AAJA Experiences

To survive in a small market, applicants for the shoestring budget of news broadcast operations, sticking to fundamentals should never go out of style.

Jam Sadar, TV news director for WLNS, a CBS affiliate in Lansing, Michigan, during a lecture on “Surviving Small Market” said Thursday the first thing job seekers should do to get his attention is to spell his name correctly.

“If the applicant cannot even spell my name right, how will I know that he will make his story right?” Ms. Sadar asked rhetorically.

Applicants should make some unique presentation in their application to get the news director’s attention.

If the applicant sent in taped resume, he must be able to convince the viewer in just 10 seconds of the tape if he has what it takes to get the job.

“After the first 10 seconds going into the tape,” Sadar said, “the taped resume should spell out if the rest of the tape should be viewable at all.”

On one hand, Priscilla Luong, a reporter for Fox25 and CW34 of Oklahoma City, said she battles loneliness of her job by making lots of friends and networking.

The Vietnamese American said that everybody should keep in mind that if you leave your family, your boyfriend or your girlfriend behind, you should always feel that they would be there for you even if they were far away.
“Always treat your job as part of your adventure,” she rationalizes.

For her part, Maria Hechanova, reporter at KYMA-TV News 11, the NBC affiliate in Yuma, Arizona, said working in a small market station is tough as she felt alienated from her relatives when her job application was accepted as she left her friendly confines in Phoenix, Arizona.

“You have to face two-step battle as you transition to your new job,” Ms. Hechanova, a Filipino American, said. “First, losing people and finding that second job.”

It took her two years to prepare her taped resume, taking live shots. While she put things together, she was and is always having an open mind to criticisms of her demeanor in and out of her job’s lifestyle, by listening intently to her missteps.

While her contract expires in three years, she develops some anxiety two years into her job as she starts to make plans to jump into a “bigger” market. Her anxiety becomes acute as she develops the “the people’s trust and you create from them people’s respect.”

Ms. Hechanova turned emotional when she said her Mom called her a week after she got a new job, telling her that her Dad was very sick. Her father died last July 22^nd.

She thanked the Asian American Journalists Association, which helped her cope up with her problems.

But what cheers her up in Yuma is a group Filipino Americans, who always invite her to their event, which always serves her favorite Filipino delicacies.

She always feels that career is a marathon, where you develop your skills as you linger on your job. But she is still keeping her options open if she wants to pick up the anchor job of her dream. 

Joseph G. Lariosa, AAJA Chicago Chapter

Some bullet points for today’s sessions:

• There are many options in social media when choosing platforms to communicate your story/message, but just because they’re out there, available and most times free, it is also important to consider what NOT to use.
• Video Resumes - Emailing a link when applying for open positions are a faster avenue vs sending in a DVD; 3 stories are good measure; Place hard feature(s) first; You have 10 secs to make a lasting impression; Total montage should be less than 1 min.
• Television Photography How-to’s - http://www.b-roll.net/today/
• Documentaries How-to’s - http://mediastorm.com//

— Amy Pholphiboun

Today’s workshop “Working Abroad in Asia or Middle East” hosted very experienced international reporters covering topics ranging from foreign affairs to business/finance. Overall, my impression was that, if you are an American trained with journalism skills, the door is pretty much open to you. Familiarity with local culture and language skill is a must but totally attainable. Business and finance stories, the main subjects in Asia, may sound difficult for those without business background, but it is also just a matter of practice. All you need is passion for international reporting and perhaps a little bit of commitment and risk-taking. 

Scott Tong (reporter for Marketplace) was covering economic topics in China as bureau chief in Shanghai. Scott emphasized that the world is changing so rapidly but the US politics is so behind the global economic and cultural trends. He points out that the US don’t have many global citizens and the US needs a broader world view. 

Kevin Krolicki (Detroit Bureau Chief, Reuters News) was based in Tokyo for 12 years covering business and financial news. Kevin pointed out some of the key success factors as an international reporter, including familiarity with local culture and language and being savvy with what your audience want to know (not only those in the US but also other international readers). He emphasized that all these cultural traits can be learned, just as he became so fluent in the Japanese language by studying at a college there (obviously, many of the Asian American journalists have the advantage of being a bilingual or trilingual in the first place). 

Tomoko Hosaka (Tokyo correspondent for the Associated Press and the moderator of today’s session) encouraged the audience to work in Asia as there are a lot of opportunities if you are trained with American journalism education. Particularly, there may be many jobs for freelancers because only a handful English-language media has enough resources to cover news with their fulltime correspondents. Business and finance news are the main subject in Asia, but Tomoko-san encouraged the audience not to be scared of financial terms such as CDS (Credit Default Swap) because you can quickly learn all those financial concepts and fully able to cover such topics. 

Koji Takahashi – AAJA Asia Chapter

I thought Robert Hernandez, one of the presenters for the “Choosing the Best Platform for Your Story” used an interesting tool (TypeWith.me) to get the workshop attendees (or at least the ones who had laptops or smartphones with them) to participate in the presentation. Maybe TypeWith.me has been used at other conferences or used by different groups to collaborate on a single document, but I found it a concrete demonstration of how online interactivity could be created.

I can’t really imagine that any reporter would be writing a story in which readers could either contribute or comment as it is being written but maybe it could be a tool in which a team of reporters can work collaboratively in writing a story without having to be physically close to each other.

In another workshop, “Data Visualization: It’s Alive!” Sanjay Bhatt, a reporter with the Seattle Times, showed that numbers, statistics, and other data don’t have to be boring, and that data visualization “can be used as a reporting tool, not just as a presentation tool.”  He presented  examples of tables and graphics which had additional information embedded in them, which readers can access by clicking on certain spots.

He also indicated that there were existing software and programs (Tableau, Many Eyes) that reporters can use to create interactive graphics, and suggested that writers at least learn to use Javascript. He noted that one of his pet peeves is the use of pie graphs and 3D graphics. The panel also provided an URL: http:bit.ly/aajaviz which listed different programs that could be used for data visualization.

Tillie Fong (Denver, CO)

From the blog of Analisa Nazareno, analisawrites.wordpress.com/

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 State University School of Journalism, among other organizations, for his thoughts on what might come next for me. Joe is a straight-shooter, a clear thinker, and a good man. If someone can offer great advice with the best of intentions, it’s Joe.

I’m a freelance writer and life circumstances nudged me to stay at home with my daughter and to quit my newspaper job, just a few months before major layoffs and buyouts hit my newspaper in San Antonio. I had some ambivalence about the move, because I had invested so much in my career — 12 years of my life — to a newspaper career. Like many journalists, I had paid my dues, working free in some cases, to build a portfolio. I hopscotched across the nation to parlay experience into more experience, knowledge into more knowledge, and connections into more connections. I had given up a lot to stay home with my daughter. And I grieved those years and the career.

But chatting with Joe Grimm and others formerly — and currently — in the newspaper business buoyed my morale and helped give me a new perspective. Many of us are in the same place, wondering how to parlay years, decades, dozens of years of newspaper experience… into something else. And my colleagues still in newspapers are riding the newspaper wave as far and as long as they can, but working harder, under strained conditions, and wondering when the gig will end.

Joe glanced my resume, my client list, and my work history and said: You’re doing fine. You have autonomy over your life and your schedule. You’re doing what you need to do. Whatever you do, you’ll be fine. It was simple and straightforward. I’m still wondering what I will do next, but Joe’s simple words of encouragement were reassuring. I didn’t get closer to answering some questions — Grad school, law school, business school, no school? for example. But, he helped me come back to a notion that I know intuitively to be true. Do your best every day to do the right thing and make the right decisions, and everything will be fine.

Later in the day, I attended a workshop that seemed tailor-fit to my circumstance: What’s Next for Journalists After the Newsroom. There were many of us, sitting in this workshop, listening to former Time Magazine Hong Kong bureau writer, Ling Woo Liu, as she described her transition to nonprofit director, and then go on to cite some grim statistics. So far this year, 2,005 newspaper journalists have lost jobs. We seem on track to matching last year’s losses of 3,000 jobs. But, this is significantly better than 2009, when 15,000 people lost their newspaper position, and 2008, when 16,000 journalists were left scrambling for a Plan B.

And while the prospect of losing not just a job, but your career and self-identity, can be a frightening one, Liu and the other panelists — a freelancer, a public relations director, and broadcast communications manager — reassured us that life can be good.

My take-away from the day’s discussions is this: Make the best decisions about your life, your future, your career, and your family at the moment and don’t look back. Just keep going forward.

It was a culinary learning experience for me to be treated to a finger food courses last Wednesday night at the Adonis Restaurant by the Arab American National Museum in suburban Dearborn, Michigan.

Take the hummus dipped in chickpeas or the tabouli with parley, both favorite delicacies from Iraq. Or the falafel, the national dish in the Middle East.

It was the first time that I had baptism of taste of these delicacies but it was all worth the 15-minute trip to the first museum in the world devoted to Arab American history and culture.

My stay at the American museum devoted to the 22-nation region that brought to the world among others Lebanese American singer/songwriter Paul Anka, Syrian Jewish American singer and dancer Paula Abdul and Syrian American Apple co-founder Steve Jobs gave me even more pleasant surprises.

MANY SIMILARITIES 

For instance, it was there that I realized that although the differences are always overhyped, there are many similarities among Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Among others, all these religions were derived from Abrahamic religions – all believe that Prophet Abraham was the leader of the belief one God; all these have roots from the Arab world; all are monotheistic religion – the belief that there is only one God; all recognize a holy book considered to be the word of God (for Jews, it is the Torah; for Christians, the Bible; and for Muslims (Islams), the Qu’ran); all have a creation story in which God created the universe out of nothing; all believe that God sent prophets to spread the word; all believe that individuals will be held accountable for their actions; and all believe in charity, with the requirement of giving to those in need.

Arab Americans are considered an ethnic group that comprises approximately 1.5% of the population. Arab Americans, and Arabs in general, comprise a highly diverse amalgam of groups with differing ancestral origins, religious backgrounds and historic identities. Instead, the ties that bind are a shared heritage by virtue of common linguistic, cultural, and political traditions.

In a couple of weeks, attention would be refocused on the Arab World when the United States would commemorate the 10^th anniversary of 9/11.

My visit to the Arab American National Museum was simply a perception changer for me.

Joseph G. Lariosa, AAJA Chicago Chapter

“All right stop, collaborate and listen.”

- Vanilla Ice, “Ice, Ice Baby.”

Those lyrics, quoted by AAJA presenter/USC Annenberg assistant professor Robert Hernandez, on Thursday, pretty much sums up the great lessons I learned today at “The Future of Journalism: Going Mobile” and “Choosing the Best Platform for Your Story.”

The panelists offered a plethora of advice on different websites to check out for unique multimedia projects, such as www.pushpoppress.com - an interactive site that accompanies Al Gore’s latest environmental work, “Our Choice,” www.sophieproject.org, an open-source multimedia book publishing program, and www.tagwhat.com a site that creates informational overlays.

Speaker Paul Niwa, a journalism professor from Emerson College, pointed out that some of these tools do not require a lot of computer programming skills or tech savvy to create interactive multimedia projects to enhance stories and present information in a unique way.

Hernandez and Gil Asakawa, manager of student media at the University of Colorado at Boulder, encouraged the audience to experiment and play around with different social media and multimedia programs and become comfortable with using many different platforms to try and engage readers.  

Another place to look for innovative interactive multimedia presentations would be the advertising/commercial sector - such as the movie industry and big-name product sites like Nike, according to Nancy Andrews, the managing editor for digital media at The Detroit Free Press.

Michelle Lee

Who killed Vincent Chin ? The answer is obvious. However, there are something more than the simply answer. Today I find more in the Retrospect event. It is time to struggle civil right for Asian Americans. Vincent Chin is not the first journalist murdered , and it may not be the last one. We should remember it, and encourage more to fight for justice. As a Chinese student studying in the U.S, I work pretty hard .This is the same situation for all Asian American journalists . How could we find our own position in the media industry?  AAJA provide me an opportunity to learn the skills .Thank AAJA! 

— Xinjuan Deng

Thursday: Seems fitting that I attend the session on “The Future of Journalism: Going Mobile.” Eye-opening discussion on where the industry is headed. Forget on-line newspapers, we will soon be getting our news via APPs on our mobile phones. Most telling was panelist Harry Lin’s comment: “IT is not the NEW media any more. Lin, who is exxecutive-in-residence with IDEAL LAB says movile media is simply the next step in the progression from online. And what was once called new media is simply considered mainstream. Panelist Paul Niwsa, professor of journalism at Emerson College. wanted to dispel the “magic” of the IPAD and Apps. He showned attendees some mobile apps that we may all be using some day. The technology is so far advanced, Niwa says almost anyojne can create his or her own app — without having to know how to write a single program.

]Moderator Gil Asakawa, manager of student media at University of Colorado, pointed out that as journalists we need to know how mobile apps apply to what we need and what we do. But, he said, the typical newsroom is filled with people who don[‘t like change.

He’s right. It seems the older I get, the harder it is for me to adapt. But I’m ready for a change.

Esther Wu

Texas AAJA

Arrived Wednesday just in time to make the Opening Reception. Awesome Community Group! Was great to see so many familiar faces, but can’t help but reflect on the changes in our industry. Thanks to the Ford Foundation and AAJA, I hope to catch up with the NEW MEDIA. Ironically as i was channel surving back at the hotel, I caught CNN’s coverage of “Social Netwroking and the Judicial System.” in a nutshell, former federal judge said social network is unreliable source of information. Communications Prof  says this is the way of the future and we’d better learn to deal with it. She has a point. It’s time I jump into the Social Networking Pool!

Esther Wu

Texas AAJA

What’s next for journalists after the newsroom?

This was a valuable and informative workshop helmed by Ling Woo Lio, the director of the Fred Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights; Laura Varon Brown, director of communications for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan; Katherine Lewis, a freelance writer; and Jennifer Quong Chung, the broadcast communication manager for the Toyota Video Production Center. The presenters discussed how their journalism careers helped them obtain non-industry jobs, like: freelancing, PR, media consulting, communications training, non-profit work, government, publishing, teaching, film/photography, etc.

The panelists had a combined history of nearly 50 years in journalism, but with the exception of Lewis, are all pretty much out of the game, working – as we like to say – a “real job.”

Brown spent nearly 20 years at the Detroit Free Press before she was laid off in 2009. Since then, she’s joined the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Brown mentioned losing her identity as a journalist was a difficult process. So many of us associate our professions with our identity, whether it’s a byline or a sig out, so having lost that title was a challenge that can still sometimes surface.

Liu, the moderator of the panel, worked for Time Magazine, the AP, and several broadcast and print media in Asia and the US. Liu said she used her old story connections and sources to help her discover new opportunities.

Lewis freelances for a variety of media, including Fortune.com, MSN Money, and the New York Times. Like Liu, Lewis stressed the importance of using her old connections to find new stories to develop to pitch to potential publications. She also mentioned not to be afraid to ask others for work. Pride, of course, can always get in the way of that. As a freelancer, Liu believes it’s important to have the confidence not to accept any job that comes your way, because that could be time and effort better used in another arena. For instance, it’s better to write one great query letter than three generic ones. She said there are three main guidelines to live by as a full-time freelancer: have a steady gig on the side (e.g. – bartending or anything that can pay some bills if the gigs stop); track what you’re doing, this can help break down rates by the hour; lastly, to always be looking for clients. Some freelance websites she suggested include: mediabistro.com, upod.com, and the website for the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

Chung worked for CBS, KTLA, KNX, and other media before joining Toyota. She said she hires freelancers all the time for video and lighting purposes. When hiring, she analyzes if people can think quickly and conceptualize problems and solutions; has them take an AP writing test; and makes sure they understand technology and necessary equipment. Chung also mentioned the corporate world involves more group decision-making skills.

Overall, the presenters agreed that the transition to a non-journalism position takes time mentally. Adapting to a new environment outside daily deadlines can be the most rewarding position we never imagined, but it’s still an adjustment.

— Cary Chow

First off, much thanks to the Ford Foundation. This year’s AAJA convention falls during a pivotal career point for many and attendance would probably have been in jeopardy if not for the generosity of the Ford fellowships.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Cary Chow, temporary news reporter with KGTV in San Diego and freelance contributor for ESPN.com. I’ve been in the industry for nine years. My last full-time job was as a sports anchor/news reporter at WALA-TV in Mobile, where, in a very difficult decision, I chose not to renew my contract at the beginning of the year to pursue other personal and career opportunities. Since then, life has been a roller coaster filled with many thrills but far more challenges.

Which leads me to AAJA. Our conventions, for the newbie’s that happen to be reading this, are great for many reasons – career fair, workshops, education – but for my money, nothing tops the networking.

I can’t stess enough to the next generation of journalists how important it is to stick out your hand and introduce yourself to others. Chances are, the person you just met knows someone who knows someone. Its very “Ocean’s Eleven” style – you know, “cause I owe you for the time you did that thing with that thing.” It may not be normal for the stereotypical Asian to be so proactively interpersonal, but Asians aren’t stereotypically journalists. Most of us made a wrong turn somewhere when between biology and English class. Because there aren’t as many of us, especially us Asian sports broadcasters – less than 20, probably 15 of us in the entire country, we try to help each other out. Instead of competition, there’s unity.

If you’re on the fence about conventions in the future – the networking alone is worth the price. Its importance can’t be stated enough.

— Cary Chow

I sat in on an interesting panel today called “Beyond Poverty Porn”. Both Gautham Nagesh, a Tech & Telecom Policy Reporter at The Hill, and Latoya Peterson, a digital media consultant who has worked with brands like NPR and Wikipedia, proved to be fascinating panelists as they shared their journalism experiences and gave some great tips on how to stay true to what is really happening on the ground when reporting on stories.

Both panelists put am emphasis on resisting the obvious angle when writing your story because its usually been covered or is familiar ground. Let’s face it – as journalists we can all get lazy sometimes but it is important to take the time to find a good source within the community for interviews and find someone grounded within the community.

Gautham also reminded us to go in with an open mind and to speak to people on the ground. He also brought up an interesting point that what is interesting to you as a reporter may not be interesting to readers or locals. He really stressed listening on what people say in passing as they sometimes offer the best stories and angles versus searching on Google, because that angle has obviously already been covered. Finding an easy angle is…well easy but its important to dig beneath the surface and find out what it means and how it connects to the community.

Latoya also brought up good points that relate to when you cover someone who cannot protect themselves (for example, interviewing a homeless person or someone in deep poverty). Although these individuals may have a fascinating story, its important to look at the whole person and see how they will be represented in the story without making a spectacle of their story.

All are good reminders for journalists as we try to constantly find new stories and angles.

- Renee Eng, AAJA-LA Member

@Renee_Eng

Today I attended two workshops on digital journalism: the first, about tools for mobile news, the second, on watchdog journalism, which will come in a later post.

In “The Future of Journalism: Going Mobile,” the presenters emphasized tablets similar to the iPad. “The only game in town is the iPad,” said Paul Niwa. He sought to dispel the enigma of programming and codes, saying any and every journalist now has the tool to create their own mobile applications.

“You don’t have to be a geek to embrace the ability to make some of these new things,” said Gil Asakawa.

For example, some tools are useful: Adobe InDesign offers a free plugin for its publishing suite. Newsstand, an iPad app, centralizes news and magazines. Sophie: provides an open source publishing platform in html5, without the complexity of Flash script. Niwa also mentioned Android app inventors and Push Pop Press, an app publisher recently bought by Facebook that makes books interactive. Layar is another tool of “augmented reality,” allowing consumers to pull up information on their phone just by pointing their mobile device at an object.

The advantage of creating applications is its compact nature. An entire multimedia package can be created and read on the go, on your phone or on a small screen. And now, more than ever, people want to see that information, in a contained, easy-to-digest story, from wherever they are.

“People want to see their media immediate,” Niwa said.

— Dominique Fong

Detroit is the first city my family lived in when we immigrated to the States.  I was three years old.  It’s been strange to follow Detroit in the news over the past few years and hear stories about depression and crime.  For my family, our year in this city was one of the happiest of our lives.  It was our first glimpse of America.  Everything was new and on the upward rise. 

I haven’t been back to Detroit since that first year living here.  And when I first stepped off the plane, all I could think was, Gosh, look how big that sky is.  New York has been my home for the past two years, and the sky is a postage stamp over there. 

At the AAJA opening reception, I was so moved by the show of local support.  I had no idea that Detroit was home to the largest Arab  community in America.  In my mind, it has always been a city synonymous with immigration; how strange to find that it is for a few others as well. 

Shawn Wen

I know the “the” appears to be missing from the headline, but that’s on purpose as a tribute to one of my favorite musicians, the late great Israel Kamaka‘awiwo‘ole.

More than a year after losing my job as a sports reporter with the now-defunct Honolulu Advertiser, I am still “facing future” at every waking moment. Today I attended two workshops specifically with the future in mind.

The first was called, “The Future of Journalism: Is Journalism a Sustainable Business Model?”

The most important thing I wanted to learn was how to turn our start-up Web site, ScoringLive.com, into a revenue-producing venture that can allow my colleagues and I to still practice journalism (and get paid for it!) the way we did before we got laid off.

Panelist Janet Mason (president and general manager of WZZM) suggested the idea of “re-selling content,” which means finding a way to have others pay for unique content that you produce. This is one way to generate revenue, because people should be willing to pay for something they want but cannot get anywhere else.

This gives me hope, because our Web site does produce some unique content that should be re-sellable.

In the final couple minutes of the session, moderator Richard Lui conducted a “flash round” in which he asked the panelists to give a “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” to the future of various subjects.

It was encouraging to see all four panelists give a “thumbs-up” to local news organizations, which ScoringLive is, and also to online news sites in general. By contrast, “Print” got three thumbs-downs, which means our Web site at least appears to be on the side that’s growing, not declining.  

The other career-oriented session I attended was called, “What’s Next for Journalists After the Newsroom?”

This one directly hits home because unfortunately I have already been in this situation for the past 13 months. 

But this session was very inspiring since all four panelists worked in newsrooms like I did but have found very successful and satisfying careers afterward. Two work for non-profit organizations, one for Toyota (making a six-figure salary!) and another is a full-time freelance journalist.

I have an application in for a communications specialist job at a large company, and also am entertaining potential freelance opportunities, so this was also right up my alley.

Panelist Katherine Reynolds Lewis provided a detailed worksheet about “How to Make a Living as a Freelance Journalist,” including how to land a steady client/steady part-time income, how to calculate your freelance rate and how to track and refine revenue and marketing strategies.

The past 13 months have been very challenging, especially mentally since I really want to continue to practice journalism but also am open to other careers that might fit my personality/skills.

This session was encouraging by showing living examples of success after the newsroom.

Thanks to all the panelists and the programming committee for these great sessions!

— Wes Nakama

This workshop covered the importance of telling a compelling story with the right equipment. One of the cameras that were on dislay was the Go Pro camera–a water proof camera about the size of a cellphone that records in HD.

With visual media constantly developing, holding the interest of your audience could be accomplished with these critical key points.

• Read, research and be resourceful
• Put the viewer in a place they can never go, let them be a part of the action/reaction
• Good videos have great sequencing, good content, and great audio

• Plan out each shot, logically

• Use different focal lengths (i.e. super wide, wide, medium, closeup, super closeup)

•  
  • Create drama, raise questions, don’t point out the obvious, show emotions, add mystery

— Chris Soriano

Folks. Here’s another quick reminder to sign your blog posts with your name. I’ve been doing it for most of y’all so far. (Delane Cleveland gets a gold star for doing it correctly.) Thanks!

— Theodore Kim | @TheoTypes

Recently left the very informative seminar on watchdog journalism. My own experience with in-depth investigation is still limited, so I had a pretty basic question about a pretty basic scenario: You get a phone call from somebody with a tip. What’s the best first step for figuring out if it’s worth pursuing? One answer given: Find out if it’s documented. Ask the caller for documents they have to back up what they’re saying, or if documents are available. Find and read those that are publicly available. That can help determine whether there is, as Detroit Free Press investigative reporter Jennifer Dixon put it, a “minimum story” there before you delve in too deep.

It came up during the seminar that as newsrooms shrink and the digital age demands getting information out quickly, you’ll often hear or feel there isn’t enough time for investigative reporting. But the presenters argued that when anyone can spread information through blogs or Twitter, it’s taking the time to do watchdog reporting that makes a newspaper, or other outlet, relevant to its community.

Among the advice for reporters from Detroit Free Press managing editor Jeff Taylor: Explain to the powers that be in your newsroom, how a particular investigation will resonate with people. Time allotted for that kind of project usually reflects the expected impact of the end result.

I’ll be keeping the seminar’s “Managing and juggling an investigation” tip sheet close at hand. Now, off to the career fair …

— Matt Kawahara

Two concrete and useful tips I picked up at the “Choosing the Best Platform for Your Story” seminar:

1. Robert Hernandez of the Seattle Times has created a site where he rounded up all his favorite applications for news and graphics. You can find it at www.bit.ly/techandtools ..it’s amazing.

2. Nancy Andrews of the Detroit Free Press recommends the Apple Store’s “One to One” program for people wanting to learn more about the latest computer programs (Mac-based.) For $99, you can attend classes at your local Apple store for a full year. Whether you’re interested in editing video or music, improving your web site or learning some basic skills, Andrews said it’s an unbeatable value.

— Michele Chan Santos

During Thursday morning’s session on “The Future of Journalism: Going Mobile,” Gil Asakawa (the manager of student media at the University of Colorado) recommended a site called www.tagwhat.com. At this fascinating site (or its app) you can point your camera phone at a certain setting — say, a street in Boulder — and find a layer of information at what your camera is viewing. You could learn about the history of the buildings, festivals that take place there and more. Tagwhat is an example of “augmented reality.” Later on Thursday morning, Robert Hernandez of The Seattle Times told us about a blog, the Seattle Sketcher, created by an artist at the Times, during the panel on “Choosing the Best Platform for Your Story.” This blogger sketches a variety of cool scenes in the city each week and then posts the drawings. Both of these - the “augmented reality” site and the sketches - are a way to view what you see every day in a different and deeper way. You might see that park in Seattle each morning, but it will look different through an artist’s eyes. You might walk down that Colorado avenue every week, but never have known its history.

— Michelle Chan Santos

I attended a workshop this morning entitled: “The Future of Journalism: Is Journalism a Sustainable Business Model?” I attended this workshop mainly because I’m mainly just doing freelance work right now, so if I’m ever fortunate enough to find a full time job in a newsroom again, I’m curious to know what that news organization will have to do to ensure it’s able to keep its employees.

The short answer is that there is not one specific model that works. The long-term solution will be a myriad of models that uses a combination of the following:

• User generated content
• Social media
• Digital products
• Pay walls
• Micro payments (in which the online reader pays to view one article)
• Innovation

“Innovation” is a vague term, but what it comes down to is providing content to readers/viewers that is shown in a new way — a way that keeps people engaged. News organizations cannot do things how they’ve done it in the past and hope to succeed.

In terms of newspapers, they are operating on a model that was developed 400 years ago. Today, it’s important to get readers involved through dialogue rather than just providing the news of the day. 

Television news stations, meanwhile, would be wise to look at a new style of newscast.

According to the panel of speakers, the media is going through a major technological change. It’s not clear how people will be using media in the future, so making predictions now is unwise because nobody knows exactly how things will play out.

I have to admit that I left this workshop with more questions about the future of journalism because of the fact that there is no clear-cut answer. But, it will be very interesting to see how things play out.

***

The panel of speakers at this workshop were Marcus Brauchli of the Washington Post, Janet Mason of WZZM 13, John Bracken of the Knight Foundation, and Torey Malatia of Chicago Public Media.  

— Delane Cleveland, AAJA Minnesota 

Today’s Future of Journalism: Going Mobile session was full of interesting insights about changing tools to build Ipad apps and how to think differently about digital media. 

One bonus: a FREE book from Yahoo on web editing, website building, SEO and all kinds of stuff. There are some free ones still available to take in room W2-68, though you can also find the digital version online and not have to lug it around. 

Some interesting points from the session: 

Several tools are now available to help you easily build an iPad app without having to be a tech geek. If you can use Microsoft Word or Pages, you can do this. Go to presenter Paul Niwa’s website for the notes on these new tools. 

These tools can help you build interactivity into the user experience. For example, in PushPop Press, which was recently bought by Facebook, a new book on renewable energy had a feature where you could blow into the microphone to get the wind turbines to animate and show how wind energy is distributed. 

Another interesting thing to think about for the future: Mobile v. Small Screen. Mobile should contemplate a user’s location and provide relevant content; Small screen doesn’t depend on location, but recognizes that the user is using a small screen. Each have distinct needs and require different planning for interactivity and ease of use. 

— Suzanne Marta

It’s great to be at the AAJA national convention in Detroit

Thanks to the Ford Foundation, I’m at my first AAJA national convention since 2008.

I was lucky enough to make it to AAJA’s Executive Leadership Program Advanced session on Wednesday. It has some great speakers and was a good reminder to think about no only seeking out mentors for your professional career, but also “sponsors” or advocates who will campaign for you when it comes to promotions and other opportunities. It’s one of those things that seems obvious, but it was a good reminder that it’s an important tactic as you manage your career. 

Opening ceremonies were great— get to the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn if you ever get the chance. I particularly like the pot wrapped in a towel on the kitchen counter of the model “home” there— it’s wrapped up exactly like my grandma used to do it!

— Suzanne Marta

Below me, things were taking place as usual: people were going to work, kids were in school, cars were in motion, deals were being made, and conversations were taking place. On the ground, what was happening in the next town over would have seemed so far away and their news probably unrelated to where I am.

But from the sky, where the mountains and endless square patches of land make cities—and the people in them—seem insignificant, I’d tell you a different story.

Because when we are able to see things from a wide lens, we’re able to take a mental step back, soak in what we’ve learned, take a breath, and analyze.

In traditional media, we’d relay what we’ve learned through print or TV, and use images to reinforce our profound words. The images would be of what we saw in with our own eyes, but not what we internalized in our minds.

Today, for the most part, we still consume news like it’s 1899, says Ben Huh, CEO & founder of Cheezburger Network. I couldn’t agree wit him more.

Consuming news today is like going through travel photos with a friend who just got back in town. It’s informative and inspiring at times, but then we forget, move on, and put behind us all those promises we made to ourselves about seeing it for ourselves or getting involved with something elsewhere.  

So I’m off to AAJA Convention, where the theme is “time to engage,” with an emphasis on technology. There, I hope to meet fellow journalists that are also like-minded innovators, and have just as many wacky stories and visions in their brain that they can’t wait to share with the rest of the world.

But until we figure out how to use technology to the fullest, our stories will be stuck in our heads, making sense only to us.

Developing technology will allow us to tell stories in different ways, in terms of presentation, but it’ll be up to us to capture the potential of these tools and use them to make an impact on journalism.

Truth is, we already have the technologies to tell great stories, but we’ve failed in using them correctly and creatively. Today, we use these technologies to tell the same stories we’ve been telling all along, but now just with more sound and imagery.

Big woop.

It’s not going to be the buttons we push or the code we develop that saves journalism, it’s going to be the creativity and quality journalists behind the stories.

I’m Caroline, a storyteller, a dreamer, an activist, an advertiser, and a creator. If I weren’t all these things, I wouldn’t be a next-generation journalist.

Photo 1 is the view from my window while on the plane. Amazing! Photo 2 is something we’ve seen before, abstract art, which is a different perspective on things we experience in normal daily life.

Follow me on Twitter @ earthwalkers.

- Caroline Li

My first trip to Detroit and I am smitten! The weather is a beautiful 81 degrees and my flight arrives 30 mins early. I disembark the airplane and as I enter baggage claim (and to my pleasant surprise!) there was a sign for AAJA convention attendees. I immediately felt the warm welcome and couldn’t wait to get to the hotel and check in!

After leaving the airport and settling into the hotel, I join 2 buses of motivated and ambitious attendees to attend the Opening Night at the Arab American National Museum.

A bus tour guide provided an informative overview of the well-known ‘Warren Street’ which is 4 miles of Arab food heaven (and barber shops!). During Ramadan this week, some food shops are even open until 5am. This is a must place to visit before returning home. I know I will. Hope to see you there!!

— Amy Pholphiboun

Hi folks. Here’s a friendly reminder to include your name somewhere in your content so that we know who is posting what. We won’t post anonymous or nameless stuff. Thanks!

[Posted by Theodore Kim | @TheoTypes]

I arrived Detroit around 5:30 pm. But I decided to get on the bus to opening reception immediately since I don’t want to miss any of this interesting event ! I am so excited to visit the Arab museum. I love the painting and enjoy the arab culture. It is a good time to social networking, there are so many excellent people!

[Posted by Xinjuan Deng]

The challenge of the day was finding free Internet in a noise-free zone. After much hassle, I finally started to write my blog when my laptop crashed.

Thank God for husbands! (Mine is writing this blog for me via telephone dictation…old school journalism.)

The best thing about my day was having lunch with 3 editors I worked with at the Free Press 23 years ago. (Shout out to Susan, Helene and Esther!)

Then it got even better as I greeted familiar faces and old friends at the opening reception. The Arab American National Museum was impressive. But even more impressive was the fabulous food! The hummus was delicious, the eggplant was divine, the grape leaves were spectacular (and this is coming from a gourmand and seasoned cook).

Now its time for me to reboot the body…looking forward to tomorrow’s seminars.

[Posted by Carol Reynolds-Srot]

From the blog of Analisa Nazareno, of San Antonio, Texas:

http://analisawrites.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/learning-about-arab-americans/

Just one more day before I head to Detroit. I can’t wait! I have missed the past two years’ conventions and I am so glad to be attending this one. Thanks Ford Foundation! Thanks AAJA! See all my pals there! —-Carol Reynolds-Srot

Marc Kawanishi here. I’m the National Advisory Board representative hailing from AAJA North Carolina. As my time in this position is coming to a close I wanted to encourage you to join us as AAJA celebrates it 30th anniversary!!!

In just under 11 days our 22nd annual convention starts in Detroit, Michigan. For well over a year representatives of the AAJA Michigan have been preparing a spectacular convention lead Detroit Free Press star reporter Frank Witzel and Detroit News Multimedia guru Ankur Dholakia.

If you’re sitting on the fence about joining us I have a few ideas which might make it financially possible:

1) As a media professional many of your convention expenses are a tax deduction. Consult with your company CPA for better details. While I am not a CPA I can give you some practical tips: A) Take a gallon plastic bag to keep your receipts of expenses B) Mark exactly what each receipt is for at the end of the day. You can write who was with you and other important details. It’s boring but a great time saver. Plus you won’t have to remember every last detail. C) Keep all receipts in your bag. It’s far easier to throw some away then find them later. Don’t laugh: this tip has saved me thousands of dollars on my taxes each year.

2) Bring your family. Detroit has many great things to do! See them on the Visitors and Convention bureau website.

3) You still have plenty of time to get the 7 day price break on airline tickets. I’d also look at last minute fares and consider Priceline.Com’s pricing. I have no affiliation with them but I have bought tickets three times to attend the AAJA conference (for quite a savings). Also consider booking your taxi ahead of time to save money.

4) After you register for the conference you’ll have the option to sign up for the convention listserve. While the AAJA doesn’t connect anyone, you can search for a hotel roommate to share expenses at your own risk.

5) Finally, if you’re within driving distance, consider a day pass or two. Have a look at the schedule and see what works best for you!!!

Hope to see you there!!

I am trying to figure out which workshops to attend and what time and dates I would be attending. Can someone direct me to a site or link where I can go over the workshop topics, including their dates and time? It would be very helpful for me to figure out how I can keep up my priorities during the convention. Thanks.

Hi folks. Theodore Kim here. This is a blog for our 2011 AAJA Convention Ford Foundation attendees. Many of them plan to post their convention experiences here on a regular basis. We’ll take the best or most thoughtful posts and reblog them on our Official Convention Tumblr page.

Watch for posts as the convention ramps up!

[ Posted by Theodore Kim | @TheoTypes ]