Final post of semester: JMC 410

My time as a journalism major was a very interesting period of my life, and the best part of my college career. I guess it was the best part of my college career because I had finally figured out what I wanted to do with my academic career and I felt like I had a purpose. I changed my major three or four times before I decided to pursue a degree in journalism that would allow me to utilize my natural writing ability.
I certainly had some ups and downs as I went through the program. I would have to say that my highest point was when one of my favorite professors, Dr. Wayne Melanson, told me that I was a great candidate for a grad degree. I had not even considered a grad degree at that point and it was nice to know that one of my professors saw something in me. My lowest point was when I had to re-take news writing, the introductory class to the program.
If I had to go back and do it over, I would make sure that I properly filed the paperwork to change my emphasis from news-editorial to public relations, because I really see myself pursuing a career in that field in the future.
I can’t wait to begin the next chapter of my life after UNC’s graduation ceremony, and I will always be grateful to the amazing people in the JMC department and for the relationships that I developed over the years.

I would like to add a big thanks to Dr. Klyde-Silverstein for being so understanding this semester when I had my baby girl. If she hadn't been so supportive I may not be graduating. Thanks again, and keep passing on your knowledge to aspiring journalists!

Baseball Mid-Season Update

After a slow start to the season the Bears have gone on a 10-game tear which has seen them going undefeated for two weeks and sweeping Mountain West Conference play. After sweeping a three-game series against Montana State-Billings at home and defeating Air Force both at home and away the bears conference record is 7-3. The Bears are hosting a four-game series against Utah Valley and are looking to keep their winning streak alive. If they can manage to sweep the series they will cement their place as a powerhouse in the conference and put themselves on the right track to win the Mountain West Conference outright.

Since the Bears winning streak has started the team has seen a few players awarded individual honors within the Mountain West. Mark Shannon was named the conference’s co-pitcher of the week after the freshman hurler threw a complete game shutout against Montana State-Billings. Shannon shares the honor with North Dakota’s Derek Biermaier who also pitched a complete game shutout against North Dakota State. Junior second baseman T.J. Berge also earned player of the week honors from the Great West Conference after hitting .609 in five games and for his outstanding defensive play against Texas Pan-American.

The Bears have turned their season around after playing some tough teams during the first part of their schedule, some of which are ranked nationally. Keep watching this team as they continue to improve and make a run for the best in the Great West.

The 2010 baseball season is underway and the UNC Bears have three wins and five losses. The Bears have had two separate road trips, one to New Mexico to play UNM and one to Huntsville, Texas to play in the Bearkat Invitational hosted by Creighton University.

The Bears only won one of four against the University of New Mexico during their trip to New Mexico, but in the second game of a double-header on Feb. 27, UNC baseball won six to five in ten innings. This win is big for the Bears since UNM is ranked # 19 in the nation.

At the Bearkat Invitational UNC won two and lost two. The first game against Creighton saw the Bears coming up short by a margin of 15 to eight. The Bears avenged this loss on day two of the tournament, and later in the day beat the Sam Houston State Bearkats, giving them a chance to play for the tournament win. Unfortunately for UNC fans the Bears lost the final game of the tournament to Sam Houston State in a nail-biting, 15-inning pitching battle that resulted in UNC losing four to three. This game was the longest in school history, and also tied the Bears record for number of runners left stranded by both teams combined at 29. The last time that many runners were left on base without scoring in a UNC baseball game was in 1993 against Nebraska-Kearney.

While researching and writing my day in the life article that focused on Patrick Perry, a volunteer assistant coach for the UNC baseball team, learned a lot about reporting and covering my beat.

I first found myself worrying that I would not be able to gather enough information simply by attending a practice, which was all we could work out with our schedules. But after I went and shadowed him for those few hours and interviewed him to gather background information, I found myself having a hard time keeping my story under the limit of words prescribed by my professor. I think I managed to get a good story into the required parameters of the assignment, and I found that I had a really good time doing it.

Patrick was a very nice guy, and he was easy to get along with and observe. I am looking forward to doing another piece on the baseball team after my experience being around the players. I was worried at first that they might see me as a distraction encroaching on their playing field, but every one was very nice and even eager to give me interviews and ideas for future stories.

The purpose of this blog is to gain practical experience publishing to the Web. Not only will this allow me to grow as a journalist as the semester progresses, but it will allow me to monitor my progress as I develop my skills. I have spent a lot of time preparing for traditional media writing in other classes, but this blog should help me to gain experience in the growing world of online publication.

My journalism experience consists of all of the classes that I have taken at the University of Northern Colorado leading up the capstone class in journalism and mass communications. I have also completed a practicum/internship with the athletics media relations department.

I am covering the UNC baseball team as my assigned beat for the advanced news and feature writing class. I hope to learn about how to coordinate my actions and utilize what I have learned up to this point to produce well-written, publishable articles. I also hope that this class will help me to display my abilities for perspective employers. So far I have learned that covering a beat requires a lot of "foot work," or gathering a large amount of information from many sources to create an interesting news piece. This is the first time I have covered a beat, but because it is a sports beat I am confident that I will have no problems staying motivated and ready to learn.

My weaknesses as a journalist are that I have a small amount of practical experience outside of the classroom and that I have turned my focus more to the public relations realm of media communication. My strengths as a journalist reside mainly in the strength and clarity of my writing.

I have absolutely no blogging experience, but I am looking forward to learning how to use this tool as a professional and private user.

My feelings about blogging consist of some skepticism and some hopeful thinking. I am skeptical about blogging because I have seen a lot of blogs that are just average Joe's using the Web as a medium to spout their opinion about issues and topics while they have absolutely no practical or professional credibility to lend to what they are discussing. I am hopeful because blogging can be a powerful tool for media professionals and experts in various areas. My hope stems from my vision that someday, the majority of average Americans surfing the Web will be able to distinguish the difference between an educated professional, and a person who is simply using the Internet as a forum to complain about their lives, spout off about their favorite sports team, bash celebrities, or whatever else.