"To Converge or to not Converge"

As the proposal is still in the air about whether or not Butler University should create an official School of Communications, my position is pretty clear. I think that this creation will make our Journalism program more attractive to prospective students. The school will also create more well-rounded Journalism for an era that is requesting more than one concentration or specialty. When you look at the top schools for communications http://www.collegecrunch.org/rankings/the-20-best-schools-for-communications-majors-in-2009/ in the nation the main words used to describe them are contemporary, interdisciplinary, and for advancement. Meaning that they are new, updated to today's fields of communications current state, and are all intertwined with one another. This is what Butler's LAS should be aiming for.

As I talked with a journalism prospective that was shadowing me last week and whom also had the opportunity to sit in on this meeting, she expressed that the College of Communications would be a good thing. She expressed how she was torn between Butler and another university. The other university offered it all within Journalism, whereas Butler was seperate. I feel that this is the opinion of many prospectives and could be a reason why we didn't have that many incoming Journalism majors with my class, accompanied by the fact that the economy is affecting our field.

As a print major, I love what we stand for and why we write for communities but that isn't my only desire. I would like to be a broadcast journalist, my minor, as well and ultimately write for a magazine as I've expressed in previous blogs. Okay, that's easy because those are my major and minor. What if I become interested in producing or any other behind the scenes media job? I could take classes for that but it would be time consuming and extremely hard to balance between my major and minor required courses. I've been told that it would be smart to know how to do it all because that's employers are looking for. Therefore if you're reading this and your votes count, I can't tell you what to do but if you vote for the creation of School of Communications than you're voting for the future Journalist of our generation.

Where am I going???

As I learn more and more about Journalism, Media, and Broadcast, I think more and more about where I see myself in the next 5 years. I realize that I'm only a college freshman, soon to be sophomore. As a college "rookie" we are always unsure. As I talked with underclassmen, it would be okay to be unsure then as well, especially in this field. I've always just wanted to be a writer, nothing more. Then I thought questions like, "What if I get tired of newspaper?" or "What if there isn't a such thing as newspaper by the time I graduate?"


So then I thought about writing for a magazine such as Essence or Jet. But besides writing, I have another more seasoned love, acting.I am a 8 year trained, professional actress. Even though that's not currently my major, I still love to do it. That's what made me look into broadcast as an anchor. To me, it is all acting while reading and semi-memorizing a script. On Thursday I took a tour of WTHR News station. I got to see all of the different departments behind the scenes and what their jobs consist of. I also got to watch the 5 o'clock news forecast. It was great! I sat quietly watching the way the team interacted with one another. I watch them joke around in between stories but as soon as the camera turned on they were back in character. It was a verification of the "acting factor". I realized that I'd actually like to do that. I could even see myself being somewhat of a Babara Walters type. I even flirted with the idea of doing radios. As you can see I'm very unsure of where exactly I'll be in 5 years. You do see that I'll want a job and want to be an all around Journalist. I know I'll be in one, if not all of these fields of Journalism.

They let me sit on the set!!!

Reputations of Blogs

When I think of Blogging, I remember in high school when I would surf the Internet for online sources for research papers and all I could find were blogs. Did all of these people have P.H.D.s in the subject I was researching or experts with creditability? No. Therefore, I was not able to use any of these blogs as sources no matter how persuasive or effective they are opinions were. Maybe their credibility would have increased if they had a more appropriate user names on their blog account. They also could have earned more credibility if they had more writing etiquette or didn't display biased views. Now a days, when most people hear the word "blog" they immediately think of facebook. Is that fact dampering the reputation and privilege of citizen-journalism?

Yes. Many people do not hold any responsibility or real ethical morals behind what they say in blogs by blogging anonymously or making them viewable only to certain readers. That should automatically show that their might not be truth, balance, or fairness behind their views and that is why they are protecting their reputation. Therefore we should all monitor what we say on the world wide web that is so easy to access by millions or they should take responsibility for their opinions.

Out of Fox...Out of a Job???

As I watched the film, Out of Fox, I was surprised by the information I was digesting. In my home, Fox was one of the main stations we relied on for truth and real Journalism but as I watched I learned differently. Fox News is conservative? Their anchors have no control over what they report? and they blackmail and blackball their employees if they quit? I would've never guessed any of this. I was never into nor did I possess knowledge about certain networks being left or right. I actually just learned what that meant in my New Media Class. Therefore me coming from a blind perspective, was assuming that Fox was the way to report news but just more entertaining and "contemporary" if you will.
I even second guessed the film. "Maybe who ever produced this movie is just very persuasive with their information or the way that they produce," I thought. But not at all. The video had real anchors and other employees that worked for Fox News telling inside information. They all expressed how they weren't able to report the stories they felt was "real news" and that the stories they were given, they were told what and how to say all of it. Is that Freedom of the Press? NO. Is that freedom period? NO. I would feel like a prisoner behind my own desk.
This scares me. As a budding Journalist, there's enough stress of worrying what networks and newspapers will exist by graduation but now you have to worry about your well being at that job and whether it'll break you, not because of creativity but instead because of possession and fear of broken confidentiality. There are only a few owners to the millions of stations and networks, so how would you know who to work for? How do we know who's to the right or left if there isn't a movie such as Out of Fox, unless we live it ourselves? We won't. When will Journalism get back to the News and the people? Only time will tell.