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Final Takeaways: The places we can go

Only a week remains before I finish college, so a look back at my last term seems only right. As I think of the last ten weeks of Demystifying Media and the speakers who presented, a theme that sticks out most prominently is the sheer myriad of opportunities available for graduating journalists.  

I specialized in news journalism at the SOJC, and writing is my passion. I’ve dabbled in photography and videography, but I prefer long-form feature stories. As I first began to job search in January, I limited my applications to newspapers and magazines. I aimed high, too: Outside, High Country News, The Wall Street Journal. None of these places hired me, which got me thinking about opportunities outside the realm of more traditional journalism.

The class’ last presentation took place at RAIN Eugene, a local startup consultation and training. Many of the entrepreneurs that were taking the RAIN startup accelerator program, each with a service or product that they wanted to turn into a profitable business. None of these startups are in the media industry, but representatives from the program said that any growing company could benefit from a business partner with a journalism degree. One of those was Tanner Stickling, a recent college graduate who is working to develop a biodegradable plastic made from algae. She developed a prototype a few weeks ago, but needs a way to market the product to investors. “We really need a good product video,” she said. This meant a videographer with good storytelling skills, someone who can translate the values of a company into a video. A fellow classmate talked with Stickling after the presentation and exchanged phone numbers. Just like that, a journalism major stepped into the realm of sustainable product design.

I learned over the course of these ten weeks that employers do not necessarily consider the perfect applicant to be someone with the most expertise in a field. Yes, that is a major consideration, but so is the ability to communicate with people. So is the ability to learn a variety of skills think critically, all of which a journalism degree teaches. Media strategist Jessica Clark talked about the importance of not getting stuck into a single identity, stressing that one platform or format should not define our work. “Journalism skills are very transferable,” she said, “take the leap.” It is more important that people’s workplace respect and share their values. I worked at The Register-Guard newspaper last summer as a features writer. While I enjoyed the work I did and the people I worked with, the work environment — high cubicles, large workloads, minimal socializing — was not something I wanted in the long term. “Find your tribe, work your network,” Clark advised us. I’m not sure yet where my tribe may be, or what it will look like. I value creativity, a place where people value my opinion, the ability to travel and do new things.

On this point, Will Grant’s talk in particular resonated with me. Grant is a BBC correspondent who reports in Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico. He has risked his life in the field to serve as a watchdog for corruption and violence, while also trying to combat the inaccurate Western narrative of these countries as hopeless, lawless places. He admitted the work is hard but so rewarding. “This is quite possibly the coolest job in the world,” he said. I could tell just from the passionate way he recounted molotov cocktails in Caracaras or the black market in Veracruz. He cares deeply about these places and puts a lot of consideration into writing accurately about them. “We as journalists should be conduits for the stories and not come in with our own preconceived values,” he said.

Grant has a masters in Latin American studies, not journalism. Regardless of his degree, he has a lot of experience speaking Spanish and conducted research for his thesis in Belize. As he was traveling the region, he fell in love with it. That led him to apply for an EU grant to a teacher in Spain and learn Spanish. His ability to connect with people in Latin America and to communicate their stories accurately is most important in his job. Hearing his story made me realize that following a passion leads to meaningful jobs, that aspiring to do good is a good step toward success.

Grant concluded his talk by emphasizing the importance of finding fulfillment in work. “We spend such a huge amount of our lives at work,” he said. “You may as well make it something you really feel is worthwhile.”

That really stuck with me. I want to do big things with my life. It’s a writer’s curse, but I want my work to be read widely, to make an impact. But I’m not quite ready to enter the traditional workforce. Like Grant, I think some travel is necessary before I start working devotedly toward my passions. That is why I’m traveling to France in August to work on various organic farms across the country. I’ve been studying French for seven years now, and I hope this trip will make me fluent.

There’s something about adventure, about seeing new places and meeting new people that I feel prepares one for the workplace (at least the workplace I want). It will get me out of my comfort zone, test my limits and require me to think on my feet, to notice the details. Most of all, it will expose me to stories of all kinds that I can use later for creative fodder.

Opportunities abound in this life. The end of this undergraduate journey has brought a rollercoaster of emotions, but floating atop it all is a confidence that the future holds good things. I’ll knock on wood in just in case so as not to jinx it.

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RAIN in Eugene: Week 9 reflection

My Demystifying Media class took a bit of a detour last week following a speaker cancellation. Instead of hearing from an expert in the media field, we visited the Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network (RAIN) studio in downtown Eugene. RAIN is, in the most technical sense, “a consortium of government, higher education and the business community created to advance the formation, growth, and retention of high growth technology based startups in the South Willamette Valley.” It is like a school for entrepreneurs that gives aspiring startups counseling and training to actualize their business dreams. RAIN operates as a nonprofit organization and works closely with the University of Oregon, especially the college of design.

The first thing that struck me about the studio space was the amount of naked plywood used for the building’s interior walls. An interesting design choice. The space emphasized openness, with people milling about busy with various projects. RAIN gives workspace, tools and materials to startups. “A one stop shop,” as Joe Maruschak, the executive director of the RAIN nonprofit board, described it. He said the open space is designed for more efficient collaboration between workers. “Collisions are important,” he said. By that, he means carpenters helping glassmakers, technology experts lending a hand to businesspeople.

A major aim of RAIN is to create jobs, and more importantly to keep those jobs in the Willamette Valley. To do this, RAIN offers an accelerator program that helps entrepreneurs grow a company in the local community. Technology companies have been among the most successful that the network has counseled, and it appears that the majority of entrepreneurs there are in their 20s to early 30s. Four students in the accelerator program joined Maruschak at the front of the presentation room, and I recognized two of them from around campus. Each had their own business idea or a young company, but they were all also looking to expand.

When Professor Radcliffe asked them if their startup would have need of someone with journalism skills, during this development their consensus was yes. Tanner, for example, is a senior product design major who developed a biodegradable plastic substitute that comes from algae. I met Tanner before through my product design roommates but had not yet heard her startup idea. Sam from class talked with her after the presentation and asked if she needed any help with media. Tanner said that yes, her team desperately needed a product video for their algae plastic. They exchanged contact information, so that in a matter of seconds I witnessed the ubiquitous power of storytelling, of branding. A company can have a great amount of tech. and business savvy, but communication to the public is its lifeblood. It allows people to put trust in its products.

My industry reading from MediaShift detailed the vast amount of sponsored posts on Facebook. Sponsored posts are published by public figures or companies, but mention the names and advertise the services of separate brands. Companies have invested heavily in these kind of ads because they drive notable engagement with the public. Another analysis found that sponsored posts on Instagram garnered up to 100 times more engagement than for a brand than the company’s own content. Posts from some of the companies on Facebook — most notably Cricket Wireless and Dunkin’ Donuts — received up to 470,000 likes, shares, comments and reactions. How a company communicates its brand is a particular process, one that can fly or flop depending on the expertise of the media team.

It’s comforting to know that journalism truly is such a diverse major, even in a digital age that has tormented newspapers. There appears to be room in the media world as well for more creative storytelling.The most recent edition of The New Yorker featured three fiction short stories as opposed to the usual one. The magazine is also creating a new digital-only poetry platform that features written poetry as well as audio and video stories on poetry each week. The blend between art and storytelling: these are the kind of opportunities that excite me.

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You, the Brand: Week 8 reflection

In a shift from previous speakers in this term’s Demystifying Media series, Erin Krug spent less time discussing her own work and the majority of her presentation how we, the students, may succeed in the media industry. Krug has more than 15 years experience in marketing communication and is the vice president of Quinn Thomas, a public relations and strategic communication firm in Portland and Seattle. She began her career in Washington D.C. in legislative affairs. These diverse experiences allowed her to speak from a multitude of career insights and the choices that companies make in hiring on new staff.

What particularly surprises me about the hiring process is how important self-branding is in landing a job with a firm like Quinn Thomas. Krug said the first step when reviewing applicant is an analysis of their online channels. “When we get resumes that we like, the first thing we do is a big sweep of their social media,” she said. This step eliminates about half of the applicant pool just because of the inappropriate content that their profiles contain. More scrupulous vetting ensures that the most qualified applicants also “fit the brand” of the company.

At first, I criticized this idea. Branding companies is one thing, but people? It doesn’t seem authentic, or at least as important a determiner of someone being ‘right for the job.’ It could also pigeon-hole people into jobs that only reflect their social media presence: the café-frequenting Seattle public relations expert or the wine-drinking, forest-running Portland executive. I of course remember extensive talks from job-search talks about how important it is to keep one’s party life private and separate from the public eye, but I never want to refer to myself as a brand.  

But then Krug said something that assuaged at least some of my concerns. “Culture is really important to us,” she said of the Quinn Thomas workplace. It is important that people working there share opinions about the type of environment they would like to work in. One’s social media account can show one’s interests, hobbies and views. Having these coalesce into a tight-knit team ensures that people are working jobs that they enjoy, that meet their wants and needs. However, I still believe that having a well-rounded team is equally important, one in which conflicting views or personalities may contribute to greater diversity.

An article I read in MediaShift this week for my industry echoed much of Krug’s advice. SOJC instructor Lori Shontz wrote the article, underscoring the importance of teaching journalism students business skills. It’s part of the reason why the UO’s journalism program requires every student take at least two economics courses. “At the very least, students need to understand branding themselves through their social media, professional websites and/or portfolios,” Shontz wrote. I understand the importance of branding oneself through professional platforms, but I have always upheld privacy on more personal social media platforms. Nowadays, with information on anyone so readily available, I suppose it’s a bit idealistic to hope that one can keep their social media information as private as they’d like.

I think the freelance sector is a bit better-suited for my own personality, but I do hope that if and when I work in a more traditional environment that I am happy around those with whom I work, even if our social media profiles present very different ‘brands.’

My greatest takeaway from Krug’s presentation is the importance of directness and brevity of pitching oneself to an employer. An elevator speech should have a headline and three bullet points that describe what an aspiring applicant can bring to a company. One should also focus on the details when doing an interview, especially during a phone interview. Standing up can subconsciously make one speak with more power, rather than coming across as overly casual by lying or sitting down.

I’d like to end with an interesting industry reading, but from a source outside my usual second, The Verge. The site did not cover one of the week’s top PR stories, that of Starbucks, which closed 8,000 stories on May 29 to conduct racial bias training among employees. The initiative comes after two black men were arrested in Philadelphia only because they were waiting in a store. While some are hopeful that the training is an important move towards more comprehensive progress, others, like T.J. Legacy-Cole, a political organizer in Orlando, are skeptical. He sees the effort as a “disingenuous public-relations stunt to glorify a white-owned corporation for making a feeble attempt to combat systemic racism without investing in the communities or people most affected by its oppression.”

Starbucks, in its defense, did change its policy and now allows “any customer is welcome to use Starbucks spaces, including our restrooms, cafes and patios, regardless of whether they make a purchase.” All of this points to the importance of brand, especially maintaining a positive one. Whether companies or people, a narrative truth — one established through strategic images and communication — has more power than I’d like to believe.

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Rebuilding Trust in the Media: Week 7 Reflection

Journalistic engagement strategist Joy Mayer touched last week on some points of particular relevance to some of my recent research. Her presentation, “Trust in ‘The Media’” explored some of the reasons that 43 percent of the American public has a negative view of news organizations, according to a 2018 Knight Foundation/Gallup Poll 2018. Mayer, who worked for 20 years as a journalist prior to her switch to engagement strategy, has been working with media companies to rebuild public trust in news. She helped develop the Trusting News project which has enlisted 30 newsrooms from across the country to be the subject of her team’s analysis, exploring ways that the media can bridge this trust gap.

I defended my senior thesis this week for the honors college and the SOJC (and Oh! the relief of having passed). My research focused on how artists have responded to the current political climate in the wake of the Trump presidency. President Trump has dedicated much of his time to waging a “war on the media,” inciting distrust over long-established news organizations like The New York Times.

Incendiary news has proliferated since the Presidential election in a way that the world has not yet experienced. Its divisive effects have only been deepened by the development of social media. It is Thursday, April 19, and journalists have been busy reporting on the relationship between Fox News personality Sean Hannity and President Trump. The President’s personal lawyer, who has been under criminal investigation by the FBI, was forced to admit on April 16 that Hannity is also one of his clients, a fact that the conservative host has failed to disclose to the public, despite journalistic codes of ethics. Hannity has been one of Trump’s most vocal supporters, calling the FBI investigation into Russia’s possible collusion with the 2016 presidential election a “witch-hunt” that “is now a runaway train that is clearly careening off the tracks.” He devotes most of his weeknight broadcasts to defending the President, while inciting distrust in major news organizations like The New York Times, CNN, and any who critique the President. He laments of, “rampant corruption” among these types of publications, an ironic claim in light of these recent developments. Nevertheless, many Americans — my father included — now believe that long-trusted news groups have biases toward their reporting. A 2018 report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that American media consumers are the most politically polarized in the world. Those who lean right are twice as likely to say that they do not trust the news than their left-winging counterparts. Mayer cited study from POLITICO  that speaks even more to this partisan divide: “Nearly half of voters, 46 percent, believe the news media fabricate news stories about President Trump and his administration.” Trump appears to be winning his war on the media.

Right-leaning Americans are twice as likely to say they mistrust the news than those on the left, the report found. And, overall, just 38% of Americans say they trust the news media in general (53% say they trust the news they consume). I used these statistics in my thesis to show that amid this hostility and polarization, artists have tried to articulate these sentiments through their artwork. An example is Philadelphia-based poet Lisa Grunberger, who wrote a poem after her house was vandalized by white supremacists with anti-Semitic messages. She wanted her poem to show the absurdity of such a personal attack, in a similar way that satirical news hosts like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert use irony and exaggeration to underscore the shortcomings of people and vices.

I thus share much of Mayer’s concerns over how journalism can improve. Her research has looked at the views and beliefs of the public over why they distrust the media. One that stood out is: “Journalists are trained in journalism schools to slant the news.” I have heard a similar statement from my conservative father, who believes, like the 46 percent of respondents from the POLITICO poll, that journalists are out to get Republicans. Indeed, Mayer acknowledged that there tends to be a liberal bias among today’s reporters. “A higher and higher percentage of journalists are centered in places that are likely to vote blue,” she said.

However, this does not mean that they cannot practice professional values of journalism, especially that of objectivity. Mayer said that journalists, at least the good ones, do not want their political leanings to seep into their reporting. “Much of what people say they want, many journalists are doing,” she said, referring to feedback she has received through her research. The main problem is a gap between how people view the media and how the media presents itself to the public. “We have an education problem,” Mayer called it, “a storytelling problem.” Her efforts through work like the Trusting News project have been to help news organizations improve their communication and relationship with their audiences. An example she gave is of The Fresno Press, who posted a video on social media of an 11-year-old girl described as a “wiz in the kitchen” because of her early success in cooking competitions. When someone commented below the video that calling her a “wiz” was inaccurate because the young girl had not gone to culinary school, the paper defended its reporting and the girl, explaining that her accolades at her early age justified their labeling her a “wiz.” The defense post received numerous likes and praise from the public. “People appreciate that they stood up for civility,” Mayer said. Because the paper responded “like a human being,” and not a faceless company, people felt that they could better appreciate its role in the community. It is small steps like these that Meyers said can, over time, build trust and confidence in journalism.

Larger, more encompassing steps are also necessary. An article from MediaShift cited a Pew study finding that young people have much less trust in the media than the general public: just 12 percent believe the media do a “very good job” of presenting information. A major part of this has been the difficult digital transition. Content quality has been sacrificed for profits, (e.g. clickbait articles). As the article said of this kind of content and young audiences, “for those of us who grew up with the internet, we see right through it.” A major need in the long term is to find a match between information and format. News companies like The New Yorker have been successful in melding light-hearted, fun stories with hard-hitting, Pulitzer prize-winning articles.

Practicing transparency, civility, objectivity and in-depth reporting are essential to building a positive relationship between the media and the people. Communication of these values is even more important.

The numbers speak for themselves — something needs to be done, and the fact that 30 newsrooms have galvanized to find ways to improve trust among the public says even more. Things need to change, and luckily it seems that they are.

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Week 6: The Future of the Newspaper

With no class last week, I decided to focus my attention on Demystifying Media podcasts and industry articles about newspaper reporting and its place in the broader media environment. As a super-j major with aspirations to join the ranks of print journalists, this is a subject of particular interest to me.

I began with Dr. Ali’s interview on the Demystifying media podcast, who talked about small market papers in the wake of the digital age and newsroom cuts. To gain better context of his interview, I also read a MediaShift article that provided more information on his talking points. Though smaller papers account for 97 percent of the newspaper industry, 20,000 jobs have been cut from the field in the last 20 years, according to a 2016 Pew Research Center report. This has led to the conception that newspapers are doomed and deteriorating.

But this does not tell the entire story. Ali said that while metro papers in cities like New York and Los Angeles, struggling to compete with one or two major media players, have indeed atrophied, papers in rural areas have weathered the storm far better. The Pew report found that small papers lost just 2 percent of their revenue post-recession, while metro papers suffered a 15 percent loss. In some places, newspapers have even come out on top. Ali described in the MediaShift article how The Coloradoan, a Colorado paper, has increased its paid circulation for the past two years.

He also recounted a more profound example, where locals in Bruce, Mississippi rely on the town’s newspaper for directions and phone numbers. Ali called it a “local Google.” As he concluded in the podcast based on cases like these, “the future of small market newspapers is actually brighter than we think it is.”

One of these papers’ largest advantages has been their longevity. The Eugene’s local own Register-Guard has been around for 150 years. Ali said that adds a trust factor, both for subscribers and advertisers. Small, local businesses have been especially loyal clients, and digital subscriptions have helped the online transition.

What small papers are struggling with is recruiting and retaining young talent. Ali explained that more than ever, college grads are heading straight to the city in pursuit of internships rather than follow the traditional first step of a small newspaper job. “Younger journalists are skipping this major first step and jumping to digital papers in larger cities,” he said.

That is where he sees the greatest need for improvement. In changing the narrative about the future of small papers, Ali hopes that people young and old will understand the importance of these companies. Not only do they play a crucial watchdog role for government and business, they have a distinct engagement in the community in which they operate. “Small town newspapers are deeply embedded in their communities,” Ali said. While the idea solutions journalism seems like a nuanced approach to some media companies, he said that it has been common practice among newspapers for decades. He wants young journalists to realize that in choosing to report in a small town, “you can be a part of this community and make a difference.”

Few people could speak better to the importance of newspaper reporting than E. Jason Wambsgans, who was the second podcast interview I listened to. He works for the Chicago Tribune, and in 2017 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography based on a five-year documentation of gun violence in the city. The photos that won him the award depict a 10-year old boy, Tavon Tanner, who was shot while playing on his porch and his path to recovery.

Five years is a long time to spend on a specific story series, and Wambsgans said his approach changed as time went on. His goal during the first two years was to reveal the dark underbelly of Chicago’s violence epidemic. He photographed mothers standing late-night in the streets next to body bags, bodies being investigated by police. In these initial years, he aimed to shock the paper’s readers out of complacency. “That’s the power of photography,” he said. “It places someone in another person’s shoes and makes them empathize with that other person’s place.”

However, he eventually wanted to capture images that told a bigger story, something that progressed the narrative. Stories like Tanner’s give hope, put a strong face in front of horrific incidents. Wambsgans’ colleagues noted his aptitude at handling moments of griefs while still doing his job. The Tribune’s Managing Editor, Robin Daughtridge, said that he puts empathy at the forefront of his values. "Jason connects with people," Daughtridge said.

He operates with that same core value of building trust that Ali believes will ensure a bright future for small market print journalism. In the wake of “fake news” disasters, especially on social media, trust in the media is more important than ever. Facebook, the subject of intense criticism over its ability to ensure  news content on the site is factual and appropriate, has entrusted algorithms to sift through potentially polemical posts. However, these algorithms aren’t perfect. An article in The Verge reported how a newspaper article about police brutality was temporarily blocked on the social media site because it had accidentally been flagged as containing “abusive” content.

Fortunately for small market newspapers, their content is much more manageable, so slip-ups like this are unlikely. There truly are benefits to being a small fish in a big pond.

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Stories from Cuba, and nearby: week 5 reflection

The BBC’s Cuba correspondent, Will Grant, gave a public talk to a larger than usual crowd during my Demystifying Media class. Of all of the speakers whom I have heard from this term, Grant’s story resonated the most with my own aspirations. His sense journalistic ethics as well as his sense of adventure are things that I strive for, and elements that he appears to have used to launch a marvelously fun, meaningful career.

In addition to reporting in Cuba, Grant has been a correspondent in Venezuela and Mexico. In each of these places, he has encountered what he categorized as practical and editorial challenges. The former referred to a list of on-the-ground concerns, and there were commonalities among the three countries: lack of Internet access, crumbling infrastructure and most notably, violence.

Grant’s visit happened to fall on World Press Freedom Day, which seemed a particularly apt time to talk about reporting in a country like Mexico where he said “scores of journalists” have been killed trying to cover pressing stories. He showed us a news video that he produced in Veracruz, a city that media organizations have called “one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist.” This violence is part of a nationwide wave of corruption, with some police officers and politicians also working for drug cartels. An atmosphere of fear pervades communities, making it hard for a reporter like Grant to find people willing to speak about the issues. 

Of course, germane to foreign coverage is the lack of saliency among American audiences. An article in The Nation covered Veracruz’s violence against journalists and concluded that “the US mainstream press has failed to adequately cover the heroic struggle of its colleagues who live and work just a few hours to the south.” This is not just restricted to Mexico. Grant explained that many news organizations had closed their foreign offices in Cuba in the days leading up to the Obama-era’s lifting of sanctions with the island country. This was big news, and the BBC was lucky to have kept its office open so that it had to resources to cover the subsequent weeks in Cuba.

Such a lack of perceived importance in foreign correspondence reflects a pattern of problematic media frames and representations of countries. This leads to the editorial challenges that Grant described, obstacles to telling a fair, objective story. The Nation’s article described how the lack of coverage on the local journalists who have lost their lives trying to illuminate corruption has led to a false image of Mexico as “a hopeless land of passive victims.” Grant was all-too conscious of this issue, and spoke to how he has worked to justly represent the countries where he works. After Fidel Castro died in 2016, Grant knew that he had to be sensitive with the coverage of his death. “You don’t want to get this one wrong,” he said of the particularly tricky topic. He emphasized the care he took to be objective in his representation of the country’s controversial communist revolutionary and revered leader. His main approach was to step aside so that he did not get in the way of the storytelling. He let the voices of the stories trump his own. This both acknowledged the controversies of Castro’s life, while allowing his strong legacy to emphasize his popularity, especially among Cubans.

I have been fortunate enough to study abroad in my undergraduate years, during which I worked for a newspaper in Accra, Ghana. My day-to-day tasks were that of a local political reporter. I mostly covered government meetings and NGO conferences. A component of the study abroad program included writing a research paper about Ghana’s media landscape. In this, the work felt more like that of a foreign correspondent wherein I acted as an outside spokesperson for the country. Students on the trip had been assigned readings that discussed some of the problematic media frames of Africa. These tend to focus on the continent as an ‘exotic,’ ‘backward’ place, war-torn and hopelessly impoverished. I aimed to change that narrative by emphasizing the complexities of local issues that I witnessed. Yes, corruption existed, but it was a result of colonial rule, and the lack of governmental trust it bred. Yes, there was media censorship, but there were also independent journalists risking their lives to uncover corruption and other wrongdoings. I therefore understand to some extent the challenges that Grant discussed, and I hope that I conducted my research and reporting with as much justice as he.

All of this led me to read an article published in MediaShift entitled, “10 tips for training the next generation of foreign correspondents.” Though it is meant more for an audience of journalism instructors who are preparing to take students on a study abroad program, there was a discussion on the practicalities of foreign correspondence work that I found important. Rachele Kanigel, an Associate Professor of Journalism at San Francisco State University, authored the article. She began the article by describing how competitive foreign correspondence jobs are, especially with only a handful of organizations like the Associated Press and Reuters who offer international internship programs.

As someone who aspires to be a foreign correspondent, this of course alarmed me. I am glad, however, that Grant concluded his talk by discussing how much he loves his job. “We spend such a huge amount of our lives at work,” he said, “you may as well make it something you really feel is worthwhile.” With this being my last term at the University of Oregon, I have talked with friends who took jobs just for the paycheck, or because it allowed them to move into a big city. I don’t share those desires. During a class with Professor Laufer in fall term, we sometimes chanted a sort of journalistic mantra: “Travel, make money and change the world!” The first and last are the most important to me; I just hope that the second will come naturally.

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Data and Distrust: audience analytics is both a cornerstone and pitfall of new journalism

Last week’s Demystifying Media course featured Jessica Clark, a person whose job description is hard to pin down into a concise description. She is the director of Dot Connector Studio, a media strategy and production firm, as well as the editor of Immerse, an online news site. She also has a background in media research, and currently works a research affiliate at MIT’s Open Doc Lab, which studies forms of documentary. Her talk spread the myriad of her journalistic experience, dabbling in media analytics, new technologies and the future of journalism.

On the first talking point, media analytics, Clark is an expert. Because of her immense background in media research, she has become a leading authority on forecasting media use among audiences that serve to increase social impact for her clients. In 2014, she started working with media impact funders, the people who pay the big bucks. “The funders rule the day in the field that I’m a part of,” she said. Companies rely heavily on audience analytics to determine the scope and engagement on the materials that they publish online. Clark uses that kind of data to make recommendations for future media content.

  An article published this week on Medium also spoke to the importance of what the authors called, “measurable journalism.” It featured interviews with media professionals who work in the field speaking to the importance of media analytics, and advising how data measurement can be improved. Rodrigo Zamith, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, said that the current media environment demands audience data-gathering more than ever. “We are witnessing a new wave of audience measurement in journalism that is driven by audience analytics,” he said.

Matt Carlson, Associate Professor at St. Louis University, agreed on the importance of audience analytics, but warned that current measurements can oversimplify audience engagement, leading companies to adopt “clickbait” strategies that undercut the integrity of journalism without creating lasting engagement. “I am always worried that user data becomes so fetishized that we forget it can only ever be a partial representation,” he said. “We talk about such complex terms as impact or engagement but then we look for simple measurements.”

All of this intense focus on analytics helps to why Clark’s services have become so popular. She has crafted games and eye-catching diagrams that present step-by-step strategies for companies to grow their services and reach new audiences. She said her media strategy deck, for instance, has been featured in workshops, classes, conferences all around the world: from Denver, to Jakarta, to Budapest and beyond.

However, analytics have also been under the gun recently. Cambridge Analytica, the data collecting company that was hired by the Trump campaign, recently shut down because of mass condemnation over its obtaining information on millions of Facebook users. An article in The Verge covered the story, highlighting the role that media had in leading to the company’s demise. According to a statement from Cambridge Analytica, “The siege of media coverage has driven away virtually all of the Company’s customers and suppliers.” However, the company also pointed out that they broke no laws in collecting users’ data through a personality test app. What they did was not even out of the ordinary. The statement went on to read that its data analytics strategies have been “widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas.” Regardless of the legality of its actions, people still saw this as an invasion of privacy. This marks a gray area in the analytics industry that will likely be more hotly contested in the months and years to come. The company’s actions have already sparked hearings in the U.S. and U.K., and brought Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, before Congress to testify. As Clark pointed out, all of this comes at a time when American trust in media coverage is at all time low.

Right-leaning Americans are twice as likely to say they mistrust the news than those on the left, according to a 2018 report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Overall, just 38% of Americans say they trust the news media in general (only 53% say they trust the news they consume). She has been involved with a project for the Knight Foundation called “Trust, Media & Democracy,” which aims to determine the reasons for these record-low numbers.

Much of this points to the current presidential administration. Starting April 19, journalists have been busy reporting on the relationship between Fox News personality Sean Hannity and President Trump. The President’s personal lawyer, who has been under criminal investigation by the FBI, was forced to admit on April 16 that Hannity is also one of his clients, a fact that the conservative host has failed to disclose to the public, despite journalistic codes of ethics. Hannity has been one of Trump’s most vocal supporters, calling the FBI investigation into Russia’s possible collusion with the 2016 presidential election a “witch-hunt” that “is now a runaway train that is clearly careening off the tracks.” He devotes most of his weeknight broadcasts to defending the President, while inciting distrust in major news organizations like The New York Times, CNN, and any who critique the President. He laments of, “rampant corruption” among these types of publications, an ironic claim in light of these recent developments. Nevertheless, many Americans — my father included — now believe that long-trusted news groups have biases toward their reporting.

There is no clear answer to solving these problems. Even Clark, with her wide-ranging expertise, did not voice any silver bullet solutions. She hopes that through publications like Immerse, that promote the voices of experts and give comprehensive coverage to complex current event topics, that audiences will believe once again in the importance of good reporting. It may be a long climb, but Clark certainly has the work ethic to continue the fight.

[guywithgreensunglasses]

How Solutions Journalism Can Change the Narrative

Before I took Damian Radcliffe’s Audio Storytelling class in the winter term of my senior year, solutions journalism was not part of my lexicon. All my life it seems, the articles that I have read in the most respected papers have centered their news stories on points of crisis — corruption, scandal and the like. But journalism that highlighted what communities and groups were doing right? This seemed so out of the ordinary.

When David Bornstein, founder of the Solutions Journalism Network, discussed solutions-based reporting last week, he opened his talk with a summary of past world travels. He voyaged to Bangladesh where banks had been established to help poor people accrue savings and credit; he was in South Africa at the height of its AIDS crisis and witnessed improvised systems of homecare. “There was this responsive capacity all around the planet,” he said, and he wanted the world to know about it. But when he pitched stories that highlighted solutions rather than crises, he said news companies shot him down.

This represents an unfortunate downside to traditional media framing. Nicole Dahmen, an associate professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, published an article in The Verge about solutions journalism, opening with the issue that typical news stories center around “problem-based narratives, often leading with graphic imagery of the gloom and doom news of the day.”

Bornstein lamented this angle, explaining how studies have shown that it does little to solve the social/economic problems that journalism aspires to fix. “When people have low efficacy, anxiety-inducing messages lead to defensiveness, fear, helplessness and a desire to tune out,” he said.

The idea that journalism should champion and progress the solutions of issues is not a new idea. Joseph Pulitzer claimed that the press "should always fight for progress and reform; never tolerate injustice or corruption; always fight demagogues of all parties…always oppose privileged classes and public plunderer; never lack sympathy with the poor; always remain devoted to the public welfare…" It appears that in the scare of diminishing newsrooms and anxiety over profit margins, this altruism has been lost. That is why Bornstein, among other solutions journalists, have carved a niche for stories that highlight what communities and groups are doing right, and how people can implement those fixes elsewhere.

This focus has certainly gained traction. The Chattanooga Times Free Press was named a Pulitzer finalist in 2017 for its report, “The Poverty Puzzle,” that looked at programs in the Tennessee city that were effective, and those that weren’t, in addressing financial security and homelessness. More major organizations have also joined the conversation. The Times published an immersive story in 2013 on floating schools in Bangladesh that have brought classrooms and teachers to students’ doorsteps who otherwise could not make it to school.

Making such a shift requires a fundamental change in how journalists report stories. Dahmen, in her article, described a conference she attended in Utah with other journalists and journalism educators to discuss solutions journalism. One of her biggest takeaways was how to progress visual journalism to match the solutions narrative of a written article. “The idea is to make images that matter to the specific story, rather than seeking visuals afterward that ‘fit,’” she said. A newsroom, especially editors, need to understand the importance and value of solutions journalism.

There is a gray area with media content, and that is within social media companies. Facebook, for instance, does not even consider itself a media company. An article in MediaShift quoted Mark Zuckerberg in 2016, saying how "News and media are not the primary things people do on Facebook, so I find it odd when people insist we call ourselves a news or media company in order to acknowledge its importance." However, many people get their news from the site, making it a major platform for solutions journalists. What is the obligation that a site like Facebook has to reflect greater trends and values in the journalism field?

This is a fine line that Timothy Garton Ash, a British historian and commentator, said social media companies are still trying to maneuver. "New media live in constant tension between public service they offer and the private profit they pursue,” he said. But in the wake of the ‘fake news epidemic,’ U.S. lawmakers, as well as the American public, have demanded more changes from Facebook than ever before.

Even though Facebook may take a while to come around, Bornstein remains resolute that solutions journalism is here to stay and flourish. He predicts that in just three years, half of the newsrooms in America will be practicing solutions journalism. As he concluded, “It will just become business as normal.”

[guywithgreensunglasses]

Living in a Virtual World: a look at new technologies in the digital age

I wrote last week about some of the new technologies that have hit the media world with startling force, both to the excitement and worry of professionals in the field. I’d like to continue to explore some of those developments, with some new insights from David Ewald, the chief design at Uncorked Studios in Portland. He spoke to my Demystifying Media class last week and provided a valuable, in-the-field perspective on the opportunities and pitfalls of new tech.

Ewald is charismatic, entrepreneurial and empathetic. He studied graphic design and philosophy in college, which helps to explain why his business mantra is to, “Look beyond what is asked of you.” In the wake of a nuclear disaster in Japan following a tsunami in 2011, he helped create a website that tracked and mapped radiation in the country. This helped officials transport people to safe areas, invariably protecting lives.

He is also curious, a quick adopter of new technologies. His design studio spent a week experimenting with virtual reality, just to see what it was capable of. The reasoning here, according to Ewald, is that the tools and technology are going to change — that is inevitable. “So how do adapt to that?” he asks. His studio has a melange of clients, from Google to Adidas, for which his company has employed the most recent digital tools. Take Google’s “Just a Line” project, which utilizes artificial reality to allow users to ‘draw’ on the world around them. Opportunities like this excite Ewald, who is constantly looking for ways to bring design closer to people’s everyday lives. “Everyone is a designer,” he says.

The ability to be proficient in new design technologies like virtual reality has become increasingly commonplace, even necessary, among media companies. An article in MediaShift highlighted key takeaways from this year’s South by Southwest film festival. Now more than ever, filmmakers need to utilize sophisticated visual design in their productions to engage audiences. Even documentarians are delving into this realm. The documentary ‘Trone,’ which appeared at this year’s festival, takes viewers through a 360˚ art gallery in seldom-explored places: an abandoned paper mill, a crumbling theater, etc.

Despite Ewald’s enthusiasm for new technologies, he also considers himself, “a tech. skeptic by nature.” He mentioned the ways that trends come and go, now at seemingly accelerated rates. He said it is important to evaluate these kind of digital tools for what they are — tools. The important thing to remember is that these technologies should serve some type of good, should help people in some way. Ewald explains that he considers human problems over technology problems, as exemplified by his work mapping radiation in Japan.

That is an apt approach, considering some of the frightening ways in which these new technologies could lead to mass manipulation of facts. The “fake news epidemic” has received a lot of attention from news journalists and government officials in the past two years. Now more than ever, there is a concern over deceiving information and unassuming audiences. Comedian Jordan Peele recently partnered with BuzzFeed to create a short video to demonstrate just how convincing some fake news can be. Using the AI face-swapping tool, FakeApp, and Adobe After Effects, Peele was able to put his mouth on Barack Obama’s face, and make it appear as if the former president was speaking. Someone with more malicious intent could use the same tools to fake a news conference from President Trump or Russian President Putin, inciting invariable havoc.

https://youtu.be/cQ54GDm1eL0

With these possibilities in mind, I would like to end with a few tips on how to avoid deception on the Internet in the wake of these kind of technologies.

If you see a photo or video that appears fake, ask yourself:

1. Where does this information come from? Is it from a trusted news source, or an unknown website?

2. Have other outlets corroborated the information?

3. Does the photo or video look real? AI-generated videos will often show distortion or blurring, a sign that it has likely been tampered with.

[guywithgreensunglasses]

A World of Change: how new technologies can make, or break, the news landscape

The digital age is an exciting time for media. Now more than ever, companies have the power to engage audiences through phone, TV and laptop screens. From Snapchat news stories to IKEA’s augmented reality furniture shopping, there are a myriad of new, user-immersive technologies that only a decade ago were science fiction. As an undergraduate studying journalism and about to enter the workforce, I’ve become excited over how these new inventions can create more engagement between media and audiences. I’ve spent my time as a student at the University of Oregon learning how to craft news stories to digital platforms and gaining a variety of multimedia skills. But with these developments come questions over how such technologies, and an increasingly connected world, will affect users’ privacy.

Changing Technologies

Next-generation technology has already arrived, especially in the realm of communication. Waverly Labs has developed a the world’s first translating earpiece, which is currently available for pre-order for only $249. 

Journalism companies have been investing heavily in virtual reality reporting, something that has sparked controversy over media ethicists. VR first breached the news scene during the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, when documentary journalist Nonny de la Peña showed Hunger in Los Angeles. It is a story about the lack of food in some Los Angeles neighborhoods, and transports viewers to a food bank in the city to show them the issue firsthand. VR has the power to immerse audiences in journalistic content, presenting stories like never before.

Companies, seeing the potential that VR has in reporting, have invested heavily. By 2016,  The the New York Times, CNN, USA Today, The Guardian, and AP all used some type of immersive journalism. The use of VR technologies is only expected to grow. Goldman Sachs estimates that  the combined industries of VR and augmented reality (AR) will grow to be an $80 industry by 2025, compared to $2.5 billion in 2016.

However, issues could arise when companies are able to manipulate immersive content.The technology media company MediaShift published an article that questioned if VR journalists will follow the same journalistic standards as traditional reporters. Tom Kent, president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a U.S. government-funded broadcasting organization, spoke with MediaShift’s Angelo Paura. He was skeptical over the future of VR news, especially with the proliferation of fake news in the social media era. “In a few years, it may well be that virtual reality will begin to simulate news events using images of newsmakers that will be indistinguishable from the actual people,” he said. 

What is needed, he added, is a strong code of ethics among VR journalists, like that which exists among traditional reporters. There should also be a clear division between news content and stories that are published with corporate interests. However, even there the line has blurred. Netflix paid the New York Times to report and publish a story on female inmates as a way of sparking interest in the production company’s show, “Orange is the New Black.” The reporting was factual, but to what extent did the corporate backing influence the reporting? Would such a story have ever been published without a payout from Netflix? These are difficult questions, with no clear answers, but they will become only more pertinent as technologies develop.

Changing Attitudes

Indeed, these developments have not come without consequence. The Knight Foundation published this story on Medium about Americans’ extreme lack of trust in news coverage, which are reportedly at an all-time low. This is due to a number of factors, namely the proliferation of fake news and the complicated crossovers between media platforms, social media and for-profit companies that have blurred the lines of what constitutes a traditional news story.  

Most recent is the outrage of Facebook users sparked by the sharing of their data to Cambridge Analytica. Social media has enabled companies like Facebook to track which articles they read and ‘like,’ which a company like Cambridge Analytica can then use to psychologically profile that person based on the Big Five Personality Test. User information can also help Facebook tailor ads to that user based on their interests and ‘likes.’ Public outcry over these practices affirms that such drastic changes in technology — mass data gathering would never have been possible without social media — has created anxiety along with excitement over the opportunities such developments may offer.

An army of cardboard Mark Zuckerberg’s greeted the Facebook chief executive on his way to address lawmakers in Washington.

Expect the Unexpected

In the wake of this unprecedented rate of technological changes, it can be easy to grow anxious about the future of journalism, and the world as a whole. However, there are always reasons to be optimistic. One is the sheer amount of new opportunities that digital technologies present. The U.S. Department of Labor found that 65 percent of today’s children will work jobs that don’t even exist yet. 

I have attended presentations during the past two months from media experts working jobs that have only cropped up since the digital age: social media strategists, virtual reality advertisers and technology bloggers, to name a few. As a journalism student at the University of Oregon, I have made it a point to develop a wide range of skills to remain open to the ever-changing job market. Though writing is my passion, I’ve taken classes in photography, videography and podcasting. While I can’t predict where my career may lead, this breadth of skills will allow me to adapt to a dynamic news environment.

The coming years will only bring more developments. Technology like the Pilot earpiece will make communication between countries easier than ever. The Verge published segments of an interview with SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, who predicted that the rocket company will be able to offer city-to-city travel via rocket launches into outer space within the decade. “I would love to get to see my customers in Riyadh, leave in the morning and be back in time to make dinner,” she said.

All of these developments have the potential to bring the world closer together. Done right, it can also make it a better place. But as with all powerful changes, responsibility and oversight is essential to ensure that those in power cannot manipulate or exploit the public. As the army of cardboard Zuckerbergs shows, the public rather enjoys its free will.

[guywithgreensunglasses]

Reflection on Week 9

The penultimate reflection, and the last of the listening homework: it’s a bit bittersweet, as these assignments made me check in with my old Tumblr account. Scrolling through my old blog posts brings back a lot of fond memories and even more cringes over the things I’d post. But alas, all things must pass, and it’s probably for the best that Tumblr and I have our space.

Hearing your feedback on my Day in the Life assignment made me realize how much I have developed during this class. Having so much exposure to audio journalism, whether it be listening to podcasts or creating my own, has progressed my storytelling abilities in other areas. I have been developing a radio show for KLCC based on a story I covered for the UO’s UNESCO Crossings Institute (headed by professors Laufer and Chavez). I have a version of that story from the beginning of this term, and a near-finalized version that I just brought to KLCC this morning for final edits. The difference between the two is night and day. In the latest version, my script is more conversational, the editing is smoother and my delivery is more confident, casual. I am similarly most proud of my Day in the Life assignment and the lessons I was able to manifest in developing that story.

We looked last week at branded podcasts last week, and I chose to listen to Tinder’s, DTR (Define the Relationship). I already wrote extensively about my takeaway’s from the show, but something I wanted to add is just how pervasive podcasts have become. Barack Obama even has a show now on how Chicago shaped his politics. Audio shows are becoming a sort of lingua franca between people and companies, or between different generations. The recent graduates with whom we’ve talked have described being among the youngest in the newsroom, but that age difference is only an advantage, as is a propensity for audio. Meerah talked about how podcasts were her way of innovating a new platform for Eugene Weekly, and publishing a story that is fit for national media. Many of the jobs that I have applied for, including High Country News magazine and even the Foreign Service (State Department) have been looking for applicants with experience in audio journalism. Knowing how I have progressed these skills in this class has only made me feel more confident as I apply for jobs/internships, and I have been sure to emphasize not only my print journalism but also my audio stories.

Kendra’s podcast choice, “My Favorite Murder,” was a great way to end the listening assignments because it showed the freedom that the platform offers. The two hosts seemed to have so much fun with this show — they had a mix of Anna Faris’ wit and the “Ricky Gervais Show’s” hilarious impromptu interplay. They included mistakes in the final recording, which were as fun to listen through as it is to watch movie bloopers. They owned their blunders and played off of each others’ so that it never felt awkward or ‘in the way’ of the overall story. And of course the no-filter aspect was a testament to just how much one can get away with in the podcast world. This seems like the risqué sketch comedy “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” from the earlier days of the BBC that pairs clever and silly.

I will keep this post relatively short, and reflect further in my overall takeaways from this class. This is Derek, signing off!

[guywithgreensunglasses]

Reflection on Week 8

Bill Siemering has certainly been our biggest celebrity guest! Despite our usual technical issues, he stayed patient and gave an expansive presentation. I was particularly interested by his work with Developing Radio Partners (DRP). Between my sophomore and junior years I participated in the Media in Ghana program, where I worked at a newspaper in Accra. Before the trip, my cohort learned about the media landscape in Ghana, and how radio is the preeminent form of news transmission across the country. While it can be difficult to establish internet and cable service in less developed areas, nearly everyone has access to a radio. That is among the reasons that DRP seeks to equip rural communities with audio storytelling capabilities: radio is (1) ubiquitous, (2) easy to use, and (3) inexpensive. I enjoyed hearing about radio’s potential to make a beneficial impact on people, as this is really what I want to do most with my journalism career. Politics both confounds and frustrates me. Reporting on pop culture seems fun but superficial. I want my work to help people, and a program like the DRP seems like a way to do so. This idea was supplemented on Thursday with my research into the BBC’s Media Action, which seeks to enable communities to report their own stories. There are thus various ways to change the world as an audio reporter. This opens up the door for opportunities, as before I have limited myself to positions that deal strictly in print.

For the listening homework this week, I first heard the How Stuff Works episode on flight attendants because this was one of the first podcasts that I ever listened to back in high school. The two hosts play off each other well. On the bonheur of plane travel, one believes that 9/11 ruined the allure of air travel while the other thinks that things have not changed that much — people are grumpy by nature. Their probing evoked questions of my own, made me further ponder airport culture. The thing that they agree on is that flight attendants have been “unsung heroes” since the beginning. Their rapport is a big part of what makes the show enjoyable, like that between RadioLab’s Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich.

A24: It seemed apt to listen to the A24 podcast on the same week that we analyzed non-media companies that have developed podcasts. The entertainment company is very new to podcasts, and the introductory female voice emphasizes that fact, encouraging listeners to give their feedback to improve the show. This podcast has an interesting format, as explained in its iTunes description: “No host, no ads, no rules.” Unlike many of the branded shows that we listened to on Tuesday, this did not seem to explicitly brand A24. Instead, it seeks to covet interest in its movies through the behind-the-scenes look at filmmakers. But as I have critiqued before, I had a difficult time engaging with this show — no music, no roadmap, and no clear sense of direction. This is obviously for bigger movie buffs than myself, so the allure of listening in on a conversation between two famous filmmakers is lost on me.

My favorite podcast of the week came from Matthew. It accomplishes what I enjoy most about podcasts, and journalism in general: it illuminates a part of the world that I have never before considered, the world of freediving. What’s more, this niche sport is full of intrigue — death-defying and anciently rooted. The host calls it “renegade.” The interviewee and author, James Nestor, offers a lot of descriptive language in his responses to the host’s questions. I particularly enjoyed his run-through of the mammalian dive reflex — how the body reacts the second that one enters the water. “Your heart rate will slow,” “You can feel the blood pump through your veins,” “Your chest will shrink up to about half its size.” All of these helped to engage me with the story. Rather than slow my heart, the suspense that he evoked through his description made it beat faster. Another point of intrigue was Norton’s description of people who have used sonar as they mountain bike. I love these kind of interviews that touch on the wonder of the world, how mysterious it can be and how much more there remains to explore and understand. While this was a basic interview show, like the two preceding ones, I engaged with this one the most. I would have liked to go outside of the recording studio and hear audio from some of these diving events, possibly hear from divers on scene, but that is not the format of this podcast. Still, the interviewee succeeded in drawing me into his world to a much better effect than the previous two listening assignments.

[guywithgreensunglasses]

Reflection on Week 7

The term is nearing its end, but we are still in the thick of things. The “Day in the Life” assignment has been a bit more of a trudge than I’d like. I aspired at first to document the life of a local drag queen, but my attempts to find a subject were fruitless. The few drag queens whom I was able to contact either did not want to be featured or were not actively performing in drag in the wake of the Wayward Lamb shutdown. I have since developed an idea that offshoots from my initial idea to document the making of Hideaway Bakery bread. My problem with that idea is that it does not lend itself well to natural sound. Sticking with the food theme, I have recently tried to contact a local goat farm. I got the idea partly from our talk with Allison Frost, and partly because my parents still own a small sheep and goat farm that I grew up on. The sounds of a goat farm are so fun and unique — I don’t know why I had not thought of this idea before. The only problem is that I have yet to find a goat farm that has agreed to an interview. I always have the Hideaway Bakery idea as an option, but I feel much more invested in a story with goats in it.

Which brings me to our talk with Frost. I liked most her story about finding that farm by happenstance and reporting an impromptu story there. That is exactly the kind of journalism that I would like to do! It satisfies my sense of adventure, focuses on human interest angles and changes from day to day. A lot of her stories from the field emphasized the fact that some of the best content comes from chance encounters, like being at that restaurant at the same time as the two Coast Guard officers. Good journalists engage with their surroundings, take notice of the details and follow any leads that may present themselves.

My group tried to take a similar approach with the field reporting assignment. We were not sure what kind of angle we would follow, but our first step was the engage with the art at the museum. We let the story come to use in a way, or at least valued what piqued our interest. The Korean art did this the most, and because it was split into two time periods — the early modern and the modern — we decided that a temporal journey through Korean painting would be an innovative way to approach the assignment. We wrote a script that I believe accurately describes two paintings, giving context to both and keeping time as our angle. The biggest problem that our group has encountered is recording the script. George and Veronica are the two voices of the story. They had a hard time engaging with the script, which often made them sound too monotone. I tried to recollect my high school theater warm-ups to warm them up, and their delivery did get better as we ran through it. I believe that we eventually got a version that works well, and that will be even more appealing with the addition of background music.

Monocle’s “The Menu” was another nice break from politics and despair. The intro music foreshadowed a sophisticated atmosphere, and indeed the show felt similar to a BBC programme. I imagine this being intended for an older audience with more disposable income than myself. I enjoyed it, regardless. Despite the interview format, which has in the past challenged my engagement, I never daydreamed. Part of it was the fact that the subject was wine, but it was also that the interview followed a nice narrative arc. Bosker started as a nobody in the food industry but overcame whatever obstacles she was thrown to rise victorious as a master of wine. A wine connoisseur should in theory be an excellent interviewee — their job is to viscerally describe certain tastes about which they are incredibly passionate and particular, so their use of descriptive language would already be impressive. Bosker certainly made it enjoyable to talk about wine, both because of her devotion to it and her expertise in relating through words the sensation of drinking it.

One element I thought was lacking was natural sounds of the making and eating of food. These to me are among the most appealing sounds of a show on food. I wanted a more immersive experience, especially with the section on the Swedish restaurant. As someone who has never had the pleasure of trying Nordic food, I wanted more description, either through script or sound.

I did not see a podcast from Joe, so I will end my reflection here. I’ve still managed to go on for much longer than I intended, but I suppose that’s what you get when you ask a writer to talk about themselves.

[guywithgreensunglasses]

Week 6 Reflection

The bulk of last week’s workload consisted of gathering audio for the Soundscape assignment. I took Urban Farm last term, where I got to know a man named Jack Blashcishen who has come up with several ‘life hacks’ to save money and subvert ‘the system.’ One of his favorite hacks is dumpster diving, something he does regularly. Jack is very extroverted, open about his life and confident in the way he lives it. His voice and candor seemed perfect for an audio story. He allowed me to tag along on a dumpster excursion last week, which we left for at about 10 p.m. We headed for Market of Choice because he said that the store throws away a lot of prepared food every day: fried chicken, dinner rolls, pasta. My mouth watered as he recounted the booty we may find. He told me to wear dark clothes in case we needed to evade any authorities, but the  was not as sketchy ofas I anticipated. No one was around the dumpsters when we got there, though we did have to sneak our bikes behind the grocery store. He described his process as he rifled through bins, which ended up being a lot better audio than the pre-interview that we did. That saved me a lot of editing time because I did not have to work with separate a-roll — it was all done on-scene. That also made the story sound a bit more organic. I incorporated myself into the story, including a clip from the dive when Jack finds what he first believes to be fried chicken but turns out to be a fish stick. It was this kind of in-the-moment humor that I was hoping to get from Jack, and he certainly delivered. This was the most fun that I have had with our audio assignments thus far. It came organically, and I think that we both had a good time in the process.

I have been a fan of Alt-J since their first album released — I was in high school at the time and had recently strayed from the country music that I grew up on. What struck me about this show was the amount of post-interview editing that they must have done to weave the different instruments in with the band members’ voices. During the course of the show, the audience gets to see the development of an Alt-J song from start to finish. I have never before gained such an intimate insight into the development of music. When they described how their producer went searching for natural sound effects to supplement their song, all I could think of was that Soundscape assignment. I certainly related to his struggle to get just the right sound to depict a certain feeling or place.

While I haven’t listened to many celebrity interviews, “Anna Faris is Unqualified” really upped the bar for my expectations. Faris displays an uncanny ability to relate with Clarkson, made easier because of their similar celebrity status. One can hear Clarkson warm to Faris in the first minutes of the interview, then the two sound like friends sitting down at lunch. The approach here is to emphasize the experiences they share, from handling paparazzi to pregnancy cravings. The games that Fari introduces to Clarkson are certainly creative — I would like to see the behind-the-scenes development of the ‘Dealbreaker’ questionnaire. This was a fun interview, which I understand is its aim. With this is in mind, I did not feel that Faris asked questions that gave me much of an understanding of Clarkson as an artist — why music is important to her, her economically challenged childhood, and future work as a judge on The Voice. Clarkson briefly some of these things on the show, but Faris did not follow up on them. But that isn’t really what Faris wants to do with her show. She presents herself as a care-free, just-wanna-have-fun sort of girl. Before Clarkson gets on the show, Faris recounts ‘working’ as a receptionist for her father’s company, during which she got to go out to lunch with him every day.

I’ve already written an extensive amount, and my senior thesis is begging my attention, but I’d like to include some brief thoughts on Ashley Alvarado’s talk from last week. What struck me most was that media engagement was even a job in the first place. A 2017 report by Dell Technologies said that 85 percent of jobs that will exist in 2030 have not been invented yet. As I fervently fill out job applications, I keep wondering how many jobs are out there that I don’t even know are jobs! Gah, the turmoil of the job search, only exacerbated by an ever-changing market. It is exciting, yes, but also terrifying. Help me, Spock!

[guywithgreensunglasses]

Week 5 reflection

Alas, I shall miss Laufer’s presence in the classroom but am glad to have you back, Professor! Tuesday, Laufer introduced us to the second quiz on news companies joining the audio world. My group looked at Slate, which has been publishing podcasts since its founding. The exercise illuminated to me the economic advantage of podcasts — 25 percent of Slate’s funding comes from audio! I didn’t realize how lucrative they could be for a news site. I do wish that we could have had a more in-depth discussion on the different content from every group’s news sites. We were a bit pressed for time, and other groups had trouble finding material to discuss. I am curious to know how other companies differed in their entry to the audio world, and how they are trying to attract niche markets to their shows.

It was particularly helpful on Thursday to listen to some audio stories that, although they had good content, were not delivered well. Whether it was the white noise on the Vietnam interview or allocating too much time on one subject, it really goes to show that God is in the details. I learned the importance of clean audio in Ed Madison’s Allen Hall Studios Class my sophomore year. Groups would have incredible footage, but if their audio was poor, the entire story suffered. On the other hand, videos with mediocre footage but high quality audio engaged the audience to a much better extent.

I listened first to the sixth episode of the “Good News” podcast after reading about proposed tuition hikes, so some good news was just what I needed. As soon as it started, I knew this would be a bit of an unconventional podcast. The road map: “Good news: electricity has been in use for over 135 years, two-thirds of us are about to be ordained, and you are listening to a podcast.” This kind of humor seems indicative of the millennial generation, and I’m certainly partial to it. I was immediately intrigued.

Their incorporation of themed music, namely those drumstick downbeats, creates nice transitions between stories and makes the show recognizable just like a theme song to a TV show. I enjoyed how casual this show is. It feels like I am just listening in to a group of friends messing around on the weekend. Hearing Matt get his online ordainment especially kept my attention — it was so spontaneous. It also motivated me to get ordained myself — I mean it was easy to find a minute of free time.

I admit that “The Woj Pod” podcast with Toronto Raptors All-Star DeMar DeRozan was a bit too sporty for me, and it was another conversation-based show like Carolyn’s pick from week four. It is just really hard for me to stay engaged in an audio story when it is just two people talking — no music, transitions, narrative arc, etc. Yes, there was some humor, and the interviewer was a bit more enthusiastic at the beginning, incorporating some humor into this questions. But as I listened to this show while cooking dinner, I constantly droned it out and daydreamed instead.

However, I do appreciate the scope of this interview. Previously, the only exposure I had to athletes via the news was the five-second recaps after a game, when cameras are being jammed into the faces of football and basketball players. My ears perked a bit when DeRozan talked about his childhood, his personal life. This interview gives a humbling look into the life of an all-star, and the emphasis on just his voice breaks down a lot of the spectacle that can obscure the humanity of most celebrity athletes.

The diversity of these podcasts has made me wonder what kind of show I would produce if given the chance. This idea of having a conversation on air, of using audio to reflect on the world and the self seems cathartic if anything else. On Saturday I went hiking by myself, as I often do when I need to think. This time I took my audio recorder with me. The day before, I broke up with my boyfriend of almost two years. I didn’t know how to digest his loss, and couldn’t even communicate what I was feeling to my closest friends. A lot of emotions and thoughts were stewing in my head as I hiked, and I eventually found myself off-trail and in the middle of a dense forest. I sat on a fallen tree to eat a snack and noticed the recorder in my backpack. I took it out and began having a conversation with myself.

“My name is Derek Maiolo, and I am 22 years old.” I described the woods where I was and the reason for my long hike in solitude. I thought, how lovely it will be to look back at this audio years later and to come back to this place, to picture it and feel again this mixture of fear and excitement for the unknown. If I had an audio show, I would make it a type of diary for myself. A collection perhaps of stories from the road, op-eds on life or just late-night ruminations from my bedroom. It is becoming increasingly necessary for me to record what happens to me and what goes on in the world. I guess that what it means to be a journalist.

[guywithgreensunglasses]

Quiz 2: on Slate’s podcasts

What audio content does Slate make?

Even before the “podcast renaissance” that news sites say took hold in early 2015, Slate was making podcasts. Over the last dozen years, since its founding, Slate has produced 24 of them. In 2015, the media organization launched the podcast network Panoply for media brands, authors and personalities. This year, Slate has removed their content from Panoply to gain full their premium shows’ ad sales according to the online news site, digiday.com

Why did they move into this field?

Slate moved into the audio because field offers greater audience engagement, and the market is growing. Slate Group Chairman Jacob Weisberg said that audiences engage with the company’s podcasts more intensely than any of their services. That engagement leads to more ad revenue, making audio expansion a win-win for the company. Weisberg said that Slate aims to produce programming that is “as attractive to advertisers as it is addictive for users.”  

Ad revenue from podcasts has also skyrocketed for companies, making audio an attractive medium to expand on. Russell Lindley, owner and co-founder of Ad Results Media, which specializes in live radio, podcast and YouTube endorsement advertising, said that 2017 was the first year that he saw clients spend more money for advertising on podcasts than over the radio. To put this into context: as podcasts audiences continue to grow, Ad Results Media has seen rates for podcast ads go up as much as 4,000 percent proportionally,” he said. Slate likely wants to take advantage of those opportunities for growth.

How successful is it (and how do you/they determine success)?

It seems the most accurate way to determine Slate’s podcast success would be to analyze measurable data on how many people are consuming the company’s media, and the extent to which that helps business. There are more than 6.5 million monthly downloads of Slate’s 24 podcasts, according to the company’s website. It added six new shows last year, like the chart-topping Slow Burn about the history of Watergate.

These successes have amounted to profits. According to the online news site digiday.com, 25 percent of Slate’s revenue came from podcasts last year. That has led to expansion within the company’s audio department. At the beginning of January this year, Slate launched their new website and new look. Everything is fresh and has a new essential vibe to their brand marketing. They hadn’t had a website change since 2013 and now are steering new progress by ‘keeping up with the times.’ Slate doubled their podcast staff, who will be working on more new shows for this year.

What types of content/stories do they cover?

Slate focuses mainly on news, politics and culture for their podcast content. “Slow Burn”, “Political Gabfest” and “The Gist” are their more popular podcasts that focuses on these subjects. There are more light hearted shows such as “Mom and Dad are Fighting,” “Hang up and Listen” and “Spoiler Special.” These shows focus on parental advice, sports and current films. Slate’s most popular podcasts are focused on current day politics.  

How could they improve it?

It’s hard to say what Slate can improve because they are on the forefront of podcasting. Some considerations would be to publish shorter podcasts, as well as the long-form shows that Slate already has. There are few shows that run under 30 minutes, and most are at least an hour long. This could be especially problematic for attracting younger audiences, or audiences in general in the age of 150-character Twitter posts and one-minute viral videos. Making an audio piece “go viral” is certainly a challenge, and perhaps not the aim of a company like Slate. Nevertheless, offering some shorter pieces can engage a larger audience while not sacrificing the quality of a story. We have heard our fair share of examples in class that deeply intrigued us and that only ran for a couple of minutes.

What else do we need to know?

It would be helpful to know more about where Slate is headed and the business considerations going into that trajectory. Having metrics on Slate Plus subscriptions over the past few years may help to illuminate this. The New York Times has been expanding multimedia content because its digital subscriptions have been the main area of expansion for the company. Germane to that would be seeing data on how many subscribe to Slate Plus just to listen ad-free to podcasts.

If subscriptions are increasing, and especially if the audio section is driving that expansion, then we would expect Slate to offer even more audio services. If the subscription model is not working, it would be interesting to learn how Slate is maneuvering that dilemma, its ideas for the future.

Slate isn’t new to audio; they’re innovating the medium. They are building partnerships with other innovative players in the game, such as PRI (with whom they are expanding the Studio 360 podcast). What other decisions is Slate making to stay relevant and competitive in an ever-changing industry?

[guywithgreensunglasses]

Reflection on Week 4

I admit that I didn’t see that class was cancelled on Tuesday until I’d already waited in room 305 for about ten minutes. Alas, I took those two hours to complete the online assignments. I own my own audio recorder, so Sung Park’s walkthrough of using one was not so useful as his videos on editing audio. I don’t have any experience using Premiere (I have used Final Cut in the past) so getting exposed to that was a nice way to dip the toes in. The layout is similar to Final Cut, and the shortcut keys are even congruent. I’ve taken some of his tips into consideration as I edit my news piece, most importantly the using of markers to delineate important parts of an interview. Because I have not yet finished my news piece, I will discuss it in more detail next week.

The Poynter online course, Telling Stories with Sound, was actually very helpful, despite my presumption that I’d want to just get the whole thing over with. I particularly liked the interactive components, the best of which was the one that allowed me to hear the output from different microphones. It showed clearly the advantages and disadvantages of each, and I finally realized why sound recorders are so particular with the microphones they use. The course emphasized something that Laufer also lectured about in the past, and that is the importance of noticing any disruptive sounds in an interview environment. I have certainly fallen victim to recording what I thought was a perfectly executed interview, only to listen back and notice that a noisy heater was whirring in the background the entire time. Audio can make or break a story, but disruptive background noises will disrupt the story.

That leads me to the “Better Off Dead” story that we listened to on Thursday. It’s hard to catch an emotional break in this class, and by the end of this story I once again found myself hiding tears. Liz’s story was told so intimately — we are in her home, and can hear background rustling in the kitchen or the crinkling plastic as she opens her package of Nembutal. Yet there was also humor, even on the part of the narrator. It personalized the listening experience, invested me deeply into Liz’s life. And the whole time, I have no idea how the whole thing will end! The reporters handled well such a tragic subject — they did not shirk the complexities of the situation (the illegalities, the stupidity of those illegalities, etc.) — but they also didn’t make it too dark. The audience, at least many of us in the class, cried with Liz, laughed with her. We stuck with her till the end.

As chance would have it, I listened to Becky’s recommended section from “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me” on my drive to Portland Saturday. The show’s a favorite of mine, one I’ve listened with my mom ever since I can remember. Humor is the keystone of this podcast. The weekly panel features witty personalities like Paula Poundstone (my favorite) who can throw out some clever one-liners that bust the audience up. The panelists and Peter Sagal can always find something to joke about, even when the topic is fruit flies. Still, Sagal is able to execute a fine interview, and the listener leaves the show able to talk to his/her friends about a Nobel Prize winning discovery, even when it has to do with the head-scratching world of medicine.

I have to admit that I did not like the other show, "Is There A New Beauty Movement?" To begin with, I am not a fan of straight conversational podcasts. I need a story to hook me, a narrative to drag me along. My attention bounced from here to there, and I eventually started skipping bits of the show. This is not to say that the content wasn’t important — ideals of beauty are pervasive. But I wanted more humor or descriptive language, something to stimulate my attention.

That’s all until next week — stay tuned!