Book reviews
The Convergence Newsletter
From Newsplex at the University of South Carolina
Vol. V No. 7, Feb. 2008
Book Review – “Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World”
By Dr. George Daniels, University of Alabama
This article started out being just a review of a single textbook. But one will quickly see that “Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World” (CQ Press, 2007) is more than just a book – indeed, it exemplifies the textbook of the future.
While there is a hardcopy book, it only provides half the learning experience – the other half being a Web log and an interactive workbook, which authors Deb Wenger (Virginia Commonwealth University) and Deborah Potter (NewsLab) have been updating constantly since this text was published in October.
With the title “Advancing the Story,” Wenger and Potter, both veteran broadcast journalists with major-market and network TV experience, cast the discussion on convergence in the terms that we ought to be thinking of it in 2008 – its impact on the news product.
After acknowledging that the words “multimedia,” “convergence,” “cross-platform” and “multi-platform” would all be used interchangeably, the authors define them as “communicating complementary information on more than one media platform” and a cross-platform journalist as one who can “work effectively in more than one medium.”
Two key points on which I particularly agree are handled well:
“Good journalism skills are universal.”
“Just because technology allows you to do something does not mean it’s something you should do.”
At the 2006 Convergence Conference at the University of South Carolina, we convened a panel of authors of convergence, Web journalism and multimedia books. As the moderator for that “Convergence Booknotes” session, I recall how much we grappled with the challenges of preparing a teaching resource on a topic that is constantly changing.
Wenger and Potter may have the best answer yet. With unit-specific exercises and a long-term project completed in steps during each unit, the interactive online workbook is head and shoulders above the static print resources that students often don’t use.
Simultaneously, the authors are posting to a Web log that has current developments with tags to specific chapters in the book. So in effect, the core concepts in the text can hold even as the blog is being updated semester-to-semester.
Let’s acknowledge that Wenger and Potter aren’t the first authors to use a blog with their text. Janet Kolodzy, for instance, launched her Urge 2 Converge blog with her book, “Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting across the News Media.”
So what makes this particular book different from other Web journalism or convergence books? I think the chief difference is that it is written from the perspective of broadcast journalists, without excluding the needs of those whose primary role is a newspaper one.
At their core, this text and the supplemental e-resources are designed to make students better reporters for whatever platform on which they’re conveying the story. While the early chapters deal with the reporting process, the latter ones address such issues as doing live shots, dressing for television and producing for podcasts.
With students coming to our classes immersed in the World Wide Web, it was only a matter of time before we would have a multimedia-journalism textbook that is truly multimedia.
It looks as though that time has come.
Dr. George Daniels is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He can be reached at gdaniels@bama.ua.edu.
