Gretchen Wieland

Sitting in my apartment sophomore year, I wanted out. I was sick of journalism, tired of KU, and just wanting to be back in Illinois. I can’t even explain how grateful I am that my plans to transfer schools fell through. Through journalism, I have met some of the greatest people and learned valuable work and life skills, and I can’t believe my time in the J-School is now ending.

It is undeniable that the chemistry of our class is something special. I actually look forward to coming to 694! These people are some of the first I call for a fun night out in Lawrence or for an optimistic perspective about the awkward situations I tend to find myself in. I cry nearly every time I’m with them…from laughing so hard at their stories and comments. I want to thank each of you who has made my time in the J-School so enjoyable, especially this semester.

“Rick Musser is the meanest professor in journalism. Avoid him at all costs.” Well, thank goodness I didn’t heed that warning. Thanks, Uncle Rick, for truly accepting our unique personalities and helping us to build on our strengths. Not many people would put up with our loud remarks, our random rants, and our inability to grasp a strategy. I hope we lived up to your expectations.

Thank you, Willie Nelson. Oops, Dick Nelson. Thanks for letting me learn for myself what makes a good story (by crashing on a few) and for allowing me to make up words on the air. I hope “bummerish” can live on in KUJH-TV history.

As I move on to my last semester of school, I leave behind KUJH-TV and the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. What I take with me, though, are incredible friendships, good communication skills, and the ability to complete a task under deadline. Though I’ll soon begin an entirely new chapter of my life, on a new continent with a new career and new people, I know that I have been changed—for good.

I DO remember this shift well, because I was stressing about a test the whole time. Lately, I've been having some capturing issues for the newscast, and I've had to go back to the control room and recapture stories on the final product that I didn't get originally. This is mostly because the newscasts on Mondays seem to take forever. For-ev-er. For-ev-er. (Excuse my wanderings into "The Sandlot" for a moment)

So I get a bit distracted and sometimes delete the wrong clips...It all works out in the end! I really like the groove we have going on Mondays, though. I'm never left with more than two stories anymore, which is definitely a nice thing. That means I can focus on editing video and looking over all the stories before they go up in their final form--two things I really like.

Ok, so I've fallen a bit behind on my online shifts. I remember laughing at the "Bras across the Kaw" story, and I'm sure I was frustrated about something, but my shifts are all pretty fine and dandy.

Instead, I would like to share something with you created by my friend Kelly M. Cochran. The weekend of the 20th-21st, we took a little roadtrip (or railtrip) to St. Louis to shoot the in-depth. Along the way, we had a lot of laughs, we were all frustrated in moments, I ate worse than I have in a long time, we climbed through a construction site to find our hotel, and a car almost killed me (if Kelly would not have used her "mom" reflexes to pull me back, I would have been a goner). Through it all, I learned a lot about Mr. Peteritas, Miss Cochran, and Miss Reber. Some of which cannot be shared on the World Wide Web.

Anyway, here's Kelly's movie:

Scene opens on a bustling newsroom. Everyone is talking about the approaching deadline and the stresses of meeting it. No one's happy; the sounds of the newsroom are frantic. There's lots of typing, printing, mic checks, chairs rollling, etc. The crusty newsroom man with a cigar steps in to check on progress and storms out, disgruntled. One girl sits at a computer in the corner. She hasn't said anything, but slowly the camera moves so you notice her. She seems content, almost happy. Then, the newsroom freezes except for her. Singing:

I have such a dirty secret
I can't tell anyone
but I kind of like the deadline
to me, it's kind of fun

I like the rush to meet it;
that success is happenstance
others see a headache
but me . . . I see . . . A DANCE!
Lyrics by Kelly Cochran

Picture a slow progression...the anchor's feet start moving, the tune begins, and then: an all-out dance on the anchor's newsdesk.
Photo: Gretchen Wieland

It began one day in the newsroom with a joke, as Kelly Cochran and I often break into a little song and dance when bored (a little too often for some). All of a sudden, she and I were throwing out ideas for “Tv.ku.edu: The Musical”, and she came up with the spectacular title and a majority of the lyrics.

Imagine a tool that could integrate the unique personalities of this class and also bring toe-tapping tunes across campus. The musical could do that. “Dancing ‘till Deadline” has overachievers, emotional wrecks, ditzy anchors, and a jaded newsroom professor who pops in to tell the crew they’re running behind schedule. Hilarious scenes parody the morning meeting (one character proposes every plausible idea with no B-roll possibilities), the pitfalls of web producing (“They gave me a link”), and an ode to KUJH-TV in the form of a rap.

Besides creating a heck of a lot of fun and getting people involved, this project could give the University and tv.ku.edu some good press. Personally, I would have been even more attracted to the J-School if I would have seen upper-level classes making a musical in their free time. They can go to class and work in the newsroom but also have fun together and sing and dance? I’m in!

So, oh, oh, give us a chance. When we start to dance, we are TV stars (Think about the nat sounds at the newsroom at the beginning of the clip). You know you want to see Dick Nelson tap dance.

I took my first steps when I was nine months old. Baby steps are so significant, because they are symbolic of a large amount of work, culminating in the deed of movement. Wow, that sounded deep, but I think that’s what tv.ku.edu needs when we’re thinking toward the future. We’ve got the ideas, the skills, and the space, and I’m ready to see features that our audience can interact with.

No big clompin' boots at this joint...We need little steps to let the people control our content.
Photo: Gretchen Wieland (in boots that are far too big)

Okay, it’s time to unleash some of these ideas:

1. An e-mail address where anyone can submit story ideas. It would allow anyone to get involved, and it could make the reporter’s job easier. You could argue that e-mails to Dick and Rick already accomplish this, but not quite on a large enough scale.
2. A section of our site that features photo submissions. As cheesy as it sounds, these sections of TV sites get some of the most hits. It could be really cool to have pictures (or home-shot videos) from the public that follow-up on our stories. For example, we have a story about trees dying all over town for such-and-such reason. Then we have a “Show us your own examples of this” box where they can send in pics and descriptions.
3. Comments on stories. Okay, this isn’t a new idea; we’ve been talking about it with YouTube. Allowing our audience to interact with our stories is a vital baby step to increasing awareness of KUJH-TV. Sure, some of the comments might not be pretty, but the TV kids will have to get used to it…I’ve heard worse criticism from Uncle Rick (and it gave me thick skin).

That’s what I’ve got. The opportunities we have with new media and the seemingly infinite Internet possibilities are exciting, but baby steps are the best way to accomplish these. If we try it all at once, we might fall hard. Those first steps, though, would be a major achievement. I’ll make sure someone documents it in photos.

I can finally claim to be famous—I’m on YouTube! Now anyone in the world can see my face, watch my anchoring blunders, and study my reports. But will they? I’m excited about the possibility of getting more hits for KUJH-TV stories by adding them to this video sharing site. I even tried dressing up more and spent more time primping my hair, in hopes that I would present a better image for our station with all this new traffic. However, I’m a bit wary about any spectacular results that may come out of this venture.

The big three networks all have YouTube channels. Oh wait, no they don’t. NBC pulled its official YouTube channel last week with no warning, likely because the channel had run its course. My dream would be that KUJH-TV on YouTube grows exponentially popular and then jumps over to a new medium when it comes along. In reality, I don’t think much will change. It will be nice to allow comments on our stories, as well as having the ability to see ratings and the number of views. However, knowing our audience, I’m suspecting most of these will come from our own brilliant class and from proud parents who want to show off the work of their young journalists (At least in the case of my mother, I know this is completely true. She sits at her computer every Thursday, pressing “refresh” until my 3:00 update comes up).

We can see the future, but have we hopped on the train too late?
Photo: Gretchen Wieland

Have I been so jaded by past failures at our humble station that I can’t see positives in the future? Maybe so. We’ve been talking about going live on KUJH-TV News since I’ve been at KU. Could YouTube finally be the way to get viewers of our stories? I doubt it, but I would love to be wrong. First, we need to figure out how to drive traffic to our channel. The media train may have already pulled out of the station without us, and I hope we have someone speedy enough to jump on the caboose and catch it.

Still hungover from part one of Kelly's birthday extravaganza, Miss Cochran rocked my Thursday night by finishing all three of the stories before I began my make-up shift. She took Sam's shift, while I took hers. Kind of. I had to do this, first. Yes, I anchored and online produced in one night. When you think the skills award should go to me, though, hold up! Kelly left me less than one hour of work to do. She wins. I edited and converted the video (weird cutting my own video) and revamped Joseph's story, and I was out of there!

The only thing I had to wait on was the copy editor to look over the stories, and then James and I went back in again and spruced a few things up. No comment on that, once again.
Anyway, there are multiple reasons I like that Cochran girl; not the least of which is her ability to get things done in a fun and timely manner.

So, I have a few confessions to make about this shift.

1. I was about as tired and crabby as I have ever been, because I had just gotten back from Scotland. I still wanted to be taking in the scenery, sipping on foreign drinks, and chatting it up with the local talent. But no, I was sitting in a cold newsroom, reading TV stories.

2. I got over it, though, because Laurel brought me Applebee's. Good food. Good conversation.

3. Brad was there from 2-6 p.m., which made my night even more enjoyable. We did some
stories, edited some video, sang a little bit for the musical...ya know, old hat.

4. I realized I was actually going to miss Pinick. Okay, I already knew I was going to miss him, but he has taught me a lot about why we do some of the things we do. My mom always says I'm like a three-year-old, constantly asking WHY?! Well, he provided me with the answers for comma questions, structuring issues, and code crises.

All in all, it was a decent shift for me being jetlagged and wishing I was still abroad. James and I went back over the copy-edited stories before I left. No comment about that. Anyway, I got out early and got home to bed.

Nothing can beat face-to-face interaction. I realized that this past week when catching up with old friends in Scotland. We had e-mailed, instant messaged, and often talked on the phone and on Skype over the past few months, but that all paled desperately in comparison to receiving hugs from those three guys. Second Life is continuing to change the way people interact and view their world, but I’m honestly not getting it. Apparently, I’m not the only one who's confused.

I much prefer this view of reality...
Photo: Gretchen Wieland

It’s called "second" life for a reason—real life interaction should come first. I like the idea of politicians and other big names (read: our famous professor) engaging in chats with people who can’t physically be around for an activity, but I’m still confused why 3D characters representing people need to be present. I would much rather watch the people on TV, where I can see their real faces and real reactions, not a marionette-like version of reality.

...to a cartoon view of a not-so-real world.
Photo: Gretchen Wieland

Citizen journalism finds yet another niche in Second Life, where anyone can dig up stories, whether newsworthy or not (reminiscent of YouTube). By eliminating the gatekeeper, even real news corporations are taking advantage of quick and easy stories. While in Scotland, I saw an advert (I sound like a local, right?) for Sky News, asking for Second Life reporters. I don’t like the idea of random creepers sitting online, groping for sources and ideas like they groped my avatar. This stuff doesn’t happen in the real world, so I don’t get why it’s cool online.

So while some techies see Second Life as the wave of the future, I will stick to seeing people in front of my face. If distance prevents that, I will use real pictures and real webcams. We wonder why people have such a difficult time in social settings—it’s because they’re stuck perfecting a fake reality in front of a picture. Not me.

The lovely and talented Kelly Cochran took my shift on Monday, since I was on my way to Scotland. I must say, I checked out the stories, and she did a nice job.

I will be taking one of hers on Thursday in the near future.