Media Participation Project- Jocelyn Brocato

Jocelyn Brocato

For my media participation project, I wrote an article for the Diamondback about the positive psychological effects of the social media app Tinder.  Tinder is a matchmaking mobile app, in which users who share a mutual interest are given the opportunity to chat.  I knew I wanted to write the article because I thought it pertained to the interest of college students and would be a great addition to the paper.  I went to the general assignment meeting which is held every Saturday at 8pm and pitched the idea to Jenny Hottle, the leader of the assignment meeting.  Once my story was approved, I got to work on figuring out how I would approach the topic. 

I knew I wanted to get the opinions of students on campus and also the viewpoint of a professor that specializes in human sexuality to add credibility to my article.  I visited Stamp one day with a pad and paper in my hand and asked various students questions about their opinions on the app.  I also scheduled an interview with Dr. Robin Sawyer, a public health professor at the University who teaches a course on human sexuality.  My interview with Dr. Sawyer lasted about an hour which was longer than I expected.  Meeting with him was extremely beneficial to my article and I found myself really eager to take his class in the future. 

Now that I had the voices of Dr. Sawyer and various students, all I had to do was write the article.  This being my first article for the Diamondback, I was eager to make it the best piece I could.  I stayed up until 4am on a Thursday writing it and was very pleased with the end result.  I added a little humor to the story pertaining to the evident social decline that apps such as Tinder can have on society, contrasting it with the passionate love story of Romeo and Juliet.  After I sent in the article, waiting for it to be published in the paper was really exciting.  The day that it came out, I saved the paper in my desk drawer and continue to show it to my friends.  Although this article will be small in the grand scheme of my career as a journalist, right now it serves as a source of pride in my abilities as a writer.