Work(In) Progress

Nadia Dala, freelance journalist and writer, gave a group of young and aspiring George Mason University journalists some insightful advice on April 4.

After first starting from the bottom working as a fulltime journalist for a Brussels based newspaper to then later traveling as a reporter to Arab, Islamic countries such as Egypt, Palestine/Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, and Yemen, Dala had 3 very important things to share.

Dala told the group her initial thoughts when she first entered the world of journalism.

“I said, oh my god, this is a hard job,” Dala admitted. She also told the group her shyness didn’t help but the difficultly of the job and her timidness didn’t deter her.

“I wanted to give a voice to people, everyone has a voice,” said Dala, who believes journalism gave her a voice too and changed her for the better.

The first thing Dala talked about was storytelling.

Storytelling is something that needs to be practiced. Practicing your writing skills, and wording and rewording sentence structure can mean the biggest difference in a story. If you don’t use it, you lose it.

Second was integrity. “Don’t copy and paste,” Dala said.

Journalists have huge responsibilities to disperse correct and factual information. Questioning, researching and investigating is half of the work.

“It makes you a richer person — opens your mind,” Dala said.

And Last, there is no 9 to 5.

“I will be up late saturday night researching not because I have to, but because I want to, you just need to love your job,” Dala said.

And it was plain to see that she had. She ended with encouraging us to continue on our journalistic journey.

DanceWorks

Hey you! You can listen to my podcast if you promise not to judge.

What?! —  I am new at this.

George Mason University library liaison, Joy Suh, knows her way around ProQuest.

On tuesday Feb. 26, our online journalism class met in the Johnson Center library to learn all things infoguides and databases. The presentation by Suh displayed helpful ways in gathering research, mainly for academic writing. However, knowing these strategies are always helpful, especially when stumped on what to write about.

After the presentation, my Hidden Fairfax team and I were able to come up with an outline and plan for our next four stories!

This quote by Mark Briggs really speaks the truth. A blank white page behind black-inked letters is — boring.

Photos enhance a story and can sometimes capture things we can’t always put into words.

“… It was sooo cool, you just had to see it to believe it.”

How many times have you heard this before? That is cause this person’s attempt of trying to explain what happened wasn’t nearly as awesome as whatever they saw. If only they had captured that moment with a photo.

Don’t get me wrong, photography isn’t just a simple point,  shoot and volia! — a perfect photo. Photography is an art that has to be mastered and I am obviously a ways away from it!

Here are some photos I had taken during a summer in Croatia.

In school, we have always been taught to keep our eyes on our own paper — my, how times have changed, for journalists that is.

Journalists have always collected, wrote and distributed news. The only thing that changed is how they do it and most of the time they don’t just look at their neighbors paper, but they have them write on their own too! — Yes, our elementary school teachers would’ve been very pleased.

“New reporting methods such as crowdsourcing, open-source reporting and pro-am journalism are becoming the focus for more and more news operations in the United States” according to Mark Briggs.

So, you may be wondering what the heck is open-source reporting, pro-am journalism and crowdsourcing — don’t worry, spell check doesn’t recognize it either.

Another way of saying crowdsourcing is distributed reporting. This is a powerful tool when covering an investigation for a particular organization, for example. Data collection becomes effortless when you can ask thousands of people for specific information on the matter.

Next on our vocab list is open-source reporting. Think twitter. Think blogs! The point is to bring journalists closer to their readers by allowing those readers to give writers occasional feedback.

Last, pro-am journalism or do-it-yourself journalism. Most people have access to digital technology and people are everywhere, and news is happenning everywhere, therefore everyone is a media outlet.

Basically, just because you are the journalist, does not mean you are the expert or have the ability to be everywhere at once. It makes perfect sense to get the right information from more experienced readers on issues you’re covering and, with countless digital technologies and social media outlets, it has never been easier. This collaborative journalism is the new how to. And it is here to stay.

This time, Mark Morris kept the crowd entertained with his personality, not his dancers.

The laughs never seemed to die down in the Center for the Arts during a pre-performance discussion on Feb. 8 as Mark Morris, founder and artistic director of the Mark Morris Dance Group, spoke openly about his personal and professional life.

Stand up comedians are people with interesting stories, unique personalities and perfect deliveries. If Morris weren’t already a professional choreographer, he probably would be a successful comedian.

Morris’ unabashed and candid opinion of himself and his work is what made the event so funny.

“I am not egoless. I have narcissistic traits, but I am not a narcissist. I have just enough narcissism to not be embarrassed about appearing in public, but not enough where I think I am the only person in the world,” Morris said.

With just an hour before MMDG would perform their three piece ensemble, a curly-haired man wearing a scarf and a whole lot of sass, walked up to the microphone and welcomed everyone. Mark Morris himself began by giving some background information on his three pieces of work. One dance piece in particular, “Socrates,” was a heavy 40-minute dance that praised the life and death of the ancient philosopher.

“‘Socrates’ was – long. Good! – But long.” said Cameron Cardillo, who personally knew Spencer Ramirez, one of the dancers in MMDG. But the cut-to-the-chase kind of way Morris spoke of it allowed for some comic relief.

“It’s pre-Christian, so as an atheist I’m happy to do something that isn’t entirely Jesus-y all the time. I am devote, but I am a devote atheist,” said Morris, who was answered with laughs — and even more laughs — when he nonchalantly told the small gathering he used to attend church as a kid every Sunday stoned on marijuana.

As Morris continued answering questions, he would playfully poke jokes at his fans. It was refreshing to see a successful artist so comfortable and happy to be in the company of people who took interest in his work, according to Dylan Barber, musical performance major at George Mason. Morris made it clear that he didn’t care whether people liked his work or not.

“Just watch and listen and read. I don’t care. I would like you to appreciate it, but it’s not a lesson for anybody, it’s not a philosophical lecture. It’s just a point of view,” Morris said.

Before anyone realized, it was already 8 o’clock — show time! Morris had to be peeled away from the microphone by one of the staff members.

“Enjoy the show — or not! Just watch it and have a good time,” Morris said, leaving everyone twice as more excited for the main act than when they came in.

Wire fences, blocked pathways, and men in neon yellow and orange vests seem to be the norm at George Mason University for the past 3 years. They have all become fixtures on campus and it seems as though once a project comes to completion, another begins. Will the class of 2013 ever get to enjoy the new and improved high-tech facilities in store for the future students of GMU?

“They said it should be done by Feb. 23, 2013,” according to William Glick, glazing and glass specialist of Glass & Metals Inc. located in Harrisonburg Va., “but it won’t be, it never does…you got to factor in the weather and stuff.”  In the past year, Glick has been working on the ceiling designs for what will be the new science and technology building. He said they have been sketching up various blueprints and are “doing a lot of crazy stuff.” By “crazy stuff,” I am hoping crazy-good because according to Glick, the cost of the glass alone is $3.5 million. Sorry seniors, guess you will just have to come back and visit.