What Has Journalism Taught Me?

When I started constructing this website, I did not realize how much I would grow and learn from it. Although it is an assignment, I have enjoyed spending this time learning more and educating people about the world of dance. In addition to these positive aspects, I have learned different forms of journalism and ways to promote an idea or cause. I was able to learn how to have one platform where all of my information and writing pieces were kept, which is this website. I know how to create a professional website and what to include. I realized that initially creating the website as an assignment was not the end of me working with it. I continued to post updated information and new assignments I had created, allowing it to grow and become an outlet for all things dance.

Although I already had social media accounts prior to this project, I learned different tactics to promote ideas and how to use social media to engage my audience. I had to stay on top of things and be advertising upcoming blogs and podcasts so that people knew what to look out for. This is different from what I had previously used social media for, which was to post for my enjoyment, not to engage a group of people or promote. This can be advantageous in the future if I have to do this for a job or an organization that I am a part of. Knowing how to use social media professionally and how to captivate your targeted audience is very helpful.

Also, I have been able to experiment with blogs and podcasts. The blog style of writing is more relaxed and should show off my personality, which has been enjoyable. Similar to the social media posts, I have had to always be planning ahead with the blogs and know what I was going to be writing about the next week. Because of this I had an outline of the topics I would write about before I even started the blogs. I also had to plan ahead for my podcasts since I was writing blogs to introduce the topics I would be discussing in the podcasts. Podcasts were also something new and required me to have trial and error with different apps and programs. It was very different having to talk through my ideas instead of writing a more formal paper on them, which took getting used to. However, I enjoyed just sitting and talking through ideas in a more casual way. I think that this allowed me to be more confident in my knowledge and “presenting” skills because it was essentially just me and the information I had to offer.

Overall, I have enjoyed this beat project and getting to explore a topic that I love. I can use several of these journalism techniques to raise awareness for organizations I am a part of, in a professional way for a company, or just for fun. I feel that I have grown as a writer and as a person because I have had to step out of my comfort zone to try out these different forms of journalism. Lastly, to Mrs. Gordienko: thank you for being an amazing teacher and a mentor to me these past two years! I feel that your class has helped me grow a lot as a writer and also as a person because I always felt comfortable and confident in your classroom setting. I miss actually being in your class and I am going to miss you so much! You have been so helpful and one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. I hope to keep in touch and to maybe get to see you again for a formal goodbye. Thank you again for everything! :)