“The nature of the media is changing,” said KXTV News10 reporter George Warren at Thursday evening’s video storytelling tips and shortcuts workshop, hosted by The Sacramento Press. Warren is an Emmy-winning reporter/multimedia journalist. He recently celebrated his 30th anniversary working with News10. He started started creating videos when he was a senior in college and has shot with primitive videotapes and 16mm film. “The equipment today has gotten so good that it’s easy for one person to go out and produce really good content in just a short amount of time,” Warren told the audience of about 30 aspiring writers, journalists and community members. Warren used his own recent videos t

From Little League to Major League Baseball or punches to knockouts in boxing, it’s important to keep fans and readers up to date on sport results and highlights. Sam Amick, Sports Illustrated columnist for SI.com, shared his personal experiences Tuesday, giving multiple anecdotes to explain lessons learned, experiences gained and answered audience member questions about the craft. The single most important skill that Amick stressed was preparation and research. He compared sports writing to a chef saying that one prepares by having the correct ingredients for a recipe. He encouraged the audience to try to gain as much information about the sports topic, the team, athletes and statistic

Thursday evening, 22 people came to The Sacramento Press office to learn about interviewing techniques at the workshop, taught by Clare Noonan. Writers from all levels were present, and non-writers were also in attendance. They all came with different goals. “I thought it would be geared more towards job-type interview techniques, but I was not disappointed that it was stories. It was a pleasant surprise,” said Swayne Cates, a real estate broker and attendee. He said he found the workshop important. There was plenty of information, even a seasoned writer would have learned something, he noted. Kim Tennant, 59, from Fair Oaks said she wanted to learn how to convince people to take part

In case you missed the workshop Wednesday night, here are some of the answers to some of the questions asked and some tips shared by Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton and Managing Editor Colleen Belcher with community contributors about Journalism Open 2011 entries. Q: Are quotes a must? A: No, but as for some basic guidelines: They make your story stronger. The more you get people into your story, the more it helps – even if you’re doing an opinion piece, because the more sources you can point to, the better. Q: Is there a limit to how long the story is? A: The limit is how long it’s interesting. One thing to watch out for is when you talk to people who are good talker

Anybody can be a critic, David Watts Barton said at the Sacramento Press Review Writing workshop. What distinguishes a good critic is that they can back their opinion up and express it well, he added. The Sacramento Press Editor in Chief discussed the art of review writing Wednesday in-house and via live stream from the Sacramento Press office. Barton has been a pop music critic since he was 16 years old and made a living doing it for The Sacramento Bee for more than 20 years. He began the workshop by making the audience repeat after him, “It’s just my opinion,” which he gave as the overarching mantra for all review writing. “You can get wrapped up in your opinion,” he said. “But it’s