Despite being months out of school, I'm still relatively obsessed with teaching and learning. That's part of what makes journalism these days fun -- we learn about our subject matters, and we learn new tools for information display. But the training of new journos has a special place in my heart. Every day, I benefit from the teachers in my life at the LAT, and elsewhere in the community Read More...
UPDATE: More later, but if you missed the geekery and fantastic exchange of knowledge that you get with a phenomenally sharp, inquisitive and dedicated group like the #wjchatters, you can find the transcript here. Tomorrow, Wed. Sept. 8, we'll be discussing "Finding the story in the data" at #wjchat, and I have been tapped to host Read More...
http://projects.latimes.com/prop8 So, there's that. First launch! My checklist: Figure out what part of journalism inspires me. CHECK (Data, programming) Find place where I can learn about it from others, but have freedom to try out my ideas and learn from knowledgeable and patient folks Read More...
Today, the New York Times' David Carr came to speak at Medill. I've admired his work for some time, and he was just three floors above me, so I hopped on upstairs. While not directly data-related, he did talk about many topics relevant to the current journalistic climate. If that's not a good enough reason, it's my blog, so we're going on a diversion Read More...
As part of an ongoing quest to learn as much about programming and technical tools as I strive to learn about the beats I cover, I jumped at the opportunity to attend a Drupal training this evening. I didn't know this before today, but there is a robust Drupal user group here in Chicago, appropriately named the Chicago Drupal Meet Up Group Read More...
Picture it: You've been given a new story assignment, and you have to leave for the interview in five minutes. You've got to have enough background to ask the right questions, but there's no time to do research. Somehow pulling that all-nighter on an English term paper in college seems like a cakewalk Read More...
"Figure out what you want to do, and get really good at it." That's been the overarching advice I've heard in the past few weeks, as I seek to understand where I might fit in the "new media" world. It all sounds fine, although the more I meet interesting people who've been looking at data analysis and web presentation for a long time, the more it becomes apparent that getting "really good at it" is a lifelong endeavor Read More...
Oh, why can't we just get along? There's been a lot of talk recently about the cuts at the Washington Post of workers in the separate print and online departments. There's been an outpouring of comments on the nature of the news business due to this issue. Some say the web is all about presentation, and without print journalists, there won't be anything to post Read More...
I recently returned from my spring break trip to Paris. Besides my obligatory Eiffel Tower at sunset trips, eating copious amounts of escargots and pain au chocolat -- not together, obviously -- the other reason I was there was for an international media seminar trip with Northwestern. Meeting with foreign correspondents, online journalists, authors and marketers, we also had the opportunity to visit several media organizations -- newspapers and tv stations Read More...
As some of you may know, my reporting beat at Medill right now is medical research. One of my recent struggles has been fulfilling my class' requirements for taking pictures, which is tough to do when dealing with large Chicago hospitals. Perseverance can get you to speak to the chief of surgery, but it's very hard to get in the door to take a photo Read More...
Recent Comments — Join the Discussion!