One Year In

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Journalism or Bust!, the online documentation of the  actions taken in my quest of achieving a lifelong dream of becoming a journalist.  Over that span, I've upload 78 items here about a wide variety of subjects and personal experiences with the intent of showing an evolutionary improvement in my skills and overall journalistic perspective.  I've completed three classes in my UMass program and will be taking a journalism ethics course in the fall term.

I'd like to thank the folks from all around the globe who have come by here either by accident or perhaps on purpose.  A few of my posts have been very popular (the Obama rally in Columbus last May, the Santorium event outside Cincinnati back in March) and Blogger is showing that over 5,000 pageviews have occurred over the past 12 months.  Granted, this is just a drop in the bucket when compared to the volume of visits The Huffington Post, The New York Times and other media "giants" see on a daily (or even hourly) basis but I'm not doing this for the exposure (or any revenue).  Right now, this blog is a labor of love that I will look back at in a few years' time to help me gauge just how far I really advanced towards my goal.

Year #2 starts today...I can't wait!

Creating a Publishing Platform: Frank Rich

Monday, August 20, 2012
[NOTE: I listened to Frank Rich this morning during the last half hour of The Bill Press Show on Current TV and that reminded me that I just wrote about him during my recently completed Intro to Online Journalism course.  I was to find and analyze the online channels used by my favorite writer and detail how they use them to capture audience attention and create conversations. Just thought that I should share the assignment, which was written in the middle of July, with my readership.]


If given the choice of any writer I would aspire to be (or one that would require a natural disaster for me to miss their latest work), the hands-down choice would be Frank Rich.  A one-time theater critic turned op/ed columnist, Rich has been one of the leading progressive voices in America’s ‘mediascape’ for the past decade who came into his own during the country’s lead-up to the Iraq War and the later years of the George W. Bush administration.  On a weekly basis, he penned hard-hitting 1,500-word columns on politics, current events and culture which anchored The New York Times’ expanded ‘Week in Review’ section in their Sunday editions from 2005 until early 2011 when he left to join New York Magazine.  Rich has slowed down just a tad at his new employer (he now does a monthly column and weekly ‘interview’ sessions with editor-in-chief Adam Moss) but this new tempo has not diminished his veracity nor his desire to seek out the truth from among the multitude of media outlets and political operatives.  While already a devoted weekly reader, his 2006 book The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth and its blistering expose of how Bush and his team ‘rolled out’ a campaign to coerce the American public to sanction a war with Iraq cemented his place as my favorite writer.

My Media Weekend

Sunday, August 19, 2012
[NOTE: this article addresses what I experienced last weekend, not the current one. I really have to start focusing on my deadline "issues".]

From top clockwise, the closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the unveiling of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's vice-presidential nominee, and a promotional graphic for the movie The Campaign

After a week of getting reacquainted with my job and completing the final project for my Intro to Online Journalism course, I had the chance to relax a bit and take in some television and movie watching and get back into my regular routine of sampling the many media sources I have access to.

Mitt Romney's Pending (and Perhaps Only) Presidential-level Decision

Saturday, August 11, 2012
(NOTE: this is my final project for JOURNAL 397W, Intro to Online Journalism.  I was tasked to create a comprehensive profile on a subject of my choosing and present it as a multimedia feature through pre-selected online tools--I relied upon Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, and the Google News data aggregator.  Once compiled, I was to then use Storify to bring those images, videos, quotes, and tweets together and display them in a blog setting.  Luckily, that site provided a code that allows me to embed the piece here just like it appears at the original location.  Unfortunately, I cannot insert a "jump break" within the Storify item so you will have to scroll through the entire posting when navigating on my page.)

(UPDATE: while I was finishing the project and preparing it for posting, it appears that Mitt Romney announced that he will introduce Wisconsin representative Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential pick at a campaign event this morning in Norfolk, Virginia.  The Storify piece was updated at 1:30AM on the 11th to reflect this information.)

(FOR MY INSTRUCTOR: when prompted for the embed code, I opted for the "HTML for SEO" option.  I hope that will give me some extra credit points ;-)  )

Guest Papers: Vacation Edition (Part 4 and Final)

Monday, August 6, 2012

Here is the last grouping from my trip back to Ohio on Saturday, featuring papers from the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.  My only regret is that I could not find copies of The Onion or Politico in any vending machines around the District.  Represented are Washington, DC (The Washington Post, The Washington Times), McLean (USA Today), Frederick (The Frederick News-Post), Morgantown (The Dominion Post), Charleston (The Saturday Gazette-Mail), Washington (The Observer-Reporter), Pittsburgh (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Tribune-Review), Wheeling (The Intelligencer) and Columbus (The Columbus Dispatch).


Guest Papers: Vacation Edition (Part 3)

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Another batch from along my route, featuring papers from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and the District of Columbia.  Represented are Philadelphia (The Philadelphia Daily News), Upper Derby Township (The Delaware County Daily Times), Wilmington (The News Journal), Baltimore (The Baltimore Sun) and a variety of community and issue-focused editions from Washington, DC (Street Sense, The Washington Examiner, The Epoch Times, The Washington City Paper, The Washington Blade, The Washington Informer, and The Washington Diplomat).


Guest Papers: Vacation Edition (Part 2)

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

More from along my route, featuring papers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.  Represented are Wilkes-Barre (The Citizens' Voice and The Times Leader/Sunday Dispatch), Scranton (The Times-Tribune), northern New Jersey (The Record), Newark (The Star-Ledger), New York City (The New York Daily News, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times) and Philadelphia (The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Weekly).