Long overdue internship announcement

Since May, I have been interning at The Gainesville Sun. I interviewed with one of the editors twice at the college’s job fair and heard I was accepted in May. I was thrilled! It’s been an amazing experience and I have so much to write about.

I periodically send an internship report about how things are going to the dean of the college. I’ll be posting them here.

Internship Report 1

     These past few weeks at The Gainesville Sun have been eye-opening. I have visited a second-grade classroom at Rawlings Elementary, a pre-kindergarten classroom at Queen of Peace Catholic Academy and a building in construction on the UF Eastside campus. I chatted with a local lawyer at his office about his experiences on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” I have done countless interviews by phone and written a couple stories.
     One of the most interesting aspects of my internship has been being in the newsroom. Though it is less full and chaotic than I expected, the air is charged with excitement for breaking news. Reporters and editors like to fill the room with amusing commentary. When tragedies occur, reporters act swiftly.
     As cliche as it sounds, I’ve learned that everyone makes mistakes. We all cringe at them but we all make them. Fact errors, are, unfortunately, a part of life. I have made a few errors and I have seen others in the newsroom make some too. Though they bring me to journalistic despair, I know I need to move on. Journalists don’t have time to sulk. I am extremely meticulous but these errors have forced me to be even more careful, not just when inserting facts into a story from my notes, but also when listening to people spell out their names.
     I am extremely lucky to have fantastic editors who help me sharpen my skills. One of my editors said she appreciates my attention to detail but wants me to step back and look at the bigger picture. She is dead-on about my traits, both in reporting and in my personality. Sometimes I get caught up in facts, figures or interesting tidbits and forget why people should read the story, what makes it a story worth telling. In the next few months, I hope to cultivate that sense of stepping back and developing the “why” of each story.

Lesson learned! No more fact errors since the minor mistakes I made in that second week. Though I’m only a few weeks shy of wrapping up this internship, I’ll still share my experiences here (as cliche as it is, better late than never!).

The Storytellers’ Summit

I walked into the newsroom today ready to write.

Ready to make words sing and dance and twist and shout.
Ready to meet new people and hand out business cards at restaurants, hair salons and to strangers on benches.
Ready to write and edit until the grammar is immaculate, the cadence is beautiful, the rhythm is perfect.

Ready to weave stories from daily encounters and a lifetime of stored memories.

This newfound dose of confidence and excitement is a product of this past weekend’s Storyteller’s Summit, sponsored by UF’s College of Journalism and Communications.

I heard enough advice for a lifetime.
Or a weekend. After all, journalism is both a craft and an art, which means learning never ends.

I met Rick Bragg, who first enchanted me three years ago with his stories in Somebody Told Me.

I heard Michael Connelly talk about his childhood and his role in the development of an upcoming movie based on one of his novels.

I heard the language artist Roy Peter Clark give his tips on writing well.

And I was inspired by Lane DeGregory’s tenacity and creativity.

I’ll be writing all about the speakers and the workshops soon.

Busy Busy Busy

The curtain is about to close on the fall semester and I can hardly figure out where the time has gone.

This project, my personal Web site, which is like a portfolio, took up a great chunk of time and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

Peek into my cyber portal for a while while I write a 2000 word article for my health writing class, create another Web site and complete a massive project for fact finding.

Internet Endeavors Part 2

Revised Proposal

I decided that my Web site on relaxation will target college students. I am very familiar with the life of a constantly busy college student and I am going to focus on that type of lifestyle.

I plan on conducting interviews on a therapist who can inform me about stress and the importance of relaxation as a means of reducing stress. I also want to talk to a medical professional who can give me a medical view on why taking time to relax is something we should all do. Also, I will interview students with different types of schedules and ask them how they manage stress and relax. There will either be video or audio for the interviews.

I will have pages titled about, benefits, sources, yoga, music, exercise and nature. I may also have a page for more relaxation techniques.

The pages will go in depth about these methods of reducing stress and I may include videos of people actually participating in these methods.

Internet Endeavors Part 1

In my Communications on the Internet class, I just made a personal Web site. It took hours of hand-coding and I am proud of how it turned out. I’ll post the link soon. For my final project in the course, I will be making another Web site on a topic that is explanatory journalism. I need to record my development of my project and I figured this blog was a great place to do it.

The series will be called Internet Endeavors and will include:

1. A proposal for the project
2. A revised proposal
3. Outline of content
4. Map of Web pages in site
5. A wireframe image
6. Design of the Web site

And now, on to Part 1.

Project Proposal

Everybody knows how busy life can be sometimes. From college students to professionals, people have a hard time letting go and relaxing. My final project will be about relaxation. I will define what it is, why it’s important, what benefits it has, and what methods people can use to relax.

My audience will be loosely based on college students because I will use examples they can relate to and keep them in mind when coming up with examples. There are other sites out there that have to do with relaxation but I haven’t found a comprehensive one like the one I am proposing.

I will enhance the site with video and audio of interviews with professionals and students. Expert advice will add credibility to the site and a “person on the street” perspective will help visitors relate. I plan on interviewing students about what they do to relax and how much time they take out of their day to just breathe.

The Web is a perfect platform for this type of story because I can link to different articles or sites and compile a breadth of information in one place that’s easy to navigate and understand.

The site will be informative and will be presented in an entertaining, unique way. My objectives for the site are for visitors to learn about relaxation and know how to implement the tips I include.

“Don’t worry, be happy” isn’t just a song. It should be something we all strive for. Relaxing is a vital way of reducing stress, which leads to all kinds of health problems. My hope is that people who visit my site will come away with tools to battle against stress, negativity and anger. The art of relaxation is necessary for improvement of overall mind and body wellness.

The multimedia craze in journalism

It’s been the talk of the journalism world recently. People have been in a frenzy discussing the future of the industry. Will print newspapers one day fade into oblivion? In the age of online journalism, iPhone news applications, Twitter, Digg, and the plethora of media outlets and ways of spreading news, what will become of traditional journalism? These are all questions we face. I am confident that journalism will never diminish, but that it just may come in different forms. People will always want to know what’s going on. People will always want to tell their story or read the stories of other people. What we do as journalists will never be less of a value in society. We just have so many more options for distributing stories.

Last semester, I took a course that was offered in conjunction with reporting. It was the first time the college offered a course quite like this one. In Multimedia Reporting, we completed two audio projects, one Soundslides project, and a video project. The work was intensely time consuming. Using Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, we edited audio and video. The skills were not diffiicult to learn but the projects did take several hours to complete.

Now I am taking Communications on the Internet which I am very excited about. In this course, we will learn basic web design with Cascading Stylesheets (CSS), Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML), Photoshop and audio editing. I will also build two Web sites—one that is personal and one that is explanatory journalism.

Now that I know a few multimedia skills, I am thrilled to be able to apply them to stories I write. And after this semester, I should be able to design Web sites which I have always wanted to learn.

I think all the multimedia and new media are extremely beneficial to journalism. Now the news is so much more interactive. On news Web sites, people can comment on articles and can decide which news they want to be delievered to their e-mail inbox or Google reader. Through videos and audio slideshows, journalists can show and not just tell. I love seeing multimedia packages as a companion to a well-written and well-reported article. The innovation in the forms of new media is tremendous and makes storytelling so much more dynamic.

At the same time, I think journalists and students need to always remember the importance of basic reporting skills. One of my fears with the advent of multimedia is for students to develop savvy internet skills and let their reporting slide. This is something that we should never let happen. Journalism is like fine cuisine—it doesn’t matter how flashy and fascinating the presentation may be, if the substance isn’t appetizing, it’s worthless. Presentation will never outweigh accuracy, truth and other tenets of good reporting. As long as this is kept intact, I am fascinated by multimedia and can’t wait to learn more.

“It’s all storytelling, you know. That’s what journalism is all about.”

-Tom Brokaw

One in 8 million is an awesome example of using audio and pictures in a slideshow to tell stories. I also love how each story focuses on a unique person. Most are not famous or particulary noteworthy. Many are normal people you might find on the Subway—people who have a story to tell. And the New York Times gives them a voice in this news project.

The Boston Globe created this outstanding special on Ted Kennedy. The video was moving and heartfelt and the music spectacular. The writing is poignant. An overall fine piece of journalism.

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Life during Reporting

The first day, I inspected the area surrounding my computer. Knowing I would be spending a significant amount of time in that exact spot, it had to be perfect. I adjusted the screen a millimeter or two, checked the keyboard for dust and made sure my chair was comfortable.

I was ready.

That was the day I began my journey into the depths of reporting. It was the class journalism students were taught to dread since the day we walked into Weimer Hall.

My lab professor, Dr. Roosenraad, helped put me at ease that day—he seemed nice and eager to help.

And oh, the help I would need.

So what was life during reporting like?

I wrote story after story in a relentless but heart-wrenching cycle. I made mistake after mistake. I pitched and pitched and pitched. I got turned down. As soon I turned in an article, I needed to decide on a topic for the next week’s assignment. I committed another fact error, something I thought I would never do again after the one I made in Writing for Mass Communication. I went to lecture after lecture where Professor Foley both taught with fervor and passion and entertained with his wit and humor. I canceled plan after plan and sent a Facebook message to my friends apologizing and explaining my unavailability. My life was consumed. I went to lab after lab where I tried to do well on my in-class stories. I saw numerical values on my grade sheet that almost put me into shock. I saw red lines and doodles on my pages—where I had fuzzy article organization or sentence structure—which would make any student cringe. I went to campus event after campus event. I read everything I could. I sent e-mails, talked to scores of sources and embarrassed myself at interviews. I cried. I laughed. I typed. I didn’t sleep. I breathed AP style.

But I survived.

And through it all, I can say that it was an awesome experience. Was it easy? No. Was it worth it? Yes. I learned so much. I gained basic reporting skills. I made new friends (the people who sat next to me in lab). I grasped the essentials. I read through an amazing textbook. I heard from professional journalists in class who inspired me with their journeys. I rekindled the fire for journalism within me. I realized how much I want to write—how much I want to expose the truth and tell stories and be the voice of the voiceless.

Because in the end, journalists are just that. Storytellers. And reporting helped me learn how to tell a story.

But I’m glad it’s over. Now I can continue with my own story. I can delve into different facets of journalism as I expand my knowledge and experience.

And though sometimes I reflect on the computer area I spent so much time in, I know there is much more writing, storytelling and reporting to come.

The start of a new season.

And no, I’m not just talking about another round of Gator football.

I’m referring to a brand new semester—a new season in my career, my education and my life.

I love new beginnings. I love knowing that children around the state have stocked their JanSports with shiny new school supplies and have started to to jot down, earnestly for now, their homework assignments in a new planner.

It’s only Thursday and the warm appeal of the first week of school has yet to wear off on me.

I am extremely excited about the school year—my professors are well-known, accomplished professionals. And they’re funny. My journalism classes—Communications on the Internet, Fact Finding, and Writing for Health and Fitness— are classes I have wanted to take for a while and I am thrilled about all the new techniques and skills I will be learning.

Before I dish further about my new classes, I am going to review the courses I took last semester.

That’s whats coming up.

Summer

This summer I am back in my parent’s nest; living off their food and reaping the benefits of free rent. I am also hard at work though.

I work summers at a very fun seasonal job. With the economy the way it is, a couple of my friends haven’t been able to even find a job to last them for the three month hiatus from school.

I should have been blogging much more frequently but I have been working and spending time with family quite a bit.

I usually come home early so I spend my afternoons reading the news online and searching for journalism resources. I have found a myriad of wonderful tools for breaking into the profession, becoming a freelance writer and staying afloat while the media industry becomes awash.

These sites give me hope. Young journalists telling their fascinating tales of having trouble paying the rent but embarking on freelance ventures. Landing internships and sharing their advice on how to learn as much as possible. Older journalists who have successfully built freelancing businesses.

I know times are rough right now and times are definitely changing, but I am so excited with all the opportunities of this industry. Even a lack of opportunities proves to be a challenge I am eager to embark on.

With two years left at a renowned journalism school, I plan on taking a variety of classes where I can continue to learn so much more about journalism. Designing Web sites, videos, sideshows, learning how to photograph, writing for magazines and newspapers—all tenets of the media industry.

This summer I am earning money for school and arming myself with knowledge. I intend on learning as much as I possibly can about this world I have such a passion for.

The world of telling stories.

Check out these informative and blogs.

The Independent Journalist—A Society of Professional Journalists blog.

Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists

-Tatiana