Over at Newslab, Deborah Potter has posted some valuable insights around the notion of what is termed “The TV Package”.

As a solo video journalist,  I believe a shift is required – especially for local news stations – that requires a radically new paradigm of what’s being produced for television news that needs to take place.

The TV Package, in its current iteration, needs to be put out of its misery and buried for good and replaced with a more narrative style of story telling.

News Directors & General Managers of tv stations need to grow a spine and take the initiative of producing stories in longer form, telling stories of their local communities, not the formulaic pablum that is passed off as “Experienced Journalism” on local broadcast, let alone, regional and national news reporting today.  The over stylized lighting, the multi person production crews, the perfect looking on camera personality provides nothing for the story being told.  It’s a stylized film production now instead of being a true news story.

The face of how news is consumed has changed.  The dropping numbers for viewers and ad revenues reflects this.

So what’s the answer?

I don’t have any definite ones, just my observations.  I do believe that maybe, just maybe, a different tack should be taken on how stories are produced as a good starting point.

First off – dump the old production model of multi-person production crews for the most part.  Yes, there will still need to be the occasional crew sent to cover major new stories like forest fires, etc, but for the most part, even solovj’s can do so with with the proper training from such entities as the Backpack Journalism program at American University taught by Bill Gentile.

Secondly, get rid of for example, the talking heads with their ever present, yet totally irrelevant, head nodding, etc. and start delving deeper into better story telling, letting the subject bring their narrative instead of constant voice overs from the journalist themselves.  Lose the suits, ties, fancy makeup, coiffed hair, etc.  News isn’t a fashion show.  Broadcast Journalists think portraying themselves in this way is some how professional.

In my opinion, it’s disingenuous.

Start telling longer form stories – micro documentaries if you will, maximum of 5 minutes long – engaging the viewer into a deeper story of the subject.  Give the digital correspondent more time to really tell the story – and tell stories of the community, stories that reflect a human side instead of trying to capture viewer ratings.  Those ratings will take care of themselves with solid news stories.  Give people genuine real stories, and they will soon realize they’ve been led astray by corporate news medias feeding pablum to the sheeple masses.

Train your digital correspondents that they are going to have to learn it all.  Otherwise, it’s time to find those journalists who are willing to learn to do so.  Being a jack of all trades, master of many isn’t as difficult as most think. It can be done, it only requires a willingness on their part to see it as such, learn it and then apply it.  There are many excellent resources that provide professional level training for this new wave of solo video journalists, backpack journalists, digital correspondents – however you want to define it.

And one of the most important things that needs to be implemented.  The freedom to experiment – and fail – without fear of losing ones job.  BY doing so, you learn what works – and what doesn’t.  The 21st century has brought about massive changes and to hold on to archaic ways of reporting is not doing the viewing public any favors.  QUit treating them as if they’re not capable of thinking for themselves.

Broadcast news is trying to keep what they’ve known on life support – out of fear of change.

It’s time to pull the plug and let it pass away.

What have they got to lose?

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