Tweet National Public Radio just launched an interesting journalism experiment:  “Newspoet.”  This month’s poet is Tracy K. Smith, who recently published ” Life on Mars.”  Each day, she’ll write a poem drawn from one of the network’s stories.  The audience engagement was immediate, and  a couple readers posted their poems. I like the unintentional irony [...]

Tweet I’ve joined a network of bloggers called The Carnival of Journalism. Each month, a member poses a question for the others to answer. This month’s question asks whether a journalist can be a capitalist? What Would Joseph Pulitzer Say? That’s Pulitzer as in the “Pulitzer Prize.” About 100 years ago, he and William Randolph [...]

Tweet Writing organizations give prizes for all sorts of stuff. Some group should set up an award for best Tweets, similar to the awards given for best headlines. The first prize should go to a certain employee at the Washington Post. I don’t who this person is, or whether it is a single person. But [...]

Tweet Engagement is the new buzz word in media circles. Blog post and articles tout techniques to get folks involved with and talking about content.  But an obvious point is overlooked: if the content is powerful, conversation will flow. What could be more powerful than a speech by  Dr. Martin Luther King? I’m not talking [...]

Tweet Koo, the the self-taught filmmaker who publishes the No Film School blog sent an email that urged his subscribers to create a website. As he points out: “There are a lot of skilled people out there that no one knows about. This is the hard part! The film industry — and many creative industries, [...]

Tweet When it comes to eye candy, the Cuttn Zone barbershop is one of my favorite places. That’s why I wanted to include a photo in the project “90 Years in 90 Days: 90 photos that define Cleveland Heights.” The series is running on clevelandheights.patch.com,and it commemorates the 90th anniversary of Cleveland Heights,Ohio becoming a [...]

Just how violent was the Coventry Village Arts Fair? Depends on where you were, and what you saw.

Tweet I’ve photographed three graduation-type ceremonies since June 6. Because of that, I’ve been thinking about new beginnings and rites of passage. Still, the graduation at Boulevard Elementary School really inspired me. The children were beautiful in too grown dresses and too big suits. Their families were more than proud. When the soundtrack to the [...]

Tweet When starting my journey from writer to multi-media journalist, I received great advice from Barbara Morrow, an editor at the Los Angeles Times. She told me to aim for the story, not the pretty picture. The advice came before I was really ready to apply it, but I never forgot. Now, I’m always searching [...]

Tweet Here’s how the Scruggs family learned that Osama bin Laden has been killed: Not by television alone; neither by Twitter alone, but by new media, old media and word of mouth. My sister-in-law broke the news when she ran down the stairs and into our rooms. She may as well have been shouting “Extra! [...]