The Future of Television News Field Reporting--An Example For You

San Diego, CA-- KGTV's Joe Little is on the beat as a VJ or backpack journalist. As it rains pink slips in newsrooms all over America the only thing left standing will be the VJ when it comes to bringing stories to television in your community.

The reporter is sent out alone with a camera and must produce, write, shoot edit and make a presentable story for broadcast. That’s a challenge to say the least.

Technology has provided great tools, lightweight equipment and the editing is usually done on a laptop computer. There are cool some tricks that can make your video entertaining but over-use will make them old fast. You can’t trade tricky video for substance.

Of course the reporter will shoot B-roll of the scene and interview those with firsthand accounts of whatever story is involved. The most difficult part is where the reporter faces his own camera and does his standup. He cannot monitor the audio or control the camera while he’s in front of it.

This concept works for TV as well as the Internet for delivering content.

Bloggers or vloggers can generate these video reports, subject of course to the available time they have to do this. The rub is that if your blog pays as well as mine does you must keep your day job. I'd love nothing more than to have the funding to go to the stories my readers like and put them up right here. Maybe someday I will find a wealthy widow to sponsor Crimefile News!

Here Little shows of many of his creative tricks. Yes folks, you CAN try this at home!