Sunday, September 25, 2011

Page One

Helo my fantastic followers. I hope you are well. For my journalism class I had to see the movie Page One this weekend and blog about it. So, here it goes.

I went to the 7:00 PM show at Cinematheque on Saturday, September 24. I went with a girlfriend of mine who I haven't seen in a long time. Page One is about the life cycle of the newspaper The New York Times. I didn't really know what to expect going into the movie. I did find it a bit long but it was very interesting not just because I am a journalism major either. The friend who I was with also found the topic interesting and she is a realtor.

The interesting thing is during the day on Saturday, I received a phone call from a telephone solicitor from the Globe and Mail. The telemarketer on the other end was informing me that I could receive the paper for 30% off and asked me if I would like to take advantage of these wonderful savings. I declined the offer because I am a student and do not have the financial means to have the paper on a monthly basis. I thought about it at the time and felt guilty that I wasn't able to get the paper considering I am a journalism student. I felt I was doing something wrong and that I should be supporting the newspaper industry now more than ever before. However, circumstances dictate what I can and cannot afford. Then I began to think, since when is news considered a luxury and not a must have or a need. I wonder how many othe people have to make this choice.

After seeing the movie Page One though, I thought it was very fitting to have had that call on the same day. That just proves to me that the newspaper industry is struggling and they are trying very hard to do what they have to.

What was interesting was the discussion about as a people, we have perceived the information we receive online is free. I realized that I do expect websites online where I find my news to be free. If I am not buying a hard copy of the newspaper, would I as a consumer be willing to pay for accessing a website to read news information? I wouldn't.

I also thought it was interesting how even the best of the best are not immune to the challanges within the newspaper industry. News is a business. I sometimes wonder when revenue can dictate what is covered in the news, this does convolute the values of traditional journalism. I am making this change to study journalism later in my life and I question if I am still interested in the subject. It makes me question, am I a writer or journalist or am I a salesperson like I have been before. Am I actually going back to school again to become what I have been all along? what I did realize was the newspaper game is a complicated web of relationships all needing each other to survive.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Journalism and Publicity, A Solid Bond

Hello to you all. I hope you are enjoying your Friday afternoon and head into your weekend with a smile on your face.

I want to touch on the topic of how journalism relates to publicity or raising awareness. I would like to share with you fist hand experiences and how I made this happen as well as what it felt like to create a news story and watch it grow. I will use an example that is very dear to me that really represents one of my major accomplishments. It is about the public relations campaign I created and executed to ensure Frances Bay, a famous actress from Dauphin Manitoba, receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2008 for her 90th birthday.

My husband and I were out for dinner way back when in 2007 and were in a fight. We were sitting in the Boston Pizza lounge giving each other the silent treatment. My husband wrote something on a cocktail napkin to try to get my attention and get out of the dog house. On the cocktail napkin was the best idea that would change lives forever. I remember picking up the napkin to read it as my curiousity got the best of me. The message said, "Frances Bay for Canada's Walk of Fame." Well, my eyes lit up instantly and my husband and I started talking again. We fevereshly started hashing out this awesome idea that would turn out to be the most aggressive public relations campaign that the Walk of Fame office had ever seen.

Bay is my third cousin. She is known for her roles in Happy Gilmore as Sandler's grandma, the Marble Rye Lady in Seinfeld and Fonzie's grandma in Happy Days. She has been in three David Lynch movies and won a Gemini award for her work in Road To Avonlea. You perhaps won't recognize the name France Bay, but you would recognize her face. Fran was also known as the Girlfriend to the Canadian Forces and had her own radio show called Everybody's Program. I have letters going back to 1944 saying her voice kept soldiers alive during the war. Fran is a vital piece of Canadian heritage.

So, now that you have a bit of Bay's career history, let me share how important it was building relationships with the media to get the Frances Bay For Walk of Fame campaign off the ground. I couldn't have made this happen without the media. So, I first want to say thank you to all of the journalists that saw potential in my story and helped me make it newsworthy.
I must admit, I loved creating news. I found it so exciting, and it didn't feel like work. I do remember though scrounging for change in the bottom of my couch to pay for gas money to drive to the interviews at the television studios. Luckily, I made it there and back!

I think because I had so much passion for my subject that I was promoting, the process didn't feel like work and my determination mixed with my passion came through when I communicated the key messages to the public. I did remember though, when it came to providing factual information, I knew that I had to be very careful. A few times, I read wrong information in the paper about Fran's age, or personal information. I had to learn that sometimes, things are just out of my control and I can only do the best that I could. This experience made me think about what would happen if I worked in media relations for an organization and how incredibly stressful it would be if the wrong information did come out in the papers even when you checked and checked with reporters.

Okay, back to the topic at hand. I generated news stories in all local media plus national coverage including all the mediums such as radio, tv and print media. I will never forget how excited I was when Macleans did a full feature story on my campaign. This was especially gratifying for me because I graduated from the Public Relations and Management Program from the University of Winnipeg in 2005. So, to use my skill set towards a cause like this was unbelievable. I also generated media coverage on Entertainment Tonight Canada and CBC Sunday News. If you can imagine, a producer called me from Toronto and said they would like to bring their crew out to interview me about the public relations efforts I did for the campaign. That was a high. CBC coming to my little apartment in River Heights. Yikes. Well they did come, we shot the footage in just a couple of takes. I remember saying to myself, I am born for this. I loved it. I will never forget when it aired on CBC. Wow, was that exciting but daunting all at the same time. I hate seeing myself on camera. This was up close and personal. I got through it though reminding myself that this wasn't about me, it was about Fran.

I will never forget cold calling Morley Walker. He is a tough nut to crack. Luckily, I had a bit of a connection at the Free Press tha panned out. My mom's old time friend is the aunt to Margo Goodhand, the editor of the Free Press. I cold emailed her a few times. Then, Morley Walker's email was in my inbox. I remember Morley saying, "I don't think she is going to get it kid, she isn't big enough." I had to go to the Free press building for a photo shoot. Well, when the paper came out, wow. It was a full page spread with a huge picture of me smiling proudly holding Fran's picture up. I wish I had known the photo was going to take up half the page!

I continued to promote the campaign to the bitter end. I cold called Hollywood in my pj's until late in the evening trying to break through to personal assistants. Well, my determination and passion paid off because I was able to secure letters of support for Fran's nominaiton from Jerry Seinfeld, David Lynch and Henry Winkler. Wowee!

I will never forget when Fran did get the star and how I found out about it. The CEO of the walk of fame called me at my apartment. Now, that was something. He said he had to find out who I was because the work I had done was getting a buzz. He told me Fran was going to be inducted for their 10th anniversary special. Plus, she would be the oldest person inducted. It was awesome. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I did it! I also won't forget having Morley Walker call me directly. He simply said, "Kid, you were right, you did it." Now, that was affirmation.

WIthout people like Morley Walker, or Jon Hendricks for example who is a wonderful person, campaigns like these would not have a voice. I am so thrilled that our efforts paid off.

On September 15 at around 7:15pm in Studio City, California with family at her bedside, Frances passed away at the age of 93. Now more than ever I am honoured and so thrilled I did what I did for her in 2008. It is really overwhelming though when you work as hard and tirelessly as I did over a year to make something like this happen. Now, as I digest that she is gone, I am overwhelmed with knowing how meaningful her star is and what it represents. I never thought I would have these types of emotions. They are difficult to manage.

To conclude, journalists and publicists need each other to share informaiton and tell the sotries of people changing the world and leaving their marks. What a fascinating relationship.
Thank you,
Anrea Zaslov

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Writing Tips

Good afternoon my woderful followers. I hope you are doing well on this fantastic day of September 7, 2011. I saw frost on my car this morning but am happy that it will warm up this aftrnoon and be hot all week. I am not ready to put on my fall clothes yet. Are you?

With a new semester upon us, brings more blog entries. I have to blog once a week for my Journalism class. My last post invovled discussing the topic What Is Journalism? For this post, I thought to explore the world of writing for the news. I dont want to work in a newsroom but I thought it is still something I should be aware of if I am going to work in the exciting field of Journalism.

I came across a very informative article written by Peter Cole, a writer for an internet website called the www.guardian.cu.ca. Let me summarize Coles important points for you. He suggests that the first thing to do when writing news is stop and think and not start writing until you have a plan. He makes the point of saying it is really important to read through all your notes, marking the most important pieces of information and the quotes you want to use. The information you have gathered will not have entered your notebook in order of importance. You need to decide what is more important, what is less important, to establish a hierarchy of pieces of information. Cole indicates that this is where you must think about your audience. Not necessarily what interests you most, but what will interest them. It may not be the same thing, and this is where knowing, having a feeling for, understanding your audience is so important. As you stare at the blank screen try to imagine the reader.

I think this is so important. I have a background in public relations and graduated with a Diploma in Public Relations and Management from the University of Winnipeg. In every class our teachers emphasized the importance of knowing your audience. By the end of the course, I couldn't hear that expression any longer. However, from my work experience as a communicator in the non profit sector, knowing your audience only makes you a better communicator, a better fundraiser and a better manager as a whole. I get to know my audience by trying to put myself in their shoes at all times and asking open ended questions to promote two way communications with them. In my opinion, If you start with that remedy, you can't really go wrong.

Cole also suggests that you can start to know your audience by understading the intentions of the publication you write for. This to me makes total sense. If you write for a travel magazine, you make a few assumptions in that your audience will enjoy travelling, parhaps have a bit more disposable income to travel so may be more educated. Of course, assuming is risky but somtimes warranted to know your audience. Another hint Cole talks about in his article is The market sector in which the newspaper is located is also relevant to how you write.

These were the major points that I thought were very helpful and I will put these to use when writing in the future. I hope you found these tips as useful and helpful as I did.
Hae a fantastic Wednesday everyone!
Kindly,
Anrea Zaslov

Thursday, September 1, 2011

What Is Jourmalism?

What is Journalism?

This is the topic for my blog post this week. First of all, I wanted to say hello to my followers as I was off for the summer. I hope all of you enjoyed your summer. Now, I am back in school and my major is journalism.

It is fitting then that my instructor assigned us a blog topic such as what is journalism in our first week.I have given this question much thought. I had an idea to ask people of different ages what they felt Journalism was. I was very curious to hear what their answers would be and see how closely my answer matched. I wanted to make sure I also collected responses from people from different age groups because I wanted to see if the answer to what journalism means changed through the different generations. That is why I included people’s ages more so than their full names.

So, let’s take a look now at some of the responses I was able to collect.

1) “Journalism is reporting of major events or events of importance.” C.J. age 40

2) “Journalism means objective story telling; relating current events to a diverse audience while being able to include pertinent historical facts and information. Journalism needs to be clear, objective and fair. And offer all sides of a story.” Shelly, BW, 40’s

3) “Journalism is obtaining information then expressing that information in your own words however you perceive it.” Ryan, 15.

4)“Investigating things that are happening in the world and informing the public of said information, objectively" Pauline, 50’s.

5) “Journalism to me is the art of telling a story to the public in an unbiased way, using a variety of mediums.” Brad, 40’s.

6) "I think Journalism involves studying, researching and reporting events and incidents that take place on a day to day basis through all types of media, to reach a large audience.” Sevana, 17.

7) “Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience.” Michaela, 20’s.

8) "I just think of journalism as writing articles or documents." E.D, 41


9) "Journalism to me means the pursuit of information or truth through the written or spoken word." Eric, 20's

10) "Journalism is seeing the grey. There is always two sides and not clear cut." Aby mid 40's.

My definition

I think journalism is about telling stories in an objective manner. I think it involves knowing your audience and understanding what information would be important to them and gathering this information in an ethical and unbiased fashion. I think journalism involves gathering the facts and emotions of the people that make up the stories being told.

I think Journalism is an evolving profession that adjusts to the technologies available that best help journalists tell these stories visually and with the written word. Journalism is an information sharing business that is vulnerable to pressures of maintaining high ratings and generating profits. This can present challenging situations regarding journalistic ethics if not managed properly.

I firmly believe that the core of the journalism profession is to be objective, to find truths, to paint the entire picture of a story rather than having to sell newspapers. Perhaps I am naïve though in this area. Is it sales or storytelling, I guess I will find this out in the real world when I graduate from the Creative Communications program.


Merriam Webster Dictionary definition:

First of all, it says journalism is a noun.

Journalism is defined a few different ways:

1) a) Journalsim is the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media

1) b) Journalsim is the public press

1) c) Journalism is an academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium

2) a) Journalism is writing designed for publication in a newspaper or magazine

2 b) Journalism is writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation

2) c) Journalism is writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest


Wikipedia's definition of journalism is:

Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and business, journalism also covers cultural aspects of society such as arts and entertainment. The field includes editing, photojournalism, and documentary.

What do you think? Please feel free to post your opinion of what journalism is. Let's have a healthy discussion!

Thank you for reading today!
Anrea