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Video journalism or videojournalism is a form of
journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (p ...
, where the journalist shoots, edits and often presents his or her own video material.


Background

A predecessor to video journalism first appeared in the 1960s in the USA, when reporters had to write and shoot their own stories.probably 88
Roman Mischelulgvyy5ugu ''Definition, Geschichte und Gegenwart'', onlinejournalismus.de, 9. Februar 2005 (21. November 2006g5uvyc Chevy u guv)
/ref> Michael Rosenblum compared the introduction of video cameras to the invention of the portable camera in the 1930s: film spools of plastic made
photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is emplo ...
independent from heavy plates and tripods, and digital video technology liberates TV from heavy
electronic news gathering Electronic news-gathering (ENG) or electronic journalism (EJ) is usage of electronic video and audio technologies by reporters to gather and present news instead of using film cameras. The term was coined during the rise of videotape tech ...
(ENG) equipment, artificial light and
television studio A television studio, also called a television production studio, is an installation room in which video productions take place, either for the production of live television and its recording onto video tape or other media such as SSDs, or for ...
s in much the same manner. Video journalism makes it possible for
videographer Videography is the process of capturing moving images on electronic media (e.g., videotape, direct to disk recording, or solid state storage) and even streaming media. The term includes methods of video production and post-production. It ...
s to document any event while it is still occurring. Michael Rosenblum: ''Vom Zen des Videojournalismus'', in: Andre Zalbertus/ Rosenblum, Michael: ''Videojournalismus''. Uni Edition, 2003, , S. 17-75 The concept of the Videojournalist using a small camera was invented by Michael Rosenblum in 1988. The first TV station in the world to use only VJs was TV Bergen, in Bergen, Norway. Rosenblum later built VJ-only TV stations for TV 3 Norway, TV3 Sweden and TV3 Denmark. Around the same time, CITY-TV in Toronto also began to adapt the ideas for their ''
CityPulse ''CityNews'' (corporately styled City''News'') is the title of news and current affairs programming on Rogers Sports & Media's Citytv network in Canada. The newscast division was founded on September 28, 1975 as ''CityPulse'' as a standalone loc ...
'' newscast and other shows produced at the station, becoming a staple; similar principles were adopted by Citytv head
Moses Znaimer Moses Znaimer (; born 1942) is a Tajik-born Canadian media executive of jewish descent. He is the co-founder and former head of Citytv, the first independent television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the current head of ZoomerMedia ...
at other CHUM television stations and networks. In the early 1990s, the news channel New York 1 was the first TV station in the US to hire only video journalists and have them trained by Rosenblum. In the mid-1990s, the first
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
private stations followed the example of NY1, and in 1994, the regional channel
Bayerischer Rundfunk Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...
became the first
public broadcasting Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
station to follow suit and hire a number of video journalists. In 2001 the BBC started to switch to video journalism in all its regional offices.Andre Zalbertus: ''Vom Abenteuer einer Revolution in Deutschland'', in: Andre Zalbertus/ Rosenblum, Michael: ''Videojournalismus''. Uni Edition, 2003, , S. 11-15 As of June 2005 the BBC has more than 600 of its staff trained as video journalists. Other broadcasting entities who now use video journalism include
Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the State media, state-owned news network and International broadcasting, international radio broadcaster of the United States, United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international br ...
and Video News International. It also seems to be becoming more widespread among
newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...
s, with the
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
alone employing twelve video journalists. The
Press Association PA Media (formerly the Press Association) is a multimedia news agency, and the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is part of PA Media Group Limited, a private company with 26 shareholders, most of whom are national and re ...
(UK) is behind a training programme which "converts" regional journalists into video journalists, and more than 100 have been converted as of March 2007. In Australia, several commercial networks employ Video Journalists. They include WIN News, Golden West Network (GWN) and Network Ten. Increasing popularity in online news has seen Video Journalists employed by Fairfax, News Limited and The West Australian Newspaper Holdings to produce video content for their news websites. In Canada, the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governmen ...
made a widespread move into hiring video journalists (or retraining existing reporters or camera people to do multiple jobs) in the late 1990s. In most cases, they were assigned to local
newsroom A newsroom is the central place where journalists—reporters, editors, and producers, associate producers, news anchors, news designers, photojournalists, videojournalists, associate editor, residence editor, visual text editor, Desk Head, ...
s to do daily news, just as full crews had before. Primarily, it was a cost-saving measure. Within a few years, however, it was clear that this rarely produced good results because of short deadlines and the assumption that VJ’s could work the same way and on the same stories. The effort was scaled back. The exception turned out to be video journalists who work more as independent documentary film-makers, using their electronic field production (EFP) mobility and easier access to do stories that don’t have short deadlines. One example of this is award-winning video journalist Sasa Petricic, who works for CBC’s flagship daily newscast, The National, and reports solo from around the world. Tara Sutton another Canadian video journalist reported for multiple news outlets from Iraq and other conflicts and won many international awards. She has cited the unobtrusively small equipment of a video journalist as allowing her to move undercover more easily in the extreme danger of Iraq and access places where traditional news crews could not have gone without become targets. The video journalist Kevin Sites is perhaps the best known having his own website Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone in which he spent a year going from one war to the next. He began as a traditional camera man but switched to video journalism. The
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
employs 12 video journalists who come mostly from television and documentary background. The Times' video unit regularly produces documentaries to go along with print pieces that run in the newspaper. In 2012, former
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
and
Current TV Current TV was an American television channel which broadcast from August 1, 2005, to August 20, 2013. Prior INdTV founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, with Ronald Burkle, each held a sizable stake in Current TV. Comcast and DirecTV each held a smal ...
video journalist, Jaron Gilinsky, founded Storyhunter, a network of 25,000 video journalists in 190 countries.


Pros and cons

Growth in video journalism coincides with changes in video technology and falling costs. As quality cameras and
non-linear editing system Non-linear editing is a form of offline editing for audio, video, and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified and modified by specialized sof ...
(NLE) have become smaller and available at a fraction of their previous prices, the single
camera operator A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not imply that a male is performing the task. In filmmak ...
method has spread. Some argue that video journalists can get closer to the story, avoiding the impersonality that may come with larger
television crew Television crew positions are derived from those of film crew, but with several differences. Pre-production : Work before shooting begins is called the pre-production stage. The crew in this stage include the casting director, costume desig ...
ing. In addition, the dramatically lower costs have made possible the birth of many
cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ; "truthful cinema") is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or ...
-style documentary films and
television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
. Others see this method of production as a dilution of skills and quality driven by
television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid ...
management cost cutting incentives. There is a move toward finding independent distribution for freelance video journalists. One of the issues is
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
, which can be difficult to obtain when broadcasters and agencies insist on full ownership of the footage. The other difficulty can be trying to find distribution beyond established contacts. Increasingly, online companies are giving VJs the opportunity to keep ownership of their stories and find global distribution.


Related words

A video journalist is often referred to simply as a "VJ". Other titles for the same or similar job include: * Solo VJ * One Man Band or "OMB" * Multi-Media Journalist or "MMJ" * Backpack Journalist * Solo journalist or "SoJo"Meet Kevin Sites, conflict, war correspondent & solo journalist


See also

*
Jesse Freeston Jesse Freeston (born February 18, 1985) is a Canadian video journalist and filmmaker. He attended Hillcrest High School, where he excelled in volleyball and chemistry. While attending Hillcrest he met his soon-to-be mentor, Mr. Taguchi. Jesse a ...
*
Jens Erik Gould Jens Erik Gould (born 1981) is an American journalist focusing on politics, business and energy. He has reported for media outlets including '' The New York Times'', National Public Radio, Bloomberg News, and TIME Magazine. He has also worked a ...


Notes and references

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Video Journalism Visual journalism Types of journalism