| Topic Name: |
KRON one-man-bands |
| Message Name: |
Photogs report / reporters shoot |
| Date Posted: |
06/10/2005 |
| In Reply To: |
Change of work conditions calls for the CBA to be opened up again.
Any word? |
| Message: |
As the model had been applied in Europe, photogs are taught to report, and most of them do a very very good job. We all know that camermen and women often carry weak reporters. There is not a reporter alive who ever carried a weak cameraman. The camera people are already pretty good reporters, they just dont get a shot. now they do, and most of them are happier in their new roles, getting credit for what they do already. Existing reporters are taught how to shoot and cut, and most can pick up the skill fairly quickly. They are happy because they now get a measure of control over their work and their lives that they never had before. No more waiting for the crew. This all works very very well where it is done properly, with the right training. As for putting 50 cameras on the street, this is not surprising. How many reporters do you think The New York Times puts on the street every day? Why should CBS News be any different? The lower cost of production will drive a different kind of competition - one for coverage. In any market, if one station puts 50 cameras out every day, and another puts out 6 or 8, where will viewers go? How many people change the channel because of compression in the blacks? Finally, this is a radical change, but it is not cost savings, Rather it is time tothink about a kind of redistribution of the resources we have avaialable. Case in point. Dan Rather used to make $7 million a year for reading the copy on CBS Evening News. If we hired 100 really good videojournalists and send them all over the world to report, (as $70k per person), do you think CBS Evening News would have a better show? Better content? Better quality. And, (now think about this one), if CBS Evening News needed 4 major packages a night, for 5 nights, thats 20 packages a week or 1,000 a year, give or take. So our 100 VJs would only have to produce 10 pieces a year! That would give them plenty of time to do some real quality reporting. Of course, we lose Dan. Worth the trade? Where is journalism better served. You tell me.
|
|
