At 1 a.m. my phone is still ringing—things to double-check, photos to re-edit. I’ve learned that this job is not one you leave when you walk out of the office. Always keep your phone on and always be prepared to answer calls. 

Walking home from the gym, sitting in class, while I sleep. I should always be expecting a call. And not just from my photographers or other editors. All day I think about photographing and editing, and then I go to work for a five-hour shift at night. Up the next day for class at 9 a.m. and ready to go again.

On days when big protests happen or important people come to the Bay Area, I have to listen extra hard for my phone–call after call. E-mails pile in, text messages too. I need to coordinate “X” number of photographers to go to “Y” place by “Z” time, while I sit and listen to my professor talk about Incan and Aztec architecture.

And though this may sound hellish, it is a great job. The adrenaline rush when I go on a new assignment is such a high (not that I get to go on assignments very often anymore). It may be a 40+ hour-a-week job, but to be an editor you have to love what you do, and however much I may gripe about being tired and overworked, I wouldn’t trade my job for anything.

So the calls at 1 a.m., or later, are worth it if I know I’ll see a good paper on the stands in just a few short hours. This job may never sleep, but it is important that, once in a while, we do.

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Every so often you might notice a photo in the paper unaccompanied by anything more than a short description of the action in the photo. These might vary from a picture of Mayor Bates raising a glass in honor of the law legalizing brew pubs to a hard-news image of tree-sit supporters scaling the fence which currently surrounds the oak grove. We call these feature photos.

We run feature photos for a variety of reasons, but it’s usually one of the following:

• To acknowledge an event which doesn’t need a full news story
• To capture a bit more of the regular oddness (that sounds oxymoronic) of Berkeley life
• To make sure there are always visual elements in the paper
• Because they look cool

Feature photos are one of the ways in which The Daily Californian photo department has an opportunity to flex our muscles, to run images with more concentration on the aesthetic portion of photo journalism than on the reporting aspect.

They (whoever they are) say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Well, generally, I like to think they’re worth the length of a news story–a way for the photo department to independently engage the reader and provide a little some extra. I’d hope you agree.

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Welcome to The Daily Californian Editor’s Blog! This being the first ever post, please take a moment to read about the idea behind this blog.

I will draw from outside sources as much as possible to get various perspectives and keep this blog interesting and informative. Hopefully, it will help familiarize people with different aspects of our organization.

We were all shocked when we learned about the Berkeley family that was found dead in a parking lot at Tilden Regional Park on June 18. In addition to publishing the initial crime story, our coverage also included an article on the memorial for the family.

A journalist’s job becomes very difficult during times like these. The public wants to know why or how such a tragedy can ever happen, but attempting to uncover such information usually requires asking the victims’ friends and family questions at an uncomfortable time.

The Daily Californian follows the Code of Ethics outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists. Two points covered in the second section, titled “Minimize Harm,” had particular relevance the stories written two weeks ago.

— Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.

— Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.

Read the rest of this entry »

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