Let a journalist promote your organization or cause through multiple-media-platform storytelling. No training required

International Conference on Broadcasting Media & Film Industry

October 20, 2014 DoubleTree by Hilton Baltimore-BWI Airport, USA

Cheryl Jackson

Accepted Abstracts: J Mass Communicat Journalism

Abstract :

There was a time when a journalist?s work belonged to one media organization. The one he or she was contracted through. Now many journalists are free agents, opening up their expertise to anyone who contracts it. The modern journalist is an entrepreneur/business commodity managing a multiple-media-platform career. The expert journalists is no longer just using their storytelling skills for news and investigative coverage, but are now using storytelling to collaborate with organizations, assisting them as they develop brand narratives for businesses, charities, causes, etc. The skilled journalists has mastered all media platforms (audio, video, print, social media), and is a natural fit into any organization?s public strategy because they are experts at writing for print (magazine, newspaper) and the web, writing for television and radio, shooting video and photos, and using social media effectively. All the mentioned media platforms are considered necessary for optimal promotion of an organization?s image, agenda or cause to the broadest possible audience. Skilled storytellers know what is necessary for an outstanding video story. They also know when a story assigned as an audio story should be reworked into a print story. They know how to tweet a story to support an agenda and how to use Facebook to promote a cause. The modern journalist is a word-crafter, not limited to one way to reach an audience. When a skilled journalist is hired by an organization, they can begin fully focused work on day one, because they are already master storytellers. All they just need is the bullet points to the story.

Biography :

Cheryl Jackson is a freelance correspondent who has worked for CNN, PBS and Racing towards Diversity magazine. Highlights of her work for CNN include coverage of the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal, where the bodies of many African-Americans were ripped from their graves, left in piles and their graves resold. She is a contributing writer for Racing towards Diversity magazine and has written numerous profiles and features, including a story analyzing the role of race and poverty in collecting data for the U.S. Census. She is also a visiting Professor at Northwestern?s Medill School of Journalism and has taught newspaper writing and broadcast classes at Indiana University and DePaul University. She started her journalism career as a feature?s reporter and newspaper diversity columnist. She wrote her column, ?It Takes All Kinds? for the Columbus Republic for more than a decade. The content of the column was designed to promote understanding through diversity writing on race and culture in a positive way. Her first job in television was as a convergence reporter, working for both WSBT/TV and the newspaper, the South Bend Tribune. She did a live report for WSBT five days a week and then flipped many of those stories into print for the Tribune. She often shot the photos that accompanied the print piece. She continued her broadcast career at WRTV in Indianapolis before moving to Chicago to freelance for CNN.