August 2011
84 posts
Sarah Eden Wallace sketches the AAJA Convention →
AAJA Ford Fellow Sarah Eden Wallace has sketched out her experiences at the 2011 AAJA Convention in Detroit. We’ve posted them, as well as her commentary, on the AAJA Convention Tumblr page!
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UNITY in Las Vegas!
It’s not too early to start thinking about the UNITY Journalists of Color Convention in Las Vegas next year! Save the date for Aug. 1-4, 2012. This will be the place to find a job in journalism, get the most innovative training in journalism and connect with your fellow Asian American, Hispanic and Native American journalists. Come find us at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Convention Center. To...
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Beyond AAJA: Fellows Connect on Social Media
You are unpacking from your AAJA experience in Detroit. You have tips on all things journalism, job leads, a stack of business cards and the desire to stay connected to your journalism peers.
In the last several hours, I read several e-mails from AAJA Ford Fellows who wished they had all met at the convention together and cultivated relationships.
So I created a Facebook Group for the fellows and...
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What Panels Should We See at the Next Convention?
How are you going to scale your website? What’s your revenue model? How much overhead does your startup have? These were just a few questions and issues that were thrown out during Friday’s panel, “Journalists As Entrepreneurs: A Pitchfest.” (While I didn’t attend that morning’s “Funding Innovative Ideas Workshop,” one person who attended both said they were very similar.) It’s notable...
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A Thank You To AAJA & the Ford Foundation
Though I’ve been a journalist for nearly half my life, this is my first year joining AAJA and my first convention. I wished I’d found my way to you sooner.
The incredible support, friendship, mentoring and fellowship I discovered here at my first AAJA convention felt like a homecoming of sorts. I’m new to AAJA but old timers and newbies alike made me feel welcomed, and being...
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Who Should Really Draw the Line in the Sand?
David Hunke, president and publisher of USA Today, was the keynote speaker at AAJA’s gala Saturday night. Hunke gave an impassioned speech about journalism’s core principles: justice, integrity, dignity, truth. He shared a story from his youth, when a young girl decided to “draw the line in the sand” against bullies. It seemed to resonate with all the attendees, who gave him a standing ovation at...
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IT'S A WRAP!
I spent my last day at the AAJA convention attending the “Through the Lens: Vincent Chin’’ photo exhibit and screening at the Chinese American Community Center in Madison Heights.
We were whisked from the hotel to the community center by a fleet of cars from Buick. Pretty impressive and (as my teens would say) cool. And, even more cool was the fact that right before the screening we were fed a...
Ford Foundation Blog wrapping up. Thanks for a...
Hi folks. Theodore Kim here. To all of our faithful Ford Foundation bloggers: Kudos to all of you for taking the time to blog about your thoughts and experiences. Many of your posts were thoughtful and illuminating.
We encourage you to consider cultivating your own blogs as it always seems to get the creative juices flowing. I’ll make one last sweep of our Tumblr inbox tonight, so if you...
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Thanks AAJA and Ford Foundation
Over the course of several days at the AAJA convention in Detroit, I attended six different workshops, reunited with old colleagues, developed new relationships, received some career advice and even found time to spend a few hours in Canada for the first time in my life.
Yet as I reflect on my convention experience from my home in Minneapolis, I have to say that I feel a renewed sense of passion...
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Convention is over -- and now what?
So folks are filtering back to homes, jobs and schools, and I have a couple more hours to spend at the RenCen before hopping a flight back to Sacramento. If you’re a little younger, like me, and leaving one of your first conventions, you might need to take a few minutes to wrap your head around everything you did and learned. Here are a few suggestions about things to do post-convention (after you...
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Tips for Great Visual Storytelling
Storyboard prior to shooting
Know the story you’re going to tell first
Avoid newspaper writing approach of stating the most important thing first - with video, build up to a climax and let it come down naturally. Answer questions by the end.
Don’t give away the story right away. Build up the surprise and interest early, add mystery, raise questions, and then wow them!
Good videos...
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Watchdog Journalism 101
On Thursday, I also attended a workshop on watchdog journalism. I initially thought the session would discuss the ethics of watchdog and investigative journalism in a digital age. Instead, a reporter, editor and executive from The Detroit Free Press presented a how-101 class. Jeff Taylor, a senior managing editor, said that even in an age where celebrity gossip generates thousands of hits on a...
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What's Your Risk Tolerance? What it Takes to...
I really enjoyed the session, “Working Abroad in Asia or Middle East,” because panelists openly shared personal, lengthy stories about cultural experiences in another country. Panelists emphasized, first of all, that being a good correspondent means knowing the logistics of working in a rural combat zone: how to dig a latrine, building a fire with no matches, making sure you...
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Day 4: Last day! HIghlights
It is a breezy and bright morning for a tour of The Henry Ford Museum. For the first time, I was able to come face-to-face with the chair where Lincoln was assassinated; the original Rosa Park bus (I was able to sit in the very spot!); the White House vehicle where the attempted assassination of President Reagan happened (including the bullet holes); and not to mention…my winning bid to see...
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Day 3: Highlights
Here are some highlights:
- Nokia N8 is a good basic camera.
- Google+ is a growing medium as competitor to Facebook.
- Did you know…that you can link Facebook and Twitter to talk to each other?
- To enhance memberships…try a monthly happy hour. D.C. Chapter gains 1 - 2 members per meet-up.
- Adobe Audition is available for $35 for non-profits.
- Resource:...
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BOOK IT DANO
FRIDAY: Needed a break from technolgy, so dropped in on session on “How to Write & Publish Your First Book.” Minal Hajralwala, author of “Leaving India: My Family’s Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents,” summed up the process in one sentence: It was hard!” All panelists discussed need to be disciplined and to set deadlines. Also a good agent can...
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Neat Tweets
FRIDAY: At social Media 1: Status Updates, Tweeks and Geo-What? At last a remedial session for dinosaurs like me. Owen Lei from KING-TV, Jewel Gopawani with Detroit Free Press and AllisonLooney, technology recruiter from Gannett gave an overview of Face Book and Twitter. The session was advertised for newies — and they kept their word They explained how Face Book and Twitter work,...
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What's Next?
Thursday: Checking out “What’s Next for Journalists After the Newsroom?” Blown away by the number of young people in the room. It does not bode well for the 50-Somethings like me if these 20-Somethings are now thinking about life after the newsroom. Panelists Varon Brown, Katherine Lewis, Jennifer Chung and Moderator Ling Liu shared their stories about why they left the...
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The RenCen
The strange and beautiful building where we’re holding the convention this year is the Renaissance Center. This city within a city was designed by John Portman in 1976. GM bought it for less than the cost of construction, and then sank a half billion dollars into it. The effect? AAJAers feel like they’re living in a science fiction movies for four days in 2011.
— Shawn Wen
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Stepping forward with fellowships
Imagine journalism with more freedom for ideas and coverage, without the pressures of audience and finance, and a sea of resources at your feet. This is the utopic world of fellowships.
I was so surprised to see such a lack of bleakness in the faces of the panelists as they talked about the opportunities and funding offered by their endowments. Their key tips: Honesty. Write your essays from...
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One strand to another: Ideas, Skills and...
One thing I cherish at AAJA conventions is making connections, between skills learned in one workshop to those in another, tightening strands of ideas I’ve been ruminating awhile and then talking them over with friends old and new.
In Friday’s “Google For Journalists,” Sean Carlson showed how multiple data points can be drawn together in all kinds of maps and graphics to...
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Focus - Clarity and Concentration in the Digital...
Reflection can help bring what we experience into focus, but making time for it seems so tough in these times.
That’s why the opportunity - thanks to the Ford Foundation’s support - is so very appreciated for us fellows to attend workshops at AAJA to develop our digital skills and share them with our chapters.
For me, each day seems to bring a running theme in what I learn and...
At the Daily Grind session...
At the Daily Grind session today we talked about how to keep long ongoing stories fresh. Since it is a long story it is a good idea to have a timeline of what happens so that it is a constant record easy to access so anyone who picks up the story can follow. Another good idea is to have the boilerplate, which is the basic part of the story. — Linda Dela Cruz
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What's Next?
It’s a question that many people are asking at the Asian American Journalists Association conference this year. What’s next? For newspapers? For myself? That was the question I was set on exploring today. And it seems many others were asking that question, as well.
I started off chatting with Joe Grimm, recruiter extraordinaire, formerly of the Detroit Free Press and now with Michigan...
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“How to write & publish your first book”
The Friday afternoon session on how to publish a book was truly exciting and insightful, providing me with a big picture of publishing process, how to write the book proposal and how to approach publishing houses. One of the most important keys to become a published author may be finding the right agent for you. There are some authors who wrote the New York Times bestselling books without helps of...
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Journalism fellowships
Until a couple years ago, I had never even heard of a journalism fellowship. I had seen some flyers at previous conventions but never thought to find out more information as I was so focused on attending workshops, networking, and finding a job. On a whim and at the advice of my friend, Brian, I sat in on the “Retool, Rethink, & Recharge with a Journalism Fellowship” panel.
I was fascinated...
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Tips for breaking into multimedia journalism
For those aspiring journalists looking to break into multimedia journalism, Marc Kawanishi, an instructor at Media Mission International, offered some great tips at the Visual Storytelling III workshop.
For those who are just graduating from school, Kawanishi emphasized the importance of a strong GPA. He reminded us that this signifies potential to employers and the ability to problem solve. Even...
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How to make the switch from print to broadcast...
It was encouraging to attend the workshop, “From Print to Broadcast: Be Ev,erywhere and Be Successful” and know there is hope for a dyed-in-the-wool newspaper reporter like me , that I can make the transition to working in radio or TV.
Presenter Kim Mullen, who started her career as a freelance writer, was able to parlay her investigative reporting expertise into TV. KIm Bui was a...
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Keep Eyes Open
This morning I attended the general membership meeting. To be honest, I am a new member and it was the first time for me. It was a good opportunity for every new member like me to understand how AAJA worked. We began to know each other , recognized the president of each chapter , understood the challenges we had and the prizes we won. One thing impressed me most is the Broadcast Mentor Program....
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From pitching story ideas to pitching book ideas...
From the blog of Analisa Nazareno: http://analisawrites.wordpress.com
For many journalists in transition, navigating new terrain has meant learning to pitch ideas to venture capitalists and book agents.
With skills in cold-calling executives and politicians, communication with people from all walks of life, and with daily experience pitching story ideas, journalists are more adept at making that...
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Writing a Novel
Becoming a published author has been condensed to 12 easy steps by author Minal Hajratwala. 1. Have a genius idea 2. Initial reporting and research 3. Write a book proposal 4. Write query letter 5. Research literary agents 6. Send query, then proposal to agent(s) 7. Sign on with agent 8. Revise book proposal 9. Agent sends proposal to publishers 10. Get contract; do math—can I quit my...
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Diary of a Digital Dinosaur
Diary of a Digital Dinosaur
Here’s the Dodo Bird Discoveries du jour:
At the Social Media I workshop, Jewel Gopwani of the Detroit Free Press said pick a short Twitter name so it doesn’t cut off in retweets. In fact, she recommends only tweeting 120 characters so text isn’t cut off when people retweet.
At Becoming a Social Media Maven, an NPR journalist said he uses LinkedIn...
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CLOSE TO HOME
When I saw the topic for the Friday morning plenary I had to get up early and make the session. “Born Across Borders: How Adoption is Reshaping the Asian American Community” hit home for me.
You see, my husband and I have two children who were adopted from Korea. Zachary, 19, was the product of a Korean birthmother and, although his paternity is not clear, we think his birthfather was an American...
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"The Audio Cut" - Helpful Tips from NPR
Trying to branch out a little, I spent part of Friday morning at “NPR’s The Audio Cut.” One of the questions/problems I’ve seen come up in print, when other forms of media enter the conversation, is: How do you put together a video or audio piece in addition to a print story, making sure that it in some way augments the print story? Going into the workshop this morning with...
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Screening of "Who Killed Vincent Chin? "
A powerful, extremely moving film that spawned an Asian American civil rights movement.
You will walk away from this movie with a deeper sense of pride and appreciation for what it means to be Asian in this country. It’s impossible not to. Christine Choy did an amazing job of directing this film.
During the Q and A session with the panel, Choy explained how she was able to convince Ronald...
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Retool, Rethink and Recharge With a Journalism...
How can journalists position themselves more effectively in this ever-changing environment? That was one of the topics at the journalism fellowship workshop.
Harvard University, University of Michigan and Stanford University all offer a 10-month journalism fellowship for mid-career and veteran journalists. All of the panelists expressed how important it is for applicants to have strong letters of...
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Get ready to pitch
I spent the day at a combination of Social Media and technology sessions and entrepreneurism.
Key takeaways that resonated for me:
- If you have an idea, write it down. Talk to others about it and get feedback. It can help you identify holes and opportunities.
-Personal passion is important. If you at first fail (and you probably will, based on statistics), you will be more likely to find...
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Writing & Publishing Your First Book
Most of us who write for a living have thought about writing a book. Hearing from four working journos who have done just that and how they broke down the process makes it seem more like an achievable goal.
Cheryl Lu -Lien Tan, a fashion writer in NYC, came to book idea when she went back to Singapore to learn her late grandmother’s recipe for pineapple tart. Mei-Ling Hopgood took ten...
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Funding Innovative Ideas Workshop: A Summary
Talk to most people who have left a traditional news organization and they’ll tell you that news is a dying business with a dying business model.
Not a rosy outlook for the profession many of us chose.
But at the Friday morning workshop entitled “The New U” Entrepreneur Project: Funding Innovative Ideas Worskshop, the message was clear: Get out now! And, we’ll teach you how to do it.
That’s...
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It's not graphics anymore
Thursday: Attended session called Data Visualization: It’s Alive! Data Presentations That Won’t Bore Readers to Death. Fascinating presentation by Sanjay Bhatt with Seattle Times reporter, Matt Stiles, database reporting coordinator, National Public Radio’s State Impact Project and Sha Hwang, Data Visualization with Stamen. Sanjay says visualization is simply a reincarnation of what we used to...
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Fellowships For Journalists
This is precisely why I wanted to attend the AAJA convention: to get exposed to ideas I would never have considered before - like a 10-month fellowship that could help me recharge my batteries and create a new vision pf myself as a journalist.
Phuong Ly, a freelancer, won a fellowship to Stanford which led her to found a non-profit that is getting the attention of major foundations. She says her...
Reminder: Your Tumblr posts require a sliver of...
Hi folks. Here’s a reminder that your Tumblr posts don’t post immediately. Once you press ‘submit,’ your content is received in our inbox. We’ll post it as soon as we get the chance. Thanks for your patience!
— Theodore Kim | @TheoTypes
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Speed Writing For Multiple Platforms
Speedwriting for multiple platforms seems contingent on preparation, organizing your time and using the applications that save time and effort.
Sharon Chan’s (Seattle Times) use of analytics to determine when to blog to garner the most eyeballs, she said, also helped organize her day better, while apps like Timely made it easier to schedule tweets so she wasn’t burning out her entire...
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Going through new Google tools
Translations, time stamps, trending searches, oh, my. The Google for Journalists session provided a mother load of new web tools to help with reporting.
The broad range and depth of the translation service was impressive. Who knew the computer engine could help translate documents in so many languages and also initiate interactive chats with people speaking two different languages?
Sean Carlson,...
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Taking baby steps into social media
At a session geared towards social media newbies, panelists Owen Lei of King-TV, Jewel Gopwani of the Detroit Free Press and Allison Looney of Gannett set a reassuring and encouraging tone.
“You have to educate yourself and take baby steps,” Looney said. “You’ll be going to the next level and then the next one after that. Before you know it, you’ll be educating other...
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The Future of Journalism: Is Journalism a...
Thursday workshop One of the main things that stuck in my head from this workshop came from Torey Malatia, president and CEO of Chicago Public Media. He said: “What is the key thing that makes you stand out? Whatever it is, it cannot fail.” I thought that was such good advice, because as a journalist, our entire career depends on how credible we are. But ultimately, the workshop was...
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"Let's give 'em something to talk about"
Yesterday, I attended the Multiplatform Reporting session with Victoria Lim. These days like she said, you would be considered a “one-trick pony” if the words “Facebook” or “Twitter” aren’t in your commonplace vocabulary.
What I wanted to know was how do you balance the legacy media, basically what you are contract-wise paid to do, and the new...
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Big 5: The Secret Sauce of Radio Reporting
As a video journalist I had the rare opportunity to walk in the shoes of a radio reporter. It happened here at Detroit’s WDET-FM. That’s where NPRs pros held an audio storytelling workshop. My five journalism colleagues and I got great tips, played with gear and then went out the door with an assignment in hand. After a 7-hour day, we each had a nearly complete radio story ready to hit the...
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DIGITAL KNOW HOW?
I started Thursday at the ”The Future of Journalism: Going Mobile’’ sponsored by Yahoo. I learned about apps vs. websites vs. mobile; flipboard; tagwhat; layr.com. But most of all I learned that I am way behind when it comes to knowledge on the newest technology.
I now have the encyclopedia-size “The Yahoo! Style Guide” and lots of research to do when I get home to TRY and bring myself up to...
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Summary: Surviving Small Markets
As someone who has considered moving to a small market to report TV news, I think the tips below — shared at the Aug. 11 Surviving Small Markets panel – are helpful for TV reporters looking to secure their first or second gig.
SPEAKERS: Priscilla Luong, Morning Reporter, FOX-25, Jam Sardar, TV News Director WLNS; and Maria Hechanova, Morning Reporter, WLNS-TV
Jam Sardar:
• “If it says ‘no...