Erin Jester's media blog
Mixed success, at last
I conducted most of an interview with Pastor earlier today, and he is sending me numerous files delineating all of the different project modules that will be put into place under World Ocean Watch. This project is actually much bigger already than I expected. The coordinators, Pastor and Dr. Rock, are currently working with Beach High to see that they become involved with the project immediately after MAST. Pastor was unable to give me a full interview tonight but says that he will get back to me once he speaks with Dr. Rock. Rock also returned my e-mail earlier, complete with his personal e-mail address and home phone number — it pays to be connected. However, and to my misfortune, I have discovered that since I first started calling the Herald to try to pitch this story, another reporter found out about it and is apparently trying to cover it from a similar angle. I still may be able to sell my story because I have already made contact with both Pastor and Rock, while she has yet to do so. As long as I can speak directly with the freelance editor early tomorrow, I may be able to get it in ahead of the other reporter, who is fairly well-known. I am officially making it a personal goal of mine to beat out anyone who tries to cover this story. I’m convinced that I have a better understanding of the situation and am more well-connected. Really, I’m just feeling a sense of journalistic entitlement. I’m going to have to work fast to turn in this story for Thursday, but at least I’ve been able to talk to all of the sources that I wanted without having to resort to others with minor roles in the program. Even though I’m nowhere close to wrapping up, I’m starting to feel a sense of satisfaction at having broken through the barrier that often inhibits journalism students and young freelancers from getting the stories and the sources they want. I would like to hold onto that.
8 months ago • 0 notesThe bigger, meaner picture
I finally got through to the Neighbors desk at the Miami Herald in the last few hours, and I was told that the editor I have been working under for the last year and a half has left the paper. This past week the Herald faced its third round of layoffs in just under a year. With the steady decline of the McClatchy Company, editors, reporters and other staff have been cut from the payroll on an alarmingly routine basis. My former editor was recently cut in the same way. She took the buyout during the second round of layoffs and apparently fell off the radar. In a quick rundown of my few remaining contacts at the Herald, I learned from a fellow freelancer that our editor moved back to Jamaica to take a position at another paper. I did get the contact information for the editor who took over, but trying to pitch a freelance story to a stranger without the benefit of a good rapport makes it that much more difficult. On a more positive note, however, I spoke with Tohulka again and he contacted Pastor and informed him that I would be in touch. He also gave me another source to look into at Miami Beach High School, where WOW may also be incorporated into the curriculum in the near future.
8 months ago • 0 notes
Mark Tohulka, World Ocean Watch program coordinator at MAST Academy, lectures a freshman biology class. WOW activities will be directly incorporated into the curricula for biology and marine biology classes.
8 months ago • 0 notesDisappearing sources
I still haven’t heard from either one of my main sources for the e/h/s story. I had hoped to finish up at least the interviews with the sources since it’s my last night in Miami, but it looks like I’m going to have to conduct them from Gainesville. It’s possible that I won’t be able to speak to Patxi Pastor at all. I did some research on him and he is very involved in the community; he usually has his hand in several projects at a time. Recently he acted as executive producer of the billion-dollar restoration project on the historic Fontainebleau in Miami, which apparently is still being wrapped up. As a result, I may have to find another source who was also involved in producing the World Ocean Watch. Dr. Rock has not responded either, although Tohulka forwarded my e-mail to him with a personal recommendation. I’m hoping that by the time I return to school there will be some more information to go on. Rock is a more essential source and it would be very difficult to write the story without his comments. I’m also having trouble contacting my old editor at the Miami Herald. I plan on repackaging my story for the paper if I can reach all of my original sources after I have to turn the story in for my class. Unfortunately, no one at the Herald is even returning my calls so I can tell them about repackaging the story. Sometimes you just have to go around in circles a few more times before you can turn out the work.
8 months ago • 0 notes