Au Revoir

I am saying this farewell full of reflection. The content that I have gathered is centered on gathering information that will hopefully help college students from small towns. I wrote this blog from my perspective as Rowan University student in southern New Jersey.

Honestly, there are many things that I would do to improve this blog; this semester was a rough one, between my full time job, nearly catching the h1n1 virus and getting quarantined and six classes – my focus waned between my courses and their responsibilities. I apologize for any discrepancies that have showed through my work. I have learned that within any blog that I work on, any freelancing opportunity that I might take up and any interview that I might conduct that I have to demand perfection from myself. I would have also networked more within my South Jersey community and much less in the metro Philadelphia community.

However, I am grateful for many of the journalism opportunities that have opened toward me, and the emails I received thanking me for this blog. I appreciate all feedback, and thank all the individuals that allowed me to interview them for their perspectives.

Trying to encompass all that is journalism from any perspective is a huge one.  I learned that blogging is much larger responsibility than many recognize.

With that being said; I have come to the end of this blog – I however, will continue to apply the lessons that I have learned from being the author of this blog within my journalism career. I sincerely hope that you will as well.

In my goodbye, I would also like to thank Professor Berkey-Gerard for his immense help in helping me formulate my ideas and remaining a stickler when I took mediocre as enough.

You can find Professor Berkey-Gerard’s class blog here.

You can also follow my work here.

Thank you for reading!

SpotLight: Stacy Jones. [Final Project]

Courtesy of Stacy Jones

Stacy Jones is an alumni of Rowan University, she graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism as well with Honors Program in her minor Psychology. She is now a current graduate student at the University of Maryland seeking her Master’s in Journalism, Online Journalism. She has inspired me to endeavor to more as a journalist of color. I have chosen to spotlight her accomplishments as my final project. Her journalism career thus far answers the questions that I had when I started my blog. 

Stacy Jones attended high school in Piscataway, NJ at Piscataway Township High School. While at Rowan University as an undergradate student; she became editor of The Whit, as well as securing internships with: The Ledger as a Metro intern from June 2008 – August 2008; The New York Times Student Journalism Institute as student reporter from May 2008 – June 2008, and the Courier Post as an intern from December 2007- May 2008. 

Stacy Jones, rapidly propelled through college secure in her ambitions. I witnessed it, but unfortunately only caught her in her last year. I was inspired. From watching her, I witnessed that journalism is draining. Leads sometimes turn up empty. Even the best of writers get writer’s block. I saw the true spirit of perseverance. I was amazed by her tireless energy and dedication to all that is journalism. She’s an amazing journalist; her articles show her deep influence into many of the large decisions and stories affecting Rowan University. 

I was granted an Q&A with her, in which she gave me insight into coming out the knots of confusion that can be journalism in South Jersey.  Her growth since graduating from Rowan can be witnessed in her answers to my questions. 

Why did you choose to go to graduate school in Maryland? 

I chose to attend UM for graduate school because of the j-school’s reputation and the program’s length. The Philip Merrill School of Journalism is very well-respected, minutes outside of D.C. and all its resources and Prof. Quigley couldn’t say enough great things about their master’s program — she’s an alum. I also like that I’ll be able to put on my resume that I received my B.A. in May ’09, and my M.J. in December ’10. Getting this program done in 15 months will be tough, but I didn’t want to lose too much momentum by having to write a thesis. My last semester will consist of working full-time for the school’s online news magazine.

As a student who attended school in South Jersey, what would you tell students from South Jersey and other states with small towns — about broadening their perspectives in journalism? 

Few pieces of advice: Don’t overlook jobs at smaller or mid-size local papers. They offer you more one-on-one time with your editors, more assignments and a more nurturing environment. A lot of the veterans at big newspapers or networks who are in hiring positions now probably got their jobs by working at a bunch of smaller papers. That’s a tried and true path that they respect. If you really want to impress them, prove that you can do great work WITHOUT an impressive name on your press pass. I’d also recommend that all journalism students find reporters who they admire and READ READ READ their work.

What is a common mistake that you see journalism students do in college to sabotage themselves?   

Few pieces of advice: Don’t overlook jobs at smaller or mid-size local papers. They offer you more one-on-one time with your editors, more assignments and a more nurturing environment. A lot of the veterans at big newspapers or networks who are in hiring positions now probably got their jobs by working at a bunch of smaller papers. That’s a tried and true path that they respect. If you really want to impress them, prove that you can do great work WITHOUT an impressive name on your press pass. I’d also recommend that all journalism students find reporters who they admire and READ READ READ their work.
 

Where do you see yourself in your future? 

I see myself pursuing lots of things, really. I hate to sound scatterbrained, but there’s not much that I’d say no to in the world of journalism right now. Frankly, there’s not much I can AFFORD to say no to. I would love to work for NPR’s online news department, or work as a general assignment reporter at a mid-size daily. I could see myself applying for jobs at Salon or Slate, since they’re my favorite online news mags. I adore The Atlantic, and that’s on my longterm goals list. Anything to get me in the door somewhere so I can keep building my clip portfolio. 

Why do you choose journalism as your career path? Did it choose you? 

Journalism chose me. Rather, it stole me from a mundane path I had charted for myself. I had this skill set – loves to write, hates fluffy academic pose, curious almost to a fault, hates monotony – that didn’t seem to quite fit with pursuing a sociology, psychology or English major. I wound up in a journalism class at my high school by accident and have always considered it the best mistake that ever happened to me.
 

Is there anything that you’d want to offer as advice to future journalists? 

As advice, I’d say try to think about the things you might be asked to do at your ideal job and how many of them you’d have to honestly say, “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” to. Starting today, build a set of skills that will shorten or eliminate that list. You want to regularly surprise your editor with the things you are willing or able to do. Also, don’t send out a ton of applications to jobs you’re not earnestly interested in. Send out a decent amount of high quality resumes and clip packages. Follow up with polite correspondence and above all, have faith. 

Stacy Jones is the epitome of what a journalist from any background ought to become. Fully focused on the task at hand, never faltering to the left or right. I hope that I can follow those footsteps – and create something all my own. 

You can follow Stacy Jones on Twitter, read her blog, and view her website. You can also read her articles within The Whit here.

Insight with: Daniel Rubin

Courtesy of Dan Rubin.

Daniel Rubin has been apart of The Inquirer since 1988; as long as most of us have been alive. His reach extends outside of the United States, and into 27 countries. He’s the European Correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers in Berlin, and metro reporter and feature writer for the Inquirer. He also started the first blog “Blinq”. His alma mater is Northwestern University; so he knows a thing or two about the ups and downs of small town journalism and branching out. He is also a professor of urban journalism at the University of Pennsylvania. In this Q&A he provides insight into what common mistakes journalists make and his own journey in his successful journalism career.Since  beginning your journalism career in 1988 you’ve traveled 27 countries reporting as was a European correspondent for The Inquirer, the creator of Blinq, weekly writer for The Inquirer, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania 

What steps did you take to make your reach as broad as it is?
 
BACK IN 2000 THE INQUIRER HAD AN OPENING FOR ITS LONDON CORRESPONDENT, AND KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS, WHICH OWNED US, HAD THE BERLIN BURO UP FOR GRABS. I REACHED FOR THE LATTER. IT WAS ALWAYS MY DREAM TO TRAVEL A CONTINENT ON SOMEONE ELSE’S DIME, FINDING STORIES IN FAR-FLUNG PLACES AND BRINGING THEM BACK HOME THAT CAPTURED THEM WHOLE. THESE JOBS ARE GONE NOW, THE INQUIRER HAS NO MORE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS, KNIGHT RIDDER, WHICH WAS THE COUNTRY’S SECOND-BIGGEST NEWSPAPER CHAIN, IS GONE, TOO – IT’S PROPERTIES IN THE HANDS OF MCCLATCHY AND OTHER SMALLER OWNERS. MCCLATCHY KEEPS NO ONE IN EUROPE ANY MORE. 

 What inspired you to write Blinq?
 
WHEN I CAME BACK FROM EUROPE, I RETURNED TO MY JOB AT THE INQUIRER, COVERING THE BUSINESS OF ENTERTAINMENT. BLOGS WERE MAKING AND BREAKING NEWS, AND THERE WAS A WHOLE CONVERSATION ABOUT REAL LIFE THAT WAS OCCURING AMONG READERS, AND WE WERE MISSING MOST OF IT. THE EDITOR OF THE PAPER THEN, AMANDA BENNETT, TOLD ME TO COVER THE BLOGOSPHERE FULL-TIME, AND TRY DOING IT ON A BLOG OF MY OWN. WE CAME UP WITH BLINQ, A CONTRACTION, OF BLOG AND INQUIRER. THE WORD SUGGESTS SPEED, AND THIS WAS A WAY TO CAPTURE SEVERAL TIMES A DAY A SNAPSHOT OF WHAT WAS ON PEOPLE’S MINDS AND LET THE READER’S TRAVEL TO PLACES I’D FOUND – BOTH ELSEWHERE ON OUR WEBSITE AND, MORE UNUSUALLY FOR US, OFF THE SITE ON THE WILD, WILD WEB. 

 Is there a certain allure that keeps you coming back to the Pennsylvania area for reporting?
 
PHILADELPHIA HAS ALWAYS BEEN A RIDICULOUSLY PROMISCUOUS NEWS TOWN. 
What inspired and/or keeps motivating you to teach the art of journalism to students at University of Pennsylvania?
 
IT’S A WAY TO ENSURE THE NEXT GENERATION OF JOURNALISTS HAVE SOME OF THE VALUES, STANDARDS AND SKILLS THAT WILL SERVE THEM REGARDLESS OF IN WHAT FORM THE NEWS IS DELIVERED. 

What exactly is your passion within journalism?
 
A NOTEBOOK IS LIKE A VISA STAMP ON YOUR PASSPORT – IT’S LETS YOU TRAVEL ANYWHERE WITH THE WIDE-EYED WONDER OF A TOURIST. AND FOR THOSE OF US WHO NEVER WANT TO GROW UP, IT LETS US COMMAND ATTENTION AND ASK QUESTIONS THAT ONLY A CHILD WOULD ASK IN PROPER COMPANY. AND GET ANSWERS. 

 As a professor are there any common faux pas that you see undergraduates do when they are searching for jobs or internships?
 
I DON’T KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT HOW THEY SEARCH FOR JOBS – I WOULD RECOMMEND THEY PICK UP THE PHONE AND KNOCK ON SOME DOORS, NOT JUST SEND A BUNCH OF E-MAILS. 

Daniel Rubin can be found, on Blinq, Twitter, and can be read weekly here.

 

Insight with: Daniel Victor.

Courtesy of Daniel Victor

Daniel Victor, is a 25 year old reporter for the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Patriot-News.  He granted me an interview, so that I could gain perspective on how he became a journalist  in a small town newspaper.

How did you become a reporter for the Patriot-News?

I had connections to the paper here and got a reporting internship after my sophomore year in college at Penn State. I continued to string for them while I was in school, then they offered me a job after I graduated.
You’re a reporter from a small town, Harrisburg – are there certain benifits to working within local news as opposed to the major media outlets in Philadelphia.
In some ways it’s a very different mindset. Here you can really get elbow-deep with hyperlocal news…when I covered the Hershey area, for example, I was attending every school board and township meeting, and you get to know a lot of the residents and newsmakers really well. A similar assignment at The Philadelphia Inquirer might force me to cover dozens of similarly sized schools, so I’d never get to know one nearly as well as I did here.

It was also easier for me to make a name for myself here. Remember the Amish shooting a few years back? That happened in our backyard, and I was one of the reporters sent to the scene. No way that happens if I’m on the bottom of the ladder at the New York Times. I’ve also gotten a lot of other great opportunities, like being the lead writer on the Obama campaign during the general election. It’s really a lot easier for a young reporter to prove what he or she can do when you work for a paper this size.
Is microblogging truly drinking dry the print journalism industry?
Nah. It’s just changing it, to those who are willing to see it. One of our sports reporters used CoverItLive to liveblog a recent high school football game, for example, and that’s not any different than using Twitter, really. I regularly use my Twitter account to both break news immediately, and also lead myself to new sources or story ideas I wouldn’t otherwise have. It’s just another way things are changing in how people get news. All that said, yeah, the print audience is shrinking but I’d attribute that more to the Internet at large and bigger generational issues, not microblogging specifically.

What exactly is beatblogging?
Beatblogging is when you have a reporter that covers a specific beat — maybe a geographical region, green issues, energy, transportation, whatever it is — and the reporter makes a blog the center of the beat. He or she would post all stories there, post smaller happenings that won’t make it into print, lead readers in conversation, seek new ideas — basically, it’s a one-stop visit for everything that happens on the beat. The advantage of it is that it both answers to how people want to consume their reporting online, and it also leverages your readers to help you produce better content for both online and print.

What mistakes do you see journalists fresh out of undergrad doing?
If your ultimate goal is to advance in journalism, you can’t limit yourself to the big cities. Yeah, you might not be personally happy being in a smaller town for a while, but you can also learn a lot and sharpen your skills by spending time at a smaller news organization or in a smaller city.

You also have to avoid the temptation of coming in with an attitude. You may have been really talented and the cream of the crop at your college, but even the best college writers have a lot to learn once they graduate. You have to accept that your editors can teach you a lot — even the bad ones — and accept that you’ll have a lot of bad assignments before you consistently get the good ones.

Why did you take an internship in Kansas as opposed to NY, Philly or DC?
I would have loved to get an internship at the Times, Inquirer or Post, but the competition for them was so fierce I just didn’t have a chance. I had a friend that had interned before at the Wichita Eagle, though, so I worked through that connection and got my internship there. It turned out to be the most valuable internship I had…being exposed to that totally new culture really opened my eyes to a lot of things I had never experienced or understood. (And Wichita is actually a fairly big city, by the way…roughly similar to Pittsburgh.)

What exactly inspires you to continue in journalism even though the outlook is pretty bleak?
I’d say the outlook for print journalism is bleak, but you can’t say that about journalism in general. In fact, I’m energized by the uncertainty…how awesome is it that you and I will be the ones to reinvent it all? We can be the ones to figure out the best ways to get readers their content, we can come up with the online business model journalism needs, we can pioneer new technologies, etc. I guess I like the challenge and excitement of not knowing what’s ahead. I’ve always been very passionate about the job, and I think at this point you need to be or that bleak outlook will get to you.

You can find Daniel Victor on his blog, on Twitter, and read his articles.