Course Review - Journalism

I have a love/hate relationship with Journalism classes.  They tend to annoy me because of all the guidelines that need following.  You can't just write a news story, you have to research the proper term for a word.  You also have to include only real facts without adding personal opinions.  While I realize that Journalism is a popular field, I only took two courses in it because it was required for my major, not because I liked it. In any case, one of the classes required for my major was a News Editing class, taught by Dr. Paula Quinn, a professor that I had for another Journalism class where I didn't do so great grade-wise.  I didn't like her in the former class at all, but I came to appreciate her capabilities as a teacher throughout this class. Dr. Quinn is a very interesting character.  You'll grow to enjoy her strange stories about aliens and conspiracies just as much as her lessons about editing.  She assigns a lot of paperwork to edit, which can be hard to finish if you are taking multiple classes per day, but they don't take too long.  Normally it's either editing a small news story or developing one of your own based on a pre-existing story.  Nothing too bad. The best part about the class was the actual work experience that we were able to do thanks to Dr. Quinn's associations with the Public Relations Department.  They were developing a small book about their team's travels and work experience in Barcelona, Spain.  The entire class took part in editing the book, which needed tons of work.  It was nice to see my edits and sentence changes in an actual book for once, and I found it to be enjoyable. Take Dr. Quinn if you're willing to work hard for your grade.  Ultimately, the class is worth it, and even gives you work experience to boast about before landing a permanent job.

A fact is that the journalism classes are not usually as interesting as the field of journalism is. The reason probably is that the good journalists are usually too busy working in the fields and poor journalists join universities and colleges. They do have academic soundness of minds because of their vast experiences of teaching at various places but they lack knowledge in the practical way. Practical knowledge is important as far as field of journalism is concerned. That is delivered by only few colleges and universities. Most of the educational institutes are in practice of teaching theory which include the basic concepts of journalism. In practical approach to teaching they teach the editing at the most. The good and bad practices of journalism along with inside knowledge usually do not come under discussion. Students are usually innocent and they don't know things that happen in the practical field. For the same reasons it is best to let them know about the ethics of business as well. That will groom up their personalities more and when they follow the profession of journalism at later stages then they would become better humans. Ethics of journalism should be taught as a separate course to students in that way.

During high school I worked at the local newspaper part time after school, giving me a real interest in journalism. So not only did I take this course, but it was my initial major. I wanted to be a sports writer, get to go to all the games and tell the tale. Live the dream. Eventually, my interests changed, which is a common story of a young person being surrounded by new and exciting things everyday. But I think this is a good course to take whether you have any intention of going into the field or not. It gives you a good perspective on the media in general.

Rizvi11 wrote: I took a course on Journalism when I was the student of class 11. I didn't want to be a Journalist, but I want to know the system of working of the journalist. This curiosity made me interested in taking this course. I thought that journalism is a very easy job! This course showed me the real life of a Journalist. They all are very good detective! (Keep far from Journalist! :D). But, really, the life of a journalist is very difficult, maybe most difficult. Journalism course taught me how to do well in this occupation. You cannot do well, if you are lazy. It was a basic course of Journalism. We came to know the basic way to do journalism. How the journalists complete their project, how to take a critical interview, how to talk with people, etc. I have learned a lot from this course. Journalist is a very interesting occupation. It is very challenging too. Every journalist should be very intelligent. Although I don't want to be a journalist, this course has taken away my misperception about journalism.  Journalism to me is one of the most powerful tools in life for many various reasons.  I took a course in journalism but dropped it and never took it again. I find your post candid and probably even true when it comes to misconceptions about journalism that a lot of people have, however, I think there are a lot of assumptions in the post that aren't very clear. Do you think journalism is the most difficult occupation or course in the world? I personally don't think you can do well in any occupation if you are lazy. Also, why do you think journalism is so challenging and important?

Although this course is not specifically designated as a Journalism course, it was one that was required of Journalism majors at my alma mater of University of Rhode Island. Journalism was such a swollen program that people were required to take other courses as a means of taking stress off of the over-burdened classes and professors. This course was taught by Professor Matthew Ortoleva who is also in charge of most of the scientific and technical writing courses offered at URI. In this course he required students to come up with a cause that they were firmly devoted to and thought needed a champion (I used vegan and vegetarianism), and to defend it through public writing methods throughout the term. Not only did he have us make brochures, write newspaper articles and send them to papers in our area, and write letters to public officials in our area advocating for our cause but at the end of the term he had us make a presentational booth and held a time for all of the writing department to come and take a look at them and ask us questions. Although this was a very rigorous and challenging course, I felt that it benefitted me in the end because it showed me that I could make a big difference with my words. It also showed me that language needs to be different to be considered official in the public sphere as opposed to within the scholarly realm.

College: Cuesta College Course: News Production Instructor: Prof. Howe This course worked on the production of the college newspaper The Cuestonian and was the reason why I changed my major from History to Agricultural Communications. Prof. Howe is a great advisor and gave excellent critiques to help improve the work of the paper, but always maintained that he was only an "advisor" and that the newspaper was ultimately left to our decisions as students and editors. The last semester that I worked with the Cuestonian, we were able to not only have a print edition, but we developed an online version with original online content. I was personally responsible for a lot of the online content, including a Jay Leno "Jaywalking" clone where student's across the campus were asked questions about student life. This course was an easy pass as long as you met deadlines on every edition (there are five per semester). Student's were required to turn in at least one article per edition along with a photo. Very easy work.  Course Score: 9/10; a great GPA booster and a lot of fun to do as well. If you are looking for an elective and you are a good writer, this is a must take and looks better on your resum than basketweaving. 

In my senior year of Mass Communications, I took a class called News Production. I was part of a class of twelve people where we reported on local campus news. Our news show aired on the local PBS station in the city.  My professor, who was also the Executive Producer, was very strict on deadlines and stories. if he didn't like our video clips, interviews or stand-ups he would make us redo the package before the due date. The class was very cut edge because everyone obtained their own interviews, shot  their own video footage, and edited their own video. On top of that, we rotated roles of director, teleprompter, audio director, floor director, camera operator and producer. Each person was basically a one-man-band. Editorial meetings were tedious but quite short because we were always rushing out to do work int he field.  One story I can remember in particular that I did was on the Westboro Baptist Church protestors. I woke up extremely early to get my day started to basically stalk them around the city. I ended up shooting at two churches where they were on site and shooting later on that evening at an event they held on my campus. I had about 30 minutes worth of video which I trimmed down to a 1 minute and  45 second package. I completed all my interviews, shooting, voice-overs, editing and script writing within four days. It was the greatest experience I've had in a journalism class thus far! You will really have a chance to learn the up and downs of this field in an actual hands-on TV/Print class. At that moment, you will really discover your strengths and weaknesses in the field.