At the San Fran college media convention some of us at the Reporter currently attended I didn't learn a lot about journalism I didn't already know. This could have been due to some poor workshop choices on my part, but what I did learn was to appreciate the quality of the writing and staff at the Reporter.
I was astounded by how some of the other college paper staff conducted themselves during workshops. People interrupted the actual speakers, made rude comments, sat in the front row and texted for the length of the session in clear sight. Now I'll be the first to admit that a few of the sessions were painful to sit through, but it's 50 minutes of wasted time-life goes on. Some of the speakers or other students and advisers in the sessions could be future contacts or networking opportunities. There were so many students making poor decisions that reflected not only on them but on their entire paper.
Also, while some of the other college newspapers there were something to see, more often than not I was happy with the overall quality of the MSU Reporter. Other papers might have had really gripping front pages or layout ideas we could emulate but I feel we have a pretty good grip on at least the writing side of things. It's a shame we couldn't bring any awards home.
One thing I did learn from the convention...it was in relation to sports but I think it could work for any type of story. The speaker stressed that the story isn't always in the press release or what's going on on the stage. He gave the example of a new sports reporter that blew it and missed an interview with the star of the game. In desperation the reporter grabbed an old man who cleaned the courts after all the games. Turns out he had worked there so long and knew all the inside information and stories that the reporter ended up saving his job and producing a great segment. Anyway, moral of the story is to look outside the box for the story within the story.
"What convinces is conviction"- LBJ
About the blogger
- Jones-z
- Mankato State University Junior majoring in public relations and/or journalism, minoring in psychology
1 comment:
On a semi-related subject .... I don't know if MSU mass comm students are typical of mass comm students across the nation, but I'm continually amazed at some of the students I see in our mass comm program who quite simply don't have a clue when it comes to writing, or AP style, or storytelling, etc. I remember Prof. Rossow basically complaining about the same thing when I talked to him once after a Media Writing I class.
He had specifically told the class -- again and again -- to avoid what I believe he called the "old news" lede when writing stories about speeches or other events. And yet most of the class ended up doing the exact thing Rossow told students not to do in their speech stories! He couldn't understand it. I don't understand it either.
Anyway, I digress. Obviously I have a lot to improve on myself, but I recognize that and try to work on that. It irritates me when I see other mass comm students not do the same. I think a large part of it has to do with the fact that many students -- including mass comm journalism students -- simply don't do enough reading these days. They don't read long newspaper stories or magazine features about serious topics or people, they don't read books, they don't read books about how to improve your writing, they just don't read anything that requires an attention span of more than five minutes, period. You can't substantially improve your own writing and storytelling if you never read what the great journalists and writers have written before you.
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