We've invited a couple of people associated with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma to come talk with our students here at the Northern Star on Friday, April 4. Not only will it be a valuable conversation with experts in covering tragedy, but it will serve as a chance for our students to decompress a little and talk about the experience they’ve just been through.
I'm also looking to "share" our guests with the larger journalism community. If you or co-workers have covered tragedy (especially NIU’s), you are welcome to come to the Northern Star office that morning for a journalists-only conversation starting at 9:30 a.m. If you or anyone on your staff is interested, just let me know sometime this week.
Our guests are Bruce Shapiro, the executive director; and Deb Nelson, who teaches at the University of Maryland, is a former Pulitzer winner with the Seattle Times and more recently was investigations editor at the Washington Post. She's also an NIU and Northern Star alumna.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Visual Journalism in Print and Online
NINA continues its commitment to new-media training with our April 25 spring conference, “It's a Visual World.”
The event will offer help for publishers, editors, reporters and photographers in learning to think more visually to take advantage of video and photos with limited resources.
We'll look at ways newspapers are electrifying their storytelling with better use of pictures in print and a commitment to photos and videos on the web. And, to emphasize how each medium requires its own approach to visual journalism, we'll take three traditional print ideas and show how they could be done differently -- and more powerfully -- for print, Web and other casts.
The conversation will address not just the “how-to” questions, but also the “why” questions. We’ll look at philosophies for doing video and other multimedia on the Web. What’s working? What’s not working? What are reasonable expectations for small to midsize newspapers? What kind of time and training investments are necessary?
"This is relatively new territory for most small to mid-sized weekly and daily newspapers in northern Illinois," said NINA First Vice President Pete Nenni of the Daily Herald. "So, having someone of Curt's background and experience talk on this subject will provide some valuable insight."
Who should attend: Editors, publishers, reporters, photojournalists, online staffers.
Speaker: Curt Chandler is senior lecturer specializing in multimedia reporting at Pen
n State University. Before entering the academic world last summer, he was the editor for online innovation at the post-gazette.com in Pittsburgh. Curt has a degree in newspaper writing from Northwestern University and more than 25 years of newspaper experience as a visual journalist, manager and online editor. He also worked for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner and the Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftan. He has conducted multimedia training in newsroom and seminars for working journalists in addition to working in the classroom with students who aspire to be journalists. He has done seminars for the Poynter Institute, the Online News Association, the National Press Photographers Association and the Society for News Design.
When: Friday, April 25, 2008
Time: 8:45 a.m. to noon
Where: Holmes Student Center, Room 305, NIU-DeKalb
Cost: $20 for NINA members and attendees from member publications; $40 for nonmembers.
Parking: Use either the NIU visitor lot or the Newman Center lot. Both cost $5 a day. See map.
Registration deadline: Friday, April 18. Contact Jim Killam.
Schedule
8:45 – 9:15 Registration / refreshments
9:15 - Noon Program
The event will offer help for publishers, editors, reporters and photographers in learning to think more visually to take advantage of video and photos with limited resources.
We'll look at ways newspapers are electrifying their storytelling with better use of pictures in print and a commitment to photos and videos on the web. And, to emphasize how each medium requires its own approach to visual journalism, we'll take three traditional print ideas and show how they could be done differently -- and more powerfully -- for print, Web and other casts.
The conversation will address not just the “how-to” questions, but also the “why” questions. We’ll look at philosophies for doing video and other multimedia on the Web. What’s working? What’s not working? What are reasonable expectations for small to midsize newspapers? What kind of time and training investments are necessary?
"This is relatively new territory for most small to mid-sized weekly and daily newspapers in northern Illinois," said NINA First Vice President Pete Nenni of the Daily Herald. "So, having someone of Curt's background and experience talk on this subject will provide some valuable insight."
Who should attend: Editors, publishers, reporters, photojournalists, online staffers.
Speaker: Curt Chandler is senior lecturer specializing in multimedia reporting at Pen
n State University. Before entering the academic world last summer, he was the editor for online innovation at the post-gazette.com in Pittsburgh. Curt has a degree in newspaper writing from Northwestern University and more than 25 years of newspaper experience as a visual journalist, manager and online editor. He also worked for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner and the Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftan. He has conducted multimedia training in newsroom and seminars for working journalists in addition to working in the classroom with students who aspire to be journalists. He has done seminars for the Poynter Institute, the Online News Association, the National Press Photographers Association and the Society for News Design.When: Friday, April 25, 2008
Time: 8:45 a.m. to noon
Where: Holmes Student Center, Room 305, NIU-DeKalb
Cost: $20 for NINA members and attendees from member publications; $40 for nonmembers.
Parking: Use either the NIU visitor lot or the Newman Center lot. Both cost $5 a day. See map.
Registration deadline: Friday, April 18. Contact Jim Killam.
Schedule
8:45 – 9:15 Registration / refreshments
9:15 - Noon Program
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Lessons learned since Feb. 14
I just spent an hour talking with someone who was in the Cole Hall basement at 3 p.m. Feb. 14. Seven people down there heard the whole horrible event overhead – gunshots, screaming, a mad stampede for the auditorium exits. Those in the basement barricaded themselves in offices for 90 minutes, not knowing if a shooter would burst through the doors at any moment. Finally, police arrived and led them out.
As a journalist, I should have been taking notes and running a voice recorder. As a college newspaper adviser, I should have asked if he minded if a student reporter interviewed him. But this was a friend, telling me not only about what he experienced that day, but what he’s experienced since, emotionally. At some point, his will make a compelling story. Just not right now.
Such has been the day-to-day experience of helping my students cover this story, while we also have been part of the story and dealing with the emotional fallout. We are all experiencing thoughts and emotions that are difficult to explain to someone who wasn’t here that day. Here at the Northern Star, we’ve learned a lot about being friends first, journalists second. One of our students, Dan Parmenter, died that day. Two others were in the auditorium and escaped without being hit. They are dealing with a lot right now.
We’ve heard the term “NIU family” bandied about lately. To be honest, I’d never really thought of NIU that way. The Northern Star and its alumni are most definitely a family, but the whole university? We have 25,000 students, and 3,300 faculty and staff. It’s more of a small city than a family.
That perception has changed, at least for now. Wherever we were at 3 p.m., we all experienced something absolutely awful together. Whether we knew each other or not, “Where were you?” became the first line of almost every conversation for a few days.
We also have become a lot more aware of what’s going on around us. We watch each other’s backs. I sat this week in the Holmes Student Center coffee shop, talking with Geri Nikolai from the Rockford Register Star. Across the room, two male students ran toward a door, trying to catch a Huskie Bus. I completely lost my train of thought by zeroing in on those two guys until I knew they weren’t dangerous.
When a lone student stands outside a building, we give a second and third glance. When someone walks into a classroom late, everyone turns and looks. And I suppose I’ll never look at a guitar case the same way again. It’s not that we’re fearful, at least outwardly. We’re just more alert.
We’ve also grown to understand something counselors call “event fatigue.” We are talked out, counseled out and just plain tired. It’s not that we mind talking about the tragedy. We’re just out of things to say.
Since Feb. 14, I’ve probably done 30 interviews with reporters (print, broadcast and online) from all over the world. Some of our Northern Star students have done even more. We learned quickly how to distinguish between reporters who see you as that day’s story, and those who genuinely care.
Examples of the former: A national TV producer, on the phone an hour after the shootings, who told one of our students, “This could be your one chance to be on national TV.” Or the network camera man, covering a church service, who asked parishioners to sit down during the scripture reading because they were blocking his shot.
Examples of the latter: The many reporters who used the Northern Star as an office from which to write and file. They were unfailingly gracious in asking our students for interviews and background information, and sensitive in understanding what we were dealing with.
At a workshop I attended recently, news videographer Seth Gitner of The Roanoke Times said this about interviewing people: “It’s always an honor when someone lets me into their life.”
Of all the journalistic lessons I’ve been reminded of through this whole, awful experience, that may be the best. When I interview someone, the honor is mine. No one is just a source, an eyewitness, or a skin color to satisfy perception of fairness and balance. When people agree to be interviewed, they trust us with their words, and often their emotions and their dignity. The best reporters appreciate and uphold this trust.
Certainly, our students who go on to become professional reporters will cover tragedy again. I think they’ll do so with empathy and sensitivity … knowing how it feels to be on the other side of those notebooks, cameras and microphones.
As a journalist, I should have been taking notes and running a voice recorder. As a college newspaper adviser, I should have asked if he minded if a student reporter interviewed him. But this was a friend, telling me not only about what he experienced that day, but what he’s experienced since, emotionally. At some point, his will make a compelling story. Just not right now.
Such has been the day-to-day experience of helping my students cover this story, while we also have been part of the story and dealing with the emotional fallout. We are all experiencing thoughts and emotions that are difficult to explain to someone who wasn’t here that day. Here at the Northern Star, we’ve learned a lot about being friends first, journalists second. One of our students, Dan Parmenter, died that day. Two others were in the auditorium and escaped without being hit. They are dealing with a lot right now.
We’ve heard the term “NIU family” bandied about lately. To be honest, I’d never really thought of NIU that way. The Northern Star and its alumni are most definitely a family, but the whole university? We have 25,000 students, and 3,300 faculty and staff. It’s more of a small city than a family.
That perception has changed, at least for now. Wherever we were at 3 p.m., we all experienced something absolutely awful together. Whether we knew each other or not, “Where were you?” became the first line of almost every conversation for a few days.
We also have become a lot more aware of what’s going on around us. We watch each other’s backs. I sat this week in the Holmes Student Center coffee shop, talking with Geri Nikolai from the Rockford Register Star. Across the room, two male students ran toward a door, trying to catch a Huskie Bus. I completely lost my train of thought by zeroing in on those two guys until I knew they weren’t dangerous.
When a lone student stands outside a building, we give a second and third glance. When someone walks into a classroom late, everyone turns and looks. And I suppose I’ll never look at a guitar case the same way again. It’s not that we’re fearful, at least outwardly. We’re just more alert.
We’ve also grown to understand something counselors call “event fatigue.” We are talked out, counseled out and just plain tired. It’s not that we mind talking about the tragedy. We’re just out of things to say.
Since Feb. 14, I’ve probably done 30 interviews with reporters (print, broadcast and online) from all over the world. Some of our Northern Star students have done even more. We learned quickly how to distinguish between reporters who see you as that day’s story, and those who genuinely care.
Examples of the former: A national TV producer, on the phone an hour after the shootings, who told one of our students, “This could be your one chance to be on national TV.” Or the network camera man, covering a church service, who asked parishioners to sit down during the scripture reading because they were blocking his shot.
Examples of the latter: The many reporters who used the Northern Star as an office from which to write and file. They were unfailingly gracious in asking our students for interviews and background information, and sensitive in understanding what we were dealing with.
At a workshop I attended recently, news videographer Seth Gitner of The Roanoke Times said this about interviewing people: “It’s always an honor when someone lets me into their life.”
Of all the journalistic lessons I’ve been reminded of through this whole, awful experience, that may be the best. When I interview someone, the honor is mine. No one is just a source, an eyewitness, or a skin color to satisfy perception of fairness and balance. When people agree to be interviewed, they trust us with their words, and often their emotions and their dignity. The best reporters appreciate and uphold this trust.
Certainly, our students who go on to become professional reporters will cover tragedy again. I think they’ll do so with empathy and sensitivity … knowing how it feels to be on the other side of those notebooks, cameras and microphones.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Naperville adviser removed
Linda Kane, the longtime, revered adviser of the student newspaper at Naperville Central High School, has been removed. Here are two stories. Draw whatever conclusion you will ... but the bottom line is, the students there are losing one of the best advisers anywhere.
Naperville Sun story
Chicago Tribune story
Naperville Sun story
Chicago Tribune story
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
"Ya get good notes?"
A spring newsletter preview: Here's a piece by Jason Akst, an NIU journalism instructor and former reporter.
“Ya get good notes?” -- Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee
“Verbatim.” -- Robert Redford as Bob Woodward, speaking for Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein
In the fog of blogs, convergence and economic survival, I apologize for highlighting yet another worry, but a basic, critical reporting skill is dying. Tomorrow’s journalists don’t take good notes (if teaching journalism at NIU is any indication).
I have wanted to say something for a while, but what sent me over the edge was my basic news writing students brainstorming Valentine’s Day feature angles. I drew a giant heart on the board with lines to things like “chocolate,” “sex,” “love,” “romance,” “lingerie,” and “getting dumped/being dumped.” The students enjoyed creating these angles, knew this was an assignment, heard my rant about reporters’ notes, and knew I don’t put class notes or PowerPoints online. Of two sections of class (about 33 students), only a handful took any notes.
So I mentioned “writing an article about students’ lack of note-taking ability for the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association, an organization that might provide you your first career job,” and that I would be peeking at their notes over the next few days. No improvement. I showed the “All the President’s Men” scene of Hoffman/Bernstein scribbling each word, challenging my students to get the same notes. Ouch.
I wish this semester is an anomaly, but over several years of teaching college journalism, it’s clear that many of our up-and-comers don’t:
I perused a stack of basic journalism textbooks to make sure notes are still important. Everyone thinks so. Most books dispense advice about how note taking is a multifaceted process of listening, writing, interpreting, and following up; how it’s nearly impossible to get every word, so learn when to quote and when to paraphrase; to use a pencil in bad weather; how tape recorders fail, and so forth. A few acknowledge that note taking is critical – but so fundamental that many j schools don’t teach it – and many FRONT COVERS depict a reporter taking notes! What gives?
The decline of the once exalted note seems partly societal, partly technical. Nowadays, note taking is a menial chore for menial people. A former boss assigned meeting “scribes,” so that only person would have to take notes, thereby enabling everybody else to (God forgive me for writing this) “think outside the box.” Haven’t you been surprised in recent meetings at how few people take notes?
With our students, the problem is much more technologically located. They are certain there will be an accurate, easily downloadable version of events ... that they can retrieve in nanoseconds … on deadline … for free. They think this because 1) it’s often true, and 2) we have addicted them to the Internet and PowerPoint.
Regardless of the source of the problem, taking notes is like playing pool or making guacamole (to use two extremes): one gets better with practice.
What Might Help:
“Ya get good notes?” -- Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee
“Verbatim.” -- Robert Redford as Bob Woodward, speaking for Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein
In the fog of blogs, convergence and economic survival, I apologize for highlighting yet another worry, but a basic, critical reporting skill is dying. Tomorrow’s journalists don’t take good notes (if teaching journalism at NIU is any indication).
I have wanted to say something for a while, but what sent me over the edge was my basic news writing students brainstorming Valentine’s Day feature angles. I drew a giant heart on the board with lines to things like “chocolate,” “sex,” “love,” “romance,” “lingerie,” and “getting dumped/being dumped.” The students enjoyed creating these angles, knew this was an assignment, heard my rant about reporters’ notes, and knew I don’t put class notes or PowerPoints online. Of two sections of class (about 33 students), only a handful took any notes.
So I mentioned “writing an article about students’ lack of note-taking ability for the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association, an organization that might provide you your first career job,” and that I would be peeking at their notes over the next few days. No improvement. I showed the “All the President’s Men” scene of Hoffman/Bernstein scribbling each word, challenging my students to get the same notes. Ouch.
I wish this semester is an anomaly, but over several years of teaching college journalism, it’s clear that many of our up-and-comers don’t:
- take good notes
- know how to take good notes even if they wanted to
- have training in note taking
- want to learn more about taking notes
- care (beyond lip service) about taking notes
I perused a stack of basic journalism textbooks to make sure notes are still important. Everyone thinks so. Most books dispense advice about how note taking is a multifaceted process of listening, writing, interpreting, and following up; how it’s nearly impossible to get every word, so learn when to quote and when to paraphrase; to use a pencil in bad weather; how tape recorders fail, and so forth. A few acknowledge that note taking is critical – but so fundamental that many j schools don’t teach it – and many FRONT COVERS depict a reporter taking notes! What gives?
The decline of the once exalted note seems partly societal, partly technical. Nowadays, note taking is a menial chore for menial people. A former boss assigned meeting “scribes,” so that only person would have to take notes, thereby enabling everybody else to (God forgive me for writing this) “think outside the box.” Haven’t you been surprised in recent meetings at how few people take notes?
With our students, the problem is much more technologically located. They are certain there will be an accurate, easily downloadable version of events ... that they can retrieve in nanoseconds … on deadline … for free. They think this because 1) it’s often true, and 2) we have addicted them to the Internet and PowerPoint.
Regardless of the source of the problem, taking notes is like playing pool or making guacamole (to use two extremes): one gets better with practice.
What Might Help:
- Employers: institute a “policy” that novice reporters’ notes are subject to spot checking. Call it qualify control.
- If you have meetings and see reporters not taking notes, embarrass them.
Emphasize note taking in mentoring. Pair strong note-taking veterans with weak note-taking beginners. Beats don’t matter; in fact, pairing a sports writer with a cops reporter might be good. - Create easy, low/no-budget note-taking contests. Play a short scene of anything with lots of quick dialogue. Whoever gets closest to verbatim wins a better parking spot, a gift card … whatever.
- Find a retired secretary to teach shorthand.
- Journalism faculty: put as little material online as possible. Force students to take notes (be sure to explain your policy).
Monday, March 10, 2008
One gloomy point of view
Well, this one might depress you or it might get your hackles up. It's a column by Peggy Drexler about the declining health of newspapers. I think she's too gloom-and-doom, and also a bit elitist about the value of local news. She writes:
A colleague of mine in College Media, Kathy Lawrence at the University of Texas, wrote this in response:
I have been watching newspapers like you watch a cherished friend who has a slow debilitating illness. You wonder: even if they survive, will they ever be the same? The signs are not encouraging.
A colleague of mine in College Media, Kathy Lawrence at the University of Texas, wrote this in response:
This piece also speaks to the awesome responsibility we all have in this. We can throw in the towel and succumb to inevitability or work to shape that future so that the value remains. I worry that a collective we -- college and commercial newspapers -- are rushing together toward a cliff when we could be standing together and pushing to retain the richness and depth of news that has sustained
our democracy.
IJY nominations
As promised in the previous post, here's the formal letter and nomination form for 2008 Illinois Journalist of the Year. Please note the March 21 deadline. The winner will be honored at the NIU Journalism Banquet on April 25.
We've received a couple of great nominations already. Keep 'em coming!
We've received a couple of great nominations already. Keep 'em coming!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Illinois Journalist of the Year
Formal announcement is coming next week, but NIU is seeking nominations for the Illinois Journalist of the Year award, given annually at our journalism banquet in April. Here are the award criteria:
The Illinois Journalist of the Year award is presented annually by the Department of Communication of Northern Illinois University to a person who has made a significant contribution to the mass media or, through them, to the public they serve, either as a result of a single accomplishment during the past year, or through a sustained effort over a longer period of time.
Any journalist employed by an Illinois mass medium, or any Illinois resident associated with a national medium serving the people of Illinois, is eligible to receive the award.
I'll post the official nomination form next week, but in the meantime, please think about nominating a deserving journalist. The deadline for nominations will be Friday, March 21. Your contact here at NIU is Dr. Bill Cassidy, 815-753-1711, or bcassidy@niu.edu.
The Illinois Journalist of the Year award is presented annually by the Department of Communication of Northern Illinois University to a person who has made a significant contribution to the mass media or, through them, to the public they serve, either as a result of a single accomplishment during the past year, or through a sustained effort over a longer period of time.
Any journalist employed by an Illinois mass medium, or any Illinois resident associated with a national medium serving the people of Illinois, is eligible to receive the award.
I'll post the official nomination form next week, but in the meantime, please think about nominating a deserving journalist. The deadline for nominations will be Friday, March 21. Your contact here at NIU is Dr. Bill Cassidy, 815-753-1711, or bcassidy@niu.edu.
"Newspaper Next" workshop
The American Press Institute is offering a "Newspaper Next 2.0" workshop March 28 in Madison, Wis. Excerpt:
Newspaper Next, API’s ground-breaking initiative, gave the newspaper industry a strategic framework to create a viable future by transforming itself, building new audiences and developing new revenue streams while maximizing core products.
Get ready for the next call to action: Newspaper Next (N²) “2.0,” which offers additional strategic concepts and practical guidance to help the industry make the leap beyond “newspaper companies.”
The good news is that opportunities abound, but to capitalize on them, a newspaper company must reach far beyond the limits of newspapers and news.
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