Rock Bridge is Cookin' it Up!!

On one of my recent reporting shifts I covered two Rock Bridge students that won a state culinary arts competition.  Margaret Hughes and Ben Truesdell both are seniors in Brooke Harlan's cooking class at the Career Center in Columbia, Missouri.  Both will be going on to the national competition this June. 

My last reporting shift, I covered the new superintendent Chris Belcher's meet and greet and guess who catered it?  That's right Hughes and Truesdell's class.  It was a good feeling being out there and seeing them and having them recognize me and say they saw the story I did on KOMU. It was a good feeling and reminded me why I enjoy meeting new people and having them let me tell their stories.   

My first VO Patrol

My first VO-patrol was this past Friday. I got to cover Russ Mitchell from CBS accepting Mizzou's highest journalism honor.  Mitchell was a student at MU and graduated with a broadcast journalism degree. He has reported in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Dallas.  I have to admit I was pretty intimidated when I gave him a few interview questions, but I ended up getting an excellent sound bite. I also learned how important it is to manually focus my camera, and not depend on auto focus because some of my shots were not too good.  I am looking forward to my next VO-patrol tomorrow and I am hoping that it goes just as well.    

What Next?

I recently attended a master class with Russ Mitchell. The last part of the hour was spent with students questions and Mitchell's answers.  One question really stood out to me and it was "how far will journalism keep going?" Journalism used to be strictly news but now its news, opinions, entertainment, opinions... and more opinions. I recently saw on the FOX NEWS website that Bridget Marquardt, ex girlfriend of Hugh Hefner, has her own show now on the Travel Channel.  She goes to different beaches and shows the different aspects of what they offer.  I thought, hmm...Is this what we are coming to? I have always considered the Travel Channel to be respected and informational with some shows and documentaries that are educational and interesting on certain places. I think this is taking it to far to let a play boy model (who lays on beaches all day) report about what beaches are best fitting for her.  This is hardly journalism and not informational but only entertainment.  

Obama at Notre Dame

It has been a tradition for the past nine President-elects to visit the University of Notre Dame and deliver the Commencement speech at the graduation.  However, this year there has been quite a dramatic controversy.  The press has been covering this for more than a week.   

 

Some Catholics are disappointed the newly elected President will speak at the graduation because of his stance on embryonic stem-cell research as well as abortions since these go against the Catholic religion.  Others think it is the respect for President Obama that needs to be considered and not over looked.  Finally a decision has been made and Obama will speak at the University. One woman I spoke with has ties to the University of Notre Dame and she said that she wishes that Notre Dame will go back to it's Catholic roots and not swing to the left.  

However, others disagree. Even Bill O'Reilly from FOX has said he thinks President Obama should be welcomed to the campus.  Since the decision was reached, the press can finally rest on this over-dramatized story. I say "dramatized" because President Obama is not the only President to be disrespected by officials at a University, and I am sure he will not be the last.  Just recently Southern Methodist University in Dallas wanted to name it's library after George W. Bush and some criticized that move.  No matter the political preference there will always be some people who oppose honoring a certain politician. 

Editing Test...

Today is the day I usually spend editing and writing my web stories for that weeks package I have been working on; however, I have no package to do this week. BUT I did have my editing test at KOMU.  Exciting! I got through it pretty easily after a little confusing instructions converting the video.  I have to admit, wasn't my best work but I got it done in time.  And the best part is that it made me extra excited to start reporting at KOMU!

Interesting, but about 2 years too late...

So I see a top read story and the link reads "Unwed birth rate reaches all time high in US." So I click on it and the headline reads..."More Babies Born in 2007 Than Any Other Year in History." What is wrong with that??? Although that is an interesting fact, it is 2009. Almost two whole years later.  Why cover that now? I even double checked the published date to make sure it was recent news.  Not only is it old news, but the link was very misleading.  The web editor might want to do some adjusting.  Click to read the old news...

Learning from Mistakes

After writing and editing my package about the possible MO Bill making pseudaphedrine a prescription, I received great feed back from my professor. I need to correct a few things though.  I put to many facts in my package.  It is only 90 seconds and I think I gave the viewers to much to focus on.  My focus was how Blaine Alberty as a local pharmacist feels about this possible bill passing; however, I went off onto the electronic log that I had mentioned in my previous blog last week.  I plan to break the package into two, one being a focus on the electronic log which could help track pseudaphedrine purchases through out the state, and the other will be Alberty's reaction to this proposed bill.