Twitter snark among journalists

I follow some pretty amazing journalists on Twitter.

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I enjoy seeing what they’re working on right now, new technology tips and even photos of their burnt dinners. I laugh when they make fun of themselves or point out some sort of blemish in their competition’s work with a quick, but poised 140-character tweet.

Lately, I’m see a whole lot of mean on Twitter from some amazing journalists. The people I’m talking about have thousands of followers. Is it worth it to be ill-mannered for everyone to see?

We all work so hard to gain respect in our field while being ourselves at the same time. Sometimes it’s worth it to ghost tweet.

Ghost tweet (v) /gōst/ /twēt/

• To write a tweet and delete it before publishing to the social media platform Twitter

"I was so pissed. I just ghost tweeted a felt a lot better."

After reading a few mean-hearted tweets to either followers or fellow journalists, I thought about the people who met their all-time favorite artist in person and were disappointed.

I saw avid writers tear down fellow journo addicts and definitely lost a little respect for them.

Maybe I think too highly of these journalists. We’re all humans. We all have really bad days. I just hope people realize each rude tweet that’s published is sent to the thousands of people who follow them.

I’m not going to link to the tweets I’ve seen because we could all learn to think before we tweet.

Real life producer probs (catered to WRDW News 12)

1. TVU de...(7 seconds later)...lay
2. Putting a video ID in the wrong line
3. Cutting off words in extra long supe
4. Editors asking for video that isn't down yet
5. Misspelling something so badly that it's incomprehensible
6. Realizing you made any of the above errors mid-newscast
7. Your lead changing 10 times in one day
8. iNews time jumping during your show
9. Being forced to use rain video
10. Getting stuck on the phone with a crazy person

AND THE LIST JUST KEEPS ON GROWING... 
((STINGER))
UNTIL NEXT TIME.
BYE, PRODUCER PROBS.

Taking a break to be a better boss & employee

I’ve always been a career-driven type of woman.

During my first job out of college, I’ve learned the real reason for weekends.

They’re time for you to take a breath, relax, catch up on sleep, dive into your guitly pleasures and spend quality time with your favorite people.

For a while I thought that being 100 percent submerged in work would make me a better employee and eventually a better boss. I’ve come to realize that isn’t true.

You have to take a break to look at what you’re doing from another perspective.

It’s sort of like dating, you see your lover every single day in the exact same setting and it becomes the norm. Once you take a few days away, you remember why you’ve invested your time and energy into the relationship. Sometimes you get an extra jolt to jump right in and change things up.

Here are some great ways to back away from the job but stay engaged.

Soak up your weekends

This is your deserved break. Make sure your weekends count. If you have a type-a personality, make every hour count. Plan a dinner and movie for Friday night. Kayak at 9 a.m. on Saturday and run around with family the rest of the day. Or, if you like to take a backseat on your free days, sleep in, hang out, wear your PJs all day long. No matter what, this is your time to shine. You killed it at work and you need some "you time" in order to do it all over again next week. 

To email or not to email

Everyone has different anxieties when it comes to emails. Personally, I like to check them every few hours so they don’t pile up into the triple digits. I compare it to sports where I want the highlights not a play-by-play. Other people like to ignore those never-ending emails until Monday morning. Find what makes you at ease. Emails may seem like something small, but can make a big difference when you’re trying to stay present outside of work.

 

Go to a conference

 

Yeah, it’s still considered work to some, but it’s a new environment with new people. You’re out of your usual grind and I think this is a great way to stay engaged in work but still jump out of your normal routine. Find sessions or meetups that really grab your attention. It’s time well spent and if you’re willing to learn, a conference will give you a new outlook on work.

 In the end, kick ass at work but remember to kick off your shoes when you’re done.

Challenging news norms

I’m not one who challenges authority often, but in the newsroom I'm a different creature.

I’m always thinking, questioning and wondering “why?”

The phrase “that’s the way we’ve always done it” gets under my skin and brings out my inner news beast.

I loved working for TCU 360 in college because we started from the ground up. We questioned traditional news standards and tried to make every “rule” fluid and purposeful.

At TCU 360, we posted a mug shot on the front page of our website and students cried out that we were insensitive. Instead of ignoring the comments, like some steady news orgs may, we asked ourselves why. We decided that mug shots and criminal records are public information, the news we were reporting is important to our audience and we also set standards to make sure everyone we reported was given equal treatment.  We kept coming back to this standard and questioned every report after that.

I don’t think conversations like these are happening as often in local and national news organizations. It’s easy to get into a rut or routine when you’ve been in the industry for so long. If you’re not in tune to concerns or questions, you may tend to see things a little too methodically.

For example, fires. Some television stations will head over to a brush or house fire without any second guess. Why are smaller fires worth reporting? Because they’re visual? Because that’s what we do? I know huge fires and specifically where the fires are may affect more people which would add more newsworthiness. Are small, bright flames worth 20 seconds in a newscast? I think talking to the people affected by the blaze could be a great alternative.

Print folks usually leave me hanging when we get some reporters’ paper thin philosophies. I can see the black ink pumping through their veins when the word “smartphone” is uttered. “Try live blogging!” “I don’t trust devices that may fail on me. I’ll stick with my trusty pen and notepad.” Going out on a limb to use social media will only make a print reporter more adaptable, but there will be some who will never change. A big h/t and applause to the reporters out there who are fearlessly diving into social media and the web.

Ruts are easy, comfortable and not unusual in a newsroom.

I believe asking (not thinking) “what makes something newsworthy” every day will put the gears in motion to create better stories and let more time and space for more news become available.

And maybe my two examples are wrong to you. Maybe you have the perfect answer for the things I question. If so, I’ve done my job. I just want to get the gears rolling because there has to be something that someone questions in every news org that is worth a second look.  

I don’t think our current audience deserves journalists who are stuck in old ways. Please stand with me and challenge the news norm.

Soaking in the Masters and visiting Augusta National

Augusta National: The only place where the men’s bathroom line is twice as long as the women’s. 

 

I had the chance to produce 5 Masters-focused shows this week and visited the course on Saturday.

 

Producing during the Masters

 

Each show this week was so exciting. It was sort of like planned breaking news. We usually had two anchors in studio who tossed to the field anchors at the top of the show. Our sports anchor would usually go on first with the latest standings. We’d then either have a package from the course or some fronted VOSOTs. The folks at the course spoke with legends and found typical patrons with amazing stories to tell.  

It’s difficult to keep in constant contact with the media in the field because Augusta National prohibits cell phones outside of the media center. We stayed in touch through hourly emails and iNews top lines.

The shows were fun and having the studio anchors and folks at the course talk with each other was a huge advantage that we often don’t get.

I’m very proud of the work I did this week and if the Masters didn’t have strict rules on course video online, I would share my finished work with you.

 

Enjoying Augusta National

As I walked in on Saturday afternoon, I felt like I was walking into an amusement park. Guards checked my purse to ensure I left my cell phone and camera in the car. My badge was checked multiple times before I got a good look at the enormous, breathtaking landscape of the course.

Once I was in, it felt as though I walked into another dimension. This place couldn’t be 10 minutes away from where I sleep every night.

The course was filled with patrons, champions, media and amazing scenery. I was lucky enough to have the best tour guide around; my friend from the station was taking photos throughout the day. She was able to lead me to all of the right holes at the perfect time and fill me in on knowledge about the course and about the sport in general.

We walked nearly the entire course and chatted with people from around the world. I’m not a golf expert, but I knew to gaze with my jaw open at the folks in green jackets. Multiple club members and champion contenders stood just feet away from me.  

I’m very, very thankful for this week.

If you love golf, beautiful scenery and a great atmosphere, visit Augusta National. You can stay at my place if you swear to bring me back a pimento cheese sandwich.

Having integrity is hard

Last week, five people died in a plane crash near my station’s viewing area and most of the victims lived in my new town, Augusta.

This was my first chance to dive headfirst into breaking news at my new station.

It was an easy meeting as the director and assistant director helped stimulate of ideas and divvied out content to shows.

I produce the 5 p.m. newscast. We had an anchor in the studio, a reporter in the newsroom, our other main anchor in the field accompanied by a field producer and two reporters. This was such a team effort and communication was vital.

I felt in my element and seem to have my routine down pat. My Google Drive document was open separating all of the junk from the confirmed reports via sources, police and locals. I had Twitter open finding sources while others sifted through Facebook. As the day went on, I triple checked all of our information.  

It’s 5 p.m. We’re in the show.

The content ping-ponged back and forth and updates were coming in spurts. It gave me such a high knowing that I was able to produce a solid, important, breaking newscast.

It would have been easy to attribute or assume information from other stations and sources or use the names that we had since the morning. We wouldn’t. My news director told us before we left that “it’s hard to have integrity” but it’s what’s right and what keeps our viewers coming back to us.

Here comes the question that some journalist will always ask: Don’t we want to be first?  

Our social media editor wrote this on our Facebook page:

Check out those likes. Our audience respected our decision to wait. It is so gratifying to know our viewers understand our difficult role. I even put a reporter in the newsroom talking about this post and explaining why we weren't naming anyone online or on air.

Once my 12-hour day was done, I got home and it was all a blur.

I saw this tweet the next day.

I love when the work week seems like a blur. It usually means high productivity. #tgif
— Jeff Kátra (@jeffkatra) February 22, 2013

I hope I helped to serve the community and those families well.

Comfortably under pressure

I've taken a job as a News Producer in Augusta, GA with News 12 WRDW.

I started on Dec. 31 and, with five days under my belt, I've already learned a great deal and am extremely glad I actually read some of those assigned reading a few months ago.

The thing I'm most pleased with is working with such smart and dedicated people. The team works as if we're the No. 1 market in the nation and that's a perfect enviornment for me.

I'm learning to operate iNews from scratch and adjusting to a new city and its officials. As of Friday, I wrote and updated several local and national stories, produced a quick block of a live newscast and will soon have my own show to produce.

I've become a sponge, soaking up all that I can. The journalism industry fills me with something that I can't explain. I think this is going to be a great start for my career and as I get more comfortable with the position, you can bet I'll thinking of and start blogging about some new ideas.

I'm leaving you with the song that's been stuck in my head all week.

Under Pressure. 

I mean -- that's where I've always wanted to be and I'm finally there.