Here is a wonderful piece by Elliott Massie (via Learning Post) who observed how the CNN News Team are drawing in and filtering and then broadcasting a flood of blogs, video, photos coming in from Citizens and how their own journalists are turning to use satellite and final cut pro locally to turn around material immediately.
Major extract follows
Content From Multiple and Unconventional Sources: The nature of content in journalism is changing dramatically as media flows from non-traditional sources. CNN calls an aspect of this "Citizen Journalism" as they receive pictures and video feeds from digital cameras and even mobile phones. While I was standing in the newsroom, there were hundreds of Citizen Journalists feeding content in real time. Each had to be categorized, verified and placed into context. Ironically, many viewers actually see the amateur content as having high credibility, given its non-professional nature. Context is high and the challenge is to integrate this informal content with produced segments.
Content To Multiple Formats: As content was created in the CNN newsroom, it flowed to multiple formats. Content started as video feeds, became streamed video, text on the website and even a mention for a scroll at the bottom of the screen. Each piece of content was "tagged" as it came into the newsroom, timecoded, meta-tags were added with context and it could be viewed by CNN staff around the world in low-res format. The concept was to see each media object as being highly reusable and redeployable.
Digital News Gathering: The footprint and format for news production is changing radically as the size and mobility of equipment evolves radically. I watched newsfeeds coming from CNN reporters using satellite phones (after the cell network dropped). They were even feeding content that was edited on laptops in the field using Final Cut Pro. The reduction in equipment has allowed content to be created and advanced in the field rather than back at headquarters.
Content Repository: CNN operates a content and media repository that is quite impressive. The content objects are viewable, editable and sharable. Key levels of data is kept for how each object is being used and deployed. Digital Rights Management is tracked, to honor the appropriate use of each media object. I was struck by how easily every CNN staff person could access and work with this content repository.
