last of the opinions!

I need to quickly link to my last column of the semester!

This one is based of a real news story I covered for The Arizona Republic. Since about 80% of the time I talk about journalism with my friends the conversation turns to how bias the media is, I thought it would be interesting to address the issue from a candid, experience-style narrative.

Being a columnist and journalist provides a great opportunity for public—and published—reflection on stories that most news organizations try zealously to stomp out. I even thought it might be risky to voice my opinions after covering the story, so I took care to make the column as balanced too. The point really isn't my opinion anyway (confusing, right?), it's the lets-talk-about-it approach to our beliefs, and how we confront adversity. Ultimately, it's just about setting it all aside and getting the job done.

quit school and start a band, I should

quick column catch up: this week's and last week's.

Finals are here, which means less time to post. BUT I did make time to see two really awesome concerts last weekend: The Flaming Lips and Okkervil River. Both were a blast, and I'm extremely please at how my photos turned out—considering I was using my small, digital camera that usually can't handle dark concert situations. Luckily, both concerts were fairly well lit, particularly The Flaming Lips, which was so bright I should have worn sunscreen.

among the internet-savvy + column

Tuesday is column day.

This one only turned out so-so from my perspective. I was rushing because I had a lot more work over the weekend (including a 25-page research paper) plus a lack of inspiration. It's not bad, just not the caliber I could/should shoot for.

Also, I finally learned some basic html in my Online Media class today. Beware Internet world; I am html-literate!

For an "internet-savvy" generation, it seems surprising how few young people understand the Internet — myself included until recently. I'm happy to be among the savvy now, though.

No doubt, cyber-publishing will soon dominate our culture as newspapers, books, and physical print atrophy. It's ridiculous to say that print will disappear completely. Books, periodicals and newspapers will continue to exist, but perhaps to a lesser extent. So many people, my young friends among them, continue to tell me "there's just something about having the physical copy," and I couldn't agree more.

That said, don't become too elitist to embrace the digital tide! Online publishing holds incredible potential. It's just too bad for me, and thousands of other young journalists, it doesn't hold financial potential.

"Ah," the starving artists of the world sigh...

catching up on columns

The columns continue: I had another column in "The State Press" today and forgot to link to last week's column.

I'm pleased with how this week's turned out. It's based on true events, unfortunately. The moment I got back into bed after the fire alarm, ideas for comparisons started whizzing through me. So, as soon as I knew what I was going to draw the comparison to, the rest was easy.

My editor and schoolmates have also been giving me a lot of praise lately. Since the job is unpaid, that helps make it worthwhile. The sweet thing about having placated my editor is now he thinks I'm an awesome writer and gives me much more freedom. This week, he basically told me to go ahead with my idea even though the subject had been claimed by someone else. I think his exact words were, "I trust you completely." Dangerous territory...

the best party ever, sources say

My opinion ran on Monday this week, but I was just too busy to blog until...NOW!

I'm finding it harder to have pure, theoretical opinions; that is, to talk abstractly about an issue. No doubt, I've developed the lazy imagination of a reporter.

While reporting takes a ton of time and effort, the reporter him/herself doesn't need to contribute much. Most good, well-reported stories will write themselves after skimming through your notes, assembling the strongest quote and outlining the narrative progression. The most difficult part—and any journalist can attest to this, regardless of whether they agree with anything else I'm saying—is coming up with a lede (the first sentence or paragraph, designed to capture the reader's attention). Ledes are often the biggest test of a writer's skill. If you've done enough good reporting, the rest of the story should come easily.

That's why writing opinions can, at times, be challenging. I'm lucky; I'm usually present for enough exciting/controversial events and issues that I can use my reporting skills in writing my opinions. However, I can't imagine being an opinion writer trapped in an office building or other such non-inspirational setting. At times, I struggle with this in school already. When classes start slicing into my time, and I'm stuck studying instead of going to events or lectures etc., coming up with an idea can be excruciating.

It creates a definite conflict between performing my job as a journalist and still keeping up with academia, but, right now, I feel like I'm getting the best of both worlds, a good balance between class time and adventure.

It really is incredible how much I've experience being a journalist; my world has expanded so much. Over the past two years, I have developed a gigantic list of contacts from all over Phoenix. They are the people I've contacted at one time or another for an article. My friend Joe and I joked yesterday that I should have a "thanks-for-helping-me-with-an-article-at-some-point" party, where everyone who has ever contributed to my work gets to meet and talk. It would be a big party—lucky I have contacts in the food business.

two birds with one Matsuri

Another opinion this week.

Matsuri was last weekend—also the subject of my opinion.

If you can get past the rampant anime/cosplay invasion, there are still plenty of awesome vendors, bonsai trees, origami and yakisoba.

School has really kicked in, so I'm falling behind on the blog.

Mill Ave. Inc.

Things have been busy, and I've fallen behind on the blog. I still wanted to link to my column, though.

This one turned out great. I even convinced my editor, who was pretty excited by the topic, to give me a small deadline extension so I could contact an official source. Going to j-school and having "get both sides of the story" drilled into your head so much, I get satisfaction when I actually do "get both sides." Of course, it's an opinion so real, balanced journalism doesn't apply in the same way, but it still makes me feel like I've done my job.

I have a vague idea for next week. We'll see how it turns out.

who's got opinions anyway?

I had another opinion in The State Press yesterday.

This one was probably my least inspired of the semester. I had a major story-idea block and spend a lot of time floundering around with it over the weekend. Finding good story ideas is the most difficult part of any story for me, reportering or opinion. Once you have a direction, the rest usually falls into place--provided you can get sources to talk, but that's another story.

I'm more excited about the next week. I have a good idea already and a source lined up for an interview. I love having an early game plan.

from the chest up

Another week, another opinion.

Oh, and I scanned in my joke/incredibly "unique" photo this time:
I took his head shot as a playful joke with the photo editor, with whom I'm good friends. It went something like this:
"Okay, now look thoughtful or something."
"Like this?" (pose)
"yeahyeahyeah"
"Ha ha, you're not going to use that, right?"
"No. Ah. Wait. We'll see."

Knowing Damien, this outcome should have been obvious.

It's not horrible though. While not quite professional fare, the photo certainly does set me apart from all the other I'm-just-too-cheerful columnists, which is what I'm all about. It makes you wonder, "just what is this guy thinking about?" or "He looks smart," or "Where is his other hand?"

Right?