Haiti Solo: One Man’s Band Covers Catastrophe
Embedded with other journalists on the US Naval hospital ship Comfort, I was among those who ventured ashore to document the stunning medical crisis that had unfolded in Haiti in the wake of the January 2010 earthquake.
(January 22, 2010) Jugard DeCastillion lay dying before my eyes. The 21-year old man’s mother fanned his face as if it might force more air into his failing lungs. He gasped. An embolism, the doctors said. He’d been crushed by falling walls when the earthquake struck in Port au Prince. Eight days on, it had come to this.
Jugard DeCastillion
A portion of one hand was amputated. His organs were likely damaged and failing now.
Infection. A young man’s last hours. There was struggle to breathe but no panic.
He gasped again, and rolled his eyes toward me. Who was this guy standing over him with a video camera asking his mom muted questions in broken, elementary French?
He was lying in a steel-framed hospital bed apparently salvaged from the wrecked hospital. It had been carried outdoors into the courtyard of the St. Francois de Sales hospital in Port au Prince. The blue plastic tarp that shielded him from the sun gave the light a surreal tint.
Thank God it hadn’t rained.
At least 86 other men, women and (mostly) kids shared this outdoor hospital ward. Mercifully, a light breeze carried the stink away.
Women sang rhythmic hymns in Creole as they wrapped bandages.
Less than 50 meters away, the main hospital building was a stack of broken slabs. The bodies of at least 35 patients and staff had been buried somewhere under the ash-colored rubble, according to one of the doctors.
The survivors couldn’t get to all the victim’s bodies. But they did find a way to tunnel through a section of the pancaked building’s remains to break into the wrecked pharmacy and recover what medications and supplies they could.
I visited other makeshift hospitals too. Places where amputations, Cesarian sections and even brain surgery had been performed, by necessity, outdoors in shocking, non-sterile conditions. Volunteers pulled doors out of rubble and used them as litters and operating tables.
Oscar Elouence recovering from amputation at Port au Prince's General Hospital.
Thankfully, I didn’t witness any of this horrible surgery in progress. But I saw the survivors who would either heal or die under tarps, with their families clustered around to shoo the flies away, feed them, and carry off the stinking bedpans. There were tens of thousands of horribly injured and sick people all around Port au Prince.
Back at St. Francois de Sales, several one-story wings and annexes to the original main building still stood on the hospital grounds, but frequent aftershocks reminded patients and doctors why they preferred to stay outdoors despite the flies.
Some Polish soldiers had arrived with relief supplies. Volunteers from Catholic Relief Services and the Archdiocese of Baltimore had found their way here to help.
A padlocked iron gate kept the chaos outside the hospital grounds away.
The wounded at Gettysburg or Shiloh had it about the same nearly 140 years ago, I thought.
Maybe a miracle would save the man gasping for breath who was lying before me.
Working alone, now it was time to shoot the video, knock out the interviews. Show the world. Give ‘em a look at reality. Keep your cool. This was just one tragic vignette and our local guide was offering to take a small group of us to see more of his shattered city if I hustled. A fellow reporter held the camera for two quick standups. Above all, I had to make it back to the landing zone for a flight back to the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort to write, trac, edit and feed before 11 p.m. back in Washington.
News doesn’t sleep. After witnessing this, sometimes neither do I.
Video: the following report aired about 10 hours after I visited St. Francois De Sales. A second report summarizes much of what I witnessed in Port au Prince and on the USNS Comfort.
Postscript: James Lea, a North Carolina-based freelance journalist who is also in his third year of medical school consulted with doctors at St. Francois de Sales about DeCastillion. A decision was made to have Lea accompany DeCastillion in an ambulance back to the field medical evacuation station at Verreaux where the Navy had dropped off embedded journalists by helicopter that morning. Thanks to Lea’s advocacy, DeCastillion was flown to the ship. However, the Navy’s admissions records do not match the ID information DeCastillion’s mother gave me. As a result, his fate is a mystery to me.
Memo to News Managers: Loosen the Leash on One Man Bands for Top Performance
Scott Broom
New results from a recent RTNDA/Hofstra University survey showing only 38% of TV and radio news directors say their staffs are “really on top of new technology and where they’re headed” is not encouraging for either management or people in the field, particularly for One Man Band TV journalists.
With the rapid adoption of one man band journalism, many senior news managers are finding themselves in uncharted territory. These managers never served as MMJ’s themselves because the job didn’t exist back in the day. With no “battlefield experience” to call upon, now they can only imagine what it might be like. (Hint: air traffic controllers at O’Hare aren’t nearly as busy).
Even so, newsroom execs recognize the gems in their organizations when they see them — those motivated one man band reporters who are aggressive and productive. These flexible masters of reporting, shooting editing and web posting leverage their new digital tools to routinely beat their traditional competition. Despite working alone, they turn up surprising elements in otherwise mundane event-of-the-day stories.
To develop a whole newsroom full of these performers remember this formula for the proper care and feeding of these unique news animals: Autonomy + Empowerment + Feedback = Motivation.
Autonomy: The most efficient MMJ’s are the ones you rarely see at the TV station because they are maximizing time in the field. The time wasted by traditional crews “gearing up”, “making calls,” sitting in morning meetings and otherwise being around the station is time a One Man Band can ill afford to lose . A properly equipped MMJ has no need to report to the TV station to get to work.
Loosen the management leash by:
- Issuing “take home” gear to MMJ’s and allow them to dispatch directly to assignments with no diversions
- Encouraging participation in morning meetings via e-mailed story pitches and phone calls, not in-person appearances.
- Encouraging editing in the field, and “snap feeding” by WiFi or broadband or live truck rather than returning to the station to ingest tape and produce.
- Allowing MMJ’s to clock out from the field, saving management the overtime required for travel back to the station to “gear down.”
These critical time savers provide the One Man Band the time needed to accomplish what used to require two (or three) individuals to do.
Empowerment: To be autonomous, One Man Bands need to be empowered with a full tool box, always on hand — and a team to back him/her up. Investments in “take home” vehicles and gear will return surprising dividends in productivity, overtime reduction and motivation. Arm them with the following:
- Vehicle
- Camera, audio and light gear
- Laptop computer enabled with the following capabilities:
- Wireless internet access — broadband and WiFi
- Skype or other application that allows MMJ’s to stream to a web-based receiver live from any location with broadband, WiFi or network cable access.
- Editing software able to ingest recorded and live video from camera in the field.
- Applications allowing reporter to “snap feed” packages from laptop to the station via internet.
- Handheld device that is phone, Internet, e-mail and video capable.
- Scanner
- A team at the TV station to assist in developing information while the MMJ is tied up shooting and editing.
Feedback: Let your MMJ know you’re keeping track with occasional “‘atta boy” emails or calls — as well as instant feedback when he or she is not living up to expectations. Try to balance these categories carefully, as the stress level in the field is high.
- Critique stories frequently. Remember your MMJ is working alone. Without a partner to collaborate with in the field, management feedback is more important than ever.
- Track web postings. Did your MMJ file to the web first, before producing TV? Tracking is the best way to let him/her know this is a priority.
- Since you have assigned your MMJ take home gear, ask for a quarterly inventory of equipment and keep a watchful eye on gas and mileage. In return, support him/her with quick fulfillment of requests for tapes, batteries, reimbursements and other needs.
Motivation: Journalists are generally go-getters. Autonomy, empowerment and feedback breed a deep sense of internal responsibility to perform at the high level required for the extremely demanding role of a One Man Band. The best managers will be as flexible as the MMJ is in getting the job done.
Scott Broom Quoted in AFTRA Magazine Article Outlining Union’s One Man Band Strategy
Scott Broom
“There is no doubt there are certain types of stories that I’m less capable of getting, in terms of developing contacts, than I might get if I had a partner with me.” Scott Broom in AFTRA Magazine Summer 2009 ((pp 16-17))
In her recent article for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists magazine, AFTRA national manager of communications Leslie Simmons takes on the labor union’s struggle with the coming age of the One Man Band in major market local television.
Simmons quizzed me and my WUSA colleague Bruce Leshan for some insight into what its like in the trenches of reporting shooting and editing unassisted. We both agreed that despite the important focus on workplace issues like compensation for additional work, the most critical part of the debate for reporters and society is the impact on journalism itself.
As my quote above indicates, at WUSA in Washington D.C. its undeniable that One Man Bands can be at a disadvantage.
But not always.
The journalism with a capital “J” debate is not as straightforward as it may appear. Trade-offs are being made and the search for equilibrium remains elusive.
Aftra Magazine, June 2009
Like other television outlets, WUSA is attempting to strike a new balance by adopting the “Information Center” model. The WUSA version seeks to turn nearly all newsroom employees, regardless of classification or technical area, into “journalists.”
There’s been a lot of cross training. For example, photographers, editors, producers and assignment mangers have been educated (or re-educated) on the basics of writing, libel, ethics, and creating a beat. The goal is to create a news organization with a lot more professional “journalists” on hand.
In theory, the journalistic shortcomings of the One Man Band in the field should be balanced by the greater ability of the expanded team in the Information Center to collect and sift facts on any given subject.
Predictably, in practice this has been challenging to implement and has not yet fulfilled its promise. WUSA continues to work on it.
The best results were seen during a lethal Metro commuter rail collision in June of 2009, when the station was able to flood the disaster zone with more people than the broadcast competition and therefore collect more factual information more quickly.
In my case, thanks to the nimbleness of my gear and a strong wireless connection, there was a long period where WUSA had the only live picture of the scene. It was being fed from my camera to a laptop I’d carried to the location, solo. This was long after live trucks and their crews had been shooed away by rescuers. (Helicopters were also excluded thanks to the no-fly zone around Washington). It was a nice win for WUSA’s TV and web products.
Later I was able to interview Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty as he walked through the area and turn a reaction package unassissted. This freed other colleagues to focus on everything from medical triage to rider reactions.
In this case, and other notable spot news events, our journalistic efforts were helped rather than hurt by the One Man Band model. The next step is to flex this into more sophisticated endeavors such as investigations and daily enterprise where more coordination and back-up from the newly-trained “team” in the information center is needed.
As Bruce Leshan put it in AFTRA Magazine: “There are stories that require a tremendous amount of journalist work. If you’re driving and shooting and editing, you just don’t have the time in the day to do the old journalist stuff.”
Meanwhile, Simmons reports that AFTRA is now adhering to a principal of “gaining something of substance” as it negotiates the implementation of Multimedia Journalists (a.k.a. MMJs or One Man Bands).
In this regard, AFTRA has it right. For instance, a deal with WRC in Washington to give explicit primary AFTRA jursidiction over the internet and secondary digital channels is a reasonable bargain. Membership and future bargaining power is strengthened. The overall quality and professionalism of the people creating “content” will be higher. In the end that will be a critical factor as we flex new technology to defend the capital “J” in journalism.
Newseum Features Scott Broom in “One Man Band” Exhibit
- Scott Broom beside the exhibit featuring his work as a multimedia journalist at WUSA-TV in Washington D.C.
The Newseum in Washington D.C. has added me and my brand of “One Man Band” journalism to exhibits chronicling the dramatic changes in the news industry.
I’m featured in the Bloomberg Internet, TV and Radio Gallery on the third level of the Newseum in an exhibit called “Digital News Revolution”.
Newseum description of One Man Band Journalism
The exhibit reads:
“Get Your Local TV News From a “One-Man Band”
“Television stations are changing the way they gather and deliver the news.
“To cut costs and take advantage of new technologies, some traditional news crews are being replaced by “one-man band” operations. TV reporters shoot and edit their own stories using Web cameras, laptop editing programs and the Internet.
“Some TV stations will soon start delivering local news live via mobile devices such as cell phones, GPS units and MP3 players. These devices will pinpoint your location through a tracking system and pass on information about local news weather and traffic.”
Being enshrined in a major museum comes with mixed feelings. Naturally, I’m honored to be recognized on the cutting edge of a mass medium. By the same token, critics might note that I’m now literally the poster child for cost cutting.
Ironically some might say, the exhibit is just around the corner from a display devoted to Edward R. Murrow who once said: “We cannot make good news out of bad practice”.
But Murrow also said: “A reporter is always concerned with tomorrow. There’s nothing tangible of yesterday.”
At their best, the technologies brought to bear by a skilled One Man Band can beat traditional crews in speed and flexibility. My experience tells me that One Man Banding is not “bad practice”. Rather, it is a new practice, that allows a creative journalist to inform a global audience by leveraging wireless capabilities to deliver video and text on-air and on line in near real time.
Remember, Murrow’s signature broadcast was named See It Now. Surely, Murrow would have no argument with the unfiltered reality that this technology is capable of delivering so the public can do just that.
A Little Safety Reminder About Working Alone
Scott Broom
Inevitably when there’s talk about One Man Band TV reporting, the issue of safety comes up.
In my career as a traditional TV reporter, I’ve dealt with everything fron knife weilding nutcases to angry neo-nazis, crazed dogs and stinging insects. In the old days, I usually had my partner (photographer) covering my back, and vice versa. Obviously, working alone leaves me playing man-to-man D in any tough situation that comes up.
Below is a little memo I wrote to my co-workers recently about a situation that could have got anybody killed, working alone or not. It had nothing to do with dark nights in a bad neighborhood. But it does illustrate that you are your own safety fail safe.
Nowadays, I try to remember the most experienced, level-headed partners I have worked with — and ask myself, “what would they be thinking right now?” — before I get out of the car. (Speaking of cars, driving is clearly the most dangerous thing we do on the job everyday.)
The memo titled “Live Wire Safety” is below:
Colleagues,
I had a little storm chasing experience that I thought I’d share, partly as a safety reminder, and partly to get over the “willies” by telling someone.
For background, I’ve sat through a lot of mandatory safety seminars over the years — and like many of us, I feel like I’ve “been there, done that” in just about every situation. Yesterday, I learned how dangerous that attitude can be.
I was headed to a downed live wire and arrived simultaneously with first responders. Its a situation I’ve seen repeatedly in 27-years of reporting. Recognizing the danger, I resisted the instinct for up close nats with firefighters, and took the following actions:
*I stayed safely in the electrically insulated car and retreated at least 50 yards.
*I put the car safely out of traffic.
*I put on my reflective vest.
*I checked the power lines and trees above for any signs of instability before getting the camera out to begin shooting.
Only then did I start shooting action so distant I was on full zoom.
So how did I almost get electrocuted for a routine 30-second vo?
I made the critical mistake of parking less than 10 feet from a galvanized steel guard rail, which happened to be in contact with the wire more than 50 yards away.
It’s an obvious hazard I never considered, until electricity arced from the rail right nearby — at about the same time a firefighter warned me the rail might be hot.
Thankfully, a guard rail is obviously grounded, but had I parked a little closer and swung the car door into contact with it, or touched it in any way, I would be cooked. (Ironically, for safety, I often make a point of putting a guard rail between me and traffic by climbing over to the other side — or I’ll lean against one to steady an off tripod shot).
The visible arcing was a sign that even the rail’s contact with the ground was not enough to handle the current.
It was, as they say, a close one — and I should have known better, because I’ve been trained on this.
Lesson learned: In live wire situations — think about ALL the ways that electricity reach out to get you. Distance from the arcing wire is not the only consideration. (And thinking you’ve “been there, done that” is not a smart approach).
A New Media Model: Aggregate and Stop Giving My Work Away!
Scott Broom
This weekend I lamented the loss of the Tucson Citizen, and wondered why the media industry hasn’t invented a model to save itself yet.
The cruel irony here is that papers and broadcasters are closing up news shops at the very same time they are being seen by more eyeballs than ever, thanks to that darned ‘ol internet. It’s nuts. The product is distributed intergalactically, but begging for money locally.
Everyone knows the answer is to stop giving it away. (And while we’re at it: stop letting aggregators like Yahoo and Google sell ads on their “news” sites without paying the providers of click-through content.)
Oh right, I remember. Everyone also knows the first one to charge for content instantly gets ZERO hits, as the users simply go to the sites that are free.
Okay then. Time to get serious and think collectively.
A New Model
The AP is a “collective” model for sharing legitimate professional content among paying member news organizations, small and large, for the benefit of all. Can we create a similar model for our users?
Example: create or combine with an aggregator (like Yahoo) to centralize access to ”member” news organizations from the New York Times to the smallest market TV station. Then, charge users an affordable “subscription” for access to all the members on the web. In exchange for this “one-subscription gets all” model, members agree collectively to eliminate independent free content. This will encourage users to route through the subscription-only aggregator.
Here’s how it might work: To become a “member” organization, the aggregator charges the content provider a licensing fee based on web traffic routed to the member’s site. This up front financial stake eliminates non-professional content providers while allowing the big and the small news organizations to swim in the same very large pool.
Again, the member agrees it will no longer offer free content of any kind. Users either access the product through their subscription to the aggregator — or they pay to read the member directly.
Meanwhile, the aggregator uses its huge traffic rates to sell national/international advertising and shares a substantial part of its revenues with members (who continue to sell local ads on their individual products).
Oh, and any blogger who decides to cut-and-paste entire articles gets sued.
Bottom line: This industry must work together to take down the free websites, or die.
Stop giving my work away, will ya?!!
Judge Indicts Media Cuts in Free Speech Case
Scott Broom
As reported on the website Investigative Voice , here is what U.S. 4th circuit court of appeals judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in a recent opinion overruling the firing of a Baltimore police officer for leaking to the media.
“In these most difficult of times, not only investigative coverage, but substantive reports on matters of critical public policy are increasingly shortchanged,” the judge wrote. “So, for many reasons and on many fronts, intense scrutiny of the inner workings of massive public bureaucracies charged with major public responsibilities is in deep trouble.”
Wow, even one of the most conservative appeals courts in the nation thinks the media is too toothless in its current state.
Here are some more excerpts from the judge’s ruling:
“There are pros and cons to the changing media landscape, and I do not pretend to know what assets and debits the future media mix will bring,” the judge continued. “But this I do know — that the First Amendment should never countenance the gamble that informed scrutiny of the workings of government will be left to wither on the vine. That scrutiny is impossible without some assistance from inside sources…. Indeed, it may be more important than ever that such sources carry the story to the reporter, because there are, sad to say, fewer shoeleather journalists to ferret the story out.”
“… As the state grows more layered and impacts lives more profoundly, it seems inimical to First Amendment principles to treat too summarily those who bring, often at some personal risk, its operations into public view. It is vital to the health of our polity that the functioning of the ever more complex and powerful machinery of government not become democracy’s dark lagoon.”
The Judge was ruling on a landmark free speech case involving a Baltimore Police district commander fired for leaking to the press after the police shooting of a 78-year old suspect who’d shot his landlord. The officer, Maj. Michael Andrew, was concerned that another commander gave the order to fire even though there were no hostages and the prospects for surrender without violence seemed to be improving. When the police administration rebuffed Andrew’s concern, he leaked to the media. Later, he was fired.
As a major market One Man Band TV journalist, it’s hard to argue with the judge. It’s all the more reason I must be a master of the new technology tools I’ve been given.
There are a lot of Maj. Andrews out there with important stories to tell. My challenge as a One Man Band is to leverage my new nimbleness with a video camera, a computer and instant access to the Internet to shed more light rather than less.
New “Digital Journalism” Venture in Baltimore Puts Traditional Media On Notice
Scott Broom
What does a local investigative journalism team do when their paper, the Baltimore Examiner, abruptly closes up shop?
They re-incarnate themselves as The Investigative Voice, a web-based digital publication that has reporters collecting information, shooting photos and video, and posting online whenever anything new breaks.
In six short weeks, the team of Stephen Janis, Luke Broadwater and Regina Holmes have exposed the city’s pension board approving trips to the Caribbean during a fiscal crisis, uncovered the roots of a chilling gang-related killing in the leafy suburbs and broke national news of the Secret Service getting one of its vans booted and towed by Baltimore’s finest. (The agents are providing protection to former First Daughter Jenna Bush who, the team pointed out, is not entitled to such security service.)
Ivestigative Voice on the web
With no budget and little more than social networking promotion, the site has acheived 20,000 visits and 60,000 page views. Clearly there is a long way to go, but the team is looking for collaborators in Philadelphia, D. C. and New York to broaden the market as quickly as possible.
They are the kind of “One Man Band” digital journalists evolving from both the print and broadcast sides of the business. Free from the superstructure of corporate ownership, they are evolving more quickly than anyone imagined, and proving to traditional media dinosaurs and naysayers that quality competitive journalism is entirely possible under this new paradigm.
“I think its going to be viable.” said Janis Tuesday, though he admits the team is getting by on savings and help from relatives for the moment. “Its basically the future, so one way or another we’re going to figure it out,” he said.
TV stations have already taken to copy-catting stories, and Janis now appears as a regular guest on one station, Fox-45 in Baltimore, to promote his content. It’s an indication that these are the kind of digital journalists television stations hope to create in the future for their own operations. A more extensive partnership with local television outlets is an idea the team is pursuing.
There is no question about the quality of reporting. Janis’ credentials include winning the 2008 investigative reporting prize from the Maryland, DC Press Association. Editor Regina Holmes is a 20-year veteran of papers such as the Miami Herald and New York Post and an alum of the Columbia Journalism graduate program. Broadwater has a fistfull of journalism awards as well.
They buzz-market their content by using Twitter, Facebook and email blasts when a new story posts. They are building web revenue in partnership with Advertising.com and by soliciting readers to become supporters. They are even selling T-shirts. The content is, and will be, free, according to Janis
“We’ve got several plans to make this work,” Janis said. “If this one doesn’t pan out, we’ll try another.” Janis said team can go afford to go about a year before they really need The Investigative Voice to bring in more substantial income.
But the revenue bar is low. It’s an almost no-overhead operation. The team has no office, and works in a “virtual” newsroom via laptops and cell phones. “We meet at Regina’s apartment when we need to be face-to-face,” Janis said. Yet the product is high quality, a bit edgy and certainly compelling.
My opinion: The Investigative Voice is a wake up call to traditional print reporters and broadcasters. As outfits like The Investigative Voice become forces by stealing eyeballs in their markets, big media owners will figure out how to copy and leverage the power of such “One Man Band” digital reporting. In the meantime, Janis, Broadwater and Holmes are showing the way.
Why are We Doing This?: Obama Teaches ‘New Media’ Lesson
Scott Broom: (loyal NPR listener, really)
The Gasbags on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show were at it again this week as they discussed President Obama’s prime-time press conference Tuesday. There was Rehm sniffing that the major networks provided “no analysis, no nothing” and a guest explaining ”they had to go right to entertainment programming and make their money.” Earlier a guest said of Americans, somewhat self-importantly: “most people do not absorb all the media that we in this room or your listeners absorb”.
The guest, of course, is wrong. Americans “absorb” more media than ever in history, just not the kind of media the gasbags think is “important” and “serious” enough for Americans’ own good.
Meanwhile establishment media got stiffed by the President recently, when Obama blew off their annual Gridiron Dinner and roast in Washington for a quiet night at Camp David doing – nothing. Talk about telegraphing to the self-appointed gatekeepers of information are they not nearly as important as they view themselves.
Barack Obama on YouTube
I point all this out, as we in traditional local TV newsrooms grapple with dramatic change. Many of us now being converted to “Digital Correspondents” wonder bitterly how its possible for the Internet to save us? How can buzz-marketing through Twitter and social networking – or blogging – possibly lure enough eyeballs to to pay the bills at a local affiliate TV station. Why are our owners slashing investment in the flagship TV product by turning us into “One Man Bands” and chasing the Internet with no proven model to monetize the product?
For the big picture on some of this, I look to no other than the President of the United States.
People today consume news as bits of information from mainstream and niche sources and from one another, driving a White House intent on shaping the news to an innovative communication strategy. Blogs, on-line news sites and ethnic media have grown dramatically in size and influence, even as newspapers disappear.
In recent days the president has bypassed traditional media by appearing on The Tonight Show and a Latin music awards show. He conducted an on-line “town hall” where more than three million votes were cast American Idol-style for the top questions to be asked. Via the Democratic National Committee, he e-mails millions directly. And yes, The President is on Twitter.
This is all in addition to the president’s traditional media appearances on 60-Minutes and his prime-time press conference (where, by design, he used up the entire allotted hour to prevent gasbag analysis by the networks).
Obama’s people are working all the angles. And that, it seems, is what I’m doing in my small media world too. Whether all the Twittering, live-streaming chats, blogging I’m doing as a “One Man Band” Digital Correspondent in an “Information Center” (formerly a TV newsroom) will amount to the eyeballs my employer needs remains to be seen. Recent data reported in Broadcasting and Cable raises new questions about blind faith in new media.
Indeed, there are a lot of days when I’m skeptical. Obviously, Obama is not. The question is, can we in the media business adapt as quickly and effectively as the President has without throwing the baby out with the bathwater?
Why Unions Should Embrace the “One Man Band”
Local TV news insider Mark Joyella asks in a recent blog post entitled The Era of the One Person Crew is Upon Us: “And what, pray tell, is the union strategy in all of this?”
Scott Broom
Let me take you to a big meeting room at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland one Saturday back in February. Here the Pooh-bahs of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Broadcast Steering Committee had gathered for exactly this uncomfortable conversation. Why, many of these distinguished broadcast professionals wanted to know, should AFTRA accept the coming of the “One Man Band”?
On one side, strong opinions that if AFTRA stood for anything, it had to stand for upholding the quality and professionalism of the work we do – quality that would be impossible to maintain with a do-everything underpaid psuedo TV reporter slinging a camera all alone.
On the other side, fear. Fear that if AFTRA didn’t bend to management, that the union might become irrelevant in a fast-changing media environment.
I was there too, although I felt a little like a zoo exhibit. I’d been invited to answer questions on the topic, since after 26-years as an Emmy-award-winning traditional “coat and tie” TV reporter, I’d recently made the transition to a one man band at WUSA TV in Washington. I’ve also been a loyal dues-paying member since 1991.
Some tried to hide their pity. A few barely concealed contempt. If not for me, then for the management that had insited that my local to accept the conversion of members into “Digital Correspondents” .
I was the only “One Man Band” in the room, and here’s what I told them:
“Jurisdiction is work.”
What I mean is that by accepting shooting and editing, AFTRA members will certainly be more likely to keep their jobs and maintain union presence in the workplace. Expanding the job classifications covered by the union stands to maximizes the percentage of employees in any given shop AFTRA represents. In the long run, both factors can only be a benefit by maintaining or increasing collective bargaining power.
Rather than fearing that AFTRA will become irrelevant by bending to management, the union arguably stands to become stronger.
Not exactly what most managements were hoping for, I suspect. Although it is certainly true I’m working a lot harder for no additional compensation, which is exactly the plan. (In leiu of going out on a destructive strike, AFTRA admittedly had few cards to play in this regard).
Same goes for technical unions such as IBEW. The goal should be the grab as much jurisdiction as the companies allow, even if members aren’t particularly interested in taking on new jobs for little additional reward. All this raises the interesting question of what happens when you pit two unions against each other over the same jursidiction. In my shop, IBEW gave up jurisdiction on shooting and editing which allowed AFTRA to fill the void.
As for quality and professionalism, I struggle with the issue.
I’m proud of my work but recognize that I can be at a disadvantage on stories that require more sophisticated relationships with sources. Instead of chatting up sources in the hallway, I’m busy checking audio and lights for a press conference.
On the other hand, there are opportunities to work smarter. The fact is, the lighter, faster, smaller and more nimble approach has scored me interviews with reluctant subjects who ducked traditional crews. It’s a trade off with mixed results. Compensation aside, I’ve been invigorated by this new chapter in my career.
But one thing’s for sure, whether One Man Bands are the right or wrong way to go — that’s where the business is moving. Unions like AFTRA should embrace them.
leave a comment