JOURNALISM 392W - Project 2: The Rally to Restore Sanity

200,000 people.

That’s one of the higher end estimates, according to Boston.com, for turnout at last weekend’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” hosted by Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the hosts of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report respectively.

One rally attendee, Natasha McKenzie of Boston, MA, had this to say to the Boston Globe:

I think that things in this political climate have gotten very extreme. I feel it’s important for people to come together and stand up against that kind of sentiment…It’s an amazing blend of both [entertainment and politics]. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert leveraged their popularity to bring people out in a political way, and that’s brilliant.

200,000 people.

Do you know what it means when 200,000 people care enough about an issue to get out of their homes at the same time from around the world and all go support something? Not to mention 200,000 Americans, who, in general, are so used to having access to so many things within the comfort of their own homes that it seems unnecessary to go out.

It means that whatever is going on is important.

It means that people are fed up enough with the state of American government that they feel each and every one of their presences at this event will make a difference. And if that many people think this is an important issue, why are the only people who are listening two comedians?

McKenzie seems to think that it’s a good thing that Stewart and Colbert managed to pull this together, but she and many others are missing what’s written in between the lines here. Stewart and Colbert were the ones who did this, because no political figure could, or cared enough to. Nobody in politics is in touch enough with the American people to realize that the insanity and confusion needs to end. That it’s driving people crazy.

What does it say about America when the only people who can get people to turn out for an event, or who care enough to try, are two stand up comedians, who are going to see their ratings skyrocket for this stunt? It says the American people afford more respect to their entertainers than to their politicians, and it says that our politicians are not aware of what America is feeling.

Imagine what might have happened if, rather than Colbert or Stewart, two politicians had gotten behind this rally. Imagine if Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid had realized how America felt, and reached across party lines to rally behind sanity and what is best for the American people.

Stewart’s and Colbert’s rally has already begun to affect some small amount of change among journalists. According to Politico.com, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC has removed the “Worst Person in the World” segment of his show, after it was criticized at the Rally. Imagine what kinds of changes might be affected if two politicians rallied together and started naming names, and criticizing bad policies.

Cheer for the Rally to Restore Sanity if you want, but don’t forget to weep for what it truly represents at the same time.

JOURNALISM 392W - Race Preview

This year almost every political race has some intriguing element. Whether it's vicious biting attack ads and wildly untrue accusations or the potential to drastically change the political landscape, these mid-term elections have become a truly tumultuous affair.

While the eye of the nation seems to be focused on some of the more deciding or outrageous examples, I think we are having a very interesting race right here in Massachusetts.

Nobody has forgotten the impressive upset victory of Senator Scott Brown, who replaced the late senator Edward Kennedy, and the question on my mind, and I would imagine the minds of many others, is will this happen again? Unfortunately I can't get out to vote today. I'm registered in NY and have already cast my absentee ballot, but I am following this race very closely.

Massachusetts is not usually one of the states that people focus on because it tends to be staunchly blue. However Scott Brown's win signals a potential shift in voting patterns, and shows us that discontented Republicans and Independents may once again flock to the polls in order to topple the norm.

The Boston globe today said that Democrats are going as far as to adopt a risky campaign strategy in order to increase turnout. They are campaigning in typically republican areas in order to bring out more voters, which they think, in the end will work in their favor. This move has the possibility to bring out both more Republican voters, and also voters who favor a local democrat, but not the party standard bearer, governor Deval Patrick. A risky play like this says that democrats are feeling pressed to take action outside their comfort zone of Urban areas, and may make for some very interesting campaign results. I'll be keeping my eye on it.

JOURNALISM 392W - First Person Journalism

These types of stories are always interesting to me. It’s the type of writing I most enjoy doing, because it essentially boils down to storytelling, and since the story being told is one that centers around the tellers experience, the demand for certain journalistic norms like objectivity, neutrality, and specific formula are nearly non-existent. You can really write whatever you want to say about the topic, and you don’t even have to necessarily worry about staying within the confines of common decency, as can be seen in Scott Brodeur’s piece about Joe Lieberman, which is essentially a story about two men peeing.

What I think is important to note is that the newsworthiness of these types of stories often varies a lot from the majority of hard news. For example in the Lieberman story the newsworthiness essentially comes from the novelty of seeing a famous politician in a rest area bathroom, and the fact that it’s a famous politician. In the “Sucking Up” article, the newsworthiness seems to come almost strictly from the emotional proximity the author’s scenario might have to other people. One commonality here is that the newsworthiness for these articles is more about what is newsworthy for the author than what is newsworthy for the reader.

Yet somehow I still find myself interested in reading them. Like I said, I really enjoy first person journalism, but on another level, I’m glad the majority of professional journalism isn’t written in the first person, because I think it has the affect of really detracting from important issues, and discussions of societal trends in favor of gossipy sort of pseudoinformation.

JOURNALISM 392W - Congressman Neal Profile

I’m not quite sure who Richard Neal is.

I know he represents the Springfield area in the United States Congress. I know he has been a grade school teacher in the past, and is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. And I know his history of supporting his constituents, their city, and their various causes, has made him well liked as a politician.

But I don’t think I really know who he is.

Last year I took a class with him: the Journalist and the Politician. Great class. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to go into either field. It gives Journalists an idea of what to expect when dealing with politicians, as well as giving people looking to go into politics an idea of how to handle us pesky journalists.

If there’s one thing I took away from that class, it’s that if you want to make it in either politics or journalism, you have to learn how to, in Neal’s own words, “play the game.”
Neal is a real master of this. To him, playing the game is really about putting on the politician mask, and never taking it off until you absolutely know you’re away from prying eyes. You can see this in both his teaching style, and how he handles himself during an interview.

A couple weeks ago I got to do an interview with Neal over the phone. We talked about Springfield’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program. He and Senator Kerry had worked to get this money to support Springfield’s minority students. This is what he said when I asked him why the investment was personally important to him:

“I think it augments 21st century global communication skills, and I think it emphasizes heavily what the new economy looks like. As a former teacher I think assisting these children … is just a good idea and it should be treated as an investment.”

If that’s not a cookie cutter response taken right out of some speech or press release I don’t know what is. I didn’t ask him for that; I asked him why it was personally important.

I remember getting responses like this in his class. Somebody would ask about how he felt about something, or how he would have reacted in a situation, and the response we would get was always like reading out of a textbook. You couldn’t get the guy to tell how he really felt about anything. Any anecdotes he gave were always about times when he won or did something exemplary as a politician.

Later in the interview I tried to get him to open up again. I asked him how he would like to see the money spent. That’s not even a very prying question. He said:

“I really refrain from that. I think the partnership is based upon the priorities that are determined by local officials, with the understanding that having children that excel is something good for America.”

How patriotic, and how very political.

It’s stuff like this that makes it very difficult for me to figure out who he is. He’s a great politician, and a very informative and interesting professor. But I wish I understood him a little better. I guess it all comes back to playing the game though. He’s better at it than most I think. Certainly better than me.

Here's a link to the audio from my interview with Neal:

http://www.zshare.net/myzshare/my-uploads.php

JOURNALISM 392W - Bullying Project

I think my favorite part of this project so far was the article about the anti-bullying task force by Heikkinen. It was the first one in the series that showed me that something real is being done to affect change in South Hadley Schools. That's something I had not seen before. Most of the coverage up until now has been highly critical of every aspect of the school leading up to and immediately following the case.

Because of that I also think that this project serves a community service purpose. Rather than focus on the conflict and try to determine who was wrong and how to punish everyone, Steve Fox' class is framing this story on a civic level. They are focusing on the community and on the steps being taken to rebuild and restructure. On top of that, they are taking their coverage of the situation and putting in context. They have other articles citing other suicides and what they have been related too. They talk about bullying related to everything from homosexuality to food allergies. I think it's an important part of processing something like this to have it placed within the context of a larger national or global trend.

Having said all of this, I should say that I am a bit concerned that some of the articles are rather shallow. While they have covered many issues, they have rarely been able to dig into them. I would imagine that has a lot to do with being inexperienced or being a college student, but as the project progresses I would like to see more thorough investigation.

JOURNALISM 392W - Knee Jerk Tweeting

CNN’s political ticker may be my favorite news entity to follow on twitter. One thing I like about it is that it really enables me to make rash judgments about beat style news without considering implications or delving into the issue at all.

I’m actually being serious. For example today the political ticker tweeted “Gingrich advice to GOP: Hammer foodstamps.” Instantly I was furious. I thought, that goddam Newt Gingrch always making life harder for those who already have it tough. Somebody oughta…etc. That was all before I even clicked on the article link, which I won’t get into.

My point is that twitter serves as an excellent outlet for me to sit down and stop being so academic all the time. Look, in a journalism class we all boast about how we like a good in depth story that really delves into an issue. If that’s true, that’s great, but honestly I can’t think of a single time I’ve picked up the Times and read more than two articles (unless I’m really trying). I spend so much time analyzing the hell out of everything in class all day that it can be really refreshing for me to sit down in front of twitter and experience knee jerk reactions to incomplete stories. If you don’t know what I’m talking about try it sometime. I think you’ll agree.

JOURNALISM 392W - Q & A Thoughts

This was a very entertaining series of assignments for me, mostly because this is the kind of stuff I already love to do anyway, so I got to just have fun with my hobby and hand it in for course credit. Hard to argue with that. My absolute favorite type of interview has always been face to face. Unfortunately I didn’t get to do that for any of these assignments, but it was still a good experience.

One thing I liked about these Q & As was that they illustrate very well something we were told about in Journalism 300, but were never really given a good chance to experience. I’m referring to the idea that the face to face interview is the best way to conduct an interview, followed by video chat (like Skype), then by phone, then by back and forth email, and finally by a one shot email. In 300, most of our assignments came in the form of pre-constructed scenarios in which we were given data, facts, and quotes, and told to turn it into a story. Then towards the end we were given two big assignments: the feature and the court feature, and we were simply instructed to do them. Most people did face to face interviews. But never during the semester were we given sequential assignments like this which offer the opportunity to compare different styles and really get a feel for the difference.

Having said that, I think the most challenging style for me was the back and forth email. I can see how it has obvious benefits over the one shot email as it allows you to ask follow up questions, but it was made harder by the fact that I was working on deadline (as we so often are in journalism). See with the one shot email it was simple. I called up my friend, asked her if it would be alright if I sent her some questions to answer, she agreed, and sent them back the next day. I did that two days before the assignment was due. But in the back and forth email, I had to make sure my friend Scott would reply to me in time meaning I couldn’t wait to a day before deadline, because what if he didn’t respond fast enough. Furthermore with the ability to follow up, it becomes easier to get sidetracked, and often becomes a much longer interview than initially intended. Those two factors signify a much greater time commitment, and make for a more stressful situation overall.

As for editing, I was lucky enough not to have to do very much. Richard Neal is a fairly eloquent human being, and I felt that whatever grammatical errors he made did more to add a human element to the interview than detract from it.

JOURNALISM 392W - Q & A # 3

Richard Neal is the congressional representative from Springfield, Massachusetts. He and Senator John Kerry recently succeeded in securing nearly 12 million dollars in federal money from the Magnet Schools Assistance Program to go towards Springfield Public Schools. I was able to reach the congressman by phone just as he was landing from a flight to Springfield from D.C. He agreed to do a brief Q & A about the grant.

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about the program first just so I can get some background on it?

A: Well, it's under the magnet schools assistance program, and Springfield's had a long and successful history of effectively utilizing these investments. The department of education at the United States level has worked on this for more than fifteen years, so I think that there's substantial evidence here that this improves opportunities for many of the children that are in the Springfield School system.

Q: And can you tell me why this investment is important to you personally?

A: Because I think it augments 21st century global communication skills, and I think that it emphasizes heavily what the new economy looks like. As a former teacher I think assisting these children in Springfield's public schools is just a good idea and it should be treated as an investment, and that's precisely what we're suggesting.

Q: Why do you think Springfield is the right school district for this kind of investment?

A: Well, I think Springfield represents a great laboratory with which to experiment and I think that this is an opportunity for that experiment; taking these students with advanced skills into the new decade. There is here, I think, an understanding that many of the children who might find themselves disadvantaged, none the less, have ample opportunity based upon the assistance that this magnet school proposal is offering t give them the sort of skills they're going to need down the road.

Q: And do other school districts in Mass. have this sort of funding?

A: I believe that Boston would have the same sort of opportunity, as they've had in the past, but we have done very well here over the last few years, based upon this suggestion that there is a partnership with the federal government that allows our students to learn and to grow.

Q: How do you go about securing this money?

A: Well, there are a variety of ways. We're generally called upon to do a little bit of lobbying behind the scenes including through the grant application. We assist the respective school department officials as they raise questions or have questions, and in the past we've helped them get right to the deadline in making sure that it was packaged and applied for at the right time. Now it's done electronically so that we assist them even at this stage.

Q: Can you comment on any of the initiatives? Do you know about how the schools are going to be using the money?

A: Well there's great flexibility that's built in and I think there are going to be an array of choices for students and their parents according to Dr. Ingram [NOTE: the Superintendent] who has been a terrific and, I think, effective advocate on behalf of these children.

Q: Have you thought about how you personally would like to see the money spent?

A: I mean, I really refrain from that. I think the partnership is based upon the priorities that are determined by local officials, with the understanding that having children that excel is something good for America.

EDITORS NOTE: A magnet school is type of education system which sets up different schools which target different types of learning and have highly specialized courses. For example in Springfield they have one school oriented towards fine arts, and one oriented towards science and technology, among others. Also, the Magnet Schools Assistance Program is designed to help draw minority students into this type of educational environment.

Finally, this interview was part of a spot I wrote for WFCR about the MSAP on Friday the 24th. for the full piece, featuring a clip from the interview, click here

JOURNALISM 392W - Dancing with the Stars Live Results Show

What a well done show. I think DWTS is my guiltiest pleasure when it comes to TV watching. From the opening performance featuring Santana, a favorite of mine, I was instantly hooked.

I don't know what it is, but the show is somehow able to keep me hooked. I don’t even really like dance so much, but I think it’s a combination of the completely star-studded nature of the whole affair and the biting and flamboyant commentary on the part of the judges. I love to hate them when they bash people I like, and love them when they bash people I hate.

Anybody who didn’t see the show, I would highly recommend looking up the clip of Santana and India Arie doing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” I think this was my favorite part of tonight’s show. This is such an excellent classic rock ballad, and oh God, Santana is just so spectacular at it. India Arie has an amazing voice as well and with the exception of the rendition performed at the concert for George Harrison, I think this is the best this song has been.

JOURNALISM 392W - Picture Post

This is a picture from a New York Times article out today called “Afghan Boys Are Prized, So Girls Live the Part.” I read it in this morning’s Times and I found this picture to be a very interesting symbol of the both the story’s message, and the issue at hand.

The piece is about a phenomenon, which occurs in Afghanistan in which families who bear no sons will often choose one of their daughters to dress up and raise as a boy. It was an extremely well written feature, which I felt was prize winning material. Among other things the story details the social and cultural pressure on these families and young girls, the varying degrees of success these attempts at transformation achieve, and the frequent emotional stress inflicted upon these “bacha posh,” an Afghan expression meaning “dressed as boy,” when they are told it is time to go back to being a girl, typically around the age of puberty.

The reason I was drawn to this picture is because it illustrates the reality of the culture surrounding Afghan children. It shows three girls, all sisters. On the right the two girls are sitting, dressed in matching “girly” outfits. On the left the girl, Mehran, wears a decidedly male outfit, and stands separate from the other girls. Her hair is cropped short, and while she definitely looks like a boy, something in her face, perhaps the positioning of her hand so similar to the other girls, shows that she is still one of them. I see the standing and separation as signs of the males’ superiority in the culture.

I highly recommend the article. I found it compelling and it made me want to reach out to those who do not experience the same degrees of equality we do in America.

JOURNALISM 392W - Q & A #2

Scott Maxson is a Junior at UMass Amherst and a Resident Assistant in Washington Tower. I knew Scott was involved in something called Parkour, but I didn't know much about it, so I asked him if he would be willing to answer some questions. It proved to be an enlightening and at times hilarious (as I think you'll find) conversation. Here's what he told me.

Q: Tell me a little bit about what Parkour is?

A: Parkour is the art of getting from point A to point B as efficiently as possible given only the human body. So if I had to get from one side of a wall to another side of a wall, rather than walk all the way around the wall, I would just climb up the wall and go over it. It has evolved into a discipline almost like a martial art, in that by training you can make your mind and body capable of more effective ways of overcoming obstacles.

Q: Are you part of a group that does Parkour? If so tell me a bit about them.

A: I am a member and the treasurer of UMass Parkour. The club meets twice a week. We don’t just do Parkour. There’s this other similar art called free running which is less about efficiency, and more about flashy things like flips. We have about 60 members.

Q: Before, you compared Parkour to a martial art. In many martial arts there are symbols like belts which signify your skill level. How, if at all, is skill level measured or signified in Parkour?

A: It’s nearly impossible to measure Parkour level quantitatively. In martial arts you can do it because knowledge of specific moves or katas signifies your rank. For Parkour what you learn is much less concrete. It’s more about figuring out your body. There are certain techniques that we teach, but in the end what it comes down is how capable you are of moving your body to adapt to the situation. It’s pretty much a qualitative judgment. It’s also different for each person because our own bodies and physical conditions vary so strongly. What is an impressive feat for one person might be more or less so for someone else given different strengths, weaknesses, or handicaps.

Q: Is it dangerous?

A: It depends. Anything can be dangerous. If you push yourself too far, and start doing things like jumps that are very far outside your development, sure it can be dangerous. But with enough training what may have been dangerous once, will become less dangerous.

Q: How would you qualify your own Parkour skill level?

A: I would say I’m an experienced practitioner, but I still have a long way to go. There’s no end point to the journey unless you can somehow manage to reach some level of mental and physical enlightenment that gives you perfect form no matter what the situation is. That would be cool. I guess that’s the goal. Personally I think I’m capable, and certainly better than I was at first.

Q: Think of the most epic awesome Parkour experience you’ve ever had personally. Now try describing it for me in detail.

A: Well there’s some stuff that means a lot to me, because I’ve worked up to it, but one of my favorite stories to tell is a little off color. It wasn’t part of any organized Parkour activity, but I was able to do what I did because of my Parkour training. What happened was, I was streaking through this town at night in the middle of winter. Don’t ask why. Anyway this cop car came up and the guy got out and told me to stop running and stay still. I figured I could probably outrun him, so I started booking it down this road. Turns out this cop was faster than I gave him credit for, and he was chasing me down. There was this fence up ahead that I knew would throw him off because there was a 15 foot drop on the other side. So I hopped it and rolled out on the other side. Rolling is big in Parkour. I remember he looked so dumbfounded up on top of the drop. He kept telling me to stop and I was like “nope!” I ran into the woods and hopped up in this tree. I’m not sure what happened but after a little while these lights started shining round the woods and the cops were searching for me. I remember I was sitting butt naked up in a tree in the middle of a winter night as these cops were passing right below me. Anyway I didn’t get caught, but it was pretty intense.

JORUNALISM 392W - New people on twitter

Since I already have a twitter, this was kind of interesting. I was already following most of the people or groups I thought would be fun, but I added a few more, so here it goes.

The first person I added was Simon Pegg. He popped up as a verified account on people to follow sidebar, and he's hilarious, so I went for it. For those of you who don't know, he's an actor who usually portrays some ridiculous or funny British man.

Next I realized I'm not following any sports teams, or personalities, and I thought that was a bit remiss so I added the Major League Soccer Insider, the NY Red Bulls, and the NY Mets. I tried to find a legit looking NY Giants page, but had no luck. If anybody wants to recommend one I'd appreciate it.

Then I found Wil Wheaton. I had to follow him. He was the actor who portrayed Wesley Crusher in Star Trek the Next Generation. I had heard he had sort of a cult following, and since I'm already following Brent Spiner (Data) and Leonard Nimoy (Spock from the original series) I figured I'd add him to that list.

Next I followed The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert. No explanation required.

After that I followed Twitter, because I figured that might come in handy if there are any major changes or additions to the site.

Lastly I added Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer. They're two of my favorite anchors, and I have a sort of CNN trend going now because I already subscribe to CNNBRK, which is there breaking news page.

Most of these are for entertainment purposes, with the exception of the sports ones and the last two. Those I'll use for news. Following celebrities can be a mixed bag. Some of them are twitter crazy, others never use it, and still others use it so sporadically that it can be really frustrating to follow them. Wil Wheaton and Simon Pegg look like that won't be an issue.

JOURNALISM 392W - Q & A #1

June Hart is a graduate student in the Environmental Conservation department here at UMass. We have known each other since high school and over the course of the last five years she has told me about her experiences growing up in a variety of places. One of her most memorable was Egypt where she lived from the ages of 8 to 10. She has also lived in Burundi, Brazil, and in a couple of different states. She agreed to tell me about some of her more memorable moments in Egypt.

BA: Tell me about some of your memories from Egypt.

JH: We did all sorts of things. Camel riding, visiting the great pyramids, snorkeling in the Red Sea. It was an incredibly unique place with an interesting culture and environment. I’ll always remember the sandstorms too. They can be really dangerous, but they were kind of fun to experience…from a safe place.

BA: Why were you in Egypt?

JH: My dad is an international business consultant, which basically means he’s an economist but he focuses on working with trade organizations. It was a U.S. government job. I was just along for the ride. I went to an American school there.

BA: What was daily life like in Egypt? How was it different from your life in the U.S?

JH: We never had school on Fridays, but we did on Sundays. That was because Friday is the Muslim Holy day. Several times a day you would hear prayers going on. It was part of their routine. The people would stop whatever they were doing, set up their prayer mats, face East, and do this prayer. I had a nanny who would do this named Aziza. Another unique thing was that there were armed guards everywhere. They were like our police, except they were with the military and carried loaded rifles.

BA: Did you do any sightseeing while you lived there and if so tell me a bit about it.

JH: We went to see the Pyramids. You could ride horses up to them or take guided tours inside. At that point you could get really close to them, but you couldn’t climb on them. You could go inside of a few of them. I’m not sure how close you can get to them anymore. But I remember going inside was kind of neat. It was really dark and creepy and there were mice scurrying around. I remember thinking “Why would they build all this just to rot in?” Some of the tombs were really interesting though. They had some artifacts like pottery and figurines in them, though most of the stuff had been removed to museums. The tour guide taught me how to read hieroglyphs.

BA: Was there anything else about your time in Egypt that stands out in your memories?

JH: There were really relaxing felucca tours. Those are Egyptian sailing boats that toured the Nile. They would go through some of the more commercial areas, but also through some really cool locations where we would sail through papyrus stalks. I remember the guide teaching us how to make paper, but I don’t remember the process. I still have this bejeweled regal black cat painting on papyrus.

NOTE: This interview was conducted via email on September 11th through September 13th.

JOURNALISM 392W - Intro Post

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a great first week back. Mine was really busy. Anyway, I’m a Junior Journalism major, and I took this course because it seemed like a logical choice. At some point during every Journalism class I’ve taken the professor has made some comment about how the internet is the future of journalism. I’ve heard over and over again how print news will become obsolete and replaced by online news almost entirely. I figured it would be helpful to get a firm grounding in online news since there are probably more available jobs online than there are in print, radio, and TV combined. Furthermore, I would like to get an internship with a larger news group next summer (I’m currently working with WFCR), so I figure online experience can’t hurt.