FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design said the Associated Press has completed the transition of its global video-editing platform to DaVinci Resolve Studio.

The large-scale enterprise deployment includes several hundred licenses, supporting AP’s 24/7 global news operations and helping enable the creation of more than 1,500 video projects daily.

“AP produces video from more than 100 countries, delivering content to thousands of broadcasters, publishers and digital platforms every day,” said Derl McCrudden, AP vice president and head of global news production. “In support of that crucial journalism, we are working with DaVinci Resolve Studio to equip our journalists with state-of-the-art editing and production tools.”

The deployment included extensive integration with AP’s workflows and involved the development of several new capabilities in DaVinci Resolve Studio designed with breaking news in mind. These improvements included Growing Transport Stream Editing, which allows journalists to begin working on live incoming video feeds directly from AP’s media asset management system without waiting for complete file transfers. This means video can be cut and distributed within seconds after footage arrives.

As part of the deployment, AP now uses DaVinci Resolve Studio’s cloud-based preset and graphics distribution system, including graphics templates, project settings and export settings. This eliminates manual downloads and ensures branding and production standards are maintained across all locations.

Resolve has also been integrated with AP’s MAM to enable scalable cloud rendering. By distributing project rendering to cloud-based nodes, AP can automatically scale capacity during major news events and scale down when demand decreases. This reduces reliance on local rendering by journalists and editors, keeping workstations free for creative work and optimizing infrastructure costs, the companies reported.

The deployment has also simplified the software-management process. With single sign-on license management, AP uses Blackmagic Cloud to monitor, assign and redistribute Resolve licenses across its global user base.

As part of the deployment, AP journalists and field operatives were also given a comprehensive training program focused mainly on storytelling rather than technical editing. AP super-users collaborated with DaVinci Resolve Certified Trainers to develop an internal video-on-demand library, enabling staff to learn at their own pace and ensuring sustainable knowledge transfer.

The Associated Press has launched a new multiformat AI-powered content delivery platform designed to make it easier for users to find and use the news organization’s vast collection of visual, audio and text content.

The AP Newsroom platform offers a redesigned interface and wide range of new and enhanced features, AP said. They include AI-powered search and content recommendations, as well as intuitive navigation and customizable homepages to make the user experience faster and easier than ever before.

In launching the improvements, the AP said that the site underscores its commitment to delivering digital, visual-first media and serving the needs of its members and customers in a rapidly evolving media environment.

“The all-new AP Newsroom is a truly user-centric platform that provides seamless access to AP’s rich portfolio of all-formats journalism,” said Kristin Heitmann, AP senior vice president and chief revenue officer. “This marks an important milestone in our efforts to help customers quickly get the content they need, jump on breaking news faster than ever before and uncover new angles on stories – all in service of being able to serve their own readers and audiences.”

The AP described the new and enhanced features as follows:

• “Storylines,” a new tool powered by Storytelling AI from ShortTok that makes it easy to discover curated video and photo content organized around key themes and stories. For instance, when Pope Francis returned to the Vatican after his hospitalization, Storylines surfaced adjacent themes like public reaction and recovery updates to help users explore every angle.
• “More Like This,” also from ShortTok, which leverages AI to display visually similar and contextually relevant related content.
• Customizable homepages that allow users to focus on the topics, regions and formats that matter most to them.
• Access to content in AP’s exclusive historical archives, which contain more than a century’s worth of award-winning, rare and high-quality content.
• Breaking news alerts now with audio alerting, offering real-time updates on the latest stories as they unfold.

More information is available here.

SAN DIEGO—Sony said a record number of its cameras will be trained on the Super Bowl Feb. 9, when the Kansas City Chiefs meet the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans.

Sony, an official technology partner of the NFL, said that more than 240 Sony cameras will be in and around the Caesars Superdome covering plays, replays, interviews and celebrations.

These cameras range from Sony’s professional broadcast models used by Fox Sports, the official broadcaster, to the various Alpha interchangeable lens cameras and E-mount lenses including G Master that the Associated Press and other sideline photographers will use to create Super Bowl imagery.

“The Super Bowl is not just the biggest game of the year, it is also the biggest production,” Michael Davies, Fox Sports executive vice president of field operations, said. “Our job is to tell the story of the game, capturing the energy within the stadium and keeping billions of viewers engaged, and Sony is a key tool in reaching that goal.”

This year Fox Sports and production company Game Creek Video will deploy more than 100 cameras on-site for pregame, in-game and postgame action, as well as additional studio shows. Fox will also have Sony BVM reference level monitors on-site for color grading to bring the most accurate imagery to fans around the world.

More specifically, Sony’s cameras will be positioned in each end zone, along both sidelines and in multiple positions throughout the stadium, including the “SkyCam” over the field. There will be 14 Sony cameras dedicated to handling content for streaming.

In addition to all the broadcast and production cameras, Fox Sports will use Sony’s HawkREPLAY systems, a remote production and instant replay broadcast solution, to support the overall broadcast experience. Additional Hawk-Eye technology will also support in-game officiating and replay services, as well as the overall production.

“The Super Bowl is the most watched event of the year, and delivering an authentic and immersive experience for coaches, players, and fans requires a wide array of advanced technologies,” NFL Chief Information Officer Gary Brantley said. “Sony has been instrumental in enhancing the game day experience with its innovative solutions, and we are proud to have Sony play a key role in making Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans unforgettable.”

Added Neal Manowitz, president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics North America: “We are proud to play a critical role in Super Bowl LIX, drawing on our decades-long record of imaging innovation and production expertise to ensure that every fan watching on-site or at home has the best seat in the house.”

On the photography side, Sony is the exclusive imaging products and support provider for the Associated Press. In total, AP will have 14 photographers and 9 editors on-site at the Super Bowl using Sony equipment to capture and share imagery. The NFL’s in-house photography team, NFL Focus, will use a variety of Sony Alpha cameras and lenses to cover the game as well. Sony’s Pro Support team will offer a pro photographer depot on-site to help service and support the professionals working the game, including offering loans of the brand-new flagship Alpha 1 II camera.

Both the Associated Press and the NFL’s in-house photography are also planning to utilize Sony’s PDT-FP1 transmitter device on-site to deliver photos and videos directly from camera to editors in real time, streamlining their workflow and resulting in the fastest possible distribution to the public.

Each year, the size and scope of the Super Bowl Halftime Show gets larger, including its production elements. For the fifth year in a row, the Funicular Goats will handle technical production of the Halftime Show and for the fourth straight year, the Goats are choosing the Sony Venice 2 as their main camera alongside the Sony Venice Extension System and the Sony Burano for a total of 14 cameras.

“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is a challenge unlike any other project we’ve been a part of,” explains James Coker, head of engineering and technical management at Funicular Goats. “There are less than five minutes to set up and deliver a cinematic concert to millions of people, and the Sony Cinema Line cameras provide the perfect combination of full-frame sensor with broadcast compatibility to work seamlessly within the show’s structure and achieve this challenge.”

Sony provided this breakdown of equipment by user:

• Fox Sports: 97 Sony HDC Series Broadcast System Cameras; 1 Sony FR7 Cinematic PTZ Camera; 3 Sony FX6 Full-Frame Cinema Cameras; 1 Sony Alpha 7 III Mirrorless Camera; 1 Sony VENICE 2 Digital Cinema Camera.
• AP: More than 55 Sony cameras and a variety of lenses.
• NFL Focus Photography Team: Eight Sony cameras and a variety of lenses.
• Funicular Goats—Super Bowl Halftime Show: 13 Sony Venice 2 Digital Cinema Cameras; 1 Sony Venice Extension System; 1 Sony Burano Digital Cinema Camera (for ASL camera).
• Sony Pro Support: 65 Sony Full Frame Mirrorless Cameras; 140 Professional Lenses including 14x 600mm, 10x 400mm, 6x 300mm super telephoto lenses.

NEW YORK—The Associated Press has released a wide-ranging report on local news outlets’ understanding and use of artificial intelligence and their readiness to use AI to meet their journalism and business needs.

The report is based on survey results from nearly 200 newsrooms across all 50 states and more than two dozen in-depth interviews with local news leaders. Print, radio, television and digital outlets are represented, as well as commercial and nonprofit operations.

“With this report, AP aims to raise awareness and also begin to level the AI playing field for local newsrooms,” said Jim Kennedy, AP senior vice president of strategic planning. “The goal is to help them harness innovative technology to improve their operations.”

Key findings from the report include:

• There is a significant gap between large and small news organizations in terms of how widely AI and automation technologies are used.
• Despite some concerns about handing off human work to machines, there is nevertheless strong support among local newsrooms for automating tasks that could free journalists for deeper reporting, streamline production or enhance content monetization.
• While interest is high, AI technologies are not in wide use at the local level because many news outlets lack the resources or time required to experiment.

Although the report found that usage of AI in local newsrooms had not been widely adopted and was still in the early stages of development, the report also found that TV managers tended to be more interested in the use of AI. 

TV managers, for example, gave higher scores than radio or digital managers when asked if their newsroom regularly used AI in newsgathering and when asked if they had a few people who’ve tried using AI technologies in newsgathering. 

TV managers  were also more likely than other local media to agree when asked if they regularly use AI in production operations. 

Despite the low current usage, print, radio and TV leaders all expressed solid backing for using AI to simplify production operations, with support highest among digital newsrooms.

Managers, however, tended to be more supportive than journalists. 

Using AI for transcription was the most requested automation wish, the report found. 

At KSAT-TV in Texas, news director Bernice Kearney called the transcription tool Trint “a game-changer,” especially during the pandemic when most civic meetings have been recorded, the report stated. 

It also noted that Oregon Public Broadcasting had been using transcription and it quoted chief content officer Morgan Holm saying that transcription allowed the newsroom to put more resources “into the human part of newsgathering.”

The use of AI to monitor social media and to speed up the delivery of content to multiple platforms were also mentioned as potentially important use cases. 

In addition to unveiling the report, AP also announced that it will offer a free online curriculum beginning next month, open to all U.S. news outlets on the subject. It will feature live, virtual workshops and recorded tutorials. International news outlets will have access to all recorded sessions.

“We will be digging into a range of technologies and focusing on the pain points that AI and automation can help to alleviate at the local level,” said Aimee Rinehart, program manager of AP’s local news AI initiative.

Both the report and online curriculum are part of a two-year project funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to help local newsrooms expand the use of AI. The full report can be found here. 

NEW YORK—The Associated Press has announced an ambitious plan to significantly expand its climate coverage, creating a standalone desk for the coverage and hiring about 20 journalists to improve global understanding of climate change and its impact across the world.

The initiative will provide global media with a new stream of quality climate journalism via AP content and in-depth training and collaboration with AP’s customers.

The expansion is being supported by several philanthropic organizations, including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Quadrivium and The Rockefeller Foundation. AP retains complete editorial control of all content.

The dedicated climate team, led by climate and environment news director Peter Prengaman, augments AP’s environmental coverage, including an effort to cover U.S. water issues with funding from the Walton Family Foundation, and multiformat science journalism supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

As part of the new effort, AP will hire about 20 journalists based in Africa, Brazil, India and the U.S. to supplement the news agency’s journalists already covering climate and the environment. 

The new climate desk will also leverage the expertise of AP’s global staff to infuse climate coverage in all aspects of the news report, including words, visuals, data-driven journalism and graphics reaching over three billion people each day, the news organization said. 

“This is a substantial investment to ramp up and dramatically expand the outstanding work AP has been doing on climate and environment for years,” said AP senior vice president and executive editor Julie Pace. “This far-reaching initiative will transform how we cover the climate story -- helping people understand the implications and impacts of climate change on all aspects of their lives. We will do that both through our journalism and by sharing our capabilities with local newsrooms so they too can tell impactful climate stories for their audiences.”

In addition to reporters and editors for text, photos and video, AP will add reporters dedicated to the intersection of climate with the economy and state government; a climate data team that will help newsrooms localize stories; a collaborations editor who will develop outside projects and work with local journalists; an accountability editor; and more.

The news agency will also launch an AP StoryShare network for climate coverage, allowing news organizations to share their content with one another and in turn provide more robust coverage for their audiences.

There are also plans to expand the initiative further in the Amazon, Asia and Europe, where in addition to regional coverage, reporters would focus on global climate policies, emerging technologies, natural resources, famine and other subjects.

TOKYO—The Associated Press is relying on a unique, remotely controlled robotic camera system designed and built by Telemetrics to capture images of the Opening Ceremony of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics from high atop Olympic Stadium here. 

However, the primary use of the new system will be to capture still images of swimmers and divers as they hit the water and swim up from the depths of the pool for diving and swimming events, including synchronized swimming. AP will once again use the system on the stadium to capture the Closing Ceremony, the company said.

In all, AP will use six of the robotic camera control systems. Some will be equipped with a Sony Alpha 9 II mirrorless camera; others with the Sony Alpha 1. A Telemetrics PT-CP-S5 remote-control pan/tilt head inside a Telemetrics PT-WP-S5 weatherproof camera housing, which is placed inside a waterproof housing, called the PL-HOUL-S5 pool housing, will keep the system dry and give AP full control over the cameras, Telemetrics said.

The pan and tilt motion supported offers the news agency full coverage of the pool, and the zoom control makes it possible to capture extreme close-up shots of the action, it said.

The system was designed and built for Olympic-sized pools and watersport events. Easy to deploy and using a single Cat7 cable interface, the system enables AP to take full control of camera functions, including shutter, zoom and focus, as well as monitor live feeds using the Telemetrics RCCP-M remote camera control panel. Powering the system is done via the Cat7 cable using Power over Ethernet (PoE) connectivity, it said.

A single operator will have control over multiple cameras at the same time with full live preview of their images via the control panel, the company said.

Captured images will be transferred immediately to a poolside technician operating the RCCP-M panel. Once edited, toned and captioned, images will be sent to AP members and clients worldwide in real time via FTP.

“This easy to use, remotely controlled system provides a fully integrated package that is ideal for a number of hard-to-reach camera positions, like underwater applications,” said Telemetrics vice president Michael Cuomo.

Telemetrics has assigned PT-CP-S5 A9 as the product designation of the complete robotic camera package. It includes a compact pan/tilt head and weatherproof camera housing. The system’s robotic servo employs motors that deliver ultra-high position and velocity accuracy, it said.

AP also used the new system for Super Bowl LV in Tampa Bay, Fla.—its first such use in a live sports setting.

More information is available on the company’s website.  

AUSTIN, Texas—Iatakoo, a workflow developer for the broadcast and production industries, has announced that it is partnering with the Associated Press on assignment tracking and file delivery across platforms.

To achieve this, the two sides are integrating the Iatakoo Manifest—a collaboration tool that facilitates discovery, tracking and request of media files—and AP’s ENPS news production system. Through the integration, assignments in ENPS can be matched with video files delivered by Iatakoo.

Users can request a story and have it automatically deliver to the desired workflow as soon as it is available. There are notifications alerting when files are uploaded so users are up to date from anywhere.

“Remote production is more important than ever as news and production crews are forced to leave the studios during COVID-19, but all those dispersed users still need a way to know in real time that an idea or story has been assigned or the file has been uploaded or reviewed,” said Paul Adrian, Iatakoo CEO. “With Manifest, they have direct access to the story from birth to broadcast and with our collaboration with ENPS, they can find the story in Iatakoo or ENPS.”

For more information, visit Iatakoo’s website. 

SAN DIEGO—Sony Electronics and the Associated Press are teaming up, with the two sides announcing that Sony will now serve as the exclusive imaging products and support provider for AP News photographers and video journalists globally.

Sony products that will be provided to the AP’s roster of journalists include the full-frame mirrorless Alpha cameras, 4K XDCAM video cameras and an assortment of Sony’s 57 E-mount lenses, including G Master models.

This will mark the first time that AP’s video journalists and photographers will be equipped with the same brand of cameras, according to the official announcement. This is meant to enable collaboration among the news agency’s journalists.

“Sony’s history of innovation aligns well with the AP’s, and with our vision for the future of video journalism,” said Derl McCrudden, AP deputy managing editor for visual and digital journalism. “AP is committed to providing the best imagery to our member news organizations and customers across the globe. Adopting Sony’s cutting-edge equipment and technology allows us to do that, by enabling our photographers and video journalists to be faster and more flexible, ultimately creating better visual journalism.”

In addition to the products, Sony and AP plan to collaborate on improving workflow and efficiency of field operations, including testing 5G capabilities.

For more information, visit www.sony.com. 

The 360-degree, virtual reality video melody is so alluring that it has enchanted the likes of the Associated Press, New York Times,CNN, The Washington Post andmany other major news outlets. 360 video’s chief proponents are Google and Facebook, who provide cash to news outlets to post immersive, 3D video news stories online. It’s touted as the “next big thing” in journalism.

The Google-Facebook duopoly provides publishers and broadcasters cash to post 3D video news stories online. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg—the same one whose company many claimed facilitated theRussian fake newsattack on Hillary Clinton—is investingbillions in 360 video. The two social media giants get cheap news content to draw eyeballs to their own 360 virtual reality platforms.

Using a mouse, touchscreen or special goggles for the deepest immerse, news consumers can navigate inside digital scenes of ostensibly major news events. They can bypass a reporter’s selective—perhaps biased—shooting and editing and perform journalistic duties on their own.

The fact that even reputable news organizations are spending time and money to fiddle with 360 video signifies a desperation to cope with digital disruption. Even though consumers have already rejected passive, big-screen 3D for sports and entertainment programming, many online news providers are giving small-screen, interactive 3D a go.

The Associated Press puts the advent of 360 video up there with the invention of television: “The printing press allowed people to read each other’s ideas; radio allowed us to hear them; television allowed us to see them and immersive media is now allowing us to feel as if we’re actually with others as they speak” (from AP’s “A guide for storytellers in a world of immersive 3-D content.”).

“The era of 360-degree video is just beginning, but already we’ve seen its potential and begun to harness the strength that it offers our storytelling,” said Jaime Holguin, the Associated Press’s manager of news development. Indeed, the AP’s 360 video “House to House: The Battle for Mosul,” is held out as a shining example of journalism that “brought viewers to the frontlines of the battle against ISIS.”

STAGED? FAKED? “THE BATTLE FOR MOSUL” 360 STORY 

Be prepared to work your butt off searching for AP’s star 360 video story—“The Battle for Mosul”—to find what are supposed to be the most interesting or important scenes. You’ll need to constantly drag a mouse or move a finger on a screen, left and right, up and down. Many clips are so short you don’t have anywhere near the time to find whatever it is you might want or need to see. You are in control, but out of control.

You will not find any house-to-house fighting as promised in the headline. It may come off as unwieldy, even boring, compared with conventional 2D efforts by other news agencies like this piece by French station France 24, English broadcast,covering the same campaign.

The AP piece takes you back to the silent film era where you had to read subtitles to get part of the story. Scroll too far one way or the other, side-to-side or up-and-down, and you’ll miss AP’s captions. VR 360 advocates call this “dynamic storytelling.” It’s an expressionoriginally applied to using 360 video to immerse viewers in gaming and advertising experiences. Many news organizations apparently think if dynamic storytelling can sell products and video games, than it can also sell news.

The most dynamic scene in the AP’s 3D Mosul piece comes at 3:04 that shows Iraqi soldiers on a rooftop. One yells (translated into text) “There is a car bomb coming!” You very quickly hear audio of machine gun fire, you might see some smoke and muzzle flashes if you scrolled to the right place, but you never see who is shooting and what they’re shooting at. After 20 seconds the video and audio fades to black as the machine gun continues firing.

The next scene in AP’s example of dynamic storytelling jumps to some Muslim soldiers bowing to Allah in prayer. The car bomb storyline simply vanished. There is no video of the car either during or after its purported attack. No caption explains how the attack ended. It was a story with a beginning, but no middle and no end.

“I did not film the vehicle, as it was outside of the camera’s field of view.” Maya Alleruzzo, the AP’s chief photo editor for the Middle East, explained via email. What did happen to the car? Did it even have a bomb? Was anyone killed? I asked.

Alleruzzo replied with another email: “I am unaware of what happened to the car. My team and I left the roof quickly to film civilians fleeing on the street below.”

Her answer defied logic. Even if her 360 camera missed the shot, why not at least take a peek and see what happened to the car? Maybe shoot wreckage video with a 2D camera, or, at a minimum, ask one of the soldiers what happened.

So, I asked another, more detailed question:

“Could it be you were snookered by the Iraqi troops who may have wanted to conjure up some action (machine gun fire) for your camera? I could see the street in the direction of the muzzle flashes and I could not see anything. Usually those jerry-rigged "car bombs" are stopped or they explode. I don’t think they’re on joy rides. Had I been a reporter on site I would have looked, I would have at least asked questions about it and I doubt I would have gone down to the street where it could still present a threat if not fully disabled and disarmed. It seems like it was a fake attack.”

No response.

In the meantime, I had already left a phone message requesting an interview with Francesco Marconi, AP’s automation and artificial intelligence manager and chief 360 video advocate. He declined returning the call, so I copied him on my email exchange with Alleruzzo and asked for a comment.

Still nothing.

Finally, I emailed AP’s media director, Lauren Easton, asking for AP’s position on the piece. I explained that the machine gun fire appeared to be staged, that it is a fake or imaginary attack:

“Allerzzo’s response that she did not bother to look or ask about the results of the attack seems preposterous, but your office may have a more plausible explanation,” I wrote. “Also, the headline says the video is ‘riveting’ and ‘harrowing.’ Would you point out which scenes are ‘riveting and harrowing?’ Do you see any house-to-house fighting captured on video?”

Easton provided a one-line reply and declined further comment.

“AP stands by the video, which speaks for itself.”

If AP leaves the video speaking for itself, then it certainly was a faked attack. The video says so. The camera was positioned just above the machine gun and had a better view of the street. Yet the video shows no vehicle.

But the video isn’t finished talking. Thanks to the 360 shot, the camera picks up people on the rooftop and records what they’re doing. It turns out that besides the stationary 360 camera, there were at least four other cameras, all 2D, all being used the old-fashioned, non-dynamic pointy-and-shoot way.

All four cameras were to the ready before the solider yelled, “There is a car bomb coming!” and before the machine gun began firing. In other words, all four cameras were either filming or ready to film the action before the purported car was supposedly spotted.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

The video shows what the four photographers did. What appear to be two Iraqi soldiers (Figs. 1 & 2) are holding their cellphone cameras high, pointed in the direction of the street, before the warning was sounded and before the firing commenced. Neither rushes to the ledge, but, instead, both casually pan to their right, away from the line of fire.

Across from the two smartphone videographers are what are likely two reporters. One of them (Fig. 2) holds a DSLR still/video camera up high, maybe to shoot toward the street. It could be Maya Allerzzo herself. But instead of going forward to the ledge to get a better view, she crouches down and aims the camera lower, directly at the 360 camera. Then she begins crawling away from the action. If it was her, she could have used her DSLR camera to photograph or video the purported vehicle that was out of the 360-camera’s range.

Another cameraperson (No. 3) holds up a video journalist-style, two-handled camera rig, pointing it toward the machine gun. But instead of moving forward to the ledge, to get a better look at the street, the videographer turns and walks away, showing no fear of a bomb that could explode at any second.

Maya Allerzzo

Finally, as the attack segment ends, one of the two photographers on the right side of the video, No. 4, does walk to the ledge to get what would have been the best shot of any oncoming car bomb. But as soon as he gets there he pans the camera to his right, in the direction of the 360 camera and machine gun. Then the audio fades out and the video fades to black.

The story the video does tell is not about war action, but about journalism ethics.

THE TEMPTATION TO STAGE

OK, even conventional videographers and mobile journalists are tempted to shoot staged video (or semi-staged, where the journalist does not direct the action, but the news subjects act out for cameras they know are there). It’s just that 360 VR cameras really lend themselves to staged video because they are more difficult to place. They cannot be easily concealed because they have to be in the middle of the action, not at the periphery, keeping some distance, where they would act more like objective observers.

Greenbuzz, a video production company blog, wrote that 360 video in journalism has been criticized for having potential ethical issues. “Some believe that the use of it includes creating a ‘staged experience.’ This idea brings up concerns over whether the full range view of 360 video is staged unnaturally. Unnatural staging could result in a change in the authenticity of the story.”

The Washington Post defends 360 video, citing Donald Trump’s complaint that the media never showed massive crowds attending his campaign rallies. “Turn the cameras around!" he told reporters in the press pen. "Show the crowd!" “But our cameras were already turned around,” the Postreported. “To be more precise, we used a 360 camera to record everything, all around. If you've ever wondered what it's like to attend a Trump campaign event, this is as close as you can get without actually being there.”

It’s not just mainstream media enticed by the 360-video siren’s song. So are journalism schools and media publications. The Columbia Journalism Reviewproclaims that “the future is now with VR journalism.” “In traditional storytelling, journalists can steer the camera, decide where to focus, and even suggest where the audience should direct its attention. In virtual reality, participants can choose where to look when, and which questions they want answered, by inspecting the virtual environment at their own pace and from multiple perspectives.”

Many journalism schools have climbed onto the VR 360 bandwagonX—some with money from the big social media players; among them USC. A University of Southern California press release proudly announced that “(c)urrently leading the charge for 360-degree and virtual reality-based journalism…is Associate Professor Robert Hernandez, now entering his third year of teaching his trademarked virtual reality journalism class called ‘JOVRNALISM.’”

But is what USC calls “jovrnalism” just a gimmick? Or even journalism at all?

Cutting to the chase: Yes, it’s a gimmick. No, it’s not journalism. The news 360 video king is wearing no clothes. It’s among indicators that traditional news media are lost in a digital disruption wilderness and are willing to try anything to get out. Even by prostituting journalism.

Traditionally, journalists do the work, not news consumers. Reporters—based on training, experience and professional standards—are “news consumer surrogates,” seeking out news sources and scenes on behalf of consumers, gathering the most important facts and opinions and shooting video of the most relevant images. They cull out the mundane and less relevant. Their stories become highlight reels so consumers don’t have to watch or attend the whole game.

A 180 FROM 360’S ROCKY SHOALS

It’s time to silence the siren song and get back to basic journalism. Video news outlets should not waste time and money R&D’ing 360 VR on actual human beings rather than on focus group subjects. Online video news providers should have let Samsung, Google and Facebook crash onto 360’s rocky shoals without taking mainstream media with them.

And they will crash. 3D, even with immersive interaction and with news topics, works no better on small screens than big screens; probably worse. The potential audience needs to be much larger than just geeks with goggles.

Most—if not all—of the same new outlets that push 3D video haven’t even mastered television-news-proven, 2D video. Check it out. Go to the Washington Post and New York Times websites. How many of their daily, primary news stories are available in old-fashioned 2D video as well as text? Usually zero. What non-360 video that does appear is usually provided by outside news agencies, like Reuters and AP, and often poorly packaged at that. (Hint: if you’re going to pivot to video then pivot decisively, don’t just lean awkwardly.)

360 news video never made any sense. At a time of massive news media budget cuts and personnel layoffs, outlets should have been looking to lower, not increase production costs. At a time when news consumers are demanding more speed and more live reporting, outlets should have not have been going to slower, less flexible camera systems. At a time when mobility is big, outlets should have been looking for light and agile, not heavier and clumsier.

The news media’s obsession with 360 comes at a time when there are newer, but admittedly more boring systems and methods that are worth expanding, such as smartphone newsgathering, bonded cellular IP instead of microwave and satellite field-to-station transmissions and drone newsgathering. (To its credit, AP does support smartphone newsgathering and bonded cellular via its partnership with LiveU Inc.)

In other words, when it comes to 360, it’s time for the news media to do a 180.

NEW YORK—Following the expansion of the number of live channels available to digital publishers back in February, the Associated Press has announced an expansion of its live video content offering for broadcasters. In addition to AP Direct, which launched in 2003, broadcasters can now also access three additional live content streams from AP Video Hub for scheduled live global and regional events as well as breaking news.

(Photo Credit: The Associated Press)

This move, according to AP, is to fill address audiences desire for live video coverage on multiple platforms, as well as coverage of events beyond breaking news. This can include political, cultural and religious events; red carpet coverage; product launches; technology shows; sports news; and more. AP is also investing in additional live newsgathering capacity.

“We’ve already increased our AP Direct output by nearly 50 percent in the last two years,” said Derl McCrudden, head of international video news for AP. “However, while we will be increasing the volume further still, this is about offering broadcasters a much broader choice and the ability to offer live content genres that go much wider than simply news.”

These changes are part of a larger initiative by AP, which will institute ongoing changes to its video offering; the increase of live content will remain a focus for 2015. As part of its effort, AP plans to switch off its Global Video Wire at the end of March 2016 and moving all customers to digital delivery.