“Video Journalism: Multimedia Storytelling for Journalists” – A Ken Kobré Interview

Recently, Ken Kobré released a highly revised 2nd edition of his book: “Video Journalism: Multimedia Storytelling for Online, Broadcast and Documentary Journalists.”

Since I got my start in TV news a long, long time ago, this is a subject near to my heart. So, I sent Ken some questions to learn more.

• Here’s the link to Ken’s book.
• Here’s the link for educators to request a review copy.

Larry: Ken, why did you write the first edition of this book?

Ken: After teaching the videojournalism sequence for a number of years in the journalism department of San Francisco State, I recognized that students needed a textbook that would be visually-oriented rather than word-oriented. They needed a textbook that taught them how to tell stories, not write reports. They needed a textbook that explained story development from a videojournalists viewpoint, not from a reporter or writer’s viewpoint.

With the onset of the one-person-band, multimedia, backpack journalist, I recognized a need to prepare students for a world in which they would be the producer, reporter, camera person, audio recordist and, ultimately, editor of their own work.

Larry: There are a LOT of books on journalism in all its forms. How is your book different?

Ken: My book is different because it:

• Emphasizes storytelling
• Provides clear guidance in how to build a narrative arc
• Uses a visually oriented approach to story development rather than a word-centric one
• Uses QR codes that link to every story mentioned in the text. The reader can actually watch the video as they read about it.
• Illustrates the book with more than 500 photos
• Contains extensive interviews with seasoned professionals who have comprehensive in-the-field experience
• Highlights cinema-verité-style shooting and natural sound recording

Larry: What’s new in the second edition?

Ken: Lots!

The new edition illustrates the tsunami effect the Internet has had in terms of the digitization of information and as a delivery platform. Because of these two technological revolutions, the book needed complete revision.

By way of illustrating these major technological changes, one revision of the book highlights the arrival of lightweight, hybrid digital video cameras for shooting stories under the most dimly lit, trying circumstances.

Another factor driving new content is a dramatic change in the way news gathering and documentary filmmaking is taught. When I wrote the first edition in 2012, academic institutions taught video reporting in at least three different departments including the broadcast news department, the journalism department and the documentary film department.

Each department used different types of cameras and editing equipment. Each department taught students to target a different viewer market including over-the-air, cable, websites or even small theatrical venues.

Fast forward to today and all three departments are now shooting stories with similar video cameras, editing with similar software programs and delivering the stories online via a streaming service, website or social media outlet.

In other words, the revolution in videojournalism has brought all three departments closer together and in fact all forms of video storytelling are often taught in the same department today.

The new edition of Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling explores the commonality of storytelling across all three disciplines. The text explains how storytelling can be the critical underlying tool that is similar when shooting, for instance, a 1:30 (one minute thirty second) news story about a drought in Texas or a 20 minute online feature about a child that has Prader-Willi syndrome and can’t stop eating.

Larry: What do you see as a major challenge facing journalists today?

Ken: Professional videojournalism has been undermined by the ubiquitous use of user-generated smart phone videos and photos.

Smart-phone video is now the first go-to source for breaking news stories. The amateur-shot footage is often raw, shaky, poorly framed and incorrectly exposed with low quality sound. Of more importance, the viewer watching the clip has no idea of the authenticity of the video. The news organizations do not always properly vet the footage. The user-generated video is usually just a short clip of some event like a burning house or a flooded street.

The cost of finding and buying cell phone video to the media outlet is minimal. What station or website will turn away free or practically free video, even if it is a little wobbly and dark if they can get the story on air before anyone else.

The trend of presenting smart-phone video instead of expertly filmed footage has devalued the work of well-trained professionals. The heated competition between these two providers sometimes take on the aura of a videojournalistic food fight.

I am not sure of the future of the profession of videography if the use of smart phone clips shot by untrained bystanders continues to proliferate on the Internet.

Larry: From my perspective, journalism today is under multiple threats, from collapsing business models to the rise of social media to the tidal wave of misinformation masquerading as truth. How does a journalist respond?

Ken: Traditionally, people believed their own eyes. If a reporter described something in words the viewer might doubt the authenticity of the journalist but if the viewer saw it with their own eyes, or at least in a photo or video, they believed what they saw. The whole journalistic purpose of photo and videojournalism rested on the premise that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” But today the first reaction of a viewer to something they see but don’t like is…”that picture was “photoshopped” or that video was created by ‘artificial intelligence (AI).” In short, they don’t know what to believe.

The only tool videojournalists have to combat this devastating loss of viewer trust is to shoot honest, engaging stories that show as many sides of an issue as possible. Every story has winners and losers. Visual journalists need to show both outcomes.

Larry: More important than response, how does a journalist earn a living today when news is considered a commodity?

Ken: On an individual level, to survive the fluctuating marketplace for visual stories, a video journalist must be an expert in all aspects of story making.

In times gone by, students only wanted to be a writer, a photojournalists or a designer. Now they at least have to master the basics in all three disciplines.

The videojournalist must be able to shoot a documentary one day, a news event the next and produce a short online feature the following day. Visual journalists might even have to sell each story to a different media outlet. They might also need to develop their own viewer following so developing their own brand that caters to a targeted audience is certainly a path to consider. With enough subscribers and advertisers, videographers can sometimes put their work on their own channel and survive financially.

In addition, the videojournalist must often originate the idea, report the facts, find the subject, get access, shoot the story, record an interview, edit the piece and finally put the story online.

For many situations, in this cost-cutting, penny-pinching, tight-fisted world of visual journalism, the one-person-band makes the most economic sense. More and more, videojournalists must become sole producers, on their own, in the competitive freelance world. Media economics calls for the videojournalist to become not just a journalist but also an entrepreneur.

Today is both the golden age and the dark age for videojournalism. More people are watching more video than any time in the history of the world. YouTube’s global users are expected to reach nearly 3 billion by 2025.

The audience gets bigger as the latest video equipment gets lighter and more affordable. You can cover a story as a one-person-band. You don’t need a 4-person crew to produce, report, film and record sound for your story. You can even edit your stories on a smart phone or laptop from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. As a freelancer you have the flexibility to generate a story idea and see it to completion. With streaming, your story can be seen by millions of people or targeted to a specific interest group. Ultimately, you can market your own work to as many outlets as you like.

However, it is also the worst of times economically speaking for a videojournalist. Traditional media companies are shrinking. Online sites use free or cheap user-generated material. Because the cost of producing documentary films has drastically dropped competition has skyrocketed for a slot in a film festival or placement on a streaming service. While a few documentaries do well, most documentary sales won’t support a family.

Larry: What are the key points you want readers to remember?

Ken: While we tell one another stories all the time we rarely analyze the underlying structure that makes those stories compelling. This book reveals the framework underlying successful, engaging stories. It points out the commonality between stories even if their subject matter is different. Finally, the book explores what holds the reader’s attention and ultimately what helps the reader remember the story and tell others about it.

I also want visual videojournalists to understand the difference between:

a) Having a topic
b) Making a report
c) Shooting a series of single clips
d) Producing a real story that has a captivating character that faces a complication in their lives and goes on find a resolution.

I want students to develop a level of competency when shooting documentary cinema verité style with a video or hybrid camera to produce a well-crafted product.

Larry: What advice would you give someone who wants to be a journalist?

Ken: Most videojournalists I know have a curious nature. They ask lots of questions…about everything. Not only do they ask one question, they it up with even more questions.

The majority of videojournalists I talk with frequently are well informed. They keep their eye on the news of the day. They read extensively across a wide range of publications. They are always on the lookout for story ideas. Often the kernel of these ideas come from small items rather than large headlined news accounts.

Videojournalists often try out contrary ideas. They are not afraid to explore new areas. While most videojournalists are not scientists or artists they don’t hesitate to explore these unfamiliar worlds.

While you can’t just jump up, click your heels and become a curious person, you can start to investigate the wonderful world of videojournalism by making a short documentary yourself.

Give yourself an assignment. Figure out how to craft your self-assigned idea into a real story with a protagonist, a strong beginning, a clear complication faced by the protagonist and then an ending that resolves the issue. Experience the challenges of getting access to the story, shooting under less than optimum conditions, recording natural sound as you film and finally editing all the pieces into a coherent piece of journalism. Don’t worry if the final result is not perfect. Just start a new story and use what you have learned so far from your first story.

Intern at a publication, local channel, high school or college online website. Many videojournalists got their start at the bottom of the ladder.

Assist a videojournalist you admire. Learn from the best in your area. Look for pros producing feature, news or longer-term documentary stories. In a geographic region, videojournalists tend to know each other. Once you know one you will tend to meet all the others.

Finally, keep a notebook or smartphone file of story ideas. Most of the pros I interviewed for the book kept some kind of journal to jot down their thoughts. The thoughts in the journal don’t have to be developed but they need to be written down somewhere so you won’t forget them.

Larry: Many traditional training grounds for young journalists are disappearing. Where can new folks go to learn their craft?

Ken: If possible, take a course in visual storytelling like videojournalism, documentary film making or broadcast production at a local community college or university. Even better, major in the topic. Join local or online groups who support documentary film making or videojournalism. Consider online tutorials. Some people say YouTube has a film on everything. Identify what you don’t know and then check it out on YouTube.

Larry: What did you most enjoy about writing this book?

Ken: I loved doing the interviews with a wide range of top video shooters and producers.

I interviewed Malcolm Bradan of PBS, Whitney Shefte of The Washington Post, Jacob Templin, former producer of Time, Craig Duff, now teaching at Medill School of journalism and Erik Olsen, former senior photojournalist of The New York Times.

I had an in-depth interview with Travis Fox, formerly of The Washington Post and Bob Sacha, freelancer with the National Geographic, who both taught at City University of New York’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. I also interviewed Anne Herbest, director of visual journalism Channel 9 News Colorado and Boyd Hubbert, Channel 11 KARE Minneapolis, along with many others.

Many of the interviews were carried out during Covid so the videographers and journalism faculty members were not in the field shooting or in the classroom teaching. They had time to talk.

NOTE: I recorded the interviews on Zoom. Some of these interviews are available here: https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781032223865/resources.php

Because I have taught college students for a long time and because I continue to produce/shoot videos myself, primarily for nonprofit groups, I was able to ask these working pros the kind of questions students have asked me.

Larry: In summary, write a short description of why your book is important?

Ken: The book Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling is important because brings together, for the first time in book format, the three disciplines: broadcast journalism, documentary film and online videojournalism. Students in the future will be crossing between all three specialty areas as the job market continues to tectonic shifts.

Explaining the secrets of the narrative arc, the book guides the videographer along a roadmap that leads to the art of producing authentic, effective video storytelling. The book opens with chapters specifically about the magic of storytelling. The text goes on to include clear, well-illustrated explanations of the basic equipment a neophyte photojournalist needs. In addition, this book will help up-and-coming journalists to know enough about the law to stay out jail and understand enough about moral issues to avoid irreversible embarrassing mistakes. The audience for the book is both those who want to shoot professionally for television and those who want to make personal online documentaries for their website.

Finally, this book is based on extensive interviews with a wide-ranging selection of the best videojournalists in the field. Their revelations will help the reader be a better visual storyteller.

Larry: Ken, thanks for takting the time to answer these questions. Journalism today is more important than ever – but making a living as a journalist is also harder than ever. I hope your book inspires and directs the next generation of journalists as they grow in their careers.

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