My takeaway: JTC 326 Reflection
Writing has not always been my strong suit and I still find myself struggling to put my thoughts into words. Which is why it is a little weird to think I decided to double major in Journalism and Media Communication. Throughout my time in the department, and more specifically in this course, I have been able to develop my writing and understand areas where I still need work on, and what I struggle with most. Three skills I have improved upon in this semester has been getting out of my comfort zone, learning how to tell stories better and writing for an audience.
For me, I have always liked the idea of being more creative and branching out from what I find comfortable. This course forced me to do so and helped me explore aspects of media communication I would have ignored out of intimidation and nervousness I would not do well. I do not have much experience in camera work or video editing and have never had the opportunity to really learn. During the video portion of the transmedia project I forced myself to get out of my comfort zone and use a DSLR camera and a lavalier microphone, both of which I have never used before. Although I still messed up with certain areas of my video, I now know what I would do differently next time and I will be more comfortable with using a camera or microphone for future assignments and projects. I also got out of my comfort zone from all of the interviews I had to conduct that required me to actually reach out to different individuals that pertained to my story. This helped me to be more comfortable when talking to different professionals in the industry I was exploring.
Throughout this semester, I have also improved on my storytelling abilities and how to transcribe my message in a way that is relatable to an audience. I love to tell stories when I am surrounded by friends and I constantly have thoughts I want to share. Focusing more on specific stories and learning how each one needs to be told in a slightly different fashion really helped me develop my skills in this area. Normally, I either rush through a story just trying to get my point across or I take a severely long time just trying to set up the beginning. This semester helped me sharpen those skills and find a happy-medium between the two, helping me to consistently have a story that is captivating and to the point. Even though I can still struggle in fully developing my stories I have a better understanding of what needs to be included in order to make it complete.
The last skill I have been able to improve upon is my ability to write for an audience. This concept has been drilled into my head for a long while now, but it is easy to disregard this factor when writing about something you truly care about. I used to always assume that because I cared about my writing, everyone else would too. This course made me focus on this element of my writing and helped me target specific parts of my story, while drawing a line on areas of the story that weren’t necessarily important. Evaluating who your audience is and writing a story that is more personable and contains human elements and emotions really changed how I write. When I really focused on this area of my writing, I found that the stories I were telling were more enjoyable, and it was exciting to see the final product.
The assignment I enjoyed most was the podcast and website portions of the transmedia project. I love podcasts and listen to them quite often. I have always wanted to try and make one for myself but never really knew where to start or didn’t think I had a story to tell worth listening to. To be able to have an assignment where I had to learn how to record, edit and produce a podcast was really enjoyable. It opened my eyes to other forms of media communication that might be more suitable to me. I also really enjoyed designing my website. Fortunately, I have been able to make websites and edit them before, so being able to do it again made me realize how much I enjoy it. Designing the website also helped me realize that I want to learn more about it, so I decided to register for a course next semester in web design. On the flip side, the assignment I did not enjoy was the Q&A story for our digital articles. I did not find myself liking it because I wasn’t able to put my own spin on it and add to the article. It was fun to interview the subject and find out more about the individual, but I wish I was able to add more components to the story than just questions and answers.
In this course, and over the semester, I have really been able to narrow down where I want to focus my attention and how I can effectively accomplish my goals. I have developed a solid foundation of skills in a variety of areas and I hope to apply them in my future courses and hopefully in an internship this next summer. With a solid foundation, I can continue learning and ideally have a job in the next six years that focuses on storytelling in media on a variety of platforms.
