tinynotebook

livetweet

Posted by Aaron - 27/09/08 at 04:09:00 pm

Experiment last night. I commented live on the presidential debate via twitter. Through the course of the debate I posted 45+ updates. Some fun. Some serious. Some utterly stupid. It was a great opportunity to comment on the reaction of the room to points of the debate. The newsroom, stuck at the office anyway on a Friday night, watched it together. Some excepts:

tinynotebook the debate is 15 minutes old. has anyone heard another country mentioned. Do other countries have Wall Streets and Main Streets.

tinynotebook Do you think that pen is going to hold up for four years? If so, I want that pen. My Bics don’t last a week.

tinynotebook Quote from my editor: “Stop telling them to talk to each other…it’s like he’s a marriage counselor.”

tinynotebook wondering what they are going to debate at the rest of the debates. we’ve hit energy, medicare, the economy and festooning.

tinynotebook For Obama being the “change” candidate. he spends a lot of time talking about decisions made McCain and his “record” are forwarding thinking

tinynotebook McCain won’t state in public that he is going to attack Pakistan. So does that mean he will take mean about them behind their backs. xoxo

tinynotebook Obama took POLS107 at Kzoo college: “your enemy’s enemy is your friend.” shout out to John Dugas and the rest of polisci kids from Kzoo

tinynotebook “I am not going to set the White House schedule…I don’t even a seal yet.” seriously. seriously. he went there.

tinynotebook waziristan sounds like a level in a mario bros. game. i’d lose.

tinynotebook its over. who won? who cares?

Check me out on Oct. 3. I’ll probably be doing the same thing (work permitting)

www.twitter.com/tinynotebook

Time lines, my new tool

Posted by Aaron - 20/09/08 at 03:09:00 am

Stories don’t happen in day, though we’re often asked to report on them in one.

The concept of the time line is nothing new, probably as old as time itself. I wonder if God sat down and made a time line after he was done creating the universe. Well, if he didn’t, Moses did.

In the past two editions of the Desert Dispatch, I have experimented with the time line as a story telling device.

Friday, Sept. 19: This time line ran with a story about the arrest of the two owners of Pit bulls that mauled a woman to death on Christmas Day.

Saturday, Sept. 20: This time line ran with a story about changes in the 760 area code. Who knew that so much could go wrong with an area code.

Rather quick to make, time lines give more information that you could include in a background paragraph in a format that is easy (and I think fun) to read. It better show the cause and effect relationship between events defining the thrust of your story.

Another tool in tool box.

Opening up events with video

Posted by Aaron - 19/09/08 at 12:09:00 am

On the third Tuesday of each month, business owners in Barstow meet for a breakfast put on by the Chamber. You have to be on the list.

What goes on at these meetings, most people in Barstow don’t know, but being that they are full of business types, it could be important. And this week, it was.

On Tuesday, most of the candidates running for City Council (go here to sign my petition requesting City Council meetings be moved to Wednesday so I can watch Gossip Girl) and mayor spoke. To give people in Barstow an idea of what these candidates are all about, I video taped their speeches, ran quotes in the paper and uploaded the full speeches on the Internet. The result: an interesting front page design and our most popular videos.

The videos were linked to the story and viewed 400+ times the day they went live.
Willie Hailey (CC)
Lawrence Dale (Mayor)
Carmen Hernandez (CC)
Richard Villegas (CC)
Gean Deaton (CC)
Marvin Ellis (CC)
Joe Gomez (Mayor)
Tim Saenz (CC)

I pulled the same stunt today, Thursday. Every year, the Chamber hosts a State of the City, State of the County lunch. The Mayor and Barstow’s supervisor in San Bernardino spoke about how Barstow and the area is doing, but you have to be on the list (and to get on the list it cost $25).

Thinking there could be some interest in what our elected leaders have to say, I brought the video camera again and set up shop. The result, another risky design scheme and more LONG videos.

VIDEOS (they are long)
Mayor Lawrence Dale
1st District Supervisor Brad Miztelfelt

At the end of two long days, the Desert Dispatch successfully opened two events to the public through video. And that’s what papers should do.

Gossip Girl petition

Posted by Aaron - 17/09/08 at 01:09:00 am

I can’t take it. It is 7 p.m. on a TUESDAY, and I have yet to see the new episode of Gossip Girl. Why? My job. But maybe this will help.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gossipgirl/signatures.html

I am starting a petition to get the Barstow City Council to move their meetings to Wednesday nights so I can watch Gossip Girl. Currently, the two conflict and since Gossip Girl is a bit cooler than the Council, I think they should have to move.

Please sign the above petition and show your support.

The Desert Dispatch redesign

Posted by Aaron - 15/09/08 at 04:09:00 am

We did it. Tonight we rolled out the new Desert Dispatch scheduled to hit news stand in Barstow Monday morning. Rather than bore you with the details, I’ll follow journalism 101 and show you.

redesigned FRONT PAGE (A1)

redesigned PAGE 2 (A2)

redesigned STATE•NATION•WORLD (A3)

As promised, here is B1.

Enjoy.

retelling stories

Posted by Aaron - 12/09/08 at 04:09:00 am

Tonight’s TIME forum with McCain and Obama was the same story as last year. Seriously, a former reporter and I wrote a story last year about whether volunteerism and public service was still riding high. It was, despite falling numbers from volunteer organizations.

“Don’t they have anything new?” I thought while listening to the candidates. This is old news.

Today was the seventh anniversary of Sept. 11. The paper, liked papers around the country, covered local memorials and searched for a local angle to mark the day in a meaningful way.

But how do you? After seven years of writing “Remembering Sept. 11″ (appropriately tomorrow’s lead headline) stories, what do you write about?

Last year, the paper tackled the question of volunteerism. This year, we found a local connection. The captain of the sheriff’s station was in DC for intelligence training on Sept. 11, 2001. He and his wife, confused and unsure what to do in the immediate aftermath of the attack, went to a nearby fire station to volunteer.

I worry, however, that after a few more years, the Sept. 11 stories, if they already haven’t, will repeat. Will our sheriff captain be interview again by a reporter in three years?

How many more years do we devote special coverage to Sept. 11?
What did you write about on Sept. 11?
How did you mark the anniversary?
If Sept. 11 was not known as Sept. 11 or 9/11, would you even know that today was the anniversary?
Is Ludacris pissed because terrorists decided to attack America on his birthday?

New video post: Soldiers remember Sept. 11

Posted by Aaron - 11/09/08 at 03:09:00 am

With Fort Irwin and the National Training Center just 45 minutes from the paper, I headed up there today to see if soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq still think the attacks of Sept. 11 are the reason we are still fighting. Their response, yes. Many of the soldiers I talked to enlisted before Sept. 11, 2001 but then re-upped following the attacks.

The filming was nearly flawless except for some distortion with the lapel mic (that thing is so sensitive, it should be called a belt mic, cause that’s where you got to put it). I elected to go noteless and rely on my footage to craft my print story.

What’s in my bag?

Posted by Aaron - 10/09/08 at 06:09:00 am

Before I start, a nod to Meranda at merandawrites.com. She posed the same question on her blog a day ago.

Before I lay out the list, my thoughts on backpack journalism. I love the concept. The journalist that go anywhere, report on anything and in any media, print, Web, photo, video, audio and create your own response. Word junkies, pick up a point and shot digital camera or throw your breaking news up on twitter from the scene, 140 characters or less, please. Photogs, grab a video camera or jot down a few words about what you experienced while composing your latest photo essay.

To me, it is similar to the backpacker movement (or How to handle a hip-hop backpacker) in graffiti and hip-hop culture. The artist would have all the tools of his or her trade racked on the back ready to spring into action at the site of a good place to get up or an impromptu block party.

(HRO moment: I’m listening to Common. Does that make this post more or less authentic/meaningful 2 u?)

Think about it. You could be the next Kanye West.

So what’s in my bag, because I don’t carry a backpack. I roll out to every reporting gig with my camera bag in tow. Inside:

• Nikon D70 with Nikkor 18-70 kit lens (currently experiencing shutter problems so I rock the paper’s D200, no complaints there)
• Nikk0r 80-300 telephoto lens in case man/woman with a badge won’t me get close
• Sony mini DV camera
• Lapel mic and wireless transmitter/receiver rig
• Headphones
• Digital voice recorder (I’ve got the Olympus WS-311M too)
• Extra batteries for the still camera, video camera and a few AAs
• A photo only notebook and whatever wayward pens and pencils got left in the front pocket of the bag

My essentials are in my pockets. Back right pocket, wallet. Back left pocket, notebook. Blackberry Pearl (for boring work stuff but great for filing briefs from the scene) in one front pocket. iPhone (for having fun cause sometimes you have to sit around and wait for an interview) in the other front pocket. And normally, by the end of the day, I’ve got a pen lodged behind both ears.

And the nice thing about reporting in the desert, I don’t have to worry about if it rains. And when it does, can someone say weather story?

What do you carry out on assignment?
Should journalists be expected to juggle multiple media formats at once?
How do you balance note taking, video recording, still photography and reporting at scenes?
What have been the best stories for backpack journalists?
C.Y.O.R?

wrds R meaningful 2 me

Posted by Aaron - 07/09/08 at 05:09:00 pm

I need a new art project that connects me both with my semi-hazy and forgotten past and the present web 2.X culture. Enter the merging of wordle.net and songs from the late 1990s alternative movement. Word clouds beautifully organize words and 1990s alternative music not-so-beautifully organized the feelings of a teenage boy.

I start with Not an Addict by K’s Choice.

Thank you wordle.net for giving my past meaning.

What songs from the 1990s do you find most meaningful?
Would they make pretty word clouds?
Could you share them with me?

Organizing the 2008 election

Posted by Aaron - 06/09/08 at 10:09:00 pm

My article on candidates organizing for the 2008 election just went live on www.desertdispatch.com.

Experience the difference as candidates prepare for election.

The tough part of the whole article was organizing it. To be fair, I had to include snippets from each candidate, seven for City Council, three for mayor. And some didn’t have anything interesting to say. So how to make it interesting and make is fluid and not cheap any of the candidates out of free advertising in the paper.

• Interesting: When talking to co-workers, the nugget I would mention first was one candidate’s plan not to do anything. So that had to go toward the top.
• Fluid: I tried to use quotes from the candidates as transitions. It would give me a chance to include the candidate’s voice but not stall the article on campaign rhetoric.
• Free advertising: I sacrificed my nut graph’s punch in order to include every candidates’ name high in the story. That done, it was time to do some story telling.

The story mimics my own thought process about the election this week. With the pomp and circumstance of conventions winding down, I decided it was time to do some serious reporting on the local races. I’ve got nine stories plan to run on Monday’s throughout the remainder of the campaign.

1. Getting organized.
2. Target votes: How candidates are targeting different groups/neighborhoods?
3. Campaigning in Barstow: Does it work when every candidate plans a grass roots campaign? And what happens when grass doesn’t grow in the desert?
4. Presidential campaigns: How are the national campaigns penetrating Barstow?
5. The race for the water agency: What is at stake as Barstow sets to elect a new rep?
6. CSDs: The importance of local governing at its most honest level.
7. A week of candidate responses to various issues: crime, water, development, education, create your own response, who is your hero.
8. Money and the final push: How much has been raised? How has it been spent? What’s their plan for the final week?
9. Politics and church: What, if anything, are preachers saying the weekend before the election?

The list is in no way set. The campaigns may change.

How are you covering local elections in for your papers?
What are the issues that matter most in your communities?
What do you do if your readers are not very interested in the campaign?
How do you balance equal playing time for all candidates in your paper?

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