New Territory

So far, the size of my Athens world has been as big as my walking enthusiasm (which has varied quite a bit). Today I expanded my world drastically – by renting a bike. There is a most beautiful bikeway that leads all the way from the Athens Community Center to Nelsonville, a total of about 18 miles. It is all flat, which is great in this hilly area, and follows the scenic Hocking river (and the railroad that only runs on weekends as a tourist attraction). I passed the ball fields in Athens (they even played Basketball in the evening), a former company town with its unique setup and architecture, a former salt and coal mine, two trailer parks, and many, many trees. I’ve decided to keep the bike for the time being, which will give me unprecedented freedom in terms of when I want to do my grocery shopping.

P.S.: The most beautiful thing when riding a bicyle at dawn are fireflies leading your way.

Interviewing, Technology, and Online Courses

Over the past two days, the academic program was dedicated to interviewing and technology. Jack Brady, who skyped in from Boston, is the author of the book The Interviewer’s Handbook and has lots of stories to tell about interviews he conducted and the people he met (among them a Jerry Springer interview for Playboy). Among the “Ten Rules of War for Interviewers” he shared with us, one can find entries like “Beware the sensitive zones: Sex, money, religion, relatives,” “Keep a poker face,” and “Get anecdotes.”

We had another refreshing session with Bill Reader, who talked about his undergrad and grad courses in Design, and a brownbag lunch, which was basically a tech-talk lunch where people shared their experiences with different systems and software, and fellow faculty who may or may not be interested in technology.

Today’s topic was all about online resources and distant learning. Chris Keesey, who works for Lexis-Nexis, the #1 solution in tools and resources for law firms). With two further guest speakers, Mandi Chikombero and Rafale Obregon, the discussion of online resources, online learning, and social media was quite sitmulating. However, the more cutting-edge material can definitely be found at MIT conferences.

Ombudsmen, Community Journalism, and Media Ratings

Today’s session started with a phone-conversation with Andy Alexandra, Ombudsman at The Washington Post in Washington, D.C. The Post was one of the very first papers in the U.S. to institutionalize the position of an ombudsman in 1970 and has had one ever since. Andy’s job is basically to respond to reader comments and requests and to write opinioned columns that somehow reflect readers’ reactions to certain issues.

The second morning session was dedicated to the topic of Community Journalism and Bill Reader shared some fascinating data that clearly indicates how newspapers that serve a fairly small community and usually appear once a week have an enormous impact on society and are greatly underestemated and underrepresented in research.

In the afternoon, Roger Cooper shared his knowledge on media ratings and audio research and slightly touched upon the issue of media management and leadership skills. It is somewhat ironic that the sessions themselves were an example of a certain ‘leadership’ style (which one could probably also call constant interference) by the session chair/moderator.

Be that as it may, there is one thing about the American media system which I find incredibly hard to understand: Broadcasting companies pay an incredible amount of money to get ratings from Nielsen. (Nielsen Media Research is a private company; for some reason I’ve always thought they were somehow public or at least non-profit.) As Roger showed, their ratings are based on the feedback of less than 1% of the U.S. population and the data has a standard deviation of 2%. So, and I’m quoting Roger here, when Nielsen says the rating of a show is 16.00% what they are really saying is that they are 95% sure that the rating is between 14% and 18%. Broadcasting media pay for those (obviously not all that accurate) results (they are not freely accessible!) and adapt their advertisement prices accordingly. Apparently, if you cannot provide those ratings, advertisers won’t buy the product. So, broadcasters willingly pay another company that provides them with data that evaluates their product so that they can base their own value on it and sell it to others. In addition to that, another disturbing fact is that Nielsen is virtually the only company left to do audience research on a broad basis and therefore are a monopoly. Am I the only one who thinks there is something wrong with this?

Morning and sunset.

Back to School

Yes, the ironic undertone in this headline is intended. While this is certainly not true for all sessions, it is true for some where the level of the presentations is just not right.

The headline of Monday’s session was “Good Storytelling Skills” and Peter Shaplen, a former ABC/CBS producer reasoned that a good story is not about the 5 w’s (who, what, where, when, why; and maybe also how) but about the three questions Who cares? Why cares? and Why cares now?

The rest of the day was basically a tour of stories and truthtelling, the diamond style of storytelling, personalizing stories (and I still consider StoryCorps an oral history project that has nothing to do with journalism), brief analyses of video clips (here is actually a funny one that mocks the stylistic features of news stories: Charlie Brooker – How to Report the News), a discussion about annoying TV ads and teasers, and questions about whether or not to air certain videos.

Library Opening Hours

Apparently, Ohio University shortened the library opening hours this summer to save money. Here is a great quote on this by an MA student I met a couple of days ago: “I hate to go to a university where the library closes.” So what he says is there were times when the library didn’t close – at all.

Concerning the library opening hours and our expected research here, I’m still struggeling with one major time management problem: We have lectures from 9.00 until around 5.00. Our one hour lunch breaks were mostly “brown bag lunches” with further speakers and discussions. The library closes at 5.00 and is not open on weekends. When exactly are we supposed to do our research again?

Lazy Day

After yesterday’s spectacle that got us home well after midnight, today was a lazy day with some shopping, walking, swimming, reading, meditating, and a really thought-provoking movie (Inception; and I still don’t like Leonardo DiCaprio!) in the evening. In short, the perfect chill out Sunday to get ready for the last week of the academic training here in Athens.

Tecumseh!

Picture this: A clear, warm summer night, the full moon rising behind the trees, a small lake, rocks on both sides. All of a sudden, horses race trough the idyllic scene, distant shots, some two dozen Native Americans and soldiers in uniforms come running in from all sides and get into a big fight.

That’s Tecumseh, an outdoor drama that tells the story of a legendary Shawnee leader, who struggled to defend his sacred homelands in Ohio around 1800. In the play, we witnessed councils on either side, difficult negotiations, a short-lived romance, a Quaker wedding, traditional dances, wild horses, spectacular fights, … and a good number of extremely handsome, barly dressed mainly male actors. The short version of the play: Tecomseh fails in his attempt to unite all Indian tribes to stand up against the invading Americans, his brother betrays him, the romance ends badly and he does not get the white woman, the British army exploints the Native American warriors, and in the end everybody dies. However, Tecumseh might rise again to unite them all.

The play itself was a bit over the top, stereotypical, and the dialogues were rather bald (it reminded me a little of Karl May books). Still, it was an entertaining spectacle about a local hero and definitely fulfilled its educational purpose.

We started our cultural studies adventrue at the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park this noon, where prehistoric mounds give rise to speculations about early settlements and the Hopewell Culture.

On our way to Chillicothe, we drove past a “Correction Institution,” which was huge and looked – from a distance – very much like the prisons from films and series. Prisoners were playing ballgames in the prison yard and it seemed pretty crowded.

Chillicothe was the first capital of Ohio and we went to see the Adena Mansion and Gardens, the estate of Thomas Wortington, an influential political figure and governor of Ohio in the early 19th century. He entertained many guests there, among them President James Monroe. The house was designed by famous architect Benjamin Latrobe, the designer of the U.S. Capitol.

After a lovely dinner (buffalo burgers!) we went to see the play, parked the vans in the VIP section (that’s the beauty of Ohio University buses – they are state vehicles!), and got there just in time to see the first horses racing across the stage.

The outdoor play itself was one thing, but the great timing, the beautiful day, cool water, the cloudless evening, the full moon rising in the background, and everything else was just perfect planning. Thanks, Jean Marie!

Best Pizza in Town

Mike invited us over to his house this afternoon and made pizza. After all, he has Italien ancestors. The pizza was delicious and don’t even get me started on the dessert. So it turns out that he is not only an excellent photographer but also an extraordinary chef. Botttom line: We had too much to eat and a good time.

After another all ok debriefing in the morning and several announcements relating to the program and our trip to Atlanta and Washington D.C., Anne Cooper-Chen gave a lecture on the coverage of Michael Jackson’s death in newspapers in different countries. It is an ongoing project and an interesting study that provided plenty of room for discussion and interpretation.

We Are Front Page News

The Athens News is the county’s “only locally owned newspaper” and appears twice a week. We visited it on Tuesday to see a small community newspaper. Next thing we know, they run a story on us that even makes the front page! “From the World to Athens” is the title of the article about the program (click to read full text). I don’t know if it’s the slow summer or the fact that in a small town like this our group actually does stick out. (Some also argue that Athens is proud to be a very open and international community because of the university and the international students/staff it attracts and that’s why they run front page stories like this.)

What did we learn today? That the Poynter Institute has a couple of fabulous online resources and online games in the “Training” section (for undergrads), that Ohio University makes students attend television news and magazine practica, and last but certainly not least, that Carson Wagner rocks.

He runs the ViDS Effects Lab where they research and measure media effects. He is a theory wiz and a very critical mind, and about the coolest staff member I’ve met on campus so far. He also likes to hang out at Jackie O’s on Thursday nights, where we had a chat about the reception of Jürgen Habermas and Noam Chomsky. And, just for the record, Ed is not only a workaholic; he’s also going to be a rockstar, for sure.