Whitney Mathews Online

Friday

Mar262010

I went to Canada, eh

Friday, March 26, 2010 at 5:20PM

Fancy meeting you here. Come to my blog often?

Really?

Because, as you can tell, lately I don't.

The past seven months have been bonkers. Between our jobs (I had lots on my plate with basketball and the Free State Social and Jake is now the videographer for the Wizards), owning a home through this craptastic winter and our responsibilities to the dog's health... It's seriously almost April? April?

Anyway, I suppose it's time for a quick update.

I went to Toronto this week for work. My boss Jane and I were asked to do a workshop on social media for the CBC's documentary unit. It was a successful couple of days for everyone involved, I think. Here is a Twitter list of their docs team - they're a very cool group of folks, so I suggest you follow along.

Toronto is a really lovely city, for those of you who haven't been. I got to eat at Wayne Gretzky's restaurant (those are his hockey sticks in the photo!) and had a random dinner at Czehoski with one of my childhood best friends.

Cara is an engineer based out of KC, but is helping design a power plant in Niagara Falls, so she drove up on Tuesday evening to catch up. Funny - we grew up next door to each other, our houses are five minutes apart and we haven't seen each other since Christmas, yet we found three hours to hang out on coincidental international business trips. Sing it with me... It's a small world after all.

Well, it's Friday at 5 p.m. and there isn't enough Coors Light in the world. Catch y'all in a month or so!

Whitney Mathews |

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Saturday

Feb062010

The #KSGoRed experiment

Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 9:06AM

@farmeditor wears red for a family member. To see all of our user-submitted photos, hit facebook.com/ljworldOver the past five months at the Lawrence Journal-World, it's become quite clear that social media is allowing us to communicate with the Lawrence/Douglas County community in a fresh way.

Previously, we might post a story or blog about National Wear Red Day and talk about heart health until people's eyes glaze over and they reach for the Girl Scout Cookies.

We could personalize a story by getting a quote or focusing on a few survivors, but how much of an impact does that have anymore? You're lucky if the online audience reads past the first two sentences (that being said, thanks for making it this far!)

Sooooo... we decided to let the community do the storytelling for Wear Red Day via our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Health reporter Karrey Britt posted nuts and bolts info on her blog, and I posted the #KSGoRed Photo Contest info on the social media blog. We pre-scheduled some tweets and Facebook status updates using HootSuite to remind people to use the hashtag. Then let our fans and followers post photos telling us why they wore red.

To be clear, the AHA and Wear Red people were not paid advertisers for this project. That's why we didn't use their logo anywhere. However, heart health awareness is news, as it affects such a large percentage of the population, so we felt obligated to cover the campaign. That doesn't mean in the future we couldn't blow it up big with some kind of financially based partnership... because we are NOT a non-profit.

Our efforts generated 27 user-submitted photos and captions. Not bad for a first try - especially in a smaller Kansas community. After people posted photos, we saw a noticeable increase in interactions (likes, comments and wall posts). Because Facebook's Insights feature is lame-ass, we won't see the exact numbers for a week... unless we make our intern count them up.

Social media's growth and the increasing distrust of journalism has forced community participation. I love it. It's making the news interesting and creative again.

Look for this kind of social media storytelling to be a frequent feature from LJW in the very near future.

Whitney Mathews |

On death and grief

Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 12:56PM

I've been to plenty of funerals. Some of them have been pretty tragic and I've been heartbroken for the people I love, but I've never really been emotionally devastated by someone's death. I'm fortunate in that respect.

This week two people I know died within two days of each other. One death was a semi-surprise, and I wasn't as close to that particular person as I am to other members of their family. That doesn't mean it isn't a horrible situation - just that I don't feel the intense loss associated with mourning a loved one.

The other death was totally unexpected, and has been harder for me to process. Jeff counseled my family and me through everything from my parents' divorce to personal obstacles I faced through middle school, high school and college. He taught me how to maintain emotional strength and helped shape the way I approach challenges and make life choices.

I like to think you can read blogs from the great beyond, so Jeff - thank you. I may have been pretty lost without your honesty, dedication, guidance and support.

Grief - though mild for me in this situation - feels like my heart is too full and too empty all at once. It's extremely complex and confusing. I hope it passes soon, but I know I have to let it run its course. Luckily I have fantastic support system in my family and friends (a life necessity that Jeff taught me about).

If you have a few bucks to spare, please consider donating to the Batten Disease Support & Research Association or the National CASA Association. These organizations were important to Maddie and Jeff.

Whitney Mathews |

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