journoprof

An admissions guy at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism once told me that the best journalists aren’t often the best exam-takers. Excellent, I thought, this is the career for me. As a student I had never felt I’d done myself justice in exams. So I am sympathetic to my students as I stroll the aisles during exam week. Nevertheless, I’ve just finished grading and yet again I notice the same old mistakes that get made year after year. Here they are. Avoid them if you can.

1) “GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE” SYNDROME – Believe me, I remember well that urge to leg it out the door as soon as you’ve put the final period on your final sentence. But a thorough re-reading before you turn in the paper can save a few crucial points. Use spellcheck! Don’t ignore Word’s red squiggly lines. A journalist’s copy should be clean, even in an exam by golly! Your best editor is you. President Obama did not go to Norway to accept the NOBLE Peace Prize.

2) THE AP STYLEBOOK, LEARN TO LOVE IT – I can see how hard it must be to understand the importance of the AP Stylebook when you’re a freshman journalism student. The rule-lovers, love it. It’s something SPECIFIC TO study for a journalism exam. But some students simply refuse to knuckle down and commit to memory the few rules that even the most detail-disoriented among us need to know. I’m not talking attorneys general, that kind of stuff is gravy. I’m talking numbers, ages, titles, addresses and dates. Buy the book and hold on to it. It’s the industry’s bible.

3) TO HELL WITH THE NEWS – You may have ambitions in music journalism or fashion or gossip, but journalism students just have to be up to date on current events. The capital of Afghanistan is not “Arab.” The Defense Secretary is not Hillary Clinton. And if you don’t know who Elin Nordegren is married to, you need to change your major.

4) FORMAT FOR SUCCESS – Nothing makes you look like a rookie faster than failing to format your article properly. Slug it. Put your byline on. Give it a word count. Remember to double space and you’re already well on your way to looking like a pro.

5) LOVE YOUR LEAD – Never underestimate the power of a good lead. Don’t rush it. Craft it. Melvin Mencher says it should not exceed 35 words. I say make sure it scans.

2009 Scholarship Winners with Tom Hanks

This just in from my colleague, Mary Alice Williams, who has news of scholarships for female journalism students. Click HERE for information about the The New York Women in Communications Foundation 2010 Scholarship Program. The scholarship is aimed at students from NY, NJ, CT and PA, or students who are attending college in those states. There’s up to $10,000 on offer.

Journalism students, READ THIS.

New York Times Media Columnist, David Carr, marshals his talents as an author and his knowledge of the media business in an eloquent lament about the changing of the Manhattan media scene. If you think you’ve heard it all before, stick it out till you get to the optimistic kicker. (Hat tip to John Glenn and Ross Daly.)

The fur was flying on Tom Ashbrook’s public radio show, On Point,  recently when the guests attempted to predict the future of the news industry. The issue on the table was Rupert Murdoch’s threat to challenge Google – and Google’s news-for-free philosophy – by charging people for access to stories produced by his News Corp empire. Michael Wolff, a Vanity Fair contributor and founder of Newser.com, lashed into Steven Brill, a media mogul and founder of Journalism Online, a company that helps publishing companies transition to charging for content. Jeff Jarvis, a CUNY journalism professor and author of “What Would Google Do?”, was also in the mix. Despite the friction, there were some fascinating perspectives on the thorny issue of charging for content.

Check out these multimedia projects done by the students at the S.I.Newhouse School of Public Communications LINK. According to their site, some 200 students and 20 instructors spent a weekend in Skaneateles, NY, doing stories with equipment loaned by Apple and Nikon. The results are great.

News of William Safire’s death does make it feel like the end of an era. Here’s a great line from The New York Times’ story about his death:

There were columns on blogosphere blargon, tarnation-heck euphemisms, dastardly subjunctives and even Barack and Michelle Obama’s fist bumps. And there were Safire “rules for writers”: Remember to never split an infinitive. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. Avoid clichés like the plague. And don’t overuse exclamation marks!!

Caster Semenya, the athlete at the center of the athletics gender debate, has posed on the front cover of a South African magazine called You. As if to answer her critics, who say she is too masculine to compete in women’s events, she has been glammed up in sequins and stilettos in shots that appear inside the magazine. Here’s a story about her makeover.

This cover makes me feel like I prude. I think I have a sense of humor. And I hate journalists who take themselves too seriously. But I have to say I hate this Denver Magazine cover showing anchors Libby Weaver and Natalie Tysdal of Denver’s Channel 31. So does Jennifer Frank who sent it and the link to this Denver Post article.

Here it is. My latest vid. This is a really touching piece about a grandmother and granddaughter who started up an online business selling their art. Here’s the story as it ran in The New York Times’ blog, The Local.

Grandmother and granddaughter selling off art