Multimedia journalism Lesson 1: It’s about people, not technology

I was intrigued by the story of a couple of historians who walked 350 miles, following the footsteps of King Harold in 1066.

Their trek from York to Hastings traced, loosely, the route of Harold and his army after beating off a Norwegian invasion then immediately setting off south for his fateful meeting with William.

Here’s the thing. The journey took them exactly the same time as Harold. OK, shoes and roads might have improved. But what determined their speed was the weight of their tools (which they could control) x the number of daylight hours (which they couldn’t). They simply couldn’t have got there faster.

It’s a bit of a leap, I know. Odd things occur to me on planes. But something similar can be said for multimedia learning.

I’ve been privileged to work this year with some great journalists and managers in the UK and Middle East. All wanted to develop their multimedia skills, or understand how to manage them.

Piling on the tools – and there are hundreds to choose from – is easy, but a waste of everyone’s time and effort. The trick is first to set a realistic pace and get the objectives clear. Then choose the tools you can carry.

If you’re up for the challenge of expanding your multimedia skillset in 2010, and I hope you will, you might find it useful to keep in mind three simple tips:

Add value on day one …

… for you, your audience and your paymaster. Take the fictional newspaper journalist who goes on a video course. Two weeks after returning to the newsroom, he or she has produced a single 90-second video that took all day to shoot and edit, plus a couple of hours of someone else’s time because they forgot how to export from Avid, and leaving the news editor grumbling about the dearth of leads. Who wins?

The journalist might, I suggest, be better off with a Flip and the confidence to bung a 15-second quote online to accompany a tight, well-crafted story. If you can’t realistically practice what you learn, wouldn’t you get more benefit doing something else?

First learn the basics …

… and specialise later. It’s a journey, but where to start? My preference is with listening tools, then through blogging, audio, photography, audio slideshows, social media, data visualisation, live blogging and finally video. Initially, I suggest tools with an easy learning curve, are reasonably-priced or free (so you can play with them at home) and will run easily on a laptop.

Why is it important to get all this stuff under your belt before tackling the heavyweight kit? Because these skills are all pieces of the same jigsaw; they support each other. Your job is to understand how.

Remember, multimedia journalism is not just about being able to choose the right medium, for the right story, at the right time, but being able to do it with confidence.

Keep it personal

In ‘multimedia journalism’, journalism should always comes first. It’s still about people, telling stories and making a difference. We have the tools to connect with real people, near and far, like never before. It’s why an old ink-on-dead-wood merchant like me still feels passionately about what I do.

If you end up feeling it’s all about technology and change (and we all do sometimes. ActionScript 3 nearly drove me nuts this year), maybe it’s time to have a rummage in your backpack and focus on the tools you enjoy using most (which will almost certainly be what produces your best results).

No-one said it was going to be easy. Ask Harold. But if you keep learning, there are rewards along the way. Good luck and don’t forget to send me a postcard.