American Lit: What's your thought?

Kershner has come to the end of its time for this class, but in its finale it leaves us with a collection of great quotes from a various people. These quotes serve as reminders of what Kershner has taught us, but also as means to summarize our experience in this course. In my final entry I will leave you all with the goals I’ve achieved and assignments I’ve learned from.

“Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.”-Revelation 1:19 Holy Bible

This quote I found interesting because it not only came from the Bible, but because it summarizes our duties as reporters so well. We as reporters can only report the facts, things, which have been confirmed and observed with our own eyes. In our EMU incident class activity I learned the most about what information goes into an article. We could not just go by here-say of other students, only confirmed information. This is an important rule of journalism and that particular assignment was a practical exercise in learning this rule.

The Homework assignment I found to be most helpful to me was the peer interview assignment. I chose this assignment because there were so many skills learned and practiced through this assignment including: gathering information, judging appropriate content, interviewing skills, and creative writing.

An online activity that helped me to achieve my goals in this course was the pitch forums. The pitch forums allowed me to brainstorm ideas and gather feed back and new ideas. At times I may have a general idea of what I want to write, and the responses I get from other students help me to focus what I am writing.

These assignments combined have showed me what it means to be a journalist in both the writing and ethical sense. We have experienced the deadlines and moral questions journalist face in the real world.

Our time with Kershner is coming to an end as the semester begins to conclude. However this may not be the last time I see Kershner being I am a journalism major. I truly enjoyed reading this book, and find it to be one of the better text books i’ve worked with. The information is clear and to the point without much fluff and distracting information. Kershner gets to the point and repeatedly pounds it into our heads until we comprehend proper journalistic writing and ethics.

“With Newspapers folding and budgets shrinking, some wonder if there is any future for journalism. The unequivocal answer is: Yes, there is.”

Journalism was developed and changed greatly since its first introduction and continues to encounter new developments. I do believe journalism will always have a future, but I do question certain aspects of the future of journalism. I often wonder with the Internet as big as it is now, how long will print journalism and many other types of print writing last? Personally, many of the books I read today are digital including both recreational, and textbook. Even now my Kershner textbook is provided to me digitally.

Kershner states that so far, every form of mass media created is still active, even if new ones have been developed. I found this statement important because it is true if we look through history, while some have been developed more they still exist. I do believe that print text will continue in future generation, however I do feel the quantity of such text will be reduced as our society continues to push new technology upon us.

“You never know where an opinion column will lead ”

I’ve always found the opinion column to be a very interesting section of the newspaper because it is primarily the sole area where writers are able to express their own opinion. Not only do we get to hear what the writer thinks on a subject matter, but this section is also a great start to a debate. It is obvious not everyone will agree with any opinion, which is why it makes a great starter.

I’ve come across several different opinion columns and each differs with the writer. Some are humorous, serious, satirical or much more. I believe the reason for this is two reasons. Reason one is the writers and their style. People write differently and express their ideas though various writing styles, providing the numerous types of opinions columns littering newspapers across the nation and world. Reason two is the targeted audience. Kershner states the importance of the target audience and how it affects how you write. Kershner states “Your audience will determine your approach…Be certain that you have a clear idea of your audience, and address them directly.”

Opinion columns come in many different categories and styles, but they can be a great section to find entertainment, knowledge, awareness, and understanding. They are not something to be simply thrown together without proper thought.

They often say that the third time is the charm, but in this case I don’t think it’s quite the same. Once again we are looking at Kershner chapter 13. This time around I focused on the section talking about “What is the Story”. Before you write anything you need to have at least a general idea of the point behind what you are writing. Once you have that you can focus and narrow your what it is you are saying. I’m currently having a problem with this with another one of my courses. Without a clear idea of what it is you are doing your writing will be confusing, and it’s a reporters responsibility to clear confusion of incidents not cause them.

In  this section of Kershner I looked at the ethical issues journalist may face ahead and the decisions they make to handle these situations. Currently we at the Setonian are facing a similar issue. Journalist face a serious dilemma when they are meant to cover serious issues and must handle them carefully. This is especially true when a case has yet to go to court. Reporters no matter what the the case must remain fair when reporting. If a reporter feels that he is too close to a story it is his responsibility to  pull him self a away in case of creating a biased piece.

B

It is once again time for us to collect all that we have learned in the last couple weeks to share with you all. We reflect on our readings of Kershner along with other news articles and discussions that occur in class.

Depth

As usual the first section of my blog portfolio is the selection is the depth section. In this section I try to write meaningful entries that have a little more meaning than my usual blog entries. My first example of depth is when I wrote about the laws governing newspapers. In my Protected Media post I discuss the readings of Kershner 33 and how even newspapers are under the powers of the law. Another entry that represents depth is my entry on how to select photos for a newspaper. Having an interest in artistic photography it is sometimes the case that my best picture is great artistically, but not for the newspaper.

Discussion

This portion of my blog portfolio is the Discussion section. In this section I try to interact with my fellow classmates. We come together to introduce new ideas on a topic, bringing to light new ideas or angles. My first example of discussion is on Sara Tantlinger’s blog. On her blog we discussed Chapter 13 of Kershner, and how the teachings and lessons learned in journalism can be transferred to other careers. Also held a discussion on my own blog regarding Kershner 13 and the importance of three sources. I also commented on Abbey’s blog

Interaction

This portion of my blog portfolio is the Interaction section. In this section we share our ideas with classmates and agree or disagree with entries. My first example of interaction is on Olivia’s blog. Here I comment on Kershner chapter 33.  I also commented on two of Katey’s blog entries. One on Kershner 18 and another on Kershner chapter 34.

Timeliness

These sections are blog entries that have been turned in on time or before the deadline. These entries include:

• Ghodafi article
• Kershner 30
• Layout

Coverage

This section is for articles that just don’t have nay where else to be. They include:

Kershner 18

Kershner 29

Reading Kershner 13 again I realized that information I looked over, as being common knowledge for journalist can often be harder to achieve under different circumstances. Writing our updated police based story I realized it is difficult to get the minimum three sources when you are unable to talk to people.

Reporters especially reporters who have to deal with police involved stories may have a harder time than other reporters because police involved articles usually cover tragic incidents in which people may not be as willing to answer questions, or get meaty quotes. Even though it may be difficult to ask for an interview after a tragic event, it is our job as journalist to find sources that are willing to talk to us, without breaking the boundaries and hurting potential sources.