Today started with a very early wake up call at 5:15 AM. I didn’t exactly rise or shine. I stayed in bed until almost 5:45 when I jumped out of bed and sprinted into the shower. I made it to breakfast with only 15 minutes until we had to meet with our group. After we discussed the days events and how the conference would be run, we went to listen to a speech by Wes Pippert, the Washington Director of the Missouri School of Journalism and former UPI Correspondent. I was very interested in what he had to say at first, but I was drifting in and out of a daydream/ light sleep during his speech, because I only got around 4 hours of sleep! Sorry! 🙁
After his speech we broke into our groups and did this simulation called “Courting Controversy” where we split into smaller groups and each group discussed and rehearsed a court case. It was a confusing exercise and maybe our group advisor Charles didn’t explain it right, but my group didn’t really understand what to do and didn’t see what the point of the simulation was or how it was related to journalism.
We then visited the Newseum in Washington, DC. It is one of the few museums in DC that I haven’t been to at some point, as I’ve previously toured Washington, DC seven times. It was such a cool museum that I wish we had more time to look at everything! We listened to a speech about the evolving relationship between journalists and military personnel during war times. It was actually pretty interesting how the media’s coverage of war has changed in the past 100 or so years.
The panel we saw after dinner was also very interesting. Learning about the relationship between journalist and the PR people, other journalists and their sources was another aspect of journalism I knew little about. Dr. Stephen Farnsworth was the most interesting panelist to me, I am considering reading his book “Spinner in Cheif: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves” and he also had a really good quote: “If only Michael Jackson had done songs about budget deficits…” All the panelists had interesting things to say, and I enjoyed listening to them all.
We have a lot to do tomorrow! We are visiting the Smithsonian Museums and taking a tour of the monuments! Looks like a long day with lots of walking, I’m going to get to bed because it’s still pretty early!
Goodnight!
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