Cater Swartzlander

As a music aficionado, I have hundreds of songs from multiple decades and genres of music downloaded on my iPod.   Listening to Anya Grundman of NPR Music describe the vibrant, unconventional site they have created, I found myself intrigued and inspired.

 

For so long, we have been passive consumers of music, waiting for major record labels to release albums (yes, I remember vinyl well), CD's, music videos, and songs.  Now thanks to the internet, there is a global sharing of the love of music.  I have discovered artists, songs, and performances that I never knew existed thanks to YouTube. 

 

NPR Music is an exciting example of the opportunities for multimedia success and audience participation.  To expose people to 200 diffferent public radio streams, live concerts, documentaries and special progams through audio, video, and thoughtful written critiques is a fine example of customer service. 

 

We have been challenged in the Specialized Journalism program to think first of the customer as we formulate our plans for entrepreneurial ventures.  NPR Music is appealing to music lovers, their customers, on multiple levels.  I love the creativity of "Tiny Desk Concerts" that place performers in unusual settings, where they adapt and flourish.  It reminds me of MTV's brilliant "Unplugged" series - taking great musicians and hearing them in their purest, acoustical form.  I loved the story of the drummer who couldn't bring his drum set to the "Tiny Desk Concert" setting, but knocked it out on a red suitcase!

 

The fact that NPR Music is curating the vast amount of music out there, integrating radio with the web and on mobile devices is a valuable customer service.  It also presents heartening opportunities for former traditional mainstream journalists.  Where a music critic was formerly only able to write about a live event after the fact, NPR Music is encouraging their reporters to bring the audience into the room, reaching people where they are with online streams and live chats.

 

Anya Grundman said, "The edges are open..." and that is wonderful news for creative journalists willing to learn and experiment with new skill sets, who have been boxed into one medium for most of their careers.  In many newsrooms, there is a "one-way" mentality.  This is the way we do it, have always done it, must continue to do it.  That is changing, because of necessity, but it's often met with fear and lamentation.   The fact that NPR Music encourages its staffers to reach out of their comfort zone and go find applications to fit their own creative interests and their customers' desires is heartening.

 

The spirit of "Yes, We Can!" is contagious.   Obviously we saw that with the election of our new president, and the fact that NPR Music is blurring the lines of traditional arts journalism with enthusiasm and energy is exciting, indeed.  It fits the new model of the music industry, where there is a new global , participatory audience.

 

The other presentation that particularly resonated with me was the Cedar Rapids Gazette.  While all newspapers have created websites, this Iowa newspaper went for the "Community Connection." 

 

As a resident of a small suburb within Los Angeles, I do believe that most people appreciate and are searching for a sense of community.  In La Canada Flintridge, where I live, the Outlook newspaper provides that connectedness.  From local politics to news to school and sports news, I would venture to say that nearly every one of the town's residents reads this weekly newspaper often.

 

It is easy to see how you could go "hyperlocal" on line in places like La Canada Flintridge and Cedar Rapids.  It is, however, a challenge to many areas of a huge metropolitan area, where the community is more difficult to define. 

 

When presenter Steve Buttry talked about covering local choruses and book clubs, my classmate, Chris Jenkins, leaned over and whispered, "Just because it's happening doesn't make it news."  I think that is a valid point, but you do have to admire the effort to embrace citizen journalists, and allow parents to post videos of their local high school plays and sporting events.  On the web, unlike in a print publication, there is endless space to explore the kinds of journalism that might attract and keep your audience engaged.

 

I saw the results of a connected community through social networking during the recent Station Fire.  The local TV stations (including my own) did little coverage of the blaze during the first few days, partly because of a bigger fire burning in Palos Verdes, and partly because there were no structures threatened in the La Canada area.  The print publications were obviously way behind the fire in terms of immediacy.  Facebook became the go-to site for La Canada, Pasadena, Altadena, and La Crescenta residents, anxious to share the latest on evacuations, relief efforts and fire updates. 

 

Is the Cedar Rapids Gazette's model the future of print media on the web?  It certainly challenges traditional media to redefine its boundaries.  For me, as I go forth and try to create an entrepreneurial brand for myself, it reinforces the fact that whatever I do must be inclusive of the audience I am trying to reach.

 

 

 

 

 

First day of high school...an exciting and terrifying experience for any teenager.  The agonizing decision of what to wear, what friends will be there, what teachers will be like - it is a day for the memory books. 

Now imagine entering a high school where there are 4,800 students, larger than many college campuses.  That is the reality for students at Garfield High School in Los Angeles.  This school on East Sixth Street is the home of the "Big Bad Bulldogs," and on a beautiful September day in Southern California, it is pulsing with youthful activity.  Garfield's principal, Michael Summe, says it is a "formidable challenge" for the faculty of such a large high school to get to know the students within. 

Garfield is a three-track school, which means the faculty and student body are divided into three non-intersecting groups.  Therefore, a teacher on A track will never have a student from B or C track in his or her classroom.  This creates what Summe calls "an enormous three-dimensional chess game" in terms of coordinating schedules for students.

One answer to trying to reduce the enormity of such a large school is the creation of small learning communities.  Like many schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District, Garfield High School uses the small learning community model.  The concept is to concentrate on a population of a few hundred students, and allow the teachers in each small learning community to focus on those same students year after year.  It empowers teachers to work together as a team, so they can employ strategies for instruction, and concentrate on individual student needs.

At Garfield High School, the small learning community model is employed "wall to wall."  That means all students are placed in small learning communities from the moment they start high school, and will likely remain in the same small learning community for all four years.  That "wall to wall" approach can be a negative.  Garfield's principal says he believes that "volunteerism is the soul of the whole thing," and that forcing small learning communities on teachers or students who are not willing volunteers is a concern. 

The Los Angeles Education Partnership is an independent, non-profit organization that has been focusing on public schools in the Los Angeles area for 25 years.  One of the programs that LAEP has championed is called Humanitas.  Right now there are 48 small learning communities that incorporate the Humanitas program, within 28 Los Angeles area high schools. The idea is that if a student is studying Greek literature, they would also be studying Greek history, and incorporating the same theme in Math and Science as well.  It provides an in-depth exploration of the arts and humanities.  It also encourages various ways of learning, bringing visual art and media literacy into the classroom.  

Humanitas' Director Jane Patterson says that while small learning communities can be unsuccessful when forced on large schools as a comprehensive solution, she considers Humanitas a model for a thriving small learning community.  Humanitas focuses on integrated curriculum, where teams of teachers from different disciplines work together to create dynamic instruction based on themes.  LAEP's data on Humanitas programs is positive, according to Patterson, in terms of measuring Humanitas student performance compared to peers on the same class schedule.  LAEP's website reports "significant student outcomes as measured on the Degrees of Reading Power Test," and also on high school exit exams. 

At Garfield High School, the students in the Humanitas program are openly enthusiastic about their classes and teachers.  They claim it is empowering to enter a classroom where teachers know their names, and their learning needs.  Winifred Jones is a senior focusing on Arts in the Humanitas program, who claims that being in the program has given her teachers a better idea of her personality and the way she learns best. 

The Humanitas program has been motivational for many of the teachers at Garfield High School as well.  History teacher Griselda Solis claims that she has done some of her "best, most professional work" since she's been involved in the Humanitas small learning community.  She says it is important to know in depth what is going on with her students, socially as well as educationally.  Solis says the kids know she lives in their neighborhood, and cares about whose dog is sick or whose mom isn't doing well.  Because she understands their personal concerns, she says it creates a more trusting atmosphere in the classroom.

Michael Leavy teaches Humanities at Garfield.  He says he enjoys the team aspect of the Humanitas program, which has given him a chance to confer with other teachers about individual students.  However, he hopes that the school's goal of integrating more of the curriculum will take place.    He says small learning communities are not a "one size fits all approach." 

LAEP's Humanitas Director is well aware of that, and is working closely with the school administrators to focus more on the team-teaching and team-learning approach of the program.  Jane Patterson says it is "instruction that drives everything, requiring communication among teachers" that proves to be so valuable in improving student performance.

When you imagine a high school student's entry into a world as large as Garfield High, you can understand the need to reduce the enormity.  Familiar faces matter when you are trying to adapt socially and educationally.   For teachers and students willing to participate in small learning communities, especially involving interdisciplinary studies like the Humanitas program, you can't help but notice the excitement.

Under pea soup skies, thousands of students are returning to school in the wake of the Station Fire.  Summer was prolonged for many kids because of dangerous air quality from the smoke and ashes. But given that air quality may continue to be an issue for weeks to come, schools in the San Gabriel foothills decided that it was time to reopen for business. 

 

Elvis Presley:  icon, rock n' roll legend, "The King," typical male.

Something on that list doesn't compute?

I beg to differ...

 

On a fascinating field trip to LA Live, the entertainment complex outside the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles, the best story I uncovered was that Elvis Presley was a regular guy.

 

Inside the Grammy Museum, an impressive multimedia exhibit of every musical genre, I found a gem of an artifact.  A letter that Elvis Presley wrote to a fan named Betty, who apparently had written many letters to her beloved teen idol.  Elvis wrote, "I cannot do what you ask me to.  You wouldn't want me to!"  It doesn't take much to figure out what Betty was asking of Elvis.

 

Furthermore, Elvis counseled Betty that he could never love her, and that she would find a special man somewhere in the world meant just for her.  I can only imagine how many adoring letters that Elvis received.  His response was touching, even charming.  You have to admire the fact that although Betty (and many like her, no doubt) wanted to throw herself at the King, he resisted, and took the time to tell her why.  He signed the letter "Your Friend, Elvis Presley."  Sweet!

 

The irony was in the postscript.  It said, "p.s.  Please send me a picture of yourself for my scrapbook." 

 

Typical male!  Sorry, Betty, Elvis can't be your boyfriend/lover/partner.  However, he would like to see how attractive you are before he completely rejects you.  I guess it doesn't matter how famous he became...Elvis was still a regular guy.

Photo courtesy of:  www.elvis.com

 

Despite the cynical veneer of many journalists, most of us are optimists at heart.  Otherwise, why would we enter a profession where we are supposed to be the "voice of the voiceless," as Robert Hernandez so aptly described?  We aspire to be the bearers of truth, to right the indignities of the world.  We seek to expose corruption and at the same time, to shed light on the best of human nature. 

 

Now we are faced with the realities of a profession that is changing at lightning speed.  The lure of substantial income in the stable environment of a large newsroom is now replaced with the fear of finding a way to make money doing a job we enjoy in this changing environment.  It is my greatest hope that Hernandez is right in calling this "the Golden Age of Journalism." 

 

I wouldn't be a good journalist if I weren't skeptical about that assertion.  Is digital technology really a journalist's friend?  The idea of re-branding myself as a multimedia journalist is why I was drawn to the Specialized Journalism program at USC, but I have to admit being terrified at the notion of actually making a living with that new label.  That's not to say that journalists aren't making money across different platforms, but it is certainly not an easy task to have to sell yourself to a variety of outlets.

 

One thing Hernandez said about technology struck a chord in my journalistic heart.  We have done a "piss-poor job" of being the voice for the voiceless in recent years.  That is why we all better face the technological reality.  Whether or not we want to embrace digital technology as the future, the masses - our audiences - already have. 

 

 

What does it take to create a beautiful environment? Broadcast journalist Heidi Fogelsong shares her thoughts.

Here is my BBC five-shot challenge: