Considering Role While Answering Questions

It was not long after I sent an email to the Publications students on Feb. 14 offering guidance that several of them took me up on it.

Several staff members had minor changes they wanted to make to the article roster, a spreadsheet containing basic information for all of the stories being written for a given issue. A few students wanted to know with whom they should share their drafts.

One student called me for clarification about how he should put together the information he had already collected into a working draft.

Another emailed me a series of questions she was planning to send to one of her sources so that I could give my thoughts on them. (They were good – one I suggested be changed from a closed-ended question to an open-ended question.)

There are limits to what I can do as an educational assistant, however. I cannot make final editorial decisions – that is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the editors. I can make advisory suggestions and, if needed, strong recommendations (if, for instance, we discovered plagiarism, I would be quite adamant that the article be cut). But the last word rests with them.

I am also not responsible for grading. The Professor makes the decision there. I can make suggestions for how to move forward in uncertain circumstances (such as when the February blizzard changed our schedule). I can also help with reviewing, which can be a daunting task given some of the tight turnaround times involved in production.

I inhabit a between-states role, and I have to be aware of that as I assist students. When one student emailed me asking if we could run ads or articles supporting local businesses, I said I liked the idea, but to check with Editor-in-Chief Dave Weidenfeller. Another student asked if there was a problem with dropping from two stories to one. I said I would make the change, but could not say how it would affect her grades, if at all.

Despite the limitations I’ve described, there is still plenty I can do to help. Even when I can’t directly answer a question, I can direct a student to the person who can because I know from experience what roles other members of the class occupy.

There is also another benefit to my position that Professor Karyn Smith mentioned in class the other day – there is absolutely no reason for anyone to feel intimidated by me. My job is to help, not to judge.

The First Time Out

I felt a lot of anxiety reporting for my first story. Seeing it in print motivated me to get over my worries 

and began my love affair with newsgathering.

Image by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

Stories for the first issue of Horizons were assigned on Wednesday, Feb. 13. Since Housatonic Community College would be closed for President’s Day on Monday, Feb. 18, the Publications class would not meet again until a week later. By then, working drafts would be due.

The day after the assignments were given, I thought about the amount of time Pub I students would be on their own with their stories. I thought about my own early experiences on the paper. That evening, I sent this email:

Hi, Pub I Students:

I hope you have had success in your early reporting for your assigned stories.

I know this can be a difficult process, especially your first time out. Dave, the other editors, and I have all been through the same experience. Please don't hesitate to contact any of us if you have questions or problems. You can find our contact information on the Spring 2013 Horizons Staff Contact List.

Although we've talked about it in class, it's worth mentioning again that the earlier you get started, the easier things will be. There are often bumps in the road, even for the most experienced of journalists. So don't expect to get everything done at the last moment, and don't expect your work to be perfect. Reporting is something that can only be learned through practice, and that learning never ends.

Whatever happens, don't get discouraged. You have a team to support you.

Good luck, and enjoy the weekend!

I remember my first reporting experience. I wrote two stories my first time out. The first was a fairly standard story about the parking problems that perpetually plague the college’s garage. The other was a story about a show featuring Russian artists at City Lights Gallery, located a block away from HCC in downtown Bridgeport. I still think the headline was clever, if a little wordy. It read, “From St. Petersburg to Your Doorstep: Four Russian Artists on Display at Bridgeport Gallery.”

It was a warm, sunny afternoon on the day I walked in the gallery to cover the story. There were few other people in the gallery. I watched a man behind the counter from the corner of my eye. He must be in charge, I thought. I should talk to him.

Before doing that, I looked at each piece in turn, taking down  notes from the information on the labels next to the works. After I’d worked my way around the periphery of the room, I snapped a few pictures of my favorites.

I should talk to the man.

But I wasn’t ready yet. I was not particularly savvy when it came to social matters, and was completely uncertain about what to say. I had a list of questions with me, yet I couldn’t think of how to approach the first step: introducing myself. In my head, I rehearsed different wordings for what I would say.

I wandered over to a table covered in literature about upcoming shows and rifled through those for a few minutes. Then I made my way to the front desk, where there were some art-related trinkets and postcards on display. I looked through those to buy myself more time.

Eventually I gathered up enough courage to talk to the man. There was nothing else to look at, and given how long I’d spent in the gallery already I could not bear the thought of leaving without meeting my primary objective.

My anxiety turned out to be unwarranted. He was both polite and forthcoming. By the time I left, I had a number of useful quotes for my story. Elated at my success, I went home to begin writing the article.

I still have moments before talking with someone new when I feel a pang of the same social anxiety I felt that day. I’ve learned to ignore it, though. Over the last several years, I’ve had to approach hundreds of people to answer all kinds of questions in many different circumstances. Not all of those experiences have been under friendly circumstances, but nothing has ever happened to justify any hesitancy on my part. Talking with people for stories has taught me a lot about how to act in other social circumstances, both formal and informal. Basic interviewing skills have broad applications, from business meetings to personal conversations.

The first time, though, is always the hardest. I knew that many of the Pub I students would be finding that out for themselves during the week they had off from class. So I let them know that just because they were on their own did not mean they had to do everything alone.

First Stories for Pub I Students Assigned, Not Chosen

Although many aspects of the Publications class have remained the same over the years, others have evolved. Steve Mark, the currently-on-sabbatical-but-normally-in-charge professor of the course had a habit of tweaking at the edges of the course from semester to semester. He tried to identify hangups in the process to smooth things out for the future. Some experiments worked, and some didn't.

One experiment changed the proposal process. During my tenure as a student, everyone was allowed from at the beginning to put together story proposals. Pub I students were not required to do it for the first issue, but were encouraged to try. After the editors approved (or denied) proposals, they were all collected on a spreadsheet that contained the story slugs and the names of reporters, if any, who had volunteered to write them. Unassigned stories were marked NYA (not yet assigned). We would then give students a chance in class to pick up the stories they wanted to cover. We would highlight a few as important, and attempt to coax students to take one of those. Eventually, everyone would have to pick something.

Steve told me before he left for India that he had changed part of that policy for the first issue of the paper. Pub I students no longer have a choice about what they write; instead, they are assigned a story.

I saw this new paradigm in action Wednesday. Interim professor Karyn Smith told the Pub I students she was going to go down the list in alphabetical order and assign stories. A few groans issued from the crowd. One student sitting near me was watching the list inevitably draw closer to her name, whispering to herself, “Not that one....”

Both Editor-in-Chief Dave Weidenfeller and I spoke up in favor of the policy, cutting off the protest before it could mount.

“This is how it works in a real newsroom,” I pointed out.

When Steve had told me about the change, he had said it eliminated some of the confusion of trying to push students to pick up stories they might not know about or might not enjoy. It meant there would be more news coverage of the college, and fewer stories about Beyoncé. And it shifted lessons about proposing stories to the second issue, thus mitigating the deluge of basic journalism lessons that needed to be given in the opening weeks.

But what may be more important about the change is that it more accurately reflects the real world. Although professional reporters do propose their own stories, they are also regularly assigned to cover stories. The news is only half self-direction. The rest involves being led by the events of the day, which are rarely under the control of the reporter.

Being assigned a story also means being forced to get out of your comfort zone and pursue ideas and people you might not otherwise have encountered. That's the crux of education in general.

Pub I students are receiving a task they may not like but will serve them well. They'll still get the chance to propose and volunteer for stories on the next round. By then, they will be more knowledgeable and more prepared to contribute to the overall mission of Horizons.

Decisions, Decisions

A schedule is a delicate tool.

Prior to the beginning of the semester, the Publications course's interim professor Karyn Smith sat down with me to work out the details of Horizons' publication schedule through the first half of the semester. Most of the deadlines must be pinned down to the day, because changing any step in the process cascades across all the other steps.

Yet I can hardly recall a semester when some disruption did not occur. A few times it's been the weather. Once in a while it's a communication problem between departments or a problem at the printers.

So it should not have been a surprise something like the blizzard of 2013 would come along to cause trouble.

When you live in New England, you expect unpredictable weather to knock you off course. But this was unlike anything anyone had predicted. The Friday before the storm, The Connecticut Post reported that Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch said he was “bracing for anywhere from 13 to 17 inches of drifting snow,” but that Finch did not anticipate having to close schools because the afternoon's precipitation was expected to fall as rain.

Neither of those predictions was accurate. Bridgeport had 30 inches of snow dumped on it in a day - more than the city had seen in over a century. Surrounding towns fared no better.

My car was buried under the nearly three feet of snow that fell in Fairfield, Conn.
Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

Housatonic Community College issued a closure notice for Monday, when the Publications class normally meets. It was supposed to be the day when stories were assigned for the first issue of Horizons.

I wrote to Karyn:

I just read on HCC's website that classes are cancelled tomorrow. We really can't do story assignments for Pub I without talking to them in person, but there may be other things we can do. We can extend proposals to Wednesday, and ask [editor-in-chief] Dave and the other editors to look at the proposals and approve (or deny) them.

We should also discuss the publication schedule going forward. Any thoughts?

Karyn wrote back to Dave and me, agreeing that we would have to push story assignments back. She wanted, however, to try to keep the rest of the schedule intact. There was another wrinkle, too. The college would again be closed the following Monday for President’s Day.

There are normally three stages to the writing/revision process. The first is the partial draft, which includes a rough lead, a few paragraphs, and an explanation of the reporter’s plan for the rest of the story. The professor reviews and sometimes comments on partial drafts, but they do not receive any formal editing.

Next comes the working draft. At this point, the article is one-half to three-quarters finished, as is the basic information gathering. Editors look at these drafts and make changes, add comments, and suggest ways the story could be improved.

Last comes the final draft. This draft should be as complete as the reporter can make it. The editor will make only minor changes to the copy at this stage. Then he or she will approve it to be send to graphic design.

Karyn asked how important it was to keep the partial drafts. I had mentioned to her before that partial drafts were not necessary, per se, but that they offer a valuable chance for her to make sure students are on the right track early on. That way, if someone is pursuing ideas that have no relation to their assignment, she can guide them back to the proper path. It’s not such a problem for more experienced students. But it is relatively common for Pub I students (who have never reported a news story before) to lose their way.

I repeated this refrain in my response. She came up with a few different scenarios: we could push partial drafts to Feb. 18, keeping working drafts due on Feb. 20 and the rest of the schedule the same. Another option was to tighten the schedule by making partial drafts due on Feb. 20, then moving working drafts to Feb. 25 and leaving final drafts for Feb. 27.

I cast my vote for the former, reasoning that compressing the turnaround for editors into two days would leave the reporters with little or no chance for follow-up.

That was eventually what we settled on. Sure, it means the holiday will be a little less relaxing. But it is to some extent a blessing to have had the open day. If the blizzard had come at any other time, we might have had a real disaster on our hands.

Story Pitches Demonstrate News Sense

Monday is story assignment day for the first print edition of Horizons. Although Pub II students and editors propose their own stories, Pub I students are provided a list of story ideas to pick from for the first issue.

On Wednesday, I took the Pub II students and editors out of the classroom for a brainstorming session to begin a list of stories for the rest of the class.

One student suggested we run an article about the new apartment developments springing up around downtown (including one directly adjacent to HCC). She pointed out that most did not seem affordable for students at the college, and wondered aloud why that might be.

Another student suggested someone write about HCC’s mascot. The college has had one for years, but most people have not seen or heard of it.

A third suggestion involved a simple News You Can Use piece about the services available on the third floor of Beacon Hall. Among other things, the floor hosts several recreational rooms, the Student Activities office, and the Women’s and Men’s centers. Yet because so few students have classes there, newer students tend not to know what’s available.

There were also the perennial favorites - things like faculty and club spotlights. Almost every issue of the paper includes a few of these.

I was struck by the development of these students’ news sense. They were outspoken in their desire to fulfill the basic journalistic duties of covering issues at and around the college. They were mindful of the needs of their audience, as well as maintaining the newspaper’s ties to the organizations within the community. And their suggestions were creative.

This is part of the genius surrounding the program. There is enough guidance to give students a strong background in the principles and practices of journalism. At the same time, there is a high degree of autonomy, which allows them to “own” the work. Finally, because of the team dynamics stressed during workshops, editing, distribution, and so forth, the staff members often develop close-knit relationships that can last years.