In anticipation of the great Terry Williams

This guy right here is coming to visit our class today! Accordingly, Terry Williams is "President and Chief Operating Officer of the Keene Publishing Corp. and a great and generous friend of the UNH Journalism Program."

Williams was an environmental conservation major when he was in school. He somehow got into journalism, he's been around the world, and he's owned several publishing companies. So I guess my question for Mr. Williams is … why? What propelled him to study about the environment and then go into journalism?

Last night, I met a man named Tyler who had a double major in undergrad in economics and in journalism. Obviously it can happen. I just wonder how you go from Australia, to L.A., to Oregon and end up in New Hampshire. Nothing against New Hampshire -- it is my home -- I just wonder about how all the pieces fit together. And then again, maybe they don't. 

I'm just sort of wondering what he's going to come to talk to our class about. I hope it's not just about the business side of his life. I really want to know about his experiences. Then he can talk about his business and stuff. I know it's an entrepreneurial class, but it's a journalism class first and foremost. 

Comics journalism

The other day, a fellow classmate sent me a brief article about Comics journalism. I didn't expect that I would really be the first one to think of the idea, and already there's a wikipedia page for the style. However, it seems like the biggest forms of it exist only in England and Italy right now. So there's a still chance that we could bring it to the U.S. and also make it popular soon!

But really, I don't care who comes up with the idea, I would just love to collaborate with someone who shares my vision in order to provide this to the world. I would LOVE to read comics journalism. I don't really like the title genre, though -- that's something we'll have to work on. 

Joe Sacco is apparently a pioneer of the form, according to the wikipedia page. I think it would be cool to talk to him. I'd also like to see his work, and see what he's done with the medium. Has he taken risks? Has he played it safe to establish a genre first? Did he work with anyone? Did people think it was stupid at first? Does he want to work with me!? 

Can I also comment on another post I made? John Herman tweeted that he just directed some sort of zombie-literature-movie. I don't know. He really is a character, though. It's funny. 

My reviews of powerpoint pitches for the class project 2

Exploring New Hampshire, Discovering Asia: 

I really liked this presentation. It was really clearly presented, I didn't think it needed a lot of visual help, and I liked how Allie was very honest about what she was presenting (i.e. one-woman operation, don't want paid subscriptions, etc). I don't think there's anything I would change about this presentation the way it is. I'm sure there's a lot I didn't get because the audio is missing, as well. My last point that I will make is that I really like the title page. You get what it's called, the creator, and who the creator is/ why she should be listened to. I also think this is a good idea in general because there really isn't any resource that exists like it.

The Gamer's Gazette, Play the News:
I've been a fan of this idea from the beginning. I like the idea of playing a video game to get news. I do wonder if the game will be set up so that the characters have to stop and talk to people to get the narrative aspect of the news or if it will be like you can play a game and stop to talk to people or play on a timeline, for example, to get the effects of the BP oil spill. But as Joel said in class, it can be different for each game. I like that with this project, as well as with Allie's, they talk about how much it will cost, the competition (or lack thereof), etc. Overall, I think it's a good idea, and while it could be risky, it could be a good way to involve more people in the news.

My reviews of powerpoint pitches for the class project

The Source:

I love The Source's idea. I love the way the way the presenter started out with a history of social media, including exact years, sites I've never heard of or used, and what they are today. Personally, I think that the idea of having a one-stop-shop for multimedia, entertainment, and news is a great idea. I think it would be an easy place for users to find whatever they are looking for. In fact, that's how I've set up my Facebook. It's news, entertainment, and multimedia, but not to the extent I would like. I wonder if The Source's creator would have it be a social site, as well, so that friends could share things?

There isn't much I would change about this presentation, but if I were a potential investor, there are a few things that would turn me away:

1) For one thing, the second slide with the history has a misspelling. Not the end of the world, and I'm sure my PowerPoint isn't flawless either, but it's important to make it look brilliant. You've got a great idea - now prove it!

2) I think for a site proposing multimedia and news and entertainment, the presentation probably could have more pictures, videos, collages to show exactly what the intent of the presentation was. The presenter used 3 pictures throughout 15 slides. I'm a visual person. Show me what you mean. 

3) I think that the company mission should have been spelled out clearly from Slide 1. I love that the presenter had history in the presentation, but that stuff should come after the so called "nutgraf" of the presentation. I want to know what your company does and what you want for it before you tell me why I need it. As an investor, I need to understand before I can think about investing, right?

4) Lastly, and probably most importantly, the presentation hit on a hot topic: porn. Now, I know that we're all familiar with the porn industry. However, I think it's unprofessional to reference that in a presentation to investors. Many people know about porn, but few know what porn implies, which is human trafficking, men and women on drugs without the ability to make full consent to what they're doing, and people doing it to make ends meet without any actual desire to do that. To call it "successful" in a presentation is inappropriate. The porn industry is visual and physical prostitution. It plays upon the hunger of individuals for lust. It does not actually offer any good product as it exploits the human body and allows for awful, illegal things to happen. Porn is illegal. You'd be better off talking about downloading music from the Internet for free than talking about porn, unless you allow porn in your website. Further, the people who watch porn often have problems themselves, which could be anything from an addiction to porn and masturbation, or problems in their marriages and other relationships. You never know what your team of investors could be dealing with behind a computer screen, so when it comes to raunchy stuff, keep it out.

Focused Fencing:

The presentation about Focused Fencing was clear and direct. I know what it is offering me -- both online and print. I know how often it will come out, what any potential money could be used for, and the presentation somehow sounds confident. I love how the presentation even talks about competition. I think most of the pictures used were good for the visual effect. The only thing I wish there was a little bit more of was fencing history since you mentioned it was one of the first Olympic Sports, but it's not necessary to the presentation. I also liked how the presentation was very direct about being local instead of trying to play it off as something huge and famous.

Lessons in failure

I think it's safe to say that we all fail sometimes. Sometimes we fail pretty hard. That's fine. It's life. It's a learning experience.

But when it comes to a project that depends on success -- there are no second chances, there is no turning back -- how do we deal with failure?

After class last week, I had a revelation. I thought:

 yeah, I can do this. I can actually start up this company. I can patent it; I have local connections to start with. I'll start branding. I know how to use social media. This could work. 

Ideas were forming in my head before I could stop myself. I thought about all the ways I could advertise. I thought about reaching out to different kinds of people who would support my idea and help me make it a reality. I thought about connections and networks I had that could benefit and be part of my project. 

Then I stepped out of the classroom. The further I walked away from the threshold, the further I felt my ideas sink. What if it doesn't work? What if it flops? What if I just can't do it?

Then I realized that it really doesn't matter. If I hit rock bottom, it can be an inspiration to start anew. And if I fail, if everything I could do flops on the ground like a dead fish, so what? It's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean I can never succeed again. It just means it wasn't the right time for one idea. 

I wrote another post about Karen Larson, owner of The Candy Bar in downtown Durham. She had a greeting card business before. Her business didn't flop, but her ideas were ahead of their time. Now, her same style of greeting card that she used to sell as a new product is sold all over the place. Larson didn't consider it a failure; she just had to stop. And now she has a new business that is everything she wanted it to be. 

PowerPoint as a tool

Last night, I was working on the last part of my powerpoint presentation to pitch to my imaginary team of investors.

I was asked to use PowerPoint or iMovie. I chose to use PowerPoint because I know how to use it better, and I think in terms of usage, it can look more professional.

I am no expert in PowerPoint. I used a basic template that I thought resonated well with my project. I looked for pictures online that I thought would go well with my presentation. Overall, I think PP was a very useful tool for me to be able to organize my thoughts and put them down in a logical manner.

PP also has a bunch of useful tools that iMovie uses as well. While I am more familiar with iMovie, I found the transitions section to be very professional and useful while finishing up my slides. I even loved the easy accessibility for recording audio. I've never dabbled much in PP, so everything is kind of new to me. However, I do know that PP has gotten exceedingly user-friendly if you know what you're looking for. 

I also found it relatively easy to use graphs and tables, though my presentation did not need so many. I wish I had used PP more when I was younger. Professors use it in almost every lecture. It is kind of amazing to me how aggravated I can get when I look at a PP presentation because someone has not used it to its full potential, there are lots of words, the pictures are unnecessary, etc. Yet, strangely, when it comes to how I make my own PP presentation, I can't remember what works and what doesn't. 

Here's hoping it all works out! 

News in Comics - a pitch to investors.

I have an idea for a company. In some of my other posts, I've gone into some detail about it. Now, however, I have a pitch to make.

In my entrepreneurial journalism class, we were asked to make a slideshow presentation with audio to pitch to a team of investors. Our inspiration was the show "Shark Tank."

Until I learn how to embed my presentation, you can view it through Google Docs. 

If we didn't ask the hard questions

I was thinking about it the other day during a profile interview. One man came into my journalism class and talked about his cocaine addiction, his drug-addicted family, his hopes and dreams, his writing, his body-building.

We sat around the room and asked him questions. We were allowed to ask Jay anything. He was open. He distanced himself enough to recover from his past, and for an hour--maybe less--he answered hard questions.

What were you addicted to?
When did you recover?
How did you recover?
Is it hard being a bartender around alcohol all night?
When did you know you couldn't do drugs anymore?
How long did you know your friend before he fell off a balcony and got brain damage?

Then I wondered to myself: What would news look like if we dared not ask the hard questions?

How old are you?
What do you do for a living?
...

It would be boring. It would be more like an interview where you skim the surface of a person's soul and see if they have usable skills for your story.

Just skim the surface.

 The news would be boring. No one would be able to write biographies of Steve Jobs. No one would be able to write real obituaries. The news would have started as a good idea and slowly faded into nothingness. The same sort of things happen with bias, too. When people share only one side and don't ask about the other side, there's corruption. People stop turning on the evening news and opening the paper because it's just stale opinion.

If we didn't ask the hard questions, we wouldn't have news.

The social media conundrum

This time last year, I did not have a Facebook. I had email. That was it. Oh, and I had a phone with disabled internet because my dad was against smartphones.

A year later, if you kindly fast-forward through my life, I am now on a multitude of social media websites.

1.  Wordpress - another blog. 
2. Audioboo - an audio recording sharing network.
3. Soundcloud - another audio recording sharing network.
4. Youtube - a video sharing network.
5. Don't forget Twitter! 
6. I actually have a Facebook now.
7. I have a gmail, a comcast, and a school email.
8. Not to mention two separate bloggers and a pinterest, just for fun. 
9. I have an iPhone.

You know what I've realized about social media? Only some people understand its centrality to the rest of the world. Only some people care if they are put on it. Only some people hesitate before allowing me to post their name, faces, and information to the world wide web.

That's huge! Why don't people care anymore?

And that's the social media conundrum: a numbness to all things interwebs.

I'm not saying social media is a bad thing. I've just learned, since becoming a journalism student, how serious the internet can be. Maybe people try not to care about the seriousness of the internet because it equals impending doom or something. I don't know.

As a journalist, though, I am intrigued by the turn of events. People used to try to avoid giving their credit card numbers over the phone. Today, they plug them in to the same web browser page that is connected to Twitter, Blogger, and Boston Globe. Interesting.

This post: 'Tis a silly rant!

This blog shall be a silly blog, because right now I rather just feel like spewing my emotions onto this page.

If it is not well known already, I really would like to implement graphic news plan. Where to start, when to start, who to start with -- I know none of these answers.

But the reason I have such a strong desire to deliver and consumer graphic news is because it would be fun. I don't know if I would ever be known as its creator or if anyone would really care. Rather, the purpose is because it would be enjoyable. It would be a more enjoyable way of consuming the news than the regular morning broadcasts, the ink stained papers, the twitter feed.

I just want something different.

Which also sounds silly because news is always different, isn't it? It's always shape-shifting and becoming unrecognizable for a time.

I hope one day, graphic news exists, even if I am not the creator. I hope it becomes well-done, widely-used, and informative. I hope it's fair. I hope it can convey journalism in a good form. I hope it sheds light on truth and extracts details from scenes and stories that journalists don't have the time to convey and photographers don't have the will to capture.

5 things I wish I knew before...

Before I realized what I wanted to do with my life--write--I looked at news as a necessary but boring component of everyday life. I figured that when I was older, I might actually appreciate it. Until that day, though, it was just a way to bond with mom in the morning before the bus came.

When I finally realized I wanted to write, I was a senior in high school. I finally could admit to myself that science was not my foretold forte despite my family's predictions. 

I had some friends in journalism, and they seemed to really like it. Though I cared about English classes for the first time, I could never see myself rushing to deadlines, interviewing strangers, or being in a noisy newsroom. I still can't, really, and yet I'm immersed in its reality. 

There are five things I wish I knew before becoming a journalism student in college, regardless of my somewhat true ideas of what it entailed beforehand.

1) I wish I knew that journalism would only take over your life if you let it. There are plenty of journalists who do it for the love and hobby of it. There are others who want thousands of people to know their journalistic ways. Finding a middle ground is possible.

2) Talking to strangers isn't as scary as it sounds. With emails, phones, and internet, interviewing people can be fun and easy. And people love talking about themselves and their projects.

3) Journalism classes and books really will prepare you. 

4) Reading is the only way to be good at writing. That's what I learned when I read Stephen King's book on writing. That guy reads 80 novels a year. Some are on audio so that when he travels, he can listen. And almost all his books have been on the New York Time's Bestseller list. So yeah. I should probably start reading 80 novels a year. 

5) It's as hard as it looks. It's scary. It takes a great deal of time management and patience, even as a staff writer for a university paper. It's a challenge, but it has given me some of the best skills, intra- and interpersonal, that I could ask for.

*This blog idea was stolen from Corinne. 

When business and journalism merge

Last class, we had a visitor. A visitor who bought a magazine and then proceeded to teach about business. 

Now, needless to say, I am a journalist, which means I am mathematically challenged (this is not true for all journalists, but let's be honest). 

Mr. Burke came into our class and talked about accounts receivables, checks, balances, moneymoneymoney. 

I enjoyed Mr. Burke's presence. I enjoy learning things I do not understand so that I can better understand them. 

However much I wanted to learn about what Mr. Burke was teaching, it would not stick. We did not formally practice his principles of business. He talked to us, quizzed us on terms, and now all I know is how little I understand of the working world. 

If anything, Mr. Burke's presentation enlightens me of the fact that I never want to run a business. How could any one person know and do all of those things? Could I have an accountant do it? Sure. But I need to be able to check over things to make sure there are no problems, and how can I do that if I don't understand what I'm supposed to be doing?

I think next time I try to learn about business and finance, I should either be tutored from a finance major or buy a Dummies book. Otherwise, I am lost in a sea of numbers and numbness without even a hope of drowning. 

The concept of Goodwill

Goodwill, the business, is very different than the Goodwill in business.

It is not:

But rather a theory:

"Goodwill reflects a firm’s ability to retain customers based on prior performance. Essentially, if a business does a good job providing a product or service, its customers are likely to be repeat customers."

Again, I face a bit of a moral dilemma. Why is it called goodwill? I understand why the clothing Goodwill is called that. It meets a need. But goodwill within a business because it provides a dependable service...?

I guess I just don't understand. I have this mentality that businesses are more so for their own profit than for your gain. Most businesses are trying to survive, right? And not only to survive, but to really thrive in their respective economies and times. 

But to call it goodwill when customers keep coming back doesn't seem right to me. Does anyone else feel that way? 

If not, that's okay. I am not offended. If I could call it something else, I might call it just "quality services" from the business. Or returning customers. Goodwill makes it sound like they are doing something so great for the community at large, when in reality a lot of business try to change their stores around a lot, always have new products so that you feel like you absolutely have to keep coming back to get what you need. It almost creates a dependency in a spending culture. 

I don't know. I think I would just prefer it if businesses would provide high quality items at a good price, and keep those items around long enough so that customers do not feel they have to indulge in the consumerist society we have created. 

Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable

Is there even a point to accounts receivable and payable?

I don't think I understand the point. I think it's more a moral dilemma than anything, really, though.

Think about it. For accounts receivable, a customer promises to pay for the services provided. So what -- loans? Mortgages? Tabs at the bar?

And then accounts payable is when the business promises to pay the customer.

So then I wonder, why? Why do we have this system. It seems like its beyond the barter system, doesn't it? Maybe that's just my sleepy brain talking. But really, you promise to pay for something?

Is this part of the I-want-it-right-now generation? All of this business talk has just gotten me wondering why our system is so complicated. I get it -- it's hard work to run a business. It takes money to make money.

But what happened when it wasn't like this? Did systems fall? Or was is just not creating enough money? Or did things change when we went from local bartering to international trade?

I obviously don't understand the system, and I admire that it is so complex. Who thought of all this? One night, someone was laying in their bed and couldn't fall asleep. They tossed and they turned, they tossed and they turned! To overcome their sleep depravity, they came up with complex algorithms that would one day be the spine of every business in the world! After the algorithm, they had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and went to bed.

Does it just get you wondering, who invented this stuff!?

At least I can say that I have a refreshed appreciation for all of those souls who understand this practice.

Is life like a business?

Today we have a guest who will be visiting our class to speak about what it was like for him to purchase a magazine. My professor, Sandy, has given us a bunch of overview business sheets to look at it in order to prepare.

While I don't understand most of the business-jargon, I will say this: Life begins to look like a business once you've read over some of the principles Sandy sent us.

Life probably looks like a business because our lives are surrounded by business.

Even the way I conduct some of my finances (ahem, or try to...) looks like a business.

"A balance sheet reports what a business owns (assets), what it owes (liabilities) and what remains for the owners (equity) as of a certain date. This equation must always be in balance. Always keep in mind the teeter totter  illustration shown above." 

When I try to organize my bills and my finances, I set up a spreadsheet and hope everything balances out in the end. Is it the same? Of course not. A business must be exact, precise, and functioning. My finances spreadsheets can be a little bit more slack since they will never be published or used for anything. 

Oh, and if you say something like this to me: 

Equity = Assets - Liabilities

This is my face:

But a business person will understand what those words actually mean. So even though life is surrounded by business, I am so thrilled that there are smarter people out there than me who can translate those principles into the working world.

When John Herman came to visit

John Herman came to visit our class.

John Herman added something to my life, I think. Because at first, John Herman has a mature face that somehow looks young. He has brown hair without any gray flecks in it yet. And at first, when we were introducing ourselves around the classroom, I predicted that this famous John Herman guy would be bored with what we were saying. I predicted that he wouldn't really care what we were doing, whether we were listening.

To be honest, I predicted he would come to our class and lecture at us about how to be better journalists.

But then he didn't. Instead, he talked about his own life. His eyes were alive with his adventures. He turned his instruction into a story, and went through examples of how he got followers over the Internet, lost them, and then regained an audience. He explained that he's made a name for himself not because he's advertised his products. Instead, he's advertised himself apart from any product.

He's John Herman. He's an actor, writer, teacher, almost went to space, husband, father, and yet he's John Herman. Just John Herman.

Now that you know more about what I remember when I met John Herman, you can also know that I really liked listening to him. He had good stories to tell, and amidst his stories, he looked for feedback.

And he said that the college students in the room had the blankest expressions, and he just had no idea what we were thinking. The whole class laughed.

In a very sincere way, John Herman taught me a lot about himself and myself. By showing me all the things he was doing, had done, and even some of the things he wanted to do, I learned about the things I'm not willing to do and some of the things that I could maybe do but scare me.

Could I really put myself out there the same way that John Herman has? I don't know. But now I know there is a way.