The traditional rules of television journalism don’t necessarily work on the Web, says Vivian Schiller, general manager of the NYTimes.com
Schiller, a veteran of years in television news and documentary production at CNN and Discovery, explains how the Web is redefining the way that video journalism works.
For example, while television news generally avoids using talking heads and close-ups, these are effective on the Web. Quick-cut editing and conventional story telling are not always essential for Web video.
She says that New York Times reporters are asking for cameras. They want to be trained to shoot and edit. She says video is catching on as reporters understand that video is a way to get an angle on a story that "you can’t possibly get to in print."
This year, The New York Times published 1000 original videos of various forms in 2006. She is a big fan of the tech columnist David Pogue (above).
David Carr, A New Kind of Video Star
She give kudos to media reporter/columnist David Carr, who writes the Carpetbagger blog during the three month run-up to the Academy Awards. He blogs nearly every day and posts around one video clip a week.
She dubs the media columnist "our first homegrown personality" emerging from original video work.
Earlier today, The Times published the season’s first video of the Carpetbagger. In most of the segments, David is an "outsider" who hangs out with the masses in Times Square and fans beyond the velvet rope of the glittery events he covers. In this one he rides around Manhattan in a limo with award winning director Mira Nair. Let’s hope keeps that he keeps that outsider attitude and doesn’t get swept up by hanging too closely with the stars!
You can grab the code of my interview with Vivian Schiller right here.
— Andy Plesser
