Brainstorming

We've been doing alot of brainstorming recently. I think the exercises in class have helped. Each time I sit and write ideas, whether they be about the good and bad inthe paper or otherwise, I have a few more.

I have the tendency to have a mind that operates on one track. If the track is unobstructed then I'm fine and will go through walls. However, if there's a block I can be thrown off.

These exercises and some others like them that I have tried out of class have been beneficial to clear up the obstructions. At least, I can try and get better about trying not to get thrown off track.

The brainstorming and ideas off the cuff seem to be the pasrts of journalism that I have struggled with. Hopefully with these exercises I can fix that.

In class we also talked about the new technology coming into the newsroom. The idea of the screens is a good one. Being able to use it for budgets is the best idea, losing all the extra paper. But I wonder about projecting interactive Web sites on the noninteractive screen. I'm still not sure how it will work.

Another Hectic Week

I think we're three weeks in now. That's scary for alot of reasons.

1. The semester is still hectic.

2. My reporting, thus far, has not gotten alot.

I am relatively certain it will pick up, but this semester has been a bit tough so far. I have not exactly been the epitomy of immediacy that the Missourian is shooting for.

I learned something else in the newsroom last night: Sometimes immediacy is defeated by technology. But just as when the press used to break down, we found a way to get the news out.

I also spent the week establishing some goals for the semester.

That's all for now.

My first post, not my first try

While this is the first post on this blog, it is not the first time I have created a blog. I took a Topics in Writing class here at MU that focused on blogging. There were other journalism students in the class that, like me were interested in seeing where blogging might be taking journalism.

That was the spring of 2006. While the blogosphere was already filled with blogging journalists, what we were talking about sounded so far off. It wasn't. Now the Missourian has gone digital, echewing (though not completly) newsprint. The topics in that class weren't that far away.

I think the question is now about balance. It's not a new question. Businesses have had to deal with the issue of where the employee ends and the blogger begins.

Will papers take the same editorial views on a blog as they would on a editorial page? Will they get the same protections? Can we keep our integrity on the Web, while still chasing the story even faster now?

The one thing to be said is that I am intrigued about the prospect of my byline showing up on some screen in outer Azerbaijan at some point.