Tools for Journalists

Over at the Poynter Institute, Chip Scanlan has a list of tools the multimedia journalist needs.

I agree with all of them except one – I’ve had two clients and several students bring me files from the Nikon 5100 and every single frame looked horrible. The video is okay, but the still photos looked very over-compressed with more artifacting than a GIF file. It’s stunningly weird.

A piece of advice on smartphones and other electronics: if you’re upgrading and need something to do with them, Gazelle.com has a clean, efficient trade-in program that my wife and I have used. You can get a check or Amazon credit (which adds a couple of percentage points on to their offer) and know that your old device won’t sit in your drawer for three years and then head to a landfill.