journalism

IU / journalism / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off on The weary Wednesday
9
Nov 16

The weary Wednesday

The day after election night coverage is always a long one. I mentioned last night the first election I covered. It was a late night, well after midnight, before I was done. The next election I covered I slept for about two hours in my car. They are long, fascinating days full of interesting work. But the following Wednesday is a different, more exhausted experience.

Last night I paused in the IDS newsroom to check in their coverage. That’s an incredible paper. Here’s their front page today:

While the students worked late into the night last night, Ernie Pyle, was banging out copy early this morning:

And this evening Allie is still busy exploring all over:

IU / journalism / memories / photo / Tuesday / video — Comments Off on Election night coverage
8
Nov 16

Election night coverage

Well, that was something.

Election night was a big deal in our new building on campus. We had live reports from the public television station, various political panels and all kinds of working student media. And, of course, on the big screen, we watched all of the national and international coverage. And at one point I looked up and I saw one of our students reporting on statewide television. That’s the young lady on the right:

She did a nice job, because she’s a talented reporter. We expect big things.

Elsewhere, the reporters at the IDS, the ridiculously successful campus newspaper, were planning tomorrow’s layout:

And in the newsroom they were waiting for numbers to roll in:

Meanwhile, over in a few of our production booths we had students doing a talk show on WIUX, the student radio station.

And of course my friends at IUS-TV had an election special tonight as well. You can see that right here:

The first election I covered, I was also in college. I wrote a story about the election of a new congressman — he would go on to become a two-term governor and when I interviewed him they were still whooping and hollering in the background — and a junior U.S. senator. That was a pretty great opportunity, and it set me off on a few great years of political news coverage. And me and my peers didn’t have the possibilities afforded to us to these young reporters. Imagine what they might do in the next 15 or 20 years.

Friday / IU / journalism / photo — Comments Off on Why student media is pretty awesome
14
Oct 16

Why student media is pretty awesome

On a Friday night, a bunch of college students chose to spend several hours in a new television studio:

On a Friday night, on homecoming weekend, they could have been anywhere. But there they were.

And, for a moment, I sat at the news desk:

Felt like old times, even if it was a simple microphone check.

journalism / Monday / Samford — Comments Off on I want to ‘complain’ about some of my students
16
Nov 15

I want to ‘complain’ about some of my students

While we followed the horrible news from Paris last night our news editor learned that 11 Samford people were in the City of Light. (All are safe and accounted for.)

Naturally, she went to work, writing about that story. This made me read copy on a Friday night and fire off a few salvos of emails. And then they interviewed one of those people Saturday and wrote more. So I had to read that and write another few emails, praising our staff, advising them, giving them (hopefully) helpful ideas for their coverage. And now they’ll go talk to more of them, and all of this will no doubt repeat itself. Because a news editor, an English major who wants to work in museums, cares an awful lot about doing it right.

This happened on their Friday night and over the course of their weekend. This was in addition to their regular school week and the other jobs some of them have. It happened after they were in the newsroom until 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning putting together a newspaper and then spent three hours with me, until 9 p.m. on Wednesday night, talking about that issue. And they’ll do it all again tomorrow and Wednesday.

You have to be dedicated to work with student-journalists, because they are incredibly dedicated to their jobs. They care about their community and their pursuit of good journalism. Sometimes that means they work every day. Would that more did. Student-journalists don’t often get the credit for it that their output deserves, but it is gratifying to work with students so invested in the work they are doing, beyond the normal scope and scale in which they work.

journalism / movies / photo / podcast / Thursday / Twitter — Comments Off on Somehow I made this all about cameras
8
Oct 15

Somehow I made this all about cameras

The park, the crack of the bat, umps making bad calls, managers doing their best to make the umpires look good. (Seriously, you don’t make the last out at third.) Ahh, baseball. It is a communal sport to me at this point. I’ve long since stopped watching it on television. I don’t follow standings or stats or side stories of any league at any level. But I will go to the park to watch a game. And I’m always pleased to do it if there are people around I know a little bit.

Mostly, though, I go for the peanuts. Peanuts are usually a springtime food for me. But I had a few today, and that seemed like something to take a picture with.

peanuts

This is the other side of having a camera in your phone. It sometimes creates the opportunity for an uninspired pic. I would have never brought my Canon to my eye, let alone changed the aperture or adjusted the shutter speed for that snapshot. But, it allowed me to get a few sentences on sport and legumes, so there’s that.

Here’s the podcast I recorded yesterday. This is with one of my students, and the features editor of the Crimson. He’s my first student guest on this program. Hopefully the first of many. Jimmy did a great job and this episode shows how easy it could be for others interested in such a conversation. If you like movies, you’ll find this a very interesting chat. And, he said, his mother was proud to hear it. Hi, Jimmy’s mom! Check it out.

It occurs to me now that I should have pulled out the phone to take a picture of him in action. I bet his mom would have liked that even more. Except the background would have been pretty flat. So I could dress up the room. At which point I would be inclined to take that shot with my DSLR …

In a mostly-unrelated story, this is at least the third television outlet to give this a try:

It is in play at a Scandinavian station. It underwhelmed in an American news shop. But I’m sure it’ll be tried again. We already have the technology to do this sort of thing from our homes on the cheap. I’m shopping for green screens right now. Someone, in their den or an extra bedroom or basement, is going to resurrect the phrase “When news breaks, we fix it!”

It’ll be all downhill from there.

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