The New York Times has started a community blog in my town. I’m going to be contributing over the summer once the semester ends. Here’s my first post LINK.
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Field Trip to ABC News
The intrepid members of Journalism 1 Spring 09 at ABC News
I took my Journalism 1 class to visit ABC News in Midtown today. We saw a lot. Learned a lot. Ate Munchkins, provided by Prof. Virginia Breen who is spending the semester working at ABC News.com and who helped organize the trip. The topic of the day was The Future of Journalism. What is it? We had a fascinating discussion about Search Engine Optimization, in which online stories and headlines are loaded up with popular search terms to draw readers looking for stories through google and yahoo. The students got a lot of advice about how to make it in the business. Then we emerged into the glorious weather.
Filed under In Class
Coach vs Paper
A University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football coach pitched a fit over an unfavorable story in the student newspaper about some members of his team. He banned the student newspaper fromcovering the team. Told them to go cover soccer instead. Then had to back down and appologize. LINK.
Filed under Student Journalism
Here they are. They Pulitzer Prizes.Shadowing
My junior seminar students were assigned to shadow a journalist and write about it. Kiersten Morsanutto did just that. And then, proving my point that one thing often leads to another in journalism, the journalist she shadowed, shadowed her back and wrote about it. Here is the LINK.
Filed under In Class
Times Style
Any journalism student unconvinced about the importance of a style manual at a news organization should read this week’s essay in The New York Times by the public editor to see how seriously copy editors take these issues. Here’s a Quick Guide to AP Style and a good list of things to look out for from Dr. Michael Sweeney, Utah State Uni.
Filed under In the News
R.I.P. The Shack
The Shack, as the modest warren of offices for the press located in New York’s Police Headquarters is called, appears to be destined for the chopping block. If it happens, this will severely cramp the style of New York’s newspapers in particular.
Filed under In the News
Campus | The Brick
Check out his hilarious video posted on the Purchase Brick about Purchase’s Zombie Prom.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
more about “Campus | The Brick“, posted with vodpod
Filed under Student Work
A New Direction for Local News
Here’s a piece in The New York Times about local websites popping up around the country providing “hyper local” news to communities. Some of them hire reporters. Most seem to link to stories and information they find on the Internet.
Filed under In the News
ASNE to Drop “Newspapers” From Its Name
Sign of the times, perhaps. This just in from Prof. Rachel Wedding McClelland. The American Society of Newspaper Editors is to drop the word “newspapers” from its name and replace it with “news.” Here’s the STORY.
Filed under In the News
New Yorker Piece on Media Moguls
Here’s a good roundup by Nicholas Lemann in The New Yorker about media moguls, Hearst, Pulitzer and Murdoch. It’s good to be reminded that the newspaper landscape has not always been dominated by the Times and the Wall Street Journal. In days of yore it was the World and the Journal. It’s also good to be reminded, if you think journalism is going down the tubes, that it’s been down the tubes before and up again.
Filed under In the News
Lebron’s Incredible Shot
According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s New Media Project, this was the most popular YouTube video last week. CBS are now using the clip to promote their show. If you haven’t seen it yet it’s pretty cool. By the way, I’m one take too.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
more about “Lebron’s Incredible Shot“, posted with vodpod
Filed under In the News
Journalism Student Sample Resumes
It’s always good to have an example to inspire you when you’re drawing up a resume, so I did a little hunting around to find some sample resumes for journalism students. Here’s one I found at College Grad.com (hit on the first link on the list when you get to the site) which I like because it has an expanded “Education” section that lists courses taken at college.
If you want to see how professional journalists and authors are establishing their “Web presence” take a look at Author Bytes.com. These are professionally made websites with all the bells and whistles that you’d expect. Take a look at New York Times columnist Paul Krugman‘s site. I liked the layout of the one belonging to writer Alison Overholt. I’m not advocating that students pay to have a site made for themselves, rather I’m suggesting that students use these professional sites as a source of ideas for layout and organization.
There are plenty of web platforms that students can use for FREE to create their own “web presence,” such as WordPress.com, which is what I use for this blog, or Blogger, or Tumblr. These free platforms can be used to create a site that meets your needs. If you’re a journalism student, you may not yet need a page devoted to public speaking, but you might want to create a page to display some great photographs you’ve taken. Some of my students put their resumes on their sites, which is useful when hunting for internships or jobs. (I would recommend that you DO NOT put your address or phone number online. An email address should be enough.)
If you need ideas for cover letters, here’s one for a journalism internship from Best Cover Letters.com. Here’s another one for a journalism job from Best Cover Letters.com. Remember to CHECK THE SPELLING of everything you write, PARTICULARLY THE NAME OF THE PERSON YOU ARE WRITING TO. Also, these samples are out there on google for all journalism students to see. Don’t use them word for word!
For those of you who have clips from newspapers that don’t have websites, you could do what Purchase Journalism Student, Michael Shor did, which was to scan the clips, then post them on a free website at sites.google.com. Prospective employers can now see his clips online, which many want to do these days.
Job hunting can be tough. Aim high. Have a few back-up plans. Be polite but persistent. Believe in yourself. Don’t take anything personally.
May The Force be with you.
Filed under Job Hunt
British Photog Captures Top Secret Terrorist Info
Poor old Bob Quick. Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism chief was on his way in to brief the prime minister when a photographer snapped his photo with a telephoto lense. In Quick’s hands were folders containing top secret information about an anti-terrorist raid. The raid was brought forward because of the blunder. Quick had to resign.
According to The Guardian newspaper, the document contained names of several senior officers, sensitive locations and details about the nature of the overseas threat. So the government imposed a “D notice” to restrict the media from revealing the contents of the picture.
Filed under In the News
A Romance Found in the Blogosphere
For all you bloggers out there, here’s a story that ran in The New York Times SundayStyles section that will warm the cockles of your hearts. It’s a touching story of how a blogger was wooed by and ended up marrying a frequent commenter on her blog.
Filed under Blogging
journoprof 