First ride on CrimsonRide

If you're in Tuscaloosa, Ala, you probably have seen the new white transit buses with the Univ. of Alabama signage on them.

Welcome to CrimsonRide, the biggest change in transportation in decades for Tuscaloosa and the University.

All summer, I've had students in my reporting class doing assignments on the debut of the system, which has been under discussion for more than a year.

Today, the first day for the 2007-2008 parking decals, those of us who work at the University adjusted to new parking arrangements.

For me, it was a bit frustrating not being able to access the Campus Drive Parking Deck from what is a PARTIALLY COMPLETED Hackberry Lane. The much-publicized traffic switch for Hackberry Lane is NOT yet done. So, you have to access the Campus Drive lot from a different street. I'll have to figure that one out tomorrow.

After driving through some construction zones, I ended up parking in front of the AIME building this morning and hoofing it across campus to Graves Hall, where I am in a two-day workshop this week.

This afternoon, I rode the GOLD bus for the first time- back to the Ferguson Center stop-- across from my parking lot. I passed a lot of traffic -- at 4:45pm. I worry that this could be a MAJOR problem-- too many cars still on campus along with 15 transit buses.

I couldn't help but think what it will be like NEXT Thursday, the first Tues/Thurs class day. I'll have a late afternoon class and be leaving campus around 6 p.m.

As the cliche goes, only time will tell.

For now, I'll just say Welcome CrimsonRide!

WNBC's "Live at Five" Dead

What does a guy in Tuscaloosa, Ala. care about a New York City newscast going off the air?

Well, I used to watch "Live at 5" on Channel 4 as a kid whenever I visited New Jersey where my cousin (now in Richmond, Va.) used to live.

Much of my great affection for local television news came from viewing it in what is still the nation's number-one media market-- New York City.

I remember even before going to college at Howard Univ. watching WNBC's Live at Five broadcast with Sue Simmons and Jack Cafferty. That would have been in the 1980s.

Now Jack is on CNN and Sue is still anchoring the program... well until September 10 when a new schedule begins on WNBC-TV.

WNBC's 5 p.m. newscast was the ORIGINAL "Live at Five." This week the management at WNBC announced they're replacing the afternoon newscast with an Entertainment program, EXTRA.

Station management says viewers have longer commutes and they can get the news at that hour lots of other places. There's the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN. Essentially the early afternoon newscast is not where the viewers are.

The television station where I worked the longest, WXIA-TV, Atlanta's NBC station realized this years ago when it nixed 11Alive News at 5 (a newscast I helped produce for a short period) and debuted "Atlanta's Evening News" at 7 p.m.

The end of "Live at Five" is big enough story that it made The New York Times today. The means history will record that an era in local television news has ended.

The piece in the New York Daily News, though, came out a day earlier.

Well, maybe it's not THAT dramatic. But, it's worth jumping on my blog to comment on this change.

The next time I go to New York, I'll only be able to see Sue on the 11pm news with her late night news partner, Chuck Scarborough. Chuck will be anchoring WNBC's new 7 p.m. newscast that will follow NBC Nightly News.

Hey-- the one thing in life that is constant is CHANGE.

From Ideas to Action- Scripps Institute 2007

Six weeks after the Ted Scripps Leadership Institute in Indianapolis on the Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus, our local efforts to step up professional development, keep government open and promote ethical newsgathering are just now hitting.

For most college chapters, the Society of Professional Journalists chapter activity is rather low this time of year.

At the moment, I’m preparing for a planning luncheon for our chapter officers.

Topping that agenda will be the plans/goals that I drafted for the chapter following the Institute, which took place the first week of June. The key word is “drafted.” These strategic goals are only ideas that the officers and the chapter’s other co-adviser need to embrace even before putting the vision before the entire chapter membership for a vote.

Leadership styles and management strategies were among the topics on which we focused during our three days at the Scripps Institute. It was refreshing to see how many other journalists had the leadership style as I. But, it’s just as important to realize htose leadership styles in the other chapter officers.

Just as important as the strategies, goals and vision for our chapter is having a firm understanding of the national organization and where it’s going.

One of the highlights of the Scripps Leadership Institute was the question-and-answer session with the top national SPJ officers. President-Elect Clint Brewer (from the City Paper in Nashville) delivered a “State of the SPJ” address and took questions from Institute attendees.

Caring about the future of journalism is a reason why one might be involved in SPJ. The Scripps Institute helped me get a view of how we can make this all-important organization even better.

The Institute wasn't all work. We had a little "play" time on Friday night as I had a chance to go "duck-pin" bowling for the first time. Sue Porter from the Scripps Howard Foundation probably bowled better than I.




It may have taken six weeks fro me to write this summary of my experience. But, my enthusiasm for what I do as an SPJ co-adviser is no less intense now than it was when I attended the Institute last month.

Now the real work begins.

Update on MJW

Like many other streams of thought or promises to POST-- this one appears to have gone un-addressed.

The MJW program is moving into it's second week tonight. I hope to post some photos I took soon.

Diverse group arrives for MJW 2007

Diversity of places, diversity of people and diversity of experiences are just three ways to describe the 17 students who make up the cohort of high school students attending the 2007 Multicultural Journalism Workshop here at the University of Alabama.

This is the first in a series of postings over the next 10 days from “MJW,” as the program is affectionately called. I’ll be among the faculty members working with this talented group selected from the nearly 200 inquiries the University initially received about the workshop that is in its 24th year of existence.

I'm planning to use this particular blog posting as a "teaching tool" tomorrow (Monday) as I'm talking about multimedia and multi-platform reporting. You'll notice I have NO QUOTES and a lot of first names in this posting, two characteristics of the first-person, casual writing style of many bloggers.

During tonight’s opening banquet and orientation on the University campus, I had a chance to meet all 17 students and hear about some of their experiences and backgrounds.

I think I probably connected in some way with most of them. There was Alex from Montgomery who is attending the workshop after just completing the tenth grade at Montgomery’s Booker T. Washington Magnet High School just a few blocks from the Alabama State Capitol.

I remember being in the tenth grade when I attended UJW, the Urban Journalism Workshop in at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. in 1986.

Like Alex, I had not done much journalism writing, but was just simply loved to write.

Then there was the “ATL” crew, the three students from Metro Atlanta, where I lived for two years and worked for five as a news producer at WXIA-TV’s “11 Alive News.”

One student is a rising junior at Grady High School, which shares the name “Henry Grady” with my alma mater, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Grady High School is a magnet program for communication while The Westminister Schools is home to an athlete attending our workshop. Carrington Jackson plays basketball, football and tennis. Now he’s going to add newswriting to his portfolio.

According to Wikipedia Web site, The Westminster Schools has the largest endowment of any non-boarding secondary school in the United States. The school's expressed mission is "to develop the whole person for college and for life through excellent education."

Closer to home, we have students here from every region of Alabama including the Shoals Area, the Anniston/East Alabama, South Central Alabama (including Selma and Montgomery) and Mobile as well as Sumter County in the far western part of the state.

Did I mention one of our students was part of the scrapbook team that took first place at Alabama’s Beta Club Conventions?

I told Brooke that we know we will have a great scrapbook from the 24th Annual Multicultural Journalism Workshop.

As one who scrapbooks or blogs from every trip I take, I know Brooke from Winston County High in Double Springs, Ala. is going to teach me a thing or two about chronicling one’s experiences.

This year’s class has students from as far away as Camden, South Carolina and as close as Tuscaloosa’s Northridge High School. In fact, I met Adelaide O’Neal at another journalism workshop here on the UA campus just about a year ago. She’s going to the editor of state and regional award-winning Northridge Reporter in the fall.

Some of the students are on a mission—to go back to their high schools and revive or reinvigorate their school papers. Aaron, a student a Cordova High School in Walker County, plans to go back and inspire the rest of his Blue Devil schoolmates to get their newspaper going again.

Aaron is one of three students from the Birmingham Metro area. We also have students from Ramsey High in the City of Birmingham and Briarwood Christian High School.

After spending most of this past academic year working in the Knight Fellows program based at The Anniston Star, it was great to see one from the Anniston-Oxford area. Ashley is a student Faith Christian School.

Several of the students have already learned how to use Adobe InDesign and at least a third of the students brought their own digital cameras.

I can already predict this will be the most visually-skilled of the classes we’ve had in recent years.

Over the next ten days, these students will learn the journalism craft as they put out an edition of Tuscaloosa’s newest community publication, The West End Journal.

Closing Out Seven Cities, Six Weeks

Unfortunately, both my iBook and digital camera were stolen enroute to Columbia last month. Hence, the reporting on the Seven Cities, Six Weeks tour had to be cut short.

It was when I stopped to take photos at the South Carolina State Capitol in Columbia June 21 when I realized the camera was missing.

It, along with my laptop computer (and nearly two years worth of production work) were removed from the backseat of my automobile.

No, they should have been left there. That has turned out to be a VERY EXPENSIVE mistake.

It was the most devastating loss of equipment that I've ever experienced. Two weeks later, I can at least write about what happened here.

Reflecting on Fourth of July Worship

Thanks to a unique worship experience today, Independence Day 2007 will always stand out in my mind.

What was called “A July 4th Morning Celebration of God” didn’t draw a standing-room only crowd at Tuscaloosa’s Cornerstone Full Gospel Baptist Church.

But everyone who needed to be there was present. The 150 or so of us in addition for the unprecedented two-hour service heard some of the best preaching on freedom this side of heaven.

I couldn’t continue on with my holiday activities without pausing to report and reflect on them.

Like the Bible says, seven is the number of completion and today’s 4th of July celebration would not have been complete without each of the seven ministers’ sermonettes that focused us on our freedom that comes from being a son or daughter in God’s family.

The senior pastor, Bishop Earnest Palmer, who developed today’s service only within the last two weeks kicked off the tag-team preaching by introducing the scripture from first four verses of the 12th chapter of Genesis. He was followed by our youth pastor and our executive pastor and our director of protocol.

Even as a member of Cornerstone for about two years, I don’t remember a time when this many members of the church’s ministerial staff shared God’s Word in a single service.

“Our independence must be radical,” said Elder Lionel Grant, director of youth ministries. “What we’re doing today is radical.”

Grant’s remarks were echoed by Elder Tomalisa Washington, who noted that despite it being Independence Day some people still don’t “feel very liberated.”

“In order to get what God has for you, you have to release what’s in your hand,” Elder Washington said.

Her husband, Freddie Washington, who also is an elder and serves as Cornerstone’s executive pastor echoed her comments.

“One of the hardest lessons to learn is when it’s time to get out,” he said.

While the first three sermonettes focused on the passage from Genesis, the latter four messages used Biblical passages from the New Testament to explain our liberation by faith.

“We’re in transition,” said Minister Tschalla Jerido, who explained the significance of the 4th of July coming at the midpoint of the year, a time for us to reflect on how we are progressing toward those goals we set for 2007 and what lies ahead in part-time of the year.

There was so much of God’s Word preached today that it’s hard to recount it all. Those were some of the things that stood out in my mind.

Admitting that she was not as focused on her freedom as an American because she was “born free,” Elder Arleta Riley challenged those to focus on that freedom we were not born with”

“I wasn’t born saved,” she said. “When you’re freed from something, you’re released to something.”

As I reflect on this morning’s service, I feel released to not only report on what occurred, but to think differently and appreciate the freedom that comes in being released to do greater things not at new level (a phrase Bishop Palmer doesn’t like).

Instead, Bishop Palmer has encouraged us to go to a “new dimension” in our thinking and our way of operating this year.

The work continues.

Back to Jackson

It wasn't a long trip, but the odometer tells the story-- 389 miles between Tuscaloosa and Mississippi's Capital City.

This time it was a doctoral dissertation defense that took me back to the city.

The re-visit reminded me of the original journey about six weeks ago. In many ways, it seemed shorter than before. This time, I stayed in Pearl, Mississippi where regular unleaded gasoline was 2.78/gallon, some of the least expensive gas I've seen in while.

I topped off my tank before heading back this morning.



While it wasn't my cup of tea, the Jubilee JAM was going on this weekend in Downtown Jackson. This photo of the big crowds was taken earlier today and posted on the Jackson Convention & Visitors Bureau site.

Now that we're back from Jackson, it's time to prepare for Columbia, South Carolina, which comes later this week.

Six Down, One City to Go

We're back in Tuscaloosa tonight as we complete City #6 on the "Seven Cities, Six Weeks" tour.

I gathered a lot more images in Indianapolis than I've published on this Web log. I hope to have a way to display those shots within the next few days.

As summer school begins this week, our travel opportunities will be decrease significantly.

The seventh city-- also a state capital-- will be Columbia, South Carolina where I will be participating in a Narrative Writing Workshop on the University of south Carolina campus.

Memorable Visit to Indiana Statehouse on eve of big changes

INDIANAPOLIS— From seeing the relatively cozy chambers of the Indiana State Senate to standing behind the speaker’s desk in the Indiana House of Representatives, an unusual close-up view of center for government capped my weekend here in Indianapolis.

Today's visit occurred just a day before new tighter security measures take effect at the Statehouse. When the building opens tomorrow, visitors will have to walk through metal detectors and screening devices that will check for guns, knives and other weapons.

I ran into one videographer from WTHR-Channel 13, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, shooting exteriors of the capitol, presumably in connection with this story.

You can read what WTHR has on its site about the story here.

According to the Associated Press, visitors will not be allowed to bring in firearms or other weapons that can cause serious injury, such as certain knives, Taser guns, other stun devices, explosives and various chemicals.

But things were as open as they've been for the last 120 years at what some state lawmakers here in Hoosier State called "the people's building."

Maybe it was the fact that I went to four different entrances before getting to the right one for a Sunday afternoon tour. Since I was the only one in place for a guided view of Indiana Statehouse, I got to ask all the questions I wanted

Austin, the part-time tour guide made sure I knew every interesting detail about the construction of the Capitol, which took almost 10 years to build and was completed in 1888. He provided a great historical view of the stained glass ceiling which sits under the dome, including the manner in which crews keep it clear and why there is so much blue stained glass.

I was surprised at the access I was given to the floors of both houses of the Indiana legislature. Austin just took me right in and I was able to take photos at the front of the Indiana House of Representatives. He even posed for a picture.

Along the way, I learned that this part-time tour guide is a student at Marian College majoring physical education. You might think with all the historical and political trivia that he has to remember to give a tour of the Capitol, he must aspire to be one of those politicians walking the halls.

Actually, Austin aspires to be a high school coach.

After a great weekend attending the Ted Scripps Leadership Institute, it was nice to get outside of the hotel and conference center and see some of Indiana’s capital city.

Even though I walked two of the four floors of the Circle Centre Mall and even picked up a souvenir t-shirt, seeing the seat of Indiana’s state government was the most memorable event of this day.

Finally in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS-- After an unplanned four-hour layover in Atlanta Hartsfield, I finally got on an AirTtran Airways flight to Indiana's State Capital.

I arrived in Indianapolis about 2:45pm, and got to the Leadership Institute about 5 minutes late.

More to reflect on later as I post this evening.

More now, this view of the IUPUI campus will have to do. Gotta go to dinner.

Kicked off AirTran for Taking Notes

ATLANTA-- It’s now 10:27 a.m. I was supposed to be almost in Indianapolis—City #6 on my SEVEN CITIES, SIX WEEKS summer tour. But, I am still in the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport for taking notes on the flight.

Sounds bizarre?

I thought so.

In these jittery post-911 days, flight crews like the employees on AirTran Airways Flight 419 have to be on the lookout for suspicious passengers.

I suppose taking copious notes about my first travel experience on AirTran in almost 10 years could be construed as suspicious.

AirTran has apologized for the inconvenience and given me a free pass for another flight. They’ve re-booked me on an afternoon flight that will get me to Indianapolis in time for the start of the Society of Professional Journalists Scripps Leadership Institute on the Indiana University-Perdue University Indianapolis campus.


But, the bigger story here is that something as harmless as taking notes might get you kicked off a flight.

Fortunately, I as a journalist did not have to surrender my notes and I don’t think I was the cause of the flight being about 10 minutes late taking off. The AirTran Airways attendant who escorted me off said the flight was held up also because they were waiting for ice.

For now, I’m happy recounting the strange experience as perhaps the most memorable event in my “Seven Cities, Six Weeks” tour.

More later.

At least this gives me time to blog about what I experienced getting into the Atlanta Airport this morning. I’ve been gathering elements for that posting.

Bayou LaBatre, Ala.-- More than Mobile

MOBILE, Ala.-- After a l--o--n---g drive from the northernmost point of Alabama down I-65 to the southernmost point-- Mobile, to Interstate 10-- we are now in City #3 on our "Seven Cities, Six Weeks" tour.

Specifically, I was going to Alma Bryant High School where students there have received a grant from the Radio-Television News Directors Association to bring podcasting to their broadcasting program.

As the author of a soon-to-be-releaesd "Teaching with Podcasting" DVD, I wanted to use Alma Bryant as a place to pilot-test some of ideas for the DVD. Well, I got an eyeful.

First of all, I didn't realize how big the Mobile area really is.

On Sunday, I stayed in Saraland, Ala. before venturing down to Bayou LaBatre (I just learned how to spell that word)

Because of its distance from Tuscaloosa (about 3-4 hours), Mobile is one of the few cities I have only visited a couple of times-- both before I moved to Alabama.

On each of my previous visits, I was enroute to either New Orleans or Tallahassee (long story, I'll explain that one another time).

This time, I ventured well off Interstate 10 down to an area that is right in the "line of fire" so to speak (how's that for a cliche) when hurricanes come ashore.

Alma Bryant is a beautiful high school and folks there were S--O nice. I plan to make a return visit in the fall semester.

As for the rest of the Mobile area, well my second stop of the day was at the Mobile Register, where the Business Editor, K.A. Turner, gave me a quick tour of one of the nicest newspaper facilitiss in Alabama.

My photos are really bad. But, I did get an ok shot of the distribution room where all the Press-Register newspapers are assembled.


All in all, this first visit to downtown Mobile was a quick, but good one.

Later this summer-- in July-- I will go back to the area-- to Orange Beach, Ala. for the Alabama Press Association's Summer Convention. I plan to get some better shots of the newspaper building then.

City #2- Nashville, TN

NASHVILLE-- Even though Nashville is listed as one of those datelines that does not require a state abbreviation, I thought it was important to remind you that I'm in Music City.

I few years ago when I visited Indiana University, I learned there is also a Nasvhille, Indiana There is a Nashville, Indiana located in Brown County just miles from the IU main campus.

On May 5, I made the three-and-a-half hour drive from Tuscaloosa to Nashville for the Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade Awards program. It's one of several opportunities we have to see some of the BEST journalism being produced.

The Green Eyeshade program is a regional competition that involves states in the Southeast.

I'll have to make a separate posting on the ceremony itself. For now, I'll share some of the sites.


The Tennessee State Capitol is one of the first sites I'll share. I didn't get a chance to go inside. But, before leaving town on Sunday, I drove downtown to see the building located on a high hill. This area was a federal fort during the period of Union occupation. The building was completed in 1859.


Also on Sunday, I attended church at Mt. Zion Baptist where Bishop Joseph Walker is the senior pastor. I've been blessed before by Bishop Walker's teaching via the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

It was a totally differenr thing to be in worship with the thousands who are members of his church, which three locations in the Nashville metropolitan area.

You can see from the sign on the church's marquee that it's a church that ministers to all of the needs of its congregants.. even those who are divorced.


After church, I briefly drove through the Vanderbilt Campus, which one of the only two SEC (Southeastern Conference) schools I had not previously visited (the other is in Oxford, Mississippi). Well, actually, I had been to Nashville closeby before-- but it was not as extensive as my trip this time.

Jackson, Miss- The Starting Point

JACKSON, Miss.-- How appropriate to begin my "Seven Cities, Six Weeks" Tour in the Mississippi State Capital. It's the place where a high-profile civil rights case is going to trial.

James Seale is being tried on federal kidnapping and conspiracy charts in the 1964 deaths of two black teens. It is refreshing to see the Clarion-Ledger taking a position on the importance of the trials on its editorial pages.

Not related to the trial, however, my experience making this journey on May 1 was to visit the campus of Jackson State University.

I am fortunate to be serving on a doctoral dissertation committee for a student at Jackson State. It's not only a chance for to see this colleague complete her terminal degree, but also a chance to visit another historically black college or university.

As a product of an HBCU (Howard U.), I have a special place in my heart for these schools that educate more African-Americans than any other institution for careers in journalism and mass communication. Today, Jackson State University has the nation's only E-Ph.D. or Executive Ph.D. program in urban higher education.

That's where I visited on May 1.


I didn't walk the grounds of the main campus. Instead, I spent most of the day at the Jake Ayers Institute for Urban Higher Education, which is in the same building as the University's TV station, TV 23.

I got to tour the facility and speak with one of the production assistants who shoots and edits local content for the station, which up until recently aired programming from the Black Family Channel.

After meeting on the JSU campus, I ventured downtown to see the Mississippi State Capitol. Unfortunately, time did not permit me to go inside to see the hub of Mississippi's state government. But, at least I know where it is -- just off Interstate 55.

City #5- Atlanta, Ga.

ATLANTA-- Tonight we end the month of May as we began—on the road. I never posted my updates from City #1, City #2 or City #3 on the Seven Cities, Six Weeks Tour. (That’s coming, I promise) But, it all began May 1.

City #5 is Atlanta, Georgia.. another state capital. That makes THREE State Capitals I’ve visited (four if you include one I drove through) within the last 30 days.

The important components of these visits are the sites, sounds and the experiences. Since I’ve lived here before, Atlanta is not really a visit. Instead, it’s a reunion.

There aren’t many sites and sounds to take in from Interstate 20, which is about all I have seen today. (We’ll see how bad morning traffic is tomorrow)

The occasion: taking a flight on AirTran Airlines or is it AirTran Airways? I’ll have to check that out later.

I usually fly either Delta or Southwest Airlines. But, this trip to the Society of Professional Journalists Scripps Leadership Institute is being funded through the SPJ Headquarters, which uses a travel agency.

These days many of us have become accustomed to air travel with electronic tickets—the ones that are e-mailed to us and we check-in online printing our own boarding passes.

Well, when you use a travel agency, you have to get a paper ticket. So, I’ll have to go through the old-fashioned check-in with my paper ticket tomorrow morning at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport, which just celebrated the one-year anniversary (a term that is stylistically incorrect according to the latest Associated Press Stylebook) of its newest runway.

So, greetings from Georgia’s Capital City—the former Olympic City—Atlanta!

City #4- Chicago- A Day At Navy Pier

CHICAGO- The 3:30 a.m. wake-up was necessary to visit the Windy City in a day and still come back to Tuscaloosa.

We landed at Midway Airport by just about 8:15 a.m.

The cab ride from Midway to Navy Pier was a not a short (or a cheap) one-- a $30 one at that.

And than, there's Navy Pier- HUGE- JUST HUGE! I made the mistake of coming in the wrong end of this attraction and we walked and we walked and we walked all the way to the other end of the Pier-- the more scenic end where 500+ people were already in place for the Adobe CS3 Creative License Conference.

This above photo was taken from the other side of the room where more than 500 people turned for the first in a series of one day conferences. The photographer, Terry White, wrote more about today's conference on his blog.

He was the main presenter at the conference, about which I'll write more later.

Summer Travel Log Begins

Even though it was TWO weeks ago today that I began a seven-city swing to places in the eastern United States, I am just getting around to starting my online journal of what I learned from each of these places.

As the rough artwork depicts-- I'm calling this "SEVEN CITIES, Six Weeks" as a way to tie together what I expect will be a long series of postings.

My goal is to present in a multimedia fashion, a series of reports, updates, lessons learned, reflections, etc on my experiences in the places to which I travel between May 1 and June 23, 2007. (Yes, technically that's a slight bit over six week-- but you get the picture).

Starting on Tuesday May 1, I visited the Westernmost city on the tour-- Jackson, Mississippi. That was followed on May 5 with a stop in Nashville, Tennessee. Then on Sunday May 6, I arrived in Mobile, Alabama.

Tomorrow, May 16, I will be back on the road again for a one-day excursion to the Windy City of Chicago, which will be followed roughly two weeks from now to the Indiana State Capital-- Indianapolis on June 1.

In between Chicago and Indianapolis, I will make a very brief stop in the Georgia capital city of Atlanta.

The Seventh and final city on the schedule is Columbia, South Carolina. Yes, there will be worthwhile points in between to mention. My datelines will let you know the places from which I was filing.

You'll notice in the list of stops are visit state capitals. I hope to visit the actual state capitol in the state capital while I am there.

The experience of blogging over this period of time is teaching me just how difficult it is to keep an online journal-- keep it up, update it and present different content that is interesting and compelling to read and enjoy.

Why do we do these travel logs? What is the benefit of multimedia journalism? And, what does providing this kind of insight do to the reporting experience? Those are some the questions I hope to answer as I go along this personal summer journey.

On some legs of this trip, I'll have postings with a timeline to share as I make the more interesting aspects of the trip real -- while on others it will be a traditional journalistic endeavor of writing a story that has an interesting hook or compelling lead or exciting quotation.

The dates of the postings may not necessarily correspond to the day the trip was taken. That's all a product of where I am and the nature of the computer access I have along the way.

Well we have an early start tomorrow-- with a 6:40 flight from Birmingham. So, we'll call it a night.

Watching the Web from the newsroom

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- It's been a while since I've posted ANYTHING on this Weblog. Guess a month has passed. Well, let's see spring break -- travel back home to Virginia, back to Tuscaloosa and a big research paper deadline -- which is this weekend-- those activities will kind of eat up the time for blogging.

Even as I finish up the research paper(s), it's great to be back in the Sunshine State of Florida. I've posted a more extensive DAY 1 update on the Society of Professional Journalists Conference on my COMJ Exchange Blog. But, I thought I'd show off this giant HD monitor that I saw in the newsroom of The Gainesville Sun.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times as reporters and editors at the 50,000 circ paper monitor their paper's Web site and several others like the Arizona Republic's site -- which integrates the converged media efforts of Gannett's highly successful daily in Arizona and its Phoenix TV station, KPNX- 12 News.

More fun stuff from Gainesville as we visit the University of Florida campus tomorrow morning.

Experiencing Northern Nevada

RENO, Nev-- As I've posted over on my comjexchange blog, I'm in Reno, Nevada today finishing up a four-day visit to the nothern part of the silver state.

This photo hardly tells the story.

More later.