The Perils of Productivity Tools
April 6, 2010 in Productivity
I am a fan of gadgets and I am simply in love with my Android phone. Now, thanks to the technology of the Digital Video Recorder in my cable box and the video camera in my phone I can share with you a moment that I captured on TV yesterday: a newscaster on location, giving a live report – caught on camera reading the report from her phone.
She must have been in a hurry to prepare this report, because her voice is clear and her delivery is tight, until she realizes that she is back on the air herself, no longer speaking over some other images. Then her delivery collapses. Here is Amy Coveno, WMUR Channel 9, caught reading from her phone during a live
report on 5 April newscast. (the audio is not very good, you’ll need to turn up your volume, but you can see her reading straight off of her phone)
I am not posting this to poke fun, on the contrary. This is an important lesson that we can all learn from. Believe me, I could not do any better (would likely do much worse) without a lot of practice of the delivery.
The tools of professional journalism, once the preserve of large news-gathering organizations, are now in the hands of the people. The techniques, on the other hand, are available to all, and we still need to learn and practice the skills of public speaking. The tools can’t do it for us.
