August Update: Meet the new editorial team, classes and more
Posted on August 6, 2014 by Jeremy Iggers
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In last month’s update, we introduced you to the Daily Planet’s new editor, Kristoffer Tigue, and a couple of months ago we introduced our new community engagement editor, Cirien Saadeh. This month, I’d like you to meet the rest of the editorial team that is working with Kristoffer: Paige Elliott, Luce Guillen-Givens, and Morgan Halaska. Luce and Morgan have been working with us for several years now behind the scenes, as editorial assistants, but we’re asking them to take on more responsibility, and want to give them more recognition for the work they do.

Paige Elliott is a multimedia storyteller and reporter born and raised in south Minneapolis. Paige obtained a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Communications from the University of Minnesota’s I.D.I.M. program, and recently expanded her communications skills through Takoda Institute’s Public Relations program. Paige began her work with the Planet through the 2013 Media Skills Fellowship and has continued working as a freelance reporter covering events, feature profiles, seasonal and weekend roundups, election coverage, and assisting in social media engagement. Paige is excited to be a member of TC Daily Planet’s new Editorial Team, and looks forward to her expanded role in assisting with visual storytelling on the Daily Planet.
Luce Guillen-Givins has lived in the Twin Cities since 2002, and has worked as an editorial assistant for the Daily Planet since 2010. When she’s not working for the Daily Planet, she’s a very engaged political activist. Luce has taken on a variety of tasks for the Daily Planet, most notably combing through media partners’ content gathering stories to repost to our site – a role that we are asking her to expand.

Morgan Halaska started writing for the Daily Planet in 2011; currently she produces the daily newsletters and Arts Orbit Radar weekly newsletter, and arranges, edits and publicizes the theater and music coverage. You can e-mail her at
artsorbit@gmail.com with any pitches in the arts community. She works full-time as the assistant editor of Minnesota Meetings + Events at Tiger Oak Publications.
Scroll down to read our staff reports, and a list of upcoming classes. The summer is usually a slow time for classes, but this month’s listings are bolstered with class offerings from our friends at the Twin Cities Photo Group and the Saint Paul Neighborhood Network.
And please remember: your support of the Twin Cities Media Alliance makes all of this work possible. To donate, visit our secure online donation page, or send a check to TCMA, 2600 E. Franklin #2, Minneapolis MN 55406.
Thanks,
Jeremy Iggers, executive director
Staff reports:
Editor Kristoffer Tigue reports:
What a weird July. The weather was cool and the news was hot. We had several very impressive stories break this last month, including
St. Thomas voting against unionizing their adjunct professors, the
death of a beloved Somali singer and a
beloved community leader, an incredibly sad
blog pleading for change to come to the 19 bus route in Minneapolis after a fatal shooting occurred in front of his house, an incredibly
beautiful collection of Minneapolis’ outdoor murals, a South Minneapolis
home becoming a major part of national history, a smart
analysis of a city-wide trend after a St. Paul school closed their music program, and even a
heated protest that resulted in several arrests at senator Franken’s campaign office. We’d like to welcome all the new contributors we met this month and we look forward to many more in the coming months, especially as the news cycle begins to pick up. We’ve held off on our Newsroom Cafes this month, as I settle into my new position and re-organize our plans, but expect some big announcements over the next few weeks. And if August and September are half as lively as our strange July, expect some great new stories from us.
Program manager for Training and Engagement Bruce Johansen reports:
August marks the kickoff of a six-month media & communications training program that TCMA is organizing for a small cohort ofPhillips Family Foundation grantees. This program is designed to show grantees how to use various communications tools to better tell their stories, raise awareness for stronger results, and engage stakeholders. Also in August, we’ll be providing a day-long, customized workshop on messaging for Praxis International, a nonprofit research and training organization that works toward the elimination of violence in the lives of women and children, and continuing our work with the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association. If you’re interested in photography and videography, take note that our class listings now include workshops and classes offered by Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) and the Twin Cities Photography Group. Of special note this month: Practical Journalism, an SPNN workshop presented by award-winning photojournalist Luis Iglesias. Things are a bit quiet at the libraries in August (that changes big time in September!), however, TC Media Alliance instructor Zan Tomko is offering a class on taking great photos with point-and-shoot and smartphone cameras at R.H. Stafford Library in Woodbury. Finally, we have lots of exciting classes in the works for fall, including a series around the theme of “lifting your voice: the power to tell your story on your own terms.” Lissa Jones, Wing Young Huie, Kyle Tran Myhre (Guante), Nancy Musinguzi, and TC Daily Planet editor Kristoffer Tigue are among those planning to take part. And after a brief hiatus, our Newsroom Cafes and Social Media Clinics will be returning, with some intriguing changes. Stay tuned for details!
Community engagement editor Cirien Saadeh reports:

July was an incredibly exciting month for the TCDP and August is shaping up to be the same! We spent much of July welcoming new editor Kristoffer into our ranks, whilst also planning a new college
outreach program and internship program and other new programming, at the same time as we move into our new office. We’re working around the clock and well on our way to making these new plans a reality and we are even more excited to be sharing them with our community members in the coming weeks.
Please look forward to information regarding all this on our website and social media in the near future!
We also spent July building up our community engagement on our website and social media pages. As of the most recent editor’s report, Facebook shares and commenting are the highest they have been in months. Thank you for your support!
August is also the start of new programming in North Minneapolis. We’re excited to be building more relationships and supporters in North Minneapolis through this “OneMinneapolis” opportunity. Just this past week, we also had the opportunity to attend an engagement event hosted by the Minneapolis Neighborhood and Community Relations Department as a OneMinneapolis grantee.
For now, if you have any comments, would like to volunteer for the Daily Planet or the Twin Cities Media Alliance, or have any questions, please email me at
ciriensaadeh@tcdailyplanet.net.
Classes:
Learn about products and services (often free) Google has developed to aid in collaboration, accessibility and business marketing. Now there’s Gmail, Gchat, Google Drive, Google+, Google Calendar, Google Maps, and much, much, more. A Google account gives you access to a world of powerful free tools. Learn the basics about how to make the best use of Google’s tools to achieve your personal and professional goals. Bring your tablet or laptop if you have one.
Presented by the Twin Cities Media Alliance and funded by MELSA.
This class will be taught by Steffen Ryan. Thanks to our partnership with the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA), this class is offered free of charge, but
pre-registration is required as space is limited.
This class is offered by the Twin Cities Photography Group
HOW DOES RETOUCHING FIT INTO MY PHOTOGRAPHY? Some believe the ideal photo comes straight out of the camera, or that anything involving photoshop is somehow untrue. Ask any professional: they will tell you that realization of one’s vision requires a variety of tools – cameras, lenses, lighting, AND post-production. Even point-and-shoot cameras post-produce your images by adjusting saturation, levels, curves, sharpness, and more. The only difference is that the public is generally unaware the camera makes these decisions for you. Instructor Rick Allen’s approach is to take control of one’s vision, to complete your image in a way that expresses your own intention.
Fees: Full Day $80 (members), $110 (non-members); Morning only $45 (members), $60 (non-members); Afternoon only $45 (members), $60 (non-members)
NOTE: If fewer than 12 people sign up by Sunday midnight, August 3, the workshop will be cancelled. If the class fills up, call to add your name to the waiting list. The automatic enrollment is limited to a maximum of 22 (including the hosts.)
Free class presented by the Twin Cities Photography Group
Learn about nature photography while volunteering for a Minnesota Bumble Bee Survey! We will capture, identify, and photograph bumble bees with the help of a U of M Bee Squad expert Elaine Evans and nature photographer Gordon Dietzman. We’ll share our photos with scientists through Project Noah and Bumble Bee Watch (rights retained by photographer). This will be a great opportunity to brush up on your macro photography skills while contributing to science.
Free, but you must RSVP at http://bit.ly/1odVmbX. Max 20 participants. Meet in front of Black Bear Crossing/Como Pavilion. Thanks to REI and the Legacy Amendment for funding.
Photographer and graphic design instructor, Zan Tomko, will demostrate simple techniques and share professional secrets for taking great photos with point-and-shoot and smartphone cameras. Composition, basic lighting skills, choosing a subject, and more will be covered in this two-hour class. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.The class is free, but space is limited, so
pre-registration is required.
This class is presented by the Twin Cities Photography Group
Storytelling images are the core of portraiture, revealing the beauty and uniqueness of our subjects, and we have spent decades refining our craft with still images. But technology has put video in our hands and made it so easy to capture the life and unique personalities of our clients! Now comes the new stuff—the foreign terms and the overwhelm or frustration of new technology… But, Wait! Suzette Allen, Adobe educator and pioneer of Hybrid Photography, along with her husband Jonny, will show you fast and easy (and profitable) ways to integrate some motion into your still portraits and painlessly edit and create finished shows (eProducts) with them! This is a free workshop for the Studio Membership and Outdoor photographers, $35 for others. Pre-registration is required.
This class is presented by the Twin Cities Photography Group
Landscapes, city-scapes, wildlife, flowers, waterfalls, abandoned buildings, and a host of other subjects are all available to the outdoor photographer. Today’s DSLRs provide an amazing array of capabilities. But, DSLRs can be pretty intimidating. There are all those buttons and modes. Then there is that manual, where to start? In order to get the results that we want, we need to know some of the basics, and how to apply those basics to outdoor photography. While the camera can provide a lot of rewarding photos, there is a lot to learn. This class is intended to take some of the mystery out of your gear and help you to get more out of it. We will begin in the classroom. After the classroom portion we will head out into the field to practice some of the techniques taught in the class. This will help reinforce the lessons from the class. The instructors will be on hand to provide guidance and to answer questions. Bring your camera, manual, memory card, and a charged.
Instructor: Don Tredinnick
Cost: General Membership, $49.00; Outdoor Photographers, $39.00; Studio Members, $39.00
Learn about products and services (often free) Google has developed to aid in collaboration, accessibility and business marketing. Now there’s Gmail, Gchat, Google Drive, Google+, Google Calendar, Google Maps, and much, much, more. A Google account gives you access to a world of powerful free tools. Learn the basics about how to make the best use of Google’s tools to achieve your personal and professional goals. Bring your tablet or laptop if you have one.
Presented by the Twin Cities Media Alliance and funded by MELSA.This class will be taught by Brian Roemen. Thanks to our partnership with the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA), this class is offered free of charge, but
pre-registration is required as space is limited.
This class is presented by Saint Paul Neighborhood Network
In this practical workshop students will jointly film and edit together a short news segment using SPNN’s equipment under the guidance ofaward-winning photojournalist Luis Iglesias. The class will cover what needs to be determined before filming, how to conduct a successful news-style interview, how to define your shot-list for b-roll to be used in the segment and how to edit it all together to create a short informational news segment to be shared with the larger community. Join us and become empowered to report the news from your unique perspective!
Prerequisite: A working knowledge of Adobe Premiere CS6 is required for this class.
Registration and pre-payment is required to secure your spot in the class. Cost for members is $40, cost for non members is $50, and $20 for limited income members. You can also stop in and register in person or by calling the access desk at 651.298.8908
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