Back Home

I'm back in Independence for the weekend.

I don't normally sit and watch the Sunday morning political shows. They usually make me a little angry but I watched one with my parents this morning. This Week on ABC. And at the end of it there was the In Memoriam section. It listed all the important people that died this week...and the names, ages, ranks, and home towns of the soldiers that died overseas.

It struck me as a good public service for journalism.

Photo Finish Part VIII...Finished

This was a very busy day. It was the first time I'd worked with Reporter Rob Low, but not my first time with Photog Kyl. We were working on a story about rules the state of Kansas had about owning and operating a daycare. This was after a string of about 3 babies dying in 3 different daycares in the state in a very short period of time. The woman being interviewed in both pictures lost her child in a Kansas daycare, she's now an advocate for Lexie's law...a law cracking down on daycare restrictions.

Fox wasn't the only station with this idea and we had to share our subject and interview site with Bev Chapman from Channel 9. While we were waiting for our interview subject, Kim, to show up we talked with Bev and compared our stations. Both stations are seeing reporters being used for just more than telling stories and because of budget cuts they're being required to do more for the same or even in some cases, less pay.

This was a sobering realization for me. I had seen how things were at Fox, there had been layoffs for editors and managers that were low on the totem pole. I'd seen everyone at the station take, or prepare to take a furlough to avoid further pay cuts. I'd seen how short staffed that left us. But the talk with Bev truly made me realize that the trouble isn't localized...it's industry wide. And to get and keep a job in this market, you've got to stay on your toes.

I've got some work to do. But I know that with my Mizzou education, I'm more than capable of it.

Photo Finish Part VII

I took these pictures after another vo/sot I worked on. The man in the picture is another photog, David Stonebraker. We all called him Stoney. Something about this shoot in particular sticks in my mind, and I'm not sure why. The buildings are part of an old, abandoned hospital in Raytown, Mo. A pastor and his church group bought the building. And for quite a hefty chunk of change I might add. The building had been abandoned for ten years and had run down and been broken into, vandalized, and just all around forgotten. The group bought it to turn it into a homeless shelter for families stuck in slums and long term motels. There will be individual units for each family with multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, and even a kitchen. The family is allowed to stay in the unit as long as they adhere to the group's program...they have to find employment, and start a savings plan to provide for their family. They'll have meetings with financial advisers and have to show how much they're saving, and what they're saving up for. This is all in hopes to get them back on their feet. As long as they follow the program, they'll have a home with the church group until they can afford to be back out on their own again.

I'm still not sure why this vo/sot has stuck with me. I think it's the enormity of what that group was undertaking. And the hope that something good would come out of it.

Photo Finish Part VI

This picture isn't the best of quality, I had to do a lot of enhancing on it so you can see the wall behind the computer. But I think it's worth it because it's a fun story.

This is the inside of one of the edit/logging bays at the station. That colorful decoration you see on the wall...tape labels. FOX-4 was bought away from Fox network last September. That meant they didn't get the same tech updates network stations did, so they're still editing off of old tape decks. Each story when it's finished get put on its own tape and is assigned a label that's color specific to the show it's going in. That tape is then given to another editor who creates a master tape for the control room. Somebody before my time took those colored tape labels and gave the bay a very unique wallpaper.

When I first started at the station it was a running joke that "The Mizzou Intern doesn't know how to use a tape deck...yet." They just thought that was hilarious.

But now I do...and I told them if they ever wanted to come out of the stone age and learn capture card to give me a call.

Photo Finish Part V

I took this picture the first time I was sent out with my own photographer to pick up a Vo/Sot. I'm wanting to say this was taken on a Monday...the previous Saturday a man checks out of a KC Hospital and has no ride home...so...he decides to take one. After looking around he finds an empty MAST Ambulance sitting in a driveway with the keys in it...so he takes it. But, what he didn't know was that all emergency vehicles are equipped with an internal GPS so authorities were able to track his progress through the city. Police caught up with him and the man took off on a high speed chase down the highway. The chase ended in Independence where Police threw out stop sticks. When the man in the ambulance ran over them, he lost control and hit a very large tree. As you can see from the picture, it completely totaled the ambulance. After that...the man took his third ride in an ambulance in a period of less than 24 hours, just this time he was handcuffed to a gurney.

In this case the station was playing catch-up. Other stations in the area aired the piece when it happened, late Saturday night into Sunday morning. But because we were short staffed, we didn't have a Photog to go shoot it. The photographer I was working with that day, Pat Holloway, has more contacts with law enforcement than any reporter I dealt with this summer. She was able to get in touch with a supervisor at MAST who not only gave us an interview (that I got to conduct) but also let us into the back lot of the building to see the damaged ambulance.

Photo Finish Part IV

The day these pictures were taken started out innocent enough. I was sent out with Reporter Monica Evans and photog Ron on a story about new ADA Requirements and a conference discussing them going on at the Hyatt Regency. In the middle of our first interview we get an urgent call from our newsroom reassigning us to breaking news. A call came over the scanner about a shooting in Fairway, KS, just a short distance from our station. What made this more than your garden variety KC shooting (it's sad that I can say a shooting in KC is garden variety) is that Fairway is a sleepy, upscale neighborhood where nothing ever happens. We get there just as the police were starting a conference on what happened. A crew had been painting a house just a little ways down from where we were standing (we weren't allowed any closer) when a man drove up and started an argument with a female painter. He then proceeded to shoot her and flee the scene. We interviewed everybody humanly possible. We got talked to two police officers on the scene and a neighbor who was able to tell us who lived in the house that was being painted. While the other reporters were interviewing another person who lived nearby, Monica walked off a ways and was on the phone with our newsroom...she comes back a few minutes later as all of the news crews were packing up to leave. The police told us they wouldn't have anything more for us for a few hours. Monica used the info the first neighbor gave us, got someone at the station to run a track on the name and house number...and came up with a phone number. After the last news truck pulled away, the homeowners and one of the painters came out to give us an interview and tell us what happened.

The story was, a man had pulled up to the house, jumped out, and started arguing with a female painter and a male painter (he was the one there to talk to us). The man shot the female and the male painter took off running. The man and female painter had just gone though a divorce. The male painter...was the female's new boyfriend. The woman died at the hospital a few hours later of a gunshot wound to the head. The man was later apprehended in another state. And we were the only station with the interview describing how it all happened.

Photo Finish Part III

Once again with Tess and Photographer Randy Davis, this story was about a new restaurant opening in the Crossroads District in Downtown KC. The woman being interviewed in the picture was upset because of rumors circulating about her business. People had been spreading rumors and circulating what she called false ads claiming it was going to be an "ethnic nightclub" when she was claiming it was a restaurant. Because of the rumors, her neighbors in the crossroads were blocking her application for a liquor license. The neighborhood didn't want a "hip hop club" and the most effective way of blocking it was to cut off their booze. The owner did the interview in hopes of convincing neighbors and the public that she wasn't opening a club. I just hope the giant dance floor and disco ball you can see above Randy didn't hurt her case any...

Photo Finish Part II

It's hard to see because the old version of the iPhone doesn't have s zoom function, but the guy standing in the middle in the photo on the left is KC Mayor Mark Funkhouser. This picture was taken in City Hall in the middle of a Council meeting where heated discussion was going on b/c of disputes on stimulus money going to a private housing project. It ended with a council member, city attorney, and Mayor Funk in a shouting match over policy and voting rules.
It was interesting to look around the room after the meeting had started. I grew up in Kansas City, watching Kansas City late night news. And as I scanned the rows it was pretty much a who's who in political reporting. I was there with Tess Koppelman, but also there was Michael Mahoney from Channel 9 and several others I recognized. After the meeting was over it was a short sprint to get a quick comment from a council person and then down to the live truck to do some fast editing to get the piece on the air. During the 5:00 show there was a line-up of reporters and live trucks alongside city hall because it was everybody's lead story of the night.

So you wanna see what I saw?

From my iPhone...



This was taken on either my second or third day on the job. The reporter is Tess Koppelman. Ron was our Photog. The woman in the middle of the frame is Regina Dinwiddie. Google her name...she has an...interesting story. Dinwiddie was a friend of Scott Roeder. Roder is the man in custody charge with the murder of Wichita, Ks. abortion provider Dr. George Tiller. This was just a day or two after the murder. Dinwiddie spoke about protesting with Roeder and things she had seen him do to try and get under abortion provider's skin. She told a story about him standing outside of a clinic (not Tiller's) all day one day, then walking in and asking to see the doctor. When he came out Roeder looked him up and down and said "Ok, now I know what you look like." and turned and left. Dinwidde spoke about how Roeder was both courageous and crazy. She even said she was glad Tiller was dead. That's the first time in my life I've ever heard a person say they were glad someone was dead...no matter the reason.

Looking Back

I've had a few days off now that my internship is over to sit and think about the experience...

And overall it was a good one. I accomplished exactly what I wanted to...I got a look inside a non-University operated station. And I saw EVERYTHING.

I saw how paid reporters go about contacting sources. I saw what an experienced Rolodex should look like...and wow. Soooo many contacts. I saw different preferences for both questioning subjects and writing stories. Every reporter does it differently...

I saw what it's like to work with a true union photog. And in some cases it was exactly what Greeley warned about. In others, it was fun. But ps...don't ever think about touching their cameras...even if they do still shoot entirely with tape.

I saw how easy it was for an experienced producer to sit down, stack an hour long show...sometimes two at once...and manage to write teases, vo/sots and extra pieces that came of the wire. All of the national news we did came down from our FOX, CNN, and AP wires and since FOX didn't have a nightly news report...a producer condensed it all to put it out on our show. Talk about an amazing feat of choreography...producers would also make amazing event planners.

I got to see how an independent web crew worked to put a website together. It's one thing to write print versions of all the stories and important vo/sots, and to post weather. But it's an entirely different thing to build a website that "works for you." Ours had so many helpful features from a gas tracker, to special recipes, to a job posting site. They even had a google map representation listing garage sales in the area with small blurbs people sent in on what they had to offer. Working with those guys let me see a different side of convergence. And they gave me a little inspiration for when it comes to starting a website of my own.

But that wasn't all I saw.

I saw the politics of the newsroom. The MU kU rivalry...rediculous. There was one person who refused to shake my hand when he found out I was attending Mizzou.

I saw furloughs, I saw layoffs, I saw people take pay cuts. I was there in the middle of their health insurance change over from one program, to a cheaper program. I saw contract negotiations. Everything I wouldn't have gotten to see at KOMU. And it was a sobering reality.

But I'm all the better for seeing it.

Because now I know what to expect from a real job. And that was my goal in this internship.

New Ideas thanks to a Public Toilet

It's 4:30 in the morning right now and I've been awake since two. I'm not sure if that's due to the fact that it's about 90 degrees in my house right now, or that I have raging allergies, or if it's because I can hear my roommate's boyfriend snoring through the wall. 

No matter...I was just thinking...

I had an accident a week and a half ago with my cell phone. To make a long story short, my cell phone had some bonding time with a (used...gag) public toilet and after some serious sanitization and a week of working, it up and died on me. 

So...I caved.

Up to this point I had a plain jane cell phone. Simple voice and text, it was all I needed. But I saw my opportunity here and I upgraded to a fancy new iPhone. And the transition has gone well. I've already told my boyfriend that unless he wants to start doing dishes and laundry he doesn't need to stick around anymore because the phone will literally do everything else for me (except sleep...).

But my dilemma and thus my idea came out of this switch...

I love being able to have the news at the tip of my finger, no matter where I am. 

BUT

KOMU's website takes about a billion years to load. So...what if we took a page out of CNN's book and had some kind of a re-direct for anyone accessing the website on a mobile device to a webpage without all the bells and whistles that take so long. 

If you go to visit CNN from any kind of smart phone you're met with a page with one picture from their main headline, and links with story slugs to their other main story. There's a banner at the top to display any kind of breaking news, and there's a tab area where you can navigate to their different categories. KOMU could have a weather, Your Health, etc. tab...and a small add running along to bottom to please advertisers...and boom. You have a whole new demographic. 

How hard is something like this to develop? No idea...I know the convergence school just did an application designing contest for iPhone in conjunction with the engineering school. I bet there's somebody on campus who could figure it out. 

Just a small idea...I'll tell you when I really get up for the day if I still think this is coherent...

...back to sleep (hopefully) for me. 

Trying My Best

If an idea is presented to you, and you have to get it cleared through one person before it goes to another person to also be cleared, but you know that 2nd person cleared it and you need to move fast....what do you do?

I did what I thought. I sent the idea to both people involved instead of just the first. 

I did what I thought would be best since time is running out on the idea. I don't feel like I stepped on person 1's toes because I sent it to both. 

So I skipped a step in the process. Is that ALWAYS a bad thing?

I got an e-mail from one of my professors outlining a ton of internships available in the journalism field right now. I'd like to think that's a good sign. No, it's not a paid job, but there are positions out there and experience to be gained. I can't help but think that's a tiny ray of sunshine in the clouds.

Or, it could be that fewer people are studying the field. If it's that, then I just don't know what I think about it.

Blurred Boundaries

I've been taking a little time this last week to work on a story over a little boy with Autism and the therapy that he's using that seems to be working. I spent lots of time with him and his family and my problem came in distancing myself...they made me feel like a part of the family, the let me observe every facet of their lives. 

When it came to editing my story I found myself wanting to send my story to the mother for approval...just to make sure that I don't post anything she might be uncomfortable with. But that seems like it should go against all of my journalism principles. So I didn't. 

This week was just the first time I ever saw the lines between a reporter and a private citizen blur, and it took a little struggling on my part to see through them.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer announced today that it will be moving to online only, and next Tuesday will be its last print edition. 

I can't decide if this is it embracing the online age, or folding its print edition due to budget constraints. I wouldn't be surprised if it was both. 

Do I think that's a good idea?

No. And that might be blasphemy to my convergence roots, but oh well. 

I know in the internet age, there are still those resisting buying a computer. And I guarantee there are some living in Seattle. And they're going to be cut off from the SPI's coverage. And I think that's a bad move.

I know the paper can't account for the people who refuse to get computers, but I can't help but feel that's their way of turning their back on the old times and their loyal readers.

Possibly, if I saw their subscription and internet volume numbers, I might change my mind...but for now...I can't say that I agree with it.

Don't Call Me Sweetheart

Bob strikes again...

Bob and I ended up on a shoot at the same location about a week ago. I was already in a crunch on my deadline, so I got to this place in plenty of time to get a good seat and talk to a couple of the key players. I revealed to the people that I was a student, and that I was there videotaping for a school project. They said I looked and acted more professional that most students that covered their events. I settled in and about 2 minutes before the scheduled event was supposed to start...in walks Bob. He promptly yells across the room at me "YOU HERE FOR KOMU?" 

...If he had noticed the camera I was using...he would have already known the answer. Bob then strolls in front of me and sets his camera up right in front of the view of mine, and when I told him he was in the way, he turned around and shrugged at me. I should have socked him...however, being in a public place surrounded by public officials, I figured that wasn't the time or place. I re-adjusted and settled in for what promised to be a 2 hour long meeting.

During the first part of the meeting there were technical difficulties with a projector during which I spent surveying the room looking for ideas for future stories and comment on the one I was working on. My thoughts were, since it was a meeting, there had to be an agenda out somewhere. I noticed a stack of papers sitting on a desk so I went to look at them, and it was an agenda...to the meeting that was right before the one I was in. I picked it up, looked it over to see if there was anything I could use, and then set it back down. Bob notices what I'm doing and runs over and snatches one of the papers and said "HA, I knew there had to be one." 

I told him that he had the agenda to the wrong meeting to which he replied, "Yeha, that's just what you want me to think."

Whatever.

After the projector was fixed and the video presentation finished, which Bob was fiddling with his camera...the real agenda was passed out. And they people at the meeting skipped over the students. Bob looked like a 4 year old that had just been told he couldn't have any candy. 

I waited for the stack of papers to make its way around the room, and went and got the extras. There was an agenda for me...and one left. I gave it to Bob. 

Never again will I help him.

First words out of his mouth,

"Well thanks sweetheart, could you be a Doll and..."

...and that's when I told him to shove it. 

In retrospect, probably not the best decisions I've ever made. But in that moment when I helped a fellow student I was compromised. In Bob's mind I became "the female" who could be immediately looked down on and be asked to do anything. Perhaps if he hadn't called me sweetheart, and doll, I would have helped him with what he needed. But my goal was to maintain as much professionalism and dignity as possible, and being called "Doll" in a room full of construction workers would led to me not being taken seriously. I might add, I had a few of the men comment something along the lines of "way to go" after the meeting when I was getting their thoughts on the decision reached.

One last comment on the situation...both my and bob's time w/ the cameras ran out before the meeting was over. And since it was after hours when the professors aren't in office, there wasn't anything we could do about getting extra time. Bob and I both packed up and went back to turn our gear in...and that's when Bob went home, and I went back to the meeting with my reporter's notebook in hand. 

Also last week Anne Garrels gave her master class. There were a few things she said about the industry I hadn't thought about. She said radio, like other media, was facing cutbacks and dying out, but losing the radio would hurt in a different way in losing print or tv. Radio is where a large amount of political correspondents reside. And in the future, if we were to lose political correspondents, the people would lose their watchdog, the witnesses. The people who report directly back to us would be gone, and we would simply have to trust what governments were telling us. Kind of a scary thought...

Take for example Darfur.

Their government claimed for years that there was no genocide taking place in its country, that there was no unrest. Journalists who were there captured evidence to prove otherwise.

Now, just imagine the atrocities that could go under the radar if there was nobody there to witness them...

Not a thought I'd like to entertain. 

Learning my Lesson, and Putting it to the Test

So, for once I decided to get on the ball. Usually I wait a few days to contact sources after pitching a story idea. That gives me time to think it out and get my stuff together before I go out there. Well, I did that early this week. And I contacted people the day I pitched. And I got bitten. I had 3 story ideas this week fall through on me. I'm on my last leg, and it's on its way out...

So as it stands, my story is due...well, really soon. I am on my last ditch idea, we're talking plan D or E here. And it involves cold calling everybody in the phone book I can find involved with this particular subject for in interview to be done this afternoon. After collecting what will hopefully be a couple of interviews I then I have to get all, or most of it put together into s story tonight. And did I mention, tomorrow is my 21st birthday so I have friends throwing me a party tonight?

Something tells me I'm not going to be getting much sleep over the next couple of days. But, I am learning something here, and that's to think on my feet. Since the panic mode has kicked in, I've come up with more ideas and options for this story and other stories than I have found in days. I'm waiting on about 4 calls back so I'm off to do what I do best, panic, and prepare to hit the ground running!

Web Extra

ACM wouldn't open...

Carol's Story

Sitting in the corner of Carol Nacarato's kitchen is her memento of her time in Florida, a small, sparse, orange tree that her husband saved from their home in Winter Haven.

"My husband actually brought that with him when he came up in his car, it was in the back seat of his car all the way up here from Florida." she said, laughing, remembering the car ride.

The Nacarato family lived through 3 hurricanes, Charlie, Ivan, and Julie tearing through their neighborhood in a period of less than six weeks in 2004. Even though their town of Winter Haven was an hour and a half inland the hurricane still left families without food and power in their wake.

"The power went out for at least a week to a week and a half each time, every time." Nacarato said.

" And that was three times within six weeks. It was rough." she said.

After the water her family stored ran out the Nacarato's turned to FEMA and The Red Cross who were offering relief in town.

"It was difficult because [FEMA] were giving out meals, water, and ice because people needed to stay cool and hydrate, but you had to stand in line to get the stuff because there were so many people." she said.

"None of the grocery stores were open. None of the gas stations were open." which Nacarato said caused a different problem.

It was too far to walk to get the supplies being handed out, so to save gas, people carpooled to the delivery sites.

"It got to the point," she said, "where they thought people were hoarding so they would only give you one case of water when you drove up. One car one case. Even though they were all going 'No, we're all from different homes, we're just carpooling to save gasoline and stuff.' the answer was still no, one car, one case."

Eventually the food that Carol, her husband Frank, and her three boys had managed to save, grill, and distribute to friends and neighbors also ran out. So again she turned to the relief agencies for help.

" I went over to get in line for a hot meal one night and they would only give me one plate. I said 'I have a husband and three kids at home.' and they told me they would have to come and get their own food. I thought it was sensible since there were so many people there for just the mother to get food for the family. But they said they didn't know if I really had those people or if I was just trying to get extra food." she said.

Shaking her head she remembers it all.

"I was just trying to feed my family." she said.

"It was difficult, I wouldn't wish that on anybody."

You Don't Have To Outrun the Bear

We had a convergence speaker this week, Bryce Moore from KMOV,  and I think what he said bears repeating. The topic: how to find a job in journalism. He gave 5 ideas...

1. Build a portfolio of news organizations: Read the blogs, gather information. Know and understand what the problem is, the better you know the problem, the more you can help find a solution. 

2. Get information from new places: think like blogs...read Seth Godin, and e-marketer. 

3. Be a solution to the problem: figure out how you can position yourself. Make yourself marketable. 

4. You don't have to outrun the bear...you just have to outrun the people behind you. 

5. There's no reason why you can't be a journalist...right now. Don't wait. 

He suggested think of crazy ideas that are outside of the box, so you set yourself apart from the rest of the crowd. Sometimes you just have to throw stuff against the wall and see if it bounces back. The only way we're going to figure out where the media is going right now is to take challenges and not stick to the same old way of doing things. The opportunities are there...just go out and get it!

I think what he said applies not just to convergence, but anyone. 

One of the ways he suggested to make yourself marketable, you have to know how to fix the station's problems. He said his station looks at a newsroom of overpaid reporters that do nothing but go out and do one story a day then bring it back and flop it on an editing desk for someone to deal with. He's looking for people who have the tools, who can go do the reporting, then edit it. Then find the web extra (take note, Bobs of the world), and put it online. If your resume can give good examples of journalism and shows you have experience with news tools (i.e. Final Cut, Avid, ACM, PhotoShop, Dreamweaver, Cool Edit, Adobe Edits, Sound Slides) then you're going to be that much more above people who can only report or only edit. You're a more valuable employee. 

And that's what we're doing here at Mizzou...so Avid beware, even though I prefer Final Cut, I now have a better incentive to learn you...a job. 

So with that said...off I go to the lab. 

My Schtick With Help from "Bob"

Last week in class we had the discussion of "web extras" and how as B-2 reporters we are responsible for providing a different print story to put online right up next to our video story, and also any extras to add to the story that we could find. One student (who for all intensive purposes will be known as "Bob" for the rest of this blog) seemed to have an issue with this.

"Bob" and I have had several classes together in our journalism education. It seems we are on similar paths, I just chose a different way of getting through mine. And he never fails to say something to irk or offend me. Why should our time together in B-2 be any different?

Bob proceeded to walk over to his buddy after class and comment very loudly and in slightly more colorful words than I will use, that the web stories and extras were bogus. And that he was a TV reporter, and TV reporters should only produce stories for TV, leave the print to the newspapers. 

Well...I have news for you Bob...REAL news. Newspapers are now online. Television stations are now online. This makes them direct competition. Newspapers are now offering video and radio sound-bites to go along with their traditional print stories. 

Bottom line: we have to compete. 

So, Bob, if you want to keep your job, or even get one for that matter, step it up. You are a journalist, your passion should be for the news, not for the medium. 

I would like to say that Bob's offensive comments ended there. But of course, they didn't. Bob said, and I quote, "I don't work for a freakin' newspaper. I shouldn't have to write those stories." Well Bob...you're right. You're not working for a newspaper. 

Writing for the web is different than writing for a print source. In writing for the web your story has to tell the exact same story as your TV story, but make it descriptive enough that people don't need the video to accompany the story and short enough that they don't lose interest. Web writing needs to be tighter than newspaper writing because of one key difference: internet attention span. 

When reading the paper there isn't that tantalizing button looming above what your reading that says "Facebook" or "E-mail". When you've got the paper, you're sitting down to read the news. When you're on the web, there are far more distractions, so get to your point, describe it well, and supplement it with your video and extras. 

The moral to my little schtick... 

Adjectives in front of the word journalist are now obsolete. We are no longer "newspaper" journalists, or "radio" journalists, or even "TV" journalists. We are just journalists.

Prepare accordingly. 

For B-2

This is my blog for B-2!

First week of classes...and of course, I'm sick. It seems to always work that way. Oh well, I'll live now, dazzle later. 

I'm really excited for my J-4301 class since I get to work at newsy. I had a blast there last semester. Hopefully I can learn more and do a bit more this semester. My KOMU shifts for Broadcast sound similar to what I did in convergence last semester, but my KOMU shifts for Convergence this semester seem a little daunting. I'm not sure what to think of working on the health segment, and only the health segment with Angie Bailey. I'd like to branch out a bit, but it is an experiment, so we'll see where it goes. Can't hurt to try, right?