So many conversations lately, both in blogs and in person, …about METHODS of PR and communication. TOOLS and MEDIUMS of delivery. ONLINE vs PRINT. Social Media vs traditional media.
We web-tech nerds like to talk shop. We like like to discuss methods, tools and mediums. But all this discussion is meaningless without content creators and storytellers.
Lately I’ve been a huge fan of The Big Picture, a new feature of the Boston Globe, instigated by Alan Taylor. (Make sure to click on the features. Each one has 10-20 additional images.)
On his personal website, Alan writes about his motives behind the project:
When I see quality photography consigned to the archives, or when I see bandwidth readily given up to video streams of dubious quality, or when I see photo galleries that act as ad farms, punishing viewers into a click-click-click experience just to drive page views - those times are the times I’m glad I was able to get this project off the ground (many thanks to my friends within boston.com)
And the thing that makes me happiest about it - I’m telling stories once again, on a regular basis, with great support and great platform. I hope you enjoy The Big Picture - go check it out.
In another post he gets to the central motivation for his recent projects:
In my 40 years, I’ve had over 30 different jobs. The ones that I enjoyed the most, that were the most fulfilling, all involved storytelling. I discovered long ago a real love for storytelling, and have practiced it in many different ways (oral, digital, print, video, graphic, more) - all very satisfying. This is my central passion and I need to keep nurturing it, and I will.
My day job is still with boston.com (The Boston Globe), and I love that I can be involved with storytelling at some level there. In the past, it was a bit difficult because of my specific role there, but recently things have been changing, and there will be more opportunity for me to nurture that passion at work as well.
I envy Alan and his career. He’s put together an interesting set of projects. This year my aim is to focus more on storytelling. Sure, the tools of delivery and the methods of communicating stories are very important. That’ll always be a big part of what I do. But in the end, all this banter about tools is essentially identical to artists arguing about pencils. My job affords me the option of helping writers find, document, and present stories, and I’m going to try and take a bigger step into that arena. Be it with video, photography, audio, or yeah, even text.
