Final Story Package December 12, 2007

When I first heard Mindy discuss our final story package, I had no idea it would be this cool.  First of all, I think I found an issue that really matters to people in Gainesville, and the project allowed me to see just how much I had learned in this class.  Although I think there was still some room for improvement, for example with the photography included in the Soundslides, I am really proud of this story package.

I really learned a lot while reporting for this project.  Some of the main things I learned are:

1) sexual orientation, the gender to which you are attracted, is not necessarily linked to gender identity, your internal sense of being a woman or a man

2) most transgender people, at very early ages, feel like their designated sex at birth isn’t the same as the gender they feel they are inside, which can lead to depression

3) the transition period when an individual decides to start living in the role of the opposite gender (with or without surgeries or hormone replacement) is a particularly vulnerable time when they face discrimination in many areas like their jobs, health care, daily routines in the public, churches and family life, and

 4) many states and localities have just started protecting gender identity in the past five years.

I’ve tried to include some thought-provoking statistics and links that will help people further understand the issues lesbian, gay, bisexual, and particularly transgender individuals face today.  So please check out my final project for this semester, and feel free to leave a comment or share your opinion. 

Soundslides 3: Rights for Gender Identification & Expression in Gainesville November 29, 2007

My Soundslides 3 project, which will be part of my final project for the class, is about the issues, concerns and rights of transgendered people in Gainesville. The City of Gainesville is in the process of adding gender identity as a protected class(such as race, religion, sexual orientation) under the city’s antidiscrimination code.  This will prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, public accommodations, and housing.  I chose to approach this issue by using one individual’s story to reflect the broader issue.  My main character is Jeremy who is very brave for his role in helping the city’s Equal Opportunity Committee bring the issue to the commission (and for allowing me to interview him on this personal and sensitve topic). 

One weakness of my project is to reflect others’ opinions on the issue.  I remembered we talked in class about whether or not journalists should always include both sides of an issue in their stories.  Since this story was so personal, I felt that I didn’t need any outside opinions on the topic.   I attempted to just raise issues by using one person’s point of view. I think considering the time requirements for the project, I couldn’t have done the story justice by adding mutiple interviews.  I did however interview Jeremy’s friends and Commissioner Craig Lowe for some background information and to complete captions. 

Covering an issue is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  There can be so many aspects and points of view a journalist can consider reporting.  This was one of the hardest assignments for me because I had to think so much about what I should include and what things had to go. It was also different thinking about what photos I should include because issue stories often contain a lot of ideas and cognitive images that are hard to photograph. Covering issues takes a great deal of news judgement and many times sensitivity.  When covering personal issues, I think journalists really have to take a lot of time to get to know the people they interview if they want to get the real story and not just surface details.  You have to be great listener and have the ability to make people feel comfortable with you.  I wish I would have had more time to take better photos and include other interesting aspects of the issue.

Better Blogging November 26, 2007

   Many people blog to share their ideas and points of view on a variety of topics.  Since the first week of class we have been learning that blogging should be like developing online relationships and loyalty to the blogs you visit the most.  We talked about how bloggers can’t expect people to read and make comments on their blog if they don’t read and comment on other blogs.  This shows how blogging is really social and interactive. 

   In week 12 of our class we learned about “better blogging” and  added some enhancements to our blog.  Since publishing a blog is publishing a feed that can be searched or subscribed to online, we “burned” an RSS feed for our blog using FeedBurner.  This enhancement helps you accomplish the purpose of your blog by publicizing your content, optimizing your content making it accessible and shareable to users, and analyzing who and where your traffic is coming from.  We used the “Get Started Now” section, which has QuickStart guides for specific blogging services, like wordpress.

   Next we registered our blogs with Site Meter, a counter and statistics tracker.  The basic function of this enhancement helps bloggers understand who visits their site and what parts of the site are most popular.  Google Analytics does a similar function and is like the “Big Brother “surveillance for: visits-letting you know who searched and when, for searches-letting you know what they were looking for, and content-letting you know what pages they found.

   Finally we added Technorati, where people can create their own “Top 10″ blogs.  It’s a blog aggregator which helps bloggers collect, gather and keep track of their favorite blogs. This week’s class was about taking blogging to the next level especially for journalists who are active bloggers and are staying abreast what’s going on in the field of journalism. 

Final Projects: Basic HTML and CSS November 26, 2007

    In week 12 of class Mindy went over some of the things we will be using to create our final project where we plan, design and produce a three-page story about an issue for the web.  For this package students in our class will need to use the skills and information we’ve been  learning  most of the semester about story telling, photo composition, and gathering audio in addition to using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). 

    First we went over the basics of using Windows Notepad and HTML CSS Tutorials. And Stuff.   Although we will be using a zip file or content management system, which means we won’t have to write the raw html code ourselves, Mindy said in the working world today it’s important for journalists to know how html code works  for simple tasks like updating a web site or posting a story on a newspaper or magazine’s web site.  We had a discussion about how journalists shouldn’t necessarily be expected to be web designers, but should have some knowledge about html.

   On the HTML Dog web site we went to HTML Beginner and then the Getting Started tutorial.  We worked our way through the step-by-step instructions on how to create a simple html file with a text editor like Notepad and use a webrowser like Firefox or Internet Explorer to look at the changes we make to the html file.  One of the most important things I learned in today’s class was how html tags “wrap up text and tell that text what it is.”  For  example, adding spaces in a text editor to signal a paragraph doesn’t translate to a paragraph in the web browser unless you have “wrapped” the text in tags that signal a paragraph. This is the same with the headlines, headings, images and titles because html decides the structure of the the document and not the style.

   Next we went to CSS Beginner and the Applying CSS tutorial to learn how to make the text “pretty.”   We learned that a basic In-line style declaration can be pasted inside a tag to make the text different, for example changing the color of that text.  We also learned how Internal styles can be used to dictate the style of the whole page and External styles can be used for consistency, making a 3-page or 1,000-page document the same stylistically. We also learned how <div> tags  in CSS are like containers that wrap up an entire project and can be used to add style, color, fonts or a border.  It creates a large container on the page and can also be used to make inner boxes that makes the style of a page look more professional.

Soundslides 2: The Jones’ Eastside November 8, 2007

For my second Soundslides project I attempt to tell the story of The Jones Eastside, a cafe and alternative bakery and restaurant.  I chose this place because it has personality, and I think the owners were interesting people.  Some of the challenges I had in telling this story reminded me of my first Soundslides project.  For example, I had to keep in mind that I was supposed to be capturing and reporting on the experience of the place and avoide getting side tracked by the personal stories of the people I interviewed.  Although this time lighting was not an issue in my photos,  it was challenging to take photos in a busy restaurant.  People were constantly moving and the backgrounds could be distracting as well. 

This time I tried to concentrate more on making sure I had the components or building blocks of a story.  After watching Ira Glass on Storytelling, I realized just organizing facts along with photos does not make a project an actual story. In his first video, Glass talks about how anecdotes and having a sequence of events will draw an audience and make the story have suspense and momentum. Glass said a sequence of actions are necessary for good stories and that, ”You can feel like you’re on a train that has a destination.” When I went to report and conduct my interviews I tried to collect anecdotes that would make the story interesting and reflect what it’s like to dine in the restaurant. The challenge here was deciding which anecdotes to keep because of the two-minute time limit for the project. Hopefully this time I am coming closer to including more elments of true storytelling.

Soundslides 1: Scooter Culture on Campus October 29, 2007

  

 I finally completed my first Soundslides project: Scooter Culture on Campus.  I this project I attempted to capture what life is like for students who use scooters as a main mode of transportation on and around campus.  I tried to show a well-rouned picture of the pros and cons of using scooters.  Although I had a lot of problems editing my audio in Audacity, I did my best.  I also ran into problems with my photos for this project because most of them were over exposed.  I had to go out and get more shots since the first ones were all taken in the morning or middle of the day around my class and work schedule.  I learned that it is also wise to allow yourself time just in case you run into problems at the end of the production stage.  Overall I know that timing, whether it’s the time of day you decide to shoot photos or the time you allow yourself to tie up loose ends of a work, can make or break a project.

Soundslides 1: A Student’s Critique October 25, 2007

   It can be extremely difficult to tell a story in less than a minute, but I think my classmate Laura Ammermie actually tells a story in her Soundslides 1 assignment “Bowling at the Reitz Union.”  The audio in her project is edited in a very neat and succinct manner. The best thing about the story is that it is easy to listen to and that the photos are very clear.  Lately  we’ve been discussing what components make up a real story.  Laura’s Soundslides project has a definite beginning, middle and end, which is one way to identify a story. 

We also discussed how stories introduce a character who is balanced at the beginning and then tells of a conflict or climatic event that takes the character out of his or her comfort zone before a resolution at the end.  Laura introduces us to bowling-aficionado Abby, who talks about why she likes bowling and how it is a regular activity in her life.  Then the conflict comes when Abby has to get used to bowling at the Reitz Union, which is different from the alleys she’s accustomed to in her hometown.  And the resolution is when Alley concludes she has to change her bowling technique and accept the lower scores she earns at the Reitz Union.

The sound of a bowling ball knocking down pins automatically lets the audience know what Laura’s story is about, and the first picture of Abby walking into the game room got me a little interested in the story.  I think the audio helps make the beginning interesting more than the photography.  I also think the sencerity in Abby’s voice when she says she loves bowling drew me in and made me want to hear more about the topic.  But there was a lack of photos showing Abby’s excitement or enthusiasm about the topic.  This could have made the beginning a little more interesting. 

The soundslides has an ending, but I don’t think it was a firm conclusion.  The resolution would be more complete if Abby would not only acknowledge that her score will always be lower at the Reitz , but also tell how she feels about this or give some kind of personal reaction to the conflict. 

Although the game room at the Reitz Union is a major part of campus life, I think Laura’s project contains about 20 percent of the “campus life” aspect of the assignment and about 80 percent profile of Abby.  Many students rely on the game room for convenient entertainment.  Laura captures how much Abby enjoys bowling for the social aspect of meeting people, but we only see photos of Abby and one of her friends. 

I would improve this story by trying to show other students bowling so that the “campus life” aspect of the activity will be supported. For example,  I wondered if Abby had other friends she met bowling or met up with regularly to play. I think there could have been more discussion about emotions she feels when she plays the game or is dissappointed in her lower scores at the Reitz.  The story could have shown how much fun she had bowling with other students.

Collecting Sound for the Story October 11, 2007

I thought that several ideas and tips in the article “Sound in the Story”   were helpful and thought provoking.  It was an interesting discussion about the subtle ethics involved in collecting audio that don’t apply to other areas of journalism such as photography and reporting for print media.  Page 5 of the article states,  “You crop a picture, but only from the sides.  In audio reporting, you often have to take pieces out of the middle of sentences, and you almost always have to add sounds in to recreate the experience of a situation.” This made me think of how much goes into creating a Soundslides project that seems really natural and has the ability to make the audience share in the journalists experience.  I remember Mindy emphasizing the importance of editing audio without altering the ideas and expressions of the interviewee.  This emphasis on ethics in audio reporting was further made clear in the next paragraph of the article which read, “Readers may not believe what they read in the paper, but listeners tend to think of audio as ‘photographic proof’ of what a person said.  They don’t even think about what skillful editing may have done.”  This made me think about my one trust for audio.  Have you ever been around someone who was telling someone else about an interview with an important or famous person?  Many times I have heard people exclaim, “But he said it with his own mouth!” or “Those were her exact words!”  The article helped me realize how much power and responsibility journalists have.

The article also warned journalists against staging events.  I remember considering this issue when I was collecting sound for my first Soundslides project.  The article says collecting “wild sound” is the “audio equivalent of candid photography.”  I liked this analogy.  While I was collecting audio, I remember thinking about whether I should ask my subjects to start their scooters for me so I could get good sound or if I should just collect the sounds coming from scooters in a parking lot or riding by on the street.  The article makes it clear that it would have definitely been poor ethics for me to, for example, ask a bunch of people to ride by me again and again on their scooters so I could record.  So I decided to record a continuous sound bed on campus and catch scooters as they naturally flowed through traffic.

The final thoughts that I will take with me from the article are concerning the Interview stages: development, pursuit and mop-up.  This section of the article helped me to remember the effort I need to make to develop a successful story.  According to pages 9-10 of the article the development stage happens off tape and is informal, the pursuit is on tape, and the mop-up is a phone call or follow-up conversation after the taped interview.  I really think this was helpful to me because I always look forward to the interview, but not the follow-up process that is usually helpful. 

  

Ideas Brought to Light October 7, 2007

    My first Soundslides assignment is about scooters as a major mode of transportation on campus.  So all of my pictures for the Photo 1 assignment were taken outdoors.   More than anything else, I was concerned about showing the scooter culture on campus without being redundant.  I didn’t want all the pictures to be people getting on and off scooters parked scooters.   I also thought it would be really challenging to capture nice pictures on scooters in motion. But the weather became my biggest issue the week I decided to take pictures. 

    Either the sun was really bright, or the sky was cloudy and rainy.  So I opted to battle the morning and midday sun and avoid possible thunderstorms during the afternoon.  Many of the pictures have that glaring “sunlight-just-before-the-rain” look. When I started taking pitures, I thought it was great to have a lot of natural sunlight.  But the sun actually washed out some of the color and details in the pictures. 

     The sun took over a lot of detail in both of these photos so I had to adjust the levels in both.  Two weeks ago in class Mindy shared with the class how certain times of the day are favorable for taking pictures outdoors.  She said the natural light is usually beautiful between 8 or 9 in the morning and about one hour before dusk when the shadows are still long.  Mindy also said always setting the appropriate white balance and ISO on cameras could help us take better photos. In the Kenneth Kobre text we use for class, he discusses how to deal with different sources of light on pages 240-246.  According to the text, all sources of light cast light that isn’t purely white and has a trace of some color.  But Kobre notes that when the internal controls for color in digital cameras are used correctly, white objects appear white in the final photo no matter what the light source was in the original setting (p. 240).

Kobre’s advice for avoiding the harsh sun midday photos is to photograph the subject in the shade or take them with their backs to the sun (p.243).  In this picture I was trying to avoid the morning sun, which was rising behind the officer while she gave tickets. 

Are We There Yet? October 2, 2007

      In class Mindy suggested her students read Paul Bradshaw’s blog “How to be a journalism student.”  Posted last week, Bradshaw’s 10 tips for journalism students has received various comments-everything from teachers giving him a “high five” and requiring their students to read  to people rewriting his tips to create their own “recipe” for good journalism.  I agree with Mindy’s advice about journalism students’ need for curiosity.  I remember when I started doing interviews in my first reporting class.  After reading my first draft, Professor Weston would always make me get more details while covering an event or do follow up interviews.  Looking back I think it was because I needed to become a little more curious about the topic so that I could effectively communicate to anyone who would read the story.  Journalists must have that child-like curiosity which will lead us to ask the “right questions” and become more engaged in what we write about.  Now, before I interview someone or turn in a story, I consider what might be confusing to the reader.  Sometimes it’s necessary to ask questions even when we think we know the answers.  It’s a good way to avoid holes left for readers because of “underreporting” and an easy way to gain a quote that explains the topic better than you could have yourself.     I found a quote Mathew Gonzalez’s “New media, same old journalism,” a post written in response to Bradshaw’s hints to journalism students.  He wrote “Journalists are students forever.”  I’ve heard that before, but I didn’t fully understand it until I started graduate school.  Since news is the heart and soul of our profession, we will learn each time we write a story.  And this continuous education is always evident when journalists have to keep up with the rising tides of online and digital media platforms.  And even the more traditional media are not stagnant.  To be marketable journalism students need to be abreast newspaper and magazine design and writing styles, software and storytelling techniques newsrooms are using and trends in television news.    

       As an undergraduate student, I had what I call the”Are-we-there-yet syndrome.” I used to be so concerned about making a good grade on assignment, passing tests and quizzes and even with the whole idea of graduating.  I thought those things would signal the end of my days as a student and my arrival into the world of professional journalism.  Somewhere on this long walk as a journalism student, I realized the best journalists never arrive.  They are the ones who never stop learning, never stop reading and writing, never stop perfecting the skills they add to their repertoire.  Now I am realizing journalism students can’t be lazy and complete only what is assigned in class and expect to build a career.  We must take the information we learn in class far beyond exams and use it on jobs and internships so we won’t forget it.   And we must take the skills we learn in class far beyond projects and master them so that our education is not in vain.   

       I think the life of ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings, the journalist who inspires me the most, is a perfect example of the zeal for life-long learning journalists must acquire.  Jennings covered events that defined the world during his time as an anchor and never “arrived” until he died a couple years ago.  Known as “America’s youngest anchor,” Jennings never even got a college education, but he became a life-long student and an exemplary journalist for our times.