Reflective Journal

Over the course of the next few months, I’ll be covering some local Edmonton Politics specifically in the Edmonton Centre district. I’ll be reflecting on some of the things I’ve learned as a student journalist in class and updating my experiences here!

Beat Reporting

This week was especially beneficial to me because I’ll be embarking on my first real job as a beat reporter. I was recently granted full credentials for the upcoming Edmonton Oil Kings season and will be attempting to gather stories from the top of the organization all the way down. Some of the challenges I’m anticipating facing are making those initial contacts within the organization while also trying to get stories on other teams. I also don’t have the luxury of travelling with the team so I’ll only be able to watch the team live at home, and typically teams fair much better at home than they do on the road. So I plan on combating that roadblock by following the Oil Kings on social media and reading their recaps along with the broadcast team who follows them. Another way I plan on getting a better reading on the team is by watching the game recaps the WHL puts up after each game. I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity and the challenges I’ll face in getting better stories and scoops that more experienced and connected journalists have.

Dean Bennett

Having Dean Bennett come in this week was pretty cool being able to pick his brain on certain industry secrets with politics and sports. I wish I was able to ask him a little about his sports reporting since that’s the career I’m pursuing to a certain extent, however, I thought his insights into how he blocks out the noise of other stories and focuses in the best story for his audience was a great tip in the industry. He also touched on some tricks to get politicians or athletes to either answer your question or get something quotable for your story that your readers would like to hear. Asking the question a few times or rephrasing it would definitely help me when I’m interviewing hockey players who are notorious for giving bland answers like “give 100%,” and “it was a team effort.” 

Sheena Rossiter

I’m not sure that radio journalism or podcasting is ever an avenue that would seriously interest me for my career going forward. However after doing a few journalism jobs now I’m quickly understanding it’s incredibly valuable to have a wide range of skillsets that can be valuable in a work setting. Being able to take photographs, use adobe programs, edit and take audio or footage are things that will really round out your journalism abilities. So with that said even the little workshop we did with taking audio and learning about their mechanisms was definitely valuable information to have. I feel better prepared if an employer asks me if I’m able to take audio clips now and I’ve already had a job situation where I’ve been asked to take photos for the MacEwan hockey games and I was able to say that I probably could do that because of the photojournalism class I took. So I think anytime I can learn a little more about different journalism jobs is always valuable and worthwhile for me.

Political Ideas

Getting into our groups and talking about political story ideas has been challenging. I’m not well versed in the political landscapes, but hearing other people talk about issues that matter to them and their own ideas has helped me think of different angles I can take. Although I’m pursuing sports journalism, politics and crime also interest me and I think adding some knowledge in other fields would be beneficial to rounding out my reporter knowledge and overall portfolio. I want to become a better reporter and I think by challenging myself with stories that are outside of my comfort level helps me grow.

Ledes

 “We are not responsible for lost items.” A popular sign seen across various tourist attractions all over the world is usually meant for people, not monkeys. This curious George was able to steal a patron’s phone while enjoying the natural hot springs in Jigokudani Park, Japan. I quite enjoyed writing that headline during an exercise in class and I’ve found my headline or lede writing has always been the weakest part of my writing ability. It’s something I work really hard on. I’m constantly asking for feedback with professors or industry professionals on my published work and I feel that has helped me a lot. Some advice I’ve gotten from Jefferson Hagen who’s my boss at MacEwan Athletics has been especially helpful. Probably the biggest thing I’ve taken away from his advice is to not force anything. If there is something clever to say go for it, but never force it.

Editing

I’ve never been the best self-editor, so instead of being able to do a second or third draft on my writing, I’ve always just tried to implement the advice from peers, professors or industry professionals. By that I mean, I think everyone has a certain writing style and it’s hard to pick up on your own bad writing habits. So to combat that, every time I get feedback or edits by someone the next time I write, I’ll make sure that advice makes it way into my writing to try and create better habits. I think this has helped cut down on my own bad grammar or bad habits, but obviously no one is perfect and a second set of eyes is always valuable. That’s clearly the reason we have editors and I think you’re doing yourself a disservice to your own writing if you’re not open to that constructive criticism. As much as I want my filed story that I send to my editor to be perfect and not have a single edit that expectation is definitely unreasonable. However, I think you can always get close and pick up on the certain nuances your editor will want in the article if you’re proactive in taking in those edits.

Ethics

I feel I’ve always been quite ethical when writing articles and haven’t ever pushed those ethical boundaries. My only real experience with an ethical dilemma in journalism was this past summer. I was at a charity softball tournament and ran into an athlete there I knew. We proceeded to hang out while drinking and there were a few stories that came out from him that isn’t damaging but probably weren’t the best looks for him either. He did know me and we’ve had interactions in the past but under the circumstances, I never even considered digging into the story further or pursuing it. The public definitely didn’t need to know at all and it was just him being a young person partying. The story was also nowhere near as bad as what Auston Matthews did over the summer. Overall it would’ve been a story that probably would’ve gotten some traction, but the public definitely didn’t need to know about it, and I didn’t want to ruin that relationship. I know I did the right thing by just keeping it to myself and moving on.

Job Searching in Journalism

Luckily, my job searching in journalism has been off to a decent start so far. Currently, I’ve been paid to write for two different companies, Special Olympics Alberta and MacEwan University Athletics. I think the experiences have been incredibly beneficial for me on how to go at jobs in journalism and that’s definitely the connections you make along with putting yourself out there. I think you need to be proactive in building those connections by either showing your work to industry professionals or asking for advice. I think reaching out and understanding that the journalism community is big and it’s an incredibly supportive group is integral for finding those future jobs. Having those connections look out for you and vouch for you is how I got my two jobs. I think in an ultra-competitive field you need to get all the help you can get and that starts with asking for help. Is my cover letter and resume for this job good? You’d be surprised to know how many people in the industry would like you to succeed, especially if you’re going that extra mile to reach out and make those initial connections.

Time Management Essay

“Embarrassed and Panicking“

Austin Connelly

Embarrassed and panicking.

I’ve never had that feeling for an assignment in University before. I was even more ashamed that I let it happen in a 400-level course in my program.

Time management is something I’ve always prided myself on. I’ve proven to myself time and time again that I can handle work, school, and my social life all at the same time. So, for the first time when I missed a major assignment, I couldn’t really understand how I let that happen.

First, I tried to figure out how that happened. My biggest mistake was obviously missing the class where we went over the assignment and had time to practice. Secondly, I missed the seeing the assignment in another folder on the course blackboard. Although, that easily could have been prevented if I had just put all my assignments in my calendar or set reminders on my phone, which is what I usually would do.

Now in my fifth year at university, I think I probably got too comfortable with being able to handle everything and I stopped double-checking some things I needed to accomplish. I think it has been a good opportunity to reflect on this year’s habits.

I’ve been excited about new writing opportunities I’ve found this year and I think school has sometimes fallen to the wayside on my priorities. Being so close to graduating and starting my career seemed daunting when I first joined the program, but now, not so much. Leaving school and joining the workforce full-time has become something I’m really looking forward to, so I think caring about school and my GPA have become secondary this year.

In a study by Lebedeva, Shchipanova, Konovalova and Anton O. Kutyin (2016) they highlighted how vital time management can be to a student and how that translates to their professional identity.

“It was established that students with different professional identity profiles exhibit various peculiarities of time management. It was also shown that there exist multiple interconnections between the time management indicators (time competence, personal time disorganizers, student procrastination and time orientation) and characteristics of professional identity and its components,” (p.6922).

Before I was quite concerned about boosting my GPA and getting A’s in school, but now that has also shifted towards gaining work experience, increasing my connections and putting myself and work out into the field of journalism.

Overall, that is where I think I really messed up. I still should be giving all of my attention on the rest of my classes before I graduate. To be completely honest I know I could be doing better in some of my classes.

To finish off my last upcoming semester, I want to finish my courses off strong. I should be putting more effort into making sure I can balance everything evenly without swaying too far in one direction.

I want to enjoy my last semester as a university student but that shouldn’t come at the expense of my classes. I want to do better and I will to finish off my last year as a student.

References

Lebedeva, E. V., Shchipanova, D. Y., Konovalova, M. E., & Kutyin, A. O. (2016). Time Management and Professional Identity of Students of Pedagogical Universities. International Journal Of Environmental & Science Education, 11(14), 6913–6914.