Journalism in action | CODYK.net Sacramento-based multimedia journalist Cody Kitaura's musings on newspapers, web coverage and beyond.

Web tools in action: How I almost localized a story about Thomas KinkadePosted by Cody Kitaura on June 29th, 2010

As a fresh reporter at a smaller newspaper, it’s not always possible or feasible to get big scoops. Small papers also have a limited area of interest, so it doesn’t make sense to write about something hundreds of miles away from the paper’s location. But that doesn’t mean reporters at smaller papers shouldn’t pay attention to nearby papers.

Here’s a short story about how to take small tidbits from a broader story and (almost) localize them. The story didn’t turn into anything, but perhaps something can be learned from the process.

Recently, famed painter Thomas Kinkade was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence. At first blush, this is likely nothing but fodder for good water-cooler talk. But the Sacramento Bee story linked above contains a brief mention of his financial troubles, including this passage:

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Using the rule of thirds to frame video interviewsPosted by Cody Kitaura on June 18th, 2010

Video and audio journalism guru Bill Mecca has a great, brief video on using the rule of thirds to set up video interviews. This is a topic that’s likely very familiar to photographers and experienced video journos, but may be very foreign to others. When I first started shooting video, I’d taken a photo class at a community college, but hadn’t really received any formal training on how to use this technique (Click here for the Wikipedia page on the rule of thirds … and here’s an alternate perspective on the rule). I’ve definitely been guilty of just plopping a talking head right in the middle of my frame when shooting video, but I’ve tried to improve.

[BillMecca.com via News Videographer]

Reflections on covering my first real election nightPosted by Cody Kitaura on June 11th, 2010

I was told there would be pizza.

Coincidentally, I had a slice of pizza for lunch on the day of California’s June 2010 primary election. Maybe some part of my subconscious was telling me that I couldn’t really do my job without some kind of election-night day pizza. There was no newsroom party at our small, twice-weekly newspaper. Instead of a whole flock of staff members staying at the office late into the night, we had two reporters (myself and my editor) and two photographers bouncing around the two prominent races that were relevant to our area (a county supervisor race and a sheriff contest). I was assigned to the sheriff race, which I had been covering closely.

I would spend the night at two very different campaign parties – one at an upscale bar in midtown Sacramento, and another in the ballroom of a local hotel. I arrived at the first party (the upscale one) a short while after it was scheduled to start, and the candidate was nowhere in sight. I chatted with our photographer for a bit, and noticed there were at least four TV news vans and a photographer from the local metro daily.

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Avoiding three common mistakes newspapers make in sports videosPosted by Cody Kitaura on June 8th, 2010

Video makes everything better. Just throw a camera at a reporter, crack the whip and you’ll be golden. Right?

As newspapers everywhere are faced with the challenge of being everything at once and covering everything in completely new ways, reporters with little (or perhaps no) training are being handed a video camera and are sent on their way with little more than an encouraging pat on the back. I’m by no means a sports reporter (or a full-time videographer), but I’ve filmed football, basketball, baseball, softball and boxing for our newspaper. Along the way, I’ve made plenty of mistakes. Here are three common pitfalls to avoid when shooting video for a news organization.

1. Showing viewers the most boring part of the game

Unless they’re game-winning shots, nobody cares about free throws. Or extra points. The general consensus with web videos is that the shorter the video, the more people will actually watch it. Usually that means keeping your videos between three and five minutes long. If you film an entire game, you’ll have footage that you want to use, but don’t have time for.

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