Rachel Perron - June 9, Journalistic Video Example on the Internet

The AP Video Link on KMIZ’a Web site provided a lot of online journalist video examples, and while I really wanted to pick the story on the Dayton, Ohio man arrested in a one-piece women’s bathing suit, I resisted and chose a story on the economy’s effect on summer camps. Overall, I thought the content of the news was pretty thorough. Even though the title of the story established that conflict between parents wanting to send their kids to camp (God knows my mother couldn’t endure three months straight of me) and not being able to afford it, it digressed from this theme to talk about how local camps are doing better in some instances, and why some parents wouldn’t want to sacrifice sending their kids to camp. It also had a range of sources, but I myself would’ve liked to see an interview with a kid camper. I was also less pleased with how the video clips tied in with the story, the problem of course being that it didn’t in some cases. For example, while the reporter discussed declining enrollment and how camps are suffering and adapting, the video showed groups of kids going about their normal camp activities—only the image didn’t exactly portray to me that enrollment was down. Had the reporter explained that the 12 campers shown in archery class is a far cry from the 40 campers that attended last summer, it’d certainly make more sense. I could see how it may be easy for reporters to make such a mistake, by assuming the image shows more information or is more relevant than it actually is, whereas had it been a text-only story the reporter would have had to provide such description. And in this particular story, comparing enrollment numbers or vacant spaces would have been a great way to use fact to provide description in a text-only format. For instance: “Only four campers are sleeping in Cabin 23 this week. Last summer, all 12 beds were filled.”