Tamar Jacoby was a journalist. She was the deputy opinion editor for the New York Times.
But this all changed with one story.
Ten years ago, Jacoby was writing an article over the immigration battles in Arizona. It was an area of study she was interested and called her sources for their quotes.
She said it was after she conducted the interviews that she realized these polar opposite representatives really had more in common than she realized. That’s when she decided to bring them together to find some common ground.
Finding that common ground is what she has been doing since.
Jacoby is the President of Immigration Works, a group that reaches out to small businesses and presses for immigration solutions.
She brings an interesting perspective because most assume those who are leaning Republican are anti-immigration while those who are more liberal are open to illegal immigration.
She defies that stereotype.
Jacoby said businesses want to be on the right side of the law, and while most activists are on the left, these people usually are more right-leaning politically. The message from these groups are not to build a wall and send them home but to work towards policies that do three things:
1) Allow businesses easier access to immigrant workers by instituting some sort of worker plan.
2) Protect the borders once a more workable process is in place.
3) Provide some sort of route to citizenship for the millions of people who are already here.
She said that throughout the many focus groups she has performed, it does not take long for people to realize that the extremes are not reasonable solutions. People move to extreme measures because she said they are scared or they feel laws should not be broken.
But the world is not what it used to be 50 years ago, and the laws have not adapted to the new times. In 1960, half of American men in the workforce were high school dropouts, now that number is six percent.
Who do we find to do those menial or more trade-oriented jobs that Americans seem to have educated themselves out of?
Jacoby spends her time trying to find an answer to this question that resonates with those in Congress, but so far none has stuck. People in America still have to get passed their own judgments and assumptions, and Congress is no different.
Monday, December 20, 2010
OU Student Q/A
Washington D.C. isn’t just a town of professionals.
Yes, you may see the average lobbyist heading down K Street to the taco truck at lunch, but at the time time the person standing in line behind him may very well be a student.
Washington D.C. is home to numerous colleges, Georgetown, George Washington, American and Howard to name a few.
These universities bring people from all over the country, much like the Beltway itself; and OU is no exception to this standard.
John Wood graduated from OU in May 2009 and headed off to Washington D.C. to study law in the “Lawyer Capitol of the World.” I took a quick moment to see what it was about Washington that drew him in and what might be keeping him here.
What brought you to DC?
I am a Juris Doctor candidate at Georgetown University.
When did your graduate from OU and with what degree?
I graduated from OU in May of 2010 with a Bachelors of Arts in Finance.
What about Washington D.C. lured you here?
Georgetown is home to a great law school, and Washington D.C. is one of the greatest places to practice law.
How is Washington similar to Oklahoma?
I have found that many people in Washington D.C. are refreshingly polite, like people in Oklahoma. This is not something I expected.
In what ways are Norman and D.C. almost polar opposites?
One can live comfortably in Washington D.C. without a car, which would be virtually impossible in Oklahoma.
What’s your favorite place to eat in Norman and your favorite place to eat in D.C.?
In Norman it would be Tarahumaras, in Washington D.C. it is Nando’s Peri Peri.
Where in both towns would you go to get away and just relax?
If I were in Norman, it would be Campus Corner. In Washington D.C., Adams Morgan.
Which city do you see yourself living in on a more permanent basis?
Well, I’ll be in Washington D.C. at least two and a half more years for school, and then most law jobs are on the east coast. So I guess D.C.
Where do you see yourself going after your time in D.C?
I’ll go where the jobs go, that may mean not leaving Washington D.C.
Yes, you may see the average lobbyist heading down K Street to the taco truck at lunch, but at the time time the person standing in line behind him may very well be a student.
Washington D.C. is home to numerous colleges, Georgetown, George Washington, American and Howard to name a few.
These universities bring people from all over the country, much like the Beltway itself; and OU is no exception to this standard.
John Wood graduated from OU in May 2009 and headed off to Washington D.C. to study law in the “Lawyer Capitol of the World.” I took a quick moment to see what it was about Washington that drew him in and what might be keeping him here.
What brought you to DC?
I am a Juris Doctor candidate at Georgetown University.
When did your graduate from OU and with what degree?
I graduated from OU in May of 2010 with a Bachelors of Arts in Finance.
What about Washington D.C. lured you here?
Georgetown is home to a great law school, and Washington D.C. is one of the greatest places to practice law.
How is Washington similar to Oklahoma?
I have found that many people in Washington D.C. are refreshingly polite, like people in Oklahoma. This is not something I expected.
In what ways are Norman and D.C. almost polar opposites?
One can live comfortably in Washington D.C. without a car, which would be virtually impossible in Oklahoma.
What’s your favorite place to eat in Norman and your favorite place to eat in D.C.?
In Norman it would be Tarahumaras, in Washington D.C. it is Nando’s Peri Peri.
Where in both towns would you go to get away and just relax?
If I were in Norman, it would be Campus Corner. In Washington D.C., Adams Morgan.
Which city do you see yourself living in on a more permanent basis?
Well, I’ll be in Washington D.C. at least two and a half more years for school, and then most law jobs are on the east coast. So I guess D.C.
Where do you see yourself going after your time in D.C?
I’ll go where the jobs go, that may mean not leaving Washington D.C.
The Cult of the Presidency
The Cult of the Presidency
We rely on the President to do so much for us.
He is a father figure.
A caregiver.
A warlord.
A motivator.
How can a President be expected to do all of this and run an executive branch that has expanded beyond all capacity?
This is the question Gene Healy asks in his book “Cult of the Presidency.”
Healy notes that when he wrote it, President George W. Bush was in office and he was observing how despite Bush’s claims to reduce the size of government, no such action occurred.
Healy, a leader at the CATO institute, noticed even in the Barack Obama campaign that the president had to represent himself as many things and could no longer be so narrowly defined.
What does a country want most? As might say, we want options, but at the same time we want the free lunch.
We want it all, and that is what Healy said the president has become. A catch-all for ideals and the guiding force behind the people.
When the founding fathers envisioned this country, Healy notes that the Presidency was not supposed to be this huge figure. The founders were afraid of such government power in the hands of one man.
They established a strong legislative branch. They established a strong executive branch.
But now, where does that leave us?
And it begs us to ask the question, can we even reverse this monster that we have created. Healy admits to offering no answers to this problem of the growing presidency.
Do we cut him off at the knees and take back the admiration and awe that surrounds the office? Do we make a sharp turn and shun the executive office, from which monumental changes occurred like the Emancipation Proclamation and a Civil Rights agenda?
There seems to be no obvious answer as how to tackle this beast, but as Healy notes it is a cult following that has grown up around the office of the president and it has created this unhealthy need for the president to act as an answer for all the questions in our lives.
We rely on the President to do so much for us.
He is a father figure.
A caregiver.
A warlord.
A motivator.
How can a President be expected to do all of this and run an executive branch that has expanded beyond all capacity?
This is the question Gene Healy asks in his book “Cult of the Presidency.”
Healy notes that when he wrote it, President George W. Bush was in office and he was observing how despite Bush’s claims to reduce the size of government, no such action occurred.
Healy, a leader at the CATO institute, noticed even in the Barack Obama campaign that the president had to represent himself as many things and could no longer be so narrowly defined.
What does a country want most? As might say, we want options, but at the same time we want the free lunch.
We want it all, and that is what Healy said the president has become. A catch-all for ideals and the guiding force behind the people.
When the founding fathers envisioned this country, Healy notes that the Presidency was not supposed to be this huge figure. The founders were afraid of such government power in the hands of one man.
They established a strong legislative branch. They established a strong executive branch.
But now, where does that leave us?
And it begs us to ask the question, can we even reverse this monster that we have created. Healy admits to offering no answers to this problem of the growing presidency.
Do we cut him off at the knees and take back the admiration and awe that surrounds the office? Do we make a sharp turn and shun the executive office, from which monumental changes occurred like the Emancipation Proclamation and a Civil Rights agenda?
There seems to be no obvious answer as how to tackle this beast, but as Healy notes it is a cult following that has grown up around the office of the president and it has created this unhealthy need for the president to act as an answer for all the questions in our lives.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Almost final week at National Journal:
Monday: Today, I was working on a slide show that I had known I wanted to do for quite some time. It was a slideshow about the BCS picks based upon which Congress member is from that school. It was interesting because although Auburn is the favorite to win the national championship this year, they are not too strong in Congress. An Alabama graduate actually beat their candidate for the election this year. How is that for ironic, although Auburn will likely get the last laugh this year.
Tuesday: Today’s slideshow was about the 8 suggestions newcomers should take from their peers. It was a piece in the magazine but we took it a few days later and reconfigured it so that it would be able to be shorter and more concise. We also put some great photos with the piece. These slideshows generally take up the entire day, which is why my boss asked me about asking future interns to come in earlier in the morning to start them because then they would not be produced so late in the day. Oh, and it was a Terry Michael day…. He just lectured.
Wednesday: Today was the day that Elizabeth Edwards passed away so my time in the afternoon was taken up by working with others to package stories for the news. I was in charge of putting together a slide show of photos through the years, while others like Major Garrett did a video segment about his memories of Elizabeth Edwards. Things like this are nice because then we were able to use this packaging even later in the week when her funeral came around.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! Today we spoke with Gene Healy from the CATO Institute. It was a pretty typical session and he signed our books afterwards. I think everyone is realizing that we are in the home stretch and people are just ready to be done. Today, Wikileaks was my job and I put together a slideshow about the hackers who are fighting certain websites. It was a chore because this required a bit of creativity when it came to photos but I learned how to do a drop shadow in photoshop.
Friday: Today is the National Journal Christmas party and I don’t think anyone was real excited to be at work knowing that we would be getting off early for the party. I worked on some photo galleries for the Nobel Laureate Ceremony, but that was pretty much it as well as working on some expert blogs for education and transportation.
Tuesday: Today’s slideshow was about the 8 suggestions newcomers should take from their peers. It was a piece in the magazine but we took it a few days later and reconfigured it so that it would be able to be shorter and more concise. We also put some great photos with the piece. These slideshows generally take up the entire day, which is why my boss asked me about asking future interns to come in earlier in the morning to start them because then they would not be produced so late in the day. Oh, and it was a Terry Michael day…. He just lectured.
Wednesday: Today was the day that Elizabeth Edwards passed away so my time in the afternoon was taken up by working with others to package stories for the news. I was in charge of putting together a slide show of photos through the years, while others like Major Garrett did a video segment about his memories of Elizabeth Edwards. Things like this are nice because then we were able to use this packaging even later in the week when her funeral came around.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! Today we spoke with Gene Healy from the CATO Institute. It was a pretty typical session and he signed our books afterwards. I think everyone is realizing that we are in the home stretch and people are just ready to be done. Today, Wikileaks was my job and I put together a slideshow about the hackers who are fighting certain websites. It was a chore because this required a bit of creativity when it came to photos but I learned how to do a drop shadow in photoshop.
Friday: Today is the National Journal Christmas party and I don’t think anyone was real excited to be at work knowing that we would be getting off early for the party. I worked on some photo galleries for the Nobel Laureate Ceremony, but that was pretty much it as well as working on some expert blogs for education and transportation.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Deception is a funny business.
It always seems to bite you when you least expect it, then again maybe you should have seen it coming.
The WikiLeaks saga continues to drone on and people are left with tid-bits of the U.S. government behind the scenes. Cables from around the world reveal a global situation that is anything but neat and orderly.
This scenario reminds me of the book I recently finished, The War Within, by Bob Woodward. The book reveals what it was like in the executive branch during the final years of President Bush’s tenure in office.
More specifically the text hones in on the trials and tribulations of the Iraq war and the decisions that went into producing this very unpopular war.
It reveals a team of characters who were clearly not on the same page and who did not seem to trust one another with the information they exchanged. They were distant figures who worked in the same offices.
Personalities clashed and pettiness was allowed to disrupt the flow of information.
In front of the media, the people could see that the war was a mess, but behind the scenes things seemed to be just as messy.
So with the recent uproar over the WikiLeaks scandal the question remains whether we really learned anything.
These cables reveal that our diplomats are engaged in very frank talk, talk that does not always portray them as saints.
They are shown to be imperfect characters who have true feelings about how things are run by governments despite what the public may have been told.
We have seen what deception looks like, especially if you have read any of Woodward’s books, but yet again we revere it as so unfamiliar. We are blown away by our government’s ability to keep secrets.
And our government is yet again surprised by its own inability to keep its secrets.
That’s that funny thing about deception, we are amazed when we realize what is going on, but then again we never learn from the mistakes of those who came before us.
History repeats itself, and our government is no exception to that rule apparently.
It always seems to bite you when you least expect it, then again maybe you should have seen it coming.
The WikiLeaks saga continues to drone on and people are left with tid-bits of the U.S. government behind the scenes. Cables from around the world reveal a global situation that is anything but neat and orderly.
This scenario reminds me of the book I recently finished, The War Within, by Bob Woodward. The book reveals what it was like in the executive branch during the final years of President Bush’s tenure in office.
More specifically the text hones in on the trials and tribulations of the Iraq war and the decisions that went into producing this very unpopular war.
It reveals a team of characters who were clearly not on the same page and who did not seem to trust one another with the information they exchanged. They were distant figures who worked in the same offices.
Personalities clashed and pettiness was allowed to disrupt the flow of information.
In front of the media, the people could see that the war was a mess, but behind the scenes things seemed to be just as messy.
So with the recent uproar over the WikiLeaks scandal the question remains whether we really learned anything.
These cables reveal that our diplomats are engaged in very frank talk, talk that does not always portray them as saints.
They are shown to be imperfect characters who have true feelings about how things are run by governments despite what the public may have been told.
We have seen what deception looks like, especially if you have read any of Woodward’s books, but yet again we revere it as so unfamiliar. We are blown away by our government’s ability to keep secrets.
And our government is yet again surprised by its own inability to keep its secrets.
That’s that funny thing about deception, we are amazed when we realize what is going on, but then again we never learn from the mistakes of those who came before us.
History repeats itself, and our government is no exception to that rule apparently.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Book Review: Our Patchwork Nation
Are we a red nation or a blue nation?
That is a question that journalist and author Dante Chinni asks us to move beyond. We are more diverse than those two colors suggest.
Is the man in Wisconsin who votes Republican the same as the soccer mom in Alabama who votes Republican? The answer is certainly no.
The book, Our Patchwork Nation, analyzes different parts of the United States and breaks the nations counties into 12 specific types.
The University of Oklahoma is located in Cleveland County and would thus be labeled by Chinni’s system as a campus and careers county. We are an area defined by the education that is provided in that country and the jobs that appear as a result.
We are similar to Ann Arbor Michigan in many ways, which is used in the book as a sort of example by which to follow.
Chinni said that about 5 percent of the country did not neatly fit into the 12 sections, but most places when looking at the data were associable with other communities by the amount of service industry or manufacturing.
In the book, it is clear that you cannot even go so far as to say that one region is simply defined by certain characteristics because the map is much too complex and the people that live in those districts share that complexity.
This book highlights why we cannot seem to understand the electorate.
We do not realize that the motivations behind our citizenry are much more complicated than red or blue.
As the title of the book suggests, me are a patchwork of many different beliefs and ideals. Taking those into consideration, it is a wonder we ever get anything done.
That is a question that journalist and author Dante Chinni asks us to move beyond. We are more diverse than those two colors suggest.
Is the man in Wisconsin who votes Republican the same as the soccer mom in Alabama who votes Republican? The answer is certainly no.
The book, Our Patchwork Nation, analyzes different parts of the United States and breaks the nations counties into 12 specific types.
The University of Oklahoma is located in Cleveland County and would thus be labeled by Chinni’s system as a campus and careers county. We are an area defined by the education that is provided in that country and the jobs that appear as a result.
We are similar to Ann Arbor Michigan in many ways, which is used in the book as a sort of example by which to follow.
Chinni said that about 5 percent of the country did not neatly fit into the 12 sections, but most places when looking at the data were associable with other communities by the amount of service industry or manufacturing.
In the book, it is clear that you cannot even go so far as to say that one region is simply defined by certain characteristics because the map is much too complex and the people that live in those districts share that complexity.
This book highlights why we cannot seem to understand the electorate.
We do not realize that the motivations behind our citizenry are much more complicated than red or blue.
As the title of the book suggests, me are a patchwork of many different beliefs and ideals. Taking those into consideration, it is a wonder we ever get anything done.
3rd to last week in DC
This week at National Journal…
Well, I was off a week for Thanksgiving, and I can say it was a much needed and very much appreciated time away from the office… but it was back to the grind that next Monday.
Monday: This Monday was all about getting back into the swing of things here at National Journal. After being gone a week, it took a bit to get back up to speed on what we had been working on. Monday I did quite a lot of research trying to figure out what my next gallery or slideshow would be about. I tend to spend the mornings researching and then in the afternoons I work on them. This afternoon I worked more with our blog system trying to get some experts added to our list of contributors.
Tuesday: Usually I have class on days like this, but this week there was no class until Wednesday so I was in the office early on Tuesday. Today I worked on a more long-term project that dealt with the 12 days of Christmas… with a little bit of flare thrown in from Congress. I don’t want to give too much away, but a Washington take on this classic is sure to be interesting.
Wednesday: Terry Michael Day! This class was with Kevin Madden who had previously worked with Mitt Romney. It was also with George Condon… who happens to work for National Journal. It was mostly about presidential politics and the campaigns. Madden talked more about the communications aspect of a campaign where Condon talked about covering the White House and how it has changed over time. Today I produced my gallery for the 10 richest congressional districts who would have money to spend this congressional season.
Thursday: It was a busy day because while I was not producing my own galleries, I was working with other people to get theirs done. I was working today with my boss on a gallery based upon a book by David Plouffe. He was an advisor for the Obama campaign. It was simple, but these things tend to be time consuming.
Friday: Today we had our second meeting of the week with Terry Michael and our guest was Dante Chinni, the author of Our Patchwork Nation. It is a book about the different types of regions in our country… and I will be reviewing it for my independent study soon, so look for that review. At work, I found out that the story I had done earlier in the week had been linked off of Yahoo News and was trending pretty well. I was one of the top five stories one day that week.
Well, I was off a week for Thanksgiving, and I can say it was a much needed and very much appreciated time away from the office… but it was back to the grind that next Monday.
Monday: This Monday was all about getting back into the swing of things here at National Journal. After being gone a week, it took a bit to get back up to speed on what we had been working on. Monday I did quite a lot of research trying to figure out what my next gallery or slideshow would be about. I tend to spend the mornings researching and then in the afternoons I work on them. This afternoon I worked more with our blog system trying to get some experts added to our list of contributors.
Tuesday: Usually I have class on days like this, but this week there was no class until Wednesday so I was in the office early on Tuesday. Today I worked on a more long-term project that dealt with the 12 days of Christmas… with a little bit of flare thrown in from Congress. I don’t want to give too much away, but a Washington take on this classic is sure to be interesting.
Wednesday: Terry Michael Day! This class was with Kevin Madden who had previously worked with Mitt Romney. It was also with George Condon… who happens to work for National Journal. It was mostly about presidential politics and the campaigns. Madden talked more about the communications aspect of a campaign where Condon talked about covering the White House and how it has changed over time. Today I produced my gallery for the 10 richest congressional districts who would have money to spend this congressional season.
Thursday: It was a busy day because while I was not producing my own galleries, I was working with other people to get theirs done. I was working today with my boss on a gallery based upon a book by David Plouffe. He was an advisor for the Obama campaign. It was simple, but these things tend to be time consuming.
Friday: Today we had our second meeting of the week with Terry Michael and our guest was Dante Chinni, the author of Our Patchwork Nation. It is a book about the different types of regions in our country… and I will be reviewing it for my independent study soon, so look for that review. At work, I found out that the story I had done earlier in the week had been linked off of Yahoo News and was trending pretty well. I was one of the top five stories one day that week.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Pre-Thanksgiving
Well, We are at the week before Thanksgiving but there is no rest for the weary... yet.
Monday: Today I came into the office a bit early to get some work done on a paper I had due for a class, but I ended up working on updating blog bios and working with our expert bloggers and trying to smooth out some kinks. Mondays have also become my day of brainstorming what slideshows or photo galleries I am going to tackle for the week. This week, I decided to keep working on this idea about newcomer spouses and a piece on the Kennedys. I also prepared a piece for the upcoming two days before thanksgiving.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! Today was simply a lecture by Terry about campaigns and the message that people must use. He talked about primary campaigns and the message that people must use to define their candidates. It reminded me of a West Wing episode. After class, I went downstairs and chatted with the NJ family. I worked some more on this piece we began about the spouses of Congressional newcomers. We found some interesting women and men. One guy, Marco Rubio, married a Florida Dolphins cheerleader.
Wednesday: Things are going pretty smoothly at NJ and Wednesday was no exception. I started on my Kennedys piece and I also learned a new way to present photos. It is called photo peach and it animates the photos by adding movement to the clips. It makes it pretty ineresting because then it is not just a slideshow, but you can still put in the captions that you want underneath the photos. THen you simply take the embed code that is provided and past that iframe into the body of the story. It was actually the perfect solution to some of the multimedia problems I had been having with our new gallery.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! We continued our discussion about general election campaigns on Thursday and talked about what the role of conventions are. He said we use them to define our candidates and then direct a message. I again thought back to the West Wing because in the 7th season one of the complaints Joshua Lyman makes is that he did not have a full convention for his candidate to define himself. It is amazing how much that show is accurate for television... that rarely happens. I headed by down to NJ and I spent the day finishing up my Kennedy series and getting ready to put together my Thanksgiving slide show. I am really lucky because besides helping out with photos and things of that nature, I get the chance to do my own projects and the sky is pretty much the limit. I guess they figured they would rather have to reel me in then force me to do things.
Friday: Last day at work before a week-long hiatus while I go home for Thanksgiving. Today in the newsroom we did one of our first television spots with the new camera equipment in the office. Our editor Ron Fournier was on Andrea Mitchell's show and he did really well. It reminded me of the times on OU NIghtly, however this was a more efficient system than what we have at OU NIghtly. I finished the Thanksgiving slide show and that was pretty much all I took care of that day. I was excited to get out of there and head home to Oklahoma.
We will see how the break goes!
Monday: Today I came into the office a bit early to get some work done on a paper I had due for a class, but I ended up working on updating blog bios and working with our expert bloggers and trying to smooth out some kinks. Mondays have also become my day of brainstorming what slideshows or photo galleries I am going to tackle for the week. This week, I decided to keep working on this idea about newcomer spouses and a piece on the Kennedys. I also prepared a piece for the upcoming two days before thanksgiving.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! Today was simply a lecture by Terry about campaigns and the message that people must use. He talked about primary campaigns and the message that people must use to define their candidates. It reminded me of a West Wing episode. After class, I went downstairs and chatted with the NJ family. I worked some more on this piece we began about the spouses of Congressional newcomers. We found some interesting women and men. One guy, Marco Rubio, married a Florida Dolphins cheerleader.
Wednesday: Things are going pretty smoothly at NJ and Wednesday was no exception. I started on my Kennedys piece and I also learned a new way to present photos. It is called photo peach and it animates the photos by adding movement to the clips. It makes it pretty ineresting because then it is not just a slideshow, but you can still put in the captions that you want underneath the photos. THen you simply take the embed code that is provided and past that iframe into the body of the story. It was actually the perfect solution to some of the multimedia problems I had been having with our new gallery.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! We continued our discussion about general election campaigns on Thursday and talked about what the role of conventions are. He said we use them to define our candidates and then direct a message. I again thought back to the West Wing because in the 7th season one of the complaints Joshua Lyman makes is that he did not have a full convention for his candidate to define himself. It is amazing how much that show is accurate for television... that rarely happens. I headed by down to NJ and I spent the day finishing up my Kennedy series and getting ready to put together my Thanksgiving slide show. I am really lucky because besides helping out with photos and things of that nature, I get the chance to do my own projects and the sky is pretty much the limit. I guess they figured they would rather have to reel me in then force me to do things.
Friday: Last day at work before a week-long hiatus while I go home for Thanksgiving. Today in the newsroom we did one of our first television spots with the new camera equipment in the office. Our editor Ron Fournier was on Andrea Mitchell's show and he did really well. It reminded me of the times on OU NIghtly, however this was a more efficient system than what we have at OU NIghtly. I finished the Thanksgiving slide show and that was pretty much all I took care of that day. I was excited to get out of there and head home to Oklahoma.
We will see how the break goes!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sooners in Washington
My last post on the subject described a bar full of Sooner fans, but this time it is all about one man: my coworker Mike Fox.
Mike is a managing editor at National Journal who works with the environment and energy team.
Most days he is huddled at his cubicle in the corner running ideas with the likes of Coral Davenport or Amy Harder.
The latest Mike Fox moment was when our deputy editor Patsy Wilson realized that he had been operating without a Blackberry. She was shocked that he could do his job without one.
My how the times changed.
My opinion of Mike also changed when I discovered he was a Sooner fan.
And I mean big time Sooner fan. As I write this column, he is currently on a plane back from Norman, Ok., where he flew out for the weekend to catch Senior Night 2010.
I now feel like I cannot go a day without checking in with him about the latest Sooner scoop or figuring out how long he is really going to be in mourning after an OU football loss.
You can tell if we lost that weekend because he just looks sour. I am not even kidding, he looks like the kid who had his candy stolen from him.
Sooner fans are everywhere, and this one was right under my nose.
It took me about two months to figure out we were both such big fans and we worked not 50 feet away from one another. But that is the thing about Sooner fans, once you find each other, they make for the best comrades.
He will stand by my desk for 15 minutes just telling me stories about when he was in school at OU and the kind of shenanigans that went down.
Most interns are not so lucky. It makes the experience of being low on the totem pole pretty rewarding when a managing editor wants to sit and chat.
So while my internship had been once of the most exciting times in my life, I must say it got that much better when I met a fellow OU Sooner.
They say sports are too divisive and too competitive, but on the other hand maybe they are just what we need to bring people together?
Mike is a managing editor at National Journal who works with the environment and energy team.
Most days he is huddled at his cubicle in the corner running ideas with the likes of Coral Davenport or Amy Harder.
The latest Mike Fox moment was when our deputy editor Patsy Wilson realized that he had been operating without a Blackberry. She was shocked that he could do his job without one.
My how the times changed.
My opinion of Mike also changed when I discovered he was a Sooner fan.
And I mean big time Sooner fan. As I write this column, he is currently on a plane back from Norman, Ok., where he flew out for the weekend to catch Senior Night 2010.
I now feel like I cannot go a day without checking in with him about the latest Sooner scoop or figuring out how long he is really going to be in mourning after an OU football loss.
You can tell if we lost that weekend because he just looks sour. I am not even kidding, he looks like the kid who had his candy stolen from him.
Sooner fans are everywhere, and this one was right under my nose.
It took me about two months to figure out we were both such big fans and we worked not 50 feet away from one another. But that is the thing about Sooner fans, once you find each other, they make for the best comrades.
He will stand by my desk for 15 minutes just telling me stories about when he was in school at OU and the kind of shenanigans that went down.
Most interns are not so lucky. It makes the experience of being low on the totem pole pretty rewarding when a managing editor wants to sit and chat.
So while my internship had been once of the most exciting times in my life, I must say it got that much better when I met a fellow OU Sooner.
They say sports are too divisive and too competitive, but on the other hand maybe they are just what we need to bring people together?
Another Week at NJ
Monday: This was the first week in quite sometime that something huge was not looming. The relaunch is over and for the first time election stuff had died down. I now had to figure out a routine. It has gotten to the point now where I come in and I will be working on a slideshow or doing any task that I am assigned. I was told I needed to take more initiative, so that was the theme for this week. I started working in our new slideshow format and figuring out the kinks on that took up quite a bit of my time this week.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! Today we had Curtis Gans come and speak to us about who votes and why they vote. He talked about how to figure out who stays home on election day and what peeked his interest about this election. He has been doing this for decades and you could tell that he was well versed in the subject of elections and polling. After I made it back downstairs, I proceeded to work on a slideshow for the day about Michelle Obama's outfits while she is on the road in Asia. It was the first thing I had a chance to do that was not wrapped around another persons story and it was my first byline. It wasn't my initial idea, but I was allowed to run with it and work with the photos which I really enjoyed doing.
Wednesday: Today, I updated the Michelle Obama slide show, but I was also challenged to take more initiative and come up with some projects on my own. On the one hand I felt bad that maybe I was being a bad intern, but on the other hand I figured it was just their way of motivating me because there was more that I could be doing. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with ideas for future slide shows and I got one ready for Thursday.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! Today, we had a meeting with two journalists about how they are using the media and the internet to reach out to people. they talked about how candidates use the media to interact with potential voters. After I left the class, I headed downstairs to show the bosses what I had planned for my slideshow for that day. I had taken all the newcomers to Congress that we had collected and put a slideshow together of all the ones with a military background. It was veterans days and I figured it would be an appropriate slideshow. Turns out it was a good idea and they ran with it. I also spent the afternoon coming up with a new slide show where I tracked the Top 10 congressmen as far as who had the most followers on Twitter. It was a hit and I good a kudos from the editor. That always makes your day. I also turned in my honors research paper... thank goodness.
Friday: This day was a little more lax because it was Friday and people were just ready for the weekend to start. I tied up a few loose ends and did some more slideshow brainstorming. I picked up on a rather youthful topic for the day's slideshow... no shave November. I picked up a list of ten of Washington's bearded individuals and did a slide show on facial hair. It was fairly strange, but it was soo much fun to do and was something out of the ordinary for national journal. It made for a lively friday.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! Today we had Curtis Gans come and speak to us about who votes and why they vote. He talked about how to figure out who stays home on election day and what peeked his interest about this election. He has been doing this for decades and you could tell that he was well versed in the subject of elections and polling. After I made it back downstairs, I proceeded to work on a slideshow for the day about Michelle Obama's outfits while she is on the road in Asia. It was the first thing I had a chance to do that was not wrapped around another persons story and it was my first byline. It wasn't my initial idea, but I was allowed to run with it and work with the photos which I really enjoyed doing.
Wednesday: Today, I updated the Michelle Obama slide show, but I was also challenged to take more initiative and come up with some projects on my own. On the one hand I felt bad that maybe I was being a bad intern, but on the other hand I figured it was just their way of motivating me because there was more that I could be doing. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with ideas for future slide shows and I got one ready for Thursday.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! Today, we had a meeting with two journalists about how they are using the media and the internet to reach out to people. they talked about how candidates use the media to interact with potential voters. After I left the class, I headed downstairs to show the bosses what I had planned for my slideshow for that day. I had taken all the newcomers to Congress that we had collected and put a slideshow together of all the ones with a military background. It was veterans days and I figured it would be an appropriate slideshow. Turns out it was a good idea and they ran with it. I also spent the afternoon coming up with a new slide show where I tracked the Top 10 congressmen as far as who had the most followers on Twitter. It was a hit and I good a kudos from the editor. That always makes your day. I also turned in my honors research paper... thank goodness.
Friday: This day was a little more lax because it was Friday and people were just ready for the weekend to start. I tied up a few loose ends and did some more slideshow brainstorming. I picked up on a rather youthful topic for the day's slideshow... no shave November. I picked up a list of ten of Washington's bearded individuals and did a slide show on facial hair. It was fairly strange, but it was soo much fun to do and was something out of the ordinary for national journal. It made for a lively friday.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Election Week Post-Mortum
So this week was insane due to the midterm elections and lets not waste any time getting into it.
Monday: They say there is always a calm before the storm and I would have to agree in general. Monday was a smooth day on the whole and I was able to get quite a bit of work done. There were a few problems with the candidate profiles I had been creating, but I was able to work those problems out as they presented themselves. I stayed around til about 8 p.m. so I bit late, but I knew the flood gates would open the next day.
Tuesday: I managed to sit through a lecture with Terry Michael, but then it was back downstairs to start my election day duties. It was prep time for my profiles so I spent the morning making sure that they were ready to go. I was not supposed to come into the office until three because I would be working til maybe 1 a.m. but I could not really get away. I took a break to watch an episode of a show I had missed, but that was all the excitement that I could afford. Once the election returns began coming in around 6 p.m. that is when the madness really began. What would happen is our digital editor would call out races that had been called and if it applied to me that is how I knew to start building a slide for the slide show that we were creating. We were creating a slide show for every new member that was elected to Congress. It doesn't seem that bad but when you get to number 100... you start to see lose your mind. I was able to keep up until around 9, then we began to get behind. I would write down names on a piece of paper and take them over to another editor who was editing the profiles before I could put them up online. It was quite the process, but we got it down to art around midnight. Looking at the way I was doing things, my process was not going to be easily replicated by anyone so it was up to me to finish the job. We were still going strong at 3 in the morning and we decided that at 4 we were going to take a 45 minute nap. I took this nap, but then afterwards it was back to putting in profiles. I saw the sun come up and the next round of employees enter the office for the next day (wednesday). I was still putting in profiles around 10:30, but then I finally made it out of the office around 10:45. I had been working or about 26 hours and had been in the office longer than any other person.
Wednesday: I will call this the lost day because all I did was sleep and recuperate.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! We shared war stories from election night and then talked about the role of campaign managers. After this discussion, I headed back downstairs to see how things had gone on Wednesday and figure out what lose ends still needed to be tied up. Things were still kind of a blur from the frantic pace of the last two days, but I was able to clean up the profiles and start working on some new projects. My favorite thing I was able to start was a funny photo gallery of the random things that the new congressmen were doing before they were elected. I had some photo fun to say the very least.
Friday: Everybody in the office was ready for the weekend. Nobody was going to be able to make it much longer without a good nights sleep and some time away from work. I have been working on a thesis for school, so I was able to do that as well as work on a new slide show for a project that documents what people do when their families are gone to war. It is called While You Were Gone. It should be very compelling visually.
Well, thats about it for this week. Lets hope next week is not as frantic.
Monday: They say there is always a calm before the storm and I would have to agree in general. Monday was a smooth day on the whole and I was able to get quite a bit of work done. There were a few problems with the candidate profiles I had been creating, but I was able to work those problems out as they presented themselves. I stayed around til about 8 p.m. so I bit late, but I knew the flood gates would open the next day.
Tuesday: I managed to sit through a lecture with Terry Michael, but then it was back downstairs to start my election day duties. It was prep time for my profiles so I spent the morning making sure that they were ready to go. I was not supposed to come into the office until three because I would be working til maybe 1 a.m. but I could not really get away. I took a break to watch an episode of a show I had missed, but that was all the excitement that I could afford. Once the election returns began coming in around 6 p.m. that is when the madness really began. What would happen is our digital editor would call out races that had been called and if it applied to me that is how I knew to start building a slide for the slide show that we were creating. We were creating a slide show for every new member that was elected to Congress. It doesn't seem that bad but when you get to number 100... you start to see lose your mind. I was able to keep up until around 9, then we began to get behind. I would write down names on a piece of paper and take them over to another editor who was editing the profiles before I could put them up online. It was quite the process, but we got it down to art around midnight. Looking at the way I was doing things, my process was not going to be easily replicated by anyone so it was up to me to finish the job. We were still going strong at 3 in the morning and we decided that at 4 we were going to take a 45 minute nap. I took this nap, but then afterwards it was back to putting in profiles. I saw the sun come up and the next round of employees enter the office for the next day (wednesday). I was still putting in profiles around 10:30, but then I finally made it out of the office around 10:45. I had been working or about 26 hours and had been in the office longer than any other person.
Wednesday: I will call this the lost day because all I did was sleep and recuperate.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! We shared war stories from election night and then talked about the role of campaign managers. After this discussion, I headed back downstairs to see how things had gone on Wednesday and figure out what lose ends still needed to be tied up. Things were still kind of a blur from the frantic pace of the last two days, but I was able to clean up the profiles and start working on some new projects. My favorite thing I was able to start was a funny photo gallery of the random things that the new congressmen were doing before they were elected. I had some photo fun to say the very least.
Friday: Everybody in the office was ready for the weekend. Nobody was going to be able to make it much longer without a good nights sleep and some time away from work. I have been working on a thesis for school, so I was able to do that as well as work on a new slide show for a project that documents what people do when their families are gone to war. It is called While You Were Gone. It should be very compelling visually.
Well, thats about it for this week. Lets hope next week is not as frantic.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Election Week Looms
This coming week is the midterm elections, but this past week was the relaunch of National Journal and it was a mind-blowing week in itself.
Monday: A very long day of figuring out how to organize the staff, the production of content and everybody around the idea of this model for news. It was interesting because here it had never been a breaking news type atmosphere but you got that feeling the minute you walked in on Monday. I stayed clear of much of the madness, and I was not too busy. That also could be because I had put in a 12 hour day on Sunday was just exhausted. I helped by teaching a few people how to make sections in the new system and working with people troubleshooting.
Tuesday: Terry Michael day! Today we just discussed politics in general and had no speaker. It was a fairly boring session to say the very least and we had some students out. I headed down to work to do what I am now doing everyday. I check the news to see what is going on in the world and figure out what we need to be following on the homepage. I spent most of the morning and afternoon working on cnadidate profiles and getting organized on the homepage so that as new profiles came in during the week the process would go smoothly.
Wednesday: Slideshows. I spent the entire day working with my partner Ken who I sit next to to figure out how to put this candidate biographies that I had been working on into a slide show. It does not seem that hard, but after I made enough errors I had to go back to the drawing board a couple of times.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! Today we had a guest speaker visit and talk about foreign policy. It was quite interesting for a bit because we got his perspective, but after awhile the session took a turn when our professor, Terry, and the guest started this passive aggressive argument over foreign policy. It seemed to go on forever and they continued in this circle for a couple of hours. By the time I got down to work, there were quite a few profile to be logged into the system and those took up the rest of my afternoon.
Friday: Today I was given my marching orders for the night of the election. I will not have to come into work until around 3, and then I will be here til about 1 am. I will get to go home and sleep for a bit but then be back in the office around 9 am. Friday was the final push for profiles before the weekend and Monday when I am inundated with a new batch. the profiles are of candidates who we think will be coming into the new Congress. It is not that hard, but rather putting them all together is time consuming to say the very least.
Monday: A very long day of figuring out how to organize the staff, the production of content and everybody around the idea of this model for news. It was interesting because here it had never been a breaking news type atmosphere but you got that feeling the minute you walked in on Monday. I stayed clear of much of the madness, and I was not too busy. That also could be because I had put in a 12 hour day on Sunday was just exhausted. I helped by teaching a few people how to make sections in the new system and working with people troubleshooting.
Tuesday: Terry Michael day! Today we just discussed politics in general and had no speaker. It was a fairly boring session to say the very least and we had some students out. I headed down to work to do what I am now doing everyday. I check the news to see what is going on in the world and figure out what we need to be following on the homepage. I spent most of the morning and afternoon working on cnadidate profiles and getting organized on the homepage so that as new profiles came in during the week the process would go smoothly.
Wednesday: Slideshows. I spent the entire day working with my partner Ken who I sit next to to figure out how to put this candidate biographies that I had been working on into a slide show. It does not seem that hard, but after I made enough errors I had to go back to the drawing board a couple of times.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! Today we had a guest speaker visit and talk about foreign policy. It was quite interesting for a bit because we got his perspective, but after awhile the session took a turn when our professor, Terry, and the guest started this passive aggressive argument over foreign policy. It seemed to go on forever and they continued in this circle for a couple of hours. By the time I got down to work, there were quite a few profile to be logged into the system and those took up the rest of my afternoon.
Friday: Today I was given my marching orders for the night of the election. I will not have to come into work until around 3, and then I will be here til about 1 am. I will get to go home and sleep for a bit but then be back in the office around 9 am. Friday was the final push for profiles before the weekend and Monday when I am inundated with a new batch. the profiles are of candidates who we think will be coming into the new Congress. It is not that hard, but rather putting them all together is time consuming to say the very least.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Another Week Down
Monday: This was the beginning of what was to be a very, very long week at the National Journal. I spent most of my day going through profiles of Congressional candidates who may make a splash this election cycle. That means I had to work within our content management system to create the profiles, assign photos and make text boxes to accompany the items. It is not a hard job, but it is really just hours of tedious data entry and editing.
Tuesday: Terry Michael day! Tuesday we had class where we discussed things like affirmative action, diversity and race. It was identity politics and it was just a discussion and lecture by Terry. It was not bad, although I am not sure I really learned anything with people just discussing their soapbox topics. I headed down to work for another day of profile entry and working with columnist pages and writer biographies. I needed to make sure that those people who were writing for us were actually recognized in the system.
Wednesday: I essentially repeated Monday's schedule on Wednesday because there are hundreds of names that have to go into the computer. Also, I heard from my university that they were getting into Washington today to visit me, so a good portion of my day was spent organizing their arrival. I also learned how to create a section front for the profile features which was an online skill I valuably needed.
Thursday: Terry Michael day! Today was drug day. We spoke with a leader of NORML and a woman who is leading the charge for legalization in Colorado. It was an interesting topic and took up a good part of my day because their lecture and seminar was so interesting. They spoke about the kind of laws that California and Colorado have passed, as well as Prop. 19 which is coming up for a vote in November. This would legalize pot up to one oz. in California. There is polling that shows it is either going to be a narrow win or it will be defeated. It all depends on who shows up tot he polls in California. Thursday is also magazine day, but today things were a bit slower. I just had to pull some photos from Getty and prepare them for a video. Simple day, but long day because I headed to the library afterwards to work on my Honors Thesis.
Friday: Last day of the week but things were really buzzing because we had to move offices today. The online and multimedia team had essentially been working out of a closet on one wing of the building while the rest of the newsroom operated somewhere else. It was a strange set up to begin with, but trying to move computers while cranking out as much work as we could get in before the weekend was trying. I spent Friday trying to work around a bug in our system, and ended up creating a whole bunch of work for myself... which I will have to tackle on Sunday. looks like it will be a long weekend of work for me.
Tuesday: Terry Michael day! Tuesday we had class where we discussed things like affirmative action, diversity and race. It was identity politics and it was just a discussion and lecture by Terry. It was not bad, although I am not sure I really learned anything with people just discussing their soapbox topics. I headed down to work for another day of profile entry and working with columnist pages and writer biographies. I needed to make sure that those people who were writing for us were actually recognized in the system.
Wednesday: I essentially repeated Monday's schedule on Wednesday because there are hundreds of names that have to go into the computer. Also, I heard from my university that they were getting into Washington today to visit me, so a good portion of my day was spent organizing their arrival. I also learned how to create a section front for the profile features which was an online skill I valuably needed.
Thursday: Terry Michael day! Today was drug day. We spoke with a leader of NORML and a woman who is leading the charge for legalization in Colorado. It was an interesting topic and took up a good part of my day because their lecture and seminar was so interesting. They spoke about the kind of laws that California and Colorado have passed, as well as Prop. 19 which is coming up for a vote in November. This would legalize pot up to one oz. in California. There is polling that shows it is either going to be a narrow win or it will be defeated. It all depends on who shows up tot he polls in California. Thursday is also magazine day, but today things were a bit slower. I just had to pull some photos from Getty and prepare them for a video. Simple day, but long day because I headed to the library afterwards to work on my Honors Thesis.
Friday: Last day of the week but things were really buzzing because we had to move offices today. The online and multimedia team had essentially been working out of a closet on one wing of the building while the rest of the newsroom operated somewhere else. It was a strange set up to begin with, but trying to move computers while cranking out as much work as we could get in before the weekend was trying. I spent Friday trying to work around a bug in our system, and ended up creating a whole bunch of work for myself... which I will have to tackle on Sunday. looks like it will be a long weekend of work for me.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Henry Schuster and Storytelling
Journalism has a plethora of mottos.
“Be first.”
“Be objective.”
“Tell the truth.”
These simple phrases are all part of what makes journalism function as a profession, but none of them get at the heart of journalism.
The heart of journalism is storytelling.
In a discussion with “60 Minutes” producer Henry Schuster, the one piece of advice he gave to a room of aspiring journalists was to remember that you are telling a story.
He said it did not matter if you told the tale through photos, video or text, but no matter what you do, your focus should be on how can I effectively and creatively communicate a message to viewers.
At “60 Minutes” they have the luxury of creativity.
They do not have 1:30 packages that they must churn out on a daily basis. They do not have to run scripts over with the bosses over and over before taking it on a test run.
It’s about the feature at “60 Minutes.”
Schuster said some stories take weeks while other can take months, even years, depending on who they need to talk to. They can spend weeks making edits on a story or trimming it down.
At “60 Minutes,” it is quality over quantity. Unfortunately, this is a message that is lost on most journalism students.
From the moment students enroll, they are thrust into classes that teach them how to edit video, write a lead, cover an event and take the photo within two hours time. You are a one-man-band that has to keep constantly churning out content.
These skills are all valuable, but where is the storytelling and the life lessons that we hope students absorb?
Schuster said internships are one of the best ways to get a feel for the field because much of the training he received was on-the-job. This is where you learn to tell those stories and where you fall in love with your profession.
It becomes so much more than a profession.
Schuster added that journalism involves a level of curiosity. Now, some may say that “curiosity killed the cat,” but others might say it is just what we need to produce some of the next top-notch storytellers.
“Be first.”
“Be objective.”
“Tell the truth.”
These simple phrases are all part of what makes journalism function as a profession, but none of them get at the heart of journalism.
The heart of journalism is storytelling.
In a discussion with “60 Minutes” producer Henry Schuster, the one piece of advice he gave to a room of aspiring journalists was to remember that you are telling a story.
He said it did not matter if you told the tale through photos, video or text, but no matter what you do, your focus should be on how can I effectively and creatively communicate a message to viewers.
At “60 Minutes” they have the luxury of creativity.
They do not have 1:30 packages that they must churn out on a daily basis. They do not have to run scripts over with the bosses over and over before taking it on a test run.
It’s about the feature at “60 Minutes.”
Schuster said some stories take weeks while other can take months, even years, depending on who they need to talk to. They can spend weeks making edits on a story or trimming it down.
At “60 Minutes,” it is quality over quantity. Unfortunately, this is a message that is lost on most journalism students.
From the moment students enroll, they are thrust into classes that teach them how to edit video, write a lead, cover an event and take the photo within two hours time. You are a one-man-band that has to keep constantly churning out content.
These skills are all valuable, but where is the storytelling and the life lessons that we hope students absorb?
Schuster said internships are one of the best ways to get a feel for the field because much of the training he received was on-the-job. This is where you learn to tell those stories and where you fall in love with your profession.
It becomes so much more than a profession.
Schuster added that journalism involves a level of curiosity. Now, some may say that “curiosity killed the cat,” but others might say it is just what we need to produce some of the next top-notch storytellers.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Weekly Update
How about another productive week at the National Journal? Yes please.
Monday: This was a fabulous day at work because I did not have to come in. It was a holiday for Columbus Day, so we were given the day off because we had all been working so hard. Most of the time journalists do not typically observe actual holidays... but this was a nice exception.
Tuesday: This was a Terry Michael day! Today's guest was Tad Devine, one of the most well-known Democratic strategists and he talked about how he runs a business and campaign for candidates. I would not have even imagined it, but he also runs campaigns across the globe in places like Ukraine, Afghanistan, Bolivia, and Israel. He also takes care of Congressional house races. He worked on the Gore and Kerry campaigns as well. After the presentation, I headed downstairs to work. Today, my job was to study the kinds of breaking news alerts that different news organizations send out. I signed up for numerous alerts and built a guide so that National Journal could see how other organizations do them. My favorite breaking news update was easily NY Times because they gave you the most information in their emails. Oh, and today was my birthday...
Wednesday: This was a day to set up for the new video series that we are doing and that meant we had to go down to the studio and adjust the lights in the studio. This was a long process but it would be made much more exciting when by boss was shifting a light and accidentally dropped the studio light from the ceiling. It was slightly terrifying. I made sure after that not to stand anywhere near the lights. The light was evidently okay.
Thursday: Magazine and Terry Michael day! Today in class we had Tamar Jacoby talk about how she made the jump from journalism to immigration advocate. She told us about how she was involved in story and how none of the stakeholders would come together and that really spurred her interest on the topic. She now is the president of her advocacy organization. She believes that immigration solutions must combine the best of all worlds and isnt just a democrat of republican issue. After the talk, I found out that I was running the show for most of magazine day. I did it the week before, so I wasn't too intimidated. We also had a staff meeting that day that took up some time, but still left me with plenty of time to complete the work.
Friday: Ahh, the joys of Friday and the fact that it is the final day of the workweek.
Today was the day I worked on columns and learning how to put them into our system. It was quite the laborious process, but I finished by noon. Or at least I thought I had finished. It had forgotten about all the columns for one publication, so now on Monday I have to go back into the system and add a whole bunch of columns. Lets pray that it works out in the end. I think the IT guy has already seen enough of me this week.
Monday: This was a fabulous day at work because I did not have to come in. It was a holiday for Columbus Day, so we were given the day off because we had all been working so hard. Most of the time journalists do not typically observe actual holidays... but this was a nice exception.
Tuesday: This was a Terry Michael day! Today's guest was Tad Devine, one of the most well-known Democratic strategists and he talked about how he runs a business and campaign for candidates. I would not have even imagined it, but he also runs campaigns across the globe in places like Ukraine, Afghanistan, Bolivia, and Israel. He also takes care of Congressional house races. He worked on the Gore and Kerry campaigns as well. After the presentation, I headed downstairs to work. Today, my job was to study the kinds of breaking news alerts that different news organizations send out. I signed up for numerous alerts and built a guide so that National Journal could see how other organizations do them. My favorite breaking news update was easily NY Times because they gave you the most information in their emails. Oh, and today was my birthday...
Wednesday: This was a day to set up for the new video series that we are doing and that meant we had to go down to the studio and adjust the lights in the studio. This was a long process but it would be made much more exciting when by boss was shifting a light and accidentally dropped the studio light from the ceiling. It was slightly terrifying. I made sure after that not to stand anywhere near the lights. The light was evidently okay.
Thursday: Magazine and Terry Michael day! Today in class we had Tamar Jacoby talk about how she made the jump from journalism to immigration advocate. She told us about how she was involved in story and how none of the stakeholders would come together and that really spurred her interest on the topic. She now is the president of her advocacy organization. She believes that immigration solutions must combine the best of all worlds and isnt just a democrat of republican issue. After the talk, I found out that I was running the show for most of magazine day. I did it the week before, so I wasn't too intimidated. We also had a staff meeting that day that took up some time, but still left me with plenty of time to complete the work.
Friday: Ahh, the joys of Friday and the fact that it is the final day of the workweek.
Today was the day I worked on columns and learning how to put them into our system. It was quite the laborious process, but I finished by noon. Or at least I thought I had finished. It had forgotten about all the columns for one publication, so now on Monday I have to go back into the system and add a whole bunch of columns. Lets pray that it works out in the end. I think the IT guy has already seen enough of me this week.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
MIddle Class Issues Update
Healthcare and jobs are developing into a key point of contention for the middle class in this election, and it should come as no surprise.
With recent health care legislation meeting its sixth-month mark and the midterm quickly approaching… the middle class is looking for answers.
The White House and economic advisers are trying to provide some…
With six-month anniversary of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, five new stipulations of the bill have gone into effect, and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is out and talking about the new law… trying to convince people that it is not just “death panels” and “Medicare cuts.”
"The bill is designed to put some stability around the existing market... fixing some of the features of the existing market that made health insurance really tenuous for a lot of people," Sebelius said at a National Journal Live event.
At the same event, panelists were asked about what they thought of the legislation.
Many argued over whether a mandate would be the solution for coverage, and others argued that the White House will have a tough time convincing people to take on the good risks with the bad.
Included below is the link to the video interviews on the subject.
Links:
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Another Productive Week at NJ
Monday: With my boss out of the office, I got the chance to kick back and relax. I did nothing and I just hung out all day. Well, that was a complete joke. I spent the day exporting video and working with Final Cut Pro. I had a bunch of videos from the previous week to digest and that meant wading through compression and audio clips. It also time to prepare for the big relaunch of National Journal coming up this fall and getting up to speed on everything consumed my Monday, and pretty much the rest of my week.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! This Tuesday Terry Michael hosted a class for us on strategic communications. This was interesting because it was essentially media of politics, something I know quite a bit about already and find fascinating. We watched a few epic campaign commercials, and I think my favorite is still the "I like Ike" commercial. Its just so catchy. I then headed downstairs to work. Today was the first day in a row of html crash course. I spent the afternoon working up how one might create an infobox for the website. It was such a pain, but my html skills are much improved after only a few days.
Wednesday: This was a pretty routine day, and I can't complain about that. I did not get much sleep the night before though and so a lot of hot chocolate was consumed because of it. I did, however, spend much of the day working on videos and stories. I also learned how to create stories for multiple content management systems. Wednesday is also magazine preparation day.
Thursday: Thursdays have become my busiest day hands down. I start the day off with a Terry Michael lecture. This was a pollster who works with businesses and nonprofits, not campaigns or candidates. He spoke about what makes a good poll, how research is conducted, and how to figure out if your poll is a good test. After this, I headed downstairs for magazine Thursday. Today, I pretty much did most of the magazine landing page by myself. I figured out how to piece them together and where to place a story. It was actually 3/4 of the way done and then the system crashed. I had to start over completely and redo things. I was not a happy camper in the least. But I think doing it over gave me some practice which is always handy. Also did some research on breaking news emails and now have an inbox inundated with them.
Friday: Today's task was to upload videos and get audio ready to be put into iTunes. I also had a great day as far as figuring out some good html info. We have a new person in our office, Ken, who just moved over from CongressDaily and he taught me about a div tag. It allows you to constrict the size of a box or text. It was fabulous and a great tool. It allowed me to resolve my issues I encountered earlier in the week with creating a box.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! This Tuesday Terry Michael hosted a class for us on strategic communications. This was interesting because it was essentially media of politics, something I know quite a bit about already and find fascinating. We watched a few epic campaign commercials, and I think my favorite is still the "I like Ike" commercial. Its just so catchy. I then headed downstairs to work. Today was the first day in a row of html crash course. I spent the afternoon working up how one might create an infobox for the website. It was such a pain, but my html skills are much improved after only a few days.
Wednesday: This was a pretty routine day, and I can't complain about that. I did not get much sleep the night before though and so a lot of hot chocolate was consumed because of it. I did, however, spend much of the day working on videos and stories. I also learned how to create stories for multiple content management systems. Wednesday is also magazine preparation day.
Thursday: Thursdays have become my busiest day hands down. I start the day off with a Terry Michael lecture. This was a pollster who works with businesses and nonprofits, not campaigns or candidates. He spoke about what makes a good poll, how research is conducted, and how to figure out if your poll is a good test. After this, I headed downstairs for magazine Thursday. Today, I pretty much did most of the magazine landing page by myself. I figured out how to piece them together and where to place a story. It was actually 3/4 of the way done and then the system crashed. I had to start over completely and redo things. I was not a happy camper in the least. But I think doing it over gave me some practice which is always handy. Also did some research on breaking news emails and now have an inbox inundated with them.
Friday: Today's task was to upload videos and get audio ready to be put into iTunes. I also had a great day as far as figuring out some good html info. We have a new person in our office, Ken, who just moved over from CongressDaily and he taught me about a div tag. It allows you to constrict the size of a box or text. It was fabulous and a great tool. It allowed me to resolve my issues I encountered earlier in the week with creating a box.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Weekly Update Time!
So time for a recap of what exactly I have been up to this week at the world of National Journal...
Well... this was a crazy week because we had a TON of events to cover. Three in a row mind you, so pay close attention to this blur of work.
Monday: This was prep day. We had to get all of our ducks in a row on Monday because we knew that the rest of the week was going to be spent either a) shooting events or b) logging the video and editing those events. So we had to plan for how we would attack this week and we made some changes to the website and blogs in preparation.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! So we had class like we usually do, this time with Debbie LeHardy from the Republican side of fundraising. She was honestly the most interesting speaker I have ever listened to because she is loud and honest. You don't get a bunch of B.S. She told us what it meant to be a big-donor fundraiser and that it was really all about relationships. After the lecture that ran long, I had to jump in a cab and race downtown to cover the afternoon session of an event, or rather an all day conference on the workforce of America. My boss had taken the morning shift and was already editing the video she had shot when I got there, and I took over from there. It was an interesting event hosted by Major Garrett. Once that was completed, we headed back to our NJ offices to upload highlights from the event.
Wednesday: Another event morning, and it almost began tragically. The event was at the Newseum and began at 8:30, so we usually arrive around 7 AM to set up and do audio checks around 7:30 before guests start arriving at 8. Well, this was my first time to really fly solo, and I had my alarm set for 6 so I could be out of the apartment by 6:40. Well... alarm did not go off (phone died) and I woke up like my body normally does around 7AM. Yikes! I believe I managed to throw on clothes and suck down some toothpaste in about 4 minutes and was out the door in five. I am not sure I have ever gotten dressed that quickly before. I scurried down the mall to the Newseum and made it there by 7:25. Luckily, there were no problems and the other guy there let me borrow a pair of headphones... something I forgot in my mad dash out the door. The event on the environment went well, Sen. Brownback was a good interview, and I headed back to NJ to spend the afternoon with my video.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! (and an ungodly rainstorm) Well, today was another type of fund raising speaker: direct-mail. Frank Obrien was our speaker from the left side of things and told us what it took to put out a good piece of direct mail. He also talked about what it meant to be going online and how successful some people have been there. Afterwards, I headed back downstairs to export some more video while my boss was getting back from another event! She went and covered an education event. (You would think event coverage is all we do... but that is not the case, we just had a real stunner of a month) This is also magazine day, so between trying to cover the event and put the magazine together we had quite the evening. I mainly pulled photos and uploaded graphics and the like that day for the mag.
Friday: Finally, a chance to relax. My boss was out of the office, and I still had plenty to do, but it was a much more relaxing day. I upload video and exported clips. Some of it takes forever and a day... so I will continue to tackle it on Monday. I also played around with our content management system to become more familiar with it. I learned some things that I like and did not like, so I will continue that exploration Monday. Also had to put out a small fire about stories that were posted incorrectly last night... luckily I managed the right the error. Hooray.
Now, we get to do it all over again!
Well... this was a crazy week because we had a TON of events to cover. Three in a row mind you, so pay close attention to this blur of work.
Monday: This was prep day. We had to get all of our ducks in a row on Monday because we knew that the rest of the week was going to be spent either a) shooting events or b) logging the video and editing those events. So we had to plan for how we would attack this week and we made some changes to the website and blogs in preparation.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! So we had class like we usually do, this time with Debbie LeHardy from the Republican side of fundraising. She was honestly the most interesting speaker I have ever listened to because she is loud and honest. You don't get a bunch of B.S. She told us what it meant to be a big-donor fundraiser and that it was really all about relationships. After the lecture that ran long, I had to jump in a cab and race downtown to cover the afternoon session of an event, or rather an all day conference on the workforce of America. My boss had taken the morning shift and was already editing the video she had shot when I got there, and I took over from there. It was an interesting event hosted by Major Garrett. Once that was completed, we headed back to our NJ offices to upload highlights from the event.
Wednesday: Another event morning, and it almost began tragically. The event was at the Newseum and began at 8:30, so we usually arrive around 7 AM to set up and do audio checks around 7:30 before guests start arriving at 8. Well, this was my first time to really fly solo, and I had my alarm set for 6 so I could be out of the apartment by 6:40. Well... alarm did not go off (phone died) and I woke up like my body normally does around 7AM. Yikes! I believe I managed to throw on clothes and suck down some toothpaste in about 4 minutes and was out the door in five. I am not sure I have ever gotten dressed that quickly before. I scurried down the mall to the Newseum and made it there by 7:25. Luckily, there were no problems and the other guy there let me borrow a pair of headphones... something I forgot in my mad dash out the door. The event on the environment went well, Sen. Brownback was a good interview, and I headed back to NJ to spend the afternoon with my video.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! (and an ungodly rainstorm) Well, today was another type of fund raising speaker: direct-mail. Frank Obrien was our speaker from the left side of things and told us what it took to put out a good piece of direct mail. He also talked about what it meant to be going online and how successful some people have been there. Afterwards, I headed back downstairs to export some more video while my boss was getting back from another event! She went and covered an education event. (You would think event coverage is all we do... but that is not the case, we just had a real stunner of a month) This is also magazine day, so between trying to cover the event and put the magazine together we had quite the evening. I mainly pulled photos and uploaded graphics and the like that day for the mag.
Friday: Finally, a chance to relax. My boss was out of the office, and I still had plenty to do, but it was a much more relaxing day. I upload video and exported clips. Some of it takes forever and a day... so I will continue to tackle it on Monday. I also played around with our content management system to become more familiar with it. I learned some things that I like and did not like, so I will continue that exploration Monday. Also had to put out a small fire about stories that were posted incorrectly last night... luckily I managed the right the error. Hooray.
Now, we get to do it all over again!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Another week down!
Its hard to believe I have already been in DC over three weeks, but so the time flies when you are busy having fun... so let's recap this week at the National Journal.
Monday: Event day! This means it was up around 5:45 to be at the Newseum by 7 AM for an event hosted by National Journal. This was probably one of the more interesting events I have been to because we had Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius on hand to discuss the health care bill which had numerous aspects take effect this week. She discussed what the Affordable Care Act is supposed to do and answered a few questions from the audience. Once the event was over, I headed back to NJ and burrowed downstairs with Final Cut to edit the video and export the files. That was a headache to an extent but I learned how to squeeze and compress audio and video files.
Tuesday: Terry Michael morning. Every Tuesday and Thursday, we will likely be having class with program director Terry Michael who will be giving a lesson in politics. The topic for Tuesday's class was American Political Parties... this was right up my alley because I had spent all last semester studying them. I sounded like a know it all in class, but who cares. He talked for a couple hours about things I pretty much already knew, but then I headed downstairs to a ton of work. More video and exporting for an event that took place that morning and was not able to attend due to class. I also learned how to use Brightcove and publish things online... or at least I hope I learned how to do this... will see if I can do it again next week.
Wednesday: I would call this the day of Final Cut Hades. Everything that could go wrong with a video seemed to go wrong. We could not get things to load properly and the exporting process was made even more difficult when it would not export at the correct aspect ratio. Ahh, it was extremely frustrating. But I was able to note that I would likely be stuck at work late and the people at my housing complex fixed me a late plate for when I returned home. Thankfully.
Thursday: Another Terry Michael morning, but this time we had a guest speaker: Nathan Gonzalez of the Rothenberg Report. We learned about the Congressional Campaign Committees, and we learned a bit about the prediction of races and how they determine which ones are going to be close. He was really helpful in giving a picture of what these groups do for their candidates. Afterwards, I headed downstairs to work for magazine day. This is the day when NJ is produced and all the content has to go up online. It is a long afternoon because the content is not usually ready to go online until about 2/3 so that means that we are pretty much at the mercy of the editors or whenever the writers finish. The hardest part is making sure that graphics get put in correctly and that links and photos are properly published. On days like that, we dont get to leave the office until after 7 PM many times.
Friday: This is a much less hectic day and everyone is just ready to get out of their for the weekend. Our publication is somewhat unique because we are all about politics and very little happens on the weekend. So we are pretty much a M-F operation. I like that stability. Today, we finished up exporting videos and cleaned up some videos that needed further editing. We also were given training on the new system that will be coming out later in the fall. It looks quite impressive and we are slowly going to be getting up to speed in the upcoming months. That took up most of the afternoon and then I also prepared some pages for next week's events.
There is a big Workforce Conference next week that will likely have people working some longer hours...
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Sooners in Washington: Football Saturday
You can take the fan out of the Oklahoma, but you can’t take Oklahoma out of the fan.
That fact became quite clear Saturday when a young, female Sooner fan screamed out “Kevin Wilson sucks” at a bar in Crystal City, Va. OU managed a 27-24 win over Air Force that afternoon.
Almost every Saturday in the fall, the OU alumni group in Washington D.C. meets at Mackeys Pub in Virginia to watch the Sooners grind it out.
You might think that because it is a Washington D.C. or urban group that typical Okie-lore might be lost on these folks.
Quick answer: Hell no.
The beer was flowing, no wine spritzers at this shindig, and people were letting loose like they just took their seats in 90 degrees of blazing glory at Owen Field.
Flat screen televisions line the bar and the rest of the restaurant. Every screen had the Sooners game on, except for one.
Lurking at the end of the bar was the lone Florida fan who came with his friend and quietly asked the girl behind the bar to turn the smallest television to the Florida-Tennessee game.
Initial reactions by the Sooner mass were not pleasant, and the move was not well received. Yet an old man in the corner shouted out something about southern hospitality, and the point was moot.
A defense contractor from the area, a regular at the bar, made the mistake of coming in that afternoon to a room of groaning Sooner fans. He made the mistake of asking if there were any Air Force fans in the house.
The woman next to him, who had probably had one-too-many margaritas, just laughed at him.
It was not a great day for Sooner football. After the first drive, the team looked ice-cold and could not put a series together.
Just like the fans back in Norman, the East Coast crowd "wasn’t gonna have none of that."
Defensive coordinator Brent Venables was raked over the coals in the second half, and apparently, Landry Jones couldn’t throw his way out of a paper bag.
Plus, what is a good Sooner game without a drunken spat.
A man seated away from the bar let out a small yell when Florida State took a sizable lead over BYU. OU played Florida State the week before and sent the Seminoles home with their tails tucked between their legs.
The young woman at the bar, mentioned previously for her temporary disdain for coach Wilson, slurred a loud response.
“I don’t give a fuck about Florida State,” she said.
This ensued a bickering match, while the condescending sports fanatic tried to massage his ego by informing the drunken woman that the Sooners needed Florida State to play well so that it made the Sooners win look that more impressive.
Moral of this story: you cannot reason with Sooner fans at a football game, especially when alcohol is involved. It doesn’t matter what venue you choose.
The game dragged on, and just like OU’s student section, the crowd started to file out after halftime.
People placed their final orders at the bar, and the next shift of bartenders and waiters showed up. Upon arrival, one woman looked to rescue her fellow employee with a much need caffeine boost.
Spending an afternoon with a bunch of mildly disgruntled Sooner fans, the coffee buzz is understandable.
The game clocked wound down, the Sooner mass filed, or rather stumbled, out, and the OU fans went out into the world.
They will do great things.
But maybe tomorrow.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Week in Review: Sept. 13-17
Well, it was another fine week at National Journal, but a hard week in some respects because the ball really got rolling for me this week.
Monday: This was a normal 8-5 day for me. We are still trying to get passwords and access to all the websites and networks at work set up for me, but Monday we took care of quite a few of them. I also was given the assignment of working with a reporter to do an audio recording for a story that was the cover story of National Journal. It was about military families and I needed to set up a time for him to come in and record his narration track. I worked on the website a bit, and it was my co-worker Michelle's second-too-last day in the office.
Tuesday: Today was Michelle's final day before heading off to be the business producer for the Washington Post. She is really fabulous and knowledgeable about her job and I know she will do great. We had a cupcake tasting contest in her celebration with hellohello cupcakes and georgetown cupcakes. I am not sure who won, maybe georgetown?? I also was able to record the audio for the military piece I was working on, and I managed to edit a third of it that afternoon. Putting my audacity skills to good use.
Wednesday: Today was more audio and more editing. It hit us that Michelle was gone, but that just meant more responsibility for me. Everywhere I went in the office the first week they asked me if I was the new Michelle. It is kind of a daunting thought. I finished the audio edits and did some work on the homepage. I learned more of the ins and outs of Moveable Type and our content management system. Wednesday was key because Thursday is our big/long day for the magazine and it took some preparations.
Thursday: We knew Thursday was going to be a long day, and it was: 12 hours. Yes, but so goes the life of a journalist. We were at the Newseum at 7 in the morning to shoot a policy summit on jobs and healthcare (an updated issue report on this event should follow in the coming week!) and we were there til the late morning. We came back and Theresa took charge of the magazine changes while I spent my time getting the event video ready to post. Once I had that taken care of, it was time to upload my audio files to the webpage and make any changes I needed to for the magazine updates. We also went down to the studio to prepare for Friday's day-long studio interviews for a pilot program we are thinking about. I finally rolled out of there sometime after 7 pm.
Friday: Since I was at the office for so long on Thursday, they gave me a break Friday. I had an appointment with my intern group to visit CNN and John King (who we never actually got to see...) at noon so they gave me the morning off. It was a nice mental health morning. CNN was nice and the executive producer of John King USA, Michelle Jaconi, spoke to us for an hour about political reporting and her work at CNN and Meet the Press. She is a wonderful speaker and I very much enjoyed listening to her perspective. Made it back over to the Watergate for work around 2:30. I helped with the afternoon interviews... save the day with the bobby pin... and finished up with some loose ends and then headed home. Friday was a much more calm day than the day before and I think everyone was just spent at that point.
Hopefully next week at work looks to go as smooth or better.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Michelle Jaconi: a Bright Future in Journalism
Journalism may be dying; journalism may be on its last leg; there is no future for profitable reporting.
These are the lines that student journalists hear constantly, and for a budding journalist this dreary outlook is never motivating. It makes you question why in gods name you picked journalism in the first place.
Amid all the forlorn attitudes and the layoffs, sometimes there is a glimmer of hope. It may be hard to see past the bluster, but when you find that reassurance it almost makes the daily grind of interviews, long days on the Hill, or HTML coding worth the headache.
Michelle Jaconi, executive producer of CNN’s John King USA, was not the likely candidate for a political journalist. She did not come from a connected family or attend a private school with the future forerunners for the Democratic presidential nomination.
She attended a public school in California that was soon closed after her graduation due to lack of state funding. She said the meager funds the state had were being pumped into low-income areas where metal detectors were a priority.
She was an above average, public school student with a knack for asking “why?” who wound up at Georgetown, found her niche in political journalism and has been successful ever since.
She has been lucky enough to produce for shows like Meet the Press and State of the Union. She has worked for journalists who honed their craft and really researched their topic.
She said one of the things she wonders some times, being what she called “one of Tim Russert’s girls,” if she over-researched things too much. But it all comes from a passion for what she does.
She is a mom and a wife, yet she works 12 hours a day on a regular workweek. She says you can’t be the best journalist, wife, mom and friend at the same time and to expect that is not realistic.
You just have to be the best you can be. Part of that means being right.
One piece of advice she gave to the room of budding journalists was to always be right. Many times young people want to be first on the scoop, but she said that the combination of being right and being first is more important and will serve you well.
So what good is being right when there is no money or no audience to listen?
She works for a company that gets slammed in the media for falling behind MSNBC and FOX News, but she has a bright outlook on the future of journalism at CNN.
While CNN may struggle in primetime, they are doing quite well online. During the daytime they also do well. She gave a much more complex, but wide ranging picture of the state of journalism.
She made the future sound like the possibilities are endless for those who are willing to work hard and who strive to do their best for their company and their sources. They must also strive to do their best for their audience.
There is a world outside the journalism and more specifically the political journalism bubble. And it is not a world that is closing in as fast as we might think.
It was refreshing to know that sometimes, the clouds are not as grey and do not hang as low as they might seem.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Middle Class in America
So, as part of my studies in Washington D.C., I have decided to follow an issue that the National Journal and many other media outlets are covering and that is the state of the middle class in the United States. Right now, the economic downturn has very negatively impacted the middle class and their perception of the economy, healthcare and politics in general. I am working with National Journal this fall who is studying the current state of Middle America.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
First Week Interning at the Journal
We'll this week was a short work week, but I didn't mind because it gave me a chance to meet my fellow interns the day before our program with the Washington Center for Politics and Journalism began...
Monday: This was the day I scoped everything out. Walked the three and change miles to work... I walk because that is the best way to see a city (I don't do this every day to work mind you though). I figured out which door I would be going in and which metro stop I would get off at. It was nice to understand everything before I had to be there bright and early the next day.
Tuesday: First Day! This was the first day for the program and internship with the NationalJournal.com. We talked about the program with our director Terry Michaels throughout the morning and we headed off to our internships after lunch. I met up with my boss and coworkers who I must say are great people. I think I will enjoy my semester there very much. They pretty much just gave me the tour and explained a few things and sent me home for the day.
Wednesday: This was my first full day at the National Journal, and they got the ball rolling with me early on. I learned about their content management system and how to upload or edit stories. I also learned more about this new relaunch they have planned for this fall. I am really excited about all the changes they have going on there. For some of the older people, I think it scares them, but for me and my group of younger, multimedia savy workers, it is quite a fun time. I also got a chance to help with some set designs for shows they produce and the funniest/scariest part of the day was when I cut my finger with a box cutter. I have become quite good at typing without my pointer finger this week though...
Thursday: This day was more training with the website and our office was slammed because the National Journal magazine gets finished on Thursday and we have to upload it to go online for Saturday. I only stayed my hours, but apparently some of my bosses stayed around til 10:30 working on the main page and changing out links to stories. We also prepared for an event we had to attend bright and early the next morning.
Friday: On Friday, we attended an event by NJ and Allstate that talked about the role of the economy and the middle class. We filmed the event for National Journal and then took the video back to the office to edit. They use Final Cut Pro, and I was glad to be looking at a system I was familiar with after being thrust into a strange CMS. I also caught an error on the front page of the magazine online and was able to go into the system and change things. That was a moment of accomplishment.
And that was pretty much the week in a nutshell. This week is a trip to the FEC and John King at CNN. Should be fun... if my sliced finger ever heals......
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Washington so far...
So I arrived in Washington D.C. for my first few days in the city, and boy has it been a whirlwind. I have been trying to get set before I start my internship Tuesday. Here is kind of a rundown of what's been going on...
Thursday: Flew to DC from OKC. The flight to Chicago was delayed, but my impatience was fine and I managed to get through it. We got here and grabbed some food, and pretty much just hung out the first night. I say we because my dad was in town to attend the APSA conference.
Friday: Today was the first of a sightseeing day. We went to the national zoo, where I have been multiple times and love, and we also lugged my bags to my new place in D.C. Afterwards we took the afternoon to walk around the White House and visit that area. We went to the Palm for dinner that night... can't go wrong there.
Saturday: Day 2 of sightseeing commenced early with a trip to the newseum. It is like a journalists dream museum because it covers some of journalism's biggest historic events from Watergate to 9/11. We also viewed the Air and Space museum. It was alright, but I am not a huge fan of planes. I liked it, but think it is better suited for a 10 year old boy. We spent time walking and eating, and I found the radio broadcast of the Sooners football game. Long day though and I fell asleep at halftime.
Sunday: Well, it was time to say goodbye to Dad and head off for brunch at TMH (Thompson Markward Hall). My room is kind of like a closet, but it functions, and the internet is terrible, but I will learn to adjust. I spent the day getting acclimated and met some of the girls. Also got back to my nightly ritual of eating a green apple...
Looking ahead: Monday I meet up with the other interns for drinks and I will probably go find my work so I know where I am going on Tuesday so I don't get lost. A trip to the grocery store may very well be in order as well.
All for now.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Week of Preparations
Well, this week has been a week of preparing to be in DC full-time starting Sept. 7th.
I leave for the East Coast Thursday, as in tomorrow, and will be gone four months... a crazy thing to think about, at least for me. This week has been all about getting ready and getting packed, and of course, seeing my friends and family as much as I can before I go. I think I have had lunch plans every day since I have come back from San Francisco, trying to fit everyone in. My week has kind of looked like this:
Sunday: Errands in Norman and OKC, packing, and visiting
Monday: Errands, packing, visiting, and an evening of copy editing.
Tuesday: Errands, packing visiting, and another evening of copy editing.
Wednesday : and this is pure guess, but errands, packing, and copy editing....
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Getting prepared to take off
Things are a blur here in Norman as I prepare to spend the next semester in Washington D.C.
I will be working at the National Journal Online, where big changes are about to occur as they prepare to launch a new website and plan for the fall.
---There are many things to get in order before my trip and here are just a few:
•Make sure I am all set-up with my online class
•Begin the prep work to write my Honors thesis while I am away this fall
•Practice my HTML and coding
•Pack up the boxes and ship them
•Shopping for everything and anything
Here I will post all my adventures in D.C. and all the exciting things I do at my internship and program with the Washington Center for Journalism and Politics. Looks to be an interesting fall semester.
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