"Be entrepreneurial."

First off, we'd like to again thank Mark Lyndersay for last night's enlightening and invigorating presentation on the entrepreneurial media professional. Using his perspective as an old stalwart of T&T's press and periphery, Mark shared several valuable approaches to freelancing that have served him well over his 35-year career. If any of you felt like quitting your jobs there and then, don't worry: you were not alone.

Each of us would have gained something specific from the discussion, but I feel I need to reiterate one of Mark's later points. As a media professional, you don't have to be good at everything, but you should try everything. Gain an understanding and appreciation for every aspect of media production, and keep abreast of the technologies that propel this ever-changing field.

This point is particularly relevant to you all because the BTEC programme will expose you to almost every aspect of media production. You'll be recording and editing audio and video, taking pictures, writing news stories and movie scripts, and learning the fundamentals of media and communication theory. However, many of you approach the programme as an opportunity to gain skills in one specific field, and dismiss many of the others as nothing more than exams you need to pass.

Change that attitude. Open your mind. This is an exciting, vibrant field, one that's changing the world in more ways than you might know, and it pays to be a producer rather than a consumer. Don't rob yourselves of the chance to become well-rounded, versatile media professionals, ready to respond at a moment's notice to any opportunity.

Mark has posted a vidcast of the presentation at his site (21MB), and this week's Bit Depth acts as a companion column to the lecture.

Asking questions is a great way to find out things...

Very interesting excerpt from an interview about drugs with Beatle Paul McCartney. Take note of the reporter's technique, but also think about McCartney's statements regarding the responsibility of the media versus the responsibility of the public figure.

Whose side do you find yourself leaning to? Leave a comment below.

The video was originally posted here. You can find other interesting interview-related videos here and here.

You no doubt interviewed several sources for your first assignment, and the challenges you faced would have given you an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of your approach to interviewing. Keep at it, because you'll most definitely be interviewing a few more people before this course is over.

Read these columns for some great advice on the skills you'll need to develop.

From the Poynter Institute:
The Power of Good Questions
The First Rule of Interviewing: Be Human
The Art of Asking Questions


From No Train No Gain:
Loosening Lips
The Good Interview
Developing and cultivating sources


Pay particular attention to the first Poynter column and the first and last No Train No Gain ones. Two of those feature interviewing techniques developed by investigative journalism lecturer John Sawatsky, who has, through experience and research, captured the essence of direct, tough-to-BS questions.

We'll practice our interview techniques next class. Come prepared.

Complementing a thousand words

Goat butts in: A goat interrupts a meeting between Laventille West MP Ni Leung Hypolite (second from left), chairman of the National Self-Help Commission Limited Krishna Rajkumar (left) and St Barb's resident Monica Roberts, as they stand in front of Roberts' collapsed house in St Barb's, Laventille yesterday.
(2008-05-28) Author: ROGER JACOB


Captions initially appear to be a minor part of a reporter's duties, but writing great captions often presents quite a challenge to even the most seasoned veterans. A well-captioned picture is a story in itself, and allows reporters (and photographers) to write a 1000+ word piece in a few minutes.

Most of you got some valuable practice in caption-writing this evening. Read through these guides for some more tips on perfecting your caption-writing.

Hot tips for writing photo captions at Poynter.

10 tips for better cutlines at No Train No Gain.

Mindy McAdams takes an interesting look at when captions get it wrong.

Finally, Newsday's photo galleries have tons of examples.

You'll be putting these skills to use sooner than you think.