As newspapers and broadcast news outlets direct more resources toward online content, print reporters and photojournalists are picking up video cameras and crafting new kinds of stories with their lenses. Creating multimedia video journalism requires more than simply adapting traditional broadcast techniques: it calls for a new way of thinking about how people engage with the news and with emerging media technologies. In this guide, Kurt Lancaster teaches students and professional journalists how to shoot better video and tell better stories on the web, providing a strong understanding of cinematic storytelling and documentary production so their videos will stand out from the crowd.
Video Journalism for the Web introduces students to all the basic skills and techniques of good video journalism and documentary storytelling, from shots and camera movements to sound and editingâas well as offering tips for developing compelling, character-driven narratives and using social media to launch a successful career as a "backpack journalist." Shooting, editing, and writing exercises throughout the book allow students to put these techniques into practice, and case studies and interviews with top documentary journalists provide real-world perspectives on a career in video journalism. This book gives aspiring documentary journalists the tools they need to get out in the field and start shooting unforgettable multimedia stories.
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Chapter 1 Differences in Style Documentary Journalism versus Broadcast NewsâA Comparative Analysis of a Similar Story at CNN versus the New York Times
DOI: 10.4324/9780203145753-1
Introduction to Documentary Journalism
In this chapter, I show the differences between documentary and broadcast news styles by examining two different news stories completed in the broadcast news style and similar stories produced by video journalists working at newspapers. I explore how the style engaged by documentary journalists tends to be character-centered and contain shots that move the story forward visually, while the broadcast style utilizes reportersâ narrations instead of the charactersâ voices as the primary means of crafting their stories, with shots tending to be more utilitarian rather than cinematic.
If documentary journalism is more cinematic, engages deeper character studies, and supports strong visual journalism, then why isnât it utilized more often in the broadcast style? The advantages of the broadcast news styleâitâs fast and simple: Ultimately, viewers may end up determining which style becomes more prevalent. Right now, newspapers are in a position to experiment with a variety of news styles online. Broadcast news stations are fixed in their style by tradition and decades of making it work. They could express different styles online, but it requires additional resources. Regardless, I offer this analysis as a way for students and practitioners of visual journalism to think about how they approach their stories, and to help those shooting and producing broadcast news to think about how they might approach their work more cinematically, with more attention to visual storytelling and character presentation.
It can be produced quickly (and, when on a deadline, thatâs imperative); while, in documentary journalism, more time is needed to produce a piece.
A wide-range of audience types can quickly grasp the story and get it in a short attention span, and if theyâre cooking dinner, they can still hear the story, since it relies primarily on narration; in documentary journalism the audience is required to watch the story, often needing to pay close attention to capture its nuances.
How to Tell the Difference between TV News and Documentary Journalism Styles
The case studies below will clearly show the differences in style, but this list summarizes some of the primary elements of the two. Itâs not a cut-and-dried formulaic list, but, in general, it is what distinguishes the two styles:
TV News Style
TV reporter often in front of the camera.
Character secondary to the reporterâs presence.
Reporterâs narration the primary means in telling the story.
Characterâs voice used to augment the reporterâs narration.
Images used to illustrate the story.
Audio captured in the field as the only audio used.
Camera operated by a crew member, guided by the reporter and/or producer.
Documentary Journalism Style
Journalist behind the camera.
Character primary.
Reporterâs narration, if used, provides context.
Characterâs voice utilized to tell the story.
Images show the story cinematically.
Audio consciously designed to help set the tone.
Video journalist usually works alone and uses the camera to write the story, visually.
Case Study 1 âGirl Poet Takes on the Taliban with Her Penâ (2:37) by Stanley Grant, CNN (FEB. 18, 2009)
The stories were selected randomly. Ellickâs and Sharafâs documentary was on the main video page of the New York Times, and I was compelled to watch it all the way through. This is my way of saying that Iâm not purposely looking for broadcast news work that stands in contrast to the documentaries I found at online newspaper sites. But it was a serendipitous search, allowing me to explore how the two different styles work.
First, letâs look at CNNâs âGirl Poet Takes on the Taliban with Her Penâ and compare it with Case Study 2, the New York Timesâs âClass Dismissed in Swat Valley.â In each story, there is a profile of an eleven-year-old girl living in Pakistan: one in Islamabad, the other in the Swat valley region. Both struggle against the Talibanâs desire to force girls out of schools. Over two hundred schools for girls have been destroyed in Pakistan by the Taliban.
In Grantâs âGirl Poet Takes on the Taliban with Her Pen,â we see the story of Tuba Sahaab, a girl fighting for the right to an education as the Taliban try to prevent her and other girls from attending school.
The story is inspiring and it captures the heart of the audience in just over two and half minutes. We feel for Tuba and her plight. The cinematography is strong, especially shots 8â14, where visual elements capture Tubaâs desire and personality. The zoom-in with Grant sitting next to her, as we go to the final shot of her face, touches the heart. Yet, with all due respect to Grantâs hard work on this inspiring piece, by placing the reporter at the center of the story, his personality dominates, and not that of Tuba Sahaabâheâs the figure that draws the United States audience in, heâs the character we can relate to, as he talks about Tuba and her accomplishments, his narration providing the story, the story needing few, if any, visuals to inform the audience of its content. If we read the transcript, we can see that the visual shots only supplement the story and offer little in helping to reveal deeper story elements.
Grant frames the story around Tubaâs hopes for President Barack Obama to help set her country right. From the opening narrationââPresident Obama, you have won a young heart in Pakistan,â Grant laughs with personality. Shot 3, with a series of questions and answers revolving around Tubaâs excitement about Obama becoming president, sets up her desire and hopeâbut it is a bit disingenuous, since Grant and his audience know itâs highly unlikely that Obama will be able to do anything about her plight. Even if unintentional, she is framed as being naĂŻve, and his lines at the endââI think youâll get a chance ⊠thereâs no doubt what you can doââencapsulate the American idealâthe American Dreamâvoiced paternally to a âdaughterâ who may, in fact, be overreaching the bounds of her own safety. Grant becomes the figure by which she, perhaps, sets up her hopes. What happens if there is no response?
The story focuses on a central character with a story, and it is shot wellâmeeting the standards of good documentary filmmaking. Ultimately, however, this style lacks Tubaâs voice. Rather, Grantâs personality takes over the piece and he becomes the central character by which we vicariously experience Tubaâs emotions, struggles, dreams, and hopes. We donât feel invited into her world and it becomes filtered through Grant as our host to Tubaâs world. For a package created for CNN, the television news style works for what it needs to doâ convey a story quickly and in an entertaining way without going deep into the underlying political issues.
Letâs contrast this story to a similar one done for the New York Times, this one produced in a documentary style.
Case Study 2 âClass Dismissed in Swat Valleyâ (14:24) by Adam B. Ellick and Irfan Ashraf, the New York Times (FEB. 21, 2009)
Ellick and Ashraf tell the story of an eleven-year-old girl and her father living in Swat valley, a hundred miles from Islamabad. It is 5.4 times longer than the CNN piece, so thereâs time for the journalists to explore their subject in depth, so perhaps itâs an unfair comparison. Yet, in order to create strong visual journalism, itâs important to look at the differences in style, which can be utilized for nearly any length.
Despite the length of the piece, Ellick engages a documentary style, a style far different than the one produced by Stanley Grant for CNN. The main difference involves the amount of time Ellick and Ashraf spent with this familyâforty-eight hours documenting them right before the Taliban ordered the closure of the schools for girls in the Swat valley region. The narration provides historical and political context, and includes file footage of battles, Taliban whipping people into submission, and beheaded bodies. The images visually drive home the point that the fear the family experiences is real. Their story may not be exhaustive, but it expresses political context and contains the information needed to understand the familyâs predicament. In the CNN piece, I feel pushed into it through a rapid narrated style that tells me what to think, taking the story at face value, while the New York Times pieceâalthough guiding us with narrationâfeels more like an invitation into the story, taking us deeper into the emotions that circulate among the characters.
In sequence one, comprising just under the first minute (0:00â0:57), we see eight shots: images of Swat valley, an Islamic flag, followed by the sounds of gunfire and the images of burning and shooting. We hear the father, Sahudeem, talk about how âthere are some people who want to stop educating girls through guns,â followed by his daughter talking about wanting to become a doctor. The shot stays on the two for a few moments (shot 7), then cuts to a close-up as the daughter, Mulala, covers her face, the emotional truth of the Talibanâs will overwhelming her (shot 8).
See Figures 1.1 and 1.2.
In many ways, the CNN and the New York Times stories are the sameâtwo eleven-year-old girls struggling with the idea that education could be lost to them if the Taliban get their way. The characters speak in their own voice, but in the first minute of the Times piece the only reporter-voiced narration we hear is: âIn Swat, Pakistan, schools for girls are under assault by the Taliban.â The rest of it involves file footage and a narration provided by the father and a dramatic hook as we hear Mulala speak about her desire to become a doctor. The moment doesnât feel rushed and we donât feel the reporterâs voice guiding us along through the story, as seen in the CNN pieceâwhere we get the reporterâs voice right away, Grantâs onscreen presence becoming the dominant figure in the piece, our guide into Tubaâs world. Ellick and Ashraf, on the other hand, let the father and daughter be the central characters, the reporterâs presence unfelt, and the narration remains fairly unobtrusive.
To clearly illustrate the stylistic differences between the two, in the sequence of Grantâs story where we hear Tuba speak: âI want to give peace to my country, to my nation, everyoneâ Grant follows with: This is followed by Tuba reciting a poem_ âTiny drops of tears. Their faces, like the angels, washed with their bloods. They sleep forever as with anger.â Thatâs Grantâs sixty-seven words compared to Tubaâs nineteen.
The eleven-year-old is a self-styled warrior poet, a small girl pitting her pen against the Talibanâs sword. A girl from a simple home in Islamabad, she says she is committed to truth. Through her words, she reflects the pain of other children in her country, the injustice of other girls denied an education, of schools burnt to the ground, books banned, and too much death.
In contrast (again, realizing that Ellick and Ashraf are not seemingly on a length restriction, as Grant is), the filmmakers in the New York Times piece allow a girl outside a school to read an entire revolutionary letter against the Taliban, the only narration setting up what is to follow: âWhile boysâ schools stay open, more than two hundred girlsâ schools have been blown up by the Taliban. ...
Table of contents
Cover Page
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Foreword by Brian Storm
Acknowledgments
Introduction: What is Documentary Journalism?
1 Differences in Style: Documentary Journalism versus Broadcast NewsâA Comparative Analysis of a Similar Story at CNN versus the New York Times
2 Finding a Story and Shaping the Structure: Starting with Character in Jigar Mehtaâs âThe Recession-Proof Artistâ
3 Shooting the Image: Composition and Lighting in Travis Foxâs âNarcocorridos and Nightlife in Mexicaliâ and âCrisis in Darfur Expandsâ
4 Conducting Interviews and Writing a Script: A Workshop with âIcarus Refried: A Pro-Creative Processâ
5 Editing for Rhythm: Travis Foxâs âRedefining Chinaâs Family: Womenâ
6 Getting Clean Audio and Crafting a Sound Design: An Audio Workshop with Philip Bloom, Travis Fox, and Wes Pope
7 The Blogging Journalist: Travis Fox and the Mexican Border Stories