As the semester at #loweclass comes to an end, I can´t let it pass how much I appreciated and learned in the most challenging course I´ve ever had: Multimedia Reporting.
Who would say that one day a clumsy Brazilian - with the strongest accent you will ever heard - would be published in one of the most renowned news organizations in Gainesville, Florida? Well, certainly not me. Growing up in a town smaller than the University of Florida campus allowed me see the differences and how much of opportunities I could gain studying abroad. And here am I, a fourth-year journalism student pursuing a minor in international development and humanitarian assistance and trying not to burn the house with her crazy baking inventions. I´m serious when I say that I almost exploded my microwave when trying to bake a pie at 5 a.m. one day. I almost missed my meeting with Ethan Magoc and he even told me that he had to tell his wife to not try such experiments in the kitchen too. While in the UF College of Journalism and Communications I´ve had the opportunity met the first black student enrolled at UF when covering an event in the Levin College of Law. I also learned how researchers and scientists are trying to restore clam farming in Charlotte Harbor and learned that a few elevators in the state are not being inspected as they should. All that for WUFT. I was supposed to be writing a special report for #loweclass as well, but as my sources and some other things went wrong in my semester and I decided to pursue smaller stories instead. I realized that stories sometimes go wrong, and that it´s OK. At the end, everything is going to be taken as a good experience and it will make you grow as a journalist to not commit the same mistake again. Breath. Take a few steps back and jump with all you´ve got is the most important lesson I got from #loweclass and surely will take it to my career.
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I´ve been dreaming about clams.
I´ve been writing about shellfish aquaculture for the past month, and I could not be happier. I think it´s fascinating the clam´s farming economy in Florida, and interviewing farmers was an amazing opportunity to learn more about the field. “A Billion Clams for a Healthier Charlotte Harbor -also known as the ABC plan – is being developed by Hurt and a group of scientists and environmental specialists from different parts of the state in order to restore clam´s farming and protect them from both commercial and recreational harvest in Charlotte Harbor,” summarizes what I´ve been working on in the past week. I was stunned when I heard from one of my sources from another story about this project, and was even excited when my main source, clam farmer and head of the ABC plan, Barry Hurt returned my calls and answered all my questions. He was thrilled that someone wanted to write about his project. He even invited me for a coffee in the future. Although everything seemed perfect, I´ve faced many issues with the story, especially with my multimedia files. I have not had the time to drive to Charlotte Harbor this past weekend as I previously planned and had to face the consequences of not having enough photograph pieces for my story. The toxic red tide has been an issue in the west coast of Florida since 2017, and the idea of growing clams to filtrate seawater and improve the water quality in the Gulf of Mexico is very interesting to me. A single clam can filter about five gallons of water per day, and in great quantity it can help to reduce the toxic Karenia Brevis – microscopical organism that is consumed by the algae, producing Florida red tide. The plan is still under development and Hurt wants to put it into action within six months, but they are seeking funding sources to make the project possible in this timeline. More information of the project can be found in their website. As journalist, I can´t be biased, but I believe that the ABC plan can be one of the many solutions for the Florida red tide, and I really want it to work. Read my full story here: https://giovannakubota.weebly.com/plan.html Being a reporter is not easy. I experienced the biggest mistake in my journalism career this week and let me tell you: I felt embarrassed.
The University of Florida is celebrating 60 years of desegregation, and I was assigned to cover an event in the College of Law honoring George Starke Jr., the first African-American UF student. Everything was going well: I learned how to use a very unique recorder, I got some interviews, pictures and took plenty of notes. I was happy. It was my first time doing something like this knowing that it would get published for sure. I even recorded a wrap for an audio piece to go along with the article. I did everything I could to finish the story on time. Two editors. One reporter. One publishable story. And then, disaster. While editing, my editor noticed that I misspelled a name. Now, the worst part was that I had the name written down correctly in my notes. Apparently, I was inattentive, something that a good journalist should never be, especially when it comes to names. After promising myself I would never commit such error again, I suddenly committed another one, but this time, with the audio piece. I was so concerned with how my accent would appear in my audio piece that, while editing some recordings, I gave credit of someone´s words to someone else. And it got published. Two hours later I received another phone call related to my mistake. WUFT was able to remove the audio from my story, but it was late. When published, who knows how many people listened to it? It was the most embarrassing moment of my journalistic career. How could I, someone who thinks accuracy and truth is everything in a story, produced fake news and didn´t even noticed? Although fixed, the story I was so excited about producing ended up being my worst piece. Not because of the content. But because of my lack of professionalism. “It was a mistake. It´s OK. You should learn from it and move on.” I´m sure everyone heard this phrase at least once in their lives, and I know that if I have decided to tell my friends and family about what happened to my story, they would say the same thing. It´s hard for people who are not familiarized with a journalism environment to understand what does it mean to commit such mistakes. How bad it can hurt your career as a role. While in my work break, I reflected in everything that happened and wondered how I can stop committing such mistakes. It was unacceptable what I did, and I´m sure it won´t happen again. Wondering what is the story I´m referring to? Check it out: https://giovannakubota.weebly.com/desegregation.html Being a journalist nowadays is not easy. Aside from the fact that we are living in the fake news era, a journalist should learn how to tell a story not only using words but using visual and audio pieces as well.
The Rule of Thirds may be the most famous key for a good photograph. The Digital Photography School defines it to be a basic principle, imagining breaking an “image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts.” Journalists should know how the rule of thirds works in order to collect good visuals for their written pieces, but photograph is not the only way to obtain visuals in a story. Recording a video might be essential for a better understanding of your piece, especially if you want to get it published on social media. Youtube and Facebook are two huge social media platforms used mostly for the upload of videos, but there are some tricks to make your video more “comfortable” for the public to watch, and even Facebook have posted a few tips to rotate your video when uploaded to their platform in their help desk. One of them is always recording horizontally. I have an iPhone and I know it is easier to start recording vertically, especially because that´s the way we use our phone when texting, but a good journalist will never record like that. I´ve tried to record a few videos for some reporting pieces in the past, but I´ve failed. I did not provide a good angle neither recorded horizontally. Well, now I know how to properly record a journalistic video and will never do it wrong again. The Gainesville Black Professionals are the key for one of the stories I´ve been working on for a couple of months now, and I´m trying to collect videos, audio and pictures to create a special report. So far, I believe I´ve improved my photography skills, but I´m still working on my video ones. Practice is essential for something to work. I know that if I want to become a good journalist, I need to put my skills into action and try as much as I can to provide the best written and visual pieces now to improve them in the future. But first, horizontally, please… How do you define an accident?
“User was shocked by 100V of electricity on the 4th floor.” “She said elevator door opened and just came back down as she exited.” “Toddler fell.” These phrases can be seem at the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) report on accidents involving mainly escalators and elevators. As October, there´s 55 more accidents this year than in 2017 statewide. But just one was reported in Alachua County so far. Elevators and escalators should be inspected at least once a year as stated by the United States Department of Labor. But it can be easy to miss an inspection, especially in private establishments. Since 2004, 49 accidents happened inside commercial buildings, and 21 inside the University of Florida (UF) campus. No deaths were reported. The malfunction of elevators´ doors lead to the main accidents. When attempting to enter an elevator that have its doors closing, people have been hit by them in the arms, legs and shoulder, sometimes leaving bruises. Power shortage can cause an elevator to stop working, especially inside UF. At least once a year there´s a case of an elevator that stop abruptly due to the lack of energy. A person received a shock of 100V in July at UF Bryant Hall, located at 1772 Stadium Rd., seeking need of medical attention later that same day. The cause of the electrocution is unsure. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) also release an statement saying that they are repairing about 1,250 elevators of certain models that presented issues when shipped and installed between 2014 and 2017. CPSC had no comments about the incident. Escalators accidents are a little different: people fall. As simple as that. Having their sandals and flip flops are the most common accidents involving civilians, aside from falling when not holding the escalator handrail. The Elevator Safety Advisory Council was going to discuss the possible causes of the increase in accidents in Florida this year, but their meeting on October 16 was cancelled due to Hurricane Michael. According to them, there was a 35 percent increase in accidents in comparison to previous years. Council members were unreachable by phone. It´s implicit in a journalist job to try to prove themselves through a good story piece. Reporting, audio, videos and photograph experience has played an important role in journalism students who are seeking for internships at big news organizations. “One in 8 Million” is a series by the New York Times that combines all segments of what it means to be considered a full journalist in today´s world. The series provides audios and photographs of people telling their stories, and a brief paragraph explaining why the reader should care about them. Most of the time, we can even relate to them.
“Elizabeth Cousins: The Teenage Mother” tells the story of a 16-year-old woman who lives with her daughter in Brooklyn. Through pictures, the reader travels in the young mother´s journey of raising a 19-month-old child almost alone. We can see Cousins´ face in the beginning of the slideshow, and then pictures of her in action, walking and taking care of her daughter. Towards the end, the photographer gives us an insite of her background, by showing a picture of her family. Black and white pictures give a serious environment for the story. I can say that I felt compassion with them. My cousin is 19 and she just gave birth to a boy. Fortunately, her parents and my entire family is very supportive but listening to Counsins´ fears of telling her parents about the pregnancy made me very emotional. On the other hand, “Maggie Nesciur: The Walker” makes the reader to have a walk with a woman who is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Nesciur walks every day because she is afraid that one day she will not be able to do it anymore. However, we can´t know all that by just listening to her audio. It´s not explicit. What the series did, instead, was to provide a small explanatory paragraph, in which Nesciur story can be better understandable. Although I liked the audio piece by itself, I could never imagine that the character is afraid of losing what she likes most due to health complications. Sometimes a small introduction can be the key to the reader understand “what´s going on” in an audio and video story. “Jesse Popp: The Struggling Stand-Up” express the difficulties of a stand-up comedian in his daily basis. The natural sound of people laughing in the background while Popp tell his jokes show how the reporter followed him in his work, to capture a part of his routine. The audio piece capture motion and emotion as the main character gets to make people laugh while working. It is also a little shocking to see that even comedians can struggle to find their jokes. I could not imagine how hard their job could be. What I liked most about this piece was the way Popp laughed at himself when telling the time when someone came and told him that he didn´t like his jokes. He was surprised by the commentary and learned that not everybody was going to like his work at the same level. A good audio piece should include five things: character, emotion, motion, shock and awe. “One in 8 Million” series provide then all. Moreover, tension and intimacy are included in some of the series pieces, which makes it way more compact and interesting for the listener. As a journalism student, I know that I should follow great audio stories in order to succeed, and listening to good podcasts can be a start, for sure. As the middle of the semester arrived, I realized that #loweclass has given me much more than just field assignments and AP Style quizzes – which I still have much to learn from. I grew as a reporter by covering events and making phone calls that I´ve never been able to do before.
To be honest, sometimes I used to feel out of place when reporting news. I was an intern for the AcheiUSA newspaper in Deerfield Beach over the summer and they used me as a translator. I felt good and disappointed at the same time: good because they liked my work, but disappointed because they didn´t trust me enough to write single pieces. Then our first assignment with #loweclass came in. I got to network with professionals in Gainesville and met one of the directors of the non-profit organization Gainesville Black Professionals (GBP), Virginia Grant, who I´m working with until now for my special report. Second field assignment was a little harder. I wanted to do a story that ended up not working as I planned. My plan B was to meet with April Hynes, the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications librarian, and ask for help. She found helped me to find data as I wanted to write about the rise in the health insurance cost for teachers in Alachua County after Gov. Rick Scott tenure. Although the story seemed good, I could not find enough teachers to talk to me about the issue. In the meanwhile, Grant invited me to attend a dinner honoring the 2018 nominees for the GBP´s Women of Vision and Purpose award that is going to take place in Dec. 8. It was a good opportunity for practicing my reporting skills. During the event, I met Lukisha King, who would end up giving me a tip for my third assignment. King is the president of the non-profit organization Lync Support Services, that helps people with disabilities in the Gainesville area. Lync hosted its first annual Halloween party for disabled people on Saturday, Oct. 6, and I was there to register every moment of it. Although only 11 people attended, and it was not a news-worth event, I was able to meet Roger Gross, 57, who made my day by asking for a selfie. Being a journalist is not easy. You need to make the right choices at the right time if you want to succeed. I´m a senior and no, I don´t think I´m a good reporter right now, but I´m working hard to improve my abilities and I´m sure one day I will do some great reporting. Until then, I´m looking forward to continue learning in professor´s Lowe class. Michael Crumpton, 41, received a phone call on Saturday morning that would make his day.
“You can call me DJ Turnup Mike,” he said. Crumpton has been working as a DJ since 2016 and was excited to be invited to work that night. His personal care giver, Darrell Linzy, is the vice president of Lync Support Services, a non-profit organization that provides CPR classes, companion and home health services for people with disabilities in the Gainesville area and thought Crumpton would like the idea of playing in Lync´s first annual Halloween Party. But why throwing a Halloween Party in the beginning of October? “We wanted to do something different like a kickoff for the Halloween month,” Linzy said. Twelve tables were posted around the room with black and orange skeletons, black roses and spiders. Three of them were being used to serve food. Hot dogs, pizza, potato chips, sodas, fake blood punch and lots of candies were being served. Tickets for the event were sold for $6 at the entrance and $43 was the amount collected. The funds are going to help to pay for the supplies used to decorate the room and for the food ordered. The event was schedule to start at 6 p.m. Roger Gross, 57, Robbie Graham, 49, and their personal care giver Abdoul Kanseiga, 29, were the first to arrive an hour later. “We didn´t promote it as much as we wanted to, but that´s OK. It´s an opportunity for us to see what we can do better,” Linzy said. Kanseiga has been working with Gross and Graham for two years serving as a companion during the weekends. “Robbie wanted to wear a Spider-Man costume,” he said, “but they didn´t have it in the store.” Lucky Devon Dukes, 17, won the best costume award of the night. His costume was simple: a monster mask, as he would describe it. Dukes spent the night hiding and scaring everyone who would come into the room. He was very determined. Gross won the best dancer award, by singing YMCA by The Village People and moving his hips with Big Pimpin´ by Jay-Z feat.UGK. Both won a $5 Subway gift card. The party served as an experiment, and the goal is to have more holiday parties in the future, according to the Lync President Lukisha King. “I just want people to have a good time, that´s it,” King said. “I´m having a good time,” Michael Crumpton said, “I´m the kind of DJ that wants to see people happy. I love making people happy.” Katy Perry and Madonna are Crumpton favorite artists, but he decided to play classical rock and hip-hop Saturday night. “I play what everybody wants to hear,” he said, “I do my own thing.” How can I start talking about my week?
I had a great time covering a dinner for the 2018 Women of Vision and Purpose Award nominees by the Gainesville Black Professionals on Thursday, where I was able to talk to Virginia Grant and some local business owners about Synergy, the magazine to be launched in December that highlights professionals in the city. Pictures, interviews, business cards and good quotes were all that I got that night. The rest of my week was not that amazing, however. Apparently someone who clearly don´t know how to cook decided to burn a cake at 5 a.m. on Monday in my apartment complex. The sound of the fire alarm was so loud that made my neighbor´s dog cry all morning. The next day was even worse. I work for a bowling facility inside the University of Florida and Tuesday´s mornings I have the oiling shift. Basically I just have to add oil and some other products into a monster machine, that my coworkers and I named “Big Chuck.” Big Chuck works well most of the time, but that day he was giving me some problems. All that I know was that I was covered in grease by the end of my shift and when I thought it could not get worse, I realized I forgot to put a change of clothes into my bag and had to go to a project meeting wearing my uniform. OK. Sometimes I complain way too much. I get that. But one day a professor told me that I need to start to walk backwards, run as fast as I can and jump with all my energy into something I believe I can do great. As a young journalist I should start believing more in myself and start making some routine changes such as reading more news instead of just listening to them. Synergy was created with the purpose of “making locals to feel comfortable with themselves,” Grant said. Well, I think I can feel comfortable with myself even if I´m not a local. And who knows what is going to happen next week? I decided to report on the increase of health insurance costs for teachers in Florida after the Gov. Rick Scott decided to not support the expansion of Medicaid in 2015. It was intense. Although I had a full list with sources who I wanted to contact, all of them except for one denied my phone calls and emails.
I have been denied when requesting for interviews before, but not like this time. As I was running out of the time, I seek for the help of the University of Florida College of Journalism librarian April Hines. She was absolutely amazing in helping me to find new data and specific documents to help with my story. I couldn´t thank her enough. I could not do the best journalism I have ever made in this piece. I think I need to start working better with the time I have and stop relying so much on the help of others. If I want to become the journalist I aspire to be, I need to be more proactive and active. I can´t wait to start my next reporting, because I´m sure it will be better than this one. ---------- Fall means an increase in the search for health insurance plans. With the flu season scheduled to start in the first semester of the academic year, educators get concerned not only for their students, but for themselves. According to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation together with the U.S. Census Bureau, 42 percent of employers in Florida were enrolled in a health insurance plan in 2016, but only 16 percent of the total population had Medicaid. After the Florida Gov. Rick Scott stopped supporting the Medicaid expansion in 2015, teachers’ unions across the state are trying their best to make agreements with their district offices in order to assist as many educators as possible. The president of the Alachua County Education Association Carmen Ward said that teachers don´t have to pay for their insurance in the county but have to pay for its dependents. “The union negotiates with the district, so employees don´t pay,” Ward said. With the state gubernatorial elections to be held in Nov. 6, candidates are issuing the health insurance cost by shouting out Scott´s name as he also deducted three percent of benefit in the state teachers´ retirement plan. Although Alachua County is providing free access to health insurance plans for teachers, their dependents are still in need to pay if relying in one of the two plans offered by Florida Blue, the official county insurance company. It´s under the Chapter 627 of the Florida Statutes that any teacher or student enrolled in a learning education may have health insurance. Polk County School District agreed in the beginning of the year to raise in $300 the level of living adjustment for teachers, but also to increase the cost of their health insurance, The Ledger reported. The Volusia County teachers union, on the other hand, are still arguing with their school´s district to get a raise in their salaries “Some changes have to be made,” Ward said. $36,757 is the annual salary of teachers in the Alachua County public schools with a bachelor’s degree and one year of experience during the 2017- 18 academic year. According to a report agreement released in the beginning of 2017, teachers in Ocala who are part of the Marion Education Association and the Marion Local Board of Educators are receiving a bonus compensation starting at $250 divided into paychecks throughout the year due to a new agreement within the district. Candidates for this year´s elections are still debating on health insurance costs and share different views in how to address the discussion as for now. |
AuthorGiovanna Kubota is a 22-year-old Brazilian pursuing a master's degree in Communication at the University of Central Florida. |