Excellent Journalism...

I've lagged in writing about excellent journalism. My apologies.

I caught a great story on Nightly News about "bird strike" data and airplanes. Here's the link:

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I thought this was a great example of "computer-assisted" reporting (it seems all reporting we do now is computer-assisted) but computer-assisted in how the data was used. I'm in David Herzog's computer-assisted reporting class, and this story really reminded me of some of the assignments we've done in that class. I enjoyed how the reporter compared the massive spike in bird strikes from 1990 to 2007; clearly this is not an easy category to find data on, especially as we've seen in his class, it's difficult to pinpoint certain things when there is no uniform standard for that data. Since the system in place is a "voluntary" reporting of bird strikes, descriptions of a bird strike can vary. One could say "hit birds in path" or "struck flock" and, for the most part, they mean the same thing to the general public. I also get the sense it would be pretty difficult to find data on the bird strikes, as I would imagine the FAA might try and claim their privacy for national security reasons. In addition, to have found 166 emergency landings because of bird strikes is a nice job of reporting, too. I think Tom Costello's note in his standup that "only 20% of bird strikes are ever reported" is very interesting, because he highlights my point above - that even if the bird strikes are voluntarily reported, they can vary in description. And, it makes us question how common these bird strikes really are. Is the "mechanical problem" delaying my flight caused by a goose in the engine? Too many feathers in the flaps? Wonderful to consider, especially when my parents are flying out here this week.

My next story, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/25/60minutes/main4891800.shtml, details the observations of Frank Devine, who produced the interviews with Barack Obama on 60 Minutes. I thought this article was very interesting because we never really hear about the producer's role in high-profile interviews like that. We also learn that this producer, an experienced vet of the field, had met with Obama before and kept a good rappoire with his communications staff. I liked that he was able to stay above the drama of an interview and remain objective in trying to fulfill his role as a media watchdog. He understands that President Obama is not immune to criticism or tough questions. I liked how he characterized the president as "He still has a way of engaging you while simultaneously observing the scene as if from afar. It's a kind of detachment that is common among writers." I've never read that before about Obama, and it makes perfect sense. I think that sort of perspective - being in the moment but remembering the bigger picture about an interview subject - is what gives Devine a good reputation in the field.

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Newsgathering/Reflection

As I dry up the tears I left in last week's blog post (just kidding) I feel the remainder of the week went very well. Thursday, I arrived at KOMU with the plan to do a story on rising (again, unfortunately) gas prices. But, Lauren Whitney was Assignment Chair for the morning shift and she had a press release from the Governor's office regarding a bill signing. It seemed more pressing and doable than my vague gas prices story idea. Me being a political geek, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to be in the same room as Jay Nixon. I headed down to Jefferson City, managed to find the KOMU parking spot outside the Capitol, and lugged the equipment into the luxurious Governor's office on the 2nd floor. I got there with plenty of time to set up the gear. It was a pretty standard political event - staged speeches, a reaction speech from the opposing party sponsor, and a brief Q&A from the present media. I didn't ask any questions because I had no need to, but some of the beat reporters were grilling Nixon on the "Militia report". It was very interesting give-and-take, as Nixon would respond with a generic, political "This was not my doing, this was the previous administration's, and I support all law-enforcement methods provided they are legal" while facing some tough questions, not the least of which came from the J-School's Phil Brooks. Brooks essentially got him to admit that he condoned the report in body language and non-verbal communication, but on the record, "against" the militia report.

As the press conference ended, I followed some of the beat writers outside of the governor's office where they were interviewing a state Senator. After they were done, I figured he might be useful to the story for a soundbite (as he was from the Republican party but still supported the bill). I asked him 2 questions but didn't use them since the lighting in the hallway was bad, and I didn't really frame him on-camera very well.

I then wandered the halls of the Capitol for a little while, trying to figure out where to go from there with the story. I found my way into the House chamber, where session was just beginning. It turned out that the Kirksville state championship wrestling team was going to be honored for their victory, so in case I needed another story, I interviewed the 2 state champions and shot some b-roll of them being honored on the floor of the House. I never ended up getting to use it, but I'm glad I had a backup in case my bill-signing story went to the crapper. I decided to take a break for lunch, so in the downtime I had while standing on line at seemingly the only decent lunch place close to the Capitol, I spoke with the dayside producer, and she told me to try and get some reaction from anyone. I told her it would be difficult because the law was a unanimously passed, bipartisan bill, so it'd be very difficult to find someone against the law. She advised that the state treasurer would be a good place to look, so I went back to the Capitol and went to Clint Zweifel's office. Taking a total shot-in-the-dark, I asked the secretary if he would be available for an interview during the afternoon.

I went back to the car and shot a standup outside of the Capitol. It was a pretty worthless standup - I'm not showing the viewer anything besides my squinting face. By the time I was finished, I miraculously got a call-back from the Treasurer's office telling me he could meet me in 20 minutes. I told them that would be perfect, and went up to his office. His media relations organizer was very helpful and had me into his office within minutes. Zweifel was very cool, calm, collected and seemed at ease in describing the new law's affect on the state treasury. I did my best to make small talk with him off-camera to try and loosen him up, but he seemed very well-oiled at speaking in soundbites. Obviously, that makes our job a little easier, but at the same time, they're not authentic answers. Overall he was very accessible and helpful to putting together the story.

It really helped to have his soundbites for the VOSots and package. I had very little in the way of storytelling video (aka almost nothing!), so to have numerous bites from various officials was good for the reality of finishing the story. I liked what I was able to do for the story, I think it would have been incredibly difficult to do more with it on such short time. I also enjoyed the Jefferson City experience - being in the same room as Gov. Nixon was fun, and seeing him go back and forth with reporters was very interesting too.
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I had another dayside reporting shift for the next day, Friday. I arrived with the same story idea from the previous day, rising gas prices. But, as with the previous day, I was handed a press release and told to go to that story. This time, it was a factory adding (!) jobs in Glasgow, MO. I was immediately up for it, as I love any story outside of Columbia. The only [slight] problem was that the event was scheduled for later in the day when we had to have it in for the 6pm newscast. So, I called the people in charge and asked if they would be OK with having me come earlier in the day to interview them and shoot some video - they were fine with it.

I got to Glasgow and discovered that it's a town in transition. In a town of roughly 1,500 people, its lost jobs from the weak economy while its bridge crossing the Missouri river, a thoroughfare to other towns, has been demolished and a new one is slowly built in its place. Meanwhile, the little downtown has a major railroad spur going through it and the buildings are all full of unique, bizarre little shops and restaurants. I would later dine at one of these fine establishments.

So for the story, I found it to be very interesting. The previous ownership of the factory had apparently laid everyone off, so in swept a new owner determined to keep the factory alive and active in the community. The plant once employed 350 people, but at its initial closing, it had less than 40 people at work. It re-opened with about 15 workers, then grew to its current size of about 50 workers. So, to be in good condition in tough economic times was very interesting. I interviewed the new owner, and several employees, and they had some candid remarks about what it was like to have their jobs axed in a small town heavily reliant on industry.

I got some good video too of the people at work sewing sleeping bags and blankets. It was very easy to shoot in sequences, since the workers were doing the same thing all day. It reminded me almost EXACTLY of the corn-cob pipe video we worked with in B1! Except of course, this in high-definition!

It was very easy to make a package out of it, and to have a VoSOT for the 10. Anyway, I've written too much and have to get off my computer.

Spring Break: Columbia, MO

I'm hanging out in a coffee place in South Columbia right now because my internet stopped working at home. The router is on the other side of the duplex, and it's locked, so I'm SOL for now. I've had a fun few days of PA announcing for Mizzou Baseball and various shifts at KOMU. Mizzou Baseball won a big series against Texas A&M over the weekend and had a chance to complete the sweep on Sunday but fell short. They lost last night to Illinois-Chicago (very bad loss) and have a chance to redeem themselves this afternoon against the Flames. Should be very interesting. Meanwhile, I've been SLOWLY recovering from a terrible sinus infection - more on that later.

As for my KOMU shifts, I started the week on Monday with a VO Patrol. I had a few story ideas, but upon getting to KOMU I realized they had already been covered. After the story meeting, I found a story about the Missouri River Regional Library receiving a grant to update its website. I arranged an interview with the library's manager, and it seemed fairly straightforward. After I got off the phone, Randy Reeves came up to me with a press release about a "DECA" conference in Lake Ozark - basically, a big gathering of high school students with an interest in marketing and business. It sounded good to me - I didn't have anything else to do that day, and I was 100% up for a drive to the Lake. Randy also mentioned that the newscasts would be very light, so the more I can get, the better. I figured it would be an interesting story to at least talk to students and see how they feel about their efforts as the economy sags. I figured it would be a better story than the library grant, so I called the manager back and apologized, saying that something had come up and we had to try for another day. So, I gathered the gear and hit the road. As with most trips to the Lake, it was a nice drive but I was bummed that I lost reception on 1580 (ESPN Radio)!

The trip took me down US-54 into the Lake region. I drove across the Bagnell Dam, which I've never seen before, so it was pretty cool. The whole drive was pretty spectacular as well with elevation changes, curves, plenty of foliage, etc. I'd never really been into the heart of the Lake's tourist areas, so this was a good opportunity to check it out. The main drag on Business loop 54 through Lake Ozark reminded me a lot of a combination of the Jersey Shore and Laconia, New Hampshire. Plenty of kitsch and riff-raff but most likely a lot of fun for everyone. I'll have to get down there this summer to experience it in its full glory. But I digress.

I arrived at the Lodge at Four Seasons, and found my way inside. The media contact, Chris Young, was a recent Mizzou grad and he showed me around - overall he was very helpful. Here's what was going on: students would be given a scenario and X amount of time to come up with a proposal or presentation on what they would do, then present it to various professionals from the business world. Their proposals would be judged, with the best groups or individual presentations earning a trip to the National conference in California. Entering the hotel, I was shocked at how many high schoolers were there. Kids from every corner of the state were dressed up in "professional" attire. Chris Young took me to a room where students would be presenting, so I set up in there and shot some video of different groups presenting their proposals. I thought my video was pretty good - it could have used some extra light, but I really liked my cutaways and sequences. It wasn't the most visually-appealing story to tell, but I was able to get plenty of people in it - not BOPSA, but close ups and angles that I thought were good for showing the kids' enthusiasm and efforts.

I interviewed several students from all over the viewing area. I met two young men from Hickman who had some interesting stuff to say - my one problem was that the lighting was not good. Their faces have a bit of shadow on them. I also didn't frame one of them very well - part of his head got cut off on the aired story. It looked OK in Avid and on the camera, I'll just have to remember to be more careful next time with the framing bars so that people with non-HD TVs can see it. I interviewed a few other students, and only used one more - a young woman from Tipton High, and she actually had a good bite. Two students from the KC Area had some filler comments, but I figured they wouldn't be as good since they were not from the viewing area. Altogether I was pleased with this story. Holly Edgell said she liked how I mixed up my shots and sequences. My writing was decent but Kent Collins suggested making my lead more interesting for one version. It was something to the effect of "Your intro line just says 'conference' and boring stuff. Make it more interesting." I definitely agree with him - in retrospect I would have changed that. I also learned that "Lake of the Ozarks" is not a town or city, so my locator at the beginning was wrong for the 5 and 6. Stacey Woelfel and I changed it to "Lake Ozark" instead for the 10. To be fair, the Tiger Chairs did not catch it for the 5 and 6, so I feel like it's an innocent mistake, but I should have known better. So, I felt good about that shift and hope I can enjoy future shifts as much as I did on Monday. I was basically at KOMU from 7:45am to at least 7:00pm - no problem at all, I enjoyed it. Here's the link.

Tuesday's VO patrol was a completely different story.

As I mentioned above, I have been suffering from a TERRIBLE sinus infection that leaves me severely congested, coughing, and in general very tired. I've been suffering from it for over two weeks, just trying to soldier through it, and it had improved somewhat, but not nearly to the point where I can be 100% active. I finally got so fed up with it on Tuesday morning that I made a doctor's appointment for the afternoon, so I didn't have much time to put in at KOMU like I did on Monday.

So, I went out to shoot some video for the red light camera contract approval in Columbia. What I didn't know was that those cool little cameras on top of various intersections in Columbia don't actually record red light runners - they just "monitor" traffic. So, essentially I had barely any good video to use for the VO because most of my video was of traffic cameras in Columbia. I managed to overcome that with some crappy sign shots - Providence, Business Loop 70, Rangeline, etc. and several generic shots of traffic lights. No sources called me back for this story, and in the limited time I had before my doctor's appointment, I couldn't wait around for someone to get back to me, so I went without a SOT for the 5, 6, and 10. I also noticed I had several typos in the script - "the average fine is could cost close to one hundred and twenty two dollars." Obviously, the "is could" is not good. Maybe I'm being hard on myself, but I'm honestly embarrassed by my work on Tuesday. I just hope I can get back in there and do a better job tomorrow when I GA report.

Cleared for Takeoff

I finally got cleared for KOMU. I liked Greeley's suggested changes to my story - first off, the audio problems I had were easily fixed, and the redone standup was a lot better than my original. So, I'm quite relieved since, as I understand it, we don't have to do packages for class until our KOMU reporting shifts. I might knock out a few of them over Spring Break as I'll be here in Columbia. The VO patrols sound absurdly easy - I think I'll enjoy doing them because it basically involves going out, shooting video, and coming back to the station to edit them. The picture to the right of the police officers on the bikes is kind of how I imagine the VO patrols - we'll be ON PATROL!

I also purchased items for the "reporter's briefcase". I enjoyed an exhilarating 2+ hours at Target on Saturday, roaming the aisles to find various items. I then bought a leather briefcase on Craigslist from a woman in North Columbia. Part of this shopping spree included buying a few additions to the work/journalist wardrobe. I found a few great deals at Dillards, so I'm happy with the new threads. It's VERY rare for me to spend money on myself like that (even $50 total at one store) so to be honest, I'm happy I got it over with.

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For my journalism reflection for this week, I really enjoyed the 60 Minutes interview with Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chief. Apparently it's the first interview of any kind with said Chief, so it was impressive for Scott Pelley to get Bernanke on camera.

I thought producers Henry Schuster and Rebecca Peterson did a great job of getting video for almost everything they referenced - be it Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Bear Stearns, etc. We also saw some really cool shots of the Federal Reserve's interior, especially the machines making cash. It really looked like the most basic form of shooting in sequences and editing in the camera, but to the viewer in me, it seemed really awesome. The photog did a great job of shooting Pelley and Bernanke while walking around the Reserve - giving the two plenty of depth, showing us all the ornate artwork and masonry. I was a little surprised at how dark the interview seemed - the light was a bit odd. It could have been my TV, but the background behind Bernanke was totally red and Scott Pelley seemed out of focus on the reversal questions.

One of my favorite aspects of this story was how Bernanke is portrayed as more than just an Ivy League scholar economist. We see his hometown and his VERY humble roots in Dillon, SC. I think he has a lot more in common with the "Everyday" American than what people expect. I think one of Pelley's objectives in this story was to find out more about Bernanke and show his personal side so we can understand the difficulties his job entails. I was really impressed with this side of the story and I think Pelley did a good job of telling it.

We also saw Pelley preface his questions with phrases like "I know there are thousands of Americans thinking ____", "Everyone wants me to ask this", and "for most people". I was intrigued by how he tried to put himself in a viewer's place and really ask some tough questions - whether he was successful in getting some modicum of truth out of it, I don't know - but I really liked his approach.

Feeling the burnout

Something has hit me in the last two weeks or so and I don't have the same enthusiasm for reporting that I used to. It could be stress, it could be poorly-done packages, I don't know. It's like I have to push myself to even do something as simple as logging into this Blogger page to write a blog post. I feel like sometimes I don't have any sort of motivation to do anything. I've been falling behind in my other classes and I'm really frustrated. I did a really shitty job on my last package and I should have done a better job - I blew a great story and jumbled it together into a garbage conglomeration.

Anyway, I stumbled onto a good CBS Evening News story about the stimulus package's job creation. It's very fluffy but I enjoyed it:
Watch CBS Videos Online

I think in covering the stimulus stuff we, the media, have gotten too caught up in the political wrangling and fail to see who it will benefit - in this case, people like Philadelphia's George DiBruno. Jeff Glor and Ben Tracy did a good job of finding hourly wages for blue-collar workers, i.e. $21.50 an hour for electricians. I think it was also good to see the "working man" view of this issue - instead of just corporate spokesmen and bullshit-spewing economists. Yeah, I admit, this story could be construed as a PR piece for President Obama - but as the "brilliant" Wayne Freedman would say, this story sought to tell "what is" instead of what we expected - we could have expected to hear from a Republican opposed to the stimulus plan, or someone else against it, but from Glor's reporting it appears he did not find anyone of that opinion. It helps that Philadelphia is a liberal city, but regardless, he went into a situation and told the story from their perspective.

I have no idea what I am supposed to do for a story idea for next week. Newsgathering? I used a story idea I pitched several weeks ago for this most recent package. As I wrote previously, I'd been brewing it for several weeks. Assuming my corrections to the most recent package are enough to clear me to KOMU, then what? The syllabus says we have to do packages - I'm really confused and feeling like an idiot.