Anne Kibbler | Dec. 29, 2008
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| Courtesy photo |
| Tara Titcombe, left, and Erica Hunter visited Washington, D.C., the day after the national election to shadow political reporters. |
On the day after Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, graduate students Tara Titcombe and Erica Hunter flew to Washington, D.C., to observe first hand the work of political journalists. The trip was part of an independent study course on political coverage supervised by Amy Reynolds, associate dean for research and graduate studies.
Titcombe and Hunter met with Peter Copeland, editor and general manager of Scripps Howard News Service, and shadowed some of the service’s political reporters. The Scripps Howard staff also provided the students with tickets to a taping of National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation at the Newseum, a museum devoted to the history of the news.
During the show, veteran ABC journalist Ted Koppel interviewed South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashwari.
After their Newseum visit, the students had different agendas. Titcombe attended a conference at the Institute on Political Journalism on “The Press, the Presidency and Politicians,” where she heard speakers from Politico, Time magazine and Fox News. Hunter visited Washingtonian, an arts and lifestyle magazine.
They brought away different but equally strong impressions of their trip.
Hunter stumbled across the “Tents of Hope” campaign, an effort to bring support and humanitarian relief to refugees in Darfur, Sudan, on the National Mall.
“I was overwhelmed to see people coming together for such a great cause,” Hunter wrote of her experience. “This could not have been timelier; as the United States looks to the future for change and renewed hope, we are also providing that same sense of change and hope to other countries.”
Titcombe said the most valuable lessons she learned came from the professional journalists she met.
“The trip increased my desire to become a political journalist,” she wrote in a piece about the visit. “As a quote showcased in the Newseum by H.L. Mencken stated, ‘I know of no human being who has a better time than an eager and energetic young reporter.’”
Note: Anne Kibbler is editor of the School of Journalism alumni magazine, Newswire.
Titcombe and Hunter met with Peter Copeland, editor and general manager of Scripps Howard News Service, and shadowed some of the service’s political reporters. The Scripps Howard staff also provided the students with tickets to a taping of National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation at the Newseum, a museum devoted to the history of the news.
During the show, veteran ABC journalist Ted Koppel interviewed South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashwari.
After their Newseum visit, the students had different agendas. Titcombe attended a conference at the Institute on Political Journalism on “The Press, the Presidency and Politicians,” where she heard speakers from Politico, Time magazine and Fox News. Hunter visited Washingtonian, an arts and lifestyle magazine.
They brought away different but equally strong impressions of their trip.
Hunter stumbled across the “Tents of Hope” campaign, an effort to bring support and humanitarian relief to refugees in Darfur, Sudan, on the National Mall.
“I was overwhelmed to see people coming together for such a great cause,” Hunter wrote of her experience. “This could not have been timelier; as the United States looks to the future for change and renewed hope, we are also providing that same sense of change and hope to other countries.”
Titcombe said the most valuable lessons she learned came from the professional journalists she met.
“The trip increased my desire to become a political journalist,” she wrote in a piece about the visit. “As a quote showcased in the Newseum by H.L. Mencken stated, ‘I know of no human being who has a better time than an eager and energetic young reporter.’”
Note: Anne Kibbler is editor of the School of Journalism alumni magazine, Newswire.
