Meghan Freeman

SWINE FLU!

2009-05-04T11:54:00.004-05:00

Journalism Reflection:

I would like to dedicate this entire reflection to the swine flue. Excuse me, H1N1.....

I feel as if there is not enough coverage of this horrendous infection. NOT! When does it get to be too much? This horrible flu bug has now become humorous to most people around America. It's the butt of many jokes. If someone coughs, it's funny to ask if they have swine flu. I will admit to getting in on this fun. I can't resist. I also feel that since I am a journalist, it's my duty to stop the coverage. I'm sure any producer around would smack the next person to pitch a swine flu story idea.

As a part of the media, pushing this coverage is stupid and irresponsible. All we're doing is scaring people. There are innocent audience members out there who believe anything we tell them. They don't always listen completely and as a result, they remain ignorant and just assume that since something is covered so heavily, it is a huge deal.

Don't get me wrong, I know that swine flu is a big deal, but not big enough to be in every newscast multiple times. Obama, Nixon, etc. Everyone is talking about it. If President Obama gives it attention, then it is a big deal. But when he talks, people tend to listen, meaning he has the final say. I have seen swine flu coverage on YouTube, Twitter, Nightly News, the Post Dispatch, KOMU, Facebook, Google News, BBC Online, CNN, VH1's Best Week Ever, the New York Times, and many other places. I'm pretty sure the word has spread further than the disease itself. Stop and breathe for a second (As long as you have a protective surgical mask. Joking!).

Personal News Gathering Process:

For the first time ever, I had a problem with too many sources for a story. I completed my final KOMU reporting shift of the semester on Wednesday. I was assigned to a story about two pit bull dogs who attacked customers in the Walmart parking lot and then went to another parking lot where police ultimately shot one dog down and lost the other one when it ran away. I felt bad for the dog, even though it was out of it's place. Police arrested the owner on two counts and Animal Control got the dog the next day after a neighbor who had been searching all day for the dog brought it into the Humane Society.

Let's count my sources.

1) The police (who were not helpful at all)

2) A man in his early 20s who was at Walmart when the dogs were attacking and went over to Kohl's to protect other customers when the dogs made their way over there.

3) a woman who called in the story initially before any press release. She was a dog lover and didn't want to let this go unreported.

4) A man who worked at GNC by Walmart who was attacked by one dog but didn't want to be interviewed because he was a little loopy from the pain medication.

5) The neighbor of the owner who called in to say he found the dog.

6) and one other person who called in to say that they saw the dogs escape around 10 am, called Animal Control and they didn't do anything.

It was so difficult to report this story because I didn't want to let anyone down. I wish I had more time to tell all sides, but luckily I had a VO/SOT and a web story to write. That helped a little bit, but didn't solve my problem. I usually have a problem with not enough sources or contacts. This was a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, my video was so-so and I didn't think to get store parking lot video, a mug-shot of the owner, or 911 call recordings.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. Working at KOMU is such a learning experience. I'm learning to recognize my own mistakes, but I still need a lot more experience. Next semester my friends. Next semester.

Embrace summer when it's finally here loves!

-Meghan Christine

It's a Free Country...

2009-04-26T01:17:00.005-05:00

Journalism Reflection:

This has been an intense week for me. I haven't really spoken my mind politically speaking since November. I usually save my words for times where they are necessary. I do not and have never watched the Miss USA Pageant. I really have no interest in the competition or who wins. I just hear about it on PerezHilton.com. In the past, I have mentioned that this cite is the one site I check right when I wake up in the morning and I check it multiple times daily. Multiple times hourly. Well, I also added Perez Hilton on Twitter. He updates often and his tweets are not the same as the stories he posts on his website. I feel like I learn twice as much that way. This week brought me to an overload of Perez and this is something I thought could never happen.

He was a judge at the pageant and he asked Miss California a question. Basically, there are no right or wrong answers for that particular part of the competition. The judges base their scores on how contestants answer and whether or not they actually answer the question. Perez's question was about how there are now four states allowing gay marriage. Does Miss California think other states should follow suit? He said THINK! Well, needless to say, Perez is gay himself. I really don't care what his sexual preference is. However, his reaction to Miss California saying she thought a marriage should be between a man and a woman was beyond childish. I lost all respect for him when he posted a video on his cite calling her a dumb (insert bad word here). He tweeted endlessly about how stupid she was, how he wasn't sorry he called her a bad name, how he hates all people like her and how everyone booed her. NO ONE BOOED! In fact, there were many, many cheers. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XMvviFbkf0 )

I'm not saying I'm for or against gay marriage. I'm just saying she should be allowed to express her opinion. Perez also has the right to get angry, but let it go. Stop beating a dead horse. Everyone gets that you think she was wrong and you probably gave her a horrible score, but it's over. She was runner up and not the winner, so it doesn't even matter anymore. She will fade out of the spotlight soon. I am also saying that I have respect for her for not fighting back. She held her ground and stuck with her answer. She also has a lot of guts to say something like that being from California and all. That's the center of the Prop. 8 issues. That takes courage.

It has been difficult not going to Perez's cite for nearly a week now. Boycotting is difficult. I have to find a new cite to go to for the time being. TMZ is not nearly as entertaining, but right now, I can't support someone I can't stand. I lost a tremendous amount of respect for him. I'll probably cave and go back to using the site, but not for a while.

Personal News Gathering Process:

I went back to KOMU this past week! Hooray for reporting shift #2! I have to say that I lucked out with my story. Someone called me at 8:00 am to ask me if I could come in a bit earlier and take a story idea that was already in process. Of course! I covered the new president at Stephens College. (http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/d0d34e1d-80ce-0971-000e-2ff62cb2558b ) Someone had already scheduled an interview with her at a set time, so all I had to do was show up.

Visually, the story was not very strong. My interview with Dr. Lynch was a part of a pseudo press junket. Each media person came in and asked his or her questions and left. Lynch sat in a chair for a few hours and I couldn't think of anything to use for b-roll. I ended up just using a lot of video from around campus (which is TINY, I might add). I would have liked to have more natural sound as well as sequences.

Also, I wish I had used a better background for my interview with a student ambassador. The wall was green and everything in the background was below her shoulders. The green wall came across as white on screen and there was no decoration or anything going on visually. I do have to say that learning from my own wrongdoing is better than just being told what to do. Hopefully I'll retain this information and correct my mistakes in the future.

I have another reporting shift this Wednesday, so hopefully I can take a better stab at this!

Enjoy the nice weather loves!

-Meghan Christine

obsolete

2009-04-19T20:02:00.004-05:00

Journalism Reflection:

I devoted this past week to an ancient idea - the newspaper. Remember what that is? Unfortunately, I didn't purchase the newspapers. Instead, I used my student ID to get them out of the machine. In my defense, I'm a poor college student. In their defense, it's people like me who don't want to pay for information they can get for free online that are running them out of business.

I honestly feel bad for newspapers. I would be terrified to be in a newspaper sequence right now, even if it was at the best journalism school ever. However, I don't know enough about the newspaper sequence to judge it completely. I know they do online work, but if you like writing news instead of writing and recording, why wouldn't you direct yourself mostly toward the internet? Again, I have a certain level of ignorance when it comes to convergence. I feel comfortable where I am, and that's good enough for me. For now, at least.

Through all of my week's research, I came to a few realizations. Nytimes.com is more difficult to read than the newspaper. The layout is confusing, although it does look oddly similar to the newspaper's layout. I'd rather read the paper.

The news in the St. Louis Post Dispatch is essentially the same as what is on stltoday.com. I don't mind which format I get their news from.

USA Today is more user-friendly on the internet. However, the paper isn't bad by any means.

The Maneater (themaneater.com), a Mizzou Staple, is much better in its paper format. I also think their paper format will stay around because they are all around campus. When one student picks it up, another wants to know what they are reading because it could be directly related to him or her. As a result, he or she picks one up as well. I don't know how they stay above ground without customers to subscribe to the paper. It must be difficult to give things away for free.

One common trait on every website is the fact that people can comment on stories. When reading the actual paper, comments are irrelevant. Which do you prefer?

After this research, I still believe the newspaper will be obsolete in a few years. Then again, haven't people been saying that for a while now?

Personal News-Gathering Process

I caved this week and got my hair cut. I had been growing it out for a few months. It takes a long time to grow. Once the temperature climbed to the upper 60s, I remembered how much I hate long hair. Why was I growing it out? I never did anything fun with it. I just put it up in a ponytail and called it a day.

I thought I was going to ignore the tip to cut my hair for on-air performances. If the hair on the back of my neck hadn't gotten to me, I probably would have continued to let it grow. I have no regrets. I love my hair right now. I even have bangs. I haven't had bangs since I was seven years old. That was forever ago!

Hopefully this makes me look a little older and more professional. That's really what I was going for. We'll see what people say when I get back to school on Monday.

In an actual news perspective, I didn't do much this past week that was related to journalism. I did not have a shift at KOMU (although I do have one this Wednesday). However, I did write the first draft of my Investigative Reporting story. I am scared that my teacher's response won't be great. This article is worth more than 50% of my grade. I have to do well!

I will stop being a bum this week and pick up the pace. Story ideas, here I come!

GO Cards!

have a great week loves!

-Meghan Christine

Move over life, here comes baseball season.

2009-04-13T11:25:00.003-05:00

I filled this past week with more baseball facts than anything. I paid more attention to the beginning of the Cardinal's season than to my studies. I tend to have this terrible habit around this time of year. To me, it doesn't even feel like baseball season. It's ridiculously cold outside. I long for the day I can wear a t-shirt and shorts to Busch Stadium. I also long for summer. There needs to be a term for what students go through at the end of the spring semester. Spring break probably contributes to a drop in grades. After Thanksgiving break, there were only 2 weeks of school left. After spring break, there were 5! What I'm feeling right now isn't senioritis, but it's very very similar.

Journalism Reflection:

After deciding to become a teacher, I am devoting a lot of my attention to the convergence journalism world. I talked to multiple teachers back at my old high school about where I think things will stand in a few years. I have not lost confidence in broadcast journalism, however, after two years here at Mizzou, I think that convergence is the way to go. I'm glad I have taken the broadcast path, but I wish I had more experience with the internet world. I was planning on taking the producing class my last semester, but now I'm thinking about online applications.

On a related note, I tried to pay attention to how often I watched television news this past week, and how often I checked the internet. I have to admit that 3/4ths of the time (if not more), I was on the internet. I love that I can have news sites send me updates via text messages if I want them to. That's a great option. I already receive ESPN updates every time the Cardinals score. I also have ESPN send me texts when Boston wins or loses so I can rub it in various peoples' faces when they lose.

Google News is an awesome website to sign up for texts. You can type in keywords and then choose an option that allows you to receive a text every time something else comes up under that Google News search. - News.Google.Com

Personal News Gathering Process:

I did not have a shift at KOMU this past week, and I don't have one again this coming week. I find myself missing the station. I would go in for cut-ins or volunteer to take others' shifts, but I have more tests and quizzes this week than I have had the entire semester. My motto for the time being comes from The Little Train Who Could. "I think I can! I think I can!" (get through this week, that is).

My relatives learned how to search for me on the internet. That's scary. On Easter, I had so many family members and friends comment on my on-air debut. It's almost embarrassing.

On a personal note, Lent is over. I can now drink soda! For those of you who know me, this is a huge deal. The lack of caffeine over the past 40+ days has driven me to the brink of insanity. I cannot tell you how happy I was to drink 3/4ths of a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper at midnight on Sunday. Happy Easter! I think my focus abilities may come back to me this week. I need them.

OH! I almost forgot! I won an Edward R. Murrow Award this past week! I also took part in an "Overall Excellence" award with my "Buddy Packs" story. The one I won on my own was for my Veterans' Day Audio Post Card in "Best Use of Sound - Radio Only". I had no idea I was even entered. I wish someone would explain to me what winning these awards means. I am assuming it's a big deal, but I have to admit that I am pretty ignorant when it comes to this. I hope I get a plaque!

Now, it's back to the real world.

Have a great week loves!

-Meghan Christine

Too Much? or Just Right?

2009-04-02T18:26:00.003-05:00

Journalism Reflection

Today, while I was searching one of my new favorite addictions, Twitter, I came across a video posted by Perez Hilton. His tweet said it made him cry, so for some reason, I wanted to know what. Before I go any further, here's the link - http://tiny.cc/p6hc4 . If you take the time to watch it, this is what my reflection is about.

This story is about a dying little eight year old girl who is battling Cystic Fibrosis. I have a very young cousin who is also battling CF. This video scares me beyond belief. Luckily, for Kayla, there are advancements being made in the research field. Kayla's doctors diagnosed her at age eight. This story is about Anna. Anna was diagnosed at three months. It amazes me that she continued to live a rather normal, active life with her sisters and friends. I have seen what Kayla goes through and it's tough for anyone to combat, especially little kids.

If I was any normal viewer at home watching this video, I would ball my eyes out. However, since I'm a journalist, I have a natural habit of taking more elements into account. This story is 6:10 long. That's kind of outrageous. It is a very touching story, but there were a lot of sound bites from Anna's mother that could have been shortened or left out. That would not have detracted from the story. Also, where was the Dad? He didn't come in until more than half way through. I found myself wondering, while the mom was talking, where he was, or if he was around. So much for my attention span.

Another thing that got me was the music. The volume was way too loud and it took me out of the story every single time it came back in. It was mostly used when they showed Anna in pain in her bed. I can see the pain, I don't need the music to force me to do it. I have a feeling that everyone believes music is necessary for sad stories. Silence is also very powerful.

I liked seeing the anchor in the home with Anna's mother. She delved into the situation and made the rest of the family comfortable with her. I also noticed she was just wearing a comfortable casual outfit. Not a bad idea for a story like this. The family in question wore t-shirts and jeans. The anchor also did a great voicing job. She put emphasis on the correct words and made it sound like she cared. We later found out she cared tremendously.

I have a couple of questions regarding the anchor's behavior. 1) She rubbed Anna's back during a few scenes. When is that crossing the line? Is that just her personality? It didn't make me uncomfortable, I'm just wondering when that gets to be too much. 2) The anchor cried during the tag and I still don't know how to feel about it. She was obviously upset about the situation because Anna had passed the night before. Is showing emotion like that too much? I think it makes her human, but at the same time, she sounded optimistic during the intro. Where did the switch come in?

Overall, I enjoyed the story, I would have just told it a different way.

Personal News Gathering Process

This past Wednesday (April Fools Day) marked my first reporting shift. Let me just say that a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders once I transferred my video. It felt great to be able to accomplish something for the first time. It was also very weird to see myself on TV. I've seen myself on TVs before, but not on the real deal. I am not ever nervous about being on camera, it's just the timing issue. Working on deadline scares the living daylights out of me...in a good way!

Originally, Stacey wanted me to cover a story about a missing person (Greeley, you probably know what I'm talking about); however, this turned out to not be a story. The woman had just left her family and pretended she was kidnapped. After I wasted about 20 minutes searching for contacts from that, I was assigned to cover the Mental Health Champions Banquet in Jefferson City. Luckily that was pretty close, so I didn't have to worry about driving 45 minutes away.

Overall, I didn't encounter many problems. Everyone was more than willing to talk to me, and no one told me they didn't want to be on camera. There were 400 people there. I figured someone would want to take a stab at me. I also felt like an actual reporter. This was somehow different from VO Patrols. I felt like the real deal.

I really wanted to get more footage than I came back to the station with, but the banquet wasn't supposed to start until 6 o'clock and they were running behind. I made my CCC (central compelling character) a lovely man who battles bipolar disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. It was really cool to talk to him because he wanted to help. He wants to help anyone with mental health issues. He may be one of the nicest and most grateful persons I've ever spoken to in my life. That's saying a lot. Unfortunately, I couldn't stick around until he received his award, but I was proud of him nonetheless!

Looking at my finished package (here it is - http://tiny.cc/8gYuA ), I can notice a few flaws. I watched it on TV as it aired and gasped when I saw a jump cut. I know better! I was so angry with myself, and I'm sure I'll have someone else tell me when we watch it in class. The point is that I will avoid that in the future. There were also some audio problems. The microphone in my booth was broken from the stand, and I guess I didn't hold it properly. I adjusted as much as I could notice was wrong. There was also a lot of background noise. I made an announcement that I was going to voice (I was using an open edit bay), but no one really listened to me.

The great thing about KOMU is everyone knows you're a student and they know you're learning with the rest of them. I can't imagine what life would be like if I went out to a news station after graduation and had to learn what I'm learning right now. I would be fired in a heartbeat.

Thank God for Mizzou's J-School!

Enjoy the April Showers loves!

-Meghan Christine

2009-03-23T02:05:00.002-05:00

Journalism Reflection:

This past weekend has been great to me. I can finally watch the St. Louis news, learn about the Cardinals and do it in the comfort of my own home. I love being home. I can say right away that as soon as I got home on Thursday night, I started researching St. Louis news from the NBC affiliate here. KSDK News Channel 5. I had an interview for an internship with them on Friday afternoon. It went well but was nothing like I expected.

I did my backgrounding in order to know everything I could about what I was missing while in Columbia. I tried to learn new reporters' names as well as big topics in St. Louis. I did all of this so I could sound educated during my interview. The funny thing was that the interview was very odd. There were three other girls there for the interview and the executive producer only asked us each one question. It was a group interview and I have no confidence in the fact that the producer learned anything about me. I did learn a lot about what would be expected from me. That was nice to know.

My research did me little good at the interview, but at least I now know more about my hometown.

Personal News Gathering Process:

I completed my second VO Patrol on Wednesday. I had a better experience this past week than on my first VO Patrol. I had a lot more confidence in my work. Nothing bad happened and I was back to the station with plenty of time to complete my story and have time left over. That definitely made me feel great about my progression. Time is my biggest enemy. I can never have enough of it.

I brought in story ideas and actually got to use one of mine. There is a graffiti patrol hotline in Columbia for residents to call and report graffiti to have it removed. It has been around since August. Only 10 people have called. That's a story in itself. That was also something I learned just by doing the interview. That definitely proves you can't go into a story with preconceived notions. You never know what you will learn.

I enjoyed standing in an ally trying to get shots of graffiti. I was a little scared someone was going to pop out and try to scare me. It would have been funny. The only bad thing about having a VO-SOT-VO is the fact that it can easily be edited for time. My SOT was removed for time. I did get to write my own internet story this time! I love the feeling of knowing a piece of work is my own, regardless of the fact that it may not be the exact way I wanted it to be. In Greeley terms, this would be considered "killing babies."

Have a GREAT spring break loves!

-Meghan Christine

2009-03-13T10:40:00.005-05:00

Journalism Reflection...

Nothing tremendously outstanding happened this past week. I always feel weird when I say nothing happened because obviously, a lot of things did happen. It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to think of "new and inventive" ways to find news. So I resorted to one of my favorite websites to help me out. YouTube. It's that simple. I never realized how much news was on that one website. I usually go to YouTube for music videos or funny clips. I recently figured out you could actually sort videos by category. Guess what. YouTube has a news category! So I checked it out (http://www.youtube.com/news?s=mptync&t=t&c=25&cr=US&p=2). I found a few biases along the way. There were some videos posted in that category in response to political and public figures. Those were not so much news, but V-logs. Video blogs. Ranting and raving. I can do without that. I also can tell the difference in how each "channel" tells stories. It's different between the AP Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/AssociatedPress) and the NewsPoliticsNews Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/NewsPoliticsNews).

The most interesting part about watching stories on YouTube is the fact that the channels upload videos all throughout the day and people comment all day. The commentaries are the best part. They complete the stories. They allow viewers to respond instantaneously. Yes, viewers can also do that on the channels' actual websites. However, YouTube seems so much more inviting.

Personal News Gathering Process...

I am still waiting for the documents from my open records request. I did receive responses within the three required business days. That's a good start.

I fulfilled my first VO Patrol on Monday night. (http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/ee5d6e15-80ce-0971-018c-67cddb6fa448) Let's just say it was an interesting experience. I made a few rookie mistakes. Forgetting the tripod was the most embarrassing. Who does that? I spent too much time looking up information before leaving to cover the Central Missouri Humane Society's benefit dinner at Chris Mc D's. When I finally left, I took the wrong way. When I got to Chris Mc D's....I realized I forgot the tripod. After taking a deep breath and calming myself from being really frustrated with...myself...I got back in the car and went back to retrieve the tripod.

I did feel really cool driving the KOMU car. It was everything I ever hoped it would be. People stared at me and I liked it. The only bad part about the staring was I actually felt self conscious about singing in the car. I belt it out every time I'm in the car. You could obviously tell I was singing if you looked at me, but normally people don't look at me when I'm driving around in my tiny gray Camry.

When I got down to business, everyone at the restaurant loved that I was there. That was nice. I finally felt people open up to me since I am an actual KOMU reporter instead of just a student. That change is well received. My boss was at the restaurant and watching my every move. When I saw her at work yesterday, she told me I did a GREAT job. I think she thinks I did a great job because she had no idea what I was actually supposed to do. But I did successfully shoot an interview with b-roll in under 20 shots. That's a first.

Back at KOMU I was running out of time. I had to complete a VO-SOT-VO. I was surprised with myself for how quickly I uploaded the video. I wrote my script really quickly and was proud of it. But, of course, something horrible has to happen when things are going so well. Stacey came over to check on my work and realized the person on the computer before me forgot to log off of Pepper's bins. This meant I was putting everything in the wrong spots. I had to start over. Eventually, I sent everything off to NRCS land (after 10 o'clock) and kicked back my heels to write the web story. It turned out that the Dot Com people thought I was just doing a VO Patrol for experience and not as a B2 assignment. They wrote it for me. So, unfortunately, my web story did not make it online. Next time. Next time.

I have my next VO Patrol on Wednesday. I'm going to get there earlier to get a head start. I am also going to bring my own story ideas.

Wish me luck!

Good weekend loves!

-Meghan Christine

Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun.

2009-03-06T13:12:00.003-06:00

Journalism Reflection

This week was a big week for me and comedy. I saw a comedian perform at Westminster College in Fulton. Bo Burnham. If you have no idea who he is, look him up. He's an 18 year old singer/comedian. Beware...he is VERY offensive! There were people protesting him outside of the auditorium that night. I found it funny mostly because the protesters were really bad. Their signs were too small to read and they weren't saying anything out loud. Embarassing. I found two different articles online about the protest. One was independent and one was done by someone at the Columbia Tribune. The Tribune article was awesome because it was what I like to call a regular Wayne Freedman story. The author lucked out at the end and was able to talk to a quadriplegic. Burnham pokes fun at handicapped people in some of his songs. Instead of telling Burnham he was upset with his comedy at the meet and greet after the show, he told him a joke instead.

Please just go here and read it for yourself. Again - prepare to be offended.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/mar/04/in-your-face-comedy/

Jimmy Fallon started the Late Night Show on NBC. I have a weird obsession with Fallon. I have loved him since his early days on SNL and I even paid money to see his two awful movies - Fever Pitch and Taxi... I stayed up to watch his first few shows of the week. The first one was kind of like pulling teeth. He was obviously nervous and talked way too much. However, I did learn a few things from his monologues. The first part of his jokes are always true, then the second part is the pitch line. I learned about Octo-Mom, the recession and random celebrities. Maybe if I stay up a bit later every night just to watch the beginning monologue, I can learn a few things! I might want to stick to David Letterman or Jay Leno until Jimmy Fallon improves a bit.

Personal News Gathering Process

I made open record requests to the Columbia Police Department and Missouri's Alcohol and Tobacco Control this week! I have never made Sunshine requests before, and I'm kind of proud of the fact that I made two detailed ones this week. I have heard back from ATC already and am waiting to hear from the police department. The requested documents are to further my investigation in my underage drinking story for Investigative Reporting.

Other than those requests, I haven't really done too much searching this week. I did take my KOMU edit test last Monday and PASSED! I start my first VO Patrol on Monday March 9th!

It's amazing outside!

Enjoy the weekend loves!

-Meghan Christine

ALL IS CLEAR!

2009-02-27T15:25:00.000-06:00

Journalism Reflection…

I still don’t completely understand Twitter, and I still don’t know if I really want to, but I’m going with the flow for right now. I get emails every day from journalistic Twitter-ers (is that even a term?) who choose to follow me. That sounds creepy. I’m assuming it’s because they can search the word journalism all throughout Twitter Land and since that’s in my profile description, they choose me. I reciprocated the creepiness this week and choose to follow them as well. I now receive Tweets that are a little less personal and, instead, more informative. There is one called BreakingNews that gives me headlines before all of the other Tweets. Of course, I do other investigating of my own to find out if they’re true or not.

BreakingNews told me about the plane crash in Amsterdam before anyone else. I have a feeling my blogs might be jinxing the airplane world. How many blogs have I written about plane crashes now?

Thanks to BreakingNews and a few other Twitter Tweets I rocked the quiz this week. The news quiz at least. Greeley, I have to admit, you threw the entire class off guard with the reading quiz on Tuesday instead of Thursday. However, not reading on Wednesday night did give me more time to study for a sociology test that I also rocked on Thursday. I guess Thursday was a good day academic wise.

Personal News Gathering Process

I GOT CLEARED!!!

I feel like I can only say this in my blog because if I say it to others in my class, I look like I’m bragging. Maybe that’s not the case, but I will still stay quiet for a while. This week came with a lot of twists and turns. I kind of laid off of the story ideas a bit. I told myself at the beginning of the semester, I would take some time to calm down and watch a movie or catch up on CSI when I got cleared. Well, I watched an episode of CSI yesterday and the day before, I watched a movie I hadn’t seen in three years.

When I saw the “good to go” at the bottom of my package grade sheet, I almost died. My breathing got heavy and I didn’t know whom to share my excitement with. Most of my friends didn’t know anything about broadcast so; “being cleared,” meant nothing to them. I called my dad, but he had an appointment and didn’t get back to me until after nine p.m. My excited had died down a bit by then. I changed my Facebook and Twitter statuses to “I GOT CLEARED TO GO TO KOMU!” A few people congratulated me, including Jen Reeves, and I got over myself.

Let me just say that breathing has never felt so good. I got my life back. I will go out to KOMU next week and take my Avid test. Let’s hope I pass that! Smooth sailing from here on out! (ok, not really, but who can blame a girl for hoping?)

In an attempt to actually share how a story is going, I did go to the Columbia Police Department today to start research for a story I am doing for my investigative reporting class. It covers underage drinking in Columbia: local businesses that are notorious for allowing or overlooking underage drinking, tactics the police department use to stop it, and minors’ abilities to get around the law with fake IDs and other tricks. The police department receives grants that amount to over $12,000 a year. Local organizations and the government hand these grants out to enforce the law, but underage drinking is the Columbia Police Department’s last priority on the weekends (which is obviously when most of the drinking is going on). Beware Sapphire Lounge visitors. That is going to be my primary target in my investigation. I did a survey online with Columbia minors and the majority of the respondents said that was the one place they knew they could get alcohol without a hitch.

Birthday and Baseball

2009-02-20T17:01:00.002-06:00

I have officially lived for 20 years as of Wednesday. I feel old now, just because my age has a 2 in front of it. How weird. At the same time, I feel really young, because almost everyone else in my class is either turning 21 or already there. I never mentioned my younger age to anyone else because I was afraid they wouldn't take me seriously or they would treat me differently. The other day in the broadcast lab someone told me happy birthday and someone else asked how I was celebrating my 21st. That's where I shared my secret. No one really cared if I was 21 or not. They were just surprised I was younger than they thought. I guess that's a compliment?

On top of having a birthday this week, baseball season also started! That's probably better than a birthday. A great deal of my week has been consumed with working on my third package, studying StLCardinals.com and attempting to become as familiar as possible with the Oscar nominees. This Sunday is the biggest day in my entertainment year. Have I mentioned I love February yet?

Journalism Reflection = Baseball

I get my baseball information from a lot of different places. I use Google News to do basic searching. StLCardinals.com is my main page. I love the St. Louis Post Dispatch sports section. They always have the inside scoop on the Cards. I have a feeling it's because they have been around for so long and have made friends in the club.

Mike Matheny is a practice catcher for the Cardinals while in Jupiter, yet he has no plans of coming back to the team. Tony LaRussa expects Chris Carpenter will make a full recovery and actually start more than 7 games this year. The World Baseball Classic gave Albert Pujols the shaft by not asking him to play this year. My favorite bit of news is that Skip Schumaker is planning a move from outfield to second base. What a promotion. In my eyes at least.

I also watched a lot of coverage about the Pope not excommunicating the bishop for denying the Holocaust. People who deny the Holocaust baffle me. I don't understand it. News stations, newspapers and the Internet all covered this debacle. I really would love to hear a perspective from someone who survived the Holocaust. I'm sure they have something to say about it. I'm Catholic and this news angers me. No one ever taught me to not believe in the Holocaust.

PNGP: voice = gone

I have only lost my voice once in my life, until now that is. Tuesday afternoon, I felt a tickle in my throat and thought nothing of it. When I woke up the next morning, I learned my voice was hiding from me. Of course this would happen to me on my birthday and right after we talked about it in class. It was like a present to others. That's not how birthdays work. On top of that, I planned on voicing my package that day, which I shot at the end of last week to get ahead, and shooting my stand up. I am leaving for St. Louis tomorrow to visit family. I had to finish everything by Thursday so I could use Friday to get the rest of my homework done. Saturday is family time and Sunday is Oscar Day.

Luckily, I saved enough of my voice to complete my package. I've noticed that I am getting quicker with the editing process. This is not because I'm lazy, but because I know I will need that skill at KOMU. I hope it's not hurting my work. I certainly don't think it is.

This package I completed yesterday is about the woman I met at CMCA. I have spoken about her before in previous blogs. She does taxes for free and LOVES her job. Love is an understatement. She had some great quotes and I didn't have a difficult time trying to get three different angles for my stories. My package is about the woman. My VOB is about the free service. My web story is about the students who volunteer at the organization as a part of their class.

The bad thing about being done so early is I have to wait until Monday to critique my grade.

Oh well.

Good weekend loves!

-Meghan Christine

Another week in the life of a journalist.

2009-02-13T14:19:00.002-06:00

WEEKLY UPDATE!!! Here is my journalism reflection:

I love reading the Wayne Freedman readings for B2, but I've found one thing I'm sick of hearing about. Lucky breaks. In every chapter, Freedman tells us all about how something bad happened and he thought he was out of luck, but somehow, a miracle happens and saves the day. To me, that's not realistic. I don't want to learn how to allow miracles to happen. I want to learn how to handle situations when there is no miracle coming.

Another thing, a plane crashed around Buffalo last night and I find it ironic that I'm writing about another plane crash in my blog...What is going on??? I realize in all three situations I'm making reference to, there are many differences, but how is it such a coincidence that three plans have crashed so close together? Again, I'd still rather fly. I'm not sure why this doesn't scare me.

As for other stories, I still find the octuplet mom fascinating. I've read she is turning to her church for support in raising her children, yet sources from the church say they have no idea who she is. Did she really think that lie would help her? Why would you lie about belonging to a CHURCH??? That's just screaming "you're going to hell" to me... Also, she's received over 500 death threats. Is that really necessary? There is definitely a point where people go to far. Ok, so maybe you think she made a mistake with having so many children, but you can't do anything about it now. Killing her would make things so much worse. Those 14 kids wouldn't even have a mother.

Another interesting story is the Chris Brown and Rihanna case. Brown allegedly abused Rihanna. There are so many other details, but since I don't know which ones are official, I'll leave them out of here. Personally though, if you hit a woman, I think you're a cowardly beast. I know more people think the same thing.

The Grammys were last weekend, which was huge for me, considering it's one of the biggest entertainment award shows of the year. I love that the Grammy's are also in my birth month. It always brings some light to "my" month. Coldplay took home three awards, including song of the year! Also, Blink-182 is getting back together, which is the best news I've heard all year. So far...

Personal News Gathering Process:

I just realized I might be stressing myself out. This past week I have been working on two packages at the same time. I have to go home next Friday and I won't be back until Sunday morning, which means I do not have all weekend to get all of my homework done and work on package 3 as well. Luckily my third package has been working out for me and I'm pretty excited about it. But it's still time for package 2.

I'm becoming anal-retentive about my homework and I am trying harder this semester than I have in a long time, not that I'm usually a slacker or anything. I say that I might be stressing myself out, but honestly, I can't feel it. My roommate and friends have asked me almost every day how stressed I am and I don't really have an answer. I think I handle stress well. Also, I've finally learned not to be nervous about something I worked very hard on after I turn it in. It's turned in, I can't do anything about it anymore.

I'm not sure if this is relevant to anything at all, it's just been a difficult week, and instead of taking it out on people, I'm using my blog to rant.

I have been looking in a lot of different places for story ideas. I love google news because so many random things come up. I take some big stories and see if I can localize them. A lot of times, I cannot, but I learn while trying.

I heard someone else tries Craigs List for ideas. I'll try that sometime soon, but honestly, I have no idea what Craigs List even is.

I recently joined Twitter, and a lot of my Twitter friends are journalists as well. They put up interesting links that bring to me local and national stories.

The biggest thing I do now is ask people I see at work, on the shuttle to school, and friends around home. Most of these people aren't journalists, so they don't always have very focused ideas and don't understand what I'm looking for, but sometimes it's the personal stories they have that can lead me to another story.

Other than those things, this week I've just been keeping up with the following:

KBIA, Nightly News, KOMU, the Missourian, CNN, BBC News, PerezHilton, and TMZ.

I threw in the last two because I figured I don't have to stop following those sites, even though they don't offer the type of news I will be quizzed about in class. EXCEPT for the question about record of the year - Robert Plant and Allison Kraus. I totally nailed that one (if Greeley accepted "lead singer of Led Zepplin" in place of Robert Plant...)

Oh well, here's to another weekend!

Good day loves!

-Meghan Christine

I'd Still Rather Fly...

2009-02-05T19:57:00.002-06:00

Ok, so I am back for my second weekly blog. So much for writing more often. I can't believe how much time flies and how precious sleep has become. I used to hate awkward breaks between classes, and now I soak them up and use every minute of them to eat lunch and finish homework I couldn't possibly do the night before because I was too tired. All I can say is thank God I am a night person. My earliest class is at 9:30, so much better than the 8 ams I had the past year.

Journalism Reflection:

For some reason I've picked up on a lot of negativity toward becoming a journalist this week. The Wayne Freedman reading was preaching what you must like in order to become a journalist and if you can't stand certain traits, drop the reading, walk away, and pick a new career. I'll be honest, changing your mind right now is not an option. I'm not having second thoughts, but I know people who are. I'm sick of others trying to scare us all out of becoming a journalist. Perhaps this is not the intention, but it's the feeling I'm getting. Be proud of us B-2ers who have gotten this far. I will admit there are certain people who I have questions about. I hear the same people every week complaining about how they have to go out and do an interview or how "ugh I have to shadow today." Seriously? I guess that is how you know you're in the wrong place, but I don't think they realize it. I'm annoyed by the nagging because I know I want to do what I'm learning about. I'm not saying if you don't love doing interviews, leave. I want to be a producer, so it's not as if I'm going to be reporting every day of my life, but at least I'm multi talented and am comfortable going in different directions.

On another note, there are two things I am obsessing about this week.

1) That lady with 14 children...seriously? You've got to be kidding me. How in the world do you expect to raise those new 8 children, all the same age, with the proper amount of attention and care? Bad move on her part. This is me as a conservative being opinionated. However, I do feel as if the media is being too hard on her. She knew what she was getting herself into. She obviously doesn't think her actions are wrong. Let up on it. What's done is done, you can't take it back.

2) I'm so over the news about the Hudson River plane crash. The pilot is getting star treatment and there is "news" everyday about new findings. I don't care anymore. I don't care if you found another feather. I don't care if you found the recordings of the pilots speaking when they were going down. Everyone is alive and well. It was before this semester! 3 WEEKS AGO!

However, I am getting a little concerned about my safety while flying. Another plane crashed today in Reno, this time on a runway and not a river. THIS IS NEWS!!! IT HAPPENED TODAY!!! Obviously people aren't crashing for attention, but the timing of these two accidents makes me nervous. One thing I like about myself is the fact that I can ignore if something bad happens. I seem to have this mentality that it won't happen again, at least not to me. Two years ago I was working at the Holiday Inn at Six Flags and really wanted to ride the new Superman ride. It's sort of like a modern Tower of Terror. I love heights and love falling. Perfect combination. A few weeks before I was planning on going, a girl on the same ride at a different Six Flags got her feet chopped off by a snap in the electrical wires. As a result, they closed the ride at our Six Flags. I was angry because I still would have ridden it.

The same thing is happening with these planes. It concerns me that I could be a part of a plane crash, but not enough to stop me from flying. I hate driving and besides, you have risks in all methods of transportation.

Personal News Gathering Process:

My search for a story for this coming week has been easy. I got my idea through my reporting shadow shift at KOMU. I am going to do a feature on the lady at a local action organization. She has so many great thoughts about why she loves her job and how she loves helping people before herself. I love people like that. Selfless. I would like to think I could be like that, but as a student who is planning on paying off tuition bills for the next 10+ years, that's not going to happen very soon. Here's what happened. She told me that on the opening day for their free tax service, there would be a huge line outside the building at around 8:30. So I checked the camera out overnight and went there at 8:30. There was no line. I thought it could have been a mistake, so I went to get breakfast and came back, hoping for a line, instead, I found a KOMU car. I never realized I would feel this way when I saw a KOMU vehicle, but I felt betrayed. That was MY idea. The good thing about it is the fact that I'm doing a feature on the lady, and they did coverage of the free tax prep event. It still hurt.

I have to edit my first package tomorrow, and I'm getting nervous about it. I'm not sure why, I just want to blow the socks off of everyone who watches it. I want people to feel badly for the commuters who have to deal with the ferry every day. Let's hope I can do this successfully.

Here's to the weekend!

Goodnight loves!

-Meghan Christine

week 2 blog

2009-01-30T01:24:00.003-06:00

I realize I don't actually have to start blogging until next week, but I thought I'd give it a try. I have to do two different things. 1) a journalistic reflection and 2) share about my personal news gathering process.

I have a very bad feeling that my journalism reflection will either come across as fake or conservative. Let's set some things straight though. I do not announce my beliefs in my writing, however, in public, when speaking for myself and not a station or publication, I am perfectly ok with sharing what I believe. Sometimes I think people do not trust that I can do that because my beliefs are so strong. It is difficult, I'll admit that, but I like leaving people guessing as to who I really am when they listen to me or read my work.

This past week there were many stories that stuck out. I'll name a few.

1) tuition freeze! (heck yes!) - however, I do have a lot of questions, and I really want to speak with some faculty and see how their salary freeze affects them *I smell a story idea!*

2) a woman had 8 babies! Seriously? It was announced today that she already had 6! I cannot believe this story until I see visual proof (maybe this is why I'm in broadcast).

3) Rush Limbaugh said he hopes to see Obama fail. uh...that's not ok. I can understand if you said that during election time, but he's our president now and there's nothing you can do to change that! I say leave him alone for right now and see if he fulfills his promises. Treat him like a normal person. However, this did make good entertainment for the talk show circuit.

4) A bill has been introduced to make Missouri a non-smoking state (for public places). THANK YOU! I really hope this passes. If you want to smoke, by all means, go for it. BUT, please don't do it right next to me. I don't want to smoke, let alone smoke your smoke second handedly.

5) Obama is making all the right moves to close down Guantanamo Bay. I don't need to share all of my feelings on this motion. Let' just say that I think it was a bad idea. We already don't have enough in our prisons on the mainland. Why would you take all of the prisoners out? Again, I have so many questions. Where is everyone going? Who are they letting go? (that's what really bothers me). Perhaps I'll understand more as the story progresses and I start to understand more of the basic information.

Personal News Gathering Process (PNGP)

Last week I read an article online about how the bridge at Glasgow is under renovation and there is a ferry that takes cars back and forth from bank to bank. The issue is that the river is freezing and the ferry stops running from time to time. This leads a normal every day 15 minute commute to a 60+ minute commute. Drivers have to go extremely out of their way in order to make it to work, school and whatever else is in their lives.

Today I went to Macon to interview a supervisor at MOdot about the conditions and reasoning behind the demolition process. Tomorrow, I am going to Glasgow to interview a teacher who has to make the previously mentioned commute. Although she hates the fact that she has to pay to ride every day, she mentioned how it has been a good way to make friends.

I need to shoot the interview and b-roll tomorrow at Glasgow. I have a few things in mind. 1) I want to interview her in her classroom with the windows overlooking the river. I want to get nat sound of the church bells ringing on the hour. The church is right next to the river. I need to get shots of the ice caps, the ferry itself. I REALLY need to remember to be creative with my photography.

I'll keep this updated to let everyone know how it goes. Monday is the day where I find out if I have to re-shoot! yikes!

I already have a story idea for week 5 (the second package). I'd tell you now, but I still have some kinks to work out.

good night loves!

Reporter Shadow Shift

2009-01-28T22:47:00.003-06:00

For those of you reading this blog, take note of a few things. I started it as a requirement for my broadcast 2 class. However, I would like to keep this running as a personal blog for me as a journalist. I have this idea that if I keep this up to date, instead of just commenting every time I have a shadow shift or every time I have to for my class, it will become a habit. Let's not make any promises though. Time is short and very, very precious.

Our assignment is to go into the shadow shift and get some answers to a few questions that my teacher feels will benefit me as a B2 student. I will do my best to not make this boring, but again, no promises.

I shadowed reporter Christine Gerli today on the night side shift. When I came in around 1:30, there was a story idea meeting and everyone pitched their best. We were assigned a story about how residents around mid-Missouri are being helped financially when it comes to their heating bills. There are a lot of people who cannot afford to keep their heat on when it is this cold outside (31 degrees when we checked). I also learned that there is a cold weather law in Missouri that doesn't allow companies to shut off the heat in homes who aren't paying their bills when the temperature is below a certain degree.

All in all, it was a good day. No serious problems were encountered. We contacted our sources right away, shot the interviews, and got some b-roll. I helped Christine with a few things so I wasn't just a watchful eye. I thought it would help me learn if I got my hands a little dirty.

When we got back to the studio, we went through the necessary steps of checking the equipment back in, uploading the video, writing a script, having it tiger chaired and editing the video to transfer it to the system for all to access. Again, no glitches. It really is cool to see the final product after a hard day's work.

Throughout the day, Christine and I checked in with the producers sporadically. We let them know before we left so they could get a feel for what we were doing and what we could expect. We let them know when we were on our way back so they could know we were close by. Christine said it is also good to call in randomly just they know you are still alive and doing the work you are supposed to do.

Christine said, to her, this story was particularly confusing. She said that before she left the meeting, she talked with Stacey about who the best contacts would be. There were a lot of people involved in the process, so it was up to us to figure out who had the best voices. In other cases, she said producers gave great advice.

When checking in a bin, you must go to the file menu and click on check in all open bins in project. This saves all of your work to the server just in case the computer crashes. When using NRCS after your video imports, go to tools, NRCS tool, click on connect, put in your name and password (which is also your iNews name and password), click on show, then time of the show your story will air, rundown, and go to the story and double click. Your story will have a "P" for package on it and then drag that into your bin. Double click on that bin and it creates a timeline for you to begin with. NRCS actually transfers everything to the main server.

Subclipping is handy when you want to edit SOTs before you actually need them. You pre-cut them by setting an in and out points, clicking on a green button and dragging those soundbites to a separate area. You can also re-label them so you can find them easily.

Christine said she wishes she had known how to better manage her time before coming to KOMU as a reporter. Packages go from being due in one week to being due in around 8 hours. It's quite a big change.

This change is actually something I am looking forward to. I really want to learn how to work better under pressure. I don't want to mess around for an entire week setting multiple days to meet with multiple sources. I guess the good thing about this problem is the fact that I have acknowledged it early on.

One last note, I went to the meeting after the show to listen to critiques. It was an interesting experience because it was quite similar to my high school days when I did theatre. After rehearsals, our director would have us all sit down and he would tell us all of the negative and positive points in our performance. KOMU does the same thing...hypothetically.

Anyways...I've ranted for long enough. I have 2 more shadow shifts to come, one on Friday, so be prepared. I also need to update you all on my journalistic reflection and personal news gathering processes. Get excited!

good day loves!
-meghan christine

Here's to starting a blog!

2009-01-28T22:04:00.003-06:00

Ok so this is my first blog for broadcast 2. I've never blogged before, so this is all new to me and I'm not even sure if I'm doing it the right way.
I figured that I would use this as a way to keep tabs on my work for class, as well as me as a journalist.
I doubt anyone will follow this blog except for teachers, maybe some classmates, and probably my dad.
If you feel as if you have something to comment about, go for it. If you agree/disagree or have a point to raise, please do!
I will leave this as my first post, and follow it up with a blog about my second shadow shift at KOMU.

good day loves!
-meghan christine