Once You Go Live, You Never Go Back
Learning from (not) making mistakes
Facebook Live is a BEAST. Hear me out, Facebook Live has become an incredible storytelling tool since it came out. But with every new tool, comes a myriad of ways to use it and develop it as a productive medium. Facebook Live is one of those mediums that has the capacity to be an extremely innovative journalistic tool, or just a fun tool to use to live stream concerts. The deciding factor in these paths, to me, is how well upcoming journalists take the time to understand it and figure out the best way to utilize all it has to offer.
The most crippling aspect of Facebook Live is the fact that there is no room for mistakes. None, whatsoever. When you’re broadcasting live there isn’t room for editing and anything can happen at the drop of a hat. Live TV broadcasts typically have the anchors reading from a teleprompter so their words are already prewritten for them. Even live late night shows usually have a rehearsal of some sort. In most cases, there is no rehearsal or script for a Facebook Live broadcast, and you have to be quick on your feet.
Finding something (or someone) interesting to cover can also be an obstacle during a Facebook Live broadcast. The event I covered over the week was the Atlantic Antic, a day-long street fair held once a year in downtown Brooklyn. In the event of a large street fair, there is so much happening at once and so many people everywhere, it can quickly become an overwhelming sensory overload. Especially when you’re surveying the event as a journalist and looking for something (or someone) to film.
When you approach a stranger during a live broadcast, you never know what they’re going to say or how they’re going to react in front of a camera. Someone with a lot to say to you in person could freeze up on camera, or decide to air their very controversial beliefs in the middle of the broadcast. And because it’s live, you’re immediately stuck. Or they could just flat out refuse once you mention the interview is going to be live, because they have all the same fears that you do. This is the issue I found myself in at San Gennaro fest (hence my change in venue to the Atlantic Antic).
Overall, Facebook Live is nerve-racking. But it’s also one of those tools that requires a head-first dive. Once I found someone to interview and started my broadcast, the response was perfectly fine. A majority of the anxiety fades away when you finally find the right person or group with something interesting to say. That’s a skill that develops the more you immerse yourself into all that comes with the medium. I’m realizing that all the hours I’ve been logging on social media mean nothing if I’m not utilizing as much as I can out of these tools. Technology keeps developing, so there’s always something new to learn.
