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.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
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!
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