A Little Bit of Everything

Resume

2010-04-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

Samantha Downing

Email: downingsm@vcu.edu

Skills

Management: scheduling, paperwork, organizing staff, ordering stock
Computer: extensively familiar with Microsoft Office; Soundslides; HTML coding; Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Premier Pro
Office: filing, scheduling, answering phones,
organizing information, computer use, customer service

Education

Virginia Commonwealth University, Bachelor of Science with a major in journalism and a minor in English, to be completed May 2010
J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, Associates of Arts Degree in Liberal Arts, completed July 2007

Experience

Child care, teaching music, teaching VBS

Correspondent for RVAnews.com, The Country Courier, and The Caroline Progress during 2010 General Assembly session

Familiar with AP style of writing

Published in
- The Commonwealth Times
- The Country Courier
- On the Internet
Supervisory and leadership experience

Editing and researching for authors Nancy Osgood and Jeff South

Web design for businesses

Employment History

Matt's New York Grill - waitress - May 2009-present
Ukrop's/Martin's - cashier - September 2008-present
Kings Dominion - food and beverage general manager - February 2008-August 2008
Curves - fitness adviser - May 2007-March 2008
Cafe on the Hill - waitress - February 2007-June 2007
Vinny's Italian Grill - waitress - August 2005-December 2006
Kings Dominion - Rides Lead - March 2003-August 2005

Pothole blitz continues until April 15

2010-04-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

RICHMOND - Virginia’s “pothole blitz” has been so successful that Gov. Bob McDonnell has extended the initiative until April 15. The pothole blitz originally was scheduled only for the month of March.

This article was published on the Midlothian Exchange Web site - Pothole blitz continues until April 15.

Legislation says reduce number in foster care

2010-03-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

A bill passed the General Assembly calling for a plan to reduce the number of children in foster care. House bill 718 passed the Senate unanimously after passing the House of Delegates almost as easily with a 91-3 vote.

RICHMOND - The governor and department of social services need to put their thinking caps on now that a bill calling for a plan to reduce the number of children in foster care has passed the General Assembly

House bill 718 passed the Senate unanimously after passing the House of Delegates almost as easily with a 91-3 vote.

“It would be doing what we’ve already been doing. Expanding it and enhancing it and continue to move those practices and philosophical changes along in Virginia,” said Raymond Ratke, special advisor for children’s services

This bill requires the governor, department of social services and other appropriate agencies to develop a plan that will decrease the number of children in foster care 25 percent by 2020.

“In February there were 6,024 kids in foster care in Virginia,” said Ratke, special advisor for children’s services. Ratke said the current number is down 20 percent from December 2007.

The department of social services has not had a system in place targeted specifically at reducing the number of children in foster care. The department has focused more on seeking better outcomes for families who are involved in the foster care system.

The plan, developed by the governor and department of social services, would build on these programs already in place to not only promote good outcomes, but reduce the number of those in the foster care system altogether.

“A big part of what the plan would include would be increasing the number of adoptions and decreasing the amount of time it takes to find adoptive parents,” said Ratke.

Ratke said that much of the success of this kind of plan would come from placing emphasis on family engagement and kinship.

“We need to do a better job of finding and locating blood relatives, and placing kids safely with blood relatives,” Ratke said.

“We don’t have a great track record of that so far,” he added. “About 5 percent are with blood relatives.”

Ratke said that many children in foster care could actually stay with their families if a support system were in place.

“Research says when you are able to do that, those kids have much better outcomes than those placed in foster care.”

By implementing these ideas and building on programs already in place, the department of social services can reach the goal set forth in the bill, Ratke said.

“It’s a large number but, again, we’ve reduced it already by 20 percent in the last two years, he said. “We feel like it’s very doable and reasonable.”

Ratke is encouraged to see the state take a stance on the foster care issue by passing this bill.
“It’s really nice to have a bill that says, ‘This is the goal: to have fewer kids in foster care.’”

# # #

For more information and data from the department of social services, visit http://www.vafamilyconnections.org/

‘Pothole Blitz’ seeks to repair Virginia’s roads

2010-03-02T05:46:00.000-08:00

RICHMOND – A gap in the state budget isn’t the only hole Virginia officials are trying to fill. They’re also trying to plug potholes that harsh winter weather has left on roads throughout the commonwealth.

This article was published on the Gainsville Times Web site: ‘Pothole Blitz’ seeks to repair Virginia’s roads

Va. bill challenges mandated health care

2010-02-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

RICHMOND — Weighing in on the debate over federal health care reform, state lawmakers have passed legislation declaring that no one can force Virginians to buy health insurance.

This article was published on the Suffolk News-Herald Web site: Va. bill challenges mandated health care

Bill requires interlock for any DUI

2010-02-18T05:43:00.000-08:00

RICHMOND - Anyone convicted of drunken driving would have to have an ignition interlock installed in his or her car under a bill approved by the House of Delegates.

This story was published on the WPCVA Web site: Bill requires interlock for any DUI

Legislators Get the Point – an H1N1 Shot

2010-02-03T05:39:00.000-08:00

By Samantha Downing and Nicole Fisher

Richmond, VA. - With the swine flu pandemic still looming, the Virginia Department of Health is giving state legislators vaccinations to prevent the spread of the virus. Health officials are visiting the Capitol this week to administer free H1N1 vaccinations.

This article was published on the Local Kicks Web site: Legislators Get the Point – an H1N1 Shot

Gov. McDonnell offers GOP reply to Obama

2010-01-28T05:35:00.000-08:00

Jobs. Health care. Energy. Those were important topics in Gov. Bob McDonnell’s response to the State of the Union address by President Barack Obama on Wednesday night.

This article was published on the Connect Richmond Web site: Gov. McDonnell offers GOP reply to Obama

Plans for park in 'legal limbo'

2009-10-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

This article was published in the Country Courier.

The King William Circuit Court is a deciding factor for whether or not Governors Run Sports Park is built in King William County.

A Hanover-based corporation, KW Morrison, LLC, plans to put the motocross park on land along Route 30, about four and a half miles west of Route 360 in King William County.

The land is zoned agricultural conservation. KW Morrison has been thinning trees and doing other preparatory work for months.

“They’re right behind me. I can hear them,” said Diana Jones-Walsh, a King William resident who owns adjoining land and opposes the park.

The easement KW Morrison uses to access its land is property of Judith Gwathmey.

In November 2008, the King William Board of Zoning Appeals decided that KW Morrison needed to include Gwathmey on the application for a conditional use permit because of the location of the easement.

KW Morrison filed an appeal in King William Circuit Court which should be heard within the next couple of months, said Daniel Wright, a member of the King William County Board of Supervisors.

In the meantime, plans are still moving forward, said Marshal Campbell, one of the owners of the park.

KW Morrison chose the site because of the increasing number of participants in motocross and similar sports in the county and because there are no sports parks nearby.

Some residents got together last year and formed Citizens for King William County to address issues like this by keeping the public informed and protesting certain matters.

“We’re trying to educate the community as to negative environmental impacts that the motocross will have,” said Perrin Gower, who works with Citizens for King William County by helping to oversee the meetings and get the word out.

He said one of his concerns is ground water contamination from spilled fuel, whether spilled accidentally or as the result of a wreck.

Jones-Walsh, who also works with Citizens for King William County to inform the public, said she doesn’t think the chosen location is the right place for a motocross park.

“I think it’ll be too much traffic on a small road,” she said, adding that the curve in the road at that location will only make it worse. She also said that she is concerned about the noise level.

Campbell said that the corporation is taking steps to avoid these problems.

“We have secured the services of various professionals to detail the best practices to follow to protect our property and the environment,” he said in an e-mail.

Campbell also said the park will incorporate features to minimize sound transmission beyond their property lines.

“We have made many changes to our original plan, to address concerns that have been brought to our attention … ,” Campbell said. “We have also received numerous great suggestions from citizens that we have incorporated into our planning.”

Gower, Jones-Walsh and others in opposition to the park hold meetings, write letters and articles, and hand out fliers in the county.

“We need to keep the issue in front of the community,” said Jean Girves, who sends out newsletters for Citizens for King William County via e-mail.

On their Web site, the group asks people to contact the county board of supervisors in opposition to the motocross park. The motocross park also asks for help from the citizens on their Web site.

The board so far has been indifferent, said Gower, but citizens have generally been anti-motocross.

Campbell said many citizens have supported the efforts to build the park.

“The number of those supporting our project continues to grow as more people learn what motocross is, and of our desire to bring a high-quality, family-friendly sports park to the area.”

Wright said he has received hundreds of phone calls and letters to state opposition to what he thinks is the most controversial subject in his four years of being on the board.

“I’d say close to 700 people have contacted me,” he said. “I haven’t heard much on the other side saying ‘we want it.’”

What people don’t seem to understand, Wright said, is that there isn’t anything the board can do right now.

“As of today, it’s in legal limbo. Nothing can be done until the judge rules,” said Wright. “The board of supervisor members have not touched it or looked at it.”

The other board members agree. Tom Smiley and Cecil Schools, also on the board of supervisors, said they don’t know any more about the park than other residents.

If the circuit court judge rules in favor of KW Morrison, the corporation may submit an application to the board.

Ress gives advice to student journalists

2009-10-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

Dave Ress, an investigative reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, gave interviewing advice to a class of student journalists on Thursday afternoon at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The most important thing when interviewing, Ress said, is to keep a conversation going.

“It’s possible to be too fussily precise and too constrained and you’re not going to find out a whole lot,” he said.

He said that it’s important to put the person at ease because too often people become wary or nervous while being interviewed.

“Don’t let either the notepad or the tape recorder get in the way of the conversation,” Ress said.

Ress said it’s also important to be completely up-front and honest without trying to hide why information is being sought.

“It’s not like you’re going to sneak up on anyone – you’re a reporter,” he said.

Not only is it necessary to be honest about being a reporter, but also about what information is needed, Ress said. He advised that students be careful of using certain terms.

“There’s a lot of games people play, a lot of words people use,” he said, especially in Washington. Ress said reporters must know when and how to use phrases such as “on the record” and “off the record,” and how they are different from “background.”

If a source wants to remain off the record, be honest about whether that will be allowed or not, Ress said. He said reporters must know when a source may remain anonymous and when he may not.

To avoid any problems that a source might have with any of these issues, Ress said reporters must have the ground rules laid out with their sources before the interview.

Reporters should not be jerks, Ress said, but polite to their sources. He said there is nothing wrong with having emotions.

“It’s perfectly legitimate to empathize with someone you’re interviewing,” Ress said. “It’s perfectly legitimate to walk out of there saying, ‘How do I feel about that?’”

Ress advised students not to let their emotions get in the way of good reporting. If a reporter finds that he is growing too close to a source to write objectively, he should consider whether to keep doing that beat. He must confront the issue with a clear mind.

Reporters also should not allow their nervousness to influence their reporting, Ress said. He said it’s normal to feel nervous and intimidated, but the only way to deal with it is just to do the job anyway and eventually reporters will learn how to handle it.

“If you examine what you do honestly and often enough, you’re going to know your strengths and weaknesses,” Ress said.

Reporters need to be aware of what is a good story and what is not.

“I get tips sometimes. I get suspicions sometimes. I get an itch under my skin sometimes,” Ress said about his story ideas. “Sometimes you just get lucky. Stuff just kind of happens.”

Whenever working on a story, Ress said, it’s important to get to the heart of the issue and not to focus too hard on getting that one good quote.

“Think about what you do. Don’t go out there just to grab a quote. Go out there to talk to people.”

From community organizations to gubernatorial candidate

2009-04-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

Brian Moran has worked hard in community organizations, the House of Delegates and, now, running for governor, fighting for the issues he considers important to the community.

By Samantha Downing

Education. Economy. Environment.

Brian Moran, one of the men in the race to be the Democrat candidate for Virginia governor, believes these three issues are of great importance.

“I grew up with parents who really instilled in us a belief that you have an obligation to leave the world a better place than you found it for your children,” Moran said. “It’s always been engrained in me.”

Because of what his parents taught him, Moran has been involved in the community for many years. He volunteered for a multitude of community organizations – many of them dealing with children.

“One thing led to another,” he said. “One evening 15 years ago [Governor] Mark Warner suggested I should run for the House of Delegates.”

His involvement increased in the legislature. Moran was Chairman of the Virginia House Democratic Caucus for several years. He worked closely with Warner and Governor Tim Kaine, and wants to continue their legacy of progressivism in Virginia.

Kaine’s changes to the budget and the effect on schools have some students at Virginia Commonwealth University concerned about what the future will bring.

“I hope that we get more funding to VCU,” said Stormy Holt, a mass communications student. “There’s a lot of budget cuts going on right now.”

Holt said she doesn’t want any more classes to be cut or majors to be discontinued.

Britt Smith works with VCU Students for Brian Moran, and he has confidence in Moran when it comes to education.

“Brian has put an extreme amount of importance on educating youth – just in the most general terms – because that’s where it all begins,” Smith said.

“If you give people that firm foundation and throw the money at the schools and do what you need to do…then you will, in a sense, produce the most viable next generation.”

Moran said he understands what college students go through, and he wants to set their minds at ease.

“We have to make sure our colleges are affordable for all incomes in Virginia,” he said. “I worked at a lot of jobs – gas station attendant, construction, work-study programs – all to afford college. So I get that.”

Moran said he knows the apprehension families face when considering the present economy. He has plans to create green jobs to boost the economy and improve the environment at the same time.

“There’s some wonderful research being conducted at colleges and universities,” Moran said. “We need to coordinate that.”

As a result of this research, Moran said, technology would improve and jobs would be created. In addition, the new technology could be exported from Virginia, which would also help improve the economy in this state, Moran said.

Moran said he wants to make it easier for homes and businesses to implement cleaner forms of energy – such as solar power.

“I want to make it more affordable for folks to put panels in the homes and give them tax credits to do that,” he said. “I also want to use the $160 million we’re receiving from the government to weatherize homes of low-income families and schools.”

In addition, Moran is the only candidate who opposes offshore drilling, emphasizing that he believes we should not continue to rely on nineteenth century fossil fuel.

“It poses an environmental hazard to Virginia Beach,” he said. “The U.S. Navy opposes it as well.”

His energy plan says he “understands that offshore drilling would continue our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.”

How exactly would offshore drilling continue this dependence?

“I don’t know,” Moran said.

Moran has strong opinions about some other issues that have been prominent in recent weeks, such as gun control.

“I would oppose legislation that would allow guns to be in bars,” he said. “I support closing the gun show loophole.”

His campaign is using a social networking site the campaign created, Organize Virginia, to inform people about Moran and what he stands for.

Moran said that now is the time for college students to start getting involved in the community and support the causes they believe in.

“It’s imperative that you commit yourself to the community to try to improve it,” he said. “One person can make a difference.”

Why Moran?

2009-04-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

Virginia Commonwealth University is a large campus in Richmond with over thirty thousand students. As the election for the next Virginia governor draws closer, students must decide who they think is the best candidate. Britt Smith, a member of VCU Students for Brian Moran, explains why he believes Moran is the best choice for VCU students - and college students in general.

Reaching out to undecided voters

2009-04-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

Phone banking is a popular way for volunteers to help with a political campaign, especially with today’s technology allowing flexible hours.

By Samantha Downing

In the evening of almost every day of the week, the political action committee Virginians for Brian Moran holds a phone bank in Northern Virginia.

The volunteers call phone numbers obtained from lists of registered voters and explain why they support Moran for governor.

“There’s actually nothing more important in a campaign than reaching out to undecided voters,” said Jesse Ferguson, communications director for Virginians for Brian Moran.

Etenesh Brown, a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University majoring in religious studies, helped with President Barack Obama’s extensive phone bank last year, making calls to women in the Midwest.

“The Web site made it very easy to answer their questions,” she said, adding that the Web site had detailed talking points and a structure to follow. “‘If they say this, click here and say this. But if they say this, then thank them for their time and end the conversation.’”

Brown thinks that the way phone banks function now, through the Internet and cell phones, is much more efficient than the way they used to function.

Virginians for Brian Moran is using today’s technology to its full advantage.

“We do phone-from-home programs where students or any voter can work with our campaign,” Ferguson said.

Volunteers can sign up to participate in Moran’s phone bank via the committee’s Web site. Because of the use of cell phones and phone-from-home programs, they don’t have to meet at a set location. This makes it possible for more people to participate.

“Any volunteer can help out whenever they can, even if it’s only a few minutes a day, making a few calls a week,” Brown said.

Brown said the ability to use cell phones is not the only advantage to phone banks.

“I think one of the benefits of phone banks is the opportunity it gives the receivers to talk to a real person about any concerns or questions they have,” Brown said. “These volunteers are dedicated enough to this candidate that they will call a stranger. That itself says that this may be something worth at least hearing.”

Ferguson said that is the reason their phone bank has been so successful.

“People like to know…that the people who are reaching out on behalf of the campaign aren’t an army of paid staff,” he said.

Susen Wilcox, who worked with Dave Weldon’s campaign in Florida, said a big advantage to a phone bank is the ability to contact so many people in a short amount of time.

“You have the ability to speak to more people than you would if you were just going door to door,” she said.

In addition to the phone bank, the Moran campaign is actively seeking support in other ways, including through a social networking site called Organize Virginia.

“We are truly building a grassroots campaign,” Ferguson said. “That’s how we’re going to win.”

VCU students struggle for jobs, internships

2009-03-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

VCU students preparing to graduate could have a hard time finding jobs and internships because of the economy.

This article was published in the Commonwealth Times: VCU students struggle for jobs, internships - News

Practice makes perfect

2009-02-26T16:16:00.000-08:00

A local band, The Onset, prepares to make their debut at Wild Willies in Mechanicsville after months of practice.

This article was published in the Commonwealth Times: Practice makes perfect - Spectrum

Libertarian party for smaller government

2008-12-04T08:55:00.000-08:00

By: Samantha Downing

Redpath and the Libertarian party say the government has too much power.

When it comes to election time, most voters choose sides between Republican and Democrat.

But some look elsewhere when preparing to cast their ballots.

“The greatest problem with our political system today is the special interest-driven two-party system that provides the American people with two big-government ‘solutions’ and asks them to choose between the two evils,” said Vladimir Rudenko, vice chairman of the organization Libertarians at VCU.

The chairman of the organization, Steven Latimer, agreed.

“America was founded on a tax revolt, and the Libertarian Party and its candidates are aware of this,” said Latimer.

William Redpath is Virginia’s Libertarian candidate for Senate.

The most important issue in his campaign is national security, without which, he says on his Web site, “The benefits of a free society and prosperity cannot be enjoyed.”

Redpath says the U.S. should adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy. He promotes withdrawing from Iraq and focusing on Al-Qaeda as the greatest security threat.
Regarding the economy, Redpath encourages a reduction in federal government spending.

“Stop the cheesy, half-baked, short-sighted federal responses to the current economic situation,” he says. “Implement long-term solutions now.”

Redpath and the Libertarian party support reducing federal income tax.

“It is time to end this confiscation of our earnings and get the government out of our pocketbooks,” says the party’s Web site.

Seniors should have control of their own Medicare benefits, says Redpath, and Medicaid should be financed by state and local governments rather than the federal government.

“Health care is not a right, because it requires the talents and resources of other people,” Redpath says. “The federal government is not empowered by the U.S. Constitution to provide health care.”

Redpath supports a health care system driven by consumers, not based on employers.

He says Americans should be allowed to make their own decisions regarding consensual crimes, and the individual states should address the issue of drug prohibition.

Born and raised in Ohio, Redpath worked for NBC and ABC in New York, and WISH-TV in Indianapolis before joining BIA Financial Network, Inc. – a Chantilly, Va., company that appraises media and telecommunications businesses.

The Libertarian Party was created in December 1971, and Redpath has been a member since 1984. He is currently the chairman of the Libertarian National Committee.

According to its Web site, the Libertarian Party seeks “a return to the basic principles that made America great,” with a smaller government than either Democrats or Republicans want.

“Government at all levels is too large, too expensive, woefully inefficient, arrogant, intrusive and downright dangerous.”

Rudenko said the government should be shrunk to “its original Constitutional boundaries.”

The Libertarian Party supports the idea of individual responsibility, which means that each person has “the right to control his or her own body, action, speech and property.”

The Libertarian Party says it is the only political party that respects people as individuals and wants the government to do the same.

Redpath formerly ran for the House of Delegates in 1993, for the state Senate in the special election in January 1998, and for governor in 2001 – where he won less than 1 percent of votes.

This election, as he runs for a seat in the U.S. Senate, Redpath’s motto is, “Anything that’s peaceful.”

Also running for Senate in Virginia are Republican Jim Gilmore and Democrat Mark Warner.

Redpath’s name does not often appear alongside his opponents’ in polls, but people like Latimer still support him.

“By voting Libertarian, I made my personal vote as powerful as possible.”
Rudenko said the reason he voted Libertarian is that our country is in trouble because our liberties are being taken away from us.

“Freedom is on the run, in short, and the tiny libertarian minority is trying to shout ‘come back and hold your ground.’ This is America, this is where freedom belongs.”

Photorealistic chocolate art

2008-12-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

By: Samantha Downing
This piece was posted on the Faces of Richmond blog.

A local artist paints what she is passionate about - chocolate.

Chocolate Hershey’s kisses sit partially unwrapped on a tall, 12-inch-square black table, with two lights and a camera staring at them.

No one is planning to eat this candy.

The chocolate kisses are the subject of Sharon Lalik’s current paintings – actually, the photographs of the kisses are.

“I’m a photorealist artist. I do paintings of photographs,” Lalik explained. “The subject matter is the photograph; it is not what is in the photograph.”

Lalik, a former Virginia Commonwealth University art student, has always painted realistically. Recently, she has been using her own photographs of chocolate as the subjects for her paintings.

“I’d always go to the store … I’d always grab a piece of chocolate,” she said. “I realized I love chocolate – I really love chocolate. Maybe I should just start painting some paintings that have chocolate in them.”

She took her passion for chocolate and reflective surfaces and turned it into art. Part of the reason Lalik paints chocolate is that it’s unique.

Also, she said, “Who could not love a chocolate kiss? So I figured, you know, if nothing else, people will love my pieces. It’s chocolate!”

Lalik attended VCU for Communcation Arts and Design, but was unable to finish after she broke her hand in a car accident.

Not knowing if she would ever be able to paint again, Lalik designed and sewed clothing, window treatments and a variety of other materials.

“The only thing I could do right-handed was cut, so it saved me,” she said.

It was 10 years before she started painting again, even though she never gave up drawing. She started with watercolors but eventually went back into oil painting.

Lalik said the sewing she did strengthened her hand so she could hold a paintbrush. Now she paints four hours each day.

“I have been an artist all my life, ever since I can remember,” Lalik said.

Her sister Sandra White said Lalik would be pulled out of classes in high school to work on the art for school dances and other functions. This happened so often that White had to tutor her in some classes.

“You’d always see Sharon in the big hallway with her paper rolled out, drawing,” White laughed.

She also said that Lalik is accident prone, can’t cook and should have been a therapist.

“She can tell me everything that’s wrong with my life. She can tell me everything I should be doing,” White said. “Unfortunately, most of the time she’s right.”

But, White added, Lalik is very good at making people feel good about themselves and encouraging them.

As a painter, Lalik is very detail-oriented.

“Everything has to be perfect,” White said. “I think she oversimplifies it because she does put a lot of her emotion into the piece. She just tries to hide that she does.”

Lalik’s inspiration for painting is the ability to help people see things in a different way.

“What inspires me is to do a painting that gives another person another set of eyes,” she said with a smile. “They see things they never saw before.”

Being an artist isn’t always fun and games and chocolate.

“I have to get up in the morning and make myself paint just like somebody else has to go to work,” Lalik said. “And some days I’d rather clean the toilet than paint.”

But, she went on to say, painting is a part of who she is – not just what she does.

“It’s like weaved fabric, like it’s part of your being.”

Lalik’s paintings have been sold and shown in a number of different places, including in VCU’s art center.

In a March art show, Lalik plans to feature 25 pieces. Many will be paintings of chocolate, some of which are not even painted yet.

She is also trying to get into the Meisel Gallery in New York, named after the man who coined the term “photorealism” during a time when abstract was the most popular form of painting.

“Nobody used a photograph to paint by,” Lalik said. “It was like the biggest sin across the art world.”

Even today, many artists still do not respect photorealism as an art.

“They feel it should all come from your heart,” Lalik said. “I think anything you do comes from your heart.”

# # #

VCU employees donate mostly to Obama

2008-10-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

This article was published in the Commonwealth Times: VCU employees donate mostly to Obama - News

Future of media

2008-10-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

By: Samantha Downing

This piece was published in the VCU Mass Comm Week blog.

Media professionals share advice with VCU mass communications students during Mass Comm Week.

RICHMOND - Many VCU students get a large part of their news from the Internet. “I think putting the news online gets students to check out what is going on more, said Sierra Heath, a creative advertising sophomore.

As part of VCU’s Mass Comm Week, Heath and more than 100 other students gathered on Tuesday afternoon to hear representatives of several media companies address how the Internet affects traditional forms of media.

“Without an informed society, democracy is weakened,” said Daniel Finnegan, senior editor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

He said that the newspaper is in the process of moving to the Internet, but he didn’t know if the newspaper would ever be Internet-only. Finnegan said that, though the number of paid subscriptions has dropped recently, the Times-Dispatch still has 175,000 subscribers.

Finnegan was not concerned about blogs impacting the newspaper because they are usually full of opinions and important only to a few people. He did mention using Facebook as a tool to reach people, adding that in the future, people might be able to monitor their Facebook profiles from the newspaper’s Web site.

As far as a future in the media industry for students, Finnegan said, “I think it’s going to be there in some shape or form.”

Jean McNair, news editor at the Associated Press, said that the world's largest news organization is adjusting to the changes, too. She said that the AP is working on new ways of getting news to people, including through cell phones.

“One advantage the AP has is that we’ve kind of always been a business model that works well on the Internet,” she said. “The cliché was we had a deadline every minute.”

People have an appetite for news, McNair said, and they want to be able to follow stories as they progress.

The publisher of Virginia Business, Bernie Niemeier, said that money is the biggest factor. He said that the Virginia Business Web site does not get enough “click-throughs” – visitors clicking on ads on the site, which generates money for the magazine – to make a significant amount of money.

“If you think about what it costs to put all this content here,” he said, “it can’t be supported by the revenue that’s being generated online.”

The challenge is “monetizing the eyeballs,” which is difficult because it is hard to monitor who visits the site, Niemeier said.

Kym Grinnage, general sales manager at NBC12, said that people need to create a “menu for their life” listing the things that are important to them and the sites they will visit for their news.

He said that it is important to read the newspaper because it contains so much more information than television.

“TV is the tease to get your attention,” Grinnage said.

Grinnage said that students now can design their own careers better than they ever could before.

“You guys have the best opportunity you could have in the world,” he said. “You have the World Wide Web.”

The panel of speakers didn’t think that print media would fade.

“Print is not as dead as you may have heard,” Niemeier said.

Finnegan said, “Newspapers still are, at least right now, your best mass marketing tool.”

Grinnage advised students in the mass communications field to remain "very curious about everything."

When asked how students could support local media, Finnegan laughed and said, “Buy the newspaper.”

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