Jeff Zillgitt: 3 things
Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today is that interesting mix of cross platform journalist with brings solid journalism credentials and skills to his work.
Jeff was our guest in class Tuesday. What are the three things you learned from Jeff’s presentation? You have until 30 minutes before the Thursday April 2 class to post your comments.
Our guest Thursday will be the Washington Post’s Len Shapiro, who will talk about beat reporting, covering the Redskins, and covering Tiger.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:55 am
Three things I learned from Jeff Zillgitt:
1. As a journalist, you can’t always be out on the field. Sometimes you have to pick up the phone and ask questions. Being proactive is vital to being a reporter.
2. It’s all about brevity. Don’t insert adjectives or adverbs when they’re not necessary. Allow the reader to make his or her own assumptions about how it was said.
3. Try to insert as many voices as possible into a story. Let them tell the story.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Diana Friedman
Three Things I learned from Jeff Zillgitt:
1. Be a jack of all trades, meaning you can embrace technological advances and know about them.
2. He’s not cool enough to be on Sports Center.
3. Find your own niche. You don’t have to be one of the legends.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Three things I learned from Jeff Zillgitt:
1) Use all the different avenues that technology offers. It can help a writer get ideas for a sports news story.(Shaq giving away tickets on twitter)
2) If a writer is not familiar with a sport, they should find somebody that is and ask them questions.
3) A journalist should let the people involved in the event tell the story.
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 am
1. A good journalist lets the people involved tell the story.
2. News can come in a variety of avenues and mediums. Use everything at your disposal.
3. Adverbs aren’t normally necessary. You can usually go through and take them out. They aren’t amazingly helpful. I didn’t need amazingly.
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:21 am
Three things from Jeff Zillgitt:
1. You don’t need to be an expert on a sport to cover it well. You just need to be resourceful.
2. Utilize contacts from past stories on current stories if applicable.
3. You may dread having to travel to cover a story, but you’ll probably love it once you’re in a new city with a few hours to kill.
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:00 am
1. Twitter presents an interesting opportunity to cover athletes. Shaq Twitter’d where he was eating and promises two tickets to the Suns game that night to the first person who touches him.
Jeff found the “toucher” through Twitter. Jeff emailed this guy and was able to write a story based on the “toucher’s” answers.
2. Strike any adverb out of a story.
3. Let the people in your story tell the story.
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:56 am
3 Things from Jeff
1) If you don’t know much about a sport, you need to. Call the sport’s office and ask some questions.
2) Another great way to get information if you are at a very minor sporting event is to simply point out one knowledgeable person to pick their brain.
3) “At a smaller paper and you have a great chance to experiment with your writing and the penalties are not that high.”
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:59 am
Brendan Murphy
Communication 371-001
Sports Reporting/Klein
3 Things I learned: Jeff Zillgitt
1.You don’t have to know everything about everything. But you have to know how to find that information.
2.Let the reader determine how someone said something. If you look at the adverb a lot, it usually does not need to be there.
3.A good journalist lets the people involved tell the story.
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:13 am
Three things I learned from Jeff Zillgitt:
1. Omit adverbs from your writing. Example: “jokingly said…”
2. Keep your voice quiet when writing, allow those involved to tell the story. Use their voice as much as possible to allow the reader to get a better assessment of the situation.
3. When attending a game, sit with the “old man in the corner” because he’s probably been in that spot for 20 years.
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Three Things I learned from Jeff Zillgitt:
1. Knowing where to ‘mine’ information is very important to developing your story.
2. Be a jack of all trades.
3. Adverbs are not always needed.
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Three things I learned from Jeff Zillgitt:
1)Don’t cover just one sport, get some variety in your sports coverage
2)Don’t be a jack of all and master of none, but know how to do a lot of things
3)If you don’t know a sports talk to as many people who have knowledge of the sport before you go to cover it
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:40 am
Three things:
There are real life benefits you can find through the use of Twitter.
If you work on the road a lot, find a good coffee shop to do your work in.
Zillgitt does not mind coaches taking other jobs and bringing certain players with them. Kids play because of the coach, and they like the comfort zone.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Woah! Major lateness. this one slipped through the cracks somehow. But, either way, here are three things I learned from Jeff Zillgitt:
1. The Scottie Pippens of the sports world often end up where they do because they are late bloomers.
2. Sometimes, you have to look beyond the basics of the sport, into history, politics, art, etc.
3. “Dont mess with a man that buys ink by the barrel.”