Woah

It just sort of dawned on me that I am almost done with my first college news writing class.  It's crazy to think that just a few short months ago, I walked into Hamilton Smith with nothing but a dream of becoming a journalist, and now I really feel like I am on my way to achieving that dream.
Obviously I know I still have a long road ahead of me, but it has been so rewarding to see myself grow and improve over the past semester.  I went from having virtually no idea how to even begin a news story, to being able to crank out 600 pretty decent words in a short amount of time.
I know I still have a lot to improve on, but if I was able to learn this much in one semester, I have a lot of hope for what the next couple of years could hold for me.
Whether I became a writer for the New York Times, or end up being an anonymous internet blogger for the rest of my life, I am grateful for this experience and for all I am taking away from it.

What happened to Thanksgiving?

Yesterday while I was enjoying eating, drinking, and celebrating Thanksgiving with my family, I realized something about the holiday.  I know the Friday after Thanksgiving, or "Black Friday", has been a huge event for awhile now, but it seems to me that it is slowly taking over Thanksgiving.  I kept seeing ads on TV for stores that were opening at midnight and staying open all night, and even some that were planning to be open earlier than that.  In addition, I received about a hundred E-mails from different stores advertising online sales they were having "Thanksgiving Day only."  It just made me sad to think that we as Americans are slowly turning a holiday that is supposed to be about family, sharing, and being thankful into another excuse to be consumers.  Don't get me wrong, I love shopping as much as the next girl, and I have fun taking part in the Black Friday deals.  But I just think it is important to remember what the day of Thanksgiving is really about, and not get caught up in savings and coupons and new televisions.

Still a Little Flustered

I know the elections are over, but I still find myself getting frustrated over the extremism that I've heard surrounding both Mitt Romney and President Obama.  Obviously it doesn't apply to everyone, but so many people I've spoken to have said things to the effect of "well Obama won, so I guess I'll never have a job."  Or, "I'm glad Romney didn't win, I like having rights as a woman."
I know that these things have been the punchline of many political jokes, and not everyone who makes the reference actually believes that it's true.  In addition, I personally believe that both these statements have some amount of truth in their roots.
However, I wonder how many voters may have actually made their choice based solely on these two things.  It angers me because after all the research I did prior to the election, I know that there is so much more to the issues than these two extremes.  It just seems almost ignorant to me to make such sweeping statements, regardless of one's personal opinion on the two men.

How do they do it?

Although I do feel like I am becoming a much stronger news writer, the thing I still really struggle with is keeping my own opinions out of the things I write.  I am a very opinionated person to begin with, and writing about certain issues really sets me off.  Sometimes when reading over my stories, I notice that I slip my opinion in without even realizing.  Usually it's in a pretty sneaky way, if I do say so myself.  However I know that this is a habit that I really need to get myself away from.
I'm wondering how professional journalists keep from doing this in their own stories.  Do most journalists have this problem when they first start out?  Is it just something that you get better at over time? Or maybe I'm just much too opinionated of a person to really be successful at this, (although I'm hoping that's not the case).  I'm going to try and challenge myself these next couple weeks, by writing about things I feel strongly about, and seeing how well I can keep my opinions to myself.

Still a Victim

Ever since the somewhat skeptical release which stated that Lizzi Marriott may have been killed during an orgy, I have noticed a bit of a change in people's attitude towards her death.  It seemed before that everyone was incredibly sympathetic and viewed Lizzi as a poor and innocent victim.  However, I feel like the possibility that she could have been involved in something like an orgy, has made people view her as less of a victim.
This is upsetting to me because I personally believe that Lizzi is a victim no matter what the circumstances surrounding her murder were.  Whether or not she was involved in sexual activity really isn't the business of anyone else, and shouldn't give anyone the right to judge her.
I hope that this observation is incorrect, but it is definitely something that has been hard for me to ignore.

Exciting Night

I just felt like I couldn't blog today without talking about the thrilling and incredibly close election that went on last night.  This presidential election was particularly exciting for me because it was the first one that I was able to vote in.  I'll keep my own personal views out of here, but I will say that I felt very strongly about the candidate I selected and watching the projected winner change back and forth was both exhilarating and incredibly nerve-racking.    In addition, this election particularly interested me because I felt that the candidates were very very different from one another, and almost, if not all Americans felt pretty strongly about the winner.
I was actually planning on doing a blog during the last hour of the vote counting, just to practice covering a large and important event.  However, once it began getting close, I found myself much too absorbed to tear my eyes away from the television screen.
I'm incredibly grateful that I got the opportunity to witness and be a part of this event and I hope there are many more exciting elections in my future.

Bias in the news?

Just like millions of other Americans, I have been following the election updates since the polls opened early this morning.  While doing so however, I've noticed some interesting things about the tendencies of certain news stations.  I've been looking at a few different news websites including MSNBC, CNN, and FOX.  It seems to me that while CNN is heavily focused on Obama, MSNBC and FOX are more interested in what is going on with Romney.  In addition, some of the language used in discussing the election seems like it may have a hint of bias towards one candidate or another.  For example, the headline of a recently published story on MSNBC.com reads "As voters head to the polls, Romney Ryan keep campaigning." 

It's just a personal opinion, and I could be wrong, but it seems to me that these news organizations may be reporting and publishing in a somewhat biased manner.  This is interesting to me because I know we've talked about how important it is for journalists to stay neutral in their reporting.  I'd love to know if anyone else noticed this as well.

Full of Excitement

I know this blog doesn't have much to do with news, but I just couldn't help myself.  The past couple weeks I have finally felt myself improve in my news writing.  I've been struggling a lot this year trying to convert the creative and opinionated writing style I have become so accustomed to, into proper news story language.  It's been frustrating and a little discouraging for me, especially because I've always been so excited to go into journalism.  But with the last couple stories I've written, I've really noticed the improvement not only in my writing itself, but in my ability to contact sources and gather information.  I feel as if I am slowly becoming a real journalist!  Even though I still have a long way to go, it feels great to be heading in the right direction.