Journalism alfresco

In Italian, that means "It's time for managers who have never worked a day on the street to get away from their computers and find out what reporters and photogs do all day."

In other words, stop telling field crews how to do stories, how long it will take to shoot a story, and what constitutes a story unless you've actually participated in the news gathering process.

Hardly a day goes by that I don't hear from a reporter complaining about a News Director, EP, or Producer who seems to know thru astral projection what is going on out in the field. Bottom line, you can't tell a reporter or photog how to do a job unless you've seen what goes into it. (To be fair, you can't do the same to a producer unless you've spent a day in the control room during a newscast.)

I'll never forget the crew sent to cover what was supposed to be a huge demonstration, only to arrive and find exactly three people holding protest signs. When they called in on the two-way to tell the desk the story was a bust, (this was before cell phones existed) the assignment editor, who had never been out of the building, said, "Shoot it tight." The reporters and photogs in the room just rolled their eyes.

Every wonder why photogs make the best assignment editors? Because they know logistics, how long it takes to shoot something, and whether or not a crew will have to make chicken salad out of chicken droppings.

Years ago most News Directors came up thru the reporting ranks, pretty much because it a: made sense, and b: most newsrooms weren't overpopulated with producers. These days chances are good your boss has never shot or covered a story. And that's pretty sad for someone in the journalism business.

Can a manager who has never been a true journalist be a good manager? Sure. But too many need to be shot with the clue gun when it comes to what really goes into story coverage, live shots, and everything else that goes on in the field.

Time to job swap. Managers need to do a ride along with a crew every so often, just to see the real process. Reporters and photogs who are done early might pop in the control room and hug the back wall, just to see how things work behind the scenes.

The real stories, the ones viewers want to see, are out of the building. Only by seeing them with your own eyes can you truly know what's going on.