Sona Patel » The Tribune

My first professional newswriting award

Sona — Fri, 29 May 2009 06:02:16 +0000

The results were announced awhile ago, but I had to mention it on my blog. The Tribune won several awards in the 2009 Associated Press California/Nevada journalism contest. Environmental reporter David Sneed and I took first place in Business Writing in our circulation category for a three-day series we co-wrote on the collapse of the fishing industry in Morro Bay. Dave focused mainly on environmental issues whereas my stories circled around how the city’s economy suffered as a result of the decline of the fishing industry.

I also compared the seaside town of Morro Bay to the Northern California city of Eureka, which also suffered financially in the wake of the decline.

Hooray for The Tribune … and a hearty congratulations to all of the other winners!

Our first live Tweet

Sona — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:15:29 +0000

When our crime and courts reporter told me last week that an infamous murder trial was set to begin on March 6, I immediately thought it would be a great opportunity for us to try a live Tweet. She agreed so we set her up on a laptop and had her Twittering from inside the courtroom. The murder trial began with opening statements from prosecutors and followed with testimonies from several witnesses. The trial is for a Cayucos man accused of killing his grandmother, stuffing her body into a suitcase and dumping it off a cliff somewhere near Ragged Point. I’ll spare you with the gruesome details, however, you can read them on our Twitter page to see how our reporter handled the case. Our experiment was a success and I hope to do more live Tweets in the future. And to all you Tweeters out there, be sure to follow @slotribune for breaking news updates throughout the day.

My Top 5 — Flash components

Sona — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:18:41 +0000

Ever since I attended the Knight Digital Media Center’s Multimedia Training for Journalists I’ve only been able to produce 2 Flash applications for The Tribune. I’m trying to get into the habit of creating at least one a month. This week I’m making one on recreational bycycling in SLO County. Anyway, here is a list of some great, easy-to-use Flash applications that will come in handy for any journalist. I encourage you to visit these Web sites and play around with the different tools each has to offer. By the way, the first Flash project I produced at The Tribune was based on a staff photographer’s journey through India. Check out Faces of India.

1) Knight Digital Media Center’s training pages

Check out their tutorial pages on Flash, audio, video, photography and web design. They even provide downloadable templates which you can use to create your Flash projects. Best of all — it’s FREE!

2) Flash Den

FlasDen isn’t really tailored toward the average journalist, but it’s a great site to check out what you can do in Flash. I’ve come up with quite a few ideas for multimedia projects based off the components I’ve seen on this site.

3) SproutBuilder

SproutBuilder is an excellent program for making customizable widgets for your web page. You can even integrate audio, video, web polls, and other content to your Sprout widget. I’d suggest browsing through the “Recently Built Sprouts” section to get an idea of what you can do with SproutBuilder.

4) UMapper

This program allows you to create embeddable Flash maps for free. If you create a Google map in Flash you’ll have to use Action Script to program the points, dialogue boxes, and the ability to add links, video, and audio. UMapper does that for you and then generates embeddable code. You’ll have to tinker with the KML code and Google API keys (I think) but its doable. Check out some of the maps that have already been created and shared on UMapper. There are a bunch of big newspapers already using this program. I’ve had great success with it. Trust me, you won’t want to program your own map (I once spent five hours writing ActionScript to perfect a small Google map. I’ll never do that again!)

5) Advanced Flash Components

I’ve only used once component off this site, but it seems to have great little video players and cool components for interactive maps (I used the component GMap which is free.) Their customer service will also help you figure out how to work with KML code. They’re great at responding to e-mails.

Amgen Tour of California

Sona — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:06:31 +0000

Thankfully the sky will be clear on Thursday, the day the Amgen Tour of California rolls through Paso Robles. Should be fun! The best part of the TOC is the media booth (lame, I know) but it’s fun to see journalists from all over the world huddled into a room waiting anxiously for riders to cross the finish line. It’s a pretty cool sight to see. One of the perks of being a journalist is the media access

This is the first time the race will be ending it’s fifth stage in Paso Robles. For as long as I’ve been at The Tribune the race has finished in downtown SLO. Not sure what prompted the change, but I’m guessing it had a lot to do with $$$ and sponsorship deals.

This year should be the most exciting because it’s the first time Lance Armstrong is competing in the race. Armstrong fans are probably pretty pumped about that. Too bad his time trial bike got stolen after the prologue in Sacramento on Saturday. It’s apparently worth $20,000. Hope he gets it back! BTW — a cash reward is being offered. Armstrong Tweeted about the burglary on his Twitter page. Hopefully the rest of the race goes well for him and the other riders, including Floyd Landis, who is also part of the race this year.

Stay tuned for updates from the TOC, including photos and maybe a video clip or two from the event. For complete coverage of the race visit our special section at www.SanLuisObispo.com/TOC. We’ll have video and stories of the race in Friday’s print edition and online.

ESL training

Sona — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:21:55 +0000

I recently signed up to be an ESL tutor through the Literacy Council of San Luis Obispo County. I was inspired by a co-worker and good friend, Sarah Arnquist, who tutored an ESL student while working as a healthcare reporter for The Tribune. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people willing to volunteer several hours per week to help local residents essentially become self-sufficient. The program has about 300 tutors from around the county.

I’ve wanted to become a tutor for several reasons. The job market has been tough lately — even for working professionals with advanced degrees — so I can’t imagine what it must be like for an adult who can’t read and write English at a sufficient level. The woman who conducted the training said we can expect to get a student who is preparing to take their GED, hoping to become a U.S. citizen, or learning English to talk to their child’s school teacher(s). I’m also hoping my tutee can help me improve my español because I’m slowly starting to feel that I’m letting my Spanish degree go to waste. I’ll post more when I know who my student is! Every county has some sort of literacy council. If you’re interested in tutoring ESL you can likely find an organization that puts on such programs by contacting your city or county offices.

Morro Bay

Sona — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:31:54 +0000

Outside Giovanni's Fish Market

By filling in for a colleague while she was on leave, I got a chance to strengthen my web skills … but at the expense of letting my beat go virtually uncovered for the past three months. I went to a Morro Bay City Council meeting tonight, the first meeting I’ve been to since October. Chief among the City Council’s agenda items was how much the city should invest in promoting itself to potential tourists.

Morro Bay is a cute beach town off Highway 1. It’s no Newport Beach, but it’s a great stop along the Higway if you’re headed south. I’d probably live in Morro Bay if it weren’t so far away from San Luis (it’s 15 minutes, but if you’ve lived in SLO County for more than a year, any destination more than 10 minutes away is considered far). Anyway, if you ever come up the coast, make sure to stop by for some garlic and parmesan fries at Giovanni’s Fish Market, some saltwater taffy at Morro Bay Candy Co., a stroll along the Embarcadero, and a cappucino from that little bakery next to the sea shell shop.