MichaelPS
Jan 31st 2007, 11:58 AM
I never realized how many aspects of my life as a journalist with corporate backing went unquestioned until that shield was no longer there. With that preface, I'd love to get some feedback from the rest of you out there on this situation.
While I was a reporter for about fifteen years, today I pay the mortgage from a production company I started, but, like many of us, you never really leave the newsroom. Not entirely. I've been saying for years that the future of news is not the fully staffed newsroom that we all know and love (ahem), but something much, much smaller. I've posited that sooner or later, a well known or semi well known anchor or reporter will leave the business, start their own operation on a sponsor or ad-supported basis, with distribution to be based on everything to video podcast subscriptions to mobile wireless technology. as the price and weight of gear both go down, this will become easier, and with the small screen sizes (320x240) helping to mask the image quality issues, "narrowcasting" will become more popular, affordable, and profitable,
Well, after mouthing off about this for this long, I finally decided to stop waiting for that to happen and am starting this kind of thing myself. Simply put, I have too many ideas too often to not try to get them out there.
The easy part has actually been getting backing. It's a tight operation, but it's fun, the money is there, everyone is happy nd ready to go.
NOW....
Did you ever stop to think about how many things you do as a journalist that you would never do as an individual? I find myself with a question. Assuming you have permission to be there in the first place, What are the rights you have to shoot things like interviews and cover, including faces in crowds, if you're in a private place, like a home or a business. As long as you're calling it "news" do you automatically have the right to shoot and distribute whatever you want?
In short, how much does the method of distribution affect one's ability to assert the rights of a journalist, and more importantly, have those rights stand up in a court of law?
This is a new world we're living in, and I'm enjoying experimenting in it, but I'd sure like to know if I can work within the same guidelines I would have in the world I left.
While I was a reporter for about fifteen years, today I pay the mortgage from a production company I started, but, like many of us, you never really leave the newsroom. Not entirely. I've been saying for years that the future of news is not the fully staffed newsroom that we all know and love (ahem), but something much, much smaller. I've posited that sooner or later, a well known or semi well known anchor or reporter will leave the business, start their own operation on a sponsor or ad-supported basis, with distribution to be based on everything to video podcast subscriptions to mobile wireless technology. as the price and weight of gear both go down, this will become easier, and with the small screen sizes (320x240) helping to mask the image quality issues, "narrowcasting" will become more popular, affordable, and profitable,
Well, after mouthing off about this for this long, I finally decided to stop waiting for that to happen and am starting this kind of thing myself. Simply put, I have too many ideas too often to not try to get them out there.
The easy part has actually been getting backing. It's a tight operation, but it's fun, the money is there, everyone is happy nd ready to go.
NOW....
Did you ever stop to think about how many things you do as a journalist that you would never do as an individual? I find myself with a question. Assuming you have permission to be there in the first place, What are the rights you have to shoot things like interviews and cover, including faces in crowds, if you're in a private place, like a home or a business. As long as you're calling it "news" do you automatically have the right to shoot and distribute whatever you want?
In short, how much does the method of distribution affect one's ability to assert the rights of a journalist, and more importantly, have those rights stand up in a court of law?
This is a new world we're living in, and I'm enjoying experimenting in it, but I'd sure like to know if I can work within the same guidelines I would have in the world I left.