Editing Video and Ethics

Editing video is a big part of a broadcast journalist’s daily duties. It’s in the edit room where the raw video footage is transformed into a story told in pictures. A lot more than editing video can be done with the help of modern digital editing software. For example, music can set the mood for a story and visual effects can make it more exciting for the viewer. With this toolset at their hands, journalists are sometimes able to produce two entirely different stories out of the same raw footage. With this power comes great responsibility.

One of the more common things in editing is choosing and editing soundbites. When editing a soundbite, the reporter chooses the most important or compelling statements of the subjects he interviewed to incorporate them into his story. Because of airtime constraints and to make it easier for the viewer to follow the story, little pauses and “ums and uhs” are also edited out. When soundbites are edited, the reputation of the interviewed person is in the reporter’s hands. It is one of the core values of broadcast journalists not to misrepresent these people.

I interned at two local television stations in my home town last summer, and it in my experience things happen in digital editing every day that are violating that core value and are pushing the boundaries of journalistic ethics. A good example is a news package I produced for one of these stations.

It was a soft story about a ladybug invasion; millions of them had spread into a riverbed and onto the beach. The station I interned at is an affiliate of a big national network and my interviews and the photographer’s video were incorporated into a package on the national news. The photographer and I had shot the footage exclusively for the national news, but my producer wanted a package for our local newscast out of it.

To make the package work, we needed a statement by an expert on ladybugs or at least insects in general. Since the national news had already interviewed an expert, it was more convenient (and also a lot cheaper) to use their material than to go out and shoot our own interview. In theory, this could have worked without any problems and is common practice at that network.

Unfortunately, the expert on the national news was talking about a different geographic location. To make the story work and meet deadline, we edited out two words. Instead of a ladybug invasion at “our Baltic Sea coast,” we now had a ladybug invasion at “our sea coast.” According to the editor I worked with, this was also common practice at the station.

I guess I could say that it wasn’t an important story. It didn’t hurt any one. The ladybugs were all over the coast, not just at the Baltic Sea. But, the expert was still misrepresented and I had a gut feeling that this was simply wrong. With the five o’clock deadline approaching and the producer telling me just to go ahead, I didn’t think twice about it. After all, I was only an intern and this was the lead story.

Friends who interned or work at other stations have had similar experiences. So while this might not be common practice in broadcast journalism everywhere, it seems to be happening a lot. It’s one the little tricks you use to make a story work when time is running out.

Did it make me feel uncomfortable? Yes. Would I do it again if a producer a news director told me to? Probably yes. It’s up to every journalist to decide whether or not they want to accept such methods, but from my experience that's a tough decision to make, especially at the beginning of your career.