Tag Archives: Missouri School of Journalism

Mid-week update

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This week has been a marathon already — a libel law exam, a Missourian GA shift, a sociology book review, internship applications — and this afternoon I’m headed to Kansas City for this week’s UM System Board of Curators meetings.

It’s this kind of week that gets me frustrated, not because I don’t love what I’m doing, but because in trying to juggle being a student and a reporter I miss out on stories that I know I could (and very much would) have covered if I’d had the time.

The Kansas City Star’s Mará Rose Williams was able to publish an advance that I wanted to do about the addition of a closed-session presidential search meeting to this week’s previously scheduled Board of Curators meetings. But because of my student responsibilities, my own version of this article just never made it into my top priorities and now I’m simply following up a story that’s already been read by so many people.

And I don’t mean to be making excuses.

This same kind of frustration hit me in my post “Go with your gut,” when Janese Silvey of the Columbia Daily Tribune (almost) scooped us on a big story. As a professional, she’s afforded more time to develop relationships with sources and she’s more entrenched in her beat, something we student-reporters simply cannot do in 15 weeks.

But as a competitive, hungry reporter I don’t like losing. I don’t like being second and I don’t like chasing stories after someone else has broken them. It doesn’t make the story any less important or the reporting any less valid, but there’s that old-school point of pride in being the writer that broke the story.

Even worse, it’s not a frustration I can do anything to change. No matter how organized I am or how efficient with time I become, sometimes I just cannot compete with folks who get to put every minute of their day into their reporting. And the day I can do that too just can’t come soon enough.

CoTweet and Curators Part II (Belated)

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Although it’s several days late, I can’t help but publish the post I had written following Tuesday’s UM System Board of Curators meeting and subsequent press conference.

A couple of things stood in the way of the publishing of this post: a) a lead on a news story that came about up about a proposed academic freedom policy and b) the passing of Apple CEO and technology mogul Steve Jobs.

Tuesday was a reporting marathon for those of us who made the trip to the UMSL student center for the Board of Curators meeting and press conference.

Though I did get the chance to write an article of my own on the proposed new retirement plan, the real learning experience came from just watching MU football beat writer Harry Plumer and his sports-writer colleagues from other (competitor) newspapers/media outlets.

Listening to those writers talk shop as they stood around waiting (nearly 4 hours) for the night’s press conference was an awesome backstage look at the community of sports writers that cover Mizzou athletics.

And it is very much a community. As Harry told me later that night, they’re all in it together — and that’s the attitude each of the writers brought to the meeting, and it was cool to see them help each other out.

My other big learning experience Tuesday was CoTweet, and getting a feel for what it really takes to live-tweet an event. It’s a situation where you’re required to make a lot of split-second decisions, and the pressure is on when you’re tweeting live alongside you’re competitors.

During the public session, I had trouble taking diligent notes while trying to make those on-the-spot decisions about tweeting, so I abandoned the idea and focused instead on the article I knew I needed to write.

But that evening, Harry and I decided that I would take over the @CoMoSports twitter account and live tweet the press conference. With my focus just on tweeting, I think I did a better job of actively listening for tweet-worthy lines, but I’d just scratched the surface.

Even with all of my attention turned to tweeting, I was still faced with a multitude of decisions — do I directly quote or paraphrase? How should I attribute? Should I mention other twitter accounts?

In the end, I tweeted 7 times from @CoMoSports, and though none of the tweets were really substantial, they did get the main points of the press conference across to readers who were watching their timelines. If I got to make excuses for myself, I’d chalk up my difficulties to being a rookie and I’d argue that I’m much better prepared for the next time I get to tweet.

Overall, it was fun to be a part of such a big announcement and it was a good, long reporting day.

CoTweet and Curators Part I

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Today’s a big news day here in Missouri, and all eyes are on the Millennium Student Center at the University of Missouri—St. Louis and the UM System Board of Curators.

The board meets today in St. Louis to discuss the latest draft of a new employee retirement plan (that’s where I come in), but will also have two executive sessions that will be closed to the public, the second of which will be a full board executive session behind closed doors (where everyone else comes in).

The student center should be packed — there’s been plenty of speculation that following this full board meeting, board chairman Warren Erdman will make an announcement regarding Mizzou’s allegiance to the Big 12 (or its infidelity with the SEC). MU has been flirting with the idea of pursuing another athletic conference for awhile, but as Harry Plumer told me yesterday: it’s time for MU to put up, or shut up.

Harry’s one of the Missourian’s MU Football writers, and has been covering MU’s position in the conference realignment for awhile. He and I will be in St. Louis for today’s meetings.

But a rumored conference announcement is not my interest (as a writer at least). Instead, I’ll be covering the curators’ discussion of the new retirement plan which has been a hot issue and even has the curators disagreeing. I’ve covered official Board of Curators meetings before, but what’s different today is that I have access to the @CoMissourian twitter account through CoTweet, an online engagement platform.

Even though I’d consider myself an experienced Twitter user, there is a sense of power associated with tweeting from @CoMissourian. In a way, the Missourian’s reputation is most vulnerable on Twitter and I’d hate to be that guy that tweets something embarrassing or incorrect from the paper’s handle.

Of course I’ll have plenty of support back in the Missourian newsroom from Community Outreach Director Joy Mayer and her on duty team member. They’ll be looking over my shoulder to edit tweets and keep mentioners engaged.

The ability to live-tweet important notes and quotes from the meeting isn’t exactly new to me, but I’ve never tweeted officially for the paper as part of my reporting. It’ll certainly be a valuable learning experience and I’m sure it won’t be the last time I incorporate live social media into my reporting.

Follow today’s meetings on Twitter from @zach_murdock and @CoMissourian, and keep an eye out for a “CoTweet and Curators Part II” follow-up post tomorrow morning.

Go with your gut

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Last week marked an interesting development in the UM System presidential search, or did it?

I’m not sure I know, and even though Janese Silvey of the Columbia Daily Tribune did know, it seems to me now that nobody actually knows what happened, err — can speak to what happened.

This whole thing reminds me of that great scene in the beginning of State Of Play, when Russell Crowe's character tells the cop, "Let's play a little game of 'Confirm or Deny.'"

Wednesday afternoon we got word that Janese, the education beat reporter for the Trib, had published the name of one of the potential candidates for the UM System president position. [The UM System Board of Curators has been in search of a new president since former president Gary Forsee stepped down in January. There’s been a lot of coverage, so it’s easy to catch up!]

Naturally we scrambled to follow up on the story ourselves, and advanced reporter Abby Eisenberg and I frantically called everyone we could to confirm the story. Though we expected a lot of “no comment” responses, we did expect to be able to corroborate Janese’s report — if only to run her story on our site.

In fact, we had a good debate with our editor Liz Brixey about whether or not linking to Janese’s story was a good idea; and if it served our audience to at least get the information out, event if it meant posting a competitors article (and thereby catapulting visitors to our website in the exact opposite direction we want them to go: to the Trib’s).

In the end, Abby and I agreed we didn’t feel comfortable running her story without confirming the basic facts on our own. Despite the frustration of missing out on what we thought was a great development in the search, we went home byline-less and chose to wait things out.

Turns out a whole night was the exact amount of time we needed to let the story incubate, because Thursday afternoon a Kansas City Star report opposed Janese’s story:

But in a telephone interview this morning, Van Matre denied saying that Hoenig, 65, is a presidential candidate.

“I said just the opposite,” Van Matre told The Star. “I don’t want to be in the middle of this. I can’t say either way.”

Stunned, Abby and I beamed at our Wednesday afternoon gamble to forgo linking to the Trib’s story on columbiamissourian.com. I’m not a gambler, nor a confident decision-maker (ex-girlfriends can/will whole-heartedly confirm), so guessing right was a fantastic relief to the otherwise frustrating storyline of chasing down news broken by other local outlets.

For me, the incident highlights two fundamental things of my time at the Missourian, and my (cross-our-fingers) entire career as a journalist:

1) Being a rookie sucks. Janese’s career isn’t broken up into 15 week increments, so she has time to develop relationships with regular sources and earn their trust to get tips like Hoenig’s (potential) candidacy. At the Missourian, we’re perpetually at a disadvantage in that arena because we’re always cycling new reporters in and out of the newsroom, and consequently, in and out of relationships with sources.

2) If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. I have a healthy skepticism about a lot of (OK, most) things, but sometimes there’s nothing wrong with trusting your gut—and I need to do it more often.

Public exposure

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Wednesday Jeff Jarvis released an excerpt from his upcoming book Public Parts, which examines how technology has influenced what he calls “publicness,” and how our changing perspective of privacy can positively effect our lives as individuals and professionals.

I posted about Jarvis last week, who’s recently become one of my favorite media critics. He regularly posts to his blog, buzzmachine.com, with really interesting perspectives on the mainstream media and its future.

I’ve been really excited about this book since I first heard about it a few months ago because publicness is something I’ve really had to consider as a young professional—what do I share? And how does what I share affect my reputation as a writer and individual?

“Private and public are choices we make: to reveal or not, to share or not, to join or not. Each has benefits, each hazards. We constantly seek a balance between the two—only today, technology brings new choices, risks, and opportunities.” — Jarvis

The idea that all of my social media profiles can “brand” me is all at once daunting and exciting. The opportunity to use online social tools (like this blog, or my Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+) to create a very visible, searchable online footprint of my work is really thrilling.

I see my profiles as an opportunity to portray myself in ways that can’t be conveyed in a quipy cover letter or single page resume. My Twitter, for example, isn’t just about who I follow or what I tweet—it’s also about how engaged and responsive I am to my online community. My LinkedIn has become a malleable, organic resume that I can use to connect to my peers, groups and other professionals. And this blog has become a 24 Hour Fitness for my voice as a writer, a kind of safe space to work out my brain’s writing muscles.

Each profile or page gives a different perspective to my work as a writer/reporter, as well as my opinions and interests as a regular ol’ civilian.

Although only pieces may get posted to each specific page, the conglomeration of all of my profiles paints a very accurate, honest picture of my life as both a young professional and an individual. Altogether, my profiles simply reflect everything I’m up to and the line between professional and individual is virtually non-existent.

The difference between myself and many of my peers here at the J-School (and, more generally, folks my age that have had social profiles for years and are in-tune with the online cultural norms) is that I’m deliberately sharing honest notes about myself with the intention of putting myself in a position where my public self must be honest.

I’ve designed my web presence will full-transparency in mind, and I’ve built my social footprint on the reputation of honesty and publicness.

In Public Parts, Jarvis argues that this publicness is where we’re all headed. Companies, media outlets, individuals and governments—in some way, we’re all in a position where we have to decide our own publicness.

But does it work? Is the reputation I’ve built on my work as a reporter and active participant in my online community going to land me a job, or make me a respected member of the journalism community?

Well, I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Jarvis and journalism, damnit

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I’ve recently started following Jeff Jarvis, both on Twitter and on his blog, buzzmachine.com. He’s a journalism professor and entrepreneurial journalist, and is quickly becoming one of my favorite critics of today’s institutional journalism.

In a post published on his blog Saturday, Jarvis discussed some examples that challenge the traditional definition of journalism created by the institutions that produce and define it (like our beloved Missouri School of Journalism). Jarvis argues that what we think we know about the media and it’s “rules” may not be true at all, and asks “So what is journalism, damnit?”

I’m not sure I can answer that, and Jarvis admits he doesn’t have a definition either—he says:

“But I think we need to question — not reject, but reconsider — every assumption: what journalism is, who does it, how they add value, how they build and maintain trust, their business models. I am coming to wonder whether we should even reconsider the word journalism, as it carries more baggage than a Dreamliner.”

So if a well-respected, extremely successful journalist (because he is by nearly all definitions but a journalist) is unable to define journalism after a lifetime of experience and having a hand in shaping the media as we know it today—what does that mean for those of us in J-School now? Is real journalism tanking the way many people say it is?

I would argue that this is the most exciting time to be involved in journalism, and that the future of the industry is really up for grabs. But, frankly, I look around at the faces in my classes here at Mizzou and I’m confident the future is in good hands.

At the Columbia Missourian, we’re trying things to advance community journalism in ways many people would never consider. At the Reynolds Journalism Institute, fellows are researching ways we can be better information stewards for the community. And as an Internet generation, my classmates and I are already better equipped to undertake the digital media revolution that’s so stumped traditional news media today.

When all is said and done, I hope I too can say I made valuable and permanent contributions to my craft and to the future of journalism.

Proving ground

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In my first week back in Columbia, I’ve essentially split my time at two places. The Missourian offices (now, affectionately, “the office”) and the Mizzou Rec Center. When I wasn’t in the office, I spent all week playing pick-up basketball at the rec and I’d like to draw out an analogy between basketball and what I’d like to accomplish at the Missourian.

There’s always a core group of guys (and gals t00) that play pick-up at the rec, and you end up playing with a lot of the same kids throughout the course of the semester. So it’s crucial in these first two or three weeks of basketball to make a good impression on the folks you’ll be playing with all year (keep in mind, these are the guys who don’t have a problem giving you the silent treatment after they see you miss five open layups in an afternoon).

To get the playing time you and Iverson deserve, you've gotta make the few minutes you get count.

So to get the playing time you and Iverson deserve, you’ve gotta make what few minutes you do get in the first weeks really count and you have to stand out—or in pick-up basketball’s case, not stand out as the guy with two left feet.

That’s the same kind of approach I’ve taken to my time at the Missourian.

Last week I made it a point to be a stand out reporter, not afraid to take on a story or speak up about an idea. I wanted my name to be thrown around the newsroom by my editors and my colleagues, and I wanted to see my byline in print and online.

It takes a certain kind attitude to face the sink-or-swim reporting class like this, but it’s the same attitude you need on the basketball court.

The beginning of the semester is when everyone has the most opportunities, before people have set teams or go-to players—or editors have go-to writers—so now is the time to take that open jumper or pick up that big, scary story. The first two weeks are the best time to take chances and give yourself a reputation as a real player, on and off the court.

I got the most validating e-mail Saturday afternoon from Google, who wanted to congratulate me on my effort last week with a simple Google Alert: my name has shown up in four new Google search results this week—my four Missourian bylines.

Writing with the big kids

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At the end (almost) of my first week at the Columbia Missourian, I couldn’t be any happier with how things have gone.

I set out looking for a strong start and decided that meant publishing two articles this week, which I’m pleased to say I accomplished. Click on the links to find the two stories—first, Tuesday’s story about Missouri teacher’s associations and the “Facebook” law and Thursday’s breaking news story on the agreement between MU and the Missouri Symphony Society to lease the Missouri Theatre.

Though neither story is necessarily the biggest, hottest story on the site (that’s reserved for the Kahler trial), they’ve both been big learning experiences in terms of learning the basics like Django, budget line e-mails and remembering I still have class.

I mean, making the front page of the website helps the writers confidence too.

As an education reporter I’m lucky enough to have Liz Brixey as a beat editor, and she’s been a wonderfully candid editor for both stories and their ensuing updates. The opportunity to not only write and report on serious deadlines, but receive frank and constructive criticism about my stories has been an absolute blessing.

In just my first week I’ve written two stories, had my first General Assignment (GA) shift, been published in print and even retweeted by the Missourian! I’m happy to say I put any fears I had aside and dug right in to getting my hands dirty.

Hopefully I can keep things rolling through next week and pick up more valuable experience. Follow me on Twitter for updates and info about my stories throughout the week and keep an eye on this blog for more commentary about the experience.

“Doing”

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That uncomfortable time of year when they play pro-football on Friday nights and you reread your lease agreement and see you missed August 1st deadlines. It’s a beautiful time of year, in a way.

For students like me this week before school starts is just as much a start to a new year as January 1, except the break from school has been twice as long and half as productive. Internships have wound down and it’s time to move back out of the parents house—back to bills and responsibilities.

For me the thrill of moving back to Columbia this semester isn’t about having my first apartment, or whether or not the Big XII will outlast the new couch we bought, or seeing Sporting Kansas City makes the playoffs this year.

What I’m most excited about is the chance to get serious.

Although I entered my sequence in the spring, this semester is really my first as a true upperclassmen, and with that comes the opportunity to write for The Missourian. At the Missouri School of Journalism, The Missourian is where the big kids play, and for me, it’s where I get to start building my reputation as a serious writer and editor.

In my time with The Maneater, I got to expand on my basic reporting and editing skills. At The Park Record I got to the daily life of a community newspaper. And this summer at Sporting Kansas City added an arsenal of multimedia reporting and editing skills to my toolbox.

But in all honesty, much of (if not all) the success I have over the next two years at Mizzou rides on the impressions I make and success I find in my first semester at The Missourian.

Unlike my last few semesters, these next few months I’ll be spending my time “doing” instead of planning and chattering. I hope to spend all fall creating original content to share regularly on this blog, and frankly, that’s what it should have been all along.

So here’s to developing a voice of my own and proving I can do all that I’ve said I can.

The Dotte, Sporting—I thought I was on break?

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This week has been an exciting one, not only because it’s spring break (technically), but because of the work I’ve gotten into for the Wyandotte Daily News and Providence Publishing.

Yesterday afternoon I got the opportunity to go on a media tour of LIVESTRONG Sporting Park as a reporter for WDN. Of course it was also great to see the stadium during it’s construction as a future intern for Sporting Kansas City, but that was just an added perk of covering the event.

I’ve never gotten to go on a stadium tour before (it’s not exactly a common reporting experience, I suppose), but what was most unusual for me was that I was working halvesies as a reporter and photographer. Normally I would never dare touch a camera or try to shoot artsy pictures of construction but I gave it my best and I think the pictures turned out pretty well.

Because WDN operates as a daily web publication, the article went up this morning and you can check it out here: Construction on new KCK soccer stadium nearly finished

Today I also got the chance to leave my WDN job behind for an hour to meet with Sporting’s Executive Vice President Chris Wyche about my summer gig. During the meeting I got the opportunity to see the offices at the Crossroads and learn a bit about what it will mean to be a Sporting scriptwriter.

Needless to say, the countdown to SKC starts today and I couldn’t be more excited.