Innovative Individuals

Innovative Individuals: Emily Sweeney

This post is also available in: Spanish

It is obvious that Emily Sweeney, staff reporter at The Boston Globe and president of the New England chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, has fully embraced the potential of multi-platform storytelling.

According to her portfolio website, Emily “write[s] for newspapers and magazines, produce[s] videos for the web, contribute[s] to blogs, and even appear[s] on TV occasionally.” For her ability to easily transition from a staff reporter to a multimedia producer, we are happy to recognize her as this week’s “Innovative Individual.”

Make sure to keep track of Emily via her blog, and vlog, on twitter, flickr, and many more!

Q) How do you drive innovation in your work?

A) I’m constantly thinking about different ways to do things, and trying to find new ways to tell stories and present information.

Q) What piece in your portfolio are you most proud of and why?

A) That’s tough. I’ve worked on many cool stories, so it’s hard to single one out. I guess one of my favorites would be this video, which examines the history of shoemaking in Massachusetts.

I shot most of the footage at the Alden Shoe Company – it’s one of the last shoe manufacturers left in New England. Hard to believe, but just forty years ago almost all American footwear companies produced their shoes right here in the United States. Today, hardly any do. Alden has (somehow) managed to buck that trend, and they still make all of their shoes here. I enjoyed working on this piece because it deals with so many interesting issues – globalization, trade, local history – and illustrates how a particular segment of the economy has changed so drastically.

Q) Please provide a brief educational and professional history.

A) I’m a proud alum of the oldest public school in the country: Boston Latin School. I was the first girl to join the boys’ varsity ice hockey team at Latin. I went on to play four years of Division I hockey at Northeastern University, and graduated with a degree in journalism. I worked for several small newspapers around the Greater Boston area, and got hired by the Boston Globe in 2001. I’ve always enjoyed working both behind and in front of the camera, and I’ve been lucky to have many opportunities to do that over the course of my journalism career. I’ve hosted a live TV show, been a guest on radio and TV programs, and shot and produced my own videos, and I even had a chance to work on films.

I started producing videos for the Globe in 2005. I’ve made quite a few videos since then, and it’s been interesting to see where they wind up.
Some have been used on TV. A few years ago, a professor from the University of Southern California contacted me because she wanted to screen of my videos at a film festival in Los Angeles. And just a few months ago, Howard Stern picked up one of my videos and used it on his show.

Q) Where do you believe multimedia fits into today’s society and how will that role change over time?

A) Multimedia will become more and more prevalent in our lives as time goes on. HD screens are popping up everywhere. You see them displaying ads in elevators, taxis, grocery checkout counters, gas stations, and other public spaces…. we’ll be seeing much more of that in the near future. I also think projectors will become more widespread, especially as technology improves.

Q) What is one thing on your “To-Do” list?

A) I have several folders full of project ideas. I’m interested in how things are made. I would love to trace the origins of clothes – go into a Wal-Mart, pick out an outfit, and find out the factory where it was sewn, and interview the people who work there. I’d like to do the same thing for electronics, too…it would be interesting to follow the life and death of a digital camera – starting from the very beginning, at the mines where minerals are dug up, then visit the plants where the minerals are processed into metals, and so forth….right up to the point where the camera ends up on a shelf at the store….and then follow the path of its disposal, to see how much of it actually gets recycled, and what happens to the rest of it.

---

Want to nominate a deserving colleague, friend or inspirational figure to be highlighted in this series? Confidential nominations can be emailed to innovativeinteractivity@gmail.com on an ongoing basis. Self nominations are also welcome. A person will be featured every Friday, so look for the next “innovative individual” Friday, March 12th!

Other posts that might interest you:

• Innovative Individuals: Annabel Symington
• Innovative Individuals: Gustavo Sierra
• Innovative Individuals: Maisie Crow

© 2012 Innovative Interactivity (II).
Download II's Security Policy (PDF)