The front page headlines from the New York Times and the Washington Post May 2, 2011. I bought these papers to save the front pages.

Sunday night’s announcement that Osama bin Laden was located and killed, as the result of a U.S. operation in Pakistan, is no doubt historic.  But its place in history comes not just from the end of the decade’s long search since 9/11; the way the story broke also deserves a distinguished mark in the record.

I will never forget sitting in my room watching my favorite prime time program, refreshing my Twitter stream, and seeing a single tweet from a reporter saying, “POTUS to address the nation at 10:30 p.m. eastern.”  I follow nearly 1,400 people on twitter.  The vast majority of them are journalists.  And many of them are in political circles.  But this was the only tweet mentioning anything about Obama speaking to the nation.

Immediately I began searching for more information.  Was the tweet a mistake?  No.  The lone tweet was accurate and Twitter soon began waking up from its Sunday slumber to a chorus of questions about why POTUS was planning to speak at the strangest of all times to make news: Sunday night after 10 p.m.  Whatever he was going to say was going to be big.

The press always knows what the president will say when he speaks.  The White House is a leaky glass when it comes to speeches and remarks and there is always some degree of advanced information for reporters to broadcast.  But not this time.  Speculation was rampant as to what President Obama would say.  Everyone knew it was big, but no one seemed to know what it would be.

I found the secrecy refreshing and thrilling.  It was so exciting to watch news develop right before our eyes.  There is so much planning and routine in day-to-day news that often there’s an air of anticlimax, but I live for moments of true breaking news like on Sunday night.

Tuning to MSNBC I watched as NBC’s Mike Viqueira filled the air with the very little information available to him, while in the background the NBC Washington Bureau newsroom was literally hyper with activity.  I watched as the people I work with everyday ran between desks, answered phones, and did anything they could to bring this important news to the nation.  It was awe inducing to watch them work and I was filled with pride for the NBC team.  It really is an honor to work with NBC.

Last night is why I love news.  These days don’t happen often, but when they do, they are truly incredible.  Going into the bureau Monday to face the morning after the Bin Laden story broke, I had the privilege to have a very small hand in bringing this incredible news story to the world with NBC.  That’s an amazing feeling.

The Neil Simon Theater in New York City showing the new musical Catch Me If You Can, April 23, 2011. (Jordan J. Frasier)

The honor of my first New York show went to the new musical Catch Me If You Can. It’s the same story from the 2002 film staring Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abignale Jr. — a young conman who steals more than 2 million dollars as he impersonates a doctor, lawyer and pilot while gallivanting around the world.

The story transfers seamlessly to the stage with toe tapping musical numbers that leave you snapping your fingers for days after the curtain closes. And the talent of the cast is truly awe-inspiring as they show the audience the magic of “turning butter into cream” and how to embrace life even with reality hot on your trail!

I’ve always loved this story because of its themes. I know Abignale is a crock, but his spirit is not ill intentioned. He’s just a kid trying to become something by faking it ‘till he makes it, even if that means staying a few steps ahead of reality. I’m a big believer is faking it ‘till you make it because that little mental trick can give you the confidence to cross that final barrier and before you know it, you are what you always wanted to be.

Now that I’ve seen the movie and the musical, I’ve just downloaded the novel to my Kindle and I can’t wait to experience the story in that medium.

It was great fun to file into the Neil Simon Theater on a rainy New York afternoon. I was amazed at how ornate and small the theater was, but it was great! I love to just walk around New York, so after the show there were stops at 30 Rock and Times Square and then it was back to D.C.

Here’s a little preview video of the show so you can get a taste of it.

ABC World News Anchor Diane Sawyer at the Newseum in Washington D.C., April 19, 2011. Sawyer was taking part in the Reel Journalism series. (Jordan J. Frasier)

One of the great things about Washington D.C. is that it attracts some pretty big names.  Last night Diane Sawyer came to the nation’s capital to take part in the Newseum’s Reel Journalism series, which looks at important portrayals of journalism in film.

I could have cared less about the film; I just wanted to hear what Sawyer had to say.  So I told my professors I was taking the evening off and I headed downtown.

Skipping class was a great decision because Sawyer was both informative and inspiring.  She has reached the pinnacle of journalism and it was invaluable to hear from her, but since I did skip class, I thought I should prepare a short report of what she had to say.  So here is Sawyer’s advice:

– “We’re not going anywhere,” she said about journalists.  She didn’t deny that the industry is changing, but thinks the transformations will only act to concentrate information gathering and distribution.  She said it would get journalists back to answering the tough questions.

Diane Sawyer of ABC News at the Newseum's Reel Journalism series, April 19, 2011. (Jordan J. Frasier)

–There is no substitute for great original stories.  She said people notice outstanding original work and that is what will set the best news sources apart.

–It’s important not to concentrate on what happens in front of the camera, because content is king.  The information and reporting is what really matters.  The pretty broadcast stuff will can come later, but you’re dry-docked if the content stinks.

–Journalists need to bring the same passion to facts that commentators bring to arguments, and every journalist should know “what they are burning to tell people about.”  The number one prerequisite for journalism is that you have a curiosity and a drive to know more about something.  You can’t fake this, especially on TV, so hopefully you’ve already got that inside you.

–The First Amendment deserves our appreciation.  We shouldn’t take that right for granted and journalists need to stand up to protect it.

After last night, I officially have a new answer to the question: who is the one person living or dead who you’d like to have dinner with?  Hands down, I would choose Diane Sawyer.  There are so many things I’m dying to ask her about and she was so nice that I know a dinner would be lovely.  Maybe one day.  Until them I’ll savor the quick greeting and handshake we shared on the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue and the wonderful advice she imparted during her remarks.

The Sawyer team filmed some behind the scenes video yesterday as they traveled from New York to D.C. and back and you can see that HERE.

Nick Clooney and Diane Sawyer on stage at the Newseum, April 19, 2011. (Jordan J. Frasier)

*Note: I realize I’m an NBC News intern, and this educational opportunity at the Newseum is no reflection of my love and devotion to the peacock.

–Malcolm Gladwell, “Outliers”

One of the perks of my harried schedule this semester is the two-hours three-days-a-week I spend on metro trains. Often, heavy eyelids tempt me to catch a few moments of sleep, but more often I take the time to read.

At the beginning of the semester, I envisioned this time as textbook reading, but as the weeks have passed, I’ve grasped these hours for the selfish reading of the books that fill my Kindle.

I think for most of my life I’ve been a fake reader. I value the idea of reading and cherish the touch of books, but rarely have I prized the act of reading books. There were always distractions and other outlets to take attention. Never before have I had such consistent gaps of time where really the only thing to do is read. In the tunnels where the metro train runs, there is no television, no Internet and no phone service. There’s a light, a bench and a chance to read.

In this time I’ve gone through several books and my most recent conquest was Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers.” The premise of the book is simple: why are the most successful people successful? The answer: because they work harder than everyone else.

The actual reason also involves some lucky coincidences, but every person who might happen upon these same lucky coincidences won’t know what to do with them – because everyone doesn’t have the same drive of an outlier.

It is a fascinating read and I’m crazed by the ideas it presents. Bravo to Gladwell!

Here’s a rapid-fire update:

–NBC is amazing and I’m working on the Today show and Decision 2012.  I’ve never met more quality people than those who inhabit the NBC News Washington Bureau.

–I’m keeping up in classes, even if my Tuesday schedule of nearly 9-hours of back-to-back classes almost kills me.

–My new musical obsessions are Brendan James and Adele.

–I’m now a coffee drinker.

–And I’ve learned to reuse bath towels more than once because I simply don’t have time to do laundry like I used to.

A few weeks ago at NBC, the interns got the chance to lunch with NBC Correspondent Tom Costello.  It was a great opportunity to absorb what he’s learned during his career and how we might take that advice into our own practice.

Costello said the most important skill to have, even in broadcast news, is to write well.  Writing a powerful script is the key to a successful piece.  He also put the kibosh to the write-to-your-video advice that nearly all broadcast journalism books give.  Instead, Costello said you should write with your video.  He had a great point that you don’t want to limit your story by only exploring what you have video of.  He said there are ways to use graphics and stand-ups within a story that solve the problem of not having all of the right video.

The other tips he shared were things like remembering to write for the ear and the eye and not to start writing without seeing the video you have to work with.  Costello also told us to try not ending stories with stand-ups, but to mix them in throughout the piece.  But he said it’s important that those stand-ups don’t just state the obvious, but actually add something to the story.  Part of those obvious statements includes not stating obvious emotion.

Costello also advised us not to start or end a piece with a sound-bite and that natural sound is great to include.

Through my whole NBC experience, I’m learning about the laborious production that goes into even a two-minute news piece.  That includes asking the same questions in different situations so the editors have options and finding just the right word for a script and then making sure the correspondent pronounces it with just the right tone.

The whole world of TV news is completely fascinating and I’ll never watch an evening newscast the same way again.

Snow covered trees on my walk to campus.

As many of you know, I began interning with NBC News this week, and my second day with NBC just happened to coincide with a massive snow storm in the DC region.

On a normal day, my commute takes about an hour and fifteen minutes each way.  It’s not a small amount of time by any means, but it is manageable.  Today, with the snow, my commute took over four hours.

I started by walking through a blizzard from NBC to the metro station.  The trains were actually running fairly on schedule and were not very full.  I guess most people were smart and left work early when they saw the snow.  The problem began when my train was about 100 feet outside the station where I transfer from train to shuttle bus.

The train sat on the track for about twenty minutes.  Then once it pulled into the station, I find no buses, no shuttles and no taxis, but there was a nice large group of people waiting for some way to get to where they belong.

I located a few other Mason students and we banded together.  We stood around the station for an hour, waiting for any mode of transportation.  Eventually all of the Mason students gathered under the Mason bus shelter, which just happens to be near the entrance to the parking lot.

While waiting in that area, I spotted a taxi turning into the parking lot, so I took off running towards it, bargained with the driver to take me and my fellow students to campus, grabbed the students, and off we went.

Then after being stuck in the cab on an exit ramp, sitting in traffic forever, and making it close enough to campus to walk, we left our savior of a cab driver (who didn’t even charge us the snow fee) and took off on foot for a twenty-minute walk to campus.

It was a ridiculous commute, so thank goodness I had another great day at NBC where I got to watch a White House producer edit together a piece for Nightly News.

Watching the producer edit is one reason my commute turned into such a pickle.  I was consumed by a windowless edit bay for hours and missed the severity of the snow.  Wouldn’t you know, weather forecasters are actually right once and a while.

Snow near NBC.

The snow was getting to me as I walked to campus.

One of my latest stories to appear in The Columbian on January 12, 2011. Internships are a critical component to journalism education.

Today I had the pleasure of returning to old stomping grounds of sorts to share some lesson’s I’ve learned in the last few years and months.  I talked with the current staff of the Clark College student newspaper, The Independent, where I served as editor last year.  I shared my thoughts on being a student perusing journalism.

In this post, I hope to provide a summary of what I’ve learned and what others can take from that, in addition to some supplemental links that I referenced in my talk today.

1) You must be motivated and unafraid to take initiative

Things in journalism, or anything else for that matter, move fast – so you’ve got to keep up.  In order to keep up, you’ve go to learn by doing.  That includes writing with a mindset of practice, editing to learn, and always watching for an opportunity.

2) Twitter is your friend

People outside the Twitter-sphere are not privy to the journalistic conversations, insight and community that happen there.  Tweeps are also privy to behind-the-scenes information that only adds to the education of a journalism student.  I attribute my experience with George Mason University student media and the experience of reporting from The White House to Twitter.

3) Online and on deadline

The biggest challenge to online production is the fluid nature of deadlines.  If you’re going to produce online content, you’ve got to look at it with the same deadline pressure there is for print.  Sometimes these deadlines have to be arbitrarily created, but they must be treated like law.

4) Internships and The Columbian

Internships are a must.  There’s no way around it.  If you’re serious about journalism, you will have to spend some time working for free at least one time as an intern.  As an intern, it’s important to take advantage of working with professional reporters and absorbing what they do and how they do it.  An intern should also pick up on newsroom dynamics and processes, not forgetting content management systems and policies.  Lastly, internships are great for networking and making connections for future work, as well as building your portfolio of work if you are lucky enough to contribute actual content.

Also know you can’t just walk into an internship.  You must have the preparatory experience that makes organizations want you as an intern.  Learn stuff on your own and gain experience in student media so that you’re ready for internships.

5) Random Advice to commit to memory

a. Have a web presence for yourself.  If you’re not already, you must have a website/blog and Twitter.  It’s also good to have a YouTube Channel and make sure your portfolio is online.

b. When you start on a story, you’re already behind.  Start reporting immediately on Twitter, post something brief online, publish a more in-depth piece, and then add some multimedia elements.

c. Know how to talk on the phone.

d. Make your news site a resource.  Even if you’re not doing the actual reporting, let your readers know who is and give them a link to get there.  That way, you will be your audience’s first source when they want to know what’s going on.

e. Get experience doing everything.  There’s no way around it.  You need to know writing, speaking, editing, video, and photography.

f. Teach yourself, so you can learn from others.  Don’t waste your resources by relying on them to teach you what you can learn yourself.  Learn what you can on your own, so other people can teach you what you can’t learn alone.

g. Consume to learn.  As you read, watch video, or report, always ask how it’s done and how it can be done better.  Being critical of what you consume will make you better.

If you’re serious about journalism, remember that your competition is already doing this stuff.  So join the conversation, get connected, gain experience, teach yourself and have initiative.

For those who heard me talk today, I hope you’ll checkout these online supplements to what I had to say.

Advice to j-students via Twitter on Storify

Advice to j-students via Quara

Journalism student website example one

Journalism student website example two

Journalism student website example three

Journalism student website example four

My story as it appeared in The Columbian on Dec. 28, 2010.

This week I started what I’m considering “round two” of my Columbian internship.  I spent two months with the newspaper over the summer, and since I’m back in town for five weeks over winter break, I thought I’d see if they’d take me back.  Luckily they agreed.

I really enjoy working with The Columbian because there are great people to work with and they give me freedom to be creative and try new things.

Yesterday I produced a video and tried using some voiceover and some different type of b-roll video.  I think it worked well, but you can see for yourself here.  I also had a fun little story in print that goes along with the video.

I’m glad I have the opportunity to work with The Columbian for a few weeks so I’m on top of my game when I start my big internship with NBC News on January 23!

Me standing between the National Christmas tree and the White House, Dec. 11, 2010.

Before really buckling down to study for my final exams I headed into D.C. yesterday for a holiday tour of the capitol’s Christmas highlights.  The stops included the U.S. Capitol Building, the U.S. Botanic Gardens, the White House and Georgetown.

The Capitol Building Christmas tree has a Wyoming theme this year, and the tree and all of the ornaments are from the state.  Then not far from the tree is the Botanic Gardens that boost a holiday display of D.C. landmarks recreated out of natural materials, giant poinsettias and model trains.

At the White House the national Christmas tree stands in its traditional location surrounded by a mini-tree for each of the states.  Then in Georgetown the gas lanterns are adorned with Christmas wreaths and Georgetown Cupcake sells holiday fare like Rudolf Red Velvet cupcakes.

The Capit0l Christmas tree looking toward the National Mall. (Jordan J. Frasier)

The Capitol Christmas Tree with the Capitol Building in the background. (Jordan J. Frasier)

Natural model of the Capitol Building on display at the U.S. Botanic Gardens, Dec. 11, 2010. (Jordan J. Frasier)

Poinsettias at the National Botanic Gardens. (Jordan J. Frasier)

Chirstmas tree at the Botanic Gardens. (Jordan J. Frasier)

Natural White House model on display at the U.S. Botanic Gardens, Dec. 11, 2010. (Jordan J. Frasier)

Washington State's tree representative at the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House. (Jordan J. Frasier)

The land side of Gunston Hall, the home of George Mason from 1750 to 1792, Dec. 4, 2010. (Jordan J. Frasier)

This Thursday is the 285^th birthday of George Mason – the guy – who the university is named for.

In preparation for some birthday events on campus next week, a few of the Connect2Mason editors traveled to Gunston Hall where Mason lived from the 1750s until his death in 1792.  It’s also where Mr. Mason is buried.

The mansion sits on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River and is an architectural landmark just as much as it is a historic residence.  The designer of the house’s interior was William Buckland and Gunston Hall was his first American project, which historians and architecture buffs find notable.

Our visit to Gunston Hall started with a special treat because GMU students are only charged half the admission price.  It’s just a small perk for attending Mason’s namesake institution.  With admission we received a guided tour of the home, during which I took copious notes in order to regurgitate some facts in the video we would film after the tour.

Since our video was focused on Mason’s birthday, I asked our guide what a birthday at Gunston Hall would be like, and she wasn’t sure birthdays were celebrated at all.  She could only remember references to weddings and baptisms, but no birthdays.

Filming the video was pretty fun and it makes me want to do some more on-camera work.  It’s fairly thrilling to talk on camera!  Hopefully I feel the same way after seeing the final product.  I’ll tweet a link when it’s ready, as long as I don’t look like an idiot.

Me getting ready to film a stand-up shot for Connect2Mason's Gunston Hall video near George Mason's family gravesite, Dec. 4, 2010.

The river side of Gunston Hall, Dec. 4, 2010. (Jordan J. Frasier)