Holy exciting news!
I got a phone call this morning from the executive editor of The Flint Journal. He was calling to schedule an interview with me for a full-time reporter position. This is my first professional interview and I’m excited at the possibility of kicking off my career. I could end up working for the Journal, the Bay City Times or the Saginaw News. The interview itself is in Saginaw, which is about two hours or so away but I’m gladly driving to take my shot.
I’m going to do some studying and research tomorrow to help me feel more confident and relaxed as well as informed. It may also give me a very tiny edge over other possible candidates. In this day and age, I’m battling people with far more experience as the industry has been cutting back so much. I just have to trust in my own capabilities and go all in, win or lose. I think I’m a strong contender for this position, but if someone else proves stronger then I will have gained some valuable interviewing experience and at least know that they were interested and may not be totally out of the running for future positions.
I was so thrilled to be considered for the job. Even though it is entry level and doesn’t pay much, I completely expected that. I still get overtime, which I would imagine reporters are at least occasionally if not frequently getting, along with good benefits and a 401K matching program. They also provide reimbursement for expenses, as usual, and also any technology that may have to come my way in order to do the job. It sounds like a great deal overall and I still wouldn’t be too far from home.
My sister and I went shopping after the call came in. I just discovered that the suit I’ve had for a couple of years no longer fit the bill – as in is now too tight across the chest and back. Does anyone else loathe the process of trying to find clothes that fit well and don’t run up the credit card balance? Sometimes I swear it’s nearly impossible. I ended up finding something that looked good and wasn’t too incredibly expensive, much to my relief. For some reason I just never thought about trying on my old suit before that phone call. Silly me.
Can you tell I’m excited?
I do exist!
It’s been so long since my last post. First off, I apologize to my few regular readers. I have been returning to a normal life after graduating (YAY!) and moving back home (read: mooch off my parents while I still can). I had boxes and laundry baskets full of God knows what crammed into my room for three days while I tried to sort things out. It’s been kind of crazy and I’m sure you understand.
Graduation went really well. The speaker turned out to be Richard Smith, a top dog from Newsweek and someone in my field. Oh, how I wish I could have talked to him instead of immediately being shuffled outside. I would have done pretty much anything (within reason) for a chance to talk with him, even for a few minutes. It also turns out that I graduated summa cum laude and my senior thesis was accepted by the Honors College. It was a GREAT day.
And now I turn to more serious matters. It’s just more bad news bears for the automotive industry as Chrysler declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday morning. When are the automotive people going to get around and come up with a solution that works? Clearly something needs to be done toward alternative fuels in addition to changing operations. I’m sorry, but CEOs need to take a pay-cut too – and a big one at that. Continuing to earn $3 million plus is NOT okay when the average joe is getting his measly salary cut in half. It seems like the economy needs a hero of epic proportions.
But I am also pleasantly surprised that I have been able to apply for several print media positions across the state of Michigan. I wasn’t expected to see the number of open positions as I have seen, albeit not many. My field seems to be just as bad if not worse than the automotive industry in terms of the job market and funding. I haven’t gotten any good news on that front yet, but hopefully someone will see my talent and give me a shot. Lord knows I DO NOT want to keep working at a smoke-filled bar for long. At least I’m able to freelance.
Well, this post has been a huge jumble of thoughts and probably none of it too interesting. But it’s past my bedtime and I’m tired. At least I stayed up to update. Aren’t you glad you have a dedicated blogger to read?
False promises at 3 a.m.
I was up late last night flipping through my favorite TV channels and I made a somewhat surprising discovery. Literally every channel was playing infomercials, which isn’t unusual at all at that hour of the morning. But every informercial was for some new workout routine or equipment that was supposed to produce astonishing results in as little as two weeks. I know I shouldn’t have been surprised, but the fact that I actually noticed it made me think about it.
I know that Americans are among the most overweight and unhealthy people on the planet. But do they really fall for the miracle machines and diet supplements? Yes they do. And they do because they are so desperate to get results. They don’t want to do things the healthy way by eating right and exercising because it takes too long. And I’ll readily admit that I simply don’t have time to do what I need to do to stay healthy along with the millions of other Americans. Life doesn’t really allow for that anymore for someone of my age and profession.
I’ve taken a cruise down the diet isle and looked at all of the pills that claim the same results. I’ve sat on the couch and watched those ridiculous infomercials and have actually considered ordering. Who hasn’t? For something to actually work like it promises would be a dream fulfilled. But I haven’t taken the bait. I’m too realistic and cheap to do so.
It just seems like all of these products and systems are promising something they can’t really deliver on. They promise super flat abs and two dress or pant sizes dropped in a week. But the reality is that everyone has a different body chemistry and there’s no way that promise can hold true for the entire mass of people watching. I myself am blessed genetically with a body that makes it a very hard and slow process to lose any significant weight through my mother’s side of the family. Believe me, I tried and the furthest I got was losing 10 pounds over the course of about three months. I was going to the gym three times a week and routinely cutting back on the amount of food I was eating along with decreasing my intake of sweets.
What is wrong with the world that our lives are so inundated with diet concerns? Too many people blame the media for our negative body images. The fact is that the media will deliver what the people want in order for advertisements to work. So why do people want to see stick-thin women that have been created in photoshop and don’t even exist? That’s the real question.
2 week countdown
I’m down to the last week of classes and another week of exams before I graduate. It’s a little bit surprising to realize that I have just 2 weeks left in my undergraduate career. I’ll be glad to get out, but I can’t help but be a little fearful about what the other side is going to look like.
I’m back to worrying extensively about just what I’m going to do to get into my field. The print media field I’ve been trained for seems to be disappearing rapidly before my eyes. I swear, my field is worse than the automotive industry right now. It doesn’t seem like it only because it isn’t getting nearly as much attention as the automotive problems. The media – which ironically are what I’m talking about – aren’t covering their own problems nearly as much.
It’s going to all come down to networking, which I’ve been working to do for some time now. I have a foot in the door with the Heritage Newspapers chain through my internship last summer. I’m an intern now for a nonprofit that is very connected with the writing fields so hopefully I can get an in that way too. If anyone else has a contact, for heaven’s sake let me know!
Speaking of declining newspaper readership…
One of the local newspapers around my university recently announced that they will be closing their doors in July. The Ann Arbor News has been in publication since 1835 for goodness sake and it has been forced to close down due to lack of readership, which means a lack of advertisers that fund it. Granted, they will still be publishing online under a new name and have a print component twice a week, but that’s such a huge difference in the way they run. Check out the story.
This makes me even more concerned about my job future. This is the second big newspaper in my area going under. Well, the Detroit Free Press just went down to twice a week publication, but that’s certainly a massive difference as far as how people are going to be getting their daily news. The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado said goodbye in February, a story that was all over the electronic news for about a week or more. How can I not be concerned when newspapers seem to be crumbling left and right?
This makes my research on how to increase print news readership for my college paper even more critical. I don’t want to see it go under like so many other big papers have, even though we are very small. It’s all coming down to a fight for survival, and who knows what the outcome of the battle may be. Obviously, I’m rooting for the survival of newspapers. But they’ve all got some serious work to do to get there, and are basically facing a complete change in everything from design and type of stories to basic operations. God help us!
My first job fair
I woke up early this morning and headed out to Livonia for the Michigan Collegiate Job Fair. I’m a little bummed to report that it wasn’t as big as I was expecting, but it was still very much worthwhile to attend. There were a few media-related companies in attendance including Thomson Reuters. If you media people haven’t heard of Reuters News, get out of the business because you don’t belong.
I was particularly interested in a company called Team Detroit. It’s actually a combination of five companies that have come together to better serve their clients, which include Ford, United Way and even White Castle. It’s an innovative way to get business done and seems quite effective. Team Detroit is always moving forward from what I can tell, and that’s always a huge plus in today’s fast-paced world. Their media division, Mindshare, looks like a pretty good match for me and the way I work.
While at the fair, I was surprised to notice that at least half of the attendees were middle-aged or over. As a collegiate job fair, I had assumed that the majority of the attendees would be soon-to-be or recent college grads. Sure, some of those folks had certainly come from a college and bravo for them. But I got the feeling that a lot of them were out of a job due to the economy and looking for another position. (Well, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.) That means that I’m up against a lot of people with far more experience. The only advantage I really have is that I’m educated in the most recent technologies and practices and having grown up with computers and the Internet, I can adapt to pretty much anything.
It’s going to be quite a battle. Epic? No. But certainly incredibly challenging.
The newspaper’s demise?
I’ve recently been working with my college newspaper, The Eastern Echo, to increase its readership. In this day and age, it’s hard to compete with all of the electronic media that deliver news on an almost instantaneous basis. Our 3-day per week publication does also put everything online, but we just don’t see the readership. It has been declining for years and it’s become a huge worry.
I think a lot of it is going to come down to design. We’ve got to find ways to drive students and community members to the paper instead of to other sources like other print media, TV and the Internet. Newspapers are just so boring compared to the heavy graphics and full color of the electronic media. And since we’re not in a Harry Potter storybook, the photos can’t move in print like they can electronically. Print media seems to be falling behind more and more, creating an ever increasing gap between print and electronic.
Do I think newspapers will die out? No. They’ve survived radio and television. Why wouldn’t they survive the Internet? It’s a matter of adaptation. Newspapers and the like have got to face their fears and redesign. They’ve got to offer something that can’t be found on the Internet, radio or television. Newspapers need to localize like no other and tailor the format of their stories to their readers specific needs, likes and wants. They’ve got to go full-color and pump up the graphics. A reader doesn’t want to dig through the full story unless they’re fully invested in it. So newspapers have got to provide a ton of ways for the reader to get the same story with as few words as possible.
There are people doing it. I’ve mentioned The Northwest Iowa Review before. That particular paper has been quite successful, even with electronic media being the much flashier, and admittedly stronger, competition.
My newspaper is cutting down to 2 publications per week. We just don’t have the resources to keep publishing 3 times when the third issue of the week is read so little. But we are also looking at going full color once our printer installs a new piece of equipment. But as helpful as that may be, we can’t get very far unless redesigning comes into play. Words on a page make everything gray and boring. We need more and better photos along with graphics and sidebars. If we are able to redesign successfully, we will draw more readers and, in turn advertisers. We will start making more money through that process and then can afford to make the paper an even more successful publication.
Babies and controversy
What is it lately with all the baby controversy on television? There’s Nadya Suleman, a single mother who just gave birth to octuplets even though she already has six other children (3 of which have developmental issues). And of course there’s Alfie Patten from London, who recently became a father at the crazy young age of 13. A quick entry into Google can tell you everything you could possibly want to know about both of these stories.
I think people are so shocked at the conditions surrounding the births, that they are almost forgetting about the babies. They didn’t have a say in all of this and are forced to be at the center of it all. In the case of the octuplets, their position seems the most unstable. They will have all the complications of being super premies in addition to being children numbers seven to 14 in an already very stressed family. These kids are going to need the best support system this world has ever known.
Little Maisie, the daughter of Alfie, does have a great support system. But she’s going to grow up knowing that her birth was a nation-wide sensation. And the other kids are not going to let her forget about it. If British society is anything like that in the good old USA, that little girl is in for a rough childhood.
I think that the media needs to focus more on the children and how they can be helped. Sure, the stories are huge. But they’re out now, so it’s time to look at what’s really important for those tiny lives that are at stake. Yes, it’s controversial. Yes, people will be curious as all get out and desperate for more information. But that’s no longer what’s most important. It’s time to think about the kids.
Julie Andrews = political genius?
I was watching Princess Diaries on television today (I know, I know… but when you’re sick you sink to new levels) and I was caught by one of Julie Andrews’ lines. She said, “Ah, a diplomatic answer. Polite but vague.” It shocked me how dead on that was, especially in a teenage chick flick.
Politics are such a tricky business nowadays. As a journalist, the whole business presents new challenges around every corner. Politicians are never at ease around journalists… ever. So we don’t ever get what could be deemed a straight answer. They are generally polite but always vague. And sometimes they’re downright rude.
Isn’t the government supposed to be transparent to its people? I understand that there are some aspects dealing with national security that require closed doors. But as far as everything else goes, why is it hidden behind office doors and surrounded by red tape for the media that are working to get important information to the politicians’ own constituents?
The Freedom of Information Act did change some of that. But there still remains an incredible number of problems with that. Officials can black out parts of a document that they deem too sensitive to be place in the public eye. FOIAs are a great thing, don’t get me wrong, but they can be quite a pain in the butt. The FOIA requests so often go to court because someone high up doesn’t want their dirty laundry spread out in front of the public. From what I’ve heard in many of my journalism classes, the office from where you are requesting a FOIA can charge you for the cost of the paper, shipping and labor it took to process your request. Personally, I think that’s ridiculous – especially when sometimes half or more of the information is blacked out.
If a public office isn’t open to its public, what’s the point? Politics behind closed doors always gives me the willies. I don’t like not knowing what decisions they may be making or talking about and how those decisions may affect my life. As a journalist, I do know that I will have to be “polite but vague” at times as well. But I can say I absolutely hope that I don’t have to be all the time. A little attitude in a journalist isn’t always a bad thing – it can get you pretty far if you can push the appropriate buttons. And my family will tell you I’m good at pushing buttons.
Altered reality
Watch this video of Katy Perry’s performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards.
I’ll admit, I do like Katy Perry for the most part. Her songs have a good beat and they cover a range of styles. But this performance was pathetic. She sounds out of breath pretty much the entire time and her voice is completely different than it is on the CD – which can be a good thing but in this case, it sucked. And she should have left the dancing to the dancers. It just hindered her voice that much more.
It never ceases to amaze me how many singers nowadays don’t sound even remotely close to the same live as they do on their albums. If they can’t sing live, how did they get the job in the first place? It irks me how much some singer’s voices are digitally corrected for their albums. Part of their job is to perform live. I suppose that their live voice could be corrected with technology, too, but that doesn’t ever seem to happen.
When I want to hear someone sing during a performance, I want to hear them sing – not some digitally altered sound. I go to concerts to hear the band or singer I’m listening to actually singing. If it’s going to be some altered performance, then I would have saved the money and listened to the CD at home.
Even though I still listen to such artists on CD, after watching their performances I feel like some of them tricked me. They altered reality for their album, but can’t deliver it in person. What do you think about all this?
