Frustratingly Left in Limbo

I have to say, the last week has left me pretty tuckered out. There's nothing like some angered faculty to get you parked at the paper for a few 12-14 hour days. Throw in all the projects, etc. that come with the end of class, and you get the idea, having experience it all yourselves, too. Needless to say, I thought the meeting was a very positive experience, both as a reporter who has had to sit through some very sparsely attended faculty meetings, and as a student who had always wondered at times about the faculty's overall interest (or lack thereof) in the big picture on campus. It was good to see that all academic units aren't always so self-contained. I thought both articles turned out very well, especially the meeting coverage last night. I've gotten good feedback on them too, from both sides of the battle line. As for next week, we may have a follow on a comment from the meeting about the AAUP, and I'm also wrapping up the Five Ideas duty for the semester, which has gone extremely well in its first semester headed up by Advanced Reporters instead of grad students.

Anyway, on to the evaluations of the shells project.

Was it worthwhile? Most definitely, even if it hasn't resulted in the immediate posting on the Web as was promised (and as is needed by those graduating, whom I feel badly for).  I had not done any reporting that had been done with a truly Web-centric approach, and it was good experience for a medium that only seems to be growing in popularity. Plus, I reported in a group dynamic that I really hadn't experienced in the journalism field before — "team" projects, as we've discussed, hasn't always been part of the craft.

What did you learn? I learned just how much work it takes both to brainstorm, pare down, gather focus, and report in a new way all the elements we had to put together for the shell. It's not that I hadn't done these things for other stories I'd written, but not in this particular sense. Again, working with the group made this a fresh new experience.

I learned that the macro HAS to come first in these discussions. I really felt we dawdled the first few weeks of the semester by not meeting enough with Amanda, our designer. As people have mentioned on several occasions, we needed to have had our discussions as a group with Joe (again, going in theory that Bright Tree would have been able to accomplish all this) earlier to hammer out the big-picture issues. I think we'd have been able to form our much-needed backout schedule earlier, and we'd have had more time to work on the Web development part of this.

For me, personally, as a writer, I finally learned to jump on board with the idea of being more conversational with my writing. I had tried to do it before, but I didn't fully understand the level to which we could be as such without losing an authoritative tone. It was a tough balance for me to find at first, as Tom knows, and it still won't be the easiest thing in the world for me. But I am confident I will learn sooner rather than later, especially being exposed to it with the work I did in this project.

Would you do it again? I'd be silly to say no, because I'll likely have to do it again in the real world, if not here again before I graduate. But I'd honestly pick up a project again in the first place, because I thought we as a group were able to tell a very thorough, important story that would interest readers and spur them into different kinds of action, whether they were green supporters or retractors.

I don't know if I was entirely comfortable picking a topic that seemed to border on advocacy journalism at times. It was tough sledding trying to find some skeptic-type information or interviews for a couple of my stories. The green movement, if you will, is still in such a stage that the news is mostly positive, and the hardy skeptics haven't really seemed to push back much yet. The topic is one that I know will get many readers and is definitely a good subject to report on, don't get me wrong. I guess I just hope we don't get accused of being too much of an advocate with our finished project. But that's a small worry, for one, and I know I tried my darndest to keep a good balance in my stories, especially on wind.

What would you keep? I would keep the group size that we used for green, around 6 or 7. I agree with Rebecca that a larger group than that size creates a bit of a disconnect and creates some headaches on the communication level for those in charge. Which leads me to...

What would you change? I personally felt like the project was a bit discombobulated from the get-go. I felt like we were gliding on the seat of our pants. I understand that that was part of the project's nature — none of us had ever done this before, and we were supposed to be feeling out of our comfort zones, and so on. But I really felt frustrated as times, as others have mentioned, about the coordination of this project with the remainder of the class. I felt torn the entire semester, not really knowing when I should be working on shells, or how much, or what portion should go with the beat. We never really ironed that out. And then having the majority of the editors all but give us the shaft for the meeting the sixth week or so of the semester (Scott and Katherine showed up, John later, but no one else) was discomforting. Having the macro issues the first weeks of the semester led to a drop in productivity on both sides for me, also. I felt like being left in limbo with the shells project was a part (not necessarily a big one, but definitely one worth mentioning) of me not getting a couple of heftier stories written this semester.

I know we were a trial experiment, and I'm still pleased with the results, and maybe am not as upset as others because I'll be coming back in the fall and have time to wait to get this posted for a portfolio. Nevertheless, if this project is to be expanded/repeated/continued, I hope the organization can be there on all fronts — us for the projects' content, backout skeds for our organization and for Web developers, and all the editor for setting a proper proportion of work to be completed — at the start of the semester. A clearer plan from the outset would have at least made completion of the projects by spring break a more attainable goal.

Overall, the experience was great, and I learned a lot, and hopefully will see the rewards online sooner rather than later. I loved our group and thought we worked extremely well together. The green project couldn't have been done in our numbers unless people were dedicated. The big lesson to be learned is in organization, macro-based thinking, and a set of assignments and goals (both in reporting and production) before we begin, to have a true, concrete, crystal clear finish line ready before the start of the race.