Now that the term has come to an end, I reflect and think of what I learned and liked from this class. I have come up with a list of five things that I found interesting and helpful and that I will use to change the world around me and myself as well.
- Do not be “always on” and live in person. Like Rushkoff says in his book “Program or be Programmed” technology has given us the opportunity to keep in touch with people. But as good as this is, we tend to become too invested in our social media and forget to pay attention to those around us. Catching up with someone that is far from us is amazing, but the face to face interaction is lost and even though one is communicating with someone else it is not the same as talking to someone in person. But most of the time we decide to catch up with someone in person, when we do this we spend the majority of the time on our phones because we have the need to know everything that is happening somewhere else.
2. Not all journalists are “ruthless and emotionless.” This is what Diana Sugg’s “Angels and Ghosts: Anatomy of a Story” taught me. After reading this, my point of view of reporters has changed dramatically. Yes, I have always known that reporters have to do a lot of things to write stories, they have to go out, find sources, get information, ask hard questions and a lot of times get harsh comments for doing this. But reading how immersed, and how hard she worked for this story impresses me. She stayed in the hospital long nights, saw things that she did not think she would see, and she became emotionally involved with the families.
3. There are two types of showing a story: and emotional way and a rational way. This is what Edelman and many others say, and I could not agree more. We, all human beings are emotional. We all need products that care for the world, and when commercial or ads show this, it makes the audience like it more. If a commercial has a creative storyline it will be more likely to strike the intended audience in a positive way.
4. There are infinite ways to help the community. And Justin Kermeling showed us in class that it can be fun as well. Listening to him made me realize how much I can do for my community with graphic design, or in journalism. There is no better way to show people the problems that a lot of people go through than with a colorful picture or an interesting article. No matter what the problem is, showing it in a creative way can lead to a more positive end.
5. A picture is worth a thousand words. After looking at pictures in class from “Humans of New York” and from some photojournalists, it struck me how if we do not have a picture for a story, it does not make the same impact as if it would have had one. It is so important to have pictures because we get a sense of what was happening in a place, how people reacted, how everything looked. Also, without photojournalists, without professionals, we would not get the same reaction or feel from a picture. It is necessary for newspapers to have professional photojournalists because taking a picture with “oomph” is nor as easy as one thinks.
I have learned so much more things in this class but these are the ones that I have more present in me. I never thought that I would have liked a class as much as I liked this. It made me learn an uncountable amount of things. I loved learning about the raw and human part of journalism, as well as the hands-on part of it. I loved learning about the history of it, and how important it is they way we portray news. And what I loved the most is learning about the journalists that always were passionate, honest, and caring.
Thank you Dr. Z for such an amazing class.
Virginia Rodriguez 