Finding out how people want their news

It's a fast paced world and everyone's juggling more than they can handle. This is a major reason why newspapers have taken to the back burner. While on the run, there are mobile apps and websites that inform people for free. But what type of reporting do people like best? Would it be beneficial to actually walk around campus, interview students and faculty and find out how they would like to most conveniently get their news? It could be really telling and maybe on campus publications, like TNH or Main Street could get themselves more readers. It seems simple, but if we want journalism and news to become an important part of people's lives again, maybe we should just ask them how to do it. If thousands of people on campus and in surrounding communities are too busy to pay attention, journalists should get creative and find an efficient way into jam packed schedules. Do news gatherers like photos? Are they more likely to read shorter news clips or do they enjoy long form narratives that set the scene and give more detail? You never know if you don't ask, right?

Being my own entrepreneur

I have made it clear in class that I really want to take the next steps in pursuing a photography small business. Last night, I started a Flickr site which I'm starting to fill with my work. Uploading, organizing and labeling everything is more work than I thought it would be. An added source of confusion lies in the fact that I have never been trained in the use of Flickr. I think it is important, as a journalist and student, to start independent projects and learn new technology. Though it may sound unusual, I have begun to make a list of programs that I know will benefit me in my future work. iMovie, Final Cut Pro and Storify are just a few. As I talk with recent grads for a piece that I'm writing, many have let me take a look at their resumes. In each, it is common to see a list of programs that they are proficient in. These lists are always extensive, to say the least. I'm so impressed with how much they know and how regularly they call on these skills. I think being self taught is a great lesson to learn. There's obviously not enough time to learn everything in class and as I near the end of my formal education at UNH, I know there is always more to learn.

An idea for a new journalism class

I think it would be cool if UNH offered a beat reporting class. I remember Lisa Miller talking about how her first job, at the Gloucester Times, was all about covering everything that happened in the town of Rockport. As their town correspondent, she attended the meetings, events and random happenings. Even though some classes touch on such reporting, it would be an exciting challenge to take a whole semester (or split it half and half so students would get to know two communities) covering a certain beat. They could either choose, or pick beat topics out of a hat, depending on what the professor decides. Students would be forced to get creative in finding stories when the obvious ones were exhausted. Thorough reporting and the time to actually form relationships with people in their environment would be great practice. Students could choose what platform they wanted to tell their stories on. Storify, Word Press, Blogger, or anything else they may know. Skills in these programs would be developed as well as the tools of photography, audio and video recording. This may sound a lot like the digital journalism class, but it could be made into a higher level journalism class in which students are given more free range in telling a story the way they want to.

Poynter provides a glimmer of hope for up and coming journalists

In a recent article published by Poynter, they claim that the starting salary for journalism school graduates has risen to $41,000, on average. This news was reported based on data collected by the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the Wall Street Journal from 2012 grads. I'm really interested in why this has happened though. The article is more of a statistics report and does not provide much detail. I have emailed the writer and am hoping to get a response soon. I am genuinely curious of the answer, but the information could also help me in a piece that I'm writing for my independent study. My first long form narrative will be about what journalism majors are doing after they graduate, was the field what they expected it to be like and how did they achieve their current positions in a variety of publications. It seems like this Poynter piece may be a diamond in the rough for journalism students constantly bombarded with the pressures of standing out in the journalism field right after graduation. Honestly, we have been forewarned that we're not likely to make good money, especially in the beginning. It is a career rich in different payoffs. Update to follow.

An idea to save journalism.. kind of

As I try to think of an idea to save journalism, I’m wondering how many people actually sit down and think about such a thing. I think a site should be created in which journalists, or anyone actually, could post ideas they have about reinventing the field. This type of forum could be interesting because it allows those who may not have to means necessary to execute an idea, to meet and discuss their ideas with potential collaborators. I guess there could be a problem with people stealing each other’s ideas, but I guess it would be based around trust and the desire for just making journalism better. I’m not sure if this counts as an idea to directly save journalism, but I think the setup of a site like I described could be useful and produce some innovative concepts. 

Q&A

Where did the idea for the business originate?

We both love fashion and jewelry and weren’t finding exactly what we wanted at other stores. So we thought, why not just open our own business. We get to search different jewelry shows, mostly around Boston, and form a collection based on the season and what we find. The fall and winter collections are made up of darker colors while in the spring collection we introduced scarves and more nautical themed pieces.

Is it what you expected it to be like?

It’s a lot of work. That goes without saying. Especially cause we’re students too. Aside from going to people’s houses to put on jewelry shows, we have people ordering product from our website too. Keeping track of inventory, shipping things out and organizing orders is a lot to handle. But in the end, we love it. We really do. We had an idea of what we were in for, but actually executing a business comes with these unforeseen circumstances. At our first show at a sorority house, we brought enough bracelets for each girl to get one, assuming that maybe some wouldn’t be interested. Within a few minutes, the bowl of them was cleared out. That was our first lesson in product supply and demand. We had to feel a lot of things out and we’re still learning how to do things in the most effective way.

How has the balance between entrepreneur and student been?

We know that schoolwork has to come first, but our business means a lot to us. We don’t want to stop here. We have dreams of an eventual storefront and selling different things, like clothes.  Cal is a business major so there is a lot of overlap there and it’s actually cool that she gets to practice what she’s learning in her classes. While the balance is difficult, the business is time consuming to say the least and we have other jobs too, our schoolwork somehow always gets done.

What are some future goals?

We want to open our own storefront. That has been a goal since the beginning. With the winter or spring collection, we want to slowly introduce boutique style, upper end clothes. That’s a whole new learning curve. We were just getting use to the jewelry and now we’re upping the stakes even more. This will be much more of a cost investment. We’re currently looking into product and figuring out if this next step is realistic.

How has the business developed already from when you first started?

In the very beginning, we just sold bold, statement piece necklaces. This is what we liked to wear and owned in our personal jewelry collections. Then we added earrings that matched necklaces or were sold by themselves. Bracelets were next. They’re called Allie bracelets and they were an idea made to support UNH student Allie Pearl who was running the Boston Marathon on the Dana-Farber team. 20% of all proceeds went to her cause. Scarves came in the spring collection and next, hopefully clothes. We are really happy with how quickly we’ve found our place, established ourselves and built our collections. The support has been truly helpful and surely appreciated.

-Ashley Rozumek and Caleigh Adler, A La Plague owners

Photojournalism project idea

Because I love photography, I think a project based around photographing the news could be interesting. Though I’ve take a ton of pictures over time, I rarely set out in an attempt to do so in a photojournalistic manner.  For the project, I would pick an area, like Portsmouth or campus, and spend a few days photographing everything newsworthy. I would post them all on a blogger or word press site. I wouldn’t include captions or any background. I would rely completely on a series of carefully composed pictures to tell the stories. I can’t think of a publication that does anything exactly like this and if done well, I think it could turn out to be another way to successfully portray news. There would be an area for viewers to post comments and feedback on anything posted, and as the reporter, I could clear up anything that wasn’t made clear enough through pictures. A project like this would be great practice on taking the clear, effective pictures.

How the New York Times does photojournalism

I just discovered a new blog-style page by the New York Times. It’s called “Lens: photography, video and visual journalism”. The page is simple and made up of a slideshow of pictures and videos. For example, today, the first story I saw was about window washers who scale skyscrapers and put themselves in danger to get a job done. Well, any publication could produce a written piece about the challenges that come with the job. Pictures would even add to the story. But the Times took this to a whole new level. They sent a reporter out onto the ledge with a go-pro video camera and a microphone. The minute and half long clip isn’t so much about the act of widow washing, but about the experience of the reporter. The brief training and trust in something so foreign to a journalist is very important. Open mindedness also seems key in such a situation. The reporter even admits that when it was over, he had a big smile of his face because he got the shot that he needed for his piece. From this site I learn that you’ve got to get creative in storytelling. Entrepreneurs of journalism must think of ideas that are going to set them outside of the box and bring their pieces to a new level.

Making the school newspaper more relevant

My sister inspired an idea I have for newspapers on college campuses. She is a freshman at the University of Alabama. There has been plenty of news coverage in recent weeks about the evident problems with racial segregation. Tonight, she texted me asking to read over a piece of writing that she wants to send in to the school paper, The Crimson White, about the topic. I told her she might have a good chance since it’s so hot in the news right now. It would be interesting if there were an insert in the paper comprised of things that students send in. If they want to get the word out about an event or if they just want to make their opinion heard, it could be a useful outlet that provided a forum for discussion. If students wanted to react to anything they read in this section of the paper, they would be able to go to the online version and leave a comment there. The author and anyone else who comment would be alerted, via email, of any new comments so that the conversation could continue. I think some intellectual discussions could be cultivated. This seems like a good way to get busy students more involved in the news. If it’s relevant to their lives, they’re more likely to pick up a paper and chime with an opinion.