Tiana Binns (T)

Elon University c/o 2021 // Journalism Major // CA --> NC

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Ryan Sampson-ESPN Sports Center Reflection

Reflection Six

By Tiana Binns

Ryan Sampson’s day to day life in the sports world of journalism, although a field I have little knowledge on, sounds like a riveting experience. Through the hundreds of sports events where the game is so fast paced, I can’t imagine the stress and excitement that must come along with that kind of reporting adrenaline. It was important to me to see how much of the advice and skill sets that Sampson has to have as a sports reporter carries over just as well to almost any type of communications career. Good networking is a piece of advice that I believe is incredibly versatile and probably one of the most important pieces of knowledge that Elon has taught me over the years and I always enjoy seeing how that applies to a myriad of pathways within communications in the real world. 

I think getting to have an insight into the community that Sampson works with as well was an aspect of his talk that stood out to me. Over the years you work with the same people, you see historic events in sports and that bond is created through that mutual love and respect for the work being done. I think that is one of the main reasons I began my interest in journalism in the first place is the connections and community that is created through the stories being told. 

Overall, Sampson’s experiences were insightful and exciting to hear him speak about and although sports is something that my knowledge is limited on, the connection in communications, community and storytelling bridges that gap.

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By Tiana Binns

This story was incredibly powerful and emotional. Scott’s journey through life from the inception of his mother’s illness to his chaotic life as a club promoter to his ultimate call for change through Charity Water is inspiring. His story truly shows how anybody can change the world for the better. This story was particularly personal to me as for my 18th birthday, I was asking for donations from friends and family in order for me to participate in a school led choir trip to England in which my family could not afford on our own. I decided with the encouragement of my generous mother to donate 30% of the donations I received for my trip to Charity Water. I had never seen this video previously, so being able to see the larger change that I took part in truly tugged at my heart strings. Overall, I ended up raising $925 in which I donated 30% to Charity Water. I had no idea the larger picture of this organization and the community of people giving up birthdays and holidays to give new lives to people around the world. 

Aside from the heartfelt story itself, from a journalistic standpoint, the work Scott initially was involved with as being a photojournalist on Dr. Gary Parker’s medical boat is extremely important and the information that Scott provides from Charity Water, such as the geolocations, photos and videos available for donors to see brings immense credibility to the project, especially with the increased skepticism that Americans have in regards to charities and where their money is actually going. That in itself I believe brought immense success to this project. Nowadays, it is difficult for the average person to find solid truth in many news organizations and news sites, as there is just so much information out there that is not always fact checked, so by providing solid and visual proof of the work being done in this charity is so important. 

The story is well put together and does the job I believe it was intended to do and makes the viewers feel for these people that they don’t even know, thus inspiring the masses to commit themselves to change. Scott’s story and more importantly his ability of storytelling attributes greatly to that success in my opinion. 

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Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt

The world behind a simple shirt, in five chapters.

http://mediashift.org/2014/01/behind-the-scenes-of-npr-planet-moneys-t-shirt-project/

By: Tiana Binns

I actually first came across this multimedia narrative in Fall of 2019 in a class with Alex Luchsinger. Going back and going through the chapters of the site again, I still think it is an incredible project. The creators brought this seemingly mundane process to light in every aspect and their dedication truly shows. I especially love side by side comparisons of photos of factory workers in the early to mid 1900’s next to photos of workers today in the “People” chapter. It is so impactful in my opinion to see the progression or lack thereof of the factory workers presence throughout history. The section for “Machines” and the photos of cotton made for various brands of t-shirts was also interesting and something I would never have thought of in general let alone to put into the piece. 

The personal narratives of each of the workers along the way of the process of creating the t-shirts and the interesting facts accompanying them created such a personal ambiance for the reader to truly feel connected to this process and the human beings that are involved in that. It makes you think about your place in the world and how all the little things we do are a part of something bigger. I appreciate the immense attention to detail on this project as well as gaining some new perspectives as I have never read the Q&A article before and it gave me a deeper insight into how this project came to be created. Overall, this is the type of multimedia work I aspire to work on and be a part of. The creators did a great job encapsulating such a large topic and mundane topic and making it hard to stop reading.

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By: Tiana Binns

I think that Mike Castellucci has an interesting approach to his storytelling. I did enjoy the camera work and the clarity of the footage for being shot on an iPhone and it’s amazing to me that he was able to create whole coherent stories while fully filming on his iPhone. There was a lot of good b-roll and various angles so overall filming wise I think he does great work. Storytelling wise I wasn’t completely impressed personally. I enjoyed how he found unique subjects to tell his stories about and that made it interesting, but some of the stories, specifically the one about the scale model city and train did not live up to my expectations. 

I found that specific story, which is the third story in this video series, to be unclear and poorly edited. The jump cuts were incredibly abrupt and there were many times where the narrating coincided with the subjects in the video speaking. I thought that that could possibly have been a personal choice for Mike Castellucci to do on purpose, but in translation to viewers I just felt like it made the piece look messy and sloppily put together. It also starts off in a way that is a little too overwhelming and confusing as a viewer. He went between three different subjects, having them all say one or two sentences that to the viewer doesn’t make sense as we have no idea what the story is supposed to be about yet. 

Many people use that type of intro as a sort of hook for the viewer to catch their attention and keep it on the video, however, going between three subjects all saying vague statements I think was too much ambiguity and if I were to see this on my own I would have most likely clicked off of the video because for the first minute it is unclear what is going on. The confusion is also only cleared up a little bit in the rest of the story as well, so even by the end of it I was still unclear about what exactly I was supposed to be getting out of the story. Journalism in basic terms is storytelling, so it is incredibly important that your story is relatively easy for a viewer to follow.

The first story in the video, however, I found entertaining, informational and well edited. This is the story with the buffalo that lives inside a couples house with them. It was attention grabbing, the language and storytelling was clear, the subjects were entertaining and heartfelt. That was probably my favorite story out of the whole video and one of the ones I thought was put together the best.

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In response to speaker talk with Adam Wolffbrandt

By Tiana Binns

https://www.adamwolffbrandt.com/

Listening to Adam speak about his experiences and career development was very helpful and interesting. His stories and his reel are incredibly well put together. As I potentially want to go into multimedia journalism it was helpful to see his reel and how he put it together, as he said using softer, more relaxed music in his reel because many people use really energetic music and that affects the viewer in a different way. I lean a lot more towards photography than videography so getting to know the path Adam took as a more video focused career peaked my interest, such as his video focus in college and participation in the Hearst Championship. 

The things that he mentioned that I resonated with the most was when he spoke about how important making connections are and the experiences he has been able to have by making good and consistent connections through various projects you may be involved in. He said he got his position at Bloomberg News by making good connections with people at work who referred him. That is especially important for freelance work like Adam does, so when people like you and the work you do they will rehire you for other jobs or refer you to other people they know. I think making connections with people is probably one of the most important pieces of advice that I have learned at Elon, as it can really create experiences for you that you didn’t know were possible as well as create lifelong friendships. He also explained how the longer he’s been in the business making these connections, the more consistent his jobs become, which is important to remember as sometimes it can be hard to get jobs as a freelancer when first starting out. 

I was really interested in his time at NPR and how that job was for him. I initially wanted to work for a bigger news organization, such as NPR, National Geographic or Vice when I entered college, but after doing an internship at a local newspaper in Dublin, Ireland this past Spring, I changed my mind and decided I would rather work in local news. Adam’s experience at NPR and the work he did there was definitely something that made me consider that choice again.

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Mushroom the cat finds his forever home.

Created by: Tiana Binns

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JOU450 BLOG POST #1 08/24/2020

By Tiana Binns

Response to video from March 23, 2020-TAKING CARE OF JOURNALISTS AND JOURNALISM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VvHKw9MuK4&feature=youtu.be

There were a lot of important and interesting points that came up during this webinar. As someone who has an autoimmune disease and is immunocompromised, COVID-19 has certainly changed the layout of my daily life as it has to many others. This pandemic changes a lot of the landscape of what journalism looks like for everyone, but particularly those with health issues that make any type of social interaction potentially deadly. For me this is something that could potentially inhibit me from getting jobs or internships after college for my own health depending on how the pandemic continues to progress. 

Even during the beginning of COVID I experienced a bit of what it might be like going into my first job after college with this normal that we are all adapting to. I was studying abroad in Dublin, Ireland this past spring semester and I had an internship at a local newspaper in South Dublin. I was working with the newspaper, The Echo News, from January to April right when the pandemic started taking form. I was covering the entertainment section of the paper, but during the last two months there wasn’t any entertainment going on to write about due to COVID cancellations. We adapted so that I was covering stories in a more unique way and finding entertainment stories that were happening virtually, such as virtual museums or zoom comedy shows. It was a crazy adjustment to make and I am still getting used to having all my interactions be virtual as I am not someone who always learns the best without in person instruction. 

In the webinar, Jane Elizabeth from the Raleigh News and Observer also talked about how the same situation with there not being enough events to sustain work for certain news beats, specially in sports. It is definitely going to be an adjustment especially since I plan on going into local news and jobs in local news are dwindling due to COVID’s effect on the economy and smaller businesses ability to keep all of their staff members in their budget. That is something that I am concerned about for when I enter the job field after college. 

I also resonated with the webinar’s continuous mention of how this changing landscape affects people of minority backgrounds and diversity in the workplace. With the majority of work and education being online for the time being, access is a really important word to talk about. The ability to have a functioning computer, available wifi and access to programs such as the Adobe Suites is a luxury that Elon offers us as students, but in much of the world that kind of access to technology is not available. Even at Elon there are students whose only access to those things are the campus, so for colleges that are online those students in need are automatically at a learning disadvantage. The same can be applied to an internships or job environment, so it is really important right now to be able to provide that access to people who can’t just go home and get it. That is going to be something that changes the environment in workplaces in terms of diversity. 

I think my biggest takeaway from this webinar is the importance of taking care of yourself and others during this time mentally and emotionally, especially for new journalists who may not be used to dealing with such high stress situations that come with breaking news and COVID-19. 

In terms of how I will continue journalism now using new methods, multiple lines of communication between me, my fellow journalists and interviewees is going to be important. Utilizing tools like zoom, webinar and slack are all things that can keep me connected to my coworkers as well as find new methods of doing interviews, surveys and research like using breakout rooms on zoom, google surveys or the options on slack.