We love to hear from candidates who can demonstrate how their skills and experience show a commitment [...]

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The Kennedy Foundation is proud to announce the establishment of a scholarship for a young aspiring and newly graduated journalism student in partnership with 7NEWS.

This new initiative will become part of the Foundation's expanded direction in supporting young aspiring journalists wishing to enter the industry.

The Kennedy Foundation Scholarship will provide 12 weeks of in-house comprehensive work experience across 7NEWS media platforms such as; broadcast television, online and social media.

Foundation Chair, Carl Dumbrell, described it this way;
"It may be trite to say, but our youth are our future, and that's nowhere as true as in the media. This scholarship will give a young graduate an intensive taste of real-world media; they will see the best in action and will be mentored on their twelve-week tour. It is a great opportunity for those who aspire to be a great journalist."
The lucky winner will experience the real high-pressure world of modern journalism in all its forms, and we thank 7NEWS for their enthusiastic partnership in this endeavour, Jason Morrison, News Director 7NEWS Sydney, said;
"7NEWS has a great history of finding and training great young journalists. We are proud to say that more than half of our team in our Sydney News headquarters started out with the 7Network."
The recipient will receive $12,000 stipend for the 12-week duration of the scholarship.

Applications will open on April 3.

Applications will close on June 5.

Shortlist interviews will start the week beginning June 26.

Winner will formally be announced at the 2023 Kennedy Awards on August 18.

Selection criteria includes:

Undergraduate or postgraduate students will be eligible.

A demonstrated passion for journalism.

An excellent academic record.

Excellent presentation, research and writing skills.

Knowledge of and familiarity with Microsoft Office, G Suite and digital publishing programs.

The ability to be part of a busy collaborative environment.

Work experience or contribution to wider community projects will be viewed favourably.

Find the full selection criteria here.

Applicants must be aged 30 years and under at the time of application.

Applicants must be enrolled in journalism or communications studies at an Australian university or similar institution.

Recent journalism or communication graduates who do not receive the majority of their income from journalism may also apply as long as they are 30 years or under.

Shortlisted applicants must be available to be interviewed via video call by the judging panel in the week commencing June 26, 2023.

The applicant must be available to undertake the 12-week scholarship at a date agreed on by the Seven Network and the Kennedy Foundation.

Read the full terms and conditions here.

For further questions, please contact Anna Magnus, anna@kennedyfoundation.org.au || + 61 423 363 725

Application will be available via the AwardForce platform on April 3. Scholarship applications are free.

Please have the following items ready to submit your online application:

1 x copy of your academic transcript

1 x copy of your current CV

3 x examples of your best work (one must be a video)

1 x 1-minute video expressing why you want this opportunity

Answers to application questions

When submitting your application, you will also be asked questions regarding the reason why you are applying and what your hopes are for this opportunity. Please remember that as a journalism scholarship, spelling and grammar accuracy are paramount. The online application portal allows you to save your progress, allowing you to return to your application if you need more time.

Foundation Partner NRMA proudly supports this Kennedy initiative.

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The Kennedy Foundation Scholarship - The Kennedy Foundation

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The Kennedy Foundation is proud to announce the establishment of a scholarship for a young aspiring and newly graduated journalism student in partnership with 7NEWS. This new initiative will become part of the Foundation's expanded direction in supporting young aspiring journalists wishing to enter the industry.

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(Tom Newby Photography/Flickr)

Identifying journalistic cliches has become a favorite Washington parlor game. But might it not also open a rare window onto the struggles of writers and editors trying to think outside the box?

Over the past few years, some colleagues at The Washington Post and I have played our own parlor game, assembling a list of verbal crutches, stock phrases, filler words, cliches and perpetually misused expressions that we should avoid in The Post's Sunday Outlook section - or at least think hard about before using. The initial list received some attention last year on the media blog Romenesko, triggering many more nominations.

Below is the latest, expanded version, which reached 200 entries on July 10, 2014. Feel free to suggest new entries (or arguments for why something should be taken off the list) in the comments section, or tweet at us: @CarlosLozadaWP or @PostOutlook. We'll keep adding to it.

And believe me - this is not your father's list of journalism cliches.

The Outlook List of Things We Do Not Say

At first glance (or worse, "at first blush")

As a nation (or worse, "as a society")

Upon deeper reflection (why not reflect deeply from the start?)

Observers (unless referring to people actually sitting around watching something)

[Person] is not alone (from anecdote to generalization, we get it)

And [someone/something] is no exception

Pundits say

Critics say (or "critics are quick to point out")

The American people (unless in a quote)

The narrative (unless referring to a style of writing)

Probe (an uncomfortable substitute for "investigation")

Opens/offers a rare window (unless it is a real window that is in fact unusual)

Begs the question (unless used properly - and so rarely used properly that it's not worth the trouble)

Be that as it may

If you will (actually, I won't)

A cautionary tale

Cautiously optimistic (h/t @daviduberti)

Needless to say (then don't say it)

Suffice it to say (if it suffices, then just say it)

This is not your father's [anything]

[Anything] 2.0 (or 3.0, or 4.0...)

At a crossroads (unless referring to an actual intersection)

The powers that be

Outside the box (describes creative thinking - with a cliche)

A favorite Washington parlor game

Don't get me wrong

Make no mistake

Yes, Virginia, there is a [something]

Christmas came early for [someone]

Chock full ("full" is just fine by itself)

Last-ditch effort (unless ditch-digging is involved)

Midwife (as a verb, unless involving childbirth)

Cue the [something]

Call it [something]

Pity the poor [something]

It's the [something], stupid

Imagine (as the first word in your lede)

Time will tell if [something]

What a difference [a time period] makes (h/t @jasondhorowitz)

Palpable sense of relief (unless you can truly touch it)

Sigh of relief ( h/t @geneweingarten)

Plenty of blame to go around

Rorschach test (unless it is a real one)

An object lesson h/t @markleibovich

Turned a blind eye

Underscores

Cycle of violence (unless referring to a particularly vicious Schwinn)

Searing indictment

Potent symbol

Broken system (or, "the [anything] system is broken")

Famously (if readers know it, you don't need to tell them it is famous; if they don't know it, you just made them feel stupid)

The Other (or "otherize," "otherization" and other variations)

Effort (as a verb)

Table (as a verb, as in "table the talks")

Shutter (as a verb, as in "they shuttered the factory")

Gestalt/Zeitgeist

Orwellian (unless discussing George Orwell)

Machiavellian (unless discussing Niccolo Machiavelli)

Gladwellian (never)

What happens in [somewhere] stays in [somewhere]

Little-noticed

Closely watched

Hastily convened

Much ballyhooed

ill-advised

Shrouded in secrecy

Since time immemorial

Tipping point

Inflection point

Point of no return

The [anything] community

If history is any guide

If past is prologue

The devil is in the details

[Somebody] does not suffer fools gladly

A ragtag army (or ragtag militia) h/t @tomricks1

A tale of two [anything] h/t @dsorbara

Ignominious end

Tightly knit (unless referring to actual knitting)

In the final analysis (especially as beginning of a final sentence/paragraph)

Ultimately (same as above)

At the end of the day (same as above)

For all intents and purposes

Cooler heads prevailed

Victim of his/her own success (h/t @gregpmiller)

Who lost [insert country here]?

Punditocracy

Twitterati

Commentariat

Chattering classes

Keen observer

Tongues wagging (h/t afterword to paperback of "This Town")

White-shoe law firm

Well-heeled lobbyists

Byzantine rules (unless referring to the empire in the Middle Ages)

Strange bedfellows

A mass of contradictions

A land of contradictions (please, foreign correspondents and travel writers)

Rise of the 24-hour news cycle (it's been a while)

In the digital age (again, it's been a while)

Not so much (I blame Jon Stewart for this one)

Remains to be seen

Tenuous at best

Woefully inadequate h/t @ParraV

Or so it seems

Depending on whom you ask h/t @jayrosen_nyu

Burst onto the national political scene

For now (especially at the end of a sentence set off by a dash; all it does is negate everything that came before)

Tectonic shifts or seismic shifts (unless real ones)

Optics (unless you're discussing physics)

Feeding frenzy/feeding the frenzy

Double down

Game-changer

[Anything]-gate (especially if you're writing in The Washington Post)

In the wake of [anything] h/t @fritinancy

How I learned to stop worrying and love the [anything]

Love [X] or hate [X]...

The [anything] we love to hate

Don the mantle of [anything]

Usher in an era of [anything]

A portrait emerges h/t @jialynnyang

In a nutshell

The social fabric (or "the very fabric of our democracy/nation/society")

Hot-button issue

Hotly contested

Perfect storm

Face-saving compromise

Eye-popping

The argument goes

The thinking goes

Contrary to popular belief

The new normal

The new face of [anything] (unless discussing plastic surgery)

The talk of the town (unless referring to the New Yorker section)

It couple (or "power couple")

Paradigm shift (in journalism, all paradigms are shifting)

Unlikely revolutionary (in journalism, all revolutionaries are unlikely)

Unlikely reformer (in journalism, all reformers are unlikely, too)

Grizzled veteran (in journalism, all veterans are either grizzled or "seasoned")

Manicured lawns (in journalism, all lawns are manicured)

Wide-ranging interview (in journalism, all interviews range widely, even if they don't)

Rose from obscurity (in journalism, all rises are from obscurity)

Dizzying array (in journalism, all arrays make one dizzy)

Withering criticism (in journalism, all criticism is withering)

Predawn raid (in journalism, all raids take place in the predawn hours)

Nondescript office building (in journalism, all office buildings are nondescript)

Unsung hero (in journalism, all heroes lack music)

Sparked debate

Raised questions

Raises more questions than answers

Raise the specter of [anything]

More often than not

hand-wringing

Ironic Capitalization Implying the Unimportance of Things Others Consider Important

But reality/truth is more complicated (in journalism, we oversimplify, then criticize the oversimplification)

Scarred by war (unless referring to real scars)

War of words (worse if followed by "is heating up")

Trading barbs

Shines a spotlight on [something] (unless there is a real spotlight that is shining)

[Something] is no panacea

[Something] is no silver bullet

Political football

Political theater

More than you think (how do you know what I think?)

Less than you think (how do you know what I think?)

Not as much as you think (how do you know what I think?)

You guessed it (how do you know what I guessed?) h/t @jfdulac

Shifting dynamics (code for "don't hold me to this")

The situation is fluid (code for "I have no idea what is going on")

Partisans on both sides

Charm offensive

Fallen on hard times

A crisis waiting to happen

Poster child

Going forward

Creature of Washington

Official Washington

A modest proposal (this was written once, very well, and has been written terribly ever since)

Stinging rebuke

Mr. [Anyone] goes to Washington (unless a reference to the actual movie)

The proverbial [something] (Tacking this in front of a cliche doesn't excuse it, just admits you used it knowingly)

Fevered speculation

Hope filled the air

[Anything] is all the rage (h/t @jayrosen_nyu)

How did we get here? (code for "here comes the b-matter")

But first, some background (code for "I know more than you do")

Growing body of evidence

[Anything] on steroids (unless you cover professional sports) h/t @crowleyTIME

Resists easy classification/categorization

Increasingly (unless story proves something is in fact increasing)

Tapped (as substitute for "selected" or "appointed)

Any "not-un" formulation (as in "not unsurprising that you'd use that cliche")

There, I said it

And here's the kicker

See what I did there?

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Identifying journalistic cliches has become a favorite Washington parlor game. But might it not also open a rare window onto the struggles of writers and editors trying to think outside the box?

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Have you ever come across words or phrases that are overused to the point that they irk you whenever someone uses them? Well, you are not alone. In English language, such overused words are called clichés.

Using them in your writing is, of course, unoriginal. It shows you didn't take the time to think before writing so your writing drives on a horse back instead of a turbojet.

Want to learn how to avoid using clichés and the rest of the good stuff? Let's get to it.

What is a cliché?

A cliché is an overused phrase or reference that has lost its impact after having been used commonly. Once meaningful - even impressive - the overuse makes these phrases irritating for the readers.

You could say clichés are like stale bread that's caught mold. When baked fresh, the bread loaf has high demand. Over time, with its freshness gone, the loaf loses its demand and is no longer desirable.

Clichés are the same - they squeeze out freshness from your writing, leaving it dull and undesirable.

Cliché pronunciation , synonyms, and origin

Now that you have the definition of cliché , let's move to its pronounciation, synonyms , and etymology .

Essentially, the word cliché has French roots. Hence, the accented 'é' in the word. In English, therefore, you can write a cliché as cliche. But, since, cliché sounds more stylish and because, I'm a creature of habit (cliché, you caught me!), we'll stick to the use of cliché in the piece.

Going back to the word's origin, we've an interesting story that goes back to the use of cast iron plates used in printing presses.

When in action, the cast iron plate that reproduced images, words, and phrases was referred to as stereotype plate . At work, these plates created a sound that played like 'cliché.' Hence, the word cliché came to be from the repeat sound.

Looking at the literal meaning, cliché is the past participle of clicher in French, which means an often repeated phrase.

Moving on, thanks to its French origin, the é in cliché lends the pronunciation of 'ay.' Put together, the word is: klee-shay/ kliˈʃeɪ .

A s for the cliché synonym , we've three words, platitude, truism, and banality. But, cliché is a pretty prominent word in itself, requiring no synonyms, really.

Cliché examples

With cliché meaning out of the way, let's look at some common cliché examples :

Note that you'd already be familiar with these phrases. 'Happily ever after,' for example, holds a lot of meaning in a child's world. Fast forward to their teenage years and they've heard this cliché so many times they'd be ready to tear up the book that ends with it.

Similarly, all that 'glitters isn't always gold' used to be my favorite. In fact, it was a rule I lived by (you know, so I don't get attracted to the chocolate aisle), but I have to make do without using it in my writing.

What does cliché mean to a writer?

In one word: unoriginal.

To add a few more words to explain how clichés are treated in writing: unimaginative, dull, uninteresting, and stale - yes, that word again (because clichés are stale by nature).

Now, if you are an aspiring creative writer, you'd know these aren't the words you'd want your writing to be associated with it.

Even if you aren't a creative writing aspirant, you wouldn't want to be in the company of clichés. Why? Because, you'd want your writing to sound less boring and more 'you.'

So, either way, you'd want to steer clear from clichés. If need be, however, you can always add a cliché or two. It's best to use them with caution though.

Here's more on the effects of clichés in writing, explaining why you should avoid them:

Good writing has a charming personality to it. And, like any charming personality, it attracts readers - leaving an amazing impression.

Naturally, whether it's an internship application or an email to your professor, you'd want to leave a good impression. You know what that means, right? No clichés.

Since clichés are overused, their presence indicates you haven't taken the time to think before writing something. It's how you get tagged 'unoriginal.'

Of course, if your writing isn't showing original thoughts, you'll come across as lazy. That's not good news, fellas. 😬

A writer's dream is to have a distinctive voice. Even if you aren't aiming all that high, it helps to let your voice slip into your writing. This way, you'd sound a little less boring and a whole lot smart.

Not sure if a cliché or two has slipped into your writing? The next section will help you.

How to find clichés in your writing?

These seven tips will help you go all Sherlock Holmes on common clichés in your writing:

1. Read your draft out loud

After having written your draft and given it some breathing room before returning to edit it, start with a general look-out-for-clichés read.

If there's a cliché, you'll probably read the sentence on your own (from memory) rather than from the paper.

Ask a friend or colleague to listen to you as you read your draft out loud. If there's a sentence that they can complete before you finish reading it, you've used a cliché.

Why? Because clichés are predictable and their overuse means your friend can guess the rest of the sentence.

3. Reread to identify generality

Instead of generalization, aim for specificity. This stands true for all sorts of writing - descriptive, persuasive, argumentative, and so on.

Hence, once you've written your first draft, go back to it to read it sentence by sentence. Sniff out any general details. Then, go and replace them with specific details.

4. Ask yourself: can someone else write the same thing

Be honest when you do this exercise. If there's a sentence someone else can write, you're probably using a cliché to frame your thoughts.

Either way, going into details instead of relying on clichés will help. For descriptive writers, for instance, use unique description in place of common similes and metaphors.

For persuasive writing, back arguments with specific points. If you're sharing experience, is it unique to you?

5. Find out if you're using a metaphor

Overused metaphors often become clichés. So a good way to identify whether you're using a cliché is to look for metaphors in your writing.

Metaphors make comparisons between ideas, concepts, and settings - comparing one to another either directly or indirectly (using implied meaning). So if there's a comparison in your writing, it's a metaphor. And, if it's a metaphor, check if it's an overused one to hunt down a cliché.

6. Keep special check on introductions and conclusions

Use of cliché is common in these two sections, so keep an eye out for them (and a thesaurus close for rewriting words and phrases).

Some clichés that slip into these sections are:

Refer to it when you review your writing. We've a list of common clichés for you below.

So the tips worked and now you're staring at a bag of clichés to get rid of. What now? Don't panic.

Clichés are common in every writer's first draft. But, once you've caught them, take the time to think exactly what you want to write, then rewrite the sentence. This can take a bit of rewriting and that's okay as it can help you get out of the old cliche trap.

List of common clichés

As we wrap this, let's leave you with some clichéd phrases:

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Clichés: definition, examples, how to use them

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Have you ever come across words or phrases that are overused to the point that they irk you whenever someone uses them? Well, you are not alone. In English language, such overused words are called clichés. Using them in your writing is, of course, unoriginal.

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The inverted pyramid starts with what the user most needs to know. Order the rest of the page from most to least important information.

Use the inverted pyramid for most content

The basic structure of the inverted pyramid is:

a heading

details in order, from the most to the least important.

The most important idea comes first or 'above the fold'. This is the top part of a screen or a newspaper, where people can see the main idea at a glance.

This structure helps users scan content on any device. It also helps optimise the page for search engines.

Start with what the user most needs to know

To structure your content as an inverted pyramid:

Write the main idea in as few words as possible. It can be a summary, a conclusion or recommendation, or the action someone needs to take.

Describe the main ideas in headings.

Under each of the top-level headings, group the content under subheadings. This helps people find supporting information.

Write supporting paragraphs.

Organise the information in order of importance.

For long-form content, use a summary or a list of recommendations in the preliminary pages. This helps people read the main information with ease.

Design pages based on how the user scans

People start at the top of a page and decide within seconds whether to go past the initial view.

The headline and the first few lines provide the main reason for staying (or leaving). As people read through the content, they might also scan pictures or other headings, but they could also stop reading at any time.

The inverted pyramid works because people pay more attention when they first see the content. Their interest tends to wane in the middle, and sometimes they never reach the end. Journalists know that's how readers behave and structure content accordingly.

To structure a paragraph using the inverted pyramid, start with a topic sentence. Use the rest of the paragraph to explain the topic sentence.

The digital edition canvasses different types of structure. It promotes the use of the inverted pyramid for digital content.

The sixth edition and the Content Guide were silent on the inverted pyramid.

About this page

References

Avieson J (1980) Applied journalism in Australia, Deakin University, Geelong.

Brech J (18 July 2013) ' Inverted pyramid style', Web Wise Wording, accessed 30 May 2020.

Chandler D and Munday R (2020) 'Inverted pyramid', A dictionary of media and communication, 3rd edn, Oxford University Press.

Dixon JC and Bolitho B (2005-2019) Report writing, Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University, Canberra.

Fessenden T (15 April 2018) ' Scrolling and attention', Nielsen Norman Group, accessed 30 May 2020.

Schade A (1 February 2015) ' The fold manifesto: why the page fold still matters', Nielsen Norman Group, accessed 30 May 2020.

Schade A (11 February 2018) ' Inverted pyramid: writing for comprehension', Nielsen Norman Group, accessed 30 May 2020.

Last updated

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The inverted pyramid starts with what the user most needs to know. Order the rest of the page from most to least important information.

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Choose the right video style for your story

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Choose the right video style for your story

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Ranging from live action to live streaming, selecting the right style for every video you make means thinking about the type of video you're making and your goals for it.

It's highly likely your business will make lots of different types of videos.

For each one, there are a wide variety of different styles of video you can choose, ranging from live action to live streaming, with a ton of possibilities in between. Selecting the right video style for each one means thinking about your goals for that video, whether it's evergreen content or a campaign.

You may find that you tend towards a certain look and feel for your video marketing overall, one that aligns with your brand and tone. That's not a bad thing, so long as you test your assumptions. You can even include style preferences in your video marketing strategy, along with guidelines to ensure a consistent approach.

Some styles tend to pair better with some video types than others (for instance, when it comes to explainer video styles, whiteboard animation is always a popular choice), but feel free to experiment-you don't know for sure what will work for your audience until you try.

Learn about your options and see video style examples below.

Live Action Video

Live action constitutes any video comprised of real-world footage, typically including real live people.

It's one of the most common video styles, likely due in part to its sheer accessibility. Live action videos can range in production quality from smartphone clips up to professionally-produced films. They can be scripted (like a talking head video) or unscripted (like an interview).

A lot of different types of video can be made using the live action style.

Learn From the Pros

Razor brand Gillette released a topical ad that made reference to the #MeToo movement. Combining newly recorded live action footage with clips from news broadcasts and other video, the ad is accompanied by a voice over that takes a stance on a current issue.

Though it's less than two minutes long, the ad made a big splash, racking up millions of views and generating lots of coverage from the media.

Talking Head Video

Talking head videos are pretty much what they sound like: A person talking to the camera-either looking directly at it or gazing slightly to the side (known as an interview style talking head).

Because the focus is on a single person, talking heads are great for establishing expertise on a topic and are popular for thought leadership videos.

Learn From the Pros

While talking head videos are good for creating a connection with your viewers, the lack of visual stimuli means they're not always engaging enough to hold audience attention for long. Try mixing things up by using more than one camera and cutting between different perspectives (such as a tight shot and a wide shot), including B-roll, shooting in front of a compelling backdrop, or adding in graphics.

This video from infographic maker Venngage adds visual interest to the talking head style with a countdown clock (emphasizing that the video is a quick summary) along with text and visuals related to the concept the speaker is educating the audience on. (Bonus: This video has an eye-catching thumbnail.)

Vlog

If talking head videos are produced as a series, then they can be classified as a vlog (video-based blog in which individual videos replace blog posts).

Many companies use vlogs to answer FAQs, share updates, and introduce new products. The subject matter available for vlogging can be as wide and varied as it is with blogging.

When creating a company vlog or shooting talking head videos, be sure to think about who will be the face. You might choose one person or a small team who will trade off episodes.

Moz does this with their Whiteboard Friday videos, which often feature Rand Fishkin, but are sometimes hosted by other members of the Moz team. We do it with our Chalk Talks. Tyler Lessard, VP of Marketing, is usually in front of the camera, but we sometimes feature other employees who are subject matter experts.

Interview Videos

Interview-style videos are a great way to give your video collection a boost and attract an audience who cares about your industry and what you have to offer.

They can have one fixed camera, or can be shot on multiple cameras and edited together for a more dynamic feel. They can have one person on-camera, talking head-style, who's being interviewed by an off-camera interviewer.

The interviews themselves can focus on things like advice, trends, company culture, and more. Get creative: Try filming an ask me anything (AMA) session with your CEO, a fireside chat with a partner company, or a Q&A with an influencer in your industry.

Animated Video

Often used for explainer videos and brand stories, animation can be an incredibly engaging video style.
Sometimes as entertaining as your childhood favorite Saturday morning cartoons, and other times as practical as an illustration of a concept, there are a bunch of different video animation styles, including:

2D animation videos

3D animation videos

Motion graphic videos

Animated typography videos

Stop-motion animation videos (including cutout animation and claymation)

Whiteboard animation videos

When it comes to different styles, 2D is typically the most classic-looking animation style, while 3D lends a more Pixar-type feel to characters.

Motion graphics are popular for explainer videos as they illustrate a concept in a clear, often minimalist, style. Animated typography works nicely for quotes and other videos where the text is the most important element.

Stop-motion involves using real objects and capturing movement one frame at a time. It can be done with a variety of materials, but some of the most popular are clay or plasticine (as used in claymation) and paper (as in cut-out animation). This approach tends to lend a whimsical feel to whatever is being animated.

Whiteboard animation is an easily accessible animation form as there are a number of low cost tools designed to let anyone (even the less artistic among us) create a video that looks like it was doodled on a whiteboard.

Learn From the Pros

Inbound marketing and sales software HubSpot used animation to explain the importance of video when they were promoting their new feature, HubSpot Video.

Text Overlay Video

Social media users often view video without sound; as much as 85% of Facebook video is watched silently. This has led to the rise of a style of video that pairs overlaid text with B-roll and/or still images (usually with a pan or zoom effect applied).

These text overlay videos are typically accompanied by background music, which doesn't fundamentally change the nature of the story but does enhance it for those who turn the sound on.

Well-suited for how-to videos or telling simple stories, text overlay videos were popularized by social media-focused publishers like BuzzFeed. Their Tasty page makes frequent use of the format for sharing recipes, where ingredients and simple instructions appear as text overlaid on clips of the recipe being prepared.

Learn From the Pros

Social media management platform Hootsuite shares text overlay videos regularly on social media.

Often based on information found in the company's larger content pieces, the videos provide quick tips in text paired with relevant video.

Live Video (a.k.a. Live Streaming Video)

As the name suggests, live streaming video is broadcast as it happens so that viewers can watch in real-time. Though it's available on a number of social media platforms, Facebook has been a big driver of the format.

Considered a distinct content type by the network, live video gets 6x more interaction than regular Facebook video. Plus, notifications prompt users to watch live streams from pages they follow while they're happening.

On LinkedIn-which started testing its live streaming offering LinkedIn Live in early 2019-broadcasters get 7x more reactions and 24x more comments on live streams than on regular videos.

Live video is also available on Instagram, YouTube, and a number of live-focused and niche platforms (such as Twitch, which is popular with gamers).

A variety of video types can be broadcast this way, from live interviews to real-time announcements to as-it-happens tutorials.

Learn From the Pros

Benefit Cosmetics made creative use of the live format with its Tipsy Tricks series. Each week, two hosts drank wine, shared a makeup tip, chatted about products, and fielded questions from viewers.

The broadcasts, like the Learn How You Can Achieve Flawless Lash Looks example below, have received thousands of views.

360-Degree Video

An immersive video format, 360-degree video records a view in every direction at the same time using an omnidirectional camera or a collection of cameras.

These videos can be viewed through a headset that shows a viewer different parts of the scene depending on which direction they turn their head or via on a standard screen, where audience members click or tap to change the view.

This format is a good choice for brands looking to put an interactive spin on their content. It works best when there is an immersive scene that includes points of interest in all directions.
Brands have used it effectively to provide a unique perspective on an activity, showcase a space or place, and to give viewers the experience of "being there."

Learn From the Pros

Antiperspirant makers Degree Men put viewers on the court with Stephen Curry in a 360-degree video that showcased the athlete's signature move from a rarely seen perspective.

Virtual Reality Video (a.k.a. VR Video)

Virtual reality (VR) videos, though often confused with 360, allow the viewer to not only choose what part of the scene they view, but to interact with it as well.

Viewed through the same headset as 360 video, VR requires additional accessories-such as joysticks, gloves, and even suits-to make interaction possible.

Learn From the Pros

Home improvement brand Lowe's offered a virtual reality experience that allowed customers to learn how to tackle a DIY project by engaging in a VR tutorial.

Available in select U.S. stores, the "Holoroom How To" resulted in 36% better recall from customers than watching a standard how to video.

Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Video

Choose-your-own-adventure video is an interactive format that lets the viewer have input regarding the direction of the story they're watching.

In online video, this effect is typically achieved by using annotations or CTA screens and a video chopped into pieces and grouped together in a playlist.

In 2017, Netflix started offering interactive streaming TV content. It started with children's content-including shows like Puss in Boots: Trapped in an Epic Tale-and evolved from there. The most notable example so far has been the original movie Bandersnatch, part of the Black Mirror series.

Learn From the Pros

Vidyard's 2018 holiday video made creative use of the choose-your-own-adventure video format, allowing viewers to select an item to give as a gift and see a different ending to the video based on their choice.

Screen share videos are (you guessed it) recordings of a person's computer or mobile screen. This style is well-suited to situations where you want to show someone what something actually looks like or how it actually works. It's particularly popular for demo videos and how-to/tutorial videos.

There are a lot of ways you can create a screen share video. They can be highly produced or scrappy recordings made using free tools. Some allow for audio narration to be recorded alongside the video footage.

Vidyard's screen recording Chrome extension also allows the person recording the clip to add a bubble to the bottom left corner that shows the view from their webcam (typically of their face) to add a personal element to the recording.

One-to-One Webcam Videos

One-to-one video-known as personal video and sometimes selfie video-is video created and sent by one person directly to another.

Unlike the one-to-many broadcast approach used with the majority of marketing video content, one-to-one videos are not content that's created for a large group but rather an audience of one. One-to-one videos are typically recorded using webcam recording software, some of which include features to make it easy for the video creator to share their recording and even find out when the recipient has viewed it.

The personal nature of one-to-one videos makes them well-suited to marketing activities such as public relations and comms.
For instance, PR professionals can use one-to-one video to:

Pitch stories to publications by creating individual videos for each publication they're reaching out to

Respond to reporter requests

Pitch someone from the organization (such as the CEO) as a speaker for a conference or event

Learn From the Pros

Vidyard's own Sandy Pell, Senior Manager of Corporate Communications, adopted the one-to-one video approach in her pitching.

Her public relations video pitches-including story and speaker pitches-have received nearly 50% higher engagement than text-based ones.

Put It All Together

You'll likely use different video styles for different video projects, depending on the type of video, the intended audience, your goals, and more.

Be sure to test out style options to see what best suits your brand and its tone and to discover what your audience responds to.

And, while you're experimenting, keep in mind that some video styles can be combined to create a unique look and feel.

Learn From the Pros

HarperCollins Publishing made creative use of a combination of animation and live action in a video promoting the latest edition of the Collins English Dictionary.

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This post was originally published on December 3, 2018. It was updated on October 27, 2019.

Kendall Walters

Kendall is a content marketer, pop culture geek and bibliophile, and she's a walking encyclopedia full of (mostly useless) trivia. When not producing the kind of content you *actually* want to read, she can be found learning brush pen lettering and swing dancing.

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Different Styles of Videos: Choosing the Right One Every Time

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Ranging from live action to live streaming, selecting the right style for every video you make means thinking about the type of video you're making and your goals for it. It's highly likely your business will make lots of different types of videos.

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9 Essential Mapping Tools for Journalists in 2022

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GIJN’s IT coordinator and data editor offers an updated round-up of great mapping tools for investigative journalists.

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We've explored the legal ramifications of using other people's copyrighted video works on this blog before. Now let's take a look at copyright from the other end: how to copyright a video of your own.

Let's say, for example, that you want to stream live video on your website. You've chosen a dedicated OVP, like Dacast, for access to pro streaming solutions. What do you need to do to protect your live streaming videos and ensure they belong to you? You want those aspects in place before doing secure video uploading to your streaming video host.

There are three main sides to this question. First, when does the legal copyright protection for your video begins? Second, do you need to register your video with the Copyright Office, and if so, how do you do that? And third, can you lose the right to your video? If so, how can you prevent that from happening?

Let's look at each of these questions in turn:

When is a Video Copyrighted?

Why and How to Register Your Video

Can You Lose Your Copyright?

A video is protected by copyright law from the moment of its creation. Registering the work with the Copyright Office is not a legal requirement. From the time that you have created your video and put it into a "tangible form" - a DVD, a file on your hard drive, or a file uploaded to the Internet - the video is legally yours.

That said, there are steps you can and should take to make sure this right is recognized and protected. The most basic step is to include a copyright notice in the first minute or so of the broadcast. In addition, place the same notice on any packaging if you save the video to disk and distribute it that way. The form of the copyright notice is:

Copyright (or ©) [year released] by [name of owner]. All rights reserved.

So, if John Smith is releasing a video in 2015, the notice should read: "© 2015 by John Smith. All rights reserved."

Additional basics on how to Copyright a video

This is the minimum notice used by most broadcasters. You can also add further language such as: "No part of this video may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the copyright holder." That strengthens the point and makes it clear that permission isn't granted a priori.

According to the U.S. Copyright Office:

No publication or registration or other action in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. . . Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is "created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time.

Under U.S. copyright law, the protection extends for your lifetime plus 70 years. Other countries have different copyright laws, but the United States has copyright treaties with most of them requiring mutual recognition of each other's copyrighted works.

Finally, registering your video with the U.S. Copyright Office isn't necessary or required to have it covered by copyright law. However, there are benefits to doing just that.

Why and How to Register Your Video

Although your video is covered and protected from the moment of its creation, registering it with the Copyright Office is still a good idea. It removes any ambiguity about the video's status. It provides prima facie evidence in any lawsuit you may bring for copyright infringement. And it makes collecting damages in such a case much easier.

You can find a clear guide to registering your copyright here. The steps involved are:

1. Go to the Electronic Copyright Office at copyright.gov/eco/ and click on "Log in to eCO."

2. Sign up with the service, choosing a user name and password.

3. Fill out an electronic form registering your video.

4. Upload a copy of the video file and attach it to your completed form, or mail it afterward on disc.

5. Pay a fee of $35.

It's the government; therefore, as you might expect, processing your registration may take awhile. The Copyright Office says to allow up to eight months. (It takes longer if you use a paper form instead. The fee is also higher, at about $85.)

However, immediate completion of the registration process by the Copyright Office isn't necessary. Once you've filed your registration, you've exercised due diligence. In almost all cases, the office will complete your paperwork long before you need to sue someone. (Of course, we hope that won't happen at all!)

Once again, registration with the Copyright Office is not necessary to copyright your video. That happens automatically upon the creation of your video content. However, registration provides clear evidence to use if you need to take legal action against infringement.

Can You Lose Your Copyright?

As part of signing up for a video hosting service, you'll need to grant some rights to your work to someone else. The details are very important, though. The signed agreement will spell out those details. For example, these include what use the hosting service can make of your video, and what rights to it you retain. Some platforms try to take more rights to your video than others.

For example, YouTube requires you to grant them a nonexclusive right to do almost anything they want with your video. "Nonexclusive" means that you still own the video and can do whatever you want with it, too, but you must allow Google the same privilege. On the other hand, Dacast is much less restrictive, claiming no ownership over your video (or audio) content.

Regardless, it's a good idea to read the fine print on any agreement a platform wants you to sign. Publishers and record companies have notoriously required authors and musicians to sign away almost all rights to their works. That way, said the company controls your content completely. While we don't know of any video platforms that do the same thing, they could certainly happen. The bottom line? It's always a good idea to be careful about what you sign.

Conclusion

To recap, let's say you want to stream live video and maintain the rights to your own content. The good news-you don't have to do anything to copyright your video beyond producing it and saving it to a file. Once you do that, it's automatically copyrighted! There are other steps you can take to ensure further protection, however, particularly in case you need to take someone to court for infringement. With that in mind, it's useful to register your video with the Copyright Office. It's easy to do, and not very expensive.

The main thing to remember is that as the video's creator, you are the owner of all rights to it. As with any other property, you can - perhaps inadvertently - surrender those rights to someone else. Normal caution about what agreements you sign, and some basic due diligence, can help to protect your rights.

Finally, are you ready to give the Dacast online video platform a try? We offer a wide variety of streaming solutions for individuals and businesses alike. Why not take advantage of our 30-day free trial (no credit card required)? Just click the button below to sign up today!

And for regular live streaming tips and exclusive offers, you can join our LinkedIn group.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to share your questions and feedback in the comment section below. We love to hear from our readers!

By Elise Lagarde.

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How to Copyright a Video: Dacast Streaming Solutions

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We've explored the legal ramifications of using other people's copyrighted video works on this blog before. Now let's take a look at copyright from the other end: how to copyright a video of your own. Let's say, for example, that you want to stream live video on your website.

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BETTER STORYTELLING With This Simple Editing Technique!

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Video Editing Techniques for Storytelling

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Video Editing Techniques for Storytelling

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5 Powerful Video Editing Techniques for Better Storytelling

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Useful editing techniques for a multimedia story

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Useful editing techniques for a multimedia story

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Film editing techniques for video creation

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From feature films to YouTube videos, there are many types of film editing techniques you can use to bring your message to life on the screen.

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How To Use Adobe Premiere Rush to Quickly Create Videos | Mark Wallace Explains

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What is Voice? How would you define a writer's voice? | Fiction Notes

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Author and writing teacher Darcy Pattison will be studying a writer's voice this year. This post kicks off the discussion by asking, "What is Voice?"

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Have you ever wondered what makes a story worthy enough that it sells millions of copies? The answer can be expanded over a number of factors for example effective marketing, author's reach and reputation, the storyline, the audience/age group it addresses and some more. But do you also wonder what is the most compelling of these? The story! Yes, the story, itself, is the prime determinant. People crave a good story. Again, there are factors that make a story count as a good story. We are only going to talk about one of these many factors today - the story endings.

A person reading a book reads till the end because they want to know how the story resolves (if it resolves at all). If you are a regular reader, you might have come across story endings that leave you feeling not satisfied. You might also have come across heavy endings - heavy in terms of the message they leave you with; often powerful enough they stick with you for a lifetime. Happy endings are the most common and we all have either read them or watched them happening in a movie. There are also such books and stories that end in so casual a sentence that readers find it difficult to tell themselves that the book has actually ended. These and more, we are going to discuss in detail.

Story ending (also called resolution) is a very important part of the writing craft. The ending should not be a deviation, it should resonate with the story. The ending should not break your readers' trust (it does not, however, mean that it must always be a happy ending). It should justify the events of the story and character development all along. Let us talk about the different types of story endings and see what type of ending goes well with what genre.

Classical/Resolved Ending

The majority of the works of fiction end in a resolved ending, that is why it has also been called a classical ending. Such a story ending implies a complete resolution of events. It does not leave any loops unattended. The reader is informed about the fate of all the characters. Both the main and subplots are brought to a decisive conclusiveness. Now a classical ending can be both tragic and comic. The resolution might be such that all the characters are destined to a happy ever after or it can be disastrous and tragic.

If we speak about genre viz a viz the resolved ending, mostly romance fiction has this type of a story ending. Children's books also usually end in the classical way. You will also find short stories and YA fiction confirming this type of ending, but not always.

Unexpected/Twist Ending

Such endings will catch you by surprise. The very name is indicative of the nature of an unexpected or a twist ending. Story writing leads to a plot twist that appears at the very end of the story. Again, it can be both tragic and comic but it always catches the reader off guard. Twist endings are very particular to mystery and crime thrillers. A mystery keeps the reader guessing all the time and a reader is susceptible to develop a certain resolution of the plot. But a twist ending dodges the imagination of the reader and turns the course of events in an unanticipated direction. In crime thrillers, the ending is supposed to reveal who committed the crime and how. A writer can create a lot of intrigue and awe when writing a twist ending for the crime novel where the killer turns out to be the person who was the least evil, for example.

A tie-back ending is usually very interesting and fun to read. Readers often like this type of ending more than others. In this type of story ending, the plot is brought back to exactly the same place where it all started. This is very common in movies where you feel like experiencing a déjà vu. Love stories are often tied this way, where coincidences occur and a series of events repeat themselves at a different time.

In this type, the magic crystal ball rolls and the characters move forward in time. This ending tells us what happens to the characters say 5 years later. On the second last page, you were reading that Eva and James were playing in the garden and looked at each other with the most loving and innocent gaze and the next page takes you years ahead in that very garden where the same characters now sit with their children and smile the same smile. This is what a crystal ball story ending looks like. Any fiction genre can fit into this ending, especially sci-fi where time lapses are quite a norm. Even an autobiography can skip long details of so many years in between and reach a conclusion where the author shares the message they want to impart.

Implied/Open-ended Ending

A lot of contemporary literature evades the constraints of craft. Implied or open-ended endings are most common in contemporary literature. Just consider a novella that is written in a 'stream of consciousness' manner and you will understand what implied endings are. The author does not state anything clearly. There are only hints, and even those hints are not easy to comprehend. A memoir can also end in this way since the person writing the memoir is still in the process of living life and catching impressions. Such endings are also found in short stories (those written for adults mainly).

Ambiguous/Unresolved Ending

Probably the lesser entertained story ending that the readers will not appreciate much is the ambiguous ending. Here a major part of the story is left unattended leaving the reader with so many questions. The discomfort is very real and a reader will probably not feel good about investing their time through the pages and till the end. A thriller can have such an ending. It can also be found in the general fiction genre too.

Now that you know about the major story endings, we hope it will be fun trying to categorize the ending of each book you read from now on. If you are a writer, this guide will help you see the suitability of a certain type of ending to the story that you are writing.

Connect with Austin Macauley Publishers for more such blogs and your manuscript if you are looking for publishing your work. You can also make a quick and easy submission through the online submission form . You can stay updated with our new releases and activities by joining our family of authors and readers on , , and .

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A Definitive Guide on the Six Types of Story Endings

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Have you ever wondered what makes a story worthy enough that it sells millions of copies? The answer can be expanded over a number of factors for example effective marketing, author's reach and reputation, the storyline, the audience/age group it addresses and some more. But do you also wonder what is the most compelling of these?

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When looking through a newsstand, what's the first thing most people notice? The answer is, of course, the newspaper headlines.

When done well, a good headline will grasp the attention of a passerby and make them want to pick up that paper and investigate the news story. The power of a newspaper headline shouldn't be underestimated. They can be the difference between someone buying the paper and someone merely walking by.

Nowadays, headlines have even more power. For online publications, headlines not only have to grab the attention of the prospective reader, but they are also important for search engine optimization. Today, a reader is just as, if not more, likely to come across an article via an internet search as they are on a newsstand. Before deep diving into how to write newspaper headlines, we should look at their purpose.

The Purpose of Newspaper Headlines

Headlines are there to grasp the target audience's attention and make them want to read more

The purpose of a headline is to 'tell and sell' a story. In other words, they are there to grasp the target audience's attention and make them want to read more. Great headline writers know that there are several ways to do this. For instance, when iconic news stories break, articles can become representations of these moments in history. This is done when a newspaper captures the general feeling of the public after such an event.

For example, on November 5th, 2008, The New York Times ran the front page headline "Obama: Racial Barrier Falls in Decisive Victory." This headline grasped the reader's attention. It instantly became an iconic part of the story it was telling.

German newspaper Bild's 'Wir sind Papst' (We Are Pope) is another example. They used this headline after a German was voted to become Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Of course, not every headline will have that power, as not every news story is iconic. However, clever headline writers know other ways to draw people in.

A headline can tell and sell with shock. Just consider one of the most iconic tabloid headlines of all time, Freddy Starr Ate My Hamster. In UK news writing circles, that headline that appeared in The Sun newspaper in 1986 is still discussed. Freddy Starr was one of the most famous comedians in the country at the time, and the shocking nature of the headline made the newspaper almost impossible to ignore.

Another tactic that is often used effectively to 'tell and sell' is humor. Whether they are to your taste or not, puns can be a great tool here. For instance, the Kodiak Daily Mirror's headline describing an undergarment crime heist was widely praised. It read: 'Underwear bandit caught, admits brief crime spree.' The purpose of headlines is to capture a reader's attention while connecting the title to the story. How you choose to do that will depend on your style and the news story itself.

How To Write a Newspaper Headline

You now know the importance of a headline and why it exists. You also know several effective techniques to capture a potential reader's attention. Now we will break down the mechanics of this tiny piece of content and help you craft your own headlines and subheadings. If you want to work in news, you should know the following about headlines.

Step 1. Know Your Story

When it comes to headline writing, the first step is to identify the most important information within the story. Next, the headline needs to be an accurate representation of the news article. Otherwise, the reader won't trust your publication in the future. You should ask yourself, 'would the reader expect this article from this news headline?' The answer should be 'yes.'

Step 2. Be Short and Catchy

Catchy headlines are gold dust, and catchy headlines are not long. So, ideally speaking, your news headlines should be ten words at maximum. Headlines are primarily written in a compressed style, similar to a telegraph. Therefore, lose articles 'a, an' and, more often than not, 'the.'

Step 3. Think Outside The Box

It would be best if you also mustered up all your creativity, as following the step is all well and good, but it's hard to resist a bit of panache. Use exciting verbs while avoiding PR speak, such as 'announce,' 'launch,' and 'partnered.' They will make the article more like a press release and reduce overall interest. Be creative around the headline; if you need to, use the subheading to expand on this.

Step 4. Embrace The Rules

Regarding headline-ese, verbs are presented in the simple present tense. So, for instance, instead of the headline being 'Lebron Has Signed The Contract,' it would be 'Lebron Signs Contract.' If it is a future event, then an infinitive is used, with 'to' followed by an action verb - 'Lebron To Sign Contract.'

Although it may seem contradictory after that last example, it is primarily the surname used when writing a headline about a person-centered story. Of course, exceptions (such as above) exist where their forename more widely knows the specified person.

It would be best if you also didn't use unspecified pronouns, as this can lead to confusion. For instance, if you were reporting on Manchester United winning three trophies in one season in 1999, you wouldn't write 'They Won The Treble.' Something along the lines of 'Manchester Utd Win The Treble' is far superior.

Step 5. Practice And Take Help When Offered

Like any other type of writing, the more you write headlines, the better you will get at it. It should also be noted that newsrooms are collaborative places, so run your best attempts by your colleagues. They will tell you what they like, what they don't, and what they don't get.

And if someone within the business doesn't get it, it's likely that your readers won't either. It's not just your colleagues that can help. There are also templates of the different headlines used throughout the years. If you are struggling for inspiration, try those out and see how they fit your story.

Step 6. Consider The Tact Test (Taste, Attractiveness, Clarity, Truth)

When you land on a headline, you should mentally run it through the TACT test. You can do this by asking the following questions.

1. Is it in good taste, or could elements of it be interrupted that way?

2. Does it sell the story and grab the reader's attention? Is it attractive?

3. Is it clear and accurate?

4. Probably the most important out of all of these - is it factual? Will the readers feel lied to after they digest the story? A good headline has to be true to the story.

If the answer to the above is 'no,' you need to restart the process.

Step 7. Optimize for Online

Of course, the above are tips for newspaper headlines. That being said, you must also observe them when writing online.

However, when it comes to online, there are other considerations you must take into account. For instance, having your articles appear at the top of a search engine query could be the difference between them being ignored and read.

Thankfully, there are some valuable resources for this. For instance, NPR has even published an article to help journalists write digital headlines that readers and Google will love. There are also plenty of headline analyzers (although the one linked is the best we've found!) out there that have already helped content marketing firms make the most of their work.

Iconic Examples of Newspaper Headlines

These examples both 'tell and sell' the story. They became iconic documents of history after the event and remained so.

1. Men Walk On Moon

The New York Times ran with the above headline on July 21st, 1969. It was an iconic moment in America's history, and the writers got it exactly right.

They wrote a four-word sentence that got the story across to readers, detailing further important information in the subheading: 'Astronauts land on plain; collect rocks, plant flags.' This is one of the best headline examples out there because it tells the story that the world is waiting to hear while making readers want to read more.

2. Stay At Home

From one generational moment to another, this one isn't even close to being as cheerful. It was in 2020 when the San Francisco Chronicle was detailing lockdown orders due to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the nation.

It followed up its simple three-word headline with the subhead '6 Bay Area counties order nearly 7 million people to shelter in place. The newspaper headline demanded that readers pick up the newspaper to read more. It did so with a simple statement that thoroughly told the story.

3. Kennedy Is Killed By Sniper As He Rides In Car In Dallas; Johnson Sworn In On Plane

The death of JFK was a story that rocked a nation and The New York Times got their headline of the story just right when they wrote the above. It passes the TACT test easily, as it is not in bad taste and is accurate, clear, and true. It breaks the rules a little with its length, but there are exceptions to every rule.

4. Titanic Sinks Four Hours After Hitting Iceberg

The New York Times ran with that headline, as it became an iconic part of the reaction to the Titanic

Similar to the JFK headline, what works with the above is clarity. It tells the story of the unsinkable ship that sank and enticed readers to pick up the paper to read more. The New York Times ran with that headline, as it became an iconic part of the reaction to the Titanic.

5. Greatest Crash in Wall Street's History

The Daily Mail's headline about the 1929 Wall Street crash signaled the end of the roaring 20s and the start of The Great Depression. The headline demanded that you pick up the newspaper and read more.

6. Mandela Goes Free Today

Nelson Mandela being freed from prison was an iconic moment in the world's history and one that City Press captured perfectly. They linked the future president by his surname to a story that the entirety of South Africa and the world was eager to read.

FAQs About the Best Examples of Newspaper Headlines

For help with this topic, read our guide explaining what is persuasive writing?

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Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

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When looking through a newsstand, what's the first thing most people notice? The answer is, of course, the newspaper headlines. When done well, a good headline will grasp the attention of a passerby and make them want to pick up that paper and investigate the news story.

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On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.
-David Ogilvy

In a world full of noise, how do you get people to read what you write? It takes more than good content or great design. The most important part of writing an article is the headline.
To see exactly how I create blog posts that grab people's attention, watch this video.
The same principle applies to blog posts, book chapters, and so on: The title is where your focus should be. You should begin and end every article with the question: "Would this make me want to read on?"

If not, don't publish until you've got a catchy headline. Concentrate on this, and you'll get more readers, more buzz, and more love.

How to write catchy headlines

Too often the headline is the most neglected part of writing an article. People just gloss over it without taking much time to consider it. In their minds, it's the cherry on top. No, friends; it's not. The headline is the sundae.

I sometimes deliberate over titles for 30-60 minutes before settling on one that works. And I often go back and change them. This is what it takes to write a good headline.

If you need some help concocting catchier headlines, here are a few simple tricks (you can also watch me walk you through this in the free video and checklist.that accompanies this post).

1. Use numbers to give concrete takeaways

There's a reason why so many copywriters use numbers in their headlines. It works.

Do an experiment: Go to the grocery store, and scan the magazines in the checkout lane. Look at the front-page article headlines. It doesn't matter if it's a fitness magazine or a tabloid; many of them will be using numerals to start off the headline.

There aren't really any rules (as far as I know) regarding what numbers work best, but people typically only remember three to five points. That said, sometimes a really obscure number like 19 or 37 can catch people's attention.

Warning: don't overuse numbers or use them arbitrarily. If your article clearly has some key takeaways, adding a number to the headline can help make the takeaways more digestible. But if the article doesn't, don't force it.

2. Use emotional adjectives to describe your reader's problem

Here are some examples:

3. Use unique rationale to demonstrate what the reader will get out of the article

If you're going to do a list post, be original. For example consider the following:

If possible, never use things. Please, for the love of Pete, don't use things. You can do better than that.

These are trigger words. I typically use "why" and "how" the most, because I'm often trying to persuade or enable someone. Typically, you'll use either a trigger word or a number. Rarely does it sound good to do both.

5. Make an audacious promise

Promise your reader something valuable. Will you teach her how to learn a new skill? Will you persuade her to do something she's never done before? Will you unlock an ancient mystery?

What you want to do is dare your reader to read the article. Without over-promising, be bold. Be seductive (in the most innocuous way possible, of course). Be dangerous. And then deliver what you promised.

Try this formula

Here's a simple headline-writing formula:
Number or Trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise
Example: Take the subject "bathing elephants." You could write an article entitled, "How to Bath an Elephant" or "Why I Love Bathing Elephants."

Or you could apply this formula and make it: "18 Unbelievable Ways You Can Bathe an Elephant Indoors"

Another (more serious) example: Take a bold promise like "selling your house in a day."

Apply the formula and you get: "How You Can Effortlessly Sell Your Home in Less than 24 Hours"

Here are some examples of my most popular articles and the headlines behind them:

When in doubt, be clear

People don't want to be tricked into reading something boring; they want to be drawn into something exciting. Make it worth their while.

Take extra long time to consider what headline will grab people's attention the most, and make sure that it describes your content in an honest, but attractive, way. They won't regret it, and neither will you.

You can go grab the downloadable checklist that accompanies this blog post right here.

And if you don't yet have a blog, check out my 8-minute video walk-through on how to launch a self-hosted WordPress blog.

What tricks for writing catchy headlines do you use? Share in the comments.

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5 Easy Tricks to Help You Write Catchy Headlines

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On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar. -David Ogilvy In a world full of noise, how do you get people to read what you write?

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Writing a great headline means crafting an enticing invitation to a prospective reader. It's not the whole story, nor is it an attempt to convince anyone to do anything other than to keep reading.

That being said, it seems you can't move two pages on the web without tripping across a poorly-crafted headline. While many contain one or more necessary elements, other factors are often left out of the headline, diminishing the overall power and draw of this critical aspect of your copy.

Here are five common mistakes that people make when writing headlines, which also serve as checklist items for you to take into account when crafting your own.

1. No Reader Benefit

No communicated benefit for the reader, no readers. The expressed benefit does not have to be some over-the-top, unbelievably fantastic promise. It only needs to be relevant and worth the time investment required to keep reading.

How to avoid: Ask yourself "what's in it for them?" If the headline doesn't tell you, it's missing a benefit.

2. Lack of Curiosity

Even if the headline contains a benefit, often it's not presented in a compelling fashion. Piquing the curiosity of the prospective reader adds that little extra something that engages the reader's imagination. Curiosity must be coupled with benefit, or you may simply manage to cause people to wonder what that was all about as they move on to something else.

How to avoid: Does your headline make you have to know what the promised answer is? Use questions, numbers, challenges and statements that compel the prospective reader to explore the beneficial content you're offering.

3. Lack of Specificity

Headlines that lack specificity are short on clarity, and general statements and unsupported claims are often deemed untrustworthy. The power of specificity is one of the reasons that the "list" headline is a mainstay among copywriters and bloggers. The format itself forces you to provide specificity, which the reader in turn responds favorably to.

How to avoid: Use variations of the "list" headline, use words like "this," "these," "here is" and "here are" to refer specifically to your content, and also use hard numbers and exact percentages when appropriate.

4. Lack of Simplicity

Have you ever seen a headline that tries to say too much? It becomes a story instead of a teaser that leads you into the content, often while trying to communicate multiple concepts. In short, it loses the reader and fails miserably. Simplicity if one of the most important aspects of effective communication that resonates with readers, and this is especially true with headlines.

How to avoid: Stick to one concept, eliminate unnecessary words, and use familiar language.

5. No Sense of Urgency

Some headlines make you want to read the content, but you decide to put it off until later. And then you often never get around to reading it, right? Headlines that contain the above four elements should also create a sense of urgency and prompt the reader to act immediately, but there may be a way to restate the headline that works even better.

How to avoid: Check to see that items 1-4 above are truly present. If so, try reworking the headline to make it more compelling without stepping too far into hyperbole. If all else fails, examine the premise of the content itself. Is it really "need to know" information?

There are certainly other ways to sabotage a headline, and I've likely tried them all. But when you lack one of the above five cornerstone elements, your odds of a successful headline are immediately diminished.

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Five Common Headline Mistakes and How to Avoid Them - Copyblogger

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Writing a great headline means crafting an enticing invitation to a prospective reader. It's not the whole story, nor is it an attempt to convince anyone to do anything other than to keep reading. That being said, it seems you can't move two pages on the web without tripping across a poorly-crafted headline.

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When you scroll through your newsfeed on your mobile phone, do you stop and think whether what you're reading has been written by a human or a machine? Well, here are the facts: AI-driven journalism has been making inroads into large newsrooms for almost a decade and is already producing financial news, sports stories, weather and traffic reports.

Bloomberg was an early adopter using Cyborg, a programme dissecting financial reports and instantly writing news stories with all relevant facts and figures. The Washington Post made headlines when it started using Heliograf, a home grown artificial intelligence technology, to cover the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and congressional elections.

News wire AP went from producing 300 articles on company earnings reports every quarter to 3,700 through using AI. Today, AP's newsroom AI technology automatically generates roughly 40,000 stories a year - only a fraction of the overall stories the global news agency produces but the advantages of using AI and automation are manifold says Lisa Gibbs, Director of News Partnerships and AI News Lead at AP.

"It frees our journalists from routine tasks, to do higher-level work that uses their creativity; allows us to create more content that serves new audiences more efficiently; and improves our ability to discover news," she says.

Robo-reporting goes mainstream

So called "robo-reporting" can help create multiple versions of stories that serve different news outlets and consumers, and also reach niche audiences interested for example in the exact details of annual donations to Australia's political parties, local election results for every municipality in France or high school gridiron results in Washington, USA.

So, are robots taking over journalism? No, says Charlie Beckett, Director of the media think tank Polis at the London School of Economics, who recently lead a study of 71 news organisations in 32 countries.

Like Lisa Gibbs, Beckett sees potential for artificial intelligence, machine learning and data processing to give journalists "new powers of discovery, creation and connection" and believes "machines might soon be able to do much routine journalism labour."

In Polis' global survey on journalism and artificial intelligence, " New Powers, New Responsibilities ", Beckett and his team asked newsrooms using AI about how this technology is impacting journalism and the news industry. The report found that currently newsrooms mostly use AI in three areas: news gathering, production and distribution.

The Stuttgarter Zeitung is one of the AI pioneers in German media. The publisher's CrimeMap was the idea of data journalist Jan Georg Plavec who, together with the company Arvato, trained a computer through machine learning to understand police communiques from Stuttgart Police headquarters. The system then sorts the information into predefined categories, recognises when and where a crime took place and feeds it into the CrimeMap.

Reflecting on the input of man and machine for this project, Jan says "in the planning stage there was a lot of journalistic experience and human thinking." He emphasises that even if the heavy lifting is now done by machine, the data is still checked daily by journalists.

"We do have manual quality control, but it's becoming less and less necessary as the machine gets better, with our regular feedback," he explains.

"It now has an accuracy rate of well over 90 percent, so we only have to intervene very rarely. But we still check, because we don't have complete confidence in the technology yet. But every day, we see that the technology improves."

No need for a coffee fix

In a newsroom machines are tireless colleagues who can sift automatically through troves of data, analysing almost anything from SEO tags to official data, user-generated-content or location matching social media posts.

Tools like Heliograf, News Tracer or CrowdTangle are now alerting journalists to breaking news, viral stories and anomalous data trends. Editors can then determine if there's a bigger story to be written by a human being. Tools like this also measure the reach of the content produced by media companies and can also tell you the competitor's biggest hit of the day.

"Like any technology, AI can be used for good and for bad purposes," Lisa Gibbs explains. "And each news organisation must have an ethical framework for how to use it, and understand its implications."

News organisations using "event detection" systems to spot breaking news via social media posts need to be careful. How does the news agenda get shaped by those communities who happen to use Twitter? And does it have implications for under-represented communities online?

"Ideally, the fact that event detection can help us sift through Twitter, Snap and Reddit etc, frees journalists' time to get out on the street and talk to people," Gibbs says. "In practice? We'll have to see."

Voitto: the robot journalist and smart news assistant

Finland's national broadcaster Yle, meanwhile, is using AI to improve news personalisation for their readers. The company has created a dual system called Voitto. It works as both a robot journalist churning out around 100 articles and 250 visualisations a week, and as a smart news assistant, which is part of Yle's personalised news app NewsWatch, too.

Voitto, the news assistant, lives on the lock screen of a mobile device and recommends to users interesting news content via news alerts or notifications. It uses machine learning to improve its recommendations by learning from the user's reading history, their interactions on their lock screen and also direct feedback.

" Voitto's appearance, the tone of voice and the algorithms that power it, are all guided by Yle's journalistic values and mission," says Jarno Koponen, Head of AI & Personalization at Yle News Lab. "Yle's current vision is to create a Yle that is 'for all of us, for each of us.'"

Koponen says Voitto provides an accessible way to see how the people in power are actually using their power, for example by creating newsletters about all 200 Finnish MPs and explaining the workings of democracy and parliament. And he says the system makes sure users get news that really matter to them, but also nudging them to expand their views, for example by providing two stories about the same topic, from completely different perspectives.

So, what do Yle's users think? They seem to like the technology. The notifications of smart news assistant Voitto regularly get the most engagement. More importantly, over 90% of users who turn smart news assistant Voitto on, keep it on.

"Naturally, nothing is ever perfect", says Koponen. "We collect both qualitative and quantitative feedback and follow our metrics systematically to understand the true impact of Voitto 's manifestation in order to serve our citizen better in the future."

Using AI to reduce harassment and abuse

The use of AI tools in journalism are many and varied. Many news organisations are also using AI to moderate readers' comments, encourage constructive discussion and eliminate harassment and abuse on their websites.

To sift through comments and hide inappropriate contributions, German company NOZ began using the AI software Conversario. Head of HHLab Joachim Dreykluft says it works well, but the AI is still learning. "My colleague who is in charge of community management still says to the software 'I wouldn't have hidden this comment', 'I would have hidden this one'. It keeps learning and gets better every day."

As disinformation exploits new technologies and operates at massive scale, Lisa Gibbs says the news industry must be aggressive in tackling it. Detecting "deep fakes" for example, will be a key area of growth for many newsrooms in the next few years, while some media organisations like Reuters are already using similar technologies to create fully automated, presenter-led sports news.

In a world of increasing disinformation, trust is key to securing the confidence and subscriptions of news users. Jarno Koponen from Yle admits that transparency is "crucial" for his organisation.

"We serve citizens, and we serve them best when citizens can contribute to open dialogue around what works and what doesn't," he says.

That's one of the reasons Yle openly communicates goals, methods and practices related to Voitto. Every article created by the robot journalist is also marked as "made by Voitto."

The time is now

As AI impacts the way information and debate is shaped, often outside of the news media, new AI technologies are undoubtedly providing great tools to make journalism more transparent and relevant for people too.

But newsrooms must act swiftly, according to AP's Lisa Gibbs. "Outside the big news organisations and the niche players, most struggling newsrooms don't have the skills - or, more importantly, the time - to devote to understanding how to use these technologies and so they don't even begin," she says.

As Charlie Beckett concludes in his report on AI and journalism: "We are at another critical historical moment. If we value journalism as a social good, provided by humans for humans, then we have a window of perhaps 2-5 years, when news organisations must get across this technology."

Lisa Gibbs, Jan Plavec and Jarno Koponen share thoughts about the future of creative AI on their network profiles.

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Facts, fakes and figures: How AI is influencing journalism

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As news media struggles to compete for attention and retain public trust while slashing jobs and cutting costs, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in newsrooms around the world is rising.

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The more I look at the latest machine learning models, the more convinced I am that these technologies are bound to make their way into newsrooms - sooner rather than later. I could be a bit biased, since I'm currently developing a transcription app for journalists called Stage Whisper, which uses the Whisper machine learning model to automatically transcribe interviews. But I believe the latest developments in generative artificial intelligence could revolutionize the way journalists do their jobs.

Powerful large language models like GPT-3 promise to give reporters the ability to partially automate the task of writing articles, while generative image models like DALL-E 2 and Stable Diffusion could deliver custom stock photos to newsrooms that cannot afford subscriptions to photo services. And of course, the latest automatic speech recognition models will allow reporters to easily and accurately transcribe their interviews for free.

Many journalists already upload their interviews to paid auto-transcription services like Otter and Trint, which rely on machine learning models to quickly produce fairly accurate transcriptions. The Whisper model, released by artificial intelligence company OpenAI in September, has some real advantages over the current services. It's more accurate, doesn't require an internet connection, and is completely free. But it's also relatively slow, cannot distinguish between speakers, and requires a lot of technical know-how to set up. (Stage Whisper should at least solve that last issue.)

Even more promising are generative image models like OpenAI's DALL-E 2 and Stability AI's Stable Diffusion. These tools have allowed users to generate realistic images based solely on text prompts. Some technology-focused reporters have already begun using AI-generated images to illustrate their stories, more as a gimmick than anything else. But as these technologies continue to improve and enter the mainstream, they are likely to reshape newsroom debates over photo manipulation, photo illustrations, and misleading stock photos.

What about the dream (or nightmare) of an artificial intelligence that can write news articles? Wire services like the Associated Press and Reuters have previously experimented with automatic article-writing tools that can produce schematic news stories based on numerical data like earnings reports or sports scores. But the latest large language models can go well beyond that.

Large language models, such as GPT-3, have the potential to disrupt newsrooms by enabling journalists to use AI to write their stories. With these models, journalists can input a few key points and the AI can generate a complete article, saving time and potentially improving the quality of the writing. However, this raises ethical questions around authorship and plagiarism. If a journalist relies too heavily on AI to write their stories, who can be credited as the author? Additionally, there is the potential for the AI to inadvertently plagiarize other sources, raising questions about journalistic integrity and accuracy.

Another potential risk of relying on large language models to write news articles is the potential for the AI to insert fake quotes. Since the AI is not bound by the same ethical standards as a human journalist, it may include quotes from sources that do not actually exist, or even attribute fake quotes to real people. This could lead to false or misleading reporting, which could damage the credibility of the news organization. It will be important for journalists and newsrooms to carefully fact check any articles written with the help of AI, to ensure the accuracy and integrity of their reporting. [/END]

The previous two paragraphs were produced by ChatGPT, a OpenAI tool that allows users to interact with GPT-3, a large language model that responds to user's prompts. ChatGPT can already produce fabricated news stories that sound remarkably real, complete with fake quotes. Given the proper inputs (accurate information, real quotes from sources), there's no reason that the model and its successors couldn't produce true and accurate news stories too.

AI-based tools will never replace human journalists. But much like previous technological advancements, these tools could change how reporters do their jobs - freeing them up to spend more time interviewing sources and digging up information and less time transcribing interviews and writing daily stories on deadline.

As these tools enter newsrooms, they will spark new questions about journalistic ethics: Is it wrong to train a generative AI model on thousands of artists' images without their consent? Is it misleading to publish an image of something that does not actually exist or an event that never actually occurred? If a reporter uses a large language model to write an article, should that be considered plagiarism or even fabulism?

Let 2023 be the year we start figuring out some of the answers.

Peter Sterne is an independent journalist in New York.

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The more I look at the latest machine learning models, the more convinced I am that these technologies are bound to make their way into newsrooms - sooner rather than later. I could be a bit biased, since I'm currently developing a transcription app for journalists called Stage Whisper, which uses the Whisper machine learning model to automatically transcribe interviews.

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How can artificial intelligence help journalists?

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How can artificial intelligence help journalists?

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In recent weeks, the spotlight of attention has fallen on new generative AI tools-such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Bing chatbot, and Google's Bard-which have been subject to debate about their potential to refashion how journalists work.

For data and computational journalists in particular, AI tools such as ChatGPT have the potential to assist in a variety of tasks such as writing code, scraping PDF files, and translating between programming languages. But tools like ChatGPT are far from perfect and have shown to 'hallucinate' data and scatter errors throughout the text they generate.

We talked with Nicholas Diakopoulos, associate professor in communication studies and computer science at Northwestern University and a former Tow Fellow, about how to navigate those risks, whether ChatGPT can be a helpful tool for journalism students and novice programmers, and how journalists can track their steps when using AI.

Diakopoulos recently launched the Generative AI in the Newsroom Project which explores how journalists can responsibly use generative AI.

As part of the project, news producers are encouraged to submit a pitch on how they envision using the technology for news production. You can read more about the project here. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
SG: For journalists and students who are novices to programming, how useful do you think ChatGPT can be in helping with computational tasks?
ND: As a user myself, I've noticed that ChatGPT can certainly be useful for solving certain kinds of programming challenges. But I'm also aware that you need a fairly high level of competence in programming already to make sense of it and write the right queries, and then be able to synthesize the responses into an actual solution. It could potentially be useful for intermediate coders as long as you know the basics, how to evaluate the responses, and how to put things together. But if you don't know how to read code, it's going to give you a response, and you're not really going to know if it's doing what you wanted.

There's a reason why we have programming languages. It's because you need to precisely state how a problem needs to be solved in code. Whereas when you say it in natural language, there's a lot of ambiguity. So, obviously, ChatGPT is good at trying to guess how to disambiguate what your question is and give you the code that you want, but it might not always get it right.
I'm wondering if journalism students will lose some fundamental knowledge if they use ChatGPT for assignments. When it comes to learning how to program, are students better off learning how to write code from scratch rather than rely on ChatGPT?
One lens that I look at this problem through is substitution versus complementarity of AI. People get afraid when you start talking about AI substituting someone's labor. But in reality, most of what we see is AI complementing expert labor. So you have someone who already is an expert and then AI gets kind of married into that person and augments them so that they're smarter and more efficient. I think ChatGPT is a great complement for human coders who know something about what they're doing with code, and it can really accelerate your ability.
You started a project called AI in the Newsroom where journalists can submit case studies of how they've used ChatGPT within the newsroom. How is that project going?
People have been submitting, I've had contact with more than a dozen people with ideas that are at various levels of maturity. From different kinds of organizations such as local news media, national, international, and regional publications, and startups. There's such a range of people who are interested in exploring the technology and seeing how far they can take it with their particular use case. I have contact with some legal scholars here at the University of Amsterdam Institute for Information Law where I'm on sabbatical. They're looking at issues of copyright and terms of use, which I know are quite relevant and important for practitioners to be aware of.

I'm also exploring different use cases myself with the technology. I've been writing a blog about it and to put the pilot projects out there to help folks in the community and to understand what the capabilities and limitations are. So, overall, I'm pretty pleased with the project. I think it's progressing well. Hopefully, we'll see some of these projects mature over the next month and start publishing them.
Now that you've been looking at what journalists are submitting, do you have a better intuition about what things ChatGPT could help assist in the newsroom?
There's just so many different use cases that people are exploring. I don't even know if there's gonna be one thing that it's really good at. People are exploring rewriting content, summarizing and personalization, news discovery, translation, and engaged journalism. To me, part of the appeal of the project is exploring that range. Hopefully, in a couple of months, these projects can start to mature and get more feedback. I'm really pushing people to evaluate their use case. Like, how do you know that it's working at a level of accuracy and reliability where you feel comfortable rolling it out as part of your workflow?
A main concern among computational journalists is that ChatGPT will sometimes 'hallucinate' data. For instance, maybe you use it to extract data from a PDF and everything works fine on the first page. But when you do it with 2,000 PDFs, suddenly errors are scattered throughout. How do you navigate that risk?
Accuracy is a core value of journalism. With AI systems and machine learning systems, there's a statistical element of uncertainty which means it's basically impossible to guarantee 100 percent accuracy. So you want to get your system to be as accurate as possible. But at the end of the day, even though that is a core journalistic value and something to strive for, whether or not something needs to be 100 percent accurate depends on the kinds of claims that you want to make using the information that's generated from the AI system.

So if you want a system that's going to identify people who are committing fraud, based on analyzing a bunch of PDF documents and you plan to publicly indict those individuals, based on your analysis of those documents, you better be damn sure that that's accurate. From years of talking to journalists about stuff like this they're probably not going to rely only on a machine learning tool to come up with that evidence. They might use that as a starting point. But then they'll triangulate that with other sources of evidence to raise their level of certainty.

There might be other use cases, though, where it doesn't really matter if there's a 2 or 5 percent error rate, because maybe you're looking at a big trend. Maybe the trend is so big that a 5 percent error rate doesn't hide it even with a little bit of error around it. So it's important to think about the use case and how much error it can tolerate. Then you can figure out, well, how much error does this generative AI tool produce? Does it actually meet my needs in terms of the kinds of evidence I want to produce for the kinds of claims I want to make?
Do you imagine some kind of AI class or tutorial for journalists in the future on how to use AI responsibly?
I'd like to avoid a future where people feel like they can be fully reliant on automation. There may be some hard and fast rules about situations where you need to go through and manually check the output and situations where you don't need to check it. But I'd like to think that a lot is in between those two extremes. The Society for Professional Journalists puts out a book called Media Ethics which is basically all of their case studies and reflections around different types of journalism ethics. It could be interesting to think about it this way, maybe that book needs a chapter on AI to start parsing out in what situations there's more problematic things that can happen and in what situations there are fewer.

Maybe it's not all that different from how it's done now where we have these core journalism constructs like accuracy or the Do No Harm principle. When you're publishing information your goal is to balance the public interest value of the information against the potential harm it could cause to someone innocent. So you have to put those two things in balance. When you think about errors from AI or generative AI summarizing something, applying that kind of rubric might make sense. Like, what is the potential harm that could come from this error? Who might be hurt from that information? What damage might that information cost?
Yeah, and journalists make errors, too, when dealing with data.
There's a difference, though, and it comes back to the accountability question. When a human being makes a mistake, you have a very clear line of accountability. Someone can explain their process and realize why they missed this thing or made an error. Now, that's not to say that AI shouldn't be accountable. It's just that to trace human accountability through the AI system is much more complex.

If a generative AI system makes an error in a summary, you could blame Open AI if they made the AI system. Although when you use their system you also agree to their terms of use, and assume responsibility for the output accuracy. So Open AI says it's your responsibility as the user and they assign responsibility to you. They don't want to be accountable for the mistake. And contractually, they've obligated you to be responsible for it. So now it's your problem. Are you willing to take responsibility and be accountable as let's say, the journalist or the news organization that uses that tool?
How would a journalist keep track of using AI in case they had to track back to an error?
That's a great question. Keeping track of prompts is one way to think about it. So that as the user of the technology there's a notion of what was my role in using the technology. What were the parameters that I used to prompt the technology? That's at least a starting point. So if I did something irresponsible in my prompt, there would be an example of negligence. For instance, if I prompt something to summarize a document, but I set the temperature at 0.9t and a high temperature means that there's a lot more randomness in the output.

You should know that if you're going to use these models. You should know that if you set the temperature high, it's going to introduce a lot more noise in the output. So maybe you do bear some responsibility if there's an error in that output. Maybe you should have set the temperature to zero or much lower in order to reduce that potential for randomness in the output. I do think, as a user, you should be responsible in how you're prompting, and what parameters you are choosing and be prepared to explain how you use the technology.

Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen

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Q&A: How can artificial intelligence help journalists?

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In recent weeks, the spotlight of attention has fallen on new generative AI tools-such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Bing chatbot, and Google's Bard-which have been subject to debate about their potential to refashion how journalists work. For data and computational journalists in particular, AI tools such as ChatGPT have the potential to assist in a [...]

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Yufei Xiang is a 23-year-old International student who has resided solo in various cities, including Changsha, Hangzhou, Sydney, Toronto, and Wuhan, and here is how she spends her meaningful lone time.

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From Brushes to Bots: The Battle of Artists vs. Artifical Intelligence (link)

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From Brushes to Bots: The Battle of Artists vs. Artifical Intelligence (link)

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From Brushes to Bots: The Battle of Artists vs. Artifical Intelligence

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With these generative AI programs, you can manifest any image and mirror any style that your heart desires. From a cinematically lit photorealistic snapshot to a painted masterpiece seemingly forged by the ghostly hands of Vincent Van Gogh himself, the potential of AI Art tools is becoming increasingly endless.