Wild Card Post: Live Television

This evening I participated in viewing a television event that is rare these days: a live studio broadcast. The Fox Network had been advertising its live performance of Grease for several weeks and even as a "macho" guy I had to admit the idea of a live production of a musical that I had grown up on intrigued me. I was instantly flooded with flashbacks of my mother singing the musical's hit song Summer Nights while she cleaned the house. I had to watch it.

It was an excellent performance that went off without a hitch. The production team really went all out and even managed to acquire quite a few surprise celebrity appearances to bolster the intrigue throughout the show. There was a repressed giddy school girl trait that escaped from me every time a celebrity popped up unannounced.

And then it hit me, everything I was feeling while watching the show was one of the purest moments of nostalgia I had ever experienced in my entire life. The combination of a live television broadcast  mixed with a musical that harkened back to the time of chrome diners and white wall tires screamed vintage Americana. I couldn't help but yearn for a return to a time that I had never even personally experienced.

I took to twitter at the shows conclusion and not surprising to me #GreaseLive was the top trending hashtag on the social media network. The hashtag had amassed 991 thousand tweets at the time of writing this entry, seemingly all in support. Celebrities and everyday citizens alike were flocking (shameless twitter allusion) to applaud the backbreaking production.

The broadcast included shots of the actors in between scenes rushing from set to set on the 10 acre studio plot which really lent itself to how much work went into the production. Even the most casual of TV viewers had to appreciate the effort. It is because of this that I am officially calling for a return to the Golden Age of Television. Well it's broadcasting methods anyways. Sure we have Saturday Night Live and well that's it. The major networks don't even broadcast their individual late night shows live anymore. NBC's live broadcasts of The Sound of Music and The Wiz in late 2015 couldn't compete with the panache Grease: Live accomplished tonight. NBC and ABC have possible live broadcasts of Hairspray and Dirty Dancing in the works but the bar was set pretty high tonight on Fox.  Hopefully they follow suit and don't take any shortcuts with their telecasts.

I wasn't the only one immune to the nostalgia bug this evening and I think it The TV industry would be wise to jump on this nostalgic jet plane-- a Pan Am jet plane of course.

Nigel Jaquiss and Investigative Reporting

Nigel Jaquiss, Investigative Reporter for Willamette Week

Earlier today my Data Journalism class at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication had the pleasure of hosting Willamette Week's Nigel Jaquiss. Mr. Jaquiss won a 2004 Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism, which he earned for his work on a story that exposed former Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt's involvement in the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl while he was the mayor of Portland.

Jaquiss did not take the traditional route to his career in journalism. He worked as a commodity trader for the first 11 years of his professional life and transitioned to journalism at the age of 34. "Journalism is the most fun you can have with your clothes on," Jaquiss quipped to the class about his then new-found profession. Even though he spent a decent amount of the lecture sliding in jokes where he could it was easy to get a sense that this was a man who took his job very seriously.

"Journalism is a craft, just like carpentry or masonry," said Jaquiss. This quote really stuck with me and I was eager to find out what he meant by it. Shortly after Jaquiss elaborated on that note saying that information should be treated as "currency." What he meant by that was that in order to gain information you must also give information. Journalists--good journalists anyways--by nature are essentially information banks. Most journalists know a little bit of something about anything and as a journalist if you want to learn something new don't be afraid to create a give and take in order to build a relationship with a potential source.

This was something that I hadn't heard before during my studies at the University of Oregon. Such a simple notion that I would not have thought of on my own as a means to build a relationship with a source that may be giving you a hard time opening up. In journalism as in life, it's often the little things that count the most. I'd like to thank Mr. Jaquiss for the time he spent with us students earlier today and hope to run into him again soon.

Best Bets in the Blogosphere

When I think of blogs, usually negative connotations jump to the forefront of my mind. Thoughts of endless thirty to forty-something-year-old's inflated egos and personal opinions on a topic they claim to be experts on, spilled onto the web without regard for competent rhetoric or basic grammar.

However, after much effort to beat back those thoughts of negativity, I decided to look critically into the blogosphere in an attempt to find an exceptional blog that I knew had to be out there. 

Lo and behold there are many to be found. In this post, I will cover the New York Times blog entitled At War. I was previously aware that the New York Times hosted several blogs on varying topics. All of them are worth reads and I encourage all readers to take in as many of them as possible, as they are contributed by people who work in or are affected by the topics at hand. These first-hand accounts provide a personal insight into topics that are generally covered in a more formal manner.

At War is a blog supported by the prestigious New York Times

At War is a blog focused on the many stories coming out of the Middle Eastern conflicts that have taken place since 9/11 and continue to take place to this day. There are a few stories that extend the reach of 9/11 and cover military exploits including World War II and Vietnam. Many of the additions to the blog are written by ex-members of the military and their first-hand accounts of various topics that plague the ex-military population including PTSD, depression, women in combat, life changing combat injuries and the overall day-to-day lives of active duty soldiers. There are also contributions to people who are affected by the military life such as an addition by a physical therapist who treated veterans with amputation injuries. 

There are three reasons At War is successful: timeliness, depth, and credibility. The United States has been a military presence in the world for the better part of a century now and it seems that our role as an international police force will be one we occupy into the foreseeable future. Our military has been stationed throughout the Middle East for the better part of my life (in 2003 I was 11) and we have been up, down and side-to-side the massive region ever since. The United States military is always a hot topic with the general public and holds a lot of relevance given the personal connection people have with members of the military. According to the Department of Defense (DOD) as of December 31, 2013, there are 1,369,532 active men and women serving in the U.S. Military, and chances are you know more than one person serving. 

The blog also provides incredible depth and detail of the many topics that are covered. This is achieved through the credible contributors that this blog employs. The first-hand accounts provide a base that allows readers to fully engage in the stories without the fear that they are simply being lectured by some amateur that can only provide insight from the outside looking in. 

This blog also creates a community platform for veterans, active duty soldiers and those involved in their lives to share stories and experiences with each other as well as the general public. There are many challenges and feel good stories that are laced into this blog that can help provide an outlet for the struggles, personal victories and possibly injustices that occur within our military that otherwise might not be available to the individuals surviving them that aren't in the national spotlight.

About Me

My name is Mark Weber and I am a senior at the University of Oregon due to graduate in June of 2016. I am among the population of students and the general public that struggled to find out what I wanted to do in life. The University of Oregon has a top tier journalism program and I was drawn to the prestige of the University's SOJC journalism school and fell in love. I knew early on in my life after watching my mother struggle through corporate america that the traditional 9-5 desk jockey job was not for me. Journalism promised something entirely different: creativity and odd hours. These are things I thrive on and I was hooked. I hope to be an exceptional contributor to the journalism world upon the completion of my studies at the University of Oregon and I am eager to get to work.

Personal introduction

After spending four years at the community college level and struggling to find a passion to pursue, I applied to the University of Oregon with no major in mind.

My mother spent 20 plus years working in corporate America and after seeing the long-term effects of relentless office politics and spending 40 hours behind a desk and keyboard, I knew a traditional job was not for me. Journalism presented itself as an opportunity just weeks before I enrolled at the University of Oregon. The promise of a profession that was more active than the traditional 9-5 and included travel, meeting new and interesting people and could extend to nearly any and all topics was too good to pass up.

I believe that effective journalism is an invaluable component to a functioning and free society and look forward to making contributions to our world that can really make a difference.

This blog will look into a type of journalism known as power journalism, which is a type of journalism that uses numbers big and small and puts them into perspective to relay why they are impactful or powerful. I have never done anything like this before so bear with me as I learn the intricacies of the art of the blog. I hope to highlight the necessity of power journalism and hopefully learn some new things and share my newly acquired knowledge with you the readers.