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| Volume 51, Number 3, Summer 2002 |
THE FREE LANCEby Tabitha M. Powledge Whatever happened to multimedia?The February NASW workshops have often featured a session on multimedia science journalism led by multimedia pioneer and evangel, our own Jane Stevens. What Jane calls “backpack journalism” (with the pack holding a lightweight digital video camera instead of a notebook) seemed as if it would open up a nice new niche for freelances. Or at least freelances who were young and spry enough to take their cameras to the bottom of the ocean or into the deepest jungles. These new-model science writers could accompany scientists on expeditions, shoot video of never-before-seen creatures, interview the scientists, and file pieces via satellite to TV, radio, the Web, and even print publications-should any still exist. If you held off buying that backpack, smart move. So far, it’s been a tiny niche, providing next to no freelance nourishment. There was an initial burst; Jane’s Web casts from Antarctica and other nether regions were featured on the Discovery Channel Web site and the New York Times, among other sterling venues. But in the last couple of years, multimedia writing of any kind has been hard to find, and multimedia science writing nearly nonexistent. [Note: ”Science writing” is an inadequate term here. Multimedia is sound and pictures, both moving and still, as well as text, so it’s science writing plus editing, broadcasting and producing, too. If multimedia ever does take over, we’ll need a new name for what we do, and for NASW.] “Besides MSNBC and CNN, there are very few legacy media organizations that are doing multimedia storytelling on a regular basis. They all have Web sites. They’ve all invested in the resources for shovelware . . . essentially putting their print, or in the case of TV stations, sometimes their video, on the Web. But true multimedia storytelling is relatively rare,” Jane told me in an e-mail after this year’s workshops. (She had, as usual, organized the multimedia session in Cambridge, Mass. But she got sick and couldn’t attend, so Carol Morton pinch-hit.) Jane says the problem is lack of training. “I was just at a conference in which journalists asked panelists, who were editors and reporters on the forefront of multimedia storytelling, how they can begin to do multimedia reporting. To a person, [the editors] advised picking up the skills themselves, because there’s no support within their newsrooms.” Which explains why this year’s workshop session did not focus on conventional media outlets for multimedia science writing, as it had in the past. Instead, PIOs reported on the triumphs and trials of setting up and running institutional Web sites featuring multimedia science writing. One of them was Mary Miller, of San Francisco’s Exploratorium, who showed bits of dazzling Web casts from Antarctica that featured creature-watching on dives under the ice and lots of serious weather up close and personal. She reported that the museum, a Web pioneer, has done 45 live shows enhanced with video and published about 50 hours of video. Because there is not yet a good business model for commercial publications to do this work, she said, it’s up to other organizations, like museums, to show what can be done first. As Jane observed in an e-mail Carol read to the audience, “I think it’s a little ironic that so many research institutions and museums are pushing ahead into multimedia reporting while legacy news organizations are lagging behind. Science reporting is a natural for multimedia storytelling; why magazines and newspapers don’t take more advantage of it is a mystery. Of course, that opens an opportunity for science organizations, which are beginning to send their own reporters or contract with freelance reporters to cover expeditions for their own Web sites as well as other media organizations. Last summer, a PIO from the University of Cincinnati accompanied researchers on an expedition to Alaska. He filed stories to UC’s Web site and to the local TV station, which never would have sent one of its reporters.” Jane emphasizes the need for training, and follows through by teaching multimedia herself. But lack of training is not the only drag on multimedia’s growth. Another is surely the public’s lackadaisical embrace of broadband Internet connections. That has surprised those in the broadband industry who confidently predicted an overnight rush to speed up downloads. It may also surprise those of you who already have broadband, but at the moment most people don’t care deeply enough about connection speed to put up with the notorious frustrations of dealing with companies peddling broadband: technical failures, service failures, and costs. To say nothing of just plain availability. My office is far from a phone company installation, at the end of a dirt road that will never see a fiberoptic cable, and so broadband cable and DSL are not options. My daughter assures me that wireless will solve my problem eventually. Since we can’t get a signal on our cell phone unless we leave our aerie and take to the highway, I doubt it. For years I have been scanning the skies hopefully for two-way satellite Internet connections, which had been promised next quarter for many a quarter. Finally two-way is here. But even if it were a technical delight, which I gather it is not, the money is ridiculous: $70 a month, plus several hundred dollars upfront for a dish and other hardware (TV is extra, lots extra). And since satellite has no competition, those costs are not likely to drop any time soon. I suppose I could move some place more cosmopolitan, but instead I just changed dialup ISPs. Yes, I’m connecting at something well under the claimed 56Kbps. But I’m doing it for under $10 per month and with no additional investment in hardware. Can multimedia make much headway until broadband makes Web video more watchable? I’m doubtful, although of course it may be that multimedia will drive the demand for fast connections, especially cheaper ones. Jane observes, “You don’t need broadband to do basic multimedia reporting. And you have to do it to prepare for the time when broadband will have a critical mass.” David Salisbury, of the communications office at Vanderbilt University, told workshop participants about Exploration, the gorgeous online research magazine he launched. Another hurdle for multimedia may be how much work is involved in putting a piece together. Each multimedia article, he emphasized, is much more complex than trying to do a traditional story. Among the pieces he described was a grand project on free-electron lasers, with Flash animations showing how the laser works and engrossing video of the first human free-electron surgery on a brain tumor. Salisbury insists on video clips that are large enough on the screen for the viewer to see people’s expressions-one reason the magazine site is optimized for broadband. He agrees that easy access to broadband Internet connections is essential for multimedia to take off. But so are other technologies, he said in a post-workshop e-mail: better camcorders, better streaming video, simpler Web-authoring software. “But most importantly, from the viewpoint of creating jobs for freelance science communicators, is the development of a viable method for charging for information delivered over the Web. The advertisement model for generating revenue for commercial sites isn’t working well, but neither has the subscription approach caught on widely. The idea of paying for quality online information may take a while because people have become accustomed to getting information free from the Web. But I think it will come.” The key to getting people to pay is to make sure the price is low, Salisbury argues. Because Web production costs are so much cheaper than mailing and hand-delivering paper, online publications should be willing to charge much less than traditional media. “If they do, then (hopefully) the number of viewers/subscribers will provide them with a reasonable profit (although probably not the 20 percent plus that many of today’s newspaper chains are demanding and getting.)” In an e-mail exchange, I asked panelists to assess prospects for freelance multimedia. Being enthusiasts, they were, of course, enthusiastic. “I would suggest that those freelancers (particularly the younger ones) who are intrigued by the opportunities and challenges of multimedia reporting [to] seriously consider investing in a camcorder and begin getting ready for the market that is certain to develop sometime in the near future,” Salisbury advised. Jane commented, “I think multimedia will be a great freelance market for science journalism, eventually. The changes will come quickly over the next five years, I think, as broadband reaches a critical mass, more experienced science journalists are trained to do multimedia reporting, and more organizations also embrace the new medium.” Miller was more restrained about the imminence of freelance opportunities. “I’m not sure whether it makes sense for freelancers to rush out and buy cameras. As a business decision, maybe not, since you’re financing your own training. (I was lucky enough to learn on the job at a museum.) But I’ve personally enjoyed expanding my storytelling skills into the visual arena and have never regretted bringing a video camera to an interview. Once you have footage of someplace like the Dry Valleys in Antarctica, you never know how and where you can use it in the future.” If a trip to the Dry Valleys dropped into my lap, I’d take along a video camera, too, who wouldn’t? But in our normal workaday freelance lives? Maybe, if you’re young and thus likely to live in a multimedia world-eventually. Maybe, if buying one wouldn’t rule out acquisition of an immediately useful tool like a new computer. Maybe-and this may be the hardest part-if you can treat multimedia as a hobby for the moment and not let your self-training chew up the time you should be spending on paying work. In short, don’t quit your day job. >#Tabitha M. Powledge lives at the end of a dirt road south of Washington, D.C., and you can find her online at tam@nasw.org. Some links: www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017771575.php www.exploratorium.edu/origins/antarctica/index.html
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