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journalism

Workshop day

We had a record crowd on hand at the Samford High School Journalism Workshop. That’s our department chair, Bernie Ankney, delivering his opening remarks. Shaun Chavis, associate editor from Health magazine, provided the keynote address.

In the morning sessions we had rooms with professors and journalists discussing news writing, layout, sports writing, broadcasting and magazine journalism. One session discussed the best ledes ever written, one nominee: Bob Considine’s story on the 1938 Lewis-Schmeling bout:

Listen to this, buddy, for it comes from a guy whose palms are still wet, whose throat is still dry, and whose jaw is still agape from the utter shock of watching Joe Louis knock out Max Schmeling.

Carla Jean Whitney talked about the gratification of magazine publication and exciting industry changes. Meanwhile sportswriter Doug Segrest of The Birmingham News does a great session on sports reporting.

I had a lot of nice conversations with teachers before lunch and then in the afternoon got to spend time with the famous Ike Pigott.

Joining him were Tatiana Richards and one of our professors, Dr. Sheree Martin, on a panel about journalism online.

We had a Pulitzer winner, Sonia Nazario, presenting in our afternoon sessions. And I presented too!

Here’s the picture of the day, though:

That’s the newest McAlister. The Yankee spent the day with him today and I got to visit for a few hours this evening. Good kid. Sleeps all the time.

They won’t put him in one of those costumes I found last night, thankfully. He’s already got an Auburn blanket. To update last night’s horror of child rearing:

That landed on The War Eagle Reader this morning. They also used the capital THE in writing the credit.

journalism / photo / Samford / Twitter / Wednesday — Comments Off
15
Sep 10

Some sunny day

The newspaper was put to bed at 12:30 this morning, which is more than an hour quicker than last week. That’s progress. Now I have to warn the hardworking student-journalists that there will also be a night of setbacks somewhere in their future.

The paper looks better this week. In our critique meeting today I picked on a lot of small things. There are a few design issues to work through and some other editing and writing topics to address, but I think this year’s staff can make quick strides. The biggest thing will just be in recognizing the problems early. No easy trick, that.

Some of those things can be fixed quickly, others will take a little time and perhaps a workshop or two.

Today we finished the preparing on our high school workshop, which takes place tomorrow. We’re going to have a record crowd on hand. This despite one or two local high schools dropping their journalism program for the year because of budget cuts. (Also, the Alabama Scholastic Press Association’s workshop is running opposite the Samford program this year, but it hasn’t hurt our attendance.)

I’m only doing one little presentation this year. I’ll be running around making sure the speakers arrived, everything is working and that no one is lost. It is a great way to spend a day, talking with high school students about their newspapers and television stations, showing them around Samford, introducing them to our students and to professional journalists. We have a great time with it and our visitors always seem to enjoy themselves too.

Now that the big day is almost here I’ll probably turn back to student recruitment. Having a gorgeous day on the beautiful Samford campus tomorrow won’t hurt that effort, either.

It is a great job, and an easy day, when you can talk about exciting things like that with young people who are also very much excited about where they are going to wind up, or what they might study when they get there. That’s the sort of enthusiasm that is contagious.

I talked this afternoon with the news director of the campus radio station. She’s one of those same, excited go-get-em types. If you can’t brainstorm up have a dozen good ideas in a hallway with people like that you just aren’t trying hard enough.

I like to drop little nuggets like this into those conversations from time to time.

Reporting has always in some ways been a collaborative process between journalists and their sources. But increasingly, there’s a merger between the source and the content producer. As a result, more journalism will happen through collaborative reporting, where the witness of the news becomes the reporter, says David Clinch, editorial director for Storyful and a consultant for Skype. Journalists, Clinch says, must be able to pivot quickly between the idea of using the community as a source of news and as the audience for news, because they are both.

Students are intrigued by ideas like that, once they realize they’re allowed to think this way. The latest example, included in that link, is the hostage situation at the Discovery Channel offices in Maryland earlier this month. The story came out of a news start up there, which leaned on a Twitter account to break the story. Novel approach, that.

(Not really, I was doing that two-and-a-half years ago at al.com. I set up that account and within a week broke two fires and a prominent business layoff story. Now that primary account, aldotcom, has 6,500 followers and breaks news constantly.)

I say this to your boredom, but it never ceases to amaze me that I get to read and dream up and put into practice and teach these things and call it a career. I’m a lucky guy.

After all, I get to work here:

Where I get views like this:

Visited Walmart tonight for a little of this and that. The irony was on rollback pricing, since I’d noticed earlier in the day that my bank is now running a cashback program based on my “unique spending preferences.” They are running the ads between the lines of my online register. The first offer was for Waffle House, which I visit exactly once a year. (And where I’ve never used anything but cash, making me wonder just how unique these preferential algorithms are.)

The second offer was for Walmart. I made fun of that. And then I found myself there. And then I found this:

Just wrong.

The meme on Twitter tonight was rock ‘n’ roll retractions. I had a lot of fun with these, and want to remember them forever, sooo:

I’ve got two tickets to paradise. Pack your bag we’ll leave during off peak hours.

What’s the frequency, Kenneth. Oh, never mind, I see it right here.

No more ‘I love yous’ but expect late night hang up calls, standing outside of your apartment and pining on Facebook.

After much consideration I am, in fact, not too sexy for this shirt.

You know what? I WILL put a fine point in it. I am the only bee in your bonnet. No one really likes you.

Yes, you may kiss me once. You may even kiss me twice. But, come on pretty baby, you needn’t kiss me deadly.

It has been brought to my attention that I don’t want you to want me, need you to need me, nor would I love you to love me.

Turns out the heart of rock ‘n’ roll is actually the guy that plays the triangle.

Let’s do the time warp, but only the once, so we do not create space continuum problems.

I’ve reconsidered it, and I would do anything for love, provided it is legal in my state of origin.

Turns out we did not rock the casbah, but we dropped a few bunker busters in the vicinity.

Nope. That was most definitely NOT paradise that I saw there by the dashboard light.

Don’t stop believing. Unless you’ve been swayed as of late by Christopher Hitchens.

Welcome to the jungle. We’ve had a change of heart and you can live quite prosperously here now.

The government now tells me I was born on a protected wetland, born on a protected wetland.

In da gatta da vitta you should know that I am merely fond of you.

Turns out the fire should be on the water and the SMOKE should be in the sky. Deep Purple regrets the error.

We decided to not live in a yellow submarine because, on reflection, that’s just stupid.

About that Lola thing … sorry.

Changed my mind. Not working for the weekend. I have to pull a double shift at the 7-11 on Saturday.

Ok, you talked us into it. We WILL take it, if you’re talking about a general wealth redistribution program.

I’ve had a change of heart. Do not pour your sugar on me. I’m on a low cal diet.

Been thinking about it. Should have never gone electric. Regretfully, Bob Dylan.

The London Tourism Board has asked me to rephrase. There are no werewolves here.

Yes, I said that Friday I was in love, but I was just lonely.

Tons more here.

More photographs from the 1939 World’s Fair will be along in a bit.

journalism / links / Samford / Tuesday — Comments Off
14
Sep 10

John Mayer quit Twitter

That was on a quiz I gave today. Students get the occasional pop quiz on current events. I’d love to ask 10 serious news questions — and a few students, I think, would do well. My news tastes aren’t all of the news, though, so I ask a sports question and an entertainment question and so on.

And since we established that John Mayer quit we’ll just have to see if Twitter can keep moving on Bieber power.

Anyway. Met with the boss and got my class assignments for next semester.

I taught class. We discussed punctuation and edited a few sample pieces. I showed off the regrettable cover Newsweek recently published. I asked them to find the typo. They stared down every word, reassuring themselves that coddling was spelled correctly. Until, finally they found it.

Met with a student. Had a sales meeting. Turned over a big stack of phone numbers and business cards as leads. (Anyone around Lakeshore or Greensprings or Homewood looking to advertise? Never hurts to ask.)

Had a talk with the sports editor. Our paper’s style calls for student-athletes to have their position on the team, their year in school and their major. It is a challenge to get it all in, but keep the story moving. The staff is picking up the touch quickly, though.

It adds up to the better part of a day, somehow. The rest of the evening has been spent on the newspaper.

Had Milo’s for dinner. The tea was not good. This is an insignificant observation to most people who might ever stumble across this post, but those familiar with the chain are right now recoiling in horror. This is a hamburger chain that is really centered around a drink. McDonald’s doesn’t distribute their beverages in stores around the region. Milo’s does. And, tonight, at one of the restaurants, the tea was off.

Journalism links: Apparently we still need to discuss the potential non-dangerous of SEO for journalism. Having actually gone through this in the halcyon days of 2007 I’d just assumed everyone had figured this out. It is a nice piece, though, and the comments, as always, are instructive.

How are you getting your news? And how much time are you doing it? Pew knows. The graphic, and this paragraph have a big hint:

In short, instead of replacing traditional news platforms, Americans are increasingly integrating new technologies into their news consumption habits. More than a third (36%) of Americans say they got news from both digital and traditional sources yesterday, just shy of the number who relied solely on traditional sources (39%). Only 9% of Americans got news through the internet and mobile technology without also using traditional sources.

Plenty of more great details can be found in the bullets at the bottom of that page.

And now, for a random link, the $6 million man will be from SMU:

(A) $5.6-mil Neurophotonics Research Center (will) develop prosthetic limbs using fiber optics that actually feel things like pressure and temperature. Says SMU: “Lightning-fast connections between robotic limbs and the human brain may be within reach for injured soldiers and other amputees.”
[…]

(I)f all goes according to plan, SMU’s researchers will also use the DOD’s dough to fashion “brain implants for the control of tremors, neuro-modulators for chronic pain management and implants for patients with spinal cord injuries.”

Science fiction is science now.

Back in a bit with today’s black and whites.

errands / iPhone / journalism / photo / Samford / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
8
Sep 10

Just your average unusual day

The paper was put to bed at about 2:30 this morning. I slept for about four hours and then started this new day.

Hit the gym for squats and arms and rode 10 miles on the bike.

Visited Sam’s Club, because I need a new tire for the car. I made the mistake of arriving before my puny little membership would let me in. I could, the nice lady at the door said, upgrade my membership. But I can also wait 20 minutes and save 60 bucks. So I did.

While they put on the new tire I walked around the store. Figured this would be an opportunity to test the microphone on the iPhone in a noisy environment. Also, it was a good time to make fun of product packaging. Most of these jokes aren’t especially good, but the microphone proved better than I expected.

It is sensitive to movement. You can really tell when it is closer to my face based on the sound. Next time I’ll try an attached microphone to see what that sounds like. I’ll also not be buying a tire, next time. Already that experiment is more fun.

Returned to the office — wasn’t I just here? — and looked over the paper. Not a bad start. There are obviously things on which we can improve, and I’ve no doubt that will happen.

We had a critique meeting this afternoon where we discussed what went right and wrong and what to fix for next time. I told them of my high expectations for the year. I want them to set high goals because they can reach them. They have a lot of exciting things in the works for the year and I want them to see those plans come to fruition.

Here’s the requisite welcome back type story. Super Bowl champion Tony Dungy dropped in for a surprise visit, which also made the front page.

Had lunch with the university communications people. Critiqued the paper. Visited the library. I found a big stack of negatives and compact discs of old photojournalism assignments. I found at least one sitting U.S. Senator was in the 20-year-old stack of negatives. The special collections people in the library basement like that sort of thing.

The extended family got a bit more extended. He arrived a few days early, but is handsome and smart. Word is that he’s already teaching calculus in the nursery. I made a video for him, but managed to delete it. Just imagine it as being the funniest thing ever composed on a phone, and then reduce your expectations by 17 percent.

Returned to studying.

I purchased, and nearly filled, that binder tonight. The good news: only the last 100 pages of that are for my class tomorrow.

So back to it, then.

journalism / Samford / Tuesday — Comments Off
7
Sep 10

Teaching grammar is fun, making newspapers is more funner

Kidnappers are dumb. Seems to be a universal thing, as Japanese reporter Kosuke Tsuneoka can attest:

A Japanese journalist held hostage in Afghanistan for five months managed to send out a message via Twitter that he was alive when his captors asked him how to use a cell phone.

Just days before he was freed, Kosuke Tsuneoka said one of the militants brought him his new cell phone and asked the prisoner to set it up.

The younger militants were more interested in accessing Al-Jazeera on the phone, but Tsuneoka managed to shift their attention to Twitter, successfully getting them to ask him to demonstrate how it worked.

“That’s how I got the message out,” Tsuneoka told a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, a day after he arrived safely back in Japan. “I’m sure they never thought they were tricked.”

Then you must also question the sanity of some reporters, as well. Tsuneoka was also kidnapped in Georgia (the country) in 2001.

Oh we all want to be war reporters, but you don’t think about the possibility of being kidnapped or the even more attractive things like dysentery and getting shot at. War reporting sounds like so much fun.

Taught 90 minutes on grammar today. I spent an inordinate amount of time preparing the lecture yesterday. It isn’t the most fun class the students have, but it is necessary. They were patient, though, and laughed at all the right places. Next week I’ll change things up and we’ll discuss … punctuation!

Meanwhile, the editorial staff was spending the night putting together their first newspaper of the new school year. It’ll be on newsstands tomorrow. I looked over their shoulders a bit. It should be a nice start for an almost entirely new staff.

If they can ever get finished. This is usually a late-night-early-morning process. The beginning of the year even more so since there are the inevitable software struggles and design difficulties.

It’s a long day, but a rewarding.

I wrote something on Auburn’s season opener for al.com today. (They didn’t link to me, unfortunately, so I’m not going to waste a lot of time on it.)

My inbox has been full of the comments that came in under that contribution, though. Most of it from Alabama fans. Using the prevailing logic they must be very concerned about Cameron Newton. I don’t blame them. The guy is terrifying.

Tomorrow, newspaper, meetings, studying, the 1939 World’s Fair and probably more.