My Penn State
If you’re a born and bred Penn Stater, you’re probably in a dark place right now.
I graduated from Penn State in 2003. My parents are both graduates who had season tickets for more than 20 years. My grandfather has his masters degree in counseling from PSU and my great grandfather even lived in Old Main, the administration building, at one point. An aunt and uncle went there too, plus a bunch of my mom’s cousins.
We are…A Penn State Family.
I was just shy of 2-years-old when PSU beat the Miami Hurricanes to cap off an undefeated 1986 season and hand Joe Paterno a national championship. I knew to throw up my hands when my Mom or Dad yelled “touchdown” and there’s a picture of me wearing a Penn State sweatshirt that day.
So, to find out that a former Penn State coach may have raped children and other Penn Staters did little to stop it crushes me. I couldn’t even make it through the whole grand jury report the first time I tried to read it. I was devastated and ashamed of my school. And I can’t even imagine what the victims and their families are feeling.
A friend wrote the other day that it’s hard to describe having your heart broken by someone you’ve never met but have idolized since you were a child. That’s how a lot of my friends feel about JoePa.
To me, it’s more about what he as a representative of Penn State stood for as opposed to Paterno the person. I, like so many Pennsylvanians, was brought up to think that Penn State just does things a certain way. There was a moral superiority about the institution. It was supposed to stand for something good.
It doesn’t feel that way now. My mom says she feels that something inside her was eviscerated and she doesn’t know if it will ever come back.
What we knew as Penn State doesn’t reconcile with the images being played on television.
I’ve been reminded in the past few days though that Penn State is much more than a few horrible people. I’ve tried to focus on what I do know to be true about the school, even as I can’t look at the JoePa bobblehead doll sitting on my desk.
Here’s what I’m trying to focus on:
* Daily Collegian reporters and College of Communications alumni have done a tremendous job covering the story, particularly 2008 grad Sara Ganim, who broke the story for the Harrisburg Patriot-News and has been all over CNN and ESPN this week. It was a reminder of the good education I received and the dedication of many of the professors.
* Penn State STUDENTS raise millions of dollars for the Four Diamonds Fund each year. That is because of the hard work of a lot of students who are dedicated to the event, which culminates in a two-day dance marathon. My friend Sarah danced for all 48 hours as a sophomore.
* I met some of my best friends there. The aforementioned Sarah is a guidance counselor and our other friend Kim is a junior high English teacher. My friend Erin is also a reporter and my roommate Jess is a analyst for CapitalOne. They are Penn State to me.
I’m still in a dark place when it comes to Penn State as are most of my family members and friends. But I am hopeful that eventually I will be able to look at my diplomas or the Penn State sticker on my windshield without feeling complete and total sadness at what took place there over the past two decades behind closed doors.
For now, hopefully groups like this can lead the way back.
Does Social Networking Actually Make You More Social?
Does social networking enhance your personal life or truncate relationships? That’s one of the questions that the Pew Research Center looked at in its study of popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Some of the study’s findings:
* In 2008, 28 percent of social network users were between the age of 18 and 22, but in 2010 that number has shrunk to 16 percent.
* 31 percent of Facebook users check their page “several times per day.” (I know I fall into that category.)
* The study also concludes that Facebook users are more politically engaged than the regular public and that they often can revive dormant relationships from the past through the site.
Some interesting morning reading
*TV Newser has an interesting piece about interviews that end up on the cutting room floor. Jon Stewart, who appeared on Fox News this past Sunday with Chris Wallace, talked about how his interview was pared down, leaving what he felt were some interesting points out. Stewart does the same things with his interviews though, as most shows do. You make a judgment call on what will make the best package for your viewer or reader. I once got an email from a communications director noting that I asked his boss an awful lot of questions over a lengthy period of time just to write about one thing. Sometimes that’s how it works.
* More newspaper layoffs. Gannett continues to shed employees. Every time you think the news industry is stabilizing, there are more mass layoffs. Newspapers that once were vital parts of communities now can barely cover the news. In Tallahassee, the local paper (which is owned by Gannett) has been so hard hit that it can barely cover the city. Frequently, stories go by unnoticed.
* Are newsrooms more relaxed about plagiarism with the economic downturn? Poynter considers it.
*
How would you vote? Putting it to social media
A New York state lawmaker asked constituents how they would vote on gay marriage if they were in his shoes.
The move just goes to show how influential social media is right now in the political and news world. But my question is what type of sampling are people really getting if they put the question out to the social media world.
According to Pew, 13 percent of adults online are using it, but are they representative of a wide variety of people? That is the question.
Other linkables:
* Lessons on pay walls from smaller papers
* ASNE best practices for social media
And John Stewart on Fox News.
Yeah, I’ve Been Busy
OK, blog fail, I know.
It was an insanely busy week last week and well, I just didn’t post any links. Trying to make up for that now though.
* I’m not sure what the news value to this is, but the Chicago Tribune explains how they’re covering a massive snowstorm.
* Penn State Magazine senior editor and journalism adjunct professor Lori Shontz writes about the difficulties sports reporters face in using Twitter. I cannot tell a lie. When I was in junior high/high school, I wanted to be Lori Shontz. At the time, she was a sports reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (my hometown paper) and she got to cover Penn State and the Olympics. I religiously read her sports coverage and I actually got to sit next to her at a dinner for student journalists when I attended Penn State. Yep, I’m a dork.
* The staff (and their Twitter handles) of Rupert Murdoch’s new Ipad newspaper. Can’t wait to see how this model works! (and whether it succeeds or fails)
* From the Reynolds Journalism Institute at Mizzou — The Patch Effect. Institute fellows look at the pluses and negatives of AOL’s ambitious hyperlocal experiment and whether it will sink or swim.
* From the Nieman Foundation, editors from around the country discuss Time Magazine’s coverage of the Tucson shooting.
OK, that’s it for me. Happy Tuesday!
Happy Monday!
I’m not really a grumpy Monday morning person, hence the upbeat post title. Sorry if your caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet.
I’ve got my story budget worked out for most of the week (some good policy issues to dig into) and have seen a few good journalism-esque clips worth linking to today.
* My coworker sent me this “manifesto” from the Guardian in the U.K. It’s more or less 25 commandments for journalists.
* Lessons from the Zodiac story, via Poynter. The difficulty in balancing the teasing a story before the late night evening broadcast
* Engaging Facebook fans from Mashable. News orgs are constantly struggling at how to best use social media to bring in readers and increase hits to a site, so its worth a read if you can relate it back to how to best attract readers.
Just To Add to the TGIF
Just to add to the last post, for all those in their 20s who watched Boy Meets World, the final scene of the show.
TGIF!
Remember when you were little and TGIF meant Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Family Matters? (Or when I was little, at least)
Now it signals happy hour with friends, date nights, movies, weekend chores, etc.
So, in honor of Friday, some links for y’all. (trying to work on being southern…it’s not going so well)
* A pretty interesting Poynter post by Roy Peter Clark on social narratives via Facebook and Twitter. I’ve never really looked at my feeds to see if all my posts go together, but I feel like they seldom do unless I am specifically Tweeting an event for work.
* Great piece in Folio on the intersection of the business and news operations for publications when it comes to social media. For a while now, the use of social media has been largely an editorial operation for many publications, but now, advertising departments are trying to figure out how to bring in more money from it.
* From Media Shift, the idea of applying gaming mechanics to the news industry. I probably need to go back and read this again with an open mind. The last game I remember playing was “Duck Hunt” at our friends’ house across the street. (My parents are anti video game, so my sister and I didn’t play them growing up.) I am not sure how exactly this would work, but I’m pro trying anything to get people to read the news.
OK, I’m off to work now. TGIF!
Lunch Time Notes
I tend to read newspapers and blogs while I’m eating my lunch. Here’s what I’ve been reading today.
* An article from the New York Times on AOL’s hyperlocal bet. Is there a Patch site in your community? I met one of the editors at the Capitolbeat conference in Arizona this past fall and was pretty impressed with what they are doing. I’m all for companies investing in new strategies if they can afford to do so. Eventually, a new business model for journalism will emerge.
* U.S. markers will spend more than $3 billion advertising on social networking sites, eMarketer writes.
* Mashable’s biggest stories in social media for the day.
* And though not a story, a resource for teaching journalism students CSS/html (good for students of all ages!)
That’s it. Happy Tuesday!
Sunday Morning Coffee
I’m not a coffee drinker, so it’s more like Sunday morning tea for me. But to the main point, here’s a look at some of the articles I’m reading this a.m.
* Politics Daily has an obit on trailblazing journalist Kay Mills, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and other news outlets at a time when there weren’t that many women. I admit that I love reading stories about women who broke down barriers and I confess that I didn’t know anything about Mills. I now want to go check out some of her books.
* Forbes has a piece on Rupert Murdoch’s tablet newspaper strategy. I’m so curious to see how this turns out. While the news industry has and probably will continue to suffer for the short run, it could also be a moment of great innovation. How will the news be delivered going forward and will it be a profitable business? I’m tired of the negativity and think anyone who has an idea should try to make it work.
* SPJ will no longer give out an award named after former White House reporter Helen Thomas after the Washington institution made racially insensitive comments toward Jewish people.
* Tunisia uprising via the NY Times photo department. I sometimes wish I’d taken photojournalism classes at Penn State. I love looking at photos and think of how many photos from famous world events stick with you — the naked child running through the street in Vietnam, bodies hanging from a bridge in Fallujah, Elian Gonzalez hiding with a relative in the closet, etc. I could go on and on.
-
Archives
- November 2011 (1)
- June 2011 (3)
- February 2011 (1)
- January 2011 (7)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
