One of the lessons that journalism pioneer John Quinn taught me a while back has stuck with me throughout the years: “Get it first,” he used to say, “but first get it right.” I was reminded of his words while watching conflicting media reports unfold shortly after the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. (See my related Poynter.org story here.)
NPR first reported that Giffords had died, and soon after CNN, Fox News and The New York Times did the same. But they then retracted the information, saying she wasn’t in fact dead. NPR, which heard the information from two sources — the local sheriff’s office and a congressman’s office — apologized for the mistake and called it an unintentional error of judgment.
The errors played out on Twitter, too. Andy Carvin, who is responsible for NPR’s tweets, said that instead of deleting the tweet he wrote about Giffords being dead, he posted another tweet saying, “Update: there are conflicting reports about whether she was killed.” Carvin didn’t retract the original tweet, he said, because he wanted to be transparent about NPR’s mistake. His handling of the situation made me think about how news organizations should best handle corrections on Twitter.
In an e-mail interview, Kathryn Schulz, author of “Being Wrong,” shared an interesting insight with me along these lines. “Why not have a ‘correct’ function (like the ‘reply’ and ‘retweet’ functions) that would automatically send a correction to everyone who had retweeted something that contained an error?” she asked. “That’s not beyond the limits of technology.”
It’s been a while since my last post. For the month and a half leading up to Christmas, I felt as though life kept sprinting ahead of me and I couldn’t keep up. We had just redesigned the website I write for — Poynter.org — and we were short-staffed at the time. I needed to find a balance between reporting stories and overseeing the new How To section of the website. I’m excited to curate, edit and write stories for this section, and I enjoy being given additional responsibilities that will help me learn and grow as a journalist. But the additional responsibilities were unnerving at first.
Switching from the old site to the new one instilled a sense of loss in me and it disrupted my usual routine. Having lost my mother at age 11, any sort of loss always seems exaggerated and takes me a little while to get used to. I write about change all the time when covering the new ways that journalists are telling stories, so I realize its importance. But experiencing it is much more difficult than writing about it.
Luckily, I have a supportive boss who recognizes that transitions and changes in workloads can be difficult. We talked about the importance of having something constant in life when your professional or personal life gets chaotic. Running is a constant in my life that helps me feel grounded. When I run in the morning before work, I get less antsy and feel better about myself throughout the day. I also find that running motivates me to go to bed earlier and eat better. When I get stressed, I tend to stay up late and then my eating gets thrown off, which in turn affects my mood.
Photo of the collage I made during the holidays.
Visual aids also help me. When everything else seems to be changing, I can look at these aids as a reminder that it’s possible to restore order amidst chaos. Handmade collages that feature photos of things that relax and motivate me are especially helpful. Having a break over the holidays gave me some time to make a collage, relax and do other things that I enjoy but can’t always make time for when I’m swamped — running, being with friends and family, browsing bookstores, reading for pleasure. And it reminded me that I need to make time for these things on a more regular basis. So, as part of my New Year’s resolution, I’ve put together a list of my goals for 2011, many of which are aimed at personal fulfillment. I always feel fulfilled when I’m accomplishing a goal at work, or when I’m taking time out to be good to myself. With that in mind, here are my goals:
1.) Do yoga once a week. I used to go to yoga on a pretty regular basis, but then I stopped. I figured I was getting a better cardio workout by running, and I didn’t want to spend money on yoga classes. I always felt so relaxed when I did yoga, though, so I want to make time for it, even if it means spending a few extra dollars.
2.) Find time every day to do something that makes me happy. I recently bought a ceramic plaque from Target that has a saying about making yourself happy. Spending time with my friends and boyfriend, blogging, painting my nails, listening to music, watching movies (and really watching them rather than doing five other things at the same time), all bring me joy.
3.) Acknowledge at least one work-related accomplishment that I’m proud of each week. By the end of the work week, I usually focus on what I haven’t done rather than looking back and recognizing what I have done. I realize, though, that it’s better to look at what you’ve accomplished along the way rather than only doing so after you’ve finished a long-term project. When you regularly recognize your accomplishments, you can keep better track of how you’ve improved and what you want to get better at.
4.) Run at least one half marathon. I wanted to run a marathon in 2011, but I have to see if I’ll have time to train for it. (I’d love to run the San Francisco women’s marathon in November.) At the very least, I’d like to run the Gasparilla half marathon next month or the women’s half marathon in St. Petersburg in November. I ran my first half last year — the Disney Princess Half — and felt such a great sense of accomplishment when I crossed the finish line.
5.) Cook more. Every year, I tell myself I want to start cooking more, but I always have difficulty following through. By the time I get home from work, I’m tired and don’t want to cook. I usually just throw together something quickly but rarely cook a hearty meal for myself. Having people to cook for helps, so I think the more I can embrace the communal spirit of cooking and eating, the better.
6.) Continue to be a Big Sister. Being a Big Sis has given me a chance to volunteer and be around kids again without taking up too much of my free time. I’m involved with the school-based Big Brothers Big Sisters program, which means I visit with my Little Sis at her school for an hour once a week. This is a little more manageable than trying to find time after work or on the weekends to get together.
7.) Be more decisive. I’m sometimes indecisive, in part because I don’t want to make a decision that would go against what someone else wants. (Can you tell I like to please people?) I’d like to get better at making decisions and then confidently following through with them.
There are a few words that I want to keep in mind as I venture off into 2011:
Gray: I have to remember that not everything has to be black or white. I want to start asking more questions like, “What are our options?” Maybe that story I’m working on, for instance, doesn’t have to be done tomorrow. Maybe there are other options that will give me more time to finish my story and tend to other work that needs to get done that day.
Balance: I need to strike more of this. We all do!
Moderation: As my grandma says, when it comes to eating, everything in moderation is OK.
Rest: I often underestimate the perks of a little R&R.
Fun: I got a Mary Engelbreit calendar for Christmas that says “Have! More! Fun!” on the cover. This is similar to the motto that my college friends and I shared — “Fun Before Work.” Though we almost always put schoolwork before fun, we looked at our motto as a reminder to have fun even when we were bogged down by finals, classes and extra curricular activities.
What are some of your resolutions and/or words for 2011?
Last weekend I spoke at the 75th anniversary of my alma mater’s student newspaper, The Cowl. The coordinators of the event asked me to write about how my experience as editor-in-chief of the paper helped prepare me for my job as a journalist. I talked about this, but I also wanted to explain why it’s still worth going into journalism even despite all the turmoil the industry has faced. Not many students from Providence College go into journalism, but I wanted to encourage current Cowl staff members to give the profession a try and to be open-minded about nontraditional forms of storytelling.
I felt grateful to have the opportunity to speak at the event and meet current and former Cowl staffers, and enjoyed spending time with them. About two dozen of us went into The Cowl office after the event and took part in what amounted to a journalism geek fest. We all crowded around old issues of The Cowl and reminisced about the stories we had written or the pages we had designed, getting overly excited about our time on the paper. The experience reminded me of the sense of community I felt whenever I put the paper to bed in that tiny Cowl office with others who cared about journalism. All those late nights were well worth it.
As a follow-up to my speech (which I’ve copied and pasted below), my boss asked if I wanted to write a personal essay that would tie together the 75th anniversary of The Cowl and the 35th anniversary of The Poynter Institute, which both took place this month. I was having trouble finding a link between the two, so I started to write about my mom. Whenever I write personal essays, I find it easiest to start off writing about my mom, in part because doing so feels both comforting and familiar. I ended up writing an essay that tied together my mom, both anniversaries and my opposition (and eventual affinity for) the Web. I’ve gotten a lot of thoughtful e-mails this weekend from people who have said they related to the essay, which you can read here.
And here’s my speech …
Let me start off by saying that one of the best, and worst, parts about being editor of The Cowl was pulling all-nighters every Wednesday. The other staffers and I would edit and lay out stories until the wee hours of the morning, energized by the rush of working on deadline. The journalism nerd in us would come out in full force as we debated whether to use a four-column or five-column layout, or whether the serial comma was really necessary or just wasted space.
Most Wednesdays, the associate editor and I would stay in that tiny, sometimes smelly, Cowl office — which was nicknamed the “windowless hovel” — until 4 or 5 a.m. every Wednesday.
We’d read over headlines and captions one last time before putting the paper to bed, knowing how important it was to catch the pesky typos that would slip through spell-check. When editing, I’d often think back to my freshman year when Cowl Advisor Richy Kless showed me a Providence Journal article about Donald Rumsfeld. The headline read in big bold letters: “Rumsfeld’s Pubic Role is Shrinking.” By “pubic,” of course, the ProJo meant “public.”
The importance of paying attention to detail is one of the many valuable lessons I learned while on The Cowl. Being editor also made me realize how rewarding — and challenging — it can be to lead your peers. Effective leaders, I learned, assess what needs to be improved and then set reasonable goals to see that these improvements are made. They reward staff members who are doing especially good work, and they take the time to train others who need their help. Perhaps most importantly, good leaders are never too proud to learn from others; they see their role as both a teacher and an avid learner.
Being editor of The Cowl helped me gain confidence in myself as a leader and made me realize the power that student journalists have to give voice to the voiceless, hold the powerful accountable and reveal the truth. So often we hear about the importance of “veritas” at Providence College. The term couldn’t be more applicable to journalists, who help create a more informed society by seeking truth and sharing it with others. As St. John’s gospel notes, the truth will set you free.
And so will change.
Having a willingness to change will keep you from getting trapped by antiquated conventions. Now more than ever, accepting change has become crucial to surviving — and thriving — in journalism. I realized the importance of change in journalism during my freshman year on The Cowl. At the time, Frank Caliva and other editors helped launch TheCowl.com. They created big promotional posters that said, “‘IT’S COMING!!:, hoping to stir up some excitement among those in the college community.
Going online was a huge step for The Cowl because it showed that the paper was ready and willing to start experimenting with the Web. Campus newspaper websites provide student journalists with the opportunity to develop online skills, and they’re especially beneficial to alumni who want to stay connected to the paper from afar. But interestingly enough, for as plugged in as college students are, many prefer the print version of their student newspaper to the online version.
We recently reported on this at The Poynter Institute and found that there are a few different reasons why this is the case: student newspapers are free, they’re easy to get a hold of, and they’re a tangible conversation starter.
A spring 2010 study conducted by Student Monitor, a New Jersey company that surveys college students nationally twice a year about their reading habits, found that 56 percent of students surveyed say they don’t even know if their campus newspaper is available online. Interest in the print edition, though, remains high, with 63 percent of students classifying themselves as light or frequent readers of the print edition of the campus newspaper.
For as happy as I am about the success of the print product on college campuses, I think it in many ways reflects the “bubble” of college life. In the journalism industry at large, the print product is suffering. This reality makes that little thing called change all the more important.
When I was in college, I tried to avoid the changes in the industry. I was convinced that newspapers would always be people’s primary source of news and information. I was convinced that the Web was threatening the medium that I had wanted to work in all my life.
I was so resistant to the changes in journalism that I wrote an editorial for my local paper suggesting as much. Newspapers, I wrote, are “the wave of the future.” “The need to tell stories,” I went on to say, “is about as necessary as having a newspaper in hand while drinking your morning coffee.”
This was coming from a girl who, for a while, preferred her Smith Corona typewriter to a computer, and who thought the Web was just a “passing phase.” Now, ironically, I work full-time on the Web as a writer and editor at The Poynter Institute, a school for journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla. I work with author Roy Peter Clark, vice president of the institute, who graduated from PC in 1970 and was an editor on The Cowl. (He often talks about his crusade to change the newspaper from “the creepy Cowl, with all its cultish connotations, to the spirited Owl, that wise and reliable sentry in the darkness.”)
Anyhow, at The Poynter Institute, I cover the media industry and regularly report on emerging trends and the intersection of journalism and technology. Reporting on this intersection meant I had to start using the tools I was writing about, and it forced me to start peeking over the wall I had built between myself and the Web.
In writing about the media, I’ve found that the journalists who are succeeding are the ones who won’t settle for the argument, “Well, this is how it’s always been done.” Journalism is always changing and evolving; there’s no time to be afraid of experimenting with new ways of telling stories.
Social networking sites and mobile technology have provided us with new and exciting opportunities to find story ideas, share content and reach new audiences. Newspapers have caught on to this, but they still struggle to remain relevant in a 24-hour news cycle.
I’ll be honest and say that I don’t think newspapers will ever get back to the place where they once were — relevance wise or revenue wise. In recent years, newspapers have had to lay off staffs, consolidate their print product and close bureaus. Some newspapers have shuttered entirely.
But there are plenty of signs of hope. News outlets are starting to hire again. Journalists are seizing these new opportunities, and in some cases, they’re leaving their full-time jobs at traditional news outlets to work for online news startups. They’re doing this, they’ve told me, because they believe these sites are integral to the future of journalism and they want to be part of that future. I can see their logic.
Sites such as Politico, TBD, Salon, Slate and ProPublica (which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009) have all emerged as credible news sources that rely on traditional values — truth seeking, ethics and a commitment to accuracy — but aren’t afraid to use social media and new tools to cover and share news. These sites, as well as some legacy print and broadcast outlets, are hiring younger people for newly crafted positions such as social media editor, community engagement director, and mobile manager. They see experimentation and risk-taking as an inevitable part of the job.
The success of these new startups brings to mind a Semisonic lyric that Father Shanley quoted during his 2007 commencement speech: “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end,” he said. (As a side note, I have to say I thought it was pretty cool that Father Shanley knew that song!) Right now, young journalists in particular have a chance to be part of something new in journalism. Even though parts of the industry are struggling, there are more opportunities than ever for all of you to help guide the future of the profession — online, on air and even still in print.
As a young journalist, I’m optimistic about the future and am excited to be working in an industry whose fight for survival has paved the way for change and innovation. Embrace these changes, take the lessons you learned from all those late nights on The Cowl, and ask, “What have we been doing forever and how can we start doing it differently?” You might just be surprised by what you come up with.
When I think about the memoir that I want to write someday, I often wonder: How the heck am I going to start this? I have lots of essays that I’ve started to weave together, but no definitive beginning. A recent NPR story on Mark Twain gave me some inspiration. A century after his death, Twain’s autobiography is being published.
The author said he tried writing his autobiography several times but kept getting sidetracked because he thought he needed to follow a chronological calendar. He found that doing so, however, “starts you at the cradle and drives you straight for the grave, with no side excursions permitted.” Instead, he said, it’s best not to start at a particular time in your life: “Wander at your free will all over your life. Talk only about the thing that interests you for the moment; drop it at the moment its interest starts to pale.”
NPR explains that Twain struggled to figure out how to tell his autobiography — until he discovered the power of dictation. “You will never know how much enjoyment you’ve lost until you get to dictating your biography,” Twain said. “You’ll be astonished at how like talk it is and how real it sounds.”
I like the idea of wandering through your life rather than trying to stick to a time line. Wandering, it seems, gives us the freedom we need to make sense of the life we’re living and writing about. When we’re bound by rules and road signs, we feel trapped. Maybe the key to starting a memoir, then, is just letting myself wander. I’m all up for trying it.
I first met Brokaw at Providence College in 2006. He was the graduation speaker that year, and I covered his speech for the student newspaper. Seeing him again still felt just as exciting as it did the first time. I just felt a little less nervous this time around!
Today I got to coach two 9-year-old girls as part of a writing program for children at a library in south St. Pete. The goal is for each child to write a “book” by the end of the month-long program. There were about 20 students at today’s event — enough to make me feel inspired about seeing such young children expressing a passion for writing.
The first girl I coached with had already written two chapters of her book — a murder mystery novel featuring a main character named Max Electiva. I read over her story and marked the parts that I especially liked. When you’re reading a 9-year-old’s writing, you can’t be too critical. Of course, it’s not going to be up to par with what an adult would write, so you have to offer a lot of encouragement and first talk about what worked well. You can then follow up your compliments with a couple of suggestions about how to make it better.
I talked with her about character development, how to generate story ideas and how “show, not tell.” I shared some insights that other writing coaches have taught me along the way, and I stressed three key steps to becoming a better writer: reading, writing, and talking about writing. Having a conversation about your ideas and your writing process is so important if you want to learn to write better. In talking with this young girl, I learned something from her, too. She says she has a “junkyard” — a folder where she keeps parts of stories or essays that didn’t come to fruition. She keeps them there so she can refer back to them at some point and perhaps give them new life. Smart idea, eh?
The second girl I coached didn’t have a story yet. She said,”Um, I want to write …. a mystery novel!” (Must be a popular genre among kids her age.) She was soft-spoken and quiet at first, so I suggested we do some brainstorming together. I wrote three columns on a piece of paper and labeled them “Characters,” “Scene” and “Action/Drama.” Together, we thought of who the characters would be in her story. Then we talked about where they would be and the action they would create.
The more we talked, the louder her voice got and the more excited she became about the story. By the end of the coaching session, we had the makings of a story about an omnipresent ghost that invades a school and can’t be controlled. The school’s administration has to call in a set of detectives who want to tame the ghost before he starts visiting other schools. Chaos ensues, but the detectives finally find out what the ghost’s story is and how to get rid of him.
I didn’t have nearly as much time as I would have liked to coach each of them, but I came away with a sense of hope, and peace of mind in knowing that efforts are being made to foster a love for writing in children. I unfortunately won’t be available to coach the next two weekends, but I’m planning to go to the final event of the program the first weekend of December. I’m excited to see how the kids’ stories will turn out.
I just got back from the Online News Association conference and feel like I could sleep for days. The conference was tiring, between taking notes during the sessions, catching up with old friends, making new ones, and trying to fit in time to write about some takeaways.
But I feel energized — by the optimism at the conference and by the risks and creative approaches that many of the attendees are taking to produce, deliver and share content. Contrary to other journalism conferences I’ve been to, I heard very few people talk negatively about their newsroom and the work they’re doing. Overall, there was a sense that journalism has a future, and that this is an exciting time to execute ideas that will help lay the path toward that future.
Here are my five takeaways from the conference:
It’s time to move beyond the “Is this journalism?” debate.
Jobs are changing, and new titles reflect innovation and community engagement.
Investigative journalism is finding its place online.
Journalists are debating whether they can be good entrepreneurs.
It’s important to experiment — and fail.
And here are the stories I wrote while I was there:
You can look for one more piece from me later this week. Also, check out this post from PBS MediaShift’s Craig Silverman and this one from TBD’s Jeff Sonderman.
If you went to the conference, I’d love to hear your takeaways!
“I really, really, really love my hair!” a muppet sings in the video. “Wear a clippy or in a bow. Or let it sit in an Afro. My hair looks good in a cornrow! It does so many things, you know, that’s why I let it grow. I love my hair!”
At first, I thought the song was a joke, but then when I read the story behind it, I realized how important its message is. It’s a video that children of all races would benefit from watching. The video helps show black children that they have no need to feel self conscious about their hair. And it exposes kids of other races to differences they may not have thought about before.
The video made me think about what parents choose to expose their kids to. I would guess that most parents who have Caucasian kids would buy them a white doll if they had a choice between a white, Asian, black or Hispanic one. Same goes for books featuring white children. My hope is that when I become a parent (not anytime soon!) I’ll buy my kids books that have characters of various races and dolls that don’t look like your stereotypical Barbie. Kids need to see that not everyone looks like them, and that’s ok. We’re all different and we all belong.
Today I met my Little Sister for the first time. She’s a 12-year-old at John Hopkins Middle School who likes cooking, watching TV and riding roller coasters. If today was any indication of what she’s like, then I have no doubt we’ll get along well. We played Mancala and another game that involved talking with each other about our favorite hobby, movie, ice cream flavor, etc.
I’ll meet with my Little Sis every week during the school year as part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters school-based mentoring program — something I’ve wanted to take part in for years. Volunteering used to be a big part of my life. In high school, I led the National Honor Society’s community service initiatives and took part in Student Council volunteer efforts. At Providence College, I helped set up the college’s first Relay for Life, did service work through Campus Ministry, and led several Habitat for Humanity trips to North Carolina and Baltimore.
When I graduated in May 2007 and moved from Massachusetts to Florida, I stopped volunteering. I had to find friends in a place where I didn’t know anyone, and I had to get settled in my apartment and used to my job. I’ll start volunteering after I get situated, I used to tell myself. Many Saturdays, I would try to get up early to volunteer at one of the local Habitat for Humanity sites, but then I’d just turn off my alarm and fall back asleep. Lots of us do this. When we’re so busy, it’s much easier to put off something than to carve out time to do it. And when we do have free time, sometimes all we want to do is relax and spend time with ourselves, friends or family.
I’ve been thinking more lately about how much energy I put into work. In part, I put so much energy into it because I want to excel professionally and because I’m fortunate enough to have a job that I love. But I also realize that sometimes I put work ahead of friends — and very often ahead of myself. So, when my employer announced that it was going to start working with the local Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter, I jumped at the opportunity to sign up for the program. Finally, I thought, I can get back into volunteering and start spending time with kids again. (I used to babysit all the time, so I miss hanging out with little ones!)
Given how excited I am about doing this, I was surprised by the way some people reacted when I told them about it. My dad, not surprisingly, supported me wholeheartedly, as did many others. But a couple of people said something to the effect of, “Mallary, why are you doing this? You don’t have enough free time. You don’t even know this little girl. You need to do something for yourself.”
I know they just want what’s best for me, and that they want me to take care of myself. They’re familiar with my tendency to run on little sleep and overextend myself. But what I don’t think they understand is that by volunteering, I am doing something for myself. I’m helping myself feel more connected to the community, and I’m giving myself something to look forward to during the work day that doesn’t involve journalism. And hey, I’m an only child, so it’s kind of neat saying I have a “Little Sis.” In turn, I’m hopefully going to help a child in need by adding to her support network.
I’ve had so many great mentors throughout my life, so now it’s my turn to return the favor and be the Big Sis I never got to be.
Lately I’ve seen a lot of buzz about the newest “Girl Effect” video, which argues that the fight to end poverty starts with one girl.
When a girl turns 12 and lives in poverty, she faces the risk of being married by 14 and getting pregnant by age 15. Chances are, she may become a prostitute so she can make enough money to support her family. That in turn puts her at risk of getting HIV and other diseases.
But, the video says, there’s a solution. Rewind a few years. Picture a girl at age 12 whose family has enough money to take her to the doctor and keep her in school. She’s healthy, she can avoid sexually transmitted diseases and have children when she’s ready. Her children can be healthy like she is, and so can her children’s children and so on and so forth.
The video works so well because it features kinetic typography (basically, moving text) that helps make the information easier to retain, digest and remember. Plus, when you see that cute little cartoon figure in the video, you can’t help but want to sympathize with the video’s message and perhaps even donate money to help out a young girl.
The “Girl Effect” video reminds me a bit of Sarah McLachlan’s “World on Fire” music video, which I’ve always loved in part because it only cost $15 to create — a far cry from the absurd amount of money that most music videos cost. The song and the video send a powerful message about poverty, but the text sometimes scrolls so quickly across the screen that the message gets lost. The video was made in 2004, so that helps explain the issue. Funny to think about how much better we’ve gotten at creating good videos for the Web.
Word on the Street 