Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

on deadline

That old “working on deadline, doing journalism” thrill is coming back.

I’m updating the convention Web site throughout the day as photos and copy become available. It’s probably fairly mundane work, but I love the hurried pace I’m working at and the varied topics I’m working on. I’m producing something. It’s hectic, and it’s busy, and I get so wrapped up in what I’m doing that I have to be told to take a lunch break … and I love it.

Granted, it’s just convention coverage, and work like this isn’t part of my job on an everyday basis. But it’s the kind of work I love to do, and part of the reason I’m in this line of business.

I’ve been doing photo galleries of each day’s proceedings for the site, and, at my editor’s request, have added the ability to have cutlines for every photo. (My photo galleries are scripted, with all text information now coming in via XML files.) Now that cutlines are there, my editor is obsessing over them, and she’s driving me crazy. That said, I’d be lying if I said that I don’t enjoy being able to say the phrase “My editor’s driving me crazy” — both because of my joy at having a journalism/breaking news-related job function (I have an editor! :D), and, to a different degree, my happiness at having a boss who is at least tangentially interested in what I’m working on and is keeping me involved in what’s going on.

And it’s thrilling to be someplace where news is happening. President Bush spoke yesterday in this hotel at a luncheon sponsored by the Associated Press. I didn’t get to sit in the banquet hall (no ticket), but I did get to watch a broadcast of the speech from an overflow room. (It seemed strangely postmodern to be watching a broadcast of a live speech in the room directly beneath where the real thing was happening.) And regardless of my feelings about the president or the speech, it was exciting to see press reports later of the very speech that I watched. (washingtonpost.com: “Ramblin’ Man” - 04/22/04) It’s a strange kind of validation to see events that I witnessed being reported on in the mass media, as if I’ve suddenly gained a kind of “insider” perspective having experienced something that the media saw fit to report on.