The Life of a Student Reporter

Social media is growing more than ever and is rapidly gaining a portion of our attention every day. But, how is social media impacting the work you do and not just your personal life? I have come to notice that now, especially, the news industry wouldn't be where it is today without social media. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram allow reporters, photographers and journalists to push out information to their audience in a moments notice. And because of that, people are demanding more and want things now, not at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. when the newscast actually happens. A month or two ago I talked about getting social as an anchor for WUFT and mentioned a few ideas I had to build upon my viewership and to engage the viewers and followers I currently have. But I feel like there is so much more I can do, but how? What is considered interesting to a viewer? Are there things that will gain more attention? If so, do those posts or stories have an underlying theme...

As I've mentioned in my recent blog posts, I was getting ready for a few interviews with a couple of news stations. They all went pretty well and although nothing really came from those interviews in terms of a job or internship, they've allowed me to gain more experience talking with employers and have allowed me to understand the interviewing process more than before. However, I didn't just go into those interviews blindly. I did my research and looked up a few tips to help get me through the process. So, today I thought I'd share some of those tips in case you might be preparing for an interview of your own pretty soon. The first step is preparing for the interview and the possible interview questions that might get thrown your way.  Below are a few things Experis suggests you should go over before your interview. Research the company and person you are interviewing for Sure this may sound pretty basic and common sense but a lot of people get so caught up i...

I know I have talked about this before a while back on my blog , however, recently I have felt the urge to do LITERALLY NOTHING. I don’t know if it’s because I’m starting the whole “senioritis” phase in school (*cough cough 197 days left until I graduate*) or if it’s because I have been running around campus all week trying to finish my investigative project, do interviews, teach my class and doing homework. Let’s be real, it’s probably just a combination of all of the above. However, what do you do when you have so much left to complete but have NO desire to do anything? Right now I’m stuck in this dilemma. I have meetings tomorrow on campus, I have a LARGE paper due tomorrow for an online class but all I want to do is just hang out on the couch, watch TV and be lazy. I have found a great article from Psychology Today about how to overcome your lack of desire and tips on how to change your frame of mind in these situations. In the article, Heidi Grant Halvorson explains how oft...

UF's College of Journalism and Communications hosts a Career Day for students every semester in hopes of connecting students to industry professionals across the state of Florida. As someone who is in the telecommunication field, it is very hard to find an employer at a regular job event across campus so each year I have attended the CJC's Career Day in hopes of expanding my network as well as possibly gaining an internship or job. This semester, our Career Day will take place on October 17, which is only a week away. In order to prepare for the event, I have updated my resume, created numerous cover letters to hand out and also updated my newsreel. Plus, I have requested to interview with three employers who are all hiring for positions in their newsrooms. Of the 70+ employers listed, I applied with WJXT (news station in Jacksonville), WMBB (news station in Panama City) and WFLA (news station in Tampa). Although I'm not sure yet if they will accept my request and schedul...

Recently, I finished reading Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug and I was relieved to know that a lot of what I have been taught and told to do through my journalism and telecommunication classes at the University of Florida fall very much in line with what Krug has suggested one should do when it comes to designing a website or software program. At the end of the day, our message in the newsroom is simple and I’m sure Krug would agree, don’t make the viewers think, do the thinking for them. As someone pursuing news, I have been constantly told to keep news features and packages short and sweet, to include enough information to make a story complete but don’t include too much where it’ll overwhelm someone, plus to make everything as streamline as possible. Of course, this all sounds so confusing and contradictory at first, but I think Krug did a great job overall of explaining how one can manage to accomplish all those tasks without overcomplicating the process ...