I can’t/won’t put my finger on what should pass as good or bad design or storytelling after just one month with Duy and Carla. But I will admit that I have a much better understanding of, “What is news?” now, an understanding that I frankly do not think I grasped well enough at my old job.

What is news for a journalist?

1. The obvious: Fire burning down main street. News is a recent or unreported event that has impact on a person or group of people.
2. A trend. The rise of the finger-generation, for example. That is, as touch screen devices proliferate, younger generations are using their fingers to squeeze and pinch content in ways that those ol’ fuddy-duddy Gen-X-ers used to use their thumbs for.
3. (This is my favorite.) Something you didn’t know you didn’t know. Often this sort of news materializes itself in the “weird” section of a Web site or newspaper. For example, like tramp stamps for Barbie.
4. Information that is “contrary to popular convention,” to quote Duy. This is often a combination of items two and three. For example, a trend is emerging that you didn’t know you didn’t know. Example, despite the preponderance of Google’s search engine, there are several companies out there offering a range of unique methods to find what it is your looking for faster and more accurately.

At City Weekend, I ran editorial meetings much like a factory manager would. Articles were largely chosen less on their news value and more on how accessible the story was to the busy editor, its relevance to the readership and whether it was deemed “interesting” enough (by me/us). “What is the story? And why is it interesting?” was the best I ever got. I believe we produced stories that seemed like we could get done. That’s not to say we didn’t hit the bull’s eye every now and then, but little thought on my part was given to news value.

Part of the reason I started this blog was to jot down some of the major lessons learned at Columbia, in the event that if I ever went back to work for my old entertainment publication, I’d be better at it than before. If I had run many of the story ideas discussed in our old editorial meetings through this “what-is-news filter?” below, I think I would have hit the mark more often, and as a result, produced not only a useful guide, but also, a more newsworthy magazine.

So, nearly one year after I started at the J-school, and only three months before I graduate, I attempted hastily cobble this blog article together. I give credit to my RW1 professors, Ari Goldman and Pam Frederick, Duy Linh Tu and Carla Baranauckas for shoving the importance of this, “What is news?” exercise down my throat. I’ve begun to genuinely appreciate the value of understanding what is news. Hopefully, I’ll get better at how to plan, budget, sell, design and build it too.

First, let me begin by saying, don’t buy the new 3G iPhone. As I write, I am sure I’ll soon regret smashing it into a million little pieces. “HULK DOESN’T LIKE TO EAT MASH POTATOES!” (Right Kate?)

I bring up the iPhone, as once again, its alarm functionality failed to wake me up today, sending me into a dizzying free for all of lame excuses to my RW1 professors for not attending class. After several spelling corrections, I managed to SMS to Pam, “Hi Pam, I’m sorry. I overslept. I’ll be there in one hour. I live in Brooklyn.” It was the best I could come up with at 9:08am. The story gets better, as after frantically commuting to campus, I emerge from the subway to receive an SMS from Pam reminding me that class was canceled today, as she went over again and again last week. Great. Well, thank god I finished my story on the intersection of the Vietnamese community and local government in NYC by 10am today. Or at least, that’s what I thought until my classmate Emily reminded me that it was due at 6pm, not 9am this morning. And to think I planned to wake up early to complete finish it. Thank god, I overslept til 9am! Right?

I bring all these shortcomings up, as I found myself bashing this assignment and any lingering interest I had in reporting or writing in the process. I went so far as to Twitter, “Is it wrong that I hate writing and reporting? Does that make me a bad journalist?” (I believe the answer to that question is a resounding YES.) But as luck would have it, I had plenty of free time this afternoon to write. So when two of my government story sources got back to me mid-morning, I was able to adequately put together a decent article of mild journalistic taste. And my improved mood dramatically began to revitalize my interest in the allure of reporting.

I’ve always said that the best part of publishing is how each issue is a new project, complete with its own intricacies, budgets, complications and deadlines. You’ve got to know everything about a range of issues better than and before the next guy. I now include reporting in that reflection of career and personal taste. Waking up to a rw1 daybook assignment and attempting to gain a thorough understanding of a subject – I’m hitting up NYC’s Commissioner of Child Services tomorrow on “the increasing role foster parents play in caring for children with emotional and mental health issues” – in less than day challenges the intellect and flexes the tongue.

I’m not alone, a few hours after posting my last Tweet, another multimedia reporter wrote to me saying, “I don’t like writing either. I do love reporting though.”