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The Community Journalism Blog
Posted by Dianna Hunt on February 2, 2012
The capital murder trial had been under way three and a half days when the gag order arrived, handed out after lunch by uniformed bailiffs to the media and other spectators seated in the courtroom.
Much of it was typical of what you’d find in a gag order issued during a tense trial:
No media interviews with the witnesses, attorneys, prosecutors or court personnel
No audio or visual recording equipment allowed in the courtroom
No photographing of jurors
No communication with any member of the jury
No computers in the courtroom without prior approval of the judge
But the gag order issued on Jan. 6 by Visiting Judge Elizabeth Berry in Tarrant County Criminal District Court #4 did not stop there.
Berry ordered that media interviews could only be done in the courthouse lobby or outside the building. And nothing, the order stated, should be disseminated by the media unless it had occured in open court, presented in evidence or in argument with the jury present.
In other words, the media was being told they couldn’t report anything that happened in court outside the jury’s presence.
There were to be no blogs about court rulings on evidence. No testimony given...
Posted by Tommy Thomason on January 23, 2012
So take a break from reporting and editing and enjoy some jokes only a copyeditor or an English professor could appreciate – bar jokes that hinge on the finer points of grammar, punctuation or linguistics.
Don’t let anyone see you reading these or your newsroom nerd status will be set in stone.
These were circulated on a national grammar listserv.
Here goes:
A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave.
A question mark walks into a bar?
Two quotation marks “walk into” a bar.
The bar was walked into by the passive voice.
Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They drink. They leave.
What would have happened had a subjunctive walked into a bar?
An antecedent walked into a bar, and they ordered a drink.
An ellipsis walked into a bar…
Bartender asks a woman what she wants. “An entendre,” she says. “Make it a double.” So he gives it to her.
An alliteration traipsed into a tavern, where it tangled tempestuously with an insistent, illiterate intern.
A typo wakled into a bar.
A rabbi,...
Posted by Jason Fochtman on January 19, 2012
Even though it can sometimes be difficult to get a decent exposure in a high school gym, no matter what high school you’re at, I’ve found one thing remains constant:
Unbelievable access.
If you’ve ever shot college or professional basketball, you know you’re told where you can shoot, or more specifically the long list of where you can’t.
With high school basketball, the only direction I’ve ever received from any official body is to be aware of where the referees are and give them space to move around the baseline.
As a photographer, that opens up a wide variety of angles and opportunities to make images.
I’m going to share my process to approaching basketball games.
ACROSS THE COURT: Shooting action across the court with a telephoto lens will give you a couple of different shots, such as rebounds, steals and general defensive plays. In these photos, I’m using my Canon 300mm lens. From this angle, you can capture a lot of the emotion that comes with steal and rebounds. Plus, fast breaks coming the other way should yield clean, unobstructed shots.
As a point of reference, I’ll shoot with two camera bodies (Canon 7D as my...
Posted by Mac McKinnon on January 13, 2012
As many small town newspapers know, when a major news events happens, you become the center of information. The demise of Dublin Dr Pepper was not as big an event as many towns have had to deal with (such as ElDorado) but it was major news and attracted a lot of attention from large dailies as well as metro TV stations.
Many use the newspaper as a source of background information as well as a prop for their newscast. Having been with major dailies as well as one TV station, I like to help out as I want them to have the right information.
Unfortunately, some strike out on their own and somehow don’t get all the information. Many of the out-of-towners sought information before it was available and kept calling, but that also helped me trace down rumors so I could keep on top of the situation.
I don’t know how big this news cycle will continue – of course, for us it will be a story for some time to come as we deal with the fallout of losing our “brand” name and identity.
It’s a story most of us have not had to deal with as it is unusual due to the “branding” of Dublin.
Posted by Tommy Thomason on November 22, 2011
First, an economic downtown. Then competition from digital media. Then classified all but disappeared and all ad revenues plummeted. Then layoffs. Then more of the same.
Journalists have certainly had enough to sing the blues about.
But maybe they haven’t a great blues song to sing, one that reflected what was happening in journalism, and especially community journalism.
But now they do, courtesy of the Texas Center for Community journalism.
It started with a blues song written by veteran journalist Donna Darovich, a lyricist well-known for her work in the Fort Worth SPJ Gridiron shows, which were discontinued in 1996.
I saw Darovich’s lyrics and urged her to add more references to the unique world of community journalism, and The Journalism Blues was born.
To make the video, we enlisted a faculty blues band from the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism – The South Moudy Blues (so named from the Moudy Building South at TCU where most of them have offices) – and audio and video help from the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media at the university.
We wanted a blues song that really reflected some of the dilemmas of...
Posted by Chuck Nau on November 17, 2011
“We tried newspapers. They don’t work!”
“We tried your newspaper. It didn’t work!”
“I tried advertising on your newspaper’s web site a few years ago and really didn't get any new business from it.”
You have probably heard the above refrains -- not once, not twice, but a few times too many. How do you answer these objections? They are tough to overcome ... but not impossible!
Consider this strategy:
First and foremost, acknowledge that you have heard your potential advertiser’s objection ... show some empathy! Remember, too, that objections are not problems. They are opportunities to excel!
After acknowledging that you have heard them, resist going on the defensive. Rather, ask this simple question: How do you know? In most cases, retailers, service providers or small businesses simply don’t know whether their advertising has worked, in terms of generating sales results, regardless of the investment cost or its nature.
As you know, many reasons could contribute to a less-than-successful ad or promotional effort: An initial error in identifying the target audience which, in turn, may have lead to...
Posted by Jim Busch on November 11, 2011
Like any sales person, I hate to hear a prospect tell me “no.” But, I’d much rather hear an outright “no” than have someone tell me, “I’ll try an ad and if I get some business, we’ll take it from there.”
I prefer the “no” because I will have a chance to sell that customer another day. The “buy an ad” response is a trap that sets me up for long-term failure. In most cases, a “one shot” program will not produce noticeable results. One of the most challenging objections to overcome is, “I tried advertising in the past and it didn’t work.”
When I probe these prospects further, almost always I find that when they “tried advertising,” they had run just one or two ads. This would be equivalent to taking a dip in the pool once or twice a year and then being surprised when you don’t make the Olympic Swim Team. To be successful a sales person needs to sell their prospects on the benefits of advertising frequently.
Elements of effective advertising programs
There are three components of an effective advertising program: Reach, Frequency and Message. Reach is...
Posted by Kathleen McElroy on November 7, 2011
Reporting Texas is based in Austin, but as its name conveys, its journalistic reach goes beyond the state capital. And its mission is greater than gaining exposure for the University of Texas journalism students who write for the site.
“Reporting Texas is the University of Texas’ investment in the future of journalism,” said Tracy Dahlby, the UT professor who founded the site after receiving a grant from the Carnegie-Knight Foundation. That investment has expanded from giving students the opportunity to practice their craft to providing content to publications across Texas. We’d like to become a state feature wire that complements local coverage. Sometimes, the goals intersect – a feature about a Texas State professor was picked up by the San Marcos Mercury.
The journalism students, most of them in the master’s professional track, feed the site with enterprise and features about a variety of subjects. This semester, we’ve written about the controversy over chicken industry in Central Texas, the water lily expert in San Angelo, Alzheimer’s disease and the barefoot running trend. Our work also mirrors the news cycle, with pieces...