The publication of Group BJune 17-29, 2012 journalism.utexas.edu/asne/

The allure of Austin

Runners line up for the Keep Austin Weird 5K on June 23. The race was part of the annual Keep Austin Weird festival. Photo by Jay Prince

by Jay Prince, staff writer

Thousands of gawk-ers line the Congress

Avenue bridge, patiently awaiting the dusky emer-gence of 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats. They’ve been promised something unique and spectacular, and their expectations are high.

The only flying mam-mals, bats are freaks in a category all their own. This colony has found an incongruous home in downtown Austin, seeking not limestone caves, but me-chanically precise concrete grooves of the Congress Avenue Bridge. They show-boat and grandstand as they emerge from their cracks to delighted “oohs,” “ahs” and drunken party cheers. It’s

an eccentric performance.But Austin has always

embraced the fringe.“I guess ever since the

60s it’s been kind of a hippie city,” said Michael Angus, a three-month resident of Austin. “There’s an energy unlike any other place in Texas.”

The idea of Austin is almost mythic because it is so different from many conservative cities in Texas. It feeds into itself.

“It’s kinda like with San Francisco- as soon as people start hearing that [it’s cool], like-minded people start flocking so now it’s like this huge place to go for music everybody ends up here,” Angus said.

The Keep Austin Weird festival and slogan exem-plify both the established reputation of anti-estab-

lishment that Austin has, as well as the ability to self-promote. The festival struggles between promot-ing local businesses and using corporate commercial-ism to expand.

Local business owner Petie Peterson saw it all from his Hey Cupcakes! trailer.

“It’s a really good idea,” Peterson said. “I mean, If you want to talk dollars, there’s evidence that local businesses return much more money to the commu-nity than the national ones.”

And the local business turned out. Rows of local vendors and food booths line the Long Center patio. Multinational companies Nike and Dos Equis have their own booths, promi-nently located within view of the main music stage.

“It would be nice to

see Austin’s Pizza here- they’re local, you know. You see Mellow Mushroom over there, all hippie and alternative, but they’re a national chain,” Peterson said. “I mean look at their shirts. Keep Austin Mellow. They’re plugging into our thing here, profiting and promoting themselves at the same time. You know, that’s capitalism. It’s the way it all works.”

The slogan Keep Austin Weird has been around for 10 years as a promotion for the culture and independent spirit. Its proceeds are phil-anthropic, directly funding the Austin Parks Founda-tion which sends millions of dollars to improve the local parks.

But it’s been around longer than that.

“Yeah, Keep Austin

Inside

See “Weird” on pg. 4

The best of Austin: page 2Bobby Hawthorne: page 2Janet Elbom: page 3He said, she said: page 3Participant profiles: page 4

What we did after class

The shop-ping scene is amazing. It has a lot to offer. Anything you could

want or think of you can find. One of my favorite stores is Sam Moon Trading Company, a super-sized accessories store. It is an amazing shopping experi-ence. I’ve never seen such a sea of purses and belts. —Sheryl Barto (Colorado)

Going out on walks and jogs with fellow students at Lady Bird Lake,

going out for dinner and finding other people who are as crazy as me. — Carlos Briano (Texas)

Eating at the Iron Cactus and being served by a man with a handlebar

mustache. — Jessica Colden (Pennsylvania)

Taking a pedi-cab ride to Bar-ton Springs for $20 with Janelle Eastridge

and Chelsea Gist. The pedi-cab driver was amazing. He took us on a three-hour tour of the city. The evening ended with a stop at Amy’s Ice Cream an Austin land-mark—delicious. — Jess Curry (Texas)

by Beth Manz, staff writer

It’s the end of a champion-ship football season at

Boerne High School and the new yearbook adviser asks a student to interview the head football coach and get a story about the road to the championship. The student has no interview train-ing. He goes out to get the story from the football coach about the football cham-pionship, but comes back empty handed without a story. The copy he turns in is not a story about the rough road to the state champion-ship, but a list of rote facts, events and statistics.

Journalism teachers have the responsibility to equip their students with the skill of asking questions that will draw out answers from their interviewee that get results—a great story. They need to be confident, inquir-ing and fearless reporters who will get out there and converse with people so they will have an interesting story to report. They need to be taught persistence in asking excellent questions until they get answers that

tell a story.Nationally known

journalism expert, writer and consultant Bobby Hawthorne shared these suggestions with the Ameri-can Society of News Editors Institute 2012 participants at the University of Texas, Austin and challenged them to teach students how to be great reporters by asking good questions that lead to a great story.

“It doesn’t cost any more to write a good story rather than a bad story. It’s your choice,” Hawthorne said.

Students need to write to engage their audience. The piece needs to be engaging so their audience will want to read it. The best way to do this is to tell a story. Tell the audience something they don’t know. Ask good ques-tions that will evoke stories. Whet their appetite to want to read more.

“Your opinion does not count—no one cares. What does matter is your experi-ence. Find a person who has a real life experience that goes with the subject. For example, if the story is about homeless people find a homeless person to inter-view,” Hawthorne said.

It takes persistence and patience to develop the skills of a great reporter.

“Reporting is a process and it takes time. Students need to take their time and get a story. They need to ask

people to tell the truth and they will, if students ask and write good questions. Ask the obvious questions. Help students think about the questions they are going to ask. Don’t send them out blind. Students need to get out of their comfort zones to be good journalists. People have stories to tell so stu-dents need to get out there and put themselves among them,” Hawthorne said.

ASNE Institute partici-pants enjoyed Hawthorne’s wit and wisdom.

“It’s a matter of talking to the kids and using the tips and key phrases that Bobby gave to get beyond the superficial,” Travis Armknecht from St. Louis, Mo. said.

Ellen Sullivan from Virginia Beach, Va. enjoyed Hawthorne’s afternoon ses-sion better than his morning presentation. “Hawthorne’s formula for writing a great story was a helpful tech-nique that I plan to teach my students,” Sullivan said.

Armknecht also appreci-ated the afternoon session. “Hawthorne’s formula for writing a great story full of quotes using the ladder of instruction is an effective tool. The formula of lead, quote, transition, quote, transition is going to be a really concrete way to show kids how to get and write great stories,” Armknecht said.

Veteran reporter Bobby Hawthorne answers questions from Virginia teacher Ellen Sullivan after his session on student reporting. Hawthorne said student writing must be compelling to its audience. Photo by Erika Mincey

‘Go along for the ride’

Acclaimed writer explains how to get a great story

• Bat Bridge: Congress Avenue Bridge over Lady Bird Lake. Face East, away from the setting sun at dusk and watch 1.5 million bats emerge in search of protein. Bugs.

• Barton Springs: Located in Zilker Park, this 900 foot long spring-fed pool is open to the public. A great place to cool off in the hot Austin summer.

• Brave New Books: Claims one of the world’s largest and most varied collections of suppressed information. Big Ron Paul support-ers. Located at 1904 Guadalupe.

•The Driskill Hotel: This palatial 6th Street landmark is a great place to see live music.

• G’Raj Mahal: Eat scrumptious Indian food under a tent. You’ll forget you’re at a food truck in a parking lot if you’re there with good company. The heavy metal and indie rock music adds to the ambience. Find them at 91 Red River.

• Ironworks: Real Austin Barbecue with a storied history that registers on Austin’s historical registry. 100 Red River

• Monkeywrench Books: An independent, radical, all-volunteer bookstore located in North Austin at 110 E. North Loop.

• Museum of the Weird: Spend your 5 bucks to see the gallery

of weirdness. An extra $2 buys a sword-swallowing show. 412 E. 6 Street.

• Shoal Creek Trail: A popular walking and running trail running from 38 street south to Lady Bird Lake. Cross through Austin via Pease Park, Duncan Park Austin without waiting for any traffic.

• Texas Chili Parlor: Right around the corner from the Doubletree Suites. Go on Monday for the chili, go on Tuesday for a $5 burger. Eat well and feel like a local.

• Toy Joy: Toys and oddities from around the world. Spend hours of fun in this independently owned toy store located on 2900 Guada-lupe St.

• Zilker Botanical Gardens: This 30 acre piece of Zilker Park is just

south of Lady Bird Lake and truly “the Jewel in the Heart of Austin.”

Awesome AustinAn incomplete list of unique places & businesses to visit

page 2 The Austin Gazette • June 17-29, 2012 • journalism.utexas.edu/asne/

Educators meet editors

Carlos Briano, journalism teacher at El Dorado High School in El Paso, tries to get a good photo of Kathy Black-well, the features editor at the Austin American-Statesman, during a morning budget meeting. Briano and his ASNE Institute colleagues toured the Statesman’s facilities afterward. Photo by Jay Prince

by Erika Mincey, staff writer

It’s not what’s on the cover of a newspaper that

entices readers to continue reading. Using a combina-tion of text, photos and graphic elements to tell a story for both magazine and newspaper layout has become the driving force behind getting readers to read a publication from one page to the next.

In fact, Austin LBJ High School journalism teacher Janet Elbom said she and her newspaper staff use this technique to tell convincing stories, which has won top state and national awards for the school’s newspaper, The Liberator, including the Gold Stars from ILPC, Pacemakers from NSPA and Gold and Silver Crowns from CSPA.

“Centerpieces, are also known as a ‘double truck,’ give readers key informa-tion about what the story is about, without having to read the entire body of text,” Elbom said. “It’s fun to read things with pictures.”

Publication centerpieces often originate from story beats, she said.

“The two ways to gener-ate centerpiece ideas are to first choose an evergreen topic or a news peg that focuses on a local in-depth story,” said Natasha Smith, one of Elbom’s former jour-nalism students. “Adding a fresh angle and creativity to both the writing and the design, helps to compliment

the theme of the story.” Depending on the story’s

topic, determines how much writing is required to piece together a spread. Journalist should write enough text to cover the meat of the story.

Dawn Begor of Pitts-burgh said “writing for spreads requires in-depth interviewing and research-ing for complex topics, unlike basic story beats.”

Katie Byrd of Oklahoma City said the full spread al-lows her students to capture more information.

“With an expanded spread layout, my students have additional space to define the theme of the story, so readers can read it and experience it mentally,” Byrd said. “In addition, students have extended time to develop their stories by researching the topic and interviewing good sources.”

Elbom advised teachers to narrow the research gath-ered and include additional information in graphs, sec-ondary stories and sidebars.

“Prior to this training, I wasn’t aware of the different graphics students can use to break up long bodies of text,” said journalism teacher Chelsea Gist of New Orleans.“ I plan to incor-porate Elbom’s advanced layout and design tech-niques into my high school journalism curriculum.”

Gist said she will change to a very modern and sleek look with more eye-catching centerpieces to include cre-ative fonts, excellent use of filling white space, a variety of colors and photographs.

Lovely layoutretains readers

UT student Natasha Smith showcases some award-winning two-page spreads from student newspapers. Photo by Jamie Miller

The end of ‘he said, she said’ journalism

by Jamie Miller, staff writer

Back in January, The New York Times’ public edi-

tor Arthur Brisbane asked his readers whether or not the Times ought to be a “truth vigilante.” The reac-tion was swift: readers and critics universally bellowed “YES, OF COURSE!” This type of in-text fact-checking is not only what readers want but also what they expect as a basic civic function of journalism, unlike the “he said, she said” version that seems so common in the nation’s newsrooms.

Media critic and NYU professor Jay Rosen has defined “he said, she said” journalism as any cover-age that lacks assessment of competing truth claims from opposing sides. For ex-ample, a recent Los Angeles Times story about the poten-tial prominence of Iowa in the 2012 election endgame mentioned Romney’s claim that Obama has unleashed

an unprecedented “prairie fire of debt.” The article went on to dutifully quote the Obama campaign’s response, but no effort was made to independently assess Romney’s statement. That was left up to Calvin Woodward of the Associ-ated Press, who found that Obama had not actually increased the nation’s debt nearly as much as Romney asserted.

Romney made a signifi-cant claim and the Obama campaign rebutted it, as expected - but isn’t it part of a journalist’s duty to pass along real facts to the public? The truth is more than simply “Democrats said, Republicans respond-ed” and vice versa. As film critic (and former journal-ist) Roger Ebert explained, “If somebody says ‘it’s 72

degrees in this room,’ and his opponent says ‘No, it’s 43 degrees,’ you don’t just report each statement and leave it at that. You check a thermometer.”

Perhaps as a result of criticism from Rosen and other media critics, NPR recently announced changes to its ethics policy which specifically encourage their reporters to truth-test claims: “If our sources try to

mislead us or put a false spin on the information they give us, we tell our audience. If the balance of evidence in a matter of controversy weighs heavily on one side, we acknowledge it in our reports.”

All serious, profes-sional journalism organiza-tions ought to follow NPR’s lead. Every time a politician opens her mouth, journal-ists ought to be checking the thermometer - not just as adversaries to power, but as essential servants of democ-racy. When voters believe all politicians are liars, it’s up to journalists to show who’s the worst offender.

You don’t just report each statement and leave it at that. You

check a thermometer.

The Austin Gazette • June 17-29, 2012 • journalism.utexas.edu/asne/ page 3

Weird is fine, but in San Antonio they play it off dif-ferently,” San Antonio resi-dent Rosa Rodriguez said. ”It’s more of conservative, family city there. They say Keep San Antonio Lame.”

Time Warner Cable Installer Pat McGarnle takes a day off to join the weird-ness, often sitting at the fringe of the crowd with a cigarette, a tool belt, a safety vest and the long braids that are the trademark of one quintessentially Austin musician.

“I’m Willie under con-struction,” McGarnle said of his getup.

And what could be more Austin than that? When Willie Nelson left Nashville to return to Texas, Austin gobbled him up. Nelson’s long hair and imperfect voice just didn’t assimilate with the traditional country music scene coming out of Nashville, but there was something different about Austin. That differentness has become legend and Austin now prides itself on its unique ability to mash together and accept “weird-ness” in its pure form.

Lack of ability to fit in has been a selling point in Austin for years. But weirdness isn’t merely self-indulgent.

“Well I’ve got this QR code on my back trying to raise awareness for breast

cancer.” McGarnle said of his costume. “My wife had a real tough run of it a few years ago. They wouldn’t have caught it at all if my insurance wasn’t so good. It was the digital mammography that made the difference. I have no doubt they wouldn’t have caught it until it was too late without it.”

McGarnle’s wife, who is now fully recovered, walks for the cause as well.

“I conned him into do-ing it with me. But really, it wasn’t that hard.”

So ‘Willie Nelson’ uses the opportunity to fill his personal agenda. Austin is paying attention because that’s what Austin does. It looks closely at the fringe voices, not to grandstand, but to be democratic.

Austin is weird and everybody knows it. It’s plastered on T-shirts, bum-per stickers, mugs and mag-nets, most made in China. Individuals and organiza-tions may use this ethos to promote their own agendas, but more often than not, the agenda is selfless.

This independent spirit should capture those who have slipped between the cracks of normal society and are waiting for dusk. For then is just the right time to shriek, spread leathery wings and become a spec-tacle of oddity.

‘Weird’ fest draws independent spiritscontinued from pg. 1

Two women pose for photos before the 5K begins. Photo by Jay Prince

by Rosa Rodriguez, staff writer

Jess Curry sketches the picture of a car accident

she reported for the North Texas Daily as though the wreck happened yesterday. Two teens flipped their truck along Interstate 35 at the point where the road merges and splits into the Dallas/Ft. Worth exits. That was three years ago, but the impact caused her to think twice about her journalistic career.

A rookie reporter at the time, Curry’s long-held ambition of climbing the ranks as a journalist quickly dissolved as her peers displayed their emotional distance from the recent tragedy.

“I couldn’t see myself covering news after that,” said Curry, a 21-year-old journalism teacher at Ra-paport Academy in Waco. “It was just the attitude around,” she said. “Every-one hoped someone would die, and the lack of emotion was just something that I couldn’t deal with the rest of my life.”

Curry, whose fondness for journalism began at the age of six while taking pictures with a Crayola camera her father gave her, is one of many professionals from the U.S. and abroad

who had an experience that led them to embracing the field of communications, inspiring others with their stories and shaping young communicators.

“My idea is to give students a way into this era where they can put out information and feel smart, interesting and have some-thing to say,” said Marc Murdock, 53, a newspaper adviser at Kalaheo High School in Kailua, Hawaii.

Murdock, a former chef, says he was a challenging student who never imag-ined pursuing teaching. He calls journalism his “fantasy job” but believes he enables students to make a greater impact as young commu-nicators in journalism than reading through essays and corrected papers in an English class.

As a chef, Murdock em-braced giving equal oppor-tunities to the less affluent. His goal was to provide a variety of ritzy foods, such as gourmet burritos, at af-fordable prices. He worked in high-end catering and be-lieved many people weren’t enjoying foods that only the wealthy could afford, something which inspired Murdock to pursue helping at-risk youth. He wanted to underscore his philosophy that people at an early age must learn to survive and take part in their democracy where they can work hard to meet challenges that so-

ciety places upon them and have the necessary tools to voice their concerns.

“Everyone has the right to be smart and well read, and I’m glad I can facilitate that,” he said. “Michelle Obama said, ‘Being smart is cool.’ I agree with that.”

For other young com-municators in the field, creativity and storytelling is a talent they embraced since childhood.

“I grabbed a pencil when I was only five and just began drawing things that came to mind and pret-ty soon I was making art,” said Oscar Gomez-Garcia, a native of Madrid who recently earned a Master of Arts degree in journal-ism from the University of Texas at Austin. “It was that experience from the time I was a little boy that made me decide to want to be a graphic designer and express my creativity.”

Garcia freelanced for several graphic design com-panies in his homeland and pursued his graduate de-gree in the U.S. to advance his skills as a communicator and strengthen his local and global connections in the field.

“What I do I call multi-media storytelling,” he said. “It’s telling stories graphi-cally with videos, sound, pictures and creativity.”

Paths to professionsASNE participants have diverse backgrounds

ASNE Austin by the numbers10 are former journalists 12 are career educators

7 are from Texas

6 are from Cali-fornia

1 is from Hawaii

1 is from Maine