Donald O'Mahony's Comm 361 class blog

Brad Kalbfeld has over 36 years of reporting experience, and on March 23, he came to George Mason University to share some of his experiences and give advice to students who are starting down the journalism path.

Brad Kalbfeld

In a time where many journalists are being laid off or bought out, Kalbfeld is looking into the future. “I’m trying to find ways to build a business model that works,” he said. “In my day, everything was one way. I report, you consume. Today, everything is interactive. Consumers are in the drivers seat.”

Kalbfeld began the presentation by giving students an idea of how far technology has come during his career. He brought his old typewriter and compared it to his iPod and a personal wifi hotspot.

“It’s interesting that someone who started their career on a typewriter is so enthusiastic about changes in technology,” said Chanel Dority. “I think aspiring journalists can learn a lot from that. We really need to be flexible and have the ability to adapt to new things.”

Kalbfeld also stressed the importance of quality journalism. “I think that journalistic values are more important than ever,” he said. “News is now participatory, with people emailing links, posting comments or sending in new facts or video. Writers need to make more of an effort to make sure things are accurate and sort through that things that are not.”

In the end, the business is always about the consumer. “If our audience doesn’t care, we don’t care,” said Kalbfeld. For as long as he is working, he will continue to do his best to make the consumers care.

Jim Iovino spoke with students from George Mason University’s online journalism class about what it is like to be a professional journalist in the digital age.

Iovino, Managing Editor of nbcwashington.com, gave advice on how to gain a following and get your news to the community. He also emphasized that a journalist should have the proper tools in order to provide a story by showing the class a video that he made of the recent snow storms on his video camera.

Growing a strong following is important to any journalist. Iovino used examples from different social media sites that reporters are using to link to their stories.

“I liked how fast news gets around on twitter,” said Gary Cuesta, a junior in the class. “A reporter can break a story and get it to a lot of people quickly. It’s fascinating.”

Another method that Iovino uses to get the story out is sending code for their videos out to a network of partners that the website has built over time. “People don’t even have to come to our website to see our content,” Iovino said.

“It’s a good idea that they send out their video to be embedded on other websites,” said Britni Petersen, a sophomore in the class. “That way they reach more people.”

Regardless of the way it’s done, getting the story out is what is important. If the community gets the news, the job is getting done. “We don’t see ourselves as a TV website,” said Iovino. “We see ourselves as a city site.”

Alan Goldenbach, a Staff Writer for the Washington Post, met with the sports writing and reporting class at George Mason University. As a veteran reporter who covers high school sports, he shared some of his experiences and gave advice to students who are hoping to have a similar career in the future.

The most important thing Goldenbach had to say was, as a sports journalist, his goal is to convey something to his audience that they could not see if they were watching the game on television.

“The way the game story is being written has changed dramatically,” said Goldenbach. “The internet and ESPN have totally changed the way we take in sports new.”

He also spoke about the importance of quotes in a story, saying a quote is only good if it “supplements the story.” He stressed the importance of getting quotes from players because they are the reason people are watching the games.

Ross Wilkers, a senior communication major at GMU, agreed with Goldenbach’s thoughts on using good quotes. “For me, quotes are really important,” said Wilkers. “Garbage quotes that get put in as filler get boring and I stop reading.”

Another topic covered was a strategy of getting people hooked at the beginning of the story. “I try to draw the reader in with a little bit of a story,” said Goldenbach. “Everybody sees the guy that hit six three-pointers, but what was different about today?”

Overall, the message was simple. Get quotes, use them to tell a story and tell the reader something they don’t know. If this strategy can work for a veteran of the profession, it is definitely something that students should look into.