Author: Bradley Wilson

Publisher focuses on telling the truth, all aspects of the truth

Jeff Light
Jeff Light delivers the opening keynote address at the Associated Collegiate Press national convention in La Jolla, California, Feb. 28. Photo by Bradley Wilson

Fundamentals at the core of doing good work

Jeff Light, publisher and editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune, started off his talk reminding the 200-or-so students and instructors of the fundamentals, of the first-order rules.

  • Always write the headline first. It focuses the mind.
  • Always go to the scene of the crime.
  • Spell the names right. Be accurate in every detail.
  • Tell it straight.

These fundamentals, he said, help us do a good job of finding out what’s really going on.

“Listen to the voice of people who have something to say about it. Be open-minded about presenting all the points of view in a favorable light.”

As a former investigate reporter, he should know. Mark Witherspoon, editorial adviser at the Iowa State Daily, said it was precisely this background that made his talk interesting.

“The first thing I was impressed with was that Jeff Light was an investigative reporter that is now publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune. That doesn’t happen that often,” Witherspoon said.

Continue reading “Publisher focuses on telling the truth, all aspects of the truth”

Videolicious: It does one thing…

videolicious class
My classic selfie in Louisville with the 9 a.m. Videolicious class.

… but Videolicious does it really well

By Bradley Wilson
CMR Managing Editor

My session on Videolicious was at 9 a.m. on Friday, on a cold and drizzly day in Louisville. I expected about five people to show up. After all, Videolicious has been around for a while. Either you’ve heard of it and are using it. Or you haven’t heard of it and don’t care.

When I got to the room, there were already five people. Perfect.

Then five more. And five more. And, before you know it, there are about 25 people there. So much for a hands-on demonstration. But we tried. And we played.

I believe it when the folks at Videolicious say, “Video is the most popular content in the world.” And it’s growing. Continue reading “Videolicious: It does one thing…”

Photographers document ‘Gateway to the South’

College Media Shoot-Out 2018

The cool weather and drizzle didn’t stop 29 photographers from submitting images in Louisville as part of the annual Photo Shoot-out for college photojournalists.

Andrew Walter of Eastfield College said, “I liked how free the theme was in that as long as you believed your image fit the theme of ‘Gateway to the South,’ you could capture an image of anything you found newsworthy.”

Zahn Schultz of Central Washington University said, “It challenges participants to think critically and put the skills they have learned into a new and unfamiliar environment. It’s also a ton of fun, getting to explore a new city and find new and different perspectives camera in hand is an absolute blast.” Continue reading “Photographers document ‘Gateway to the South’”

Interns offer advice for copy editors

Preparing students for their summer jobs as multi-platform editors

By Bradley Wilson
CMR Managing Editor

Twenty-one years ago, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas, Griff Singer, recognized a need, a need to train copy editors. Together with Rich Holden, then executive director of the Dow Jones News Fund, they created the Center for Editing Excellence to train interns. They all received two weeks of training before they set foot at media outlets such as Newsday, the Houston Chronicle, the Beaumont Enterprise, Stars and Stripes, the Dallas Morning News or, as the profession has evolved, worked in copy editing centers such as Gatehouse’s Center for News & Design, or for online media such as Buzzfeed.

Over time, they’ve continued to focus on the different levels of editing:

  • LEVEL 1 — law, ethics, appropriate sources, different angles; edit upon conceptualization
  • LEVEL 2 — organization, design, enough reporting; edit with drafts and rewriting
  • LEVEL 3 — grammar, spelling, punctuation, style; edit at the last minute

In the last few years, the students have added to their skills in headline writing, trimming news briefs and designing pages and learn more about embedding video and best practices for Twitter. While now the training is only 10 days, it is just as grueling. Students, mostly college juniors and seniors, spend their last three days producing a six-page newspaper, a website and social media in real time with real publication deadlines — the Southwest Journalist.

The training center at the UT-Austin is one of six centers, two focusing on editing and preparing interns for their summer jobs as multi-platform editors. The other four, now led by Linda Shockey, managing director of the Dow Jones News Fund, focus on business reporting, data journalism or digital media.

Before they left each of the interns in Austin offered some advice for other copy editors. Here is their advice. Continue reading “Interns offer advice for copy editors”

Shoot-out brings out best in photojournalists

FIRST PLACE A woman holding a “Women for Trump” sign gets in an brawl with the people in the audience and ends up getting arrested and removed from the march for throwing punches at the crowd. Photo by Siddharth Gaulee, University of Louisiana — Monroe (Christopher Mapp, adviser)

Through the lens at CMA Convention

At the College Media Association national convention in New York City, 22 students participated in the on-site photography class competition — the ever-popular Shoot-out.

THE WINNERS

  • First place — Siddharth Gaulee, University of Louisiana—Monroe, Christopher Mapp, adviser
  • Second place — Pooja Pasupula, University of North Carolina—Charlotte, Wayne Maikranz, adviser
  • Third place — Hunter Crenian, University of Miami, Tsitsi Wakhisi, adviser
  • Honorable mention and class favorite — Hunter Crenian, University of Miami, Tsitsi Wakhisi, adviser
  • Honorable mention — Charlene Pan, Rice University, Kelly Callaway, adviser

As part of the contest, participants had to document “one moment in time.” The students had about two days to submit one or two images with captions. Continue reading “Shoot-out brings out best in photojournalists”

CMA convention to be interactive, immersive and hands-on

THIRD PLACE AND CLASS FAVORITE: Irma Gutierrez Sanchez; Miami Dade College (Manolo Barco, adviser) — One of The Halal Guys of NYC prepares a lamb gyro at the corner of West 53rd Street and 7th Avenue on the chilly night of March 13, 2014.

CONVENTION LINK

A QUESTION AND ANSWER
WITH CONVENTION DIRECTOR HILLARY WARREN

Why should someone attend the College Media Association in New York City this spring?

This year’s convention is more interactive, more immersive, more hands-on than ever. Students will cover the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden as part of the New York Sports Workshop. The always-popular Shoot-Out is back. And more than 100 students will compete to see who is the Iron Reporter in our first convention-based reporting competition.

If you had to pick one session that you’d really like to attend, what would it be?

I’m looking forward to Holly Johnson’s double-session reporting challenge. I plan to steal every last one of her ideas.

If you had to pick one speaker that you’d really like to hear, who would it be?

That will get me in trouble. Joanne Lipman and Lynn Walsh were terrific last year and are so on topic with #metoo that we had to have them back. I’ve been following Lauren Duca since the 2016 campaign and am thrilled that she will join us Saturday. But, I think I’m most looking forward to Stephen Totilo because I don’t know anything about video games, but I admire what he has built. Continue reading “CMA convention to be interactive, immersive and hands-on”

‘The Post’ inspiration even for those not working in media

Meryl Streep in The Post (2017), Photo by Niko Tavernise, 20th Century Fox.

Young journalists can take home lessons from ‘The Post’

By Bradley Wilson
CMR Managing Editor

If there was ever a time for a feel-good movie about the media, it’s now. And in “The Post,” Director Steven Spielberg and big-name stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks realize the power and role of the media.

However, the movie goes well beyond showing how a newspaper and a few strong-willed editors and reports can change the course of a country. It brings in a modern discussion of the role of women, limits that need to be placed on government, the need for the First Amendment and even how media outlets also need checks and balances.

For a long-time journalist, it was fascinating to watch molten lead set into words, newsrooms filled with typewriters, copy editors given 30 minutes to work on one story and papers shipped out in hand-tied bundles. It was disheartening to see Katharine Graham portrayed as less than powerful, even weak, leader with shaking hands. She never came across that way when played by Nancy Marchand in the television series Lou Grant. But as her character develops, watching her finally make a decision with such potential negative ramifications and then walking down the steps of the Supreme Court, even in the shadow of The New York Times, was inspirational. Continue reading “‘The Post’ inspiration even for those not working in media”

42 participate in Dallas photo Shoot-out

FIRST PLACE Jubenal Aguilar, Brookhaven College (Daniel Rodrigue, adviser) | Leonardo Garcia, a window washer with April Building Services, Inc., washes the skywalk outside the Sheraton while Christian Ortiz spots and holds the ladder. Garcia said he has been working in the window sashing business for over seven years. “I used to use to be afraid of going outside the tall buildings,” Garcia said. ”But it’s now more just fun than anything.”

Six student photographers earn shout-out during Shoot-out

At the Photo Shoot-Out during the College Media Association and Associated Collegiate Press convention in Dallas Oct. 25-29, 42 students participated in the on-site photography competition.

In the week since, 22 judges including professional photojournalists, college media advisers and others went through the entires still available for viewing.

The judges chose to recognize six photographers.

  • FIRST PLACE Jubenal Aguilar, Brookhaven College (Daniel Rodrigue, adviser)
  • SECOND PLACE Megan Burke, Missouri State University (Jack Dimond, adviser)
  • THIRD PLACE Don M. Green, Southern University (Heather Freeman, adviser)
  • HONORABLE MENTION AND CLASS FAVORITE Ryan Weier, Central Washington University (Jennifer Green, adviser)
  • HONORABLE MENTION Ryan Welch, Missouri State University (Jack Dimond, adviser)
  • HONORABLE MENTION Alexander Fu, Central Washington University (Cynthia Mitchell, adviser)

Dallas Morning News photographers Louis DeLuca, Tom Fox and Nathan Hunsinger as well as Seattle Times photographer Ellen Banner and New York Daily News photographer Todd Maisel.

The other judges included college media advisers, other professional photojournalists, freelance photojournalists, other photography instructors.

Aaron Babcock, Amber Billings, Becky Tate, Bretton Zinger, Carole Babineaux, Cary Conover, Clint Smith, Deanne Brown, Diane Bolinger, Edmund Low, Eric Thomas, Greg Cooper, Griff Singer, Ian McVea, Jane Blystone, Janis Hefley, Jed Palmer, Jim McNay, John Beale, John Skees, Kevin Kleine, Kingsley Burns, Kyle Phillips, Laurie Hansen, Lillie Schenk, Logan Aimone, Margaret Sorrows, Mark Murray, Matt Garnett, Matt Stamey, Mitchell Franz, Pat Gathright, Sherri Taylor, Stern Hatcher, Steve Dearinger, Tom Hallaq and Toni Mitchell.

After the photographers had more than two days to complete the assignment, “The Big D,” Kevin Kleine of Berry College, Sam Oldenburg of Western Kentucky and Bradley Wilson of Midwestern State provided a critique of all the images.

Dallas F2017

2017 more like ‘1984’ than 1984

Survey details collision in classrooms between literature and reality

By Bradley Wilson
CMR Managing Editor

Lynn Neary with National Public Radio said George Orwell’s 1949 novel, 1984, again topped the Amazon bestseller list and had become, in her words, something of a political barometer.

Neary reported, “A spokesman for Signet Classics, which currently publishes 1984, said sales have increased almost 10,000 percent since the inauguration and moved noticeably upwards on Sunday. That’s when Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway appeared on Meet The Press. When host Chuck Todd challenged the Trump administration’s assertions about the size of the Inauguration Day crowd, Conway responded with a phrase that caught everyone’s attention.”

“Alternative facts,” Conway said.

Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, tells Chuck Todd that the Press Secretary used ‘alternative facts’ in his first statement to the Press Corps.

Washington Post reporter Karen Tumulty on CNN’s Reliable Sources said the phrase reminded her of phrases from Orwell’s classic: doublethink, ignorance is strength, war is peace, freedom is slavery. Continue reading “2017 more like ‘1984’ than 1984”

Photojournalists: Get out of your comfort zone

Carolyn Van Houten. Photo by Ray Whitehouse.
Carolyn Van Houten. Photo by Ray Whitehouse.

Advice from “College Photographer of the Year”

By Bradley Wilson
CMR Managing Editor

Carolyn Van Houten is the 70th College Photographer of the Year. Now a staff photographer at the San Antonio Express-News, Van Houten is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

After you were named the top college photographer this year, you said, “I’m kind of shocked.” Elaborate.

cropped-CMR_arrow26_CMR_SiteIconGray.pngPhotojournalism competitions are quite arbitrary, so when you are named the “College Photographer of the Year,” it’s a bit shocking, because you know that there were a lot of really incredible photographers all around the world that year who also could have won given different judges and different circumstances.

For someone else who aspires to be a top-notch college photographer, what would you suggest?

I would suggest doing a lot of internships, especially ones that put you in communities out of your comfort zone for long periods of time. I would also suggest seeking mentors who will help foster your way of working, not just your work—mentors who take the time to get to know you and recognize your quirks so that they can help you work them into strengths. Continue reading “Photojournalists: Get out of your comfort zone”