Author: Mollie Barnes

I heart words (not about airplanes or crime or politics)

Posted on by Mollie Barnes

When I was young, I was in love with my words. Getting edited was the most painful process on those 2 page, double spaced, papers about the inner motivations of savage boys on an island with a conch shell or the most annoying character that ever lived (Holden Caufield) or whatever other topic I wrote about in those short short (I say this in hindsight) papers before college.

Yesterday, I picked up a story for Liz when she needed it last minute. Fine fine, no matter. Story easy enough call someone get some information, use a press release, check the clips. I talked with the ACE a bunch to find out what he wanted, wrote up a story. Then watched as he rewrote the entire thing. I suppose it’s a good thing my attachment to words has weakened, or else it would have been heartbreaking. After we finished and he asked me what I felt about it, I said “well at least I wrote the headline.” Part joke, part passive aggressive bitterness I must admit, I guess I must also admit I’m not good at doing something I am passionate about. I wasn’t attached to any of the words in my story about American Airlines because, well, I never would have cared about it on my own. Still don’t really care about it. But that’s really been the only story I didn’t ‘like’ just did it to get it done with. And it was the most brutal editing, as well.

I have always been one who pretty much despises crime and politics stories, most “hard news” stories, to be honest. I might even go so far to say I might be part of the news hating generation, ironically enough. Which makes working at a newspaper hard at times, and has probably been one of the main causes of several “what-am-I-doing-with-my-life” sessions throughout the past few weeks. But I suppose this class is required, but it’s sort of a bummer the Vox beat doesn’t exist. It’s not so bad as I’m making it out, especially when I get to work on stories that I pick/pitch stories that I am interested in (veering as far away from crime and politics as possible).

Only thirty more minutes of GA shift left, where hopefully I won’t be forced to go to the police station again. I seriously could think of a thousand things I’d rather do than that, one of them including drowning.

Interviewing Bob the firework man for our multimedia project was probably my favorite thing I had to do so far, I just hope that I end up liking this more than convergence reporting even though I’m starting to think that might have been a better fit for me now, since it seems to be the only stories I pitch are longer more involved pieces that err on the side of magaziney rather than breaking news. C’est la vie.

No looking back now though.

Falling into reporting.

Posted on by Mollie Barnes

This week I started work as a reporter for the Columbia Missourian as a class. Though, the term class may be misleading seeing as it’s more a job where we just get paid with a grade rather than money. Because who likes money? Not I! I’ll take the grade any day over money!! Completely kidding.

My editors’ first advice was “dive right in.” Well I can’t say that I actually did that. I think if you would picture it in a swimming metaphor, it would look more like I stood on the diving board and looked down (because I’m terrified of heights) and some smart ass kid who was tired of waiting for their turn came and pushed me in so I kind of performed the pencil dive which looked more like a not too painful, but not very beautiful belly flop. 

I took on a story, which was more of a topic than a story to be honest, of a Memorial Tree/Bench program. Which is proving to be quite a slow topic to move on, due to me relying on a lot of logistical people to get the main part of the story to even just FIND if there is a story there to report on. 

To update any new readers, I just returned from a semester abroad in Italy. When I say “just” I mean literally I came home on June12/13ish *long story that I don’t want to hash out* and had about a week in St. Louis and then moved myself to Columbia Monday to start class on Tuesday. I haven’t read much about culture shock but I think it probably would correlate to a lot of my fears of diving in. 

I spent the past five months not understanding or really being able to communicate completely with the majority of people around me. Yes I could get by and speak bare minimum Italian, but FAR less than the communication abilities I am used to. As a result I sort of lived in my own little bubble there which I occasionally left when I could understand and add something to the fast Italian conversations going on around me.

So going from that to being expected to talk to lots of strangers all the time about things they might not want to talk about was QUITE a change. I spent the better parts of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday pondering my existence as an extrovert and wondering if Italy had changed me to an introvert permanently. This due mostly to my parents obsession with the Myers Briggs Personality exam, which I am labeled an ENTP and my mom is an E but my dad is  an I. So they are in a constant battle to prove which one I really am… E (extrovert) or I (introvert). I take pride in my E rating, and so pondering to admit if I really am an I after all made me feel like a complete failure. 

But then yesterday when I took a handoff on a short brief about the Eliot Battle funeral which allowed me to get something up on the Missourian site (even if it didn’t involve much work or reporting) allowed me to take a deep breath and remember that I really do enjoy the feeling of reporting. 

So although I might not have published anything of substance yet, I know it’s on the way. I am not used to hard “news” reporting. I wanted the Vox beat. I’m just getting back in the swing of things, but I know that I’ll be able to be a hard hitter soon. Although it is hard not to compare myself to others in the newsroom who have already produced several stories, I have to step back and remember that everyone is different and these topics that they are really engaged in just aren’t the topics for me. I don’t have much interest in politics or crime or business reporting, so obviously coming up with ideas for that isn’t going to be as easy for me as a lot of the newsie people in the class. 

I could go on and on about my fears for this class but that would be wasting time and I must get back to work! 

Real World: Mars Edition

Posted on by Mollie Barnes

Recently for a class that I have we had to develop a transmedia campaign. Now you’re probably thinking, what the sam hell is a transmedia campaign? Essentially it is a story that is designed to involve the viewer/participant whatever you want to call yourself. You become a part of the story as an active participant. Sometimes these campaigns can be to raise money for a charity, such as this or more often than not, simply raise awareness of a pre-existing story such as the Why So Serious? campaign for The Dark Knight.

Watch the video:
Why So Serious? A Marketing Transmedia Campaign… di Transmedialab

Some stories are too big, even for the big screen. But, Wikipedia might explain it to you better.

Sounds crazy, right? But as Oscar Levant said, “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity.” Now it might not seem so insane to create an alternate reality game for Batman obsessed men to have an excuse to wear joker makeup and escape their mundane lives for a second. But, what about raising money to go to Mars? This article talks all about Mars One‘s new lottery mission to Mars. Well, it’s not really a lottery. More like American Idol meets The Real World meets Another Earth. Only no one comes back.

Artist drawing of Mars One

Many things run through your mind as you learn more and more about this crazy idea. Who would want to apply? There’s a great line from Another Earth where she explains her reasoning for why she should be chosen to go on the crazy space mission to another earth. The movie is obviously a little different than this mission, because she does come back to Earth at the end of the movie… but it’s a good start for thinking about the type of people who would go on this mission (it’s also one of my favorite movies). This is the quote from her entry video which wins her a ticket to the other Earth:

“When early explorers first set out West across the Atlantic, most people thought the world was flat. Most people thought if you sailed far enough West, you would drop off a plane into nothing. Those vessels sailing out into the unknown, they weren’t carrying noblemen or aristocrats, artists or merchants. They were crewed by people living on the edge of life: the madmen, orphans, ex-convicts, outcasts like myself. As a felon, I’m an unlikely candidate for most things. But perhaps not for this. Perhaps I am the most likely.”

People made jokes on the comments to the article such as “can’t wait to see who hooks up first!” Because how successful can a trip to Mars be when the astronauts are picked based on popular vote, and not just popular vote of anyone. Popular vote of the reality tv watching audience… I don’t know many real scientists or people who would probably have the authority to make these sort of decisions in other circumstances that watch reality television. Also what rational person is going to think this is real? It’s going to take a lot of convincing to convince people that this is not just a money-scam. I still wouldn’t be surprised if this is all some sort of April Fool’s joke a few days late.

The Conspiracy For Good was an example that sometimes a little fantasy and storytelling can actually do what it says it’s going to do. They actually did build a library after the whole “conspiracy” was over. But building a library and sending real humans to Mars for the rest of their lives are quite far apart on the spectrum of believability and do-able-ness. After all, I did develop an entire zombie story game as a hypothetical transmedia campaign to raise money for organ printing technology, and if I was serious about it, who says Mars One isn’t either? I suppose only time will tell. And if not, I’m sure the application videos will provide for some serious entertainment and food for the ever growing internet meme culture. I can already imagine all the feels I’m going to have if this really does become a television show though. But there are only so many things you can do in a bubble. They also have yet to completely solve the sleeping issue. I can’t live without a good night’s sleep, so definitely not the life for me! Would you go?