One project that I had worked on quite a bit, but had to give up, was a story on a nonprofit organization that had just started providing job training for former prison inmates in New York . I didn’t want to give it up, though, so I didn’t really. I kept corresponding with my contact, and though I could not put together a convergence project (i.e., a story with video and slideshow and audio to accompany it), I ended up with a decent print story with a few photos. That story was just posted online today. And the best part about this story was working with my contact. She was amazingly cooperative—not a common experience for a journalist—and even went so far as to stay up late just to find me an official document stating New York’s recidivism rate. I have an e-mail from this lady date-stamped at 11:26 at night, after she was already worn out after a full day at various New York prisons and looking forward to the Memorial Day weekend. I would never have asked her to do that, but she we...

I made it home. After spending 24 of the last 40 hours on a bus or in a van. (By which I mean, 20 hours by bus from Manhattan to my cousins’ place, then more than 4 hours from my cousins’ to home. Time spent on bus layovers was made up for by driving from the bus station to my cousins’ and from there to the graduation ceremony.) How am I not crazy? Two good-sized novels pass the time quite pleasantly. (I read some of my favorites, Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott.) I much prefer being chauffeured over driving myself. Go figure. (That’s why I loved the public transportation options in NYC.) Simon and Garfunkel provide a perfect soundtrack to a trip to New York City. Seriously, half their songs are specific to Manhattan. I loved it. It is actually possible to sleep on a bus. (Not too comfortably, and not too long, but it is possible.) Mothers are fun to talk to on long van trips. And sisters supply a great variety of songs to sing along to. Staring out t...

My most recent WJI news project is now up: New York libraries are facing a huge funding cut . For this project, the video was the key piece, and I’ll go ahead and embed it here. Take a look!

[tweetmeme style="compact" only_single="false"] My entire convergence news package about Fleet Week is up on the WJI Times Observer (the video was posted here yesterday). Be sure to check out the slide show for some nice photos (if I do say so myself). :) My previous projects have been about immigrants overcoming the language barrier and a new pedestrian-friendly design for 34th Street right here in front of the Empire State Building. (Those also have slideshows and an audio piece.) And tomorrow? Well, we’ll see when we get there, but another package will be completed Wednesday night. Then we’ll be working on a radio piece, 60-90 seconds, and I have something rather interesting in mind for that, I think. We’ll see how everything pans out. Tonight, though, I’m going to try to do something non-journalistic and quite touristy—I’m going to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Pictures will be forthcoming provided I get somebody to go with me! (I think I have two apart...

Here’s the promised video!

Today, I learned why I’d seen so many uniformed military men passing through Manhattan: This weekend is the height of New York City’s Fleet Week, when members of the Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy descend on the city for a sort of shore leave. There is a ton of stuff going on in Times Square, including the Navy Band Northeast (which was this evening) and some drilling from the Coast Guard’s Silent Drill Team (which was fantastically fun). Coming tomorrow: a video about the drill team! I got some interviews with members of the drill team after they were done drilling, and one explained to me the process of becoming a part of the drill team. Look for it!

In the last few days, I’ve gotten drummed into my psyche one important journalistic item: Get the name and contact information of everyone, absolutely everyone , that you talk to. Including the receptionist at the organization, or the passerby you videotape commenting on the mayor’s latest initiative. I’ve learned this by forgetting to do it. So far it hasn’t hurt me too much—but I know it might in the future. That’s why I’m trying to make it a habit to ask people for their names and e-mails, at least, and often phone numbers as well (if I don’t already have it—I’ve been calling organizations on the phone lately).

Miracle for alternative transit on 34th Street I couldn't resist the allusion. EDIT: The website was slightly reworked, so the old link no longer works. Please follow the new one.

1. Tell the story. Find the story. Make it a story. Personalize the story. It's a story that needs to be told, and it needs to be coherent and compelling. 2. Show the story. Use a little color. Don't say that "she was happy." Say that "she smiled widely when I told her the news." 3. Work together. ("Work, work together...") It's a lot easier to do your job if someone's helping you, and then you can help out your partner. You play off each other's strengths. 4. Windows Live Movie Maker is the least capable video maker possible. 5. New York streets make sense, and it takes half an hour to walk to the Hudson River from the Empire State building. 6. Don't talk while you're trying to take video. That's your natural sound you're obliterating! 7. Get some variety in your photos and videos, both in composition and in content. Don't take all your pictures of the same two things. 8. Waking up at 5:40 A.M. can be ...

I hardly have time to write anything--I'm spending a solid 12 hours a day solely on class and homework. (As in, I have to be in the classroom before 8:30 in the morning and I don't get back to my room until after 8:30 at night.) But I don't care. The WJI program is amazing. It's the biggest challenge I've had in journalism--definitely on the level with my challenge in my Spanish major of being plopped into a Spanish-speaking household when barely able to string two sentences together in Spanish.... if not even more challenging. I'm learning from Russ Pulliam today, who's a senior editor at the Indianapolis Star (woohoo Indiana!) and whose family has been in newspapers for a few generations. From reading a collection of his editorials and features in preparation for this course, I thought he'd be in-your-face and blunt. I couldn't have been farther from the truth. He's very Midwestern, as he said himself, where people are polite and nice--at ...

How many times have I used that as a post title, I wonder? But anyways--I really am here, just, I've not been posting in the last several days. (Or the last couple weeks, it appears.) I've been busily working on several final projects/papers, plus I went home for Mother's Day this past weekend (and conspired with my sister to royally surprise my mom), and I'm leaving for New York in... five short days. That said, I'll soon have a music video of a Tom Lehrer song up on YouTube. (It's one of those final projects I've been burying myself in.) I finished editing over half of it today, so if all goes well, I'll have it uploaded on Thursday morning. In the meantime, I'll be working on a porfolio that I've had to put off until tonight/tomorrow.... it shouldn't be that big of a deal. And then.... New York! That's for the World Journalism Institute's New York course in backpack journalism , for which I'll spend three weeks in Manh...