Get your kit out
Journalism doesn’t pay, so what?
I never thought about making money when I set up Kigali Wire. From the beginning it has always been an experiment and it remains so. I never thought about making money when I shot my first photojournalism essay – which is in dire need of an editor’s hand… forgive me, it is my first bash […]
The ultimate frontline camera
You’ve got until February 3rd to bid for the above on eBay. The ‘Paillard Bolex H8 Military Gun outfit’ is possibly the most bizarre camera you’re ever likely to come across. The blurb on the online auction site says it’s a “Very interesting and Rare military Gun outfit delivered for Vietnam War reporter” Was it […]
Mark Mardell in hostile environments
Mark Mardell heads into hostile territory for the BBC, but this is just make believe. The BBC’s Europe Editor found it increasingly daft that he was missing out on stories because he hadn’t done the requisite hostile environment training course, Why am I here if I don’t want to get close to gunfire? Well, I […]
The tools have changed
Broadcast talks to four senior TV news journalists about how their working life has changed due to improvements in technology. Tim Marshall, Sky News’ foreign affairs editor, says most of the changes are for the good. And sometimes knocking on a door and asking if you can hop on a wifi connection is the best […]
Bags of journalism
Frontline bloggers, Rob Crilly and Alex Strich are on the move today. Rob is off to the DRC and Alex is on his way back to Kabul before moving on to Kandahar. They’ve both blogged what’s in their kitbag. For Rob, it’s back to the future, Sony Tape Recorder – call me old school, but […]
Making a one man documentary
Filmmaker Matt Clift talks about how he went about making a one man documentary film about an orphanage in Uganda in 2007. He details the problems he had, the equipment he used and offers a number of tips for wannabe filmmakers working in difficult environments, Where I was going there was no option for going […]
Kit to the future
Kevin Sites filed text, video, images and audio from twenty wars for the duration of one year between 2005-2006 for the Yahoo HotZone project. Pictured above is the equipment he took with him. It all fitted inside one rucsac. Just a couple of years later and I think it’d be even smaller than it was […]
The new live news
[video:youtube:nnffuBGNOfY] Josh Wolf has an interesting idea for a new live internet news network based – surprise surprise seeing as how it’s the internet we’re talking about – in San Francisco. He aims to harness live video broadcasting tools like Qik, Flixwagon and Ustream.tv – which Kyle MacRae has previously discussed around these parts – […]
“Like being in the mouth of a tuba”
In a series of behind the scenes films ITV’s Mark Austin and Phil Reay Smith describe life working as reporters in Helmand province, Afghanistan. And by the looks of things it’s all rather snug. As Mark says, “It’s the best food in terms of being in a theatre of war that I’ve ever tasted.” I […]
Don’t be a whiner
From the Digital Journalist way back in 2003, war reporter Joseph L. Galloway gives sage advice to wannabe war reporters on what to carry and how to avoid being killed. I’ve extracted a few highlights, Strive to look as much like a private of whatever service you are travelling with. You do NOT want to […]
Blackberry at the ready
This week’s ‘My Week’ column in the Press Gazette is written by Paula Newton, CNN International security correspondent, as she heads out to Kenya. Although, despite being a security correspondent, she seems to have snubbed inflight security procedures with excessive Blackberry use on approach to Kisumu airport, As we flew into Kisumu in western Kenya […]
Baghdad catwalk
The Daily Telegraph’s Colin Freeman finds his fashion sense shot to shreads by his translator upon a arrival in Baghdad, ”Forget those foreign-looking clothes, dress like an Iraqi,” he advised. In modern-day Baghdad, however, that didn’t mean doing a Lawrence of Arabia number in elegent Arab robes and headdress. Instead, it meant a pair of […]
The Demise and Rise of the Foreign Correspondent
“The trench coated foreign correspondent as Gregory Peck played him in the movies is suddenly almost extinct” So began Christopher Lydon on the Open Source podcast in February, 2007 in reponse to the closure of three foreign bureaus of the Boston Globe. The Globe cutbacks followed the axing of foreign staff across the Daily Telegraph. […]
Reuters get their mojo converged
[video:youtube:L_OJGeamwbs] There’s a lot of talk (too much???) about “media convergence” and here’s some more in a video filmed during a roundtable at Reuters to discuss their mobile journalism project. The news agency is experimenting with small handheld Nokia recording equipment. While it’s not the norm now, it’s a fascinating look at where “convergence” is […]
Easy as ABC
When ABC’s senior foreign correspondent Jim Sciutto crossed into Myanmar today from neighboring Thailand the authorities took away his camera. So he filed his report for World News and the webcast, with the next best thing, his cell phone. link via BoingBoing
“We have one flak jacket that all of the correspondents share.”
The deadly serious special correspondent Aasif Mandvi for Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" is interviewed in the Washington Post, Did they buy you an actual flak jacket? We have one flak jacket that all of the correspondents share and so we just mail it to each other, like wherever we are, whatever […]
What’s in your bag?
Road reporter Naka Nathaniel has the weight of a New York Times satellite telephone budget behind him when he’s on the road producing features like the film above with Nicolas Kristof. But, blasting through recent history it seems what goes in his rucksack hasn’t changed *too* much since 2004, June 2004 “My kit isn’t all […]