Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Welcome to the world of NewsDood!

Have you ever woken up at 5 a.m., driven an hour out of town to report on an AIDS walk, only to find yourself three hours later covered in mud, bruised from winding up video cable?

I have. Why? Because it was newsworthy, that's why. I'm a student in Austin and a perennial intern at media outlets in the area, but for all intents and purposes, on this blog, I'm the NewsDood.

My news interests vary, so this blog will run the gamut. I’m going to try and incorporate as much content that’s as varied as you would see in any newspaper – with sections like local, national, sports, entertainment, and all that good stuff. But you may ask yourself, “how did this guy get to be so qualified?” or “what’s with the name?” The short answers to those – I’m a journalism student (so I must be qualified, right?) and I just made up the name on a whim. But if you still question my amateur credentials, I’ll elaborate.

I worked at News 8 Austin, now YNN, as a reporting intern, and my first day of coverage was the aforementioned AIDS walk. Future tip for anyone going into TV journalism – watch out for the cables. Seriously, the end of it is a mace of about 4 to 5 XLR cables, big microphone cables. When you wind it all up on the spool, it will hit you in your face.

Aside from that incident, it was a relatively painless experience. I learned principles of photography, good reporting techniques, and I perfected my Australian accent (one of the cameraman was an Aussie). But seriously, they’re a great news outlet that focuses exclusively on what’s local, which a lot of people around here appreciate, myself included.


I also got to cover the Fort Hood shootings. That general is scarier in real life.

I’ve also worked at 91.7 FM KOOP Radio Hornsby-Austin, another community based station that’s completely volunteer run. There are probably 100 to 115 people that volunteer and work at the station, with only 3 that run the front office. They have the most eclectic mix of music – you’ve never heard of any of it, in a good way.

There I learned how to work in radio – recording promos, editing audio, running a board in broadcast. It was fun, and I intend to return this summer once my current internship is up.

In short, this blog will cover all that’s newsworthy in Austin and abroad. That’s what’s great about Austin though, there’s always plenty of news.

For instance, if you like politics look at the Texas Legislature, there are some hugely controversial issues being debated right now, that could change this country: abortion, abolishing Medicaid, and a number of states’ rights issues.

If you like sports, you’ve got the Longhorns, the Spurs, and the Aztex. Okay the Aztex moved, but there's plenty of other stuff.

If you’re into music, try and live here and not go to a festival. There are at minimum 4 festivals a year, all with great bands that matter, except The Eagles last year at ACL.

The point is that I’ve got so much going on around me, I might as well be writing about it. The best part, for me, is that I’m the only editor.