Manufacturers and distributors spend big on advertising, hoping to catch the eye of skilled tradespeople. But what actually works? A survey of 269 Trade Hounds users, conducted in collaboration with Siemens, reveals what truly grabs attention—and what falls flat.
Real Workers, Real Impact
When presented with two different ads, 71% of respondents said the ad featuring real workers and jobsite imagery caught their attention first. 69% said that ad made them more likely to buy the product.’
“Ads that look like my actual jobsite make me stop and pay attention,” said one respondent. “If I see Hi-Viz gear and real tools in use, I know it’s for me.”
One electrician commented, “I don’t want to see models posing with tools. Show me someone actually using it on the job.”
What Drives Agreement
Respondents rated several statements about advertising on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree):
Show Real Tradespeople: 83% agreed or strongly agreed that ads should feature real workers and job sites.
Highlight Safety and Professionalism: 83% said safety gear and Hi-Viz clothing signal authenticity.
Practical Information Matters: 81% want clear, straightforward information about durability and reliability.
Reflect Diversity: 74% agreed that ads should represent the diversity of the workforce.
A survey participant wrote, “If you want my attention, make it look like my crew. Different ages, backgrounds, and everyone in proper gear.”
The Bottom Line for Manufacturers
The message is clear: tradespeople want ads that reflect their reality, respect their expertise, and provide practical information.
“Manufacturers need to understand that we’re proud of what we do,” said another respondent. “Show us respect, and we’ll respect your brand.”
Implications
For manufacturers and distributors, these findings offer a roadmap for more effective advertising:
Use real jobsite imagery and authentic scenarios.
Make safety and professionalism visible.
Focus on practical benefits and reliability.
Represent the diversity of the trades.
As one tradesperson put it, “If your ad looks like my day-to-day, I’ll pay attention. If not, I’ll scroll right past.”
Authenticity Wins Attention
Tradespeople want to see themselves reflected in ads—real people, real gear, real job sites. Ads that feature real workers, especially those wearing hi-viz gear or proper PPE, are seen as more relevant and credible. Ads that connect with pride in the trade and showcase real job site scenarios are more likely to spark positive emotions. Tradespeople said seeing products in action, not just staged glamour shots, make them more likely to buy the product. Clear, straightforward information about products is preferred.
What Doesn’t Work
Ads that feel staged, generic, or disconnected from the realities of the trade are less likely to catch attention or inspire action. If manufacturers want their ads to stand out, they need to focus on authenticity, relevance, and respect. By listening to tradespeople and reflecting their real experiences, brands can build trust and drive engagement.
One of the best parts of working in TV news is the energy you feel in the studio surrounded by lights and action. So what do you do when a pandemic forces you to work from home? Here’s how my Florida Focus class created TV newscasts 100% remotely.
Anchoring from home
Take a look around this 360 video by:
wearing a mobile VR headset,
moving your cell phone around from the YouTube app or
clicking the video and dragging it on a computer.
To anchor from home you’ll need these things:
A good light source (like a sliding glass door, large window or lighting kit)
A microphone
A computer with an HD web camera OR a smartphone
A free teleprompter app or free teleprompter website
Lighting
For this to look professional, it’s important that your face is being hit by as much light as possible. There are very rare instances where I will say that you have too much light on your face since you likely won’t have the number of lights at home as you would in the studio.
TV studios usually don’t have windows to control the light. But because most people don’t have lighting grids in their living rooms, the best option is to record yourself during sunlight hours. If you have a sliding glass door or large window at your home or nearby, I recommend sitting just a few feet away from it FACING the light. The light should not hit the back of your head. It should hit your face straight on to avoid shadows. The glass from your window will help to diffuse the sunlight.
Make sure no curtains or blinds are in front of the window or glass door.
Be careful to create as much depth behind you as possible. This may mean moving furniture away from you to help the virtual background do a better job of only keying you in while keying out the background.
How To Set Up A Green Screen (aka Chroma Key)
Florida Focus students have access to green screen backdrops when anchoring from home. These can also be used for reporting.
Emart Photo Video Studio 8.5 x 10ft Green Screen Backdrop Stand Kit
Our green screen backdrop comes in a case with the following items:
Here is the company’s website if you’d like more details on how to assemble.
When assembled, you can lay the green screen cloth on the floor if you’d like your entire body in the frame. This allows you to shoot your feet, but keep in mind that you’ll need a virtual background that makes sense with this setup. Most of the time, you’ll only shoot a medium shot. In these instances, please avoid stepping on the green screen to keep it clean and pretty for all of us.
How to use green screen
The two most important things about using a green screen are LIGHT and NO WRINKLES. Wrinkles or creases in your green screen will affect the light because it will cause shadows that will make the green appear a different shade when you go to edit your virtual background in post. Depending on the fabric material, I recommend using a steamer to get the wrinkles out. You may also use an iron on low. Be very careful not to burn the material because it is expensive and will not work properly if there are burns. In rare instances, you may throw your screen into the dryer with a damp towel and then immediately remove it from the dryer and hang it up.
The person on camera must not wear a color that is similar to the green screen or it will become transparent when the green screen is edited out.
Your green screen must be evenly lit
This is where backlight becomes super important. If you don’t dedicate a light just for the backdrop, your body will likely cast a shadow on the green screen which will make it very hard if not impossible to professionally key out in post.
Avoid standing too close to the green screen
Depth between you and the green screen will help reduce shadows.
You must also be evenly lit
Light is the name of the game with green screens. You can diffuse light and reduce shadows by shooting your light into or through white umbrellas. There are also lots of different scrim that you can put between the light and you to reduce the harsh light that creates shadows. You want lots of light, but it has to be soft (diffused).
How to set up three-point lighting
If you only have three lights, you should point two at the green screen behind the anchor. These lights should be no taller than the anchors shoulders. Preferably they should be about chest height depending on how wide your anchor’s shot is. If the anchor is doing a waist up shot, the lights should be chest high.
Then add one light immediately above the teleprompter for the anchor’s face. The teleprompter can be just a tiny bit lower than eye level to avoid the chance that the anchor’s chin will be too high (this is a common mistake anchors make, tuck your chin to look more professional).
If you’re lucky to have five lights you should:
Place one to the left of your camera and one to the right to light your face.
Place a very dim light behind you that’s pointing at the back of your head to give you a little hair light.
Place one behind you off to the left that’s pointed at the green screen.
Place one behind you off to the right that’s pointed at the green screen.
You don’t actually need the green screen to fill your entire camera screen. When we edit, we can crop/mask you out as long as the only thing behind you, is the green screen. If the edges of your camera screen show part of your room, that’s not a problem.
Teleprompter
We will get portable teleprompters to help you anchor from home. Although several teleprompter apps work great with front-facing (selfie) cell phone cameras, the rear-facing camera is much higher resolution. So, in order to use this rear-facing camera and a teleprompter, we will get these awesome Glide Gear TMP100 teleprompters for you to check out when you’re anchoring.
You will check out an iPad from the video lab that will be used to reflect your teleprompter script onto the glass. Then you’ll use your own cell phone camera or another camera like DSLR to record the video.
Import your anchor/green screen video and drag it to your second video channel in Premiere Pro. V2 is a good spot for the anchor/green screen video because you’ll likely want to use V3 for lower thirds and V1 for the virtual background.
Go to effects control and mask yourself out (see video below).
Go to effects and search for Ultra Key.
Drag Ultra Key onto your clip in the timeline.
Go to effects control click the eye drop tool next to the words “key color.”
Click on the green background behind the person on camera.
Clean your key. Select “alpha channel” from the Output dropdown in effects control.
Increase transparency (see video below).
Reduce shadows.
Adjust pedestal levels
Change the output dropdown to composite.
Choke a tiny bit to reduce any green outline in the matte cleanup section. Soften a tiny bit.
Spill suppression to remove the green light on a person’s face or arms. Increase the “desaturate” level.
Drag your background to V1 and ensure it’s scaled to frame size. Right-click “scale to frame size” or “fit to frame size.”
After keying out the green screen and adding the background, you may want to adjust the color temperature of the anchor so it looks like the anchor was actually in the same light the background was shot with.
What if my glasses get keyed out?
Virtual Background on Teams
Unfortunately, Teams downgrades the resolution of recorded meetings. So, if you’re going to use Teams to create a virtual background, you may want to use a screen recorder, instead of only recording the meeting. Make sure to set your webcam and screen recorder to HD at least 1080.
Then open Microsoft Teams and follow the instructions in this video:
To read more about uploading a background on Zoom, click here.
How to use a Green Screen in OBS
Teleprompter
CuePrompter is a simple and free teleprompter website that you can use to turn your computer into a teleprompter. There are many free mobile teleprompters that work with your cell phone or tablet.
If the pen was mightier than the sword, mobile phones are our atomic agent of change.
In the past decade, mobile journalism exploded across the world following an increase in smartphone processing power and camera quality. The shift began when the first iPhone was released in 2007. Since then, Apple sold more than 1.5 billion iPhones. Android actually surpassed Apple. There are now more than 2 billion Android users worldwide.
What is a mojo?
A mojo is a new term for a journalist who uses a mobile device to tell stories. Mojos use their phones to record video and audio interviews. Some of them edit the media using apps like Videolicious and Adobe Rush. Others will edit on PCs.
Mojos use phones to publish content to social media platforms and websites through apps like WordPress. Mojos can stream live. They can share 360 videos and photos using their phones and tablets.
Why Mojo?
Phones aren’t the only cameras improving in recent years. With fancy new cameras on the market, why would a journalist prefer using a cell phone?
Speed
Shooting and editing on a smartphone can take a fraction of the time. Many auto functions quickly reduce common errors like white balance, exposure and focus.
If a photographer shoots a story on a traditional TV camera or a DSLR, it takes more time to set up. Then, the photographer usually has to eject an SD card and import the media onto a laptop. This process can eat up time in a breaking news situation where immediacy is key.
Cost
If you think your new iPhone is expensive, try buying a brand new camera and a lens. Nice cameras are expensive. Smartphones now record video in 4K so journalists on a budget don’t need to waste money on all the bells and whistles.
Convenience
Traditional TV news cameras and tripods are super heavy. You shouldn’t have to be in the best shape of your life to be a videographer. A cell phone is so lightweight that it doesn’t require a heavy tripod. Being a mojo means you can more easily travel and make your way around events like crowded rallies.
Intimacy
It’s not easy to create intimacy on demand with a huge camera in your face. Interviews with traditional video setups are intimidating and can make it more difficult for people to open up. A smartphone is less obtrusive and people are more familiar with them so they feel more comfortable in front of a cell phone.
People feel so comfortable in front of cell phones that according to Rawhide, 93 million selfies are posted every day. That’s 1,000 selfies a second on Instagram.
Video Example
This is the first video created by a student who just learned how to shoot with her iPhone.
Here’s another video created by a student:
A student was able to tell this story from inside a march since she only had to carry a small cell phone.
Getting to meet people like Fionn and Jonathan and tell their stories is what I love about my life. Filmed and edited on mobile #mojohttps://t.co/hYBWnYarVV
Part 712 in a series: how smartphones are enhancing the BBC's news coverage. Here's an interview at a railway station, where the work of the main camera is supplemented by not one but TWO iphones, strategically placed nearby: pic.twitter.com/Cgrvf8AhbF
— Marc Blank-Settle marcsettle.bsky.social (@MarcSettle) January 3, 2019
The BBC is one of the biggest leaders of mobile journalism. They often offer tutorials for how others can join the mojo movement.
Aspect Ratios
Your cell phone may be set to capture photos in 4:3. But, you may want to switch it to 16:9 so it fills up the entire frame when the phone is held horizontally. Here’s what 4:3 looks like:
4:3 ratio
When someone looks at this with their phone turned horizontally, the phone will add black bars on the side like this:
Here is that same image in 16:9. This is best for broadcasting on TV, YouTube, Facebook posts and Twitter posts.
16:9 ratio
You should adjust your aspect ratio to fit the platform. For example, vertical videos are best for Snapchat, Facebook stories and Instagram stories.
During an interview, you want to give your subject proper lead room. This means they’re looking across the screen at the reporter. A reporter should maintain eye contact with the person they’re interviewing so they should stand on either side of the camera, not behind it.
The following image does not have propper lead room. The negative space on the left creates awkward composition and makes the viewer feel disconnected with the person who’s speaking.
This lead room isn’t bad, but there’s way too much headroom.
Avoid shooting a profile of the person who’s talking because it’s hard for viewers to connect with a speaker if they can’t see their face. Make sure you can see both eyes of the person you’re interviewing to increase intimacy with your viewers.
Lighting
If you’re interviewing someone outside in the space below, you want to consider where the sunlight is shining to use the light to your benefit.
You may be tempted to put the person you’re interviewing in the sun. Here’s why that’s a bad idea:
Direct sunlight makes people squint. The smaller the person’s eyes appear, the harder it is for your viewers to connect. They may also appear angry.
Direct sunlight casts harsh shadows under people’s noses. If they wear glasses, you’ll also create distracting shadows on their face.
Think putting them in the shadow of a tree will help? It won’t.
Instead, move the person into the shadow of the building to let your camera iris open up and absorb more detail of the person’s evenly lit face.
Just make sure there’s no overexposed lit area behind them, or you will backlight your subject like this:
Another common space to record interviews is in a room with a window. The window can offer a fantastic source of diffused natural light. But, you have to make sure the light hits the person’s face, not the back of their head or you will have too much backlight.
If the window is behind the person you’re interviewing, the shot could end up looking like this:
To avoid an overexposed background and an underexposed interview, just turn the person around so they’re facing the window like this:
B-roll
Your interview or reporter standup is considered a-roll. Supplemental footage to help tell your story is called b-roll. When shooting b-roll, variety is key. Get a wide variety of shots to show your story from different distances, heights and angles.
Establishing or extreme wide shotWide shotClose upExtreme close upReflection shotReflection shotReflection shot
When shooting b-roll or photos of people, try to get shots of eye contact, emotion, action and reaction.
Reaction shotAction shotOver the shoulder shot
Equipment
In addition to a cell phone that shoots HD video, here are a few pieces of equipment I suggest investing in.
Phones can shoot great video, but a simple lav microphone can really go a long way in elevating the quality. I like the Polsen MO-PL1 Lavalier Microphone for mobile. It’s $49.95 which is more affordable than most microphones but still produces great quality audio.
Don’t have a headphone jack in your phone? A 3.5mm headphone jack adapter will run you about $16.
Shooting handheld can result in shaky video so try the lightweight Manfrotto tripod for $64.88.
An external battery pack is a lifesaver when you’re reporting from the field. The FosPower PowerActive Portable Battery Charger is water resistant and shockproof. You can pick one up on Amazon for $25.
You may also want to consider getting a gimbal to get stable shots on the move. You can get a Zhiyun Smooth Q on Amazon for $85.90.
The newer Smooth 4 is $119 and should better handle heavier phones.
How to record video stories on your cell phone
Put your camera on grid mode to help with your rule of thirds.
Using an iPhone:
Click settings
Click camera
Slide grid to the right
If you’re using a newer iPhone, you may want to consider turning off Apple’s new HEVC format to record more compatible videos. Experts expect this format to become more common in the future, but there are still some issues editing high-efficiency video, specifically in Adobe Premiere Pro. HEVC is really meant for streaming video live, not editing it.
To maintain a traditional video format:
Click settings
Click camera
Click format
Click “most compatible”
Put your phone in airplane mode to ensure your interview isn’t interrupted by an incoming call.
Make sure you have enough storage on your phone before you begin shooting. If you need more space, delete apps or videos that you don’t need. You can upload your content to the iCloud or get a free Google drive app to make more space on your phone.
Tap on your screen to tell the phone where to focus.
This will automatically adjust your camera’s iris to increase or decrease exposure.
Your camera’s iris kind of works like the iris of your eye. When it’s too sunny, your pupils will get smaller. When it’s dark out, your iris will open your pupils to let in more light so you can see more details. Auto iris works like your eye.
Tap and hold on the area of your screen that you want your viewers to focus on. This will lock your focus and exposure as you record.
Then you can scroll up to increase exposure, or scroll down to decrease exposure.
DON’T ZOOM.
Zooming with your cell phone will lower the resolution of your shot. Instead of zooming in, just move closer to whatever you’re trying to record.
For the highest resolution, the person you’re interviewing should be no more than three feet away from the camera.
If you don’t have enough natural light, turn on your cell phone light by pushing on the lighting icon in your camera’s video app.
If you plan to be on camera for a reporter standup, avoid the urge to look at yourself. Instead, look directly into the front-facing camera lens.
Spit that gum out. Chewing gum creates distracting noises and it’s not a good look if you’re on camera.
Avoid plosives by moving the microphone away from your mouth. NPR has a great training guide to help you avoid common audio errors.
Practice time. Hold your hand up in front of your face and say the words “Peter Piper Pizza.” Each time you say a word with the letter “p” air will hit your hand. If air hits your microphone this way, it causes a plosive sound. To avoid plosives, move your mic away from the airflow.
Now what?
When you’re done recording your video, you’ll either want to edit it on your mobile device or move it to a computer.
Moving your video clips from your phone to a computer
If you have an iPhone and a Mac, I suggest airdrop or iCloud.
The free Google Drive app works great regardless of what type of cell phone or computer you’re using.
Just download the app on your phone, then upload all of your clips to your Google Drive.
You can download the clips from your Google Drive using a Chrome Browser.
After you download your videos, make sure you move them from the download folder into another folder where all of your clips will live before you import them into an editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro.
Apps
If you want to shoot and edit all of your videos on your phone, there are several helpful apps.
User Experience
Mobile journalism isn’t just about how a journalist creates content. It’s also about how people consume it. Here’s an example of a story that was created for a cell phone. The user’s experience watching the story on their cell phone is more powerful than watching it on a computer because it turns the user’s phone into a refugee’s phone.
Selfie Journalism
Before the rise in smartphones, the average person couldn’t afford to tell their own stories. They didn’t have the equipment or the platform. Now, they can document revolutions and expose corruptions with their cell phones and a YouTube account. The role of a journalist is changing to help the public tell their own stories. Enter selfie journalism.
We now need journalists more than ever. A journalist’s job is shifting toward curating, re-packaging and verifying content. Journalists can now tell more stories with the rise in user-generated content.
Here are some examples of mobile selfie journalism stories.
Promos and teases entice viewers to watch by creatively showcasing specific nuggets of interesting information. Promos air during commercial breaks and are produced by the promotions department aka creative services. Teases air during a newscast before the commercial break and are produced by the producers. Reporters may also be required to shoot standup teases that producers will add to their newscast to promote a reporter’s story.
Teases
Promoting a story within a newscast is called a tease. A tease is usually two sentences.
First sentence = context.
Second sentence = a promise.
Write your promise first, then write your first sentence. Promise a specific component of a story, not the overview. Never promise something in a tease that you won’t or can’t answer in the story.
A tease airs immediately before a commercial break, during a newscast. Most traditional teases are read live by anchors (either as readers, VO’s or SOTVOs). But some are pre-produced like in my 8 p.m. show on WTTA.
Here are some examples of pre-produced teases that I wrote and produced:
Reporter Standup Teases
Here are some examples of reporter standup teases.
How to write a tease
Don’t give the viewer the impression that you’re actively withholding information. If you can answer in a few words, you’re probably withholding. For example: Will it rain? Or, who won the game?
Give the impression that there’s too much to tell in one tease. Promise the more interesting details. Avoid obvious components.
Prove to your viewers you don’t have a tired story.
Pay special attention to lame “tip” teases. Lay out the specifics of an unexpected tip.
Instead of “We’ll give you five ways to save on your water bill”, try “how a simple device can save you $20 on your water bill.”
Don’t use questions. Turn them into promises.
Question: “Where did a teacher’s aide take them?” Promise: “Where a teacher’s aide took them.”
Question: “Where can you find the best prices on school supplies?” Promise: “Where you can find the best prices on school supplies.”
Question: “How did the suspect get away?” Promise: “How the suspect got away.”
Pick the teasable stories. Death is never easy to tease. Get to the point and hit them with best sound, best fact or best benefit. Avoid “we’ll show you,” “we’ll tell you” and “you’ll see.”
Here are more examples of traditional tease scripts:
SOME OF SOCCER’S MOST ELITE WOMEN ARE FILING A FORMAL COMPLAINT CHARGING U-S SOCCER WITH WAGE DISCRIMINATION. HOW LITTLE THEY MAKE, COMPARED TO MEN SOCCER PLAYERS.
WILLIAM SHATNER IS FACING A ONE- HUNDRED- SEVENTY- MILLION DOLLAR LAWSUIT. THE FLORIDA RADIO HOST WHO CLAIMS SHATNER’S HIS FATHER.
WHOOPI’S SELLING WEED. HER NEW VENTURE INTO MARIJUANA FOR WOMEN.
JENNY FROM THE BLOCK’S STILL GOT IT. HOW MANY MILLIONS OF TIMES J- LO’S CARPOOL KARAOKE VIDEO WAS WATCHED IN TWO DAYS.
BEYONCE FANS ARE CRAZY IN LOVE WITH HER NEW CLOTHING LINE. THE PERSONAL STORY BEHIND HER NEW BUSINESS.
IT’S BEING CALLED THE *WORST ALLERGY SEASON EVER… BUT LOCKING OURSELVES *INDOORS MAY NOT BE THE ANSWER! HOW TO LOOK OUT FOR POLLEN INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.
A WIDOW CLAIMS HER HUSBAND WAS A VICTIM OF ONE OF THE LARGEST CASES OF CONTAMINATION IN U.S. HISTORY. HOW SHE’S TAKING ON THE V-A.
MARIAH CAREY’S DOING WHAT’S BEST FOR HER AND SHAKING OFF HER COMMITMENTS TO HER FANS. WHY SHE’S CANCELLING HER CONCERTS.
ICE CUBE’S PICKING UP ANOTHER SOURCE OF CASH FLOW. THE NEW MUSICAL HE’S STARING IN.
SHE DEVELOPED A LIFE-THREATENING HEART CONDITION AND MADE A MIRACULOUS RECOVERY. THE DEVICE THAT SAVED HER LIFE.
A DISTRACTED SCHOOL BUS DRIVER’S IN A LOT OF TROUBLE THIS MORNING. COMING UP… WHAT SHE WAS CAUGHT ON CAMERA DOING WHEN HER BUS ALMOST SIDE-SWIPED A TRUCK.
NEW CHIP CARDS ARE MEANT TO KEEP YOUR PRIVATE INFO SAFE FROM THIEVES. COMING UP AFTER THE BREAK… THE NEW PROBLEM THE CARDS COULD CREATE WHEN YOU GO SHOPPING ONLINE.
A PRESCRIPTION FOR OLIVE OIL? HOW MUCH ONE DOCTOR SUGGESTS CONSUMING EVERY DAY TO LOSE WEIGHT AND LOWER YOUR RISK OF CANCER.
A MAYOR IS BEING SUED FOR PAYING A FINE IN NICKLES AND DIMES. STILL AHEAD… HOW MANY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN COINS HE FIT IN THIS VAN.
Sports
Don’t tease the results of the game. Instead, tease the best moment from that game.
Clever is no substitute for solid coverage promises.
Make specific promises of specific coverage.
Weather
Teases should contain solid promises of unique coverage. Most weather teases promise blatantly obvious coverage I can get on any station.
Weather should give time specifics, geographic specifics, effects on everyday life, causes behind a weather change, graphic specifics, or hardware specifics.
Examples:
WILL THE HURRICANE IN THE GULF MAKE IT’S WAY TO THE BAY AREA THIS WEEKEND
HOW MUCH RAIN YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
WHAT PLANTS IN YOUR YARD DO YOU NEED TO PROTECT FROM TONIGHT’S FROST
WHEN YOU’RE GOING TO NEED YOUR UMBRELLA THIS WEEK
Promos
Promos promote a story on an upcoming newscast (called a topical) or a promo will promote an image or a talent (called an image promo).
Here’s an example of an image promo that focuses on the look and personality of an anchor:
Every television newsroom is a little different depending on the market size, but here is an overview of the jobs at an average news station.
Anchor
Anchors are inside the TV studio. They read dozens of stories off a teleprompter, usually from the set. Some anchors ad lib more than others, but generally, they follow the rundown laid out by a producer from the top of the show until the very end. Anchors toss to reporters and meteorologists. An anchor may also report, but when they are reading stories in a show, they are called anchors.
Anchors are paid to make it look like everything is going smoothly when it’s not. So it’s very important that an anchor knows enough about what’s going on so that they can keep the show going especially when the teleprompter fails, when news breaks, and when a live shot dies.
Rod Carter is one of the best anchors I’ve ever worked with. He is an incredible storyteller and genuinely cares about the viewers and people he interviews. Rod is great at ad-libbing and adjusting to unexpected changes during live newscasts. He also lifts everyone’s mood with his great sense of humor. USF students Sydney Whitfield and Laurentz Gilmore created this video about his impact on the community:
Want to be an anchor? Practice reading off a teleprompter as often as possible. There are many apps and computer programs you can use. Here are a few of them:
To become an anchor, most people must be reporters first. Reporters generally earn less money than anchors. Reporters must pitch story ideas. A producer, executive producer, assistant news director or news director will assign the reporter to their story every day. Reporters must find contacts and conduct interviews. Reporters are now being increasingly required to shoot and edit their own stories. Some reporters even have to do their own live shots. Reporters must also write web stories and tweets. Some must also shoot and post videos about their stories to social media. Reporters are usually outdoors during their live shots, or on location at a place relevant to their story.
WFLA Senior Investigative Reporter Steve Andrews is one of the best reporters in the nation. I had the privilege of working with him at Tampa’s NBC affiliate. In addition to being incredibly kind and helpful, Steve is a tough and hard-working journalist who everyone should learn from. Steve’s reporting won him seven Emmy Awards and recognition from the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association. I highly suggest you read his articles, listen to his scripts and watch his interview style.
Here’s a short video with Steve’s great advice for journalists to always question what you hear.
Samuel Burke is one of my favorite international and bilingual reporters who does a great job thinking of active and creative stand-ups. He also enjoys experimenting with social media and tech.
MMJ Joe Little is recognized across the country for his creative stand-ups:
Here’s an example of an active live shot by reporter Paul Mueller:
Meteorologist
Meteorologists usually report the weather from in studio on the green screen. Occasionally producers will put their meteorologists outside, but most of the time they are inside. They study the atmosphere and predict changes in temperature, precipitation, wind, waves, etc. They create graphics which they use during the broadcast and post online.
Sportscaster
Sportscasters usually report and anchor the sports news. Nowadays, they are one man bands. They produce, write, shoot, edit and go on air, both on location and in studio. They attend mostly local sports games but occasionally travel with teams.
News Producer
News producers read and watch news all day long so you don’t have to. A news producer’s job is to save a viewer time by consuming all the news of the day and choosing which stories are the most important. News producers boil curated content down into concise scripts, then add some context for their newscasts.
A news producer is also called a line producer when they booth the newscast live. Producers are in charge of their own shows, usually 30-minutes or one hour each. Producers choose which stories will air depending on each show’s brand and demographic. That usually depends on what time the show airs. Producers decide what order stories air in and how many seconds each story deserves. Producers can write local, national and international stories.
They also decide how the story will be presented (VO, VOSOT, WHIP, PKG, Reader, Graphic, etc.). Producers order or create their own graphics and find video to go with each story. Producers may have writers or associate producers who help them complete the show. Producers directly report to Executive Producers.
During the live newscast, a producer will adjust for breaking news, and communicate any changes. They also communicate with live reporters, photographers, and directors to get the show from beginning to end with everyone on the same page. Producers add or kill stories depending on what time the show ends, so they get the show out at the correct time.
If you want to be a news producer you will usually start out as a writer or an associate producer. There are also segment producers depending on the station.
If you want to be a producer you will need to be good at:
understanding current events and the context that makes them important to viewers (aka news judgment)
writing news scripts, teases & headlines very quickly
spelling & grammar
clearly delegating tasks and remembering to check if those tasks were completed on time and correctly. The better a producer communicates the better their team will be. For example, if a producer includes specific time codes (in and out) for every sot (and b-roll) their editors will save time and have better direction. If a producer includes specific and accurate source instructions for every video, their editors can spend more time making the videos look good, and less time searching for the video. Another example of a good producer is one that ensures all slugs match. Many bad producers don’t pay attention to slug consistency. This wastes a tremendous amount of time, creates frustration for everyone, and makes it more difficult to find archived video and scripts.
quickly adding and subtracting time under pressure
staying calm under intense pressure
planning ahead to avoid potential problems
juggling many conversations at the exact same time, listening to several people talking and listening to air at the same time as you speak to others and possibly write and/or do basic math.
Director
Directors in automated shops will code a producer’s shots as designated on the rundown. Ignite is a common automation system that helps reduce the number of people needed to run through a live show. Director code will tell the system, like Ignite, when to open an anchors microphone. It will tell the system when a story is a VO, graphic, live shot, etc. If the shop is not automated, directors will live punch each shot on the rundown. They may also run the audio board depending on whether the station uses a separate audio engineer.
Satellite ENG Coordinator
Live shots and video come through the “sat room.” Coordinators tune in live shots by finding the coordinates of any live truck. They may also tune in live shots from across the country. They also send and receive video files via FTP. The use of mobile devices like LiveU and TVU units means more stations can connect to any station’s sat room from anywhere.
Floor director
A floor director makes sure anchors are moving to the correct location designated by the producer’s rundown. Floor directors follow the rundown and show the meteoroligist the countdown given by the producer over their headset. Floor directors help make sure anchors look at the correct camera. If there are guest interviews on the show, they also help mic them up and put them on set at the correct time.
Camera Operator
News camera operators either physically pan, tilt, zoom, and focus by hand, or use robotic cameras inside a studio. Camera operators follow the producer’s instructions on the rundown to frame up the different shots for any given story. During the live show, the director may tell the camera operator to adjust their shots. Camera operators may also work outside if a set is in the feild, but they are generally stationary where a videographer is expected to walk around scenes and drive to different stories every day. Camera operators usually shoot full segments or shows on set, while videographers will physically go shoot specific stories.
Videographer
Videographers will usually shoot many stories in one day. Before a videographer goes to a scene or interview, they will be assigned a specific location and time. They will also be told how much to shoot based on what the story will be used for. Some days they shoot enough for a package, other days they’re just spraying the scene of a crime for a quick VO. Most videographers also edit. If you’re interested in being a sports videographer, I encourage you to read 7 things you never knew about being a sports camera operator.
Editor
Editors usually spend their day in a small edit bay, or at an editor station. They receive instructions on what video to edit, how to edit it, and where to push it. Sometimes the video goes to air, other times it goes to web, or FTP for a video share. Some editors spend their entire day editing one package, while others spend their time editing promotional material. Others edit dozens of VO’s and VOSOT’s for live newscasts. They must edit under tight deadlines and feed in video before it’s air time.
Assignment Editor
Assignment Editors gather information by reading press releases and listening to police scanners. They put any newsworthy events on calendars and help prepare for the editorial meetings by coming up with reporter/photographer assignments. They help hold editorial meetings by telling producers and managers which news stories we can cover on any given day. They also do beat checks and keep in touch with law enforcement to help get breaking news to the producers. They also run background checks on suspects and gather information that may help producers or reporters do their jobs more efficiently. Weekend assignment editors may also have to post web stories and videos.
Web Producer
Web producers populate a station’s website and social media platforms. They gather news from the internet and help post local stories. They write breaking news push alerts, Tweets, and Facebook posts. They also look for trending stories and communicate interesting stories to producers.
Executive Producer
Executive producers supervise line producers. They have oversight of news stories from each show and communicate information and changes to producers so everyone is on the same page. There are usually three executive producers in each station (overnights, dayside and nightside). They communicate with the reporters and help decide whether a reporter will switch stories and/or shows. They also read through producers’ script to look for any errors or suggest improvements.
Assistant News Director
Assistant News Directors supervise Executive Producers. There is one Assistant News Director at each station. They communicate any major changes to executive producers and producers. They usually spend half of their time helping executive producers, producers, anchors and reporters, and the rest of their time reporting to the News Director. Some Assistant News Directors help with budgets, hiring and staffing issues. They also communicate with the sales and marketing teams.
News Director
A News Director largely deals with budgets and improving revenue sources. The News Director should lead the stations branding and make sure the editorial content is consistent. News Directors decide when to spend money on new equipment and/or staff, or when to fire people.
General Manager
A General Manager oversees all operations at a station. Occasionally, they also oversee several stations at once. A general manager will communicate with other stations which share the same owner. Most stations are owned by big companies like Scripps, Media General, Gannett, etc.
There are more jobs like engineers, tech support, marketing, sales, promotions, etc.
Robot reporters aren’t coming for all of your jobs just yet. But, it’s important to understand how automation is affecting journalism now. You should also start understanding how mixed-reality technology can help you tell stories in an immersive and impactful way.
Artificial Intelligence and Fake News
Instead of being scared of this inevitable innovation, you should learn how to use automation to make your job more efficient. Automated data analysis may give you more time to delve deeper and report on context.
But, you have to be careful, AI can make it much harder to tell truth from fake news. Watch this PSA comedian Jordan Peele made with BuzzFeed using Adobe After Effects and the AI face-swapping tool FakeApp.
This should serve as a reminder to always question something before you share it.
Augmented Reality Storytelling
Some TV news stations are starting to incorporate mixed-reality storytelling onto their sets to help visualize stories. Journalists should stay on top of these innovations to better learn how to tell stories in new ways. Mixed reality shouldn’t just look cool, it should be used intentionally. Take a look at how these stations strategically use augmented reality.
Augmented reality is proving to have a much greater effect on viewers. It’s literally helping save people’s lives. Journalists are constantly warning people to evacuate during hurricanes. A nine-foot storm surge doesn’t sound that bad. But, when people see what that really looks like in AR, they’re more likely to take the warning seriously.
USF’s Innovative Education department is using augmented reality to tell engaging stories like this:
Frontline took mixed-reality storytelling to the next level by incorporating 360 cameras. They published a guide for best practices that explains how mixed reality is evolving.
360 can be particularly powerful because it can be used with virtual reality headsets. When people wear these headsets, it immerses them into another world. Transporting viewers in this way has the power to dramatically increase their empathy and compassion.
Woman Using a Samsung VR Headset at SXSW by Nan Palmero (CC BY)
Here are some examples of the videos they created using 360 cameras, augmented and virtual reality.
Artificial Intelligence Reporting
Some outlets are using new technologies to program “robots” to write news articles.
AP is over 3 years into using automation to produce earnings reports and is expanding into sports. Lisa Gibbs says that’s just the start of what automation and AI will do to speed the production of text and video stories and make its reporters better. https://t.co/cuXTXjNm2U
The University of South Florida Digital Network will showcase video content created by students, staff and faculty on usf.edu.
The purpose of the digital network is to:
Create and share content made by students for students in one location
Celebrate accomplishments by students and employees across USF
Develop new curriculum to increase real-world training for students with innovative digital media technology
Create revenue opportunities to reinvest in student success
Recruit new students by showing what the university has to offer
Break down silos and increase campus engagement
USF Digital Network Website Mockup
This is an example of what the USF Digital Network website can look like.
Proposed Channels
Featured Video The Featured Video section can house creative, trending, and important videos like President Genshaft’s fall address.
Explore Tampa Bay The Explore Tampa Bay page will feature off-campus locations. Videos will include local beaches, attractions, parks, shops, etc. This can serve as a great resource for students to discover fun things to do in the Bay Area.
Intercollegiate Athletics The Sports page will house videos about sports and include a push to the USF Athletics Bullsvision page. The Sports page will eventually also include live streams of USF sporting events.
Student Documentaries The Student Documentaries page will include 5- to 30-minute videos created by students on topics they’re passionate about. Projects can come from mass communications classes like Electronic Field Production, TV Production and Direction, and Documentary Film Production.
Health & Fitness The Health and Fitness page will house videos from USF Health and any other health and fitness related videos. There should also be a link pushing to USF Health on this page.
Events & Entertainment The Events and Entertainment page will feature USF arts and performances like dance, theater and music. This page can house videos of the University Lecture Series and videos from the USF Sun Dome like graduations.
Florida Focus News The Florida Focus News page will include news briefs produced by USF students in the Florida Focus class. The local news briefs will be uploaded Monday-Friday during fall and spring semesters.
News in 90 The News in 90 channel will include 90-second news videos created by students for USF Housing about campus news and events.
USF Stories The USF Stories page will house short videos that could feature USF students, staff and faculty. Videos can come from mass communications classes like Broadcast News, TV News and Electronic Field Production. Innovative Education is also producing content that would be great in this channel.
Community Stories The Community Stories page will include feature stories in the form of interviews with members of the Tampa Bay community. The stories can be about local heroes, entrepreneurs, business owners, inspiring people making a positive change in our area, etc.
USF Campus Tours The USF Campus Tour page will take students and future students on tours through campus. Videos will also show behind the scenes of USF’s TV studios, Bulls Radio, and the Oracle newspaper. Videos can showcase the USF Library Media Commons, Innovative Education, engineering, etc.
TEDx USF The TEDx USF page will house TED Talks from USF campus. The USF Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement posts talks on their YouTube page.
Education Abroad USF World and Innovative Education created several videos to inform students of education abroad opportunities. Students and teachers also have videos of their study abroad experiences.
Food The food channel will include cooking segments and food-themed videos like farmers markets.
Finance The Your Money & Business page will house videos that will help USF students manage their finances and save money. The USF Muma College of Business YouTube page has several interviews with business leaders like Jeff Vinik and professor lectures.
Are we regarded as the national model? If not, what do we need to do differently? We have the opportunity to be the national standard if we invest in digital media technology.
Are we following best practices and making smart decisions? With this digital network, we will establish the best practices in new technology. We will invest in new technology to arm our students with the tools to succeed. We will build the network in such a way that we can continue to grow and adjust.
Are we surrounding ourselves with A-level players and A-level team members? Are we recruiting, hiring and retaining the very best? By committing to a digital network we will attract A-level students and faculty from across the nation. We will raise the bar for our students and our faculty.
Do we create an atmosphere where everyone feels valued and empowered? Where can we hold each other accountable for going above and beyond? Offering students the digital network will empower students to tell their own stories on a platform they help create, which will prepare them to thrive when they enter the workforce. Students will be inspired to hold themselves and each other accountable by showcasing their work.
What is not contributing to our goal of preeminence? What is holding us back? Silos are holding us back. The Digital Network will bridge our departments and boost school spirit. We aren’t recruiting the best students because we’re not providing the most cutting-edge learning opportunities.
USF Digital Network Goals
Integrate curriculum with content creation
More content made by students for students
Increased exposure for USF experts
Fiber lines and control room for live events
Power 5 eligibility for significant funding increase
Launch Plan Year 1:
The USF web team will build a page on the usf.edu content management system that integrates with the MyUSF app.
We will curate and embed existing content housed on USF YouTube Channels.
Several courses in the mass communications department will create new content specifically for the digital network.
Videos will be embedded into channels via an official USF YouTube channel.
We will distribute guidelines and style guides for video quality, branding consistency, and publishing workflows.
We will inform all content creators of video release and FERPA requirements.
We will launch customizable push notifications.
Launch Plan Year 2:
The digital network committee will meet with several app developers to get quotes for building the network on an app.
We will develop a plan for live streaming.
We will build up to a regularly live streaming network in areas like athletics, graduations, homecoming, etc.
We will set up plans for sporting event paywalls.
We will post digital ads and create sponsored content opportunities.
Launch Plan Year 3:
We plan to complete fiber installations and control room upgrades so we can technically be equipped to broadcast intercollegiate athletic events.
We plan to launch sports broadcasting curriculum and train students to run cameras and direct live athletics events.
Launch Plan Year4:
We plan to upgrade the WUSF studio, lighting grid and cameras for commercial production.
We plan to streamline curriculum so USF students can create high-quality video production in an up-to-date production facility.
Pros of Creating Digital Network in House
CMS integrates with MyUSF app
Simultaneous website and app launch
Customizable push notifications
YouTube embeds instead of storage
Embed workflow is more efficient
Cons of Creating Digital Network in House
Live streaming would require new staff or we partner with outside vendor
Building pay walls requires more time
Setting up digital ad deals would be more time consuming
We would lose a built-in group of advertisers that may come with third-party developers
Revenue Opportunities
Intercollegiate Athletics
If their current conference, the American Athletic Conference were to create a Digital Network, or if USF were to join a conference that already has a Digital Network in place, it is reasonable to believe that the increased conference revenue to USF Athletics could be between one million and twenty million dollars annually.
Studio Production
According to Jorge Cunha, WUSF brought in an average of $250,000-$275,000 a year in production revenue over the past 13 years. In addition to contracts with Ashley Furniture, WUSF earned $100,000 off six episodes of “Rays Rookies” production. Video production curriculum can help streamline an efficient and lucrative process so students can get hands-on experience creating videos for clients. This will increase our potential for new revenue streams. Upgrading the studio will also improve academic and revenue opportunities.
Digital Ads
In response to our Digital Network plan, Associate General Counsel Joel Londrigan suggested USF could earn digital advertising revenue on the website and app as long as students sign FERPA and video release forms. We can sell online real estate for digital ads like banners, billboards, and pre-roll.
Sponsored Content
USF courses that focus on creating video content can collaborate with businesses to produce sponsored content to reinvest in innovative student initiatives like a digital network app. Some sponsored content created by students for students could be:
“Cooking in College” by Publix
“Freshman 15” by Crunch Gym
“Now Hiring” by Glassdoor
Sponsored Graphics
In addition to sponsored content, companies can also sponsor graphics like lower thirds and tickers.
Upgrade Investments
These estimated costs cover production and post-production upgrades for live student-run broadcasts of Athletics events and commercial video production at WUSF, according to Jorge Cunha.
Total estimated cost: $4,025,000
Studio & Control Room
$3,450,000
Edit & Graphics Suites
$100,000
Fiber
$125,000
Installation
$275,000
Links
$75,000
Production Control Room Estimated cost: $700,000
UHD (4K) production video switcher
3G processing.
Two configurable multi-viewers.
Four mini ME controls.
Ability to deliver outputs to multiple screens, on-set displays and signal distribution systems.
Configurable routing sub-system with up to 144 physical inputs/outputs and 2 ME.
I/O of up to 144 X 144.
Input groups that accept analog and HDMI inputs as well as SDI.
Powerful animated transition capabilities with audio playback.
Character generator
Graphics with blur, distortion, color correction, chroma keying, drop shadows and wipes.
Sequencer.
Effects palette.
Monitoring scopes/vector/phase
Video wall
Studio Furniture
Custom studio furniture with rack rails.
Recessed equipment and wire panels.
Accent lighting.
Access hatches.
Wire egress – Radius.
Equipment rack bays with standard EIA tapped mounting rails.
Equipment Racks
Mid Atlantic 7-foot equipment racks.
Wire management housing.
Power strips.
Side panels, back doors, blank panels.
Grounding.
Cabling/connectors
Multi conductor cable.
75 Ohm video cable.
Network cable Cat 5E or 6.
BNC, XLR, Mini BNC, RJ 45.
Testing/labeling.
Servers
Recorders
Embedders
Licensing and support contracts
Audio announcer booth
4X6 audio announcer booth.
Avalon microphone processor.
Sound soak materials and sound panels.
STC 60 or greater studio door.
On air light.
Neumann U78 or TLM 103 microphone with wind screen.
Audio mixing console
Wheatstone 32 channel digital mixing console.
Router
2RU frame with 64X64 HD-BNC I/O and 8 AUX I/O ports.
Compliant with SMPTE 259M, 292M, 344M, 424M DVB-ASI and SDTI signals.
Ultriscape multiviewer heads use four outputs on the frame.
Ultrimix upgrades allow for routing, mixing and processing of all embedded audio inputs.
Ability to support up to 512X512 discrete mono audio inputs through the use of the AUX I/O ports.
Two power supplies.
Studio Estimated cost: $2,500,000
LED cyc lights
Strand lighting boards
Complete lighting package
Complete grip electrical package
4 HD studio cameras with pedestal.
Dolly.
Cammate
Integration: General studio and production control room Estimated cost: $250,000
Cabling
Connector count
Installation
Construction
Floor and wall soundproofing
AC, mechanical, heat and load calculations engineering
Electrical and electrical engineering / UPS upgrade
Permitting and design
Documentation and labeling
Training, testing, calibration
Links Estimated cost: $75,000
Links from SunDome to WUSF studios
Links throughout campus
Links for live outside production events
Edit & Graphics Suites Estimated cost: $100,000
Adobe Suite (Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.)
Storage system
Computers
YouTube Workflow:
After meeting with Associate General Counsel Joel Londrigan, we developed this workflow to ensure all content follows copyright laws, includes video release forms and FERPA forms:
Instructors and digital network liaisons should only upload the best videos after confirming they are free of errors, professionally shot and edited.
Anyone uploading videos to USF YouTube accounts should activate the closed captioning option for compliance.
Any audio used in videos uploaded to YouTube must be fair use (or legally downloaded from our music library contract “Jingle Punks”).
All videos must be 16:9.
Video cannot contain gratuitous nudity or profanity.
No video should be posted without first confirming video producer submitted signed video release forms for any person featured in the video.
Students must also sign FERPA form so we can legally upload their work on YouTube and embed on any USF CMS, like the USF digital network and usf.edu.
All videos on YouTube should include search engine optimized headlines.
Every YouTube post should include keyword tags. Tags include topics, names of those interviewed, USF department or college featured, and class in which the project was created.
YouTube video descriptions should include the name/s of the person or people who created the video and published date.
YouTube video description should include the name of the course for which the video was created if applicable.
Videos should include short Associated Press style stories in the YouTube description section.
Links should be included in the YouTube description to make it easier for viewers to get more info about the USF people/departments in the video. YouTube does not yet recognize hyperlinks, so we should include actual links for their YouTube descriptions.
YouTube title limit: 100 characters with spaces.
YouTube video description limit: 4,900 characters with spaces (approx. 800 words).
Here are some of the YouTube channels affiliated with USF that we may be able to aggregate videos from:
USF
GoUSFSP
Institute for Research in Art-IRA
Oracle News Online
USF Athletics
USF College of Art and Sciences
USF College of Engineering
USF College of The Arts
USF Housing & Residential Education
USF Innovative Education
USF Marine Science
USF Muma College of Business
USF Patel College of Global Sustainability
USF St. Petersburg
USF Bulls Club TV
USF Employee Training
USF Graduate School
USF Health
USF Honors College
USF Libraries
USF New Students
USF Orientation
USF Pharmacy
USF World
WUSF
Zimmerman School Digital Network at USF
University of Florida Tour
On July 21, 2017, the USF digital network team toured the University of Florida’s television/radio stations and sports venues to get a better idea of how the students produce video and live content as part of their courses and volunteering. The UF Athletics team launched a new collaboration with the journalism school about seven years ago.
UF worked with the company BCI to install the fiber. WJHW consulted with them about audio-visual aid in the athletic venues. WJHW is out of Texas. The University of Florida has 1,200 connection points for fiber on their campus. They suggest adding as many extra lines of fiber as we can (they said Notre Dame has 144 individual pieces of fiber at each one of their venues).
UF provides one to three credit pass/fail courses starting at the freshman level. They are all electives related to TV production, live events, news, video and social media. They have seven of these courses. They say that these extra electives have not caused students to go over their credit limit. They found that offering these electives as credit hours reduced the number of no-shows and helped students get experience much sooner.
After the tour, I met with Mira Lowe, director of the Innovative News Center. She oversees all of the news classes for the college of journalism and communications. These classes produce 30-minute newscasts for broadcast on their local PBS affiliate.
These classes do not produce content for students. Their goal is focusing on their older demo. Few videos make it to the UF app. These videos are not separated in channels and are difficult to find. Most videos are not uploaded to social platforms or YouTube.
When students do post to social media, the WUFT profiles will retweet or share the best ones, but this is lower on their priority list than the live broadcast.
I also met Harrison Hove, the multimedia news manager. He teaches one class for the college of journalism and communications. He spends each day in the newsroom with a few other managers/teachers who act as executive producers of the newscasts. Together, they help the students produce the newscasts Mon-Fri.
Both Harrison and Mira were very open to collaborating with USF and/or airing content created by USF students if we decide to pursue a content share model in the future.
USF Health Feature Story Ideas
Here is an example of an inspirational and educational story students can create that they will actually want to watch and share.
Madison Miller is a 23-year-old cancer survivor who started a non-profit to help young cancer patients.
TV students can get experience producing content in the field, then they can get studio production experience by producing interview segments at WUSF TV studios.
USF Health Studio Expert Interviews
Here is another example of how students can hook viewers with a compelling story, then go more in-depth with health experts in on-set interviews.
USF Health Research Studies
USF Health and Moffitt recruit USF students to participate in research studies. TV students could shoot interviews with participants and doctors to explain how the research coming out of USF is changing people’s health around the world.
Recruiters could use the extra help getting the word out about the studies. And the interviews can spark a more in-depth dialogue about health. It would help educate USF students.
Long Format Studio Programming
Here’s an example of a 30-minute health program I produced at WUSF-TV studios in 2009. Students can create in-depth programming about research like the HPV clinic off Fowler.
USF Medical School Projects
We could also have a place for USF medical students to present their projects.
Editing is much more than learning how to use edit software. Editing is also about which choices you make to tell your story. These tutorials will walk you through how and why to make specific edits in Adobe Premiere Pro.
I created the following videos to show you how to edit two common video projects for TV news.
Microblogging: Short message postings from a social media account. Facebook statuses and Twitter posts are two examples.
Meme: A means of taking viral concepts and making them everyday lingo. Check out “Know Your Meme.”
Gif: Graphics Interchange Format. GIFs are image files that are compressed to reduce transfer time. Though the “correct” way to pronounce it is with a soft “g” like “jif,” so many people use a hard “g” that it’s become acceptable to say it both ways. There are now gif keyboards for your phone, gif buttons on social media, and sites like giphy where you can copy embed codes and share gifs.
Engage: Don’t just post information on social media, share, comment, like, reply and interact.
80-20 Rule: Use 80% of your posts to add something of value to the community. The other 20% can be self-promoting.
RT: retweet. Sharing another person’s tweet on your own Twitter timeline.
DM: Private direct message on Twitter.
@: This always goes in front of a Twitter user’s handle/user name and is called “at” in broadcast news scripts.
Hashtag: A “word or string of characters that starts with #. Identical hashtags are then grouped into a search thread.
Watch this video about engineering the perfect gif because gifs make the social media world go round.
Social Media Guidelines
Most news organizations have specific guidelines or style guides for how employees will use social media. Here is one from NPR: http://ethics.npr.org/tag/social-media/
Treat your social media accounts like every future employer will see everything you’ve ever posted. Before you post, think about if it makes you look better, or worse. If the answer is neither, then it won’t help your personal brand and it won’t add value, so the answer is worse. Your social accounts say a lot about you. Make sure you’re sculpting your social media image with professional, objective and valuable posts.
It can be a valuable tool for finding sources, finding ideas early, tracking and connecting with the community and following breaking news.
Twitter
If you’re brand new to Twitter, here’s a tutorial on how to get started:
Looking to step your Twitter game up a bit? Here’s how to improve your profile and how to use Twitter for journalists:
Mashable has a great list of links that help you create a Twitter profile and tips to increase your search engine optimization and engagement: http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
Twitter Search: Make your searches pointed and try different combinations of words and spelling if you have a specific topic in mind. Use advanced search by location to make sure Tweets are locally relevant. For example, here’s a search for “medical marijuana” near Los Angeles: http://bit.ly/QxPCh6. You can also search what people are saying about a story you’ve posted by searching the url of the story.
Twitter Lists: Use Twitter lists to find people that are local and talking about topics that you are covering. Use your own Twitter lists, and check other Twitter accounts’ lists as well. Find out more about Twitter Lists in this helpful FAQ.
If you want to keep your followers, follow them back and engage in their tweets by liking, retweeting or creating a dialogue. The fastest way to get followers on Twitter is to follow people with similar interests and unfollow them if they don’t follow you back. I suggest going to one of your favorite twitter profiles that you follow like @BuzzFeed for example. Then click on the link that shows their followers, I’ve highlighted it below: Then follow their followers. After a week or two, go back to your list of people who you follow and unfollow anyone who isn’t following you back. Note: avoid following people without profile pictures because they could be fake and leave you open to getting hacked. Also, avoid following anyone who may make you look bad if your future employer checks who you follow.
One of my favorite tools is TweetDeck. It’s incredibly helpful for journalists. It helps you quickly consume and share information.
You should also use TweetDeck to schedule posts when your target audience is most active.
Social Example
Lindsey Mastis is a great example for anyone who wants to become better at social media. She used to work at Tampa’s NBC affiliate WFLA. She moved to Washington, D.C. in 2016 and now works at WJLA Check out her Facebook Live videos to go behind the scenes of a news station. And follow her on Twitter.
Search YouTube and filter by upload date to give you the most recent searches. For example, here’s a search for “hurricane sandy new york” filtered by upload date.
Think about news happening in your local area right now and be pointed with your searches. For example, if there’s a protest happening in downtown Boston right now, you might search “protest Boston” and filter by upload date.
Advanced Tips: Learn more about searching YouTube for local news videos in this webinar.
So how does YouTube actually work?
Facebook
Facebook is taking on YouTube as it shifts its focus to video.
There are over a billion people on Facebook sharing updates full of possibilities for stories.
Facebook Public Posts: You can often search public posts on Facebook. You can search via sites such as whotalking.com or adding site:facebook.com to a Google search.
Facebook Groups: Search Facebook groups to find local conversations and sources, too.
Facebook’s new trending section: a great way to find viral stories for a newscast or blog.
Facebook Live: Facebook live is becoming a popular tool for journalists. Most news organizations now regularly go live on Facebook to increase their analytics and engagement. Facebook live is a great way to get questions and comments from news viewers and respond live. It’s also great for emergencies like hurricanes. This way people can get live video updates even if the cable goes out. Here are some best practices. RTNDA shared 5 tips for journalists to maximize Facebook Live.
Here’s an example of how WFLA used Facebook Live to reach people without power or cable during Hurricane Irma. The anchor and meteorologist answered questions that viewers posted in the comment section during commercial breaks and even during sound bites as they broadcast their newscast live on TV.
NPR also uses Facebook Live to give their audience a behind-the-scenes look at newsgathering and storytelling.
Facebook Live is also proving to be a popular tool to document things like police shootings. For example, Philando Castile’s fiance made headlines when she live-streamed his death on Facebook. This evidence will now be used in the trial. Some corrupt law enforcement officers have been found to delete or tamper with cell phones after people record them committing crimes. Facebook Live is automatically posted on Facebook. Therefore many are touting its ability to create more transparency in the criminal justice system.
Check out local companies. Updates from all employees affiliated with the company will show up here, so you can see any updates about who has joined a company or recently left. You can also see job posts, so you can track if there are any big changes coming.
LinkedIn features top 120 professionals, 35 and under in a great initiative called Next Wave. Check out who they think you should follow.
Reddit
Reddit is a big online community made up of many smaller communities. There is a lot of everything on Reddit and most of what you see will likely not be of journalistic value to you. But there are gems that can lead to story ideas and news tips.
Look for Reddit communities by searching: reddit.com/reddits/search or by guessing. Every Reddit community can be found by finishing this URL: http://www.reddit.com/r/_____. Check out what people are talking about in your area’s Reddit community, and don’t forget to check out the comments on the posts for additional story idea fodder.
Here’s a fun trick: you can see what stories have been shared from your site on Reddit by putting your url in the blank: reddit.com/domain/___, for example:reddit.com/domain/npr.org.
Yusuf Omar is one of the leaders in the selfie journalism revolution. As the Mobile Editor at the Hindustan Times, Omar is building the world’s largest mobile journalism team. He’s training journalists to create faster content using mobile devices. But more importantly, he’s using mobile devices to tell grassroots stories that otherwise wouldn’t make it to mainstream media.
In 2016, Omar won the world’s first Snapchat awards for giving a voice to sex abuse survivors. His use of social media and new technology is an inspiration to up and coming journalists. It’s cheaper, faster and desperately needed content.
Please watch this News Xchange discussion about the future of news. Omar explained how he curates social content to tell stories in a more democratic way. Traditional journalists challenged Omar in the discussion portion after his talk. As a journalist who’s worked for both traditional newspaper and television news in America, I understand where the old guys are coming from. But I think it’s time we recognize the cracks that are deepening in traditional news workflow.
I am not alone in longing for the days when journalists actually had time to research and create valuable content. At the end of the day, news companies are businesses, so it appears journalists will continue to grind out a higher quantity and I fear the quality will inevitably suffer irreparably. So let’s listen to Omar, because he may hold the only key to maintaining the journalistic ethics we’re all clinging to.
Snapchat is a little less user-friendly so I encourage you to watch this tutorial for beginners:
Storytelling is becoming interactive. We've spent ages trying to create thumb stopping content so people didn't scroll past our videos on crowded timelines. Now it's about creating thumb engaging content like the Stories format on Instagram and Snapchat 2/3 #TheWholeStory
News organisations are quick to dismiss new technologies as being gimmicky or frivolous, without seeing the potential to do better journalism.3/3 #TheWholeStory
Yusuf Omar and his wife Sumaiya Omar spoke about the evolution of mobile journalism
MOJO 101 video by Yusuf Omar
Instagram
Instagram is a great way to showcase your photos and videos. But it’s also being used for news. The BBC was one of the first large news organizations to really invest time in creating Instagram videos to inform viewers and promote their longer news stories.
An incredibly engaging and efficient person to learn from calls himself “Lazy Ass Stoner.” He has dozens of helpful videos and hundreds of thousands of views. In the following video he goes over three viral marketing strategies:
The Viral News Story: This technique involves finding ‘hot’ and popular viral news stories that are related to your niche and then re-writing them, posting them to your blog and then posting them out through all of your social profiles.
The Viral Video: When many people think of ‘viral video marketing’ they think of pouring thousands of dollars into creating the perfect viral video and they just *hoping* that it goes viral but with this technique you’ll be able to simple leverage other people’s viral videos to drive tonnes of free traffic to your blog.
The Viral Infographic: Infographics are insanely viral and they are a great way to score easy, free visitors to your site. This technique involves simply finding niche related infographics and then posting them onto your site and then out through your social channels.
Periscope was one of the first leaders in live streaming apps. Now, you can stream live on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook Live.
In 2015, Apple named Periscope the iPhone App of the Year. Twitter acquired Periscope, helping the app beat out another early live streaming app, Meerkat. It is now integrated into Twitter’s main app. Periscope users can tweet out a link to their live stream.
Social networking sites have become an important additional arena for politics. They are a resource for political news, information, finding like-minded issue-oriented people, and a tool for voter outreach in the run-up to elections. During the 2012 campaign season, Pew Internet released a number of reports on the role of social networking sites on elections and the political process:
Vadim Lavrusik (author of the FB search tutorial) is Facebook’s person in charge of developing FB products targeting media and journalists. Follow him here https://www.facebook.com/journalists.
Then follow their followers. After a week or two, go back to your list of people who you follow and unfollow anyone who isn’t following you back. Note: avoid following people without profile pictures because they could be fake and leave you open to getting hacked. Also, avoid following anyone who may make you look bad if your future employer checks who you follow.
