Cynthia Barnett from DJD @ USF St. Petersburg on Vimeo.
Award-winning journalist, Cynthia Barnett talks about her interest in the environment and how to create compelling stories about science and nature with student journalists from Neighborhood News Bureau.
Craig Pittman from DJD @ USF St. Petersburg on Vimeo.
By ZENENA MOGUEL
Email: zenenam@mail.usf.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Oct. 23, 2015) – Award-winning journalist, Craig Pittman, shared his experiences and advice for covering environmental issues to Neighborhood News Bureau (NNB) reporters Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Pittman has reported on environmental issues for the Tampa Bay Times since 1998. Along with working at The Times, Pittman has written multiple books including “Paving Paradise,” “Manatee Insanity,” and “Scent of Scandal.” With his knowledge and experience, Pittman targeted three major areas that fall into an environmental beat.
“The environmental beat is a great intersection of politics, science and the law,” said Pittman.
According to Pittman, the environmental beat is the best part of the paper. As an environmental journalist, you get to cover some of the weird stuff. He mentions telling environmental stories can come in various forms. But, sometimes it’s not all about the cool weird stuff.
“It’s not just fancy nature writing and gee whiz science stories, but stories about human health or taxes,” said Pittman.
But, sometimes these stories can raise challenges including the length of the story and being able to get into the field. However, Pittman talks about his biggest challenge.
“There are too many freaking stories, and, it’s hard to get past all of them,” said Pittman. “Just finding the time to do stories on everything.”
In the end, there are different methods to target and build upon environmental stories. And, it’s finding different ways to approach the story. Pittman lays down some advice including using the Unified Field Theory in journalism. The Unified Field Theory is explaining all the forces at work. In journalism, Pittman advises looking at different events and seeing how they connect.
“The bottom line, look for your unified theory, start with a timeline, always keep your notebook dry,” Pittman said.
View the entire Times Talk with Craig Pittman here.
About Neighborhood News Bureau
Neighborhood News Bureau is a working newsroom, staffed by University of South Florida St. Petersburg undergraduate and graduate students under the guidance of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies faculty members. The newsroom opened in Midtown, St. Petersburg March 2006. Its mission is to serve the Midtown and surrounding communities of St. Petersburg. For more information, visit http://www.nnbnews.com/ or email nnb@usfsp.edu.
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St. Petersburg, Fla. (Oct. 5, 2015) Tampa Bay Times investigative journalist, Michael LaForgia and data and digital director, Adam Playford shared some tips about finding stories, collecting useful data, and the importance of patience in regards to investigative journalism with Neighborhood News Bureau students Wednesday, Sept. 30.
“Find a body and discover why it’s there,” said LaForgia.
LaForgia and Playford admit that investigative journalism isn’t easy. It takes time, focus, and organization for the story to come together. While discussing Failure Factories, their current investigative project dealing with systemic deficiencies at some Pinellas County schools, LaForgia mentions finding and poring over records can be the most time-consuming element, but is also the most important. Getting the documents can also become expensive.
“We requested millions of records for this story. We have spent $8-$9,000 in records requests and will probably spend more,” said LaForgia.
When it came to gathering personal stories of affected students for the Failure Factories project, LaForgia and Playford admitted getting parental buy-in was tough. Parents weren’t as forthcoming as they had hoped, especially given the controversial topic of the schools their children attended being labeled as “failure factories.”
So how did they get the families to go on the record?
“We just kept showing up,” said LaForgia. “We appealed to their sense of justice and righteousness.”
Eventually their patience and persistence paid off as they were able to gather compelling stories from multiple families.
Investigative journalists must remain patient and thorough throughout working on any assignment. Understanding that some details require a bit of persistence and endurance is key to gathering important data, and eventually having a successful story to tell. There are a lot of stories that still need to be told, LaForgia said.
“All you have to do is think about what might exist in the world,” LaForgia said. “Everybody has to live someplace, everybody makes and spends money.”
View the entire discussion here.
About Neighborhood News Bureau
Neighborhood News Bureau is a working newsroom, staffed by University of South Florida St. Petersburg undergraduate and graduate students under the guidance of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies faculty members. The newsroom opened in Midtown, St. Petersburg March 2006. Its mission is to serve the Midtown and surrounding communities of St. Petersburg. For more information, visit http://www.nnbnews.com/ or email nnb@usfsp.edu.
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Lara Cerri NNB from DJD @ USF St. Petersburg on Vimeo.
Neighborhood News Bureau and Tampa Bay Times join together to endow knowledge and real-life experiences in photojournalism to future journalists.
The full story about Lara Cerri’s talk can be found here: http://www.nnbnews.com/2015/10/02/times-talk-building-an-eye-for-photojournalism/
St. Petersburg, Fla. (Oct. 2, 2015) – Student journalists with the Neighborhood News Bureau got the chance to learn photojournalism techniques and skills from a professional Wednesday, Sept. 23.
Lara Cerri, Tampa Bay Times photojournalist, shared her years of knowledge and experience with these students at the USFSP campus. With these tips, NNB will continue its mission to serve the Midtown area and surrounding communities of St. Petersburg through the practice of journalism.
‘Times Talk’ is what these students call it, and photojournalism was the topic of the week.
Photojournalism is the practice of communicating the news by the use of photographs and images. Photojournalists are the visual storytellers of the story, and Cerri was more than happy to express the important and impactful role photojournalists play.
“I have wanderlust,” said Cerri. “I have always had wanderlust.”
According to Cerri, it’s that curiosity that makes for a great photojournalist. She stresses the importance of trying to get the essence of what the story is about. The job is more than just taking photos. It is finding the story, writing the captions, and getting to know the sources.
“Part of the joy of my job is getting to know these people. If you got time, show an interest,” said Cerri. “It is first about human relationships.”
Photojournalists must be confident, patient, and compassionate. Being able to put yourself in the shoes of the another person and share a part of yourself builds trust and relationships. Any and every situation can be an opportunity for a great story, so always be ready for the unexpected.
Cerri’s Times Talk inspired these future journalists. View the entire ‘Times Talk with Lara Cerri’ video provided where she touches on topics including photographing children and funerals, how to approach people and finding story-telling moments.
The full video of the talk can be found here: http://www.nnbnews.com/2015/10/02/video-lara-cerri-tampa-bay-times-photojournalist/
About Neighborhood News Bureau
Neighborhood News Bureau is a working newsroom, staffed by University of South Florida St. Petersburg undergraduate and graduate students under the guidance of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies faculty members. The newsroom opened in Midtown, St. Petersburg March 2006. Its mission is to serve the Midtown and surrounding communities of St. Petersburg. For more information, visit http://www.nnbnews.com/ or email nnb@usfsp.edu.
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