Laurel Kupka

My last two shifts went great. Everything was in on time, we got a lot done and had a lot of fun. I might actually miss doing this every week!

I'm graduating in two weeks. Holy cow.

It's sad it's almost over...
Photo: Laurel Kupka

But we'll always have the memories. Or, we can just come visit like Crissy.
Photo: Gretchen Wieland

It seems like just yesterday I was online producing with Chris Raine, HTML coding, impressing him with my ability to sing every Spangles jingle. Oh, wait... that was two weeks ago.

Now the newsroom has become not only my second home, but my second family. My classmates are some of the funniest, craziest, most wonderful people I've ever met. We've been through a lot together and we always managed to find a way to have a laugh.

Ok, so I'm not really leaving for good. I'm hoping to get in to law school here at KU. But I won't be in the newsroom every day and, honestly, I'm going to miss it. You know what they say, though: "Don't be sad because it's over; smile because it happened."

Wednesday was actually a little crazy for me and Chris. An in-depth was airing, so we started working on posting the web elements as soon as we got there. It was pretty time consuming. After about an hour, I started working on repurposing scripts for other stories. Chris did a ton of work on that in-depth, and he deserves some props. We had some problems, but everything got worked out. I worked on two stories and also helped a girl in 415.

Beat reporting has been around pretty much forever. Newspapers do it, TV reporters do it and heck, most bloggers already have a topic of choice. It’s time for tv.ku.edu to pump up the jams.

We need to drop a funky, fresh beat like my boy MC Hammer, here.
Photo: Yahoo! Music

I would love to bring this concept to our site. At the beginning of the semester, each 694 student would choose his or her own specific beat. It could be anything- sports, city government, alumni in the news, White Owl watch, whatever. The students would blog about these topics once a week, instead of being assigned a topic, and the blogs would be featured on tv.ku.edu.

Blogging about something you are interested in, and especially something you get to choose, is a lot more fun. Having students choose their own topics will probably result in better content, too, because people tend to try a lot harder when they are doing something they like.

I think this would be a relatively easy thing to pull off. It should be effective as well. The LJ-World blogs are getting comments, which means they’re being looked at. People in town are singing along with this tune and tv.ku.edu needs to feel the beat.

The Wednesday shift was probably the best so far. We had FOUR stories done and ready to go (minus the video) by 3:30, and they were pretty decent. We had a lot of fun, the time flew by and there were no problems. I can only hope next week is as good!

The way people get their news and the type of news they want are changing. It is absolutely critical that we as journalists find a way to meet these needs before we start leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths.

The American Journalism Review backs this up, and cites several examples of innovative Web sites we can look to as models, including the Lawrence Journal-World (see, Kansas is cool!), Baristanet, the Naples Daily News, the Washington Post’s local sections and Bluffton Today. What do these sites have? Comment threads, discussion forums, blogs, multimedia elements, user-submitted photos, community calendars, high school sports and more. The content is targeted, hyperlocal and very interactive.

I’m not saying hard news isn’t important, but it’s only one ingredient in the delicious journalism stew we’re capable of concocting. Spicing up the news with more student generated content and (dare I say it?) user provided content would make the whole tv.ku.edu experience much more savory.

It's time to cook up something fresh and exciting for the Web site. Ohhhhh yeah, baby.
Photo: Laurel Kupka. Original image courtesy of opinionated-cooks.com

So let’s kick it up a notch. Replace the Beyond Lawrence section with content provided by the kids in 201. People really do care about those damn potholes all over the city, and when they’re going to be fixed. They’d like to read about the crazy people who take over Mass. Street after dark, and share their own stories. I bet they’d be interested in blogs and other materials related to current issues in the community, which we could incorporate into the Web site. Students in 301, 415 and the op/ed class could probably help us there. I know I’ve been critical of citizen journalists in the past (I believe I called them “nutjobs with cameras”), but these folks could really add something to our site too, as long as we run them through the colander first. How about photos, video or even just some ideas? We have to know what our audience wants in order to please that delicate palate.

We have to be the Emerils and carefully select the right ingredients, put it all together, try to expand our horizons and, most importantly, have some fun in the kitchen.

My apologies for all the food analogies. I’m slightly obsessed with the Food Network. And I’m very hungry right now.

Wednesday's shift was probably the best yet. Chris and I got update and three stories done for Steph- with time to spare! We had a lot of fun, too. Surprisingly, two of the three stories we posted were done by 415ers, and they were pretty good. The third was a package by Courtney and Lisa, who, in my opinion, are always great to work with.

I don’t think having a YouTube channel will hurt our TV station or our Web site in any way. That being said, I don’t know if it will really help us, either.

The whole point (in my opinion) of posting to YouTube is to expand our audience. It’s quick, it’s painless and there’s nowhere to go but up. I mean, who really watches channel 31 other than (some of) our personnel and those one or two people who watch the research channel and get pissed when it cuts off at 5:30? Who knows about our Web site besides our class, our parents, and that person who found it that one time they googled Ritalin?

Weirdos v. professionals: will we get the viewers we want?
Photo: Laurel Kupka. Screengrab courtesy of YouTube.

What kind of audience are we going to get, though? A lot of crazy kids and crazy adults (like the Poodle Lady) post a lot of crazy things on YouTube. Is that our future audience? I hope not. Now, if a seasoned professional like Stone Phillips (Yes, I used to watch Dateline) were, for example, to discover Gretchen Wieland- that would be cool. If Stephen Peteritas was catapulted to fame, that would be great. If reporters actually got some exposure to future employers, I’d say the whole YouTube idea was genius.

Is that going to happen? I don’t know. We’ll have to wait, keep track of our hits and see. And even if we only get one or two new Poodle Lady-type viewers, it’s still probably worth a shot.

Last Wednesday's shift went pretty well. It was a short one for me. Steph and I went to the Union to get some B-roll for the in-depth project we are working on with Lexy, because produces Wednesday and couldn't leave. I told Chris ahead of time that I would have to leave early, and it was no big deal. I re-purposed a package before I left, and Chris did two stories and the update on his own.

I traded shifts with Jyl last week, so I was in the newsroom Friday afternoon instead of Wednesday. It went smoothly, no big problems. Added 3 things to Beyond Lawrence, and repurposed two stories. Peteritas was very pleased with my work.