At the beginning of my JRN 4100 semester I knew very little about reporting in any sense other than writing. I’ve worked at the Oakland Post and Hour Detroit magazine for several semesters and the majority of the journalism classes I’ve taken were writing based.
My favorite unit that we covered in this course was the audio story unit. As an avid podcast listener, it was really interesting to hear about how podcasters decide on what stories they should cover. I especially liked our class discussion about how sometimes, you plan out a story, do all the leg work, and it doesn’t work out. I’ve always struggled with letting stories go when they don’t flesh out. Especially when working with audio stories, it’s important to make sure the story you’re telling is well planned out and interests the listener. When working on the lab, I was surprised how easy it was to record the audio and add music to it. I’m sure people who tell audio stories put more than a single class period length of time into their recordings, but it was reassuring to know that it’s possible for someone who isn’t professionally trained to dabble in podcasting.
While I found the photo story unit interesting, photography is something that I don’t see myself working in. I think it’s fascinating that some people have the eye to see something happening and frame it correctly to create a great story. I can hear about a topic and point out what would make a good story that people would want to read, but visually I would need a lot more practice. While I was happy with the way my photo story for the simple project turned out, I wish I would’ve gotten even more creative with it.
I was very surprised how much I enjoyed working on the data analysis unit of this course. When I read the syllabus, this unit sounded like it was going to be boring. I’ve never been a numbers person, but working on the lab for this unit was so interesting to me. I think it peaked my interest because there was no right or wrong answer. The data was provided and I was allowed to draw my own conclusions and analysis about what impact it would have on the topic.
Overall, I’m really glad that we covered immigration as our topic for the semester. It’s such a hot topic issue in todays news cycle, but it can be hard to get a clear idea of what’s really going on based on a simple google search. This class allowed for a deeper dive into this topic while exploring it from a journalistic stand point. By interviewing sources who have experienced immigration and being impacted by the immigration crisis themselves, I was able to develop my own personal understanding and opinions on the topic.
Jordan Jewell 