Convergence.

Friday - What a convergence of awesome events! Robin Phillips' presentation about ways to use social media as a business tool rather than a time-waster was a real eye opener for me.

Then it was heartening to see the newsroom of the Arizona Republic a-buzz with work and numerous TV screens. I didn't see an organization running on "life-support" or preparing to promote their "going out of business sale," but instead, an organization doing a great job of thriving under pressure.

It seemed to me that facing the discomfort of change is pushing the business to better itself.

I enjoyed hearing the editors in the morning meeting echo the sentiments about convergence, that I've been hearing from educators for a couple of years... that students need to have a cross-breed of skills that include many different technologies layered over a strong base of story-telling prowess. That tells me that at least our goals are in the right place, even if our practice has some catching up to do.

Evidence of convergence right there on the wall.
 Lobby on the 10th Floor of the Arizona Republic Offices.

But the best part of my morning was interviewing Senior Reporter Dennis Wagner for my story for the institute publication. Dennis shared lots of great insights about the ethics of news writing that will be useful for my story, but what I really enjoyed was putting on the reporter hat that I haven't worn for a few years. I'd forgotten how fulfilling it is to create a genuine relationship with a new person in just 30-40 minutes of time, by learning a bit of their story, and sharing a bit of your own. In my life as a reporter, whenever I left an interview fascinated, enlightened, and wishing there were time to invite my new friend over for dinner, I realized that the best thing about reporting had little to do with the job, and everything to do with the people. Having the opportunity to hear people's stories is such a gift! Every person has a great story to tell, the reporter just has to find it. Dennis reminded me of that.

Then back to the Cronkite Building for Alan Weintraut's teaching about teaching through his thespian prowess, always a treat.

The advanced InDesign session with Amy King provided me with several tips and tricks that will make my process smoother and more efficient back home.

Then the Diamondbacks baseball game held yet another lesson for me. I'm not much of a sports fan, but I was fascinated by seeing the real-time application of the lessons we'd learned that morning as phones and devices everywhere, not just in the hands of my classmates, tweeted, texted and FB'd amongst and between each other, back home to family and friends and even up on the jumbo-tron. (Is there AP style for that word? I didn't see it in the book.)

Social Media, news-gathering, news organization, teaching, design and convergence itself were just a few of the many lessons that converged to make Friday's Institute sessions fabulous!

Deann McBride
Page High School
Page, AZ