In trying to revise my first beat story, I wanted to take a wider approach to the idea that people are better able to engage in self-promotion and marketing thanks to the widespread use of YouTube. My first attempt had been unsuccessful, but I was certain that there was a story worth telling if I could just get a handle on the angle. After contacting YouTube/Google directly, I was put in touch with other people who have successfully exploited the ubiquitous video-sharing technology.
An interesting point that perhaps I did not fully explore in my article was raised by a spokesman from Google. He said that the power of YouTube was vested in its democratic spirit. (Well, he didn't use those exact words, but that was the basic idea..) This made a lot of sense, because in reality, YouTube isn't really about meritocracy so much as it is about democracy. True, many very well deserving people gain recognition and fame through YouTube, but there are also many people of questionable talent who become famous (or infamous) as well.
I find YouTube to be a fascinating site, and admittedly, I spend more time there than I probably should. But, the research and reporting that I did for this article has actually inspired me for my next beat article, so stay tuned!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Struggling to find something new
I'm having a bit of a hard time with my second beat story - not because it's a difficult topic, but because I'm struggling to find an angle that is both interesting and different. I wanted to write about subway performers in New York City, but how can I make it more than just a profile of a compelling person who brings some music into our everyday lives? This was a criticism I received in response to my query, and I completely agree that the story is vulnerable to turning into a rather simple profile. I must continue to think of how I can scratch deeper beyond the surface. Back to the drawing board...
A little slideshow experiment
Date: February 11, 2009
Before submitting my first beat story, I was playing around with some of the photographs I had from the Dr. King celebration in Washington, D.C. Since I could not meet with Daniel Davis or his family in person, I was hoping to make something of the few photographs I had from Washington. I didn't end up submitting this slideshow, because it's nowhere near publishable quality, but I decided just to play around with some multimedia, in hopes that I'll get much better as the semester goes on. Here's hoping!
Before submitting my first beat story, I was playing around with some of the photographs I had from the Dr. King celebration in Washington, D.C. Since I could not meet with Daniel Davis or his family in person, I was hoping to make something of the few photographs I had from Washington. I didn't end up submitting this slideshow, because it's nowhere near publishable quality, but I decided just to play around with some multimedia, in hopes that I'll get much better as the semester goes on. Here's hoping!
The role of YouTube..
Date: February 5, 2009
On January 19, when the MC of the service at Washington National Cathedral introduced Daniel Davis, he said: "This young man is a YouTube sensation!"
This caught my attention, and as soon as I was back with my laptop, I looked Davis up on YouTube. Sure enough, he had posted 3 different videos of himself playing the violin to contemporary hip-hop songs. The videos were simple: just him standing in front of what looks like a bedsheet hung on the wall as a background. Yet, the videos had received a lot of viewer traffic. Most of them had over 19.000 views. I read some of the comments, and they were overwhelmingly flattering. A lot of them talked about how inspirational his music was. In trying to find my angle, all this preliminary research was very helpful.
I have a phone interview set up with Daniel Davis for tomorrow, and I'll be talking to his parents on Saturday. One thing that I'm thankful for is that although Davis has gained some fame, he is still slightly under the radar. This means that I'm able to track him down with relative ease, rather than going through a lot of PR channels at record labels and such.
Above and below are a couple of Davis' videos from YouTube.
On January 19, when the MC of the service at Washington National Cathedral introduced Daniel Davis, he said: "This young man is a YouTube sensation!"
This caught my attention, and as soon as I was back with my laptop, I looked Davis up on YouTube. Sure enough, he had posted 3 different videos of himself playing the violin to contemporary hip-hop songs. The videos were simple: just him standing in front of what looks like a bedsheet hung on the wall as a background. Yet, the videos had received a lot of viewer traffic. Most of them had over 19.000 views. I read some of the comments, and they were overwhelmingly flattering. A lot of them talked about how inspirational his music was. In trying to find my angle, all this preliminary research was very helpful.
I have a phone interview set up with Daniel Davis for tomorrow, and I'll be talking to his parents on Saturday. One thing that I'm thankful for is that although Davis has gained some fame, he is still slightly under the radar. This means that I'm able to track him down with relative ease, rather than going through a lot of PR channels at record labels and such.
Above and below are a couple of Davis' videos from YouTube.
Inspiration in a cathedral
Date: January 31, 2009
I was lucky enough to have actually been in Washington, D.C. for President Obama's inauguration, and it was a truly amazing experience. It was the first time that I found myself in the middle of such a political and historical event. Even though I had reported from Long Island during the final presidential debate at Hofstra University, this time I was right in the middle of the action! It was exhilirating, and for a reporter, it was bliss. There were so many people there to talk to, and so many of them had such wonderful stories to tell about why they were present and how they had gotten there.
On the day of the inauguration (Jan. 20), I left my friend's apartment at 4:30am and was standing on the National Mall by 5am. I spent close to 12 hours on my feet, in the freezing cold, talking to as many people as I could, listening to their stories, and just observing the events that were unfolding in front of me. I filed a story about a lovely woman who was moved to tears as she spoke to me about the significance of the day. I also included the story of a mother who brought her two kids to see Obama being sworn in.
The day before, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I had attended a service at Washington National Cathedral in honor of Dr. King. It was a fairly last minute decision. I had seen a note about it online, and since it was free and open to the public, I decided to check it out. I arrived in Washington around noon, and after dropping my bags off at my friend's place, I immediately headed over to the cathedral. It was a great celebration, and I met a lot of interesting people there from all over the country. I ended up filing a story about how the event organizers had handed out papers addressed to President Obama to the people in the audience. The people in attendance were encouraged to write a letter to President Obama, expressing their hopes and wishes for the next four years. The letters would be given to the new president at a service he was scheduled to attend at the cathedral the morning after his inauguration. It was an interesting gesture, and people participated enthusiastically.
After finishing the story, however, I remember wishing I had more time to work on a separate piece about one of the performers I had seen at the service. His name was Daniel Davis, and he was a 19-year-old musician from South Carolina. His niche was playing the violin over top of R&B and hip-hop beats, and at the celebration for Dr. King, he performed two songs - one of which had King's famous "I have a dream," words repeated rhythmically in the background. After hearing him, I became really fascinated with his music. I had seen firsthand the incredible audience reaction, and I decided to do a little more resesarch into Davis and the genre that has become known as "contemporary violin."
In my story about the letters being written to Obama, I had described the service and had mentioned Davis as one of the performers. In the final editing process, however, that sentence had gotten cut. If I had had more time that night, I would have tried to write a separate story about Davis, but since I had to be up before dawn the next morning, I decided to file it away as a possible future piece. Well, this brings me to what I have chosen to write about for my first beat story! The article will be a 650-word profile of Daniel Davis, and how his music is changing his generation's views of classical music.
I was lucky enough to have actually been in Washington, D.C. for President Obama's inauguration, and it was a truly amazing experience. It was the first time that I found myself in the middle of such a political and historical event. Even though I had reported from Long Island during the final presidential debate at Hofstra University, this time I was right in the middle of the action! It was exhilirating, and for a reporter, it was bliss. There were so many people there to talk to, and so many of them had such wonderful stories to tell about why they were present and how they had gotten there.
On the day of the inauguration (Jan. 20), I left my friend's apartment at 4:30am and was standing on the National Mall by 5am. I spent close to 12 hours on my feet, in the freezing cold, talking to as many people as I could, listening to their stories, and just observing the events that were unfolding in front of me. I filed a story about a lovely woman who was moved to tears as she spoke to me about the significance of the day. I also included the story of a mother who brought her two kids to see Obama being sworn in.
The day before, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I had attended a service at Washington National Cathedral in honor of Dr. King. It was a fairly last minute decision. I had seen a note about it online, and since it was free and open to the public, I decided to check it out. I arrived in Washington around noon, and after dropping my bags off at my friend's place, I immediately headed over to the cathedral. It was a great celebration, and I met a lot of interesting people there from all over the country. I ended up filing a story about how the event organizers had handed out papers addressed to President Obama to the people in the audience. The people in attendance were encouraged to write a letter to President Obama, expressing their hopes and wishes for the next four years. The letters would be given to the new president at a service he was scheduled to attend at the cathedral the morning after his inauguration. It was an interesting gesture, and people participated enthusiastically.
After finishing the story, however, I remember wishing I had more time to work on a separate piece about one of the performers I had seen at the service. His name was Daniel Davis, and he was a 19-year-old musician from South Carolina. His niche was playing the violin over top of R&B and hip-hop beats, and at the celebration for Dr. King, he performed two songs - one of which had King's famous "I have a dream," words repeated rhythmically in the background. After hearing him, I became really fascinated with his music. I had seen firsthand the incredible audience reaction, and I decided to do a little more resesarch into Davis and the genre that has become known as "contemporary violin."
In my story about the letters being written to Obama, I had described the service and had mentioned Davis as one of the performers. In the final editing process, however, that sentence had gotten cut. If I had had more time that night, I would have tried to write a separate story about Davis, but since I had to be up before dawn the next morning, I decided to file it away as a possible future piece. Well, this brings me to what I have chosen to write about for my first beat story! The article will be a 650-word profile of Daniel Davis, and how his music is changing his generation's views of classical music.
A new beginning..
Welcome to my new blog!
In the interest of keeping things clear and simple, I have decided to consolidate two separate blogs into one new one. My hope is that this "beat blog" will serve as a behind-the-scenes look to my writing and reporting, and will also feature some experimental multimedia work that can accompany the print journalism.
This blog is brand new - I was formerly using one that I had set up when I had a different beat in mind. Now that my national beat is pretty well set, I wanted to give it a new home and a fresh start.
Behold my beat: culture
I will write about cultural issues in and around New York City that also have some national presence. Of course, there is no shortage of culture in Manhattan alone, but I'm hoping to do some travelling as well in pursuit of my stories. And by travelling, I really mean going places that are accessible by Bolt Bus. And now, I will proceed to re-post some older material intended for this site, and since I have no idea if you can change the dates of the posts, I will just write the original date at the beginning.
Thanks for visiting, and I welcome any comments or suggestions you might have regarding my beat or this blog!
In the interest of keeping things clear and simple, I have decided to consolidate two separate blogs into one new one. My hope is that this "beat blog" will serve as a behind-the-scenes look to my writing and reporting, and will also feature some experimental multimedia work that can accompany the print journalism.
This blog is brand new - I was formerly using one that I had set up when I had a different beat in mind. Now that my national beat is pretty well set, I wanted to give it a new home and a fresh start.
Behold my beat: culture
I will write about cultural issues in and around New York City that also have some national presence. Of course, there is no shortage of culture in Manhattan alone, but I'm hoping to do some travelling as well in pursuit of my stories. And by travelling, I really mean going places that are accessible by Bolt Bus. And now, I will proceed to re-post some older material intended for this site, and since I have no idea if you can change the dates of the posts, I will just write the original date at the beginning.
Thanks for visiting, and I welcome any comments or suggestions you might have regarding my beat or this blog!
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