Category Archives: Uncategorized

Billy Kulpa/Poynter.org Here’s a story I wrote for Poynter Online today about the challenge news organizations face as they look for new ways to engage the public in political discourse while trying to remain fair and balanced in their own coverage. You know how much I love comment-generated discussion, so if you have some ideasContinue reading “‘Paid Partisans, Biased Bloggers — Their Place in the Newsroom’”

The book, “Journalism: The Democratic Craft,” by Roy Peter Clark and G. Stuart Adam, starts off with some great essays about writing. If you’re a writer, or if you care at all about the written word, you should check them out. They are: –“Why I Write,” by George Orwell –“On Being a Writer,” by V.S.Continue reading “Writers on Writing”

During a “tech talk” yesterday at work, I heard words like “blidget, widget and wiki” being tossed around the room. Some understood what these words meant, but others asked for definitions. Our conversation reminded me of the many discourse communities [PDF] that exist, little language circles of people who speak words known to the limitedContinue reading “I Don’t Want to Break Your Crayons, but …”

Ellen Weiss, NPR’s vice president of news “Don’t be afraid to leave the pauses in,” my editor told me. “And it’s OK to have an ‘um’ or two in there.” I had spent a week editing audio for a soundslide highlighting a talk that National Public Radio’s vice president of news, Ellen Weiss, gave lastContinue reading “Leaving in the Pauses”

Nelvin Cepeda/ Union-Tribune In the midst of chaos, journalists in California dealt with having to cover the fires’ destruction while also juggling risk and personal upheaval. Many evacuated their homes, then went straight to work, filing stories and responding to readers’ questions online around the clock. I wrote an article about the San Diego Union-Tribune‘sContinue reading “Fading Fires: Reviewing Union-Tribune’s Online Coverage”

Every night I say I’m going to get more sleep, but it doesn’t usually happen. At midnight, I get a sudden burst of inspiration to write a blog post, or I decide that it seems like a good time to clean my room or look for things that I’ve lost in the clutter of myContinue reading “‘Crazy Busy’ and Not Slowing Down”

I’ve asked my 88-year-old grandmother, or gramz as I call her, to write about her life. I don’t expect her to recap everything that’s happened in the past nine decades, but I want to have the milestones, the memories, captured in writing. My memory has failed me in the past, so I don’t trust itContinue reading “‘What’s Your Story, Morning Glory?’”

When I come home from work every day, I head straight for my mailbox. I jiggle the key, open the box, and hope for a letter from a friend, a magazine or a mini package that’s small enough to fit inside my tiny letter holder. When I had a day off from school or workContinue reading “When Readers Respond, but Not As Much As You’d Like”

Here’s an essay I wrote last night for Poynter.org called “Paper: It May Burn, but It Won’t Crash.” I got the idea for this piece from one of my good friends, who indirectly reminded me about the importance of not just thinking, but talking about your stories — your own life story and the storiesContinue reading ““Paper: It May Burn, but It Won’t Crash”: The Story Behind the Idea”

Garrison Keillor — Salon.com Garrison Keillor said it in a column earlier this year: Newspapers are about style. Interestingly, the title of this column is “Seven rules for reading the paper. Keillor writes: “It seems to me, observing the young in coffee shops, that something is missing from their lives: the fine art of holdingContinue reading “Newspapers with Style, without ‘Rules’”