Making the Media

Artificial intelligence is a fascinating--and often thoroughly misunderstood--topic, and it's making its way into the world of news.

In this episode, we ask: What are the cutting-edge applications of AI in the news industry? How can we deploy it responsibly? Is AI only accessible to the largest organizations with the deepest pockets? And perhaps most importantly, what's next?

Our Guest This Episode

Felix M. Simon is a doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and a Knight News Innovation Fellow at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism. He also works as a research assistant at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) and regularly writes and comments on technology, media, and politics for various international outlets. His doctoral work at the University of Oxford focuses on the implications of AI in journalism and the news industry. His broader research interests include political communication in the digital age and the changing nature of journalism and the media in the 21st century. He also takes an active interest in populism and the future of mis- and disinformation. Felix graduated with a BA in Film and Media Studies from Goethe-University Frankfurt and holds an MSc in Social Science of the Internet from the OII. He is currently a fellow at the Salzburg Global Seminar.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton, Gina Pryor, and Mary Reynolds

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Broadcast TV isn’t the only game in town anymore, if it ever was. Being where your audience is—mobile, digital, wherever they may be—is a big challenge, but also a big opportunity to reach new audiences.

In this episode, we ask: Can platform fragmentation actually help broadcasters get closer to their audience? What insights can digital platforms unlock? And how can broadcasters pivot to deliver to new platforms, while still meeting the needs of the platforms where they are well established?

Our Guests This Episode

Matt Goldberg is the VP of Content Strategy for the NBC-owned TV stations, where he leads the team that developed and launched LX. Matt has been with NBC for 17 years, previously as Assistant News Director at KNBC in Los Angeles and at NBC Bay Area. Prior to moving into management, Matt was an award-winning investigative producer. Matt was an elected board member of the non-profit Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) and served as Board President from 2016-18. He began his career in TV news while attending Arizona State and has also worked in Houston, Texas.

Philip Bromwell, a pioneer of mobile journalism, is the Digital Native Content Editor at RTÉ, Ireland’s national public service broadcaster. In over two decades as a journalist, he has reported on a wealth of stories at home and abroad, including covering the Olympics, the Oscars, the refugee crisis, and a rare assignment in Tibet. At RTÉ, Philip leads a team of mobile journalists creating original “digital-first” stories on mobile devices for audiences that are increasingly consuming content on their phones.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton, Gina Pryor, and Mary Reynolds

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Other industries have been using the cloud for years, but broadcasters have been reluctant to embrace it—until COVID-19 forced the issue of enabling remote work. Still, it’s an uneasy embrace, and misconceptions about and mistrust of the cloud still linger in the industry.

In this episode, we ask: Are attitudes toward the cloud finally shifting? Where is—and where isn’t—cloud feasible for broadcast workflows? What fundamental misunderstandings still need to be cleared up? And how can leaders who see the promise of the cloud get started?

Our Guest This Episode

Mohamad Fares currently leads broadcast technology at Qatar Television. With over 20 years of experience in the technology field, he works with a team of engineers and workflow consultants to deliver and support best-of-breed broadcast technology solutions and workflows. Under his leadership, the broadcast technology team looks after post production, archive, and playout.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton, Gina Pryor, and Mary Reynolds

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Story creation is a team sport. Between in-studio talent, reporters in the field, and remote collaborators, news teams have had to balance the need to stay safe through a global pandemic with the practical reality of continuing to deliver a quality service across multiple platforms.

In this episode, we ask: What are the strengths and weaknesses of a distributed model versus a more traditional approach in terms of team collaboration? How do you keep teams feeling connected and engaged, particularly when teamwork is no longer as easy as just leaning over to your neighbor?

Our Guest This Episode

Ilkka Ahtiainen has been the Editor in Chief of the Finnish commercial broadcaster MTV3 since March 2020 after building his career as a political journalist, foreign correspondent, and Sunday Editor at Helsingin Sanomat, the biggest daily in Finland. He lives in Helsinki with his wife and two teenage children.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton, Gina Pryor, and Mary Reynolds

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

News is not a forgiving field. Long hours, tight deadlines, intense subject matter—all are par for the course. Add the stress and isolation of a pandemic, and you’ve got one heck of a pressure cooker.  

Our Guest This Episode

Bob Ellis is the Vice President and General Manager of WJXT and WCWJ in Jacksonville, Florida. Under Ellis’ leadership, WJXT has widened the gap as the most-watched television station in Jacksonville and sharply focused its efforts to leverage their News4JAX brand on its digital platforms, for which they earned the national Edward R. Murrow award as he best local television website in the United States in 2014. In 2013, Ellis was named General Manager of the Year for markets 25-50 by Broadcasting and Cable Magazine.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton and Gina Pryor

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

The pandemic has forced us to re-conceptualize the newsroom from a physical location to a collection of people who could, in theory, be anywhere.

In this episode, we ask: What does a virtual newsroom look like? And to follow on: What is gained or lost in a virtual environment? Is it realistic in the long term—or even desirable? And what are newsrooms doing today that could stay with us even after we’ve resumed some sense of normalcy?

Our Guest This Episode

Bobby Hain is STV’s Managing Director, Broadcast. He is responsible for the company’s PSB licenses in north and central Scotland. Bobby has over thirty-five years’ experience in broadcasting across television, radio, and online, having started as a presenter in 1981. He is a member of both BAFTA and RTS Scotland. He is a member of the Management Board of the Industry and Parliamentary Trust and a former chair of Creative Skillset Scotland and Scottish Youth Theatre.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton and Gina Pryor

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

While the fundamentals of journalism are pretty consistent, the only constant in the news business is the pace of change. Today’s business models, content types, delivery methods, and more are so starkly different from even a few decades ago as to be nearly unrecognizable—and the future promises more evolution. How can colleges and universities keep up and produce the talent this industry needs?  

Our Guest This Episode

Jill Mitchell is a professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where she teaches Avid Media Composer and is the OverDrive operator and newscast director for the Broadcast and Digital Journalism program. Before teaching, she worked in local TV news as a newscast director. She holds a Master of Arts in Television, Radio, and Film from Syracuse and a Bachelor of Science in Television and Radio from Ithaca College.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton and Gina Pryor

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Even pre-pandemic, the mobile journalist movement was on the rise, but the pandemic has demonstrated the strength of this model in a way no one could have anticipated.  

Our Guest This Episode

Philip Bromwell, a pioneer of mobile journalism, is the Digital Native Content Editor at RTÉ, Ireland’s national public service broadcaster. In over two decades as a journalist, he has reported on a wealth of stories at home and abroad, including covering the Olympics, the Oscars, the refugee crisis, and a rare assignment in Tibet. At RTÉ, Philip leads a team of mobile journalists creating original “digital-first” stories on mobile devices for audiences that are increasingly consuming content on their phones.

More Resources

For more on this topic, check out:

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton and Gina Pryor

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Remember when news just meant linear broadcast? In case you've been trapped in a cave for the last decade or so, the new normal is a proliferation of platforms—linear broadcast, OTT, on-domain, in-app, and let's not forget the all-important social channels. Sure, it's important to consider how to deliver to all these channels, but the bigger question is what to deliver.

In this episode, we ask: How has multi-platform delivery changed how news is reported? How are broadcasters thinking about tailoring content across channels and determining their optimal mix of platforms?

Our Guest This Episode

Matt Goldberg is the VP of Content Strategy for NBC-owned TV stations, where he leads the team that developed and launched LX. Matt has been with NBC for 17 years, previously as Assistant News Director at KNBC in Los Angeles and at NBC Bay Area. Prior to moving into management, Matt was an award-winning investigative producer. Matt was an elected board member of the non-profit Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) and served as Board President from 2016-18. He began his career in TV news while attending Arizona State and has also worked in Houston, Texas.

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For more on this topic, check out:

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton and Gina Pryor

Theme Music: Greg "Stryke" Chin

The pace of change in this industry can be brutal, forcing news organizations to adapt and reinvent themselves to stay relevant. On the flip side, it’s also an industry that requires significant upfront investments in technology and talent—not necessarily a recipe for agility.

In this episode, we ask: How can broadcasters build enough flexibility and agility into their business models to enable them to pivot? What do “future-proof” business decisions look like? How has COVID-19 illuminated the inherent tension between the need for and resistance to change, and what have we learned from it?

Our Guest This Episode

Ruba Ibrahim is Director of Operations for Al Arabiya Network, overseeing systems and processes, business continuity, workflows, contracts and partnerships, and core projects of the channel from their headquarters in Dubai. Prior to this role, she had heads-on experience as a senior producer. Outside of her experience in the media industry, she is active in NGOs and the public sector, having played an active role in launching the Palestinian NGO MIFTA (The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy) and the Palestinian Ministries of Education and Higher Education.

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For more on this topic, check out:

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton and Gina Pryor

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin