Journalist Jim Lehrer speaks with Jack Censer, dean of Mason’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Journalist Jim Lehrer almost didn’t become a newsman, and when he did, he made mistakes.

Lehrer revealed these things and others when he spoke to a multi-generational crowd in Meese Conference Room in Mason Hall Wednesday afternoon.

Lehrer told the group he originally wanted to be a professional baseball player, until he met a certain someone.

“I was touched by a teacher,” Lehrer said.

A seventh grade teacher gave him a good mark on an essay and inspired him to pursue a career in writing, he said.

“I went home that night and told my mother, ‘Mom, I’m going to be a writer,'” Lehrer said.

From there, Lehrer said he overcame challenges getting into journalism school, worked long hours in the newspaper industry, and even erred when he interviewed a president.

“On the day the Monica Lewinsky story broke, I had an interview scheduled with Bill Clinton,” he said.

“I assumed it was not going to come off,” he said.

When it did, Lehrer said he ended up getting coverage that was used by all the major television networks.

Why?

The three nightly news anchors for those networks were all in Havana covering a visit by the pope, he said.

With all of those viewers watching, though, Lehrer said he made a mistake.

When he asked the president about his relationship with Lewinsky, Lehrer said he failed to recognize that Clinton spoke of his actions with Lewinsky in the past tense.

He did not notice this at the time, he said.

His daughter told him of the error after the fact, he said.

“I just didn’t hear it,” Lehrer said, but said he got away with it.

“I’ve never been through anything like that,” he said.

In addition to sharing stories from his own career, Lehrer also offered his ideas about the future of the journalism profession.

“This is the time to go into journalism,” Lehrer said.

“We’ve got to have information,” he said.

Journalism students may have a difficult time finding jobs. Lehrer said he recognizes that.

“All of these news organizations are hungry for ideas, [though],” he said.

I recorded my first audio story tonight.

It’s pretty–no, really–awful.

It is most definitely a work in progress.

I tried to work on it tonight, but I need some time to get it right. I am submitting this post to let you know that onmason has informed me that my file is too large. I will keep working and polishing. I will try to post again tomorrow–make that today.

I am a learning journalist and sometimes learning is hard.

Now that I have to record audio clips for my stories, I am worried that I will sound terrible on those recordings. I am worried not so much because I will be embarrassed if I sound bad, but because bad multimedia tools take away from the story as a whole.

Here, then, are the things I hope to learn from the upcoming lesson:

1-What do I need to do to get high-quality (i.e. good-sounding) audio?

2-Am I going to need any new equipment? If so, what kind?

3-Should I make multiple recordings of the same audio event/interview? If so, how many?

4-What do I need to know about ethical editing of sound clips? (My gut says that you should go with what you get. Are there instances, though, in which you should touch-up sound recordings for quality purposes? Also, should you use the whole sound clip that you record or is it okay to use a portion of your recording? Should you tell your readers/listeners about the parts that you cut/choose not to include?)

I just looked through our textbook. journalismNEXT (second edition) contains an entire chapter on this topic. Author Mark Briggs advises the following:

1-Briggs says: “With just a few simple tools—a microphone, recorder and free software (and a computer connected to the Internet, of course)—you can create full-featured segments that sound like radio episodes and distribute them as podcasts to build a loyal audience” (p.172).

2-Sound recordings allow journalists to make the most of the setting and the feelings associated with a given event (p.173).

3-He encourages readers of his book to consider using a number of different sound-based creations:

-“reporter overview” (p.175)

-“podcasts” (p.175)

-“audio slide shows” (p.175)

-“breaking news” (p.175).

I think all of these things are great, but I think only one of them counts as journalism: the last one.

To me, the other items on that list are fluff and advertisement. Give the people what they want, I suppose. Maybe Briggs knows that these are the things that people want (p.175).

Briggs covered many other things in his chapter on sound-based journalism (p.171-196). So, I have a lot left to learn. Maybe when I finish soaking up his words, my voice will sound good on news recordings.

I think it’s far more likely that I will just reaffirm what I already know: I am a writer for a reason.

I am almost finished with my first story for this class.

I am almost finished, but I am not satisfied.

Meet the deadline. That is my mantra.

At present, I think I am dissatisfied with my work because I don’t have the same authority as a print journalist.

I always loved calling people up when I was working for Broadside. I could say: “My name is Elizabeth Grisham. I am a reporter with Broadside. I’d like to ask you some questions about…”

The person on the other end of the phone would usually answer my questions on the spot or make arrangements to speak with me at a later time.

Now, though, all I can say is: “My name is Elizabeth Grisham. I’m a student journalist writing a story on X for an online journalism class.”

People haven’t been jumping at the chance to be featured on my obscure blog. I can’t say that I blame them. They have other things to do.

At this point, I have my story. I just received answers to some follow-up questions from one of my sources. I have some new pictures on my camera that I took on Thursday. I still have to get my video for my story and I still have to do the final polishing.

What I want to know is how do I make all of this work turn into something that matters— something that makes a difference?

All I can do is keep thinking, I suppose. Please let me know, dear readers, if you have any ideas on this matter.

In the meantime, I hope you will at least enjoy the new bells and whistles I am getting better at using and the speed at which I am now writing. I have never written as quickly as I have been writing this year. I think I’m writing faster because I have less time.

You probably have less time, too, so I will sign off for now. Thanks for reading.

George Mason University Adjunct Faculty Kevin M. Goldberg scared me this week with lessons from last semester.

That’s right. I listened to a lecture I had already heard and I was scared anew.

I guess that makes me a wimp, but I don’t care. I’m just trying to be a careful journalist.

Why was I frightened?

I think it was because of an air freshener ad I keep seeing. You probably know the one. I’m scared to write more about it or to mention the product in detail. I don’t want to get into trouble.

Before I took Goldberg’s class, I was an okay journalist, but also a fearful one. After I finished his class, I was even more afraid. I was afraid of making costly errors that could land me in court.

I think a lot of what he discussed pertained to products like the one I’m not mentioning, so I feel pretty safe–like I won’t inadvertently commit those offenses. I think he did discuss, however, a few things that I might accidentally do one day. I hate that possibility.

The one thing I think I am most afraid of doing is taking an internet address that I am not supposed to have. Goldberg said this is called “cybersquatting.” I am worried about this, I think because of the fact that I found a sustainability blog that has the title that I was going to use.

I have another name for my site now and will be making an all-new site this coming week. I suppose, then, that I should stop worrying.

Want to hear something surprising, then? I wish Goldberg would come speak again.

America will soon have a regime of austerity.

That was the first comment of a panel discussion Wednesday night in Edwin Meese Conference room in Mason Hall on George Mason University’s Fairfax campus. Bill Schneider, a Mason faculty member and journalist, said these words.

“Whose death is it going to be?” Schneider said.

Schneider then listed various social groups that currently exist in society and the ways that they have largely planted themselves firmly on the side of democrats.

He spoke of women, African-Americans, gays and people without religious ties.

“20 percent of Americans have no religious affiliation. It’s the new America,” Schneider said.

Karen DeYoung, Washington Post senior national security correspondent, spoke next.

“Listen to what people say in public,” she said.

DeYoung was speaking specifically of political figures.

“I think you can see in those remarks that President Obama is a very cautious president,” she said.

“It’s likely to characterize what he will do in his second term,” she said.

Ran Halevi, an historian and journalist, of Le Figaro, a French newspaper, spoke next.

He spoke of polarization.

Polarization was a deliberate choice in American politics, he said.

“There is a kind of intrinsic sympathy,” Halevi said in response to a question about how the French people feel about Obama.

The panel then shifted focus to America’s capacity to fight multiple wars simultaneously.

“Now I think the assumption is that we could fight one big war if we wanted to,” Karen DeYoung said.

“I think there’s no question the military has been so incredibly bloated,” she said.

She then turned her attention to the sequester and where Americans might see spending cuts.

The panel then discussed Israel.

“This is an issue,” Schneider said.

“Obama will support Israel,” he said.

He said this stance could cause problems for Obama with relation to democrats.

“We never like to admit that we live in a world where things are just not predictable,” Halevi said, then, and encouraged the audience to recognize that many things could happen with regard to Israel.

From there the panel opened the floor to questions from the audience, a group of about seventy which was composed of students, faculty, staff and others.

Kathleen deLaski served as moderator of the discussion. She is a member of Mason’s Board of VIsitors and is president of the deLaski Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in McLean, Virginia.

I thought class tonight was refreshing.

As I listened to Government Information/GIS Librarian Joy Suh, I started thinking about ways I could make my stories richer and more informative.

I do worry, though, about overwhelming my readers with too many toys and multimedia add-ons. Something tells me that my readers would not feel that that is possible, though. I guess, in some ways, my real fear, then, is giving my readers so many toys that they won’t pay attention to my words. I am a word person. I worry about things like this.

I did get some ideas from Suh for things that I want to try, to incorporate into my work. I liked her tips about how to incorporate maps into my work. I think people can get some good information from maps.

I also liked the information that Suh provided about how to look up court cases on the library website.

I like writing court case stories and I think people like reading them. People need to know about the laws that affect them and how they are changing or how leaders are changing their interpretations of them.

I did think that I will need more time to figure out how to implement some of her other tips into my work. I think, for instance, that I would need more time to conduct research for stories using books and materials obtained from other libraries. I tend to think of news reporting as more immediate and less drawn-out. I know some reporters do long-term stories. Maybe I should become one of them.

I have given some thought to writing a news-style book. Maybe I could use some of this information for that purpose.

I am grateful, in any case for the lessons I received tonight. I just have to figure out how to make the best use of them.

Communication students have a lot to learn (or perhaps it’s just me.)

That was what I took from the lecture that George Mason University Creative Services Photographer Alexis Glenn and Creative Services Senior Photographer Evan Cantwell gave this week.

Consider this tip from Cantwell, for example: “If the image isn’t interesting, you need to fill the frame.”

Or this one: “I usually try to bring three lenses,” Cantwell said.

I usually use a point-and-shoot camera with a zoom, so this tip for student journalists surprised me. I never considered buying a camera–or really learning how to use a camera–with multiple, removable lenses. I am focused on the story, not the action that needs capturing with the camera.

I am beginning to realize that my point-of-view on that matter is hurting me career-wise.

I wonder, though, how one gets to the point where one understands how much to focus on images and how much to focus on writing. (You’ll notice that I have included no images in this entry. I think that speaks to my current mentality.)

When I was last working as a reporter, I don’t think I even had a good grasp of how to share my story workload with the staff photographer for my newspaper. We had different ideas and different approaches and this affected the results that we achieved.

Right now, I am covering sustainability issues on my own, so I have control over all aspects of what I produce. I am OK with these multiple hats, and, as a matter of fact, spent today out on the street reporting. I know what I need to do to get the story ready and posted, so I am hopeful that it will turn out well.

While I work on it, I will ponder how best to implement some of Glenn and Cantwell’s other tips, as well. I made note of the following ideas during their presentation:

From Glenn:

-Always take many more photos than you need.

-Seek angles that don’t look staged.

-Use lighting to convey your point.

From Cantwell:

-“Identify the amount of access (that you have in a given setting).”

-“Look for expressions.”

Hopefully no one will notice the confused expressions I will surely wear while I learn and perfect my digital photography and multimedia skills.

I have decided to share some of my other photos for the purposes of tonight’s class. I took these photos while I served as part of the Mason yearbook staff.

I am not a fan of photographs.

Why?

When I got fired from Broadside in 2005 for peacefully confronting the editor-in-chief about her underage drinking problem, I went to work for the George Mason University yearbook, GMView.

One minute I was a journalist and the next I was a photographer. I was not happy.

I wasn’t just a photographer. I was PR/recruiting director. I took pictures, I went to the communication reception to entice people to join the yearbook staff and I put up flyers for GMView around campus.

I loved parts of the job. I sold more yearbooks than anyone in my Yearbook Workshop class. I had fun doing that. I also loved representing the group at the communication reception–the best event at Mason, bar none. You should go to one. Then you’ll see what I mean.

Still, though, I did not want to be part of the yearbook staff. I wanted to be at Broadside.

That was a long time ago, though.

Here are the things that I learned about that from Mark Briggs and his 2013 book “journalismNEXT”:

-Briggs writes on page 147 that a picture is like a gift box. He writes there that it is information that you are giving to the reader, and, thus, you should pack it with as many details as you want them to have.

-He writes on page 150 that a picture should be a truthful representation of a situation or setting.

I agree with each of these things, but I disagree with some of the other things Briggs writes in this chapter.

I disagree, for one thing, with the notion he presents on page 155 that journalists should “Tone and color correct the picture[s] [they take].” I think that doing that violates the rule above–the one from page 150 about providing a truthful representation.

I also disagree with the idea that, as Briggs writes on page 170: “Blogs without art are lame.”

I read blogs for the words they present, but still, I will supply some images here in order to learn from you, my readers.

I took the image above (of the student-made path to the sidewalk next to the Johnson Center) to depict the interaction of people with the natural environment. I am focusing on sustainability, so I wanted an image that would make people think about that relationship.

I took that image and the two below with the intention of using one of them as my blog header.

This is the grassy area by Mason Pond.

This is the gazebo beside the pond.

I settled, in the end, on the image at the top of the blog, at least for now. I will probably replace it with some flowers blooming or a collage of sustainability-themed images. Tell me what you think. This blog is for you, my readers, as much as it is for me, if not more. I aim to please and to serve. I welcome your comments.