Reflections on Journalism

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Family, friends mourn loss of Powell children

Family, friends mourn loss of Powell children
Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, died in the tragedy

I first heard the news yesterday morning when I picked up the newspaper. When I arrived at my Advanced Print Reporting class, Professor Campbell announced that we were going to "swarm" the story - meaning we were going to cover this breaking news with an article for the Universe. I volunteered to write, others volunteered to interview different people, and we saw what we could accomplish in an hour. My classmate Rebecca finished writing the story when I had to go to work. She ended up writing most of it.

Sad news; good learning experience.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Comedy Sportz reprint

My feature on COMEDY SPORTZ was reprinted in the Daily Universe today; the whole Friday 411 was dedicated to Twenty Provo, the website we started in Dr. Randle's class.

COMEDY SPORTZ: Where random rules

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The history of Mormonism in Mexico. And the Space Center

Two more articles published on Twenty Twenty Provo:

Museum of Mormon Mexican History
Fly with the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

My take on The Alloy of Law

Book review: The Alloy of Law

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Speaking from the proverbial soap box

There's a definite sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when you see your name in print under a paper, article or even blog post and you know it's destined for the eyes of somebody besides you, who wrote it. I don't think I'll ever tire of it. I was so excited about getting published in the Deseret News on Saturday. It feels really nice to work hard on something and have somebody notice what you did. Like when my roommate won a Kindle from a blogging contest a few weeks ago (she writes really well; I love her writing because it's creative). Or when a friend was in the newspaper because she was a Sterling Scholar in high school. Or when my brother and his friend advanced to the national history fair and both our families got to visit Washington, D.C. for a couple days.

With journalism, I am keenly aware of the added responsibility I have to publish the truth and its relevance to people within the typical "readership" of the publication as well as all over the world (thanks, Internet). I take that challenge seriously. It takes a lot of hard work and effort to gather enough information for each story that you can write it in context, with minimal dramatization, representing each voice the best you can. I don't expect to please everyone, but I do expect to please myself. If I can satisfy my journalistic conscience that I portrayed the story the best I could, I can withstand any reasonable criticism.

Even though sometimes it's hard to live with that responsibility, I love what I am doing. And honestly, what kind of job doesn't have some degree of responsibility? Each worker bee is important - the trick is recognizing the good that can come from your contribution.