CNN, Sexting, and Ex-Convents

This week was busy.

Monday, our two class speakers talked about TV journalism. I always figured broadcast journalism was all pretty faces and no brain (see: Ron Burgundy), or at least required far less talent than writing for a major newspaper, but I'm finding out more and more that there is actually a lot of brain involved in broadcast, and the journalists aren't just the old guys and nose-job chicks sitting in front of the camera.

In real life, he's way older than this, plus no make up.

In the morning, Bob Schieffer, who was an anchor on CBS for a good 20 years and the only guy in the business to have been a Washington correspondent for the four major beats (the White House, Capitol Hill, the State House and one I forgot), came and spoke to our program.  He's been on TV forever, Katie Couric replaced him on CBS not that long ago, and he's still sort of involved in production, but it turns out he's still kind of a badass.  He actually didn't impart much trade knowledge on us, instead talking mostly about how politics today is more rude and partisan (wow, nobody has mentioned that before) and how LBJ was the most effective president.  Lyndon Johnson is my favorite president (okay, he effed up big time in Vietnam, but did so many other good things), so I was pleased.

Point being, I was really impressed by Bob Shieffer.  He'd sort of just stumbled into his career, discovered that he liked asking questions, and made himself into one of the most credible Washington journalists on TV.  He brought his assistant with him, who was sort of our age and wanted to be in broadcast on a major network, and so she was sort of telling us how she got to where she was.  She was REALLY hot though, which made me cynical about how I would fair as a girl in broadcast without plastic surgery.

Later that day though, our class got a tour of CNN's Washington building, and the woman who is the Executive Producer for John King, USA on CNN spoke to us, which restored some hope in me.

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but we got to see Wolf Blitzer's office and the set of The Situation Room (which is actually closet-sized even though it looks huge on TV).  Anyway, so this woman spoke with us, and she was awesome, and so I kind of started salivating over her job.  She was talking about how technology has moved really fast in the last few years, and it's important that people invest in their news.  I'm pretty sure I'm 80% against her personal politics, but she's the one who gets to make the calls about who to talk to on air, how to frame shots, how to frame issues, how to discuss things.  Yes, John King is sitting there asking the questions, but she's the voice in his ear telling him which direction to go, as well as telling the production team how to set it up.

Long story short, I want an internship at CNN.  We'll work on it. 

Tuesday was boring, but I did get a lot of work done. 

Today was cool, our speaker was the Senior Vice-President at Edelman, which is a fairly well-known PR firm.  He was in communications during the Bush White House (I'd say 70% of our speakers are conservative), and he was talking about some of the ways that innovations in social networking and technology can be used to promote better political communications (as in awareness/support for ideas and different types of legislation).  He was funny, and he had some really interesting ideas about how to monitor media trends and then utilize them, which mostly just entails making sure that you're at least a step ahead of your competitor (who is, more than likely, already a step behind anyway).  

He was talking a bit about how anything that's ever been posted on the internet is archived and exists there forever, so I decided it would be cool to ask him a question about what that means for our generation (since we've grown up on the internet, and so does that mean that our mistakes will be held against us forever).  I DON'T KNOW HOW, but somehow in the wording of that question, I managed to include the word "sexting," and so the speaker told me that if I might want to reconsider my sexting unless I want to be the next Lindsay Lohan.  I am the laughing stock of my class.  Oh well.

On a completely separate note, one of my favorite places to go at Tufts is the practice rooms in Granoff.  They have nice pianos, and it's cool because I can put my headphones in and jam and be in a space where nobody can hear me.  So I was kind of worried that I wouldn't find a similar place at American for the semester.  Turns out, they have equally good (if not better) practice rooms and pianos hanging out in the Katzen Arts Center. BUT, it's even cooler.  A couple of weeks ago, Katharina mentioned that she saw a piano in this big dance room on Tenley campus that exists between two of the dorms, and last week I finally got around to checking it out.  Turns out the dance room is actually the chapel from what what used to be a convent here a long time ago -- they retained the stained glass windows and stage, and just took out the pews in favor of a dance floor.  However, there is, in fact, a really nice piano in there, and because the room is usually open and usually empty, I can sometimes play in there.  Awesome.

This is how emotional I get when I play piano in that church. [Ugh this picture didn't even come out, but she looks emotional, I assure you.]

Hopefully I can replace that photo with an actual picture of that dance room/ex-church in a while, but there are some dancers in there.  Who the eff dances?  I think it's the equivalent of TDC practice, except people looked like they were dressed in legit dance clothes, so maybe its for real.