Well, thank goodness THAT's over. My journalism talks went well with the 6th Graders yesterday and they all seemed interested and engaged, which is about the best you can hope for with any group of kids. They asked questions and seemed especially enthusiastic when we talked about how to write good "ledes" (as spelled in newspaper lingo), the introductory paragraphs of any news story.
As an example, I read them Edna Buchanan's famous "Gary Robinson died hungry" lede from the Miami Herald. That story, violent as it is, never fails to produce excitement and a good conversation about vivid, colorful writing. (It's no more violent than anything they see on television, I suppose.)
We also talked about headlines ("Ford to City: Drop Dead") and as I've done here over the past few days, I showed them old clips of my own work. I also showed them my first press ID, which was issued when I was a college student and an intern at the Central Florida newspaper where I eventually worked:
Yes, that's the collegiate me, complete with hair. Sort of.
A commenter here asked the other day if I miss journalism. I mostly miss the climate of a newsroom -- it was fun working with a bunch of smart, irreverent people who were good with words and loved discussing the news of the day. I miss the excitement, the unpredictability, but that also had a flip side -- the hours could be long and it could be difficult to have a life, given that you never knew what was going to happen on any given day and how long you'd have to be at work.
Also, it's a different business now. Newspapers are less prosperous than they once were, and the news cycle is 24 hours. Stories get written, edited and published continuously all day on the web. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's a lot of work and it doesn't allow much time to write thorough, comprehensive pieces -- at least not when an event first occurs.
I wouldn't trade my years in journalism for anything, but I'm glad that I now have a job that's more stable and less hectic. I deliberately chose not to continue in journalism when we moved to England. I could certainly have pursued it, even though English journalism is a bit different from the American style -- but I decided to do something new and I'm glad I did.
(Photo: A tree on my walk home from work yesterday.)
That tree is spectacular. Love the press ID. I imagine your talk would have been fascinating to those kids, and you have risen to new levels of “cool.”
ReplyDeleteI doubt I'll ever be "cool" but at least now they know there's more to me than meets the eye!
DeleteThat's a very impressive tree. It may be interesting one day to write about the difference in journalistic writing between the US and UK.
ReplyDeleteIt's mainly little things like word usage, but there are also some distinct legal differences between what can be said in British papers vs. American ones. In American papers, it's customary to name someone when they're arrested for a crime. Here it seems they usually don't get named until much later in the process -- when they're convicted in court. When arrests happen the papers often remain maddeningly short on details.
DeleteThe kids were lucky to receive a lesson on journalism from somebody who has been there and done that. No other teacher in the school could have delivered such a session. It is good for youngsters to learn that language works in different ways.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Will you be getting a bonus in your pay for all this teaching you have been doing?
I wish! My only bonus comes in the form of a slightly burnished reputation.
DeleteWell said YP..
ReplyDeleteI think it does benefit the kids to hear from someone who's done the work, regardless of what career we're talking about.
DeleteI miss the in-depth and thoughtful journalism of times past. It was much easier to feel like you were in touch with what's really going on. Lucky kids!
ReplyDeleteI agree. I miss having a hefty daily newspaper. And remember how big they used to be on Sundays?!
DeleteI am so glad that your talk went well with the kids. My daughter Karyn was awarded Journalist of the Year at her high award dinner. It was a huge honor and she contemplated taking Journalism in college but at the last minute chose to take English and Business, which she claims was the smartest decision for her. But I have always wondered what her life would be like if she had gone with Journalism and now I can actually see thru your eyes. Such a well description Steve.
ReplyDeleteI loved seeing your College Press Pass. I bet that it was exciting to be in such a great work place with so much going on at all times, but I know that the hours could be long and tiring. Now you have a much more stability and that is great as well.
Have a great weekend. Give Olga a hug and a pat for me. xx
Well, to work in journalism you don't necessarily need to major in it. She could still do journalism even with a business background. In fact, media outlets need people with training in specialty areas so they can cover those fields. Good business journalists can be hard to come by!
DeleteHigh school, I meant to say.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the talk went well and I love seeing that press pass. That tree is beautiful. A sure sign that spring is on its way.
ReplyDeleteWe are getting lots of reminders of the coming spring!
DeleteGood job!
ReplyDeleteThank you! :)
DeleteI vividly remember the Ford to City: Drop Dead headline. The really good one stick with you.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely one of the most famous headlines ever written.
DeleteI wondered about your change of job. Sounds as if it worked for you. Reporting is a rugged life.
ReplyDeleteThat tree is spectacular, good catch. You have a decent walk to work.
Reporting was a lot of fun for many years, but it's a young person's job -- at least the type of local news reporting I was doing.
DeleteBeing a reporter in a newsroom has always sounded like a dream job. Unfortunately I think I am a bit to late to realize that. Writing web articles just doesn't have the same appeal to me.
ReplyDeleteThere's something special about being published in print, I agree. But nowadays the web is where it's at! (And on the plus side, a good media outlet can do a lot of amazing things with technology, as often seen on the New York Times web site.)
DeleteI learn so much from your posts, Steve. You are still a journalist writing for us and I appreciate it! Well done on the school presentation!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I try to be informative! :)
DeleteThe Lakeland Ledger. I remember we got that on Fridays, I think, the Winter Haven News Chief all the other days. So funny that I would grow up to know someone who reported for the Ledger. Steve Reed! Fully accredited!
ReplyDeleteHave you seen The Tender Bar? There are shots of a NYT's (I think!) newsroom back in the day and oh, what chaos! What fury with which everyone was writing!
Yeah, I don't know what that "fully accredited" was supposed to mean, LOL! Just that I was employed there, I suppose. I haven't seen "The Tender Bar" yet but it's on my list. I kind of want to read the book first so I've been delaying it.
DeleteI love that you spoke to students about journalism. It would be so wonderful if it inspired some to lean in that direction when pursuing life goals. We need good journalists.
ReplyDeleteI also love that ID pic.
We DO need good journalists. Fortunately lots of young people continue to be interested in the field, despite the growth pains it's experienced over the past several decades.
DeleteSadly some of the really good things about journalism are gone like excellent writing.
ReplyDeleteIt sometimes seems that way, but there's still excellent writing out there -- in magazines, in big-city papers and even in smaller ones.
DeleteI would have enjoyed sitting in on your talk. Journalism would not have been a good fit for my personality, but it still fascinates me. That Edna Buchanan lede certainly made me want to continue reading! Headlines are important, but if not written properly, they can be hilarious!
ReplyDeleteYes, I showed the kids a headline that read: "Students Cook and Serve Grandparents." We got a laugh out of that one.
DeleteThe Guardian recently had a series or articles highlighting changes in many journalistic jobs. The articles were mostly written by current journalists about how their jobs compared to those of their mentors. I'm sure you must have read those. I thought it was fascinating to see what had changed and what remained the same.
ReplyDeleteOh, interesting! I read the Guardian regularly (and subscribe) but I somehow missed those. I'll have to look for them.
DeleteMaybe it was a different paper. I read Washington and NYT, so it could have been in one of those. It was within the last 6 months.
DeleteTree and the houses behind are absolutely perfect! You live in a gorgeous land! Glad you did not take up with British journalism, we would not benefit from your blogging had you been stuck in a news room with competition for scoops and ledes (?) Handsome back in the day- handsome still. Lucky!!
ReplyDeleteIt's true that I would probably not be blogging as much (if at all) if I were still a reporter. When I worked for Gannett in New Jersey (2010-2011) I found it hard to manage both, and in fact I quit the blog for a while.
DeleteRecently I read a piece by a seasoned newspaper reporter mourning the passing of newsrooms with the typewriters and their sounds. Nowadays they're filled with silent computers and in these pandemic years they have been mostly empty as people worked from home. Passages. Thanks for introducing me to Edna Buchanan's writing from the police beat. She was spectacular and well deserving of her Pulitzer.
ReplyDeletePeople have been saying that for ages. I always worked on computers -- even back in the '80s -- and even then my bosses were lamenting the loss of typewriters and teletypes. I can't imagine having to do phone interviews in an office with all that clacking going on in the background!
DeleteNice you’ve got no regrets xx
ReplyDeleteWell, not about careers, anyway. :)
DeleteOK Hair, and a beautiful tree.
ReplyDeleteThe tree is much fuller than my hair was, even then!
DeleteI love scenes from TV shows and movies that take place in old newsrooms and have always wondered if it was really like that! You look SO young. (you still do though)
ReplyDeleteWhen I watch a movie like "All the President's Men" (my favorite journalism movie, BTW) they take me back to the big newsrooms of yore. They DID really look like that.
DeleteI used to want to work in a newspaper office. I wanted to be the tea lady with the trolley, dispensing cuppas and cakes or biscuits and hearing buts of all the news before any of the outside public. By the time I left school, tea ladies were redundant, so I worked in dairy factories bottling milk, wrapping 40lb cheeses, then in shoe factories putting in insoles and laces, spraying on the finishes, ending with being a supermarket checkout operator.
ReplyDeleteWell that's a varied career! You must have heard a lot of interesting things working in the supermarket. I feel like supermarkets always have a lot of drama going on!
DeleteCarl Bernstein has a new memoir out about his early days in the newsroom. He was interviewed recently and said that it's just not the same. No loud clatter of typewriter keys, but the soft tap of computers -- if there's much of a newsroom at all. Our local paper is barely that. They pretty much fired most of their staff, picked up the Gannett feeds and have little local news apart from sports and obits. Beginning next week they go digital only. I often wonder if they brought it on themselves. I have copies of the paper -- full issues that my parents saved (and I remember them too) -- thick and bursting with local stories along with the national news. I miss that.
ReplyDelete