Mentor Match-up Program

It's been about a year since SPJ started its Mentor Match-up Program, pairing veteran journalists with newbies, and we'd like to get your feedback. Were you paired with someone? How did it go? Did you request a mentor and didn't get one? If so, let us know. We're probably going to try this again next year so any questions, comments, or concerns about this year's match-up would be greatly appreciated.

Leaving on a jet plane for SPJ, with Twitter

Hey everyone. In just a few hours I leave for Atlanta for this year's national SPJ convention.
I hope you all are joining us for what will be an essential reminder of our code of ethics, inspiration in trying times and a time to embrace being a journalist.
If you can, and even if you cannot, make this year's convention you should follow the news and views on Twitter.
If you are scratching your head, let me explain:
Twitter is a micro-blogging site based on the question "What are you doing?" Before you ask, no most people do not simply write all day about what they are eating and other silly nonsense. The site is used to share information, inspiration and insight in the online world community.
To get started, click here and create an account. Fill in your e-mail address (required, but not visible to others) and your phone number (not required, no one sees it, this allows you to "tweet" and read "tweets" on your mobile phone -- any mobile phone that has text messaging).
Here's my account and here is the official SPJ08 Twitter account. To get updates from either, click follow. Then, when you want to "tweet" about something about the convention -- include "#spj08" (without quote marks) in your message and it will automatically be included in with all of the other SPJ tweets.
Have fun, see you soon and happy tweeting!

Dressing Appropriately

Tube top. No bra. Shorts that are too short. Skirts that only come mid-thigh. No, I'm not talking about how women dress in music videos. These are fashion faux pas that I've actually had to discuss with my interns in the last year or so. I'm more than a little annoyed that I have to tell 20-somethings that they shouldn't dress like they're about to go on a pub crawl. However, for some of them, the internship is a first so they aren't hip to the ways of the working world just yet. So what's the dress code in your office? Is it more relaxed in the summer? Has anyone ever approached you or have you ever had to approach anyone about dressing inappropriately?

Benefits in listening to young people

I'm currently serving on a committee at my organization where they listen to my ideas and ask for my advice on some topics. It's really been thrilling and I suggest that other media companies wise up and take to listening and involving their younger staff....

Or else, they could end up having situations like that written about below by Mark Glaser on PBS:

As the layoffs and buyouts pile up in U.S. the newspaper industry, and Romenesko becomes a daily wake, there is one other troubling problem: Young journalists are less willing to stay at newspapers because the papers are so slow to change their culture.

Newspapers have a history as top-down organizations where senior management huddles in conference rooms to decide what everyone else will do. Innovative ideas usually die on the vine or in bureaucratic red tape. And that’s frustrating for young folks who want to be change agents at newspapers and make a difference.

Pursuing freelance work

I've recently been contemplating pursuing freelance work as a way to supplement my own regular wages. Some coworkers of mine have done so. One freelances regularly for People Magazine, covering celebrity news in Hawaii.

I'm from Guam and have kept in contact with many of the folks there. Guam and Hawaii often do business together because they have similar economies, so I've been considering doing freelance work for a business journal at my old home island. I used to do business reporting, so it'd be an easy fit for me. The important thing is that I do not work for a publication that competes directly for advertising dollars in the Hawaii market.

Do you all know what your freelancing policies are at your respective companies? Have you ever considered freelancing? Have you ever done it? Is it worth giving up your spare time to do more reporting? Am I just going to burn myself out?

Facebook, Where Have You Been All My Life?

OK, so I finally took Sonya’s advice and signed up for some online networking sites. You can now find me on LinkedIn and Facebook. Yes, yes, I know. “You’re just getting around to that?” you’re asking. Well, you know that person who sees a movie on DVD a year after it came out and then tries to tell friends who saw it in the theater how great it was? That’s me so please forgive me if this post sounds passé. With that said, Facebook is great. Case in point: I was looking for a new magazine intern recently and was able to contact my Facebook friends for potential candidates. Several good candidates turned up as a result. I hope to use it more like this in the future. How has Facebook changed your work life? If you haven’t signed up for it, why not? Does anyone see these kinds of sites affecting them in negative ways?

Prepare for your future at the 2008 Convention & National Journalism Conference

Learn from professional journalists, get hands-on training and further your career at the 2008 SPJ Conference & National Journalism Convention, Sept. 4-7 in Atlanta, Ga. Listed below is a mere sampling of the development sessions designed to fit your needs! 

 

The First Five Years: You Can Do It

Description: For new journalists, the first five years can be brutal. The hours are long, the pay is low and the moves are frequent. It can be tempting to leave journalism for greener pastures. Hear from a panel of journalists going through the first five years and those who have survived. Get tips for making the most of your early career years while avoiding common mistakes. Leave energized and ready to move to the next phase of your career path.

Speakers: Andria Simmons, reporter, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Leslie Froelich, reporter, Mundo Hispánico/Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Adrian Uribarri, reporter, Orlando Sentinel

 

It’s All About Storytelling: Criteria for Telling Effective TV Stories

Description: Learn how to prepare your tape and determine what sets you apart in your storytelling. Elements of storytelling to be discussed include: Writing, Video, Use of Sound, Delivery, Standup and Impact.

Speaker: Terry Likes, professor, Western Kentucky University

 

It’s Not YourTube or YourSpace

Description: The internet offers an inexhaustible supply of photos, film clips and other juicy tidbits, deceptively free for the taking. Using material gathered from the Internet raises tricky questions both of law (copyright, defamation) and ethics (verification, attribution). This phenomenon is only growing more complex as news organizations augment their coverage with user-generated content and the work of “citizen journalists.” From “don’t Taze me bro” to “Client 9,” a look at the legal and ethical issues presented when relying on third-party content gathered on-line. The internet offers an inexhaustible supply of photos, film clips and other juicy tidbits, deceptively free for the taking. Using material gathered from the internet raises tricky questions both of law (copyright, defamation) and of ethics (verification, attribution). This phenomenon is only growing more complex as news organizations augment their coverage with user-generated content and the work of “citizen journalists.” From “don’t Taze me bro” to “Client 9,” a look at the legal and ethical issues presented when relying on third-party content gathered on-line.

Speaker: Frank D. LoMonte, Esq., executive director, Student Press Law Center

 

For a full list of programs offered at this year’s Convention & National Journalism Conference, visit http://www.spj.org/c-programs.asp.

Mentoring, Advising, and Beyond

I just turned 31 a few months ago. No, this isn't a post about being "traumatized" by getting older. It's about recognizing when you're old enough to be another person's mentor. I simply don't feel like I'm old enough to guide other people in their pursuits of journalism careers. I did my first journalism internship in 1995 and I still have a lot to learn. But here I am, managing my magazine's editorial internship, letting high schoolers shadow me on the job, helping a former intern get his first freelance magazine assignment, organizing a half-day high school journalism retreat, and giving professional advice to a local collegiate chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. So what makes a good mentor? Does it come with age? Experience? (Are those two things the same to you?) Or is it simply helping where you can and not thinking about it too much?

Asking For a Title Change

Anyone have any experience with asking your boss for a title change? Does title really matter all that much if it doesn't mean a change in job responsibilities? (Or pay.) Why are we always trying to label and re-label ourselves? *shakes head*

I've been an associate editor for almost four years now and I'm worried that I'm going to be stuck with this title for too long. It's not a bad title or anything...I'm just thinking about the future. If I apply for a senior editor position somewhere else in a few years and I'm still an associate editor, will they take me seriously?

Social networking as a journalist

Hey everyone. Now, I'm going to guess here, but I'm pretty sure everyone who reads this blog is on at least one social networking site.

I'm not exacty average, but I'm on plenty. Those include: Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Twitter, ColourLovers, LastFm, Wired Journalists, Flickr, FriendFeed and LinkedIn.

My question to the community is this: how much information do you share on your social pages? Do you use your real name? Do you use the pages only for personal use (non-work) and make them private to everyone else. Do you use the pages for both personal and work.

In my situation, and as most recently the Orange County Register's tech reporter, I share quite a bit about myself online as a way of being up front about who I am. I use the pages for both personal and work connections. The thing I am sure about is to never post anything that would show my beliefs in anything work-related (such as politics).

I thought of this question when council members who I have covered in the past tried to add me as friends on Facebook. I denied those requests, because it just seemed strange, but then again I've added people I covered in the tech and Disney fields as friends.

Please share what you all do online.

Has Anyone Seen This?

Should we be completely disheartened by AngryJournalist.com? Someone responding to my Gen J column on burnout sent me the link to site and it has more than 5,000 POSTS, from people angry about co-workers stealing their food ("I'm pissed because money is tight and some *sshole in the building ate my yogurt") to complaints about layoffs.

Its founder Kiyoshi Martinez was a newspaper reporter before chucking it and going over to the "dark side" (a.k.a. public relations). Good for him, but does he have to get journalists together to say what everyone already knows? Don't get me wrong here—by no means am I one of those shiny, happy people that think nothing's wrong with the industry. I guess I'm bringing this all up because I'd like to know how others deal with negativity in the workplace. Talk amongst yourselves.

Resumes for the new journalism world

How to apply for journalism jobs is something we were all supposed to learn in journalism school.

I know I sure did: you write stories, keep copies of newspapers in which your articles appeared and you clip them out and mail those with a resume to places you'd like to work. Well, even though hardly a media organization has an opening now (rather the opposite, with lots of layoffs) it's always a good time to re-think how we apply for jobs.

I've prepared this quick tutorial for all the journalism students who've asked me how they should apply for jobs and collect clips. No, I'm not applying for another job -- I've just gotten my online resume act together so I can share it as an example of what could be done.

The main idea here is that when any of us apply for a job in journalism we will likely be asked how we are ready to get the organization rolling into the 21st century. And, that involves online. Print or broadcast, eaast or west coast, all media organizations have realized in the last few years that no, the Internet is not just a fad and that we should learn our place in it.

Here's my idea for the new place resumes and clips have in the journalism future:

Figure out what you want. Send messages to people you trust and respect online, via e-mail or by phone. Talk with them about what you want and be sure to listen to their advice on what you should look for, when you should look for it and what you should learn next. Be sure to ask them about your strengths and weaknesses. The main key is to listen.

Prepare your resume and clips. My best idea is that any 21st century candidate should have an online and paper resume/clip book. Here's a link to my site. The site can be anything from one page of quick information about you with links to your past articles, to a more layered approach like my site. Here's some ideas on how to make it happen:

• Sign up for LinkedIn.com --- it's a social networking site that focuses on your resume, recommendations and people you know. Update your print resume, then have it double and triple-checked for style, spelling and grammar and then put your resume on LinkedIn. Add people you know and ask people you trust to write reccomendations about you. Be sure to add a photo (a good quality, color photo of you) or else you'll look kinda lame. A good idea is to have a friend who's into photography, or a fellow journalist, take the photo. Try to have the photo look as professional as possible.
• Sign up for Wordpress.com, a free blogging site. Ask a friend, teach yourself or read tutorials online about how to use the site. Add links under the blogroll section to your social networking sites (editors know you have them, so you better just send them straight to your pages), add a link to your LinkedIn resume, add your resume information as a "page" and then add stories or videos or content you've produced as blog posts. Then, pick from one of the many themes and customize your site with photos you've taken. As an aside, I made my site with my Mac computer using iWeb. I'd suggest generally using Wordpress.com -- because it's free and works from any computer on which you have the Internet.
• Have trusted family, friends and colleagues look at the site and offer feedback. Check, double check and triple check style and spelling.

Look for jobs online. A great site to get started is journalismjobs.com. Also, check the sites of any local media organizations for other links to jobs or job databases. Also, keep in contact with friends at other media organizations so that you can find out early on when jobs are open.

Research that job online. Read the organization's Web site, learn about its community, see what the current or past reporters did who had the now open position and see what experience applicants should have for that job.

Apply in the real and virtual worlds. Of course, be sure to follow any application instructions provided in the job listing. But, my idea is that you should send an e-mail to the hiring person or editor that contains a brief cover letter-like introduction about you and why you want the job. Include in that e-mail a link to your online resume and say that a paper-version of your resume and clips is in the mail.

There it is, my little guide to applying for jobs in the 21st century. Let me know if you have questions or suggestions in comments.

SPJ looking for young journalists for panel

Hey Gen Jers, here's a note from SPJ's Holly Fisher:

Hello! I am organizing a panel discussion for the SPJ National Convention in Atlanta called "The first five years: You can do it."

Here's the description: For new journalists, the first five years can be brutal. The hours are long, the pay is low and the moves are frequent. It can be tempting to leave journalism for greener pastures. Hear from a panel of journalists going through the first five years and those who have survived. Get tips for making the most of your early career years while avoiding common mistakes. Leave energized and ready to move to the next phase of your career path.
 
I'm looking for journalists (print, broadcast, online) who are early in their careers and who are more established. If you would like to participate in this panel or know someone who would make a great panel participant, please contact me at holly(at)fishers2000.com. Thanks!

-Holly Fisher

Fearless Leaders

I attended the 2008 Ted Scripps Leadership Institute last weekend and I must say that it was completely re-energizing! It's nice to know that there are other chapters out there, large and small, that have the same issues (recruiting members, retaining members, etc.) Some of the cool people I met?

Hilary Reeves, associate editor for the Business Examiner in Tacoma, Wash., who gave me some great programming ideas.

Ricardo Sandoval, assistant city editor for The Sacramento Bee, who shares my love of jazz music.

Elizabeth Hansen, a communications professor at Eastern Kentucky University. She's going to send some students my way next summer for my magazine's internship program.

Alice Walton, a reporter for City News Service in Southern California, with whom I shared a room and reminisced about living in Chicago.

Meeting all of these great people and the other Scripps participants reminds me of why I continue to be involved in SPJ. If you ever have the opportunity to attend this leadership retreat, don't pass it up!

Early election coverage

My newspaper will be covering the June elections. We plan to update the amount of money each candidate has raised, the names of people who've filed their intent to run, and information about measures on the June ballot that will affect the city I cover.

This will be my first year reporting on elections. Does anyone have tips for me?

What kinds of things will you be covering for the June elections? What's the most frustrating thing about covering politics? The most fun?

If you don't normally cover politics, will you be integrating the elections into your regular beat?

I'll be updating as I learn, and as the November elections get closer! I hope you all are registered to vote!