In 2010, I was fortunate to travel to Paris on behalf of the West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism with my professor, Jan, as part of the Kearns Fellowship that I was awarded. While there, I kept a blog (a pre-cursor to this one!) and shared my experiences. I did not take diligent notes about the restaurants I went to, and I was still learning how to work a DSLR camera, but I do want to share some of that experience here - some 15 years later. Please enjoy some of the blog posts and photos from this trip. We had a layover in London, where we ate at Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food:
Blog Post 1: Bonjour!
"Bonjour, friends! In the coming days, we will use this space to chronicle our journeys through Paris. I'm so honored to be traveling alongside Candace Nelson. Let me introduce her to you. Although she'd never tell you, she's one of the most talented students ever to walk through Martin Hall. This summer alone, she'll act as both editor-in-chief for the West Virginia University student paper, the Daily Athenaeum -- as well as participate in a summer internship at USA Today. For this ambitious drive and promising talent, Candace was selected as the 2010 Kearns Fellow. (We had several other wonderful applicants, I should note!). Candace and I will spend time shadowing reporters at the Associated Press, meeting with officials from a Paris-based journalism school and presenting at the European Journalism Training Academy's Annual General Meeting, this year sponsored at UNESCO. There, we'll share how the P.I. Reed School of Journalism's innovative curriculum is forever shaping the lives of our students as future professional communicators. So we do hope you'll return to this space to learn more about our journeys through France. I'm sure we'll have plenty of stories along the way. Au revoir for now, Jan"
Blog Post 2: Hello!
"Hi everybody! Jan was so kind as to introduce me. I'm so flattered. She failed to mention that she is an essential part of the journalism school -- she won the SOJ's Golden Quill Teaching Award last year, teaches class, advises and serves on a bunch of committees! We leave for Paris, France, in one day! We will get to experience how journalism works in France. We're scheduled to make a presentation at the UNESCO Conference, meet with two French AP reporters and visit a French journalism school. If all goes according to plan, we may be able to set up an exchange program with France between the two schools! Right now, I've been reading up on the news in France and gathering clothes to pack. We ran into a little bit of trouble the other day -- our flight was canceled because of an impending strike in London for British Airways! We were scheduled to fly from Dulles in Washington DC to Heathrow in London, England, then to Paris, France. Luckily, Jan was able to find two flights with Air France that are very close to our original scheduled arrival and departure times. Hopefully our luggage follows us! Here's a little bit more information about the strike: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/14/ba-strike-pilots-appeal I should get back to packing and prepping myself for all the journalism goodness! *Candace"
Blog Post 3: Oh mon dieu!
"So, we head to DC tomorrow morning! I'm so antsy. I can barely sleep, but I've been trying to clean up my apartment before I go. I think I have just about everything packed and ready to go! I'm a little worried the volcanic ash may delay our flight. The Washington Post is reporting Heathrow is closing at 1 a.m. until 7 a.m. We won't arrive until Tuesday, so hopefully we'll be okay. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/16/AR2010051600762.html?hpid=topnews Now, I just need to wait until about 8:45 p.m. so I can pick my seat on the plane and check in online. I'm so excited that everything seems so real now, and I can't wait to arrive in Paris! *Candace"
Blog Post 2: Hello!
"Hi everybody! Jan was so kind as to introduce me. I'm so flattered. She failed to mention that she is an essential part of the journalism school -- she won the SOJ's Golden Quill Teaching Award last year, teaches class, advises and serves on a bunch of committees! We leave for Paris, France, in one day! We will get to experience how journalism works in France. We're scheduled to make a presentation at the UNESCO Conference, meet with two French AP reporters and visit a French journalism school. If all goes according to plan, we may be able to set up an exchange program with France between the two schools! Right now, I've been reading up on the news in France and gathering clothes to pack. We ran into a little bit of trouble the other day -- our flight was canceled because of an impending strike in London for British Airways! We were scheduled to fly from Dulles in Washington DC to Heathrow in London, England, then to Paris, France. Luckily, Jan was able to find two flights with Air France that are very close to our original scheduled arrival and departure times. Hopefully our luggage follows us! Here's a little bit more information about the strike: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/14/ba-strike-pilots-appeal I should get back to packing and prepping myself for all the journalism goodness! *Candace"
Blog Post 3: Oh mon dieu!
"So, we head to DC tomorrow morning! I'm so antsy. I can barely sleep, but I've been trying to clean up my apartment before I go. I think I have just about everything packed and ready to go! I'm a little worried the volcanic ash may delay our flight. The Washington Post is reporting Heathrow is closing at 1 a.m. until 7 a.m. We won't arrive until Tuesday, so hopefully we'll be okay. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/16/AR2010051600762.html?hpid=topnews Now, I just need to wait until about 8:45 p.m. so I can pick my seat on the plane and check in online. I'm so excited that everything seems so real now, and I can't wait to arrive in Paris! *Candace"
Blog Post 4: Flying (from) WV...maybe.
"Evening, friends. As Candace notes, we find ourselves in the middle of two breaking transportation stories in the UK. Last Friday morning (at 3 a.m. no less!!), I received a text from British Airways. Our flights had been canceled. The airline's trade union, Unite, has come to an impasse in its bargaining talks. Therefore, the cabin crews are set to walk off the job tomorrow. Consequently, BA had to work with other carriers so not as to strand passengers around the globe (including Candace and me). When BA's customer call center opened at 7 a.m., I thought I'd be the first one on the line. But somehow, I found myself on hold for...72 minutes. But once I talked to the friendliest service agent in history, I was able to expeditiously change our travel plans. As for getting home, not quite sure yet!!! Then, there's breaking story #2. The Icelandic volcano. Although I'm a typically a big fan of all things Iceland -- long days of sunshine in the summer, the amazing band Sigur Ros -- I can't say I adore this volcano. It does have a cool name, though -- Eyjafjalljoekull. Take a look at this YouTube clip for a laugh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q3YVkm8YJM&feature=player_embedded#! In any case, Heathrow's shut its doors until the ash cloud clears its airspace. Not sure what that means for our travels yet. But, as always, it makes for another great story. And journalists always love those. A demain, Jan"
Blog Post 5: The Icelandic ash cloud moveth.
Blog Post 5: The Icelandic ash cloud moveth.
"Here's a great map (courtesy of the AP) of the ash cloud and its march through Europe... Praying for an on-time departure, Jan"
Blog Post 6: Blogging from Paris
"Hi everyone (we're up to 6 followers now! wow!). Sorry I didn't have a chance to write yesterday. It was quite a hectic day. We left Monday, and luckily our flights all arrived on time, and we made it to Paris safely. We spent all day Monday traveling and we arrived Tuesday evening. As soon as we finally got to our hotel (which is quite cute, by the way!), we ate dinner and fell asleep! So, today was our first true day of adventure. We had two main objectives on our agenda today: meet with the French AP reporters and visit a French journalism school! Our first obstacle was the metro; we couldn't figure out how to get a ticket, and then when we did, it kept messing up. Then, we had to figure out how to actually navigate. Luckily, with Jan's excellent navigational skills, we arrived at the AP newsroom just in time. We met with Angela, who actually worked for West Virginia's AP at one point, and then we chatted with Debbie, who is the current AP Bureau chief in France. We are so fortunate George Esper set this up, because I think it's been the highlight of the trip so far. The people were so friendly, and it was so exciting to see their take on journalism. One thing Debbie talked about was how journalism is changing -- a sentiment echoed by the J-school. She said my generation needs to know how to tell stories in various ways. We are no longer just print journalists or photographers. Everyone needs to know how to do the different jobs so that only one person needs to be sent out on the scene, not 3. She also commented about how we are all journalists. Even though someone is an editor, and someone is a videographer, they are all reporters. They are all capable of taking photos while also interviewing. That just shows that being multi-faceted is valuable today. Thankfully, I've learned various skills while at the J-school -- this just showed real employers are looking for these skills. We had some time before our next appointment, so we went to the Louvre! I had the chance to see some incredible artwork and sculptures. I saw the Mona Lisa! If I could've spent another whole day in there, I would've! Our final stop for the day was visiting the journalism school. This was quite a task trying to find the building, but once we did, the instructors were more than welcoming. They briefly told us about their school -- it's private, they only have about 45 students, and they have fantastic resources. They have more than a thousand students apply, but after the take the competitive test, they only accept 45! They also help greatly with their tuition, and they place every student in a temporary job upon graduation. They also had great facilities with broadcast, radio, multimedia and print rooms. It'd be a great opportunity for any student to attend this institution, so hopefully a partnership can be set up! I think students could learn a lot! I am thoroughly exhausted, and I hope to catch up on some sleep tonight, so I'm off to bed! Tomorrow won't be quite as busy, so hopefully I'll have some more time to update! *Candace"
Blog Post 7: J'aime Paris
"Hi everyone! Today was our free day, where we were going to see all the monuments and sights. Unfortunately, Jan has been feeling ill, and today got the best of her. We luckily were able to tour the Eiffel Tower today (I absolutely loved it!), but after lunch, we headed back to the hotel. That's where we remained for the rest of the day. Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow so we can accomplish more! Coincidentally, CNN is the only English channel we get in the hotel, so I've been keeping up on what's going onin the US and the rest of the world. A big topic is, of course, the BP oil spill. Another story that is interesting right now is the paintings stolen from the Paris museum. Some people are valuing them at 116 million, and some value them at as much as 600 million! In other non-journalism related news, for lunch, I tried escargot at lunch. I do not recommend it. Since Jan wasn't feeling well enough for dinner, I opted for some snacks instead of eating dinner alone, so I'm ready for breakfast! Tomorrow is the first day of the UNESCO conference, so I'm not sure what to expect. All I know is that I should dress well. Hopefully the French are impressed with us becuase so far, we've had mixed experiences. Au revoir *Candace
Blog Post 8: UNESCO Day 1
"Bonjour, again, Today was the first day of the UNESCO Conference (EJTA - The Future of Journalism Education). Once we finally made it to the conference, we were able to watch two presentations. They started off with an introduction, where they talked about the changing state of journalism. One major topic seems to be citizen journalism and whether or not they are considered journalists. According to a majority of the audience, bloggers are not journalists. They also suggested defining a journalist as a professional so that they are respected in a different way than a blogger and held to different standards. The first speaker was George Brock, from the University city of London. He noted three key observations in the field of journalism today: 1. Perspective. Journalism is constantly facing changes, and the state we are in is yet another. 2. Disruptions are disasters for some people and opportunity for others. He said to never let a good crisis go to waste. 3. Crisis returns people to their first principles -- he said this is a good time to ask what we're doing and why we're doing it. He also gave a list of four functions: Sense-making, verification, eyewitness and investigative journalism that are key parts of journalism today. The second presentation was by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and they talked about the competencies within the field of journalism. There are 10 competencies with 5 qualifications each, which equals 50 qualifications total. They had editors-in-chief from various areas in Europe and other journalism professionals rank the qualifications they felt were most important -- some personality traits and others relating to work ethics. Some of the higher ranked ones were: being reliable, being able to work under time pressure, knowing current events, being able to determine the relevance of a subject for a specific audience, being able to discover newsworthy issues on the basis of in-depth researching, being aware of the impact of your information on the public, being able to adjust to unforeseen situations, having a clear idea of the required quality of journalistic products and having the ability to balance stories. Both of these presentations were interesting, and I'm excited to see tomorrow's group of presentations. However, I am nervous for our presentation (we are going last) considering the group we are presenting to. We have already had a couple comments as to why America is at a European Union conference, and when one "gentleman" asked where we were from today, when he heard our response, he raised his eyebrows in disapproval. Seems to be a good mixture between people who are pleasant and people who have a hatred for Americans. Maybe our presentation will help clear up any misunderstandings? I hope so. Tomorrow is our last day, and our most important! Wish us luck on this presentation! *Candace"
Blog Post 9: UNESCO Day 2
"Hi everybody! Today was the second day at UNESCO. We started earlier today (10 a.m.). There was a short presentation by Reynald Blion, the Media and Diversity Manager for the Council of Europe. He talked about the "Anti-discrimination teaching package of the Council of Europe." They basically talked about having three objectives to strive for within the Council of Europe -- training media professionals; writing, seeing and hearing diversity in the media,; and disseminating information through the media. Then, there was a panel discussion about Journalism training in developing countries, which was chaired by Professor Guy Berger from Rhodes University in Grahamstown. The panelists discussed how not only do developing schools have to have an internal strength with cirriculum, programs and equipment, but the have to have positive external relations with practitioners of the field. On top of that, the developing school should have a strong outreach in the public sphere -- otherwise no one will know. After a brief coffee break, there were reports of European and international projects which was chaired by Associate Professor Charlotte Wien of the University of Southern Denmark. The various reports included global environmental journalism initiative by Anna McKane, City University London, and Inger Munck, head of international department Danish School of Media and Journalism. Another was an EJTA Project: The rise and fall of the music industry by Wilfriend Vanden Bossche, Katholieke Hogeschool Mechelen. Afterward, there was a presentation on the master's in new media journalism by Frank Hanecke from the Swiss School of Journalism. Peter Linden, a journalist and author from Munich, talked about reporting Europe. Europe in the World was presented by Arie De Jongh from the University of Applied Sciences and Utrecht and Inger Munk, head of international department in the Danish School of Media and Journalism. The final portion of that segment was Micro Europe Radio by Jean Lemairte from IHECS. Next up was the panel discussion between Jan and Urs Gossweiler from Switzerland. The topic was micro newspapers. This was not originally what we had planned for, but Jan did a great job talking about WVU and the Uncovered West Virginia project. Europe seems to be a little bit behind as far as multimedia goes. It seems as if they're just now realizing it's important while in America, we are taking steps to prepare students to produce these pieces.The gentleman from Sweden actually brought up the multimedia piece of Bill Clinton speaking at the WVU commencement on the News and Information Services webstie and exlaimed how it was an outstanding piece -- he wants to strive toward producing pieces like that. Also, it was apparent Americans weren't quite as welcome in the European Union meeting, but we made the best of it. Today is our last day in Paris, and we have to be ready to go at 5:30 a.m., so I'm off to pack and start on my larger reporting project! Au revoir, *Candace"
