1255

Time cruises in the 1255, that is 1255 National Press Club Building which houses seven reporters making up bureaus for a number of papers. I work for the Salt Lake Tribune, and am the third arm of two 28-year-old political junkies. Even though we're on the Utah clock, with my day starting at 10 and ending at 6, it doesn't take a whole lot to pass what you'd think would be a long afternoon. Time and life and people move so fast out here, and when you report on it from a newsroom, it's easy to get on a fast track.

There is something about waking up every day that has me really excited. I am finding myself rushing to bed at night, so I can get up and start my day at the bureau. What was apprehension and overwhelm has somehow turned over on its head, and I love being with the Tribune. Working with two 28-year-old frat mentalities is a blast, and going into an office full of still-young writers is indeed glorious. Slipping under the radar is not an option in this office, though. Knowing that under the frat-façade lies an extreme level of professionalism that expects just the same from me is like living under the KGB. They can wield their red-pencil power and I’m done for.

We have fun in here, but I am always aware that I am needing to perform, as they are. I am constantly keeping myself in check. Having that twinge of fear of getting hacked is actually proving to be sort of exhilarating, and I find myself looking ahead every morning as I make my 10-minute ride to the office. I am eager to be there should something come up. I find that I am trying to instill a level of confidence in me so that Matt and Tommy know I can be depended on. I think I owe it to them already, for I am finding the office is full of not only work lessons, but life lessons I am picking-up each day I spend there with everyone. For these lessons I owe them.

I want to tell you about a few experiences, the first being my first piece to go in print in a major newspaper. It was a daily, but Tommy encouraged our editor to get it up on the web as soon as possible. It ran in the paper the next day. Those who got to read it should not have been fooled if it didn’t sound like me - it wasn’t. Matt stuck around until 7:30 p.m. that night so that he could let me write, read what I wrote, and then re-write what I wrote. He called it "editing," I called it getting annihilated. Submitting a piece of creative work to someone else's judgment takes some time getting used to. Constructive criticism is hard. Nonetheless, I asked him to be honest, brutally honest, and the last words he said to me before he went to town on my piece were, "Ok. Now you should not be offended by this or frightened or worried, because it isn't like that, but we're going to rework this, and by that I mean we're going to rewrite it so much that it won't even look like the same piece."

And we did.

Leaving work that day, late though it was, tired, heat struck from being on the Hill for 4 hours, hungry and embarrassed, I couldn't have felt better about that day. I got my first daily in a major newspaper, I was somehow able to come out of the coin hearing (my first piece was on the new national park quarter series bill) with the "salient details," as Matt called it, a skill you are either born with or doomed never to have. Style, structure, organization - it can all be taught and practiced, said Matt. If you can't pick out the important stuff, you're done. I did by his standards, so that's good.The rest will come with practice, and getting a feel for what my editor, Dan, looks for. That was the most reassuring advice I got from the day.

I can remember so well getting beat up every Monday in Professor Ciccone's journalism class at Notre Dame for being "too flowery." Every time Ciccone would get to my write-up, he'd laugh in my face point blank, in front of the whole class."Lindsey, Lindsey, Lindsey . . ." he'd say, "my favorite."

"Why the hell would you write this? HOW could you write this badly?" was what immediately followed. I could not dumb down my writing enough for that guy, and that day I wrote for him. Had I just sat down and wrote how I usually write - whatever comes off the top of my head - I might have spared my not-yet-tough skin some smarting. And so I said to Matt, "Can I do that, am I allowed to be flowery?"

"It's how you'll get a job," he said. "You have to write to entertain."

The 2nd thing I want to tell you about is my experience at the job-cutting block a few weeks ago, when I ate lunch in the conference room with Matt, Tommy, and Anne, the lone writer for the Denver Post's D.C. Bureau.

The other 3 got laid-off over the last few months.

As I look around the office, I notice that six desks sit empty, not including mine - the unpaid intern's - all of which were once the office spaces of reporters and journalists. After lunch that same day, I sat in on an hour and a half conference meeting with some of the team back in Salt Lake. The Deseret News, the Trib's top competitor, just recently laid-off 30 employees. Because the papers share a lot of the printing, etc. between the paper's, and for other various reasons I don't quite understand, the Tribune is now faced with the opportunity to do the same thing. That day’s meeting served to reassure the members of Tommy and Matt's team that they were not getting laid-off . . . this time.

I asked how often these meetings happen, how often people are put under the cutting block. They said anymore they are sporadic, maybe every 2 months. My entire time out here, all I hear is "it's bad, real bad," and the first slice of advice I got from a reporter over in Salt Lake that day was to "GO TO LAW SCHOOL!" And the more I hear it, the more I don't want to go to law school - I want to go to "well, you're going to be poor but you asked for it" journalism school.

These guys have a blast here, and I realize few get the opportunities they do. They. love. their. jobs. And I couldn't ask for much more than that. A loose schedule, passion every day for what I am doing, lots of change and activity, every day. I'm not sure why I should go into something like law school just to do it. Just to have a back-up?

This was one of the most important experiences I’ve had here, though. It forced me to ask myself the hard questions I was avoiding. I am trying to be realistic with myself. I've asked these guys to be honest with me, and I've thrown out questions at them like, "knowing what you know and having watched it all change, would you go in the business today, if you were in my shoes?" I think I am asking too much from them, though, because I've noticed that their answers are never exactly what I'm looking for. I feel like I need someone to tell me, definitively, whether or not I personally am not being a total idiot by doing this. I know that the second they do, though, I'd more likely laugh and do it anyway just to go the other way.

And so I debated a lot with myself that day. Am I not being realistic enough with myself, and being too audacious when in reality I know very little about what I am getting into? It's easy to hear "do what you love" when you're doing it and feeling good about it and not yet having to support yourself and others in the meantime, when you're not the one getting laid-off and on the threshold of unemployment.

Then Matt said everything I wanted and needed to hear, and more.

“Chances are, you won't be filthy rich, but you won't be poor either. You will be middle class though, and if you're OK with that, you'll be well-off," he said. Matt also said many people in the business struggle a lot with this, those who always have their eye on the money, the monetary glory and myth of the job. He also said there are times when he'll get to thinking about it, too, but is confronted then not with what he doesn't have, but with what he has.

"I'm 28 years old, I get to come in whenever I want, and I get to write about whatever I want," he said. "I make my own hours, I have no supervisors, I can talk to anyone in the world about really cool stuff, and my wife and I just bought our second house."

Awesome.

I still often wonder at what cost one is willing to continue doing what one loves. At some point, did the journalists who were let go from this office wish they had gone into a business simply to avoid living in a month-by-month system in which you will eventually get let go? Is it wiser to sacrifice a little bit of that passion to guarantee financial stability - and just go to law school? Or do you choose to lower your head and keep on barreling through, hoping that 2 years from now a newer model will bring about better conclusions than things like "newspapers are dying - go to law school."

But I can feel myself starting to rally for this cause. Already the wheels are starting to click to life and instinctively brainstorming all the ways I am going to do this thing call journalism.
I feel like the last thing I need to hear out here is that it's a lost cause; because if it is, those very words are what are driving me right into it. If they really don't think I should do it, they should try to say something like, "THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER JOURNALISM IS THE EASIEST WAY TO GET THE BEST LIFE/CAREER/STANDARD OF LIVING IT'S A BLAST EVERYBODY SHOULD DO IT." I think that would get me out the door quicker than "you WILL get laid-off at some point," as it should for anybody! I'd like to know if this feeling is a legit passion for what I want my career to be, or if it's just naiveté and ego that is making me a little too idealistic for this reality.How do you know? Do you just do and decide at some point that you'll accept whatever it'll be? Do you just make the decision to go with the flow regardless? These are the questions I am faced with in this newsroom every day, and in class with Amos. John Donvan couldn’t throw these at me enough, and I brought up my fears one day to Tommy at work.Tommy: You're gonna hear that stuff because it'll shake people up, and it'll weed those people out who aren't serious about it. There are people who are just looking to get to the top, who don't really care about journalism. They just want the money and the image. And those are the people who are going to get frustrated in this business; and those are the people who need to get out before they even begin, because they won't be able to take the punch.I think it's kind of exciting. A totally new frontier on the horizon. Nobody knows what this thing is going to look like. My main editor in Salt Lake couldn't say enough in the meeting, "I don't know guys, I just don't know what's going to happen." I think the point is to still be around when people do know. It’s going somewhere, and at this point it’s a question of whether or not you’re up for the ride.

Time Flies

I cannot believe we are entering our fifth week of the program. I feel like I have experienced so many wonderful exciting things in D.C. Yet there is still so much I want to do and I am worried I won’t have enough time. I love so many things about this city and I could see myself living here for a few years after graduation.

I am interning at the NDN this summer. Formerly known as the New Democratic Network, the NDN is a democratic political think tank that’s goal is to help set the agenda for the Democratic Party. As the development intern, my main tasks include making phone calls to patrons or target corporations about upcoming events, as well as setting up and checking people into the events. I work 9 to 6 Monday through Thursday and 9 to noon on Fridays. It is extremely rare that a day goes by where I have nothing to do, but I prefer it that way. My favorite part of the job is meeting Members of Congress at our events. Even if it is only for a few minutes, how many people get to meet three U.S. Representatives in a five minute period?

Everyday something new and different happens. I feel our experiences this summer have been made possible by D.C. and they could not be offered anywhere else in this country. Even though there are days where I am so exhausted I could sleep for a week, I prefer to soak up as much of this city as possible. This city, my internship and my new friends have already made this summer one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

Its true what they say.."Time Flies When You're Having Fun!"

The Halfway Point

"Are blogs news?" --Amos Gelb, SIWJDirector

Not when Jocelyn writes them!

We've been in DC now for four weeks, working hard and playing harder. I never imagined myself doing all of the things that we have done. Last week, we went to the Capitol and got to sit in the House Chamber, which gave me goosebumps. Next week, we are visiting the White House and will tour the east wing. This is all too funny to me though, because my internship has almost nothing political about it.

I am interning at Nature's Best Photography Magazine, a quarterly magazine, as an editorial assistant. They are producing the summer issue now, so I have been oh-so-busy trying my best to make the biggest imprint I can! Luckily, the managing editor has been out all week and its given me the opportunity to take on the work he would otherwise do. It is actually my first shot at editorial writing too, so this is a huge learning process for me. I feel that I have an amazing opportunity with them, because it is such a small business, with only six employees, and I am interviewing a lot of big names in photojournalism, people that I can only dream of talking to when flipping through the pages of National Geographic.

I am also meeting people through the SIWJ program, people that I may one day work with if we all stick the course in journalism. We've been going to Pride parades, enjoying the nightlife, and soaking in as much of DC as there is to soak in. All in all, if I could do this every summer, I would!

D.C. with Dana

D.C. is so much more than I ever could have expected. Before coming here I, like most people, knew about the monuments, the memorials and the old buildings. However, knowing about them and actually experiencing them are two different things. All of the things I've read about these places didn't prepare me for the feelings of pride and awe at the way our great country is represented in D.C.

Still, the SIWJ program is not a vacation. The first week here is scary and I often felt like Amos threw me to a pack of wolves. Yet, as the weeks have gone by I understand why. There simply is no way of "easing" into life in D.C. Deciding to intern here is a big leap of faith, but in the end I can tell it's going to be worth it.

Before getting here I knew my internship would teach me things, but I never could've imagined the ways it would change my views. I am at Hispanic Link with my boss Charlie, who has been in the business for over twenty years. Charlie has given a voice to the Latino population through his weekly paper. He has been educating me daily on the issues that face the fastest-growing demographic in the country. Education, health care, immigration and equal rights are huge issues for Latinos, but how they are handled affects all Americans.

I had never even heard of the Link and wasn't aware of what a big deal it is. However, on my second day here I quickly figured it out. We attended a luncheon featuring congressmen and women, and other political leaders and instead of us having to run these VIPs down to get their stories, they came to us because of Charlie. It left me a bit awe-struck of my new boss.

Since then, interning at the Link has afforded me some amazing opportunities. I've been to luncheons with congress members, Capitol press conferences, Congressional hearings, museum press tours and more. I'm also looking forward to attending a few conventions where the presidential nominees are going to be featured speakers. None of this would be possible without the Link, Amos and the SIWJ program.

I'm not even sure yet how I feel about all I'm seeing and doing... I think it will hit me when I get home and look back at the pictures and see that it really was me doing all of these crazy things. I just know that right now I am thrilled to be here.

So, to avoid incessant rambling I will say farewell for now. I want to wish my fellow classmates good luck for the rest of our summer.

Dana

Two weeks...

Wow-We've been here for two weeks and the city still takes my breath away.

It's beautiful! We're here... we're where it all really happens. We're in the hub. As our professor Susan mentioned the other day, it wasn't always a hub, but now and it's truly inspiring to be here.

Although, it feels like time is slipping through our fingers.

We're all so busy with work and projects, it feels like there's no time to go see monuments and museums. I have a list of things I want to see before I leave: the Constitution, the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, the Ghost Clock (for my sister's sake), and I'm really excited for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival next weekend on the Mall.

Then there's also the incidental stuff: the events and dinners that just tend to happen when a bunch of 20-somethings spend any time together.

But the city...

As I go to bed some nights, I think about the fact that the leader of the free world (love him or hate him- you have to acknowledge and respect the power) is sleeping- or not sleeping- just a few blocks away. Every day, as we walk by those big, nondescript office buildings, decisions are made. These could be large and important, or so small and trivial you don't know how they will affect you personally. Every person working in those federal office buildings is, either directly or indirectly, beholden to me.

I recently saw an old interview between Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart where Bill made some disparaging comments about the 18 to 25-year-olds who watch Jon's show and their voice in the election. He said it like he felt that it was a right that should only be reserved for adults... like him. I think that's a prevailing misconception held by much of the federal workforce: twenty-somethings (the interns who make them coffee and run their errands) are not members of the voting public.

I fear I grow political, which is not my aim, but I'm simply awestruck that this. My first year to vote in the general election (I voted in the midterms, but everyone I voted for was an incumbent) is the same year I spend two months in the nation's capital!

It started off great and I belive it's going to be an inspiring summer!

Adjusting to (a New Type of) City Life

After months of painstakingly waiting in the South for this summer to come, my time for living in D.C. has arrived. The accommodations have been made, my job is secured, and all the fees are squared away...almost. Well, I guess you're wondering by now who this person is writing in this blog and how he made it to D.C. and the SIWJ Program.

I'm a modest person by nature and don't talk too much about myself, but I will say this. I'm John Asante. I'm originally from New Jersey, but have lived in Georgia for about 5 years. I'm about to start my senior year at Georgia State University, located in the heart of Atlanta. I'm double majoring in journalism and speech and I'm using this summer away from home to see if telecommunications (moreseo which branch - radio or TV and what type of job - reporting/ anchoring, producing, etc) is my calling.

In order to get a good scope of what kind of career I want to pursue after I graduate next May, I decided I'd try out more of the field of radio...and intern at XM Satellite Radio. Even before I go into what my duties are as an intern, I must say that XM is an amazing place. Located on the corner of NY and FL Aves., and only a 12 minute metro ride from my apartment, the company is forward thinking and innovative. Everywhere I went on my first was an enigmatic inundation of music, news, talk, technology, and the like. The people are real chill as well, and that makes any job enjoyable.

Now to my internship. Probably one of the coolest things about my job is that we (my coworkers and I in our office) don't have to dress up in button-up shirts, ties, and power suits. Seeing as we're in the program department, "as long as you have a shirt on" is our motto day in and day out.
I am serving as a programming intern for The Bob Edwards Show on XM's Public Radio Channel 133. If you're a bit unaware of who he is, you can check out his impressive career here
and click on the link to the show. In short, he does long-form one-hour interviews with noteworthy people in news, politics, music, entertainment, movies, sports, etc. The pre-recorded show is aired five times a week and played four times a day. Plus, there is a weekend show...aptly called Bob Edwards Weekend.

Since I don't want to sound too long-winded, here's a brief explanation of what I do, courtesy of Facebook:

"Editing pre-recorded interviews, researching noteworthy people, booking guests, creating podcasts, and learning to form effective interviews for one of talk radio's finest, Bob Edwards, on his daily program, The Bob Edwards Show.

All from the convenience of my desk (phone included), overlooking the busy streets of D.C. Booyah."

All of this is surreal, but true. I have a pretty sweet view out my window and I'm learning a lot about public radio and formulating interviews with a radio legend and his crew.

Now, I'm trying to stress the motto of "work hard, play hard" this summer. It goes without saying that I'm looking to explore D.C. in all of its glory as a fresh, new 21 year-old. I've visited this city a few times in my youth, but have never adventured on my own past the National Mall. D.C.is such a different city from Atlanta; from its NYC-like grid system, to its crazy hustle and bustle each day, it's quite an experience. The city seems so health conscious. Virtually everyone either walks, bikes, roller blades, uses a scooter, or some form of transportation more than a car. Around any given corner is a healthy eatery with 'fresh vegetables' and 'organic products.' D.C. is so historic too. The fact that I can walk to the Lincoln Memorial at night, see the Washington Monument out my window AND take the train to the Smithsonians is amazing.

Now that I mention sightseeing spots in the nation's capital, check out this video I took of the tour guide at the FDR memorial:



However, if there's one thing I noticed right away about D.C. is the HUMIDITY. And I'm from Atlanta, but it gets unbearable. It'll take me a while to get used to working up a sweat while walking to the metro.
Speaking of which, the train system here trumps Atlanta's any day. Five color-coded lines? Genius. Paying fares by distance? Brilliant. A chart showing the approximate ETA for any station. Remarkable. There are so many stops that are available...and it only takes me 12 minutes to get to work on the metro. Basically, I can leave my room (on the corner of 20th and E streets) at 8:30 AM and make it to work by 9. Awesome.

Living in a new city for about 11 days has already started to change my views on life mentally and physically. I'm so much more willing to just walk or take the metro to a favorite destination. The real world is becoming...a reality. Being around grown people with deadlines and lots of work, but who love their jobs, is a great experience. Everyday, I come up with new ideas of what I should do after college. Should I go into radio? What aspect? What can I do online? In addition, my social interactions with strangers has changed. Less than two weeks ago, my roommate was this random kid from upstate New York. Today, we are chillin' as if we've been buds for years.

The same goes for the people in the SIWJ program with me. We come from a myriad of walks of life, but have come together for one main purpose - to learn more about journalism. Our class is pretty intensive. We've gotta read three books, complete a five or six projects (a 3-minute video, a 300 word story, and a website), meet people in the journalism world with a good head on our shoulders AND attend our internships, all in 8 weeks.

My classmates and I are learning a lot - especially Final Cut Pro. Many of us spent countless hours in the editing studio and out in the field capturing footage, planning our videos and editing. But I can proudly say that I know how to use another program that will be beneficial to landing my dream job(s). I've also learned to multi-task like never before! At my internship at XM, I've booked three future interviews for Bob Edwards this summer and I have the challenge of creating interview questions and editing the pieces for air. The first couple of days were a rather large overflow of information...I got tutorials in about 8-10 programs that I may only use for all but 2-3 applications. Overall, I'm enjoying every minute of it.

In my free time, I've been scoping out the cool areas of D.C. and taking advice from everyone I meet. The other half of the people in the program are Ivory Tower, another nice and relatively new dorm building. Those are some nice (and expensive) apartment-style dorms. There's also the monuments and memorials, of course. I went to the Benihana in Georgetown the second night I was here with a fellow classmate and that was a trip. It was my first time in a Japanese hibachi restaurant, so I had to get some footage of the cooks' sweet skills behind the grill:




There are many places on my list to go to:

- explore more of Georgetown
- possibly check out the Film festival happening closer to Maryland
- Artomatic, before it finishes up on my birthday
- Chinatown
- Adam's Morgan (the night of my 21st!)
- Howard University
- the Smithsonians (especially the new ones I've never been to)
- Washington Memorial at dawn (to recreate one of my favorite scenes from "Wedding Crashers")

The list virtually goes on and on.

So, I guess I'll end with an ironic (maybe not so funny story) of my first week on GW's campus. I had to move apartments twice. The first time was due to water damage on the wall of my bedroom from the sprinkler that went off the month before due to the fire in someone's room.The second time was due to ANOTHER placement mistake by housing. Then, I got a wrong key. Then, I got locked out...with only a towel on...

My summer so far has been fast-paced and so is the real world, so I'd say that the program is also teaching me about how quick we have to act in the journalism world to stay on top of our game. We all laugh and cry together, during parties, classes, homework, and outings. I love being thrown into a new element and finding a way to deal with it. The last couple of summers have been a drag at home, so I wouldn't have it any other way this May-August.

As with most blog posts that I create, I feel as if I've said too much. My mind races a mile a minute, but I wouldn't have it any other way. There's that feeling in the air that this summer is going to be the most rewarding, challenging and creative experience of my life, to date.

That's all for now,

John A.

First Impressions

I don't want to spend a whole post nerding out, but living in Washington, D.C. is awesome.

I can walk to the Mall, watch motorcades fly past my window, and gaze at the Washington monument, lit-up every night, right from my living room. I live between the State Department and the White House. I walk past the IMF and the World Bank on the way to work, not to mention a couple of demonstrations.

Living in Washington is a unique experience. It's a big change from New York State, where I'm from. It's a lot lazier down here. Trust me, you have to be--the heat and humidity won't allow for anything else. Things move a lot slower down here in general; you won't find someone yelling at you if you take more than five seconds to order your fast food.

But I digress. Let's get back to basics and stock introductions: Hi, my name is Conor Hale and I'm a journalism major at St. Bonaventure University. I want to work in television and broadcast news. Not sure where and/or how yet. I'm interning at the BBC's Washington bureau. More on that later.

If I had to talk about my first impressions of this program, my internship, and my summer, I would say this: sometimes your professors will say--if you're not sure about what you want to do--take an internship, experiment, dabble; and if you find something you like, you're golden. And if you don't, then you know what you don't want to do.

This is not one of those programs. This is far from a waste of time.

Amos, the big cheese of the program, really helped me find a place right for me--and so far he's been right every time. And I'm not being paid to say that. (Which reminds me: be wary of the district's 9 percent sales tax. And if you can score a paid internship, all the best.)

But if you're looking for journalism-- I really hope you're not doing it for the money. And if you are looking for journalism-- there are few places as media-savvy as Washington.

Working at the Beeb (what insiders call the BBC) is a lot different than anything else. It's not your dad's TV station. The BBC is the largest Newsgathering operation in the world. Newsgathering, where I work, supplies two domestic UK channels, a 24-hour news channel in the UK, a 24-hour international news channel and an American nightly news broadcast, not to mention the BBC's 5 radio channels and the BBC World Service, broadcasting in over 35 countries and languages. Yeah, it gets a little crowded. But the best part is that there is always so much to do--I’ll never be that intern getting coffee.