The Rise and Rise of the Independent Journalist
Independence is well known in many professions, but one development that few people could have predicted is the rise of the independent journalist. Thirty years ago a journalist on the hunt for a story would have been armed with only a notepad, a pen and strict instructions from their editor. Fast forward to today and as a result of the digital revolution, a journalist can be armed with pretty much any journalistic tool and now, due to the convergence of TV, radio, print and magazine journalism, could write stories not for just one platform, but in effect, all of them.
Newsflare is a company specialising in user-generated content and is a big step up in helping citizen journalism to get published. It launched in April 2012 and creates a platform for local videos to get to local audiences.
News organisations can also post ‘assignments’ to the website in terms of what video they’re looking for, and do pay for the correct quality of video, whether it is shot by a journalist or just a member of the public with a good camera. Some TV packages can make £40 and even rough footage can be paid for, such as the Olympic torch passing through your town. It is possible for independent journalists to make a living out of websites such as these.
Bevan Thomas, co-founder of Newsflare, says there are fewer barriers in this day and age for independent ideas, and explains how he started his own business in Newsflare.
I think inspiration strikes when you think about solutions to everyday problems you face. Getting out and talking to as many people as possible also helps when thinking of your business idea. It’ll help make clear the different industries and perspectives and how people’s views to your idea might differ. Some of the meetings I thought nothing of actually helped the most.
Bevan also offers advice for anyone looking to get noticed, for example a journalist looking to freelance.
Get used to pitching your ideas, the elevator pitch in one or two sentences and the ten-minute pitch. Both should hook the audience in. It might help if you talk to people like investors; people invest in people so if you come across well and have a great team behind you, the opportunities are open-ended.
Start to build up your network of people now; it’s hard getting out of the work experience or job application pile. Also start blogging, if you’re willing to write for free, when you do get a job writing and you get paid to do the same thing you were doing for free, you’re set.
With companies such as Newsflare leading the way, opportunities for independent journalists seem to be at an all time high.
The Internet
The internet is a key tool in the independent journalist’s belt, but why is it so important? In 2010, two billion people were using the internet, twice the number using it back in 2005. The internet has become the new social haven, where news is uploaded instantly, cutting out the time restraints of a daily newspaper or an evening news bulletin. Most people in search of news now head straight to the internet, and social networking websites such as Facebook or Twitter. The way audiences look for news is changing, so it only seems right that the way journalist’s report news, and the methods they use, are changing too. Thirty years ago the idea of a freelance or independent journalist seemed unmanageable – where would they look for stories without an editor to guide them? How would they find their news stories to follow up? And most importantly, where would they publish their stories? The internet has helped fight all these constraints, and the independent journalists have come out fighting.
In 1999, Brian Appleyard memorably described the internet as a ‘fabulous monster’ in the New Statesman (October 1999).
The arrival of this ‘fabulous monster’ as, has told us as much about the world of journalism and how it reacts to change, as it has about the change itself.
Citizen Journalism
With the subject of the internet also comes the arrival of citizen journalism. This is the theory that anyone anywhere in the world can write, upload, share and publish stories, and could be leading the way to a future of independent journalism. User-generated content is videos, pictures, and recordings which have been made by the public, showing another form of independent journalism. In this digital age, it has evolved to content such as YouTube videos, Flickr images, Amazon or Yelp reviews, blog posts or news stories, and ranging to videos and podcasts from scenes of incidents themselves. Any person at the scene of a story, event or in general can create their own video, audio, images or story and upload this to the internet, or send to any TV station, radio station, local or national newspaper for their website section. Therefore, any member of the public with a media device such as a mobile phone with a camera, recording and internet capabilities could, at the scene of incidents, become independent journalists themselves.
A useful example of a rise in independent journalism is the 2005 London bombings, which prompted a substantial amount of citizen journalism to be put onto the net. Journalists were initially sceptical about the attacks and believed they were false, and when they eventually realised the truth they were not allowed onto the scene due to security reasons. Ordinary civilians caught up in the bombings on their way to work took pictures and recorded videos at the scene. This prompted TV and radio stations to use this user-generated content more than ever before.
Blogging
Blogging is another important tool for the independent journalist. Unless they are working for a large-scale news corporation with its own website or newspaper, a journalist would need somewhere else to showcase their work. Say hello to the blog, essentially a journalist’s own news platform. Starting as an online journal back in the 1990s where people shared opinions and thoughts, in 2012 it has evolved into a vital tool for major publishing businesses. For example, blogging website The Huffington Post was sold recently for over 300 billion dollars. With four out of five internet users visiting social networking sites and blogs, blogging has become the new interactive diary.
When BBC correspondent Stuart Hughes visited Iraq back in 2003 to report in the field, he wanted a way to keep in touch with his audience. So he started an online diary which became incredibly popular. CNN reporter Kevin Sites also created a blog on the front lines of war, with images, comments, blog posts and different views of people at the scene. Although neither journalist was independent, these online methods of reporting show the impact that blogs can have on audiences, and independent journalists can essentially have free rein – avoiding the normal pressures of time and cost in a newsroom.
Technology and Apps
Mobile phone apps are instrumental for a journalist looking to work independently. For example, if you own a smartphone such as an iPhone, you can take photographs to enhance your news story, edit these for sharper pictures, record and edit audio interviews and video, write a news article and upload all this to the internet from your device. Kitting out a journalist has never been easier, or cheaper. Journalism.co.uk research estimates that you can buy software to do all this for less than £20. It also recommends apps such as Camera+, a tool that improves the quality of your pictures, and Pro HDR, which helps you take a better photo. iSaidWhat?! allows you to alter audio recordings, write a script to go alongside them, trim and arrange audio clips and share these clips via email, over a wireless network or by USB. PCM recorder gives you broadcast quality sound, which is vital for important interviews. Apps SoundCloud and Audioboo are well known as important ways to trim, edit and share audio. For filming video, FilmiC Pro is a video-editing app with manual controls including white balance, an audio meter and GPS tagging. 1st Video is expensive at £6.99 but essentially gives you a ‘video-editing suite in your pocket’. Bambuser is a popular app used by citizen journalists for live streaming video and Vyclone gives you a multi-angled video. Byword is a favourite for writing articles, CoverItLive helps when it comes to live blogging and Evernote is suggested for keeping notes. Lastly, when keeping up to date with the latest news, Reeder allows you to create news feed folders from key news sites and share news updates via social networking.
Independent journalism has never been easier, with a huge helping hand from the internet and advances in digital technology. While the main aim of news reporting will always remain consistent – to create and publish a newsworthy story to the public – exactly who reports it is becoming less significant. Breaking news stories reach Twitter within seconds, and it’s not always the large media companies that are first in line.
Newsflare’s Bevan Thomas concludes:
If you find something you love doing, you’ll never really work a day in your life. Independent journalism is as healthy as it’s ever been. Today there are many outlets for journalists to publish work and even if you can’t convince someone to publish your idea, you can now publish it yourself.
This article was first published in MediaMagazine 43, February 2013: the ‘Independence’ issue
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