|
The University of Wisconsin-River Falls
|
Courses eye opener for journalistBy Hanna Mhlongo My coming to study at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls's Department of Journalism in the fall of 2000 has been more than rewarding in many ways. Having been a journalist for several years in my home country, South Africa, I wasn't sure what to expect in the journalism courses that I signed up for. Perhaps among three very exciting and enlightening journalism courses that I studied, the one I wasn't enthusiastic about was computer-assisted reporting. I was introduced to this new media journalism in a course I did in Zambia in 1998. Although I found it interesting then, I also realized that it was overwhelming because it dealt with loads and loads of information from the Internet. And the worse part is that it dealt with numbers - something I've never enjoyed playing with. I must admit that taking this course with Dr. Sandy Ellis in the fall of 2000 completely changed my mind. I thought taking on a story idea from a tip off to comparing numbers from databases to interviewing sources was mind blowing. Any journalist would tell you that one of the most frustrating things about reporting is trying to talk to sources, who refuse to give you information. CAR arms you with statistics that you formulate from working with databases; studying trends from other information you find from the Internet which back up the tip off you get. Not only does that strengthen your story, but it also leaves any source without option but to respond - a perfect situation for any journalist who wants to get all the sides of the story. Obviously like traditional reporting, CAR is not only about revealing corruption activities, but there are a thousand positive ideas that you can come up with, such as lifestyle trends, health advancement, entertainment, and many others. Probably, I would say, one thing that doesn't excite me about CAR is that you spend most of the time in front of the computer, studying information and numbers. One thing I enjoy about being a journalist is going out where things are happening and meeting people, and I don't want CAR to take that away form me. But I think there is a way around spending long hours sitting in front of the computer: let CAR be a back up of traditional reporting. That is what I intend to do when I go back to reporting after working as a copy editor for a few years. Other courses I studied that were just as exciting were: journalism and public opinion, which was a great source of knowledge about American polls and elections, opinion writing, behavioral statistics, beginning photography, media management , and, of course, developing the Online Journalist web page. International mass communication was another well of information about world media and a must for any aspiring journalist who wants to know about international affairs.
University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
|
Contents Journalism an Endangered Species? Reading Room Offers More Reading Material
|