Digital News Journalist

By Derek Tutschulte | Posted December 2, 2009

Ever since phone lines connected computers, email has connected journalists to their newsrooms. However, as the popularity of broadband internet access has increased, so has the demand for video and audio content. Journalists are expected to work with and share these files just as easily as they would a Word document. So, what application should a journalist use to share and back up large media files?

Several Web sites offer – often for free – tools for managing and sharing large files (e.g. Mediafire, Megaupload, Box.net, YouSendIt, Drop.io, etc.). But, none have improved my workflow more than Dropbox. Dropbox’s seamless OS integration, advanced backup functionality (file versioning), blazingly fast upload and download speeds, and its lack of file size limits has put it at the top of a very long list of file-sharing services.

Ease of Use

Today’s journalists should welcome Dropbox’s simple interface that integrates with your Mac, Windows or Linux OS by installing a web-enabled drive that looks like any other drive on your computer. Just drag and drop files to your folder icons as you would normally in order to share and back up your files. What could be simpler than that?

File Syncing and Sharing

Once you’ve put a file of any size into a folder in your Dropbox drive, the file quickly syncs with your other connected computers that have Dropbox installed. Dropbox will only update information that has changed in your Dropbox folder, therefore minimizing the amount of time used in the syncing process. If you aren’t near your own computer, just log into Dropbox’s website to access and manage your files. Using an iPhone? Dropbox has an app for that.

So, the next time your editor asks you for that video piece you’ve been working on, “Right now!”, just give them access to a shared folder in your Dropbox.

File Versioning & Backup

Under a deadline, anyone can make a mistake. Dropbox understands this and has built-in “file versioning” – making previous versions of your files available to you. Dropbox will also let you restore any file you have deleted.

And, what use would a file storage service be without being ridiculously fast and secure? During my use here at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, Dropbox has taken whatever I throw at it, without protest. I’m talking about being able to upload 1 gigabyte of files in less that 15 minutes… that fast. Of course, your mileage may vary based on your connection speed, but don’t expect Dropbox to get in your way. If you don’t want Dropbox grabbing all of your bandwidth for uploading and downloading, just manually set limits. For security, Dropbox uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to connect and transfer files to their servers. While your data lives there, it will be guarded by the “military-grade” 256-bit encrypted Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256).

For a full and complete list of Dropbox features, click here. For a video walk-through, click here.

Dropbox offers 2GB of space for free. You can upgrade to 50GB/100GB of space for $10/$20 a month.

Let us know what online storage service you use to make deadline.