Journals

Journal #3

As I read this first chapter, I really enjoyed learning about all the different qualities of news. I have heard of many and most are common sense, but it was good to learn the in-depth background of all of them. Learning why timeliness or proximity are important. Then understanding human interests, and trying to find things that can be helpful. With reading this, I  started to think about headlines I see in a day and relating all of them to a topic. I also thought that the “Importance of visuals” was an interesting section. When I heard journalism I just think about lengthy articles that mostly talk about current events. I forget that journalism can also be videos, pictures, interviews. With reading this I realized that I get so bored when reading things, and pictures help lighten it up a bit. Not to mention it makes it easier to explain things too. And when it says images it doesn’t have to be an actual picture, it can be a graph or a chart or clipart. Something that will break up the wording and make it easier to read. 

Journal #4

For me personally, I enjoy reading opinionated writings, or a story. Though reading about current news and important things happening in the world, it is not my favorite. I can relate to the first three asked questions right off the bat, “what’s the story about? How are the readers or viewers affected? How would you tell the story to a friend?”. These are important questions to think about before writing any piece of journalism. As I write I tend to go off on tangents about things that don’t matter or are not related to the context. So these questions are good to keep in the back of my mind as a reminder to stay on track and only write about things that matter. I also found the “nug graph” interesting. Not only for the name but for the purpose of it. Being able to state the main focus of your writing is important in order to stay focused and on track. There were a lot more helpful hints in this chapter like how to do specific quoting when to use them and most importantly how to use them.  The last thing I wanted to touch upon was the section talking about “Audio and Video for Online Delivery”. It is a short section that I feel that should be made larger as it has now become a bigger part of our society. There should be more information about this. Our society learns most of our information online on social media. I watch more videos of people reporting situations and current news that reading about it. There should be more about how to present on camera. 

Journal #5

There is so much information in the reading “What is Journalism For?” by Bill Kovach. As I read it started listing some questions for me. Some questions I asked and answered as I continued to read. There were many statements that I wouldn’t necessarily agree with, for example on page 19 Bill states “To define journalism, they argue, is to limit it.” As I continued to read I realized what he started to explain himself a little more and I got a better idea of what he was meaning by the statement. I understood one he said, “Thus, avoiding definition was a commercial strategy, not a principle born of First Amendment freedoms.” Here he is saying that they could avoid getting in trouble for anything that was said by not defining what journalism actually was. 

Other questions I had:

Do we think more people write journalism because they want too or because they feel they need to? Top of page 18

Why are journalists “afraid to think critically about why they did what they did?” middle of page 16

Is it true that journalism can still speak for itself? Does it matter who is writing about what?

Can anyone write what they want, put it on a website and call it journalism? 

 

Journal #6

As reading this informational article I was able to get a better understanding of the kind of format I will be using to write my upcoming feature story. I was able to see the language, how quotes were integrated and how paragraphs were separated. I read many articles and books but this was the first time I sat to read an article with the intention of focusing on how it was written. The language that was used, the punctuation and even how the context was broken down. I feel I would have gotten a better understanding of angles if I had witnessed or heard of the story in other ways before reading it to see more of where Willis was coming from. 

Journal #8

Reading chapter 10 was very informative. I think the very first section was important. Going through high school I hated both reading and writing because I had dyslexia. I never enjoyed writing stories or essays because I would write and get frustrated and basically give up and hand in a piece of work that was not 100%. But as I have gotten older I have learned that the more I read the better I get at writing. I see it as a money see money do, I read others writings and notice their writing styles and that is helping me find my writing style. I definitely think I enjoy writing more freely, instead of informational and factual just because I can put more of my personality into it. I think that the class would get a good conversation out of the topic that was said in the book of use of analogies. I feel this would be a good conversation because there are many analogies that could be inappropriate to due during some writings but someone might not know. I think two topics that I enjoyed the most were creating a tone and seeking out unusual stories because this speaks to my personality the most. Unusual stories are fun to both read and write about. Creating a tone is important to me, because as I write, I picture people reading it with the same tone that I have in my head but the reality is, is that no one reads my work with the same tone that I might have intended. THis goes for any reading, everyone reads things with a different tone, so it’s important to sometimes clearly try to state what you’re going for in a story. 

Journal #9

I felt that as my paper was being edited in front of the class, I was in a really safe and helpful community. I didn’t feel judged for my mistakes which is always a fear of mine as I have grown up with dyslexia. I really enjoyed hearing everyone’s feedback on my paper and it even made me feel really good about it. I got a few compliments on the topic I chose and even how I made it about more than the sport. I didn’t even think of it that way until someone said it. I was just writing and telling a story not really thinking about the way it might come off to others. And I realize that that could be a bad thing. I think everyone in the class is very supportive of each other and that the sharing that goes on in the class is very safe and accepted. I got many many great critiques about my paper and I think I have a better idea of what needs to get done now. Though I am saddened to hear that the coach does not want to speak on the topic, I am trying to find other ways of getting in contact with other people on the team to gather their opinions on the coach and their past season. I really enjoyed it and took all comments into consideration as I continue to edit my paper. 

Journal #10

I feel that as a class we gave some really impactful and helpful comments to the articles we looked at in class. We were able to come together and talk things out and help one another come up with better ways to word things, help eachother find sources, and help each other reconstruct the physical look and structure of the writing. I feel that even though my article wasn’t workshopped I took things away from that conversation that I will use to help fix my article. I really enjoyed the conversations we had as a class, everyone was very sincere and easy to talk too. I really look forward to workshopping my essay and seeing what everyone has to say about it and their advice on how to make it better. 

Journal #11

As we came together as a class and edited four more papers today I think that we are coming more and more together and getting to know each other maybe even more personally. There was one point in the class where two people came together to dive even deeper into their topic and helped find another source for them to contact in order to add to his paper. I really enjoyed that. Everyone that gives feedback gives it in the nicest way possible and there is every anything that is said that is not helpful. I also feel that when I state my opinion of someone else’s work, or try you give them a helpful hint I always feel heard and makes me feel better when someone else agrees or even the author thanks me and agrees with the helpful information. I enjoy coming together as a class and diving into everyone’s writing. I feel that I get to know them better even  from their writing style as well. 

Journal #12 

For the fourth time we have come together to edit peoples papers I think we had some really good conversations. I really enjoyed the conversation today about imagery was a really needed conversation. I am a really big imagery and the piece that I am working on for my feature page doesn’t have much in it so I really enjoy it when other people do. I think it’s very fascinating when people come together to talk about how they picture things because everyone pictures things so differently, I think it’s fun hearing what everyone else has to say and being able to build off of other ideas in your own head and adding your own ideas to it and then transfer that down onto your paper for many other people to read and enjoy. I think we had more good conversations about quotes, the importance of them. Every conversation we have as a class looking at different writings, I get more out of the conversations and to take away and to add onto my own writings. 

Journal #13

For a short edit time, we had I feel like we had a really strong conversation surrounding what should happen in this paper to edit it. We talked about the importance of getting quotes from people that have both perspectives of both companies. As they could list the differences and the pros and cons of both of the companies. We also talked about how it would be really good to have actual quotes from students instead of just paraphrasing what they were saying. There were also a few grammar edits that we made such as the perspective of the paper, using “I” instead of “you”. I also liked how we had a conversation on how important wording things is, and making sure we explain what we are writing about instead of assuming that the readers know what we are talking about. 

Journal #14

I found this section very useful and informative for what we are doing in class right now. There are so many different ways to report news and different ways to interview someone. I really enjoyed the “Listening tips” and the “note-taking tips”. I feel that some of these tips you can take back and use in your everyday life even when you aren’t interviewing someone. If you have to have a hard conversation with a friend to resolve a conflict, nothing will be solved if you don’t listen to their side of the situation. I thought the “listen with your eyes” particularly interesting. I know that the person’s body language tells a lot about how they feel if they are uncomfortable, and whatnot, but when I think of an interview I am mainly focused on getting quotes from my source, so being able to pay attention to how they are acting or how they are presenting themselves is a good tip. I think the note-taking section was helpful as well because I always have a hard time trying to keep up with writing down what my source is saying a word for word to get quotes. So now having the idea of using keywords, and especially developing a shorthand system, meaning abbreviation as many words as I can is helpful. I feel like a lot of the interviewing tips are a bit self-explanatory, like dressing appropriately, arriving on time, planning your questions. I also like the idea of reporting for visuals, that’s something I have never thought about until now. I also think the common interviewing problems were a helpful section to add to the book. It reminds people that things can go bad but it’s ok, and it tells you how to handle some situations. 

Journal #15

I would like to look into the president of the class Kaitlyn Quirk. As the president she is in charge of a lot of fundraisers and has many meetings with people. I would love to interview her to see how she handles the stress and what she does in a day. 

The second person I would look into is a sophomore EMT Liam Prescott. I am interested to see how he got the position that he is in and how he likes it. I would love to see what his typical day on duty would look like, knowing that there are confidential things that he won’t be able to tell me, I just want to know how busy he can be in a night and how they go about an emergency. 

Journal #16

In this profile piece about Beck, it is very much a history piece about his past and how he is trying to let some of these things go. There was a lot that was brought up that has happened since 1993 when he released his first album, and his childhood. They go through a section where they talk about the music that has been published and some of the lyrics along with it. Beck has been found to have a bit of a darker side as some of his music is more sad and lowkey that happy go lucky kind of music. But critics tend to pick at Beck for the sad songs, whereas Beck just thinks it’s hard “capturing true joy is often more difficult”. The angle piece is definitely very intrusive and informative. I also think that storytelling techniques were really well played out. I enjoyed reading the article and it felt like I was reading something for fun and not something that was for school work.  There was definitely a lot of background explanation and a lot of context for stories told. I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing. I think that if there was any less background conversation it would get a bit confusing. For the impact I think that it was a really well told piece, it really spoke on Becks life and especially his accomplishments. 

Journal #17

As usual, the chapter that we read really resonated with what is currently happening in the class. Because we have our big profile piece coming up, we have been reading about interview tips and tricks, and now profiles and obituaries. I really liked the GOAL method and it is something that I have never thought about or even realized was a thing. Being able to set things up before talking to someone is very important and I think the goals, obstacles, achievements, and logistics is a really good way to start. As you identify what your goals are, the  possible obstacles you are getting prepared for anything that can come about. The more thought and preparation you put into the interview, the better the outcome. I also think that it is super smart to do research on the person you are interviewing before you actually interview them. I know that is mostly common sense, but it is so important it should be stressed more about.