Ponderings

CLICK HERE to view a slideshow of images.

"Fort Knox" comic strip author Paul Boscacci and me at SIPA.

Yesterday, I went down to Columbia, S.C. for the annual Southern Interscholastic Press Association regional conference. More than 400 students came from all over the Southeastern United States to hear speakers on everything from video editing to basic reporting.

It was great seeing old friends like Mark Murray, Leslie Dennis, Beth Dickey, Jake Palenske, Karen Flowers, Frank LoMonte, Chris Floore, Buck Ryan and all the others. It was great working with such talented students as T.J. Maynes who shot most of the photos in the gallery already online. And it was great teaching classes on how schools can move online efficiently and practically — now — as we went through using Facebook, Twitter, SmugMug, Flickr and other tools. Of course I always enjoy teaching my introductory photojournalism classes. Fun.

There were some frustrating moments as well, every single one of them around phrases such as “I can’t…” or “The administration won’t let us….” Schools that can’t use Facebook because some administrators don’t see the value in modern social networking. Or schools that can’t use Twitter  because they don’t see how it can be used in the classroom. Or, can’t use Flickr because of what students ‘might’ be able to find.

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At North Carolina State University early on the morning of Nov. 4, 2010, students stood up to protest the writing of some hateful speech on the University’s Free Expression Tunnel. One artist had drawn some art of a person with dark skin. What appears to be another artist wrote “Obama” on the wall adjacent to that art. What appears to be another artist wrote the N-word in white spray paint along with a vulgar illustration. Offensive? Yes. Hate speech? Maybe. Inappropriate? Definitely.

But perhaps more disturbing to me today were the discussions about eliminating the Free Expression Tunnel completely.

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I taught a session in Minneapolis at the Associated Collegiate Press summer workshop on doing critiques. We all know to critique the photo, story, design or whatever and not the person. Indeed, most of us do that pretty well. And we do a job of offering constructive criticism, including praise. But other than that, we go about the critique all wrong.

• In general, we need to focus the critique, not just do a daily critique or deadline critique of the whole thing. Focus on specific elements.
• More than that, we need to bring in outsiders, even readers, to go over their thoughts. We tell each other the same thing over and over.
• And why not do the critique in advance of the final deadline. If the final deadline for the daily newspaper is at midnight, take a time out at 10 p.m. and critique what is done while there is still time to make changes. Same for yearbook.
• And the best advice, as given by Chip Scanlan of the Poynter Institute, ask these questions to focus the discussion: What works? What needs work?

Here are some more thoughts from John Witt of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Critiques lose impact when they get to be a daily routine. Through trial-and-error, we found that more people came and paid more attention when critiques were scheduled weekly and organized by topic rather than a generic “What did you think about today’s paper?”

• Vary the themes and presenters.
• Schedule them at a time when the maximum number of folks can attend — not just at the morning editors’ meeting.
• Have the presenter prepare a summary and post it on the bulletin board, e-mail or Web page for posterity. Then invite discussion.
• Critiques should be even-handed. Hollow praise or a steady stream of negativity are equally self-defeating.

And from Chip Scanlan of Poynter.

• “I worry that negativity associated with critiques as they are often practiced outweigh whatever benefits are supposed to accrue, including quality control and motivation.  There must be a better way.
• “One suggestion is to drive such sessions with two open-ended questions that begin on a positive note and frame criticism in a productive direction: What works? What needs work? Since this interrogatory pair is a useful tool for revising a story, I see no reason it shouldn’t help when an entire edition or broadcast, or a newsroom culture for that matter, is up for consideration.”

New media is all the rage. For one day, I’ll be teaching some scholastic journalism advisers about new media. Other instructors take over for the rest of the week and next week. But here are some important links for everyone in the group

Initial survey
The End Times episode of The Daily Show
Opening presentation on online media
Vocabulary
Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive by Mark Briggs
2010 Pacemaker award recipients for high schools
NSPA contest page
2009 Pacemaker award recipients for colleges

I enjoyed taking pictures at the press conference when our new chancellor named Debbie Yow, currently the athletic director at the University of Maryland, as the new NCSU athletic director. I was always a big fan of all that Debbie’s sister, Kay, did on and off the court as women’s basketball coach until she died of breast cancer.

She left Maryland for all the right reasons: the desire to return home, the desire to make a difference at school to which she has had ties for years, and because of administrative challenges at Maryland including tension with other coaches and the retirement of University of Maryland President C.D. Mote. Just as NCSU’s chancellor made it one of his first duties to hire a new athletic director, the new president at Maryland might want to make the same change.

Although it appears she was not on the search committee’s top list of potential athletic directors, NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson insisted that Yow was on his list.

As much as I enjoyed taking pictures, I enjoyed even more working with the students who came to report and take pictures. Tim O’Brien always does an excellent job taking photos and you can certainly see more of his work on the Technician’s website and in the yearbook as the story evolves. He posted one with a short news story from the site.

Kathryn Glaser did a great job interviewing the student body president, Kelly Hook, and finding a student angle. She also got good stuff from the new AD including some thoughts about the role of students in athletics.

Brent Kitchen got to do some deadline writing with Tyler Dukes helping him out. Being critiqued in real time will help all writers out. Brent also got to get information from other high-profile coaches such as men’s basketball coach Sidney Lowe.

It’s fun seeing the students at work, finding student angles on big stories and looking beyond the surface. Job well done all around.

Washington Post article

Back in 1986, Robert Fulghum released his book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. It was an instant success because of its common sense approach to life.

He reminded people: “Share everything. Play fair. Clean up your own mess. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all — LOOK.”

This spawned spin-offs such as “All I Need To Know About Life I Learned From Star Trek” which reminded us that “Non-interference is the Prime Directive. Humans are highly illogical. Having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting; it is not logical but it is often true. When going out into the Universe, remember: ‘Boldly go where no man has gone before!’ “

Or “Everything I Need To Know In Life I Learned From Watching ‘Star Wars’” which reminded us “Use the force. No matter how many people you kill or how many galaxies you destroy, one good deed can make up for everything. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, someone is going to have a bad feeling about it. Do or do not. There is no try.”

Or even “All I Need To Know About Life I Learned From My Dog” that reminded us: “Run, romp, and play daily. Be loyal. When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently. No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t pout – run right back and make friends.”

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea. Look them over. Such wisdom shouldn’t be left in the ’80s.

I just had a perfectly unenjoyable experience. And, surprise, it had to do with my Intel-based MacBook Pro.

Now, I’ve been Mac loyal since about five years after my dad brought home a Macintosh from Motorola to play with back in the holiday season of 1985, I think. It was a cute “toy.” Complete with MacWrite, MacDraw, MacPaint, a floppy disk drive and a black-and-white monitor, who would need more. Ha. I purchased an IBM PC-XT. It had a real keyboard.

Sooner rather than later, I came around. I’ve been Mac loyal since. Plug and play. I love it.

But with Snow Leopard, gone is AppleTalk. Now, I can’t just plug in my HP LaserJet 5000 printer connected by Ethernet and “go.” After 30 minutes of setting the IP address on the printer (geez), my Add Printer bar is still spinning. (Geez2.)

What was wrong with plug and play? Us users sure loved it.

Marshall Brain said “Good teachers always possess these three core qualities: knowledge, the ability to convey to students an understanding of that knowledge, and the ability to make the material interesting and relevant to students. Complementing these three is a fourth quality: good teachers have a deep-seated concern and respect for the students in the classroom.”

But what happens when that respect isn’t returned?

I’m a big believer that respect is earned.

So what happens when, not matter what a teacher does to show the concern and respect for the students, that respect isn’t returned?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve come to the conclusion that you just have to take the high road. The only person you can change in this world is yourself. So, by taking the high road and doing what’s right — because it’s the right thing to do — will either give the students the opportunity to earn respect or it won’t. Can’t change the students.

And if they don’t, try to minimize the damage done in the short-term and wait for the long-term.

“We still think community newspapers have an audience and it’s not going away,” Richard Connor, publisher of The Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., said. “There will always be an audience for local news.”

Amen.

It’s this thinking that will keep newspapers alive for a long time to come.

The regional newspapers such as the Boston Globe, the Raleigh News & Observer, the Durham Herald-Sun, the Austin American-Statesman, those are the papers that are in real trouble. They’re too big to cover local news and too small to cover national events. Plus, readers get their national and international news from television and the Internet. Forget that.

Cover the local stuff.

All politics is local, former House Speaker Tip O’Neill said. So is news. Cover the city council and the impact it is having on gardening by individuals. Cover the school board and the teacher layoffs. Cover the local transit authority and how they decide which potholes to fix first. Cover the high-school football team’s season. Those are the stories that impact people on a daily basis. That’s news.

And it’s that kind of news that will keep newspapers alive for a long time to come.

For a related story from NPR.org, CLICK HERE.

My photojournalism class at Virginia Tech had a great time. And the students took some really quality images. Perhaps the most fun is working with people like Matt Johnson formerly of Oakton High School in Virginia and soon to be a freshman at Wake Forest. Great talent. Fun personality. It makes all the hassles with the TSA, drunk ladies on the plane and screaming kids worth it. CLICK HERE to see what they shot.