Writing samples from San Diego U-T days

Thinking back to the year I spent working at the San Diego Union-Tribune, it seems like I wrote much more than just 73 stories for the paper! A search of the Web site’s archives, however, turned up eight in 2005 and 65 in 2006. What a year. I had so much fun.

Find the search results at http://find.signonsandiego.com/?q=gigi+alford&Submit=Go!

The first 20 that are displayed, in reverse chronological order it seems:

1. The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER The beat-up pair of…
   Friday, January 12, 2007
2. La Costa Canyon High athletes share a passion for hard training workouts | …: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER October 8, 2006 CARLSBAD…
   Saturday, October 07, 2006
3. Kids’ game | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER September 24, 2006 When…
   Saturday, September 23, 2006
4. Eager to tri | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER September 17, 2006…
   Saturday, September 16, 2006
5. Family of Bruins | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER September 15, 2006…
   Thursday, September 14, 2006
6. Body language | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER September 10, 2006…
   Saturday, September 09, 2006
7. Polo pals | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER September 3, 2006 Had…
   Saturday, September 02, 2006
8. Volleyball vibes | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER August 27, 2006 Three…
   Saturday, August 26, 2006
9. Model of success | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER August 20, 2006…
   Saturday, August 19, 2006
10. North Coastal Athlete of the Week: Shawn O’Gorman, masters swimmer | The …: …Contact Gigi Alford at (619) 293-1829 or gigi.alford@uniontrib.com…
    Friday, August 18, 2006
11. Albion Boys Under-16 White Team Roster | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER August 13, 2006 When…
    Saturday, August 12, 2006
12. North Coastal Player of the Week: Blake Hylen, Del Mar Carmel Valley Sharks …: …Contact Gigi Alford at (619) 293-1829 or gigi.alford@uniontrib.com…
    Friday, August 11, 2006
13. Youth is served at Surf Cup | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER August 7, 2006 DEL MAR –…
    Sunday, August 06, 2006
14. High tide for Surf Club | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER August 6, 2006 If it…
    Saturday, August 05, 2006
15. Just sign of the times for Kansas-bound girl | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER August 6, 2006 DEL MAR –…
    Saturday, August 05, 2006
16. Moving on | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER August 3, 2006 Hallie…
    Wednesday, August 02, 2006
17. California commanders | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER July 30, 2006 After each…
    Saturday, July 29, 2006
18. Tall order | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER July 23, 2006 Matt…
    Saturday, July 22, 2006
19. Round-Tripper | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER July 19, 2006 Ouying…
    Tuesday, July 18, 2006
20. Cleats to fill | The San Diego Union-Tribune: …By Gigi Alford COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER July 16, 2006 Known for…
    Saturday, July 15, 2006

Internet: An agent of communication, inspiration and… destruction?

Internet media seem to have magnified what is tacky, uncouth and grotesque about human beings. Once again, science and discovery have unveiled for us a powerful tool, and once again we have managed to exploit this tool’s destructive elements and reduce it to a counter-productive distraction and another source of disunity. History is full of pivotal transitions in history during which technological revolutions have not only promoted education, medicine, agriculture and safety, but have also amplified evils such as prejudices, nationalism, immorality, hate, terrorism and more.

This point cannot be exhausted, but all one has to do to fully grasp the scale with which the Internet can harm as much, if not more, as it helps is to do a mental exercise in imagining every useful element of Web communication in the hands of the forces of hate and division.

It may seem like a quantum leap to transition here to a question such as, “what can save humans from themselves?” But really, that’s where you get once you move past the ridiculous debates about the state of the Internet, whether its the fault of the media or the audience, abolishing elitism or promoting anarchy, free speech or giving voice to hate-mongering, etc. This recently-unthinkable mode of communication could be devoted to informing, connecting and inspiring a new breed of men and women who, if they chose to, would rise to be more-educated and faster-advancing problem solvers and world redeemers, but so far the emerging breed seems more interested in up-to-the-nano-second updates on the degraded lives of celebrities and distracting themselves with consumerism and frivolity.

Ideas spread fast on the Web, but even more quickly can serve to polarize people. Moral-relativism versus fundamentalism, liberals versus conservatives, right versus left… These are the new man-made divisions, created to replace the other barriers that were zapped when the world shrank down to one economic, social and racial neighborhood. The Internet is a magnifying glass–even a microscope, an infinite number of them–trained on every petri dish holding another facet of humanity, beginning new experiments, abrogating misconceptions, catalyzing clashes, both old and new.

This brings me to my point, or one of them, at least. Today I’ve been thinking about three loose categories of Web participants, contributors and passive consumers alike:

1. people and organizations who are shaping their presence on the Internet to be constructive, beneficial and even uplifting
2. those who are seeking to harm, spread hate and create discord
3. users for which the Internet is almost entirely a source of entertainment, and I honestly, without any hard numbers, believe this is the majority.

As the Web presence of the the many seeking to damage and wreak havoc continues to grow, the third category, by its inertia and lack of concern, will actually become complicit in strengthening the voices of disunity.

I realize now that the question of the future of news and the convergence of media—how information as a business can remain viable and profitable—is secondary to figuring out how humanity will make use of the Internet. Debating online journalism would become obsolete if the way we wield the Web should be fundamentally changed were the harm caused by the interconnectedness deemed to outweigh the good. Is it so hard to imagine that our personal safety will not become more of an issue?

The media would do well to ponder this idea that it is in their best interest not only to pursue how they will use the Internet, but also the viability that the Internet will continue to be used in its present, open, nearly-unregulated, volatile form. The two are intrinsically connected.