The Visually, Actually, Powerfully, Logically-Story by Jake Carah

     A few things here. I related to the Poynter article for a number of reasons, but foremost was the automatic inference I had  after reading the piece, "I wish I had gone to that seminar." The quotes literally translated the energy of the process those journalist went through besides that and more importantly is the emphasis on the basics in a technical age.  The point of the "focus" exercise was to strip away all the detailing that seems to go on with multimedia pieces, video packages and digital photos that can nearly choke (if gone unnoticed) all the natural substance of a piece. 

     Not to play down the incredible power these means of communication have in our online world, yet it is still the basics of, "Connecting to readers, public service, honesty, and the accuracy of storytelling were at the top of the list" wrote White. That really made me recollect on why I changed my major to journalism and what an odd breed the profession really calls for. Not only must we make the everyday interesting but we must be intuitive about the salient issues that these happenings raise in the daily lives of our audience. To that end I agree with the themes that Poynter's broadcast group leader Al Tompkins said about the importance of the journalist's profession. 

"Over the past few years, the media is getting smart and helping communities get smart. We have to tell the news, reflect the community and connect with [it]. Our job is to be informed by the community and be guided by the things we stand for. The public needs us to be excellent."

Tomkins said. In this context of public guide and pedagogue the press has definitely had a face lift because of The Web and it is always good to remind journalist just what the point of the work is, on the base level.

     That said, the other part of the Poynter article or the other articles in general that dealt with format and structure of a visual piece were extremely helpful in working on the TV story. For instance I found that Fred Shook's guide, "Writing the Package" extremely healthful in dealing with Avid. While pre-planning can see a tad time consuming at first it will save you on the headaches later. I think because of the way Avid is, having a structure or blueprint for your story is invaluable in the long run. Unlike Final Cut Pro or iMovie,  Avid is not as forgiving when it comes to editing a sequence or even a narrative, where the convenience of "drag-n-drop" is nearly non-existent. So, it pays off time wise to have a game plan in reference to Shook, from step 1(a) to step 5(c). Not to mention that story boarding can come in handy while logging your footage and focusing your narrative. 

All good stuff, but the take home points for the big picture I gave to the Poynter article for its rather (forgive flagrant pun) poignant points on the actual role of visual journalism today.