A Reporter's Triumph

This is long overdue, but the thought had been nagging me for a while to wrap up the class in NYC.

The last week was rough. It was mentally exhausting to work on a strict deadline. I had three days to cover a neighborhood story on the Pakistani community in and around the Curry Hill (Murray Hill) neighborhood in downtown Manhattan. On that final week, I interviewed a restaurant owner, a deli owner, and many, many Pakistani newspaper editors. Who stood out to me was the owner at a charming little spice shop and deli called Kalustyans.

There I met Arpiar, a Lebanese deli owner.He was quite a character. Full of life, humor, and admiration from the frequent customers who always came in excited to grab lunch.

On the last day, the broadcast people raced for the finish. It wasn't a day of Doritos and Pepsi like all the other winter classes seemed to be doing. We print people lived and died by our journalist bible, worthy of modeling next to.With Marcy watching with eyes like an eagle.At night, Professor Reiner and Selvin took us out to a delicious Indian restaurant. With the food wonderful, our backs relieved, and with our newfound experience, we cheered for the journalistic road ahead.Cheers!

More to come with the blog,
-JC

Jan 15th, 2008 - NY 1

JC asked me to contribute to the blog. Hope you like it!

Today was our final tour--NY 1. Courtesy of Charnee's contacts, the NY 1 people were gracious enough to set aside a few hours and talk to us. It was my favorite tour because it was short and to the point :)
The station is located in Chelsea Market, a former Nabsico factory that, today, is home to many eateries. It smells heavenly, especially around Hale 'n Hearty soups, which typically has a line that ends outside the door.

We met Hector Reyes, head of the HR department, and quite an animated character. What struck me almost immediately about him was his friendliness. Before we were settled in our seats, he asked us if we would care for any refreshments-- and although we politely declined, he fetched for some anyway. Later, he gave us NY 1 merchandise : t-shirts and umbrellas. I loved his accent. It was subtle and very New York!Above, Hector is holding his newly designed and colorful business cards. He handed one out to everyone after the discussion.

Within the hour or so he talked, I could tell, there was something captivating about him. His emphasis was on the NY 1 internship program. He encouraged everyone to apply, he made us feel like we had a shot. He gave us hope.

At that point, everyone was asking questions about the program. Henry even ventured to ask about salary. I think the balloon deflated around then. Haha.

He turned over the metaphorical mic to his news director, Bernie Han. She spoke briefly about her life. We learned that she went from wanting to do print to falling in love with broadcast. That alone is interesting; it left me wondering about print people and broadcast people, their similarities and differences.The NY 1 newsroom had a unique vibe. There were street signs of significant places situated all around the area. Hector led us on a brief tour. We glimpsed into the control room. We even saw Roma Torre at the anchor desk. I have to admit, hearing my name refer to someone else is a little odd. (I thought it was original!)Hector led us to different anchor desks, with lots of lights, cameras, teleprompters. The rooms were very cold, purposely to avoid overheating the equipment. He showed us the control rooms, too.

At one point, he led us into a very small room that had the logo "NY 1 n" plastered onto the anchor desk. It happened to be the NY 1 Noticias newsroom, the Spanish language version on NY 1--a recent addition to company, launched with just eight people.
We all look great, thanks to the awesome lighting and Hector's superior photography skills :P Oh, sorry Maureen!

Overall, the tour was a good one. I personally learned a lot. Local news stations are cozier and smell nicer. But then again, maybe that was just Chelsea Market.


By the way, all the photos are by JC.

-Rohma

Jan 9th, 2008 - Criminal Court

I met Clark Kent today. He actually works in the press room of the Criminal Court downtown.

Well... it LOOKED like him, down to his tie and spectacles. Prof. Reiner pointed it out as we toured the Press room at the NY Criminal Court. I couldn't help but chuckle. This Clark Kent look-a-like is one of the staff photographers that the Post has holed up with a bunch of reporters working the court beat. This room, as Prof Selvin pointed out, was really just an old, tiny room, lined with rotten, yellow front pages of court cases from the New York Post. The entire time I was in the courthouse, I wasn't allowed to show a camera, lest a bunch of court security guards wrestle me to the ground. The courthouse had signs everywhere and had very strict rules on cameras (cell-phone camera counts too).

This woman, as I recall, is one of the reporters there. And the man was one of the two photographers. I was allowed to get a few snap shots of the little press room, and it was interesting to see what a goldmine of fabulous fairy-tales and sensational stories that the press could dig from the court. We remember the OJ-Simpson case and recently, the Britney child custody case because of the extensive media coverage. People love a good, scandalous story before they go to work. It really wasn't until today that I changed my opinion on court reporting from being a very tedious beat to a beast that spits out some nail-biting dramas.

Prof. Reiner pointed out a few infamous stories on the wall plastered with court dramas, including one about a model in an abusive relationship who was slashed back in the mid-eighties.It was an interesting tour of the media corner in the courthouse. I didn't even know the court gave a room to the media. It was interesting to hear the reporters tell us that they barely spend anytime back at the their respective newspapers at all. When they go to work, they head to this room and just file all their stories to the Post headquarters. Ah, the wonders of the information superhighway. The class seemed to really enjoy the press room tour. Especially Rohma. :-)This post isn't exactly going in chronological order, haha. But in my effort to keep this blog more visually oriented (because most of you don't read the text anyway, unless you really love me or you are in the J-department), I found the press room the highlight of our visit.

We did talk with Diana Florence, Assistant District Attorney. She loved to talk, a lot. She went on for a while about her experiences in her position, and was apparently Prof. Reiner's upstairs neighbor. As we sat there for an hour, she told some interesting cases she had worked on. Including a woman named Antoinette.

Antoinette thought she was a princess from Saudi royalty and stole a bundle of jewelry trying to explain to the court that it was stolen during a casual day stroll through Lexington Avenue in broad daylight. She tried to explain this case to Diana Florence, but Florence thought something was fishy and investigated further.

It turned out she was trying to commit insurance fraud. On top of that, she had also obtained a American Express Black card. You might have heard of the Visa Platinum card, but the Black card is for multi-millionaires and high-rollers who likes to purchase luxury goods in bulk. In one month, she bought a million dollars in clothes, luxury goods, and shiny tiaras, further solidifying her status as a princess. Meanwhile, as the bank happily expected another high-roller to cover their bill, she only had at estimated $48 dollars and change on her account. She was caught and charged with attempted insurance fraud, grand larceny, and some other crimes I can't recall on top of my head.

Antoinette somehow convinced the judges that she was crazy and she was sent to a psych ward instead of serving time. Florence's detective called her sometime later on to find that she was sent out for "shopping therapy." Antoinette was called back and was sentenced for a year to prison. She finished her term about a month ago, and I can't wait to see her soon in the papers again.

After our visit to the press room, we sat in a criminal court for misdemeanors and violations. We watched as people were sentenced fines or days in prison. It was interesting for a while and although cameras weren't allowed. Take a look at my amazing courtroom sketch. Click on it to see it in detail.We left the courthouse, stopped for coffee (most of us are running on an average of six hours of sleep), and headed back to the campus to edit and work on our stories. Will was hard at work making phone calls arranging time to shoot extra footage tomorrow morning as my group worked on our script. We wrapped it up at 5. People had friend's birthdays, dates, or plain sleep to attend to.
By the way, many people have asked about my camera. This is a blog and I don't want to start advertising camera equipment here, but it is a Canon Rebel XTi with a Canon 50mm Prime F1.4 lens.

And in case you were wondering what Clark Kent looked like, here he is.I expect him to excuse himself to the bathroom and jump out of his tie into a pair of blue tights if an alarm goes off. WHAM! POW!

Jan 4th , 2008 - CBS and The Bowery Mission

Gosh, this was literally one of the most stressful days as a J-student. I'll try to keep it short and sweet and let the visuals do most of the talking. I woke up at 5:45, weary-eyed, and slowly but surely got out of bed. We were starting much earlier because the class was to meeting at the CBS headquarters between 10th and 11th avenues today. I got ready and took the train to Columbus Circle. Sadly lost my brother's fancy leather gloves on one of those many trains I transfered among. I then had breakfast at a diner near CBS where I gave a generous tip to the nicest waitress I had in a long, long time. Thank you, darling.

I arrived on time, though most of the class was already there, and I was given a CBS guest sticker. We sat at the cafeteria, affectionately known as the "Station Break," where we spoke to Lou Young, a prominent journalist working at CBS who shared some of his wisdom about reporting in one of the toughest cities in the world. I learned a few trade tricks from him, which reminds me of a term I have heard somewhere, "Alpha nice," where you are nice but affirmative about your authority and expertise as a journalist to make your job easier dealing with more resistant sources. We certainly could have used these tips yesterday to make our job flow more smoothly.
We listened intently; he had the slightly cocky and edgy demeanor that many veteran journalists have.
The next part of the visit was one of my favorite parts, we visited WCBS Newsradio. Where we met the radio personalities Pat and Jared Max as they spoke live on air to the city of New York. Watching them work in person and hearing a radio voice in person is one of those things that never ceases to amaze you.This is Pat, and hearing her do the weather and traffic is amazing.Jared Max is the WCBS sports guy, and he left two of our future sports reporters with some inspirational words.We then went downstairs to watch the CBS 12 o'clock news behind the cameras as it happened. It was very, VERY exciting to actually see what goes on in the control room and all the coordination and seconds-timing that goes into each newscast.What really cracked us up was the humorous and very light-hearted conversations that the anchors had with each other during commercial breaks. The weatherman needed hairspray, the anchor wondered if the light on her face was just right, and they joked more about hairspray and other things. I guess if they're going to be so serious when the cameras start rolling and millions are watching, they might as well have a very laid-back studio.

We were going to get a tour of their online news floor when I looked at my watch and realized that we are short on time for a scheduled shoot at 2pm. We left early, grabbed a Jamba juice with a booster to fight the cold, and headed back for our camera equipment.

With difficulty with delayed trains and our cameras temporary getting locked in, we finally lugged all that gear to the Bowery Mission. At the door we inquired about a guy named Matt, whom Will spoke to yesterday about the shoot. The man came down, and we were soon introduced to one of the volunteers coming all the way from Ohio who looked rather uncomfortable on camera, and it didn't help that the sound levels weren't working well on my Sony HDV camera (I was in charge of photography that day).

We got the interview, and spoke to a few people, some of which gave some really great sound bites and seemed genuinely in speaking to us. We got this guy from the Ohio group and had a great interview with him.We did some B-roll (extra footage) of the mission and I had a total nightmare doing the stand up (the part where the reporter introduces the story on camera). I was nervous speaking in front of the camera as a reporter for the first time and in public in the city, with the cold and the constant nagging of the other two freezing reporters. It was really funny, there was pedestrians doing acrobatics, running and ducking under the camera as they walked down the street, and it really made my day when one guy offered to speak on camera if we gave him $25 bucks.

I have done it, I have done my first standup on camera in public in the city. For now, Will gives his thumb of approval!

Jan 3rd, 2008 - Reporting Commence!

After a day of class introduction, our two J-professors handed out subway maps and basically made us swarm in our seats like little kids with excitement, but the second day was down to the actual meat and potatoes, reporting in NYC.

The way it works is that we are split up into groups of 2, and one group of 3 (odd number). Each group will have to report and shoot a broadcast story (with the exception of those students with only a print background). Maureen and Will is assigned with me, and we are appointed to do a story about the soup kitchens and the impact that the extraordinary cold weather will bring to them.

We make our calls, load up, split up, walk up and down the streets, the icy wind cuts into our faces. I should have worn more layers. We ride the subway and try our luck with the first soup kitchen (journalism is also a numbers game, not every source will be cooperative with the press).

We arrived at a soup kitchen setup inside a church near FIT and noticed that we weren't the first from the media to arrive. I believe it was CBS that arrived earlier and shot a story here, the signs they put up stated: "We are filming today, sorry for the inconvenience!".

So we head inside and a man asks us which group we belong with, we introduce ourselves from the SB J-school. The people there didn't seem to like the press too much, and while Will was negotiating permission to come back and film the next morning, I was stopped by a woman when I took my Rebel out to start snapping away. The man said I could only snap certain people and places, these pictures are some of the ones I shot.The officials at the church said they weren't going to be available on the next day to film, but the man did give us a sheet of all the soup kitchens in the city and their contact information. Now it's a matter of calling down the list and seeing which ones will be interested to speak to the press. It was something below zero that day, and so we stopped at a local bagel shop to rest up and work the list.

Then we head back to the class, for a day of lecture and sharing our stories so far. Luckily, we called a possible spot for filming the next day, the Bowery Mission. Not bad for a first day of reporting in the city. I just wish it wasn't so darn cold.

Something investigative this way comes

I am a Stony Brook J-school student and this winter I decided to start a photoblog of my experiences being thrown and battle-tested in the real world (that is NYC, I hope). So instead of driving down to Florida (or Cancun, bleh) to have a few Margaritas in the sun-baked beaches, a couple of fanatically dedicated J-school students have decided to brave the nasty cold weather and push ourselves to the limit. Yes, we love this job that much.

This is a 3 week intensive at the Manhattan campus of Stony Brook, and the odd thing is that our classroom is empty most of the time (to the dismay of curious students). We are taught by two veteran journalists, Barbara Selvin, of Newsday fame, and Steve Reiner, of CBS. Our assignment is to lug our Sony HDV cameras and Manfrotto tripods (a good 20-30 pounds of equipment) and to shoot a network-quality broadcast story using our journalism training and people-flattering skills. We have one week deadlines, which is a bit more lax than network deadlines, some of which give you 6 hours from shooting those phone calls out to handing in a completed package.

It's a lot of hard work, but I can't think of being anywhere else this winter. My feet hurt, and after the second day of being at soup kitchens, my two partners and I was ready to collapse.

There will also be visits to places like CBS headquarters and numerous newsrooms in and around NYC, I have my digital camera on me at all times to make a photojournal of all the interesting places we visit and some of the people we talk to.

It'll be continually updated by date and each day of reporting in the city, challenges, interactions, hardships, and lessons to be learned by all. I started my university career not knowing what I want to do and being very introverted, somehow by chance two years later, I am a journalism student reporting in the city almost everyday and talking to strangers for a living. If all that can happen, I wonder what's next?

I'm excited, we begin.