Where's the cream filling?

Imagine grocery shopping with your kid, or your future kid.

At the end of the bread aisle, near the frozen foods, it's more than likely that little Johnny or Susie will notice the gigantic display of Tasty-Kake products stacked ever-so-cleverly at eye level, and beg you to buy some.

You give in.

Ten pairs of chocolate cupcakes iced with vanilla and fudge frosting. And let's not forget about that delicious, light, processed cream center.

So what? Let the kid be happy--you'll just balance out the guilty pleasures with something a bit healthier to eat.

Ironically, the produce department is on the complete opposite end of the store from which you stand, and you've already picked up your strawberries and rutabaga for that tasty pie you're concocting for Sunday night's dessert. But no matter...an apple a day makes the cupcakes OK.

...Or something like that.

The thing is--disregarding fat contents and calorie counts--the cakes and the apples have one common trait. Something in that center. Although one is an addictive sugary icing and the other a few tiny brown seeds, each serves its particular purpose. To plant and grow into apple trees, or simply to stuff your face and enjoy (The latter being less time consuming and arguably more gratifying. For me, at least.)

When we buy things like Tasty-Cakes and apples, we know what to expect. We know we won't find that icing in the fruit's flesh or those seeds in the baked goods.

The same concept could apply to bigger, more abstract things--like journalism.

Ask yourself this: if we can't have the Tasty-Kakes without the cream filling, or the apples without the seeds, what is it about communications and journalism that holds it together, that serves as its core?

In my opinion, it's the desire and the drive to find out why, to question any and everything, and to present those answers in the form of a news story for the public.

It hasn't changed.

Sure, we've gone from type-writers to MAC computers, mores code to instant messaging, snail mail to email, but what stays the same is that core, that hub of information, the reason we conduct research and interviews and meet deadlines.

Regardless of the fact that we can now almost instantaneously pull up the website for the New York Times and read that day's top stories on our lunch breaks (don't believe me? Click the link), the truth is that the story wouldn't even be published had its author failed to ask questions, get involved, and observe.

Frankly, we're all moving a little too fast.

But as journalists hired and paid to seek out the facts to tell a story, we are forced to slow down. We can't see details and feel emotions from our subjects if we aren't there with them in their environment, watching, questioning, wondering.

It's the difference between writing fiction and writing news--real people. And people take time.

The bottom line: yes, journalism is changing; it's growing, expanding and maturing as newer technologies change the way we tell our stories. But its core, its most archaic element, has not.

As long as we continue to question our surroundings and the people who exist there with us, we will always possess the ability to tell a story that is factual, accurate, and most importantly, engaging.

Unfortunately, you can't eat it.

"What's on your mind?"

On Sunday, September 14, 68 of my Facebook "Friends" (I use this term loosely) had something to say about the 2009 Video Music Awards.

At first I noticed the updates...

..."Wow, poor Swift."
..."I can't believe Kanye did that."
..."Way to go, Beyonce!" and even...
..."K.W. can blow me."

Having already had prior engagements with the Sunday night prime time line-up on HBO (and not really giving a you-know-what anyway), I had missed the VMAs premiere.

As it turns out, I really didn't need to see jack.

From the 15 minutes I spent updating my status and reading a few messages, I learned that when Taylor Swift came to the stage to accept her award for Best Female Video, rapper Kanye West stole the microphone. He then gave a shout-out to Beyonce, who won her own award later in the evening, and asked Taylor Swift to come "get her moment."

Needless to say, I've seriously begun thinking about canceling my cable subscription.





...If you don't have Facebook, and you missed the moment...check it out here.