Online Journalism

Former Chief of Staff for the First Lady Anita McBride video conferenced with us today, and, boy, has she worked in the White House for quite a while.

McBride said that she never looked back after campaigning in 1980. Between 1987 and 1992, she was the Director of White House Personnel under both President Ronald Reagan and President George H. W. Bush. More recently, though, she was the Chief of Staff for First Lady Laura Bush from 2005 to 2009. Check here for more background information.

Above all, McBride, who is now a professor at American University, discussed in the conference the responsibilities and the life of a First Lady.

She says that being the First Lady of the United States can be “very painful,” but can also, at the same time, “help to humanize” the president. She cites President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird Johnson as a great example of this.

After all, First Ladies, throughout history, never “run shadow governments” behind their husbands. They’re there to help and support them.

On the First Lady she worked with most, McBride said that Laura Bush was “typecast” as a house wife right off the bat. Instead, as most First Ladies should, McBride said that Bush put herself out there to do all the interviews and show genuine interest in the country’s issues and interests.

First Lady Michelle Obama demonstrated this recently with her coverage of bullying in schools across the country.

If the First Lady does that and makes the attempts, McBride calls them a “champion.”

But what happens when a First Lady tries to cover too many issues at once?

“It’s certainly a risk,” McBride said.

She believes that one can “absolutely” lead a normal life as a president, and that knowing our presidents and their wives give us comfort. We can relate to them… or as least think we can.

What surprised me most was when McBride told the class that the First Lady is an unpaid job, but that her staff (which is technically not even her staff but her husband’s) is. What a job to have to not even get paid for!

“I don’t miss getting up at 5 AM,” said McBride, commenting on her job. However, she said that she does miss the camaraderie and the ability “to get terrific things done” each day.

If she was given the choice to work with any First Lady in history, McBride answered either Dolley Madison or Abigail Adams. Both were fantastic hostesses and patriots.

Overall, a very interesting interview and probably one of my favorite parts of COMM 361 thus far!

For more, check this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Former Chief of Staff to the First Lady Anita McBride joined our class via C-SPAN to discuss her work in the White House.

Checkout some background information about McBride here and her work as a contributor at The Daily Beast. She is currently a professor at American University.

As a veteran of three administrations, McBride knows her way around the cycle of things at the White House well. She witnessed both outgoing and ingoing  administrations, including those of former presidents Bush and Reagan.

McBride believes that the “modern first lady” term was defined by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who did so much to aid her husband’s presidency and her position as first lady. She was very active on a variety of issues and because of her, the public expects so much more out of future first ladies. McBride says that “People don’t realize how much work went on behind the scenes.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

McBride went on to explain the first lady position. Here are a few facts about the job:

• There is no salary (McBride says it’s the “most important and demanding unpaid job in the world.”)
• The first lady serves as a social hostess
• She is expected to bring an era of authenticity to the role
• The first lady should choose to work on policies that best reflect what she wants to do

McBride went on to describe Laura Bush‘s role as first lady. She said that because of her past as a librarian, she was typecast as being shy and introverted. The media went along with this typecast and showed a press bias against her and provided flat coverage of her role. It was very hard for Mrs. Bush to break out of that stereotype, however she eventually did with her work towards education.

When asked about if someday there is a future female president and how the “first man” role would work, McBride replied, “I hope it will be the same.”

There are always privacy issues when one lives their life in the public eye. However, McBride says that the White House adapts to all kinds of families and all kinds of changes, so one can definitely live a normal life — even at the level of high decision-making. The White House is the one place where it’s a sanctuary and where one can make a good family life.

Regarding her chief of staff job, McBride says that she doesn’t “miss the everyday pressures.” However, she says she does miss the camaraderie of people on staff and the ability to get terrific things done on a daily basis.

When asked which first lady from history she would most like to work for, McBride said Dolly Madison or Abigail Adams. Madison was able to use her personality and hostess abilities for the position. Adams was an early abolitionist and sacrificed for her country by volunteering during the Civil War.

McBride says that the first lady position is an extremely important job to hold. She believes, “A first lady humanizes the president.”

Anita McBride, former chief of staff to former First Lady Laura Bush, discussed the roles and challenges of being a first lady during a C-SPAN interview on April 14 with political editor Steve Scully and students from George Mason University, Purdue University and the University of Denver.

Being the first lady is the “most important, demanding and unpaid job,” according to McBride.

In the past, the American public expected the first lady to play a traditional role as a homemaker and caretaker to her husband, family and the White House. However, the American public now believes that first ladies have the responsibility to use their voice to make a stance on their platform thanks to first lady and activist Eleanor Roosevelt, according to McBride.

“Over time, we do expect our first lady to be deeply engaged with issues they care about and issues that the nation cares about,” McBride said. “First ladies are best when the choose policy decisions or policy issues that are important to the government at large.

A first lady much choose an issue that they deeply care about and bring their credibility to it, even when the issue is controversial.

Hilary Clinton, for example, took a lot of blows for being so upfront about health care. While she did not retreat from being engaged in issues that were important to her, she did shift her focus to a global landscape. Even though she tried her best to stand up for something, sometimes first ladies must shift their gears to other platforms.

Sometimes, it may be difficult for a first lady to get her platform out because the public is unfairly going after the president by going after his wife, according to McBride.

There has been a backlash on the number of staff First Lady Michelle Obama has in her offices. The number of staff usually varies for each first lady, according to McBride.

“I don’t remember this level of controversy,” McBride said.

While it sounds like life in the White House may be difficult for first ladies and their families, McBride said that it is absolutely possible  to lead normal lives.

“The White House is the one place where there is sanctuary,” McBride said. “You can make a good family life.”

McBride also mentioned that if she were able to choose to work for any first lady, she would choose either Dolly Madison or Abigail Adams.

Madison had a great personality and wonderful hostessing abilities, while Adams had extraordinary character and a strong belief in the possibilities of the nation, according to McBride.

Mandy Jenkins who is now D.C. Social News Editor at The Huffington Post wrote a very interesting post on her blog about the importance being the first person and/or news organization to get a story out first.

What was really interesting was that Jenkins said that many reporters and journalists feel that there is a lack of competition, which is why being timely and breaking a story as soon as possible is not as important.

Like Jenkins, I believe the claim above to be untrue. Even if newspapers are less widespread and are dying out, people still follow the news. Just because there is a lack of newspaper subscriptions does not mean that people are receiving news any less. It just means that people are using different methods in receiving their news.

If anything, people are following news more closely because the Internet allows them to seek information at anytime time. Almost everyone in my Comm 361 class has a smartphone or has 24/7 access to the Internet. I for one, am always receiving alerts and updates on breaking news — either through my phone or my laptop.

I think that reporters and journalists should feel like they have more competition then ever before because immediacy is so important in our technologically advanced society. People are always wanting something more right away — if a news site does not meet our needs then we will jump to another site until one catches our attention and satisfies that need.

The deadline should always be now — not this afternoon, tonight or tomorrow.

Brad Kalbfeld, author of the Associated Press Broadcast News Handbook and managing editor for the Associated Press, came and spoke to our Comm. 361 class on April 5, 2011. Kalbfeld spoke about much of the history of journalism and how it’s evolved us into today’s journalism.

Copyright: apbroadcast.com

He started off his presentation by showing us what he used in the past. He first showed us his large typewriter, then his first laptop that basically looked like a big Game Boy console which could only show four lines of text and then his cassette recorder. He used to have to carry ALL of these heavy things around with him. Boy how things have changed!

It used to be: heavier equipment, limited amount of people had access to it and it was expensive.

There has been an incredible leap in technology to what we have today. For example, the iPhone gives everyone the capability to have access to information.

He then gave us a before and now look into how journalism occurred and now occurs.

BEFORE: Event –> (Filter 1) Reporter –> (Filter 2) Copy Editor –> (Filter 3) Section Editor/Show Produced –> (Filter 4) Managing Director –> (Filter 5) Reader/viewer

NOW: Joe Six-Pack –> Reader/viewer. Skips all other filters. The reader/viewer now has the power to determine what gets out there.

” There is a new level of coverage due to how the power shift has changed. It’s not just reporters and journalists who are relaying information, everyone had the opportunity to do it.” – Kalbfeld

The conversation then got on the topic of citizen journalists versus traditional journalists. Kalbfeld explained that some traditional journalists are scared of citizen journalists because of their direct appeal to the public. Citizen journalists are able to provide a different level of coverage that professional journalists can’t. Kalbfeld explained that it’s all about finding a balance and making sure you’re reporting on truthful information.

When asked what’s the tool he can’t live without he stated the Internet. Pretty solid answer for an ONLINE journalism class.

Lastly, Kalbfeld spoke about all the different news outlets out there and how people chose what to tune into. He explained that there’s many factors as to what people chose as their news. It can be because the reporter shares their beliefs, they like the advertising, they agree with the political standpoint of the reports and many many other reasons. Basically, consumers need to be educated consumers and find what’s reputable. He explained though that people don’t’ always do that and can be lazy. That’s where journalists come in and need to make sure they’re providing solid information.

Summary: Mark Stencel, currently the managing editor for digital news at National Public Radio, discusses how NPR expanded beyond being a radio only news outlet by utilizing multimedia and social networking sites, while highlighting the trends and tribulations in online journalism today.

Image provided by www.mediabistro.com

National Public Radio loves traffic, and may be the only people who do if you ask Mark Stencel. While its members stations enjoy a loyal following of rush-hour listeners, the organization had a hard time getting them to follow NPR online.

Building a Web presence was not easy. NPR is a standard bearer when it comes to audio journalism, but expanding online meant incorporating skill sets from print and video broadcast.”We had to import a print organization,” Stencel said, “(we had) to figure out how to communicate in different ways…at NPR we started with great audio.”

Stencel admits that you won’t see a lot of video on its Website, and if you do, it is typically for feature stories. “Videos are time consuming and expensive…features have a longer shelf life that justify its costs.”

Where NPR has been successful is in cultivating fans through social media. “We probably have about 1.5 million Facebook fans,” Stencel said, adding that the site acts as a parallel homepage.

The social media site Twitter has added another level of interactivity for online journalists. Andy Carvin, NPR’s senior product manager for online communities, uses Twitter to report on the wave of revolts in the Middle-East. “Andy Carvin has turned the reporting process inside out,” Stencel said, and Carvin’s Twitter followers can see, tweet by tweet, Carvin checking the veracity of his sources as he reports on events.

Stencel did not shy away from talking about NPR’s mis-reporting of the Gabby Gifford’s shooting. Although NPR had two credible sources telling them that the congresswoman was shot,  what was more important was that NPR owned their mistake, he said, and apologized for it profusely.

Despite mistakes in reporting and accusations of a liberal bias, NPR maintains a loyal following of listeners by giving them something that they can’t find with news organizations. Mark Stencel will tell you what his colleague Matt Thompson articulates as NPR’s philosophy, “Don’t just cover the events, cover the implications.”

Mark Stencel, managing editor for digital news at NPR, is a pioneer of the cross-platform news experience. NPR is one of the largest, most consumed news organizations in North America but the bulk of that is because of radio listeners, not an online audience. NPR struggles to get people on to its website.

One tidbit that I thought was interesting was that Stencel stressed the long-term traffic of arts pieces. A feature like Moby’s songwriting process will not have as big a drop-off in page views as, say, a news piece. Stencel’s attitude towards stories, therefore, is “What part of this story are readers/listeners coming to NPR for?”–developing a story tailored to what the audience is looking for when the reality is they probably already know the news.

NPR is more about analysis–the how and the why rather than rehashing the who and the what. He quotes co-worker Matt Thompson, “Don’t cover the events, cover the implications.”

When Stencel worked for The Washington Post, he was part of a team that designed a way for the paper’s then-new website to encourage interaction with live chats with reporters and newsworthy individuals. Then those transcripts would serve as suitable stories on their own. But now, interaction is a more dynamic process thanks to social media.

Stencel praised Andy Carvin for his innovative, Twitter-based coverage of the Libyan conflict, saying that it will change the way journalists cover breaking stories. (Professor Klein deemed Carvin “the most talked about” journalist in the current landscape.)

One of the cooler projects Stencel showed us was the way NPR covered last year’s elections. They analyzed Twitter accounts, Facebook posts and more to find out how many times candidates used certain “buzzwords.” It was an interesting experiment and really brought home the fact that many of these candidates’ social media use is pretty cookie cutter.

News happens quickly. Our job is to cover it quickly.

Sometimes, news moves too fast. Stencel pointed to the inaccurate NPR report that Rep. Giffords (D-AZ) was killed in a January shooting, which in turn led to some other news organizations reporting the story (some crediting NPR and some “confirming” it on their own). NPR apologized and corrected the story immediately, earning goodwill from readers who otherwise might have lost their trust in NPR.