LOYOLA UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT CHAPTER OF THE SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS

Search...

SEARCH

LOYOLA SPJ

HOME ABOUT US

NEWSLETTER EVENTS

RSS

30 SPJ Nationals Reflection

DEC

RECENT POSTS
SPJ Nationals Reflection SPJ National Convention Coverage: Las Vegas 2010 Intern Insight: Loyola Students Share Their Experience with SPJ

By: Mike Byra The SPJ National Convention in Las Vegas was something of a gamble with much uncertainty about the future of journalism. Yet, there was much optimism from professionals and students alike. Presenters urged journalists to look into the emerging social media for new sources. At the same time, new insights helped to show that there still were jobs that were hiring, but they were traditional journalism jobs in nontraditional places. As mentioned, social media has been a golden mine shaft for journalists to mine information with the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Still, with this growing resource came ethical responsibility from journalists. Some key points made in regard to this was for journalists to be accountable by identifying themselves as journalists whenever posting things on these websites. We as reporters need to ask ourselves whether or not videos or photographs posted online were manipulated by checking the metadata, as well as, the motivation behind the posting. Most importantly, journalists should know that our personal lives online merge with our professional lives, so it is vital watch what one posts personally because what we say might be viewed as an extension of our news organization. Social media was said to be a great leveling ground that lets journalists get further information from sources by replying back to them with questions and clarification. Besides the new technology taking over journalism, there was still the issue of landing a job once a student journalist graduated from school. The key was to look into job sites that focused on finding jobs in nontraditional places. Some major tips included: looking into corporate companies and their need for bloggers; the need for backpack journalists who were jacks of all trades and that jobs in media were everywhere we just werent looking hard enough.

EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Sign me up!

LU QUICK LINKS
IgNation Loyola Student Dispatch School of Communication The Loyola Phoenix WLUW 88.7 FM

BLOGROLL
Center for Digital Ethics & Policy at Loyola Chicago Headline Club Loyola SPJ Facebook Society of Professional Journalists Poynter
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

One major piece of advice was the need for todays journalist to start their own blog about what they knew and loved. This adds to their portfolio and it also gets their writing out there online. There are numerous weird jobs out there in journalism, but the key was for student journalists to work hard by finding projects that showed they could stick with things and to make sure that some professional journalists knew them outside of college. One of the most useful sessions for student journalists was the issue of reporting campus crime. The speakers gave useful ideas and procedures to get the most information possible from campus security. In compliance with the Cleary Law, student journalists should regularly check with the schools police log, which lists all incidents on campus and from there they are able to have the police incident report brought up. This is useful because it says what officers were involved, so maybe a student could contact those officers for some more information. Furthermore, the speakers advised students to build a strong relationship with campus security by first covering a profile or general story that was an interesting piece on what it took to be a campus security officer. Through good relations student journalists could seem less confrontational with campus security; therefore, making it easier to attain more information. Student journalists need to work hard at getting the story from campus security. At a glance, the convention offered student journalists the chance to network with professionals and the chance to get their own work critiqued. More so, it was an experience that reflected Las Vegas with the long strip of Vegas representing journalism today. It seems a bit wild and chaotic, but it is an exciting profession that is constantly growing with the times. That was the main impression that I got from the convention.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Poynter

TOPICS

blogging conventions journalism careers social media

Internships Panel Student journalists

ethics FOIA

You need Flash player 9+ installed and enabled to view this video.

Share this: Like this: Be the first to like this.

Tags: Facebook, journalism jobs, Las Vegas, SPJ national convention, student journalists, Twitter

COMMENTS

CATEGORIES

Leave a Comment

blogging, conventions, journalism careers, social media

SPJ National Convention Coverage: Las Vegas 2010

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

Leave a Reply
Enter your comment here...

FOLLOW LOYOLASPJ ON TWITTER

Our members are in Indianapolis this weekend for #SPJR5 conference, learning the tips and trades of the journalism biz. 4 months ago Listen to the retraction of the now infamous Mike Daisey/Apple segment, from @NPR's "This American Life": npr.org/2012/03/19/148 5 months ago

TOP POSTS & PAGES

SPJ Nationals Reflection

META
Register Log in Entries RSS Comments RSS WordPress.com

BLOG STATS
220 hits

ARCHIVES
December 2010

BLOGAT WORDPRESS.COM.

THEME: BUENO BY WOOTHEMES.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com