Daniel Adams. Communication: Broadcast and Digital Journalism

I chose journalism for several reasons. I feel that journalism lacks honesty. While this has likely been the case since the beginning of journalism, I think it has never been worse. Every news outlet has a bias towards a certain side or the other. While some may disagree with this, I don’t believe there is a single news outlet that is unbiased. This is one of the reasons I chose journalism. I want to help people by presenting facts and allowing them to form their own opinions, rather than repeat talking points from their political side.

Another reason I chose journalism is because I feel that it provides a necessary service to people. It is a way to serve your audience by providing them with the most accurate and up-to-date information possible. Every job will become boring from time to time. We will all have times of questioning why we do what we do and if we want to continue. I feel that journalism provides a sense of purpose because of how important it is.

I like my concentration because it has many different roles and options. It has roles that are being the camera, like most professions. You can work in news and be completely unknown if you want to be. These roles could be things like directors, producers, camera crew or any production job that is off camera. Also, I have the option to be on camera through roles like reporter/anchor. This concentration also teaches aspects from each role which is nice if you decide to make changes later in life.

Another thing journalism offers is many different types of news. Reporters have many options as to which type of journalism they want to be a part of. They could be a journalist that covers a niche topic that is important to them or they could be a general news reporter that covers a wide range of topics. With sports, politics, current events, international news, etc, there is no shortage of options for people in this field of work.

A project from a past class that I enjoyed was making a commercial for an MSU club on campus. This was for my Advanced TV Production class. We chose to make an advertisement for a trivia student club. I liked this project because it was a lot easier and smoother to put together than a traditional package. We made a commercial that we had fun creating and the student group also appreciated our work.

I generally prefer writing over photography and video. In today’s news world, everyone’s attention span is so short. Because of this, I prefer writing short news-style articles that get straight to the point. While this could absolutely be done, and probably done even better, via video, I am more confident in my writing skills than my ability to get quality video and audio with strong interviews and then properly edit everything to tell the best story possible.

I do not dislike photography or video. I have much more experience with video packages than photography. I have gotten much better with creating packages over time through learning how to edit, shoot, obtain audio, and capture relevant b-roll. I have very little experience with photography. I have taken a photography class and was able to finish with a good grade. However, I had no photography experience prior to that class and I still could be much more proficient with a camera.

As far as making improvements going forward, I definitely want to get better at my weak spots in multimedia. I would say I am somewhat competent with video but it could still be much better. I cam compile and edit basic video packages but not much beyond that. I would like to improve my skills with video and become good at working with multiple different types of media.

I have flexible career plans. I am not set on a specific job but I am set on how to conduct myself in that job. Media today is quite biased and unreliable. Whatever position I have in media will be conducted with objectivity and honesty to the best of my ability.
I hope to get better at all forms of media in this class. I have experience with all types of media we will be covering in this class but I have never done them all together. I hope to become more proficient with all forms of media and I hope to improve all forms of my journalism throughout this course.

Email me at dra206@msstate.edu with any questions.