Hersey's Hiroshima

Our latest journalism assignment was to read Hiroshima, John Hersey’s classic piece still read in high schools around the world, more than 64 years after it was written.

The piece was first published in the Aug. 31, 1946 issue of New Yorker. It was the first and last piece to take up the whole issue of the New Yorker. The piece was extremely well-received. According to the article “Hersey and History”, published in the July 31, 1995 issue of the New Yorker, the magazine sold out within hours and newspapers everywhere published sections of the book in their editorials. ABC even had the piece read aloud over national radio across four successive evenings.

The article was quickly made into a book, as requests for reprints poured into the magazine. The Book of the Month Club sent free copies of the book to its members. By 1995, more than 3.5 million copies had been sold. It’s still on bookstore shelves today - the latest issue was reprinted in 1989 in North America.

The book was criticized by some. It was released as the Cold War was heating up, and some felt because it was so sympathetic to the victims, it was inherently critical of the possible use of nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union. Other criticized its dry, journalistic style.

I remember reading the book when I was in school, but I don’t remember much of it, nor do I remember my reaction to reading it the first time.

But this time, I was very engrossed in the book. It impacted me emotionally and made the devastation of the atomic bombings in the Second World War seem more than just history. It humanized these important historical events, grounding me and making me realize how lucky I am and how unlucky others have been.




What worked

What surprised me the most was how Hersey’s objective, reportorial style was able to evoke such emotion in me, the reader. I think this become a major strength of the book.

Hersey doesn’t try to overdo it. He reports the facts, and because of the horrific circumstances (melting eyeballs, skin peeling off peoples’ arms, death and destruction everywhere), the facts are all that is needed.

The understated style defends the book against possible critics who would say Hersey empathizes too much with the reader. But he does not embellish. He does not tell us how horrible a tragedy this was. He just reports what happened, and there’s no arguing with the truth.

What journalists can learn

Therefore I think journalists can learn a lot about style from this book. Hersey’s sentences are all very clear. The book is not difficult to read. Because the reader isn’t struggling through the book, the horror of the story comes through uninhibited.

Another style point — journalists can also learn how to effectively fuse story-telling narrative with reportage. Hersey tells his story through six Hiroshima citizens whose lives were devastated by the bombs. Telling the story through these people keeps the piece from ending up a boring historical account of dates, facts and details. Hersey incorporates those dates, facts and details into six gripping narratives, pulling the reader along through the days following the bombing.



Criticisms

I really have very few criticisms of this piece.

Perhaps what I would like to have seen in the book were some pictures. I think it would have enhanced the reality of the story without taking anything away from the writing. I couldn’t find a reason as to why pictures weren’t published in the New Yorker edition devoted entirely to the piece.

I think they would have helped capture readers’ interest and help them picture the devastation. If I were the editor of the New Yorker and had those images available to me, I would have used them – not necessarily images of the main characters themselves because I think it helps to keep them as symbolic representations, but definitely images of the devastation on a broader scale.

I recently watched a documentary called "Getting Away with Murder" about the investigation into the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

While I think the television documentary and the non-fiction written piece both work well to get across facts, and while both made me emotionally invested in the stories (either out of anger form the TV doc or sadness from Hersey’s piece), I do think the book was missing some context without visual images — context that the television non-fiction medium always provides through video and pictures.

Watching the documentary put me in Lebanon. I got a feel for the climate and how the people lived. While I have seen photos and video from Hiroshima, having them with me in the book while I was reading would have helped me visualize the scenarios in my head.

What is missing

The American point-of-view is missing from Hiroshima, but I’m glad it is. At the time of its release, Americans had heard plenty of the American point-of-view on the bombings. It would have tainted the book for those of us reading it more than 50 years later.

Plus, to those six people, and others in Hiroshima, did it matter to them when the bomb was dropped?

To conclude

I am not a big history buff. I don’t like reading history textbooks or sitting through lectures on World War II. But I do like well-told stories about people. And that is what Hiroshima provides.

(Images from longitudebooks.com fromthevaultradio.org and nowfroth.blogspot.com)

Large-scale editing

Over the past month, I've been working on editing the novella I wrote for my Independent Professional Project (IPP). It has been an arduous undertaking.

At first, I was very bitter about the editing process. My thought process? I just wrote an 80-page book? Isn't that good enough?

But once I read through Chris Petty's comments on the full draft and read through it myself, I realized my themes could be much stronger with a little more extra work.

And then I realized I needed to be more careful about tense.

And point-of-view.

And conversational flow.

And showing things rather than telling them.

And character descriptions.

And the list goes on.

The most effective way to look for those things is to do them one at a time, so it looks like I'll be reading my book quite a few more times before Christmas.

So it better be good. There's nothing I hate more than reading a bad book.

Upwards from FIPPA

I received a little bit of inspiration for my FIPPA assignment while watching CBC's The National tonight.



A long portion of a documentary by CBC's Washington correspondent Neil Macdonald about the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and the investigation into his death was featured. I think it, along with its presentation on the CBC website, exemplifies good investigative journalism.

Macdonald exposes holes in the UN that have led to the delay of arrests that should be made based on substantial evidence collected by some hard working people (once police officer, in particular, who was murdered for his work).

What Macdonald did is what every journalist should strive to do. It's nice to have reminders like this once in a while as we slog through CreComm on our quest.

(Photo from reuters.com)

Editing a Royal Relationship

The Royal family announced the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton today. But the official announcement came about a month after the actual engagement (Wills proposed in October while the two were on vacation in Kenya). Which got me thinking about how carefully the Royal family edits Royal relationships.



While the palace tries to keep the media from intruding on the lives of Royals and their friends/significant others with good reason — everyone remembers what happened with Diana — at what point can public figures be private?

When they are out in public, are they fair game for photogs looking to snap that pic or get that footage that could be worth millions to satisfy the curiosity of Royal onlookers? (Which I admit, somewhat ashamedly, I am — I love that CBC runs Royal documentaries almost every night over the Christmas holidays!).



I watched a clip of the couple's photocall today, where pictures snapped constantly as the press asked questions like 'how did he propose?', 'tell us about the ring'. But after about five or six questions, the Royal couple was ushered back into their private room. The public had seen enough.

The palace has acknowledged that the media has been fairly good at respecting the wishes that William and Harry have privacy as they grow up. But now that the biggest wedding of the century approaches, it will be interesting to watch how the palace releases information about the upcoming nuptials and how much Kate and William wedding info us Royal watchers will be given.

But what I want to know is will the wedding be televised?


(Images from mirror.co.uk and cbc.ca)

Reviewing Reflections

Over the past two weeks, I've forayed into a new kind of writing - book reviewing.

I wrote a literary review for my Canadian Literature class on Ken Finkleman's Noah's Turn and a more popular review of Portia de Rossi's memoir Unbearable Lightness for the Book section of the Winnipeg Free Press.

Things I learned:

1. I love reviewing because it gives me an excuse to read.

I love reading novels, but often feel to guilty to do during the school year.

2. A literary review is different than a popular review.

As Morley Walker, editor of the Free Press book section, told me, 98% of the people who read the review in the paper will never read the book, so you have to give them the highlights. Therefore, the review is a lot of summary and picking out some of the book's highlights.

For a literary review, it is assumed that your audience has read the book, so I skipped the summary and went straight into the criticism.

3. Reviewing fiction is different than reviewing non-fiction.

It's hard to critique the events of a non-fiction story as they (should be) true to life. Instead, you have to focus on the selection of events, pace of the story and telling of the events.

4. I hope to do more reviewing in the future.

I love talking to people about books, especially books I've read and that I like. Reviewing is just another way to do that. If I like the book, I almost feel it's my own personal mission to convince others they should, too.

(Image from bearcave.com)

Libel abound!

For an editing print and online media class, I've been looking for examples of potentially libellous material online.

What I was surprised about, but perhaps I'm a bit naive, was how many charges and convictions of slander and libel are in the news in the past month or two.



Just yesterday, Real Madrid strike Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded libel from the British paper, the Daily Telegraph. The paper published an article in 2008 alleging Ronaldo put a serious ankle injury at risk to go drinking and dancing at an L.A. nightclub. Ronaldo's lawyer said the story was fabricated - he was at the nightclub, but not dancing or drinking.

CNN reported yesterday that Amanda Know, the American student convicted of murdering her British roommate in Italy last year, is going to have to stand trial again for slander. Knox alleged that Italian police mistreated her while she was in custody. Her parents will also stand trial for repeating her allegations.

On Canadian soil, in September, a website operator, John Kelly was charged with four counts of publishing libellous statements for comments he published on his website accusing a couple Calgary police officers, who Kelly named, of perjury, corruption and obstruction of justice.

All of these examples are important reminders to us as bloggers that we need to be aware of what we are writing and be careful of defamation, something that I know never crosses my mind when I'm blogging.

Can journalists have a work-life balance?

As I think more about my future as a journalist and read more of the Globe and Mail's feature on work-life balance, I can't keep from worrying about whether I will be able to be successful in my professional and personal life.

Maybe a little background will help explain my paranoia.

I grew up Killarney - a town of 2,500 people where barely anything is open past suppertime. My parents are both teachers. My dad full time, my mom part time. Whenever my siblings and I were home, they were home. We had weekends off together, summer holidays off together and Christmas holidays off together. But I didn't realize I was lucky.

I have always known journalists work odd hours, but I got my first reality check a couple weeks ago when I agreed to work for the Brandon Sun over Christmas holidays. I worked there this summer and loved it. It's great experience and I need the money.

But when I say work over Christmas, I mean over Christmas. I work Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Not the ideal hours, but something I know I need to get used to. I think my mom's a little crushed, but she'll get over it. And I really don't mind this year. I'll miss spending the day with my family, but things change, and I'm old enough now to accept it. I also realize a lot of other professionals work over Christmas - nurses, doctors, cops, etc.

But how long am I going to want to work odd hours and holidays? And will it be enough to pull me out of the profession and perhaps, (choke), over to the dark side of PR?

It's something I'll have to get used to and see how well I can tolerate it. And I'll get my first opportunity this Christmas.

Editing time

On the bus this morning, I was reading an article in the Globe and Mail titled,"Hoping to get sick in order to rest". It got me thinking about one of the major things we edit in our lives - our time.

For many of us, our time is valuable and when we are forced to time manage (our events, our work, our family time, our friend time, we are essentially editing our lives to the time we have.

The Globe and Mail article, part of the their Canada: Time to Lead. Eight discussions we need to have series. The article is the personal confessions of 11 business professionals regarding their work-life balance. It really struck me.

Here is one of the confessions.

SUSAN WITTEVEEN, TORONTO

Managing director of a bank. Married. Three kids.

In my life right now, I have a “village” of support. I have my mother-in-law. I have a dedicated assistant; I expect her to read my mind and she is really getting quite good at it. And I have my nanny Pia.

Pia and I have been raising my kids together for five years. She works about 12 hours day – 6:50 a.m. to around 7 p.m. – plus often overtime during the week. We try not to have her on weekends to give her a break from us. We try.

I always say to people when they decide to hire a nanny: Be honest with respect to your needs. Are you hiring a nanny for the “kids” or do you need a nanny for the “household” (code for the mommy and daddy need nannying too)?

Pia helps close the wide gaps in my domestic interest and abilities. She seldom complains and when she does gives us a blast – we really, really deserve it.

I consciously chose to spend money on what matters most, so we have a nanny instead of sending the kids to private schools.

The hard truth is that the juggle doesn’t always work. I am a multitasker. That’s out of vogue right now. But that is what I do. I have been known to mix “business with pleasure” and as a result have had my kids too close during important conference calls and have inadvertently yelled into the phone, “Don't wrestle her like that ... she’s a baby and you are choking her to death!”

But I’m glad I work outside the home, even if during the outrageously busy times at the office, or when all three kids get sick at the same time, I question that choice.

The article really hit home with me because one of my biggest anxieties regarding my hopes of having a successful journalism career is the amount of time it will require. In my life, I hope to edit in enough time to not only just have a family, but to be able to devote the time it would require to have a well-functioning family. I don't want to end up like Susan (quoted above), but am sad that that may mean sacrificing the career I want.

But we can choose to edit our time however we want, and if I'm not happy with my editing, luckily, there's always the opportunity to change it.

I love journalism

It took me a relatively long time to choose journalism as a career path.

I thought about it in high school. For a career assignment, I made a nice poster board featuring a rather large picture of Peter Mansbridge in the middle. I also interviewed a local Killarney Guide reporter to get the scoop on what reporters do everyday.

But there were parts that didn't appeal to me. I was fairly shy, so I was nervous about talking to people that might not want to talk to me. And I wasn't crazy about the hours. I wasn't convinced.

So I went to Brandon University and got an arts degree in English and philosophy. I loved university and was sad when my four years were over. I was even more sad when I found out there aren't many jobs for people with English degrees!

So I took a year off and thought about my options. Journalism was still in the back of my mind. I watched the news and subscribed to the Brandon Sun and I was addicted to documentaries (still am).

As I thought about possible careers that matched my strengths, I dismissed many because I didn't think they would keep me interested enough. I loved university because I was always learning something new and I wanted that in a career.

So I applied for CreComm and decided to try journalism, hoping that it would give me a chance to keep learning.

And I'm so pleased with the results.

In completing school assignments and throughout my ten week stint with the Brandon Sun this summer, I realized that journalists have to become instant experts.

One day I'd be assigned a story about a new online childcare registry that hopes to solve the province's daycare space shortages. Then the next day I'd be writing about a textbook rental program at the U of W. And the next day I'd be writing about an MS patient traveling to Poland to receive a controversial surgery.

It's not always thrilling, but you learn something new!

In the past week, I've done radio live hits from an election, a print story about a murder trial and edited a TV story about the city bringing in maple trees to replace dying elms.

No, the hours aren't ideal. And you have to do some tough interviews. And getting information from the government? Not easy.

But I love to learn. And journalism gives me the perfect opportunity. I feel so lucky to have found a career I love.

(Image from zazzle.com)

Headline Writing

This week in our editing class, we're talking about headline writing. The few times I've tried to write a good one. I've failed miserably and I've concluded that it takes a lot of talent to write a headline that both encompasses the entire article and is catchy.

I started thinking about misleading headlines when I came across this one from the Globe and Mail this morning.

"Girl who had hiccups for five weeks charged with murder"

My initial thought, before reading the article, was what I hoped to believe. Having the hiccups for five weeks drove her to murder?

But when I read the article, I found out that a woman who was famous in 2007 for having the hiccups for five weeks when she was 15 years old (she appeared on The Today Show and got a hug from Keith Urban).

Now 19, she has been charged with first-degree murder, the climax of a downhill slide which her mother claims started with the "curse of the hiccups". The girl ran away from home twice and the family sued a hiccup-curing company for using the girl's image without permission.

But really, I got to thinking, without the mother's somewhat ridiculous claim, what is the link between the hiccups and the murder? Without her hiccup fame, we likely wouldn't be hearing about a Florida murder in a Canadian paper.

But I know for sure, without that headline, I likely wouldn't have read the article. So despite the confusion, maybe the headline writer did his/her job?



(Images from blogcrack.com)

A week in the life of a J major.

Today kicked off a big week for us journalism majors at Red River.

We started with a visit to the Winnipeg Law Courts this morning. It was a really interesting experience.

I was a little bit nervous going in, as I wasn't sure if I would be able to find a good story, and even if I did, write about it without breaking one of the many rules about writing about court cases.

But, with the help of Mike McIntyre, lawyer Kevin Sneesby and the CP stylebook, I got a story (a bail hearing turned sentencing) and wrote it in less time than I expected. Most importantly, I was happy with it.

But the best part of the day was wandering in-and-out of courtrooms and taking in how the justice system works on a daily basis. With so many cases to process and lawyers and judges hurrying from courtroom to courtroom, I can't believe they keep it all straight.

I was surprised at how informal some of the proceedings were. The public can come and go from courtrooms as they please, as can lawyers, many lining up their documents in front of the judge before the last hearing is over.

But the best experience of the day was in a more formal courtroom where a preliminary murder trial was taking place.

It was more like the trials you see on TV — a judge, lawyers, the accused, witnesses. I wish I could have stayed longer.

I hope I get to do some crime reporting sometime in my career.



Tomorrow, Dawna Friesen will be in Winnipeg filming Global National at the Forks, and since she is a former CreComm J major, she's coming by the college to talk to the J students and first years about social media.

Dawna is really an inspiration for all of us because she started from the same, humble roots as many of us and got her education where we're studying. I can only hope to one day be as successful as Dawna Friesen and I'm looking forward to hearing her speak tomorrow.



Then Wednesday, of course, is civic election day! I'm looking forward to doing a few live hits from Judy Wasylycia-Leis's election night headquarters for KICK-FM, the college radio station.

But I also think we're all excited for the election to be over. It's been on our minds — and workloads — since the beginning of September, so to finally see the results and end our coverage will be gratifying and a relief.

And of course, Thursday, is broadcast journalism today. This week, we're learning how to put together full broadcast stories with interviews. Lots to learn!

And Friday, our day of rest? Many of us have few to no classes on Fridays, but there is really no rest for the J majors. Homework calls.

My greatest nemesis... math.

In our editing print and online media class the past few weeks, we've been talking about numbers... code for math.

Many journalism articles contain numbers and often, a new set of numbers acquired by a journalist need to be compared to a previous set of numbers to track changes and trends in patterns (particularly in business). Therefore, some math is required by the journalist to make these numbers relevant in a story and useful to the reader.

But math is my biggest crutch. It was my worst subject in grade 12, so I avoided it all through university. At Red River, we've barely had to deal with them. My brain just doesn't work that way.

So I am nervous to run into them in a work place scenario. There are a lot of people who can do math better than I can, so if I make a mistake, which is very possible, either my editor (hopefully) or my readers (even worse) would notice.

Furthermore, if I ever became an editor and have to be checking someone else's work, I could very well miss errors in numbers and math.

We've been discussing percent versus percentage point in class lately, and while I understand the difference between the two and why both are useful in a story, I have trouble actually doing the math to figure them out or check whether they are right.

So my goal for the next few years is to get better at math. In particular, the math that I will need to use most often in my stories. Starting with percentage points.

Tweeting Live from the Courtroom

Warning: slightly disturbing content.

The Globe and Mail had reporters live-tweeting from the trial of Colonel Russell Williams on Monday.

We followed it for a while in our journalism class this morning, and I've been hooked on it since, which has kind of surprised me.

I'm not usually a fan of live-tweeting, or tweeting at all. But when it comes to something as interesting of such magnitude as this case, I want to know everything.

And live-tweeting is the best way to do it (as the events cannot be broadcast on TV).

I'm also interested in the kinds of tweets that are being published. Some are purely facts about the case.

12:47 - Greg McArthur: The Crown shows a photo of Col. Williams wearing pink underwear, and asks the judge to take note of the time and the colour of Col. Williams pants and shirt: It's 5 pm, and the colour is blue. The Crown says, it's impossible to say with certainty, but it looks like he's wearing the girl's panties underneath his military uniform while at work.

Others set the scene.

2:48 - TimothyAppleby: The mood in here this afternoon could hardly be more grim. Hardened police officers and crime reporters stare blankly as the horrifying photos are shown on the video screen. It is all reminiscent of the 1995 Paul Bernardo murder trial.

Others are more editorial.

12:57 Greg McArthur: A thought: when did this man ever sleep? Between the plotting of the break-ins, and the actual break-ins themselves, and running Canada's largest air force base, there certainly couldn't have been much time.

Others are even broader, surrounding the case.

2:33 TimothyAppleby: During the lunch hour, a television station reported that Col. Williams's wife, Mary-Elizabeth Harriman, was in the courthouse listening to her husband's horrifying life of crime. Not so says the Belleville police officer in charge of security.

With all of these details provided every 3-5 minutes throughout the whole day, will I need to read the story that actually gets published on the Globe website at the end of the day's proceedings? No. I've heard everything. But will I read it? Yes. I'm interested to see how the reporter takes the days events (and tweets) and condenses all the information into a so-many-word story. A good journalist can maximize the important details that readers want to know from a full day of information overload.

I think studying how the good ones carefully select their content and present it in an informative, interesting and encompassing manner, along with practicing it myself, is the best way to learn.

Attending the event a reporter is covering and reading the story later is the best way to do it.

But if you can't be there? Well, I guess live-tweeeting isn't so bad.




(Images: top: the Blackberry Globe and Mail application, from theglobeandmail.com; bottom: Colonel Russell Williams, from pysih.com)

Mom is always right.

My mom is going to be thrilled when she reads this.

I'm admitting that she's right.

I have a bad grammar habit that she points out every time I go home.

It happened again over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Flashback to Sunday.

Me: "I saw that Facebook movie. The Social Network. It was really good."

Mom: "Oh. Who all went?"

Me: "Just me and Chris."

Mom: "Who?"

Me: "Me and Chris."

Mom: "Chris and I! Weren't you an English major? And aren't you a journalist now?"

Me: (Grumble, grumble.)

But it's true. I say "so-and-so and me" all the time. It's a hard habit to break. And I never even think about it until my mom brings it up in our conversations.

But it's a habit I need to break because I'm sure there are industry professionals out there who are like my mom who would notice every time I said "so-and-so and me".

So I'll try my best, mom. But for my sanity and my pride, just let one or two of those slide once in a while.
(Image from sodahead.com)

8 Things I Learned at 2 Mayoral Debates

Today I attended two mayoral debates — one at the Red River College Princess Street campus this morning and one at the Franco-Manitoba Cultural Centre this evening. I learned 8 things. (Well, likely more than 8, but it's my favourite number!)



1. A debate featuring mayoral candidates doesn't always mean every mayoral candidate will be invited.

Rav Gill and Brad Gross were not invited to the CJOB RRC debate. But they were almost completely ignored at the debate they were invited to. I'm not sure which was more awkward for them. Though I do think they should always be invited.

2. Who hosts the debate makes a big difference.

The tone of the debate hosted by CJOB's Richard Cloutier was much different the tone of the debate hosted by Kim Babij of Shaw. While I think part of that was due to the audience and the medium, both tried to keep the debate moving along and make it happen on time and I think Babij did a more effective and professional job of it. She let them speak, but firmly cut them off at time, while Cloutier rushed the candidates through their answers with overbearing hand signals.



3. You can tell a long-time politician from a real estate agent.

Sorry Brad and Rav, but you just don't have the political rhetoric of Sam and Judy.

4. Cheap jabs get cheap laughs.

Sam to Judy:

"When someone calls me "my dear Sam Katz" it's like being scolded by my grandmother!"

“Thanks, Mom.”




5. Broad questions get rehearsed answers.

ie: What are you going to do about crime?

Candidate's eyes light up. Well... (insert heavily rehearsed platform here.)

6. Having a panel of well-informed, city hall beat journalists keeps the candidates on their toes.

The evening debate featured harder-hitting questions that required candidates to speak off the cuff and often left them unable to dodge questions (though they always managed to dance around some!) Less platform = less repetitive and more interesting!



7. Debates = Press Conferences

They get a bunch of media in a room to get out the politicians' key messages.

8. While I like politics and have an interest in political journalism, I think it would make me cynical.

Politicians rehearse their answers and stick to them. They are tight-lipped about speaking off the cuff, even though their electorate would appreciate an honest answer. The PR of politics sickens me and I don't know how long I could put up with it.

But at the same time, I think the monotony of debates like the two I attended today would encourage me to work harder to find interesting way to cover elections and get voters important information in perhaps a more audience-friendly format.

Photos (in order of appearance): Sam Katz (from winnipeg.ca), Judy Wasylycia-Leis (from action.org), Rav Gill (from winnipeg.ctv.ca) and Brad Gross (from winnipeg.ctv.ca).

Huh... it is a word!

One of my pet peeves has always been the use of the word "disorientated". Every time I hear someone say, "I was so disorientated!", I cringe.

I got to thinking about it again the other day when I heard someone using it to describe the after-affects of cold medicine and decided I would blog, begging people to never use that word again! It's disoriented, not disorientated!

But then I decided to look it up.

And according to dictionary.com, disorientated is a word.

Whoops. I was wrong.

dis·o·ri·en·tate

–verb (used with object), -tat·ed, -tat·ing.
"to disorient"


But dictionary.com also makes the distinction between "disoriented" (which it says can be an adjective) and "disorientated" (which it says is a verb). So are the words really interchangeable? I can't find a good explanation online.

Help!

Student Journalist: Help or Hinder?

(Image from collegemedimatters.com)




On Friday, my work for the CBC website was posted on cbc.ca.

I was proud to see my work online, but when I read my byline (Ward and candidate profiles by Kim Lawson, a journalism major in the Creative Communications program at Red River College), I started thinking about the pros and cons of being a student journalist and how they helped and hindered me over the course of finishing the assignment.

The Benefits of Identifying Oneself as a Student Journalist

1. You become more approachable. Some people find you less threatening if you're a student. Perhaps they feel they are less likely to judge their answers, because after all, students are still learning. They don't know everything.

2. Some people feel like they're doing a good deed by doing you a favour. They know you aren't getting paid. You're completing an assignment to try and do well in class (and isn't that what every parent wants their child to do?). They feel a sense of responsibility to help the students of the world. By talking to you, they do their good deed of the day.

3. If you screw up, it's a great card to have in your back pocket! "I'm sorry, I'm new at this. I'm just a student." Then look at the pity that crosses those faces!

The Pitfalls of Identifying Oneself as a Student Journalist

1. Your credibility goes out the window.

2. High profile figures (like politicians) automatically put you last on their priority list. They often want to talk to you, but not if someone more important comes along. Be prepared to be rescheduled on... multiple times. Or just flat-out not answered.



So in summary, being a student worked well for me when I approached the regular citizens of Winnipeg. Most of them were friendly and patient with me and tried their best to answer my questions. But when it came to the politicians, I definitely wasn't a priority and I could tell. It took weeks to get replies, if I got them at all. I felt like a pest for the number of times I had to call and email some people to get a response. I don't like feeling that way.

But student or not, you have to get the job done. That's the life of a reporter, and I'm looking forward to being a journalist, sans the student.

RIP English: Welcome to its "ignominiously diminished form"

(Image from The Washington Post)

I read an interesting column about the recent demise of the English language by Gene Weingarten, columnist for the Washington Post titled Goodbye, cruel words: English. It's dead to me.

Weingarten argues the ultimate demise of the English language at 1,617 years old, "survived by an ignominiously diminished form of itself", came from the Washington Post itself. He writes:

The end came quietly on Aug. 21 on the letters page of The Washington Post. A reader castigated the newspaper for having written that Sasha Obama was the "youngest" daughter of the president and first lady, rather than their "younger" daughter. In so doing, however, the letter writer called the first couple the "Obama's." This, too, was published, constituting an illiterate proofreading of an illiterate criticism of an illiteracy. Moments later, already severely weakened, English died of shame.

He goes on to list examples of misspelled words and misused phrases found in major newspapers, including "pronounciation", "Alot", "spading and neutering" and "doggy dog world".

While the column is humourous, Weingarten brings up an interesting point.

Beset by the need to cut costs, and influenced by decreased public attention to grammar, punctuation and syntax in an era of unedited blogs and abbreviated instant communication, newspaper publishers have been cutting back on the use of copy editing, sometimes eliminating it entirely.

As our editing print and online media class is finding with our "spot the screwup" assignments, newspaper publications aren't perfect. And as everyone knows, when time is short, reading becomes skimming.

As staff numbers dwindle at newspapers worldwide, are we at risk of losing the English language? If newspapers don't use proper English, who will?

Ideal opinions inform

(Image from The Globe and Mail)



Tonight I was catching up on the stack of Maclean's magazines and found myself enjoying Andrew Potter's opinion piece in the September 13 edition of Maclean's titled That Far Down, Who Decides What's Law.

I don't always like Potter's editorials, but I thought this one was good for two reasons.

1. It presented an educated argument.

2. It educated me, the reader.

Potter discusses the unfortunate situation of the Chilean miners that have been trapped 700 m underground since Aug. 5 and could be stuck there for as many as four months while they wait to be drilled out. He argues that they may have to form their own political system to mediate disputes that perhaps may not adhere to Chilean law because of their extreme living situation.

Potter supports his argument by outlining possible disputes the miners could find themselves engaged in (like the allocation of food to privacy procedures) and by comparing their situation to an interesting philosophical thought experiment (Philosophy: one of my favourite things to learn about!).

After thinking more about it, I realized that perhaps I like his opinion because it wasn't a strong political opinion, which sometimes turns me off editorials, especially when they aren't well supported.

The subject matter was timely, interesting and important, and Potter gave the reader a lot of things to consider in thinking about the issue.

So cheers to Andrew Potter for this piece. I think it's a good example of the kind of editorials journalism could use more of. It goes beyond basic reporting to stimulating the mind of the reader.



(Image from thestar.com)

School House Rock: My First Grammar Lessons

I think everything should be taught through song.

OK, so maybe you'd expect that coming from someone who loves Glee, (which premieres tonight, Tuesday Sept. 21 on Fox, by the way), but music really helps solidify information into your brain.

Take, for example, my first lessons in grammar, which I learned from School House Rock -- short, informative songs that taught helpful grammar lessons about conjunctions, interjections and how a bill becomes a law -- in the middle of my Saturday morning cartoons.

Twenty years later, I still remember the "Conjunction junction, what's your function?" song whenever I think of conjunctions.

Grammar is important to learn when you're in elementary and middle school, but (conjunction!) let's face it. It's dry and (another conjunction!) boring.

Associating a tune with words makes things so much easier to memorize. Case in point: compare the number of song lyrics you remember from your childhood to how many grammar rules you remember.

My point? We need to bring back School House Rock. Don't believe me? Check out their informative and catchy lesson on interjections! Wow!

Thou shall not project opinions!

(Image from christuniversity.in)

A recent journalism assignment has got me thinking a lot about one of the basic rules of journalism: don't assume one person's or a few peoples' opinions is representative of a whole group.

I have been bombarding innocent citizens the St. Vital ward prior to the Winnipeg Civic election to find out what they think are problems in their neighbourhood and what they want changed at city hall in the next four years.

With this information, I'm to write an article for the CBC's website, quoting five people, that gives readers an idea of what is going on in the St. Vital ward as they prepare to vote for a city councillor.

I've collected a lot of opinions, but they vary widely, from potholes to better community facilities to less police radar guns, making it difficult to pinpoint key concerns many citizens share.

I am struggling to find a way to write a story that does not project the opinions of these few people onto everyone in the ward, but that informs people living outside the ward about some of the ward's issues.

That involves staying away from phrases like "many citizens" or "a major concern".

Any other thoughts on how I can pull this off?

Stand-Up Proofreading

There are a lot of humiliating spelling blunders that go beyond small mistakes to become hilarious screw-ups, like many newspaper journalists' worst nightmare: leaving out the 'l' in "public" so it becomes "pubic". (Watch out for that one, public relations students!)

But it would be a lot more embarrassing to be foiled by a proofreading error as a broadcast journalist reading from a script you didn't write!

At least in print, you can hide behind a shield of anonymity. No one can look right at your face and laugh out loud directly at you when they read your typos (unless you're my Dad — he liked to point those out to me when he came across them in the Brandon Sun).

But if I read a typo on the air (like pubic instead of public), I would immediately realize my mistake, go beat red, lose my place on the teleprompter and crumble into a puddle of humiliation. Much worse than a little news print!

Check out Taylor Mali's hilarious "The The Impotence of Proofreading" spoken bit that plays on some mistakes that are funnier when read aloud.

The Art of Interviewing

Interview prep used to be one of the most stressful parts of writing a story for me.

It might seem silly that it's not the interview itself that makes me quiver.

But how prepared you are, what questions you ask, how you phrase your questions and how much research you do can be the difference between getting a good, thorough story and getting a mediocre story missing important information.

As I have become more experienced at interview prep, it makes me less nervous, but I still spend almost as much time prepping as I did when I first started doing interviews (but less time fretting and reading them over and over again, worrying I missed something).

This afternoon, I spent a few hours researching and preparing three interviews. When I was done, it felt like I had accomplished very little. I had no answers to my questions — no story. But it had to be done.

And I would argue it was possibly the most important part of the stories I just prepped for.

But regardless of how much prep you do and how finely you craft your interviews, when conducting interviews, it's important to be flexible and stray from your questions when need be. You have to be a good listener and play off of the answers you get or you might miss something important.

All of the interviews I have done are for print stories, which are easier interviews to do as no one will ever hear/read your questions. (I just cringe a little bit when I listen to the recording — I giggle when I'm uncomfortable and am trying to be overly friendly!)

But as we get further into our broadcast journalism course, I've been thinking more about on-air interviews and the extra talent that takes. Thinking on your feet in front of the camera while thinking about your posture, your reactions and keeping your guest comfortable, among other things, takes a lot more practice and talent.

Katie Couric, who I personally think is a great interviewer, offers some good tips about television interviews: how to prepare for them, the importance of moving away from planned questions, body language and tone of voice, and remembering your audience.

Educational Editing

(Image from photobucket.com)

"Kiddo! I've got another lesson for you," yelled my desker at the Brandon Sun this summer.

"Mr. Desker", we shall call him, edited many of my stories and put up with all of my rookie mistakes... but not without teaching me a lesson or two along the way.

I walked over to his desk, awaiting a scolding for an error I'd repeated too many times. As I rounded the corner, he walked up to me, menacingly slamming a large, hardcover book between both hands.

He held the book above my head.

"Where is this book?" he asked.

I was a little confused. "Where is it?" I asked.

"Where is this book?"

"Above me?" I replied, meekly.

"It's over your head. OVER your head," he said, lowering the book. "Books go over your head. But charities don't raise OVER $10,000. They raise MORE THAN $10,000."

"OVER!" he said, holding the book above me again. "MORE THAN," he said as he lowered it.

Point taken.

"Got it, Youngin'?" he asked.

I had. I've never made that mistake since.

Mr. Desker's presence is felt throughout the newsroom. A large sign stating, "NO-WHERE IS NOT A WORD IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE" looms over the desk of another reporter, a not-so-friendly reminder to never make that mistake again.

He's a little rough around the edges, but good at what he does, a softy at heart and he really cares about making us better self-editors. And the more he gets his point across, the less he has to be frustrated with our mistakes.

And he sure keeps things entertaining!

For a better explanation of more than versus over, check out Grammar Girl's explanation.

What is journalism?

(Image from reportr.net)

For our first blog for journalism class, we were asked our thoughts about the question, "what is journalism?"

I have found it difficult to come up with a phrase that encompasses everything I think journalism is, so I decided to compile a list.

Journalism:

• tells important stories to people who care about them
• strives for the truth
• finds and discloses all sides of a story
• gives a voice to those who can't speak for themselves
• uncovers what shouldn't be covered
• tells audiences why the story is important
• makes the complicated understandable
• allows for true democracy by ensuring transparency and informing voters
• changes the world

After compiling the list, I decided perhaps I was answering the question "what is good journalism?". But isn't that what all journalists should strive to achieve?

Thoughts?

Back to school blogging butterflies

School is back in session, which means my blogging hiatus has ended.

What?

No, of course not by choice!

But I do realize it is a valuable promotional tool, a necessary skill for journalists and the way of the future (apparently — I'd like to know who decided that!).

This semester I will be blogging double time — once a week for my journalism class (about journalism) and once a week for my editing print and online media class (about editing print and online media).

So get ready. I'll be blogging.... faithfully.

On Creative Writing

For my creative writing class, I've been assigned to blog about creative writing.

The only assignment I can think of that's more broad than write something creative is write something about writing something creative.

I'm a very structured person. A list-maker, a scheduler, a closet organizer, a color-coordinated highlighter - the least spontaneous person I know. If you give me a list of instructions, I can follow them perfectly. But if you try to get me to make an important decision? Hope you have a few months.

But when an assignment is as wide open as most creative writing is, I tend to flail around in the land of indecision until I'm so frustrated and close to deadline that I just have to write whatever is on my mind at the time. (Kind of like right now).

So I continuously question why I chose to write a novella for my IPP (independent professional project - a year-long project in Creative Communications where you have to do something creative and get marked on it.)

I'm simultaneously excited and terrified to start my novella. While I'm happy to at least know generally what I'm going to write about (no spoilers here, though!), there will be so many decisions to make in the process, I might go nuts. I'll be worried that one wrong decision will waste hours of work (hours I won't have), or cause my story to take a very wrong turn and compromise the whole novella.

I'm also worried I just don't have the writing skills to write something that will intrigue readers for 70-100 pages.

I'm not just aiming to finish my novella. I want it to be good! I want it to speak to people who grew up in small-town Manitoba. And I want it to be well-written.

So this summer, I'll be reading up on fiction writing. I've heard that good writers are good readers, so I will also look for good examples of the novella, a format I'm not too familiar with. (I appreciate any suggestions if anyone has a favourite!)

September is the beginning of the real challenge. But I do have one huge weapon on my side.

Chris Petty.

I will rely on him a lot for perspective, help with key decisions, and rewrites, rewrites, rewrites. An indecisive person's best friend is anyone with an opinion, and I'm quite sure he will have them.

So with Dr. Petty and my iBook G4, I will begin my creative writing journey this September.

Wish me luck!

Top Ten Things I'm Excited for this Summer

With only one more week of school, my mind has been drifting more and more to all the things I'm excited for this summer. Read mine and share yours with me!

1. Moving back to Brandon... I know, but you Winnipeggers just won't understand! :)
2. Watching baseball... go Blue Jays!
3. Going for walks... to and from Dairy Queen.
4. My first journalism job.
5. Being closer to the friends and family I've neglected the past eight months.
6. Clear Lake... if you haven't been, you need to go!
7. Lazy days in Killarney.
8. Michael Buble and the Black Eyed Peas!
9. Dustin and Megan's wedding.
10. No homework!

Back on the Blue Jays roster... Alex Gonzalez?

So it's no secret to those who know me well that I love baseball.

I've loved it since I was seven, laying in my grandparents' basement, listening to my dad shouting at the TV the night the Blue Jays won their second world series. I figured because of all the fuss, there must be something to this game, and the next season I started watching.

I had played softball since I was six, so I knew the game and the rules. And the team of choice seemed obvious - those Blue Jays my dad had been so passionate about.

The only thing left was finding a favourite player.

Being a shortstop myself, I gravitated to the Jays new, young shortstop, #8, Alex Gonzalez. It didn't take long before he was my hero.



Though he wasn't much of a hitter, Gonz shone defensively, and was robbed of numerous Gold Gloves by Omar Visquel (who I'm sure they just kept giving it to, year after year, because it was easiest). He was quick on his feet, had a great arm, and good instincts when the ball came off the bat. But all his critics were concerned with was his inconsistent plate appearances.

But I cheered for Gonz faithfully. On Sundays after church, knowing my mom liked to stay around and chat, I would race home on my bike right after the service to catch him, second up to bat, at the games that started at twelve.

My friends and family knew more about him than they ever wanted to. We even celebrated his birthday (April 8).

And so it was good. That is until that fateful day in December of 2001 when my dad called me downstairs and, as gently as he could, informed me Gonz had been traded to the Chicago Cubs.

After four-and-a-half months of mourning, I accepted the trade and converted from a Jays fan to a Cubs fan.



I had some good times cheering for the Cubs. There's a lot of history at Wrigley, and we enjoyed a thrilling playoff run in 2003 (until the Steve Bartman incident).

But in 2004, Gonz and the Cubs parted ways. Gonz bounced from Montreal to Tampa Bay to Philadelphia until his retirement in 2006, a sad day for baseball... well, a sad day for some of us.

After Gonz's retirement, I decided to forgive the Blue Jays and became a fan again. And last spring I finally made it to Toronto to see a game.



So my heart stopped for a moment when I saw that this off-season, the Blue Jays signed shortstop Alex Gonzalez...

But upon further reading, I realized that it was MLB's second version of shortstop Alex Gonzalez. #3 Alex Gonzalez, who previously played for Florida and Boston.



I don't know how I feel about this development. It will be a little weird every time I watch a Jays game and see the other Alex Gonzalez at shortstop.

I guess we'll see on Monday when the regular season starts.

Anticipating Glee

Being in CreComm doesn't leave a lot of time for TV shows.

Or hobbies.

Or friendships.

Or anything really.

But last semester, every Wednesday night, I pushed my CreComm responsibilities aside.

For Glee.

Yes, I do like music. And musicals. But I have to admit I wasn't too eager to give Glee a chance at first. I detested High School Musical, and worried Glee would be much the same.

But I couldn't have been more wrong.

While there is still the element of cheese, Glee is an extremely well-written, hilarious show. It's characters are misfits with their own unqiue quirks. Most notably Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), the ridiculously inappropriate cheerleading coach and sworn worst enemy of the glee club. She even has her own show on the late night news. My favourite Sue quote from season 1: "I don't trust a man with curly hair. I can't help but picture little birds laying sulfurous eggs in there, and it disgusts me."

But the true genius of Glee is that the show celebrates the glee club and its members, but mocks them at the same time. You root for the characters who have elements of ridiculousness to all of them, and you want their club to succeed while laughing at them for taking themselves too seriously.

Though CreComm is almost over, season two starts up on April 13. And though I will be buried in a pile of homework and won't have talked to my own mother for weeks, I will find a way to spend one hour in front of the TV.

We made a magazine!

Here's the thing about CreComm. When you have a big assignment, you don't sleep, you don't eat, and you shed tears. You live and breathe CreComm. You go to school for 8 a.m. and you don't come home until they kick you out at midnight. You hate life and resent schoolwork so much. But then, all of a sudden everything comes together, and it all suddenly feels worth it.

The past three months, I have been working on creating a magazine from start to finish with three of my classmates, Stacia Franz, James Hawboldt, and Christa Campbell. We chose the concept, wrote all the content, created all the advertisements, and designed and laid out the whole magazine - quite a process, especially for people with little design experience.

I have resented this project for three months. It got off to a frustrating start. We had to come up with a concept and how it would hang together - how it would be marketed, ideas for editorial content, color schemes, target markets, etc. - in the first week. And I had just met my group members.

Creating our feature articles was frustrating - it required a lot of research and rewrites - but that turned out to be the easy part.

InDesign was my worst enemy. I have trouble with design - I don't know what colors go together well, how to lay things out in an aesthetically-pleasing manner, and when I had a vision, I didn't know how to transfer it onto the page. And close-cutting a photo in Photoshop took hours sometimes.

Not to mention keeping all of our files (I think we have about 50) organized and with the document. Ugh.

But today, we got our first proof of Wait - a magazine for servers, by servers - from the printers. A physical manifestation of all of the tears, sweat, stress, and fatigue we've experienced the past few months. We were all giddy. (OK, maybe partly because we're way overtired and jittery from all the caffeine we've consumed this week.

We have a little bit of tweaking and proofreading to do, but I'm really proud of all four of us, and seeing the printed copy really has made it all worth it. We have a great portfolio piece we can be really proud of - something we never would have thought we could do when we started this program.

So thank you program. Even though most days I resent you, days like this, when I reflect on the skills I have learned and how far I have come in such a short time, I'm so thankful and proud to be in the program.

Stay tuned for some clips from Wait magazine, once the final copy is done.

Looking for a summer weekend getaway? Golf Killarney!

For another journalism assignment, four of my CreComm friends and I drove two-and-half hours to my hometown to write a travel article. I chose to write about our beautiful golf course, where I worked for four summers.

If you're an avid golfer, give it a read! It might just convince you to take a trip! Enjoy!



Located two-and-a-half hours southwest of Winnipeg and twenty minutes north of the U.S. border rests Killarney, Manitoba, a town named for the lake that Irishman John Sydney O’Brien christened after his homeland.

Home to 3,299 residents, Killarney’s population nearly doubles during the summer when cottagers, campers, and other tourists arrive to enjoy the town’s summer leisure activities. One of the main attractions is the Killarney Lakeside Golf Course, located on the shores of Killarney Lake.

Randy Brekke is entering his second year as the club’s CPGA certified golf professional. He worked previously at the Elmhurst Golf & Country Club, located just outside of Winnipeg, for 23 years. He says he was surprised by the quality of the Killarney’s course the first time he played it.

“Certain holes have a lot of character, and it’s an enjoyable course to play,” says Brekke. “It’s not super long, you don’t have to punish yourself, it’s well-kept, and it’s pretty. And it requires a little talent to play – it’s not a pushover small-town course.”



Les Defoort has member of the course for 35 years. An avid golfer, he has served on the club’s executive for three terms and holds one of the course’s two hundred shares. He says the course’s most unique feature is the contrast between the front and back nines.

“The back nine (opened in 1921) is a traditional old-style golf course with lots of trees, very short holes, and two very difficult par threes,” says Defoort. “The newer front nine, opened in the early ’90s, plays along the lake with one large mound and large bunkers. It was originally designed as a links-type nine, but that is slowly changing as the course matures.”



While every hole has its own character and challenges, Brekke says the ninth hole, which doglegs right around Killarney Lake, is the most challenging.

“It tempts you to hit a long drive over the water, but if you screw up, you’ve got the lake and a few bunkers that will really hurt you,” says Brekke. “It’s the hole that separates the men from the boys.”

An 18-hole green fee is $32 and a power cart rental is $30. Brekke says, unlike city courses, the course is almost never backed up, and golfers are often able to get a tee time by booking only one day in advance.



The course also has a driving range, putting and practice greens, club rentals, and a fully licensed restaurant, open from six a.m. to dusk, where you can purchase the Birdie Breakfast (two eggs, bacon or sausage, hash browns, toast, and coffee) for $6.85.

For tourists looking for somewhere to stay, the course offers stay-and-play packages (in conjunction with the Pleasant Valley Golf Club) with the Kerry Park and Agricultural Society campgrounds, the Country Comfort B&B, and the Erin Inn Motor Hotel and Emerald Isle Motel & Resort.

To book a tee time online, visit www.killarneylakeside.com/. For more information about the town, visit www.killarney.ca/.

Incredible Story of Three Manitoba Moose Fans

For an assignment for journalism class, we were sent to a Manitoba Moose game to find a human interest "story in the stands". After talking to several people, I came across three Moose fans decked out in Moose garb and approached them to ask a few questions.

Though they didn't reveal much at first, upon further prodding, I found out that these three, a husband, wife and daughter, had incredible life stories, and hockey was an integral part.

Here is their story.



For the Egdell family, hockey has become a break from life’s complications. A distraction that daughter Allison Egdell needed at last night’s Manitoba Moose game after suffering a seizure yesterday afternoon.

Egdell, 35, has had epilepsy since she was 6 or 7 years old. Because of her condition, she cannot work and requires constant supervision from her family. Last year alone, she had over 160 seizures.

“Today’s wasn’t too bad, so I could still come to the game.” Egdell says. “Sometimes when it’s over, I have to sleep for hours. It makes it worse when it interferes with my plans because I don’t get to do a lot.”

Egdell says she has been lucky enough not to suffer a seizure during a game, but was taken away by ambulance on the way to the arena in November.

“We were walking into the upper concourse (of the MTS Centre) when I had a seizure and fell and cracked my head open,” says Egdell. “We had to miss the game, but when the Moose found out, they gave us tickets for another night.”

Egdell and her father, John “Hoss” Egdell, a former master warrant officer for the Canadian Forces and life-long Maple Leafs fan, have been coming to games since the Moose moved to the MTS Centre in 2004. In 2006, the duo became a trio when Hoss, 67, met his second wife, Linda, also a die-hard hockey fan.

“We met over the Internet,” explains Linda, 59, who says she learned to love hockey while watching the Maple Leafs with her dad on their black-and-white TV set. “We had an immediate connection because we had both lost our spouses to cancer. And there was also our love for hockey. Hoss took me to a Moose game for our first date.”

Seven months later, the two were married. The hockey-themed wedding featured a cake shaped like a hockey rink complete with nets, players, and a large Maple Leafs logo in the centre. In honour of their former spouses and Hoss’s own battle with cancer, in lieu of gifts, donations were made to the Canadian Cancer Society, whose logo all three Egdell’s dawn on the upper-left corner of their Moose jerseys.

Of the 6,027 fans who saw the American Hockey League match-up in which the inconsistent Moose beat the Worcester Sharks 3-1 in the Sharks’ first-ever visit to Winnipeg, Hoss said his family will have appreciated last night’s game in a way others can’t understand.

“It’s something the three of us just get,” says Hoss. “We need hockey in our lives. When you can’t count on life, you can count on hockey.”