tumblings

i talk to strangers and write about it. want the on-paper summary?

[elizabethrkoh]

Who Is The Next to Die?

Tracking scheduled executions around the country.

[elizabethrkoh]

“Shot one: The scene setter

Where is your story taking place, and what does it look like? Is it a building, a town, an old southwestern graveyard? Place your audience in the action by taking a photo that shows it all.

Shot two: The medium shot

Let’s start to hone in on the spot of your action; the area of the building or town or graveyard where your subjects are. This shot narrows your story’s field of view and should bring you closer in.

Shot three: The portrait

If things go south and you can only come back with one photo, this should be it. Who is your main subject and what does he or she look like? This can be a traditional head and shoulders shot or a wider shot that shows the person’s surroundings.

It’s always best to take a variety of portrait shots, as photos of your subject will probably be used more than once in a good audio/visual presentation. Also, if your subject is a thing and not a person, capture it. A great series of electron microscope portraits might be just what you need.

Shot four: Capturing detail

This is the shot that is often forgotten. Detail shots work especially well for transitions, but can have great storytelling potential all their own. What are the pictures on someone’s desk? What books are they reading? What’s that post card they have tacked to the wall? All of these things tell us a little bit about our subject and are great elements to have in a photo essay or multimedia presentation.

Shot five: Capturing action

Action shots show your subject doing something — ideally the thing you are reporting on. This is the shot some photographers spend an entire shoot trying to perfect, often amounting to the same shot being taken 30 times. Photos of your subject in action are essential in audio/visual pieces, but they are not the only pictures you need. If you get the other four shots and not this one, you’ll still have a solid photo essay.

I advise getting the others in the can and then working on this shot. That way, you have a strong foundation to support your story, and your action shots will be the icing on the cake.”

[elizabethrkoh]

Margaret Sullivan, New York Times

1. About social media. • No road rage; walk away from the keyboard. • Be useful. • Be responsive. • Be willing to correct and acknowledge errors immediately. • Show restraint; remember that you are posting to The World. Forever. • Try for a mix of 20 percent fun and 80 percent hard information. • Read every link before re-tweeting or re-posting. • It’s a tool, not an end in itself.

2. About journalism. • Don’t cut corners. Do the actual work. • If you “borrow,” always credit with a link and a specific mention, and always write in your own words. • You can lose your reputation and your career in an instant. • Despite that, don’t be timid. Be brave; just don’t be brave and stupid. • Ask for advice from smart people. • Do the work that improves the world, even in a small way. • Don’t sink to least-common-denominator journalism. • A little snark goes a long way. • Think more about fairness than objectivity. • Think about how close you can get to the truth. • Put yourself in the place of the people who will be affected by your work. That doesn’t mean to pull your punches. • Be rigorous. Go the extra mile. If you think you should interview five people, interview 10. Fact-check with a vengeance. • Be aggressive — a passive journalist isn’t really a journalist. • Get to be really good at one or two things. And get to be decently good at a whole bunch of things. (A hat tip to my friend Drake Martinet of Vice Media here.) • If you screw up, apologize fully and move on. • Try to work for someone great. • Whatever help you’ve received in your career, pay it forward. • Be idealistic. Resist cynicism. • Never be boring — be engaging and clear, especially when the subject is complicated or hard to understand. If you’re writing blurry stuff, maybe you don’t understand the subject yet. Pity the readers (or viewers) and consider their attention span. (E.B. White on clarity, referring to his teacher William Strunk: “Will felt that the reader was in serious trouble most of the time, a man floundering in a swamp, and that it was the duty of anyone attempting to write English to drain this swamp quickly and get his man up on dry ground, or at least throw him a rope.”) • You are not in this business for the money, so what are you in it for? Do that work.

[elizabethrkoh]

It's Pulitzer Day! It's like Christmas for her.

a friend

[washingtonpost]

Pulitzer Day!

We won awards for our Secret Service coverage.

[elisegoeseast]

In memory of the #sewol ferry sinking, Koreans fold yellow paper “boats of promise” and fill this clear ship in Seoul’s central square. #outeast http://ift.tt/1FWntJC

[washingtonpost]

Cherry blossoms. That is all. 

[washingtonpost]

Is this the WP official blog?

At your service.

[elizabethrkoh]

It’s for GIFs like these that I follow the washingtonpost tumblr.

[washingtonpost]

Not for the journalism!?!

[elizabethrkoh]

That’s what the Washington Post print edition, website and many local newsletters (hello there, 3 p.m. wave) are for! <3

[washingtonpost]

Is this the WP official blog?

At your service.

[elizabethrkoh]

It’s for GIFs like these that I follow the washingtonpost tumblr.

[washingtonpost]

Come on, guys. Read more critical theory. Read more Deleuze.

Overheard at The Washington Post (via washingtonpost)

[tldrwikipedia]

[elizabethrkoh]

T-Squared: Trib, Times Will End Partnership, by Evan Smith

The four-year collaboration between The Texas Tribune and The New York Times will come to an end at the conclusion of the calendar year — a casualty of the challenging economic times that continue to bedevil the media industry.

Sad for both news organizations' readers, but I'm excited to read the next adventure. It's been some incredible work in the last four years from reporters at the Trib: if you haven't already, go read their stories. You have a lot to go through.

[latimes]

The evolution of California’s drought.

[elizabethrkoh]

Simple, clear, beautiful data viz from latimes.

[washingtonpost]

Hey look it’s our guy

[elizabethrkoh]

^ I can't think of anything that better credits a news organization than to be able to say Ben Bradlee was "our guy."

To a titan of journalism, thank you. We'll be forever reaching for your standard.

[elizabethrkoh]

Can I keep my doctor with Obamacare? There's a database for that, thanks to the LA Times

CA's health exchange doesn't have a doctor directory for its narrowing networks. The LA Times used public records requests to create one.

[elizabethrkoh]

who invented non-searchable pdfs, and who hated you as a child?

[elizabethrkoh]

Research chat: Sarah Cohen of the New York Times on the state of data journalism and what reporters need to know

JR: For a cub reporter — not necessarily a data journalist, but someone who can at least speak your language — what’s the basic set of tools and competencies she should have when she shows up at Sarah’s desk? Sarah Cohen: If they are concentrating on street reporting and writing, I would like them to have a pretty good familiarity with public records and how to find and request them for data purposes. Most reporters, even if they have some experience with public records, have really never tried to negotiate for databases and they don’t realize how different it is. So we end up, too many times, having to go in behind somebody and re-request records because they weren’t efficiently requested in the first place. The second thing I would like them to have is some imagination about what is possible, and at the same time an idea about what the limits are. One of my team members has a little statue on his desk that he calls the “data unicorn.” There is this idea that there is this “data unicorn” out there that you can just shake and it will come out with your answers. It’s also critical that reporters be at least conversant with a spreadsheet. You’ll find people losing patience with you if you need an “expert” to sort a list or to do the most basic calculations.