It’s more than just a website, or a profile… it’s your personal brand. These days, branding takes a lot more than a logo. On Nov. 30, #wjchat held a conversation on building your brand and doing it successfully. Check out my storify!

It is never to early to start saving money. KOMU-TV has a franchise called “8 on Your Money,” done by very own Angie Bailey. Her work inspired me to start collecting coupons and seeking tips on how to save at the grocery store. So far, I’m a baby couponer, but have tips to share:

• Check the Sunday paper every week to get the best coupon inserts. RedPum, P&G and Smart Saver are the ones to look for.
• Grocery store ads come out each week on Wednesday. Get the ads online, in store, or on an iPhone app to use other stores’ deals at a place where you can ad match…
• Figure out which stores ad match. In Columbia, Patricias and Walmart are the only stores that ad match.
• Combine your coupons with ad matching deals to save the most money.

I’m still learning the ways, but I’ll keep you posted on my adventures in saving money.

For #jenclass, I had the opportunity to interview a journalist who makes a living by tweeting all day. Check it out here.

What is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular. I grew up hearing that from my family and community. This statement connects to leadership and taking the unpopular path, something I try to do in my everyday life. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail. It is never easy. Failures happen from time to time, but we have to accept the consequences.

Gary Pinkel pled guilty to DWI Friday.

After KOMU broke the news Boone County deputies arrested Mizzou head football coach Gary Pinkel for suspicion of DWI, the news world entered a Pinkel Palooza. Every news organization between Kansas City and St. Louis reported this story. At KOMU, we focused our early newscasts on every aspect of this story and the greater effects it had on the community. The next day, Pinkel pled guilty to driving while intoxicated and the Boone County Sheriff’s department released the footage of the dashboard camera the night deputies arrest him. KOMU aired this footage on its Facebook page and on its newscast as soon as the newsroom received it. By midnight, hundreds of posts flooded the Facebook page, most ripping the station a part for showing the dashboard video.

Before I went to bed, I watched the entire video of the dashboard camera and read  every comment, post and tweet about the video. I felt so many emotions. I felt sad for Gary Pinkel as I watched the video, but I also couldn’t help but think he did this to himself. He dug his own grave. I was also appalled by the reaction of the public. People said they couldn’t believe KOMU would do this and the station reacted poorly. The pit in my stomach got bigger and bigger the more I read. Next thought that crossed my mind: people don’t get it. I understand where they are coming from, but I stand by the values I’ve been taught as a journalist and think we as a news organization would not be doing our duty to the public if we didn’t air the video. We have to look at the bigger picture at hand:

• We started this story and we had to finish it. We just continued our report from the day before and gave the public every detail and piece of information out there
• This video give the viewers and audience their perspective and make own opinions about Pinkel and the deputies.
• Pinkel is a public figure. He does not have the same right to privacy as you or I do. He lives his life in the public eye and has to deal with the scrutiny of the news media. He is one of the highest, if not the highest paid employee in Mid-missouri. People care about this because he is the coach of a public university. We pay his salary… his large salary.
• The public owns the video and has a right to see it.
• All the other stations had the same video.

Gary Pinkel made a mistake. He is a leader in this community and should have acted above his behavior on Wednesday night. He did not do the right thing and has to endure the effects of his actions. KOMU did the right thing in airing the footage from the dashboard camera. The news organization followed protocol and its ethics to give the public every piece of information possible. It isn’t popular with a lot of Tiger fans, but was the right thing for a credible news organization to do.

Today at KOMU, I covered a story on MoDOT spending money to add rest spots for truck drivers. View story here.

Check out my storify on what happened at work today!

On Friday Oct. 14, the Radio-Television department held its annual Real World Lunch to welcome back alumni to give advice to current students about the real world. Check out what I learned by viewing my storify!

I covered a tragic story yesterday about a man who died shortly after sheriff deputies tasered him. Check out my story here.

I love seeing journalists create multimedia websites and stories. They take an idea, person or issue and turn it into a piece told in different mediums that an audience isn’t used to seeing. One site I recently discovered is the New York Times series “One in 8 Million.” The piece features stories about the different people who live in New York City. Watching and listening to the stories, I learned about the history and culture of each person and

how the city brings together people with many different backgrounds.

Clicking on one of the photos featured on the stream of photos on the website, the viewer learns about the person’s s

tory, life and job through photos and sound bites. This type of storytelling allows the audience to see the person through their perspective. My favorite story is Louise Nicholas, the Jury Clerk. I got to see how she works and what she goes through as a jury clerk.

Multimedia journalism is the present and future of journalism. Stories now contain components of more than just a text piece or a video piece. Stories are being told in a new way and it will continue to change from here. When I work at the news station, I am constantly thinking of how I can tell the story I am working on differently on the web. I wish I could spend more time molding each story into something bigger for our website, but I do have to go home and sleep eventually.