Backlog of WEIU Videos

I have a few new stories to post on here. Most recently I did a package on Phoenix14News about the new RDU Terminal that opened.

 But I also have a handful of stories from WEIU-TV News Watch from this summer. I just got them up on Youtube.

There are still more on my Youtube site.

Governor Palin Visits

This will have to be a quick lamentation. Governor Sarah Palin (R), a candidate for vice-president will be speaking at Elon on Thursday. I understand that at a college campus, the vast majority will support Obama. However, I've heard and read in many places people I know are disappointed in Elon for hosting her. People will disagree with her and should, but no one should be ashamed that the University would allow her to speak. Isn't democracy about learning all ideas and choosing the best one? 

Like with Clinton's speech last April, Phoenix14News will carry the speech live with commentary and news reporting. It will be very exciting.

Maybe we need less politics?

I was recently thinking about the current presidential election. We often consider political participation and knowledge to be important. The more connect the voters are to the candidates should mean the best candidate with the best idea will win. It's a combination of the Marketplace of Ideas and true democracy.

And in 2008, we've seen unprecedented interest in the election. Young people and old who never thought they'd care about politics suddenly are attending rallies, wearing t-shirts. et cetera. That is wonderful. Now, suddenly we have a democracy that functions...

Or does it? With everyone so intrigued by this election the media willingly did their civic duty (while making a lot of money). It provided more and more politics. Suddenly, CNN's morning show is now tagged as "the most politics in the morning." I am sorry, but I do not necessarily want politics in the morning. I will gladly take CMT music videos, thank you.

But those politically-oriented shows that used to be animal-oriented or best cookbook-oriented, or Brittany Spears-oriented aren't changing their tune. Yes, we're learning more about politics, but what we're learning isn't much more important than the aforementioned cute critters and teen sensations. Basically, legitimate news has become tabloidized. 

We must get past those silly stories that distract if we ever wish to enlighten to world. Hype about politics will wear down, and I fear many young people will look back and learn nothing about the world we live in.

Soft News is Still News

Below is my most recent package for Phoenix14News. We all thought this could be a cute little feature, but as I worked on it, I realized that it is more than just a soft story. It is important and affecting students and nearby residents. Either way I am now working on how I can put together the right kind of stories to do the most good. It is exciting.

Almost a Month In!

It almost seems too soon to be true, but I am already into my third week of school. Work is getting tougher, but it's always enjoyable. So far this semester, I've done two packages. It is funny doing a story a week at Elon seems like a lot, but compared to WEIU, I am conditioned to reporting.

Now I have to figure out some more management and personnel issues. There is the potential for infighting, which we want to avoid. But it could also turn into some good competition. That would be wonderful.

I also made a basic political promo for Phoenix14News AND did my first article for the Pendulum. It's a busy week

Multimedia

Thanks to Drake Springer and Nick Ochsner, Phoenix14News launched a new web design this week. It looks a lot nicer than the older version which was ok on Macs but looked miserable on PCs.
We are also in discussions with the other student media organizations about creating a joint-multimedia web site that can link to our individual sites. It will be REALLY nice if we can make it happen soon.

www.elon.edu/phoenix14news

Back to Phoenix14News

Elon's classes returned! I am back here in my senior year and experiencing the joy of senioritis. As much as I do enjoy getting to work, sometimes I just want to sit around and do nothing. This does not work out easily considering  my responsibilities. 

Tough Decisions

Leadership is overly glorified. We, as type-A people, always seek to reach the top of whatever we do. However for me, it always seems that getting to the top is more of a thrill than actually leading at the top. I don't think that this is a strange concept.

All leadership means is having to make the tough decisions when you know no one will like.

A lot of news at once

Work up in Illinois is going well. My first schedule is over already. Time is flying by! I reported and anchored three days a week. With this new schedule I report only one day a week but have a little more free time to work on other things. I still produce twice a week and I even anchor on those days. This past weekend was a fun experience. The rare Titan Arum flower bloomed here at EIU. This flower blooms once every 6 or so years...and when it opens up out comes the "delicious" smell of rotten eggs, sewage, and road kill. I got some great video and one man banded a nice package. I was fairly happy with it.

While I am up here I decided to not waste my time. Instead of watching excessive TV, I got a library card for the Charleston Library and have read A Reporter's Life by Walter Cronkite. Upon finishing that, I got This Just In by Bob Schieffer. I like reading these books.

In an interesting note, I was invited to attend the Elon University Senior Staff Retreat. That's when President Lambert and all of the big wigs go to Pinehurst with SGA executives and a few students. I would be representing the media. Should be fairly interesting.

A big step...

So I took a big step today... this morning we divided up the big packages of the day. Barbara got the presidential primary results (which would be fun and enjoyable)... I got the story about how the heavy rains are flooding farm fields and causing some people to have to replant. It was incredibly fun. I got a nice standup...

AND I did my first remote liveshot. We sent out the live truck and even though I messed up AND it had a green line across my face...but It was so much fun! I am really excited and know this is one step forward in my career.

The Daily News

So I have been at WEIU for about three weeks now. It's kind of funny how many of my friends are just starting their jobs now. Sean is at Weather Channel, Kyle is at WNCT, Leigh is at her internship at CNN, and Randy is at his ABC internship. It is all very exciting.

At WEIU we work on a three week schedule. This current schedule I am reporting and anchoring on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I then produce on Tuesday and Thursday. It is a good mix. It is kind of funny. I was a little worried about doing all day-of packages but it really isn't bad at all. I have done more packages in the last two weeks than I did all semester. That's sad, but I know I am going to be good by the end of this period. 

Carolina and Illinois with a side of West Virginia

My time at Elon is over for the time being. I finished my final week with stress bordering on anxiety. I had a lot of work to finish. But I am glad with how a lot of it turned out. I did a story about crime in Alamance County for my Senior Seminar class. 

Right now I am on my way to Charleston, Illinois. I begin at WEIU on Monday. I stopped in West Virginia for the night. The local news wasn't bad at all. I think that was the station where my friend Sarah will be interning this summer. I am  really excited about this internship. I am also excited for my graduating friends. At least four have jobs. Kristen is reporting, Kyle is managing, Caitlyn is producing, and Sean is engineering. While I wish I could be there for graduation, but I am proud of them all. 

Now to just prepare for WEIU.

Primary Night

We are in the midst of our North Carolina and Indiana Primaries. It was fairly interesting to see the data coming in from the field.

Phoenix14News to WEIU

It is strange how the end of the year is so quickly approaching. I have one full Phoenix14News episode left and then our election night special. What's most strange is how one week later I will be in Charleston, Il working on another newscast. As much as I enjoy working at Elon, WEIU should be amazing. 

Still a bit stressful finishing everything this week...

Lights, Camera... access...

One of the interesting things I have noticed about being a journalist is the awesome ability to see things one would never see otherwise. That is pretty awesome. This morning I headed over to the Alamance County Sheriff's office to do an interview and ended up going on a walkthrough of the entire jail and prison. That is pretty awesome.

Still a place I would like to avoid... but a fun morning

Primary Planning

So the NC primary is coming up. As I've said before, I am very excited about it. We are planning on doing a couple live cut-in with hits at the Obama and Clinton headquarters as well as the Alamance County BoE HQ. This will be more than we've ever done for a primary election, but of course this is an extremely exciting primary.

I will be the coordinator for this show, communicating with reporters. It is all very exciting.

I was about 15% of the news!

Today I did my story about Hillary. We were scrambling. We did not get the audio we needed to form a good story. That of course made me a bit upset. I did not think it would come through. But my friend and anchor, Randy Gyllenhaal urged me along. It was completely worth it. I managed to get it together very quickly.

I also did a political update about the upcoming statewide primaries. So by the end of b-block I managed to have done 3 minutes and 45 seconds of the show. That's pretty interesting. With this upcoming primary, we have seen a LOT of political interest. That quite plainly makes me smile.

Wake Up!

We all know that being a journalist is tough work. You have to get up early and stay late, finding stories (both interesting and mundane) all the time. But I love it! I'm getting out there and finding these stories again. I just can't believe I woke up an hour earlier than I needed to. Yea. I set my alarm clock incorrectly!

Anyway I will be going to Hillary Clinton soon. We'll get some video and photos up soon.

Two Clintons, One Week

As the 2008 North Carolina Primary approaches, we in the Tar Heel State are seeing a lot of the candidates. This past Wednesday, Bill Clinton visited Elon. We did a two hour cut-in (one hour of the speech and one of commentary hosted by yours truly). Tomorrow, Hillary Clinton will be in Graham. Mitch Pittman and I will be going out there to finds some good stories. I am really excited about this time. NC actually matters in the primary, and the candidates are noticing.


Phoenix14News' Clinton On Campus Special

Archived Stories

I know that since this blog is still new, I need to work on getting older stuff posted. This video is from when a "tornado" hit Elon. It was an exciting night.

60 sec to get around the world?

We are launching a new segment for this episode of Phoenix14News. It's a 60 second update about world news. It should be an interesting take on getting out international news. At first it was a pitched as a national news segment. I had a few issues with that one. It would cut back on our usual amount of stories. 

For the next few episodes, we'll have Kirsten Bennett anchoring that little segment. She will get some good experience and will help us form it for a more permanent setup. We have two episodes left this school year, so any issues she has will help fix it for next year.

Quick fast and up to date. It should help speed up our show.