I am often torn between two worlds: journalism and academia. The former is an ingrained part of my identity and the latter is the world in which I currently reside and expect to for the duration of my career. The conflict I feel arises from the realization that what we do in academia is basically the exact opposite of what we do in journalism.
Entries tagged as ‘Journalism’
The Difference Between Journalism and Academia
March 8, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Categories: General
Tagged: Academia, Journalism
AEJMC 2009: Where the heck are we going?
August 9, 2009 · 2 Comments
I returned from the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication yesterday afternoon and slept for 12 hours last night. It was an exhausting, but interesting and motivating week. Because I’m on the job market, I spent much of my time in interviews and didn’t have as much opportunity to attend panels and presentations as I would like. (Not that I”m complaining– it’s good to be in job interviews!)
From what I did hear, including my conversations with representatives from schools who are hiring assistant professors of journalism, the overarching theme of this year’s conference was that journalism is in major upheaval and journalism educators don’t know exactly what to do about that.
Categories: General
Tagged: AEJMC, industry change, j-school, Journalism, research
Mapping Online Crime News
July 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Breaking crime news is probably the most basic story to write (and that’s probably why newbie reporters often start on the cops beat). Until you get into the nitty-gritty of the life of the victim(s), alleged perpetrator, etc., you’re basically dealing with the five W’s. Unless a reader knows someone involved in the crime, the ‘where’ of the story may be the most interesting and personally relevant piece of information. People want to know about crime near them. That’s why mashups that incorporate police reports and maps are useful.
Today, this brief from the Chicago Tribune caught my eye: Driver fatally shot on Near North Side. I used to live on the Near North Side of Chicago near Cabrini-Green, but my memory fails me as to where Larabee and Oak Streets are exactly. So naturally I went to pull up Google maps to find out where this occurred. Turns out, it was not near my old apartment and I immediately got a better impression of the situation because I know which parts of that area are more prone to crime.
It took me maybe 30 seconds to pull up the map and link it here. (Were WordPress not giving me issues, I could have also embedded the map itself in this post.) The reporter or producer who posted the story could have done the same thing on the ChicagoBreakingNews.com blog and provided valuable information to the reader. Since the site already uses mapping in other contexts, there’s really no reason not to.
Categories: General
Tagged: Journalism, local news
