#writingforinteractivemedia

I must admit, I  feared this course, Writing for  Interactive Media. One of my main fears going into this course was interviewing people I didn’t know. I know one part of being a journalist is not having a  fear to talk with people. After all, I let my writing do that for years for me.  However, I did four interviews this month and overcame that fear. I must say,  I’m tremendously proud of myself.

 Also, I learned valuable information in this course. I learned how to an interview, write a  proper headline, how to structure an article in the correct format, and various outlets at my disposal to distribute my articles.

 In addition, I  learned how to include the: who, what,  where, why, when, and who cares, into my articles. All the important information that needs to be in the first paragraph of my article.

 Also, I learned what a nut graph is and how to apply a nut graph into my articles.

 The one thing this course taught me is not to doubt myself, seriously. As I said previously, I  was scared to get out of my comfort zone and go talk with people. I know overcoming this fear will help me in my professional career. I mean, I want to be a journalist. I have to collect quotes from people to make my article seem credible. Now, since I can do this, I’ll be able to go forward and conduct more interviews with future interviewees.

Krysta Baron

Originally, my goals for the Writing for Interactive Media course were to (1) master various storytelling methods, (2) communicate themes through articulate writing, and (3) determine necessary story structures for specific platforms. If I had known what type of instructor Meredith Cochie was before I started this course, I could have checked off these goals before we even got started.

One of my strategies for learning to determine which story structures are necessary for specific platforms was to establish habits to actively engage the audience in each platform. I received feedback throughout the course from my professor and my classmates that enabled me to edit my writing in a way that would reach my readers better. I believe that my writing became more relatable because of the critiques I received.

One example of instructor critique making my writing better is the story idea I submitted about ADHD medications and the effects they have on the young boys who take them. I ended up holding off on writing that story because Professor Cochie showed me how much more captivating the article could be if I narrowed it down to one child’s personal journey with ADHD. If I had not followed her advice, my article would have been an extremely surface story riddled with facts from agencies and organizations rather than a compelling story that pulled at the heartstrings of my readers.

I truly believe that developing stories in a way that puts people right into the story is important. One of the first questions Professor Cochie would ask for each assignment is, “Why does it matter?” This question is much more thought-provoking than it seems at first glance. By taking the time to answer this question, I was able to rule out many story ideas because they just did not matter. I learned that just being news does not make information “newsworthy.” I had to find those stories that would make people care.

I found this class to be extremely helpful on my journey to becoming a Journalist.  In my prior classes I learned how to master my craft, identifying my target audience and new skills such as posting content to multiple platforms.  I learned plenty from my fearless professor. Her attention to detail was very helpful the last two courses. She was such a huge help by giving me the confidence in myself to work through my mistakes and learn from them.  

 My cohorts as well gave a lot of insightful thoughts to my work that truly was of great assistance in during my time in this course.

 My experience in undergrad for a course similar to this one was indeed different as far as rigor. I have to admit that the challenge seemed intimidating at times, I never wrote a content a day in my life. It was always I will cover this story and report it. Now I don’t feel that way. I have a sense of empowerment now that I have a plan.

 My goal before this course was to get a further understanding of online media and by all means that goal was exceeded. Specifically speaking the About, Me page was indeed an assignment that was difficult for me. I don’t know about anyone else but it is hard to talk sell myself. I was always good at listening to others and being able to relay their story but telling my own took some time to process. Letting others into my world is never a problem but writing it is where the issues to play. Even now I am somewhat struggling with being in depth but the assignment along with my awesome cohort’s comments encouraged me to be confident in what I present.

 Personally this course has giving me a blueprint to be a little more organized than usual during my daily life. I have plenty of responsibility as a husband and father working multiple jobs, school my day is consumed with so much but creating an outline has been helpful.

Full Sail University’s Writing for Interactive Media course was an eye-opening course. It was my first experience in writing as a journalist. Upon entering the course my initial assessment of what we would be doing was a little skewed. I knew we would be writing a little but I thought we would also be tapping into the production of news as well. 

I was happy to be wrong in my initial assessment. There are quite a few steps to getting the written portion of journalism down. I am quite pleased that we started from the absolute basics of how to construct a proper journalistic story. There are layers to the buildup of a story and a proper way to quote an interviewee.  I had never interviewed a person before so the experience was a great deal of help as an ice breaker into providing a quality article to my readers.

What I discovered most in doing the two article requested in this course, was researching my topics and essentially creating an article on my discoveries. Being requested to interview people helped me become in a small amount an extrovert. I normally will not approach someone or seek them out for anything. This class gave me a reason to just strike up a conversation. I learned a lot from the techies in Nashville as well as made a good number of contacts. Learning to network within your circle can help assist you in future adventures; so I am finding out.

Looking back on my goal for this course, which was to “gain the tools I need to write effectively so that I may tell my story in a way that engages the audience, enhancing my effectiveness as a motivational speaker,” I think we covered some of the types of writing that I wanted to learn about, but not others. I learned quite a bit by reviewing and writing about various article types in this course, like How-to’s, live events, and profiles, but I would have liked to have learned some creative writing and blog-post type writing, as well. The type of writing we covered will help me in my future career as a digital communicator by widening my knowledge of various ways to write to capture my audience, and provide them with facts and information that may be relevant to my audience and/or my subject. Since I plan on being a blogger rather than a news journalist, I would have liked more practice writing from my perspective instead of just the third person, but I understand why we could not.

First I would like to say thank you for following me on my journey towards Mastery in my field public relations as I attend Full Sail University to obtain my Masters of Arts in Public Relations. In this exciting course of Writing for Interactive Media, the writing was intense. The course expanded our traditional writing techniques to focus on the fundamentals and specific of public relations. As a public relations practitioner specific skills are required to provide your clients with the best representation that you can offer.

 As our intense writing began early on in week one we expand our journalist skills with developing a How To Article. This was extremely different but fun and allowed me to be informative with informative I was comfortable with writing about.  In public relations becoming comfortable with people is only a must to success, case in point the career title “public relations” relating to the public is the foundation.  In week two, we were asked to create a mock press release. In this activity we had to interview an important bystander and cover a newsworthy event. In week three, covering a live community event and interviewing more than one individual for the assignment of writing an event article. Our last assignment was to take your writing to the last level, which instructed us to write a profile article on an individual of our choice that displays character and has proven them to be newsworthy.