An amazing day for me and the students

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Friday was an exciting day for me because I got to see some of my journalistic idols -- Gwen Ifill of PBS and four Washington reporters who gathered with her to discuss the upcoming Republican and Democratic nominating conventions for the show Washington Week. There was a live taping here in Cleveland and, thanks to Dan Cooney, a former John Carroll student who knew how much I love the show, we got tickets for the entire class to attend. Not everyone could go because they all have internships and volunteer work, and some had to be there instead. We had no trouble filling the seats, however!

Gwen Ifill, photo courtesy of PBS NewsHour
Creative Commons license

Washington Week has been around since the 1960s, we learned during an intermission in the taping, between the first, formal half of conversation between the panelists and the second, less formal half when they took questions from the audience. My husband and I have been watching the show since the late 1970s, when it was called Washington Week in Review and hosted by Paul Duke. Things have evolved over the decades and now, it's much fancier and glitzier, but features the same wonderful conversations between journalists who are part of the Washington press corps -- people with a first-hand view of what's going on in the political world. During the years when I was not working as a journalist, but a full-time mother to my two children, I found this show a way to feel connected to the press corps I missed so much. Later, when I got back into journalism, I continued to love the civil, respectful way the reporters discussed key political figures and events each week. Because I worked in the business, my respect for their ability to analyze events and respond to each other's ideas in the glare of the TV lights has actually grown over time. These people are the best in the business.

Watching the taping with my students was a particular joy. I could see that they, too, were impressed. I know, from teaching them every day last week, that this group has a keen interest in politics and follows the news avidly. We have all been learning, this week, about the details of political conventions, their history, why the primaries evolved into public votes, and whether this year's ruptures in the Republican party are unprecedented (not!) though they are unique in some respects. My role in the course is to teach journalism: some techniques for students who are writing stories for my section of the course, and some media analysis, explaining why the media cover the conventions as they do, focus on the stories they choose, where and when they are doing well and where/when they are falling down on the job. My colleague Colin Swearingen, a political science professor, is the expert on the historical and contemporary processes that take place during conventions, the why and how we all find so fascinating. So during his lectures, I am a student who avidly follows his lectures and is learning as much as the rest of the class.

It's a great time to be in Cleveland! Let's hope we continue to feel that way as the RNC unfolds this week!