I enjoy journalism because it allows me to contribute to the school in a way that is interesting to me. I know that the newspaper, yearbook and now even the website are some of the services that students actually appreciate and I feel happy to know that I am somebody who brings it to them. I got started in Journalism through trying to follow in my sister’s footsteps. I saw how much she enjoyed being part of an organization, so I developed a plan to join yearbook, just like her. I signed up for Journalism I, determined to be as talented at yearbook as Vivien. As the weeks passed in journalism class, I realized the amount of work that would come with yearbook. I also saw the stress of deadlines as I witnessed people crying in front of computer screens. By the end of Journalism I, I no longer had the desire to join the yearbook staff. I did not want to deal with the stress of publications at all. But then I decided that perhaps Mass Media would allow me to enjoy the benefits of journalism, without the stress. Mass Media allowed me to gain more journalism experience and gradually introduced me to the stress and importance of deadlines. Through Mass Media, I have developed experience and confidence in journalism. To journalism I think I have contributed as a person who is eager for the success of the website. I hope in that my future with Boone publications I will see more people drawn to hilights.org and contribute to the success and improvement of it, as well as that of the newspaper.
In Journalism this year I have learned about deadlines, dedication, pride and teamwork. Dedication is one of the most important traits I have taken from my publication this year. In some aspects, I have not been very dedicated. I have missed deadlines and lost points because I did not put hilights.org at the top of my priorities. However, my issues with dedication this year have taught me the importance of it. I have also developed pride in the publication. I enjoyed seeing the site working and noticing that people had answered polls, read and commented on stories, liked hilights.org on Facebook, or purchased a photo on Smugmug, Even if a student not recognized a piece of my work, I was proud that my fellow staffers and the website itself was gaining recognition. This year on publications allowed me to enjoy working with others more so thatn I did before. Although most of my assignments were done alone, I enjoyed helping other people with interviews and headshots when they needed my help. I also enjoyed reading other staffers work, such as Chase’s sports column. The skills I learned on the hilights.org staff are going to be helpful later on in life. It has helped me build skills necessary to Jobs I may have as an adult. The lessons of working with others, pride in myself and my staff’s work and the importance of deadlines and dedication are all lessons that I am glad to take away from this experience.
My most significant contribution to hilights.org this year was my review of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I am proud of this piece because I think it is interesting and funny. I think it is a review that could influence a person’s decision to see a film. This review started off as short and not very interesting. I was having a difficult time organizing all of my thoughts. After I submitted this review to Mark, I began to focus on making the review the best it could be. I included more of my opinions and expanded on certain points. I think that doing this made the piece more informative and entertaining. Through this assignment I learned about the review process. I learned that in order to effectively review something you must give much feedback and many of your opinions. I particularly like the finished product because it is everything that a product of hilights.org should be. It has multiple links, an interesting graphic and a correct caption. It is also a good length for a web article. Overall, I believe that this story is perfect for the web and is a good representation of my writing style.
My weakest piece this year is my Test Prep story. This story was way too short and did not include many test tips. It was also confusing and kind of off topic. This is a story that I would love to improve upon. I believe the reason that I did not do well on this story is that I did not use my time efficiently. My story was submitted way past deadline. I was in desperate need for points and this story was not done with quality in mind. It became a big source of stress for me at the time and I was just ready to get it done. This story taught me about time management. It showed me that if I do not plan my time then I would have more stress and a story that I am not proud of. It also taught me that I need more than one interview for a successful, informative and clear news story. If I had the chance to improve upon this piece I would present the test tips in a better way, instead of the one sentence at the bottom. I would have also interviewed one of the current test prep teachers. Looking back on this piece, I am disappointed in myself. I wish I would have created a piece that demonstrates my writing abilities better and that I would be proud to say is mine.
I enjoy this photo because of its depth of field and its rule of thirds. Â
I am proud of this photo because I think that is shows good action and there is repetition. This photo catches my eye because it is of an interesting and usual event.
I like this photo because I think it shows good depth of field as well as a strong CVI.
As this was one of the first years that hilights.org was up and running, I think my role was contributing stories to a growing website. I was glad to be part of hilights.org this year because it has become such a great website by having two reviews and several news stories up. The success of the website is in part because of the amount of items available to view. This year I also contributed soundslides and reservation conversations. Before this year, there were a limited number of these on the site. I think videos attract viewers and my contribution may have led to increased readership for the site. To gain more viewers, I told many of my friends to visit the website. I “liked� hilights.org on Facebook and liked many of the stories posted on our Facebook page so that my Facebook friends could see my activity. This led to our page and site getting out to multiple people. Overall I believe that I contributed to the increased readership of our website and the improved content of hilights.org.
This year, I faced the stress of missed deadlines and assignments. I was both stressed because of these stories that I either did not complete of turn in because of the points that I would loose and the effect it would have on my grade. I was also disappointed in myself for procrastinating. I had trouble with completing a couple of my news stories and my Photoshop packets. From these situations I learned that in every class, I must be prepared and put the same amount of effort and time into all classes. I did not put enough emphasis on the work that needed to be done for hilights.org. Next year, if I am on the newspaper staff, I will try to prevent these problems from ever arising again. I will organize my time and put in the proper amount of effort. Overall, I did not handle the situation very well. Most of my assignments that I procrastinated on did not end up being posted. The ones that did end up being posted were unclear and not something that I was proud of. This problem has caused me to want to excel in publications and work harder on all of my assignments, even those in other classes.
My greatest weakness was organization. At the mid-term, I was constantly losing papers and missing assignments because I had not written them down. I believe that I have improved my organization in this class and the results have shown. The first thing I did to improve my organization was getting a notebook for the class. I kept all of the papers that I would need for the story that I was turning in that week. After I did this, it was easier for me to make the corrections that Mark or Mrs. Burke suggested. Before, I would lose the corrected paper, but since I have been using a notebook, I have not yet lost a corrected paper. I also began keeping a notebook for all of my past assignments. Since they are all in one place, I can easily provide Mrs. Burke with a grade sheet when she needs one. For certain assignments, I kept a calendar. This let me know when an assignment was due. For the assignments I actually did write down, this helped me remember when assignments were due and a couple were actually turned in on time. Improving my organization has helped me improve my work both in mass media, and the other classes in my school day.
DM17. Entertainment review. I would like this piece to represent me because I believe that it is my best and most entertaining review. I think this piece represents my style as a journalist.
DM17. Entertainment review. I think that this review is also a good piece to represent me and my writing style. I believe that this is an interesting and entertaining movie review Â
DM44. Photo and audio slideshow. I would like this piece to represent me because I think that it is my best soundslide this year. I believe that it is informative and interesting for a viewer to watch. Â
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