On photography: understand and pinpoint the news first; then show the issue, not the meeting

This is posting is similar to the first real posting on this blog, back on August 30. Be sure to read that post.

In the same manner, photography should highlight the news, not the meeting. Focus on the issue, not the gathering of people.

Instead of photographing a wide shot of a full Yankee Stadium, show a close-up shot of David Ortiz smacking the 9^th-inning home run that won the game for the Red Sox. That’s the news – that the Red Sox beat the Yankees. The news isn’t that the two teams played.

In the August 30 post I pointed out how many rookies cover a meeting and think that’s news. Sure, news can be found at a meeting, but the meeting itself usually isn’t news. You need to answer the question of WHY the meeting was held.

I was served a great lesson about this as a young reporter. I once worked for a small newspaper that was in a suburb of a larger city with a good daily paper. I went to a press conference that was highlighting how the interstate was going to be widened to accommodate all the traffic in the growing suburb. The larger newspaper's story on the same event was better than mine, and I'll tell you why.

I had a decent story that began with the first speaker of the press conference, then the second speaker of the press conference and then finished with the third speaker at the conference. All in all, it was a decent use of the inverted pyramid. But looking back it was a rookie story. 

The picture I ran was a shot of the first speaker of the conference – a decent news conference shot.

But the major market daily served me a lesson the next day.

After the press conference the major market newspaper sent their photographer, Carl Costas, on the interstate overpass in the evening to get a shot of all the headlights bunched together coming out the city at dusk.

The maddening daily traffic jam was the real issue. Not the press conference.

In fact, the story in the major daily hardly even mentioned the press conference.  They focused on:

- the issue
- what was going to be done about it
- what leaders said about it

There was only one brief mention of the press conference – to mention where a city officials made their comments (and it didn't appear until the fifth paragraph).

Keep this concept in mind whenever you write news or take a news photo – the most important part of journalism isn’t writing or photography, it’s first understanding what the news (issue) is. Once you identify the issue, then you can report the story and show pictures illustrating actual news beyond the event.
 

So instead of showing a wide shot of a boring meeting, get a close-up shot of the speaker who said the most newsworthy thing, made an announcement or called out somebody else.

Or even better, show a file photo of the issue that’s being voted. If the board voted to build a new school, show a picture of the property where it will be built.

If you’re at a boring meeting, don’t make readers have to suffer through it, too. Think really hard: “What’s the real issue here?”

Forget the meeting. Show us the news.