Amazing adventures in Austin

Wow, I lose major journalism points for the cheesy title, but whatever.

The Reflector assistant news editor and I are at the National College Media Convention in Austin, Texas. Basically, it's a big conference for collegiate journalists and advisers. We've had a great time, met people from all over the United States (so far, no one else from Mississippi), attended some great sessions, seen cool buildings and also enjoyed some nice cuisine. Let's just say Austin is definitely not Starkville — tonight we walked four blocks and bam, Spaghetti Warehouse! We're also staying on the 11th floor of a 20+ story Hilton Hotel. I think the tallest building in Starkville is maybe 10 floors — anyone know how tall Suttle Hall is?

April and I missed a production night today (oh don't worry, I was the dork in the Atlanta airport reading stories, marking them up in Word then e-mailing them back to section editors). It was weird not being in the newsroom, but the staff managed without us, the paper was sent and from what I've heard, the Henry Meyer Student Media Center is still standing.

A couple of random observations:
1. I've never seen so many Macs or iPhones in one place at one time (yeah, even at the Apple Store). It makes me really happy.
2. I love that everyone here greets you, smiles, asks your position at your paper and where you're from — we've all got journalism in common.
3. The Hilton is silly because it charges $6 an hour for Internet in your room. (There's free Internet in the main lobby, but not on the conference floors or in the conference building next door.)
4. The Hilton might just be worth every penny because it provides complementary printing. (And I really needed it today, considering I forgot to print my resumes back in Starkville.)
5. As nice as the Hilton is, I've already seen two cockroaches three times in less than 24 hours. One of them is in our room. I tried to kill him, but alas, he escaped. (Let the record stand that I did injure him and I haven't seen him since 6:45 this morning.) We've named him our honorary third roommate, but I wish he would leave.
6. My hair likes Austin. It rained today and was super windy, yet my hair didn't get frizzy. Amazing.
7. Everyone here has a massive coffee addiction (the line at the hotel coffee shop this morning proved it) and I love it.
8. I LOVE the newspaper nerdiness and journalism jokes that keep popping up.
9. I know I'm probably annoying non-journalism people with my Twitter right now. I apologize. It will only last two more days, I promise.
10. This has nothing to do with the convention, but y'all, my arm is STILL sore from my flu shot last Friday!

Anyway, here are the sessions I attended today with some brief highlights:
1. Get Out of (Libel) Jail Free Card: Doug Pierce, attorney at King and Ballow in Nashville, TN
Pierce talked about different privileges reporters have and how that affects their legal covering. He used an interesting quote from the Louisana Court of Appeals: "Talebearers are just as bad as talemakers." (1952) Basically, it means you can't quote someone libeling/defaming someone else and always expect to get away with it — you're the talebearer and you're still partially responsible. Someone in the session brought up the Web site Smoking Gun (which I wasn't familiar with until today; it's a site that has police reports, mugshots, etc.) and we talked about the legal ramifications of getting information from that site instead of the actual officials. I spoke to him after the session about possibly attending paralegal school and he was helpful, telling me that it's a good thing I have (or will have) a four-year degree prior to a paralegal career.
2. Ethics and Practice of Trauma Journalism (Dart Center): Kelly Furnus, VA Tech newspaper adviser, Donna DeCesare and Rachele Kanigel
This session was INCREDIBLY helpful. If you're a journalist and aren't familiar with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, check it out. It was a short panel discussion and then students attending the session got to ask questions to the panel about how to cover things. It was really encouraging to hear from peers about their struggles to report really hard things, everything from women being abused to a professor randomly pulling out a gun and shooting three students on campus. I say it was encouraging because it was good to hear that our newspaper isn't alone in having to cover hard things. (Like I've said before, death stories are some of my least favorite, but they're also a good way to help give families and friends closure about that person.) It was very helpful and interesting to hear Kelly Furnus speak about how he and his staff handled the VA Tech shooting back in 2007, and he was helpful in answering my question (how to handle requests from other news outlets to cover tragic stories for them; The Reflector was recently asked by a major news outlet to find out more info on a missing MSU student so that the outlet could run our story. We didn't have any more information, yet they kept asking us about it.)
3. Opening a Shut Case: Chuck Baldwin, University of South Dakota, and Mark Witherspoon, Iowa State
Here, we talked a lot about our state rules for open records, issues we've had with campus police, how to gather information, what to tell your crime beat reporter, etc. It was really interesting to hear what other students have gone through; again, it's nice to know a lot of us have the same issues while reporting! Again, I got to ask them questions and got solid answers, so that was great. Two quotes from Mark Witherspoon:
Addressing the issue of some reporters not being assertive/not pushing hard enough for information: "If they [public officials] don't give it [public records] to you, you need to get pissed."
When asked how to respond to your school administration when they say you're not allowed to have information that you're legally allowed to have: "Bring in the law and ask your officials, 'Are you going to break the law?'"
4. Chicken Salad II: Michael K (sorry, I don't have his last name in front of me)
First of all, this was a rocking design seminar. This guy was hilarious. I took some photos of his redesigns, so I'll post those shortly. Here are some quotes:
"Don't use clip art — when you search for it, that's wasting 10 minutes of your life away that you can never get back."
"Put the turds [lists, etc.] in a graphic — people love to look at graphics."
"If you've hit puberty, you're too old for clip art."
"Editors who can't write a decent headline should be waterboarded at Guantanamo."
"All people are created equal. All people in photographs are not."
"Graphic designers: you've got to train your word people [editors] like you train a puppy. When your puppy take a dump on your carpet, you take his little head within 30 seconds and push into that pile of poop. If you don't do it within 30 seconds, the puppy's going to wonder, 'Why is he pushing my head into someone else's feces?' He won't remember. When they [editors] tell you, 'It's [your graphic] stupid,' take their heads and shove it into the pile of feces that is that crappy assignment."
"I call this a John Doe going to take a dump lead: some guy I don't know doing something everyone does every day."
"The headline should be 'boom!' the deck should be simple."
"Your college journalism career is like your juvenile record: eventually, it gets wiped clean."

Also, check out April's blog right here — she's been updating, too!

Alright, it's way past time for bed. (They just dimmed the lights in the lobby.) Photos will be coming tomorrow via Facebook. Stay tuned to Twitter for lots of updates!