Göteborg: "It's the paradigm shift of thinking visually

David Dunkley Gyimah, Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminister, UK, was one of the speakers at the fifth session at the 15th World Editors Forum. The topic of his speech was "Videojournalism-now and what next...integrated multimedia videojournalism?"

Since the birth of the videojournalism newsroom at Channel One in the United Kingdom in 1994 the change has been dramatic. That establishment cost 25 million pounds. The equivalent of the media inventory in that office can now fit in one laptop. Videojournalism has become a very effective and inexpensive way of producing fast visual news.

But what are the key elements of good videojournalism?

One of the most important parts is a clear vision at the newsdesk of what is wanted and expected. Good communication between the editor and the journalist is crucial.

There's a few clear considerations to decide before heading out into the field, for instance the mobility, the robustness and the ergonomics of the equipment. Videojournalism is about being quick and ready to go. It's essential that the camera and other equipment makes this possible. It may perhaps not always be the wisest choice to buy the most expensive camera just for the sake of it.

Another necessity is to invest in a good computer and professional editing software like Adobe Premiere for PC's and Final Cut Studio for macs.

The work of creating news from videojournalism is a process of co-operation between management , journalists and technical support. This cooperation must be perfected because videos are published on news websites, on tech news blogs, in rss-feeds and as video podcasts.

The workflow behind this output is based on ideas before the actual production takes place. According to Dunkley Gyimah, a few of the questions that have to be asked during this procedure are; What sort of content?, What is the style of the reporter?, Are VJ's suppose to fill other articles?, How long should the video be? Where and how does the production take place? Finally there's the question of output. In what mediaforms should the video be published? Web? TV? Phone? Or all three?

For Mr Dunkley Gyimah one very important thing that must not be forgotten is that the journalistic quality usually isn't the problem. " It's the paradigm shift of thinking visually," he said, emphasizing the quality of the visuals.