TKleiner @ WJMC

Before I have to get ready for the gala I have sometime to catch up on my blog…

Wednesday:

          The speeches from both Chuck Todd, NBC White House Correspondent, and Andrew Flagel, one of the admissions deans at GMU were very informative and entertaining.

        Chuck Todd has such insight into the world of journalism. I found it interesting that he split up journalism into 3 categories: reporting, analyzing, and commentating. He shared that every journalist should be able to analyze that they report on, but commentating on it is a dangerous road to go down. He suggests that as young journalists that we don’t go straight into commentary, he thinks that if we do we won’t gain the credibility that we need to make it in the world of journalism. I think that this is a valid point. if someone first goes into the world of journalism making comments on everything, than it would be nearly impossible to go back and have people trust you as an objective reporter.

         While Chuck Todd’s speech was entertaing, yet informative, Dean Andrew Flagel took the entertainment factor of his speech and ran away with it. Despite the over-the-top facor of his speech, Flagel was very helpful, and gave me much guidence when it comes to the college admission process. I learned that we shouldn’t send too much to admissions office, like most things, they are looking for quality, not quantity.  I am, to some extent, going into the college admissions process blindly, I’ve done plenty of research, but I don’t necessairly have someone telling me what I need to do, the advice oin his speech, and on his blog is so helpful. His advice on making a list of 5-10 things that we want in a college was very valid, I plan on making my list soon to help me pick which college I want to go to.

         Although it was so great to learn from Chuck Todd and Andrew Flagel, the thing that most people were buzzing about on Wednesday evening, besides being able to change into comfy clothes : ), was that there was a shooting on Capitol Hill right after we left! There is still coinflicting information being reported, but the latest is that a man in a white Mecedes would not stop driving through on intersection, he hit a police officer. After chasing the man down and telling him to get out of his car, he would not drop his gun, so the police shot him, and he died. Thankfully, all of the WJMC students are fine!

I’ve been so tired that I’ve fallen behind in keeping up with my blog! I still want to write about my experiences from everyday though… here are my thoughts on Tuesday!

Tuesday:

     I thought that the panel at the National Press Club was very informative, yet still entertaining…but what was up with that man on his phone the whole time? I hope there was some major breaking news and that he wasn’t just playing Bejewled! I wouldn’t look to him for “proper business ettiquete!”

      I really enjoyed the opening remarks from the President of the National Press Club. It is always encourage to dee women in such prestigious roles. I plan on reading “Women on the Balcony,” the book she reccommended about how women’s rights and eqaulities have changed.

     Aside from the rude, cell-phone obsessed man, I really appreciated everyone on the panel at the NPC. The two biggest pieces of advice that I got from the panel were to become an expert on something and have your own “niche” in journalism, and INTERN INTERN INTERN! I’m not sure what type of journalism I want to go into, but I know that I love books and reading, maybe I could become a journalist the reports on the newest books, I could reveiw them, and the processes it took to write them. I never saw myself as a political journalist, but through my experience in the National Forensics League debating about many federal issues, and my experiences this week, I think that political journalism could be a good match for me. I think that their advice to “INTERN INTERN INTERN!” is very valuable, I have tried to get myself out there, writing for The Carroll County Times, and hosting a show on CETV 21, as much as possible.

      The group session after The Smithsonian Museums was really great! I love my “faculty member,” Amy, the kids she teaches are very lucky to have her! I learned about how I can become “accessible” to readers. It is important, in some way, to make your report relate back to “the people.” The most important thing in journalism is to answer the question, “so what?” If your issue or story doesn’t, in some way, relate back to people THROW IT OUT! In the group session, besides accessibility, we also talked about gaining a following. The path,  my interpretation of it atleast, that journalist should follow is to establish a routine, build a following, then stretch the limits. I think that that particular piece of advice will put me above the rest!

       After the group session, and dinner, we got to choose a speaker at the concurrent sessions. I choose Wendy Grossman, and I’m so glad I did! She talked to us about the differences between magazine reporting and newspaper reporting. I learned that magazine articles have to strive to find a differnt angle of a story because by the time a story is printed in a magazine it is usually “old news.” She also talked to us about the ins and outs of freelance journalism, something I’m very interested in. I also really loved hearing about all the celebrities she has met… I admit it, I am a celebrity gossip junkie!

      Tuesday was such a great day, and today was even better! Hopefully I can get fully caught up with my blogging when we have time to prepare for the “gala” tomorrow!

Can’t wait to sleep in until 7:30 tomorrow!

Since the site wasn’t working last night here’s my blog for Monday AND Tuesday!

Monday:

      I was confused by Wes Pippert’s  speech, I think that he had all good intentions, and by no means was he trying to confuse us… but his speech left me questioning what he truly thought. He spoke much about telling the truth and making sure to get all the facts and keep them straight…THEN he talked about stretching the truth, and “tweaking” it to allow the story a stronger impact on it’s readers. Although I stood and asked him to clarify his opinions, I’m still at a loss for what message exactly he was trying to convey. Should we tell the truth, and nothing but the truth at all times, or is it okay, as “artists of words” to stretch the truth to make a bigger impact.

      I could have spent the entire week in the Newseum, I loved it so much! There wasn’t one exhibit that I didn’t want to spend hours in. The “FotObama” exhibit was very interesting and shed great light upon our president and his amazing campaigning skills and relatability to the public. The exhibit with all of the newspapers from the 1500s to 2009 was one the coolest things I have ever seen. I wish that I could have spent the day in just that exhibit reading about how people reacted to and reported a certain story when it was breaking for the first time. The wall with the all of the front pages from 9/12/01 was heart-wrenching and hit very close to home. Although I don’t see myself as a photojournalist, the Pulitzer Prize winning photo gallery was captivating and thought-provoking.  The things that many of the photographers had to go through to get the pictures are unfathomable. I can’t imagine what I’d do in such situations. The picture and story that I found to be most interesting was a picture of a young African toddler huddled over from hunger with a vulture watching nearby, the photographer was told not to touch the people in the country so as to not contract any diseases. He did not pick up that little girl, and save her, but her memory could not escape him, less than a year later the man committed suicide, not being able to deal with his decision to just get the picture, and not help the little girl.

*I was planning on reflecting back on both Monday and Tuesday, but I’ve been up for far too long and I’m running on empty! More to come tomorrow, about both today, Tuesday, and, hopefully about, tomorrow, Wednesday!

I am so excited to be at the WJMC! I think that it is so great that there  are people from all over the country with similar interests to my own coming together in one place. From what I can tell the conference will be a great experience that I will gain much knowledge  from.

For the 2009-2010 school year I will be the editor of my high school’s newspaper, The Cavalier Courier. I am also a Youth Correspondent for my local paper, The Carroll County Times. This upcoming school year I will also be hosting a clip show, CETV Newsmakers: On the Positive side, on the local station. I also love listening to radio talk shows and find photojournalism to be very interesting. I know that I want to be involved in journalism, whether it be print, TV, photojournalism,or radio broadcast, and I am hoping that the conference will help me narrow down my interests, or find a way to incorporate them all into my career.

Since I am unsure of what type of journalism I want to persue, thoughout the week I will attempt to publish many different types of journalism on my blog. I think that in order to choose which path to take with journalism I need to continue to publish all types and learn more about them. I can’t wait for the WJMC to help me!

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