Staff Q&As: Meet photographer Jason Plotkin
To help you get to know our newsroom staff a bit better, a series of question-and-answer posts with each journalist will run on Mondays. This morning, meet staff photographer Jason Plotkin. Most recently, you’ve seen his work in the interactive piece covering the 9-year anniversary of Red Lion’s school shooting, or the more light-hearted video from the 2012 high school journalism workshop last month. Snag a behind-the-scenes look at some of his photos on Look, the visual staff’s blog.
Name: Jason Plotkin
Lives in: Springettsbury Township
Hometown: Bayonne, N.J.
Position at the YDR: Staff photographer or assistant managing editor of Driving Around Reporters
Years with the YDR: 20
Graduated from: Shippensburg University with a master’s from Bondurant School of High Performance Driving
With a degree in: Communications/journalism with a minor of Turning on Red
Twitter: @jasonplotkin
Email: jplotkin@ydr.com
Whatever you’d like to tell us about yourself: I never thought I’d be living my dream of driving around reporters like Mike Argento and Bill Landauer. STAY IN SCHOOL, KIDS!
1. What made you want to become a journalist? People in a newsroom seemed enough off center to be interesting, but not off center enough to be dangerous, so here I am.
2. How do you see journalism changing? We will always be reporting the news and telling stories, but how we get that information out to the public is constantly changing.
3. What do you like most about your job? The least? I like that while driving Mike Argento around, he gives me tips on great places to eat in York County. I like that Bill Landauer buys me soda and candy. The worst… Mike Argento is a cheapskate. He won’t even buy me a drink.
4. It’s 9:30 a.m. on a day off. What are you doing? Looking at my clock, wondering what time it is.
5. What’s been your favorite project or story recently? Why? I recently spent months driving around, witnessing Bill work his tail off on the Red Lion project. It was amazing to watch his dedication and compassion while working on such a sensitive story.
6. The drink that’s on your desk right now is: A bottle of water with a Central High School logo on it. Bottling their own water…THAT’S AWESOME.
7. Your favorite journalism-related blog you read or Twitter feed you follow: My visual editor Eileen Joyce @sadandbritish. (Does that win me brownie points?)
8. What’s your favorite movie? Book? The original Toy Story. Harry Potter.
9. What’s your favorite place in York County? I don’t want to share that. Other people might show up.
10. What’s one piece of newsroom jargon that had to be explained to you? I heard “Missile hit” on the police scanner when I first started. I panicked and called my editor about some kind of missile attack. He explained it was when the police found someone with an outstanding warrant. I should stick with driving.
Last week, we ran a Q&A with publisher Sara Glines. To read all of the staff Q&A interviews we’ve done so far, click on the “Staff Q&As” under “About us” at the top of the homepage.