The Diamondback
I had a strong idea of what publication I wanted to
explore for the Media Participation Project, the moment that I heard about the
assignment. After working on my high school’s newspaper and, eventually,
becoming an editor, I had grown accustomed to delving into a topic and
conducting interviews for an article. I was eager to get back into the
newsroom, which is why I chose to volunteer for the Diamondback.
The
Diamondback is a student newspaper
that is the main source of local, national and campus news within the
University of Maryland. The paper is printed Monday through Thursday; a digital
version is published every Friday. On the homepage of the Diamondback Online,
are four categories: news, sports, opinion, and diversions, which highlight top
news stories. The stories in the
Diamondback cover a wide range of topics, from the midterm election to
Taylor Swift’s depiction of crazy-in-love girlfriends in her music video, “Blank
Space.”
General
assignment meetings for the Diamondback are
held every Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. in the South Campus Dining Hall. These meetings
are run by General Assignment Editor, Jenny Hottle, and are open to Journalism and
non-Journalism majors alike. I attended three meetings before taking an
article, just because I wanted to get a feel for the types of articles that are
pitched and the best way to manage article-writing with schoolwork.
I was
assigned to write an article about the David C. Driskell Center’s Robert
Blackburn exhibition and symposium. This was exciting for me because I was
eager to get out, conduct interviews and cover the event. I was told to have at
least three sources for my article—first, Dorit Yaron, the Driskell Center’s
deputy director, who then put me in contact with two graduate students and
Prof. Curlee Holton, the executive director of the Driskell Center. Within two
days, I had gathered all of the information I needed, and was ready to begin
writing.
Writing
the article for the Diamondback was
unlike any article that I had written in the past, because it was short and
concise. I had a hard deadline to meet: Sunday, October 26th, at
12:00 p.m. After emailing Jenny Hottle my article, a wave of relief washed over
me. I was very proud to have written my first article for the Diamondback. It was published online two
days later, here: http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/article_1cf50548-5e52-11e4-81c7-0017a43b2370.html
I enjoyed
my experience with the Diamondback and
plan on writing for the paper in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment