Magzalez’s eyes on media

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A lot of people become journalists because they want to do something different everyday. They want to drive to work not knowing what is going to go on that day. But the truth is journalism can get monotonous and most of the time we’re reporting on day-to-day life. So why not try to spice things up?

One thing I’ve always thought is that journalism needs to become more creative. In the newspaper, the everyday story could be peppered up with a creative lead, interesting quotes, etc. Photographs could convey what they need to convey with the bonus elements. Video could take some techniques from the movies and try something new from time to time.

One newspaper that just gets it is The San Jose Mercury News. I mean, really, these guys get it.

Just take a look at this video, “Friday Night: Custodian.” The visuals, the sound, the characters, they’re all perfect. What is really an uninteresting idea–a story about a woman who has been a custodian in the same place for more than 15 years–kept my attention because of the masterful video and audio techniques implored by the journalists at the the Mercury News. Dai Sugano’s name keeps coming up when I see a good video.

Some newspapers need to stop taking my viewership for granted and take a page out of the Mercury News’ book and start making more interesting, intricate, in-depth video.

Here are a couple more interesting multimedia pieces from the SJ Mercury News and others:

• “Long Snapper,” a look at San Francisco 49’s long snapper Brian Jennings’ pre-snap run down (SJ Mercury News)
• “Spring Glow,” made for spring fashion 2007, awesome, uses stop motion and many other cool techniques (SJ Mercury News)
• “Becoming a zombie,” out-of-the-ordinary good for The Gainesville Sun.
• “The Vault of Terror: Davie family transforms home into haunted house,” (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

If you’re a South Florida sports fan, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Dan Le Batard. He’s a polarizing figure. A lot of people love to hate him, but I love to love him.

Le Batard, a now-infrequent columnist for The Miami Herald, the host of The Dan Le Batard Show on 790 The Ticket and a frequent guest on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, is one of the newest big names in sports writing.

I consider him to be the best sports columnist out there today, trailed closely by Greg Cote, another sports columnist at The Miami Herald.

I enjoy Le Batard’s view of sports as just another entertainment fixture. He’s willing to take an unpopular view on different subjects and admits when he’s wrong. But more than anything, he’s funny as hell.

Le Batard is an interesting twist on the mutli-platform journalist. He started as a writer in 1991 with The Miami Herald, though his impact in writing has gone back to his days at the University of Miami where he once published then-Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz’s phone number in The Miami Hurricane and encouraged readers to call all week leading up to the game to distract the coach.

In 2004 Le Batard, along with co-host John “Stugotz” Weiner, started The Dan Le Batard Show. It was an instant success. Le Batard’s quick-witted sense of humor and the quirkiness prevalent in his columns translated well to radio, winning him accolades along the way. The Le Batard show also gives long-time readers insight into his thought process while writing a column. Though he won’t say it, a prevalent sports theme in a week’s worth of shows will most likely make his almost-weekly columns. I must add though, Le Batard is known for not talking about sports just as much as talking about them.

Le Batard has most recently expanded his skills to television broadcast as a frequent guest host on ESPN’s ever-popular Pardon the Interruption.

All of the love I have for Lebby leads me to ask, why not go online? I’ve seen a slide show or two with his name buried in the credits but not much else. Why not blog? I wouldn’t mind pulling up a fake sports blog a couple of times a week. But alas, you can’t do it all.

Columns:

• Pats are better in every way imaginable
• A hopeless romantic could love this team

Radio:

• Retired guest, Fake Pavarotti, singing about Dolphins QB Trent Green
• Dan Le Batard interviews Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe one day after Marlins president David Samson remarked that Ichiro Suziki’s new contract would ruin baseball

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Here are the numbers from The Princeton Review:

Career: Journalist

• Number of people in the profession: 70,000
• Average hours worked per week: 55
• Average starting salary: $28,100
• Average salary after five years: $44,600
• Average salary after 10 to 15 years: $69,000

You’ve got to love the job because it’s not a huge money maker. Here are some more numbers by PayScale.com.

Jim Sullivan of Journerdism.com, with some unofficial research, concluded that the median income for a multimedia or online journalist is about $45,000. In a recent blog post, Sullivan gave some tips about the business and its money. The most interesting thing I read, he said he learned from his parents:

“People seem to not ask for raises or something. My parents are awesome; they taught me many things, including: 2 percent raises are costing you money. In an average year, inflation is 4-5 percent. If you’re not getting that much, you’re actually loosing money working for the same company. 3 percent standard wages are costing you money. Do not accept this malarkey.”

This is my own rebuttal to my last post.

In the last couple of days, while researching this topic, I’ve discovered that there are plenty complaints about journalists’ misuse of Facebook.

Liz Losh of VirtualPolitik wrote in August that she believes newspapers, including her hometown paper, The Los Angeles Times, have been using Facebook to collect details about crime stories from the involved parties’ Facebook profiles.

A grossly neglectful attempt at reporting, Losh likens the lazy practice to her students writing entire papers based on Wikipedia articles.

I typed “according to his Facebook profile” into Google and quickly got a hit. The first article that showed up was from the Yale Daily News. The article makes numerous references to facts scraped off a recently arrested man’s profile. Here is another example from The (Charlottesville, Va.) Daily Progress.

Check out why one Northwestern University student thinks “Facebook is a better journalist than you are.”

*Update: Check out Facebook hurting journalism.

It is interesting how much I hear about journalists using Facebook–the networking Web site formerly for college students and recently open to the public. From what I have seen first hand, the uses of Facebook for journalism have been positive. It has been used to check names, affiliations and activities. It is by no means a first source, but an easy way to make sure people exist, how to spell their names and how to put a face to a name.

Facebook can also serve as an online directory of sources from stories past. It’s a good way to keep posted on what sources are up to. Joe Grimm of the Detroit Free Press tackled some questions about Facebook and journalism on the Poynter Institutes’ Web site. Grimm shutters at the idea of “friending” sources, but he understands the value of Facebook as a networking tool.

Check back for my next post on how Facebook could hurt journalism.