It’s that time of year when all I can think about is that I could have taken History of Graphic Design instead of this class, a required class for my major, unlike this one which I will have to substitute in for a slot that could have been occupied by a number of different English courses. The reason I didn’t was because the Honors biology course I needed was only available Monday and Wednesday mornings right before this class, HOWEVER, before last school year ended, the biology course was rescheduled to AFTERNOONS at the same time as another art class I needed, and so rather than cut News Writing and reschedule two new classes, I chose to keep it and just reschedule one. Just one of many scheduling mishaps over my time at Seton Hill that are leading to what looks like is gonna be an extra semester before I graduate.
Wow. What a petty way to start an overdue blog portfolio.

I will admit, the realization of my scheduling gaffs has really put a damper on my productivity during this third quarter of the course. I tell myself that it shouldn’t matter and that I should work my hardest to turn things on time regardless, but I still slack off and fall short anyway. My new tactic is telling myself that everyone gets B’s and that one B won’t affect my Honors Scholarship.
So let’s get on with this late blog portfolio.
Depth:
My post on NM The Future (4 of 4) is pretty long and detailed, because then I was young and unafraid. It talks about the growing importance of STEAM in journalism and lists examples that are only brushed over in that chapter. My post on Chapter 1 of Principles of American Journalism gives a detailed look at the articles I wrote so far this semester and how they stack up against the book’s guidelines of how journalism is fundamental to democracy. My Post-Election story is pretty in-depth, because I looked at two new sources as a follow-up to the pre-election story, though I only wrote about one new source. But even though I only mention one of the new sources in the post, it examines ideas brought up in the older post and explains how the election results are relevant to today’s political climate. And my post on Principles of American Journalism Chapter 4 explores a passing chart from that chapter more carefully, adding important details from later in the chapter.
These are the posts that stand out to me in length and content, but I have noticed that I am no longer submitting short, empty, one-paragraph blog posts, so I would say this is a success for depth.
Riskiness:
My post on NM The Future (3 of 4) takes a risk by naming playbill.com as an example of a successful news source with a specific audience, because I was not fully sure that this was correct when I posted it. Fortunately, the risk paid off and I received a comment that it was a good example after all. Another risky post was on Principles of American Journalism Chapter 3, where the risk is that I admit I am struggling to make my second article newsworthy and then explore this chapter’s definitions of newsworthiness in order to apply them in my article. And my post on Principles of American Journalism Chapter 5 is risky not only because it blatantly shows how little I cared about completing that blog post but because it poses a question about whether hyperlocal journalism is any different from the highly specific community newsletters that News Media: The Past stated were different from the definition of journalism as we know it today.
Intertextuality:
Though rather obnoxious in tone, my post on Principles of American Journalism Chapter 5 is also a good example of intertextuality, because it hearkens back to that earlier post from the first journalism textbook we looked at. Both my Pre-Election and Post-Election stories look at multiple sources, from the news articles on candidates with science backgrounds to analysis of these sources on the news bias chart. And each of my posts for Chapters one, two, and three of Principles of American Journalism are intertextual because they compare ideas from those chapters to the work I have been doing in this class.
Discussion:
As previously stated, a classmate left a comment praising my decision to include playbill.com as an example of a news source in my post for NM The Future (3 of 4). I also received a comment on my post for NM The Future (4 of 4) from a student editor about how journalists today need so much more than just objective writing skills. And even though they do not have any comments online, my Pre-Election and Post-Election posts sparked interesting in-class discussions about the importance of science in politics today, the credibility of specified news sources like Nature, and how interesting it was to have an unusual amount of candidates with science backgrounds in the midterm election.
Timeliness:
As usual, this was the part I struggled with the most. I have pretty much decided I’d rather write deeper posts with higher-quality content than dumb posts that are at least on time. But even though many of my posts were late this time, I managed to complete some on the days they were actually due. Both my Pre-Election and Post-Election posts were completed in time to discuss the stories in class at the proper time. Both NM The Future (3 of 4) and NM The Future (4 of 4) were submitted on Oct. 10 like they were supposed to be. And Principles of American Journalism Chapter 3 was also completed on the day it was supposed to be submitted.
Coverage:
As stated in the previous section, I have been sacrificing timely coverage for deeper analysis. The main downside to this is not having people see my late posts, rendering any deeper thought irrelevant. (But at least I know it’s there.) My post on Principles of American Journalism Chapter 3 was pretty much on time, and while it isn’t a bad post, I did write it up pretty hastily, so I guess that can count as coverage. And for my post on Principles of American Journalism Chapter 2, I had trouble coming up with ideas of how to relate the chapter to my own experiences with journalism, so I wrote a vague, hasty post about an embarrassing personal experience with forgetting to fact-check sources.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I need to check my attitude and get my act together. It is ridiculous to turn in a blog portfolio so many days late when I could have turned it in on time if I only put in more work sooner. Though I am happy with my consistency with Riskiness and Intertextuality and my increase in Depth, my struggle with Timeliness worries me, because this is a problem that carries over to other classes. There is no point to doing good work if nobody gets to see it, and in the real world, lateness to submit has costly consequences. Last year I missed out on a job opportunity because I was late to reply back, putting my J-term coursework before updating my resume. I need to learn to prioritize work even if it doesn’t interest me, for the sake of turning it in on time. The only other option would be faking my death and avoiding work under some other identity.
