Work in progress.

Newswriting in a nutshell.

Well, no reason to go on learning more about journalism, as Chapter Two of Ward's Online Journalism summed it up:
1. Identify
2. Collect
3. Select
4. Present

To me, the most difficult of the four are identify and collect. It's hard to tell what's important when it seems like nothing is happening. I can think of the past three years of Setonian meetings, when nothing particularly interesting was going on at the Hill, yet something clearly had to be happening because none of us were overly bored or short on gossip. It was just hard to pinpoint what was important that would still be timely when the paper came out three weeks later.

Collecting information also seems like a pain to me. I don't mind research, and I almost like interviewing people. However, I dislike the initial request for an interview. It's so hard for me to "get around" to emailing or calling someone I need to set up an interview with for some strange reason -- whether it's a fear of rejection, being a nuisance, or some other strange psychological malady I have.

I will admit that I have a penchant for selecting and presenting, though. Thank goodness!