The Campus is The World

After being recently able to get enough pages to print our Nation & World page — which is something I absolutely adore — I've been struck with how truly limited my world view is.

Big news on campus that could potentially affect every person here would mean nothing to a refugee. The refugee probably doesn't even know where Cincinnati is. But we know of the refugees. We sympathize with them and hope for the best for them. Their biggest problem isn't so much waking up and passing a class and graduating. It's not being killed.

I find it strange, really. To think that, right now, there are countries that are struggling in an attempt to reconcile government with society and living in strife and a state of instability many of us can't even imagine.

So, if you have time, read the Nation & World page. And learn! LEARN!

-Gin

Oh The Joys of Work

So, there's something funny going on here. A lot of people are moving on — I don't really know what's up with that. People getting married, getting jobs and, well, people doing other things.

That being said, it's strange to think that our lives aren't really just subjects of stories and what not. When news broke that Congresswoman Giffords was shot, news spread fast. News, man!

But while I was glued to my phone refreshing my New York Times app trying to find every new detail as they occurred, I didn't think about something. Giffords isn't a politician who was shot. Well, I mean, she is, but she's also a person. Who was shot point blank in the head with a pistol. Which is messed up.

I don't want to sound twisted or jaded or hardened or inhuman, but, for some strange reason, something in my head told me that, as a politician, Giffords' shooting was, well, acceptable, if that makes sense. Not acceptable, but expected? Not her specifically, but with all the turmoil in the world, such as the assassination of Salman Taseer by a member of his security outfit and the seemingly counter intuitive reception he got ... things are strange.

But it's nice to be able to step out of the role of someone so desirous of news. Going from one end of the spectrum saying "That's a hell of a story" to "That's the most tragic thing I've heard in a long time."

In a way, removing yourself from the personal aspects of something allows you to analyze things from an objective point of view but also allows you to step into a personal perspective — fully. Perhaps more so than people who skim newspapers for headlines and cutlines.

It's an interesting world we live in, I tell you. Hopefully no comet will come and destroy us all in a year so I can at least delve into some of all the crazy events happening around.

-Gin

Oh, the horror...

I completely turned off my news radar this past weekend.

With a barrage of final papers due, a portfolio of my work to slap together and some other nuances of life, I decided to not give a damn about the world or what was happening in it for two days.

Then imagine my dismay upon entering the office today — for the last issue of Anno Domini 2010 — and learning that our beloved university mascot, the Bearcat, had been detained by UC's finest for heinous misdeeds during Saturday's football contest with Pittsburgh.

Oh, the horror...as Col. Kurtz would say.

We aren't heartless curmudgeons here at TNR. Under our layers of cynicism, there is some semblance of emotion. We do find some stories heartbreaking to report.

We didn't revel in ecstasy when a professor was charged with stalking...or when someone turned Raymond Walters into a shooting gallery...or when a student tossed a desk at Cincinnati cops this past spring.

We didn't laugh when TNR had to run multiple articles about the deaths of three DAAP students earlier this quarter.

Bad news does keep us employed, no doubting that. In our business, sadly, even bad news is good news. Yet it doesn't mean we enjoy the misery of others or even hope for it.

We have hearts here.

So, in an expression of those hearts, we here at TNR wish you all tidings of good cheer, good luck on your exams and a safe holiday.

As much as we love to write, we aren't dreaming of topping off our holidays by having to write up a story of tragedy.

To quote a former Cincinnati news anchor, "Take care of yourselves...and each other."

Remember that as you all have a great holiday season. We want to see you — not write about you — in January.


-James

Deadlines Roasting on an Open Fire

Happy holidays!

Now, back to business. While we're all subject to the cold weather and yule tide cheer that will inevitably swallow campus in a sea of red and green soon, we're hard at work.

Despite how you might have seen me sleeping on an office chair, head down on the table or a desk or on the love seat in the offices, we actually, indeed, do work at The News Record. A lot of it happens at around 6 p.m., though, so you might already be back in your cozy dorm/apartment/house/car/bar while we're starting to really get into it.

I will say this, though, we are going to have one heck of a tabloid for the winter break. I can already imagine all sorts of beautiful things. I'm going to push it to turn out something magazine-like since, well, it's basically going to be out there for a month.

Good luck on your exams. (And, for the love of everything jolly, wish me good luck on mine.)

Only a few more weeks until we're free to be trapped in our house by the blizzards to come. Lovely!

-Gin

News hangover

Well, the elections are now over and I have a hangover — news hangover, that is.

There is only so much relevant news that can be placed into a college newspaper. The elections gave us a wealth of that news. We were able to effectively inform students about local candidates while allowing them to personally see those candidates through our stories.

But now that it's over, we are back to the drawing board.

I had essentially set up, back in the summer, my coverage plan for news in the months leading to election day. It worked out pretty much according to plan, too.

Now, however, is when the rubber meets the road. It's where we earn our stripes as journalists.

We have to now dig for stories — they won't be gift-wrapped like the myriad of candidates we covered previously.

We'll have the occasional student or professor drop a tip in our lap, but that is rare. Most on campus view us with as much favor as cops do internal affairs.

It can be a disconcerting effort at times, but it is the nature of the beast.

Here's to hoping the beast doesn't eat us alive over the winter.

-James

Surviving the Horrors of War

I woke up to an e-mail today. It was from a man in Indiana — from the CANDLES Holocaust Museum — thanking me for running a story about a Holocaust survivor. Not just a Holocaust survivor, a survivor of Auschwitz. Which is, honestly, far more terrifying than most places on earth.

It was a left rail story. We didn't get a lot of space for coverage. And it was just a few hundred words. It, by any real means, wasn't a particularly in-depth story or one that probably got the top hits on the website, but it's a story that needs to be told.

I honestly believe that I will never be able to tell a story regarding personal experiences that is more horrifying, harrowing or inhumane than surviving Auschwitz.

No way.

It's humbling to think people survived that. Didn't give up. Survived and told people about it.

I feel like, for stories like that, we're merely conduits for their stories and — frankly, it's a lovely feeling.

-Gin

Election Night Blues

Election nights are fun. Well, kind of. They show you what it's like to be in the big time — the people we cover are being mentioned on MSNBC and FOX and all — and how to hustle. We got a one hour, 15 minute deadline extension.

What does that mean? It means I didn't get to sleep until 3 a.m. last night. It means that I was following election results to self-analyze the results to see how the House of Representatives in both Ohio and the country would look Wednesday.

The short answer? Red.

I consider myself apolitical. It's not like I don't care about the country, Washington, D.C. or my rights as an American, but, well, honestly, I firmly believe that there is nothing more partisan than voting for a candidate. You're helping them get into office, if they win. And, last night, it really proved my point.

Photo editor Eamon Queeney and I drove up to Blue Ash to attend Democratic Ohio Congresswoman Connie Pillich's watch party. With 100 percent of precincts voting, it was a tie. In percentages. The difference was five votes in Pillach's favor (despite a phone call she received that said otherwise).

What does that mean? It could mean that five journalists — or student journalists — cast their votes for Ms. Pillich and helped her defeat Republican candidate Mike Wilson. And no matter how you see it, or perhaps it's just the way I do, there is nothing more partisan than that.

Other than that, it was a pretty standard election night. No real relevant issues to the bulk of University of Cincinnati students and the people we covered, we've written about in the weeks leading up to Nov. 2.

But there is something funny about the way watch parties go. It's like a sports game. People cheering when they saw a Democrat win and seething when they heard Kasich was ahead in the results. Well, it's understandable since politics is something that can affect all of us at some minute or grand level.

It's quite a spectacle. If you've never been to a party like that, I would recommend it to see the way people react and the way people behave. Attempting to stay objective commands a mastery of speech and the way you carry yourself. It's not as though I had voted for Wilson and was behind enemy lines or anything of the sort, but it's still a moral tightrope. Stay calm and stoic in the face of celebration. Stay calm and stoic in an environment dissatisfaction. Just stay calm and stoic.

-Gin