Mastery Journey Through Journalism

Melissa Peoples, the driver that killed Dr. Naji Kayruz plead guilty to intoxication manslaughter and no contest to the failure to stop and render aid charge on Tuesday, Nov. 30.  Peoples entered her plea before Judge Velia Meza of the 226th Criminal District Court, agreeing to a 15-year prison sentence. Peoples fatally struck Dr. Kayruz on Feb. 4, 2019, while Kayruz was riding his bike along…

At long last the time has come to complete my final mastery journal post. For those that don’t know, at the end of each class during my master’s degree program at Full Sail University I have created a masters journal entry, reflecting on the lessons learned over that specific course. What a journey this class has been.

The final project class is organized to help you construct the final thesis paper. My initial goals coming into this month were to finalize my final project, finalize my thesis paper and to reflect. The first goal was completed last month so that just leaves the other two. Working on this thesis has been a daunting experience. I will admit that I was skeptical about completing a thesis in a month but the way Dr. Carstens organizes this class helps with keeping us moving forward. We write a little of the paper week by week.

The pace at first is extremely fast if you are strapped for time. I am not the fastest writer in the world, so I was going to have to do some extreme time management. Producing a follow-up story for the third week assignment just hammers home how hard this program has been. I almost missed that this was a full story and not just an idea sheet for a potential follow-up story. Thankfully, the pace eases up in the last week.

It is my belief that this course taught me how to take large and daunting projects and break them down into smaller sections. That skill will be extremely useful both in my personal life as well as in the office. Personally, this class was about putting what you have learned to the test, from time management, being organized, focusing, to reflecting.

We are now one more month closer to completing this journalism mastery journey. Public relations and reputation management had the correct information at the correct time. Dr. Powers was the right instructor to teach us the ins and outs of the public relations world, he has a firm grasp on the sometimes-overlapping concepts covered this month.

We started the month out working on a promotional story that would alter my content for the next few months. I met with the founder of a San Antonio based non-profit, Earnabike. Earnabike focuses on getting at risk youth into cycling by teaching them a wide range of life skills where they receive a bike upon completion.

Next, we began revising our about me pages on our websites and YouTube channels. I for one absolutely needed to update mine as my content had changed so much over the year. I received some excellent feedback from both our instructor and my classmates that helped me make this video the best it could be at this time.

In week three we learned about brand journalism. This is where I learned the most from course. The idea that the brand could be tertiary to an important topic had never occurred to me before the weeks lessons and publication.

The last project of the month is producing a public service announcement. I have experience working on PSA’s before and I had been asked to produce one for a local bicycle advocacy group recently. I was able to team up with the group and put out a PSA based off a program they had started a few months prior.

Upon reflecting on my original goals for this class, I have to say that I met two of the three. My goal on trying to balance being a content creator and a journalist will be a career long challenge. I did not meet with a mentor for specific journalism coaching but I was able to meet with Cristian Sandoval who focuses on leaderships and we had several talks throughout the month including being invited on his podcast to talk about cycling and the Full Sail New Media Journalism program.

Social Media and Online Community Engagement Mastery Journal

My goals heading into social media and online community engagement (SME) have slightly changed over this program but not by much. I originally thought this class was going to focus more on community management but that was not the case. I did gain a much better understanding of how to manage my own personal social media accounts.

My first goal was to be more engaging with my online community. I feel that this is an ongoing process, and I made a lot of progress in that regard this month. I started reading others' posts and commenting and interacting within the different sub-communities more. I even spread my content out to include other types of cycling and I am eyeing including triathletes into my cycling world I have built.

Another goal was to find one solid story idea from within my community. The story that fell into my lap could not have lined up any better with the content of this course. It is a very heartbreaking and tragic story but sometimes it's good to take a three-dimensional look at a story, that is what happened this month all thanks to a couple of the people within my community.

This class taught me exactly what I needed to learn to meet my third goal of promoting my work better. The week three story I did had one of the largest audiences any of my content has had. Without showing my hand so to speak too much I will say that week four of this course had a wealth of knowledge, so much useful information in fact it could have been a whole course.

How Cycling Tragedies Inspired Walter Koch to Start ‘Give 3 Feet’

Walter Koch garnered stares from passing hikers going into and out of Friedrich Wilderness Park on San Antonio’s far west side. They were staring at his attire, Koch is dressed in a bright yellow cycling jersey with black lettering ‘Give 3 Feet’ on the front and an even brighter bib that was pinned to the back of the jersey that reads, ‘Don’t Kill Me.’ Koch is very hard to miss.  Of course, this…

San Antonio Cyclist Keeps Dr. Naji Kayruz’s Memory Alive

On August 1, a new road cyclist posted a photo of a ghost bike to her Facebook news feed. When the question of who this memorial was for was brought up, Mark Noblitt replied that it was for Dr. Naji Kayruz. The ghost bike memorial for Dr. Naji Kayruz resides at the entrance to North Park Subaru at the Dominion. (Billy Busby 2021) Dr. Kayruz was struck and killed in a hit and run incident by a…

Multimedia reporting is in the gradebooks. This was month eight of this program, I feel like I am making actual progress now. One of my original goals of this class was wanting to learn how to take ownership of a story. I do not feel that I have mastered this skill yet, I do think I have made strides in being recognized as “owning” my beat but to say I have mastered the skill of ownership over a specific story would be an overstatement.

Another goal I had was knowing when to advance a story. I do feel that I know more about story progression now. Knowing that you need to ensure there is enough new information to make the story newsworthy is a great insight. One of my secondary goals was learning to add more creative graphics into my stories and I feel that a couple of lessons helped with regards to designing graphics.

My last major goal for this month was improving my on-camera presentation. I have continued to push myself in this area. I did not produce an entire week of vlogs, but I have produced many videos this month where I made it a point to be visible on camera as a presenter. I liked the video lesson on the two reporters preparing for their on-camera time, one took the time to groom herself and look professional whereas the other did not. That will stick with me in my storytelling journey.

So many of these classes surprise me, they go above and beyond what I think they will provide. My favorite lesson and assignments this month was our work on a feature story. That was an insanely busy week for me and I’m happy that I did that story on Zeke and his Cannibal Bike Crew, I really liked how that came out.

San Antonio District One Meeting and Bike Infrastructure Debate

A brief overview of some of the cycling infrastructure issues facing cyclists and city officials. Newly elected district one Councilman Mario Bravo held a meeting regarding the St. Mary’s Street construction on Saturday, July 24. District One residents voice their concerns to San Antonio city officials. (Billy Busby, 2021) Councilman Bravo campaigned on implementing the input gathered from…

First Friday Crit Races on the Lit Crit Course

Bicycle racers from all over Texas turned up for the July First Friday Crit race at Bobby Garcia’s Lit Crit course. First Friday uses several courses throughout the year. This is the first time they will utilize the Lit Crit course. Racers catch up with each other before the race starts. (Billy Busby, 2021) The June addition of a B group has proven to be popular with over 20 racers signing up…

Members of Hill Country Ghost Bikes continue their mission to place #ghostbike memorials for fallen cyclists in the greater #SanAntonio area.

Board members from Hill Country Ghost Bikes met along the shoulder of Highway 281-S on San Antonio’s far south side to place a ghost bike memorial for Juan Garcia Jr. Garcia was struck and killed while riding his bicycle on October 5, 2020, by a motorist as he attempted to perform a U-turn on North Addison Street. The motorist stated that the early morning sun was in her eyes as Garcia made the…

The popular First Friday Crit #bikerace series celebrates one year of events in #SanAntonio with a new course and more groups.

San Antonio’s First Friday Crit races on the Palo Alto College course for the first time. There is also the addition of an ‘A’ and ‘B’ group in June. On Friday, June 4, 2021 bike racers and cycling enthusiasts from all over Texas gathered in San Antonio for the monthly First Friday Crit races. June marks the one-year anniversary since Jessica Brunson started the popular cycling criterium…

The Human Cost of Drunk Driving. The memorial for Beatrice Gonzalez.

On Monday, May 3, 2021 family members of Beatrice Gonzalez held a memorial service for their loved one at the Pica Pica Event Center on San Antonio’s Southside. Gonzalez was struck and killed by a suspected drunk driver while riding her bike on April 7. Beatrice’s accident was the most recent fatal collision between cyclists and intoxicated drivers in San Antonio. The family allowed and…