The Washington Post newspaper is bolstering its identity as a web-based news source by training 185 staffers to use video cameras to complement their stories.
Chet Rhodes, assistant managing editor for news video at the washingtonpost.com said the goal is “to get everyone on board with video as a storytelling medium,” since he expects the impact of video to only grow larger, media blog beet.tv reports.
Rhodes, who formerly worked in broadcast journalism, said the web has more flexibility than television because there is no need to meet the evening news deadline or provide live shots. “We’re doing more to take people to a scene and introduce people to a character,” he said, and rather than focusing on the personalities of the news anchors, “the story is still the majority of what the videos are all about.”
The news video editor seems to be in sync with the advice of media consultant Paul Gillin, who told America.gov in February that journalists need to become multimedia reporters, with the capability to shoot video in the field to complement their stories.
Gillin has predicted the demise of most newspapers. But Ben Bradlee, the Post’s vice president at large, believes newspapers are here to stay. Television and the Internet may provide the same information, he told America.gov, but “the guy who gives” the information first “won’t always be the one who did it the best.”