It’s been called “backpack journalism," “multimedia journalism” and probably lots of other names by veteran TV reporters who find themselves struggling to redefine their careers in the wake of cutbacks in local and national news bureaus. Whatever you want to call it, WUSA Channel 9’s Scott Broom has embraced this new approach to TV news, and indications are that he’s in the vanguard of a revolution.
A veteran TV journalist for 27 years, Scott joined Gannett's flagship Washington D.C. station in 2007 after 16 years as an on-air reporter at Baltimore’s WMAR. But his latest gig in the nation's capital is unlike any he’s ever held before.
After decades as a traditional coat and tie TV reporter working with a cameraman at his side, Broom has made the switch to being a one-man-band. Not only does he report on the air, he shoots and edits his own video. Along the way, he posts as many updates to the web as events demand (along with some still photos for good measure).
Embracing the new paradigm of doing more with less, Broom rarely has time to visit the WUSA studios these days. Instead, he spends his travel time from the suburbs just north of Baltimore to the Maryland DC suburbs on the phone, collecting the day’s assignments and lining up sources he'll need to appear in WUSA's multiple broadcasts. Once he’s arrived on location, Broom sets up the camera, interviews subjects, captures the video elements (“B-roll”) he’ll need to add texture to the story and to cover his narration, re-positions the camera, walks around to the front, tapes himself delivering the story, jumps into his car, edits the story start to finish and uploads the final product to WUSA via wireless broadband. The story is ready for broadcast immediately over the air and the Internet. Oh, and there’s his daily web post to think about too. And frequent Tweets from WUSA whenever anything new hits the station's website.
During the February 2010 blizzards, Broom made local news history in the D.C. market by being the first to broadcast live via Skype from behind the wheel of his all-wheel-drive vehicle while navigating in the storm.
It’s all thanks to the wireless revolution, that allows access to the Internet from anywhere a laptop or handheld device can hit a cell.
As a result, Broom has embraced a dramatically different model for TV reporting that's developing as rapidly as technology and cellular bandwidth allow. It’s how he’s managed to not only maintain a presence in TV news, but to point the way for what looks to be the new way local broadcast journalism will be practiced for the foreseeable future.
When an earthquake devastated Haiti, it was Broom who got dispatched to Port Au Prince to serve as a nimble one-man-band, uploading his reports to the Internet via a carry-on sized satellite data link. It was done without the large (and expensive) invasion force of personnel that used to be required for an overseas assignment in a disaster zone. For the effort, Broom and his work are now featured as an exhibit in the Newseum in Washington D.C.
As quoted in the Washington Post, Allan Horlick, general manager of WUSA, says that "One of the concerns we heard from the newsroom is that the quality has got to suffer," Horlick says. What actually happens, he says, is that "the quality goes up," and each newscast ends up with a surplus of stories.
While not everyone agrees with that assessment of “quality,” the net result is more content, lower cost and a leaner operation all around. For reporters like Scott Broom, it’s a matter of jumping on the technology bandwagon to avoid being run over by it.
According to Broom, “We used to think this was impossible. Instead, we can surprise ourselves with what works – and we try not to surprise our audience with what doesn't.”
Scott Broom, working the story without a producer or camera operator to assist.
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