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New Subject - Detached and Objective or Passionate and Embedded?
What's the ideal for a good news piece? As independent reporters we value our judgement and freedom from the influence of business and advertisers. But do we maintain our critical, questioning perspective when covering groups and movements whose objectives we support? Is it ok to work as reporters “embedded” in a campaign? And should we be passionate and involved, or maintain an intellectual, detached style?
Discuss, debate and argue, I dare ye!
Detached and objective or bought off?
Hi there,
Thought I would share this story because I think it provides an interesting example of how mainstream media is often courted and treated within the politicking world. I was inside the NATO summit as an accredited reporter and along with the approx. 5'000 other journalists received welcome gift backpacks. Inside included:
-1 bottle of fancy Romanian red wine
-1 GB usb stick
-1 metal business card holder
- 1 DVD film “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days”
-1 DVD documentary “NATO defense against terrorism”
-1 DVD documentary “NATO’s operations and missions”
-3 tourist guide books for Romania and Bucharest, including “Hot clubs and
bars Bucharest”
-2 hardcover Romanian art books
-(and probably of least importance to all the journalists here) a notepad and two pens.
Estimated value 50-70 euro:
The meals were free throughout the conference. I personally had never experienced such luxurious buffets in my life, from octopus to breaded shrimp to any meat, fish or poultry you could want with rows upon rows of salads. Then there was the non stop flow of free alcohol, soft drinks or bottled water.
Interestingly when I spoke with one of the Romanian workers who helped in the catering and organization of the conference she confided how many journalists and officials complained that the 25.5 million Euros spent on the summit had not 'been enough' to impress 'the world', nor them.
Press conferences were tightly controlled, where for 'the big ones' only certain pools could get in, and the press conferences that were accessible were scripted so that only journalists on a first name basis with the p.r. chief would be able to ask questions that had to be cleared first.
Needless to say it was not creating an environment of critical analysis but rather, with the by hourly press releases distributed by the always smiling summit officials, one where journalists could easily sit back, enjoy the wine and cut and paste their stories with the utmost ease. Its not a secret that (almost any) critical or dissenting stories against the masters is a fairly quick way to destroy your possibilities of having your stories get picked up by any mainstream media....
amy
The Digital Divide
I was wondering how FSRN reporters are adapting to the changes in technology that are sweeping through the broadcast media here in the UK. There is a general switch-over to expensive digital recording devices. Are cheap versions of these devises going to become available?
I just upgraded my kit, - but I wonder if I would have wanted to take it with me on recent asisigments in the Amazon. After all, it cost me nearly a thousand dollars. What are your thoughts on the new technology?
On another note, I would like to know how many FSRN reporters regularly pitch or email their pieces from internet cafes, and how many have access to private internet (ie at home or in the office.) I am often reporting away from my base, and so use public internet quite often, which makes the process more complicated. Thoughts?
The Digital Divide: recorders
it's always hard to pick the right piece of consumer-grade recording equipment. and the properly professional stuff costs too much.
i think all the affordable solid-state digital recorders on the market at the moment are too new to fully evaluate - how long will those 1/8 inch mic inputs last? will the flimsy-feeling rocker switch snap off one day, leaving vital menus forever lost? how quickly will prices drop - ie, should you just hang on to that minidisc recorder for another 8 months?
i stuck by my motley collection of used minidiscs and ever-ready Sony ECM MS907 mics until late last year when recorders using flash memory came down to $300 or less. recording straight to mp3, and being able to transfer sound files directly into your editing software is priceless... especially when your script's late and and FSRN producer is preparing to bite your head off.
Cape Town's slowly-awakening audio collective has added a Zoom H4, an Edirol R-09 and a bunch of Olympus DS-2s to our collection. (the DS-2, and everything else Olympus makes so far is not good - we like them because our city's ridiculously unsafe, the Olympus is cheap, and they kind of look like antique cellphones - bought 'em to lose 'em.)
the Edirol's been easiest to to use - boots quick, you can tell you're recording at a glance, input levels can be set on the fly without dipping into any menus. it's also nice and compact.
the H4 is a little clunkier for size - has a lovely on-board mic (but Cape Town wind can make it a pain to get right... forget recording without that boule de creme glace of a windscreen - which is starting to get loose and replacing it could be a pain.) there's quick switching between low-medium-high input settings, but finer control is submerged in a menu you don't want to dig for while recording. it 's got durable-looking XLR inputs for an external mic, which should last forever - but the all-important menu button feels very fragile. it also still costs about $300
somewhere, waiting for affordable transatlantic shipping, we have an H2 - haven't used one yet. but at least one FSRN reporter has, with great results. (i know Juliette got a defective one too... so who knows.) reports from Pacifica news departments that use them suggest that these are not the most rugged machines - at least not when shared by a dozen people.
terna
read reviews of the Zoom H4 and the Edirol R-09
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/pub/tag_general/hardware
and the Zoom H2 here
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2007/09/13/review-zoom-h2-surround-recor...
same site's got a review of the M-Audio whatsitcalled
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/11/30/m-audio-microtrack-review.htm...
The Digital Divide
I have recently started filing reports from Bolivia with my partner (in radio) Aldo and we just invested the earnings from our first couple of programs in an H2 Zoom digital recorder and Shure microphone. A friend brought the H2 Zoom down to Bolivia only to find it didn´t turn on, so I am waiting still for a replacement.
Technology is a big challenge for us. I get very nervous about the lack of reliability of our technology, both recording and internet. We often log on from internet cafes and record in bizarre places.
By the way, Tom, where were you in the Amazon? I have been wanting to do some reporting there as well. No need to duplicate good work!
Glad to have the chance to connect with other reporters!
Juliette Beck, Cochabamba, Bolivia
forum
This has been long overdue. Thanks for the chance for all of us to share our experiences We can learn a lot from each other.
forum
great forum indeed.
Reporter Community
Reporting for FSRN
Let us not be silent about things that matters.
this forum will be great for me since i am still a trainee in School of Journalism in South Africa. I look forward to the forums where we can talk about the technical matters and script writing for FSRN.
Mpumi South Africa