Herbert Lowe | Telling Stories One Tale At A Time
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Helping Students to Attract Jobs

6/21/2012

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Sixty aspiring journalists from across the country sat before me in a hotel ballroom yesterday on the first day of the 37th NABJ convention in New Orleans. These NABJ student members immediately impressed me and one another with their poise and enthusiasm during the roll-call introduction. Any recruiter sitting across a career-fair table would likely, at first glance, rush to help them along their career path. But what about weeks or months from now, when they are all back at school, or have just graduated, and there's only one job or internship available, and they must connect with a recruiter who has dozens or scores of applications and precious little time to sort through them all?

NABJ Student Representative Wesley Lowery and convention planners Benet Wilson and Monique Fields asked me to lead a "learning lab" we titled "Branding U: The Student Edition." It's an honor and privilege to present at NABJ so I quickly said yes. The convention program promised: "Sending a resume and cover letter through the mail is so yesterday. Job seekers need an electronic portfolio. This three-hour workshop will give participants strategies for using cutting-edge applications to develop a virtual resume. The session also will offer tips for using Twitter and Facebook to promote a brand, and on creating an action plan that will have recruiters banging on the door."

Basically, I sought to share what I strive to teach my journalism students in the Diederich College of Communication. My presentation focused on, among other things, blogging, digital portfolios, social media profiles, live tweeting and curating, melding personal and professional and networking. I stressed that they all must take advantage of the many ways to demonstrate electronically – preferably from one hyperlink! – their success at telling stories across multiple platforms. I also wanted to inspire them to share what they learned with their friends at school who couldn't attend.

Two points: 1) The Law of Magnetism (from John Maxwell) – Who You Are Is Who You Attract! and 2) from me, trying to capture the recruiter's mindset, How You Represent You Is How You Will Represent Me!

After my presentation, three newsroom recruiters shared awesome tips on how students and graduates can distinguish themselves and best get an interview and or that first or next opportunity. Speaking of digital portfolios, Irv Harrell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch told the students, emphasizing my second point above, "It's your mission statement to the recruiter. I want to know what you're going to be able to do for me." Walter Middlebrook of the Detroit News said: "You got 60 seconds to make an impression on someone. If I don't like what I see in 60 seconds, you've lost a sale." Paula Bouknight of the Boston Globe added that "your website should be where you further the conversation," that is, it should not merely offer what is already on or better suited for a LinkedIn profile.

I hope during the summer to offer new posts on this blog that focus on other aspects of my presentation. For now, I invite students (and faculty) everywhere to check out these prior posts: "Covering the Student Cover Letter" and "119 Tips for Journalism Interviews." Many thanks to all the students who said they got a lot out of my presentation.

"I believe there are 2 types of (journalism) students: those who want a grade and those who want a career" - @HerbertLowe #branduniv #nabj12

— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) June 20, 2012

Truly enjoyed @herbertlowe seminar! I can't wait to perfect my social networking skills. Already learning so much at #NABJ12 !

— Lauren Scott (@LaurenAlex90) June 20, 2012

Proud mentee that my professor @herbertlowe is teaching the @NABJ Student Learning Lab (and sporting a @MarquetteU polo). #NABJ12

— Marissa Evans (@marissaaevans) June 20, 2012

@herbertlowe knows his stuff. I'm thankful I'm here listening to him. #NABJ12 #journalism

— Michelle Conerly (@MichCon24) June 20, 2012
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2012 UJW Off to Great Start

6/20/2012

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UWJ participants look on as Diederich College multimedia specialist Jennifer Janviere demonstrates camera settings.
One hails from Minnesota, one from North Carolina, the rest from Wisconsin and Illinois. Some know they want to become journalists, having had various levels of experience in class, their school newspapers or yearbook clubs. Others are considering making it a career or getting their first exposure to what it takes and means to be a reporter.

These 18 high school students comprise the 2012 Urban Journalism Workshop (UJW) at the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. The annual two-week summer program focuses on multimedia news gathering and has inspired nearly 400 students to consider the profession since it began more than 25 years ago.

This year’s group came together during an orientation on Sunday. It’s wonderful to see how well they work together and enjoy being with one another. It’s even better how engaged they were during the first two days of instruction. They asked great questions during an interviewing exercise. They produced impressive images from across the university’s campus after a photography lesson yesterday morning. They also acquitted themselves decently during their first live-tweeting assignment, at the Brewers vs. Blue Jays baseball game at Miller Park last night.

I will rejoin the program as an instructor on Monday, after presenting on digital branding at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention and Career Fair today in New Orleans, and attending the Teachapalooza conference for journalism educators this weekend at the Poynter Institute in Florida. By then, the students will be well into producing their multimedia packages after learning plenty more about telling stories using text, images, audio and video.

Assuming they do what was asked of them, I’m eager to read their daily blog posts – each student created his or her own digital portfolio on Monday – and interact with them via Twitter and the #muujw hashtag while away. Something tells me this great group of potential journalists won't let me down.

Fact: the basement is open pretty much all day & it's where everyone goes after class. Fact: it has free wifi #MUUJW twitter.com/BriStubler/sta…

— Brianna Stubler (@BriStubler) June 19, 2012

Preparing for Brewers' game tonight. Hopefully it is fun. #muujw #brewers #millerpark

— Madelynne Miller (@madelynnemiller) June 19, 2012

We are heading back to Marquette on the bus right now. I think I am experiencing some tweeting fatigue! I am ready to go to bed. #muujw

— William Frank Kobin (@williamkobin) June 20, 2012
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Journalism Prospect On His Game

6/12/2012

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Chris Chavez, one of my students at Marquette University, who hails from Jackson Heights in Queens, N.Y., sent me a remarkable email this week. He clearly is having a productive summer, which is vital for journalism students fresh off their freshman year. What I loved even more is how Chris presented it – clean and professional, sharable with others, including recruiters and editors. As I tell my students all the time, it is important that every correspondence – cover letters, email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. – shows that you can write and tell a good story. With Chris' permission, I offer his note here and will share it with students at the NABJ convention next week.

Dear Professor Lowe:

Hope your summer has been going well and you are enjoying the nice warm weather in the Midwest. I'm definitely getting the best of it on the East Coast. Just wanted to send you an update as to how things were going for me one month after school let out. Let's start off with my proudest moment of the summer thus far. On Saturday, I covered the 2012 Adidas Grand Prix at Icahn Stadium and rocked social media for Flotrack as I live tweeted the entire event. They were so pleased by my work and I just couldn't stop thinking about some of the lessons we learned in early on in JOUR1100. Hashtags were down perfectly (#aGPNY is what was used and the tweets went out from @Flotrack). I made sure to get in contact with Adidas before the meet, just to see if they wanted certain hashtags when one of their athletes did something notable or when the Dream Mile or Dream 100 was referred to. I was on my game!

I was on my game so much that some of the top guys at Flotrack said that I am going to be one of their contact points for New York, Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago and South Bend. Can't even begin to say how hyped I was to be a part of their brand for the day because of how notable they are in the track and field world. I was tweeting to an audience of more than 18,700 people. Every tweet was perfect and was retweeted by many people. You definitely have not heard the last of me with them. I may think of doing a full internship with them in Austin, Texas next year.

Moving onto The Stirring Straw. I was able to get credentials for the site with the Staten Island Yankees. This means that I will be heading out there and interviewing some prospects along with observing the game for trends to note. I'm excited to see where this goes. One of the ultimate dreams is to move all the way up to the major league level, so there are no complaints on my side by starting off in single-A. To look at it optimistically, I'm a journalism prospect in the Yankees minor league system.

On a random night, I decided to put together a cuttings.me portfolio. I listed all of my work with the Marquette Tribune. I'm in the process of looking into some of my top articles from elsewhere around the web. Here is the link to that: http://cuttings.me/christopherchavez. (You asked me to get that done at some point and I thought why not sooner rather than later.) This July, I will be staying at the University of Scranton for three weeks working with a summer program that I have a history with. I'll definitely be writing for The Stirring Straw while in Pennsylvania. But as soon as I'm back, I'll be on my grind again doing other work here and there.

Professor Lowe, I love keeping myself active and you've heard a bit about how I love running. Well, you can track my progress all throughout the summer on Twitter using #ChavezRunsNY. There's a Storify coming at the end of the summer, before #ChavezRunsMKE takes place! I've got the Milwaukee Brewers Half-Marathon on September 22 and I will soon talk to Tess Quinlan about possibly having a post-race interview or coverage afterward. Lastly, enjoy "The Best of Chris Chavez: MUTV 2011/2012" via YouTube. I sent it to Flotrack and they liked it, so you might too. This is just a small step in putting together a tape at the end of my Marquette career that I could possibly send to future employers. We'll definitely stay in contact this summer. Enjoy it.

@Chris_J_Chavez @herbertlowe did it include another decision video? #couldnthelpit

— Tess Quinlan (@TessQuinlan) June 11, 2012
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One of 12 Joins 'The 12'

6/1/2012

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Twelve Diederich College students spent the spring 2012 semester focusing on how media report on national, state and local elections and campaigns in a journalism seminar that my colleague, James Scotton, and I co-taught. The class went OK for its first iteration – I haven't read the course evaluations yet :-) – particularly when we had guest speakers (Sharif Durhams, Charles Franklin, Mike Gousha and David Umhoefer). The students also covered the Wisconsin primary election and visited local television stations for an assignment focusing on campaign fundraising.

One of the 12 students is now part of another dozen. Diederich sophomore Tessa Fox is among "The 12," a talented collection of student journalists in that many battleground states documenting the 2012 presidential election and capturing perspectives of young voters. It's a fantastic opportunity for Fox, an aspiring journalist who next year will be the Viewpoints editor for The Marquette Tribune and a reporter for the Marquette Journal.

"Together, we will curate multimedia on Tumblr to strike a discussion about various political issues in the election," Fox wrote about the initiative on her own blog. "The Tumblr account will be featured on PostPolitics.com and promoted throughout the election. I am extremely excited to see my work be linked directly to WashingtonPost.com."

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to teaching the journalism seminar again in the fall. This time it should be even better because, well, the general election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will be much more exciting than the less-than-inspiring primary contest between Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. I made sure the fall class was scheduled on days when Gousha will likely host newsmakers on his "On the Issues" program.

My students may not get as close to the action in the fall as did the lucky campaign embeds that really interested my students a few weeks ago. But here's hoping they will be as inspired as Fox and the rest of The 12.
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    Welcome

    My journalism DNA remains strong as I learn and teach new ways to tell and present stories, especially via digital and social media. This blog is where I share what happens in my classroom and my life and, from time to time, offer my views on current events. I appreciate your feedback – either as comments herein or in an email to herbert.lowe [at] marquette [dot] edu.

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