Blogging in my underpants

It seems to me, having read some of the posts as well as the articles, that video journalism involves a see-saw. Yup. That's right. Like on the playground when we were kids and the woodchips would get all displaced because of the mass displacement that thousands of stupid little feet caused and acually make the see-saw more ineffeffective thanif it were on some sort of rubber base or even concrete. Run on!

Anyway, this see-saw is more of a metaphorical one...I can't stand those damn woodchips. Video journalism invovles a see-saw of balance of premeditation when going to report a story. On one end is total premeditation. On the other is no premeditation. In the middle is the fulcrum...I don't know what that would be called in this metaphor. These two modes need to be balanced perfectly to get the best story. If a reporter goes in with no premeditation about where the story is going to go and just hopes that the story comes to them, then they will get nowhere, and have a lot of fun editing 5 interviews with kids about how they most liked the clown that rode the elephant and jumped over the lava pit.

On the contrary, if one goes in with an unwavering idea of what they want and are not flexible at all, then they will not be good interviewers, and they will not get what they want. After a few interviews of getting more kids enjoying clowns doing jumping jacks with bowling pins getting thrown at them, the premeditated journalist gets frustrated. The questions become "Did you think that the TIGER WAS NEAT?! HMMMM??!!!" and other yes and no questions that do not lead to sound bites (which I have definitely been guilty of in the past, to a lesser extent), simply to get people to say what they want them to say.

When one enjoys the see saw the most is when it is going up and down smoothly and both are working with each other (well aside from when one kid falls off, but again, I have no clue where that fits in this oh so simple metaphor). A video journalist needs to do both to succeed, get the best story, and occasionally, enjoy the circus.