Times they are a changing in an evolving media industry
Bob Dylan will be back on our shores in August and it’s timely to note one of his archetypal protest anthems — The times they are a changin’.
However, this is not about protest, it’s about the up and coming journalists, television presenters and videographers who I’ve met while out covering stories.
They are impressive. Their questions are pertinent and relevant, and there’s a confidence without arrogance. And they’re friendly.
I include Palmerston North’s Alexander Robertson in this group. Alexander is the Local Focus video/journalist who shared an award with NZ Herald/NZME and Very Nice Productions Mike Scott at the Voyager Media Awards in Auckland last week. Alexander prefers to be behind the camera, off-screen, but here’s a moment to applaud his work. His award was for coverage of Lesley Thomas and George Griffiths’ ongoing leaky home debacle. The couple thought they were buying a peaceful retreat in the Ruahine Ranges near Ashhurst, but the house built eight years earlier turned out to be anything but.
In their judgement, the two NZ Herald/ NZME judges Cathy Strong and Mike Valintine took the unusual step of appointing the two winners which they said reflected “not only the increased quality of the entries, but more significantly the difficulty they faced with a wide spectrum of entries under the evolving definition of videographer in the rapidly changing mediascape”.
Alexander is a single camera operator who works alone which also includes editing and scripting.
The mediascape has changed dramatically in the four years I was away. There are videos, live or recorded commentary on radio, and the digital platforms we now use in the newsroom keep the grey matter alive. And there are the interviews, the phone calls, writing the stories, taking the pictures, deadlines, fact checking, loading the stories for the sub editors to write the headlines and place on pages, and the pictures into another file to be picked up by the sub editors somewhere else; then the return of the pages for corrections. When one paper has been completed, there’s another waiting for the next week. and this is just a weekly.
This is an interesting and fast-changing industry, and we’re here to bring you your stories.