My quarter in a Nutshell

El Numero Uno, the Grand Poobah, the Secret to Success of Journalism that I learned? 

It takes a ton of work and time!!!!

I knew that journalism hinged on reliability and consistency, as well as a level of immediacy. What I wasn't fully cognizant of was the amount of time and work that must be spent on even the smallest of blog posts. The effort it takes to maintain the necessary reliability is incredible. One wrong stat or fact could cause weeks of re-earning reliability and trust of readers. Of course the writing must be entertaining and make people want to read it, but a wiz with words is nothing without his readers trust. So the main thing I take away from this class as it pertains to journalism in itself is a new found admiration for what journalist must do. It is a young man's game or at least a bachelor's game if you ask me.

As for the class in general, I have learned quite a few things that I will take away. I do quite enjoy journalism and if this was about 10 years ago I could most definitely see myself developing a passion for it. I gained a new love for Mac's. Well love may be too strong, I do love iMovie and what I can do through that, as for the Mac as a whole, it is still secondary to PC but with its inclusion of a right click, it was won over a small part of my heart. I do so love iMovie tho and will continue to use that in many areas of my life, as a matter of fact, I have already used it to make the invitations for our Baby Shower!

I have learned that my views on that dirty word "Ethics" still push the edge and my desire for an actual definition of it continues to go unfulfilled. Other than of course, it meaning whatever the masses at the time say it means. I have learned about framing photographs and looking at the world through slightly different lenses. I have began looking at news stories differently and looking for things I never looked at, such as sources or how reliable the author is.

Overall I enjoyed this class immensely and feel I have developed many new skills and views. I do feel its definitely a class directed in a far left journalistic direction but with the books being heavily influenced by NPR and MSNBC that can only be expected. There will always be two sides to every story, a great thing I take from this class is to look beyond those two sides and try to write about the truth.