Op-Ed: Moving Pictures, a New Challenge to an Old Medium

(SALEM) - In the winter of '88, I was brought into the world of television news. Almost twenty years later, having worked for many television stations, and even being the recipient of numerous broadcast journalism awards, I still find myself learning new techniques and styles and I still see the work improving even if in very subtle ways. Before becoming a TV news photographer, most people attend a college with specialty journalism courses covering the dynamics of creating a hard-hitting television news story, including all of the in`s and out's of the complex art of video photography. In those years they gain an understanding of news and electronic journalism, they study motion pictures, and they learn the history of the industry's early heroes, discovering people like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, who paved the way from the time TV news was born. In the 1980's, NBC's Bob Dotson established the basics of TV photography and reporting that many people like myself formed their styles around. Other TV news photojournalists have followed since then. Most are well known in the industry, but not through news programs, because reporter's egos rarely allow the news photographer to receive any credit. The TV News industry has morphed so completely from that honorable time nearly two decades ago that I sometimes fail to recognize it. Egos are rampant, and even the photographers themselves are the prima donnas half the time. That is why I`ve switched over to today`s news format. But these times they are a-changin' as Bob Dylan wrote. Newspapers all over the country are suddenly realizing that they might be able to save their paper-using industry by adding video reports to their Internet presence. They followed suit of pure-play (self-owned) Internet News outlets like Salem-News.com and television stations, realizing that the Internet is a good outlet for video reports "on demand" for people whenever they want to watch them. Sadly though, when it comes to newspapers and "quality video" you have to do some searching, because it isn't easy to find. Daily newspapers are on the financial downslide for those who don't know. Circulation has been falling steadily for the last many years, but has gained momentum with the rise in Internet use and the continual growth in this industry. While some dailies make profits, most do not, and their desperation for revenue streams is noted; suddenly college students have to pay to search their archives, the bereaved have to pay to list obituaries, and news staffers are being handed video cameras and being told to go use them with no training. The results? You can imagine. It isn't very pretty. Long video clips with no actual story. I mean that's not even good enough to be a bad story. I could have tried that along the way in a TV newsroom, but I'd be pumping gas or flipping burgers instead of doing what I do. Most people in highly skilled professional environments receive proper training. Most people who are asked to do a lateral move in their career are trained first. But newspaper management, long disconnected from real world reality checks, has decided in some cases, to just give the still photographers video cameras and tell them to go use them. Life does not work like that. So what gives newspapers the right? Darn it, somebody has dropped the ball big time, and I hope the community, so long ignored by TV news, takes a stand and says something about it. Newspaper photographers are being taken advantage of. They are good at what they do, and they are highly accomplished or they wouldn't be working there at all. But to assume that a good still photographer can suddenly shoot, edit, write voice tracks, and put it all together in the form of a reasonable "story" without training is an insult to us all, but most of all to them. If `video clips" are played with no narrative, no story, and little if any continuity, then the bar has already been lowered so far that the limbo king couldn`t get by. I do have a suggestion: there is a place in Ventura, California called the Brooks Institute. I understand they have a great transition program for photographers going from still to video photography. There are others as well, if they are searched out. A worthy business-decision, as there is so much to know! Let's hope as a community that as our local newspapers enter the race, they show up with a car that runs and a driver who knows how to handle the curves. Those who show up at the starting line half-cocked are the first to crash and burn. Employees require investment; managers should do their jobs and not do on-air training for Oregon`s capitol city residents.