While I was watching this piece, I realized what made it so powerful was the audio - rather than the visuals - of the interview with Miller. You hear the pain in his voice. You hear the sadness in his heart. It really was an eye-opening experience that proved once-and-for-all that audio is as powerful - possibly even more powerful - than just pictures alone.

Do yourself a favor and take 16 minutes out of your life to see this production. You won’t be disappointed.

After a little thinking, I thought I’d make a list of 10 things I look for – and sometimes expect – a newspaper’s Web site to have, and where I expect to find them. These are in no particular order, nor are they meant to be taken as gospel. They are just my opinions.

• RSS feed link (at the top right) – All newspapers should have RSS feeds. Period. End of story. I do a lot more looking for stories in Google Reader than I do on a paper’s site. And I’m always looking for that little orange button at the top right.
• Search boxes (again at the top, but not necessarily on the right) – Search boxes are a wonderful thing. However, the boxes are no use to me if they are hidden amongst advertisements. What’s worse is a search box that doesn’t find what I know is on the site. Newspapers really need to work on this more. One of my professors, Dr. Ronald Rodgers, posted a link to a blog post on his online class syllabus about a paper hiring a “search editor.” This is something I hadn’t heard of before, but I think every newspaper should have one.
• A “contact us” link (at the bottom) – This is where I go to find the phone numbers I need to contact a newspaper about something. And don’t give me some stupid “contact us” form that I have to fill out and wait for a reply. Give me a phone number, the news business waits for no one! I once had to call The Gainesville Sun about a football photo it was using online. The photo was a file photo someone had put with the article and was over two weeks old, but the caption stated that the photo was from the game the night before. In addition, it was about 11 p.m. when I saw it. So what did I do? I went to the “contact us” link (at the bottom of the page) and found a number I could use to alert someone of the error.
• Cleanliness (everywhere on the site) – If there is too much going on, I’m moving on! I can’t say that enough, it’s the biggest thing that turns me off and sends me looking for something else. A great example of a clean site is a paper my mom used to work for years ago: The Knoxville News Sentinel. Notice the RSS, search box and contact links all at the top (and bottom in the case of the contact link)? Thanks to Rob Curley for pointing this one out on his blog.
• Credits and bylines (at the top of an article, or end of a multimedia piece) – I want to know who is producing the work I see! Today I was on a paper’s site, and I couldn’t find credits on multimedia packages that caught me as pretty good. I guess I won’t be telling you who did those….
• No distracting advertising - This is another big one. If I’m reading a story online, it becomes nearly impossible for me to concentrate on what I’m reading with some epileptic advertisement screaming for my attention like a 3-year-old child. I often right-click on these things and look for a “stop” or “pause” command. Sometimes, however, there is no such command. Therefore, the paper loses me because I go somewhere else for my news (without buying anything, of course).
• Clearly marked sections in the navigation area – If there is a section for, say, multimedia, your link to it should be called “Multimedia.” I don’t see any practicality in calling your section something other than what people should know it is. An example is perfectly illustrated by my former employer on its front page. The paper has something called “Todays Extras” which is the section where all the multimedia content is shown. I don’t know about you, but “Todays Extras” doesn’t seem to correlate in my mind with multimedia content. Besides, when is multimedia content going to be considered a normal part of online journalism, and not something that is “extra” because it’s online?
• Ways to tag the things I find interesting (bottom of article) – I use del.icio.us a lot to tag stuff I find interesting on the Web. That means that not only am I interested in something enough to come back to it, I’m sharing it with other Internet users. If a newspaper’s site doesn’t have a way to make that easy for me, I lose faith in how technologically current the paper is. That’s not a good thing!
• Print buttons/links (top right of article) – I love these. Newspapers should make it easy for visitors to print stuff they like. I know, I know. Copyright infringement you say? Well I have news for you: keeping that little printing link from a person is not going to stop them from taking your material. It’s not hard to copy and paste, is it?
• Links back to where you were – Every site should have a way to return from whatever content a user is looking at. For example: The New York Times offers you a way back to the related article once you finish viewing a slide show. Genius? No, it’s obvious. Users shouldn’t be punished because they were interested in something for a split second and clicked on a link which took them away from what he/she was reading. A simple link back to that article is all it takes to keep them on your site a little longer.

I’d love to hear what’s important to you on a newspaper’s site. Please leave your comments below.

I, too, enjoyed the ability to attend the daily staff meetings of The Herald. There was never a closed door – in my opinion – when I would show up to sit in on those meetings. That’s something I appreciated very much, and something I valued when I thought I wasn’t being heard. There was a great sense of feeling that my input mattered.

It’s important that leaders make an effort to show their employees that everyone’s opinion matters. Today, we’re often dealing with new technologies: social networking, podcasting and YouTube. Who better to give incite on how to entice young readers than that reporter sitting at her desk with those little white ear buds?

My colleague told me about what I consider an unfortunate situation. It seems the managing editor of the newspaper she works for has mandated that the paper will produce two videos a day. Unfortunately, this is something I hear of quite frequently. It’s very difficult for me when I hear such things because my first reaction is one of disappointment. A lot of executives at newspapers are putting these demands on journalists because the executives believe that such mandates will increase the paper’s internet traffic, and therefore, increase revenue for the newspapers.

I have a different belief, however. Each day am I shocked by multitude of terrible video on newspapers’ Web sites. One that comes to mind is the filming of a Jet Ski being placed onto a trailer by police after it was involved in an accident which claimed a life. There was no visible damage to the watercraft, and nothing visually to tell the story of this tragic accident. So why shoot video of the thing?

I would have linked to this video, but unfortunatly, the video has been removed from the site. My point is just because you shoot video, doesn’t mean the subject matter is worth it. Use video for the things video is good for: movement, emotion and a sense of place. Mindy McAdams says it best here.

The Web shouldn’t be used as a dumping ground for mediocre work. Far too often I see “video for the sake of video.” Not always, but often there is some executive who doesn’t understand what is involved mandating the use of video.

Video is a wonderful medium, but it takes time to do quality work. A lot of newspapers want their photographers to have a turn-around time that equals that of a digital still photographer - or worse, a television station. However, television stations are broadcast entities. Newspapers aren’t equipped for that purpose.
How many satellite trucks have seen in a newspaper’s parking lot (although this could change in the near future)?

Additionally, mandating a certain amount of video per day is almost asking for trouble. What happens if an assignment falls through, or the subject doesn’t want to be filmed?

I have nothing but the greatest hope for the success newspapers using video to tell stories. But for there to be success it is important for those who lead newspapers to understand what is involved in the production aspect. Each executive should take the time to see the process first hand. Know what you are asking of your staff. Understand the medium’s limitations. Then inspire your staff with your ideas and your knowledge of what is capable and what isn’t.

My first experience of newspaper photojournalism came when I interned at The Miami Herald during the summers of my sophomore and junior years of high school. At the time, film cameras were still the primary way newspaper photographers made their images; computers were starting to make their mark as well. When the photographers came back from their assignments, they had to process their film. Afterward, they printed photos in the darkrooms on tight deadlines.

Somewhere around the time I graduated high school - way back in 1996 - I was a regular around the photo department. That year, the photo department bought a number of computers. Each was equipped with Adobe Photoshop and film scanners. Photographers were expected to begin using the machines to scan their images on deadline. As you can imagine, most of the photographers avoided the computers like they had a communicable disease. Eventually, the photographers had no choice. They had to learn to use the computers because the paper would be going to an all digital workflow by the end of the year.

I look back to those days in amazement, because it was only 11 years ago. I was there at a very important time in the paper’s history. The switch to digital photography came fast and furious and I got sandwiched between learning film photography and learning digital photography at the same time.

Today I feel a bit of déjà vu. Photojournalism has once again thrown me a curve ball. In newspapers’ push to multimedia journalism, photojournalists are now expected to know not only the basics of still photography, but video shooting as well. I’ve seen on more than one occasion fellow photojournalists passed over for jobs simply because another candidate has video experience. Once again, I find myself sandwiched between two trends.

Video isn’t my first love; still photography is. However, if I want a job at a newspaper these days, I have no choice but to shoot video.

That is the point of this post: If you want to be a photojournalist for a newspaper, you must learn video. There’s no denying it any longer. Many of us have simply covered our eyes, held our hands over our ears and bit our tongues in an effort to hope video would just go away. It won’t. There are thousands of graduates every year who know how to shoot still photos. If you want to stand out from those people, you need more under your belt.

If I haven’t convinced you yet, take a look at the work of San Jose Mercury News photographer Dai Sugano. I met Sugano recently at the Asian American Journalist Association conference in Miami. I credit him for being the first traditional still photographer turned video guru to make me actually want to learn video. His fashion piece Spring Glow is an incredible example of what can be accomplished with video.

You should also take a look at the blog of Sugano’s colleague Richard Koci Hernandez: MultimediaShooter. It’s packed with great information for anyone interested in video. Learn everything from techniques to what kind of gear he uses.

Many people talk to me about the “coming” of video to newspapers. My reaction is the same every time: video isn’t “coming” to newspapers; it’s already here.

I also use RSS feeds to keep in touch with my friends’ current events, find jobs and most importantly: keep up with the news! Almost every news source has an RSS feed these days. Quite frankly, if you find one that doesn’t have an RSS feed, I’d be suspicious about their current event knowledge.

There are many RSS readers out there: bloglines, FeedBucket, and my favorite Google Reader. These are all web-based RSS readers, and you can download readers for your machine whether you’re on Mac, Windows or Linux. I don’t see a need to download software, however, because most of your reading will probably be done online anyway.

So take the leap, and get familiar with RSS!

On these very pages you will read my thoughts on the future of journalism; specifically photojournalism. The field has changed over the last few years, but not in its fundamentals. Photojournalists are still story tellers. Many people get caught up in the technicality of the gear, but there’s more to be said for what the future will hold for us.

So stick with me as I put my opinions on these pages. You may or may not like what I have to say, but I hope you get something out of the time you spend here. I look forward to your comments and contrasting point-of-views.