Spectrum1 Ohio MMJ Tonisha Johnson moves from crews to iPhone

Posted February 25, 2020

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Tonisha Johnson is an MMJ with Spectrum1 News in Columbus, Ohio, and a graduate of one of our intensive bootcamps.

When she came to Spectrum1, she already had a pretty good grounding in how to be a conventional local TV news reporter - you know, working with a cameraman and an editor. Going to a story with a stick mike and doing lots of interviews and stand ups. Just like every other local TV station in the world. They all look pretty much the same.

When she came to Spectrum1, we introduced her to a very different way of working and to a very different kind of news story.

Essentially, we said, here's the iPhone, which is what we like to work with - and there's the door.

Go do a story.

For a lot of local TV news people this can be traumatic.

Where is my cameraman?

Where is my producer?

Where is my editor?

Like we say, they;re all right there - in the palm of your hand. In your phone.

Our TV journalists work like newspaper reporters - but instead of carrying a pad and pencil and working in text, they carry a smart phone and work in video.

The difference is that instead of doing a lot of stand ups and sit down interviews, which are pretty boring and pretty predictable, and look like every other local TV news station in America, Tonisha is now able to embed herself into a story.

After all, it's just her and the phone.

So she can physically inject hersefl into a story, and take her audience along with her.

This is a different kind of local news - one that is more intimate, more personal and far more powerful.

And we are just getting started.

As Tonisha and the rest of the Spectrum1 MMJs work with phones, they'll learn how to leverage their advantages even better.

It's an entirely new kind of TV news. Driven by the technology and knowing how to use it best.