Sarah Hart

I really do have mixed emotions about the end of this semester. Part of me feels that the semester went by way to fast and feels like I have just got the hang of things when it's almost over. I am not ready for it to be over yet. Then the other part of me, is like whoo! I am done for the fall and this semester was the last of my journalism classes. Yet, with an internship in the spring, I probably won't be in the newsroom much, so this could almost be an unofficial goodbye to the newsroom as well.

So technically tonight was my last night working in there...forever. That is so crazy. I am almost done and my journalism major at KU is about to be wrapped up. As of next Monday, I will have earned my journalism degree. I don't know if am emotionally or mentally prepared for this ending, but if the spring goes by as fast as this semester did, then I am going to have to force myself to catch up.

I have enjoyed and learned a lot during my time in the newsroom. It made me work with people I view as difficult and slacking. One of my pet peeves. But, the real world is going to be like that. Can't choose who you work with, just how you work. Right?

Well, I guess this is goodbye!

Adios. Auf Wiedersehen. Ciao. Au revoir.

I have been online producing for fourteen weeks now and in that time I have developed a routine.

I arrive a bit before 4 p.m., talk to Alex and get to work repurposing and uploading. After doing it for so long, it's natural. In the beginning, I was always double checking myself over and over again to make sure I did everything correctly. But now, those things are reactionary. I just do them without even thinking about it. Tape the newscast, get pictures, export videos, then upload all to TV admin.

Today, Alex got to his shift a bit late because he was in Topeka. His tardiness may have set me behind a bit, but it doesn't matter. I got through it. My first online shift I was so hurried to get everything finished in four hours. Fourteen shifts later, though, I can handle it. It's just too bad that with academia once you've caught on, it's practically over.

"In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do. The worst thing you can do is nothing."- Teddy Roosevelt

As many of you may know already, KU wasn't my first choice. Four years ago, I was adamant about going to William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo. So much so that I didn't apply to any other universities except WJC. After a month or two there, I quickly realized it wasn't meant to be.

For one thing, and probably the most important reason, my major didn't emphasize what I really wanted to do: TV broadcast. I was a Multimedia Communication major with an emphasis in radio braodcast. I think it's implied by the italics that that wasn't exactly what I saw myself doing. I had fun, though, being a DJ on the morning show, The Morning Rollout, with three other students. Yet when it came down to it, I wasn't happy with my major or the school. So I decided to transfer.

KU should have been my first choice. Thank goodness I realized my mistake.
Photo: Sarah Carr

My parents, however, made me stay for the rest of the year thinking it might grow on me. It didn't. In late winter I visited KU, applied during Spring Break, was accepted by April, said goodbye to Jewell in May, and haven't looked back or even regretted transferring since. Coming to KU and getting into the William Allen White School of Journalism was the best decision I could have made.

I have acquired writing, production, and online skills that I know I wouldn't have been exposed to at Jewell, or at least not as in-depth and hands on as they teach them here. The J-School gave me a much brighter future than I believe I would have had from Jewell. I feel ready to work and even sometimes ahead of the game.

My future may not be in TV broadcast, but it doesn't matter. With a degree from KU's Journalism School, specifically in News and Information, l have the fundamentals, skills, and experience to do pretty much anything. I can't wait to get out into the real world and use what I have learned here to make the next best decision of my life!

I have to admit that I was a little eager to get my shift done this time. It's the night before Thanksgiving break and senior-itis has definitely set in. We posted three stories: Alumni Harvesters, Bridezilla, and Thanksgiving break travel. We also had Joseph's Tai Chi story run, but the text story wasn't done yet, so I made div tags for his web extras and uploaded the video and a picture. Sam said he would take care of the rest on Wednesday.

We did have one more story that we could have posted to the Web site. It was the one about Last Call going in front of the Kansas Beverage Control board. The story didn't have any SOTs, so we thought it would read like a court report. Plus, I thought it would look bad on our part to have a story on the Web site that doesn't have a single source, not even a man on the street. Where's our credibility there?

Tonight was stressful. Alex and I planned on posting five stories, but that didn't happen. The first story we used our discretion on was the "Naughty but Nice" story. Alex and I watched the package together and got the impression that it was a promotion for a sex shop. At the very end, it stated the essence of the story in a single sentence: The city wants to pass an ordinance or something to close down the shop. The first 4/5 of it was the owner talking about how he promotes a comfortable atmosphere in the shop, so costumers don't get embarrassed about buying sexy outfits and toys. Anyway, we, and our colleagues who were in the newsroom, agreed that it wouldn't be a good idea to post a "sexy promotional" story on the Web site, especially not to YouTube.

Then, the newscast ran late because either the production crew or the reporters were having a difficult time. A lot of the video was spliced, BAD! The Pine Ridge Plaza story was a nightmare and we didn't post it.

I put together Lexy's In-Depth and it turned out great. The video, the text, and the web extras were very well done. The only problem I had was posting a poll. When I went to enter in the options, only three fields were there so I narrowed it down to three possible answers. Yet, when I was done entering the last option, another field popped up. I couldn't save it because they weren't all filled. I tried again adding the fourth option that Lexy's group provided and was able to save it. But, I went back in to change the title and another field appeared. It was irritating so I didn't post that either.

Basically, sounds like I did very little work for the Web site, but I promise I didn't. The KU Environ story's nat sound was too loud at the end so you couldn't hear Sam's voice over. I had to cut it after the sound bite. His voice over just said for more information you can visit tv.ku.edu. Lexy's Green package was spliced in one area so editing that together wasn't messy. The problem I had with Andrew's video, that I tried to fix, was the cut out at the beginning of the package. I tried cutting the video and then importing the video transfer video to get the cut out portion, but I couldn't get a good match between the voice overs.

I know you (Rick) want us to do four or five stories a night, but I feel I made good decisions for the sake of the Web site.

I look around the newsroom, and notice my colleagues busily working away on their individual news assignments. 415ers and 692ers are contacting sources and putting together VOSOTs. A 693 producer is organizing the newscast and a 693 reporter is working on a package, while a 694er sits at the newsroom desk repurposing a script. Each of their educational purposes vary somewhat and their tasks are divided. I think what the station needs to work on is content production by way of colleague cohesion.

The 693/694 projects that we just did was a good start at getting the separate divisions (reporting and online producing) of the newsroom working together. While it was frustrating and required constant communication, I believe that the project my group turned in was a reflection of individuals working to their strengths to produce a higher quality package than what could have been accomplished by ourselves. The project allowed us to work in cross-functional teams, in which we used our different expertise to work toward a common goal.

I feel that a common thought among my colleagues is that when they enroll for let's say J-694: Online producing and Web design, they relinguish their reporting skills. In reality, that doesn't happen and we need to be prepared to use the previous skills we acquired when needed. We also need to work together and be willing to help each other out to produce quality content, epecially when we are able to do so.

Laurel and I got a bit frustrated at the beginning of the year when we noticed that the things we had done for our online producers when we were reporting wasn't being done for us. We thought it was required of reporters to hand their online producers their TV script as they did the TV producer. Laurel and I felt there wasn't an open line of communication between reporters and online producers.

We paid a visit to the 692 class the following week to discuss our want for teamwork. We asked the reporters if they could help us to help make their stories better by a) printing us off a copy of their script as well, b) give us any literature they used to develope their story, and c) provide us with links or graphic ideas that they feel are useful. They seemed willing to do what we suggested, but it didn't last long. I think it's because we lacked the authority to implement our proposal.

So to do so, I think we need one of two things: Class liasons or a content facilitator. A class liason would communicate with the other classes' laisons to inform them of what their classmates are working on and of any problems/concerns with projects that a reporter, producer, or online producer could help them with. A content facilitator would add the authority and maintenance that Laurel and I don't have. This person's job would be to keep the flow of content production moving. Essentially, they would be the bridge that connects the classes together.

I feel that these changes would help improve our content production by having cross-functional members, or one facilitating all, to help develop more teamwork in the newsroom, since in the end what one of us does, or doesn't do, can ultimately impact the other.

I came into the newsroom early to start on the multimedia elements for the 693/694 in-depth projects. After finishing a chart, Alex and I worked together on the Alternative Breaks story. We wrote the text story and the headline together and made a graphic of Alternative Breaks destinations. It allowed me to get ahead of the game a bit. I was left waiting for Andrew Sherwood to finish his package and for the newscast to start so I could record it. The rest of the newscast went on as normal: repurpose Sherwood's package, upload video and images, and edit. I did run into a problem the headline for the pharmacist shortage story because pharmacist and shortage are longer words. Uncle Rick lent me a helping hand, though, by telling me pharmacist is one of those words you can abbreviate. So I used "pharm" and problem solved!

We are on a mission to revamp tv.ku.edu to be user friendly.
Photo: tv.ku.edu and Sarah Hart

In 2003, construction was wrapping on my high school. A rumor had started to circulate through the district's staff that the district allowed construction crews to dump left over paint into an in-ground pool. The pool was in the backyard of a vaccant house near the school, and the construction crew had covered the paint-filled pool with dirt. The paint was seeping into the pool drain, which could inevitably contaminate our neighborhood's water lines.

When my neighbor, a substitute teacher, heard the rumor, she went to the house to see if it was true. After seeing the problem first-hand, she reported it to KCTV 5 via e-mail. The station's investigative team verified the problem and wanted to interview my neighbor. She declined, not wanting to hurt her job, so my dad took her place as the concerned and disappointed resident of the district's poor and dangerous disposal method.

KCTV 5 gave my neighbor the tools to get the problem out in the open and cleaned up. In order to make better use of our "user provided content", tv.ku.edu needs to provide the public with avenues to share their insight. The newsroom email list is a good start for journalism students to generate public concerns. But, we need to provide the public with more opportunities to participate in the news through our Web site, whether it be a suggestion box feature or commentary.

We need to make tv.ku.edu interactive and outreaching. KCTV 5 Investigates' homepage has a comment section where users can descibe their issues and how they would like the station's help. We could revamp tv.ku.edu to do something similar, like making In-Depth Reports its own page and adding a comment section for proposed story ideas.

We have willing users. So we could assign J-693 reporters to investigate it. The investigative reports could be done once a month, or even once a week, and it could become the tv.ku.edu equivalent of FOX 4 Problem Solvers.

For example, we could investigate the hole on the bridge idea that a J-201 student found. We could send a reporter out to South Lawrence by the movie theatre, and have him or her get video of the expanding hole and interviews of drivers' reactions to the problem. Then, the reporter could go to City Hall and see if Lawrence's Traffic Safety Commission is aware of the problem.

We are a hyperlocal station, and we have the talent and skills to expose community concerns. Having a hyperlocal feature that targets resident-provided content would expand our journalstic capabilities and appeal to our most relevant audience, the people of Lawrence.

Verbs...verbs...verbs...I have grown unfond of them since I began online producing. They make it difficult to find a good, short one that will make my title capitivating and informative while not making it too long.

Longer verbs, six letters or more, pop into my head first. On rare occasions, I can get around it by finding a synnonym for a noun, but all the other times the verb is my obstacle.

I sit in front of the computer, read the text over a few times, and then talk it threw. Sometimes it's in my head, but most of the time it's out loud or Alex and Justin will help.

But when they can't think of anything, the thesaurus, specifically thesaurus.reference.com, is a real help. It has become my new favorite invention. It can really aid or help or assit a verb-ally challenged girl.

Could YouTube send KUJH down the tube? Well, it may not help us get ahead.
Photo: Sarah Hart

When I think of YouTube, I think of an entertainment site, not a news site. My professor, however, would argue somewhat differently. He would say that YouTube is a source of compelling news content. For example, he often talks highly of the video on the site from the Minnesota bridge collapse and the Virginia Tech shooting. While I don't discredit his point, in fact I found some interesting video, I don't see where YouTube offers KUJH-TV the capabilities to be what we strive so hard for it to be: an innovative, multimedia news source.

YouTube can get the station more exposure, a connection to the online world and a greater presence on Google. For students, it gives the opportunity to gain professional connections for hiring. Yet, YouTube doesn't allow us to highlight our most prestigious feature.

Multimedia journalism is what the station is all about. We want graphs, pictures, extended interviews, and slideshows to accompany and enhance our text and video. There's even an entire class devoted to multimedia reporting. Yet, we have ventured onto a site that doesn't allow us to show this off.

We have so much more to offer a broader audience than just our video and text. I thought the point was to show the online world how innovative and convergent we are about our news gathering. YouTube, unfortunately, only lets us do that with a link.