Article of the day: UPMC hospitals ban sale of Post-Gazette from their gift shops (taken from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Before I go further in this post, it would be helpful if you read this article to understand what I'm talking about:

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/pittsburgh-company-news/2015/06/24/UPMC-hospitals-ban-sale-of-Post-Gazette-from-their-gift-shops/stories/201506240066

Of course, I know your time is valuable, so if you don't want to read it, here's a brief overview. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) officials are banning the sale of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspapers in medical center facilities because the officials don't approve of the way journalists are covering the hospital.

I love this article so much. I love it NOT for the fact that I agree with big corporations and the way the United States's capitalism has gone. Rather, I love this article for the fact that journalists are standing up to big business.

When I was in university for my journalism training, one of the key things my professor pounded into our heads over and over again was that we weren't to take bribes from anyone. Don't take any free vacations, free hotel stays, free dinners. Don't take anything, because then the companies will come back at you if you don't portray them in the best light possible and attack you. That then sets you up for the possibility of a bias, because let's face it: no one likes getting yelled at.

Many people like to think that journalists are just out to cater to big business and aren't looking out for the little guys, in this case the American public. That isn't the case for paper journalists, not a lot of them anyway. In some cases, it is true, but that's more so in TV news media.

No one says it better like Post-Gazette publisher John Robinson Block:

"The Post-Gazette is edited without regard to any special interest, and our news columns are not for sale, at any price...we have been here since 1786, and have as our purpose the same goal that UPMC was established for -- to serve the public's interest, not a narrow purpose."

"...To serve the public's interest, not a narrow purpose." A lot more people need to keep this in mind, journalists, corporate heads and the American public alike."

Let the River Swell: not typical heavy metal musicians

The mention of "heavy metal" probably brings to mind long-haired, middle-aged "headbangers" screaming into a microphone. While this is true for many bands of that genre, Let the River Swell is an exception.

The Johnstown-born band formed in September 2012 when lead guitarist Tyler Litko had the urge to start playing again, according to vocalist and band spokesman Devin Kieta.

"It was one of those things where everyone was in the right place at the right time. (Bassist) Dan (Crowell) and I were about to move home from Florida," he said. "(Rhythm guitarist) Mike (Orletsky) worked with Tyler and, over the course of a couple weeks,...we got everything together and started writing our first songs."

Their first show didn't come long afterward. They played at Johnstown's Crucified Ministries Church that December. "It was a decent turnout. Johnstown shows are always the best shows," Kieta said.

"It's funny to think (of) now, but without us playing that show, we wouldn't have met any of the crucial people we did (who) helped throw us into the world of bigger shows."

One bigger show they played at was the 2013 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, where the band obtained a spot after winning a Battle of the Bands contest in Jeanette.

"We signed up for (the contest) and (performed in front of) Sumerian Records and Headbang for the Highway. We played a four-song set list just like every other band and, after our performance, we talked to the talent scouts. They were honestly excited about our performance."

Later that night, after the final band finished their set list, the judges announced LTRS was selected to perform on the Sumerian Records stage at Mayhem Festival in Burgettstown, Pa.

Playing at the Mayhem Festival was a dream come true for Litko. "I couldn't believe something I've dreamed about was actually about to happen," he said. "This is why you never give up."

Prior to the event, the band had a broad fan base with plenty of locals, youngsters, and even those of an older demographic, Kieta said.

"We had a lot of support after we announced that we'd earned the spot," he said. "I was humbled by the encouragement from everyone in the area. Playing (at) a festival like that gains you a lot of exposure.

"We love playing and what we do, but when you have people excited to come up and talk to you afterward...wanting pictures, t-shirts or anything of the sort, it's an amazing feeling. It's like a surprise bonus check from work you weren't expecting."

If you're wondering if there will be a repeat appearance at the festival next year, you may have to wait a while. "Out future schedule is still up in the air," Kieta said. "If we have the chance or get offered to play again, of course we will be there. The goal is to (perform at) one of those festivals for the entire length of (their) tour.

"We'd like to get into Warped Tour next year, but as far as large venues or shows go, when the opportunity comes, we will take it."

For more information and tour dates, visit the band's Facebook page or their Bandcamp website.

Great music for a great city

For two decades, Johnstown's hills have been alive with the sound of music thanks to the Johnstown Symphony Ochestra's Opera Festival. This year, organization members celebrated the festival's 21st year.

The festival first started in 1991 when the Pittsburgh Opera and their symphony performed in the Johnstown area. Since then JSO has taken over, and the festival has grown into something widely celebrated by not only opera aficionados in Johnstown, but the surrounding areas as well, according to executive director Brooke Welsh.

"It's always something new and fresh each year, and that's what makes is special," she said. "The theme changes every year. Last year was '20 Years of Opera.' Some other themes included 'American Opera,' 'Memories of Venice,' and 'An Evening in Vienna.' There may be variations in the programming, but the tradition stays the same."

This year's theme was "Great Opera for a Great City," tying in with the symphony's season theme "Great Music for a Great City."

The Opera Festival is more than dressing up in your best formal wear and listening to beautiful music. "You start by coming to the Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center on Pitt-Johnstown's campus at 7 p.m. and everyone gets dressed up. It's black tie optional," Welsh said. "You mingle before the concert, and then you...watch a spectacular show."

Afterward, attendees can drive to the Frank J. Pasquerilla Conference Center downtown for dinner and an auction.

"Anyone can attend. It's open to the public," she said. "It's $60 for the performance only, and $150 for the performance and the dinner. People can also bid on silent auction items."

This year, the auction included tickets to a Pittsburgh Steelers game and a chance to conduct one composition next symphony season. A raffle was also held for a diamond pendant, a $750 Boscov's gift certificate or a $250 Harrigan's Cafe and Wine Deck gift card. Tickets were $10 each.

"The Opera Festival is our celebratory event for the season and out largest fundraiser. The money goes toward operating costs," Welsh said. "The neat thing is that you're supporting the orchestra, but you're also treating yourself to a night out, so it's a win-win for everyone."

This year's festival was held September 21, and showcased not only the symphony's talent, but four operatic soloists picked by none other than 30-year conducting veteran Maestro Istvan Jaray. For information on next year's festival, call the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra at (814) 535-6738 or email them at info@johnstownsymphony.org.

Keeping it clean thanks to Adopt-A-Highway

If you cruise along a clean highway, chances are you can thank a Pennsylvania Adopt-A-Highway volunteer.

Adopt-A-Highway is part of a national program that began in Texas in 1985 aimed at adopting and beautifying roadways in America. Pennsylvania adopted the program soon after when many residents requested it, according to PennDOT District 9 community relations manager Tara Henry.

"There is now an online application that [interested parties] can fill out," she said. "They can send it in to their district PennDOT office, or they can request an application by phone." Potential applications will then receive a packet they must read and sign, agreeing to the program's terms and conditions.

"[Interested parties] must agree to adopt at least two-mile portions of state highway, and PennDOT must agree that the highway is suitable for adoption. [Interest parties] must pick up litter at least four times a year, and must use safety materials provided by PennDOT." Henry went on to say that there must be a safety meeting held before each pick-up time.

"Participants must be at least 8 years old, and adults must accompany those under 18," she said. "An agreement runs for two years. It renews automatically until a group decides to stop."

Many groups in the Johnstown region, Henry said, are active program participants. Envision Laser Center employees are one such group, according to their general manager Dave Vance.

"One [motivator] is we like to give back to the community and want to be involved," he said. "We have several different projects we do, like being major contributors to the Lions Club." The Lions Club collects eyeglasses. "[Adopt-A-Highway] was brought to our attention and we had the opportunity. It's just a small way to give back to the community.

Center employees have been program participants for a year, and they have an additional volunteer with them. A regular client of theirs goes out with them to pick up trash along their adopted stretch of Route 36 near Ashville.

"He's retired, and he loves doing it," Vance said. "We pick up litter every two weeks, because there isn't that much to clean up when we go back. It also keeps things clean for everyone more often, which is the main goal."

Anyone looking to become participants of the Adopt-A-Highway program should call their district PennDOT office, or they can visit the Adopt-A-Highway website.

How I Look for a Job: The Prologue

For those who don't know, I am a senior journalism student at Pitt who will be graduating in April. From there, I'm looking to move on to a career in journalism or public relations, hopefully in Las Vegas. Now, I know it's a tough job market out there, especially when students have gone to specialized schools and programs for journalism and public relations that surpass my own education, but I'm not giving up. I've applied for six or seven jobs already, and I've heard back from one: The Wynn. I received a no for a position as a special events coordinator, but they said that I should look at other opportunities available through their brand, which as I type this I am doing.

Either way, I wanted to write a blog post about how I determine what jobs to apply for and which ones not to apply for. It's actually a really easy process for me.

1. I look at the title of the job. I'm a journalism/PR student. I'm not going to apply for a job as a data analyst or a financial consultant. I stick to keywords like "writer," "marketing," "social media," and "relations." Those are usually key indicators of a job my degree will be tailored for.

2. I look at the requirements. If a job needs 3-5 years of experience, I automatically say no (unless it's customer service, because I've been in that industry for five years). 1-2 years I apply, because I have 1-2 years of journalism experience or work in PR.

3. I finally read all of the job duties. Some job posts are tricky. They oversell their open position, or they throw in additional responsibilities/licenses that you shouldn't need. I applied for a special events coordinator job, and I was asked if I'd be willing to get a valid Nevada Gaming License if I got the job. Why? I would be a special events coordinator. I wouldn't be operating any machinery. As it turns out, licensing is a way to weed out the bad eggs in Las Vegas, because it was a mob/mafia hot spot before. It keeps things clean and fair for everyone, so I can't just give special benefits to family and friends. I also was looking for a PR job, and I got a post to be a sales consultant for a gift shop at a casino. They were overselling working at the shop by giving certain activities flair, like selling merchandise. If something doesn't fit or seem right, I'm skeptical and usually just bookmark the job for a later date.

What are your own specifications you go by when searching for a job? Let me know what you do in the comments below. I could always use more strategies!

Sources

I love talking to people and listening to their stories. I also love compiling stories of my own. Sources come in many shapes and sizes, and that's what I've dedicated this entire post to. You might be a journalist student if you encounter these types of sources:

1. The Blabber. This is the type of source who's extremely enthused about the article you're doing, and sometimes ends up telling you their life story instead of focusing on the questions you're asking. Try to polite steer the conversation as best as you can, but don't be rude. Chances are you may need this source again.

2. The Information System. This type of source knows everything about the subject of your article, and isn't afraid to tell you all about it. This source is slightly related to the Blabber in that they tend to talk a lot, but every piece of information could help with your current story and give you ideas for future articles, which is why keeping in contact with this source is a must.

3. The Micro-manager. This is the type of source every journalist tries to avoid dealing with, but sometimes it's just inevitable. This person loves to give you press releases, omit information, backtrack and even tell you what you should and shouldn't put in your story. Keep them as a contact, but only to obtain those precious press releases for a possible story idea or two.

4. The Delayer. This is the type of person who doesn't get back to you in the amount of time you need them to in order to get the information for your story. This person gives you a valuable lesson in keeping multiple stories open, and never assign yourself to just one source. It could spell disaster for you and your publication. This source, however, could make up for it with different sources to interview, so don't cut them to the quick immediately. Keep your options open, but never forget either. Try making appointments with them earlier, too. That helps.

5. The Neglectful Nellie. This is the type of person who never calls you back, never emails you...basically never responds to any communication with you or your publication whatsoever. You would have a better chance at getting a letter from San Francisco to Pittsburgh via the Pony Express than getting information from this contact. Chances are this person is a creature of habit, and they won't talk to you or anyone from your publication because of a bad experience or some other reason. It's better not to heckle them much, because that could hamper any kind of relationship you're trying to build with them. This is why you need multiple sources of multiple types.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few of the other types of sources out there, but these are just a few I've run into during my time. Have any others you'd like to share? Leave a comment below or share this post and get friends involved! I'm curious to hear your opinion!

Keep Calm

Thanking My Mentors

I don’t have a formal mentor per se. I have several people I do look up to in my profession that have helped me along the way, and I would like to mention them and thank them for what they've done, whether they realize it or not and whether they read this or not.

First of all, I want to thank my senior English teacher. We had our ups and downs, of course, but she really made a impact on me. She was a journalism major herself, and she taught me about the many things I can do with my journalism like public relations and so on. I thought of journalism as this broad thing and I was confused about what I truly wanted to do. She set me straight, and I am where I am today thanks to her guidance.

Next, I want to thank my magazine editor for the experience. I've been with the Johnstown Magazine since May, and the experience I've gained is priceless. I've learned how to edit pages and how magazines run, plus I gained public relations experience as well and continue to do so. She’s been such a help and an inspiration that I feel much more prepared for next year, which is rapidly on its way as we speak.

Finally, I want to thank two of my professors: my journalism professor and my public relations professor. I had no idea what I was doing when it came to journalistic writing and public relations, even social media in general. I have changed as a writer, a journalist, a PR specialist, and even as a human in general. I feel completely prepared for my future career thanks to them, and I couldn't be more thankful.

The INFJ Personality and My Career

Many of us have been exposed to the Myers-Brigg personality test at some point in our lives, whether we found it online and took it for fun or we took it for a class. I've taken it a couple times (because my memory slipped me what my precise personality type was) and I am an INFJ personality.

INFJs are known for being caring, creative, and extremely organized. This is highly accurate of myself, especially in the journalism field - my chosen field of study.

In journalism, you have to have some form of empathy. You don't want to interview a murder victim's widow with cold eyes and only focused on the story. I pride myself on having a high level of empathy in any situation. I can listen to a story someone tells me, and - usually - I can feel what they were feeling when the situation happened and/or how they feel at the moment relaying the story to me.

I recently conducted an interview with a man who is the spokesman for a biker group that hold one major ride every year in August. He told me stories of heartbreak, and stories packed with joy and pride. To describe my emotions in short would be impossible, but I could feel everything he felt about those topics, which is something crucial to the field in order to obtain contacts and keep them in your Rolodex. You never know when you're going to need them again for another story, or just to get to know them better.

Creativity is also key to my field. You have to be creative with transitions and descriptions, or you'll quickly lose an audience. I used to make all my stories straight news stories, and now I'm honing my descriptions and making my writing more creative. This is all thanks to not only my journalism professor, but also Rust Hills, who is the author of one of the books we have to read for class. I'm gaining a better understanding or journalism as being short story nonfiction writing, and I'm becoming a better writer because of that.

The last crucial piece to having extreme organization. I won't lie. I'm obsessive-compulsive about certain things, but in a good way. I have to have a clean workspace. If I don't, I can't let my creative juices flow. A cluttered area leads to a cluttered mind, and a journalist's mind is already cluttered enough. I also like having my stories organized as well, using the inverted pyramid, of course. I like having a plan laid out for me as well, one where I can see what's coming up and prepare for it. It makes my life easier because I know when to schedule what.

These are just some aspects of my personality that help me in my industry, of course. I didn't mention extreme determination or passion, which I have about my field or else I wouldn't be going into it. These qualities also carry over into the public relations side of my career, because most of my PR work is derived from my journalism background. It's quite interesting to see how my personality fits in with my field. It just shows that I have made the right choice for me.

My Professional "Aha" Moment

I already posted this to my Tumblr, but I felt it should be posted here too, to my professional blog. It explains how I got into the field I did, and the career choices I passed up along the way. Hope you enjoy!

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Rarely does a person enter the career they told their relatives they were going to go into when they were young (i.e. when they were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up). I certainly am no exception. When I was four I told my grandparents I wanted to go into meteorology, and here I am attending university for my last year for my Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

The switch from meteorology to journalism wasn’t a simple transition. Between then, I had several different occupations in mind for what I wanted to be: a travel writer, an archaeologist, and a psychologist.

The idea for travel writing came after a three-week adventure through Europe when I was 12. I love writing. I’ve been doing it ever since I was 3 and trying to learn how to write in cursive. I kept journals throughout my life and wanted to have stories published and become a writer in general (in addition to the meteorology gig). I had to face the facts, though. Writing doesn’t pay the big bucks unless you were lucky. I severely doubted my luck.

Around the same time, I had aspirations of becoming an archaeologist. I had this fascination with Ancient Egypt as well as World War II. I wanted to go on excavations and find jewelry and other things, maybe some bombshells in Germany, something! I wanted to have my own little museum of treasures in my home, but I found out that you don’t really get to keep the stuff you find (darn that childhood rule of finders keepers). That idea flew out the window, and I began to think about becoming a psychologist.

Psychology was a rash decision itself. I always listened to other people’s problems and offered them advice (which I don’t follow myself even though it works for everyone else). I didn’t think about the amount of schooling it would take to get there, nor did I really know what field of psychology I wanted to go into. Thank God my high school offered journalism, or I wouldn’t be where I am today.

I suppose as a small point I should mention how I went from straight journalism to going for journalism with a public relations. I had to pick a related area, and I figured I could become a publicist for someone. Maybe I would move to London or New York, somewhere, and become Jason Statham’s or Jensen Ackles’ publicist (only in my dreams). I took Public Relations I at my university last year, and realized this was what I wanted to do. I now plan on graduating next year with my degree, and moving out to Vegas soon after.

The key lesson to take from this is not to settle your heart on one profession unless you are absolutely sure this is what you want to do and are dedicated to the chosen field. Do something you’re going to love 10, 20, even 50 years down the road. I’m planning on it, and I couldn’t be more excited.

What I've Learned During The Last Three Years or Journalism Education

1. Be thankful for criticism. It may seem like the professor or editor is being mean and harsh about your writing, but there are certain standards in the business. They are honing your skills so you don't land flat on your face in the real world.

2. Save the French for the French. The French add additional worlds to phrases that we don't (i.e. they say "the room for class" and we say "classroom"). Lady X of Y Township is always Y Township resident Lady X.

3. The Associated Press Stylebook is your bible. Keep it by your bed at all times, and take it with you on vacation. You never know when the paper or magazine is going to need a last-minute revision or story, and that stylebook is going to be your best friend.

4. Journalism is creative writing. You don't have to stick to the same boring news stories without details. Liven it up a bit with the use of senses and imagery.

5. Just like in photography, journalism has a rule of thirds. Interview three of each type of person (i.e. wives, husbands, children) or one of at least three types of people (i.e. one husband, one wife, one child). This keeps the story from being stale or being biased by only talking to one group of people.

6. Edit, edit, edit. Wait a while after typing your story before you give it a good look-over. Nothing is worse than when you want to say "public" and it comes off as something totally different. Not only does your credibility go down, but so does the credibility of whatever publication you're working for or submitted to.

7. Be ready to have to defend yourself to your contacts, your readers...anyone, really. You will always be questioned on where you obtained your information, why you published this, etc. etc. No one said this job would be easy.