{"id":42265,"date":"2011-02-26T14:47:45","date_gmt":"2011-02-26T14:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/?p=24917"},"modified":"2011-02-26T14:47:45","modified_gmt":"2011-02-26T14:47:45","slug":"tv-news-departments-want-user-generated-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/uncategorized\/tv-news-departments-want-user-generated-video\/","title":{"rendered":"TV News Departments Want User-Generated Video"},"content":{"rendered":"

When news broke about the Virginia Tech massacre April 16, 2007, some of the first video that people saw from that day didn\u2019t come from professional broadcasters. <\/p>\n

It came from students who had no training on how to report the news and only one piece of equipment to help them report it: a cell phone camera. For CNN and the major networks, that was good enough. <\/p>\n

Jamal Albarghouti, a Virginia Tech graduate student from the West Bank, took cell phone video of police charging Norris Hall, complete with the sound of gunfire in the background. By the end of the day, the video was posted on CNN.com, where people viewed it more than 900,000 times. <\/p>\n

Nancy Lane, CNN\u2019s vice president of domestic news, told the Baltimore Sun: \u201cLet\u2019s face it. Right now, this material is still the best of the day in terms of capturing on video what took place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video was one of the most recent examples of how major news organizations like CNN rely on citizen journalists\u2014even poor-quality video if the story is big enough\u2014to report the news. Homemade video is particularly appealing to stations that are cutting their news staffs. <\/p>\n

In the old days, about the only user-generated video we saw was weather-related. Somebody would capture video of a funnel cloud during tornado season and then drop it off at the local TV station. <\/p>\n

Today, however, many stations make it easy for people to shoot video with a cell phone camera and then upload it to the station\u2019s website. Some stations will let you use your cell phone\u2019s messaging service to send the video as an attachment. <\/p>\n

User-generated video is in such demand that CNN, for example, has an entire section of its website, called the CNN I-Team Toolkit,<\/a> devoted to amateur broadcasters, complete with a \u201ctoolkit\u201d of tips on how to take great video\u2014even if it isn\u2019t breaking news. CNN welcomes video related to holidays, seasonal features, and topics like \u201cshow us your home office\u201d or \u201ctell us how you\u2019re coping with the pollen problem.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty years ago, video cameras were of such poor quality that it was hard to use home video on a news show,\u201d said Jeff Crilley, a reporter for KDFW-TV Channel 4 in Dallas, Texas.<\/p>\n

But today, he says, the difference is so slight that \u201cif you deliver a powerful video on a slow-news day, you could be the lead story.\u201d<\/p>\n

He points to the story of Krissi Holman, a suburban Dallas high school senior, who was dying of bone cancer two years ago. Her classmates were concerned that she wouldn\u2019t live to see Graduation Day. So three weeks before graduation, the entire school went to her house and held an impromptu ceremony in her bedroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cHundreds of students were spilling out onto the lawn, and there was even bagpipe music,\u201d Crilley said. \u201cThe only reason it made it onto the news was because somebody brought a video camera and taped it.\u201d <\/p>\n

The videographer was careful to shoot it just like the pros would have. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a magic moment when the principal handed her the degree,\u201d Crilley said. \u201cThe camera panned Krissi\u2019s face and showed her big smile. Then she took her cap, and with all the energy she had, flung it into the air, still smiling. The person who had the camera held the image. It was lovingly captured. There wasn\u2019t a dry eye in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

When someone called the TV station that day and said the magic words\u2014\u201cwe have video\u201d\u2014Crilley jumped on the story. After his station covered it and broadcast the story, a media feeding frenzy followed. The video eventually aired nationwide. <\/p>\n

John Easton, owner of Eastonweb Multimedia in Charlotte, North Carolina, encourages people who want publicity to shoot video of events that local TV stations, for whatever reason, won\u2019t cover. That\u2019s what he did when a TV crew from Australia was in Charlotte recently to film a segment at his son\u2019s elementary school. <\/p>\n

\u201cI notified several press outlets well in advance so they could send a crew out,\u201d Easton said. \u201cI also notified the PR folks for the school system, but nobody seemed too terribly interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he grabbed his video camera, a Sony VX-2000, and covered it himself. Afterward, he emailed a press release about the event and included a link to a two-minute segment. <\/p>\n

\u201cI got a call from two local TV stations that wanted to use it, and even the school system\u2019s TV station wanted it,\u201d Easton said. <\/p>\n

Video experts, including those who suggested tips for the CNN video \u201ctoolbox,\u201d pass along these tips for people who want their video to be ready for prime time:<\/p>\n