Sierra Jiminez's Weblog

Now that I’m back in Syracuse, I realize just how much I miss KEZI. On average, I spent 40 to 50 hours a week there. I commuted 140 miles every day—at least three times per week. And for the 10 weeks I was there, KEZI was like a little family to me.

Of course I’ll miss working in a newsroom on a daily basis, but I think more than anything I’ll miss the little quirks of the newsroom. I’ll miss Brandi’s stash of Amps under the anchor desk. I’ll miss Rick pacing back and forth in the newsroom, occasionally stopping to slurp down a large spoonful of Jiff Peanut Butter.

Brandi Smith's collection of empty Amp energy drinks under the anchor desk. She calls them her babies.

I’ll miss making fun of Derek’s self seclusion in the sports office and yelling at him every time I hear his BlackBerry beep.

But all in all, KEZI was a great experience. And I’m glad I did it. I’ll always remember chasing a covered wagon led by mules down a highway with Kaitlyn and Kendra. I’ll also remember Kaitlyn’s notorious live shot blooper where she flailed her arms in the air—on air—when she couldn’t hear the anchors telling her she was live.

I think Heather’s spirit and cynicism rubbed off on me a little. I’ve learned to develop a tough skin in this industry. And if you can take crap from Heather Hintze, you’ve got the first layer of calluses pretty well developed.

Dan Corcoran taught me what not to do on the job—or so he said. But in reality, he taught me exactly what to do to get the story. I can remember the first day I went out with a reporter during the day and Laura assigned me to Dan. Sometimes when you get forced into social situations with people it’s awkward—but not with Dan. He was so friendly and warm, even bought me a coffee. And when we got on the field he spent most of the trip saying “Umm… this is what not to do.”

In all honesty, what he was doing was nothing illegal or nothing unethical. But I think what Dan focused on that day was the technical aspect of what he was teaching me. What I saw, was the human aspect. Every person we talked to knew him. He had built relationships with these people, and as a result, they gave him access they wouldn’t normally give other reporters.

The edit bay I spent so much time at in the evenings putting together my resume reel.

I went into this internship wanting to gain video and multimedia experience. I think I successfully did that. Ben Chinburg was a saint in helping me edit. I can’t imagine how annoying I was asking ridiculous questions about Edius. But he was patient, and stayed well past what he needed to in order to help me.

So now, hopefully, all my hard work will pay off. Who knows where I’ll be next summer and who knows what I’ll be doing. But after this experience at KEZI, I can tell you that journalism is definitely the right career for me. As Derek said, it’s in my blood. I have no backup plan.

The KEZI 9 News studio. It's actually smaller than the one in Newhouse.

Possibly the funniest story I went on with Kaitlyn Bolduc: A covered wagon led by mules travels through Oregon's highways in celebration of the state's 100th birthday.

Alright, so it’s been a while since I have written for this blog and that has mainly been because I started an internship at KEZI 9 News about four weeks ago. During the first four weeks of the internship I was given the opportunity to have a crash course in each of the areas of news: production, in the field reporting, sports, weather and the control room.

From just these few weeks I have only re-affirmed the idea that I don’t want to go into television broadcasting. Instead, I think I’m choosing the right path of studying newspaper journalism but branching out into different fields—possibly the multimedia aspect of journalism or even documentaries.

But even more so what these first four weeks have taught me is what “in the field reporting” will be like on a day-to-day basis.

A few things I’ve learned:

ALWAYS LEAVE THE MIC ON WHEN DOING M.O.S.

You never know when someone is going to run up to you and start talking. There have been many times that I’ve gone out with a reporter to get M.O.S. (Man on the Street) on a subject and someone has started talking to the reporter just out of curiosity and given a great sound bite.

With the mike on, and even if the camera isn’t focused on them, you can still play b-roll over their sound bite.

WEAR GOOD SHOES

I cannot stress the importance of good shoes. I’m pretty sure journalism (maybe specifically broadcast journalism) is the only field where women are expected to look good, wear heels and then climb through rocky terrain for a story. Even in the newspaper field where multimedia is becoming the “it” thing, you can expect to be on camera every once in a while.

So looks are important and sometimes those cute shoes aren’t exactly the most comfortable. But I’ve quickly learned that my five minute going out heels are NOT work heels and my work heels are probably closer to kitten heels or flats.

Trust me, at the end of the day when I get in my car… I’m throwing off the heels and putting on some flip-flops for the drive home.

PRIVATE PROPERTY

A few weeks ago I went out with one of the photographers, Jason, to follow up on a story about a homeless man killed in Eugene’s Skinner Butte park. The victim was 56-year-old Herbert Taylor Bishop, also known as Pac Man. Bishop was allegedly brutally attacked by Michael Andrew Baughman and Ryan Eugene Casch.

The day after Casch and Baughman were arrested, Jason and I went to Casch’s apartment. We were looking for reactions from neighbors as well as getting some b-roll of the building. Just after we got two interviews from people in the area, the manager pulled into the driveway. Coincidentally, she lived in the apartment above Casch. She also had no idea he was arrested the day before—or that he had anything to do with the murder of Pac-man.

Clearly, we didn’t exactly have permission from her to film on the property and she wasn’t willing to be interviewed without speaking to her supervisor. So when she asked us to leave, Jason and I didn’t object.

The one thing I learned from this: if you’re going to walk the fine line of being on private property for M.O.S., be completely willing to be kicked off… and smile while you do it.