Month: February 2008

w00t, w00t: Visuals editor Will Wooten starts redesign blog

Let the Web design blogging begin!

Will Wooten, visuals editor at The Miami Hurricane, has started a blog about online journalism, specifically the redesign of The Hurricane’s Web site.

Will is overseeing the aesthetic side of the project and will be posting updates and information about the redesign process. The blog will also act as a means for gathering feedback and discussing the new site.

And what is the name of this forum?

“Will’s Blog.”

Why such a simple name?

“The reason is, it is what it is. I don’t want anything creative.”

What about the design and color scheme?

“The serious bloggers are going to be using a reader anyway.”

Unrelated, my favorite quote from Will came as he was updating his resume last semester. As he was finishing, he realized something:

“I forget to put that I was Time Magazine’s person of the year in 2006 on my resume.”

Miami Herald reporter discusses online research

Miami Herald metro reporter Evan Benn will begin speaking with a UM journalism class (CNJ 216 news reporting) in about a minute or so. I’m crashing the party with my laptop, digital recorder and point-and shoot.

He will be discussing online research and has a handout called “Finding people, getting stories.”

This will be my first real liveblog – the test one I did with Cover It Live doesn’t count.

Here are the points he will discuss:

1. Plug ‘Em In

2. Find public records

3. Call around them

4. Play dumb

5. Be yourself

I’ll be expanding these based on his talk as it occurs, so please be sure to check back for updates.

9: 42 A.M.: “Even when I first got into this business all we did is go out with a notebook and pen, but now it’s so much different.” Now, he has a Blackberry (for filing and photos), takes a digital recorder, etc.

He shot photos from courtroom with Blackberry, but they said they sucked, so he brought a point-and-shoot the next time.

Side note: I brought Evan to speak to our SPJ chapter last semester where he mentioned how he liveblogged the O.J. trial from Vegas.

“You really have to be fast and efficient and versatile, that’s always the linchpin of journalism.” (Hey! That’s the name of this blog.)

Tip 1: “There’s so much information available on the Internet,” that should be where you start. Use Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc.

Tip 2: Public records: “There’s a wealth of information you can find about people’s lives.”

9:58 A.M.:

Web resources:

Evan showed this entertaining video while discussing Bird Road Rudy (the Herald story is no longer online.

10:02 A.M.: We’ve moved on to blogging, yay!

“I think that’s important in this day and age.”

Evan gave an example of a recent post he wrote about an item from his hometown papers.

Tip 4: Play dumb.

“Don’t be afraid to say, ‘Can you slow down?’ “

“When you’re writing, pretend like your telling it to your friend.”

For difficult stories, such as deaths and tragedies.

“Be a human first, a journalist second. Often journalists are seen as vultures.”

“Be empathetic. It’s O.K. to not be a robot. Make a human connection, find some common ground. If you can find that human connection, you’ll find people are a lot more willing to talk to you and make you job easier.”

Question from student: Are blogs replacing columns?

No, Evan says he thinks they add to the conversation.

Question from student: Do you do your own radio work?

He takes all his own audio, uploads it, listens and edits before taking it to radio studio. He writes a minute-long script, voices it and they put it all together.

VIDEO: Herald site operations director Levinson discusses online journalism

Suzanne Levinson, director of site operations at The Miami Herald, visited my online journalism class Thursday evening.

She discussed the Herald’s Web site, online journalism and what students need to know to get into the field. The webmaster, visuals editor and I took the opportunity to get her thoughts on the The Miami Hurricane‘s redesign plans, showing her two drafts wireframes.

Pulitzer Prize-winning panel for Comm Week

Planning is in full swing for Communication Week 2008, which will take place Feb. 16-23. One of the events is a panel of Pulitzer Prize winners that almost boggles the mind.

The following people are planned to participate (from Bob Radziewicz, who has been on four Pulitzer-winning teams himself):

Madeleine Blais: won for feature writing at The Miami Herald in 1980;

Mirta Ojito: won as part of The New York Times‘ race in America series in 2000;

Michael Sallah: investigations editor at The Herald who won for investigative reporting at the Toledo Blade in 2004 and who directed Debbie Cenziper on last year’s local news winner on the “House of Lies” series;

Joe Oglesby: editorial page editor from The Herald who wrote most of the editorials about the detention of Haitian boat people that won in 1982;

Jim Morin: Herald cartoonist who won in 1996 for editorial cartoons.

The organizers are also trying to bring a photography winner and hope to have political and governmental reporter Michael Putney, from Miami’s ABC affiliate WPLG, act as emcee. (see update below on emcee)

Job and internship panel
I have organized a panel on jobs and internships, which will take place Feb. 19 at 12:30 p.m. in Studio A.

The event will feature Rick Hirsch (managing editor for multimedia at The Miami Herald), Michelle Morgante (assistant Forida bureau chief at the AP) and Kathy Pellegrino (recruitment editor at the Sun-Sentinel).

Each participant, who does internship recruiting for his/her respective organization, will meet one-on-one with students after the discussion.

UPDATE, Feb. 8: The emcee for the Pulitzer panel will be Miami Herald executive editor Anders Gyllenhaal.

UPDATE, Feb. 12: AP photographer Al Diaz has been confirmed as the sixth panel member.

Dousing the Great (Fire)Wall, gradually

When I was in China last summer for a feature writing study abroad class, our University of Miami group discussed the Internet, freedom of speech and censorship with a number of the Chinese journalism students. What we learned and gleaned from their perspectives was quite interesting.

As you can tell from my occasional China posts, I am very interested in these topics, especially speech/press-related issues. (Shameless plug: Check out our class blog and my stories from the trip).

Here is an excerpt from a New York Times article, Great Firewall of China Faces Online Rebels:

“In recent months, China’s censors have tightened controls over the Internet, often blacking out sites that had no discernible political content. In the process, they have fostered a backlash, as many people who previously had little interest in politics have become active in resisting the controls.”

During our stay, I found a few proxy sites to get around some of the censored sites. One of the strangest sites that was completely censored was Wikipedia.

I don’t have a problem with the Chinese people or China in general. I found the country fascinating and the trip the most enlightening I’ve ever taken. My problem is with the lack of freedom: Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to peaceably assemble and to protest the government for redress of grievances.

Journalism and free speech are improving with time, mostly due to the power of the Internet. (mobile phones are also playing an important role). The government may continue clamping down in response, but people are gradually pushing back.