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Samford

iPhone / journalism / photo / Samford / Thursday / video — Comments Off
13
Sep 12

High School Journalism Workshop

Each fall we host several hundred students from across the region for a day on the Samford campus. We bring in industry leaders, mix them with our faculty and try to give the high school students a day of fun and a little learning.

Here are a few pictures.

Dr. Dennis Jones talks about newspaper design:

Samford alumnae, and CBS 42 reporter, Kaitlin McCulley leads a large session on broadcast reporting:

Kyle Whitmire, who recently joined The Birmingham News and al.com, talks about online journalism to this group:

Samford’s senior photographer, Caroline Summers talks about digital photojournalism. (Naturally I take a shaky picture of this.)

Buddy Roberts of The Leeds News & St. Clair News-Aegis has a full house for his sports reporting session.

Birmingham News business reporter Marty Swant discusses intermediate reporting.

Finally, and joined in progress, here is Dr. Julie Williams, who leads a session on beginning writing. She illustrates her first point by making peanut butter sandwiches. The people in the session have to help her.

What you don’t see is their order to open the bread. She grabs the back and rips it apart, flinging the bread everywhere. They tell her to tear off a paper towel, and she pinches off a corner of one sheet.

I edited that on my phone, while walking from one building to the next. This technology still amazes me.

There were other sessions, but they were all opposite mine, so I could not visit them. I talked about building an organization, staffing the newsroom and the various challenges and successes you have in school newsrooms. It was so gripped my room stayed three extra minutes.

Alabama / Auburn / collarbone / cycling / iPhone / journalism / photo / Samford / Twitter / Wednesday — Comments Off
12
Sep 12

Volume 98 begins

It was a late night. About 2:30 or 3 this morning, I think, when they finished their newspaper. Much faster than the first night last year. Not as fast as they’ll be later in the year, of course. And of course time doesn’t matter so much. Work on it until the sun rises if it means the quality is good.

And the first paper is pretty good. This is a young staff, with only one returning section editor from last year. They’re learning as they go, and we’ll make sure they learn a lot. But for a first edition, this is promising. You can see it online here.

We had our first critique meeting just after lunch today. Four members of the editorial staff were there, and we laughed and told jokes and asked questions about this or that in the paper. There are errors to correct, but there are many things to brag on. Later in the day they received compliments from two big titles in the university’s administration. That’s a nice pat on the back, too.

Spent part of the afternoon unpacking a few new cameras for the department.

We have added a large handful of new high definition equipment this year. When they handed me this part of my job a few years ago it was a mess. As of today we are an all-HD shop.

A great plan from the faculty, great support from the university’s administration and attention to detail have made it happen. The digital video center is a part of the program we are proud of.

Hard working students, smart planning among the faculty and an administration that is taking part. No wonder Samford is a great place to work.

Pretty, too. This is one of our lovely buildings, as the afternoon is winding down:

And this is west campus, from Talbird Circle, looking back toward Seibert Hall:

This came up on Twitter. Someone we know from Alabama, and from Auburn, is back at Alabama for law school. But before she returned to Tuscaloosa she came to visit the Cumberland School of Law at Samford. She’s jealous, but, you know, they are all beautiful campuses.

Chick-fil-A now wants your name, for when your order is ready. The guy at the cash register asked. Threw me for a loop. Why does everyone need my name? This is probably a good idea at lunchtime. For now I hope I can hear them over the din of the … three people in here at dinner.

Also that manager is working. That guy. You know the one; he moonlights as security at concerts so he can get his authority on. One night I saw him almost work his way into a fistfight over what time he closed his store. He’s a bit aggressive with his employees, too. Just a bit intense for a chicken place.

Remember, during the week of Chick-fil-A Week of Free Publicity, that after the I Eat Mor Chickun campaign, there was to be a kiss-in after that. Some wondered if that would devolve into a nasty scene. If there were going to be fisticuffs it wouldn’t have surprised me to learn it involved him.

Here’s why you love Chick-fil-A, though: the guy who took my order gave me a coupon for a free sandwich for the delay. I’d waited an eternity, three minutes.

More rehab tonight. I’m sore, but that’s more muscle sore than injury sore. Seems I can easily overdo it, that’s progress. So, yes, let’s do that again.

And then I did an hour of intervals on a bike, clocking 19.5 miles and showing watts and METs I don’t understand. I’m just waiting for the muscle spasms to go away. A few days after that — I have to make sure they aren’t trying to trick me — then I’ll try to really ride again. It has been a while, but my shoulder says no rush. So far I’ve been inclined to agree, which seems odd. I try not to think about it.

Arms are too sore, you see.

journalism / links / Samford / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
11
Sep 12

How turtles talk

I taught a class on Associated Press style and on visual journalism this afternoon. I showed the students this video:

I use it a lot. It is very touching and incredibly moving. It is relatable. It has a lot of great production elements, video and photographs. Color and black and white. It tells a story from beginning to end. There is music, which I see as a mileage may vary kind of thing. I don’t think it is really necessary, but it is clear where they are going with it.

The best parts are where the producers interject in the story and where they are smart enough to stay out of the way. There’s an art to that.

We watched this unembeddable slideshow from NPR, too. In it we meet Steve Campbell and his Iraqi bride as they negotiate the day to day struggle to make a life for themselves in Missouri. Natural sound, coordination of the audio and the visual, and the everydayness just make an interesting story.

We tend to overlook those sometimes.

Therapy this evening, pushing small weights up and down, or left and right as the circumstance required. Rode a bit on a bike. Cleaned up, had dinner, went back into the office.

Tonight the student-journalists at the Crimson are putting their first paper of the year to bed. We start the school year a bit later than most, and we’re a weekly, so it feels like a late beginning, but we’ve used most of the time well.

There is a lot to learn, we have a young staff this year, but they are all eager to do good work, and that’s the key. Also, having fun. They introduced me to mershed perderders which, approaching midnight, was funnier than it should have been. I did not know turtles have such poor diction.

Tomorrow the students get to see the fruits of their labors. Just as exciting as the first night of layout is the unheralded first critique of the year.

Auburn / football / photo / Samford / weekend — Comments Off
8
Sep 12

About that football game

I don’t have an empirical basis for this, but it would seem that any time your punter has more yards than your offense, you’ve had a miserable day and no one wants to ever see it again.

That was Auburn’s 10-28 day, the worst loss they’ve had to Mississippi State in 15 years. Five turnovers will do that for you.

Samford, happily, beat UWA 34-6.

adventures / Friday / Samford — 1 Comment
7
Sep 12

News with which to start the weekend

It was a steaming hot summer afternoon, I remember because I was on my bike. The Yankee was following me as I pumped over a slight hill, at the height of my meager powers. She was saving herself for a race two days later.

We got out to our turnaround spot, near a restaurant we visit once or twice a year, on the spot where German POWs were held during World War II. I was drenched, but loving every minute of the exertion, loving that it didn’t feel so much like work. It felt so good to feel good.

She decided she’d had enough — there was that race, where she would finish third after all — and asked me to come back and pick her up. I sprinted out ahead of her to grab the car and save her legs and keep her out of the heat.

She stopped at a country store that has a porch swing. A kindly gentleman bought her a drink for no other reason than he was a kindly gentleman and there are a lot of them here. She waited for me and, while sitting in the shade, she learned a trial that we were planning on using as the operational basis of a piece of research was being delayed.

So for the rest of the week we brainstormed about a new idea. Surely there must be something. After a few days, I think on another ride, we seized on another idea. A few days later we put this new plan into action.

We spent a few evenings immersed in the idea and then about two weeks writing it for a journal submission. The reviewers sent it back with suggestions. We spent another few days improving it, and ultimately edited the piece down to 10,000 words.

This evening we learned that paper has been accepted for publication. I was cutting up a cantaloupe at the time.

We’re pretty happy about that, as you might expect. The journal article I mean. I’m sure we’ll get to the fruit eventually.

The Yankee did a great job on the paper. I wrote a few sections of it. She reworked some things and I edited it a couple of times. We make a good team.

We’re celebrating tonight with cupcakes.