Photographer Ingrid Hertfelder, broadcaster Bobby Jackson and writer/blogger James Hale will share tips, thoughts and experiences on the topiic “Covering Jazz Festivals” during the second free JJA online webinar, moderated by JJA president Howard Mandel and scheduled for Wednesday, August 15. To be held at 8 pm EDT and lasting for 90 minutes, the webinar is free but must be registered for in advance, at GoToMeeting.com. VIEW THE WEBINAR RECORDING.
The webinar format has panelists presenting their experiences briefly, followed by questions from attending registrants (posted as text, given voice by the webinar moderator). Here’s a gloss on the topic:
Jazz festivals have proliferated, and covering them can be a daunting task. What’s the right focus, when a dozen bands may be performing? How does a journalist — whether writer, photographer or broadcaster — get an assignment, and how much should it pay? What’s the way to get access and permissions? What do you need (contacts? equipment?) to do it right? How can you pace yourself? How should you compress? What choices must be made? Should you cover only the music or is the business side of the fest, its economic and cultural impact and its audience part of the story?
Some 60 registrants attended the first JJA of these monthly webinars, “Introducing Jazz Journalism Now,” which is archived for free access.
To collect information from multiple artists for the Earshot Festival preview issue, I set up a 4 question survey on Survey Monkey and emailed a link to the festival artists. The responses helped me find the narrative thread that I followed for each preview and all the source information was in one place.
-Steve Griggs