Excellent Example from Neiman Storyboard

I appreciate writing about writing that's really worth reading. Nieman Storyboard delivers, often. I found a recent article about how to get the attention of an editor at Smithsonian magazine especially instructive.

Hope you do too!

It's hard to ignore Smithsonian's great graphics.  Cover image from the article by Katia Savchuk. 







Here's to a holiday season filled with great reading and writing.

Words & Pictures & the Blurred Lines of Communication

I've written often and recently about (my perception of) the state of journalism and the blurring of the lines between marketing communications and "trusted" editorial content. 

As journalism continues to change, sometimes I cringe; more often I say "hmmm." 

Three articles that have given me a lot more food for thought this week:

How National Geographic spots altered photos

Is Chris Arnade a journalist? I say yes. 

Was the disclosure enough in this newspaper "article?" I say no. 
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What do you think about journalism circa 2016? Do you agree with or bristle at the continuous barrage of insults Donald Trump hurls at the press? I'd love to hear your opinion. 

From Facebook.com/HeavenNow

Has AP Gone Batshit Crazy? Nope.

I think the use of both words in question - both used in quotes - was absolutely right in this case.

The Words in Question  

Donald Trump said "pussy." Into a microphone, in a public place, specifically, a political rally. No duh, the press was there. And not long after, Republican Senator Lindsay Graham said (to a bunch of journalists) "My party has gone batshit crazy."

Frankly, I'd be pissed if I found out later that the journalists didn't quote either man verbatim.

Why "Those Words" Are OK Today

Look, everyone following election year coverage (and I sincerely hope a lot - all! - voters are) needs to get as much insight as possible into the candidates we'll get to vote for this fall. Word choice is important. So is passion. Communications skills. Comportment. And an ability to balance those traits...or lack thereof.

What do you think? I welcome the comments of thoughtful readers and journalists - of course - and will follow the maddening crowd (i.e., Twitter etc) for fun. And for insight because...well, it's a news channel too, folks. But we'll talk about that later.

Arbor Day & Other Things Journalists Do

Yes indeed I do have a chip on my shoulder and feel at least a tad resentful that journalists don't get the respect they deserve. Just in case you were wondering. 

So, here: a few examples off the top of my head (or Wikipedia) of things Journalists do or have done that make them quite worth your respect, and appreciation, even.

So, there.

Journalists Rock Holidays, Space Exploration

In 1872, Julius Sterling Morton, a journalist, politician, and tree-hugger, started setting aside one day a year to celebrate trees. The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska in 1872 and became a national thing (as much as it is today, I guess) by 1885. Arbor Day - in case you want to make a cake or climb a tree or something, and aren't quite sure when to plan your party - is celebrated the last Friday in April. 

Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, is hailed as the "Godmother of Thanksgiving." Her letter to then-president Abraham Lincoln spurred him to proclaim the third Thursday of November a National holiday. 

A handful of journalists (actually, folks in the even-more-maligned PR industry) had more than a bit of influence on getting the US to the moon. 

Public Opinion & History

Lest you think I revere only the "old school" journalists, I'll toss this in the mix: journalists have always, and will always, shape opinions. Like you, I think some opinions are more worth shaping than others - so I revere some and revile others. (Hey, journalists are nothing if not human.)

One I revere: Anderson Cooper for coming out publicly AND matter-of-factly, simultaneously saying, "maybe you should know" and "not that it matters."  

Who I revile: Sadly, a growing list, heavily populated by those who report on the rich and famous with an apparent belief that what Kim Kardashian wears is relevant to anyone other than Kim Kardashian. 

On the list of folks I admire: anyone who provides solid reporting (I like those three-sources types). Journalism - good or bad, I'll admit - provides the first draft of our history. One good example I'll point to this year: MtV's study on the racial undercurrents of 2014. While it will never enjoy the level of respect conferred on The Wall Street Journal or Rolling Stone, Viacom's aging bad-boy brand deserves major kudos for that.

Hats off to those who write it right. 

 ~Diane Stresing

From one crazy profession to another

Poynter just never disappoints.

As (hundreds of?) thousands of journalists have done in the past few years, John Biemer, an AP reporter, decided to leave his profession.

He went into medicine instead. And that's why Dr. Biemer snagged a blog post at Poynter. It's worth reading, as is almost anything Poynter produces.

From one disrupted profession to another, eh? I suspect (and hope) that Dr. Biemer will tell us more stories.

Journalism That Makes You Feel Better

Have I mentioned lately that I love CRJ? I love CRJ.

Have I mentioned lately how I worry about what we don't know because of journalism's continuing/eminent demise? I'm worried.

That said, CRJ's always a bright spot, even on my darkest days. Read Trudy Lieberman's excellent piece at CRJ's site - all of it, for free.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love CRJ?

~Diane Stresing

Patient Shares Experience with Health Care, System

This is personal, and just barely related to writing. 

On breaking one's neck is a fascinating personal account of a traumatic injury. In it, a patient aptly describes how individual professional caregivers and the bigger system of healthcare affect the care process. It is not political. It juxtaposes the best of our medical system (the patient was saved by it) with the stupid holes/tangles that exist in the medical industry. It is worth a thoughtful read.

The author's experience in a trauma unit and then a rehab facility sounds almost identical to my own, nearly 10 years ago. It's confounding to think that we have fabulous medical care - the best - and yet apparently we have not improved on in a decade so many of the ridiculous man-made problems inherent in it.

And on the human interest side of things, Relman sure makes 90 look good!
#agebringswisdom

Google Tips for Freelancers, and a Warning for Journalism Junkies

Google's gorgeous, uber-accessible Tips page is like so many other Google releases - so simple, you simultaneously salivate and say, why didn't I think of that?

Arranged like flashcards on a clean white table, the tips feature screenshots that walk users through the basics of getting and using Google products that are not new - Drive, Keep, Calendar, Maps to name a few. What is new is the uber-organized presentation and boiled-down-to-the-basics instructions.

Why Every Freelancer Should Play with Google's Flashcards

If you're a contract or freelance worker, you've been there: the office where everyone does everything the way they've always done it. While employers usually seek out freelancers to bring specific talent and experience to a project, freelancers also bring fresh perspective and can-do attitude - both of which, I think it can be argued, are worth a couple of hours worth of consulting fees. But I'll leave that to the accounting department.

Next time you walk into a work group that seems to be doing things the hard way, pull up the Google Tips site and you're likely to find a solution, or at least a work-around.

Users are Everywhere, Power Users are Rare 

From A history of Windows, windows.microsoft.com

Many of Google's tips amount to a nudge to learn (slightly) advanced features of familiar tools. Gajillions of people use Google Docs, but how many know how to manage multiple revisions in a single document?

Now, Google's got the heat and light today. But I'm going to point out the same principle holds for plain old MS Word. Spend a couple of hours with your help screens, take an Advanced Word class at your local library, or just for heaven's sake, Google it, and you're going to "discover" some features in that have been available, like, forever. Ever had to make a bibliography and found out after using APA style that the assignment specified MLA? It's not quite accurate to say "there's an app for that," but there IS a feature to fix that (and create the bibliography for you in the first place) and it's been built into Word for ... well, longer than I've been reaching for reading glasses, at least.

And the principle to remember is: knowledge is power.

Speaking of which...

Google News Scares Me

Customizing your news feed sounds like a great idea, but if you understood what's been happening to journalism around the world (ok, nobody completely understands) in the past 20 (or 30) years you're probably scared too. I'll save my lecture on this topic for another day and just suggest that you learn how to use the other Google Tips before that one. Get your news and information from as many different sources as you can. Heck if you learn how to use all the other Google Tips, you'll save so much time you'll be able to read an extra book every week! Then I'm going to ask you to guest blog for me.

#seewhatIdidthere

Now go on, Google Tips are waiting to help you out.

7 AP Style Slips, 7 copywriting tips & other things I've ripped off

Of these seven common AP style slip-ups shared by Ragan.com, I think I'm guilty of #7 most often.

Social Media Today offers some very good tips here, but I'd like to pause at #1 to add another reason to keep ONE reader in mind as you write. It's voice, tone, agreement. I know, it sounds like three reasons, but it's not. When you're writing copy, your mind is spilling out all the features and what-fors and how-tos and your tendency is to want to cover all of them. Of course, that's a sure way to lose focus. (Yours, and your reader's.) So, focus - on ONE reader. Your results (and your clients) will thank you.

Still reading? Good! Here's a heads-up for J-school students looking for PAID summer internships:
Thank you SPJ! 

Journalism Lives!

I dare you to read John Kroll's post about the five 5 Ws and H and tell me you don't agree.

He's right about the fact that expecting professional writers to apply this Journalism 101 principle to the concept of fact-checking should NOT require a half-day seminar, too. But damn. I got all goose-pimply reading this, and remembered why I wanted to be a journalist in the first place.

Sigh. So much for righteous dreams; I ended up as a freelance copywriter and taxicab driver. But hey, at least I can still get all goose-pimply.

Side note from copywriter me: I wonder how this page will rank for "goose-pimply."

~Diane Stresing

What to Blog About Next, part 4

Look, you can't just jump into part 4 of something without at least a cursory click on parts 1, 2, and 3. (I'll wait.) OK. Thanks, and welcome back. Now, part 4 beckons...

And then, there are those magical moments -  the blog posts that write themselves. Two things to you have to do when that happens: 1- grin from ear to ear and 2- hit 'publish.'

This one's a content creator's dream: Nieman Storyboard's roundup of 150 - Iknowright?!! I nearly hyperventilated, ONEHUNDREDANDFIFTY!! -awesome tips and storytelling techniques. Blow off your next meeting, I'm telling you, reading this is gonna be way more productive. 

Ahem. Look I'm not usually one to recommend blowing off a meeting but if you do, it'll be your turn to grin (an evil grin), 'cus your fellow writers will be all, "Where'd you'd get all these great ideas?" and you'll be all, "I dunno, sometimes they just write themselves."

Happy blogging.

~Diane Stresing

Add Skloot to the 'Excellent Examples' List of Debut Authors

"Debut author" sounds a little bit like "overnight success." It's a label, and it doesn't say much. We must know there's a unique story behind each person we slap that label on, but slap we do.

So with due respect and admittedly not knowing her story, the label's been slapped on Rebecca Skloot. Skloot uncovered the story of Henrietta Lacks and wrote about her with integrity, determination, (a grant) and a hell of a lot of sacrifice and hard work. She ignored lots of labels along the way and cared enough to discover the unique story behind many of those labels. While reading the book, I marveled at Skloot's work at the same time I realized it paled in comparison to the amount of work Lacks did in her life. But that's just me seeing the world through my own lenses. My focus and perspective leave a lot to be desired.

Let me try again. From my writer's perspective, Skloot's account is a stellar work; it exemplifies (very) long form  journalism and historical nonfiction storytelling. Journalists, nonfiction writers, and students, please add this to your "excellent examples" list.

From my reader's perspective: damn! what a story!

 ~~ ~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Skloot earns a spot next to Michael Lewis 

on my list of non-fiction, 

journalist/storytellers worth reading  -

and Henrietta Lacks' story was worth telling. 

Stories Set to Song, and Storified, and other Social Media I Haven't Tried Yet

Today I thank Tommy Tomlinson for doing many writers a great service, delivering a lecture on good writing structure without making it sound like a lecture. Rather, it sounds like a classic ballad. It's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

It's not the first time Tomlinson has waxed lyrically on Nieman's Storify Storyboard.

(Yes, that's the correct spelling, as it belongs 

to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at 

Harvard, not the high-end department 

store. Although I must say, Neiman 

Marcus is doing some interesting 

stuff with social media, too.)

While I'll admit that I'm really glad Tomlinson did it, and he did it really well, I'm kicking myself for not doing it - or something like it, just not as good - because I've always thought songwriters make the best storytellers. Elton John, David Bowie  (Ziggy Stardust), Billy Joel, James Taylor, and John Denver are the first that I think of, and there are many more. 

But instead of focusing on one thing I haven't done yet, why not worry about two or more? "Learn how to use Storify" hovers near the top of my lonnnnnnnnnnnng list of "things to do." (I haven't figured out what Pinterest is good for yet, either, but Storify is a much higher priority, at least for me.)

When I searched for a "Storify primer" Google coughed up one on the Harlem Shake, which didn't exactly make me feel like dancing. 

So now that another deadline is looming and I have to get back to my "real" job, I ask you, dear readers:

What do you use Storify for? where can I find a free, Storify 101 course online? Is there a Storify for Dummies?

You know where to find me....

~Diane Stresing

A Few More Favorites in 2012

It's always hard for me to determine which article is my favorite in an issue of CJR, and this time it took longer than usual. Drum roll, please... it was this one. Most of the Nov/Dec issue focused on celebrity coverage and publicity - a faction of the trade that's not often esteemed by the newsier types. But CJR, not surprisingly, managed to address the bias, admit it, explain it, and go beyond it.

Which is why I love CJR.

And yet I'm not ready to call it my favorite magazine. It has some pretty tough competition for my reading attention as it sits next to National Geographic on my nightstand, on the car seat, and bleachers throughout the year. We're also known to pick up an issue of Scientific American or something (just a little) lighter so there's some darned fine writing at my fingertips wherever I am.

What about you? If you had to, could you pick ONE favorite thing, or o ne favorite writer, to read?  I doubt it. Look, it's practically 2013 - so how 'bout for the new year, you pick 3 (if you want to show off) or 13, and share them here. Tell me why you love them, and why the writing lands on your favorites list and your reading table.

*cheers*    

~Diane Stresing

Warren Buffet Believes in Reporting

"I believe newspapers that intensively cover their communities will have a good future" -- Warren Buffet, June 2012 message to employees of the newspapers he owns.

Apparently Moody's doesn't share his view, at least as a short-term investment.

What do you think?

~Diane Stresing

How many professional organizations do we need?

I understand and feel the sadness shared by many as the American Press Institute closes, but I challenge those who were so quick to jump into the OMG, it's another nail-in-the-coffin discussion.

Is it? Or perhaps should at least some of those headlines be rewritten to include the word merge? This is one of the many times I want to jump up and down and scream, "what were we taught in J-school, anyway?!" See, API didn't whither away; it merged with NAA. And the merge wasn't a last-gasp; API had five years (at least) of operating expenses in the bank when it merged with NAA. Five years to re-invest, reinvent itself, or look around and realize that there are a dozen or so professional organizations offering education, direction, and memberships to journalists and maybe it makes sense to combine the talents of those organizations.

I think that's how I'd write the story.
_______________________________

On a related note, at least one astute Washington Post reader asked a question I'd like to hear the paper's response to. Why did that article run in the Lifestyle section? File that under "things that make me say, hmmm."
________________________________

Look, API was a highly respected, unquestionably professional organization, and much as it will be missed, I repeat, it just might not be needed - thanks to several other, similarly professional and well-respected organizations. RIP API. RIP, indeed.
# #

~Diane Stresing

Quit sensationalizing news. Especially tragedies.

Of course we're all saddened and sick with grief and confusion over Monday's horrible tragedy in Chardon. Parents and teens probably feel it a little differently, but we all feel it. It's a human tragedy and a horrible thing. And I suppose, if I had a really magnanimous personality, I could excuse as "human nature" the news media's coverage of the event and its aftermath.

But I'm not that big-hearted or understanding. Even as I reeled from the shock of the initial reports, I was disgusted by my fellow journalists (?!) and their complete lack of respect for the victims' families, for the accused shooter(s), and for the privacy of witnesses who were certainly in a fragile state.

It's not how I was taught that professional journalists behave, and I wouldn't feel like one myself if I didn't state my objections publicly, somehow. There. This is it.

Shaking off my righteous indignation at the sorry state of my local news media (I have plenty left over for the national media) I have to say in this case, the platforms of Facebook and Twitter have been less sensational, and more humane and helpful, in their "coverage."

What can we do? I don't know. I'm sad and confused, like everyone else. I'm not giving up on the news media, and on journalists in general. I still believe it is a profession, and many will stand up to prove it, even now. More importantly, I have faith in our collective humanity, and believe that each of us will offer to others - friends, strangers, and even, especially, people we don't like or understand - an extra measure of kindness going forward. If that's through Facebook, OK. If it's a photo of a flower on a textbook on Pinterest, so be it. I won't be looking at local "reporting" vehicles for perspective on this tragedy, however.

______________________________________________ 
Live and let live

Thanks to The Quill - in its 100th year - for highlighting this 60-second spot as something of a Valentine to journalists. The brief video shares a few gems the world might have missed (or learned of far too late) if not for journalists.

I'm proud to say I love journalists, on Valentine's Day and every day.

Thanks, Quill, SPJ, and journalists everywhere.

- - - -
Watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xlVx6za3Vo&feature=colike

Is everything dead, except communication?

Yes.

Can you tell I'm fed up with doomsday headlines? For heaven's sake folks, newspapers are dead, Google+ is dead, e-mail marketing is dead, Facebook's barely breathing or maybe it's just sold its soul in anticipation of a going-out-with-style IPO. Oh, and today's teens are never going to learn how to talk to each other, thanks to that damn texting fad.

Communication isn't dead, folks. A hundred years ago (or so) when I was in J-school (when we still called it J-school, and OSU's J-school was still accredited) I was taught that breaking through "the clutter" and making sure your message was carefully targeted and repeated (nine times - seriously, that's what my notes say) was the only way to communicate because we suffered from such ungodly information overload.

That was before Al Gore invented the internet. When, if you said something off-mic, but the mic was really on, it probably took, like, three days for the story to make the rounds.

Journalism is changing, like everything else, and communication isn't dead. Those who give up on communicating, however, will die. To be clear, please know that I'm talking about businesses, not people.

Decide what your message is. Figure out who needs to hear it. And share your news. Then repeat it. Nine times.

The tools have changed, but good communication really hasn't gone up in smoke.

Handy Journalism Toolbox

Thank you @JournToolBox for this DIY Freedom of Information Act letter template.

http://www.splc.org/legalassistance/foiletter.asp