Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World. Debora Halpern Wenger and Deborah Potter. Washington DC: CQ Press, 2008. 352 pp.
The authors of this book describing technological transformation in broadcast journalism suggest that in today’s multimedia world, journalists “must develop a multimedia mind-set.” They are correct; unfortunately, more could have been done with this book to assist aspiring broadcast journalists in understanding how to do that.
Wenger and Potter offer a definition of multimedia reporting — “communicating complementary information on more than one media platform”—but what this reviewer believes is lacking are extensive descriptions and examples of how old-fashioned broadcast journalism reports can be translated for and delivered in a multimedia world. There are a few chapters devoted to this, most especially chapters 7 and 8, but not enough is done throughout the book to establish multimedia.
Chapter 7, titled “Writing for the Web,” enforces that the Internet is growing in popularity with news consumers who use the Internet as a news source differently than they do traditional media. As a result, shoveling content from a broadcast (or print) outlet to the Web is neither sufficient for practicing multimedia journalism nor satisfying to the audience. This chapter contains numerous ideas for rewriting a broadcast story to make it appropriate for the Internet.
Chapter 8, “Producing for the Web,” recognizes that the Web requires continuous updates, especially to breaking and developing stories, because audiences demand them. It also explores how blogging and interactive tools can aid journalists and news organizations in always being up-to-date while providing Web-exclusive content. Most important, it reviews how a multimedia news team must cooperate to ensure that relevant information is delivered on each news platform. Unfortunately, the basics of producing are not explained until chapter 9; they should have appeared earlier.
Wenger is a former broadcast news professional, most recently at WFLA-TV in Tampa, where many of the early convergence experiments occurred; she now teaches convergence and new media at Virginia Commonwealth University. Potter, a CBS and CNN veteran, is executive director of NewsLab in Washington, D.C. In Advancing the Story, their ideas about broadcasting and multimedia reporting are supplemented by opinions from a variety of professionals. These comments enhance the overall presentation, but this reviewer was concerned that in almost every case only one opinion or statement is used. Reading multiple opinions — especially on important issues such as interviewing strategies or writing — would have improved the discussion; offering multiple opinions is equivalent to providing multiple sources for a story. Moreover, it would have allowed the authors to go more in-depth on some topics.
The talking points and e-learning opportunities appearing at the end of each chapter are good value-added items to this book, which also comes with an online workbook. These can serve as reliable in-class discussion starters, or as questions on an examination. The instructor also should spend additional time with chapter 11 (“Multimedia Ethics”), which offers substantive discussions about the distinct ethical challenges multimedia provide journalists.
Advancing the Story should be considered for adoption in any basic broadcast writing or reporting class, as it does a solid job of discussing what broadcasting does well (chapter 1); how to find and research the broadcast story (chapter 2); and beats and investigative reporting (chapter 4, perhaps the book’s best), among other germane topics. But the instructor should note that most of these chapters do not go sufficiently beyond the basics to fully incorporate how multimedia reporting complements but is different from traditional reporting.
ANTHONY MORETTI
Point Park University