Prof. Laurel Leff returns to the newsroom

Prof. Laurel Leff has turned the tables on the old adage, "Those who can't do, teach." Her version, "Those who teach, can do!" Prof. Leff started an Internsip at the New Haven Independent in July. Prof. Leff answers a few questions about her experience.

Q. Why did you decide to return to the newsroom?

It's been 16 years since I worked in a newsroom and journalism has changed exponentially since then. In teaching J-1 the last two years, I felt as if I didn't understand enough about Web journalism, which is journalism today, to be as effective a teacher as I wanted to be. i decided to become an intern to learn how to do Web journalism. I wanted to pick up some skills; I had never taken photos or shot video as a reporter, for example. More than that, however, I wanted to learn how the different medium transforms the way news is conceptualized. How is news different when it's constantly updated, requires photos and video, when readers comment as soon as a story appears, and blogging and tweeting take place in real tiime ?

Q. How long has it been since you were a reporter and for what paper?

I was last a reporter in 1986 for the Miami Herald. I was a newspaper editor after that. My last job was at the Hartford Courant.

Q. How has the newsroom changed? Technoloogy? Smaller staff?

There are so many changes. Three big ones: We don't write to fit, meaning the story can be as long as it needs to be without artificial constraints imposed by the news hole. Web journalists may decide to write short because of limited attention spans, etc., but at least at the Independent, I haven't heard one discussion about story length, aside from the statement the story can be short because it isn't worth more. That doesn't even count all the links to previous stories, documents, informational tidbits. On the other hand, the Web doesn't seem to be the place for the definitive story. It seems better to focus on an individual event and not try to do too much in one story. The attitude seems to be you can always do another story on a related point. The story evolves over time. I'm still thinking through this, but it's a very different approach. Second, the fact that all reporters can shoot photos and video easily and well means that you can think about stories as photo stories. They wouldn't be print stories, but they're great Web features. The Independent, for example, does a fun feature called "Chef of the Week," which involves shooting video of a local chef preparing his favorite dish. I'd hate that story in print, but I love it -- both reporting and watching it -- on the Web. Third, getting immediate comments from readers is both enlightening and distressing. Some of the comments are great and give you perspectives and ideas for other stories you'd never have otherwise. But too many of the comments seem to have nothing to do with the actual story. The readers seem to merely use the story as a jumping off point for spewing on the topic. I'm not even talking about the fact that some of the comments are nasty and offensive -- the Independent edits comments quite well, I think -- but that the readers don't seem to be allowing in new information. I'm not sure what can be done about this but it's depressing.

Q. What do you find most challenging?

Oddly, the most challenging thing isn't getting used to shooting photos or dealing with other technology, it's trying to find an interesting, honest way to cover sometimes mundane events on a demanding time schedule. This probably has less to do with Web journalism than with local journalism, which I hadn't done that much of when I was a reporter or editor.

Q. What kind of stories are you reporting/writing?

Everything. It's been three weeks and I've covered a board of alderman meeting, a botched police dispatcher call, the GOP and Democratic conventions to nominate local candidates, the appointment of fire commissioners, an event to honor citizen involvement with the police, the opening of a walk-in paternity testing clinic, a resident upset about a huge city bill for picking up some trash, and a series of stories about the paternity docket in superior court.