by: Victoria Reitano

In between work and whatever personal life you’ve got (though for most journalists, this tends to bleed quite heavily into work) there really isn’t much time to catch up on the news you’re not writing.

Of course, you follow things on Twitter, you like things on Facebook and read the NYTimes (or paper of your choice) daily. Right? Don’t we all do these things?

If you’ve yet to perfect your rhythm of the morning (or the rhythm of your life; hey, don’t feel bad, took me three years), here’s a short cut — Newsletters. Newsletters, sent directly to your inbox, wait patiently for you to “have a moment” to catch up on the news. Here are five that will have you organized, on-top of the news and, most importantly, happy in no time.

MUCKRACK
I don’t know about you, but I secretly have a fedora stashed away for when Journalism’s renaissance occurs…which may be never, but have no fear — Muck Rack is here! Muck Rack is an amazing resource for journalists interested in social media and what’s happening in the media world. If you apply, the may list your Twitter account and give you access to their “pro” section, but in the meantime you should definitely sign up for newsletters. You can also use the site to see what journalists are worth following.

Harvard Business Review
This is great for anyone working as a manager or hoping to be an Editor at some point in the future. It offers tips to entrepreneurs and business owners, but I’ve read quite a few things — particularly pertaining to work/life balance — that have helped me.

Brazen Careerist
While we all love our current jobs, it’s a great thing to have a skill set that will help you find a job in the future, when you’re ready. This website and newsletter will give you advice, help you learn some new skills and learn from others who are more advanced. Even if you stay at your current job for the rest of your life, it can’t hurt to read this blog every day.

MediaBistro’s Morning Media Newsfeed
MediaBistro actually has several great Twitter and RSS feeds. Their newsletters tell you every single thing you need to know about Media in your area, or in the case of this newsletter, all over the nation.

The Daily Love
We see death, destruction and deal with bouts of stupidity all day long — wouldn’t it be nice to have a little peace of mind at some point during the day? The Daily Love is a blog/newsletter I discovered about a year ago and I think it really helps change the way you think, and ultimately, live.

What do you read in the morning (or night) to help you “stay in the know?” Share with us below!

Victoria Reitano is the Assistant Editor at SDTimes, an enterprise technology trade magazine for enterprise developers and their managers. She is also the publisher of The Giornalista Files, her personal blog and portfolio site where she shares her ideas about being an early career lady journo with anyone who will listen. Reitano feels Bikram Yoga is the perfect compliment to her obsessive need to consume information on a constant basis. Connect with her on Twitter @giornalista515.

by Pat Kane

Everyone now knows the story of the student media outlet that jumped the gun by a few hours in reporting the death of longtime Penn State Coach Joe Paterno. We can all understand the pressure to get the scoop first, and the agony of realizing you had it wrong. We had a similar situation occur in our local media and blogosphere lately.

“New breastaurant coming to the fan?” shouted a headline on fanofthefan.com, a local blog focused on the Fan neighborhood in Richmond, Va. A brief outlined that Twin Peaks, a Hooters-like restaurant with as much focus on the waitresses as on the food, was hiring.

“Our waitresses are an elite group of women who wear cute and sexy costumes while serving up fun and making connections with our loyal guest,” they quoted from an employment ad, which asked prospective servers to e-mail photos of themselves.

Richmond.com, a branch of Media General, quickly picked up on the buzz and posted a story. Many commenters were outraged at the ad, or dismayed to hear such a business was coming to a locally-focused neighborhood.

The problem? The reports were based exclusively on a Craigslist post listed in food/beverage/hospitality jobs. (it has since been deleted). A few hours later, a reporter at Richmond.com ruined all the fun by getting in touch with the restaurant headquarters to find out that it was a scam posting. The real story? Some creeper probably posted the ad to lure young women to send photos to that anonymous Craigslist e-mail, a spokeswoman said.

“We would never ask anyone to send a picture of themselves to apply for a job,” Meggie Miller, Twin Peaks national director of marketing, told Richmond.com. The restaurant chain tried in vain to reach the person who posted the ad. Ironically, the chain plans to expand into area at some point but says that all hiring is done in-person.

The SPJ Code of Ethics advises journalists to “test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error.” We’ve all felt the rush of posting an interesting story. Just don’t believe everything you read on Craigslist.

Nikons in hand, Pat Kane covers the stories of the Tri-Cities of Virginia as multimedia editor of The (Petersburg) Progress-Index. Pat joined the Virginia Pro Chapter Board in 2008, stepping up to serve as chapter secretary the following year. After growing up all over the globe as a Navy brat, Pat graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007 after working four years at The Commonwealth Times. 140-character insights are available @kane804.

by: Ryan Broussard

I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in print journalism in May, 2009, which if you remember was one of the low points for newspapers in our nation’s history. Newspapers were closing their doors permanently or cutting their staffs to make ends meet.

With the current climate in mind, I decided to go back to school and pursue my master’s degree with the rationale that when I graduate, hopefully the job market will pick up and my graduate degree will look good on my application.

My only reservation was a thesis. I had no earthly idea what to right about and even less inclination to write one. But my professors convinced me that a thesis would be the easier way to go (as opposed to a project and comprehensive exams) and after much thought and rejections of my ideas and more thought and more rejections, I came up with a topic. My topic would be a content analysis of how newspapers from around the country covered the BP oil spill.

Easy right?

In my first research class, my professor tried to entice us to perform a content analysis for our theses instead of experiments and surveys because of the additional steps in receiving permission from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for any research involving people. I took his advice and decided to perform a content analysis.
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by: Jacqueline Ingles

Not many people understand what working in a bureau entails or what a bureau is. Having worked in three now (all of my broadcast jobs), I am a self-nominated Bureau Queen.

Bureaus are little satellite offices (if you can call them that) of main TV news studios. I wound up in bureaus because I will do anything to work in the industry. So, yes, it was a choice when the job offers were made, but not really a choice.

It was either take it or don’t work at all. Some of the places I have worked have been home to bugs, mice, etc. I would even venture to say, I would not stick a dog in some of them, let alone a human being.

My first job working at MTV entailed me covering the State of Illinois as a backpack journalist. All of my producers were located in NYC, more than 5 states away. So, I never had an office to go into. I either worked from my kitchen or found a coffee shop to set up my editing gear. When I could not find a coffee shop, my car was my office. It was not the traditional bureau setting, but you still had to be a mini-MacGyver because if your equipment broke, it was your job to fix it.

For my second job, I headed south to WCTV and worked their Valdosta, Georgia, bureau. I originally applied for a reporting position at the main station and the ND told me they promoted out of the bureau and that was the only spot he had open. So, I took it. The bureau, located 80 miles east of the main station, came equipped with one camera and the ability to go live from inside. My bureau mate and I had to share one camera and one car.
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by David Brandt

This is not a blog about Tim Tebow. But if you came across this article by way of a Google search, then your thanks can be sent to Jen Floyd Engel.

Engel, a writer for FOXSports.com, wrote a roundup piece on the BCS Championship Game which posted on the Web Jan. 10.

As a sports fan, my opinion about this game was that it was an abysmal one – two consistently top-ranked NCAA football teams playing fairly sloppy for much of the game, particular the previously undefeated LSU. College football seasons often feel longer than their typical five months, but the bowl games typically make it worthwhile. And that held true this season – except for the big one.

In her review of the championship game, Engel opens with subtle criticism of the BCS ranking methodology, and then proceeds to discuss the strong game play of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron.

In her sixth paragraph, she writes this:

“(McCarron) went all Tim Tebow on this championship game. He did what nobody expected and few thought him capable of, and was the key element in yet another Crimson Tide national championship.”

I found the reference odd. First of all, in what way was McCarron performing like Tim Tebow? Was it based on the fact that he had a good game, shutting out the undefeated Tigers to win Alabama yet another BCS championship? Other quarterbacks have performed successfully with greater, equal, or lesser skill. Why him?
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by: Andrew Seaman

As any good journalist would, I turn to Google when I need a quick answer. So it’s no surprise that I asked the search engine the most controversial question in the history of journalism: Should I go to J-School?

From my experience, most young journalists ask a professor, editor or friend about getting a journalism master’s degree.

I asked everyone if they thought I should go to J-School — teachers, friends, editors and even the weird guy at the bus stop. Some told me yes. Some told me no. Others told me to wait.

Google left me even more confused. Some posts were very encouraging about a student’s prospects after graduate school, and others said to run as far away from J-School as possible.

Ultimately, I realized the decision was mine and mine alone. No two people have the same experience in graduate school, and I decided the only way to make the decision was to have a conversation with myself.
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by: Mike Brannen

Well folks, centuries of journalism has taken us to 2012, and according to the Mayans, we’ve got about 11 months left. You would think given the long existence of our profession, we’d get everything right by this point. We aren’t close. So, we could throw in the towel for the last year, crawl into a bottle, and let the AP do everything for us. But, I don’t like hangovers, I always have to rewrite what the AP says anyway for TV, and being at my first job, I can only afford one towel.

Since no one likes a smelly journalist, here are some things we can work on together to make our field shine like Mayan gold for at least a few months.

Allow stories the length it deserves

TV people, I’m looking at you. An unfortunate consequence of packing in as many stories as possible in a newscast is words and sentences get trimmed. Key contextual facts get left out. SPJ Generation J blogger Jacqueline Ingles mentioned this in her last post, and talked about the importance of telling the whole story.

Journalists and consultants like to claim the nation’s attention span is getting shorter. It’s not shorter, there are just more distractions, Our reports are just not interesting enough to keep people around. Let’s provide the whole story and make it meaningful.
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by: Claudia Amezcua

A week ago I was given the privilege to cover my first concert featuring one of my absolute favorite So Cal bands. Not only was I excited about the assignment, but also a ball full of nerves. Sure, being a California native living steps away from the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world; this would be a piece of cake right? Well I soon found out, its much more than just a few pictures and a few
paragraphs about the band.

Like many journalists seeking a career in entertainment journalism, you really don’t know what you are getting yourself into when it comes to covering concerts. This is why I wanted to provide you all some tips and a few tricks I help when covering your first big show.

Do Your Research! That’s right, the first mistake you can do is show up to the venue and have no idea what songs are being played in the set, let alone what bands are playing. Sure, you are there primarily to cover the headliners, but give some tender love to the little guys! Hey you never know, you might be the first to stumble upon the next big thing. Also, listen to the music and identify what style (pop, rock, alternative, etc.) and their major influences. If you are confirmed an interview, read up on past interviews with the band to aid you on developing new questions. Trust me, these musicians have been asked about their influences many times, asking something new would make your article stand out.
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by: Victoria Reitano

As I watched NBC’s TODAY Show this morning on the elliptical (while switching between channel 2 and 7 as well) I realized that broadcast journalism still relies heavily on hidden camera investigations.

And then I thought, is that right?

In a world where we, the “trained professionals,” are fighting to distinguish ourselves from the bloggers, do we have any right to go about using hidden cameras, concealed recording devices and other “007-like” techniques?

I don’t think we do, and I’m going to tell you why (and please, feel free to disagree in the comments, I love a good discussion).

Everyone is capable of performing a hidden camera investigation these days. For all you know, you could be photographed at any moment. Cell phones and other handheld devices have made it incredibly easy to point, shoot and record any and all interactions with others. And there’s nothing to stop these “photographers” from posting to their various social networks. What does that mean for journalists? We’re supposed to be different. We’re supposed to take photos as a means of recording historical (or soon-to-be) events. We’re not supposed to do it for the thrill; we’re supposed to have an ethical judgment that helps us know when to shoot and when to stop.
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by: Jacqueline A. Ingles

I have been working in TV news for nearly five years. And, while I do not believe TV news is a broken toy, I do think it is a toy that has been assembled without instructions— perhaps a few screws are missing or loose.

What do you mean by this you ask? Well, local television stations have a great deal of power to enter your living room or business on a daily basis and provide you with need to know information. In other words, the layout is there for greatness, but somehow, stations are taking the turnoff that leads to mediocre. I believe this is happening for the following reasons:

1) If it bleeds it leads: Almost all stations are quick to jump on crime. Nine times out of ten, if there is a crime that has occurred, this will take precedence over education reports, economic reports, etc. Sure, the crime may only impact a neighborhood, whereas the others stories reach thousands of people–it is the salacious nature of crime that pushes it to the top of the list. Now, do not get me wrong, if a serial killer is on the loose, by all means, let people know to be on the lookout. But, how many times do you hear about crime stories like a murder and there is no follow up? One day, the murder is covered and perhaps, if a news director thinks it is warranted, you will cover the funeral. Maybe. This motto has also given rise to niche journalism. Why should you have to wait through crime stories if your only interest is sports? That is why ESPN is likely to get to ESPN 50—they can cater to sports by state and still keep viewers coming.
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