Alright guys I’ve had enough. What is good journalism? Because I’m getting a little confused. I mean as far as I understood it for a very long time there is a formula, a specific equation for creating the perfect upside down pyramid news story. And I’m sorry but the majority of the stories I have any interest in writing don’t necessarily fit into that perfect little frame… at all.
News is supposed to be important to everyone, crucial to everyone, information everyone can use. Well NEWSFLASH (pardon once again the ridiculous pun): Not everyone is interested in the same thing. There are certain events that anyone and everyone will consider news. September 11th for example was an event that warranted being on the front page, being covered first – it was huge and 99.9% of the America would probably agree. However when we get down to the nitty gritty, the slow news day nonsense…not everyone is going to have an interest in the same thing. Newsworthy: what does that even mean?
I am so tired of being told what stories I should tell or how I should tell them based on the same formula that everyone before me has used. How is that innovative? How is that effective? How is that worth anything to anyone? Risks and new and different angles are important. I’ve said it from day one: the future of journalism is in the hands of the students currently learning it. We see things differently and THANK GOD! Because I don’t want to wear the suit and cover the same types of stories that have been being covered since forever. I don’t have an idol when it comes to journalism, because as far as I’m concerned I want my work to be my own. I want to write with my own voice, and tell stories with some perspective in them. Alright so I’m not cut out for hard news, I’ve always known that. Ever since my first journalism teacher told me there was a certain way to write a story.
I happen to like a bit of personality in what I write. In fact I would go so far as to say that me spitting out random facts and nonsense in a particular way isn’t even what I consider to be my writing at all. Rather some arbitrary exercise is boredom.
If given the choice between being a journalist who is well respected by everyone around me for work that I hate or being frowned upon for having an absurd and sometimes opinionated voice that I love, I choose the latter. Because I believe that emotion in everything and especially writing is imperative. So love me or hate me and my writing, I really refuse to simply be an echo of the voices before me…I really really refuse.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Cooperative Jouralism...who'd a thunk it?
It used to be, and I am not incredibly proud to admit this, I had a hard time working with other people. I mean I’d do it and I considered myself to be a team player and friendly and cooperative, but to be entirely frank I’d get a little irritated by the whole thing.
There was almost nothing more frustrating to me than to have someone sit there and try to change the article I had been working on – apart from editors who are people I quite appreciate to this day. But it would drive me crazy to have someone reword a sentence I was writing before it even was complete. It was not my thing.
Then some people introduced me to this little thing they like to call online journalism, and I’ve got to let you know I’ve never wanted more people to assist me in my entire life. I have since concluded that my past mindset might be as dated as the notion that print journalism is all there is. Suddenly I was calling up everyone I knew asking questions, getting feedback, and attempting to help others where I could…though those brief moments of glory were few and miles between.
You cannot be an expert on everything. Some people know web design, some people know video, others know audio and still others are strong in photography. Online journalism is a lot like online in general, in order for it to be effective a lot of minds have to come together. One story can have three, five, ten people working to produce it. It gets to the point where why on earth would you work alone? To do so would be sacrificing some integrity in the story.
Online journalism is a cooperative activity. And really isn’t that the best thing? More minds, more hands, more ideas the entire scenario just creates a melting pot of ideas and strategy. It goes past one person’s vision and expands to be more truthful, timely and accurate – it inevitably becomes better journalism. More people checking other people’s work, I mean it is truly a great set up.
And I realize other people might have arrived at this conclusion prior to me receiving the memo…but it really is a great discovery that I thought I’d share with those whose faxes are working somehow slower than mind.
MEMORANDUM
ATTN: All Journalists and Human Beings
SUBJECT: Working with other people actually pays off, especially in regards to journalism and even more especially in regards to Online Journalism.
Thank you and Best Regards,
Heather C.
There was almost nothing more frustrating to me than to have someone sit there and try to change the article I had been working on – apart from editors who are people I quite appreciate to this day. But it would drive me crazy to have someone reword a sentence I was writing before it even was complete. It was not my thing.
Then some people introduced me to this little thing they like to call online journalism, and I’ve got to let you know I’ve never wanted more people to assist me in my entire life. I have since concluded that my past mindset might be as dated as the notion that print journalism is all there is. Suddenly I was calling up everyone I knew asking questions, getting feedback, and attempting to help others where I could…though those brief moments of glory were few and miles between.
You cannot be an expert on everything. Some people know web design, some people know video, others know audio and still others are strong in photography. Online journalism is a lot like online in general, in order for it to be effective a lot of minds have to come together. One story can have three, five, ten people working to produce it. It gets to the point where why on earth would you work alone? To do so would be sacrificing some integrity in the story.
Online journalism is a cooperative activity. And really isn’t that the best thing? More minds, more hands, more ideas the entire scenario just creates a melting pot of ideas and strategy. It goes past one person’s vision and expands to be more truthful, timely and accurate – it inevitably becomes better journalism. More people checking other people’s work, I mean it is truly a great set up.
And I realize other people might have arrived at this conclusion prior to me receiving the memo…but it really is a great discovery that I thought I’d share with those whose faxes are working somehow slower than mind.
MEMORANDUM
ATTN: All Journalists and Human Beings
SUBJECT: Working with other people actually pays off, especially in regards to journalism and even more especially in regards to Online Journalism.
Thank you and Best Regards,
Heather C.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Serious Defamation
Huh how unlike me to tackle a subject like defamation…so serious. That being said here’s my thing about defamation and the laws surrounding it.
To me the entire world is just a little bit like high school. You’ve got the celebrities, you know the popular kids that everyone wants to be like and sit next to at lunch? But instead of winning crowns and football games they’re making more money than anyone else can imagine. And so then you’ve got the B group, you know middle class citizens that make the money and sometimes bump elbows with the rich and famous but are really just there to do the dirty work.
And let’s please not forget the geek squad, but in the real world it is totally a revenge of the nerds situation as they’re making more money than the middle class citizens anyway because they were never afraid to raise their hands in science class and now are engineers and millionaires. And the list goes on and on and on there are all the different groups only instead of crowding the halls in a high school they’re covering the entire planet. The class president suddenly is in control of nuclear weapons and school rivalries have turned into cold wars and acts of terrorism.
So how on earth, you might be wondering, does this relate back to the oh so very serious topic of defamation? Let me go ahead and show you.
Every fifteen year old on the planet gossips and let me tell you…not so very many people grow out of it. But instead of slam books and word of mouth there are a few more options. The smarter that people get, often times, the stupider they act. If you had to ask me I’d probably guess the editor at the Enquirer was probably the gossip god or goddess of high school…I mean no offense…can I be sued for that?!?
Instead of oddly folded notes getting into the wrong hands, and whispers in the hall getting too loud the gossip is in magazines and all over the web. People saying things about the popular kids, people saying things about the nerds and the middle class citizens and that one really weird guy.
And instead of getting sent to the principal’s office for a little smack on the hand, detention and maybe a suspension, all depending of course on what was said – you’ve got people suing other people, demanding money and the ruin of the offender’s reputation. They get their revenge through monetary means, settlements and through justification of the justice system…or something.
But here’s the thing – what was said was still said. The rumor is still out no matter what motivated the person to spread it in the first place, be it an honest mistake or a malicious attack. And also no matter the punishment, be is a slap on the hand or a thirty million dollar law suit. As long as people are alive they are going to be saying things about the jocks, the nerds, the cheerleaders, the prom queen, the weird girl in math class, that one guy who is a millionaire, that kid who stole that one thing from so and so, the president of the class, the president of the country… it can be illegal and it can be wrong but it is still going to happen.
I’m not saying that the laws surrounding defamation are all in vain – they are incredibly important, but given the size of this world wide high school, one has to consider them slightly ineffective. A small price to pay for that silly little thing we American folk like to call Freedom of Speech…but I mean – tell that to Britney.
To me the entire world is just a little bit like high school. You’ve got the celebrities, you know the popular kids that everyone wants to be like and sit next to at lunch? But instead of winning crowns and football games they’re making more money than anyone else can imagine. And so then you’ve got the B group, you know middle class citizens that make the money and sometimes bump elbows with the rich and famous but are really just there to do the dirty work.
And let’s please not forget the geek squad, but in the real world it is totally a revenge of the nerds situation as they’re making more money than the middle class citizens anyway because they were never afraid to raise their hands in science class and now are engineers and millionaires. And the list goes on and on and on there are all the different groups only instead of crowding the halls in a high school they’re covering the entire planet. The class president suddenly is in control of nuclear weapons and school rivalries have turned into cold wars and acts of terrorism.
So how on earth, you might be wondering, does this relate back to the oh so very serious topic of defamation? Let me go ahead and show you.
Every fifteen year old on the planet gossips and let me tell you…not so very many people grow out of it. But instead of slam books and word of mouth there are a few more options. The smarter that people get, often times, the stupider they act. If you had to ask me I’d probably guess the editor at the Enquirer was probably the gossip god or goddess of high school…I mean no offense…can I be sued for that?!?
Instead of oddly folded notes getting into the wrong hands, and whispers in the hall getting too loud the gossip is in magazines and all over the web. People saying things about the popular kids, people saying things about the nerds and the middle class citizens and that one really weird guy.
And instead of getting sent to the principal’s office for a little smack on the hand, detention and maybe a suspension, all depending of course on what was said – you’ve got people suing other people, demanding money and the ruin of the offender’s reputation. They get their revenge through monetary means, settlements and through justification of the justice system…or something.
But here’s the thing – what was said was still said. The rumor is still out no matter what motivated the person to spread it in the first place, be it an honest mistake or a malicious attack. And also no matter the punishment, be is a slap on the hand or a thirty million dollar law suit. As long as people are alive they are going to be saying things about the jocks, the nerds, the cheerleaders, the prom queen, the weird girl in math class, that one guy who is a millionaire, that kid who stole that one thing from so and so, the president of the class, the president of the country… it can be illegal and it can be wrong but it is still going to happen.
I’m not saying that the laws surrounding defamation are all in vain – they are incredibly important, but given the size of this world wide high school, one has to consider them slightly ineffective. A small price to pay for that silly little thing we American folk like to call Freedom of Speech…but I mean – tell that to Britney.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Can I get some water with that cover piece please?
Am I the only person who gets tired of straight up hard news? I mean please don’t get me wrong, it’s important, it’s crucial to the spread of information – but my God sometimes I get so tired of writing it…and reading it. The same is true for watching CNN, you know the news castor voice? Where everything sounds the same, with that token pause and the exact same rhythm so the audience can pay attention…does anyone else tire of that?
Maybe it is because I’m 21 years old, a college student and so not into politics, but hard news sometimes gives me a major case of the yawns. The way the headlines are written, the way everything is so violently structured, call me a crazed individualist but I like people to recognize my writing when it is placed next to the work of any other Tom, Dick or Sally. I want people to pick something up and say “There goes that crazy Heather again.”
I think that often time’s people confuse journalism with hard news…sorry pals but there are journalists out there who don’t necessarily aspire to write for The Times or The Post or the Herald. I often think that opinion pieces are underrated when it comes to their intellectual value.
I am certainly not saying that the entire layout of papers and websites should be changed to highlight opinion pieces rather than news, I’m not crazy – I’m just saying lets give opinion pieces the credit they deserve. They are viable works of literature and have absolute value when it comes to seeking the truth. Opinions are great things, they make people passionate and involved and motivated.
If I didn’t have some of the opinions that I’ve got I would say I would be half as good a person and less than half as good a writer. My opinions give me fire, they make me ask the questions that lead to the articles that are important. I mean, granted, if I write an piece that is riddled with my personal bias then okay it should appear under the big bold easily read letters of OPINION. But sometimes I think that people get down on opinion writers for being less journalistically inclined than hard core news gatherers.
I beg to differ.
I mean what makes people interested in those headline news articles so many people want to so drily write? Can’t it be argued that someone’s opinion is what eventually leads them to pick up a newspaper and see what’s inside? We read about George Bush because we want to see either a) what is that good for nothing son of a bitch doing to screw the country this time? or b) what is that prime example of a human being doing to protect and defend our United States…and anything between the two. People read the news so they can form opinions of their own, so how can people look down their noses at people that have the courage to write what their opinions actually are?
Journalism is not just one thing, it isn’t just news. It is news, and entertainment, and opinion, and sports and strange pieces that appear in magazines and newsletters everywhere. Journalism is communicating something you think is important to a large group of people. It is not an upside down pyramid with quotes, facts and names thrown in only where the most calculated of journalistic equations require them. An opinion piece is just as much journalism as a hardcore front cover news piece. A documentary is just as much journalism as a serious clip fro CNN. The point is they are just different genres of journalism, none more important than the others, just all of them working together to get to the truth.
Maybe it is because I’m 21 years old, a college student and so not into politics, but hard news sometimes gives me a major case of the yawns. The way the headlines are written, the way everything is so violently structured, call me a crazed individualist but I like people to recognize my writing when it is placed next to the work of any other Tom, Dick or Sally. I want people to pick something up and say “There goes that crazy Heather again.”
I think that often time’s people confuse journalism with hard news…sorry pals but there are journalists out there who don’t necessarily aspire to write for The Times or The Post or the Herald. I often think that opinion pieces are underrated when it comes to their intellectual value.
I am certainly not saying that the entire layout of papers and websites should be changed to highlight opinion pieces rather than news, I’m not crazy – I’m just saying lets give opinion pieces the credit they deserve. They are viable works of literature and have absolute value when it comes to seeking the truth. Opinions are great things, they make people passionate and involved and motivated.
If I didn’t have some of the opinions that I’ve got I would say I would be half as good a person and less than half as good a writer. My opinions give me fire, they make me ask the questions that lead to the articles that are important. I mean, granted, if I write an piece that is riddled with my personal bias then okay it should appear under the big bold easily read letters of OPINION. But sometimes I think that people get down on opinion writers for being less journalistically inclined than hard core news gatherers.
I beg to differ.
I mean what makes people interested in those headline news articles so many people want to so drily write? Can’t it be argued that someone’s opinion is what eventually leads them to pick up a newspaper and see what’s inside? We read about George Bush because we want to see either a) what is that good for nothing son of a bitch doing to screw the country this time? or b) what is that prime example of a human being doing to protect and defend our United States…and anything between the two. People read the news so they can form opinions of their own, so how can people look down their noses at people that have the courage to write what their opinions actually are?
Journalism is not just one thing, it isn’t just news. It is news, and entertainment, and opinion, and sports and strange pieces that appear in magazines and newsletters everywhere. Journalism is communicating something you think is important to a large group of people. It is not an upside down pyramid with quotes, facts and names thrown in only where the most calculated of journalistic equations require them. An opinion piece is just as much journalism as a hardcore front cover news piece. A documentary is just as much journalism as a serious clip fro CNN. The point is they are just different genres of journalism, none more important than the others, just all of them working together to get to the truth.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Here comes the journalist...
Has anyone ever noticed how attached journalists are to their jobs? When I first started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life being a journalist seemed like an easy way to get a job doing what I love. I could write and talk to people and well wouldn’t that be just so cool?
Well after nearly three years in school studying this fine profession I have come to a conclusion. At my graduation I should not being wearing a cap and gown, I should be wearing a wedding dress and walking down the isle to the Wedding March tune, or Paco Bell’s Cannon or some other such romantic nonsense. The fact of the matter is, we do marry our jobs. Point blank.
To survive in this profession it’s impossible to think of yourself as a normal human being, you have to be crazy bionic and not really adhere to the regular standards of all the other human beings. Editors, teachers, people reading your work, people criticizing your work they all expect the same thing: perfection. You can put together the most impressive publication on the planet and if there’s a spelling error you can be damn sure someone’s going to notice it. You can have one problem in twenty pages and someone is going to think that much less of you and the paper or magazine or website you work for.
And this is my favorite part, as journalists we put so much effort into our pieces. We drive sometimes hours and hours to put together one story. We harass people none stop, making calls, checking emails, my left hand might as well be my laptop. I mean I truly believe that the Blackberry was created for us. And then there’s writing the story, editing film, tweaking audio, checking transitions and people sit down for five minutes maybe to see what we’ve done. And when we’re really lucky they call us bias or notice the one thing we missed – a flawed transition, a misplace coma, you name it.
So like any other marriage we really have to be in love. Not just with writing, not just with talking to people, not just with never sleeping until the story’s done, or the paper’s finished, or the magazine is in print. We have to love all of it. And in the end come hell or high water we have to have passion for the pieces we do. We have to at least fall in love with the stories we cover just a little bit. Sure we have to step back and ask whether or not the story is relevant, or appropriate, or timely, we have to be unbiased about the subject matter and objective. But when the time comes to look at what we have created, we have to have a connection with it. We have to see our words, or our video or hear our audio and know that it was worth the hours we weren’t with our friends and families. That it was worth the effort and the gas and the irritation of “oh my freakin God what the hell is wrong with this source who won’t email me back!?!”
So do you take this crazy career for better or for worse, for crazy sources or sane people, for crashing computers or flawless work, as long as you both shall live?
I do.
Well after nearly three years in school studying this fine profession I have come to a conclusion. At my graduation I should not being wearing a cap and gown, I should be wearing a wedding dress and walking down the isle to the Wedding March tune, or Paco Bell’s Cannon or some other such romantic nonsense. The fact of the matter is, we do marry our jobs. Point blank.
To survive in this profession it’s impossible to think of yourself as a normal human being, you have to be crazy bionic and not really adhere to the regular standards of all the other human beings. Editors, teachers, people reading your work, people criticizing your work they all expect the same thing: perfection. You can put together the most impressive publication on the planet and if there’s a spelling error you can be damn sure someone’s going to notice it. You can have one problem in twenty pages and someone is going to think that much less of you and the paper or magazine or website you work for.
And this is my favorite part, as journalists we put so much effort into our pieces. We drive sometimes hours and hours to put together one story. We harass people none stop, making calls, checking emails, my left hand might as well be my laptop. I mean I truly believe that the Blackberry was created for us. And then there’s writing the story, editing film, tweaking audio, checking transitions and people sit down for five minutes maybe to see what we’ve done. And when we’re really lucky they call us bias or notice the one thing we missed – a flawed transition, a misplace coma, you name it.
So like any other marriage we really have to be in love. Not just with writing, not just with talking to people, not just with never sleeping until the story’s done, or the paper’s finished, or the magazine is in print. We have to love all of it. And in the end come hell or high water we have to have passion for the pieces we do. We have to at least fall in love with the stories we cover just a little bit. Sure we have to step back and ask whether or not the story is relevant, or appropriate, or timely, we have to be unbiased about the subject matter and objective. But when the time comes to look at what we have created, we have to have a connection with it. We have to see our words, or our video or hear our audio and know that it was worth the hours we weren’t with our friends and families. That it was worth the effort and the gas and the irritation of “oh my freakin God what the hell is wrong with this source who won’t email me back!?!”
So do you take this crazy career for better or for worse, for crazy sources or sane people, for crashing computers or flawless work, as long as you both shall live?
I do.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Old School Education in a New School World
When I came to college to learn how to be a journalist I have to admit that after a few mind numbing classes about the basics, ethics, and law I wanted to stab myself in the eye with a pencil rather than learn about it…again. Into my sophomore year I almost considered dropping the major for something more useful after being told that I was going to spend ½ my career in the obits section of some small arbitrary newspaper.
I was traumatized by learning the same thing….over….and over….and over again. Com 101, Com 110, Com 250 (I don’t even remember what they stand for) and it didn’t stop there. Ethics, law, law again, ethics again, history, history, history…Class after class after class I was left with the question: Is this education or some strange form of torture? I will say it again: Mind Numbing!
And then I get to my junior year, after serious inner turmoil and completely by a lucky accident I have found myself in a class that is teaching me –hark what’s this? – something useful! Though I am certainly no advocate for Dreamweaver. And there are things that I am lost on when it comes to SoundSlides. And YES I get very frustrated with HTML and all the rest – but at least it is hands on and going to make a difference in my future.
Why is it that I learned about five useful things in four classes? What the hell is the point of that? The pencil? The Xerox Machine? Really Cohen versus California again? From an ethical standpoint, a legal standpoint, some rambling professor’s standpoint…seriously?
And then I have about twenty crucial things being jammed into one class that by the way, only fulfills a requirement by default…ummm what? Okay the class is tiring, and time consuming, and often frustrating to the point of tears for those among us who are technologically below par, but I would rather have a head ache than wonder where my head even is.
I understand that what we learn in those babbling classes is essentially important, even if not all that interesting. But isn’t it more important in our chosen field to expose the up and coming to something that can actually help us? It is my belief that journalism programs needs to be executed like trade schools. Give us two boring ridiculous classes and then, for the love of the written word, please teach us something helpful! Expose us to the field, make internships not only important, but required. Teach us the history in shorter doses that are a) easier to remember and b) less time consuming. If I go into an interview and say “Hey I don’t have a portfolio or any experience at all, but here’s the history of the pencil, papyrus, and the feather quill,” they’re going to look at me like I’m the most ridiculous human being on the planet.
I mean we’re always talking about timeliness right? Well someone please enlighten me: What the hell is timely about the history of an eraser?
I was traumatized by learning the same thing….over….and over….and over again. Com 101, Com 110, Com 250 (I don’t even remember what they stand for) and it didn’t stop there. Ethics, law, law again, ethics again, history, history, history…Class after class after class I was left with the question: Is this education or some strange form of torture? I will say it again: Mind Numbing!
And then I get to my junior year, after serious inner turmoil and completely by a lucky accident I have found myself in a class that is teaching me –hark what’s this? – something useful! Though I am certainly no advocate for Dreamweaver. And there are things that I am lost on when it comes to SoundSlides. And YES I get very frustrated with HTML and all the rest – but at least it is hands on and going to make a difference in my future.
Why is it that I learned about five useful things in four classes? What the hell is the point of that? The pencil? The Xerox Machine? Really Cohen versus California again? From an ethical standpoint, a legal standpoint, some rambling professor’s standpoint…seriously?
And then I have about twenty crucial things being jammed into one class that by the way, only fulfills a requirement by default…ummm what? Okay the class is tiring, and time consuming, and often frustrating to the point of tears for those among us who are technologically below par, but I would rather have a head ache than wonder where my head even is.
I understand that what we learn in those babbling classes is essentially important, even if not all that interesting. But isn’t it more important in our chosen field to expose the up and coming to something that can actually help us? It is my belief that journalism programs needs to be executed like trade schools. Give us two boring ridiculous classes and then, for the love of the written word, please teach us something helpful! Expose us to the field, make internships not only important, but required. Teach us the history in shorter doses that are a) easier to remember and b) less time consuming. If I go into an interview and say “Hey I don’t have a portfolio or any experience at all, but here’s the history of the pencil, papyrus, and the feather quill,” they’re going to look at me like I’m the most ridiculous human being on the planet.
I mean we’re always talking about timeliness right? Well someone please enlighten me: What the hell is timely about the history of an eraser?
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