Seeing my fellow Newswriting students' presentations on their relationship with the news helped me realize that I'm not alone in not being a big news junkie. I expected some students to express views similar to mine about the news (that they get so wrapped up in activities they don't have time, that they don't always keep up with events that don't particularly pertain to their interests, etc.), but I was surprised to find how many journalism students arent' actually that interested in the news. I guess I've never thought about how journalism includes many more things than just the news, such as magazine writing, writing editorial columns and reviews, etc.
Angela was one of the few presenters who seemed to have a pretty good relationship with the news--her grandfather, a World War II vet, was once featured in a news story, and she has worked on student-run newspapers in the past. The only element she didn't like was broadcast news because it scares her. I appreciated her creative use of pictures to convey her points, especially her picture of a monster to represent broadcast news.
Katie's short story was also very creative; I appreciated her personification of the news as a friend who she had a falling out with over the news' publication of a story about her team losing a game. She found an interesting way to convey her experience without telling us directly about it.
Kaitlin also has a less-than-stellar relationship with the news. She said she tends to only read the news when something big happens, and she also reads the comics. I could relate to that--I lose interest in the more day-to-day events that get covered, because they're often boring or are part of an ongoing narrative that I have to work to catch up with.
Richelle is an example of someone who has worked in news but still doesn't have a very strong relationship with it, having been the sports editor of her school paper. Once again, I can relate to having an interest in one section of the news but not being invested in the news in general.
Jessie's presentation was a big surprise--she's a journalism major who's worked on news before, yet still doesn't have much of an interest in it. She said she's more interested in magazine writing and writing reviews, two aspects of journalism I hadn't really considered before. I could relate to her statement that she paid more attention to the news during the election, though, since that was a time when I felt the biggest responsibility to follow what's going on.
Megan is another shocking journalism major who's not very into the news. I do understand where she's coming from in saying that she doesn't enjoy reading headlines about all the bad news, though she knows it's necessary. It can be hard to read some of the more grisly or sad things that occur; sometimes you really have to force yourself to want to become informed.
Cody's presentation was interesting because he mentioned he started to watch the news more after September 11. I also found that I turned to news more after that event, because that event seemed to bring the news much closer to home than I had ever remembered it being before. It was a major event that helped define our generation, and made the news more relevant for us.
Overall, it does seem kind of disheartening that a bunch of Newswriting students aren't very interested in the news. Still, many classmates have said this class is renewing their interest in the news, which I agree with. When you learn how to create something that you've always taken for granted before, you look at it in an entirely different light than you did before. So hopefully, I will begin to pay attention much more to the news even after this class is over and not stay shut up in my little theatre bubble.
Comments (1)
You did a great job summing up our group's presentations. I also thought the number of journalism majors that didn't have a good relationship with the news was shocking. It just reminded me that you don't have to like something to be good at it, or the other way around. I mean, I wish I was as good at the sciences as say Stephan Hawking.
Posted by Angela Palumbo | September 4, 2009 8:17 PM
Posted on September 4, 2009 20:17