For a lot of
journalists with
Howard
Berkes' experience, the job has become routine. He is a radio man who has
been hanging around radio stations and reporting from rural America for more than 30 years. He became National
Public Radio's first rural affairs correspondent in 2003.
Recently,
one of his stories about a man who photographs rural landscapes from a small
airplane became the most e-mailed story on NPR for 48 straight hours. It was
on the top-10-stories list for a week. That's hard to do in this fast-changing
online news world. Stories rarely hang on a top-10 list for a week.
What's more, it
was not a story that was unique for its audio, but for the photographs that Howard included in the story. He turned to multimedia storytelling in an
attempt to give listeners a reason to experience the story a new way online
that is different from the radio experience.
Experience
the online version of the story here.
You will notice,
in effect, that Howard has told three stories. He reported a radio story, an online story and a third story, the audio slideshow --
radio with pictures closely matched to enhance the audio. Or is it the
audio that explains the pictures? Each version
of the story is a different experience.
Howard has taught radio-reporting
classes with me at Poynter several times.
I interviewed him about this project:
This
multimedia piece was among the most e-mailed stories for the week on NPR's Web site. No offense intended to a great radio reporter, but do you
suspect people are more taken by the photos than the reporting?
Clearly the photos are stunning. The radio piece is visual, but I doubt I
could ever do the images justice on the radio. Several listeners noted
this in e-mails:
- "Howard Berkes did
a wonderful job trying to illustrate the landscape behind Mr. Collier's passion,
but it wasn't enough. I made sure the moment I got to work, I logged in to view
the audio slideshow. I'm very glad I did."
- "Photos on your website dramatically enhance the story and bring indelible images to our
eyes."
- "I am not sure how
you did it, but the radio report on a purely visual topic, Collier's
photography, was captivating. Thanks for the pictures on the website to back it
up."
But many listeners wrote to say that the radio
piece was so captivating it sent them to the Web for more:
- "After listening
to Michael's simple descriptions I could tell by his voice the delight that he
has in capturing such images, enticing me all the more to go and take a
look."
- "I was so moved by
this segment that I had to go to my computer and look at the sublime beauty of
our maltreated earth."
And one couldn't separate the spoken words from
the images:
- "Lovely. His
spoken words are as lovely as his photographs."
While the slideshow works on its own (I wrote it
as a self-contained story, selecting images and interview audio that fit
together, and writing narration to make it all work), and the radio piece works
on its own, each is greatly enhanced by the other.
And since I wrote both, I don't mind if some are
attracted to one more than the other.
What
did you have to learn in order to produce this multimedia piece?
It was really a matter of going out with
something else in mind, something beyond the tasks required for a good radio
piece. Web producer Maria Godoy prepped me for this by suggesting
the slideshow in the first place, sending me examples and talking about how the
images and the audio need to work together. So, when I climbed aboard
that plane, I had that in mind. I made sure Michael Collier described
what he saw in his viewfinder, and I made sure he sent me the images that
resulted. I asked him about his favorite images and why they were
favorites, and I asked him to send those as well. We did this both
in the air and on the ground, giving me more options
later.
I also took my own photos of
him flying and photographing. Those came in handy for the slideshow.
In short, I did much of what I normally do for a
radio piece, but I thought more about marrying images and audio and
deliberately sought opportunities for that.
A lot of
journalists tell me they are concerned about how to juggle their job duties.
They once just reported but now are expected to take pictures or video and whip
up a multimedia story. How are you thinking about all of this?
I've
always been enamored with the production part of my job.
Adding photography to the mix and writing separate multimedia stories
makes the journalism more creative and exciting. It clearly adds time, often another day or more of work on the story. But I love the
ability to capture the story in fresh ways. I love being able to add
imagery on the Web. And I relish the opportunity to expand the radio
story with a written Web piece that can get into more issues, add unused
quotes and convey the story in a very different way. I'm often frustrated
with the limitations of my medium, especially limited airtime. There's
only so much complexity a radio listener can take. Writing a Web story,
and incorporating charts, graphs, "by the numbers" lists, maps,
images, unused audio, slideshows, relevant Web links and documents
gives me the ability to tell more of the story. It enhances the journalism
and the radio storytelling.
How
important has multimedia reporting for the Web become for NPR? Has it
reached the point that before you go out on a story you are now talking about
how the story will be different online than it is on the radio?
This is
a high priority at NPR. We are strongly encouraged to think about the Web
and proactively consult with Web producers before reporting a story. We
don't talk about how the Web story might be different. That's
because we know it will be different. What we try to do is think about
how to expand the reporting and the storytelling given the tools we have on
the Web. I now think about all kinds of things when out reporting a
story. What documents can I get that we should post on the Web?
What images would be compelling? Is this a story begging for a map?
Did I capture a great self-contained story, an audio sidebar perhaps,
that won't make it into my piece but will live and inform on the Web? What
links might we post for more information?
I should also note that NPR will sometimes
assign us radio reporters to do nothing but written Web reporting. For
example, I was a designated Web reporter during our coverage of the
shootings at Virginia Tech. I wrote for the Web exclusively for
three days, keeping our lead Web piece up to date and original, culling
information form NPR reporters and other media, and doing original
reporting. We had two reporters doing that each day, working in
shifts. That's common now on big stories.
Do
you foresee a day when you will be recording the stories on video for the Web?
We've
experimented with this a bit at NPR. In this You Tube world, I don't see
how we can avoid it. The problem is logistical. We already carry
lots of gear. A radio reporter only has so many hands and one has to
hold a microphone. The other juggles a notebook, pen and camera,
while also adjusting recording levels. We also need to pay attention to
the recording quality, the information coming from the subject, the focus of
our story and unexpected opportunities. All that becomes more of a
challenge as more tasks are added. Frankly, I can't imagine adding a
video camera to the mix but I'll bet it's coming someday. Give us some Sherpas, as well, and we'll
all be fine. :)
Still looking for more? Starting today, you can sign up for NewsU's
"Telling Stories With Sound."
This interactive, online course is free -- just sign up. It's a great
tool for print folks to learn audio, for radio folks to sharpen their
skills, for TV journalists to rediscover the power of sound, and for
students and teachers to gain hands-on material.
Though most of what I do each day involves relating...
