Make your pictures tell a story

Position, timing and the right lens make this rugby shot work.

When taking photos of an event, look for the story line. This will help you get shots that capture the feeling and meaning of the activities. It will also result in an interpretive sequence that can be run as a slide show on you blogs and other online venues or interspersed into a magazine story. Remember, you are not passively 'taking pictures', you are actively 'interpreting the event' and giving it meaning.

Go in with a photo coverage plan. Look at the program or itinerary of the event. Find out who's who. Scope out the venue, looking for vantages that will give you the best shot. This isn't rocket science. It's basic preparation for effective photo coverage of the story you have in mind. To get that story you have to know who the players are, what type of drama is going to unfold, when and where. Then you have to position yourself to get that shot. The old adage 'a photo is worth a thousand words' is true. But be sure your photos tell the story the way words do too.

Create a Common Space

Flickr Image by aaronparecki

To 'network' you have to let go of the linear communications model that was effectively developed in the Industrial Age and remains a powerful media force to this day. For those of us who have grown up in this environment the most difficult challenge is to shift our thinking from the established paradigm to the new reality, which is best articulated in the term Social Networking. A quick, high level comparison of the two modes is helpful.

Linear communications is primarily hierarchical, one-way and owned. Social networks are distributed, two-way and public. These are utterly different entities with vaguely similar purposes - namely to build audiences and exchange information. I think of these defining characteristics as two ends of a spectrum with conventional newspapers, television stations and radio stations on one end; Facebook groups, Twitter groups, blogospheres and other social media on the other. Let's look at the differences in a bit more depth.

Why is news news?

Flickr photo by David.R.Carroll

Why is news, news? That's two questions, so let's deal with them one at a time. The first has to do with Marshall McLuhan's famous quote "The medium is the message"; the second, with the characteristics of a news story and why it's important for organizations to make news.

The medium is the message
When that phrase was coined in the mid-60s not even McLuhan himself could have fully realized its full implications. Now it is clear to all that the new media revolution has transformed not only the way information is delivered, but how people think. One aspect of that change is the unlimited ability for individuals and organizations to make their own news. By making news, I mean delivering their stories in legitimate articles and disseminating it to interested audiences. That's what NewsMaker is all about.

What is news and why is it important?
Information delivered in a journalistic style, in a timely manner, through recognized channels, to an interested audience is news. Most of us recognize 'news style' instantly. There's a cadence to a news story and a 'look' to news presentations that make people sit up and take notice. It says with a thousand cues: "This is important stuff, take notice!"
Until recently control over the delivery of news rested with major outlets: newspapers, radio stations and television stations. New media technology has changed all that. What it hasn't changed is the need for solid journalism that gives people real information which they will come to rely on as an important perspective on their world: news.
In fact the deluge of information flooding the internet has made it imperative for organizations that went to get their messages out to deliver it as news. Not as public relations 'fluff', but as solid, reliable, relevant news.
NewsMaker's goal is to provide that kind of content for the media outlets of its clients. Web sites, blogs, newsletters, news releases, YouTube videos... NewsMaker's goal is to provide legitimate, high quality news content from an organizational perspective for the array of networks available to you, the news source.