Multiplatform Journalism: There’s The AP for that

The Associated Press has been a well-respected and top-notch news providing organization since the Civil War. From then on they became, and have remained, the leading news wire service for hundreds of news organizations. So many news providers use AP that it is their second highest cost expense after salaries. So, basically, the AP is the coolest thing ever in the media realm.

Surprisingly, our delightful hosts who answered all of questions fully and beautifully mentioned they are still training print journalists, which they termed “text reporters,” to be video savvy and become comfortable operating and communicating with multiple formats. Being educated in the Schieffer School has trained me to naturally think of a multimedia element to every print story I generate, so I found it odd that AP has not made more of a push for their thousands of journalists across the globe to be more versatile in what they are capable to produce. Over the last two years, 110 journalists have been trained in general video and camera operations. To further spur the necessity of more than a print product, 10 journalists who showed immense progress and potential were given $15,000 camera sets to encourage the progressive excellence in multimedia work.

Another interesting thing we discussed was potential competition for the AP. How any news organization could even deem to imagine being competition is beyond me, especially when considering the economic and staffing resources they could not match in comparison with AP, but CNN has tried, often using AP as a source in the past while claiming to be independent in their findings. A peer of mine, Lauren, brought up the fact that the “National Enquirer” broke the story about John Edwards fathering a child. Our hosts mentioned that occasionally other news sources brake stories, using the example of TMZ breaking Michael Jackson’s death, and if the story is worth looking into they do so, but they use caution as some sources are not always the most reputable.

One of the questions I asked was the option for public-generated material to be used by AP, mentioning CNN’s iReport option for readers and viewers to send in videos, photos and other content. The answer was that AP values human interaction and thus does not have an outlet for the public to send in their contributions, but they do often ask for footage from bystanders of an event if a reporter is on site without a camera or cannot gain close access. They did say AP uses Twitter and Facebook to often find sources for stories and utilize those postings to check if things are indeed happening and accurate in order to send reporters.

The Associated Press encompasses journalistic integrity and ingenuity, continually resting at the top of the media food chain as a source of confidence and assurance for other news organizations, and after hearing today about their new ideas and improvements they are making with multimedia, they are bound to continue their reign as No. 1.