Newsroom Shift: 12/1

By
Courtney Condron
on December 1, 2008 3:15 PM | | Comments (0)
Today was mainly the usual. There was a package about preparing your home for winter, and she had a lot of sidebars. She had created a powerpoint, and so I converted each slide to an image and then put the images into a slide show in shadowbox. Then she had some sidebar information, so I created a winter-looking sidebar in InDesign with little snowflakes. Yes, this would be the second little wintery snowflake sidebar I have created.

I typed up a couple of the stories, and added the big news of the day to Beyond Lawrence. Apparently we have been in a recession since a year ago. That was the big news of the day.

News Shift 11/24: Holy Smokes!

By
Courtney Condron
on November 24, 2008 11:03 PM | | Comments (0)
Today's newsroom shift started out like another newsroom shift. I uploaded videos to YouTube, typed a package in and added some web elements to it. I also created a sidebar for the Salvation Army story.

Then, around 3 p.m., a fire broke loose at the Methodist church in Eudora. No one else in the newsroom was available, so Lara and I headed out there. We didn't see any smoke or flames, but there were seriously probably 25 trucks there. No joke. So, we got some great video of the trucks, but they wouldn't let us get very close. 

Someone told us he thought there were so many trucks, because there wasn't any hydrants near the church, so they were having to bring water in. 

So, after we shot some great b-roll, we came back to the newsroom and edited the video and wrote a script. I ended up doing a live report on the fire from the newsroom. I wasn't exactly in my anchor attire, but I had never done that before so it was pretty cool to do a live pitch! 

So, basically I ended up in the newsroom until almost 6 p.m., which really pushed back my evening schedule, but that's OK. It was a very eventful afternoon after all.

Newsroom Shift 11/10

By
Courtney Condron
on November 12, 2008 3:08 PM | | Comments (0)
I forgot to write about my news shift the other day.

I posted stories on YouTube and I created a graphic for how to winterize your car. I made little snowflakes in InDesign. Alex didn't think they were cool enough, but they were the best I could do and personally I think they look like snowflakes. I did have to ask Bill and Dick for some information about anti-freeze and sub-zero washer fluid. I wasn't too sure about the difference between the two. Usually my Dad winterizes my car for me, and this year he said "Has your car driven better after I got it all ready for winter?" and I was like "No, what are you talking about." But for those students who don't rely on their Father to winterize their car, they now have a cool little graphic complete with snowflakes to help figure out what to do.

After that I just worked on the usual tasks and then helped with the news update. Mainly I've just been trying to finish my final project that is running tomorrow!

This seems....wrong.

By
Courtney Condron
on November 10, 2008 10:57 AM | | Comments (0)
Since KU is playing Nebraska this weekend, I shall take this opportunity to point out something very wrong with this state. A law called the "safe haven" law that was passed in Nebraska in July says any person can leave a "child" at a hospital without any charges of abandonment.

This has led to 28 cases, and counting, of people from Nebraska and other states bringing not just little children, but also teenagers to hospitals and just peacing out. I understand that we don't want children to be brought up by parents who don't want them, or it an unhealthy environment, but is this law really the answer? If my parents took me to a hospital and left me when I was 15-years-old, I don't think I would ever recover.

A USA Today article even reports that a man came in and left nine siblings, ages one to 17. This guy is now just automatically relieved of all his parental duties, and is probably out at a bar celebrating that he doesn't have to spend money on diapers anymore. While these kids are sitting at a hospital wondering where their dad is, and what's going to happen to them. That's sick. I don't care where these teenagers are abandoned, it's still abandonement. At this age, they will never be the same.

One 14-year-old girl was dropped off by her grandparents, and then continued to run away from the hospital to Texas, where she was going to get a job. I don't think it sounds like she was in much of a safe haven at the hospital if she is now on the run to Texas.

Luckily an emergency session has been called to look at this law again. Now, some legislators want to change the age limit to three-days-old. Hmm...vast improvement...what a great idea. Why didn't anyone think of this before?

News Shift 10/27

By
Courtney Condron
on October 27, 2008 3:41 PM | | Comments (0)
Today there was a story about the political masks that Professor Williams showed us in class, so I made a graphic in InDesign for that story.

Masks.jpg

Also, John Devore took some pictures at Homecoming on Saturday, so I created a slide show of some of a few of those pictures for the Web site. I also uploaded the in-depth Transit package to YouTube along with the stories from Friday.

On Friday, two bodies were found in Lawrence, but earlier today authorities had not come out with information on how they had died. So, we were making predictions. I predicted a drug overdose. Dick and John both thought it was because it was so cold outside, and they were sleeping in a tent. Later they said that it was "suspected" drug overdose. So I was right.

News Shift 10/20

By
Courtney Condron
on October 21, 2008 9:42 AM | | Comments (0)
I decided to get a little creative today. There was a story about Homecoming, so I used InDesign to create a chart of the activities for each day. I made it crimson and blue and put a little jayhawk on it so that it was beautiful and festive.

I was the web producer for the package that ran today also, so I created a list of quick facts in InDesign for that as well. It just had some of the important highlights of the story. It wasn't quite as pretty as the Homecoming chart however.

The bad thing was, the Web site was acting strange. It kept saying page error when I tried to add a story or click on a story. I'm not sure what the deal was, but hopefully they can still post my charts later.

Be Aware this Month!

By
Courtney Condron
on October 14, 2008 8:58 AM | | Comments (0)
Every October you are bombarded with Breast Cancer Awareness fundraisers and merchandise. For me, this marks the one-year anniversary of when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Last October our house became filled with pink back packs, stuffed animals and books. My parents and I went to the Women's basketball game at KU, because it benefited breast cancer. For the first time I really saw what Breast Cancer Awareness Month can accomplish, and how big of an effect it can have on people. Lucky for us our insurance covered everything except for my mom's wig, but for lots of people that's not the case. And money for breast cancer research is crucial to finding more effective cures. 

When my mom was diagnosed last October, I had a ton of people come up to me and tell me someone in their family had gone through breast cancer also. I was shocked to discover how common it really is, and how many people I know had been affected by it.

This weekend my mom and I will be participating in the Back in The Swing event in Kansas City. It's a fun, great opportunity to get involved in Breast Cancer Awareness and get to do some shopping at the same time!

So, this year when you are in the grocery store or out shopping and you see racks of pink items and the breast cancer ribbon, think about how you can help someone. And realize that breast cancer affects more people than you realize!

News Shift: 9/29

By
Courtney Condron
on September 29, 2008 3:23 PM | | Comments (0)
It was a big afternoon as the House voted on the bailout plan and rejected it.

The Web site is all up to date with the latest news though. I put the bailout being rejected and Citigroup buying Wachovia under beyond Lawrence.

Bryan ordered Indiana Jones pizza, and he said he had some staff profiles I could work on, but then he left for jury duty so I never got the staff profiles to work on.

Politics and "isms"

By
Courtney Condron
on September 18, 2008 10:26 AM | | Comments (0)
The other day my roommate started cheering when Sarah Palin came on the TV, and we looked at her and said, "Wait, aren't you an Obama person?"

"Well, I like Obama and Palin," she said.

"But how can you do that? Palin is even more conservative than McCain," we said.

"Well, I like her, because she's a woman."

With Palin thrown in to this year's election, sexism is playing a huge role. Seeing a strong, opinionated woman speak is motivating for women, and has confused many women more than ever on whom to vote for. 

The reality is, a lot of college women don't follow politics too closely. So, seeing Palin speak has made not just my roommate, but college women all over the country say, "Oh I like her, because she's a girl!"

And they have every right to vote for McCain for that reason and that reason only. There's nothing anyone can do about it. It might not be the best reason, but nominating Palin for Vice President has just thrown feminism back into the mix, after it was greatly removed when Clinton lost. I guarantee there are more women than you think out there that are cheering Palin on, simply because she's a woman who they can relate to.

The Risk of Being a Journalist

By
Courtney Condron
on September 12, 2008 5:24 PM | | Comments (0)
As journalists, we run the risk of getting caught up in illegal action. Whether it's trying to cover a riot, withholding sources' names or trying to obtain information, reporters toe the line of legal and illegal. 

Students from Kentucky were not the only reporters to be arrested during the RNC. Photo District News reported that at least 42 reporters were arrested during the convention. Sometimes that's just a risk that reporters face in order to get a story. It's up to the reporter to realize how long and how close they should stay to the action going on. If the reporter feels that being in the center of a riot is going to add to their news story, then it may be worth the risk of being arrested. 

However, if a reporter thinks they are just making the situation worse and adding to the commotion by having a camera in the middle, then maybe they should back off and just report on the riot after the fact. 

Same thing goes when reporters are withholding sources. If they promised that source that they would not reveal them, then it is their journalistic duty not to do so. This is where their honesty as a journalist may be more important than their own personal safety. Many reporters have been jailed for not revealing sources, but they would rather go to jail then betray those sources, and personally I think that is admirable.


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