I almost got punched in the face by a homeless man

"People don't realize how close they are to becoming homeless," Sid Underwood (right), 19, said. Both Underwood and Leonard Costa (left), 19, have both been homeless for six years. Underwood said she has become accustomed to street life.

…but I was saved by a former street kid who was with me (note to self: don’t ask personal questions to an intoxicated homeless man that is about twice your size).

Last week I spent an accumulated 14 hours on the streets of downtown Spokane to talk to homeless teens. After spending a week researching on the subject, I thought it was about time that I got face to face time with the actual subjects at hand.

Needless to say, appearances can be deceiving. One lesson I learned from this whole experience is that you really can’t judge homeless teens based on appearances.

They might look intimidating or rough around the edges, but during my time talking to youth living on the streets, they were for the most part open to talk about their experiences.

The past week and a half have been an eye-opening experience for me. After seeing homeless teens see their world, a lot of things in my life seem trivial.

I’ll never take for granted the luxury of sleeping in a warm, soft bed every night.

Click here to read my article.

International reporting in the digital age

I posted an earlier blog on international reporting, but this past week during the 2009 National College Media Convention, I had the opportunity to meet Kathleen Struck, newsroom manager of GlobalPost, an online-based international news agency catered to the digital age.

She talked about things aspiring journos should keep in mind if interested in international reporting.

Here are six things you should do if you are thinking about being a foreign correspondent. The six she mentioned, and the descriptions I have elaborated more on:

The Whitworthian snags an Online Pacemaker Award

High-rises located in downtown Austin, Texas near where the 2009 National College Media Convention took place.

Several editors and I from “The Whitworthian” went to the annual National College Media Convention, this year in Austin, Texas.

 

Aside from the workshops, lectures and networking (more on that to come), we received the prestigious Online Pacemaker Award, while being finalists for the print version. Pacemaker Awards are often compared to an equivalent of Pulitzers among college media.

Here’s a press release from Whitworth University about “The Whitworthian” winning a Pacemaker Award.

MULTIMEDIA: Living with muscular dystrophy

Not many college studnts would be too excited to have a parent as their roommate. But freshman Ryan Sutherland does not mind. Steve Sutherland, Ryan’s father, is back to college for a second time. Not to earn a degree, but to take care of his son, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Journalists and social networking sites woes

Credit: Duane Hoffmann / msnbc.com

The Washington Post has one. The Wall Street Journal does too. So does The New York Times.

Ten years ago, many never would have imagined having to create a staff policy guide on social media etiquette. But here we are.

Media convergence under five minutes

A nicely made flash animation that illustrates what media convergence and how today’s digital technology effects just about everyone.

Tools currently advancing Journalism 2.0

As mentioned before, I’m all about technology that saves times and energy. Tools that are seamless and work for you instead of against you are a major plus especially in the world of multimedia journalism and new media. Media convergence is changing.

So here are tools being developed or  are already out there that can help journalists today:

1. Google Voice. Once again, Google creates a new powerful application (though access to Voice currently is by invitation only). What I love most about this app is how customizable Google has made it to users. Here’s an excellent article from Poynter Online explaining its capabilities and  how journalists can improve by using Google Voice.

2. WebCom. It’s a new commenting system that doesn’t follow the traditional comment by chronological order that virtually all comment-enabled sites use. Washingtonpost.com developed this Flash-based system and allows for a more visual, popular-based form of interaction. Click here to read more about it.

3. Zemanta. Many journalists today run their own blog and Web site. Zemanta is a free internet browser based aggregation service geared specifically towards blogging (try the demo). Zemanta cruises the Web and looks for any relevant links, images and related articles (while respecting copyright laws) and brings them to you. You can use Zemanta in other ways like when you use email or Facebook.

–UPDATE–

Google’s vision of the future of journalism