Dallas Morning News mid-internship recap and John F. Kennedy project introduction

I can’t believe my Dallas Morning News internship is more than half over.  It’s been great so far, specifically because of the freedom and opportunities I’ve been afforded. Here’s are some highlights so far (Update: now with links!):

I'm standing outside the Dallas Morning News building
I'm standing outside the Dallas Morning News building.
  • Working on a newsroom social media strategy, best practices and how-to guide with Travis Hudson (more on this in a future post)
  • Reporting, including a front page story on the DTV transition and following the story of an abandoned newborn
  • Managing the Facebook page
  • Occasionally managing the Twitter account
  • Occasional online producing
  • Worked with more than a dozen journalists, individually or in pairs, to better use social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
  • Helped produce live coverage of American Idol audition coverage, working with another Web producer, reporters at the scene and managing community collaboration and contributions
  • Contributing ideas to the interactive team, Problem Solver column and overall organization

And today I filmed a video for a feature, reporting alongside a another Web intern working on the article.

One of my backburner projects that’s now moving to the frontburner is re-imagining and rebuilding the DMN’s John F. Kennedy page.

I’ve been brainstorming and researching since before I arrived and, now that things are kicking into gear, I’d like your help and feedback.

For the first post in this series I’d like your thoughts about the following before hearing mine or anyone else’s ideas:

Current JFK page from 2004
Current JFK page from 2004
  1. Who is the audience/community?
  2. What is the purpose of this page/section?
  3. What story are is it telling?
  4. What’s the best way to tell the story?
  5. What content should be included? (More than 45 years later, we have loads of stories, obits, journalists’ accounts, photos, TV broadcasts, front pages, documents, etc.)
  6. What do you want to see when you first arrive?
  7. How do you want to navigate through this?
  8. With all of this, how can we engage people and foster quality conversations?
  9. How can we best integrate community content and comments?
  10. How can we best keep it dynamic and alive?

The first multimedia committee meeting for the project is Thursday Wednesday (July 29).

Know anyone who may have good insights? Pass it along! Many thanks in advance.

Dallas Morning News online internship begins Monday

Photo of the Dallas Morning News building during my Sunday excursion.
I swung by the Dallas Morning News building during my Sunday excursion and snapped this photo at a stop light. I, of course, parked and walked around.

In less than an hour I will begin a new adventure as an online intern at the Dallas Morning News.

That’s right — as of Saturday afternoon, I’m in Texas! After two stopovers at DFW in the past year, I finally have the chance to explore the state.

I left from my parent’s house in Fort Lauderdale and drove the roughly 1,300 miles to Dallas, switching off with my uncle.

Along the way we, stopped in Tallahassee and New Orleans. I’ve posted some photos on TwitPic along the way (the one above is an original for the blog).

As I’ve mentioned before, this will be my fourth internship — the third at a daily. But this will be my first online internship and I’m very excited for the opportunity.

What’s to come in the next 12 weeks? We shall see.

Stay tuned.

I’m gonna mess with Texas: Dallas Morning News online, here I come!

dallasnews
Screen shot of dallasnews.com

Who shot J.R.?

Was there a second shooter on that grassy knoll?

What will George W. Bush do in his retirement?

I intend to answer those questions and more this summer as an intern at The Dallas Morning News!

It’s an online internship, but I’ll primarily be working under metro as a multimedia reporter. Split between breaking news and other projects, my role will include writing stories, shooting video and doing other kinds of mischief.

This will be my fourth news internship – third at a metropolitan daily. I plan start soon after I graduate in May.

I can’t wait!

What should I see and do in Dallas?

Read about my experiences at The Miami Herald last summer: