Post for Week 14

So far, not so fantastic for our investigative piece. We have called 5 different sheriffs, all of which took our information multiple times and none of which have called us back. We called the state highway patrol office Thursday, and they still haven't called us back. I've never had so much trouble with people calling back, but then public officials aren't always too easy. A Missouri Missing lady said she would do a phone interview, so we have that going. We are hoping to call like crazy Monday since we are so low on time, but so far not a completely pleasant final project.

Post for Week 13

This week I did a blog post for KMOV recapping the Mizzou-Iowa State game. I mainly focused on how the game was covered via Twitter, since this particular game was not televised anywhere. There are multiple good twitter accounts that cover the football games very well, and a few even were linking me to online places I could listen to the game on the radio.
I also posted some Twitter posts from players like Blaine Gabbert and Danario Alexander.
And seriously, how about Danario Alexander?? The man is an absolute freak of nature. He's enormous (6-5, 215 pounds), he runs amazing routes, and he is seemingly faster than anyone else on the football field. He comes off the line like a sprinter and makes some incredible catches. In the past three games, he has caught an ungodly 34 passes for 587 yards.
I mean, Jeremy Maclin was impressive, but this guy is looking even better. He is going to wow some people at the NFL combine, and scouts will look back at these ridiculous numbers. I think his draft stock could soar this off-season, and for good reason. This guy is going to be a fantastic NFL receiver.
But enough sports ranting.

Post for Week 12

This week's story was interesting and really different from anything I've ever done before. We followed a 24 hour play festival, live tweeted what was going on, and updated a live blog. I am not on Twitter and really don't know very much about it, but I thought it was really cool that we had people following us. I think our blog was viewed 1,167 times and we were followed by 38 people on Twitter. It was exhausting waiting through the 24 hour play and covering it constantly, but I think our story came out well. I shot, edited, and voiced the video and I thought i came out alright. There were a few problems with the sound in a couple of spots, but overall solid I think.
Good experience though, maybe these types of stories will be the future of journalism.

Post for Week 11

This week I did my shift for KMOV. I wrote a recap for the football game, though I didn't go to the football game. I heard a lot of people talking about it though, about how our defense looked completely helpless against one of the worst offenses in the Big 12 who didn't even have it's starting quarterback. I wrote about the general frustration fans went through after this tough loss, and I also wrote that it might be time for Mizzou to throw out the spread offense so they can develop their running game a bit more.
The reason I couldn't go to the game was because I had to cover the 24 hour play in the Arts and Science building. Five teams were assembled, each with a playwright and a director and actors, and they were to produce a play within 24 hours. It was actually really cool, but exhausting staying there all day and missing a football game in great weather. We live blogged for the story and got a lot of page views, so that's good. We also took video and got some pictures and audio, so hopefully the story for this week comes together well.

Post for Week 10

This week my team again had trouble finding a topic to report on. We submitted several that kept getting turned down, then we finally landed on doing a swine flu story. This was interesting because myself and another person in my group (Matt) worked together on a swine flu story earlier in the semester. That story was on how H1N1 affected students and teachers within the university, and this one was about the H1N1 vaccines. We talked to Health Department members, physicians, a school nurse, university health professionals, parents, etc. We got pretty lucky with our visuals, as Boone County's first walk-in clinic was scheduled only a day after we chose our topic. We got to go inside the clinic and take pictures of children getting shots, and some of them came out really good. There was a great picture I got of a baby girl crying as she was given the shot. We ended up writing a long text piece, doing a radio segment about shots containing thimerosal (a vaccine preservative that frightens some people), using a few pictures, and Amanda is good with Flash so she made a cool infographic about the different kinds of vaccines. This was probably the best work I've helped produce all semester, and our grade was fantastic so I'm glad the editors thought the same.

Post for Week 9

My last Missourian shift was a cold and frankly unpleasant one. I was assigned to go out with a photographer and capture the atmosphere of the Greek homecoming festivities. Unfortunately, the atmosphere was cold, rainy, cold, and more cold. People certainly showed up though, with children, alumni, students, and Columbia residents packing the streets of Greek town to see the skits and pomp. I did the audio for the homecoming slideshow, then went back and chopped out some clips I liked and the photographer matched them up with the photos he took. I was sort of bummed I got no credit in the Missourian for the audio, but whatever.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/10/24/slideshow-all-decked-out-homecoming-2009/

Post for Week 8

This week, my team did a story on Glen Ward, a local drummer who works for the Columbia Parks and Recreation Center and teaches kids how to drum for no charge. He was an extremely lively and talkative subject and gave us a lot of good information about his life.
He was a part of Roulette Records for a while and played concerts with famous acts such as Tommy James and the Shondells and Joni Mitchell. He had a really cool story about him meeting Joni Mitchell backstage. He offered her a shot of Seagrams and played some piano with her.
He eventually came to Columbia and formed some local bands such as the Kansas City Street Band. He was then hired by the city and began teaching drums to children. He also formed Citywide Drum Method, a marching band consisting of many of his students.
This was a really cool story because Ward was a very interesting personality with a rich history in the music industry.