Danny Lawhon 2/1

So the big news coming out of the UM Curators meeting this week involved the big, bad budget. The squeeze put on both the university and Joe Student seems to become tighter every year. Of course, rising tuition costs isn't new. Nor is an underfunded higher education department in the state. To me, the story coming out of this year's numbers is the perceived gap between what is given and what is needed — the UM system asserts that it needs $100 million — $100 million! — more dollars to keep up with inflation costs than what is being given by the state. The system's hands are a bit tied by the MOHELA bill.

As a student, I feel relieved my tuition is likely to go up just 4.1 percent this year. Based on the money shortage, God knows they could have raised it by double digits again. As a citizen, I'd have mixed feelings — if I had children, then I'd be sighing alongside my real self while simultaneously wondering if we aren't doing the state a bit of a disservice. And as a reporter, both sides of the coin can be seen and deserve to be heard. In short, what a mess. I know Reuben already mentioned it in lecture, but the university's ever-morphing financial timeline is a shell idea that — in this state, anyway — could have a long shelf life.

Progress:  Sometime in the next couple of weeks, an interview with the outgoing interim president will surface, and in between, I'll hopefully make some headway on these Study Abroad programs' allocations. 

Rebecca's Delaney's Blog, week of 2/1

From as far back as freshman year of high school, teachers have warned my classes not to trust Wikipedia. The way they talked about the site made it sound like it’s actually run by a Satanic conspiracy group, but I’m still glad the message set in. Wikipedia is a useful tool for rapidly gathering background information and building a frame of reference when I’m clueless about a topic, but now that I’m writing real news stories, getting factual information from a site anyone can edit is basically like playing journalistic Russian Roulette. Sure…most of the time, Wikipedia’s accurate. You could pull facts from it and seldom make an error. But once in a while, you’re bound to get blasted with a glaring mistake (or several). It’s not smart to gamble when it comes to accuracy.

Readers shouldn’t have to gamble with accuracy either. But I think they should still have the luxury of convenience when it comes to being informed, and that’s why I’m so fascinated by the idea of modifying news web outlets to mimic a wiki model. Wikipedia is popular because it’s so incredibly easy to use. Wikipedia wrote the book on context — each page branches out in countless links offering background and tangents to explore. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a news outlet like the Columbia Missourian could offer coverage with the same contextual strength?

Blog sites already use the kind of technology the Missourian could adopt to become a little more “wikiish.” The tags bloggers attach to their posts could be modified to suit the needs of a newspaper’s web site. If we indexed all of our stories under certain categories and could hotlink a series of older articles offering readers context when they check out a new topic, we’d be doing them a huge service. I’m envisioning a turbocharged version of the “more story” thing we do now. I don’t just want “more story.” I want a Columbia dictionary, defining every single key term we can think of so that we can link those terms to their definitions when they appear in stories. Instead of a few more articles linked to new stories, I want readers to be able to click a link where they can see a visually appealing, chronological presentation of relevant coverage.

Let’s say we run a story about City Council elections for the First Ward. To me, an ideal news site would link to condensed bios the first time a candidate is mentioned in every story. If an important issue is being discussed in the story, I want a link to a short summary of what that issue entails. And if readers want even more background, they could click a link to access stories from the past several months about the First Ward, City Council elections, etc.

I know this whole concept is incredibly idealistic; implementation would be a logistical nightmare. But if we can’t get the ball rolling to explore how to better inform readers, then what’s the point of being a journalist at all?

Progress report:
The first story was the big obstacle for me. Now that it’s out of the way, I’m feeling infinitely better about my newsroom performance. I think my story on the Ragtag was a really solid bit of coverage. We broke the news that True/False will intentionally be slowing its growth to avoid becoming something of a Midwestern Sundance, and I think that’s a great start to my semester. Also, the story idea I pitched last week for a future Saturday cover looks like it will pan out beautifully. I want to cover a new exhibit at MU’s Art & Archaeology museum featuring pre-Columbian (Christopher, that is) artwork of the Americas. But instead of doing the generic preview story, I want to cover the heck out of this exhibit, linking it to Columbia, Missouri and Midwest pre-Columbian history and artwork. Hopefully, this story will appeal to a wider demographic than strictly those who would be interested in a new art exhibit.

back to square 1

So. The tanning story.

  Turns out that it is already being worked on, and in much more depth than I was bringing to the table. Jackie Whipple has been working on it for two semesters and is trying to get final-type information about it from stonewalling administrators. 

  I'm glad I found out before moving forward with more interviews and writing; it would be too bad to blow up her story.

  Since this wasn't an issue of not checking Merlin, I guess what to think about is how now to overlap another reporter's scoop. The best way, I think, is to spread the word as wide as possible, especially in beat meetings. 

  I'm inclined not to say anything about a story I'm writing (except to friends) because a) I don't think it would be of interest, or b) I don't like to talk about writing before I actually do it, otherwise it sounds like a big windbag. 

  Lesson learned. And, go see There Will Be Blood when it comes out. 

Let there be blogs

Hmm, blogs. This is my first one ever, and I'll probably celebrate afterward with a flute of champagne and a Quizno's sub. 

This semester I'm taking Advanced Writing and Advanced Reporting and hope to be able to converge some ideas for longer stories. Signing up late for A.R., I didn't really have a choice for my beat, but I'm on higher ed. now and look forward to it. 

Word has it that I should become an expert on one topic or interest, but I don't see it that way. I think my expertise should be in writing and reporting, immersion, story structure, creative narrative and economical management of time. 

I look forward to an intense semester of writing, and hope to address a variety of subjects. I'm starting with something small — a story about the tanning beds at the Mizzou Rec Complex. Artificial tanning (or "sunning" as the rec center publication calls it) seems antithetical to the healthy-lifestyle message the rec center promotes. 

I'm trying to nail down exact numbers, but the spa technician has been slow to pull them up and says it will take awhile. I'll just annoy him until I get the stats. 

Rebekah's take on Week One

This week at the Missourian was my first as a print reporter, and although I have not written a story yet, I am researching for my first one, which will be an update on the visioning process that the city is doing.

Also, when I had my meeting with Scott Swafford this week, we definitely talked about the potential of adding multimedia, especially interactive graphics, to the stories coming out of the public life beat. Hooray! The more multimedia, the better, I say. And this semester the convergence department has more students available to work on projects than ever before.

I think that my biggest impressions came from the breaking news this week – there was a lot of it! Both the stories of Governor Blunt deciding not to run again and the story about the St. Francis House required multiple online updates throughout the day. Compared to the past few semesters that I have paid attention to things at the Missourian, the capacity to update a story online like a professional newspaper would has grown exponentially. I also really appreciated how everyone sat down and talked about it in budget. I feel like in a normal newsroom, that is something that would be done in a small committee and the reporters would have no real input.

Justin O'Neil Week 1

This is my last semester at MU, so the task of taking advanced reporting, advanced editing, and my capstone while beginning a job search should lead to interesting results, to say the least.

My role has not been defined as far as what I will be writing about for the semester, but I am writing for the public life beat, and I will be working with my former editor Katherine Reed to address an ongoing story I wrote about last semester about police brutality and oversight.

I am looking forward to our final project in this course, as I think my weakness as a journalist is my lack of design and understanding of technology. The type of site we will be designing is one of the ways online newspapers can stand apart and add information for readers that could not be presented in other formats. I want to learn as much about interactive sites and software as I can, and I think I can turn this into a strength as long as I continually put in the time and effort to learn the technology.

Danny Lawhon 1/25

In the ever-evolving world of journalism, I guess it's not too surprising that the buzzword — more often than not — is change. This profession is one that continually adapts both on micro and macro scales. We adapt by reporting the new events that come with each day. We adapt by retooling our craft to take advantage and utilize the newest and most efficient technological methods. We adapt, too, at times, simply by responding to and implementing the best of reader feedback. Change is a continual process.

When viewing the widespread changes at the Missourian from the past few months, it seems the business is growing and evolving by becoming more compact in nature. The average physical size of many newspapers (ours included) has been reduced. The Web provides virtually limitless amounts of space for stories; nevertheless, many stories are served to the public in numerous transparent bursts as opposed to the longer storytelling methods of old. Is this a result of the battle for the public's precious few moments of free time? Is this at all an effect of the public's growing distrust toward mainstream media?

The evolution of journalism isn't at all a negative process. It's just a particularly rapid, forward-thinking metamorphosis. And though it takes some getting used to, it's not really all that different from the work we've done before. In the two stories I've written or helped to write this week, I think I've begun to understand the adaptations required of us. It's about immediacy, surely. But it's being more transparent about the work we do as well. And the way we do our job won't remain the same for long. Just like evolving what you're working on to cover new developments in a story, which seemed to continually happen with the fan blogger story this week, or even dropping everything you're doing to cover something of urgency — as in my contributions to Gov. Blunt's announcement this week — so, too, must you allow your methods of reporting and writing to evolve with the times, embracing change as best you can.

As for my progress, I'm satisfied. As mentioned, I contributed 6-8 inches to the Blunt story and wrote what felt like a resolution piece regarding the university's dispute with a fan Web site. It contained the "what's next" angle that I thought several outlets couldn't get by rushing news of the story to print. Again, I'm content with my work so far. I've started research on a story involving the firms funding and managing some of our Study Abroad programs, so we'll see where that takes me next week.

"Advanced"

It was clear Wednesday that I hadn't thought much about why I'm here or what my role is. Since I'm double-majoring in very different areas, my class choices are made by necessity, not thought.

During a school board meeting yesterday, I had the very unnerving experience of being watched by our new reporters. I realized then that I have to think my role through.

I'm working very closely with the K-12 beat, and it's a big one. There is a definite danger that I could suffocate the beginning reporters by taking too much on, or not letting them figure things out for themselves. What drove my success last semester was this very ugly thought: "If I don't do it, who else will?"

Yesterday, those reporters' answer was "Audrey." Of the three other reporters at the meeting, two did not take notes. I should have said something. The "advanced" requires it.

What I want to do this semester is continue the last K-12 beat's work. I want the SchoolHouseTalk blog set up by Lucinda to generate more discussion, and to use parent input as article starting points. I would like everyone on the K-12 beat to contribute to that blog. I hope to personally write articles that explain district finances and national education policies clearly, with simple language. Most of all, I want this semester's reporters to have the experience that I had before.

I'm here to help, but I can't limit their role.

Progress Report:
I wrote three articles. Two were simple: the announcement of school board election candidates and a report on yesterday's meeting. The other, published today, addressed the district's evaluation of how it pays employees. It's a big issue, and included something the Tribune's reporter never asked - how much would this overhaul cost our district?
I worked with a reporter on the election article, and think she has a much better idea of what we do here because of it.
I led two reporters through posting on our blog on Monday, and wrote a response to a comment on our blog with a post about MLK day.

Sam Miles 1/25

As much as I hate to report it, I'm afraid that week one of this semester has been something of a waste for me. I was unable to attend lecture on Wednesday...as well as all the rest of my classes on Wednesday and Thursday...due to a nasty case of strep throat that I've come down with. Given my absence, and the fact that I haven't so much as left my bedroom in the past two days, I have little to report. My only school related achievement was my meeting with beat editor Greg Bowers on Tuesday night, where we discussed the parameters of what I will be doing at the Missourian this semester, though I won't be starting there "full time" until mid-February. This meeting mostly reaffirmed what I already knew, in that I'll 1) be very busy 2) be expected to show progress in my work from last semester and 3) be covering either MU baseball or softball.

Hopefully next week I'll have something more exciting for everyone.

Paul David Lampe's first week update

I would like to start with a sigh of relief that the first week is near an end. Since I have been out of the newsroom since last spring I wanted to dive in head first this week. I must say that I personally feel this has been a very productive week. I have published one brief, two articles, a video post, and I am working on another article for VOX.

The work this week has been great. As a Convergence Student I personally don’t feel that I knew all of the Missourian editors well enough, but I am very happy that Scott is my editor. He has been a great editor in this first week and I really have enjoyed covering city council renovations.

Working in print is slightly different for me even as I have produced print pieces before, in many ways I use to avoid print work as much as possible and focus more on my multimedia and video skills. As I produced a video piece this week it was interesting to me that I felt much more comfortable writing the articles than editing the video. I may feel this way, because I haven’t worked on a video piece since winter of 2006/2007. I am hoping that by the end of the semester I can feel comfortable working in both platforms and creating relevant and essential content by deadline.

I also feel very invigorated by this first week as we have heard Governor Blunt’s announcement and Sarah Steelman’s announcement (although we may expect to hear something different from her in the future).

Even as I sigh with relief that the weekend is approaching and I will take a break on Sunday, I also recognize this is just the beginning. I know this semester is going to be great and I know each week I will learn something valuable.

Matt Tilden 1/24

I almost did a spit take on Tuesday while combing through the local news channels when I heard that Matt Blunt wasn't going to run again in 2008.  Given his filled coffers and seemingly endless feud with Jay Nixon, I had assumed his intention was to run for reelection.  And returning to Jefferson City on Wednesday, I knew that I would probably be covering the aftermath in some capacity.  

The great thing about Jefferson City reporting is that a reporter doesn't ever know what news is going to hit and while it's extremely intimidating at first, you don't really have time to cower in fear because when a big news story happens, it's often followed by aftershocks. And someone has to cover those stories.  In addition to my beat in Jefferson City, I look forward to covering the primary race and the effect that it might have on the General Assembly.  In my opinion, it could open up a lot of opportunities for The Missourian as a newspaper, especially if Kenny Hulshof decides to run.

My first story of the semester was about the Democratic (primarily Jay Nixon's) response to Gov. Blunt's announcement.   The story included the response from prominent Dems like party leader Jack Cardetti and House Floor Leader Paul LeVota and also some info about which Republicans may or may not run for governor.  The Democrats were on message, and that makes for a less-than-ideal political story because each response from a prominent Dem was almost identical.  It's good to get back in the Capitol and in the swing of things though.  I hope to be more in-depth than in was in J4450 in following stories though.

Progress Report: I was assigned my beat for the Capitol, health care. While I can't claim to be any sort of health-care expert, the issue will be exciting to cover because it will likely be the biggest issue of the session.  So basically, I need to start reading a lot of health care bills and information. I also wrote my first story.  So not bad for the first day.

Katie Micik's blog 1/25

I’m going to start the semester by celebrating a small success. The hardest part of any story or project for me is getting started. When it’s time to make that first phone call, I usually get a headache and ways to put it off fill my mind. I give in to those excuses knowing I’m only making the phone call harder.

Yesterday, the excuses didn’t come. But perhaps they didn’t have a chance. I was doing background research for a story on the power plant and my editor told me people with really cool cameras were doing something at the columns on the quad. He asked me to go figure out what was going on. And I went.

The men were working for one of the university’s contractors and said they couldn’t tell me why they were taking high-tech laser readings of the columns. So, I called the director of campus facilities, who I needed to talk to about both the columns story and the power plant story. I didn’t hesitate.

Part of it was urgency. I was on the scene, not getting answers and on deadline. Part of it was resolve. Resolve to banish my childhood fear of cold calling to the Smith-Corona word processor graveyard. When I was 8 years old, my mom asked me to call a store to see how late they were open. I panicked, sobbed, pleaded, screamed out of fear of talking to a stranger over the phone. Now I laugh at an irrational fear. Someday, I know I will look back on my first phone call phobia and laugh harder.

Progress report:
This week has been about getting started. I’m working a story about the power plant. They’re burning wood chips in addition to coal and corncobs. More details to come. There are three topics I enjoy reading and reporting on ¬– energy, environment, economics – and they intersect in some fascinating ways. I’m looking forward to covering them this semester.

Rebecca Delaney's Journal, Week of 1/25

Until recently, I rolled my eyes every time I heard a journalism professor make reference to the dawn of the web age in journalism. So far as I was concerned, I came to Mizzou to be a newspaper reporter…not a webmaster. The doomsday-esque warnings about how j-students need to be web savvy and highly converged were annoying at best and nerve-wracking at worst.
Since my first semester at the Missourian, I’ve realized my attitude toward the web was grossly misguided. That’s why Tom Warhover’s comment—that one of the Missourian’s new web-related goals, fostering communication, involves a certain degree of journalistic humility—struck a chord with me. I realized I’d fallen victim to reporter’s egomania.
Since the era of muckrakers and even before, I think it’s been easy for journalists to get sucked into the idea that they’re somehow “above” their readers, dishing out the news from some sort of reporter’s pedestal…that because we’re rooting around and getting our hands dirty with the news, we’re like a higher power with the sole authority to tell readers “this is how things are.” By going web-centric, the Missourian removes the ego from the news.When we perform immediate web updates on breaking news, we’re humbling ourselves. The bylines often include five, six or seven reporters. And I think it’s in these cases — when several reporters come together and forget the thirst for personal byline glory in favor delivering a story as quickly as possible — that we’re providing the greatest service to readers. We deliver the story instead of "my" story.
On that same note, I love the way we’ve been posting simple, factual information on the web. (IE: the text of Matt Blunt’s speech announcing he won’t be up for re-election or sketches of the new high school.) This kind of information lets readers be their own reporters. They can see the same facts from which a reporter compiles a story, but they have the freedom to synthesize the information provided in a way that makes sense to them. We just make it a little easier to find that information. To me, posting the text of speeches or relevant political documents truly facilitates reader participation and, hopefully, reader conversation.
That’s not to say reporters’ stories aren’t as valuable as ever. Even as we make news faster and more accessible on the web, It’s every bit as critical as it’s always been to make sure skilled journalists report the news with an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to cut through spin Without solid reporters, much of the “news” would be nothing but an ocean of out-of-context, incoherent and often biased information.

This week’s progress report:
I feel like I’m already behind. Two days in and I haven’t done a single interview. I have, however, done a great deal of research on the Missouri Theatre and am ready to push this story forward. We haven’t written anything on the renovations in months, and the Tribune’s kicking our, well, you get the idea. I want to step our Missouri Theatre coverage up in a big way. I’ve also pitched a story idea for MU’s upcoming Art & Archaeology Museum exhibit, “Before Columbus.” The exhibit will showcase pre-Columbian artifacts from North America. I want to preview the exhibit, but I also want to explore connections to local historical sites and potentially run down a (brief) history of pre-Columbian Missouri. I think a story like this will appeal to a wider audience by attracting art buffs, history fans and curious readers alike. In terms of ideas and stories simmering in my head, I’m pretty pleased with my progress. I’m worried, however, that with a hectic schedule, I’m going to fall flat on story delivery. It’s going to take a lot of sleepless nights to rock the Muse beat like I hope I can.

Gov. Blunt Breaking News from ColumbiaMissourian.com

Hey everyone,

In case you weren't around for budget this morning, here is the slide show showing the evolution of columbiamissourian.com during the breaking news last night. There was some great discussion during budget, and I thought I'd open it up for comments here on our blog, too.