Which medium when

Everybody loves a new toy.

However, learning how and when the toys are appropriate can maximize their use. Today, journalists are inundated with new tools that help them inform and educate readers in different and quicker ways. To be as effective a reporter as possible, we must learn when a situation calls for certain tools.

Poynter Online Interactivity Editor and Adjunct Faculty Member Ellyn Angelotti said in Friday's session that having the tools does not mean we have to use them for every story.

The knee-jerk reaction when dealing with the growing number of Web sites is to put as much out there as possible and let viewers and readers decide what to do. But this can be too much.

To use the tools effectively, a journalist must develop a sense of when to use them. This will make that journalist a more efficient distributor of news.

Unless something significant is expected to happen, video might not be the best way to cover every city council meeting. Heck, a text story might be sufficient to outline the major developments of the meeting.

At the other extreme, breaking news can lend itself to video, slideshows, audio interviews, text stories, graphics and anything else a newspaper has at its disposal.

When reporters understand when certain tools should be used and when they shouldn’t, they learn how to give a reader as much pertinent information, as quickly as possible.