My trusty pen and notebook

Oddly enough when I joined the profession, I was curious to try writing in the different mediums that The Star was dabbling in.
Aside from writing for the newspaper, I was working on the multimedia desk, at that time, producing very amateur video clips of news events. Using my little training at a tv station before The Star, we worked on stories that we thought were visually enticing for our readers. The idea of producing broadcast quality clips did not cross our minds as we were learning the ropes on editing, producing and webcasting.

The Star's multimedia section has grown and I must say we have improved from five to six years ago. Our sister radio station uses content from our print reporters and webcasts are also done based on print story ideas. But the video team also works fairly independently from the print desk as it sources stories suitable for its webcast viewers.

Having these experiences, it does help draw out the strengths and weaknesses of the different mediums. As a print journalist, I find that it is very easy to work independently and at my own pace as I do not need to rely on technology to aid in my story packaging process. Gathering content can be as simple as making a telephone call to a contact and a quick phone interview. Time spent working on a story is shorter, at least I find, during crunch time, as one person is required to write out a 500 word story for instance. There is less concern to worry about other content like pictures or sounds bytes and cutaways. We do not also worry about the breakdown of our cameras or microphones, only the occasional tape recorder malfunction, which in any case, the trusty pen and notebook will do the job just fine.

But having said that, I find that capturing the sense of the event, for instance a tragedy or joyous moment, is lost in print. Although people can argue that descriptive words and creative writing can make up for this loss, nothing works better than visual of a grieving mother or a audio clip of a baby crying. The reach is also wider as these materials can be posted on the Internet, reaching not only a local audience, but viewers from all parts of the world accessing the publication's website. Often, I find that I lose out to journalists who write for news website as they can upload news almost immediately and in a real-time fashion, as opposed to a print journalist who will only see his product the next day. Again, some argue that the print journalist has the luxury of time to produce his piece, but like we discussed in earlier weeks, time is no more a luxury. My print story is published the next day, and often is 'stale' unless written differently.

This is one of my greatest challenges, I find, to write a story that is different and stands out from other mediums. Also to be comfortable to write for webcast, radio and websites.