Words of Wisdom from Keith Whamond

10/5/09

Future journalists need to be well versed with technology changes like social networking, but they also need to develop an early passion for news and be “bit by the bug” early, a top news executive said Monday.

Keith Whamond, the Executive Producer for the Connecticut Media Group, spoke to Dr. Simon’s news writing class about how being young, tech savvy, and passionate were the three main ingredients that helped make him the young and thriving journalist that he is today.

According to Whamond, “Passion and enthusiasm are the best qualities to bring to the table, the skills aren’t as important as your willingness to learn.”
When Whamond mentioned “getting bit by the bug”, he was referring to being hit with the idea to write the perfect story that would set you apart from other journalists.

According to Whamond, if one were to look at the future of journalism, the kinds of technology tools to use have become a very important aspect. He stated that it has gotten down to the most basic level. He believes that breaking news to people is the most significant part that someone, like Tom Baden, editor of The Connecticut Post, would be looking for in terms of a career.

Whamond told Fairfield students that he was looked up to by older co workers because of his ability to shoot videos, set up plenty of audio, set up an account on skype, and create a twitter, all within his first few weeks while working in Danbury. Newly hired journalists think of these tasks as second nature, while older and more experienced journalists viewed this as Whamond being tech savvy.

Whamond’s career took off after graduating from a Fairfield University in 2004, where he received his B.A. in English, along with a love for the job of capturing a great story. According to Whamond, he was advised to “get the hell out of journalism.”

By Whamond following his passion, and taking Dr. Simon’s news writing class his sophomore year at Fairfield University, Whamond wisely ignored the advice to find another career.

His online media career started as an Editorial Page Assistant for The Connecticut Post at MediaNews Group. Whamond worked his way up to being an Online Reporter at ConnPost.com at Media News Group. Before taking on his current job, about five months ago, he worked for NewsTimes.com as an Online Editor at Hearst.
Whamond didn’t hide his enthusiasm and animation. “I love breaking the news, the excitement of journalism, being young and not knowing the rules gives you a great advantage.”

Whamond ended optimistically for the next generation of journalists, “Youth has the capacity to change the rules of journalism, it’s not necessarily age, it’s just true of anything, when you do something the same way for 30 years, changes must be very difficult. “

“One of our bloggers and Sports producer, Sean Boley, travels throughout the state by going to three games a night, and holds a live blog with updated stats to keep
up. Boley is simply open to doing whatever.”

Reflective Essay 1:

The primary goal that I had in mind for my second deadline story was to efficiently make note to the importance of what I have written during the press conference. I found it quite difficult to come up with an interesting and important beginning paragraph to draw in my reader, yet at the same time give a preview to what I would be discussing. Although Whamond was very interesting to listen to, I immediately noticed a difference between Baden and Whamond’s style of holding the press conference. Whamond was a bit more organized, while Whamond was a bit repetitive, yet his repetitiveness about passion helped me discover that would be a great subject for my story. There was a lot of debate with myself with whether I start out mentioning a quote, give a description using as many of the five senses that I thought were appropriate, or simply starting out with a question again. I decided that a question is too easy. It also would not help to guide me into summarizing what Whamond had discussed. I chose to paraphrase what Whamond said, and give the reader an efficient outlook on what I would be writing about.

I think that the beginning of my second story was much stronger than the beginning of my first deadline story. Yet again, the exercises in class were quite beneficial when completing my second deadline story. At times I wanted to disregard what I had been taught concerning the 5 W’s and H. However, I knew that it was vital to pay attention to detail, in order to make the most interesting story that I felt was possible.

I think that the biggest quandary I encountered was when I was trying to weed out what was and was not important. This was one of the main problems that I faced with my first deadline story. I was also concerned with how I went about making my transitions clever and appropriate to what I had mentioned in my opening paragraph. By going over the hour glass method before the press conference, I was able to have a premade outline of how I wanted to display my story on Whamond. I am glad that I have picked up the habit of making sure that I look for the who, what, where, how, and why, before finishing my story.

As far as the press conference in general, I learned a lot about how much work and dedication is required to be a successful journalist. My favorite quote that Whamond stated was comparing lawyers to journalists, “One being incredibly evil and one incredibly noble, you don’t become a journalist to be wealthy or jet set around the globe, its strictly about your passion for finding a good story.”

As an interviewer, I learned how important it is to do your homework by having several questions. Your follow up question is just as important as your primary question because it also shows the interviewee that you are engaged with what they have to say. It made me feel optimistic about continuing my major in Communications because I was able to see a surviving journalist that had recently graduated from Fairfield University. Where there is passion, there is hope!