Washington Journalism Conference

Day Four: July 15th

July 16, 2009

YOU KNOW WHAT: Morning Sunshine, or as Lauren likes to call it the “Ass Crack of Dawn!” Got up a little later this morning, but I’m starting to see why grown up are all addicted to coffee!!!!!

Conference: “The Blurring Line Between Advocacy, Commentary, and Journalism”our speaker was Chuck Todd from NBC news. He was freaking amazing he said that the why is how you get your readers and they what the how, People are curious. He also said that it is important to attend your job, and as many things as possible when starting out. Mr. Todd was clear and he got to the point, he didn’t tell a lot of side stories.

I liked him a lot he taught us the difference between commentary and journalism. Commentary is when you are writing and opinionated piece, and journalism is reporting the facts. He also recommended not to get stuck in commentary at this point in our careers, to wait twenty to thirty years. 

Conference: Andrew Flegel the Dean of Admissions for George Mason University this conference was called “College Admission Session”.  I think that anyone that has ever met him knows that he is very funny, and very entertaining. He gave a speech on what colleges are looking for. According to him they are looking for Grades, scores, and then extra activities/community service. But that could be from work to volunteering for an event in the community. He was honest and straightforward. He spoke to us but in a way that we all could relate.

He also said that the only reason they care about the SAT’s is because we the school wants to look good which is why they combine scores. Because the better we do at college the better the college looks. Which I agree with 100%.

Capital Tour: Okay so we got off the bus and walked into the building at 1:00, waited and went through security and got our tickets by like 1:15. But our tour wasn’t until 2:00, so why where we there so early??

In front of the capital

The tour was okay… we only really stopped in two rooms and the tour man was kind of a grump. We saw where they used to hold Senate meetings and the tour man showed us a spot where we could hear him when he was whispering on the other side of the room it was so cool. We didn’t go over to the House of Reps. because they where conferencing. =(

Then after we all went outside and took a group photo. And it was HOT AS HATI’S outside! And some of those people where all sweaty EWWW! Over all I was disappointed.

SIDE NOTE: There was a shooting today a block from the capital building… like 5 min. after we left. According to ABC – “U.S. Capitol Police fatally shot a man at New Jersey Avenue NW and C Street NW, blocks from the Capitol, according to Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a police spokeswoman. ” Apparently a man was driving the wrong way down the street… When he got out of the car police ordered him to drop his weapon and he fired 3-5 shots. These shots where shot from the police, and seriously wounded the man. Later he was pronounced dead.

Conference: Bob Lichter spoke at a Conference called “Bias in the Media”. But I honestly think that he likes history more then journalism. He talked about the printing press and all these things that are irrelivent to what we are learning now. The best advice he gave was to goout on your own, don’t wait for someone to give you a job, make your own.

Debriefing/Student Media: We all meet up and Lauren helped us learn some new skills like what to ask at a press conference, and how to write articles… She is really helpful, and I love she is willing to answer any question.

Then we all rocked it in a dancing around… Getting warmed up for the Gala tomorrow.WOO Love it!

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