Megan Taylor

So last week I got one of my projects to the "show it to the boss" point. Supposedly it's going live tomorrow. I will link then.

My story has been postponed until "official action has been taken" whatever that means. Oh, well.

I have 2 other projects to finish this week, plus a couple of long-term data projects, and the grapevine tells me I'm getting a new assignment today. This is good, cause I'm used to high-pressure deadlines and that hasn't been the case so far.

Over the weekend I purchased Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson by UF's very own Bill McKeen, as well as The Definitive Guide to Django: Web Development Done Right, by Adrian Holovaty and Jacob Kaplan-Moss.

I can't wait for these to come in. I really want to continue to learn different programming languages and frameworks. My internet access at home right now consists of finding an open wireless network on my street and sitting outside with the mosquitoes, so some books will be really helpful.

If anyone wants to recommend other books or online resources, please do!

I gave my impressions from the first day or so of work, but a full (sort of) week has given me more time to get acquainted with my new job.

I've worked on several projects, thought none of them are quite ready to go live yet. I'll link to them when they do. But so far the work has been pretty easy and well within my skills. I was surprised at how much Flash I remember, even though I haven't touched the program in over a year.

I'm also working on a story for next week! I pitched this one myself, and while its nothing big, I'm happy to be writing. My greatest fear is being pigeonholed into the programming room.

I'm supposed to see about some database work in the next week or so, which will be something new to add to my arsenal. I know how databases work and how to work with them, but I've never actually built one.

On the side, I'm continuing to work through Django tutorials and plan on buying some books soon. I'm also in the market for a job after my internship is over.

I've got a couple of posts coming up that should be more stimulating, but I've been too busy to really organize my thoughts yet. Here's hoping I can get one or two out next week.

So I'm a day and a half into my internship at The Miami Herald. I am a "multimedia intern."

It's a little gloomy around here, but most of that is rain. People are starting to make jokes about the cuts and motivation still seems high. Then again, I didn't see much of the newsroom before Monday, so I don't really have any basis for comparison.

I was afraid of the changes I would face in moving from a managerial position at a small paper to a flunky at a huge paper. I shouldn't have worried. Even though the newsroom here is enormous, the online group is pretty small. I'm a medium-sized fish in this room.

Yesterday I built a little sidebar for a page on the site and today I'm working on a page for a series of stories. So far I'm being handed assignments and then pretty much left to myself to get them done. Just the way I like to work.

About a week ago this comment showed up here on my blog:

"I'd like to learn more about the process to publish at a professional epaper, about functions and tasks of reporter, sub-editor, IT technician, web master... Could you tell me about those? Tks"

I've spent the last week trying to define these different jobs, and I'm not satisfied with what I came up with. Every newspaper seems to function differently, especially as far as publishing online goes.

Anyone want to chip in some descriptions?

So, after having dropped off the face of the cyberearth for a few weeks, I'm resurfacing in Berlin. I'm taking a Photojournalism class with Professor Freeman and some other students from UF.

And by the way, yes, I did manage to graduate! It hasn't quite sunk in yet, but I'm sure some day it will. My move to Miami was anything but graceful, but everyone involved survived.

So I'm in Berlin for 2 weeks, then back to Miami for my internship. I'll start uploading photos tomorrow and blogging about my experiences here.

So far, I've managed to get from the airport to my hotel, find food and walk 3 miles. And realize that my German is even more atrocious than I thought. I can read pretty well, but forget the rest.

This city has more graffiti than any other place I've ever been. Some of it is even extremely artistic, as opposed to just scribbles on the wall. Unfortunately, I wasted most of the daylight hours recovering from bouncing from plane to plane for 15 hours, but tomorrow I'll be out and about bright and early. (Could I get anymore cliches in there?)

The online capstone course, Applied Interactive Newspapers, is built to work like an internship.

There are 6 students in the class this semester. Each of us is responsible for pulling in 7 stories each week, from The New York Times or AP wire.

These stories are published on Newszine, the Interactive Media Lab's news Web site.

Recently, in addition to the 7 stories, we were assigned a multimedia requirement. Each week, 2 Soundslides and 2 videos will be published to the site along with our stories, with labor divided among the staff.

It was my turn to do a video this week. I chose to do a video tutorial for using Soundslides. I wrote out my script and talked to my partner, Matt Gonzalez, about the shots. We set the camera up and also set the editing computer up for screen-casting.

Then I did my thing. I'm not particularly pleased with the outcome. I get massive stage fright as soon as the camera's watching, even though I'm only on the screen for a few seconds.

But I learned a lot from this. I should have run through my actions a few times before I did it for the camera. It also could have done with a little more editing.

In any case, I'm learning a lot about video and editing, so by the time I graduate I should be pretty good at this.

My plans for this summer just got more interesting.

I got an e-mail yesterday notifying me that I could do a photojournalism study abroad program in Berlin! I've wanted to go on this trip for some time, but it was always full when I got around to checking on it. This time I got lucky; it was my last chance because I am graduating this semester.

I've been to Spain and Costa Rica, and my parents took me to Japan when I was 1. Here's to another ridiculously long flight.

During the week after I get back from Berlin, I'm moving back to Miami. Hopefully, the people my parents leased the house to when they moved to Costa Rica will be out by then. I'll be attending the IRE Conference and then starting my internship at The Miami Herald.

After that, who knows? But life after college is looking better and better.

I'm doing an independent study on Computer Assisted Reporting with Professor Cory Armstrong in the Spring. I was told at a couple of job interviews that I need CAR experience, but the University of Florida takes data no further than the Fact Finding class.

So I'm going to find a dataset, explore it, and hopefully be able to produce a story package.

Right now I'm doing some research on different datasets currently available, but I'm having trouble narrowing down my subject.

I've been looking at some PEW studies for ideas on what sort of data to look at, as well as the IRE Database Library.

Some ideas so far:

• Campus Crime: compare Florida colleges or SEC colleges or just look at UF crime
• Walter Reed: I'm not sure how to find this data, or if it is readily available. But it was one of the seriously under covered stories listed by PEW. This could be taken more broadly: reduced funding in VA hospitals, funding vs. number of troops vs. number of living vets, 2001 to present for all kinds of money issues, number of wounded, currently enlisted, vets no longer enlisted, maybe also insurance
• Fluctuating Gas Prices
• Tasering Cases in Florida

Edit: I'm also trolling the Sunlight Foundation's "Insanely Useful Web Sites."

That's it so far. (Thanks to Mindy for the help.)

Picking a subject has always been the hardest thing for me. I just want to look at everything!

Suggestions, as always, are welcome.

Every semester the board of The Independent Florida Alligator accepts applications for editor, print managing editor and online managing editor (formerly managing editor for new media). All current editors have to re-apply.

So today was the board meeting, and having welcomed a new editor and print managing editor, I moved to the other side of the table for my own interview. Happily, I was voted in again. And the board approved changing the title from "new media" to "online."

The Alligator doesn't publish during school breaks, so there won't be many changes to the site until January. But today I launched a map of gas prices in Gainesville, accompanied by the 10 cheapest gas stations in town. Super cool, cause I've been trying for half the semester to do that.

In a game of "pass the quote," I heard that my friend Stephanie Rosenblatt, from the Miami Herald, said this:

The success of the online communicating with the public, serving the public and becoming successful, will succeed or fail based wholly on how well people inside the newsroom communicate with one another (paraphrased)

Too true. The problem is that in my experience, communication in the newsroom sucks. We're journalists, it's our job to communicate, but we can't do it with each other.

And the burden falls on the online departments to communicate and to be visible in everything they do, because the rest of the newsroom doesn't really understand what it's all about.

Just something to think about. How can online journalists make themselves a part of the newsroom society? How do you show progress and achievement? If you do not make your work visible, how will your colleagues know what is possible?

Classes end next week. That means I have 8 days to shoot a video, edit 3 videos, put together a Soundslides project, write two papers, and take 2 exams. Whew!

So why am I wasting time blogging?

Well, I'm really excited because I'm going to do a 12-week multimedia internship at The Miami Herald this summer. I'm very happy, but very nervous. Will they ask me to stop blogging? Will I do a good job? Will moving back in with my parents be a bad idea?

More thoughts on this after the rush. Winter break is going to be wonderful.

Today I was inspired by Joe Grimm's "Ask the Recruiter," a daily column about problems getting journalism jobs and internships. Today he wrote about a reporter who is having trouble cultivating sources.

For some reason, this brought to mind Adrian Holovaty's data collection of hotels he has stayed in. Which led to my spending an hour or two creating a Google Spreadsheet of every source I'd ever spoken to for a story. (I always kept my notes in a box in the closet.)

No, this won't lead to some crazy database on a news Web site with all my source info and notes. But I am willing to share my template. (I've exported it as an Excel Spreadsheet.)

I think this would be especially useful for reporters covering beats, but a great resource either way.

Here's how it works: One column for source names. This includes titles, where they work. The next column is for phone numbers. Then e-mail addresses. Then stories they helped you with. Simple right? The next two columns are trickier. One column will record the first date on which you spoke to this source. The next will record your notes, whatever it was you talked about. If you are granting a source anonymity, make sure to make a note of it here as well. Now, on each subsequent talk, you add two more columns for this source: date and notes. Get it?

I think it's a pretty cool way to keep track of this information. However, some newsrooms have policies against keeping these types of notes for legal reasons. Please check your newspaper's policy before you implement this.

I've started my job/internship search and therefore have had occasion to communicate with a number of journalists, mostly via e-mail. A trend I've noticed is that once I've made initial contact, addressing my e-mail to Mr. _____ , there is a very strong objection to the title.

One journalist jokingly (I think) threatened to kill me if I addressed him that way again. Oh, by the way, so far this response has only been observed in males.

I'm not calling you Mr. cause you're older than I, or because I'm sucking up. It's either a) I actually respect you, or b) I don't know you or a combination of the two. Every "how to get hired" guide in the world requires the use of a title until otherwise specified.

Yes, most journalists are an informal bunch, but when it comes to job inquiries, better safe than sorry.

So don't get your panties in a bunch when I start with Mister. I'm just c.m.a.

Alright, so I didn't cause as many problems as I had expected. I chose to use a customizable theme, Copyblogger, by Chris Pearson, for a few reasons:

I'm not trying to sell myself as a designer. Although I've gotten much better since I was told to study up on design, and I can identify good esign and elements of good design, I'm just not up to creating on my own yet.

Part of my inability to design is due to lack of time. With three jobs and a full course load at school, I just don't have the time to design and code this site in time to impress potential employers.

I chose Copyblogger for its clean design and easy customization. I customized some of the colors to reflect an earlier design concept of mine that didn't get completed, but I loved the color palette.

Now, instead of my portfolio being a separate Web site, it is integrated here. I removed the sidebar from those pages to prevent distraction from more important things like my resume and clips.

I've got some more changes floating around in my head, but for the most part, I'm satisfied and won't be making any more drastic changes. I think this implementation will make it easier to keep everything updated and organized.

Though it's been 6 years since I walked into high school for the first time wearing ragged jeans and my younger brother's T-shirt, my taste in clothing hasn't changed. I'm most comfortable in the shirt and jeans that have gone through the washer so many times they hang together by three threads.

Which is one of the explanations for why last weekend was so challenging.

On Thursday, I had job/internship interviews with The Miami Herald and The St. Petersburg Times. An event that requires the full pantsuit and heels. The interviews went very well, in fact, the best I've had yet.

Friday evening was the cocktail event for the Alligator's 2nd Century Celebration. A little less formal, but military boots paired with a skirt: Not cocktail material. I met some really interesting people and I had a great time, but at midnight I was really glad to walk home in my socks.

Then on Saturday, the Celebration was in full swing. As the new media managing editor, I had to sit up on the dais. I know everyone was too busy talking and eating to look at me, but I'm not the most graceful eater...so I kept my mouth shut.

My parents would be delighted to learn that I've finally entered the realm of professionalism, I can dress myself without being an embarrassment and I'll keep the heels on until midnight. (Which is when I assume everyone is too tired or inebriated to look at my feet.)

I understand that appearances matter and that I'll never get rid of the heels for good. As one of my professors pointed out: I'd hate to lose a good job to a moron who dressed up because I dressed down. But I don't have to like it.

This week, I ran into a professor who had seen all three versions of "dressed-up me." "Now, there's the Megan I recognize." As much as I look forward to life after college, I'll enjoy my jeans and t-shirts as long as I can. Mom always did warn me not to grow up too fast.

Last weekend I flew to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the National Writer's Workshop. It's a two-day series of lectures by writers and journalists covering "interview skills, crafting story ideas, the legal responsibilities of writers and writing techniques."

I was a little disappointed in the lectures. Although "Dirty old men, low rent crooks and the book of Proverbs works: How getting people to talk will help you gather the reporting to write a narrative investigation," (that's a really long title!) presented by Manny Garcia of the Miami Herald, and a few others were very interesting and helpful to student journalists, most of the lectures seemed to be aimed at getting a book published or introducing online journalism concepts to those of the print orientation. I stopped in all of the online journalism lectures, but they were mostly aimed at newbies.

I did have interviews with The Miami Herald, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and the Associated Press, but they turned out to be more like information sessions (how to apply for this particular internship with this particular organization) than actual job interviews.

But I didn't don the monkey suit for nothing. I'm seriously applying for multimedia internships (or jobs) with The Miami Herald and AP.

Next week I'll be heading out to SNDBoston, which promises both educational and networking opportunities, plus a chance to visit with some of my northern friends. I'm particularly excited that Adrian Holovaty and Brian Storm will be there.

I'm getting pretty close to graduating, and so have been trolling the journalism job sites looking at job descriptions and employers. One of the job titles I see pop up pretty often is that of "community journalist."

Now hold on a second...isn't a journalist supposed to report on the happenings of his or her community? Isn't that the whole point?

From a job description:

We cover stories ranging from local government to business profiles, features and school news, all with an eye toward real people. Our style is to engage our readers in solving community problems.

Yup, that's what journalists do.

Another one:

This newspaper's award-winning staff has gained national attention during the past year for its commitment to putting "community" back into journalism, and building a newspaper that its customers consider a "must read."

When did community ever leave journalism? Is this a reaction to the hyper-local discussion?
Every journalist is reporting on a community. Be it a neighborhood, a city, county, state, country, these are all communities.

Buzzwords are silly.

Starting today, every Monday I'm guest posting over at Angela Grant's News Videographer.

I'll be writing about video from the college perspective: jobs and internships, video on college media sites, interviews, j-school courses, etc.

So head on over and check it out! Feel free to drop comments and tips as well.

In the last week, I started a new semester, launched a website with a new CMS and design, stayed awake for 48 hours, got sick, got well, spent an unjustifiable amount of money on books, cleaned my apartment twice, turned 21, interviewed three people, and caught up on the summer backlog.

But thus far, I have met with success on all fronts.

This semester is really exciting for me because I am the New Media Managing Editor at The Independent Florida Alligator, 9 months away from graduation, and my various connections and activities are going places and getting results. Awesome. It's also very stressful, for the same reasons. Trying to sync up schedules at three different jobs during the first week of classes results in a lot of mayhem, but that should be settled now. All I have to do is not fall behind.

My responsibilities for this semester include:

• · Bringing more people, news and multimedia to The Independent Florida Alligator web site
• · 4 classes: Photographic Journalism, Problems and Ethics in Journalism, Reporting and Writing for the Web, and Advanced Interactive Reporting

Advanced Interactive Reporting is a brand new class governed by self-directed learning in which we will be designing a converged newsroom. At least, that's what the syllabus says. So far, I'm still not sure what we're doing, except that it will involve multimedia and teamwork. Fun.

• · Consulting at the UF Computing Help Desk
• · Updating and upgrading the Citizen Access Project Web site
• · Writing a weekly post for Angela Grant's News Videographer blog
• · and of course, keeping up my own blog!

I know that looks like a lot of work, but I'm confident that I can get it all done with my usual determination and of course, endless bottles of Mountain Dew.

The beginning has passed, and I just have to keep going.

I decided not to take a class for this second half of the summer, so that I can concentrate on my three jobs and 465 personal projects (like redesigning this Web site).

While I am appreciating the extra free time, I miss class. So I thought this would be a good time to write about some of the classes I've taken and what I got out of them.

I'll write about Editing, Advanced Online Media Production, Applied Fact Finding and more, including some non-journalism courses that I think contributed to where I am today.

In the meantime, students, journalists and teachers: What was your favorite class in college and why?