Read Write Speak

Women in the political arena the public and the media handles them differently. White House reporter, Anne Kornblut has followed Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin to examine how women are portrayed and how they handled themselves throughout their own respective campaigns. She has recently written a book called Notes From a Cracked Ceiling: Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin, What Will It Take For a Woman To Win.

Anne Kornblut joined students participating from the George Mason University Video Studio alone with Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-Span networks, and students from the University of Denver and Pace University.

Anne Kornblut worked at the New York Times and began following Hilary Clinton in 2006 as she was running for New York Senate. She then found herself at The Washington Post when Hilary began running for the presidency. Through following Clinton, this quickly led into other female politicians such as, Nancy Pelosi and Condoleezza Rice.

As women began to become more prominent than they had been in recent years Kornblat noticed that no one had covered these women before, “I thought it was worthwhile to take down what did happen because they were women, how they dealt with being women, which of course was historic for both sides and then to try and have some note for the future, lessons that can be relevant, if and when another woman runs.” Kornblat was a woman recording history so other women could succeed.

Kornblat noticed during her time watching powerful and important women in this country that they were treated very differently. During the moment when Hilary Clinton choked up right before the New Hampshire primary in 2008 Kornblat saw how the media reacted.

“And for just a couple seconds, it was very brief, she had tears in her eyes and she choked up” explained Kornblat, “Well, the incident was universally portrayed as her having melted down… And then there was a backlash because of it….She won the New Hampshire primary.”

Kornblat argues that the reason why Clinton won that primary was because she showed her personality at the moment. Clinton opened up and it made it possible for people to connect with her on a level that they had not done before.

Now the media went on a whirlwind calling Clinton weak and even John Edwards said, “That doesn’t seem very presidential to me”.  However, one candidate who would go on to win it all, President Barak Obama took a different attitude towards the women running against him in their respective campaigns.

Anne Kornblat saw from the press conferences where Obama was, that is the press tried to get a rude comment about either Hilary Clinton or Sarah Palin he would not do it. “And my understanding” states Kornblat, “is that he knew, that people would not respond well to a man attacking a woman.”

Kornblat argues that the media does that enough anyway: tearing down women. She explained the three different categories that a woman can be put into were an iron lady, a grandmother in pearls and a young mom were all short hand terms that would easily describe someone to the public.

“So yes stereotyping is bad,” defends Kornblat, “reducing anyone to a slogan isn’t always true to their complexities of who they are as a person, but that happens both to men and women in politics. So the trick really is for women to use that to their advantage.”

The distance learning course, which is produced by C-SPAN, is a unique opportunity for students to interview guests via video conference. The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.c-span.org/distance_learning/).

Journalism Next by Mark Briggs Chapter 8

The game has changed in more ways than one.Video cameras have become so easy to use that news organizations have created video journalists, or backpack journalists, who report, record and edit their own broadcast. It is multi-tasking to the nth degree.

“The quick and less polished video content on news sites,” explains author Mark Briggs, ” often draws bigger audiences.”

There are still different qualities of videography, but the majority of viewers don’t mind someone sitting at a desk talking to them through a webcam or a highly edited segment.

To plan a video story there are a few different ways to do it.

1. Breaking news: capture reactions from witnesses, investigators and the scene.

2. Press conferences: single, stationary subject that has good lighting because of other news teams.

3. Hightlight clips (in sports): just get actions shots that help convey the story.

4. Documentary-style video: you have more control of what you want the audience to see. You decide which interviews and scenes will make the most impact with your audience.

“A good ratio [of different shots],” comments Briggs, “would be 25 percent wide-angle, 25 percent close-up and 50 percent medium or mid-range shorts for the general footage.”

You can build these shots in five steps:

1. Close-up on the hands

2. Close-up on the face

3. Wide shot

4. Over-the-shoulder shot

5. Creative shot

If you want to start creating video content but you don’t have a video camera, here are some guidelines:

1. Media type: the camera could download to its hard drive, a memory card(or solid-state media).

2. High Definition: practically every camera at any price range comes with HD, so there’s no point not to.

3. Software: Final Cut Express HD, Adobe Premium Elements, Sony Vegas Movie Studio, Corel VideoStudio Pro X2, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate.

Must Haves

Tapes and Batteries

Microphones

Tripod

Headphones

Lighting

With a video story, Mark Briggs recommends to:

“Define your story in the first 20 seconds; hook the audience.”

“Make sure you have a beginning, middle and end.”

Don’t let the viewer have a chance to be bored.”

“Focus on one central idea and stick with it.”

“Remember that characters make stories. The better your characters, the better your stories will be.”

Chuck Todd, the MSNBC White House Correspondent and Indianan University political science professor Marjorie Hershey joined students participating from the George Mason University Video Studio alone with Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-Span networks, and students from the University of Denver and Pace University.

Both Chuck Todd and Marjorie Hershey reinforce that the American people are still trying to find their balance within the political spectrum of what they want politically or who they want to represent them.

“I think it’s remarkable,” states Chuck Todd, MSNBC White House Correspondent, “that we could have our third straight change election.”

Neither the Democratic and Republican parties have a secure footing in the upcoming elections. The American people understand that mid-term elections are change elections.

“We know and have known for 70 years that what ever party has won the most recent presidential election is going to lose and sometimes lose pretty substantially the next time around,” explains Marjorie Hershey, Indianan university professor, “and we haven’t seen so far that is going to be anything different.”

The election of a Republican to Ted Kennedy’s seat is a possible preview to what could happen in the elections in November.

“Anybody is vulnerable at this point” explains Chuck Todd.

The possibility of a third party immerging from the economic turmoil and political anger is a possibility as it always has been, but it is not likely to take a majority for a long time.

“It’s that 19 percent of the electorate that is swinging back and forth for the last 20 years,” states Chuck Todd, “And that they’ve been providing the margins of victories sometimes. And sometimes they are populous, sometimes it benefited the Republicans, sometimes it has benefitted the Democrats. But they haven’t sorted themselves out.”

“I agree that the seeds are there, but the ground is inhospitable. There is very little sun and no water” argues Marjorie Hershey a political scientist professor from Indiana University.

“When we talk about third parties we have to be really frank about what it takes for either a third party or an independent candidate to succeed” states Marjorie Hershey, “And the fact that one has not since the Republicans in 1860. We have had a very long dry spell. And there’s a good reason for that, and that’s because the Republicans and Democrats are the ones who make the rules as to how you get on the ballot, and how you raise money, and how you do virtually everything in American politics.”

So the American public is going to have to deal with the Republicans and the Democrats in the upcoming election and the issues that are already on the table. It is as if the public is stuck between a rock and a hard place because there are no good solutions out in the political world right now.

The distance learning course, which is produced by C-SPAN, is a unique opportunity for students to interview guests via video conference. The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.c-span.org/distance_learning/).

The Democratic Party was turned upside down when the “People’s Seat” was taken in an election by Republican Scott Brown.

The Democratic Party had been strutting around Washington DC for the past year considering what they were doing something for the people. The people, on the other hand, had a different idea.

The campaign of Martha Coakley, the democratic nominee in the Massachusetts election, was pasted together at the last minute and showed her in a different light than new-comer Republican Scott Brown. It was not a good light to be standing in.

“Steve Rothenberg a friend and a political handicapper said,” explains Chris Cilizza of TheFix in The Washington Post, “ that it is the biggest upset of his lifetime..so that spans about 50 odd years.”

“It is never just one thing,” comments Cilizza.

The myriad of problems with in Martha Coakley’s campaign, from her leaving to go on a ten day vacation during the campaign to meeting with lobbyists in Washington DC, were not helped by a great ad campaign run by Scott Brown.

“What he did,” said Cilizza, “effectively cast him as both a different kind of Republican and someone who understood the average concerns of the people of Massachusetts.”

Scott Brown portrayed himself as the outsider, and he effectively cast Martha Coakley as an insider who met with lobbyists and would do what the Democratic Party wanted her to do, instead of what the Massachusetts people wanted her to do.

This point was reinforced when President Obama went to Massachusetts to stir up support for Martha Coakley.

“So I hear her opponent is calling himself an Independent,” says President Obama, “well you’ve gotta look under the hood because what you learn makes you wonder.”

“It was in some ways a recognition by the president of how effective the ad has been” argued Cilizza, “The fact that the President of the United States 48 hours before voters were going to vote had to feel as though he had to rebut the image Scott Brown had set in the ad from the podium, shows the impact that it had in the race.”

In order for a political campaign to be successful the nominee needs to carry a continuous message from the time they start to the time the election comes around. It is necessary so the public will trust the nominee and understand his or her views.

Chris Cilizza is a blogger for The Washington Post and he joined students participating from the George Mason University Video Studio along with Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-SPAN networks, and students from the University of Denver and Pace University.

This is a distance learning course, which is produced by C-SPAN, is a unique opportunity for students to interview guests via video conference. The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.c-span.org/distance_learning/).

Journalism Next by Mark Briggs Chapter 11

The internet is a whole different animal than print. The internet is full of things to pull the audience away. So how do you get them in, in the first place?

Well you track the progress of your site and see which and what is getting the most traffic. This can be done through programs that count the page clicks. But most sports stories or celebrity stories are going to leave every other story in the dust. That doesn’t mean editors are going to make everyone do sports or celebrities.  It does mean though that editors are going to learn from how those stories grow to make your stories grow.

If you get a small percentage of the daily user community coming to your story online then great! Track it!

“Developing a culture to track and measure your work product is essential to competing in this data-driven world,” explains author Mark Briggs”…So, producing that product on a regular schedule is vital to a functioning business.”

Once you’ve identified the key things you need to track then you can track them with software called web analytics. This complies a database for you of click views on each page, if that is what you want.

After you’ve complied the data and see what you need to work then work on packaging your story to how the audience wants it. I’m not saying change it completely, just cater the headline so search engines can pick it up.

Then you can grow your audience through a multitude of things:

1. Content is king

2. Linking is queen

3. Title tags

4. HTML tags

5. video

6. and a little ‘tude.

Always be promoting your self.

” the top three priorities of Web publishing are distribution, distribution, distribution.”

If you link your articles to your Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, ect. more people will have access it and more people will read it. Send it out. Let people know. Social media is now a marketing tool that can be used to promote and as a news medium as well.

Journalism Next by Mark Briggs Chapter 10

It has always been said that a journalist’s dream is having their writing create a conversation. A two-way street of ideas and knowledge flowing back and forth. However, with the web taking over, people don’t always read through an article online or even find it to begin with.

“The most significant way that it [the internet] has change journalism,” says Patrick Thorton of Beatblogging.org, “is in how journalists and their communities can cover a beat.”

The interaction between the journalist and his/her information (the audience) is how the news gets out there faster.

When the audiences comments is when things get a little tricky. Due to the anonymity of the web, people feel that they can say whatever they want to matter how offensive it is.

The majority of comments are not useful to look at, but that one comment that hits home, editors have decided it is worth it. This is because the audience feels that the barrier is broken down now between them and the journalist and they like it!

“The audience,” writes Jack McElroy editor of Knoxville News Sentinel, “always choose the kind of journalism it wants–and it always will.”

To interact with the community journalists must take in this rule, because not everyone will contribute: the 1-10-100 rule.

“1 percent of the user community-including the journalists on news sites- create the content.”

“10 percent of the user community will “synthesize” the content by posting a comment, e-mailing a link to a friend, authoring a blog post on a separate site and linking back to it, voting it up or down, ect.”

“100 percent of the user community will benefit from the actions of the first two groups.”

Those rules above are the reasons why comments are allowed and how the user community affects everyone in it.

Journalism Next by Mark Briggs Chapter 3

As the digital age becomes more digital the journalism community is catching on and using it to its benefit. The audience wants to be more involved in their community and newspapers want to cover as much as possible. Hence a win-win situation.

Newspapers, blogs and other journalism mediums are using 3 new tools to harness their audience.

1. crowdsourcing

2. open-source reporting

3. pro-am journalism
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Crowdsourcing

“Crowdsourcing,” says author Mark Briggs, “harnesses the sustained power of community to improve a service or information base.”

Basically, crowdsourcing uses the reader base of an organization and asks them to contribute their knowledge on a topic.

“News organizations have used crowdsourcing,” explains Briggs,  “to find instances of voting problems, follow local distribution of disaster payments from the federal government and map potholes on city streets.”

Crowdsourcing taps into the reader’s knowledge and lends it self to the story. The audience knows more than just on reporter, so the more information given to the reporter the better the information sent out to the audience in the end will be.

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Open-Source Reporting

Open-source reporting gives the audience an insight into what a reporter is working on. It asks the audience for an opinion about the topic and the reporter can tailor the article to what the audience needs. It is a great way to find an angle that many members of an audience would find beneficial.

“When people see how the process works, “states Mark Briggs, “they are less likely to hang on to any perception that reporters are biased or operating with nefarious motives.”

It also gives the reporter plenty of sources to work from for an article topic.

“Here’s the story so far, ” says Jay Rosen, a New York University professor, “We’ve collected a lot of good information. Add your knowledge and make it better. Add money and make it happen. Work with us if you know things we don’t.”
Open-crowd sourcing has also led to ideas like: beatblogging and link journalism.

Beatblogging can allow the reporter to see what a particular audience set is interested in on an issue.

“A beat blog,” states Patrick Thorton, editor of BeatBlogging.org, “is a great way to find out what people are thing, and unlike the print edition that may run a few thought from readers, a beat blog can allow anyone to comment. Plus, users can interact with each other, share links and debate topics.”

Link journalism is when an article links to other sites on the web that has more detailed information about a topic. A great example is Google.

“All Google does is send people away from itself, “explains Mark Briggs, “And all people do is comeback.”

“Either way,”adds author Mark Briggs,  “they [links] provide value to readers, a layer of navigation that is a new form of journalism.”

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Pro-Am Journalism

Do It Yourself journalism has been making its way into the hearts of many online users because of easy and free publishing. Practically anyone, if they want to, can publish whatever they want. So newspapers, blogs and online news sites are latching on to the idea of making its audience works for them.

“audiences are going to be reporting everything from breaking news to church club events somewhere online, ” author Mark Briggs commented, “So, it might as well be happening on organization news sites, alongside their own reporting, thus providing a fuller selection of news and information for the audience.”

A great example of this is CNN’s iReport. They invite their audience to post pictures, videos and commentary on events in their community that are newsworthy.

Journalism Next by Mark Briggs Chapter 5

Being mobile means that a journalist has the tools to publish information anywhere.Cellphones have revolutionized journalism because they can take video, audio, pictures and text.

Cell phones are, “[a] cheaper, smaller more portable than other devices,” says author Mark Briggs, “like laptops, video cameras and digital still cameras.”

“Now that mobile devices capture quality photos and even video,” says Mark Briggs,” reporters don’t have to wait for photographer or camera crew to appear on the scene. And readers don’t have to wait for the firsthand coverage.”

When a journalist is making mobile journalism they must do two things

1. Keep it Simple

2. Be prepared

Things might just start happening at a political rally or a dog show so journalists must know the tools they brought and how to use them to capture the newsworthy events around them.If the journalist does not know how to use the tools they have, then they risk losing the information and that must always come first.

The deadline for the mobile journalists will never change, it is always right now.

Journalists must decide if they are either a gearhead or a lightpacker.

Either one a journalist decides to be, both will have a hard time publishing from the field. If anything journalists will use microblogging sites such as Twitter, or they will use liveblogging. Neither of these options allow the journalist to offer analysis of what is happening, but the audience will be given the information. The analysis will come later.

Along with mobile journalism comes the use of tools with mobile journalism, like mobile video.

“It put a TV studio in my pocket,” says Robert Scoble.

Thankfully just because these tools are available does not rule out the written word.

“Text is critical- and journalists can be thankful- it’s the easiest to publish,” says Briggs.

Journalism Next by Mark Briggs Chapter 6

Photography, out of all the mediums that have been changed, is the most affected by digital cameras.

“digital photography… lowered the bar on capturing images to the pint where anyone and everyone is a photographer,” says author Mark Briggs.

Digital photography is tricky, but can be learned and needs to be learned by journalists.

“photos full the audience right into the news”, says British reporter, Nicola Dowling.

Question: So what makes up a digital photograph?

Answer: Pixels and resolution.

Pixels and resolution can determine if the photo is clear or not depending on the level of each. Higher number of pixels and a high resolution make a very clear image.

BUT, a computer screen will not show more than a 72 pixels per in (ppi). SO there’s no point in uploading to a website an image larger than that, it will just waste the audience’s time and it will give the audience time to think about other things. Which is not what you want.

Everyone should understand the concept of plagiarism in regards to words. If they are not yours, do not take them. Same rule applies to photographs.

However, with the abundance of photographs out on the web a legal way of using them is to use photographs with a Creative Commons license. This means that you can use the image as long as you give credit to the photographer who took the image.

In digital photography there are two ways to take pictures:

1. a point-and-shoot camera: sold at most technology stores. The ones that most people use to take pictures in everyday life. They have one lens that is not detachable and usually very light. This camera is for most amateurs.

2. a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex):  normally considered a professional digital camera. detachable lens and body so the camera has a range of photographs that it can take.

“A great advantage of a digital camera,” says Mark Briggs, ” is the ability to review the photo on the camera’s screen immediately after snapping a picture.”

The photographer can see if they like the image or not and from there can take another picture. Immediately modifying their technique.

“It’s a simple numbers game:,” says Briggs, “the more shots you take, the better chance you have to get the one you want.”

After taking the picture most photographers edit their photographs, but with the Code of Ethics in mind.

” ‘Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images content and context,’ says the Code of Ethics of the National Press Photographers Association. ‘Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.”

Some simple rules to go by when editing:

1. Edit a copy of the photo-never the original.

2. Crop the photo.

3. Resize the picture.

4. Modify the resolution.

5. Tone and color correct the picture.

6. Save a Web version.

7. Keep it simple.

Journalism Next by Mark Briggs Chapter 9 Blog

“Data-Driven Journalism and Digitizing Your Life”

The amount of information on the internet is endless. If you get too sucked in you will become burned out and not want to look at the computer screen ever again. So, in order to keep yourself sane you must organize, organize, organize!

You must use the technology to your benefit. It might seem like a complete waste of time downloading more and more technology to organize your technology, but it will help!

Once you have that down, the next step is to capitalize on the new technology. In order to capitalize on the technology Mark Briggs refers to “Getting Things Done” author David Allen.

“The key,” says David Allen, “is to find as few solutions as possible that do as many of the things on your list as possible.”

Are you a productive worker? Check here.

Like any busy writer it is very important to have time to write! But you also must save what you write.

“It’s been said,” says Briggs, “that computer users come in two varieties: those who back up their data, and those who will.”

Backing up data is extremely important! Who wants to try to remember a 750 word blog post verbatim? Not me.

Briggs then discusses how to capitalize on technology and be the most productive writer you can be. You can use programs that are online or that are on your computer and sync with everything online. My favorite is using on that is online so I can access everything from wherever I am.

Databases

• Access broad information and find localized points
• Give the raw information to the audience for them to search for what they want to know
• From one or two databases they can grow into a “dynamic and growing data set”, explains Briggs
• If you use a computer algorithms to help analyze the data in the database it can help journalists find information that they need to create a newsworthy story.

Briggs used a great example of the Google Map Mashups. Google left the codes open for people to expand upon and put in information. So, newspapers can create code for a localized map and publish specific areas where a crime took place, or streets that are closed that day or areas that have no power.