This week once again presented itself with difficulties as I was putting my stories together. Two weeks ago, I went to several events involving Pat Martino, who is a world-famous jazz guitarist with an incredible story. He had a brain aneurysm and lost 60% of his left frontal lobe; when he woke up he didn't remember he was ever a guitar player or how to play guitar and he re-taught himself using his old records. He really was a fascinating character and one of the events I attended that week was a one-on-one interview he did in the Bond Life Sciences Center with Dr. Joel Schenker, a specialist in brain damage and memory loss. The interview was fascinating and Martino gave literally dozens of great sound bites throughout.
I plugged my Marantz into the Multbox they have there and listened to the first several minutes on my headphones; it all sounded fine and the levels looked perfect on the meter, so after about five minutes I took the headphones off and just sat, listened and took notes for the remaining hour or so of the interview. Unfortunately, when I got back to KBIA to put together my feature the next day, the sound was horribly distorted. Turns out that they had their settings far too hot on their board for the mic's that they were using and even though it sounded fine in the room and on the Marantz's headphones, because it was plugged into their multbox (for supposedly clearer sound) it sounded as if I'd been holding the mic up right next to one a speaker that had been turned up too loud.
I met with one of the producers at KBIA and we worked on filtering out some of the background hiss and overall junk noise that was flooding the audio and it sounds a lot better than it did, but it still sounds bad. I was very disappointed with that, because I think the feature could have turned out to be a great piece if the people at the Life Sciences Center hadn't had their settings so screwed up on their soundboard. Now I feel as if it's a decent story that had great potential that couldn't be realized because of a technical error that wasn't even mine. Needless to say, I wasn't too happy with this result, but there's nothing to do now except make the most of it and try to get it to sound decent.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Big Accusations, Big Interview
This week I chose to go to one of my favorite programs, E:60. I love the in-depth features this show produces and I really like about half of the journalists on the program. Although I feel they are all very good at what they do, some of them really rub me the wrong way in their demeanor and presentation. That's why I chose to view Michael Smith's segment from last week's show. Michael Smith has always been one of my favorite sports journalists, even from his days back at the Boston Globe before he joined ESPN's team. The story he did this week was an interview chronicling the life of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger since this summer, when a woman alleged that he sexually assaulted her a year ago. There are several things Smith did in this segment that struck me as being textbook quality journalism, especially when dealing with such a sensitive subject as yet another sexual assault allegation against a pro athlete.
The first thing that Smith did that I liked was to establish a rapport with Roethlisberger before sitting down to do the tough interview. The piece began with Smith joining Roethlisberger and his close friend on the team at a shooting range. One thing that stood out to me in this segment was Smith's attire; it was a bit flashy for my liking, as it drew a lot of attention to itself, but it was alright in my opinion since the situation clearly called for casual dress rather than the usual TV journalism full suit approach. While this beginning segment of the piece doesn't address the allegations right away, it does do well to establish a rapport between Smith and Roethlisberger before the interview gets under way. Obviously, this is critically important for Smith to do (whether on camera or off) before he sits down to do an interview in which he will need to ask some tough questions. However, I feel that it was just as important to establish this friendly yet professional relationship between Smith and Roethlisberger for the viewer; even as a journalist, I sometimes see interviews where tough questions are asked and I find myself rooting against the journalist because they seem like an attack dog more than someone who is just doing their job. By showing the viewers that there is a mutual respect and a working relationship established between the two before the tough questions start flying, it helps the audience to empathize with Smith more.
Without going into the details of the court case, I did find two things very interesting from this story. First was the fact that the woman waited a year to come out with these allegations. In these situations, I often find myself wondering why anyone would wait so long. I understand that there is a great degree of mental as well as physical trauma that can come with sexual assault, however a year seems to me to be a bit excessive. Secondly, I thought it was a great piece of journalism when Smith unburied the nugget about when and where Roethlisberger was when he was served with his papers in this case. He was at a charity golf event, and was acutally signing an autograph for a kid at the time when he was served. I think sometimes we place professional athletes on such a high pedastal that they don't seem to be real people anymore. Sharing a little detail like that went a long way to helping me fit in Roethlisberger's shoes for a moment to try to realize what it must have been like to be hit with those accusations.
I also found it interesting that Smith got many of Roethlisberger's teammates and Big Ben himself to admit that his teammates were much more supportive after this crisis than they were just three years earlier when Roethlisberger had a very controversial and dangerous motorcycle accident. Just months after the end of his rookie season and a Super Bowl win, Roethlisberger had a terrible motorcycle crash that severely injured his neck and head. To make matters worse, the details surrounding the crash were hazy at best and very suspicious. At best, it appeared that Roethlisberger had been riding recklessly; at worst, it could have been drunk driving. In any case, however, he had apparently been aloof with teammates following the Super Bowl win and had let the fame go to his head. Back then they saw him as distant, and they were uneager to come to his aid. Now, three years later, Big Ben has gone to great lengths to change that perception and all of his teammates that spoke for this story agreed that he has come a long way in his leadership skills and that he is a much better teammate now. I thought it was great that Smith not only spoke to so many other players on the team from all different positions, but that he also got them to admit that they weren't fond of Roethlisberger back then. I think it goes to show a lot about his character that they would admit that while still going to bat for him now. The little segment about the lakehouse visits with his offensive lineman had some great video and they did a good job of showing how he had grown closer to his teammates.
Finally, I thought Smith did a good job of asking some harder questions in this interview and getting Roethlisberger to give honest, insightful answers rather than just rehearsed and regurgitated scripted answers. Getting Roethlisberger to admit to previous faults helped to establish a greater level of credibility in my eyes when he then denied the accusations about his sexual assault. If he was willing to admit to personal shortcomings and mistakes from his past like the motorcycle accident, it made me think that perhaps he was being completely honest when he denies all of the charges. I also liked how Smith pushed him a little bit when he was asking him why he didn't just settle the lawsuit and donate money to a charity for battered women; it showed that Roethlisberger was really committed to clearing his name.
Although I liked this piece quite a bit, there was definitely one thing that stood out to me that I did not like; Smith ended on a quote, and in my opinion the quote was nowhere near strong enough to justify breaking this cardinal rule of TV packages. Also, although I previously said I liked the intro segment because it established a working relationship between Smith and Roethlisberger as well as a rapport between the audience and Roethlisberger, it didn't tie extremely well into the overall themes of the story. It was decent at showing that Big Ben has taken greater steps to connect with teammates, but I can't help but feel that a stronger intro could have been used in this story. Going back to the closing of the story, I think Smith would have done well to throw in even just a line or two about where the legal battle is right now or what we can expect in the near future. Court dates, jury selection, or anything relating to the trial could have easily wrapped this story up nicely rather than ending on a so-so bite.
The first thing that Smith did that I liked was to establish a rapport with Roethlisberger before sitting down to do the tough interview. The piece began with Smith joining Roethlisberger and his close friend on the team at a shooting range. One thing that stood out to me in this segment was Smith's attire; it was a bit flashy for my liking, as it drew a lot of attention to itself, but it was alright in my opinion since the situation clearly called for casual dress rather than the usual TV journalism full suit approach. While this beginning segment of the piece doesn't address the allegations right away, it does do well to establish a rapport between Smith and Roethlisberger before the interview gets under way. Obviously, this is critically important for Smith to do (whether on camera or off) before he sits down to do an interview in which he will need to ask some tough questions. However, I feel that it was just as important to establish this friendly yet professional relationship between Smith and Roethlisberger for the viewer; even as a journalist, I sometimes see interviews where tough questions are asked and I find myself rooting against the journalist because they seem like an attack dog more than someone who is just doing their job. By showing the viewers that there is a mutual respect and a working relationship established between the two before the tough questions start flying, it helps the audience to empathize with Smith more.
Without going into the details of the court case, I did find two things very interesting from this story. First was the fact that the woman waited a year to come out with these allegations. In these situations, I often find myself wondering why anyone would wait so long. I understand that there is a great degree of mental as well as physical trauma that can come with sexual assault, however a year seems to me to be a bit excessive. Secondly, I thought it was a great piece of journalism when Smith unburied the nugget about when and where Roethlisberger was when he was served with his papers in this case. He was at a charity golf event, and was acutally signing an autograph for a kid at the time when he was served. I think sometimes we place professional athletes on such a high pedastal that they don't seem to be real people anymore. Sharing a little detail like that went a long way to helping me fit in Roethlisberger's shoes for a moment to try to realize what it must have been like to be hit with those accusations.
I also found it interesting that Smith got many of Roethlisberger's teammates and Big Ben himself to admit that his teammates were much more supportive after this crisis than they were just three years earlier when Roethlisberger had a very controversial and dangerous motorcycle accident. Just months after the end of his rookie season and a Super Bowl win, Roethlisberger had a terrible motorcycle crash that severely injured his neck and head. To make matters worse, the details surrounding the crash were hazy at best and very suspicious. At best, it appeared that Roethlisberger had been riding recklessly; at worst, it could have been drunk driving. In any case, however, he had apparently been aloof with teammates following the Super Bowl win and had let the fame go to his head. Back then they saw him as distant, and they were uneager to come to his aid. Now, three years later, Big Ben has gone to great lengths to change that perception and all of his teammates that spoke for this story agreed that he has come a long way in his leadership skills and that he is a much better teammate now. I thought it was great that Smith not only spoke to so many other players on the team from all different positions, but that he also got them to admit that they weren't fond of Roethlisberger back then. I think it goes to show a lot about his character that they would admit that while still going to bat for him now. The little segment about the lakehouse visits with his offensive lineman had some great video and they did a good job of showing how he had grown closer to his teammates.
Finally, I thought Smith did a good job of asking some harder questions in this interview and getting Roethlisberger to give honest, insightful answers rather than just rehearsed and regurgitated scripted answers. Getting Roethlisberger to admit to previous faults helped to establish a greater level of credibility in my eyes when he then denied the accusations about his sexual assault. If he was willing to admit to personal shortcomings and mistakes from his past like the motorcycle accident, it made me think that perhaps he was being completely honest when he denies all of the charges. I also liked how Smith pushed him a little bit when he was asking him why he didn't just settle the lawsuit and donate money to a charity for battered women; it showed that Roethlisberger was really committed to clearing his name.
Although I liked this piece quite a bit, there was definitely one thing that stood out to me that I did not like; Smith ended on a quote, and in my opinion the quote was nowhere near strong enough to justify breaking this cardinal rule of TV packages. Also, although I previously said I liked the intro segment because it established a working relationship between Smith and Roethlisberger as well as a rapport between the audience and Roethlisberger, it didn't tie extremely well into the overall themes of the story. It was decent at showing that Big Ben has taken greater steps to connect with teammates, but I can't help but feel that a stronger intro could have been used in this story. Going back to the closing of the story, I think Smith would have done well to throw in even just a line or two about where the legal battle is right now or what we can expect in the near future. Court dates, jury selection, or anything relating to the trial could have easily wrapped this story up nicely rather than ending on a so-so bite.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Down With The Sickness
Since my last post, when I found myself overwhelmed by the staggering course load this semester, things had been looking up considerably. I finally finished all my midterms and papers, my work load had lightened considerably and I'd been rapidly catching up on my reporting work at KBIA. Unfortunately, this is where it all takes a turn for the worse again. After successfully completing three stories last week, I fell very ill with a chest cold and completely lost my voice. I decided to take the sage advice of a certain Mr. Kyle and postpone voicing my stories until my voice had actually returned. Well, today came around and I felt good enough to at least give it a shot. It did not go well. My voice sounds strained and raspy and I struggled just to hold enough breath to finish sentences while reading. I'm going to have to wait another day or two and try to re-voice my stories later this week and hope for the best.
On the bright side, my luck finally started to turn (as I mentioned before) and I was getting in contact with good sources and getting quality interviews from them. This week, I already have two more stories lined up and I'm hoping to do a third one again, time permitting. I put together a short preview piece for the arts portion of the newscast on Friday and I will be doing a follow-up feature piece on a fascinating guitarist by the name of Pat Martino. I'll be attending several events centered and featuring Mr. Martino this week and I'm still hoping to lock down a face-to-face interview with him while he is in town. I'm feeling much more confident in my abilities as a journalist again and I'm no longer really concerned that I'll be able to get all the work done before the close of the semester. Right now I just hope my voice can come back as soon as possible so I can go out there and get some more stories on the air.
On the bright side, my luck finally started to turn (as I mentioned before) and I was getting in contact with good sources and getting quality interviews from them. This week, I already have two more stories lined up and I'm hoping to do a third one again, time permitting. I put together a short preview piece for the arts portion of the newscast on Friday and I will be doing a follow-up feature piece on a fascinating guitarist by the name of Pat Martino. I'll be attending several events centered and featuring Mr. Martino this week and I'm still hoping to lock down a face-to-face interview with him while he is in town. I'm feeling much more confident in my abilities as a journalist again and I'm no longer really concerned that I'll be able to get all the work done before the close of the semester. Right now I just hope my voice can come back as soon as possible so I can go out there and get some more stories on the air.
The Reality of Politics
I read Arianna Huffington's article entitled "Obama One Year Later: The Audacity of Winning vs. The Timidity of Governing" and I found this to be a very timely and fascinating piece. I found the article interesting because it contained elements of several different types of typical articles; it was part political commentary, part book review and part opinion piece.
It begins with an usual introduction, which really grabbed my attention. It was almost like a paragraph out of a thriller novel, the way it set up the meeting in the morning and described how she couldn't put the book down, reading on into the night. The next thing that caught my attention was the spelling error in the second paragraph. It reminded me that even though bloggers can put out good stories, it's still an amateur game and should serve to remind everyone why true professional journalists are still worth keeping around.
Huffington does a very good job of tying the two concepts together of the book itself and its content, which focuses on the 'outsider' mentality of the Obama campaign while comparing it to the first year or President Obama's administration and how those far-reaching ideals and "Washington outsider" tactics have seemingly fallen to the wayside against the harsh realities of Washington politics. I found this reflection particularly interesting because I had often wondered to myself how well Obama the president could remain true to his cause that he preached as Obama the candidate. Last spring I took perhaps the most interesting and compelling class I've ever taken in my life. It was called Congressional Legislative Policies and one of the topics it dealt a great deal with was Congressional (and to a much lesser extent) Presidential election campaigns. One thing they each had in common was a propensity to run on a platform of being a "Washington outsider" who wasn't tainted by the dirty practices that plague our capitol. However, as soon as they get into office, time and time again the candidates that had played up their hatred of Washington politics were soon faced with the reality that you either play the game by the rules or you're out. I think that this was a reality that any astute observer of politics saw coming with the Obama campaign once they won the election and writing an article centering on just that theme on the one year anniversary of his election seemed like a very good time to take a step back and look at the differences.
This reflection, coupled with the interspersed anecdotes about the book, serve as a powerful message to the Obama Administration. One of my favorite quotes from the article is short, and to the point. Huffington writes, "The book is a powerful reminder of what the country voted for last year -- and could serve as the trigger for Obama and his team to refocus and remember why the election mattered so much." In my view, this is a subtle yet very effective way to slip in her opinion into the article. In the same sentence, she is both calling on the Obama Adminisration (and the people who voted for him) to return to their campaign promises as well as plugging the book as an excellent read with an important message.
The one thing I would have liked to see more from in this article is a delivery on the promise of the interview with Plouffe in the intro. We do get some of it, but it's clearly not the main focus of the story, and I also would have liked to hear much more about what Plouffe thinks of the current administration, rather than just rewording what he talked about in the book. Perhaps Huffington was a little starry-eyed after staying up all night reading this book she liked so much, but if her article was intended to be a comparison between "then and now," why not ask Plouffe himself what he thinks of the "now?" rather than focusing entirely on the "then." I mean, isn't that what the book is for? If you just want to know what Plouffe thought about the campaign, read his book and ask him a couple of questions at a book signing. The interview would have served the story (and the readers) much better if it focused on his perception of the administration's first year in office as compared to the campaign promises and messages he worked so hard to help shape.
Another interesting feature I found about this article was not only the message board attached to the article (which has become commonplace on nearly every website now) but also the Twitter feature that invited readers to Tweet their thoughts and feelings about the article. Personally, I feel a message board is more practical and useful for discussing an article, but at least having the option there opens up possibilities to new uses for Twitter, internet blogs and a host of other media.
All in all, I was impressed with Huffington's ability as a journalist and blogger. I had never heard of the Huffington Post until about a year ago and had never actually looked into it until I read this article. While one good article does not a blogging site verify, it did make me appreciate more unorthodox methods of journalism. While I still value traditional sources of news like CNN or the New York Times, I can definitely find value in alternative sources of news such as the Huffington Post. I think that the more people choose to practice responsible and creative journalism and the more the right to freedom of the press is practiced by anyone who feels that call, the better off our society will be.
It begins with an usual introduction, which really grabbed my attention. It was almost like a paragraph out of a thriller novel, the way it set up the meeting in the morning and described how she couldn't put the book down, reading on into the night. The next thing that caught my attention was the spelling error in the second paragraph. It reminded me that even though bloggers can put out good stories, it's still an amateur game and should serve to remind everyone why true professional journalists are still worth keeping around.
Huffington does a very good job of tying the two concepts together of the book itself and its content, which focuses on the 'outsider' mentality of the Obama campaign while comparing it to the first year or President Obama's administration and how those far-reaching ideals and "Washington outsider" tactics have seemingly fallen to the wayside against the harsh realities of Washington politics. I found this reflection particularly interesting because I had often wondered to myself how well Obama the president could remain true to his cause that he preached as Obama the candidate. Last spring I took perhaps the most interesting and compelling class I've ever taken in my life. It was called Congressional Legislative Policies and one of the topics it dealt a great deal with was Congressional (and to a much lesser extent) Presidential election campaigns. One thing they each had in common was a propensity to run on a platform of being a "Washington outsider" who wasn't tainted by the dirty practices that plague our capitol. However, as soon as they get into office, time and time again the candidates that had played up their hatred of Washington politics were soon faced with the reality that you either play the game by the rules or you're out. I think that this was a reality that any astute observer of politics saw coming with the Obama campaign once they won the election and writing an article centering on just that theme on the one year anniversary of his election seemed like a very good time to take a step back and look at the differences.
This reflection, coupled with the interspersed anecdotes about the book, serve as a powerful message to the Obama Administration. One of my favorite quotes from the article is short, and to the point. Huffington writes, "The book is a powerful reminder of what the country voted for last year -- and could serve as the trigger for Obama and his team to refocus and remember why the election mattered so much." In my view, this is a subtle yet very effective way to slip in her opinion into the article. In the same sentence, she is both calling on the Obama Adminisration (and the people who voted for him) to return to their campaign promises as well as plugging the book as an excellent read with an important message.
The one thing I would have liked to see more from in this article is a delivery on the promise of the interview with Plouffe in the intro. We do get some of it, but it's clearly not the main focus of the story, and I also would have liked to hear much more about what Plouffe thinks of the current administration, rather than just rewording what he talked about in the book. Perhaps Huffington was a little starry-eyed after staying up all night reading this book she liked so much, but if her article was intended to be a comparison between "then and now," why not ask Plouffe himself what he thinks of the "now?" rather than focusing entirely on the "then." I mean, isn't that what the book is for? If you just want to know what Plouffe thought about the campaign, read his book and ask him a couple of questions at a book signing. The interview would have served the story (and the readers) much better if it focused on his perception of the administration's first year in office as compared to the campaign promises and messages he worked so hard to help shape.
Another interesting feature I found about this article was not only the message board attached to the article (which has become commonplace on nearly every website now) but also the Twitter feature that invited readers to Tweet their thoughts and feelings about the article. Personally, I feel a message board is more practical and useful for discussing an article, but at least having the option there opens up possibilities to new uses for Twitter, internet blogs and a host of other media.
All in all, I was impressed with Huffington's ability as a journalist and blogger. I had never heard of the Huffington Post until about a year ago and had never actually looked into it until I read this article. While one good article does not a blogging site verify, it did make me appreciate more unorthodox methods of journalism. While I still value traditional sources of news like CNN or the New York Times, I can definitely find value in alternative sources of news such as the Huffington Post. I think that the more people choose to practice responsible and creative journalism and the more the right to freedom of the press is practiced by anyone who feels that call, the better off our society will be.
why not ask
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/obama-one-year-later-the_b_343209.html
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/obama-one-year-later-the_b_343209.html
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