Diversity in Journalism

I once believe that online video will slowly kill T.V. news broadcasting and that newspaper will probably lose readers, as they can get the information free online and was I wrong. Gaining the knowledge that I have today I believe that the future in Journalism will only expand in all levels of reporting because of technology. Nonetheless, with social media such as Twitter and other blogging sites growing stronger everyday I think it open opportunity for journalist to promote their work.

At this level, the job market in journalism still worries me. As a minority in journalism I feel unease because of percentage reported of minority in the field of journalism. On the other hand, I feel that I can compete with any other journalist with the knowledge I have. I feel being a minority I have an advantage. I can bring the uniqueness of being a minority into a news team with a different perspective. What I hope to bring to a news team is relating to minorities outside of a newsroom and letting them know that it is okay to talk to a reporter and get them out of their comfort zone.

Therefore, I hope to pursue reporting for broadcast news media and hope to engineer for a radio station someday, but if the opportunity is given in reporting for T.V. broadcasting or print I feel I can tackle it with my experience. I am going to continue with a positive approach as usually when thing get tough, anything is possible. “You don’t know until you get your feet wet”.

Reflection on grounds maintenance story

We have all at some point of time seen someone slip and it is not fun—but funny maybe. With the erratic weather this year I was assign to do a story on how UWRF Grounds Maintenance team tackle the situation of slippery sidewalk. The story turned out good, but could have been better if I have taken a better approach to the story from the start and try to get in touch with someone who slipped, rather spend most of my time trying to get report from official.

What I enjoyed most doing this story? I would say the challenge to get it done with the amount of time until deadline. Moreover, the challenging part of covering the story was arranging time to meet with Grounds maintenance Supervisor Joe McIntosh. I arranged multiple meeting via email, and did not get an interviewed until I showed up unexpectedly in person and ask for fifteen minute of his time. By this time deadline was within hours and the story needed to be in for the newscast. Overall, I was able to get quality actuality of the gist of how the situation is dealt with.

Covering the campus community

This semester of covering campus community is a lot better compared to last semester. Even though our newscast team is smaller this time around, I feel it made us stronger. What I enjoy most about this semester is the opportunity to expand outside of my beat. I was able to step outside my comfort zone and build relationships with other faculty and staff on campus. Rather, last semester coverage of the campus community was difficult to experience the “reporting” aspect of journalism because of the limitation of our beat. Nonetheless, the fact of knowing you are live on air and there is no room for mistake is defiantly worth the challenge.

My ways of covering stories have defiantly changed throughout the course. I have tried to tie my electronic field production skills of practicing directing, writing, and producing informational television productions to take angle when reporting.

Overall what is most rewarding about covering the campus community are the people that I have worked with and interviewed. It has taught me new ways of gathering information and reporting.

Technology enhancement

This interview piece is with Customer Technology Services Manager Sara Solland, The interview is about an estimate of how much was spent over the summer with the upgrade across the university, and who it will benefit. What I wish I could have done better is incorporate the entire statistics that was given to me from Solland.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Wisconsin in Scotland

For my beat this semester I was assign to cover the Global Connections. I decided to do a story of Wisconsin in Scotland, because it is known to be one of the biggest study abroad programs on UWRF. This is an interview piece I did with Program Coordinator for Wisconsin in Scotland, Kelsey McLean.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Dr. Jose Vega

With the retirement of Dr. Jose Vega after twenty-two years I thought it would be nice to do a story of him. His background experience is also related to my beat. This short interview piece is about what he has accomplished over the year, and what he hopes to see in the future.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Mid-term

With students stressing about mid-terms and how they will cope with it, I did a story with Student Support Services Coordinator, Linda Jordan from Academic Success Center. She gave me a small run down about how and what a student should do to better prepare themselves.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Covering campus community

With this being my first semester of practicum, covering the campus community was a good start. With all the knowledge learned from the journalism courses I have taken at UW-RF, it helped me produce stories. By incorporating the learning portion and the hands-on experience and finalizing the story made me better understand the process and the importance of information gathered.

The assigned beats were a good way to get started, but as the semester continued and the lack of opportunities to expand out of the beat made it hard. In order for me to gain a greater sense of the campus community, I would have liked to cover stories in other areas. There were times when I felt there was newsworthy information I could have covered in an area outside my beat. I understand that everyone is assigned a beat, but if that person is already covering a story that differs from the one I have found in that person’s beat, I would like to have the opportunity to go outside of my beat and cover that story. Overall, I feel we get the same information week in and out and it will be nice to cover something outside of the assigned beat report to meet people.

Future of journalism

The future of journalism will survive as time progress. From what I have seen online media will only expand, as journalists are turning to social media such as Twitter and other blogging sites to report on breaking new, and current perceptive. Online video I feel is slowly killing T.V. news for example you can always YouTube news that you miss, or if permitted you can look into news organization’s archive to view past stories you miss. I think the newspaper will probably lose readers, as they can get the information free online.

Furthermore, the job market of journalism worries me. The more skill journalists have, the smaller I think a news team will be. Journalist nowadays is required to do so much that there is no need for a team to cover a story and I feel it limit the opportunity. Nonetheless, I feel this open the opportunity for freelancing since again freelancers are using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to receive feedbacks.

My role in the future of journalism, I hope to report for broadcast news. I feel I have the skill and knowledge to get the job done. Again, the job market worries me but with a positive approach, anything is possible. You do not know until you get your feet wet.

Study Abroad Fair

I covered the study abroad fair this semester and I thought it was challenging. As journalism student we are taught to allow you time before any interview, or get to an event before hand. As a result, I was able to shoot pictures of study abroad programs booth, and get interviews with advisors before the fair open.

What challenged me the most while covering the study abroad fair was, I wanted to get photo shots of total attendances at the fair, which I wasn’t able to due to the fact of the schedule start time of the fair—although I got it toward the end of the event. The loud noise of people talking was hard to capture some of my interviews. In between class was also a problem to me. I had to leave and come back to cover the remain half of the fair. Lastly, another problem I encounter was the poor lighting of the room. It made the color of my photos dark and unusable.

What I like about covering this story is the information I receive from advisors of the programs. Everyone seems to know what he or she was talking about, and was very cooperative. Nonetheless, on the good side I got the natural sound, and actuality during the event that I was looking for in order to use for our newscast of week. Overall, If I could do this story again I would, but with proper material.