Posts Tagged ‘Activities & Projects’

Inside the White House

July 22nd, 2010 by Caitlin W. | no comments yet | posted in: Summer 2010

Instead of waking up and heading to The Georgetowner on Thursday, I instead walked to a heavily guarded gate at the intersection of 17th and Pennsylvania streets. Yes, the White House. But this wasn’t just any run of the mill White House tour. Instead, our The George Washington University Semester in Washington Journalism program group was visiting the White House press room.

I was incredibly excited about this opportunity as it’s obviously not something everyone gets to do in their life, especially, a young, aspiring journalist like me. It was a small room in size, but the large podium up front and the fact that Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton came out to talk to us reminded me of the heavy importance of the press room.

I listened from the Reuters chair as Burton spoke on the delicate balance of what information the Obama Administration can give to the press and what information needs to be kept private. Each chair in the room is assigned to a specific news organization and from mine I was just two chairs down from where Helen Thomas used to sit!

Burton told us how much he loves his job and even gave us some internship advice. He told us to make the most out of our internship, even if we don’t like it, because no matter what we’re still learning something.

Even though my time in the White House press room was relatively short, I still think it was one of the most exciting trips we’ve made during the program. And that’s not just because I got to stand up at Robert Gibbs’ podium and take a picture!

Action Words for Student Resumes

July 16th, 2010 by Andrea Genevieve | no comments yet | posted in: Summer 2010

As the summer winds down and students pack up to move out of DC, its a good time to look back at all that was accomplished over the semester. Thrughout the next few weeks students will decide how to add all this great “stuff” to a student portfolio in an effort to jump start their careers.
Today we focused on resumes, networking, internships and resources.

As part of the resume exercise, students were asked to come up with a list of rumored resume do’s and don’t. Next they brain-stormed action words that describe what they have learned at their internships Here is what they came up:

produced
designed
interviewed
researched
managed
drafted
maintained
communicated
participated
input
traveled
established
coordinated
wrote
created
developed
posted
shot
edited
organized
collected
collaborated
raised
helped
marketed
analyzed
shaped
sold
refined
reported
instituted
photographed
led
assigned
distributed
operated
advertised
implemented

For more tips and resources on resumes visit careerealism.com or Gen Y career guru Lindsey Pollak.

I’ve Learned: PR Is About Being Open to Opportunites

June 23rd, 2010 by Stefanie S. | no comments yet | posted in: Fall 2009, Summer 2010

With Oliver Stone’s South of the Border film premiering in DC next week, I got to tag along on a bunch of site visits with Keith Blackman, my internship supervisor and PR representative for Oliver. This is when I realized that the public relations field is a lot about who you know and the strings that everyone pulls for each other.

We visited three possible locations for the reception that will follow the Silverdoc Film Festival next week. The first location was being pushed by the event sponsor, yet the environment just didn’t mesh well with the movie and the guests that would be attending. The second location was just too ‘blah’ although, they did treat us to a nice lunch. The third location, just like in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, was just right. But with the event being just a week away, there were too many logistical issues to work out. In the end, the forth location worked best and the reception is going to be held at the award-winning restaurant Teatro Goldoni. It’s perfect: modern and well known.

I have learned that you have to be able to be personable, but not too personable in this industry. Everyone is very polite and courteous- yet always keeping their options open for all possible opportunities. Nothing is finalized ‘til its in writing. It’s an alluring and cutthroat line of work.

First Week Of Spring 2010: Student Bootcamp

January 22nd, 2010 by Andrea Genevieve | no comments yet | posted in: Spring 2010

Bob Levey and Students at a Writing Seminar

You may or may not know, but the first week of the Semester in Washington Journalism Program is always a whirlwind! Students arrive in DC, aclimate themselves to the city and try to get used to things they may not have a their home school (like a metro subway station or CVS Pharmacy’s on every corner!)

This spring, students were especially busy as they participated in a week-long bootcamp to prepare them for a semester of challenging internships in the media industry. Each day they worked on a different area of media communication, from writing exercises, to learning video software, an introduction to Twitter and how to use a Flip camera.

On Friday our guest lecturer, former Washington Post metro columnist Bob Levey, took students through an intense reporting seminar where they discussed the challenge of using images from the internet. What do you think? Should reporters be able to take photos from Twitter or Facebook accounts? What are the ethical ramifications behind doing that?

He finished up the day by taking students on a walking tour through DC to see exactly where news happens in this busy town.

Looking for some more photos from bootcamp? Take a look at the SIWJ Spring 2010 Flickr photos.

Guest Speaker: Jim Brady Visits SIWJ

October 31st, 2009 by Andrea Genevieve | no comments yet | posted in: Fall 2009

Each Friday, SIWJ invites guest speakers to talk about the current state of the media industry, new media trends and give advice to our aspiring journalists. Read some highlights from the discussion and leave your thoughts or comments.

Spotlight: Jim Brady, Former Executive Editor for washingtonpost.com

Working at TheWashingtonPost.com from 2004-2009, Jim talked about his experience working in a top newsroom during the boom of the digital era. He talked about how the role of the reporter changed over those five years and that reporters used to have simple job. “They’d write articles, hand them over to me and then go home.” Now, he said you have to do more. Reporters are actively trying to get people to read their stuff and as a reporter you need be active and find readers.

Jim also talked about the role of bloggers in the journalism field, a popular topic among media gurus today. To him, the future is with niche content. He believes that hopefully niche blogs will start to find a way to generate profit.

Oh and don’t worry, he talked about Twitter too. “I was really anti-Twitter when it started. But, I’m getting used to it now.”

Advice

Brady said you don’t have to take the traditional path to get the job of your dreams. If you want to work in politics or land a job writing for the White House you can do that- if you are passionate about it and have good writing skills, you can do it!

Over the past week, he told us he had visited three different college classrooms and asked all the same question: “Does anyone subscribe to a daily newspaper?” and not one person, including students in our class, raised a hand. What do you think about that? do you subscribe to a news paper? How do you think this is effective the news industry?

Tell us your thoughts.

Photos By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/biblicone/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Newspapers: Being Killed or Committing Suicide

October 12th, 2009 by Neal G. | 1 Comment » | posted in: Fall 2009

Courtesy of Neal Goodson

Being a journalism major, I have heard for a long time that newspapers are dying and the world of journalism is changing drastically. When I got to DC, big surprise, I heard the exact same thing from big name people in the business. We keep hearing how new media and blogs are one of the main reasons for this fall of the newspaper. Debate rages on over people preferring to have the printed form, wanting to get down and dirty with the ink when they read their news vs getting the breaking news from blogs or Twitter that do not go through channels before distributing the information.

One thing I learned amidst the debate is that newspaper have a long standing history of having huge profit margins. It brings up one question to me: Are newspapers being killed by new media or are they committing suicide by having huge profit margins?

I did not think it was fair to look at newspaper in that manner, even though I heard the statement from a trusted source, so I went to forbes.com and did some research on the matter looking at two of the biggest newspapers in the country, Washington Post and NY Times, and two of the biggest private companies in the country, Wal-Mart and Dell.

The Post had a Gross Profit Margin of 54.6%, and the NY Times was similar with 57.8%. Guess what Wal-Mart and Dell’s gross profit margins are? 26.3% and 19.6%, respectively.

Those gross profit margins are for the last 12 months for each company, so that is not going back to when the Newspapers were dominating the news world. Are you surprised they have such huge margins yet complaining they are dying and having to cut back on resources? Can they not cut back on the huge profit margins to 30%, 25% and give more resources to their journalists who are complaining about having to work longer, harder, on more stories and feel like their depth and coverage of each story is suffering?

Small, niche papers are not having the huge problems to the same degree as the larger papers, from what I have heard. But then again they do not have the huge profit margins either. For them, it is more of a passion and love than a money making career.

Given a lot of people my age love to get their news online through many different outlets, for many different reasons. However, lets quit saying the new online outlets are killing the print newspaper until we know for a fact they are doing so. To me, it seems more like the newspapers are killing themselves. Much like a person that only eats steak and refuses to eat chicken or hamburger. Are you going to starve yourself to death if you can not get the steak or cave in and eat the hamburger? That is not anyone’s fault but your own if you do not lower your standards in order to stay alive.

What The Heck Is #edemcamp and #POLC09 ?

April 22nd, 2009 by admin | no comments yet | posted in: Spring 2009

You may be asking yourself “What do those mean?”

Well, party people, those are hashtags that are used on the popular microblogging site Twitter. When you include hashtags in your tweets, it serves as sort of like a grouping device. If someone has something political to say and he or she is a conservative, he or she can use the hashtag #tcot meaning Top Conservative on Twitter. If you search #tcot at Twitter Search, you find a lot of conservative tweets!

#edemcamp was the hashtag for E-Democracy Camp. It was an un-conference (an informal conference that’s largely ‘user-created’) that was about the Internet in democratic processes. The topics of government apps; making local, state, and national government more transparent, how to get young people more involved; making data more available; and improving government and campaign websites were discussed during the sessions.

#POLC09 was the hashtag for the 2009 Politics Online Conference. It was a two-day ‘techie’ conference that was about the use of Internet and technlogy in democracy. POLC09 featured elected officials who were using new technologies like Twitter or advanced applications to make elections run better. It also had sessions about the role of cell phones; applications and interfaces used to improve elections (such as Vote Report) and to allow people to get more involved; the future of campaign websites; and the role of new technology in things like congressional offices and campaign organizing.

I had the great opportunity to attend both of them! #edemcamp was graciously hosted by GW, and #POLC09 was put on by GW’s Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet. These conferences were filled with people who are extremely knowledgable about technology and politics. They are informed and opinionated, and it was a thrill for me to be around such smart people.

The types of computer applications that are being developed by people (like Click-to-Call and Mixed Ink) are amazing. I cannot in any way give justice to these three days.

I’m blogging about this largely to let poeple know that if something interests you, even if you’re an amateur like I am, you NEED to check it out!!!!!

This fits in with a high school graduation speech that Conan O’Brien gave in 2006:

“What I’m asking you to consider is that the next four years don’t have to be just a stepping stone. You are very bright, impressive young people. But for the last four years, your GPA has been calculated to two decimal points and you’ve pushed yourselves very hard. Many of you have succeeded because you have stuck to a very rigid and linear path and that is fine, that’s fine. All I’m asking you to do in college is to take a moment every now and then, breathe, look around you. If something intrigues you, take a small chance. You might just find your entire life you’ve been planning on. …

The point is, at this moment, many of you have ideas of what you want to do with your life, but for many of you those ideas will change. And that’s because you think you know who you are right now, but you really don’t. … But life and the choices I made have changed me in a thousand ways. None of it would have happened if I had rigidly kept my eyes on the prize and decided with great determination to follow my dream, because I didn’t have the slightest idea what my dream was when I was 18. It had to find me.”

I read that when I graduated from high school in 2007, and it has indeed shaped the way I look at opportunities and life. It’s part of the reason why I am here in Washington, D.C., blogging to you today.

Thanks.
~Alex

Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/di_tommy/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

I feel like I just got here and already it’s almost time to leave

July 24th, 2008 by admin | no comments yet | posted in: Summer 2008

When I look back on this experience, I wonder if it will seem like the whirlwind that it actually has been. These last few weeks will be the worst of all. I made a checklist of all the things I need to do before I go, but my greatest fear is getting back to Georgia and realizing that I didn’t do any of the things I should have. So today I’ll talk about the things I have done/will do at my internship and the things I have done/will do outside of work.

Before I say anything, though, I just want to comment on how amazing and awesome my internship at CBS News in DC has been. With the help of my supervisor I’ve done a ton of things and met a ton of people that have taught me so much. So far, I’ve been to a political dinner (where all kinds of people spoke), and met Lewis Black, Lara Logan, Bob Schieffer, and most of the CBS Evening News correspondents in DC. I’ve learned a million things about radio, broadcast, and the different roads that can lead you to different careers in journalism. I’ve also been able to shadow an accomplished journalist and his noteworthy colleagues up close and personal. It’s been ridiculous. I couldn’t ask for more. Before I leave, though, I’m also going to shadow someone who covers the White House, someone who reports on the goings on at the Capitol and one of the female correspondents for the Evening News. All in one summer. I really can’t believe it.

Outside of CBS I’ve been doing a lot, too. We’ve visited all kinds of places and heard from speakers that have had some pretty striking things to say. I still want to go and see all of the historical things in DC, though. Like the Declaration of Independence, the memorials and all of the other things that tourists usually come to do. There’s also a Madame Tussaud’s wax museum here like the one I went to in NYC. I think that would be a lot of fun to do, too.

When I think about everything that I’ve seen since I’ve been here this summer, it makes me feel like so much has gone on. There can’t be any other place in the world where someone can collect so many awesome experiences in such a short time. I’ve been throwing around the idea of coming back in the future to work for a few years after I graduate. I love the level of achievement that younger people can find in this city. It just seems like anything is an option and anyone can just stumble into success. That may seem cheesy, but I really feel that way. Coming to DC has to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever done and I’m really appreciative of everything that has happened. So I guess that’s everything. The past month or so in a nutshell and my big plans for the future. See what I mean about the whirlwind?

~Shari

Photo By:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/denverjeffrey/ / CC BY-ND 2.0