Technology, obviously, is making it easier and easier for reporters to function in the field on their own.  And while the tradeoff is a different sort of limit on the quality and quantity of pictures you can generate, we suspect that viewers really don’t care much — especially when the report is from the scene of breaking news.

This week’s Master Class tip features backpack journalist, Kevin Sites, going solo from the scene of an Israeli missile strike.

Some things worth note:

• He has to keep the camera on himself, apparently because he is limited here to the microphone on the camera, and audio degrades any time turns the camera or his face away.  He compensates by keeping himself in frame as he pans.  The view is obscured, but a reasonable sense of the scene is established.

• He lets the sound at the scene lead him, even though he is creating as he goes.  When chanting starts in the yard behind him, he remarks on it and turns the camera in that direction to give us a view.  In this case, he does not seem to fret much about degradation of video and audio as he turns.  As a matter of fact, it contributes to the sense that we are watching news in progress.

• Though not on a tripod, he uses some sort of portable stabilizer to steady the image he is shooting.  So while parts of the piece are clearly raw and improvised, there is little to no unnecessary and distracting movement of the images.

This feels like we are really on the scene, and the performance is totally devoid of that rehearsed and branded feel that has come to dominate breaking news reporting in many local newsrooms.  Everything, including the work of the reporter, feels authentic and improvised.  And what’s not to like about that?

You can see more of Sites and read about the equipment he uses in the field at http://hotzone.yahoo.com/.

We'd love to hear what is working for you! If you have additional questions or thoughts, please contact us.

Be sure to ask us about TCC's Desktop Coach, the industry's first online talent development system for News Directors. Call Jonathan Knopf at 214-520-2000 for more information.