The Re-Education Of Miss D. (Sometimes In North Minneapolis)

Self-Portrait, Tiffany Dow

So I used to be a teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Comm, and in my very first class was a bright, amazing student named Tiffany C. Dow...

She later went on to get a Masters Degree of Journalism in Wales, and spent time in Egypt and Serbia. Tiffany was arrested by the Serbian police for photographing something, and managed to get out of the arrest...WITH HER PICTURES. Out of all the students in that particular class, Tiffany managed to get her final project published...in the Star Tribune, no less! It was about Hmong funeral rituals. Several weeks ago I was having drinks with Bryan Thao Worra, and--expert on all things Hmong--he actually remembered the article in question and thought it was pretty decent.

"That was YOUR student?" he said, his eyebrows raised.

"My student?" I said. "My story idea, baby. I pointed her that way. But she totally ran with it."

So, yeah, sometimes you get an amazing (certainly not PERFECT) student and it's like...holy cow.

How am I supposed to guide this one? How am I supposed to point this one where his/her journalistic talents will be put to the best possible use, yet not see him/her killed in a war zone because--being theoretically older and wiser--you can look in their eyes and see it: the addiction to excitement, adventure... the relentlessly curious nature we try so hard to instill in journalism students, but with some of them...you have to explain the old adage about how curiosity killed the cat.

Me and the instructor from the class have followed Tiffany's progress, and served as her references from time to time.

Currently, Tiffany is substitute teaching while sending out resumes, trying to land a job in journalism, though a good writing job would do fine, thanks. A lot of Tiffany's teaching gigs happen in North Minneapolis. So a couple days ago...I gave her a tour of my neighborhood. And a lot came from that tour and our discussion beforehand...including the birth of a new blog, click here.

The J-School Meets The Blog-O-Sphere.

Back at the J-School, we were engaged in a vital academic discussion about how to deal with the rise of the blog-o-sphere and its impact on traditional forms of journalism. Though, at one time, all of these "traditional forms" were emerging forms, themselves, and the idea of journalism, itself, was also something that emerged. My take on things...and I believe my colleague, Dan Bernard, held a similar view...was that we need to tackle the blog-o-sphere head-on. Let's not tip-toe through the virtual tulips, but rather let's move forward boldly before emerging forms of media leave our traditional classes in the dust, and our students ill-prepared.

For myself, I was always quietly advocating for having the students blog about the news they see around them; with appropriate disclaimers at the top of their "classroom blogs," to avoid any (overblown and mostly overrated, in my opinion) liability issues for the J-School.

Sure, having students "recap" the news on their class project blogs was a worthwhile exercise, perhaps...FOR THE FIRST COUPLE WEEKS! But after that...let us have students blogging about real events, even if that meant just taking police reports and seeking out additional details, photographs, perhaps talking to some witnesses. Sure, have students do the hypothetical writing lab exercises we all know and love, but if you're going to have students doing blogs...have them seek out their own news instead of "recapping" other people's news.

Advice To Journalism Students: Blog Like Your Life Depends On It

There were a lot of classes after Tiffany's class, and other bright and amazing students. And, actually, sometimes it's the quiet students who end up being the stars. You never know. You try to do right by all of them.

Our journalism curriculum continued to evolve. And though I'm not currently working a TA job at the SJMC, there's not a doubt in my mind Murphy Hall is still dealing with the pressing issue of "How does traditional journalism--and therefore the School of Journalism and Mass Communication--deal with this vital, emerging form of media?"

So me and Tiffany--my former student who, with a Masters Degree, now wants to be referred to as my "colleague"--had lunch at Village Wok. I had the jellyfish, of course, and told Tiffany these little (expletives) are taking over the ocean due to global warming, and I consider it my "civic duty" to eat as many of them as possible, fried up with garlic and garnished with sesame seeds, with a side of rice.

We talked about her job search, her substitute teaching...it is quite something, to be a teacher and realize one of your students has become a teacher, too, and now sees life from the other side of the faculty lounge. We talked about blogging.

I gave Tiffany the confidential low-down on some of the opportunities made available to me because of this blog, and my other blog, www.towingutopia.com. I explained how somebody who works with marketing contacted me, and probably would have given me a job except for the fact I was, good grief, OVERQUALIFIED. I talked about the personal contacts made, the doors opened, the impact my blogs appeared to be having. I told Tiffany about the job interview I have lined up for...well, 7:30 PM tonight. And I credit blogging for that opportunity, though much of it involves the actual hands-on activism I write about here.

I told Tiffany about my brief contact with Cairo-based NBC Producer Charlene Gubash during RNC 2008, and what Charlene said about the blog-o-sphere; how all the major networks are looking for the "one man show" blogger, trying to replicate it.

I told my former student, Tiffany, to blog. To blog like crazy. To grab this emerging form of media by the horns and catch a ride to the stars.

Yes, one must send out resumes, seek opportunities...but if you "pour out content" and "develop a following," the opportunities will start approaching you, plus you'll become "a player" in the very issues you're blogging about, simply by virtue of the fact you're blogging. Of course, there is the risk of offending the powerful...of being pulled "off mission," like my blogging spree on RNC 2008.

"But I loved those posts!" Tiffany protested, eating her "chicken almond ding," which I speculated was some kind of mistaken Chinese menu expression of "chicken almondine."

"Yeah, whatever," I replied. "I can get away with it because RNC 2008 was a major historical event, and I did keep tying things to North Minneapolis. But was it 'off mission?' Absolutely."

So there were risks: offending the powerful, who will force you to alter your content for the sake of self-preservation. Being pulled off-mission. The amount of time and effort required to "pour out content" and "develop a following." But the advice was the same: you want a job in journalism, kid? Start blogging. Carve out your own opportunities in this emerging, powerful media.

Maybe you'll get noticed and hired. Maybe you'll just keep the ink in your metaphorical pen from drying out.

The advice is the same, in either case: BLOG LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.

A Field Trip To Frogtown And Beyond

So I guess our meal at Village Wok was like the lecture, and then it was time for a field trip.

After an excursion into the criminal underbelly of St. Paul's Frogtown--the details of which are still classified--we ended up in North Minneapolis, where I showed Tiffany "The Apartment Complex of Anarchy" and places where bulldozed houses once sat, but nothing is there anymore, except a sort of fake-o green carpet of reseeding mixture applied to the soil.

I spotted some gang graffiti on a boarded-up house--on the gray boards, not the house--and saw fit to abate it myself with some silver-gray spraypaint. Tiffany pulled out a notepad and started writing stuff down. Later I saw the name of the gang emerge in the first entry on her new blog, "The Education of Ms. D."

For myself, I will not use the names of gangs on this blog, because I do not want to give street gangs "cred," and I'm told the Minneapolis Police Department engages in a similar policy on its own websites. But I can see why the name of the particular gang fascinated Tiffany The Suburbanite. (She may call herself a "suburbanite" but, well, you can't really call Tiffany "naive," especially after a few years of being a substitute teacher in the inner city)

We checked out "my house," which Tiffany agreed had "potential." Then we ended up at the 1029 Bar in Northeast Minneapolis, which Tiffany thought looked really rough from the outside. She hesitated to go in. I laughed and said, "Tiffany, this is A COP BAR."

Police bric-a-brac and a vast assortment of autographed women's bras decorated the rafters of the establishment, and one of the walls featured the door from a New Orleans police car, shot full of holes. A patron at the bar claimed a few more bullet holes had been added AFTER the door was affixed to the wall of the bar. Good times at the 1029 Bar!

Tiffany started pressing the bar tender and a guy on the stool next to her for details about the dangling bras and the criteria for adding a bra on the rafters.

"She can't help herself," I told the bar patron. "She has a degree in journalism." After I said that, he actually pulled out a cell phone and shared pictures of a woman--fully clothed, mind you--hanging her bra on the rafters a few nights earlier, because she declared there "needed to be a sports bra up there."

I had my camera with, and--lazy and sitting on my behind--I took a couple pictures from my bar stool, where I was drinking a Virgin Bloody Mary. (A sneaky homage to Tiffany's strong and stabilizing Roman Catholicism, though it sailed right past her) Tiffany grabbed my camera, found a better angle, and returned with a perfect picture of bras dangling from the rafters of the cop bar.

"There!" she said, triumphantly. "How about THAT?"

(Yes, I did not reply, but who brought a camera with in case there was something interesting to photograph?)

Full Of Ideas And Inspiration

Tiffany said all this talk about the impact of blogging had inspired her, and she realized she should restart her on-again, off-again blogging efforts and focus on interesting, substantive experiences in the Minneapolis public school system. I told Tiffany to be careful. But I was glad...because so much of Tiffany's experience takes place in North Minneapolis, and the more people I can get blogging about North Minneapolis, the better.

I've already linked to it a few times but here it is again: Tiffany's blog

Of course...this doesn't change the fact I'm trying to help Tiffany get a writing job on the other side of the planet in, um....Egypt.

Pursue your dream, I told her, but blog about your experiences here in the meantime. And if those experiences touch upon North Minneapolis...well, so much the better.