When I think of lists, I think of to-do lists. I love all of the other lists that rank and grade from David Letterman’s Top Ten to the AP Top 25 in college football and basketball to any list of the 100 greatest fill-in-the-blank. But the to-do list tops my own list category. The form […]
Forgive the sports metaphor, but the College World Series has rubbed off on me. Small ball is a metaphor for probably what’s ahead in journalism. Start-ups and smaller news organizations will become more and more common. Nicco Mele has written about this phenomenon on a larger level in “The End of Big” where he describes how […]
One of my mantras these days is that young and old journalists have to be fearless — not reckless — but fearless when it comes to trying new things. Today I have wrestled with Photoshop, WordPress and assorted other programs to get this blog looking better. I still have a ways to go, but it […]
Being a college professor is more than just standing up in front of a class. It takes hours to prepare for that class, time to grade and figure out assignments, time to assess whether students are really learning what we intend. We do research to learn new things about the world we inhabit and then […]
On days when I’m feeling behind on grading, overwhelmed with the changes in journalism, I love getting a reminder of why I teach and why I love teaching at Creighton. On this particular Monday, two of my favorite students paid me surprise visits. I put away the grading without a backward glance and caught up […]
The question is a continuing one: How often should one tweet in the course of a day? How much is too much? On the face of it, it’s a difficult question to answer. It depends. But it’s actually an easy answer. Tweet when you have something to say, something of value to add to the […]
I’ve just read through a stack of papers for one of my classes where students have to reflect on whether they are optimistic or pessimistic about the journalism in the future. They base their essays on readings and discussion and their own experiences. But I find that even the most optimistic are looking to a […]
I love social media. There. I’ve said it. I think it’s important for my job to figure out what’s here and what’s coming next. While I don’t pretend to be able to figure out the future of journalism, of news, I am confident there will be a social, interactive element. I don’t love all social […]
“You have to make stuff. The tools of journalism are in your hands and no one is going to give a damn about what is on your resume, they want to see what you have made with your own little fingies. Can you use Final Cut Pro? Have you created an Instagram that is about […]
I am not sure why I didn’t do this before, but I have my own domain. It’s definitely a learning curve, but timing is great as I can blog right along with my Feature Writing Class and my Intro to Mass Comm Tech class. I’ve asked the students to write about writing and what they […]