Justin McLachlan

New pro/am journalism tool

2008-08-26T16:44:39Z

I've been working on a new tool that I hope will make it possible for professional and amateur journalists to join together to map the social networks in their communities. I'm not talking about Facebook or Myspace, but the real-life social networks all around us that are hard to detect without some work.

Here's what Investigative Reporters and Editors says about this kind of work:

This is a new approach for journalists, but other professions have utilized this approach for decades for a wide range of research projects such as analyzing:
who has the most powerful connections in a community
what ethnic group is disenfranchised in a community
how terrorist cells or criminal groups operate
interlocking board of directors of corporations
international trade data

There are a lot of possibilities, but no easy-to-use tools to work with. That's where Connectifyed comes in. It will combine social network analysis with skilled journalists and crowdsourcing to create stories that weren't possible before.

I'm not sure when Connectifyed will go online, but If you want updates about beta testing and the launch date (when one is picked), you can sign-up at Connectifyed.com.

Rivers and Sydney, my dogs

2008-08-18T21:59:28Z

I have a love-hate relationship with my dogs. Sometimes, they do bad things in the house (well, one of them does -- which one though, is sometimes difficult to tell), which makes me want to lock them in the crate. Take this morning for example. I woke to a garbage can sprawled out across the floor so that the left over taco meet inside could be eaten.

It was a decidedly unhappy morning and both of them spent it as far away from as they could get. But then, they do cute things, like snuggling up to me on the couch or sprawl out on my bed. And then, there's these pictures. Who couldn't love dogs that look like this:

This is Sydney. Truly the sweetest dog you'll ever meet, her only down-side is that she sheds. A lot. It's quite gross and keeps me and the broom well acquainted. She's not keen on the water, so trips to the dog beach can be interesting and loud noises send her into hiding.

What can I say? Rivers is, at heart, a spaz. Frenetic. It's a feature of the breed (Weimeraner), so we can't blame him too much. I think he's largely responsible for most of the mischief, but he's not as smart as Sydney, so she could be setting him up. That aside, he's also very sweet and gets very excited at the notion of going outside, even if it is on the leash. He'll eat anything left within his reach, including bags of bread or cakes that you've just baked and left on the counter to cool.

To grad school, or not to grad school?

2008-08-18T18:56:48Z

A debate is ongoing at Twenty-something Journalist over the merits of journalists going to graduate school. Some are pro, some are con.

I fall into the pro category, but it's not simply because I recently finished a grad program myself. I happen to be one of those people who thinks that education for education's sake is always a worthy endeavor.

That aside though, what advice should we give each other about going on to graduate school. The answer is that, it depends.

What are your goals? Going to grad school (or not going) will largely depend on how an advanced degree can help you meet those goals. If an advanced degree won't help you get where you want to be, then maybe your resources (time and money) will be better spent elsewhere.

Goal: SKIP THE SMALL-MARKET JAIL SENTENCE
Okay, so it's not a jail sentence for everyone, but for me, working in small markets to get the requisite years of experience in journalism was killing me. I'm not a small-town kind of guy. I live in San Diego now, and even *it's* a bit small for my tastes. So will a master's degree let you move up the ladder faster? A few years ago, probably not. But today, the waters are churning in a different direction and journalistic employers are starting to recognize that not having xx number of years doesn't mean a lot. Like other industries, we too, are starting to understand that education (particularly if it comes with an advanced skill set) can substitute for experience and that skill and ability are just as important as on-the-job experience.
Goal: GET SPECIALIZED TRAINING
This is a yes. There are many journalism graduate programs that specialize in certain areas (like investigative reporting at Point Park University or entrepreneurial skills at The City University of New York) or let you specialize in whatever you want. My program at WVU let me work toward a thesis project that involved three special skill sets, all useful for today's journalist: investigative reporting, online production/development and converged media (video, audio, print, photos). Not all programs do this, though, and some are strictly mass comm research oriented, so be sure and fully investigate the program you're considering.
Goal: GET TRAINED, PERIOD
If you're undergrad wasn't in communications or journalism, it can be difficult to get a job in the field. A grad program in journalism could obviously help -- though many grad programs expect some basic journalism coursework to have already been completed. If you haven't, you'll likely have additional graduation requirements imposed.
Goal: BE A TEACHER
If you think teaching is in your future, either in a few years or a few decades, then grad school is almost a must. Most universities won't hire professors that don't have master's degrees and in most places you can't be tenure track unless you've gone on to get a PhD, either. The nice part for people like me, who are still relatively young and have some extra time (I freelance, so my schedule is my own), you can make some extra money by becoming an adjunct at a local university. It usually only takes the master's degree (though a few on-the-job years won't hurt).

The decision to go to graduate school for me was a combination of some of the above (I'm also considering law school in about two years, but that's a whole other story) and part of me wishes I'd done it right out of college. But I waited for about three years (I finished undergrad a semester early, in January 2003) so I think the combination of my professional experience plus the master's degree has made me a pretty competitive job candidate.

When should you go? I can't answer that for you, no one can. In this business (as in most, but more so in journalism), years-on-the-job are always very helpful. But again, even that tide has started to turn in news business. Other industries have figured out how to hire and promote based on skill, ability AND experience, we're just figuring that one out. The opportunities for well educated, well trained journalists will get better going forward.

Like I said above, it's going to take a careful weighing of your goals against what a graduate degree can get you. Here's some advice to go away with: Don't listen to the person telling you that graduate school is a waste of your time, and don't listen to the person telling you that you have to go to graduate school (now!). Listen to yourself.

Lawsuit reveals shenanigans at the New York Times

2008-08-08T21:57:26Z

Charles Cretella, a copy editor / editorial indexer is suing the Times, saying they discriminated against him because of his age and "perceived sexuality" after a younger male trainee complained that Cretalla sexually harassed him.

The Courthouse News service has the documents. While it's hard to discern who was sexually harrassing whom from Cretella's complaint -- one item in the suit, in which Cretalla describes a training session with younger guy, George Duncan, caught my eye.

So, uhm, what kind of work place is the Times exactly? And "not concentrating on his training session" is seriously an understatement if I've ever seen one.

Anyway, Cretella is asking for unspecified damages for emotional distress and all that stuff.

Is Romenesko out of touch?

2008-08-07T18:44:31Z

Jim Romenesko's media blog at Poynter is a staple in my Google Reader. I've always been drawn to it because he doesn't mix in opinion or commentary. He simply passes on media stories with enough detail to let me know if I'm interested in reading the whole piece.

And judging by the hundreds of responses I received a few years back when he published (along with my email address) an email I sent to him, I'm not a lone. It's a popular blog.

Or at least, it was. Or, it won't be? I noticed something on Twitter this morning: a sort of backlash against the industry-wide death rattles he seems fond of publishing. It's a sign to me, at least, that he's out of touch and that his influence isn't carrying over into the next generation of journalists.
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jiconoclast: Romenesko is clearly aimed at high-level editors and publishers. He almost never links to what people on the ground think or do. (view)

KateMartin13: funny how that works re: Romenesko. I feel so much happier now that it's not on my rss feed. Ignorance is bliss I guess. (view)

johnrobinson: @jiconoclast If Romenesko is aimed at high-level editors and publishers, they (we) sure don't pay attention to many posts (view)

boml: I actually like Romenesko: Not the layoff crap, but some other stories are stuff I'd never read otherwise. (view)

I tend to agree with most of those. And while news about layoffs and which no-one-even-knows-who-they-are editor was promoted from which obscure position to another can be, ahem, important -- are these really the conversations we should be having, given the state of our industry?

The news business is collapsing around us, mostly because people like Romenesko sit around wringing their hands and lamenting what was instead of innovating the way we do our jobs and the products we create. Couldn't his influence and valuable online real estate be devoted to inspiring the next generation of journalists to do things better, instead of constantly painting a (however true) bleak, depressing picture of our futures?

Maybe I'm being a bit too hard on him, but I can't help but nod my head at the Twitter messages. I will keep reading, but I'm not sure for how long.

Twenty-something journalist

2008-08-05T01:42:32Z

It's not so much about age, as it is about state-of-mind. Really. When I launched twentysomethingjournalist.com, a discussion forum for like-minded young journalists, I wasn't trying to offend anyone or cut anyone out. Really, I don't care what age you are -- if you value innovation and aren't unwaveringly bound by a blood-oath of allegiance to a product printed on dead trees that no one really reads anymore, then I think you'll find something of value at twentysomethingjournalist.com.

2008 Online Journalism Awards

2008-08-04T16:16:37Z

My thesis project, WhereDoubtRemains.com, is a finalist in the student category!

The others are:

University of California, Berkeley, Mauro's Shift

Taylor Hayden, Western Kentucky University, Closer to Home: A Daughter Becomes Caregiver

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill & Universidad de los Andes, South of Here

Good luck to everyone. There's some good work in there.

(The complete list is here)

Our first novel?

2008-08-01T16:41:20Z

For years, my friend Kris and I have talked about writing a book.

It'll be what's called "creative non-fiction." Think, a news story that reads like a novel. Completely factual, but told in narrative form with lots of those details that newspaper editors usually frown upon. One of my former professors (and a member of my Master's committee), wrote one a few years back, called Dead House.

The only real difference is that we're also characters in the story, not just the authors. I like to share, so here's the first few paragraphs of the first chapter -- completely raw and unedited. So take it for what it's worth.

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CHAPTER ONE

Justin's entire day felt naked and incomplete, like he'd left his pants at home instead of just his cell phone. Still, it was the longest he'd ever been seperated from it and the withdrawal pangs were getting bad.

He threw his keys and his mail on the table and dropped his shoulder bag to the floor and then made bee-line for his desk, were the phone sat. He flipped it open: 17 new text messages, 5 missed calls. He new he was popular, but had no idea. It'd only been a little more than 12 hours since he left for work.

He glanced over the list of text message. All of them were from just two old college friends, Sarah and Annie. He rolled his eyes. They were just the type to keep sending message after message in a bid to annoy him as much as possible he thought (Justin would later tell this story to Sarah, and though she'd laugh and mimic with disdain his though -- she didn't deny the underlying assertion). He set the phone down and went to the bathroom.

Curiousity got the best of him. Maybe I should read those, he thought.

He went back to his desk in the living room and started cycling through the messages on the phone. They were benign at first, but grew increasingly urgent. "Where are you!!!? Call me as soon as you get this," one from Sarah read. Another, from Annie: "Call Sarah right away."

Finally, he got to the last message. It was from Annie.

"Matt was killed in an accident today."

Matt. Kris' husband. The information in the message sunk in, he understood it, at least logically. Matt was killed in accident. There was an accident. Okay, he thought to himself. And then nodded his head. Okay, he thought again.

Then, the emotion caught up with the logic. His stomach churned and then it hurt, like someone had hit him in the gut with a baseball bat. He dropped the phone and slowly slid to the floor of his apartment. Dizziness overtook him and waves of naseau rolled in.

"Oh God," he said.

DMV: Mission accomplished

2008-07-30T17:00:00Z

Turns out my case was special and I was sent straight ahead to very special window number 8. I was done in under two minutes, easily. But the picture about was the scene when I left. I'm estimating at least 200 people in line when the doors opened.

Sharesleuth's History and Mystery

2008-07-29T23:38:32Z

My first bylined story at Sharesleuth.com was published this week. I'm the "with" after Chris Carey, who did an amazing, painstaking job of tying a lot of people and companies together in a way we haven't seen before. That still doesn't matter to the critics and detractors, though.

Anyway, we did a lot of work upgrading the Movabletype installation to version 4, but it gave us the chance to tweak the templates a bit, too.

My next story should be up soon (disclaimer: soon is a relative term). I've spent quite a bit of time working on it, and no, Mark Cuban has no financial position in this one. So back off.

Finally, some progress

2008-07-29T23:26:50Z

It's taken a mere 25 days, but I've made some headway on my CA driver's license. A quick (sarcastic grin) trip to the DMV tomorrow and I should have my license in, wait for it, another 14 - 42 days.

So, if Costco can print an ID card in about 3 seconds, why (my odd situation aside) does it take California so long?

Out takes

2008-07-26T23:56:12Z

I found this video while cleaning out some old CD's and DVD's I'd had in boxes. It's a series of outtakes from a Taylor University Youth Conference video I did, way back in 2001, I think. They're off the "you had to be there" kind of funny, but still, takes me way back.