Sports: It's All About The Story

Apparently all of the students from the first session presented by Eric Adelson, including myself, were inspired enough to return to his second session. Adelson decided to use this second session, which was originally supposed to address finding a story within a game, as an open forum. Students asked questions ranging from "How do I make the most of my internship?" to "How do you write about sports that aren't interesting?" The main point that really hit home with me was when Adelson said: " The stories you write aren't about sports, they are about people who play sports." It is up to the writer to make people care about sports, even if they know nothing about it. Sports writers must paint a picture, tell the reader what the sights, smells, sounds, etc. where like and what the turning point of the game was in order to tell the story accurately. I really enjoyed sitting there and absorbing all of the information Adelson was sharing. It made me wish for a sports writing class at NSU... (hint, hint)

-- Lauren Sciba

Managing Conflict

It seemed as though the 2:30 hour was a popular lunch break for all of the interesting sessions. I wandered into the Managing Conflict session presented by Carry Berry-Smith from U of Wyoming. Personally, I have never really liked dealing with conflict, but I would say I know how to deal with a difficult situation when presented with one. Having no other options for a session, I thought perhaps I could learn something or maybe even just be reminded of some valuable lessons. Berry-Smith suggested that when faced with conflict in the newsroom, students should do the following:

1) Understand yourself and how you react to conflict in general.
2) Identify the specific conflict at hand and realize that emotions bring out the fight or flight mentality in most people.
3) Control your emotional response with your brain -- this means, don't fly off the handle. Do something "right brained" like counting to 10 or writing the alphabet.
4) Check out your "beliefs" and "fears" and ask questions like "is this worth fighting over?"
5) Identify the elements of the conflict - what is causing this, what are the logistics?

Overall, I was not highly impressed with the session, but it was good to hear those things my mother has been telling me all along, once more.

-- Lauren Sciba

Profiles: Hammering the Scenes

I opened the door to this session at approximately 1:30.32 and there were people packed in the aisle all the way up to the podium. Eric Adelson from ESPN The Magazine apparently draws a big crowd wherever he goes. This was probably the best session I have attended all week.

Adelson picked a girl from the audience to use as an interview subject. The girl (coincidentally named Lauren) was seated in front of the room where Adelson proceeded to walk the audience through an interview step-by-step. To come up with good questions to ask the subject, a reporter should first contact the subject's best friend, mother, roommate, teammate, etc. and collect stories, anecdotes and background. Then, the subject can be asked to comment on those stories, giving you more background and a deeper profile.

Adelson said a profile should be a roadmap of a person's life. Questions should be used as "monkey bars," one leading to another. Making a subject comfortable is key -- if someone is not comfortable, they won't talk to you. And finally, ending the interview with the question: "Is there anything else you want to add?" is also important because Adelson said that is where you will get your best quotes.

-- Lauren Sciba

The Truth About Jobs and Internships

I suppose I should have known better that this session would be a panel discussion when I read there would be three speakers. Benjy Hamm from Landmark Communications (they own The Weather Channel), Adriana Brockman from Gannett Corp. (USA Today's owner), and Jody Beck from the Scripps Howard Foundation fielded questions from students on how to land an internship or job after college. While the session was informative, I left feeling more overwhelmed and discouraged than anything else.

One thing I took away from this session was a few main points potential employers look for such as experience, drive and passion, curiosity, work ethic and professionalism. In those areas I feel confident, however, many of the panel members said they would probably not hire someone who had only worked on student media. They said experience with a local media was a must. This concerned me because I have not worked outside of the NSU media, although, I feel like my experience with those media have been valuable. I suppose I will just have to edge out the competition with my winning personality.

-- Lauren Sciba

Writing Sports Columns and Blogs

After my experiences yesterday at the sessions with Joe Gisondi, I made it a point to attend other sessions where he presided. Gisondi talked about the differences between blogs and regular columns, although there are few, the main one is the freedom that blogging gives a writer. Blogs have no gatekeepers and a writer publish whatever he/she wants. Gisondi said a blog is absolute freedom in the writer's world. He also discussed the importance of developing a voice and finding new and creative ways to tell stories. Blogs and columns share some rules, like avoiding clichés, hooking the reader, entertain but also inform. Overall, I enjoyed hearing Gisondi's tips on becoming a better writer. I plan to start reading his blog and emulate his skills.

-- Lauren Sciba

Writing Game Stories Worth Reading

THIS SESSION WAS AMAZING!!!

I got so many ideas from this presentation, I can't wait to get back to Natchitoches and rewrite every story in the sports section of the Potpourri. Seriously.

Joe Gisondi from Eastern Illinois University inspired me and gave me so many ideas for stories and angles. I feel like, at NSU, sports writers can get away with writing sub-par stories because no one else wants to do it. After this session, I don't want anyone to get away with that anymore.

Since NSU doesn't have a sports writing class, I walked away with a lot from this presentation regarding writing sports leads and leaving out statistics no one knows about. Gisondi also gave suggestions for building relationships with sources, not letting athletes and coaches get away with cliche answers and putting positive spins on stories after a team lost.

I am so excited to go home and put all the things I learned from the sports sessions into action!

-- Lauren Sciba

Legal Issues of Online Newsgathering

I'll be honest, I was disappointed with this session. Adam Goldstein from the Student Press Law Center discussed issues concerning Facebook for most of the presentation. He vaguely touched on copyright laws, contract laws and mentioned fair-use and fair-access issues. During the Q and A session, people mostly asked "what if...." scenario questions about ethics and what they could or couldn't get in trouble for.

I felt this was a waste of my time, as I have already taken Communication Law and Ethics in Journalism, so I didn't really learn anything new. The description of this session was misleading; I thought the session would cover more about online newsgathering, not primarily discuss how using photos from Facebook used out of context is wrong.

-- Lauren Sciba

Breaking into Magazines

This was a popular session for NSU student media... A lot of my fellow students were present for this one.

David Levy discussed how to make a living as a freelance writer for magazines. Although freelance work can be hit or miss, he said a living could be made, if a writer is persistent.

The importance of query letters and details of formatting and content in the letters was discussed in great detail. I felt like this session was very helpful to me because I can see myself doing freelance work in the future.

-- Lauren Sciba

The Successful Sports Section

The speaker for this session was Nils Rosdahl from North Idaho College. He had some great examples and ideas for quality sports sections for newspaper that could also be modified for yearbook.

I was really fired up by this session; it gave me such great ideas for our media on covering different sports and creative ways to report. Rosdahl said that sports stories should not be recaps because everyone already knows what happened before they pick up the paper. The stories should have an angle and also look towards the future. Feature stories on players or specific plays are a good way to make the section interesting too. I realized from this session that sports stories are newsy, but should be written more like features to draw in readers.

-- Lauren Sciba

How To Cover Your Campus Effectively

Sally Turner from Eastern Illinois University presented this session that discussed the importance of using every source possible.

Turner said every person on campus could be a potential source, including the lunch lady and the maintenance worker. Using the same sources over and over, such as the president of the university or the head of a department will eventually become obsolete. Quotes will become uniform and answers will always be vague when interviewing "important" people. A public face of the school will always sugarcoat things, why would they ever say anything negative about the place that writes the checks?

The session gave me some good ideas that I plan to implement when I return to NSU.

-- Lauren Sciba

We made it!

Although I was excited to arrive in DC, getting here was not a process that I was excited about.

Jim, Mary and I were originally expected to arrive in DC late Wednesday night, however we managed to finagle our way on the stand-by lists for two flights. We actually arrived earlier than the rest of the group and avoided a four-hour layover in Dallas.

Upon the reunion of the group, we boarded the Metro. Dr. Lee warned us that rush hour might cause chaos while riding, so we prepared ourselves for the massive crowd of commuters. I now know what salmon feel like in their migration up-stream.

We finally came to our stop on the Metro where we headed towards the hotel, walking the four longest blocks of my life.... In the rain. Toting suitcases and covered by umbrellas, I can only imagine the sight we were to the locals -- a horde of student journalists accompanied by the roar of rolling bags and obnoxious umbrellas. Look out, DC! NSU IS HERE!

-- Lauren Sciba