Theresa Hogue Introduced New Technologies to Gazette Times
Theresa Hogue, 32, a features reporter and podcast editor for the Corvallis Gazette Times, introduced the idea of podcasting to her employer back in July of 2000. Hogue addressed an audience of 16 on Tuesday, speaking to an interested NMC writing class about her roles in new media settings throughout her career.
“I brought podcasting to the Gazette Times” Hogue said,
claiming that the Gazette Times was the first newspaper in Oregon to use podcasting on their website. Hogue explained that she learned how to podcast from her earlier studies at Portland State.
Hogue graduated from PSU with a B.A. in English Literature and a minor in Professional Writing. She received her first e-mail address in 1995 while working as a copy editor and columnist for the PSU student newspaper the Daily Van Guard. “The internet was just getting started” she said, and went onto describe how she would introduce new technologies to the newspapers she later worked for. In Forest Grove, working for the News Times, Hogue showed the staff how to use the computer page layout software “Quark” after seeing they were using page layout technologies that were over 30 years old. The old layout process involved wax casting where you could make corrections by rubbing out letters. “I showed them how to use Quark” she said.
When she moved over to the Gazette Times in Corvallis, she proposed the idea of incorporating podcasting into the already existing web site. A podcast is a digital media file (audio, video, etc.) that is formatted to be downloaded and played on a portable media player or a computer. She received further training online, seeking out free tutorials and free software, and got podcasting up and running on the G.T. website. The corporate offices took note and started investing money towards training of new media technologies.
When asked about how the new style of reporting was received at the Gazette Times she said there was a hesitancy to go to podcasting and a resistance to non-traditional techniques, even among some of the younger employees. But, as the system progressed, podcasting turned into something fun. The teams were enjoying taking recorders out into the field and editing their audio later. When it became something fun, she didn’t have to push it onto the reporters as an extra chore.
“Everything online is to boost traffic” she said, and “having an audio or video component adds.” Hogue also writes a blog for the Gazette Times, following a wide trend of journalists as bloggers as well. She maintains a blog for the G.T., which she is accredited to, and also has a personal blog which she posts anonymously. “It’s in the voice of my Chihuahua” she said, “you can be fairly anonymous online.”
“Most blogging I do [for the G.T.] is media criticism” explained Hogue. But, the blog is much more of an opinion piece than her regular G.T. articles. “I can do anything I want to on my blog” she said, which is absolutely not the same as her printed pieces. The reporters at the G.T. are not required to write a blog, but most of the staff can be read in the blog section of the G.T website.
Event coordinator, Pamela Cytrynbaum, said that Hogue is “a wonderful example of the kind of flexible and thoughtful reporter the industry demands.”
“I found it really relevant” said Adam Schwartz, a junior in the New Media department. His sentiment was shared by fellow classmate Hannah Boekemann, who said, “As a journalism student I was interested to hear advice from a pro.”
