Sharpen those pencils...or should I say keyboards

There is nothing like the smell of freshly sharpened pencils to get you in the mood for a good class. This week kicked off a new semester of classes and boy was I ready to get writing again. As of right now, it looks like this is going to be a great semester because not only do I adore a couple of my journalism classes, but the professors aren't half bad either. Here are some first class quotes from my professors that make me excited to be a journalist, and should make you excited too:

"You will learn to appreciate journalism as a service profession, one upon which individuals, communities and the country at large depend."
"Pictures are the primary mode of story telling in the modern media."
"Do not show a source you are weak. If they don't want to conduct an interview with you, tell them you will wait."
"You are going to learn to think like a reporter and read like an editor."

I hope that was inspiring. Now onto more important things... A few weeks ago I came across a fascinating article on ReadWriteWeb about a cool new way to research info on the Internet. Apture, a startup web company, allows readers to highlight a single word on the screen and search the Internet for information about that particular word without leaving the page. Crazy right? No, more like AMAZING.

So what does this mean for students like us? Well, for starters, if you don't know the definition of a word, you can just look it up with the click of a button. But if you are a journalist on deadline, and need to do some quick research on your source before you go out for an interview, this is a great time saving technique. Technologies like this are changing online news content and will continue to influence how we write for the web. Apture is the new link.

Check out this video with one of the creators of Apture. He describes how with the help of some journalists his multimedia tool became a hit.

Time goes by too fast

August really has a way of creeping up on you. I can't believe that I have less than 30 days before school starts back up again.

Anyways, with more than half the year over, it is time to reflect on those little New Year's resolutions I made. In a post titled "Some Goals," (original, I know), I wrote that I wanted to have a podcast posted on this blog, learn some HTML code, post pictures, learn more about video documentaries, share thoughts about new media, and get some followers.

Well, three of the six have been accomplished, so I guess I better get moving on learning the whole HTML thing and discover a bit more about video documentaries.

So, naturally, I googled "video documentary" and went straight to the infamously helpful eHow.com . Doesn't get much better than that (well, it does, but you have to start somewhere right?)

This fall I will be starting fresh at a new school, and therefore starting fresh writing for a different college newspaper. While I will still be pursuing a degree in journalism, writing for a college press is not strictly limited to those looking for a career in communication.

Michael Koretzky, adviser to the Florida Atlantic University Press, says "No other extra-curricular activity on campus is better for your career-- no matter what it is-- than the newspaper."

I couldn't have said it better myself. Writing for the student newspaper is no easy task. Every week the staff has to come up with new content that will catch the attention of the student body. Sure, the Student Government Organization may have organized a great concert, but it took them a year to do so. And maybe GSA had a successful fundraiser, but it took months to get it off the ground. The newspaper staff gets a finished product out on the news stand within a week.

Harsh deadlines teach you to stop procrastinating and put you in a pressure situation where you may have to think on your feet to get a story done on time. You gain managing and multi-tasking skills that you may not have learned you were otherwise capable of. And, let's face it, what student doesn't need to brush up on their grammar and writing skills?

As a staff writer for any university press, you gain people skills that you will use throughout your career, no matter what path that may be. I am eager and ready to join a new staff in the fall and can't wait to start seeing my name in print again.

"What's black and white and completely over?"

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-december-9-2008/clusterf--k-to-the-poor-house---final-edition-edition

Nothing is off the record

When do journalists agree to allow a source to be "off the record?" The answer should be never. It seems that sometimes we are afraid to tell a source that everything they said is fair game to be printed. Sometimes our ethics are brought into question and giving a highly recognized source a bad reputation can really impact a journalists career.

Case in-point, Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone Magazine. Rather than receiving praise from his colleagues, Hastings is getting some backlash for not understanding the "unspoken agreement" that you will not embarrass the troops. Lara Logan, CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent, criticized Hastings, ultimately saying she doesn't believe the story, and to her, "something doesn't add up."

We are taught everything is on the record, unless the reporter agrees otherwise. Journalists shouldn't be afraid to take some risks, our job is to write great stories and share great news with the public. If some risks weren't taken to do so, then we wouldn't have a job. 

 I think Steve Buttry sums up the matter beautifully, saying, "Our nation's founders did not protect the press so the press could protect the government." 

On to the next one

Multimedia Immersion rap from News Photog on Vimeo.

Priceless.

"Don't take no for an answer"

With plenty of time to read books that I actually enjoy this summer, I have been enjoying one book titled God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours by Regina Brett. Brett is a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and in her book she writes the 50 lessons life has taught her.

One lesson that is probably relevant to most journalists is Lesson 20: when it comes to going after what you want in life, don't take no for an answer. Brett describes the struggles she faced when looking for a steady job after graduation. After a professor told her that she wasn't ready for the world of journalism, Brett didn't take no for an answer. She began writing for a paper with a beat she didn't want to cover, yet took every story she could get and finished it. 

Many more no's came to Brett, and she fought through each one, until she eventually got her own column. At the end of this chapter Brett writes, "I have a dream job. All because I wouldn't take no for an answer and kept shoveling."

Every college student is working through school to get to their dream job. However, as Brett demonstrates, a dream job isn't just going to be handed to us. Now more than ever journalists have to create a name for themselves, going above and beyond in order to beat the competition (get it, "beat"? ok, bad joke). We know we want to be writers, that part is accomplished, but becoming a great writer with great content comes with the perseverance to prove those who tell you "no" wrong.

Just a note, Lesson 20 goes hand in hand with Lesson 1: life isn't fair, but it's still good.