President, Pigs and Money

...just some of the things Journalism and I have been enjoying this week.

Newsy.com continues to challenge my research skills and ways of thinking. It's awesome. This week I researched, analyzed and wrote a story comparing/contrasting what news organizations were saying about President Obama's "First 100 Days". Multi-perspective storytelling in 2-minute video segments is not only a great way to place bias, opinion and truth next to each other...it's a great way to learn how to think critically about issues that matter and helps innovate the curious mind to find and understand truth.

A second story I wrote for Newsy this week: Swine Flu: Precaution or Paranoia? (I think this is definitely a valid question to ask as news outlets and social media networks continue to hype the issue).

A few stories I worked on while at KOMU were:

"Second Possible Case of Swine Flu"
"Missourians deal with flooding"

"Woman Charged with Domestic Assault and Burglary"

I had a fun time finding an appropriate image for the Swine Flu posting. I had to be careful not to take an image with ambulances, flashing lights, people in hospital beds, etc., as this would have conveyed the opposite message. I felt the word "possible" (in the headline) had to be conveyed through the image as well...which is why I went with the scientist conducting research.

Also, I learned a valuable lesson while Twittering from KOMU.com: "It's not what you say, it's how you say it!" This is a phrase my dad has drilled into my head since birth and I've always valued it, but in a moment of busyness it seemed to pop out of my head while tweeting a question to KOMU's Twitter community. Lesson learned!

So, where does "Money" come into all of this? MoneyCommons of course! After our meeting today, I'm just reminded again of how important vision-casting is. We could have a great idea, but if the vision isn't cast properly, it doesn't matter. No one will believe in it. We have to see where we're headed in order to convey that path and destination to others. Not gonna lie, that sounds slightly cheesy, but it's so true.

And Yay! In a quick note, I won two awards from Flickr for photography I did for the Missourian!

First Place (News - Cover) and First Place (Multi-story package - News or Sports)

Sad day though...I never got a byline. The grad student who worked on the print portion of the story is listed instead. This happened last year and frustrating though it is, it's still encouraging to get the awards! : ) And it was an awesome story to interview, shoot and edit into a Soundslides package. I learned lots and lots.