Media Ethics

I really hate the word ethics and what it stands for. I personally hold myself to a high standard of my own journalistic ethics of what I feel can and can't be done and pretty much refuse to break them (although, I'm sure one day there will be a time where I have to reevaluate and change some up).

But as a photojournalist, I'm still struggling with what is crossing the line and what is not. We've discussed this in my actual ethics class and my indecision on which pictures should be posted did bring up a nice discussion in the Prairie Lab.

Last week, I talked about a few incidents, including the death of a race car driver. The morning after the crash (and probably minutes after), there were pictures of the crash, including Dan Wheldon's car in the catch fence, all over the internet/papers/etc. That made me reevaluate my ethical standards for my pictures, especially one I had taken the day of the crash on the soccer field.



To most people, this looks like an awesome shot... to some people, it's a picture of the second before a girl's season ended. My issue with the picture was the second part of that sentence combined with the situation of the pictures I talked about above. The fact that she is also my friend added a third element to this.

This picture was posted on our school's photobook's facebook and is open for everyone to see, and in fact, the player commented on it and wanted us to leave it up. But before she told us that, I wondered if I should pull it due to the situation that happened right after the shot. Honestly, the thing that had me keep it up was another person telling me (toned down version) "If I didn't know the girl, I wouldn't care about what happened afterwards since it's a cool shot".

This picture taught me a ton (as did the accident that got everything started for me) both about photojournalism and just regular journalism as well. It definitely is a situation I couldn't have learned in class and throws a whole new dimension into learning about the "real world" that I could only have by being associated with the clubs I am in right now.

Until next time,
Mel

I Love Sports But...

I thought about writing a post on Friday with a totally different theme and I probably should have because today, my feelings on being involved in sports isn't in the best place.

I truly love what I do and wouldn't give it up for anything but this weekend has been the test of tests when it comes to testing my devotion. On Friday I was on the high of highs. Yes, I was covering girls soccer and they lost but just being on the sidelines taking pictures and writing the story about them reminded me how much I love this.

But on Saturday morning, the first test came about. I met a racehorse in Kentucky last November that I instantly fell in love with. She was injured at the time but I've been following her progress closely since one of my good friends works with her. She was getting ready for a comeback and put in an awesome work a few weeks ago and I was hoping to see her run when I went back to KY in a few weeks. Apparently the sport gods have a great sense of humor since I woke up to a text saying Hayley had broke down. While my friend did tell me that she should survive, waiting for word that she would almost positively survive was an extremely long and unnerving experience. This follows on the heels of learning that two of my favorites died a few weeks back. If there's any test of how big a fan you are of horse racing, having multiple break downs/deaths is it.

Next was on the field today. Someone I consider a pretty good friend now that I've got to know her is on the team and when she went to take a shot, she collapsed due to a knee injury. Seeing not only an athlete in a team you've grown fond of but a friend hurt makes you rethink things, especially when you've already been tested once this weekend. Injuries happen, it's a fact of sports and something I've come to expect. But since I feel like I've lived with this team in and out every weekend, it's still tough to see them hurt, especially when they have had a good weekend so far. Test two complete and passed.

Test three reminded me of something I experienced almost exactly 10 and a half years ago when everyone in motorsports held their breath waiting for an update on Dale Earnhardt Sr. after a bad wreck. This time I hadn't actually seen the wreck live but had gotten tweets about a big IndyCar wreck followed by bad scenes from the Dan Wheldon car and finally news that he'd been taken to the hospital and was unconscious but his vitals were strong. I won't lie, as soon as the soccer game was over, I hurried and did my interviews then raced to the lab so I could watch the coverage.

Before the Indy 500 (where I had to do a series of Indy articles for my internship) I hadn't followed IndyCars closely but I knew who Wheldon was and seeing his interviews made me think I could take on the world, he just had that sort of energy. I knew when they were setting up a press conference it probably wasn't good news and when I saw the faces of drivers and crew after the drivers meeting I knew what was coming but didn't want to believe it, even when multiple reliable sources tweeted the news that hadn't been given officially. I'll admit that the second ABC officially announced it, I left the room and broke down. When I finally saw the crash for the first time (and multiple times since TV can never just show that stuff once) I couldn't believe it. That image will be seared in my head forever.

And to add insult to injury, off road racers Rick and Jeff Huseman died in a plane crash on way to CA from Vegas as well today. The motorsports world has had an extremely tough day that will be thought of for ages.

We know when these guys (and girls) step into the car every weekend, there's a chance they may not come out, but we also try to push that to the back of our minds each week and just not think about it. But it still hurts when the reality that this did happen hits. I remember the hellish week/month/season the motorsports community went through after Sr's death, and I'm really not looking forward to it in the next few weeks.

So to end this post, while the stuff that happened has drastically altered how I feel at this point in time, I feel it has made me stronger as a sports fan and a sports writer. If I can survive stuff like this and continue to write and love what I do, I don't think anything can take my desire away. But just in case the sports gods are listening... please don't test that. We've had our three bad things happen in sports (and motorsports got their three things out of the way) so please leave us alone. And to whatever higher power is out there, please keep all the drivers safe at Talladega, the motorsports world (and sports world in general) can't take any more.

Senior Insanity

When I was a senior in high school, I thought my schedule was insane. I was on two sports teams, going to college full time, still taking college classes, and doing the senior graduation stuff. However, that doesn't even come close to this semester, granted some of the busyness is my own fault.

This semester I am taking 16 credits which doesn't sound like a lot but two of them are extremely high level classes that I need to do well at and understand. Both of these classes also have huge group projects. While my group hasn't even thought about starting the project in the major class (we should probably get on that), my other group has been meeting at 9pm every wednesday night since the second week of school. I'm a night owl, but doing school stuff at 9pm fries my brain.

However, I did just get through two incredibly busy weeks and survived (yay me!) where I had to take 4 tests (4 out of my 6 classes had tests within a week period, with two falling on the same day, that was painful), spend one weekend writing four articles (including two sports I have never written about before), spend another week basically camped out at the Pitch since we had back to back soccer games on Friday and Sunday, and topped those two weeks off with a student run conference that we gave to high schoolers followed by kicking off homecoming today with a campus clean up at 8:30. A few of those days this week found me not getting home from school until late at night and getting up early the next morning. Needless to say, I'm a bit tired and getting ready to sleep for a good 9-10 hours.

While I love my school and major this year and the year is flying by, I seem to be telling myself every week "next week will be calmer" then getting to it and finding out that no, it's really not even calmer, it's even more packed. Thankfully this week is just packed with sports stuff, not school stuff so I can relax a bit since the sports thing is almost second nature to me now.

But with these busy weeks have come little time for my horse, which I feel really guilt about. At the beginning of the semester up until last week, I rode at least every other day and even had a long streak of daily rides going. However, last week I only got her out one time, not the best record. The ironic thing about that is that I just wrote an article 2-3 weeks ago about the responsibilities of having a horse at college and a big thing I talked about was exercise. Maybe I should follow my own advice.

Next week I definitely will be penciling in more ride time when I build my schedule for the week, which means I see more late night lab parties in my future. Between studying for the GRE (which I take on the 14th), keeping up with homework (which thankfully is minimal outside of the group work, even if it is time intensive), going to group meetings (I'm in four groups this semester, not too smart), and taking care of my horse, I have a feeling I'm going to keep trying to convince myself that "next week will be easier" for the rest of the semester.

I definitely got my wish for this year to go faster but I wish it would let me take a breather every now and again.

Goals Have Been Reached

Earlier this summer, I posted about wanting to write about a wider range of sports and step out of my comfort zone a little bit.

While I wasn't able to write about tennis since we don't have a team here at school, just this past week I covered three different school sports with soccer, volleyball, and an equestrian event. I'm still looking to expand my sports resume but that will have to wait a while as I've already covered most of the fall sports.

I may not feel 100% comfortable covering all of these sports but I definitely can't say that I'm a one sport girl anymore.

Wow, the first three weeks of school are flying by. I only have two more days of classes this week, which is really crazy, but that's what happens when you keep yourself busy.

I've been joining clubs, going to soccer games every weekend (I have reached my goal of writing about soccer since that's what I'm covering for the school paper), and looking at grad schools. While I am still applying for a few overseas, I am also applying for a few in Kentucky as well as that's where I want to end up (yes things have changed).

Honestly, there's not much to report on any front right now since even though it's hectic, there's not much interesting going on. Hopefully I'll have more later on.

Until next time,

Mel

Road Trip Thoughts

First of all, my horse is amazing. We just finished up a two and a half day 1,700 mile road trip and there was no fuss at all on her end. Since she has only been hauled about five miles since March of 2010 (and that was t0 the vet three weeks ago to get her travel papers), I was expecting at least some fuss. But even when she had to sit in the trailer for four hours while we got a blow out repaired, we didn't know she was there other than her sticking out her head at the tire shop to watch everything going on.

Sure, we had a small trailer loading issue the next day (if you had to stand in a trailer for 15 hours straight then just get an eight hour break before getting back in, you'd probably be mad), but after a little tap on the butt from the whip, she jumped right in. I was expecting major problems loading due to her very inconsistent trailering past but once again this horse surprises me.

I really can't wait to see what she does when I actually get to spend some time on her. She will get a few days off to acclimate to the weather and elevation but I'm hoping to get on her later this week just to get her out of her small pen and let her chill out while exploring more of her surroundings.

Now on to the non-horse stuff.

I am finally moved into my room, although there is a ton of unpacking to do. I did get a makeshift dresser built (tuberwear drawers come in handy) and my book case up (although, I need to put more books on it) but I still need a desk and to get my school stuff unpacked. I can't really unpack until I have a desk, so everything is a bit on hold right now. At the same time, I don't feel like writing without a desk (I know, bad me), so that desk is super important. Maybe I'll put that on my list for tomorrow.

In good writing news, I have a new story kind of outlined so at least that's something. Well that's about all I have to say tonight so good bye non-existent readers. Enjoy the last week of summer break (unless you work or started school today. In that case, I'm sorry).

Superstitions

As a very superstitious person, I'm one that has some of those crazy avoidances (for example, if I can help it, I don't walk under ladders and am pretty sure I will die if I do) and I found myself breaking a few of my superstitions over the last few months that have come back to bite me.

Over the years, I've come to believe that if I write something down or say it, most of the time it will not happen. Say I want to go somewhere for the weekend. I can have it all planned out and at the last second something is almost guaranteed to make it not happen. Unfortunately, I forgot this little detail that I let have an impact on my life (yes, when you keep having this issue over the years, it's kind of ingrained in your brain that you keep your mouth... and your fingers closed) over the summer and let two things slide.

1) I told people I would be back in Texas by August 20, that was a mistake as the date of departure from Washington with basically all my important possessions (minus my cat and a very fat, retired horse) was moved back to the day before the 20th. If you've driven from Washington to Texas, you know making it there in one day, especially when pulling a horse trailer with a not so fat and not so retired horse, is not possible. I don't really mind the setback as I'm not all that eager to move back to a place that is currently hotter than hell, but it would have been nice to have a little time off before school starts back up again.

2) I talked to my friends about this one and I posted it on this very blog... grad school. In my last post, I said two grad schools in Canada and two in the UK were all I was going to apply for. Hello jinx. Because I like to look around, that two in the UK has now gone up to at least three, if not more. While this betters my odds of getting in over there (and a few schools are very willing to let me do the equine journalism thing in their program and one even has equine degrees at the school), it adds to a whole lot more pressure doing applications.

So note to self, avoid ladders, try not to have black cats in front of you, and don't say anything out loud or write it if you are really serious about it because it bites you in the butt!

Until next time,
Your very superstitious friend.