Holidays -- What gives?

Let me preface this blog by saying I love my family. I love spending time with them, and I love that every December without much fanfare, I will see the majority of my extended family on either side of my family. However, it is realistic to ever hope that I'll have those coveted Christmas holiday's off?

My News Director, Stacey Woelfel (also RTDNA chairman) wrote a blog about working on the holidays, and it got me thinking... Besides the religious connotations, what else is holding holiday work back?

I'm a religious person, and try by best to honor the Holy Day's of Obligation (I'm Catholic), however, I believe we've reached a point in time where the notion of holiday's are becoming obsolete. I believe it was in the "olden days" where we saw the weeks of Christmas and New Year's, as ones someone would get off for work, not so much anymore. News or otherwise.

While those Christmas shifts are not the best things to work if you have to, but has anyone noticed the HUGE snow storm moving across the US? Top story in many mid-west news markets. According to my friend Blair Miller, Dallas was using quadrouple boxes to help illustrate its snow coverage.

And while I'll be the last person to harp on millennials, especially since I am one, I cannot believe there are people my age that would change careers because they don't get holiday's off. Take that back, I believe it, I just wish it wasn't true.

Can't wait to work my first holiday next year, and I will do it with pride

Building a Show for Viewers

When producing... it's all about who's watching. As a producer, it's important to remember you're producing for the viewer, not for you. As many of you know, Diane Sawyer is leaving Good Morning America to become the anchor for World News Tonight. Two people have been identified to "take over" if you will, her spot. The first is already on the show: Chris Coumo. The other is the host of This Week, George Stephanopoulos.

The New York Times is reporting that ABC is offering the job to Stephanopoulos and they are in talks to secure a contract. This is the part of the article that concerns me...

"If Mr. Stephanopoulos finally does accept the job, 'GMA,' which has for years revolved chiefly around Ms. Sawyer and her role on the show, will likely be reshaped in some ways to suit Mr. Stephanopoulos’s talents, which are more centered on political coverage, one executive said.

'You produce a show around the strengths of the people you have.'"

I would like to disagree with part of this.... yes, you produce a show around the strengths people have, but you also don't produce a political show in the morning. And while it might not be a political show per se, it shouldn't be tailored specifically to him. First, there is another anchor whose personality should be considered, but more importantly, take into account your viewers... Moms!

Mom's watch the network morning shows... it's lighter and easier to keep on in the background. If you want to watch politics turn on a cable network. Even their morning shows are slightly easier on the ears. When I produce, you want to choose news, but you also want to cater to your viewers. A sports lead doesn't work as well at 5 o'clock after Oprah.

Blogging about Blogging!

The reason I started this blog was twofold. One, I need to do it for class (Thanks Jen!), therefore it was apart of my final grade. However, I've always wanted to voice my opinion about news coverage. I occasionally yell at the TV and computer, much like my dad does at sporting events. Everyone has a point of view, and I wanted another outlet besides my best friend Emily (another journalist) to vent out it. But the task of a blog seems so daunting! And then I remembered... there are no real "rules" to being a blogger. Blogging is what you make of it.

More often than not, I believe blogs have to be these long thoughtful articles. And then I actually read blogs, and I realize that it's not like that at all. I think of the blogs I read on a semi-consistant basis -- the entries are often a few paragraphs. This made me think of some advice my high school journalism teacher told us about writing... At a certain point the reader will stop reading unless they have a vested interest in the story, so you have to get your point accross in the first three paragraphs anyway. My first glimpse of writing concisely!

My new goal: blog once at least once a week. Hopefully, I can vent here more and save the time with my friend for more important topics: where the heck are we going to get jobs?!

Green Twitter Icons for Iran

So I've had this blog post in mind for awhile, but this is the first time I've had the chance to really update... it's been a very busy couple of weeks!

Now I'm pretty active on Twitter... well take that back, I check it a lot more than I update it. Anyway, anyone active on Twitter will know the Iran election drama has been a trending topic (thanks Twitter for your website design update) and very popular point of discussion... or at least it had been -- it's seriously been that long. Because of the issues with freedom of press and speech within the country after the elections, many Americans and citizens of other countries around the world voiced their frustrations. And as Twitter soon became a way to communicate, it also became a place to protest. Green-hued icons began popping up all over the place. Now, let me preface this by saying, those who did or do have green icons are not wrong, I'm saying this as my opinion in journalism.

Obviously, democracy and the First Amendment are two large principals our country is based on, and it's a concept we struggle to grapple with in countries which don't have the same luxury. However, as journalists it's so important for us to stay neutral. While I disagree with the governments decision to gag its citizens, I think if a reporter, producer or station at all covers this election, its imperative we stay neutral, and by a reporter having a green overlay, they don't appear neutral. We push to stay neutral in our own elections, this should carry the same weight.

My professor Randy Reeves gave me a great metaphor in the last election season. If a referee drives up to a game with a jayhawk bumper sticker on his car to ref the Mizzou v. kU basketball game, automatically you'll assume he'll favor the jayhawks, regardless of how he calls for/against the Tigers. Even if the game is called perfectly fair, you'll always believe the ref was too easy on the jayhawks.

While not necessarily supporting a specific candidate by putting the green over their Twitter icon, they're forming an opinion over the elections. Yes, I support free elections, but I don't think I can have an opinion on how this particular condition how it's being handled. I can only report on the facts. By having the green overlay I think we form an opinion. And opinions in news don't necessarily mix...

Interns -- Where's the Line?

Once again... thank you Twitter. I found this article on MSNBC about summer interns. It got me thinking about my summer intern experience and the experience I had at the DNC. This talked about paid internships becoming unpaid internships because of the economy. They spoke mostly of PR and marketing firms, but as I started thinking... T.V. internships are NEVER paid.

I think that is one of the great things about our industry. It really separates the hard workers versus the people just working. I tried to take advantage of every opportunity when I interned in Detroit, and I learned the basics of television journalism, so when I had my first job at KOMU I was already ahead of the curve. I understood iNews, I understood basic editing techniques, I had already worked on a news website so the transition was simple and straightforward.

It's easy to want a paid internship, but can you get more out of an unpaid one? I think yes. I think the people who are willing to work unpaid, week, after week, are more likely to work hard and find the will to learn. I walked into the station everyday wanting to do more, learn more and understand more. And I did that everyday. Working alongside real news web professionals gave me such an insight to the ability of the communication through the web.

Besides... no one enters the journalism industry to make money, so why not start learning the lifestyle as an intern?

In addition, PR and marketing firms (as suggested by the article) are now looking at people willing to work for free. Once these businesses see it can get the same caliber, or better caliber interns for FREE, it'll never pay interns again. Extra money will get absorbed by another budget to make the business better. It's the same with cutbacks in the television industry. We continue to lay-off and cut back, and when the economy does turn around, we'll have already adapted with the lack of reporter, producer or production staffer. Then the extra money can be used in different ways.

*UPDATE*
Here's an old email I found to my parents over a similar article about unpaid interns. Think there are some good points from a Mizzou Journalism School perspective.

Anyway, since I have had the glamorous unpaid internship, the experience I got and connections I made was payment enough. Now, I got a lot out of my internship, probably more than most. I also knew that it didn't matter if I was getting paid or not, the fact that I'll have that on my resume will look golden.

Personally, and I'd think you'd agree here, the only thing I didn't like about my internship was that we essentially had to pay for it because I was required to get class credit. A credit hour that won't even count towards graduation might I add. That is the only flaw in the unpaid internship from my standpoint. I was also fortunate because we live in a big city and you guys were able to financially support me and I don't have to worry about making money for tuition so I got the experience at a big station without having to sacrifice making money. That could be an additional downside if that was something people needed to take into consideration.

Here is another reason why Mizzou's journalism program is steller. Although I am foregoing and internship this summer, I am actually working at a news station which is much better because I will have that actual work experience. How many interns get to anchor shows at big stations? None. How many will produce the show? None. How many will be able to leave school with a GOOD resume tape that has all the elements necessary (montage of best standups, LIVE shots, anchor spots, weather walls and onsets; best packages; etc.) to get a job? None. Internships don't give you those, that you just get by working and practicing your craft.

In broadcast, internships are actually more valuable to those who intern in smaller markets because they can actually do more work because there are no union contracts. At WJBK I would never have been allowed to even touch the prompter whereas here I run it.

Howard County Fire

I love the adrenaline rush of spot news. After starting my day at KOMU anchoring and writing some Today Show cutins at 6:15 and instead of getting in my mid-morning nap because of my over-achieving (love it) producing student, I opted to leave the station at 7 after finding a sub for the ten. Went out to dinner and when I was leaving got a call from a fellow reporter, "What is the fire in Howard County? I can see from my house!"

Sure enough I look up in the sky and you can see an orange glow... clear as day... right along the horizon. Immediately, Justin Redeker and I went off to the fire. I called the newsroom to let them know I was going and to see what they needed.

When we finally got on scene, we found Kyle Seever. Soon after we arrived, Ryan Takeo and Jill Glavan came in the live truck. I've worked with Jill before on the spot news -- you might remember the tornado in Kirskville with our obsessive twittering and tornado touchdown map -- so I knew this was going to be awesome.

Immediately we started setting up the live shot. Ryan and Jill assesed the scene, got the info ready for the hit. I was the direct link to the booth -- once we got the shot set, we called in right away to find out our hit. We were slightly irritating the state troopers because we refused to set the truck up in the first place they told us due to power lines, we were trying to get what we could hit, before and if they made us move after we compromised with us on a place to set the truck.

The Howard County Fireman who was our liasion to their command post was GREAT to work with. He was really open about information and not dancing around questions. If he didn't know he just said it, got us connected to the command center, just was one of the better officials I've worked with.

I've only field produced one time before... it was for an HFR -- I didn't like it as much. This, I LOVED. I loved helping get our station's information ready for air. I wanted to help and be that extra person to get the extra information.

Here's our coverage from KOMU.com -- check out the web extras!

Through Free Media... We WON Coverage

On May 13, tornadoes hit northern Missouri in Adair and Sullivan counties, including the city of Kirksville. I was covering Jennifer Kovaleski's shift that night, and was in full in summer mode, getting ready to check out for the weekend before summer school started Sunday night at 11 p.m. to start producing the morning show. About 30 minutes into my shift, we get a call about the tornadoes in Kirskville and if we were covering them. We typically cover large weather disasters across the state and sent a reporter and photographer to the scene.

Immediately we started twittering about the tornado and that we would have more at 10. People started tweeting us back and our reporter, Jessica Miller, got requests from FOX 4 in Kansas City, the Weather Channel, the AP, along with other stations across the state, to do phone interviews.

One of the things Jill Glavan and I started to do was build a uMapper map to illustrate where these tornadoes were touching down. At first we just highlighted where possible tornadoes had touched down, but once we checked the weather wire, we were able to update our map with information from the National Weather Service and where its trained spotters had seen tornadoes.

By searching the location on uMapper, we were able to pinpoint a location, then add a text balloon which described and distributed our information. The nice thing about uMapper is once we embeded the map into our website, every update we made to the map on uMapper (when we added information) it updated the map that was embedded automatically.

To view our tornado touchdown map, please click here.